Hello. It's me again. I have made another game.

And I'm here to yap about it while running on literally 0 hours of sleep and an empty stomach... but what is a game jam if it doesn't destroy you?? Aha??? (I am joking, please do not do that.)

I've been wanting to make a Chinese Zodiac game for a while now. And... NO it's not because of fruits basket. Believe it or not, I've never seen Fruits Basket. I asked my friend if I should watch it for "research" on the game, and they said no. LSJKFGKJSH SO...

Instead I literally just wanted characters with animal characteristics. I'm easy like that....

I'm... a big fan of Danganronpa and Ace Attorney, if it wasn't EXTREMELY obvious... but this game is literally me just walking beside them like "ehe I made one too!"

It's honestly not very heavy on the mystery solving part... many of it's cases are kinda simple. (Or maybe it's just because I wrote them, who knows.) But if I learned anything from SEMPRE it's that when I prioritize on puzzles, the characters and character writing  become weaker as a result. :(

And it was really hard! This time!! 12 + 1 characters is a lot of characters!! Why did I do that to myself, I do not know.

But over this month I have grown to really like them, honestly finishing this game makes me sad to see them go. I'll probably keep doodling them.

This year... because of the scope of the game, I ended up with a WAY larger team than I usually work with. The usual team being Me and A Composer, typically.  

Because I like to do most of the stuff myself, even though it literally breaks me, it's fun?? I might be stupid...

Anyway, this time I had writers and artists helping me out and honestly saved my life... looking back now I don't know WHO I thought I was,, to think I would be able to do any of this shit myself!! What!!

I also had the amazing help from our Audio Lead and Editors, I know nothing about audio but I wanted VAs cause.. it's Spooktober!! And it must have been rough with like... 14 characters to handle. Truly, life savers.

Anyway-- (Me coming back to this devlog like 2 days later, I have slept and had cake.)

I've been wanting to yap about the "research" and stuff I was doing for this project, research being a loose term here, but basically I wanted the characters to represent the zodiac personalities as much as possible. As well as throwing in any elements that are associated with that animal when it comes to culture in China.

For example, Rabbits are supposedly very kind-natured. And in myth, there's a rabbit on the moon accompanying Chang e. So Rabbit (the character) is a kind guy who makes mooncakes. :)
(And additionally, Rabbits are usually a very desired zodiac sign for girls but Not for Guys, which meant that our Rabbit HAD TO BE A GUY lmao)

Dragon is very talented and noble, and she has a sense of heroism to her-- something that is very apparent in the Zodiac race story. Typically it says that Dragon came fifth and not first because they were helping out some nearby village or something. 
Dragons are also very popular in China (of course) and there's a birthrate spike every Dragon year. (Which is also this year btw. WOWAH!!) But as a result of this, those born in the Dragon year end up having a way harder time in school/work because their class size is larger and way more competitive. 

The structure of the game, and why there are five cases, is based off the five elements associated with the Chinese Zodiac that are also on a rotating system. Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal. (Presently, these 12 years are Wood Years.)

The Palace itself is located in Heaven, (it's where the Jade Emperor is) but it's structure is based off the Forbidden City in China. Some things are changed because like,, the Supreme, Center, and Preserved Halls are all structurally the same?? Like just a big chair at the center LSKFJGSH.

The story itself is centered around Yuanfen, which is like "fate" or "affinity". I feel like this ties in with the Chinese Zodiac because of how people use their zodiac sign for fortune telling. There's themes of stuff being determined and can not be changed which is countered by themes of how we (the individual) can change our perception of things instead.

I feel like if I was to write a story about the Chinese Zodiac and have them as characters, this would be it.

ANYWAY (part 2) I hope you enjoy playing this game, I put a lot of effort into it. There are still parts I kinda wish to refine and parts of the story I would have liked to expand on or go over a little more but of course... Jam is only a month. And for a month, to release a COMPLETED game like this?? I feel pretty proud.

Thank you to everyone who helped work on this again, truly I owe you my life. And I hope people like Zodiac Paradigm !! ;;;7;;