Hi everyone, and welcome to my third (fourth if we count Kissing Snow-White?) O2A2 devlog! So, I don’t know if anyone expected another mythological game inspired by a Racine’s play but…

hear me out myth girlies

i want you to hold my hand

it’s going to be hard, but i swear it’s going to be okay in the long run

…

TOUCH GRASS!!!! THERE ARE OTHER THINGS THAN MYTHOLOGY IN LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(the fact nobody complained though i’m just quirky hihi ^^)

Yet another fangame

And more seriously, it must be surprising to see me come with a fangame this year, but actually… not really? Except for Kissing Snow-White, all my previous O2A2 entries have been visual novel adaptations of Jean Racine’s plays, The Daughters of the Sun being inspired by Phèdre (Phaedra), and The Ghosts of Troy by Andromaque (Andromache)... isn’t that just glorified fangames? 🙏

So, in the end, The Blue Skies of Milan is very similar to my previous entries: a small capsule of a longer tragedy.

So, for the development of this game, I won’t lie, IT WENT SO SMOOTHLY??? I wrote the script in roughly one hour and twenty minutes?? The art is so cute????? (please let me have it)

Like, HOW CRAZY IT IS THAT EVERY SINGLE TIME I LOVE WHAT I DRAW FOR O2A2????? When I drew Phaedra/Pasiphaë/Ariadne for The Daughters of the Sun, I was like “oooh, pretty art direction, ooooh Phaedra has great hair”; when it comes to the picture I drew for The Ghosts of Troy, certainly one of my favourite drawings of mine, if not my favourite period, and this year is no exception. ROMEO LOOKS ADORABLE AAAHHHHHHHHHH

AND EVEN THE PROMO ART, IF YOU IGNORE THE STRANGE PERSPECTIVE (please do ignore the strange perspective), THE PICTURE IS SO CUTE???? THE WAY ALFREDO LOOKS AT ROMEO AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

But I don’t owe it to myself, but to MY MUSE!!!! IT’S TIME TO SPEAK ABOUT THE ANIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Romeo’s Blue Skies

For context, I’ve been working on a visual novel adaptation of a forgotten French novel from the 19th century, being also the first explicitly gay romance of French literature: it is nowadays known as Geri’s Secret due to the 2014 edition of it, but the original title is Geri, or a First Love. It is a love story between two teenagers in an old monastery converted into a boarding school in the middle of Switzerland; the narrator being French from Lyon, and the love interest, the eponymous Geri, being Italian from Florence.

So, when gushing about it to my friend Chattercap (yes, it’s always her), she told me it reminded her of an anime she heard of, Romeo’s Blue Skies, set in Italy, with a protagonist from Switzerland, focusing on the very close friendship two preteens have, with a tragic twist. It sounded right up my alley, so I decided to give it a watch while walking on my treadmill…

AND GOODNESS, IT WAS AMAZING?????????????? MARVELLOUS??????????? EXTRAORDINARY??????? EXTRAORDINAIRE EVEN, SORRY, I HAVE TO DROP THE FRENCH BECAUSE IT WAS SO GOOD

And like, most of the animes from the World Masterpiece Theatre (animes like Princess Sarah, Little Women, Tow Sawyer, to name a few) are very good, but to really emphasise how good Romeo is: the eighth best-ranked anime from the WMT on IMBD is Princess Sarah, with a grade of 7.8/10. The second best-ranked is Les Misérables : Shoujo Cosette, with a grade of 8.2/10. So, when only 0.4 point separates the eight best-ranked anime from the second one, you know competition is hard looool… Well, Romeo is the best-ranked anime, with an overall grade of 8.6/10. Let me be clear: THERE IS THE SAME DISTANCE BETWEEN THE EIGHT AND SECOND-BEST RANKED ANIME THAN THERE IS BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THE BEST RANKED ANIME????

Obviously, good reception doesn’t always mean good quality but… it kinda does??

