Hi everyone! So, I was looking around the LemmaSoft WiP forums today, and a couple of projects caught my eye so I'll be posting them here. These are the top 5 WiP projects that I'm currently most interested in at the time being.

Aquatic Heartbeat

GAME INFO

Name: Aquatic Heartbeat
Developer: GALORE
Genre: BxG, BxB, Romance, Slice of Life
Target Date: 2017 [demo]

"Deep in the sea, there are civilisations of Merpeople, older than human civilization. The underwater life is not much different from life on land, it's just that the underwater world began to face the globalization of the sea where the population choose to disembark and leave the sea.

Bathypelalagic Oceantechnic Institute is the best university underwater for marine works which produce world's most influential marine alumnus. Here, we play as the Protagonist, a freshman with ambition to fix the problems of the sea. The protagonist will meet with fellow faculty friends that has the potential to be a solution to the problem of marine.

Can the protagonist save the existence of sea creatures with his potential? Could it be that someday there will be personal feelings that would disturb Protagonist main purpose?"

Need I explain more? It's a mermaid story, which is practically the easiest way to reel me in. I just looooove stories that involve the ocean, especially if it's about mermaids! Yeah, I'm biased towards underwater stories. But anyway, this seems like a project worth waiting for! The art is really good, and the story is super interesting (at least for me) so you can be certain that I'll be keeping my eye on this.

That said, the summary has a few really noticeable grammar errors, so... here's to hoping that the team will have a proofreader onboard, if they don't have one yet. :D

For more information, you can check out this link here.

Tale of Puppet

GAME INFO

Name: 인형이야기 (Tale of Puppet)
Developer: Team Penguin
Genre: GxB, Romance, Steampunk, 19th Century
Target Date: 2017
Free or Paid: Paid

"19 century, England.
10 years after War of Puppet which is known as the most horrible war that occured in 19 century, terrible murder happens in the street of London. Culprit disappeared leaving behind a corpse that's terribly damged. But that was not the end, followed by days with corpse of young people. Without being able to catch a single cluce, police hand over this incident to Ishtar.
Under Dewey eilz colonel, four gifted young ones gather in one place. 
Seren Lowsley, who is the only daughter of Duke of Fleurence
Hanan Heilz, the genius advisor of Ishtar
Kyle Earthneil, a talented informer of Ishtar
Carlos Bright, who has outstanding skill for chemistry
Those who have known each other, or those who haven't, get one and only order from colonel.
Together, solve this serial murder incidents.
Under the name of special investigation squad, they go after the footprints of this serial murder.
At the same time, they get close to shocking truth, and a word from unknown.
'.....I...... wanted to live, as a man.'"

Okay, so that was admittedly hard to read. But Tale of Puppet is actually a project from a Korean indie startup visual novel company, Team Penguin, and the lead dev himself/herself admitted to the poor English seen in the promotional assets. I do hope that the team will be getting a proper translator for the game though, or an editor at the very least! The story seems pretty fascinating, so I'd hate for it to be bogged down by bad writing due to poor English skills.

Bonus for me: one obtainable is named Ran (and he's a guy, lol)... so... hehe, let's see how that goes.
Another bonus: I'm learning Korean right now and... I do hope that the release will contain both the Korean and English translations! I'd love to have some reading practice, hehe.

For more information, you can check out this link here.

Heart Fragment

GAME INFO

Name: Heart Fragment
Developer: [no name for now]
Genre: GxB, GxG, Fantasy
Target Date: [unknown]
Free or Paid: Free?

"Years into our future and years into the game's past, scientists attempted an experiment with one particular goal in mind - to create a drug that would force human evolution to its next step. 
The experiment succeeded. Those the first human test was completed on gained powers beyond their wildest imaginations.
Increased mental capacity. Telekinesis. Telepathy. Super strength.
But no success story can happen without it's downfalls, and an unforeseen side effect occurred. They began to lose their humanity.
It only happened in short bursts, but when it did, together with their new found powers, they became extremely dangerous.
And so they were euthanized, their lives ended as humanely as possible, and the experiment was marked a failure. The risks were too great to continue any further.
But one man - the lead scientist of the project - escaped. Desperate for his life's work not to go unnoticed he created one last version of the drug, in an attempt to remove the side effects.
Seemingly, it worked. However, with the results of the last experiment clear, this scientist too was considered a danger. He fled into hiding with his family.
The man was never found, and with complete silence from him perhaps proving him to have kept his sanity, eventually the search was called off. The failed experiment was called to a close and buried. 
Years later, mysterious accident after accident has led to the death of both the scientist and all members of his family.
Only one remains; his great granddaughter, protected since birth by a small group among the last of those that still know about the experiment, and from whom the secret of her past has been kept for years. 
But she's about to find out..."

