You're the manager of a rising idol group. When a fan finds their apartment and posts it online, your group is forced to move to another home. Which happens to be the same apartment complex as yours.
Now, this wouldn't be a problem except for one thing. Nobody knows that you're a completely different person at home! Will you do whatever it takes to keep up the act at work or will you reveal your true self to your new neighbors?
Bridging the Gap is a simple slice-of-life story about letting down your guard and connecting with the people you're around. Play as the manager of an idol group and help them as they settle into their new home and prepare for their comeback.
Play as Male, Female, or Non-Binary
Choose between four work personalities (Stoic, Aloof, Caring, Energetic) and four home personalities (Shy, Reserved, Prickly, Easygoing)
Experience the personality gap lifestyle
Manage your idol group and build your relationship with Fortune
Perhaps find love with one of them?
Taeyang/Hayoon Lee (RO)
Leader of the group, Fortune
As the leader, they carry a heavy burden on their shoulders but that doesn’t stop them from pursuing their dreams and striving to be the foundation their fledgling group needs. Calm and perceptive, they take things in stride and somehow always seem to find the best solutions to any complications. Will you be the equal they need in the middle of change?
Taeyang stands at 5'9 with short black hair while Hayoon is 5’7 with long black hair. Their deep brown eyes show every emotion.
Xavier/Xanthe Cothran (RO)
Vice leader of Fortune
X is the quiet sort, preferring to let the others do the talking. They’re passionate about their work, often the last one to leave the practice room. That doesn’t mean they’re cold or distant. In fact, they love spending time with their group even if they don’t say anything. Will you be their solace from the noise of the industry?
Both Xavier and Xanthe are 6 '0 with shoulder length dark brown hair. Xavier prefers to tie it back while Xanthe keeps it loose. Their hazel eyes are deep and captivating.
Elias/Elaine Auclair (RO)
Dance leader of Fortune
The most outgoing of the group, E is very much a mood maker. They love dragging the members for outings or meals. New experiences are what motivates E to become more successful. Somehow they almost always have a smile on their face, so surely they must be hiding something underneath, right? Right?
Elias stands at 5’10 with short blonde hair, often styled. Elaine is 5’7 and her long blonde hair is well taken care of. Their blue eyes shine with life and joy.
Avery
Your sibling/cousin
Unapologetically themself , Avery is the second youngest of the group who also happens to be related to you. Depending on your relationship, they are either your personal cheerleader or your worst enemy. Will you let Good!Avery convince you to become friends with their group or will you try and become closer to Bad!Avery?
Avery is 5’6 and recently dyed their hair silver. Male Avery’s hair is short and Female Avery prefers to keep her long hair up in a ponytail. They have the same eye color as the manager but it either is filled with extreme love or extreme dislike towards them.
Oliver/Olivia Harcourt (RO)
The youngest of Fortune
The youngest of the group and also the oldest of four siblings. O shamelessly takes advantage of their position now that they have others to be the responsible ones. They’re cheeky and full of life, O is often found with E coming up with a variety of shenanigans. However, underneath all the mischief O cares deeply about those they’re close to, including you. Will you find comfort and healing during your time with O?
Oliver is 5’7 while Olivia stands at 5’5. They both have blue dyed hair. Oliver keeps his short while Olivia’s is shoulder length. Their brown eyes are warm and welcoming.
Demo: [Here]
Looking for more? Enjoy a series (only one right now...) of side stories taking place within Astral Agency. Here you are the agency's first ever solo artist preparing for your debut with your manager.
Aw heck, it's almost been a year since the last update...
Sorry for the massive delay, lots of unexpected life stuff came up and the game had to be put on the backburner...
That doesn't mean I haven't been working on it at all! I tried to at least get some writing done no matter how small the progress was. I initially planned on making the next update being a big one, but I've decided to make it a smaller one so it can come out sooner. Most of it has already been written anyway, just a few more things to get down, edit, and code before it's ready.
Once again, I'm sorry for the delay! I won't give any timeline on when the update will be out but hopefully soon.
Anyways, enjoy this little snippet and Fortune's first concept in the meantime.
Do you imagine the group members to have certain origins? Like, because the concept of an idol group is a lot more intertwined with East Asian music industry in modern times, I keep imagining the members as having Asian ancestry (except Lee, who is canonically Korean(-American??)).
Where does the story take place anyway? USA? Left ambigious on purpose, just vaguely a metropolis? (Why do I imagine the city to have killer public transportation....?)
T/H is definitely Korean for sure. As for the others... I don't really have a specific nationality in mind for them and their last names were placeholders that I will probably change soon. I will say that E is for sure White/European, X is also Asian, and O is European.
I know idol groups are more entwined with the East Asian music industry so I'm taking a bunch of liberties, but this game isn't that deep and a lot of the more realistic aspects of the idol industry won't be touched on.
The setting is intentionally ambiguous! Just some really big city somewhere. And I suppose with great public transportation now too!
Might it be more accurate to describe X's feelings toward MC as emotional or alterous attraction, rather than romantic attraction? (Not that I even understand romantic attraction, but I feel like I understand emotional and alterous attraction okay enough.)
Hm, I've never heard of alterous attraction but after reading a definition, I think that's pretty accurate! Though, I would say it's more leaning on the platonic side where we're at in the story.
Omg we're talking about my baby Avery again! Nova, I don't think you understand how often I think about the sibling relationship between Avery and MC. I am so deeply obsessed!
Hehe, I'm glad to hear that.
Avery is such an important character to the MC, regardless of relationship. You won't believe how excited I am to write more about them when the time comes! They've got so much depth yet they're also so simple.
I had already been considering I might have misunderstood this part, but now I'm seeing more evidence that I did, in fact, misunderstand it...
I've been thinking the entire group was moving to the manager's *apartment unit*. But now I'm getting the impression each member has a *separate unit* in the same *apartment building* the manager lives in. Which is it actually?
Yeah, I haven't actually gotten into the specifics of their housing situation since we're not quite there in the story yet, so I'm sorry if things are a bit confusing!
Fortune is moving into the same apartment building as the MC's. The MC has their own unit they live in all by themselves. Fortune will be given two units to live in, one with two bedrooms and one with three bedrooms. They're all living on the same floor, but the unit with two bedrooms will be next to MC's.
