Rolling for Romance
Embark on the perilous journey of your first year of college in this slice-of-life visual novel dating sim, facing challenges in both the realm of reality and the enchanting lands of Dungeons and Dragons.
As your story unfolds, you may just encounter romance along the way. Whose heart will you end up rolling for?
Timeline
Three months (Ongoing Project)
Roles
Character Artist & UI Designer
Tools Used
Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma
Rolling for What?
Rolling for Romance is a game that was created for Otome Jam 2023. The story follows Harper (changeable name), a first-year college student who has just joined the Dungeons and Dragons club at school. There they meet an unlikely group of friends, each with their own unique stories and troubles. The player follows Harper's journey from their college experiences to exhilarating battles in their DnD campaign, and maybe even strike a budding romance with a fellow club member.
Otome or Otome Games, refer to a genre of games that focus on a female audience. Players take on the role of a female-identifying character who can pursue a romantic relationship with a cast of characters (often male-identifying).
These games are usually presented in the form of a Visual Novel, but elements of it can also be found in RPGs and Simulations (ex. - Mass Effect, Dragon Age).
Character & UI Design
I was responsible for creating concept art of the cast of characters and producing their sprites, as well as designing the game’s user interface.
Being that the story is slice-of-life and focuses on romance, I focused on making the visuals look and feel warm, welcoming, and fun. Drawing inspiration from the school aspect of the game, I based the UI style around stationery supplies and the traditional feeling that DnD evokes.
UI Demo
Character Showcase
Reception & Next Steps
600+ Downloads
Saved to 300+ Collections
4.9 Rating
What I learned
Although our team had three months to work on this, it was my first time taking lead on character and UI design. It didn’t take me long to realize how much work it would be to conceptualize, design, and produce all the character sprites and GUI. If I had more time before the demo release, I would have created more iterations of my design and explore different styles or layout configurations. Since the team was on a tight timeframe, I had to be decisive so that the project could progress.
This was also a great experience to work with programmers, as I had to learn how to scale and set up my files. It was integral in making sure that the game not only looked nice, but worked within the constraints of what could be coded.
Next Steps
In the following months, the game will be updated and eventually published on Steam as a free-to-play game, with DLC content planned after the full release. For my role specifically, I will continue working on polishing the game's user interface and making necessary adjustments based on player feedback, as well as creating additional assets as needed.
I'm open to full-time employment opportunities and other creative projects. I look forward to working together on something great!