Development team TidalBlossoms has announced a demo is now available for its upcoming visual novel Starlight Shores. Players interested in the game can now try out the short demo by downloading it for Windows, Mac, or Linux.

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Visual novels are story-based, and there is no action gameplay. Players read an engaging story and are then prompted to make decisions. The decisions play a vital part in the game since it will have branching storylines and may ultimately affect the ending.

Starlight Shores takes place at a beach vacation getaway at the ton of Seaside. Theo, the protagonist’s best friend, has won the vacation and is now looking forward to spending time with friends. It’s the protagonist’s birthday as well, and he’ll be spending it in a beautiful location.

Theo has also invited her blue-haired roommate Lena to join the group, while the protagonist invites his friend Alec. Everyone was apart due to college obligations, but can now reconnect in Seaside.

Alec insists on going to Seaside by himself instead of with the protagonist. The protagonist got to the vacation house early and assumed that Alec backed out at the last minute.

The protagonist admits that Alec has been a good friend until they decided to rent a student house together. Alec dates several women at once but is unable to commit to one person. Lately, the protagonist’s friend has been less of a friend and more of an enemy.

Everyone is surprised when Theo arrived with an uninvited guest, a young woman named Erika. She also grew up in the same small town that the rest of the group did, but otherwise, she’s a total stranger. Even though the weekend turned out to have an unexpected twist, the protagonist hopes to enjoy his time with Theo. Unfortunately, Theo doesn’t open up to strangers easily, which may create an awkward situation for everyone.

The demo page includes additional information about the main characters. Lena is Theo’s new best friend, but the protagonist knows little else about her. She seems like an outgoing person on social media, but appearances can be deceiving.

The demo is only around 30 minutes but introduces players to the vacation house and the main characters. Players can play through the demo and try out different dialogue options to see how characters react.

Starlight Shores is the NaNoRenO 2020 submission for TidalBlossoms. NaNoRenO is an annual month-long gamejam in March, where players are challenged to make a visual novel from start to finish. It was inspired by NaNoWriMo, which is a writing challenge that takes place in November.

Players can learn more about Starlight Shores by following the developer on social media. The team also has a Discord server where players can learn more about the game and also TidalBlossoms’ upcoming visual novel projects.

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Starlight Shores is expected to fully launch in Fall 2020.