"So, Kimchii, explain yourself please...."
I'm so happy you asked. So this is my first fan game called "Black Coffee: Lovers & Memories." It sounds cute and fluffy RIGHT?!
It's not (completely).
"Black coffee" is an ongoing fanfiction I wrote some time ago. I have not finished it, although I know exactly how it's going to end (why haven't I finished it then? Not sure. Classes were brutal at the time I was writing it...I will eventually finish it).
"So why did you pick some fanfiction you wrote?"
Good question! Well, visual novel making is a very new concept to me. I have never coded a complete visual novel. I did have a few other original ideas that I had started coding...but the stories just didn’t fully “click.” While I do love writing stories from scratch and making original characters, I needed some sort of base to start coding something off of! So I looked at my fanfictions and picked the plot that was the least complicated and not as brutal.
“Black Coffee” was the one.
What I love about this fanfic (I sound so conceited saying this…) is that it is very flexible and there are many possibilities that could happen within this story. That was why I picked it, it was easier to work with, plus even if it is not completed, I already know exactly how it’s going to end x)
Kudos to me! (you narcissist!)
"Why Soumako? Why not rinharu/makoharu/[insert OTP here]?"
I explained earlier that I picked “Black Coffee” because it’s easier to work with. I also wrote it so that the main couple is actually Makoto and Sosuke.
I’ll be honest here: I am not a Makoharu fan. I don’t hate the pairing, I just don’t ship it the way the general fanbase does. If anything, I’m a huge shipper of headcanon ships mostly because the fanbase have very interesting insights as to WHY such pairings would make sense. That in mind, though, I am a HUGE Rinharu shipper (Rinharu fan for life!). I am also a huge Soumako shipper! Like, AVID shipper…!
(There was this brilliant post on Tumblr that explained Soumako and headcanons in general so beautifully! I’ll link it as soon as I find it!)
Unfortunately, I feel that headcanon pairings are so overlooked and underrated, I wanted to deliver something for the fanbase. I mean, let’s face it, there’s plenty of Makoharu/Rinharu/Sourin stuff that one more artwork won’t really make much of a difference.
Still love them all though ;)
In any case, I wanted to dedicate this FIRST game to the Somako fanbase because they’re all so great. This isn’t to say that no one else can play it, but not many people are into Soumako so….
"Wait...but Sosuke and Makoto don’t ever interact in the anime (save for the OVA)!"
Heh heh...the beauty of headcanons is that you can pretty much do whatever you want with them ;) Especially with an amazing pairing like Sosuke and Makoto.
That said, I wanted to establish some things about the story. First of, and this makes me a bit worried, it is an alternate universe [AU], so it does not follow the Free! storyline per se. This makes me a bit worried because I might as well just make this my own story and change the characters’ names! But I really don’t want to do that...so I’m just making this a fan game.
I want to apologize beforehand if it disappoints you that it doesn’t really follow the series (I will gladly provide some links to Free! fan games that follow the series a lot better, though).
"Will there be any other characters other than Sosuke and Makoto?"
Yes, expect Rin, Haru and....someone else ;)
"Since there's a fanfiction, does that mean that I can use it to get the true end?!"
That would be nice, but no. First of all, it's not complete. Secondly, the way I approached the fanfiction and the game are pretty different. The idea is pretty much the same, but the fanfiction is not a "walkthrough" per se. I MIGHT provide one though ;)
