Adjusting to life on your own can be hard sometimes–especially for first-year psychology major, Phoebe.
Studying with dreams to become a certified children’s psychologist, introverted yet kind Phoebe wants nothing more than to help those around her who cannot help themselves. But moving to a new town all by yourself while juggling a job, classes, social life and all the plethora of other newfound responsibilities adulthood has to offer...things can become difficult.
That’s why when Phoebe meets the strange and charismatic Michael–a fellow student at her university–who comes into her life offering what seems to be all of the right answers with no strings attached…
..she ignores just how convenient it all seems and unknowingly opens pandora’s box.
‘Your Friend Michael’ is an upcoming visual novel in the style of a psychological thriller. You play as a university student named Phoebe as she attempts to navigate the everyday hurdles of life all while dealing with a series of concerning coincidences. While newfound friend Michael manages to take Phoebe’s mind off of the strange goings-on, those around her can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t quite right with the young man. As the player, you’ll be tasked with making decisions that will impact how the story plays out and making sure nobody ends up missing(or worse!)
The full release is planned to include multiple endings, CGI gallery & cutscenes, point-and-click aspects, timed events, and an all-original OST.
**Please note that the game’s protagonist is a set character and not canonically open to interpretation. Because I get a lot of asks that seem to be self-insert/character insert oriented, I’ll be differientiating/tagging future asks depending on this factor. Please specify from now on if your ask is canon(Phoebe as MC)or fanon(self/OC insert as MC). This is mostly to avoid confusing language on my part such as referring to MC as simply ‘MC’ or ‘they’ when the canon protagonist is Phoebe(she/her).**
Plot-related/canonical asks/Phoebe as MC - #yfm_canonask
Tidbits about Michael - #factsaboutmichaelallen
Fanart - #yfm_fanart
Also, please refrain from sending any explicit or extremely sexual asks. I may delicately answer slightly suggestive questions(I.E. if so and so is a virgin or not, how much experience he or she has, etc)but anything NSFW or kink related is a no-no.
Q: “Will there be NSFW content in Your Friend Michael?”
A: No–there will be no explicit sexual/graphic content in the game.
Q: “How old should I be to play the game?”
A: The rating I’m going by is the standard M or Pegi-16 rating.
There is no NSFW, but there may be
-suggestive/mild sexual themes
-mild to moderate violence and blood
-triggering subjects such as abuse, mental illness, trauma and suicide
-profanities
-alcohol & drugs
Q: “Will I be able to choose my gender/customize my MC?”
A: It was a difficult decision to make, but I ultimately felt that having the MC be a pre-established character(Phoebe) worked better for the story. However, you still will have a certain level of control over Phoebe’s thoughts, personality, and actions throughout the game. Self/OC inserts along with fanon content and the like are still totally OK and encouraged though :^)
Q: “What’s [insert character here’s] sexuality/gender?? Will there be any LGBTQ+ representation in the game?”
A: I’m straight and cis, so pretty much all of the characters I write for are also straight and cis in-canon unless specified otherwise. Sorry if this is disappointing–it’s just what I know and feel comfortable writing ^^; ((please don’t shoot me))
However, you’re free to headcanon any of my characters as virtually whatever you want; I won’t stop you. I have no plans on prohibiting modding the game either, so there’s nothing really stopping you from programming in representation so long as the line between fanon and canon remains clear.
Q: “Will there be multiple love interests?”
A: Will there or won’t there be? I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see…:^)
To be clear, I do not NEED donations. This game is going to happen no matter what, and I’m honestly just thankful for all of the followers and support I’ve gotten just in the short time I’ve been posting about my project. However, any tips given will definitely help expedite the process of releasing the full game and will grant you my eternal thanks. I don’t have a Patreon set up as of the moment, but I have a Ko-fi page where you can donate if you want to :’^)
Okay, I have a lengthier post I'm going to set to post either later tonight or tomorrow--so I won't say much till then other than thank y'all for your patience and also for all the people who comm'd me<333
On the shoutout side of things, if any of y'all have time please go check out my friend's twitch stream and maybe drop a sub or follow! She's an absolute sweetheart and has been trying to make a name for herself as a streamer for a couple years now, and it would be so great if you guys would check out her content ^^
She's live right now if y'all are interested;
superopokemon - Twitch
:^) It's me again.
