Greenwood: Amaranthus
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Android
Follow this story about the healing of a rogue mercenary, who is on the run from his past life. On his way, he crosses paths with unlikely allies. On his way through a town, he learns of the local forest that has been marked as dangerous due to a vengeful entity. Not only does he have to get past whoever that is, but he also has to watch out for anything trying to drag him back to his former life as a mercenary.
The content is not overtly LGBT but there are hints and undertones of gay/mlm themes throughout the story.
Greenwood: Amaranthus takes about 1 hr 15 min to complete.
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The browser version is now up! You can find it here!!
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If you have any comments, advice, or generally any feedback, please let me know! This was made within a one-month time constraint in TyranoBuilder. This is my first attempt at a visual novel so any constructive criticism is welcome!
I am not a coder by any means so a few buttons may be a bit strange to play. Apologies in advance for any buggy or inconvenient game functions.
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What gender do you play as, is there romance and what genders can you romance if there is any?
This is not a dating sim. You play as Haru Valmorida, the main character of this particular VN. He's a trans man and it's implied in one of the scenes but it is not a major focus of the story since his plot is about the issues of his past. There is a romance element but it's between him and the two companions he meets. They are both men.
ok, first of all, some of the comments down here are dang rude. if you wanna give constructive criticism, at least learn to be constructive and not just mean, jeez.
for a first effort, this was pretty awesome, i gotta say! i really enjoyed the art style of the sprites, and the variances in personality between the characters. as you said in your note at the end, it was a bit rushed in places, but for doing something in one month, that's not really something that can be helped, haha.
i really relate to haru, as i am also a smol trans catboy with trust issues and a past abusive relationship :v but also, lupin really reminds me of one of my very first ocs so i had a huuuge soft spot for him. (not that i didn't like evren. he was great, too. snek.) i would really love to see you come back to this story someday and expand on these characters and the backstory like you talked about. paring down your story is really hard, especially when you have So Many Ideas and these characters live in your brain and you know more about them than anyone else does, so i applaud you for managing to make a coherent and touching story despite everything you had to leave out.
the backgrounds were a bit out of step with the rest of the art style, admittedly, but i didn't find them as "jarring" as a Certain Commenter seemed to, since i was, y'know, reading the story and looking at the sprites. (for the record, my favorite Look was haru's sleep-sweater. he looks. so smol.) also, the backgrounds were obviously something that was simplified due to the time constraint. (is it really that hard for people to understand the amount of work that goes into a game?)
overall! this game touched me in the feels, and i would be absolutely thrilled to see it expanded on if you get around to it (though i know how hard it can be when Life Is Happening). i could tell while playing it that there were elements hinted at that were stories you really wanted to tell! and i want to know them!!
tl;dr - you did a great job, and the only real complaint i have is that now i want to know more about these characters ;P <3
!! Hi thank you SO much for your kind words! I lost my ability to reply because I was disheartened by the feedback I had received but this makes me feel much better about my work. I'm glad you could relate to Haru because that was my main goal with him, for other trans guys like me to feel like they could see themselves in a character.
Looking back on this, I see every flaw that there is and how I want to improve it. As it stands, I'm going to rest for a bit since I've got other college classes to focus on but I will come back to my boys in the future! I realize the backgrounds suck ass but yes, I just chucked them into photoshop and edited them briefly to save time. The majority of my effort went into coding the game and getting the bulk of the sprite work done. After all, it was just me working on this. I had a couple of friends help with the posing of the CGs but I did like 98% of things on my own. Hopefully, when I get to the full game I can reincorporate all the original ideas I was trying to squeeze in. I tried implying things through small dialogue bits, but I realize those aren't enough.
I really do feel super happy that you like Haru so much! Like most of my ocs are just projections of myself, but he's my main pride and joy. It means a lot to see that you like him!! His sleep sweater is based on one of my actual sweatshirts....haha. I actually have a few sketches of him in that on my tumblr art blog. I'm in art block right now so there hasn't been much new Greenwood content but I'll get back around to drawing him and the others soon enough.
Again, thank you so much for your feedback! It means a lot to me and I'll do my best to make the revised version as best I can (whenever I get to it) <3!!!
aaa ;; your reply reminded me why comments are so important. i'm so glad that it made you feel better ;A;
as a writer, i am well aware that you are your own harshest critic, and seeing other people just. bein rude about something you put a lot of work into does not feel good!! but every ounce of effort you put into this game is pretty clear to anyone who's actually paying attention... and maybe has an idea of just how much work goes into a project like this. i know a lot of jam games have one person writing/programming and someone else doing art, so i can't even imagine the pressure of doing it all on your own;;;
good luck with your classes!! and i hope art block leaves you alone soon haha.
<:3)~ i made u this lil mouse as a token of my appreciation for ur game. i hope u like it, as i cannot draw
I like the game's art style, and even though the story was short, I still found it intriguing and interesting.
I recommend
this game is so super impressive especially for something made in only one month! i already left a review but i wanted to leave a comment too to say my favorite character was lupin <3
i hope you're able to make an expanded version with ren'py in the future (as you mentioned in the extras at the end of the game) because i'd definitely love to see more!! i think you're right that the character motivations could've been made stronger if there had been more time spent together, but it didn't take away from the experience for me :)
haru is cute and i wish him all the happiness. thanks for making this!