Hello everyone! I'm Cineri, working solo, and I'm super excited to be joining this event with my entry, which is my first Visual Novel ever!!
I started working on July 11, but I'm making my Devlog only now because it's been so much work.
A Cherub's Lament is a quiet, season-by-season fairytale-like short story about an angel who falls to earth in the dead of winter, and the lonely poet who takes him in.
The Premise
One winter's night, a young poet named Enoch looks up from his writing desk to find a stranger peering through his window. He's small, golden-haired, and definitely not from around here. That stranger is Cael, an angel who descended from the clouds out of pure curiosity to see what the earth looked like up close.
What follows is a little story of an angel spending a year on Earth, evolving as the seasons turn. But will he really only stay here for a year...?
This story leans into a tender and bittersweet feeling. So, if you're looking for something gentle and emotive, I hope this one's for you.
➤ Stats
Themes: Discovery, wonder, quiet devotion, the ache of loving something you know you can't keep.
Word count: 9k words, fully written.
Sprites: Sprites for Enoch and Cael, each with multiple outfits and expressions. (All done)
Backgrounds: 27 different backgrounds (counting variations), all drawn by me. Includes interiors and exteriors across different seasons. (All done)
CGs: Around 8 fully illustrated CGs + 17 CGs in a softer style (counting variations). This is what I'm working on right now!
GUI: Custom-made based on an existing preset. It's already implemented into the game but I haven't done the actual customization yet.
BGM: I have no idea. Oh god. Probably some calm, more classical-sounding music I find somewhere for free.
Bonus: If I have any time left, I want to implement a special toggle that changes dialogue into a more literary, old fairy-tale one that uses thou/thee/thy forms. But this will probably be post-jam.
➤ The Characters
Cael: An angel who decided, quite impulsively, to go see for himself what the world looked like up close. Finds something to marvel at in everything. Will absolutely fall asleep wherever he happens to be sitting.
Enoch: A poet living alone at the edge of the village, happy to dedicate his life to parchment and ink. Devoted and a little self-deprecating. Writes love letters to the world and calls them poems.
➤ What to expect visually
My favorite part! I've been working super hard on developing all the visuals. The story unfolds in and around a small cabin, following the turn of the seasons... snow to blossom to gold to bare branches again. I'm illustrating everything myself, using my signature traditional-looking art style, inspired by vintage manga aesthetics. I'm using a hybrid 2D/3D background workflow, and leaning into a warm, storybook-like palette that shifts with each season alongside the story's mood.
➤ Where things stand
As I mentioned, I started planning the game July 8, and working July 11. Right now, all character sprites and backgrounds are complete, and I'm deep into the CG production, which I already know will be the biggest challenge of this project. I'm a slow artist but still want all the art to look polished.
Thank you for reading this far! I'll be posting progress updates as things come together; I'd be super happy if you follow along! Any comments and feedback are super appreciated at any stage of this project.
Wish me luck, and see you in the next devlog!