Before I say anything else; the game is still under development. This isn't a dead blog(or at least it won't be once the demo is complete)and I'll be posting a more in-depth explanation of what's next in the upcoming week.
I apologize for the hiatus; after having many more issues with the demo(mostly art-related), I took a break to spend some time with friends and to work a little less stressfully on improving the facets of my artwork/the game's art that I wasn't satisfied with. I cannot stress how important it is to me for this demo to fit my vision for it upon release. I just don't want to put out something I'm not happy with and I already have a list of things I want to redo before I can drop the download for it.
There were also some things that happen in my personal life(again)which involved me finding out someone very close to me had been lying to me for the better part of the last 4 years and contributed a significant amount behind the scenes to what was probably the worst period of my life to date. This culminated in my promptly cutting them off, as well as getting back in touch with a close friend I haven't spoken to in those 4 years as well.
Anyways; long story short, my break is over and I'm back to working on the game and will try to post more updates starting next week. Some of the story is also being partially rewritten to lean a little more away from the stereotypical 'yan romance vn' overtones to something a bit more complicated--so I'm excited to share some information on that, too.
-------------------------
As for commissions--money is tight recently, which has also contributed to my hiatus somewhat(cue me getting rejected by 3 different people who were interested in commissioning me). It's embarrassing to even have to advertise this, but if any of y'all could reblog this or consider helping an artist out and commissioning me, I would appreciate it immensely. Even if only 1 or 2 people end up doing so, it would still be a huge help. q v q
Right now prices are, as the image states, 8 USD. Contact me via DMs for info on payment methods and details.
Once Phoebe learns Michael’s original name, would he prefer it if she kept calling him Michael or his true name?
Like some other questions I get, the answer to this would be highly dependent on what road Phoebe goes down with Michael. If she is insistent on getting to know 'the real him' and he is assured that she really does care about him, he would still let her pick what she calls him most but would have a slight preference towards his given name.
So I'm back and this time I've got news B^)
Long story short, the game demo will be released soon. Like...soon-soon. I'm just reworking the sprites(again)and finishing up some writing. The GUI/Menus are all done and I have a simple but functional main menu and some original bgm.
Later I'll be answering some long overdue asks and maybe posting a few spoilers for the demo release--but for now I wanted to show y'all a redesign I did for our MC, Phoebe. Long story short, I just felt her original design was too plain. It didn't show as much of her personality as I wanted, and honestly, I can imagine it resembling a younger Phoebe rather than an older(current)Phoebe.
Adding on to my last post real quick--if any of y'all have good resources on learning Ren'py(other than reading the manual which I am currently doing)please PM me!
If anyone who is experienced in coding, especially with Ren'py specifically, would also be willing to hop in a call with me sometime to do a little more hands-on learning I would really really appreciate it. I, unfortunately, am not in a position to be able to pay anyone for their time right now, but I would definitely be willing to do something like free music or art commissions to compensate ^^
Apologies for the silence--I wasn't really sure what to say, and kept putting off saying anything at all :'^)
Long story short, I am sure some of you noticed that the 31st, the planned release date of YFM's demo came and passed with...well, no demo. The TLDR is this; I vastly underestimated the amount of time and learning it would take in order to fully code and put out the demo.
