The writer and I refer to this character as “the ultimate babe”, and you can probably guess why 😀 Jokes apart, I really like the character design of Jade, one of my favorite of this artist together with Shiori of Summer In Trigue.

And now, everything you need to know about Jade directly from the writer:

Jade Markson, 21

The most traumatic period in Jade Markson’s childhood occurred when her parents adopted Zoe after her cousin’s parents were killed in a light aircraft accident.

The cousins had never been close despite being the only girls in their generation of Marksons, and Zoe’s sudden unavoidable presence turned her life upside down. The only comfort Jade could see in this tragedy was that while her caregivers were busy dealing with the constant fallout of Zoe’s latest escapades they effectively ignored her and let her do as she pleased.

Jade had always been a reserved, quiet and studious girl, most content when drawing elaborate costumes and imagining herself the natural daughter of a simple artisan couple who would one day show up on her fake parents’ genuine marble doorstep to reclaim her and take her back to share their humble existence.

Never comfortable being the heiress to what Rika refers to, with only a little bitterness, as ‘the magic Markson kingdom’, and painfully aware of the moral, ethical, and personal compromises that have to be made in building and maintaining great wealth, Jade retreated into her comfort zone, trusting few would value her for herself as opposed to her wealth, her beauty, and the position into which she was involuntarily born.

When she enters Asgard College – which her family helped found and where her father sits as a regent, with the pretension that it would one day become known as the Harvard of the Gulf – she is resigned to the fact that Zoe will be there too. Their joint presence at the young campus symbolizing that even the local elite see Asgard as every bit as prestigious as the northern Ivy League institutions.

Athletic and sporty, she is virtually press-ganged into the Asgard Valkyries when few other college women are willing to play alongside Zoe, who is not only difficult to get along with but whose outspoken brand of activism has given the whole team an unwarranted reputation in this socially conservative state.

When Kayla arrives on the scene, she is unsure what to make of the rough-hewn young woman. Being a friend of Lana’s, Jade is not expecting much of her. But when Kayla is unexpectedly drafted into the captaincy and as the consequences of her decisions play themselves out over the course of the year, Jade realizes that this extraordinary woman might change her life even more profoundly than Zoe did over a decade before.

Hey, what time is it? TIME FOR A NEW GAME!!! Yes, and following what I said earlier this year, I would announce a game only when it’s quite advanced. What does it mean? Well at the time of writing this post, the main story is all finished and it’s being reviewed/polished.

As for the art, the main cast and several CGs are finished, but we’re planning to add several more CGs (including some VERY spicy ones…).

So the missing stuff is more CG art and scripting the whole thing. I believe it could be out before the end of year, of course depends also on the other games (if Love Bites comes out first, I’ll need to take a break of some weeks to test it).

This is a yuri-only game. This will make many people happy and other unhappy. However, I think I really owed the yuri fans something, considering all the delay of the <cursed game> and the “missing yuri routes” of Amber.

The training screen, where you decide what skill each character should try to improve

This is also a dating sim, with an emphasis on “sim”. Because as you could guess from the game name, you are going to manage a team of beach volley! And this includes training, and playing matches.

Playing a game week, each day several events can happen (skills increase and other stuff)

Regarding the matches: first of all, you will be able to skip them with instant result. So those who only want to play the game for the story won’t need to play them.

If you decide to play a match, you’ll need to pick the two players (in beach volley you play 2 vs 2):

Then, the match will play. For now in my current build, the match is non interactive and the outcome of each single action is based on the skills/stats:

It even features small animations for each action type (Dig, Smash, Serve, etc). I might introduce some more interactivity to the match later, like maybe some strategy that could modify the overall stats with bonus/malus system, for example “Play Aggressively”, will give a bonus to Strength and Determination, but will lower Teamwork and Technique and so on, so players could influence the match itself not just based on the players’ stats 🙂

Then, there will be the story, with choices, and the love interest (you can see them above but I’ll make a proper introduction for each one of them in the next blog posts). The story and writing is definitely MUCH MORE MATURE than anything else I’ve done before. It’s risky but personally I think will be worth it. You’ll be able to play the game “censored”, even if some hot scenes are key part of the story/characters. So… be warned 😉

And now I leave the word to the writer’s official game announcement!

Announcing: Volleyball Heaven

When 19-year-old Kayla Perrin leaves her eventful small-town past in rust-belt America to take up an athletic scholarship at upstart Asgard College on the Gulf Coast, she thinks she has reached heaven on earth. Imagining only a chance to start afresh after a troubled adolescence, and reuniting with her childhood best friend, Lana, little does she know what lies in store for her as she makes new friends and faces unexpected adversaries.

Abruptly drafted to captain the College’s nascent Asgard Valkyries volleyball team, which has experienced its own troubled development, Kayla soon finds herself striving to balance academic life with managing the squad and her social life.

As she tries to build a cohesive team with aloof heiress Jade, aggressive, hyper-competitive Zoe, controversial, secretive Rika, and unpredictable, newly estranged Lana, under the supervision of their driven coach, Emily, Kayla finds herself re-examining her past even as she strives to figure out her friends and her future. As for the present, Kayla must ensure that the team attracts publicity and sponsorship without becoming the object of salacious rumor and gossip.

Volleyball Heaven is a unique visual novel focusing on female friendship and love amid the complex social currents of contemporary America. Coming soon from Winter Wolves.

Hopefully, this time it’s soon and not “soon ™”* 😀

* it’s a joke often made in my forums, so that “soon” would in reality mean “it will be out ONE DAY” haha