Convento

Convento is a kinetic visual novel about a group of players who meet in an online game. Though they come from different situations, they share a goal: exploit a loophole and make a living playing video games while being NEETs. The story follows their relationships over the years.

The fictional game

The story is set in a fictional online game with a virtual economy similar to TF2, where players often trade skins and hats, sometimes paying more attention to trading than to the game itself. The game draws on experiences of growing up with MMOs such as WoW and Runescape, and community-server games such as TF2 and Gmod.

Story and presentation

You control the pacing of the kinetic visual novel. Its movie-like presentation includes small interactions and cutscenes with hand-drawn animation and a painterly art style. The characters’ relationships are a central focus.

The story also reflects on friendships formed online: people who spend hundreds or thousands of hours together without meeting face to face, then may play their last match or raid without realizing it. Years later, one might wonder whether an old community or guild still exists, how its members are doing, and whether they remember each other.