A romantic visual novel inspired by the legends of Robin Hood. Step into the shoes of Lady Marion as she becomes entangled in a battle for the future of Nottingham. Fight for freedom and fall in love!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Enhanced Demo Beta Has Begun!
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Mar 18, 2023 at 07:44:08 AM
Good morning everyone!
Our quick beta test for the Enhanced Demo has begun! Beta backers, you should have a code in your inbox. If you don't, check your spambox (the code will come from Backerkit) and let me know if you can't find it.
Please let us know if you find any issues, and I hope you enjoy the enhancements we were able to make thanks to our Kickstarter funds! The demo will be available to everyone on March 24, so you'll be seeing me in your inboxes again at that point!
BETA incoming this weekend!
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 10:20:18 AM
Hey all!
This is a message for our beta backers, sorry I can't separate them out for their own message since beta wasn't attached to a specific tier.
BETA is coming this weekend!
Want to be among the first to experience our enhanced demo? There are a ton of changes, including a brand-new Sherwood Chapter 2. Wanna find out why Layton isn't a love interest yet? Have a sparring match with the boys? Pet a kitty? You can do it all!
This will be a quick beta to make sure nothing explodes, so I'm not doing a formal feedback setup. I'll send out keys Friday night or Saturday morning, so watch your inboxes! And if you see anything wonky, please visit our beta channel on Discord to let us know! Quoting the text in the relevant area is helpful, or taking a screenshot and sending it.
If you're not on Discord, you can always send any feedback via DM on Twitter (I've opened them again) or as a message (not an ask, please, just DM me) on Tumblr.
Watch your inboxes and see you soon!
We have a more fun demo intro than just a blank screen this time! Don't worry, they don't break the fourth wall in the actual game. ;)
Made Marion Special Bulletin: Big News!
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Mar 01, 2023 at 04:00:04 PM
So Much Big News!
Why are there party sparkles on our logo today? Because we've got a ton of cool stuff coming up at the end of March. Here we go!
We have been selected as a participant in the The Storyteller's Festival on Steam from March 25-April 1! There are a lot of super cool-looking games featured in this festival (both visual novels and other kinds of narrative-focused games), and we're proud to be part of it all. We're taking this opportunity to do some major stuff for the project!
The Enhanced Demo & Enhanced Demo Beta
We will be releasing our enhanced demo for the festival. What's different from our current demo? Tons, including our all-new Sherwood Chapter 2 content! This will make the entirety of our two common routes available to play for free (but we're still keeping the prologue a secret that only our beta players will experience before release).
New sprites
Ambient sound
Additional backgrounds
Cut-ins and animations
Accessibility options like text resizing and the ability to disable different kinds of animations
Some preview CGs (Nottingham side - final CGs for both sides added later)
All-new Sherwood Chapter 2!
We'll be holding a brief beta test before the demo goes live. It should start sometime between March 15-20. Beta backers, keep an eye on your inboxes!
Storyteller's Festival Stream
I will be joining fellow Canadian and awesome streamer OhThatNatalie to stream Sherwood Chapter 2 and have a casual interview during the festival. We are scheduled for 4pm Pacific time on March 26, and I'll be posting links to the stream on our socials!
Pre-Orders Opening!
We will also be opening pre-orders on Steam and itch.io. The pre-order price will be 10% off the final price. That's a bit more expensive than the special backer price (depending partially on the whims of currency conversion between then and now - I had to base price our KS tiers in CAD, but the game itself will be base-priced in USD), which was about 20% off.
The base release price will be $30 USD (so pre-order is 10% off that). It will be set manually on itch and will use Steam's automagic regional pricing, so non-US customers can feel free to compare and see who nets you a better deal - I don't mind!
Tell your friends, tell your family, heck, be like my dad and tell your model railroad club! Links incoming (I will need to make a new itch.io page for the final game and its pre-orders) in the March Development Update.
Early Access Is a Go!
After running polls on our Discord (nearly all Kickstarter backers) and Tumblr (our general fan community), there was plenty of interest in an early access release - 75% of our Tumblr voters, in fact. That means that all backers and pre-order customers will have access to our Early Access builds. The first one will feature the completed Sherwood paths: Robin, John, and Will. We are aiming for an October Early Access release, more on that in the coming months!
March Development Update Timing
In order not to inundate your inboxes, I will be delaying our March development update to March 24. That way I can post all the relevant links to this good stuff when it's released! See you then!
