Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

[Aure]

It took us two months but we almost finished the Windy Meadow's map. Our goal is to turn it into a useful tool for you to - while playing our Visual Novel, you can always turn on the map to see where specifically you are, what is going to be especially useful for those of you who can't spend much time during a single session of reading.

See full resolution here!

[Jubal]

Nice! It's really pretty, very well done! I think my only map quibble is on the leftmost section, which I assume is mountains - the mountains look tiny compared to the trees, houses, etc, which makes the map scaling feel a little odd I think?

[Aure]

Thank you! : )) Actually, these are more like medium-sized hills, not impenetrable mountains. : )

[Jubal]

Ah, OK I think I'd still maybe suggest making them fewer, larger, and possibly greener? It does just look a bit like the map suddenly switches scale at the moment.

[Aure]

Happy ScreenShotSaturday! While we're preparing something special for the holidays, let's take a look at some side characters appearing in Tales From Windy Meadow. Both of these ladies belong to the village watch - we teased the third member of their crew last week. 

The warrior on the left is an experienced soldier sent to Windy Meadow from the city. The blade of her halberd is heavy enough to cut through most of the beasts living in the nearby forests, while her armor is a classic gambeson - a long, padded jacket made of dyed linen. It's a decent defensive suit that can be worn for a long time without getting too uncomfortable. Her service here isn't a highlight of her career - many people consider this sort of duty to be obnoxiously boring and dangerous.  



Also - do you remember one of our protagonists, Iudicia? Here you can see her younger sister, Firma, in her favorite red shirt. Since she comes from a poor family, she can't afford advanced military equipment. Her strength and determination convinced the mayor to give her this job, she's more of a self-learned peasant than an actual warrior. Nobody questions her role in defending the village during the last assault of trolls, but she's well aware that she's sometimes mocked by kids for her clumsy moves.

She doesn't care, though. She knows that she started in a bad spot, but she does her best to move forward. At least she didn't have to become a vagabond, nor a bandit. Hopefully, a bit of a smile will help her get through this time.

[Jubal]

I hope the red shirt isn't a plot hint for Firma...!

[Aure]

Happy holidays! A special ScreenShotSaturday update, a nice little video showing the speed draw of one of our NPC head shots. Also, a great chance to show you 2 of the songs we're going to use in Tales From Windy Meadow!

[Jubal]

I think I need to watch that one several times to improve my own (very bad) pixelling! The music's lovely as ever, too

[Aure]

Happy new year!

Our last ScreenShotSaturday this year is quite busy, but we managed to prepare a short devlog highlighting our bigger updates. You can find it on IndieDB.

If you have any questions, issues or ideas, let us know and we'll get in touch with you in 2018! : )

[Jubal]

That's a lovely landscape, really evocative - great work!

[Aure]

Thank you very much, Jubal!

[Jubal]

No probs - and happy new year, too!

[Aure]

Living in the Empire can be rough, and if you're not a well-off person, it can be a real struggle. Especially if you live in a small village such as Windy Meadow.

However, it led people to develop great skills utilizing secondhand tools, weapons, trinkets and even ruins. In this #ScreenShotSaturday we wanted to highlight one of the examples of this process - the house of Limos, the local fisherman.

Before the first houses were raised in this area, the only construction you could find here was the lonely military tower. It was meant to provide refuge for boats and travelers that tried to make use of the nearby rivers. When the roads became known for the safe roads, a new tavern was built. After it the first settlers came, finally one of them was able to develop a farm. Windy Meadow was slowly becoming a reality.

When the upper parts of this military tower were demolished during a dragon's attack, the people living nearby had to decide if they will stay or move away. Since they couldn't afford to recreate the tower, they decided to raise the palisade and spread their defenses instead.

Nevertheless, Limos, who was in his twenties, couldn't add his own share to this investment and in result couldn't be a part of the protected village areas. And since the ruins of the tower were right next to the rivers, he decided to stay in them for some time. Save enough coins selling fish and move inside the village walls after some time.

But after years of postponing this plan Limos admitted he has no interest in moving out any time soon. Even though his place is quite small and he had to pay some workers to make a simple outbuilding, it's a perfect spot to enjoy some privacy and take care of smelly fishing business without complaints from the neighbors. And every year without a massive monster attack makes Limos hope that this just-for-some-time-house will bring him cheerful memories until the end of his days.

[Jubal]

How common are dragon attacks in this world?


Also, "in result" should be "as a result" (or "in consequence" also works).

[Aure]

Thanks you for your advice. ^^

Dragon attacks (or animal attacks in general) are often enough that people are not very surprised when they hear that a group of beasts destroyed an entire village nearby, but not common enough that they would completely avoid taking risks or living in rural communities. It's a part of the common danger. I instantly think about people who live nearby volcanoes or in the flood zones. It may end terrible for you, but when it works, it works well enough that you can enjoy your life. ; )