Lyuba Alekseeva

asmodeywork@gmail.com

 

Game Concept:
The game revolves around managing and decorating magical shops/cafés.
Goal: Open all the shops in Roseville with the highest possible rating.

Gameplay Mechanics: The game features a top-down view, where the player serves customers by clicking on the required items and then on the customer. The fewer stars above the customers’ heads, the less patience they have. Between levels, the player repairs and decorates the shop. Each level completion progresses the storyline and rewards the player with gold coins and crystals. The storyline is also revealed through cutscenes, illustrated in a magical book. Each shop contains seven levels (each level must be completed multiple times to achieve a gold star). Afterward, the player unlocks the next shop: Enchanted Goods, Edible Store, Mage’s Atelier, Sweets and Delights, Scrolls and Staffs, Roseville Flowers, and more.
For each shop completion, Amber the fox gives the player a chest with rewards: coins, crystals, free furniture items, lives, magical abilities, and more.

Setting: The fictional town of Roseville is bathed in sunlight and surrounded by forests and waterfalls. The neat, gingerbread-like houses look as though they’ve stepped out of a fairytale book. The story takes place in the modern day, but the town’s inhabitants look timeless and magical.
Visual Style: Inspired by Homescapes, bright and not dark, despite the magical world. The color palette includes pleasant combinations of dark red, dark green, purple, and brown. The cutscenes are not animated but are more detailed, illustrated in dark brown on craft paper.

Plot: Through an introductory cutscene, the player meets the main heroine, Vesta. She lives in a small town, works part-time in a shop, and dreams of opening her own store one day. But everything changes when a talking fox appears at her doorstep. Vesta can’t believe her ears, thinking she must need a vacation. However, the fox, named Amber, assures her that everything is real. Amber reveals that Vesta’s father, Victor, whom Vesta never knew, lived in the magical town of Roseville. A month ago, he disappeared, leaving a note saying he wanted to start fresh. Vesta’s father owned a magical ingredients shop, which rightfully belongs to her.
Curious, Vesta travels with Amber to Roseville. Her father’s shop looks abandoned and forgotten. Vesta shares with Amber that her mother never mentioned her father, and now she is determined to find him and uncover the secrets of her past. Along the way, she finds letters from her father that help her piece together the mystery. With Amber’s help, Vesta quickly restores the shop.
She meets the local residents, most of whom are very friendly magical beings, including a kind witch named Elvira, who owns the largest two-story magical shop in town. She was a friend of Victor’s. Vesta is only slightly unsettled by the gloomy Mr. Harriet. Vesta often notices an owl watching her from a tree outside the shop.
As Vesta becomes more involved in the town’s life and opens several more shops, Elvira suggests that Mr. Harriet might be responsible for her father’s disappearance. He was in love with Elvira and was always jealous of her friendship with Victor. Vesta tries to find evidence against Harriet, but instead, she discovers her father’s final notes revealing that Elvira found out about Victor’s plans to open a chain of magical shops. Fearing competition, she turned him into an owl—the same owl that has been watching over Vesta! Victor is eventually freed from the spell, and Mr. Harriet is cleared of any wrongdoing. Elvira is arrested.
Vesta’s father explains that her mother was against the world of sorcery and ran away from him. However, he always kept an eye on his daughter and, with Amber’s help, protected her. Vesta and her father then work together to improve their family business.

 

 

Artist’s Brief: 2-3 main characters from section 1 and a location.

 

 

Vesta:
A 20-25-year-old woman. Slim build. Red, shoulder-length hair. Gray-blue eyes. Character prototype: Emma Stone.

 

 

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Elvira:
A 35-40-year-old woman. Slim build. Very pale skin. Gray eyes. Long black hair with volume and bright makeup (see the image of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, after whom this character is named).

 

 

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Location: Edible Shop
From the outside, it looks like a gingerbread house with pink and blue frosting. It’s actually made of gingerbread! The walls, shelves, and floor are all edible. The player can customize the interior, but vibrant colors are always present. At the bottom center of the screen, there’s a counter with a cash register. Behind it is an oven for baking cakes, a stand with cake creams, a display with spinning round lollipops, chocolate in the shape of birds, and mandarin cupcakes. There’s also a stand with rainbow lemonade. As the difficulty level increases, more sweets appear.

 

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Character Dialogue (Reflecting Personalities and Conflict):

Dialogue between Elvira and Vesta in the Edible Shop:

Elvira: Vesta, you’ve really worked your magic! This place is enchanting.
Vesta: Thank you. Your opinion means a lot to me. Want a chocolate bird?
Elvira: No, thanks. One of those once smeared chocolate all over my kitchen. Took me forever to catch it!
Elvira: By the way, I saw Harriet heading toward Mirror Street. Not the best place to be.
Vesta: Could he really be hiding something? We need to follow him!

 

 

Why the Game Will Be Successful:
A cozy magical world combined with shop management mechanics offers players an engaging experience, appealing to a paying audience. The intriguing plot and vibrant characters will motivate players to uncover the truth, while the magical, beautiful world will help them escape everyday worries.

 

 

St. Petersburg, 2020