Made Marion Development Update: February 2023
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 03:07:37 PM
Made Marion Development Update: February 2023
Big News #1
We have a few big things in the works for Made Marion right now! First of all, I've been thinking of how to make sure y'all can experience the game ASAP after the disaster that was 2022 delayed our development. I'm considering releasing the game Early Access when the three Sherwood routes are complete, then adding each Nottingham route as it is completed.
This would mean that Robin, Will, and John will definitely be available in 2023, and as many of the others as I can finish as well. It's Geoffrey and Gui's route that is most likely to slip into 2024 because they're a whole thing that's going to take some time on my part. It'll be worth it!
If we release Early Access, all of our backers will receive their game keys at that point. Like with most (all?) Early Access titles, you'll own the entire thing as soon as you redeem your key and all updates are free. All routes will be complete when they are released Early Access, no cliffhangers. We will still hold beta tests before all Early Access releases! Your beta feedback is extremely important to me!
I'd like to gauge how popular this will be before I fully commit, so I will be running polls on Tumblr and Discord. All backers can join our Discord channel by following this link. If you don't have a Discord or Tumblr account, feel free to reply to this update on KS or itch.io and say whether you'd be interested in reading our routes Early Access or if you'd prefer to wait until all routes are out.
We have some even bigger news that I can't talk about until after March 1, so we will be releasing a special bulletin in the first week of March. Keep an eye out for it!
Sparkles and Sussy Droods
Look whose new sprite has joined the Sherwood gang! It's Layton Tuck!
Have you tried wandering around on your own at the Sherwood bonfire yet? When our enhanced demo releases, I recommend it if you'd like to see more Tuck Faces(tm). Oh, hey, comparing these two screenshots is also a nice example of how our nighttime shading works. It's subtle, but I think it makes a difference.
Finally, as Meissa's full sprite has been added to the game, they have a fun little addition. When they're working their more powerful magics, they get a little taste of the stars surrounding them.
Stay tuned to our special March bulletin for some major news!
Made Marion Development Update - January 2023
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 09:45:15 AM
Happy New Year! We have an exciting development update for you this month, so let's get to it!
Welcome, Meissa and Gui
Meet the new sprites for Meissa and Gui!
I absolutely adore the updates to Meissa's outfit. Check out their sleeves - you can tell that the cloth is silky and diaphanous. This is one of Meissa's neutral expressions, and emphasizes their anxious and troubled nature. You only get hints of it in the common route, but it's a major theme in their story. Rest assured that other expressions will show their kind and flirty sides as well!
That background is Meissa's woodland cottage, which they inherited from an old lady who had no relatives. They were a comfort to her in her dying days and she thought it was a shame that they had to live in an inn.
Gui's new sprite boasts a more direct stance and a gorgeous rapier hilt. His neutral expression is the one that most people see - an elegant but slightly forbidding look that keeps folk from getting too close. He's taken a special interest in Marion, so she sees his more personable side as well.
First Look at Combat Animations
Our combat animator Ze of Square Weasel Studios has finished up our first two combat animations, and here's a quick preview of how combat will look! This is a less dynamic scene (I need our sword spark animation for the more complex ones - plus those are more spoilery), where Marion is simply showing John her forms and he is defending with his quarterstaff, but it gives you an idea of the basic layout of our combat.
I recommend watching it on Youtube in HD if possible. The animations are a bit smoother in-game, as there's some lag in the video capture. I'm excited to get to add some motion and splash to our combat scenes!
We've done our best to make them migraine-friendly (we have a migraine-sufferer on our team), but if they bug you, you can turn off combat animations only in our Options menu!
The Writing Department
Currently I'm working on a series of connected scenes that appear in Robin, John, and Will's routes. It's a tax money heist by the Sherwood gang. While I was outlining last year, I asked our Discord community if they'd prefer to see three completely different heist stories, or one story in which the three Sherwood love interests had a different role to play in the heist. There was a major preference for the second scenario, so it's been fun to come up with the details!
I'm not exactly an Ocean's Eleven type of writer so don't expect anything incredibly complex, but I think it's going to be fun. Along the way, you'll encounter three Nottingham guards who have their largest role to play in John's route but show up in many other routes when I need a guard (or three). I've named them Ser Laurence, Ser Charles, and Ser Morris. These lesser noblemen have a Geoffrey-approved uniform (who would have guessed?) and a bad reputation. It seems they've been assigned to guard this month's tax shipment as it's been loaded into transport wagons and is ready to ship out to Londonne the next morning...
