Explore love, work, and death in Pinoy-made visual novels ‘Deadline’ and ‘Do Not Love’

Two Pinoy-made visual novels currently in development look extremely promising!

The first is about making video games and working yourself to death. The second takes place in a dystopian future where physical intimacy is deadly. Read all about them.

1. Deadline
By Kismet Trails Studio in collaboration with Team Theta

“Deadline” tells the tale of a teenage girl who wants to make video games.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t sit well with her family. She is, after all, the heiress to the country’s most powerful company, and everyone believes the best thing for her is to join the family business and lead it one day.

Pressured by her family’s expectations and burdened with responsibilities, she must find a way to balance work, relationships, and health, as well as prove to everyone that developing games is the right path for her.

You play this heiress. You have one year to accomplish your goals.

“Deadline” features a game mechanic revolving around statuses such as health, motivation, and achievements, which rise and fall depending on the choices you make in the story.

Balancing statuses well helps you achieve milestones and meet deadlines. Poor balancing can cause a ripple effect on future endeavors, and may even lead to a bad ending.

Sounds overwhelming? That's because “Deadline” aims to warn us about the toxicity of stressful work environments and working too much.

According to “Deadline” Artist, Lead Developer, Main Scriptwriter, and Business Developer Moira Carls, the game simulates real-life situations:

I happen to be a very workaholic person. I’m very results-oriented, and because of that I can get self-destructive in order to meet deadlines (hence the name of the game). I’ve been scolded a number of times by my friends and family that killing myself with work is not healthy and will eventually take a toll on me.

“Deadline” promotes Carls’ personal advocacy of raising awareness about mental health and work-related stress.

As such, it explores the effects of toxic work habits. For example, “when you fail to manage your health, you become more anxious or stressed, [which] makes it difficult to build your motivation or your health back up,” said Carls. “So decision-making here has more weight than just getting through to the ending.”

Kismet Trails Studio hopes the game will help players recognize “if they are becoming self-destructive, too unproductive, [when they procastinate too much], or if they have a good sense of urgency and self-awareness that they can balance everything out.”

Ultimately, it's "for people to realize how they manage themselves," said the team.

Kismet Trails Studio is Moira Carls, who also goes by her artist name Micees; Team Theta’s Vincent Layog and Erickson Melchor (Game Programmers); and Benedict Villariaza (Script Editor). Nico Guarte composed some of “Deadline’s” music.

2. Do Not Love – Violators Will Be Shot
By Team Bisugo

Ten years before the events of “Do Not Love – Violators Will Be Shot,” a mysterious disease kills six children in Manila. After the disease is found to be transmittable via skin contact, the city shuts itself off from the rest of the world.

“Do Not Love – Violators Will be Shot” is a romance visual novel where you play an “intimus”—an individual who sells human touch. Physical contact with anyone other than an intimus is illegal and punishable by death.

But things are changing. A new chief inspector has risen to power in Neo-Manila, and he wants to  criminalize the services of the intimus.

In such an oppressive world, you’ll find yourself in plenty of situations where you’ll have to make tough decisions.

“Different choices lead to different facets of story, with correct ones advancing the plot and incorrect ones leading to struggles or even an untimely ending to the story,” said the game’s Project Head, Writer, and Programmer Ron David “Chaironiichan” Hilaria.

According to Hilaria, the story of “Do Not Love – Violators Will be Shot” evolved from a writing prompt about people who resort to hiring illegal hand-holding services after their society forbids skin contact.

“[W]hen I read this [prompt], I wanted to write something more multi-faceted,” said Hilaria.

Team Bisugo came up with a story revolving around characters who “grew up with different experiences and values,” which influenced the development of each “person’s outlook and overall reaction to conflict.”

Essentially, the developers grabbed people from particular sectors of the Philippine population — such as those who hail from wealthy families, the province, the criminal underworld, and the police force — and “brought them to the setting that soon became Neo-Manila,” said Hilaria.

“So even if the underlying theme of the story is ‘survival,’ the different characters involved tell different angles of our real questions: what would a life of no intimacy or love be like?”

The “Do Not Love” demo, which is available on itch.io, is a complete, stand-alone experience lasting between 30 minutes and 2 hours. It boasts three good endings, 10 bad endings, and an additional secret ending.

“We are very proud of just how sound the narrative ended up being, considering the complexities of writing so many different plot lines,” said Hilaria. “Each ending really puts you in the shoes of the protagonist, each choice comes with proper consequences, and each playthrough reveals more about the world of Neo-Manila.”

The full release will feature more than 30 hours of content, additional character and background art, the ability to pursue three love interests, and a host of other improvements.

Team Bisugo is Ron David “Chaironiichan” Hilaria; Jod “JodTheCod” Gulle (Character Designer, Sprite Artist); Patrick “CrysetBase” Padolina (Composer); Julian “JujuArts” Bacani (Background Artist); Julia “Hooleeyah” Henares (Graphics Designer); and Elbert Guintivano (Brand Ambassador).

— LA, GMA News