Hi all, this is John from Scalemail. Archmage Tay will be posting an interview about my VN, Walkerman, later this week so I figured I’d make a brief introduction.
Walkerman is an Adventure Game/Visual Novel hybrid about hunting monsters. You play as Jorgen, a nineteen-year-old boy that has just embarked upon his career as a professional monster hunter. These monsters follow unique rules, similar to how vampires avoid garlic or werewolves are weak to silver bullets. The game revolves around investigating monsters to discover these kinds of rules, and then trapping and killing them with that knowledge. This is done through puzzle-based gameplay, similar to the Phoenix Wright series, but with more of a focus on the VN aspects. The choices you make during VN sections determine which tools you have at your disposal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USDmsWgMKzw
While Jorgen spends the game fighting supernatural creatures, the story outside his adventures plays out fairly straight-laced. The setting of the game could be considered Low or Middling-Fantasy, which is a far cry from standard VN affair. But if you’re a fan of similar settings such as ASOIF (Game of Thrones), you might find it agreeable. We’re aiming for a smooth blend between romance, action, and slice-of-life. The VN won’t limit itself to only the monster hunting. You’ll find that a lot of work has been put into the world behind Walkerman as well.
While we may be experimenting with art direction and setting, the game still follows the usual Visual Novel blueprints. There are five female leads of varying personality and body types, from the physically fit tomboy Sigrid to the waifish bookworm Aludra. And your decisions not only affect your relationships with them, but which monster contracts you’ll be taking as well. We’re aiming to blend the transitions between the VN and gameplay sections of Walkerman, enough so that your actions during your romance are not too far removed from the rest of Jorgen’s life.
If you’re interested to learn more, check out our website, or download the free prologue at our itch.io page here.
You can also follow us on twitter.
Lastly, we have a Kickstarter running, which was recently picked up by Sekai Project. As of writing this, we’re nearing 66% funded!
Thanks and see you later during this week for the interview,
John
