Introducing My Very First Visual Novel Project - Just Friends

This is something I've been mulling over for a long time...

See, I've been dabbling with the idea of writing visual novels for over ten years now. I'd always wanted to write something like Penlight from the start, but I had no idea where a game like it would even be accepted, let alone whether I had the means to make it. So for a while I tempered my ambitions and wrote something a little more conventional. Something a bit more SFW while still having something to say, that I could maybe develop further if I felt like it...

The visual novel you see here is the result of that. I had the idea to develop a full-blown dating sim starring an ace woman, with this short VN serving as a prequel to it, but I think it works fine enough to stand on its own. Anyway, it's been sitting on my hard drive for all these years and I figured now was as good a time as any to look back on this old thing. So over the past few days I did a little editing on the completed script, replaced my shoddily-drawn sprite art (I am taking those drawings with me to my grave) and generally made it just presentable enough that I feel comfortable showing it to people for the first time ever.

And with all that said, I know this isn't the sort of thing you guys signed up to my Patreon for, but I still think it's a cool little thing I made that deserves to be seen, and I think some of you will enjoy getting to read some of my earliest writing!

With that rambling preamble out of the way, allow me to present...

Just Friends

With summer drawing to a close, Alice is beginning to regret the life choices that have led to her awaiting the start of college on a wave of procrastination and missed potential. Her life may never be the same again, but not everything has to change, right?

This is a short story about a recent high-school graduate and her relationship with her long-time male friend as their college days draw near.

Alex Bellamy

"Screw this. Figuratively, I mean"

A nerdy young woman with no serious interest in boys. Alice has been used to a lifetime of ostracism amongst her peers. But as long as she's got her platonic male best friend, she should be okay...

Eric Arnold

"I've seen the looks you give me when I talk about OBP"

A baseball nerd and a semi-reclusive loner, Eric was never a big hit with the ladies. Still, his geeky nature and propensity for snark found an audience in Alice and they've been hanging out for years. They probably don't have a thing going though, despite what most of their ex-classmates would have you think.

Download

PC (Windows & Linux)

Mac

Android

Features

• Around 6,000 words

• Badly-drawn backgrounds by yours truly (Please ignore the fact both characters have the same bedroom :D)

• Sprites by Sutemo

• ... Choices?

• Languages: English and Spanish (Thanks Waldo!)