Hello, and welcome to the first Development Diary of our submission to the Blossom VN Jam 2023: Blossom 1849. It’s a working title. Is this how you start dev diaries?

I’m Michael, the lead writer and producer for the project, and each Wednesday I will update you on the status of the project, till the jam closes on May 15. And after that, I’ll likely do a postmortem on the project. Stay tuned.

Let’s start by talking about the project and the team, generally!

The Project and the Team, Generally

This is my second game jam, after the Winter VN Game Jam 2022. Our submission was Through This Winter, which was completed in just about a month. We had so much fun with that project, that most of us got back together for this jam. Brimming with something resembling confidence from the last jam, we’ve increased the team size from 10 to 17 (nearly double!), and so, Blossom 1849 will be altogether more ambitious. 

Each of our team members will be introduced properly among these development diaries, which will be sectioned off in the following way:

1. Writing
2. Characters
3. Background Art
4. User Interface 
5. Music

Let’s plow through those sections, then, shall we?

1. Writing

Blossom 1849 takes place amid an actual but forgotten piece of history: the Roman Republic of 1849, which lasted from about February to June of that year. I looked at that time scale, said to myself, “Hey, that’s basically the season of Spring,” and decided it would be the focus of the jam. That’s not to say, though, this script is a dry historical recitation of names, places, and events. There will be a lot of names in this game, sure, but the crux of the story does not revolve around the history — instead, it revolves around the emotional angst of our protagonist Livia, which builds and builds as the revolution around her ingrains itself in her friends, family, and self. 

Trust me, I would not write this script if it were a history report. But, if do want a history report, I guess I can give this one I wrote. Anyway.

The story is structured in three acts, and each act is split into two parts. I am on a strict deadline of two parts per week, which means the script will be completed about three weeks into the jam. The script is the first thing to emerge from these jams, primarily because:

1. It gives artists a better frame of reference for what they’re depicting.
2. It most clearly establishes and consolidates the scope of the game.
3. It is the first part of a very long audio pipeline, since every line in this game will be voiced.

So, I got to hit the ground running when the jam launched April 1. And then, I get to keep running till about April 21, after which I will pivot into Producer Mode.

I do not intend to spoil the story in these diaries, but I’ll happily share a snippet from our script.

2. Characters

Blossom 1849 has a cast of four main characters and five supporting characters. We’re not quite ready to show off our four main characters — they need a little time in the oven, since our artists are creating them from whole cloth.

The supporting cast of five, however, are all historical figures who feature prominently in the Roman Republic. That means, artists have ~references~, and so I can share them with you now. 

As you can see, our artists rock. Like, super hard. We have two artists drawing up the main cast (they each took two characters apiece), and two artists drawing up the supporting cast (split three and two). 

I will talk more next week about our lovely voice actors, who will bring both our main and supporting cast to life! We’ve already done some readthroughs of Act 1, and I’m excited to share some lines with you soon.

3. Backgrounds

We’re making a game set in a very specific place and a very specific time (Rome, Spring 1849). Rome and the Papal States are an anomaly among Europe in 1849, though, which makes it difficult to perform the appropriate research for such depictions. The 1840s is the heyday of the Industrial Revolution for many countries in Europe — exemplified by the railway and urban street lighting. Pope Gregory XVI, however, deemed these inventions utterly demonic — so central Italy in 1849 still looks rather medieval out in the hills and plains. Rome itself is a slightly different story — it’s a preeminent city of the world, after all — but the lack of any meaningful urban industrialization means it still doesn’t resemble many other comparable cities in Europe.

Hey, don’t let me ramble about history this much next time. You gotta keep me honest.

The point is, we’ve worked extra hard to make sure our depictions of Rome in 1849 are accurate to its very specific historical and material conditions (this also extends to fashion, to a large extent). 

Here, have some mockups, courtesy of our two background artists!

4. User Interface

Blossom 1849, per the scope of the project and the spirit of the jam, is a pure visual novel. That’s to say, the Ren’Py visual novel engine is perfect for it. Ren’Py has pretty excellent support for dynamic resolutions, meaning our dedicated UI artist can focus on creating an interface that captures the spirit of the game.

Our touchstone for the interface of Blossom 1849 is the video game Victoria 3, which allows players to mold the fate of any country in and around the Victorian era (1837-1901). So, yes, you can create the Roman Republic in Victoria 3 (unless the French decide to stop you, of course). 

Below is a prototype of our dialogue box: the thing you’re going to be staring at for 12,000 words worth of reading time. 

5. Music

Yes, we have a dedicated composer! Isn’t that cool?

It would be very easy to just swipe some public domain Victorian music, or to ape such compositions and call it day. But, like I mentioned, the history isn’t the crux of the story. The music need not be diegetic — instead, it will complement the core emotions of the story: anxiety, desperation, shame, and hope. 

itch.io does not allow us to embed music in these kinds of posts, so we'll compile 

Let’s Wrap this Up, Shall We?

We’re about a week and a half into this six-week jam, and I’m happy to report we are on track. I’m proud to attribute this to diligent planning, prudent project scoping, and excellent communication between all (17!) of our team members. At the end of the day, this jam is meant to be an enjoyable learning experience that lets us all practice working on a team with (give or take) strangers from around the world. And in that regard, this has been a success so far.

Stay tuned for another development diary like this next week. We’ll have plenty more to show, and it will give me an opportunity to talk in more detail about our project pipeline. 

Thanks for reading, and see ya soon!

      - Michael

       Lead Writer and Producer of Blossom 1849

PS: For real, it’s just a working title. Roll with it.