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Our Life: Now & Forever- Relationship Dynamic System!

So, things are different in this game than they were in Our Life: Beginnings & Always when it comes to creating a relationship with the leading characters. And all of this here in such a long post is why we’re not really committing to having extra side character stories for OL2. There’s a lot do with just the two we’ve got, ahah.

It can be overwhelming when laid out like this in text but don’t worry, it’s very straightforward to use in the game itself. You only have to click a few options that feel like they fit your MC and then it’s set up. Now, here’s the actual breakdown of the feature-

The Interest/Comfort system from the first OL is gone. The Warm/Moderate/Cold-Sporty/Mixed/Studious system Cove used has been replaced as well. We, hopefully, made the elements less confusing by putting it all together in one combo feature instead of fully separate ones.

It’s called the “Relationship Dynamic System”. Your Dynamics between Tamarack and between Qiu are entirely separate. You can feel/act totally different when it comes to one over the other, or you can also choose to have similar feelings/behaviors when it comes to both. The Dynamic System has two major parts: Relationship Standing and Expression Elements-

Relationship Standing:

This is in regards to the info displayed along the top of the screen in that preview image

Your Relationship Standing determines how close you are with the other person and if your closeness is platonic or romantic

There are five main Relationship Standings: Neighbors, Friends, Crushes, Family, and Beloveds

Your Relationship Standing with the selected character will always be mutual. If it’s friends, for example, you and Tamarack/Qiu both agree that you’re friends

Neighbors, Friends, and Crushes have no limitations. You can choose them starting from Step 1, you can switch between them when going into a new Step, in very special cases you can even change your standing in the middle of a Step, and you can use any of these standings with both Tamarack and Qiu at the same time.

Family and Beloveds are deeper feelings of affection that only unlock in Step 3 and beyond. Family is platonic love and Beloveds is romantic love. You can’t change these standings once you’ve chosen them. They’re not feelings that will waver

You can have both Tamarack and Qiu at Family, you can only have one at Beloveds

There are three additional, non-main Relationship Standings as well; Partners, Fiancées, and Spouses. Those are used if you get into particular types of romantic relationships. You can also only have one of them at those standings

Basically, you can’t date/marry both. You can have crushes on both and never officially become an item with anyone, or you can eventually get over your crush on one and get together with the other

If you do start going steady with Tamarack or Qiu, you can’t break up. That’s a permanent relationship change

We are keeping mind a potential polyamorous option, which would let you be romantically involved with both, but it’s not a for sure thing

And maybe there will be some other possible non-main Relationship Standings you could get into. We’ll see how that goes when the development is further along

Expression Elements:

This is in regards to the info displayed in the middle section of the screen on that preview image

Expression Elements set personality traits, but specifically in terms of who you are for another person. This doesn’t have to be the same for everybody, you can be different with different people based on your feelings/preferences

There are three Meters you get to set yourself along when it comes to your behavior towards Tamarack/Qiu, and Tamarack/Qiu also have their own settings along the Meters

None of these settings have to be mutual between you and them. It can all be different, some the same, or all the same

Meter 1: Deferring - Teamworking - Contesting. Determines if the character acts as a follower, collaborator, or wants to be the decision maker, whether the other is actually following them or not

Meter 2: Praising – Easygoing - Teasing. Used to set if the character brings up positives or is even flirty, goes with the flow without pushing forward or back, or tends to give the other a hard time or make jokes out of things

Meter 3: Doting – Accepting – Idolizing. Controls how the character thinks of the other. Do they feel like they need to look out for them, or that they’re on the same level as each other, or that the person is more incredible than other people (including themselves)?

Yours and their Expression Settings are conveyed in isolation and in combination. If you’re both doting it won’t be exactly the same than if one is doting and the other is idolizing, for example

You’ll get to set your own Expression Elements for both of them at the start of every Step

In Step 1, Tamarack and Qiu have just met the MC and so their Expression Elements towards the MC are always the same no matter what

In Steps 2-4, both of their Expression Elements will be determined based on their unique experiences with the MC and will use your choices throughout the prior Step as the deciding factor for the settings. Or you can simply customize them to your preference

And there is one more Meter that unlocks starting in Step 2 if you have a Relationship Standing other than Neighbors

