Yes, the page is live and the game will be released on Christmas Eve.  Hooray!

I'll be using this spot for big weekly updates.  If you want day-to-day updates while I develop the game, you can check out the devlog that I set up for the Winter VN Jam here!

So...how did I even come up with this idea?  Honestly, the only things I knew going into the Winter VN Jam were that I wanted to make a Christmas game and that I wanted to use RPG Maker to create it.  I've had that engine sitting in my Steam library for years, I need to use it more.  So I turned to a name generator for a title I could build from: Amethyst Hearth was one of the many options I got, and had such a nice ring to it that I knew it was what I wanted to use.  But what about plot?  At this point, I knew I wanted to do a robot romance story again (yes, AGAIN) .  I was leaning towards a Star Trek-styled space adventure with a romanceable robot, but I couldn't think of how to Christmasify it.  So I turned to a prompt generator for ideas.  It spat out this sappiest description of two people trying to buy the same Christmas tree, then the person who bought it gave it to the other one out of guilt for being such a jerk about it.  And I freakin loved it.  Just made it a human and a robot instead of two humans and I knew where to go. 

I'm aiming for a Hallmark Christmas special of a sci-fi game.  So, all sorts of sappiness and melodrama and holiday cheer.  I'm also finding myself drawing on some of my own thoughts and feelings during Christmastime: namely, how I find myself feeling lonelier than normal because I miss my dad (a Christmas-loving man who passed away when I was a teenager).  That's been helping a lot with character motivation and such.  I'm also aiming for a five-act game, with each act being about thirty minutes.  That would be about a 2.5 hour game, which seems like a good amount of time for a game I'm requesting payments for.

This first week of development, I figured out what assets I wanted to use because I don't have the time or talent to make my own pixel art at this point in time.  :-( Then, after getting all the documentation written up, I started designing maps and writing out the first act.  And I'm almost done with it!  I also made this game's page (as you can see).  In the coming week, I aim to get Act Two finished, start on Act Three, make a trailer, and fancify this page.  We'll see how that goes.

So I will see you all next week!  Please be sure to add this game to your wishlist collection and keep an eye on this space if you're interested!