ATELIER VIVERIE
One of the world's most famous ateliers. It hosts a number of pupils and proteges eager to learn from the very best within art. Many aspiring artists travel to Viverie in hopes of one day displaying their work next to their inspirations.

ANGEL OR DEVIL?
It doesn't matter. They grant you that which you most desire. You don't get to choose; they find you.


They always find you.

"MEANING"
"If there is none, we will create one."

Angels and Devils have left a lasting impact on artistic history; being used as motifs for sculptures and paintings, depicting both torment, desire, and sorrow. It is because of these deities that we now have such a vast catalogue of masterpieces to look back on. Truly, they inspired many great artists to hone their craft and improve their work, hoping their next piece will be better than their last....or did they simply make an offering?

DEADLINE
In exchange for their benevolence, you must continue to bring them offerings in the form of paintings. Failing to satisfy an Angel or a Devil's desire within the Deadline will lead to a Deadman game.

DEADMAN GAME
The game type depends on the person that failed the deadline, and the deity that oversees said deadline. Shall you fail to solve the Deadman's game within the 24 hour grace period, you will have to pay the price...

Features♯ A Visual Novel that serves as a personal love letter to art and all its mediums.♩ Choose between over 5 different women to bond with. If you play your cards right, you might end up as something more than friends... maybe even BEST friends!♫ Illustrated in a BW+ style , but with features from other digital and traditional mediums such as oils, music, photography, ink, acrylics, pixel art, and more.♬ Discover secrets that people would rather keep hidden. Whether you use these secrets to benefit or hurt others is entirely up to you...

"It is time to pay the price."

Play as Maestro and paint your way through the hearts of others!Use their "Thousand Eyes" ability to peer into another world in order to create masterful paintings and uncover truths about the people around you. Your art mastery skills will determine how well you do in your pursuit of artistic growth.Help other students in the atelier grow as artists by assisting them in the boardroom. Correct answers will improve your art mastery skills, but answering wrong on purpose might be funnier sometimes...Explore "Castalia" a city of inspirations that caters specifically to the needs of artists and artistic talents alike.Pick up memory fragments from people you encounter along the way and use your nightmare to see the world through their eyes for a brief time...

Maestro

They're not exactly the talkative type, but when you get them to talk, my God, do they not shut up! A peculiar figure that loiters in atelier Viverie as if it were their own home. Many newcomers mistake them for a homeless person when they first find them sleeping in the master's study. Though they both act and appear somewhat disheveled, no one ever sees them do anything but draw all day long. The atelier's peers theorize that their dedication and willpower may be why the master took them on as one of his proteges.Despite being one of Master Kei-Yuu's few proteges, they've never actually submitted any art to the gallery's many exhibits...Age: 28
Proteges: 0
Specialty: Mixed Media & Digital Art
Display Icon on phone app: [Musical Note]

Dia

She is admired, adored, and desired... until she opens her mouth! Quite honestly, many of Dia's proteges admit that they can not stand the way she speaks to them, but that they put up with her (jokingly called 'gauche' due to her preferred medium) strict regime because she (despite the verbal abuse) has an abundance of talent she's willing to share with other students. She's a continuing contributor to Viverie's many exhibits, and has gathered enough fame to be revered as one of the best (and youngest) female painters.Age: 22
Proteges: 52
Specialty: Watercolor & Gouache
Display Icon on phone app: [Snake]

Kei

Kei-Yuu
Master of the atelier! He keeps everything running smoothly and is the primary host and event planner for all of Viverie's exhibits. He seems to lack confidence in his own work but makes up for it by continuing to study harder and harder each passing day. One can usually find him gushing at the new paintings submitted for review by the atelier's students, making up stories as he admires their work.Age: 40
Proteges: 2
Specialty: Oil Paints
Display Icon on phone app: [Winged Fish]

Secret: Strei

Secret: Minami

Secret: ???

Atelier

Atalier "Viverie" is an institution that nurtures the world's most talented artists to craft masterworks for their clientele. They specialize in "Last Wish" requests and charity work, but they offer their services to anyone that can afford their talent. Their clients vary from rich worldwide elitists to commoners who save up or crowdfund to get works drawn by their favorite illustrators. Every artist under the studio's wing uses an alias to remain anonymous. Their works get published under their artist namesake so they can lead a normal, fulfilling life without disturbances. Only the Master knows the identities of their students.

