Introducing Haruka Ibuki

 Ibuki Magica (Madoka fangame)  No Responses »
Jan 182012
 

For the next 10 days I’ll be giving more detailed introductions to my characters from my Ibuki Magica game. These are still rough drafts, and I may change anything about these characters at any time, including the name. Still, I think they’re at a stage where I’m willing to post more detailed information about them. So, let’s begin with our protagonist, Haruka Ibuki.

WIP Chibi Ibuki

Haruka Ibuki, age 15

Background: Ibuki has had a plain life for these past 15 years. She first met her best friend Ichiko when she was about 2, and has no memories before the meeting. Since Ichiko has always been part of Ibuki’s life, Ibuki has begun to look up to Ichiko as a sort of big sister. Ibuki herself doesn’t have any siblings, and her parents are lax enough to leave her alone most of the time. As Ibuki grew up, her responsibilities naturally increased, but Ichiko’s increased quite a lot more. She tried to help Ichiko with student council duties, but she was rarely noticed by the other members and ended up leaving. She now doesn’t see Ichiko as often as she likes.

Personality: While not shy, Ibuki lacks presence. She tends not to be noticed by people, but she doesn’t take too much offense to it. She does get upset on occasion that she so rarely gets to see Ichiko, but knows that Ichiko has her own things to take care of. When given the chance, Ibuki will be quick to help out someone in need. She’s a decent cook, diligent worker, and occasionally polite to a fault. She’s one to keep her stuff reasonably organized. Ibuki’s biggest fault is often the ease with which she’ll give up what she wants for someone else, even when she shouldn’t.

Appearance: Ibuki is a little shorter than average. She has short blue hair that she ties in twintails with light blue ribbons. Her eyes are a deep, calming blue. She tends to position her body as to not take up too much room, and her smiles and frowns are subtle and gentle.

If there’s anything you would like to know about Ibuki, I’d be happy to read your questions! Note that answers may include “not telling”, “not sure yet”, and “maybe”. I will try to give more substantial answers than that, though.

As for the next update, it’s delayed to next Monday. I’m not sure how long I’m going to keep doing these kinds of updates, as I’m beginning to want to focus more heavily on the script. I will try to keep going each week or so until the end of February, though. Hopefully what I have now will be done, and every now and then I’ll add an update featuring some more witches or attacks, or maybe magical girls from Kazumi and Oriko. Thanks for your patience and interest!

CheeryMoya edit: Added in a chibi version of Ibuki, although it’s still being worked on. Also, here’s a turtle.

Madoka fangame not-update and character introductions

 Ibuki Magica (Madoka fangame)  No Responses »
Dec 122011
 

Hey guys. Due to frustration, a death in the family, and some particularly hard code, I don’t have a release update ready. I could just have the enemies attack randomly like I used to, but that would be pretty pointless and a waste of your guys’ bandwidth and time. I haven’t posted what ideas I have for characters and such yet, so check them out in lieu of an actual update. Nothing about this is definite, including the names, and things will probably change as time goes on.

Haruka Ibuki, the main character: Ibuki is around the age of 15/16. She’s not a particularly shy girl, but she has a tendency to not get noticed by others. It doesn’t particularly bother her too much, as her best friend Ichiko gives her a good amount of attention. Ibuki has a strong heart and does her best to care for those around her. She doesn’t mind doing repetitive and simple work, and likes to keep things orderly. Since she’s the character under your direct control, a lot of her personality will come from your choices.

Naoki Ichiko, Ibuki’s friend: Ichiko is a few months older than Ibuki, and it shows. She’s the type to excel both at athletics and academics, and is often the center of attention. She considers Ibuki her best friend and is happy to help her with demanding tasks. However, since so many people obsess over her, she doesn’t give Ibuki as much focus as she’d like, and occasionally ends up forgetting to do something with Ibuki.

If you want to see a picture of the two, click here. Can you guess which is which?

Hotaru Minori: Considered to be the strongest Puella Magi in the city, and the only one known to have made more than one wish through Jukabey, Minori has become the de facto mentor for most new magical girls that appear in her territory. Minori will always do her best to give good advice to those who ask for it, and train magical girls to fight and hunt down witches. She’s said that one of her wishes was for the power to protect all those that follow her path in life, and as such her magic allows her to quickly stand between a witch and any Puella Magi it tries to attack. When she isn’t protecting people, she isn’t particularly quick, but makes up for it by using a large, heavy sword to cleave through her enemies with the grace of a master fencer. Minori seems always content and calm, and enjoys her duty as a Puella Magi.

