Once Upon a Tale is an original otome game project currently in development.
Set in a fantasy world shaped by stories, memory, choice, and identity, the game combines branching narrative routes, character-driven romance, stat-based progression, and interactive systems designed to make each playthrough feel personal.
This project is being developed as a solo passion project, with work spanning writing, visual design, systems planning, and implementation.
Stage: Early development / pre-production
State of the project: Active concept, writing, systems planning, and prototype work
The game is still evolving, which means story structure, art direction, mechanics, and interface elements may change over time.
- Otome
- Narrative adventure
- Romance
- Fantasy
- Choice-driven
- Stat / route-based progression
- Character-driven routes with emotional depth and distinct relationship dynamics
- Branching choices that shape tone, trust, and narrative outcomes
- Worldbuilding woven into the story, rather than treated as background decoration
- Progression systems that support roleplay and route access
- Mystery and emotional tension beneath a deceptively inviting surface
- Branching dialogue choices
- Multiple romance routes
- Route-specific events and endings
- Hidden conditions and unlockable content
- Stat-based progression
- Minigame integration
- Save / load functionality
- Original UI and presentation design
- Character artwork and CG/event illustrations
- Soundtrack and sound design integration
The exact stack may evolve during development, but the project currently involves or plans to involve:
- Narrative scripting / game logic
- Visual asset creation
- UI design and prototyping
- Version control with Git / GitHub
- Project planning and documentation tools
A more technical breakdown may be shared later as systems become stable enough to document publicly.
The goal of Once Upon a Tale is to create an original otome experience that feels emotionally engaging, replayable, and narratively layered, while combining strong atmosphere with meaningful player agency.
The project aims to balance:
- romance and mystery
- comfort and unease
- charm and consequence
- familiar fairytale motifs with more unsettling or introspective undertones
This public repository is intended to share the project at a high level.
To avoid spoilers and protect unreleased material, some development content is intentionally not included here, such as:
- full route outlines
- complete scripts
- hidden route logic
- spoiler-heavy lore documents
- unreleased final assets
Screenshots, mockups, concept images, or dev snapshots may be added here as development progresses.
See ROADMAP.md for the current high-level development plan.
See STATUS.md for the current focus and milestone overview.
See CHANGELOG.md for public development updates.
This is currently a solo project and is not open for external story, art, or code contributions at this time.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.
All story content, writing, original concepts, artwork, designs, and project materials are protected.
See LICENSE.md for usage terms.
Work in progress. Everything here is subject to change during development.