Meter 4: Jealous Of - Not Jealous – Jealous Over. Only exists to add optional elements of drama to your story. Jealous Of means the character is envious of what the other person has (such as wishing they had a similar family life, or were as popular in school as they are, etc.), Jealous Over means they’re protective/competitive when it comes to the other person’s attention

Qiu and Tamarack will always naturally be set to Not Jealous, which skips all of that. You’ll have to choose to customize their Expression Elements and intentionally add the jealousy feelings for them and/or yourself

And even with jealousy on, it’s still Our Life. The feelings aren’t hateful/destructive and it all works out with communication/making an effort

But that’s right people who wanted jealousy in OL1 and I didn’t do it ‘cause I prefer to avoid those scenes myself, I heard you and made a compromise. Now they’re there and fully skippable

Relationship Standing and Expression Elements work together to make your unique Dynamic in each Step. However, they don’t replace being able to choose what you say/do in the events themselves. This is more of an overall type of deal and you still control the specifics from scene to scene. You can have a contesting dynamic but make choices that have your MC be shy/independent instead of bold/sociable about their decision making, and such.

And there’s still the extra layers in future Steps where your past relationship with the person has ripples within your current relationship. Being at Crushes in Step 3 will be somewhat different if you used to friends than if you were crushing from the start, and so on.

The Initiative Level feature from OL1 is also in this game too, I’m just not gonna include a description of it here because it isn’t changing much and this is too big already. You’ll also be able to like or dislike side characters you meet, but that’s a much simpler system done through normal choices.

And okay, finally, that’s the very long to explain, but ideally not too confusing to make sense of, Relationship Dynamic System! I think it’s gonna be super nifty and way more flexible than our first attempt at making this kind of feature. Hopefully you’ll all enjoy it too!

(Alright one last thing. Tamarack’s automatic Step 1 Expression Settings can be seen in the screenshot: Contesting, Praising, and Accepting. If you’re wondering, Qiu’s Step 1 settings are always: Teamworking, Teasing, and Doting. It’s done now.)

[variousdelirious]

I recently finished a playthrough of Lake of Voices. I love this game so much!!I have a question involving Kikka, she's one of my favorite VN protagonist now. Strong, stoic, yet sensitive and empathetic. I'm swooning.

From the very first option she can make, she has been nothing but thoughtful and sensitive. It's easy to see how she always masked that part of her by silence. It's true that a stranger would thought she is pragmatic and unmoved, but why would Bemelle, a fellow guard who's been with her for some time, think she wouldn't be as affected by another stranger's passing?

Also, the Guide will always try to get Kikka out alive if she didn't do anything out of line. While considering all 3(4) passenger's identity and personalities, Kikka is a model traveler. (Calm, collected, pragmatic, listens to advice seriously) The selection existed from the start, how would he know she would work hard to make sure people don't get near the lake after she left? Wouldn't Margret or Bemelle do the same?

Aw, thank you very much! It's nice to hear you enjoyed the game.

For Bemelle, he is so earnest he isn't prepared to deal with those who aren't. It's not in his mindset to assume people aren't presenting themselves in a truthful way. She acted as someone who didn't feel things and he simply believed it wholeheartedly. That pretend version of her was reality to him until he saw differently with his own eyes.

For the Guide, I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean. The Guide doesn't want Kikka specifically to make it from the start. Some dying and some living is perfectly fine, it doesn't matter who. In most stories he lets the three main travelers determine their own fates and offers them equal knowledge/minimal attention. In one storyline he does have to pick just one person to help and by then Kikka is the obvious choice. In his own story where he goes out of his way for her, you as the player had to win him over for him to bother assisting. If not, she's on her own still. He begins the story neutral and can stay that way or grow respect/distaste/possibly affection for her, depending on how things work out.

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[variousdelirious]

Wow, it’s the last main member of Qiu’s crew! And what an interesting baby boy it is. I feel like I know him from another life, haha.

Our Life: Now & Forever is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with your two closest neighbors. It’s currently in development by GB Patch Games.

Steam Page Itch.io Page

Discord -  Twitter - Website - Patreon

[variousdelirious]

Here’s the pronoun system for Our Life: Now & Forever- you can choose them, have more than one, weight how often different ones are used, let them change with time, and add in your own preferred pronouns 👍

Our Life: Now & Forever is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with your two closest neighbors. It’s currently in development by GB Patch Games.

