Hey EvaGeeks! I've been hard at work on this project for a while now but I'm excited that I can finally release it into the wild. Entitled A Time of Life, the story takes place in the Rebuild of Evangelion universe. In my opinion, it helps bridge a critical divide between Evangelion 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance and Evangelion 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. It all gets told from the perspective of Mari Illustrious Makinami and the game itself clocks in at about 15 minutes long.

All of the art came from the incredible fraubriggs, who truly did a fantastic job on every aspect. I’m so glad I could finally collaborate with her and I know for a fact that her art elevates the material far beyond my wildest hopes.

You can download the game here!

Thanks to the Renpy engine, it runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows!

Compliments and constructive criticism are both greatly appreciated![/url]

So it's basically a Mari and Asuka dating Sim?

Far shorter. 15 minutes, tops. My first project with Renpy. Straight line, no choices. Just a story that needed telling, in my opinion.

Woohoo! I'm a sucker for visual novels, having made an Eva 2.22/3.33 one in 2010, and just completing a Sailor V one last month.

I'm not necessarily into AsuMari, though I always love me some yuri (shoujo-ai in this case). Very adorable artwork and music! I like how you kept Mari nice and mysterious too, since it can fit with whatever FINAL throws us about her!

Though, what was the squiggle mark on Mari's right cheek? An injury of some sort?

Oh, one last question: May I mention your game on the EGF twitter?

Sailor Star Dust wrote:Woohoo! I'm a sucker for visual novels, having made an Eva 2.22/3.33 one in 2010, and just completing a Sailor V one last month.

I'm not necessarily into AsuMari, though I always love me some yuri (shoujo-ai in this case). Very adorable artwork and music! I like how you kept Mari nice and mysterious too, since it can fit with whatever FINAL throws us about her!

Though, what was the squiggle mark on Mari's right cheek? An injury of some sort?

Oh, one last question: May I mention your game on the EGF twitter?

Of course! I would be honored if you mentioned this on the official EGF Twitter.

I believe my artist, Fraubriggs, added the bandage on the right cheek as an indicator of the lingering physical damage that Mari may have suffered either during her battle against the Angel in Unit-02 or the effects of "Beast mode."

(PS: I have a Mac, or I would play your stuff! Thanks for telling me though!)

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— twitter-user (@username) date

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I know there are Windows VMs for Macs, but I guess it's not always easy to implement? My boyfriend occasionally plays around with one on his Macbook, though he has a Windows machine, too.

Will you ever do more?
I was just getting into it when it ended.
This is PAINFULLY too short, but so good.

Sailor Star Dust wrote:I know there are Windows VMs for Macs, but I guess it's not always easy to implement? My boyfriend occasionally plays around with one on his Macbook, though he has a Windows machine, too.

Funny that you should mention that, because I actually found your visual novel yesterday and played it using my Windows VM on my MacBook. While it worked for the most part, I couldn't actually see any of the dialogue options because of VirtualBox's crappy DirectX drivers. -_-

That meant that whenever I was presented with an empty screen, I had to save the game and then randomly click around the screen until I hit the option I wanted by accident. :P

chunkylover42 wrote:Will you ever do more?
I was just getting into it when it ended.
This is PAINFULLY too short, but so good.

Firstly, thanks so much for reading the story! It means a great deal to me. And thank you for the compliment. I'm incredibly flattered you liked it.

Truthfully, I had never coded anything before this project. Even just this short amount taxed what meager skills I have. Next time, I'll make it longer and make it have branching paths/multiple endings. But for this one, I just wanted a short story to prove to myself I could do it.

Regarding doing more, I have every intention of continuing to work with the Renpy engine. Whether I keep working within the Evangelion universe or do something else, I'm not sure. I do have an outline for an expansive story, detailing the gap between Evangelion 2.22 and 3.33. But that would take a Herculean effort and it might all get invalidated by FINAL. So I'm cautious on that front.

But thank you so much for your question!

This is really great. Thanks for making it, and for sharing! It's de facto headcanon now, if that means anything.

SonofCarnelian wrote:Firstly, thanks so much for reading the story! It means a great deal to me. And thank you for the compliment. I'm incredibly flattered you liked it.

Truthfully, I had never coded anything before this project. Even just this short amount taxed what meager skills I have. Next time, I'll make it longer and make it have branching paths/multiple endings. But for this one, I just wanted a short story to prove to myself I could do it.

Regarding doing more, I have every intention of continuing to work with the Renpy engine. Whether I keep working within the Evangelion universe or do something else, I'm not sure. I do have an outline for an expansive story, detailing the gap between Evangelion 2.22 and 3.33. But that would take a Herculean effort and it might all get invalidated by FINAL. So I'm cautious on that front.

But thank you so much for your question!

yeah I wouldnt bother with bridging the gap
Anno worked so hard purposely making it incredibly hard to understand
I reckon Asumari fanfic stuff is the way to go
I know nothing about python but I'd be happy to help in any way I can

Bagheera wrote:This is really great. Thanks for making it, and for sharing! It's de facto headcanon now, if that means anything.

It means a great deal. Frankly, that's about the greatest compliment any piece of fanfiction can get. So thank you very much!

I haven't downloaded it yet - I don't think I could handle the feeeeeeeeels - but at least it's a break in the drought of AsuMari material.[/i]

I dunno if I should download this. . . on top of my Laptop not being the Spring Chicken she used to be. Is the story any real good? Does he SonofCarnelian address Asuka's angelic contamination, and alienation, y'know all the grimdark we've come to know and love from Evangelion?

Ray wrote:I dunno if I should download this. . . on top of my Laptop not being the Spring Chicken she used to be. Is the story any real good? Does he SonofCarnelian address Asuka's angelic contamination, and alienation, y'know all the grimdark we've come to know and love from Evangelion?

Well, I don't think my little JPEGs will really tax your laptop. I played a translation of Girlfriend of Steel on a laptop circa 2008, and that probably has more complex code than mine.

And while I'm a huge fan of grimdark themes (hence my Warhammer 40k profile picture), I didn't think that this story needed overt darkness or horror. Any tragedy in the story stems from the fact that, at this point in the Rebuild universe, the world teeters between salvation and the post-apocalyptic environment we see in 3.33. And yet Asuka makes the choice, some might say foolishly, to invest in another person after getting hurt so badly by Shinji in 2.22. Heartbreak comes from the fact that Mari has an uphill battle in winning Asuka's affection.

I don't address Asuka's angelic contamination because 3.33 didn't give us nearly enough information on it and I didn't want to start overstepping my fanfiction bounds. Besides, there's so much more to talk about than just the technobabble of angelic contamination and the pseudoscience of the whole Evangelion franchise. I do think I covered her alienation pretty well though, in how long it takes her to even communicate with Mari on any level.

Still, your choice. If you do give it a download, please let me know. I'm interested in all feedback people have for me.

It was cute. . . but there really wasn't much to speak of in terms of content. I finished the whole thing in less than 5 minutes.

I'm glad it's around, and I know it was fanmade and free. But I guess I was just expecting more.

I actually have a couple Ideas for my own Mari-Asuka interquel but between my other fic, homework, etc. I haven't had much time to write it.

Don't have much to say, but I enjoyed the simplicity of it all. Great first draft.