Love Lagoon

Devblog for Love Lagoon, my upcoming/in-progress VN! Dive deep into mangroves in the Florida Keys to discover... romance???? Oh, and a bunch of new species of fish and stuff, which is also important. Whoops.

[lovelagoonvn]

Introducing: Love Lagoon!

What if The Creature From the Black Lagoon was a campy dating sim? What if The Shape of Water was about a marine biology intern instead, and it took place on a research catamaran? Can a beautiful [insert gender here] really fall in love with the World's Most Annoying Reporter??? -> if you've ever asked any of these questions, this game is for you!!

Off the coast of the Florida Keys lies a thriving bay full of mangroves and marine life. As a newly minted marine biology intern, there's no better place to be sent to conduct research! Discover new species of fish, insects, and... uh, guys... I'm pretty sure I just saw some kind of giant shadow in the water... and don't call me crazy, but I think it was kinda hot?!

Welcome to the devblog for LOVE LAGOON! My name is Blue, and this blog is dedicated to the progress + development of my first ever visual novel <3 I'm currently in very very early dev (drawing sprites and learning ren'py), and this blog was born both to document my progress (and hold myself accountable to actually make it happen haha) and raise interest!

Once completed, I aim to have this game include: -> 4 love interests (intro posts coming soon!) -> customizable mc (name + pronouns) -> no bad endings, and also -> very obvious differences between romantic/platonic dialogue options -> the ability to manually choose your LI/route at the same time in the story every playthrough -> generally a very cute, campy (swampy?) vibe! -> a few different CGs! -> at the very least a free demo (game will very likely be free as well, 5 bucks tops)

feel free to ask me any questions through mangrove mail!

[lovelagoonvn]

Happy pride, research interns! Love Lagoon is made by and for the queer community (as well as allies!), and all our characters are queer!

Dr. Mack is bisexual, Cero is pansexual and agender (his amphibious species doesn’t really do gender as a concept), August is pan, and Sean is demiromantic and bisexual.

If you’re queer, this game and its community will always be a safe space. I love you! Happy pride!

[lovelagoonvn]

The cabin you’re staying in aboard the RISEN II may be small, but it’s cozy! Only the best for Dr. Mack’s prized crew 🫡

[lovelagoonvn]

i don't want to get anyone too excited... but i finished writing the script for the demo today! as long as i can finish all the art i still need, we're on track to release the demo for LOVE LAGOON later this month 🤞 and hopefully submit to otome jam!!

[lovelagoonvn]

writing wip. we love sean here what are you talking about???

[lovelagoonvn]

accurate assessment @clonekiss

[lovelagoonvn]

It’s kinda awesome when your lead researcher lets the whole team use his catamaran as a research vessel

[lovelagoonvn]

A little sneak peek at what my love lagoon stack is looking like in procreate currently 😉 big things coming big progress being made!

[lovelagoonvn]

First photobashed background. I’m learning so much about catamarans….

[lovelagoonvn]

HELLO HELLO + welcome to my first ever devlog!! I'll (hopefully) be posting one of these at the end of every month to keep track of my progress. Let's dive right into it!

Love Lagoon was conceived of and started this month! Here's what's done so far:

-> tumblr set up -> completed designs for each character -> character bios + intros done + posted -> default expression sprites done for each character

Kind of a small one this month, probably because I just started! Thankfully it's the summer so I've got lots of free time to keep working ^^

Over the next month my plan is to -> photobash a couple of prototype backgrounds that I can use as placeholders, to see how many I'll need (once I'm ready to start actually coding the game itself, I'll turn them into fully illustrated bgs!) -> WRITE! I have characters, backstories, a setting, and about a million ideas for how I actually want the game to look/read/play, so I'd say it's about time to actually start writing!! That way, if it turns out that I can't actually program a whole game by myself, I can get someone else to do it and already have the plot + dialogue laid out ^^

If I finish with placeholder backgrounds and a demo-amount of writing (potentially up to the point in the story where you would choose whose route to follow (or 1-2 days in), I'll start with as many renpy tutorials as I can read/watch/etc

Thanks for following along + stay tuned!! Love u all lots <3

[lovelagoonvn]

Final Character intro: Cero!

Oh my god, I told you guys the shadow under the water was hot I fucking knew it...

[lovelagoonvn]

Character Intro 3: Dr. Mack!

Dr. Mack is a bit of an odd duck (fish?) but he's a well-know, well-loved sweetheart across the local marine biology community. He's always willing to talk to about his extensive aquarium collection... after all, the way to a man's heart is through his... innumerable pet fish?

[lovelagoonvn]

Character Intro 2: Sean!

Our 2nd love interest, Sean, is a bit of a prickly guy. He's sharp (in more than one way), but we know there's love in his heart... deep, deep, in his heart... somewhere....

2 more LIs to go! Each will drop a day after the last at noon EST :)

[lovelagoonvn]

Character intro 1: August!

Meet our first love interest for LOVE LAGOON! This is August, your kind, witty friend since college. He's always got your best interests at heart... probably more than you know <3

[lovelagoonvn]

What kind of limits for playing with be? Like is it stuck on computer or able to play on mobile?

ALSO THE CHARACTER DESGINS LOOK AMAZING

Thank you!!! I spent lots of time on them so I’m glad u like!! I’m currently working on their default sprites so you’ll get a look at their official intros soon! <3

As for playing limits, atm I can honestly say I kinda have no idea! I’m a macbook player though, so I want to prioritize ability to play on a laptop/computer. That being said I do know of a couple of VNs that can be played on mobile/browser, so that will for sure be something I look into when I get to programming + eventually exporting ^^