Steam Page Itch.io Page

Discord -  Twitter - Website - Patreon

[variousdelirious]

So, we heard you wanted more flexibility for the colors on the MC doll 😏

Our Life: Now & Forever is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with your two closest neighbors. It’s currently in development by GB Patch Games.

Steam Page Itch.io Page

Discord -  Twitter - Website - Patreon

[variousdelirious]

Cove spots an opportunity to bring up his most brilliant idea once again in this first video preview of Our Life Step 4!

Yeah, it turns out adult Cove is still really cute, haha.

Our Life is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. You can play the full game right now for free! Steam Page (Windows and Linux) Itch.io Page (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android) Discord -  Twitter - Website

[variousdelirious]

Say hello to Our Life mom #4 ♡!

She’s the bio parent of the MC so she’s partially customizable in order to fit with your own chosen appearance. 4 skin tones, 3 hair textures, and it’s mix/matchable. You pick what you call her too~

This is also the first showcase of Our Life: Now & Forever’s character sprite style! It’s beautiful and I hope you enjoy the new soft/cozy look.

[variousdelirious]

For those who have been wondering all this time, yeah they are dating in Step 4 💞

Our Life is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. You can play the full game right now for free! Steam Page (Windows and Linux) Itch.io Page (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android) Discord -  Twitter - Website

[variousdelirious]

Time for another aging up side by side! It’s Terri (she/her) in Step 3 compared with Terry (he/him) in Step 4. Best buddy 💕

Our Life is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. You can play the full game right now for free! Steam Page (Windows and Linux) Itch.io Page (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android) Discord -  Twitter - Website

[variousdelirious]

Since it seems like one of the LI's for OL:NF will be using both he/him and they/them pronouns, will we get the option to use multiple pronouns as well in the new game??

Yes! You'll be able to have multiple accepted pronouns as well as nicknames for your character in Our Life: Now & Forever. We're using a more flexible method of adding into this time around.

[variousdelirious]

Our Life: Now & Forever Official Announcement!

Begin your life anew in this second installment to the lovingly nostalgic “Our Life” series.  We can finally start sharing the coziness.

Fall has settled over a quaint town high on a mountain as the story begins. But it isn’t only the leaves that are changing. You and your mother were leaving behind everything you knew before, having just moved into that well-worn house in the middle of a tight knit cul-de-sac. It’s there where a delicate paper airplane lands at your feet and leads you to unanticipated crossroads…

Make your own path through life as you grow from childhood to adulthood with your two closest neighbors. Even in the chilly autumn weather, it’ll be a truly heartwarming time 💕

Developer: GB Patch Games

Price: Free-to-play base game with optional paid DLCs

Release Frame: Late 2022

Rating: Teen

Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, Steam (PC)

Main Character: Customizable looks, identity, personality, interests, relationships, etc.

Romance: Two love interests- female (she/her) and gender fluid (he/them)

Sprite Artist: redridingheart on Twitter

BG Artist: vicalen9 on Instagram

UI Artist: moonflairs_ on Twitter

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Thank you for checking this out! I hope you’re looking forward to seeing more of this project in the coming weeks. We’re doing our best to make the experience just as memorable as the first game, with even more refined features ✨

And if you’re really curious about Our Life: N&F, you might check out our Patreon where we’ve already begun revealing characters, gameplay insights, and so on.

GB Patch Games Patreon

Discord -  Twitter - Website

[variousdelirious]

Mom 3! Kyra in Step 2 compared to Kyra in Step 4 💞.

Our Life is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. You can play the full game right now for free! Steam Page (Windows and Linux) Itch.io Page (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android) Discord -  Twitter - Website

[variousdelirious]

From the upcoming Cove wedding DLC 💕

There’s multiple venue options and of course one of them is the beach, haha.

Our Life is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. You can play the full game right now for free! Steam Page (Windows and Linux) Itch.io Page (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android) Discord -  Twitter - Website

[variousdelirious]

Slams this down because I’m not gonna finish them all

[variousdelirious]

Well hi there

[variousdelirious]

aquarium date aquarium date

He’s doing his best, but he struggles. Good luck to you Cove with your romantic pursuits. Screenshot is from the upcoming DLC!

Our Life is a nostalgic Visual Novel where you create your own character and grow from childhood to adulthood with the lonely boy next door. You can play the full game right now for free! Steam Page (Windows and Linux) Itch.io Page (Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android) Discord -  Twitter