One Night Stand dev's next game is a Miiverse-inspired visual novel
Videoverse is a 1-bit homage to early 00s social gaming networks
The solo developer behind the excellent visual novel One Night Stand has revealed their next game project today, and it's quite possibly the perfect cross-section of all my interests. It's called Videoverse, and is described as a narrative adventure above love and friendship, inspired by Nintendo's now defunct social network, Miiverse (which all Wii U and 3DS owners know is the single, most wholesome thing to have ever existed in video games). Have a watch of the teaser trailer below.
The trailer only gives us a brief glimpse of what its Videoverse social network will look like in-game, but its Steam page gives us a bit more to go on, showing lots more screenshots of its 'Feudal Fantasy' community pages as well as its forum-style conversations between its main cast of characters. Personally, I'm getting big Hypnospace Outlaw vibes, but with gorgeous 1-bit artwork.
Rather than playing as an online corporate cop, however, Videoverse will be putting you in the shoes of Emmett, a video game-obsessed teen. You'll still need to report the odd troll lurking around its forums now and again, but you'll also be browsing community pages, sharing fan art and forging new friendships along the way. Since this is a decision-based visual novel, you'll have the option of getting involved with everyone's teen dramas and favourite fandoms through its multiple side-stories, and there's also mention of corporate conspiracies to unfurl as well. Alternatively, you could simply choose to help Videoverse thrive from afar, although how exactly you'll go about it remains to be seen.
It also looks like you'll be spending portions of the game offline in Emmett's bedroom, too, as screenshots also reveal the fictional video games console where Videoverse actually lives, the "Kinmoku Shark" - which is no doubt a play on Nintendo's old 'Dolphin' codename for the GameCube (even if in practice it's more like a chonky hybrid of a 3DS and a Dreamcast). Like One Night Stand, it also looks like Videoverse won't shy away from some of the more *ahem* mature content you can find online, judging by its Steam page at least, and I'm keen to see how it navigates the seedier parts of online fandom.
There's no release date for Videoverse just yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam and Itch to stay up to date with its progress.