Ivy in the Well

suspenseful GL visual novel in development<3

[ivyinthewell]

welcome! :o)

my name is pom! (he/him, they/them) This is the official blog for the visual novel Ivy in the Well! 🌿🌿The VN is currently in development. 🌿🌿 Here is where I'll share the development progress, from character design to art to writing and other behind-the-scenes tidbits as I create my first-ever visual novel! :D

feel free to send questions about the game & characters via my inbox!

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the story. . .

You are Lily. An apprentice to the Ministry, sent to an abandoned manor to rid it of its inexplicable, evil presence. Uncover the truth of the Ministry's mission while getting to know Ivy, a peculiar girl made of marble and vine.

genres: yuri, GL, body horror, suspense, magic, 2nd person

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about me. . .

i am an illustrator, storyteller, and all-around certified yapper. my main blog is @divinit3a, where I share a lot of my fanart!! :3 horror romance & learning to love the creepy-crawlies is my forte 💚 love dark fairytales & critters? then check out my webtoon as well, Black Sheep White Wolf!

🌿thanks for dropping by! 🌿

[ivyinthewell]

happy pride month!!! :D

[ivyinthewell]

hi everyone! it's that time again — another devlog for Ivy in the Well!

Today I would like to talk about one of my favorite parts of a project— character design! In the first devlog, I shared a glimpse into the creation of Ivy. But I hit a certain point where I wanted to expand the cast to make the world more immersive and the character dynamics more complex and intertwined.

I finished up Ivy's design and was happy with the sprites, as well as the art style I committed to. Then, dundundun— I had to make sure everyone else matched, so they all felt part of the same universe!

For me, this meant slowing down and workshopping Primrose, Madame, and Lily all over again.

I found it helpful to design Madame first — her outfit is the gold standard for how Primrose and Lily should be carrying themselves, after all. I came up with this sort of belt look with white ribbons being a prominent accent.

After that, I designed Primrose's outfit, making her look like a proper young lady. Last was reworking Lily — she wore a similar outfit, but I often had a more androgynous look in mind for her, so she got a pair of baggy pants instead of a flowing skirt.

Lastly, I wanted the color palette of the entire cast to feel more cohesive. I mixed Ivy's palette with a few other tones and then chose a fairly cohesive palette for everyone to adhere to.

Then, of course, I worked on (and am still working on) sprites for the game itself!

Stay tuned for more :D

[ivyinthewell]

hiya! welcome back for another devlog update for Ivy in the Well! :)

When I first started with an outline and a dream, I opened up itch.io and began to search for free community assets to build a prototype of the game. To me, it didn't matter if the background assets perfectly matched the end result I was looking for, but using these temporary (made with NO AI!!!) assets was a major aid in slapping together a first pass.

Encouraged by being able to explore scene changes, I wrote a good chunk of the game directly in Renpy — which is a decision I have circled back to, and spent time rewriting it in Scrivener so I can edit and tidy up the writing before putting it into the engine. (I'll yap more about this in a future entry, hehe)

I really love how fast you can iterate inside Renpy. Being able to open up the engine and instantly see the changes you make is very rewarding.

I used a few of Potat0Master's Mini Packs of free visual novel backgrounds to get started. I absolutely recommend supporting artists and creators!

After I established a sense of setting, I fiddled around with sound design — which, to me, meant spending a lot of time looking up tracks on itch.io and freesounds.org. To keep file sizes small, Renpy seems to prefer the .ogg file format, so I redownloaded Audacity for the first time in eons to export the sound bytes. and even recorded a few of my own, hehe

Here's a link to a couple of musicians I looked into:

Alkakrab

Fulminisictus

freesound.org - for SFX :D

I really appreciate how kind and helpful the Renpy community has been. The barrier to entry is very low for newcomers like me, and that helps us get our footing, and get it quick!

To end this off, here's a look at the first background I illustrated for Ivy in the Well:

I streamed part of the process over on my twitch channel, @pommskii! I stream pretty infrequently as I am a tad shy (lol), but I'd love to do it more often :D

Stay tuned for more <3 !!!!

[ivyinthewell]

Lily... 🥀 for Ivy in the Well - a suspenseful GL visual novel in development 💚

[ivyinthewell]

hi everyone! welcome to my first devlog for Ivy in the Well :)

To kick it off, I thought it'd be fun to explore the why. Why this project, why now, and why a visual novel. So, let's dig in!

(art & yaps beneath the cut!! 👇)

Ivy in the Well started off as a story I called The Witch's Paladin, an idea I had circling the back of my mind as far back as 2018.

The first iteration of the protagist, Lily, was much the same — she's always been a willowy, green-haired girl with trouble fitting in her religious (if not somewhat culty) surroundings.

However, on the other hand, Ivy — dubbed Sucy at the time — was a monster made of flesh and metal, an eldritch horror of sorts trapped in the basement of the church.

So, how did Ivy come to be?

A couple months ago, I sat down to write the out the story in full for the first time. I discussed the idea with a few friends, and one of the mentioned an idea that shifted my trajectory entirely.

I spent time developing Ivy — I knew I wanted her to be something occupying a man-made vessel, and settled on the ethereal imagery of vines overtaking a destroyed, saintly statue.

The very first iteration up until a couple months ago was intended to be a comic — but I have always enjoyed working on games, and I love writing interactive stories that change based on player input, such as for D&D campaigns or Twine games.

Digging into Renpy was a delight — I am highly motivated by learning a new skill, and this project quickly snowballed from "well, let's test out a small vertical slice" to a full story with at least three endings.

I am super excited to continue to share my journey with everyone! To end this off, here's a screenshot from the current project:

Stay tuned for more <3 !!!!

[ivyinthewell]

a peaceful painting of Ivy 🌿

[ivyinthewell]

Meet Ivy - a peculiar girl(?) made of marble and vine. Despite her circumstances, she seems rather. . . friendly?

for Ivy in the Well - a suspenseful GL visual novel in development 💚

[ivyinthewell]

Meet Madame - your teacher. A mysterious woman clad in the Ministry robes, you will follow her every whim, or face severe consequences.

for Ivy in the Well - a suspenseful GL visual novel in development

[ivyinthewell]

Meet Primrose - your friend and academic rival!

Prim and proper with a sense of humor, Primrose is a hardworking and devoted apprentice of the Ministry.

for Ivy in the Well - a suspenseful GL visual novel in development 💛

[divinit3a]

more of ivy, beloved 💚 for my upcoming VN, @ivyinthewell

[divinit3a]

Who's that Pokemon -- no wait... Hmm :0 I've been working on my first visual novel project, Ivy in the Well 💚 I'm excited to share the journey with y'all :D

i'll post updates here occasionally, but most of it will go here: 👉 @ivyinthewell