oelvn project Blankspace [Mystery/Puzzle/Escape Room/Point-and-click][Mature Themes][BxG] DEMO AVAILABLE!

[Nayru 20]

Hi, guys! This is Nayru writing. Here's my new solo project!

>> Play the DEMO on itch.io <<
>> Wishlist Blankspace on Steam <<

>> Kickstarter link <<
(Successfully funded on November 28th, 2019)

 

Not sure what he's been doing the night before, Chris wakes up in a strange room, handcuffed to a pipe. He doesn't recognize the girl that wakes up next to him, but it seems they're both in a similar predicament.
What's their story? Can they get out?

Blankspace is an escape room visual novel with point-and-click elements. Interact with Beryl, investigate your surroundings, solve puzzles, and find your way out of a strange-looking room!

Genres: mystery, puzzle, suspense, romance 
Romance: BxG

Features:
- 2-5 hours of playtime
- A story-rich, character-driven narrative
- Choices that affect your relationship & ending
- Multiple endings
- Optional free H-patch (available upon release)
- Available for Windows & Linux

- Content warning -
This story will contain general mature themes, strong language, blood, alcohol consumption, sexual content, and will explore some dark topics, including abuse, depression, and suicide.
Please take note of this if you're sensitive to such things.
Player discretion is advised.

Credits:
Nayru - Creator
Xolf - Proofreading / Coding Assistance

Planned release: Q2 2020

 

Characters:

 

Screenshots:

Follow NoBreadStudio on:

Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Facebook | Discord | Itch.io | VNDB

Edited March 7 by Nayru
adding some links

[Nayru 20]

Blankspace is now LIVE on Kickstarter!
>> Kickstarter link! <<

[Nayru 20]

The Blankspace Kickstarter is going strong with 162 backers and 177% funded! The extended soundtrack stretch goal is in sight! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

Today I've been showing some artbook sneak peeks!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nobreadstudio/blankspace-mystery-puzzle-escape-room-visual-novel/posts/2675542

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends! The final week of the campaign is upon us! Time sure flies, doesn't it? _(:3 」∠)_

The reception for Blankspace has been very positive so far! It's truly heartwarming to hear whenever someone mentions that they are looking forward to playing the full game. It gives an additional boost in motivation! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

Check out some great Demo Let'sPLays and Fanart that I shared in the latest update!

Jax - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/501482089
GirlGotGame - https://youtu.be/x2ZOxrcU8U0
Lamoleon - https://youtu.be/H5szfAP0u98


by Awnalia


by MstMori


by mintstea


Also, meet the composer! \(★ω★)/

I'm very happy to announce that OddTillTheEnd joined me to work on the Original Soundtrack for Blankspace!



Check out the first two tracks he composed in the update below!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nobreadstudio/blankspace-mystery-puzzle-escape-room-visual-novel/posts/2680599

[Nayru 20]

We made it, everyone! The Blankspace Kickstarter campaign is now officially over.
The finish line got crossed with a whole 319 backers with 251% funded, which is amazing!💚 To everyone who decided to believe in this project, thank you so much for your support!



We didn’t manage to hit the partial voice acting stretch goal, but I’m super happy with the outcome as is - the main goal behind this campaign managed to get reached, after all! Blankspace is going to have an original soundtrack! And an extended one at that!

It’s what I truly wished for for this project, and it’s definitely something to be excited about! I’m sure you will love Odd’s work as much as I do!

Again, thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity!

Now that the campaign is over, I can finally concentrate on development again. I will work hard to make Blankspace an enjoyable/interesting experience, to the best of my abilities.

My current goal is to finish the game all the way up to the end of Chapter 2 so that I can share the build with all early access backers. I will post monthly updates regarding Blankspace’s development over on Kickstarter, and possibly more frequent ones over on my Twitter or the NoBreadStudio Discord, so be sure to join me there if you’re interested in more frequent reports.

See you around! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

I hope you had a nice holiday break and an enjoyable New Year's celebration! I caught a cold after the festive break so things have been going a bit slow on my end of things. Now that the new year is upon us, it's time to pick up the pace, though!



That's how the numbers are looking at the moment.

Like I've already mentioned, the demo is essentially an incomplete Chapter 1, so there's still a bit more to it than what you've seen so far. Currently, one puzzle is missing, and I'll get to implementing it in once the last pieces I need for it are complete. Modeling and backgrounds go strongly in pair, but I've decided to separate them on the chart since both require a fair amount of work.

