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About this project

========== What is Devil Gene R? ==========

A dream project that has been worked on for the better part of 10 years now, it has been drafted out to be adaptable to many different types of medias and genres, but of course we all have to start small. This version of Devil Gene R is an episodic visual novel, which is of course a genre well known in Asian regions as a way to convey book length stories accompanied by a visual (and sometimes audio) element. This brings the reader deeper into the world and acquire a unique connection with it.

Devil Gene R follows the story of a young woman known as Raven Blackheart, she was birthed as a biological weapon to be used to bring the end to a long war between humans and demons, however shortly after her birth the war concludes on it’s own. Despite this her father, the one who turned her into a weapon, chooses to keep her on her original path, but Raven refuses to live a fate decided for her and escapes.

2 years have passed since she fled her father’s side, and the world has known a shaky peace for nearly 20 years now, but now these hard fought for halcyon days are being threaten. Either though cruel irony or twisted design, the man who would shatter this peace is the one who helped bring it about, praised as the hero of the great war—Kyosuke Blackheart. And with a declaration of genocide against humanity and the rise of his augmented children, the world slowly begins to churn and crumble anew.

Raven rushes to meet with her father, but not to join him, she wants to stop his insane ambition and free her sisters from a destiny of being weapons, the only way she knows how… But she is unaware of the spiral on conflict that Silent City, her destination, is about to become.

You can learn more about the world and characters by visiting the project’s official site (which should be seeing a remodel soon~)

========== Demonstration ==========

At the end of our last Kickstarter campaign we released a test demo, this time we made sure to launch with a much more comprehensive sample of the project. This latest demo build combines both finalized assets (such as the character sprites) and free-use assets (like the music and sounds), we wanted to make sure to have a clear representation of what we’re striving for and we hope that if nothing else this will convince you to help us further advance the project!

And of course we are interested in any and all feedback regarding the demo:

[ Windows version ]   [ Mac version ]   [ Linux version ]

========= Talented Artist & Powerful Software =========

Devil Gene R is being developed on the Ren’Py visual novel engine, which has been around for over 6 years, is widely supported, and has helped created over hundreds of games both free and commercial. It allows for many great options and fine polish.

The project also has two very skilled artist; Flora “Shadilyn” Li who serves as the lead character designer and has been drawing professionally for over 5 years. Chris “A Bad Idea” Lee and OverlordJC both serve as CG Artists on the project. Chris Lee is also apart of a small team known as SugarPunch Design Works and was a contracted Clean-Up Artist for the indie fighter Skullgirls.

And the team is always growing as we want to provide the highest quality product we can to our supporters!

========== Free to Play! ==========

That’s right, upon completion Devil Gene R will be released 100% free to download and play! Why? Well as much as I could use direct funds, seeing how I am offering a different product from the original one proposed, I would feel wrong to charge for it.

Besides money isn’t everything, thanks to the support of backers such as yourself I get the chance to work on something I’m passionate about, and if you like what you play and would like to see more than please donate. But if you (unfortunately) don’t enjoy it, at least you can walk away scott free.

Anything I make off this project will come from donations, and if I receive enough I will continue to make more, but I pretty much want this to be my only Kickstarter (for Devil Gene R at least).

Your feedback and support is worth a lot more than turning up a profit!

========== A Goal Already Once Met ==========

This is actually the 2nd Kickstarter campaign for Devil Gene R so you may be asking “if it failed once, why try again?”

The original goal was for $10,000 which was a very ambitious range and while the project didn’t make it to that point it was able to raise $4,187 thanks to 93 supporters, which is a lot more than I was expecting to raise being an “unknown” project. Tons of great people showed interest in the project and I appreciate any and all support, that is why I restructured the development process and cut back on some features to make sure I could complete the first act for $3,000. Of course if we can hit the goal any beyond that just ensures a finer quality project!

To original supporters please back us once again, and to new pledgers thank you very much!

========== Stretch Goals ==========

$5,000 – I want to improve the higher tier list rewards, shipping out physical artbooks and soundtracks, it was always in the budget to set aside $2k for making rewards in the original Kickstarter, thus it’s higher entry barrier.

$6,000 – We can start immediately on the next chapter of DGR (visual novel sequels are often a bit cheaper to make considering you aren’t making a whole new cast of characters since you can reuse old sprite and just worry about making new CG).

$8,000 – I would like to also start working on a more interactive game based on DGR (the project was NEVER intended to be solely a visual novel, we actually have ideas for a “bullet hell”, classic Megaman style platformer, and even a fighting game).

$10,000 – Dedicate $2k to funding others Kickstarters (both big and small)

========== Supported Platforms ==========

Thanks to Ren’Py this project can and will be released and ready to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.