ATELIER EXHIBITS & RULES

  1. Artists are anonymous. Shall an artist break anonymity, Studio Viverie may drop the artist from their program or issue a new alias and erase the past alias. Works under the compromised alias will be orphaned. Orphaned works become property of Studio Viverie. A change is pending to revise this tradition.

  2. Artists are given the option to live in their own atelier in Studio Viverie or in a studio apartment of their choice with rent accommodated, but the rest must be provided by the artist themselves, including travel cost.

  3. Artists will be paid monthly for their work and dedication. Bonuses are given to those that excel exceptionally through the month.

  4. Artists may take on proteges and tutor them in order to better adjust or welcome them to Viverie, but this is requested by the proteges. Proteges can not request a specific artist to study under, as this would make it harder to remain anonymous. However, any artist they study under will be skilled as they are alumni of Viverie. Proteges may also study under several artists if they so choose.

  5. So long as one remains in atelier Viverie, their work remains anonymous. However, alumni that no longer reside or work within Viverie are allowed to share their work with everyone, including the public eye. Should they wish to graduate and move on career-wise, they retain all the copyright to their exhibits and submissions. This rule was recently implemented by Kei-Yuu, 14th Master of Viverie.

  6. There is no paid time off, but artists do not have to draw every single day to keep their spot at Viverie, nor do they have to adhere to a strict schedule. As long as their work is substantial, Viverie will continue to fund them.

  7. Equipment will be provided by the studio. Shall the artist themselves wish to purchase personal or additional resources, those will come out of their own budget.

  8. Items marked with the studio insignia belong to the studio and must not leave the studio. Anyone taking studio equipment out of the studio will be penalized.

VIVERIE ARTIST LINEUP
Atelier Viverie values the privacy of their students, as well as an unbiased and fair work environment. Each student's work is created under a handle (also known as their alias), by which neither student nor professor knows. Only the student themselves (along with the master) will know their handle, and any work displayed in Viverie's gallery will be listed under each artist's handle.

REQUESTING WORK
Depending on the work and its purpose, the client will be allowed to select an artist from the active artists within the atelier's list.

LAST WISH
The last wish service is a free service that allows any regular person to place a request to the atelier at no charge. The Master will first have to approve a request before posting it on the student board. A random artist of Viverie (both professor and student) is then free to claim the request and make an illustration of their choosing. Participants of this type don't usually get to choose who takes the request, and requesting specific artists is not encouraged. The purpose of the "last wish" service is to grant someone a sliver of joy when they are otherwise struggling or going through hardship. These types of requests can also be crowdfunded, mass-requested, or simply suggested by the community for special events. In the end, whether or not a request gets picked up depends on whether or not the Master has screened it and approved it first before attaching it to the board.

MEDIA & COVERAGE
The Master of the atelier handles any and all interviews for public appearances, including interviews with specific artists for magazines and news outlets. They accept the interviewer's questions, interrogate the artist personally, and hand their responses back to the interviewer. This way, their identities remain anonymous. The artist's answers are not recorded, but written down by the Master themselves to keep identification down to a minimum.

AliasSummaryMediumWorksStatus
"K"An oil painter. Few works on display. Whether the artist is retired or not is unknown to anyone but the atelier master.Oils17Retired
"Essence"Bold and vibrant watercolors that never fail to deliver a gust of class. Essence is often considered the most well-known painter of Viverie.Watercolor26Active
"Wanderlust"A traditional painter that works with acrylics. Their priority is to bring life to old, nostalgic atmospheres with a surreal and unsettling twist entwined with each stroke.Acrylic6Active
"Teeth of Lotus"Hyper-realistic and fine-detailed paintings often depicting somewhat grotesque motifs involving flowers.Oils212Retired
"Trance"A digital artist that focuses on patterns and fabric motifs. They often make assets for other digital artists to use.Digital44Active
"Starlight"Heavy focus on sea motifs in classic oil. The paint has a kindhearted touch to it that gives it a cloud-like apperance. They say each brushstroke was drawn with love.Oils86Active
"EMPerror"Confident and long brush-strokes makes this artist's alcohol ink drawings stand out amongst the rest. They seem to be drawn to musical motifs and noise.Ink136Active
"Reaper's Call"Abstract work depicting mute colors often accompanied by one stark, bold or bright color. The artist primarily works in shilouettes and negative space.Mixed Media65Active
"Moonbow"Layer upon layer of oil paints gives this artist a very vibrant display of colors.Oil Pastels37Active
"MAZE"Works in mixed media featuring optical illusions typically made out of exclusively straight lines and odd colors.Mixed Media81Active