The more long-winded answer; I understand some of you probably see people releasing demos for their games in a relatively short time period and must think, 'what's the big deal? why don't you just put out what you have?'. For one, I mistakenly thought that learning Ren'py(and by extension, re-learning python)would be easy. And it technically is; I COULD have just swapped out the default in-game sprites for things like the text box, menu backgrounds, and sliders and just focused on writing and programming the actual VN dialogue. The issue is that when I set out to work on this demo, I had a vision in my head. I wanted the demo to somewhat represent what I wanted the final game to look like(hence the purpose of a demo)--and what I wanted involved custom in-game menus, a rearranged GUI, a fully decked-out main menu, a rudimentary inventory, and for the game overall to have a recognizable 'style' that did not involve Ren'py's signature visual novel look. This involved way more than I was aware of coding-wise and I'm still learning how it all works. Prior to this, I had experience with graphical scripting and the fundamentals of most programming languages(variables/integers/strings, methods and functions, arrays, if-else statements, local vs global variables, etc)but not as much with traditional coding.
All of this plus some things involving my health and stress(both of which have left me extremely tired and lethargic most days)and my, at times, overall poor time management skills have been obstacles to my releasing the demo for my project.
Some good has come from everything, however--for one, I have been working on learning to draw backgrounds so while I will probably still be using photos for the demo, future updates + the full release should have completely original background illustrations to help pull together the look and feel of the game. GUI elements have already been made and I'm considering redoing a few sprites(including Michael's again)since I REALLY want this demo to be high quality.
I've also been working on the writing aspect of things. Specifically, I feel as though my protagonist, Phoebe, is very bland. If I'm not going to have a blank slate for an MC, I want to work on making her and the side characters more dynamic, and to help the story overall feel immersive and memorable.
Having said all of that, I'll continue to post updates again on the project. This time I'm not setting a deadline for release until the demo is AT LEAST 90% complete so this doesn't happen again. I am really sorry if I've disappointed anyone OTL
Why does Foster feel like he has to change so much about himself to appeal to phoebe? Does he think that he’s unworthy or undesirable as he is?
(Apologies for getting to this so late Anon!)
Part of the answer to this question pertains to a huge plot spoiler I cannot answer. But to say he feels unworthy or undesirable? That's also very accurate.
Besides the 'tough love' he endured at the hands of his father and the verbal abuse and hateful demeanor of his mother--for as long as he could remember, most people have not seemed to like Foster very much. As a socially awkward child, other kids didn't like him for how 'weird' he was--and the few that stayed past this initial impression were quickly driven off by his possessive/clingy nature and sudden emotional(sometimes violent)outbursts. Adults and teachers were likewise put off by his problematic behavior and could do little to help him without incurring the wrath of Foster's parents.
As a teenager, Foster didn't talk much anymore. In return, he was more or less a ghost to those around him--though people still seemed to avoid him for one reason or another.
All of this culminated in the creation of Michael Allen; a new life that he could start with Phoebe, and to get away from all of the shortcomings/failures of Foster.
Sorry for the lack of content lately everyone. Trying to get things wrapped up to hopefully meet the demo's release date next week(the 31st).
In the meantime, have a very out-of-context drawing I did of a not yet seen character from the game :^)
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Is it hard for Michael to keep up his facade around Phoebe? …I imagine that since Foster is so much more reserved, he probably had to practice his voice and mannerisms a lot before he was ready to reintroduce himself to the world as Michael!
Does he ever slip up around Phoebe? And if/when he does… what is his thought process like?
Good observation!
You're pretty spot on. While it's certainly gotten easier to maintain his persona in public, there are still certain situations that Michael tries to avoid as they tend to cause slip-ups. For example, Michael is heavily disinterested in anyone that's not Phoebe. He can only keep up a conversation so long without abruptly finding an excuse to tell them to bugger off(as politely as he can). Most people are confused by this antisocial behavior, due to how often he will make a really good first impression.
Phoebe's sister, Teddy, is also especially good at seeing through Michael's act and will actively antagonize him when around the two by putting him on the spot. (I.E. "Oh that's funny, you just said [insert thing here] when yesterday you said [insert other-thing here]. Why's that?")
As for how he handles these slipups...it depends. At first, he might get a little nervous and try to distract away from what happened. If that doesn't work, he'll try to lie or smooth-talk. If all else fails, he will drag Phoebe off to a place where he can drop the act in private, and this will most likely end in an early kidnapping.
