Aurorae Equitas
A downloadable Visual Novel for Windows and macOS
Slightly over-the-hill capybaras Rubina and Ceferino, a pair of old acquaintances, meet up at a rental cabin near the end of the year for the Aurorae Equitas, a recurring natural event that happens once every few decades. They quickly realize that no one else from their social group is showing up, they try to make the best of an awkward social situation and reminisce on their tangentially shared history while sharing a warm fire and a calming hot spring.
This short visual novel was developed for the '2021 Winter Visual Novel Jam.'
Concept by molli (mollifiable) and Desma (Destiny-Smasher).
Sprites, Backgrounds, UI, Direction by molli @mollifiable.
Writing, Direction by Desma @D3stiny_Sm4sher
Music by SecondShow @holyeggshells (https://linktr.ee/secondshow)
Hotspring Music by Kija @KijaSound (https://faefieldproductions.com/)
Download
Install instructions
Download and unzip! Open the executable/app to run the visual novel.
Comments
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Slowly going through some of the (possibly overlooked) Winter Jam 2021 entries, I encountered this gem of a VN. The art is cute and lively and the characters are written as authentic old-timers. The story has the right mix of nostalgia and regrets, which makes it a thoughtful little story for the winter moods.
I love the diversity in character representation and how they're drawn within the cartoony anthropomorphic animal art style. At first I mixed up the two characters until I realised which of the two is Rubina - when she brought up that she's a lesbian. Then it clicked to me how there are a lot of subtle hints that make the character designs stand out uniquely when I took a better look so I gained a new appreciation for them.
Thanks so much for trying this out and leaving a comment! Representation is really important to me but I always want it to feel as organic as I can. We meet people in real life from different identities, backgrounds, etc. and I wanted to make the interactions here feel plausible and realistic - though without the typical visual novel format, the character names aren't always present on screen! They do introduce themselves early on but it can be easy to lose track of that, so if I ever revise this project, I'll probably try working their names in a bit more!
I can't remember if it's made super clear, but Ceferino is actually nonbinary, as well! I kind of based them a bit on Raine from The Owl House, though I didn't really realize that until...well, just now, actually! Rubina is actually inspired by Martin Crane from Frasier - the character is straight but the actor who played him was apparently gay, and since I only just recently watched the show for the first time last year, it seemed like a fun way to pay an indirect tribute to the late actor.
I'm actually chipping away at an original visual novel inspired by fighting games, and plan to post a demo here on my itch at some point when it's ready. Thanks again for your time and interest!
Don't worry about it, it's fine, I probably didn't pay attention at the start. For me it was briefly skimming through summary to see names where one sounds feminine and the other masculine, so I then incorrectly assumed their gender through superficial identifiers like gender expression, clothing and eyelash length. The comment is not meant as a critique/feedback, just a personal anecdote that felt oddly fitting to the story told. (Halfway I also remembered that the History log shows it with character names.)
Thank you for sharing where the character inspirations came from. It's really fun to look them up.
Yes, I only found out that Ceferino is non-binary when they explained that to Rubina. That felt very real to me, that older (queer) people still learn so much more about themselves and the world. I guess I'm low-key an old person too, haha, as I came with certain biases, and I enjoyed the subtle reminder not to judge a book by its cover!
That sounds cool about your new VN. Good luck with that!
This was a lot of fun! I enjoyed the cute art style, the music, and the animations were great to see! The aurora borealis effect looks amazing! Awesome work. <3
Thanks for playing! Our team did some great work. My wife @mollifiable did all of the visuals, she did an amazing job.
Made another video
Made a video
Thanks so much for checking this out!
It was a pleasure to play it and still have to put up the finale soon
I love how sweet and reflective this piece was. Usually, my attention span is a bit shot for slower paced things, but the banter and topics of discussion kept me going. Both characters (and their art!) seemed very endearing and real to me. Also, the chat bubbles were adorable and the music fit the scene perfectly.
Definitely one of my favorites from this jam! Thanks for taking the time to make this. :)
Heads up that, on the PC version of the download, Ceferino and their chair are initially positioned at the center of the screen after the pair return from the hot springs.
Thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment!! We're really glad you enjoyed it. ^^ And also thanks for the QA feedback :) we had an issue with sprites showing up in the wrong position if you click a bit too fast (or use skip) early in a scene, still figuring out the best way to prevent that!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! My goal with the writing was cozy, low-key convos that felt plausible and realistic between old acquaintances. Thanks so much for playing and leaving your thoughts! The sprite loading issue seems to be a quirk with Renpy when you skip past things quicker than the game expects you to. I'm not sure how we can prevent it from happening entirely, but we can probably do a quick fix to just re-align the sprites or something.
That was ludicrously adorable. Thanks!
glad you liked it, thanks for playing! ^^
Thanks for playing and leaving a comment!