The art is totally awesome! Plus I think the names are great, lol. I'm interested in the guy named Clive (I love the name Clive, haha, because of that Professor Layton game for the DS) and all the other guys don't seem bad at all. Hehe. I'm not just here for the guys, though! (Honestly.)

No really, the plot seems interesting. Plus, of all the games in this list, this one and Karmasutra seem the most promising.

For more information, you can check out this link.

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

GAME INFO

Name: The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea
Developer: Blackross
Genre: GxB, GxG, Supernatural
Target Date: February [demo], April [full game]
Free or Paid: Paid

"Maddie is looking forward to spending the summer before she begins college working with her best friend, Bridgette, as crew on the luxury cruise ship M.S. Andromache.

So what if its maiden voyage is to retrace the route of its ill-fated sister ship, the S.S. Cassandra, which disappeared inside the perilous Bermuda Triangle over 100 years before? The media will hype anything for a story and the liner company is only too happy for the extra publicity.

But when things aboard ship start to go awry, Maddie soon realises she’ll have more to deal with than demanding passengers and annoying co-workers. Could she be the key to changing events set in motion over a century ago, or will the mystery of the Devil’s Triangle claim her too?"

It sounds super interesting, haha.

...okay, you got me, I got hooked in by the words "Deep Blue Sea" in the title. I'm excited to see how this turns out, though! It's actually going to be a commercial game, so I'm still thinking whether or not I'm gonna get it because it's on the short side, like around 50,000 words. But if it's good, then why not? So far, there aren't any screenshots yet or anything, so... yeah.

For more information, you can check out this link.

Karmasutra

GAME INFO

Name: Karmasutra
Developer: TopHat Studios
Genre: BxG, Hybrid, Adventure(?)
Target Date: Q1 2017
Free or Paid: Paid

"Karmasutra takes place in the world of Tattva - a mysterious, heavenly realm that acts as the final challenge for sinners who seek the call of Nirvana in other worlds. Once home to ancient, sacred civilizations, these eras have now passed; in the wake of this passing, the realm has become an afterlife, a final challenge for restless wandering souls who commit sins in other worlds.

As our protagonist awakes in this strange land, he's quickly introduced to concept of Samsara; the journey across Tattva that all "Wanderers" must undergo to cleanse themselves of sin. Confused by this sudden pitch, our Wanderer also learns that this so-called "call of Nirvana" is not absolute; in fact, there are some Wanderers that choose to ignore the call in exchange for the infinite sexual & material pleasures - and dangers - that this mysterious afterlife seems to offer.

In this foreign realm however, Wanderers are not the only residents. From the sacred gurus who guide Wanderers and the demonic Asurian tricksters to the monstrous manifestations of sin and the Gods themselves, Tattva is never truly what it seems. But in this mysterious world, where both the path of Sin and the path Merit seem to lead to their own rewards and consequences, which path is truly correct? And more importantly, which path will you, the Wanderer, choose?"

Ha! I very rarely await 18+ releases, but this one looks really promising! I swear, check it out if you like adventure RPGs with large worlds to explore (and I do love those haha). The art is amazing, the writing looks great, and the features are just... yay! And yeah, it's 18+ ( but there's also an all-ages version I believe) so... hehehe.

For more information, you can check out this link.

Runner Up

Winter's Dream

GAME INFO

Name: Winter's Dream
Developer: Shirara Imaginations
Genre: GxB, Fantasy, Horror
Target Date: [unknown]
Free or Paid: Free?

"It's summer again, and for Winter, it will be another boring season. She always feels incomplete during summer and she doesn't know why she feels in complete at all. One day, Lilian asks her to read a book. Just as she promised, she reads the book and fells asleep because of it.

The next time she opens her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar place. She met an annoying guy who just bit her wrist just to tease her! She decided to stay there after the guy left and the book mysteriously appeared in front of her. She scanned the book and a letter fall from it.

The letter tells that Winter must do what was written in the book and never stray from it or else...

There's a possibility of dying in the book."

I have to admit that right now, the writing doesn't impress me all that much yet, but hopefully it will still be edited and proofread along the way. Also, it's quite an ambitious project, with no target date in sight, so I sort of don't want to get too attached because it runs a great risk of not being released. Nevertheless, I think the art is great, and the concept sounds really interesting so I'll be keeping an eye on it too! (Please devs, don't let us down!)

Fun fact: the same premise can be found on much shorter NaNoRenO visual novel called Between the Lines.

For more information, you can check out this link here.

Okay, so that's it for my list! What about you guys? Any VNs you're excited about? Feel free to share them here!