It wouldn’t be the first one I’d make, certainly not if I had all the skills but I think it’s a cute idea.
A pixel art game, very heavy on pretty art here, and story based/visual novel-like gameplay, of Nariek and Kenric, but younger. Maybe for a slightly more complex idea, it includes older Nariek as well. I detail below.
The Player plays as Nariek, making some choices in his attempts to be a good King of the Lost Cities. There is not much gameplay in this part of the game, there’s a lot of story and visual novel here, basically a lore dump and pretty reminiscing. These are day segments, which can be skipped.
Then there are night segments. Nariek falls asleep, and his dreams are merely flashbacks/memories. The Player now plays as younger Nariek. This plays out in somewhat “dating simulator game” style, but instead of dating anybody, the player is trying to get Kenric to like them/be Nariek’s friend.
This can include mini games like pixel art painting, to gift the art to Kenric. That could be a colour by number with some calming music in the background (the vibe for this game is a somewhat sad but pretty and chill game), and how accurate the colour by number is determines the quality of the painting, therefore the level of appreciation/attention Kenric gives it.
There could also be a minigame about making tea, you have to catch the ingredients or something like that, and etc.
There’s some dialogue sections with Kenric too, with the minimum attention Kenric gives to Nariek, and different replies have different outcomes.
There could be some fun hidden Easter eggs too, like Nariek’s poems from his emo phase, the comparison between the painting Nariek makes for Kenric lying in his house propped against the wall in the night segments, to the bloodied painting on Nariek’s wall that contrasts the prior painting in the day segments, and Clara’s silhouette in the night segments.
Anyway, depending on the choices and minigames, there would be three endings.
The Bad Ending: Nariek doesn’t get Kenric to be his friend in the slightest, Kenric literally despises him. Nariek wakes up from the final night segment and stabs a painting of Kenric beside his bed/sofa (he has probably overworked himself/not slept in ages and dozed off on a purple velvet sofa whilst sketching Kenric by a fireplace.)
The Canon Ending: Kenric doesn’t hate nor like Nariek, he majority ignores him, but doesn’t actively despise him, in Nariek’s delusionally obsessive little head, Kenric might even be being…friendly.
The Good Ending: Kenric and Nariek become friends. There’s probably a montage of them play-sword fighting in a field or something, maybe laughing and collapsing onto the bed of a field of flowers in the sun, just pretty best friend kids sort of thing. It is made very clear that this is a dream. Nariek wakes up and smiles melancholically, probably gazes sadly at aforementioned painting of Kenric beside his bed/sofa and then gets up to leave the room, it’s all very dramatic. Sad music plays, there’s a fade to black and you hear his boots clicking down the hall.
Yeah, that’s the game idea. I think it sounds cute, I don’t know. Have fun with that.