Kei-Yuu
Director, Layout Designer, & Exhibition HostThe master of the atelier will always be the first to take care of an exhibit. The master has a right to display their own work alongside their students, so long as it remains anonymous. The focus of exhibits is to fundraise for charity events and to display the pupils greatest work.

Maestro
Manager & Exhibition AssistantSince their work never gets displayed, they often assist the atelier's master with displaying everyone else's artwork. Their perspective on art is different to that of the master, so they end up having somewhat conflicting opinions about the meaning behind certain work. Perhaps that is part of the fun!

FAQ

"What kind of game is this? What's the theme?"Turpentine is a story-driven mystery novel with silly characters and a heavy focus on art. It covers a wide variety of themes that all link back to each character's artistic growth. There's some horror elements and uncomfortable topics, so consider it rated 18+."What is this game about?"It's a game born from a personal story's conclusion. When the aftermath of 2023's events were over at the tail-end of October, I woke up one day and decided "I want to make a game" followed by "but I don't know the first thing about code." which immediately turned into "Okay, I guess I'll just learn."
It's hard to speak on the facets of what Turpentine is about, since most of it relies on exploring the world and people around you. In essence, it's a story that speaks about hope and change when it seems like there's nothing you can do to turn things around."Who are working on this game?"....Me! Just me. I do the drawing, animation, coding, scripting, sound, and everything in-between. If updates are slow or I push back the demo, please know I'm doing it only in everyone's best interest. I intend to make this game as good as possible before release. It's how I hope to tell people why I love art so much and how much it means to me. Hopefully, my feelings will come across and I'll leave you with the resolve to go out and create works of your own. At least, that's what I aspire to accomplish, besides just hoping you have a good time playing it!"How much will the game cost?"Ideally, I would like to release this game for free. But it depends on what the playtesters say will be a fair price (my nakamas are the beta testers for now, but I'll probably release test demos to my patreon or kofi before the actual demo release!). Making an income from this is secondary. It's not why I began making it in the first place."How long is the game? What's the playtime?"Currently, only one friend has played half the common route, chapter 1 of one character's route, and the full true route. Together, these things took her roughly 4 hours. This doesn't include side-content or requests. Every character is set to have 4 chapters in total, and there's over 5 characters (not counting the true route). If we average 1 hour per chapter, it's safe to say at minimum (without replays for completion or multiple endings) the game will likely be over 20 hours long. But I can't give an accurate estimate because only one person so far has playtested the longer routes."What can we expect?"Hopefully, you'll be pleasantly surprised. The game is supposed to be silly and help you connect with different characters through a shared love for art. At the same time, I hope you feel something and connect in some way with the message in the story. As an artist, there's nothing more I want or appreciate than having my work leave some sort of impact.I hope you enjoy it once you get to play it!"Hold on, all characters with stories are women, right? Is there a reason? Do we get to date them?"¯_(ツ)_/¯ The horizon stretches endlessly...ADDED AS OF 4/5"I'm a streamer and I'd love to play this demo live. Can I?"Yes! I personally love when people share their opinions on things live or not, so go for it! The least I ask for is for the link to the site/download (when available) to be somewhere on screen or in your description (if you post videos)!"I speak X/Y/Z language, can I translate this game into that language?"This sounds so lovely, yes absolutely! I don't currently have the stamina to translate it into my 3 spoken languages, but if anyone is interested I'd love to let someone have access to the raw text for reference once the game is out in English."When the full game releases, can I stream the whole game? All the routes and the extra content?"Yes! Again, it would make me delighted to see anyone play through this game. I put my all into it- it's the first time I ever attempt a game after all and I'd love to see the input both from players and those that enjoy writing/creating stories themselves. If you do stream the demo or even decide to stream the whole game, feel free to @ me on twitter or any other platform so I can share it with others!