(Spoilers Ahead!)

Nice to meet you, I'm Melody! For those of you who've already met me, hello again!

Thank you for choosing to check out Rosetta and the Well.

As you may know, this is not only my first ever VN made, but also the first story I've ever made from scratch (that is, not as a fanwork for a pre-existing property). Naturally, this was an interesting challenge, seeing as how I'm both not the best at writing on my own, but I also am not very good at worldbuilding (especially the long-term kind). 

I'd always wanted to try my hand at RenPy since I first played through the tutorial. But for the longest time, I couldn't figure out the kind of story I'd want to tell in a visual novel format. Until this came along.

Because this was a solo effort (aside from the music and sfx), and due to my tendency to procrastinate whenever I hit a roadblock in something, development went a tad bit slower than what I wanted. The script was finalized back in December 2022, and the actual game would probably have been released sometime in January-February 2023 had these sorts of factors not come into play (haha). But I guess that's just game dev for ya.

Marketing this game was also kind of a chore,  considering :

1. My ASD makes it so that once I'm focused on something, I have a hard time doing anything else (hence why I haven't posted too much to the Atelier in Wonderland account about it. I'm bad with schedules...)
2. How exactly do you market a game that takes less than an hour to complete, and whose more "substantial" material is all spoilers?

In the end, it is what it is. I eventually got the game out, and that's the best thing I could do, I suppose.

But moving on from that, I wanna take some time to talk about some stuff that inspired various aspects of the game.

The initial concept was inspired by a short horror webcomic by the Korean artist MIMI (who ProjectMoon fans may know as having made Wonderlab) in which a human woman finds a mermaid in a puddle in her orchard.  Long story short, the mermaid attacks the lady and they end up swapping places.

Said comic also included a tidbit about the mermaid wanting the lady to return to her a particular something that she took, and Rosetta and the Well actually would've followed a very similar plot. The twist would've been that the Rosetta you'd been playing as was a doppelganger, and that the real Rosetta was the mermaid trapped in the well in her backyard. The fake Rosetta tricked the real Rosetta into giving up her legs to her, and now the true Rosetta had returned to claim her stolen humanity. 

No matter the choices the player made, the fake Rosetta would've ended up dragged into the well at the end as the real Rosetta took back her legs. A short and simple plot for a horror VN, yeah?

Then, I let that idea marinate in my head for a bit, only for me to realize that such an idea could perhaps be expanded upon and reworked to make more sense(?), in a way. I cut out the plot about Rosetta being a doppelganger and made her actually a real human, and remade the mermaid into Galatea of the Well.

The goal of the game was always to keep the scope as small as possible, so as not to overwork myself. And I think, even with the various reworks, I managed to accomplish that, which I'm proud of.

The whole thing with the well (and also Rosetta's last name of "Halloway") was inspired by SCP-4000, with some hints of The Ring thrown in for good measure.

The game would've just consisted of Rosetta and Galatea, but then I got the idea to make "love" (as in, Greek love styles) one of the central themes of the games, so several side characters were added to help emphasize this theme. Rosetta feels different types of love for the various characters in the game, and it goes as follows:

• Rosetta herself - Philautia (self-love)
• Barbara, Eugene, and Camellia - Storge (familial love). Barbie and Eugene also incidentally represent Pragma (long-term commitment)
• Alma and Ariel - Philia (deep friendship)
• Christopher - Eros (passionate romance)
• Winterport - Agape (universal acceptance)

Kinda interesting how an AroAce like me (one who's very averse to the romance/crush plots featured in countless other fictional works) would be so comfortable featuring Eros in this VN. Maybe it's because I like being able to "pick-and-choose" when and where I want to see romance, if you know what I mean.

I'm also into Project Mili's songs, so naturally I'd reference them in some way. Rosetta and Camellia's names are the titles of two of their songs, and the "Legs to One, Mind to None" ending derives some of its imagery and its title from Bathtub Mermaid.

While I do skim it on occasion, Somato's "Shadows House" is...not exactly a manga that I'd consider myself a fan of. However, I do find interest in some of the concepts presented in it, hence I also took some inspiration from it here.  For instance, Rosetta's general design, along with the name of her mother, are derived from Barbara Shadow. There's also Rosetta's boyfriend/husband, Christopher...

Now, for "Galatea" and Pygmalion, the latter was a character that came along later. It originally would've just been Galatea, and the well would've otherwise been a teleporting well that she travels in. But then I thought, "What if it's not Galatea, but the well itself that was the true demon?", hence where we are now. Galatea is actually named after the nereid, and the well demon would've just been called "The Well". The name "Pygmalion" came along later 'cause I liked how it sounded.

The hands that emerge from Pygmalion are me paying homage to the Space Warlocks from Bee and Puppycat. Again, not a fan of that show, I just like how the funky marshmallow dudes look (the green and blue ones are my particular favorites).

And finally,  Ariel Tiramisu and his wife Dolores. Ariel's kinda based around Gomez Addams, and he's got a bit of his and the King of All Cosmos's personalities. 

Dolores (aka "Lolita") is the hirsute with the wide-brimmed hat who's briefly seen in Rosetta's wedding photo in the True End. She has no dialogue in RatW, so I will say this: Dolores refers to everyone in third person, including herself.

I've had vague thoughts about making another VN based around her trying to plan her and her husband's wedding anniversary, but don't count on it getting made at the moment.

Man, I've spent a lot of time rambling about this thing, so lemme wrap it all up. I'm overall proud of how Rosetta and the Well turned out, even despite the hiccups. 

As of me writing this, the feedback pool for this game's pretty small and stagnant, so I don't know how this game's being taken by the public, but from the reactions I've gotten in my Discord groups (along with a Let's Play of this game. Again, much appreciated), the game's pretty well-received!

Thanks for taking the time to read through my long ramblings about a gothic-Victorian-ish VN centered around a freckled, thick-browed girl's escapades with a well. I hope everyone can continue enjoying my works, and to look forward to the stuff I make in the future!

- Melody (I'm super into merfolk and Alice in Wonderland)

P.S: Here's some scrapped CGs as a treat!