Creative.Games
Summer routines, growing affection and mysteries to unravel. Story and choice, music and direction come together in a time you experience for yourself.
VISUAL NOVEL
Tidemarks of Summer / 潮痕纪夏
Return to a seaside town and spend a summer growing closer through everyday conversation. Following local rumors reveals new sides of familiar people and places. A story-led visual novel weaving grounded mystery with the intimacy of youth.
FORMATStory-driven visual novel
GENRESummer · Countryside · Romance · Mystery · Coming of age
STATUS2026 / IN PRODUCTION
Creative.Games / OP
Creative.Games / CONCEPT
Daily life makes people familiar, romance brings anticipation to time together, and mystery leaves new questions in familiar places. Tidemarks of Summer expresses those changes through writing, art, music and direction, with choices making the player part of the summer’s unfolding.
01 / CREATIVE ORIGINS
We began with an ordinary summer that might become unforgettable to someone. The distance between people, town life, sound and light are where we look for inspiration.
Tokyo high-school student Haruto Kiryu returns to Shiomi to sort through his grandfather’s old home. Sea breezes, local trains, shops and festival preparations shape everyday life, while rumors surrounding an old broadcast at the abandoned weather station begin to intrude.
We chose the visual-novel form to make time for listening, noticing an expression and considering a pause. Shared days lead into four individual stories, with each choice inviting you to think through Haruto’s eyes.
We want the pleasure of noticing, not simply being told the answer. Clues arrive in time to compare records, accounts and observations. Even the unease of night remains connected to human actions and real events.
Wanting to understand someone can coexist with their not being ready to speak. In writing romance, we care about noticing that distance: observing closely, considering reasons and respecting the other person’s wishes. Being close does not entitle us to every answer.
Clear daylight, space for romance at dusk, and grounded unease at night. Character motifs, cicadas, distant thunder, portrait movement and pauses all belong to the same emotional rhythm.
Walking through town, listening to an account and sharing a detail just noticed belong both to deduction and to spending time together. Summer routines, growing affection and the town’s mysteries change the meaning of one another. Understanding an event can also bring the person beside you into clearer focus.
02 / MAIN CAST
17 · Childhood friend / Festival committee
The shopkeeper’s daughter is Haruto’s sunny, direct childhood friend. Everyday shop life and busy festival preparations reconnect his return with the town.
18 · Final-year student / Shrine caretaker
A composed final-year student devoted to her duties at Shiomi Shrine. Time with her gradually reveals an ordinary young woman’s daily life beyond her formal manners.
16 · Clinic helper / Weather observer
Nagi helps at the clinic and enjoys observing the weather. Quiet but attentive, she finds her own way of being close in moments spent looking at the sky together.
17 · A summer visitor with a camera
A summer visitor who loves photography and notices lovely moments in other people. Her eye brings a fresh view to the familiar town; looking at a place together becomes a way of getting to know one another.
03 / PEOPLE OF SHIOMI
Mio’s father runs Asakura Store, Stationmaster Saeki keeps the railway’s days moving, and reporter Kuze covers the town. Haruto’s return brings him into more lives than the girls’ alone. Conversations at the shop and station give Shiomi the texture of a community.
04 / AFTER STORY · IN PRODUCTION
From the seaside town to Tokyo campuses and street corners. Hotaru studies photography; Haruto studies information design. This After Story follows them as lovers and fellow creators with distinct strengths, making work while learning how to share everyday life.
AFTER is a narrative sequel centered on university life and creative collaboration. The joy of making something, the difficulty of working with others and the search for a place of one’s own bring romance into a wider life. Individual ambitions, new friendships and the world of work drive a new story about choosing and building a future together.
NEW LIVES / NEW CONNECTIONS
Misaki studies visual design, Naoto pursues photography, and Shion and Rio bring perspectives from human-centered design. Hotaru and Haruto each have studies, friendships and encounters through work that open new parts of the city to them. Their relationship continues alongside their individual growth.
REVISITING SHIOMI
04Players who experience the story in depth unlock an in-game archive of character design, portraits, scene design and background art. It preserves not only finished images, but the creative decisions behind why each person and place took its final form.
Explore art direction →