Scene Builder

Story Keeper

Title: Lanterns at Low Tide.
Genre: slice-of-life romance with a light mystery thread.
Setting: Shiomura, a fading seaside town in the off-season. Present day.
Premise: the protagonist returns to their hometown to help close down the family inn and finds a letter addressed to someone who supposedly never existed.
Tone: quiet, warm, melancholy around the edges. The mystery simmers; it never turns into a thriller.
Length target: a prologue, three chapters per route, and an epilogue per ending.

Story premise

- Protagonist (player-named, default Aoi) - late twenties, dry sense of humor, avoids talking about why they left town. Narrates in first person.
- Hana - childhood friend who stayed and now runs the bakery. Warm, talks fast, deflects serious moments with food. Her route is about what staying cost her.
- Kaito - lighthouse keeper's son, blunt and economical with words. Says one true thing per scene. His route digs into the letter.
- Grandmother Sumi - runs the inn, sharp memory, claims to remember nothing about the letter. Not a love interest; she anchors the mystery thread.

Characters

Common route: prologue and chapter one. Branch point: the festival night choice (help Hana at the stall, or walk the seawall with Kaito).
Hana route: three chapters. Endings: "Open Sign" (good, she keeps the bakery and the protagonist stays), "Last Ferry" (bittersweet, both leave town).
Kaito route: three chapters. Endings: "The Letter Answered" (good, mystery resolved), "Unsent" (bittersweet, the truth stays buried).
Flags: kindness points per route, plus one mystery flag (found_the_second_letter) that gates the good ending on the Kaito route.

Routes and endings

Script format:
- Speaker name on its own line, dialogue below it. Narration unmarked.
- Stage notes in square brackets: [bg: seawall, dusk] [sprite: hana, smiling] [sfx: gulls].
- Choices as a numbered menu with the flag or route effect in parentheses.

Prose:
- Short paragraphs. Two or three sentences of narration between lines of dialogue, not walls of text.
- Dialogue carries the scene. Characters do not explain their feelings; they deflect, joke, or go quiet.
- Scenes end on a small image or a held silence, not a summary.
- Per scene: 600 to 1000 words.

Writing style

Dusk by the sea. Deep twilight-blue scene area, dialogue in a soft parchment box pinned to the bottom, the speaker's name in small caps above the line. Choices appear as centered lantern-amber buttons. Text is the star: generous line height, one gentle beat at a time, no clutter around the words.

Visual style

Traid

Turn your story notes into a playable visual novel. Plays your scenes as a click-through story with branching choices, drafts new scenes in your voice, and keeps routes and characters consistent.