Canvas Colors: In The Moving City
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
While doing routine deliveries in a moving city, Postman Maggie and her companion Vale seek out a house that was left behind. Who answers the door of that house was the last person either of them expected...
Canvas Colors is a slice of life story around the Postman Maggie and her traveling companion: A young girl named Vale.
- Created for the NaNoRenO 2021 game jam. -
Characters:
Vale – A young magician with an interest in flowers. She's quick to shift her attention to whatever shiny new thing interests her.
Maggie – A young woman who works as a postman. Along with delivering mail, her profession also includes maintaining order and upholding the law using her sword. Her pointy ears and her feathery antennae marks her as part of a race called Vanes.
Features:
- Game Length: ~1 hour
- Approx. 10k words
- 2 endings
- 13 CGs
- Original backgrounds and artwork
- Original soundtrack
- Sound effects used from the public domain
Team:
Download
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Comments
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Very lovely short story! Don’t know what we were expecting, but not really this. <3
Hopefully there can be more of this kind of story in the future. Even if not, this was a wonderful piece to read though!
Regarding the description: Saying there are “2 endings” is a bit of an overstatement – it’s more of a single ending in a basic and more elaborate variant. Since we had hit the full variant (called “true ending” in the included script source) on first try and used the skipping/fast-forward feature between decisions after that, we got really confused about how to get to the other ending until I checked the included source and found out about this.
Also: Including a Linux build of the game would have been nice, but it ran fine with WINE too.
The artwork was lovely and I enjoyed the characters profusely especially Vale. I really hope you finish this short but sweet game. I would have liked to know more about the creatures also residing in this mythical world. Please finish this game! I want more of Maggie and Vale! <3
It's always a delight to see readthroughs!
This game was released as part of the NaNoRenO 2021 challenge, and is complete, for now. Perhaps we'll come back for additional episodic releases in the future!
What a lovely read! I really liked the art, especially for Maggie. My favourite part was when she sang Over The Hills And Far Away! Looking forward the journey continuing. :)
So glad you enjoyed it! Keep an eye out for future releases.
Nice game and nice music too.
Can i find them somewhere ?
We haven't compiled together all the musics but we'll look into doing so!
A pleasant little story. I like the idea of short little VNs like this. Art is gorgeous.
We're glad you enjoyed it!
An eye-catching NanoReno submission indeed. The art reminds me a lot of the old rpg games that I've played, there's a sense of nostalgia in it. The story feels like one of those fantasy manga that I read when I was still a little child. It was also rich with a lore of the world, that seems to be hidden right now. Anyway, wonderful one.What a welcome surprise to see a reading! Always lovely to read about other's experiences with our visual novels.
Looking forward to part 2!
The direction of this part kinda surprises me, I thought it will be an adventure filled story but turns out it's a story about family talk near the fireplace which is lovely and warming at the same time.
With the beer and fire, they let their heart dance and their mouth free. Letting go of the worry inside their heart, for their family is there.
There's something seems missing so I'm going to try to get the other ending.
Yep, you've got one more "ending". Try letting vale light the fire. As for the other choices, you'll need to figure those out!
The Final Part aka part 2.5!
I'm exploring the other options available in the game, though the Ending wasn't so different, the story surely is. I was also didn't expect such richness in Amarella character when I'm exploring that route. Though in the end, we never talk about what is those worm like creatures.
It was sweet and complexe, it really wasn't the typicol story about tragedy; monsters, big challenges. More like a glance into someone's life in a foreign land.
Kinda refreshing ! Kind of reminded me of a few animes like Somali or Kino no tabi. About weird lands and travellers going through.
The art was really pretty, althought the face weren't super expressive maybe.
Also it may be the fact that I'm not a native speaker, but I sometimes had issues following the text as we constantly floating from someone standpoint to the other. I think it's easier to follow when narration's is only describing one standpoint at the time - just a random though of a non-writter tho.
Glad you enjoyed it! We're proud of how the sprites and backgrounds turned out, as well as the music. The expressions of certain characters were meant to be a bit more subtle than others, so we can see where one might express themselves in what could be perceived as a limited way.
Perspective changes can be a bit tricky at times, but we tried mitigating that problem by having the narration be mainly from the point of view of the largest sprite on screen.
Just made this account for this comment!
I loved The Witchling Marjolaine, and I'm glad you guys stuck together for another release. It's another really well done VN with heart and with beautiful art. (Maybe link the backgrounds for desktop backgrounds :D) It's a big improvement over your last game.
My only complaint is that you've done the same thing as The Witchling Marjolaine where you've only given a small piece of a larger world. Not that it's a bad thing! I can see there's more depth but you need more space to show off. It's like a one-shot manga that I want to see turned into a full series, if that makes any sense?
But yeah, really cool! I wanna see you guys break away from the small VN format and just go for it!
Thanks for the kind words! We fully intend to move towards larger releases jn the future, so just keep an eye out.
That would be lovely! Give us some time to get everything together and we'll contact you on your twitter.
Sure. :)
Beautifully illustrated and deftly written in a creative setting. There's just enough here for a satisfying look into the world and Maggie's life, and I'd be interested in seeing more.
One small issue: the game cannot be installed through the Itch app. I think this is because the platforms are not marked for each file.
Thank you for noticing that, we fixed it now.
Beautiful stylized art, a whimsical cast, and endearing writing define this little visual novel. Despite the brevity of the experience, each aspect of the game works in conjunction to achieve a sense of completeness and curious nostalgia. The lithe and infectious soundtrack is punctuated by fun audio cues working in time with in-game actions. Aspects of background art will physically wiggle to life to a playful effect. The player choices available are minimal but exist in service to interesting flavor for each moment in question, warranting a look back purely to experience different character responses. The sum of all these parts is a small but impressive labor of love and skill that is definitely worth a look.
We're not crying, you're crying.
Can't wait to play this! Loved your first game The Witchling Marjolaine!
We appreciate that very much! Hope you enjoy Canvas Colors as well!