Minori has black hair that hangs down to a little past her neck, but when she transforms into a Puella Magi long hair will grow out all the way down her back. The part of her hair that was black before will stay black, giving Minori’s hair a strange look. Her uniform is a white minidress with red and silver trim, and her green Soul gem rests in a small circle in the middle of her forehead.

Engi Ineko: Ineko is a glutton and shameless flirt who seeks nothing but her own desires. Despite only being 15, she’s an avid smoker and drinker. She will often steal several dishes food from posh restaurants and quickly bring it all to her house, where she will happily devour as much as she wants until she gets full, at which point she’ll toss the food (and the plates along with them) in the trash. Ineko is also known for stealing fancy clothes, which she’ll always be seen wearing when not in her Puella Magi uniform. Her tongue is sharp and her voice is pleasing.

Ineko has long, dull blonde hair. She’s not particularly tall, although she acts like she is. Her weapon is a long wooden wand, and she can summon small creatures to do her bidding. Her Puella Magi uniform is ornate and has lots of gems sown in. Which is her Soul Gem is unclear. The uniform also comes with a ballroom mask that covers the top half of her face.

Jukabey: A messenger of magic, responsible for contracting with all the Puella Magi seen in the game! He does his best to be friendly and polite, and unlike most of his kind, he will go out of his way to make the lives of the magical girls around him easy and safe as possible. To that end, he allows the magical girls who contract with him to make more than one wish, with the opportunity for new wishes gained as girls slay witches and collect Grief Seeds.

My goal for Jukabey is to try and see what a legitimately likeable Incubator would be like, using the restrictions placed on me by the show canon. I want to make the player be as accepting of Jukabey as it’s possible for the player to trust any of these little bastards. Despite his need to do his job, Jukabey will be kind and up front with most information rather than waiting and hoping that someone doesn’t ask the wrong question. I admit people probably won’t like him just because of inevitable comparisons to Kyubey, but hopefully I can convince some (probably the ones who accepted Kyubey’s utilitarianism) to at least tolerate Jukabey.

Two more characters that aren’t quite as fleshed out as the others just yet, and still need names:

First, we have a girl a year or so younger than our main characters. She’s quite good at music and enjoys the simple pleasures in life. When not at school she often wears light traditional clothing. The girl is always carefree and smiling and nothing ever seems to get her down. She will happily chat with anyone for as long as they’re willing to listen. As a Puella Magi, she wields a large crossbow that she can reload and fire with ease, even though she doesn’t need to. She is capable of summoning multiple copies of herself, all quick and nimble, and able to attack her foes in tandem.

Second, we have the first girl’s rival. She seems the opposite in all ways: bitter, silent, cold. She rarely talks, and when prompted, will give the shortest sentence possible. Since she avoids people, it’s unknown what she does when she’s alone. As a Puella Magi, she can control a bolt of lightning as if it was a whip. She’s good at dealing damage in many different ways, but she’s a bit frail and is slow when she isn’t prepared for something.

Some other bits of info and character descriptions I haven’t quite fleshed out yet and am still working on:

  • There will be at least 10 witches to fight.
  • One of the three remaining PMs I have yet to introduce you to is a young girl who specializes in healing and assisting her friends. No, she’s not Yuma. Even though she’s young, she’s pretty smart and mature and hates being treated like a child.
  • The city the game is set in will probably be based on Singapore, or something close to it. I want to juxtapose Mitakihara’s strange architecture with some of the green initiatives that Singapore is planning to take.
  • The second of the three remaining PMs is a incredibly chatty, gossipy girl who seems to be able to get on good terms with anyone.
  • Like all good magical girls, Ibuki will have to balance keeping up a normal life with her duties to protect the city. I will try to make this part fun and meaningful and not boring.
  • The final PM is a blunt, somewhat crude girl who prefers to fight with her fists, or whatever is nearby.
  • I will probably force the player to become a PM at some point. The game doesn’t make much sense otherwise. Sorry!
  • There will be two different save systems: The standard Ren’Py system where you get to save wherever (except during battles), and one that only lets you save when you take a break from playing, preventing you from redoing your mistakes. I recommend trying the second one for at least your first playthrough, and then see how you can do things differently afterwards.