On July 10th, game developer Visual Novel Village launched the Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming dark drama visual novel, Student Union.
Student Union Kickstarter now live
Visual Novel Village initially announced the planned campaign for the visual novel project on July 4th via Twitter. Now that the campaign is live, they’re hoping to raise $32,000.
What is Student Union?
As like other visual novels, Student Union is a choice-driven and blends anime style art with western writing. With a story of suspense, romance, and mystery, you guide Lane Fox through the game’s branching paths. A demo for the game is also available now on Steam and itch.io with around two hours of playable story.
Synopsis
Lane is in trouble and needs work, ASAP. At the kick-off of his final year of high school, he turns to asking the faculty for help. The assistant principal Mr. Underwood recommends a unique solution: form and lead a student organization dedicated to the support and maintenance of the institution. However, Lane must convince at least four other students to join the group before the end of the week.
Beneath this pretext he quickly learns the school administration is more sinister than it seems, that great danger lies within the school walls, and that the group he’s forming may be more necessary than he realized.
Features
While Student Union only has a short demo out right now, the finished product will be filled with content.
- 40 hours of gameplay
- 450,000 English words
- 5 character routes divided among major branching plot routes
- 10 unique endings guided by player choice
- Over 30 backgrounds and over 50 CG illustrations
- 40 original tracks in a two-disc OST
- Text messaging interface for bonus interactions
- Lighting variations on character sprites
Cost Breakdown
Like most visual novels, the bulk of the Kickstarter budget is going towards Student Union‘s art. According to the current development progress, the character sprites and UI are mostly done. So the biggest contribution to the art here is for the CG illustrations and backgrounds. Meanwhile, there’s still a lot of writing work that needs to be done, as the project itself is pretty lengthy. You can check out their breakdown graphic below.
Stretch Goals
The Student Union Kickstarter is aiming for its $32,000 goal, but it also has plenty of stretch goals all the way up to $80,000.
- Alternative outfits
- Principal Decker route
- Optional H-patch content
- Beach chapter
- 2D animated cutscenes
- Chinese translation
- Partial voice acting
Student Union Kickstarter Rewards
Supporting Student Union on Kickstarter can get you the following rewards:
- $5 – Your name included in the game credits
- $10 – Digital desktop wallpaper
- $15 – (Early bird) Digital game key
- $20 – Digital game key
- $30 – Digital original soundtrack
- $55 – Digital art book
- $35 – (Early bird) Physical game and digital key
- $40 – Physical game and digital key
- $55 – Physical and digital original sound track
- $75 – Medium size physical poster of Principal Decker
- $100 – Physical and digital art book
- $130 – Physical t-shirt: select one from six designs
- $150 – Two physical t-shirts: select two from six designs
- $200 – Collector’s Edition
- $350 – Ultimate Collector’s Edition
- $500 – Design a side character & credit as Character Designer
- $1,000 – Design a main character & credit as Senior Character Designer
About Visual Novel Village
The team behind the Student Union Kickstarter is Visual Novel Village. They’re a small development team of seven members from all around and lead by director Mayor Todd.
“Please consider supporting us as we continue working hard to create a beautiful and compelling visual novel— whether that’s through backing our campaign or letting your friends know. Your support means the world to me, and I’d be honored to share this journey with you.”
So if you’re interested in the project, support Student Union on their Kickstarter today. The campaign runs until August 10th and the current estimated release date for the game is April 2022.
