How It All Started

Yoooooooooo whaddup this is Nicholas Prindle aka BlueWind. I woke up from a dream on New Years Day of 2018 with a vision that I could make a solid 3D video game. I've focused on achieving this goal ever since, and with the amazing help & talents from friends and family the idea has finally blossomed into something worth sharing.

Plot Summary

Thousands of years ago the planet Nova was a mystical place only inhabited by its magical caretakers, the Zen Guardians, and animal companions known as Novetians. Nova's two neighboring planets, Romulus and Eros, were densely populated by multiple species of sentient beings. Things had been good on Romulus and Eros for a time, but their societies began to crumble due to the strain from a harsh class system. 

There was a great war initiated by the bureaucrats of each planet's societies that involved both planets attacking each other for land and resources they wanted on Nova. Since Romulus and Eros were within spitting distance of each other while Nova was relatively far away in comparison, they resorted to attacking and sabotaging each other before either could manage to land on Nova. And thus the Great War for Nova ensued...

However, in a victory for the working class, a massive migration event took place when the Zen Guardians intervened and rescued those not involved with the war using their magic powers by teleporting them back to Nova. After this miraculous event, the Zen Guardians were drained from using so much power to transport everyone. Seeing this, the only hyper-intelligent species from Romulus known as the Clow Clow enacted a huge technological feat that employed a barrier around all of Nova preventing any spacecraft from entering its atmosphere. All species joined in to build the machine and protect the planet.

 After that, there was peace. 

All the species that made it to Nova have lived in harmony and unison with the planet and the Zen Guardians for generations. They've been very appreciative of the world they live in and all the splendor, sustenance and comfort it naturally provides them. Each species has respectively gravitated to regions and adapted to those that suit them best, but some folks like to wonder and see Nova in all of its glory, too. Huge cities and technological feats have been achieved, as well as the dawn of artistic pursuits like music and painting. Things are thriving, and renewable energy sources are abundant and powering the way new Novans live. 

Fast forward to the present day. 

*Cue Conflict*

But now something's amiss on the once peaceful planet Nova! The Zen Guardians are being slowly wiped out by an unknown force. You fill in the shoes of Aura, a young Lon Lon, who in a rare twist of fate, is given the ability to use magic. With this power in your hands you must choose how you will go about responding to the newfound chaos that is rocking your once calm planet. 

Mechanics

A Brief Summary

This game is a puzzlebox. It's meant to be replayed several times to see and find all the endings and branching paths. The game world and NPCs are visually effected by your actions and things can turn bad quick if you're not careful. There's also beaucoup Easter Eggs and other hidden content so have fun experimenting!

The Day System

You can only perform so many actions in each game day on Nova, and you have so many days to complete story missions you are sent on. After a certain amount of in-game days have passed, you'll encounter one of the many endings the game has to offer and see the weight of your actions. Seize the day! 

Emotions

Every situation you encounter effects an emotional meter for your character . If you don't find time to meditate or make art, you may have an emotional spike during any stressful situation that happens in the game. You can lose the ability to make choices and watch in horror as your character reacts on their own. Don't lose your cool! 

Classes

There are three player types or classes you can choose from. This helps you navigate obstacles differently with every playthrough. Overcome & adapt! 

Novetian Companions

Over 20 choices of Novetian companions are available, each with their own unique abilities that help you both in general gameplay and in conflict resolution. *pats*

Farming & Cooking

Find fertile pieces of soil throughout the game world to farm with various types of plants and make batches of different recipes to feed yourself and your animal companion, or gift a meal to NPCs you've befriended. Yummy! 

Battling
Using all the aforementioned systems and being inspired by JRPGs, battling just involves having better numbers than the bad guys. Or so you thought?  ;D 

Music

Over 200 songs totaling at 7 hours of music has already been written for the game. While the official soundtrack is only gonna be 4-5 hours, there is also hidden music throughout the game world in the form of collectable vinyl records. You can play the records you find in the game world at the end of each day at your house. 

Games That Inspired Us
The gameplay itself was influenced by many different games like Persona, Harvest Moon, Pokemon, and Majora's Mask with some fresh new takes on the RPG genre as a whole. 

Current Team Members
 

• Sunshine Abaddon -  Lead Voice Actor / Creative Consultant / Storywriter
• Charles Benfield - Art Direction / Sprite Animation / 3D Modeling and Architecture 
• Luke Stasica - Logo Creator / Visual Consultant / Vector Design Specialist
• Nicholas Prindle (BlueWind) - Creator / Director / Composer / Storywriter / Programmer / Level Designer / Crust Punk / 

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Where The Money Goes

Even though we are a super small team, we've got a lot of the bases for game design covered and we know we can accomplish what we set out to do. But we still desperately need your help with funding to commission work with outside artists.

Here's some of the things we need to pay to have commissioned: 

• 3D Models for characters and enemies
• Anime styled character portraits for NPCs you can befriend
• HUD design elements that make menu and dialogue navigation smooth and stylistic
• 2D animations and emotes that add charm 

Any additional funding also helps make sure we can focus on this project being released in a timely manner and at a larger scale than we anticipated. We will also use money for marketing and promotion upon the game's initial release on Steam. 

THE GAME WILL BE RELEASED ON STEAM
IF THINGS GO REALLY WELL WE WILL PORT IT TO THE SWITCH

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These are tough times and we know money is tight, so please if you can't contribute financially  share this page and spread the word about Sea of Choices.  We truly believe this will be a game people can enjoy for a long time when its complete. 

Special Special Thanks:

I wanna thank some folks who have been key to improving this project at various points over the past 3 years and it wouldn't of taken shape without their guidance, talents, and support:

Daniel Sage / Joanne Cannon /  David Tarcza / Austin Willis / Alexis Interiano / Paul Edwards / Ryan Miller / Hanna Betz / Richard Dubus / Jason Glaudi /  Blake Reimmuth / Jenn Laiche Stevie Gallagher / Antoine Jones /  Anas Maerouf / Andrew Rauch  / Tyler O'brien / Andrew Burnette / Alex Cino / Melissa DeMoura / 

And anyone else I may not have mentioned. Shouts out to good people! 

Closing Statements

Thanks so much for making it to the bottom of this page lol.
We wanna be completely transparent and say that most of the content in the trailer isn't anything final, it will be improved upon. Even the main character is going to see a lot of changes. We wanted to showcase that we can design and program great areas and concepts.  Now that we know our concept is obtainable, we've decided to enlist help so we can truly flesh what we've built out and make a unique game world. 

If you have any questions feel free to contact us and we will respond as soon as possible.