As for the process behind building up Michael's character, once Foster knew he wanted to be a part of Phoebe's life, he immediately began making preparations. He came up with the appearance and persona of Michael Allen, and spend months reading various self-help books and material on behavioral psychology. He'd spend hours talking to himself as if he were in a conversation; practicing everything to say in any given situation while working on his speaking mannerisms & voice(sometimes doing it in a mirror to watch his facial expressions while he spoke). He even went as far as to change his handwriting and actively is aware of/changes his body language(though he fails at that last part quite a bit).
Needless to say, for him, it was like learning how to be human all over again...except in this case, he was determined to be perfect.
Can I just say that I love your art? The way you draw hair and faces and everything is just so nice to look at? Like goodness, my eyes are blessed.
;;o;; Y'all are going to kill me with these compliments I swear KFHNLKALKSD. It's been a long, looong road to getting my art style where like it--so I'm super glad the work is finally paying off and people enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoy making it<333 Mwah!!
I LOVE YOUR LONG ANSWERS OMG. ………..I wanna kiss Foster. I wanna cover his gorgeous face with smooches. Michael is great, but FOSTER? MMMMMMM CMERE BBY I LOVE YOU 🥺
Awww, thankyou Anon! <3 Both for liking my long rambles and for flustering my boyo hehehehe.
will there be a way to convince him to go back to his original personality and appearance? how could the m/c get him to drop the mask? 😔 foster is so precious just the way he is!!
Without diving too far into spoiler territory, there definitely is a way to get Michael to truly revert back to his authentic self--but it isn't easy, and getting him to accept that he needs some serious psychological help is the first and most important step. After that, it's going to be a long process of unpacking lots of childhood trauma and convincing Michael/Foster that you really do like him just the way he is and that it's okay to like his own things/be his own person.
Do you have any fun facts or tidbits to share about Phoebe? Could be facts about her interests or daily life, or things her character went through as you were developing her. I want to know a bit more about her, she looks so cute.
First off, Phoebe thanks you for calling her cute :^D
Anyways--as far as character development goes, Phoebe is actually the only character in the game's cast that pretty much stayed the same from the very first scribbles/ideas up to now(apart from some minor changes in appearance). Originally, Phoebe was going to be one of two choices the player had for who they wanted to play as; the other being her sister, back when she was in her early design stage.
Personality-wise, she's always been 'the shy one' and I think this is reflected pretty well in her mannerisms and way of dress. However, as of graduating high school, she's definitely been trying to become more extroverted and adventurous like her sister Teddy(this is also around when Teddy helped her dye her hair). She has two close friends that you'll meet in the game, as well as a childhood best friend that serves as somewhat of a rival for Michael. Interest-wise, she's always been into books based on fiction, comics, and movies--she's also kind of a weeb in-universe, and her favorite character is actually who Michael modeled his persona/appearance after. She's also really passionate about children and animals and was initially torn between whether or not to go for her current major(psychology with the intention of becoming a children's psychologist)or to go to a veterinary school instead.
I'll try to include more about our miss MC whenever I can get the character bios done ^^
Micheals sexuality/romanticism? Also would it be ok to do Micheal x MC? My mc is a trans male so I was wondering if it would be okay for that or na skjd
I actually have this question mostly covered in the FAQ of my masterpost; https://at.tumblr.com/your-friend-michael-vn/your-friend-michael-master-post/4eljvxzznr7a
But to reiterate, and to answer your question specifically--you can pretty much always assume that any characters I write for are cis/straight in-canon unless I say otherwise. I'm cishet, so I just generally prefer to write for cishet characters.
However, as far as fanon content is concerned--go nuts. If you want to headcanon Michael as non-straight or ship him with your trans-male MC, there's nobody stopping you my friend ^^ This extends to fanart, fanfics, shipping and even modding the game(when it's out of course). The only rule I have is to specify that it's fanon content/not try to claim something as canon when it's not. Also, I would love to see any fan content you happen to make, so be sure to tag me in it if you post anything :^)