But now, you must be curious (yes, you are, roll with it): what is this anime about?

Well, Romeo’s Blue Skies narrates the story of Romeo, an eleven year-old boy living in the mountains, in the village of Sonogno. He is cheerful and optimistic, but due to a period of drought, his family doesn’t have much left to even eat. Unfortunately enough, Romeo’s father starts developing an illness that will make him lose his vision. Fortunately enough, it’s easily curable, but… they need money. So Romeo, to get some money, and against his family’s wishes, sells himself to a child trafficker to become a chimney sweep in Milan for six months, then he’ll be free… if at least, he doesn’t die, like so many chimney sweeps before him according to the rumours…

On this way to Milan, Romeo meets twelve year-old Alfredo Martini, with whom he quickly develops a deep connection. When they reach Milan together and get sold to two different masters,  the boys promise to find each other and to always stay together.

So yeah!! The story then narrates Romeo’s hardships and times of joy as he gets accustomed to his new life and makes friends along the way.

So, if you have watched the more popular Princess Sarah, Romeo’s Blue Skies is very different, as it is MUCH LESS miserabilist. It doesn’t shy away from portraying tragedies, and in that regard, Romeo technically has it even worse than Sarah (bro sleeps in what is arguably a CAGE at first), but the anime manages to vary its tone way more, making the sad moments DEVASTATING and the happy ones truly beautiful!

So I became an ABSOLUTE FAN, I love them so much, like, truly, sincerely, really, these boys are my BABIES, so I wanted to make a game dedicated to them.

Making this game

Well, this game was quite an obsession to me; the moment I knew that my O2A2 project would be a fangame of Romeo’s Blue Skies, the script would live rent-free in my my mind, it would haunt me like a ghost, repeating every single night every single word from it.

End result? As I said, I wrote this whole script under one hour and twenty minutes. I am a fast writer overall, and I mean, I have been faster in the past (Rendez-Doug…), but still, it was quite intense looool, but it all felt so natural, the words all made such perfect sense for them, and I exactly knew how I wanted to portray Romeo and Alfredo’s relationship.

The art direction was also clear: I wanted something a bit closer to the anime (hence the more simple shading), and very watercolour-ish. And I’m very happy with it!

For this game, the concept was simple (be careful, this paragraph has spoilers about the game and the anime): I wanted to explore Alfredo’s emotional vulnerability. The anime focuses a lot towards its end to his physical one since, well, the boy is a sick Victorian child. However, Alfredo is brave, dignified and holds composure. Even during his death scene, he uses his last strengths to reassure Romeo that, even though he’ll die, they will always be in each other’s hearts. Leader of the black brothers, Alfredo is strong and reliable, and he has to be. So exploring him in a more emotional way, and having him look at his upcoming death through the hopes and dreams he had was a very satisfying writing experience as a fan, and I hope I did Alfredo justice in that regard.

The game, like all my O2A2 entries, has voice acting. But this time, it is much less present, as the game contains much more narration, so bringing it closer to Kissing Snow-White, than to The Daughters of the Sun or The Ghosts of Troy. However, just like what I did with these last entries, this game once again expected the voice talent to voice two different characters, and I have to say, these parts were difficult!

Not that the VAs had any particular shoes to fill, as I was quite open-minded to reinterpretations of the characters, and wasn’t expecting VAs to sound identical to the seiyus who worked on the anime. However, a lot of auditions, although impeccable, failed to find a preteen pitch, which was a difficulty I hadn’t anticipated. But fortunately enough, Jocelyn, whom I worked with, did an amazing job with those characters: her Alfredo truly sounds very close to the original, and her take on Romeo was revigorating!

Finally, I’ll thank all the friends who contributed to this game, and of course, to the players who gave it a chance (and huge thank you to those who will rate it 5 stars, you guys are the real stars)!

And that’s it for this devlog, my little poodoodles! See you soon on the Chimtrain!!