Marnie's Moment
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
A story about getting another chance and trying again.
You've come to beautiful Lumiose City, the crown jewel of Kalos. There are things to see, people to meet, and a cute girl with a funny accent and a mischievous pokémon. Maybe you can make friends with her? Maybe a new friend is what she really needs right now? Maybe things will escalate from there? Or maybe you're just killing time in Kalos.
This is a free fan-made visual novel set in the world of Pokémon. The story has three different endings and contains mature themes, including sexually explicit material. All characters are 18 or older. Play time is hard to estimate, but this isn't intended to be completed all in one sitting. It is 190000 words long.
If you like this game, consider donating to me on Ko-Fi! This game took nearly two years to develop and cost me over $1300 USD for art commissions. Also consider checking out Olivine Lights, my previous game! And if you're interested in these sorts of games, we have a discord server specifically for Pokémon visuals novels like this one! Pay us a visit if you want to chat, if you want to find more games like this, or if you're interested in making a VN of your own. We can help you. :)
I promise this game does not contain:
- Gratuitous depictions of violence, gore, or death
- Gameplay or story where randomness determines what happens
- Pixel hunting, or hidden buttons/UI elements
- The ability to die out of nowhere and have the story end abruptly
Because this game is free and I wrote and coded it all by myself, paying an artist to draw 100+ backgrounds was not a realistic option. For that reason, background art for this game was created using generative AI. Everything else was made from scratch, with love, by real live humans beings.
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Development log
- Behind the Scenes: My Crazy Walls38 days ago
Comments
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Now that I played Olivine Lights, I can appreciate just how great this game is. A lot of love went into the whole affair, and it really shows. You're very skilled at telling a kinetic story. It's impressive.
Critique now. I think the dialogue comes across a little bit like the MC bouncing ideas off himself at times because everyone is a little snarky. Marnie's personal troubles are where her writing is at its best.
I also wish more of the map adhered to Kalos. I loved Prism Tower and Lumiose Station. It didn't seem quite necessary to drop the Louvre and Les Invalides in, especially when they weren't poke-fied. Something about XY's plot could've improved it.
I look forward to playing the next one.
All of these are valid criticism, and most of them I've heard in some form once or twice before. I'll keep them in mind when writing the next thing. Thanks for your feedback! I can't improve as a writer without lovely people like you pointing out where the flaws are. I hope you enjoy what I make in the future as well.
I created an account just to congratulate you.
Dude, this game is absolutely amazing.
The character development and the fluidity of the story was incredibly satisfying.
And no, I am not just saying that because the H scene was amazing (even though it was). I genuinely felt invested in the story, and I really liked the down to earth vibe that it had, and the fact that it didn't feel like it was just porn with extra steps.
The fact that you managed to take a character that I didn't really give one about, prior to this game, into a complete character that I do, in fact give one about now, is incredible!
Also, some of the jokes had me chuckling for a solid few minutes
Good on you's
10/10 - Absolutely will play again.
Can't wait for the updates!
Ps. When I have the financial surplus to do so, I will 100% donate :))
Wow, thank you! Please don't feel obligated to donate unless you're in a good position to do so. If you liked the game, the best way to help me is by telling your friends! :)
Will there perhaps be a walkthrough for this game?
Maybe. I'm considering adding some more to the game, and reworking the endings in particular. I don't want to write out a guide/walkthrough only to have it be irrelevant because I changed things.
Understandable, thanks for the quick reply. Did a blind playthrough and thoroughly enjoyed it. Will keep my eye out for future updates and a possible walkthrough.
Another fun one. Very enjoyable play over the course of a weekend. One-to-one romance stories with engaging buildup are great, and you do a good job at them.
The writing was good. I'm a sucker for time travel stories. There's a hidden attention to detail in how the persistent variables make your playthrough coherent despite visiting places and changing the past in different orders. Very cool, and I'm sure very tricky for the author.
I think it was a smart decision to not have a subheroine like in Olivine Nights. Jasmine was nice, but I do prefer writing time be given to the main heroine.
My favorite scene was the scavenger hunt. I also like the museum and station. My least favorite scenes were probably the ending (no reason, really). I only played once, but I think I got the good ending, as everything wrapped up in a very amenable way (not spoiling).
As for critiques, I would pinpoint the character art as an aspect that needs the most improvement. It's not eyewateringly bad, just amateurish, and persistently at odds with the backgrounds. However, the H-scene art was quite serviceable (fufufu).
Also, I would have preferred to see the MC have a pokemon. It works in this story given the contexts, but I liked in Olivine Nights when the MC had a little roster to work with that he added to.
Thanks for your feedback, and I'm glad you liked it!
Regarding the player not having their own pokemon - the idea was that your usual pokemon would be out of commission, so you'd have to use Celebi as "your" pokemon instead. But then the story ended up not really having much in the way of pokemon training in it, so that entire setup kind of didn't really pay off. I think it's a flaw in the story and probably one I'm not likely to repeat next time. :)
Loving the story so far. Also question, will you ever plan on replacing the AI art backgrounds with actual illustrations in the future? Personally, it's kind of distracting, but I understand if you neither have the budget nor the time to actually replace it. Everything else about the game is really great, though.
I'd love to have a real artist draw the backgrounds for me, but the game has over a hundred of them. That would take years of work (or a very large team of people working at a reasonable pace) and many thousands of dollars. It's just not an option for me.
But... if any artists out there want to collaborate, reach out to me. I don't want to use AI art. I use it because I have to.
binged a playthrough of this last night and all I can say is I wish I could experience that for the first time again, great stuff.
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
Just finished my first playthrough, you've done an amazing job again!
I'm glad you liked it! Tell your friends. :)
It’s peak again. As usual, you’re good at making genuinely unique characters with distinct personalities but they’re all still fun either on their own or thanks to their interactions with other characters. It’s also fun to see you try and flesh out your own interpretation of the Pokemon world and seeing characters from Olivine again.
I really liked Celebi and Marnie here, I think my only regret is not having more bonding/interaction with Celebi but I can also see unlike Olivine this one was a lot more focused on the singular heroine rather than side characters or other heroines so I think it makes sense. I do kind of miss the Poke battles and evolving your partner lol but 9/10 would play again.
Looking forward to any future projects!
Had an "Oops the game broke. I'm going to try to proceed anyway." Happened outside the Cathedral after Marnie takes the call and says goodbye over the phone. I did the Prism Tower, then the Lab and the Cathedral first.
Yep! This bug happened because the game was trying to call a piece of dialog when there wasn't any. The good news is you aren't missing out on anything. The problem has been fixed as of version 1.01.
Not sure if it's related but I did also have the "Go back to Marnie's hotel room. NSFW" thing occur twice. 1.0.
It's a different problem, but that bug is also fixed in version 1.01. The game checks a flag to see if you've already been to the lewd scene once, but... the game was never actually turning that flag on when it was supposed to be. Woops.
Just finished the three routes I think. Thank you so much for putting this game together! I came for the waifu dating sim and left like I just got out of a history class. I enjoyed my time here.
I'm glad you liked it!
So I know this just came out but I will say, Iove it
Wow, thanks!
Scammed, don't believe the lies of Writefuck 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
This mf is literally in the special thanks as a beta tester. Don't listen to his nonsense.
Sorry I only play games with gratuitous violence so my creatures deal double damage
Says the guy who made a "playing with cute girl's hair" simulator and had her wearing a hat the whole time. :(
HER HAT IS CUTE YOU TAKE THAT BACK
Looking forward to checking this out, will follow up with any bugs/ my opinions
I look forward to feedback!