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Sweet Leaves

Sweet Leaves is a cinematic slice-of-life drama about new beginnings, grief, and family, told over four episodes presented in a unique storybook style. The main story follows Red Ellsworth, a California transplant looking for a fresh start following a tragic event. Set against the backdrop of a small, quiet northern Minnesota town, Red finds an unexpected anchor in the Graingers and their found family—a tightly-knit group who welcome and support him during the transition from his old life to a new one. Just as he's beginning to settle in, Red is introduced to a strange and remarkable being that will change the course of his life forever. Sweet Leaves is a kinetic, linear, fully-authored graphic/visual novel. With no branching paths or choices to pull you out of the moment, you can fully immerse yourself in a rich, dynamic atmosphere that lets you experience the story as if it were a living book. “Sweet Leaves” was created as an LGBTQIA, fantasy, slice-of-life webcomic back in 2018, following the story of the Grainger family—two gay fathers, their precocious son, and the found family members that stepped in to help raise the child after the untimely and tragic death of his mother. Sweet Leaves stories acknowledge that painful events that occur in their lives, but how providing love, empathy, and physical and emotional support to loved ones can help them through those inescapable difficulties and trials of life we all face—even when some of those things just can’t be fixed. Humorous, happy, and light-hearted at times, and sad and bittersweet at others, Sweet Leaves aims to leave its readers with a lasting emotional impression, and to hopefully inspire others to commit their own acts of kindness and thoughtfulness for those they love, similar to how the Graingers and their extended family do so for one another. Sweet Leaves includes features aiming to create an immersive and cinematic experience for the reader, such as: Unique storybook-style presentation All hand-drawn backgrounds with animations Animated sprites with over 100 unique expressions per character Pre-rendered, cinematic CG cutscenes Custom atmospheric sound effects Decorative custom UI All-original chillhop soundtrack featuring tracks by AJMW (from Chillhop Records and Lo-Fi girl) August Grainger Creator / Director / Writer MidoriDeer Editor Flint Character Artist & Design Reo Background Artist & Extras Khaki Concept Editor Soul Nero UI / UX Artist SrBilyon Lead Programmer Wattson Assistant Programmer Website assembled and created by Creeeples Q: I’m new to the series. Do I need to have read the Sweet Leaves comics in order to understand the novel? A: No! In fact, the narrative is written in such a way that assumes the reader is not familiar with the series or characters. If this is your first Sweet Leaves experience (welcome!), don’t worry, you won’t be lost. Q: Is there a gallery that contains all the Sweet Leaves webcomics previously released if I’d like to read them before starting the novel, though? A: Yes! We've made the comic collection available on this page in a .zip file separate from the game. You can download it for free. Q: Do I play as a character? Are there any choices in this novel? A: Sweet Leaves is a fully kinetic novel without a player character, branching pathways, or choices. Q: Will there be any F/F romance/relationships in addition to M/M? How about M/F? A: Yep! We've got all 3 in the narrative. Q: Will there be explicit content in the novel? A: While the main narrative is completely SFW, optional adult DLC containing explicit M/M and F/F romance scenes between couples in the story will occasionally be released for future episodes (note, there are no adult/explicit scenes in episode 1). All explicit content in future episodes will be skippable, and readers will not miss any plot points or experience holes in the narrative if they don’t view these scenes. In future episodes that contain explicit scenes, the game will warn the player and give the option to skip or watch the scene. Q: What is your release schedule going to be for future episodes? A: We estimate episodes releasing approximately every 12-15 months. Future episodes will be between 40,000 and 80,000 words. Q: How can I support this project? A: First of all, thank you for considering it, we can use every single penny we can get (this thing’s not cheap to produce)! You can leave a donation at our Ko-Fi page, name a price/donate on the itch.io download, or join our Patreon.