Edgefield

Edgefield is a dating simulation game where you can freely choose to play as a male or female character to begin your freshman year at a university. You'll encounter classmates and teachers with diverse personalities, building different relationships and even deeper emotional bonds through various daily activities and story events. As the game progresses, different storylines will unlock based on your relationships with different characters and your preferences—whether it's a harem, pure love, or homosexuality—it's all up to your choices. The game is constantly being updated and optimized, with new story texts, characters, and high-definition rendering continuously being released to bring players more fresh experiences.

Features of Edgefield:

Craft Your Own Narrative: In this game, your path isn’t predetermined. Unlike traditional dating simulations that guide players along a specific storyline, Edgefield empowers you to carve out your own narrative. Every decision you make has consequences that resonate throughout your gameplay. For instance, choosing to approach a group of friends can lead to new friendships, while avoiding them may result in feelings of isolation. The game embodies the essence of life at university, where social dynamics shift and evolve based on your choices.

The Impactful Choice System: What sets Edgefield apart is its intuitive choice system. Every dialogue option is loaded with meaning, and the game's mechanics reflect real-life consequences. A supportive comment might endear you to a character, while a dismissive comment can create rifts in relationships. The emotional weight of each decision heightens the realism of the gameplay, encouraging players to think critically about their actions. If you skip classes in pursuit of social activities, you might face academic repercussions, challenging you to juggle your social life with your responsibilities.

Build Genuine Connections: Relationships in Edgefield are not just points on a graph—they are living, breathing connections influenced by your choices and interactions. Spend time with a potential romantic partner, and you may unearth their hidden depths and vulnerabilities. Engage in casual conversations, and you might discover unexpected alliances or rivalries. As the semester progresses, the narrative evolves, with characters responding to your past actions, creating a rich tapestry of relationships that can change dramatically based on your choices.

Dynamic Storytelling Experience: The narrative of Edgefield is anything but static. Because the game is regularly updated and driven by player feedback, each new release brings fresh content and improvements. Players have the opportunity to participate in polls and discussions that directly influence game development, ensuring a sense of community and collaboration. This model of continuous evolution keeps the gameplay experience vibrant and engaging, making players feel like active contributors to the Edgefield universe.

Changelog:

Another month of work has gone into the game and we're excited to share our progress!

1. Character Update Poll Winner - Quinn: This past month we held our third official Character Update Poll where you got to decide which main character would receive an exclusive update after Trent and our upcoming feature update. After a very close race where Victoria took second and Peter took third, you all voted for Quinn! You can check out the final results here!With the vote decided, we've already settled the outline for the Quinn Update and Dr. Bird has begun writing those scenes! We know you'll enjoy finally being able to buy that skateboard!

2. Poses: Most of our time this past month was dedicated to creating a ton of new poses for the Trent Update. Both Trent and our main character are getting tons of fun new art to bring these new scenes to life. Here is a quick sneak peek at a few!

3. Small Changes to the Grading App: We made some slight adjustments to the look of the Grades App and have gotten Professor Taylor's grading mechanic fully implemented into the game!

4. Screenshots: Since finishing all of the poses, we've moved on to Scene Assembly! With the help of Dr. Bird, what used to be our most time consuming process is now flying by faster than ever. Here are a few screenshots from the upcoming Trent Update!

5. Introducing A New Visual Element: One thing we know Edgefield needs is more natural build up leading into our romance scenes and animations. Grounding these moments makes the interactions feel much more realistic, and longer intimate build ups make the payoffs that much more rewarding.To achieve this, we are introducing a brand new visual element we are calling post card images. These give you close up, more detailed snapshots of intimate moments leading up to our romantic scenes, complete with new internal dialogue and descriptive narration text. Following the Trent Update, as part of the next Feature Update, we'll also go back and add these intimate moments to all previous romantic scenes in the game.

6. Simplifying the Dark Room: We took a close look at the Dark Room and decided to give the interactions a complete overhaul. We have replaced the somewhat confusing minigame with a streamlined montage showing our main character completing the actual photo development process. This change removes an unnecessarily tedious gameplay loop that a ton of players have had trouble with. Expect a first look at this soon!

7. Feature Update Reminder: As a quick reminder of what is coming down the pipeline, our next major milestone after the Trent Update will be a new Feature Update. This will be an update where we add new mechanics, tweak existing ones and just prepare the game to continue scaling in an efficient and enjoyable way.While we're not ready to share any details yet, just know that we are incredibly excited about it and know that it will be one of our most impactful updates yet as well as a huge improvement to the game.

8. Upcoming Playtesting: As we enter the final stretches of development for the Trent Update, we are gearing up for an extended playtesting phase. Our goal is to run multiple rounds of testing to ensure our supporters receive the most polished, stable version of the game possible.As a quick logistical note, please do not message us directly on Discord to ask about joining the playtest. We will drop a formal announcement as soon as we are ready to open recruitment for new testers!Those interested in testing will be accepted in order of Patreon Membership Tier status until the spots are filled.

9. Progress Bars: We have made great progress over the last month and the finish line is coming into view. We look forward to sharing more updates with you very soon.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and enthusiasm. Edgefield truly would not be possible without you!

Player Comments of Edgefield:

I m liking the design, animations and the storytelling. A bit brutal with the pacing at the beginning when you do not have a lot to do.

But it is promising and I will be watching the thread for updates.

Playing the 0.3.0 update, really liked the game so far! The art style is nice and "soft", the dialogs feel mostly natural and not overwhelming, and the scenes are very nice to look at! Overall great game, hope to see it in completion one day!

Good game, enjoyed playing what's available to date. Looking forward to more updates. Reminds me of Summertime Saga in game style but provides more dating alternatives. Graphics and dialog were fine. It loos like lots of branches are available based on the number of characters. Gameplay was pretty straightforward. Early stages but looking forward to more.

Really intriguing characters. Excellent writing. The weird family situation is awkwardly contrived, presumably as a necessary trope for the genre, but once you get to the university and your family leaves, the quality improves dramatically. Characters I thought at first I would hate turned out to have intriguing depth. I really appreciate the freedom to romance any NPC regardless of the genders involved, too. I'm looking forward to updates, especially with Penelope.

The game is made with soul and a genuine creative approach that shines through even in the smallest details - something quite rare in this genre. The characters, both main and supporting, are charming and engaging. The visual style and design are pleasing to the eye, and the mini-games are not only fun but also feature the same fantastic design. The developers deserve huge credit. A well-deserved 5 out of 5!

Final words:

Edgefield lets you experience freshman life at a prestigious university. Choose your protagonist and explore a variety of relationships with a diverse cast, all while navigating your academic journey and personal growth.