I'm really fond of how the script is turning out so far, and I hope you'll enjoy all the shenanigans happening around Chris and Beryl as much as I do. (¬‿¬ )

Odd's been doing a great job with composing music and I can't wait for you guys to finally play the game complete with its original soundtrack. Which also brings us to...

Incoming Updated Demo

It's going to have two major improvements - one of them being the OST. The second improvement involves custom cursor shapes for hover areas!



It's something a lot of players requested, so I decided to take the feedback to heart. It makes the game feel more polished, so I hope you'll like it! No more blind click-mashing!╰(▔∀▔)╯

The updated demo should go up sometime this month alongside the Steam page for Blankspace. I will let you know as soon as it happens!

Until then!

- Nayru

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

I'm happy to announce two things today:

1. The Steam store page for Blankspace is up!☆･ﾟ✧



Please check it out and add the game to your wishlist! You'll be sure not to miss the release date that way - and it will also help me out immensely by making the project more visible on Steam! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

2. The updated demo for Blankspace is now available!

Updates for the demo include:

• 5 original music tracks from Odd (I've swapped out all the old music)
• custom cursor images for hover areas during investigation phases
• minor fixes

You can find the updated demo both on Steam and itch.io.



Check it out for the new music, especially! ٩(°◡°♡)۶ I hope you like it!

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

Time sure flies by, doesn't it? Here's my development update for February. Buckle up, because it's gonna get lengthy!



The faded green is the last state of progress, the more vibrant green is the current month's - I believe it's more readable this way, to show how much progress has been made this past month specifically.

To be honest with you guys, I thought Chapter 2's investigation phase would take me less time to code than the demo's did, since it's technically smaller in size, but it turned out it has a lot more investigation points to take care of. Things might be dragging on a bit, but day by day, I am slowly getting there. (~‾▽‾)~

Overall, there's been some good progress this month. Have a little sneak-peek for Chapter 2!






Blankspace OST teaser

If you haven't played the updated demo yet, you can still have a sneak-hear of the soundtrack! I asked Odd to upload the first 5 tracks from the game to YouTube, so you can listen to those to your heart's content.



Playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... YcsQ7FkmlQ

Which track is your favorite so far?❤


Proofreader becomes Co-writer

I believe this is something I can finally make official. Xolf's been a big help to me with this project, and considering the amount of suggestions/ideas I ended up liking that came from him, I think it's only fair that I give proper credit where it's due. \(★ω★)/ I wouldn't make this kind of decision if I didn't believe it would be a positive thing for the project, of course. I hope you'll enjoy Chris' and Beryl's characters with some extra polish to them, all things considered.

It's truly fun having you on-board, Xolf!


Fanart by nae (naellsm on Twitter)


PS. Be sure to wishlist Blankspace on Steam if you haven't yet!

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

I have some happy numbers and exciting news to share with you in this month's update!



Chapter 3 progress hitting the scene!

It's been another productive month on my side of things - and yes, you're seeing that right! I managed to finish the entirety of Chapter 1 & 2! \(★ω★)/ There's still a lot of work left to be done, but it's a big milestone reached, with basically more than half of the game in a completely playable state now.


Guest Art in Blankspace

I'm super excited to announce there will be some bonus puzzles in Blankspace with guest art by my good friend Awnalia! (instagram.com/awnalia/)



I've been looking forward to being able to include this for months, and it's finally done and implemented for both Chapter 1 & 2. I hope it will be a nice kind of addition for those of you who'd like to challenge yourselves with "spot the differences" puzzles. Solving them isn't mandatory to finish the game, but they might influence a small detail in one of the endings.

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

I hope you're all doing fine and staying safe during these unforeseen crazy times. As far as Blankspace goes, the current state of the world hasn't affected its development much, since I'm basically doing what I've been doing so far - staying home and working on the project.

That being said, I have some more happy numbers to share with you in this month's update!



Work on Chapter 3 has been going really well overall, and I'm confident the "Epilogue + Endings + H-patch" sections can join the graph in the next update. A June release date is what I've been aiming for all along, and I believe things are still looking positive in that regard. Bit by bit, I am getting to that endgame content.
\(★ω★)/


A little non-spoilery teaser for Chapter 3


In other news:

• The beta-testing phase for Ch2 has been going great so far; I managed to get some really good feedback from the players who got around to playing it. Thank you very much to everyone who contributed!♡ (You know who you are!)
• I may have a small surprise waiting in store regarding Blankspace's soundtrack. Stay tuned!

Beryl by Joe Pekar (commissioned by Teo)

See you guys around!

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

I'm posting this month's update two days earlier than usual, since I will be absent from the Internet for the next two days. (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ) So, without further ado!


The entirety of the graph is now revealed!

It's been another busy month with a lot of good progress! Chapter 3 is now basically done and completely playable, aside from its bonus "spot the differences" puzzle which I'm still waiting for Awnalia to finish drawing.

As you can see, the Epilogue + Endings and H-patch progress graphs managed to join in - and they are the last things that need finishing for this project. This upcoming month will be crucial development-wise, since it should help me make a better estimate regarding the release date. I also want to give my Early Access backers a week or two for testing the full build before officially releasing the game, so even if I'm currently aiming to finish the project in late June, the release date might be moved to sometime in July. We'll see how it goes! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ


Beryl fanart by Blackrune

See you guys next month!

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

Buckle up, because there's a hefty, important update this month!



I believe the graph speaks for itself - there's been a lot of good progress since my last update. Gamedev can be tricky to predict with its workload sometimes, but I'm actually hoping I can get the full game build to a completely playable state by the end of June. We'll see how that goes yet, but for now I'm staying focused and positive. (°◡°♡)

Once that happens, the second early access/beta testing phase will begin - and along with it, I'm going to announce an official release date for the game. (Currently staring at July!)


Word-count hitting 50k

When I first started working on Blankspace, I was aiming for it to be a short, simple project... Along with the H-patch (which turned out to be... almost twice as long as the demo itself), it's now hit half the length of SoulSet, and the script isn't even finished yet. (_ _*)



It's theoretically a good thing, but it's also its own bag of worms from a creator standpoint. At least the shortest route you can explore in the game can take as much as 2 hours to finish - it all depends on how much more content you will be interested in exploring. Completing it 100% will be basically a 5-8 hour adventure.

The True Route in Blankspace will be accessible from the start. But just like in SoulSet's case, exploring other routes/endings can present you with additional info that uncovers more of the story.


Music is now 100% done!

Odd did a spectacular job with the OST, and I hope you'll enjoy listening to the tracks as much as I do. It ended up having 15 unique tracks (18 in total with variations), and they really add to the atmosphere of the game.♡

+ Vocal track sung by Sapphire!

I can also finally make it official - Blankspace is going to have a vocal track in the OST! You may recognize Sapphire from a lot of anime/game covers she's posted over on YouTube. She has an amazing voice!



I plan to use a shortened version of the song for Blankspace's release trailer, so please look forward to it! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ


Q&A Event on Discord - June 19



Blankspace will be featured on the Steam Game Festival this year! I'll be holding a Q&A event over on the NoBreadStudio Discord channel on June 19 (Friday), 10:00 PM CEST.

We'll be hanging around, answering questions and casually chatting away until sleep claims us, so be sure to drop by! 

Discord Link: https://discord.com/invite/5SpaXFm

You can set a reminder for when the event goes live from the Steam announcement page (and also look up your timezone while at it).



Chris and Beryl fanart by Marcianek


From this point on, updates might happen more frequently as we're nearing the release date and a lot of things will be gradually put into motion.

Please stick around! I'll see you guys soon!

[Nayru 20]

Hello, friends!

This month has been really hectic in a lot of ways on my side of things, but we're finally here!

At the time of writing, Blankspace is in a completely playable state from beginning to end with its six main endings. The only things missing are: the Secret End, the Extras (including the CG Gallery and such), a proper credits roll, achievement implementation, and lastly: polish.

That being said, I'm confident to announce a date!

Blankspace Release Date - July 23rd!



Mark your calendars, guys, because those two weeks will pass by faster than you think!

After working diligently on this project for over a year (the first ideas blossomed in April 2019, while Beryl and Chris's designs came into existence in June/July 2019), I am super excited to share this project in its complete form with you and the rest of the world. (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)


Beryl's Theme



I shared another track from the game during the Steam Festival Q&A Event over on the NoBreadStudio discord channel, so have a listen if you've missed it!



Beryl fanart by jerlyy


Stay tuned, guys! It won't be long now! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