This unique manga-style visual novel lets you play the story as you wish

It is exam season As students across the country try to cram up the entire yearrsquos syllabus a night before DDay this writer whimsically signed herself up for a JEE coaching class yesterday mdash except that it was for a game Last December two fresh graduates released a unique mangastyle visual novel My First Month in a JEE Coaching where readers can play out the story as they wish The results at the end of the month in the game much like in real life are entirely based on how you choose to spend your time mdash studying watching shows hanging out with friends or doomscrollingThe player in this case the writer is the gamersquos main characterThe game begins with an exhaustive lecture by the institute owner on good marks and packages Your mission is to promote from Class B to Class A the latter has students with higher chances of clearing the exam It also has your childhood friend Siddarth whom your parents constantly pit you against and a potential love interest AnanyaThe visual novel features 10 different characters The choices you make will also affect their growthldquoThere are 22 different possible endings based on the answers you chooserdquo share creators Animesh Chaubey 22 and Shardul Chaturvedi 23 The catch we learned by playing the threehourlong game is balancing study time ldquoStudying too much might make you top the class but you might lose your sanity or be sad about having missed out on all the fun your friends had You could also rank third and still be satisfied you could be the underdog and so onrdquo the duo clarifiesShardul ChaturvediHow does one know that they are making the right choices This writer learns that a bar indicating productivity and a mini game that pops up each time a professor asks you to solve a question may carry a hint The game is engaging has entertaining characters with punchy dialogues that make you crack up including the lsquorizzrsquo easygoing professor we all like and the dull one that puts students off to sleep You make friends as in real life crack a joke study together and take chaat breaks The part that bemused the writer is the incorporation of mini shows within this one that you can enjoy the same way that you bingewatch in your daily routine If you think your character has had enough study time you can make them watch Cow Tank a parody on Shark Tank and Engineering in Another World an Indian version of a typical Isekai animeThe visual novel has also been adapted into a webcomic that includes the same characters shows and conceptldquoAdding these shows was a lastminute update that Animesh and I maderdquo Chaturvedi the game director laughs The first cousins took nearly three months to get most of the game ready ldquoI am a game developer and a data engineer Animesh on the other hand is an artist and a software engineer We decided to make the best of both worlds and create something that is not common in Indiardquo the 23yearold adds While Chaubey is a Delhiite Chaturvedi is from Goa and spent 15 years of life in Mumbai Most of their work due to the distance was created online The idea the anime enthusiasts tells us emerged from their shared experience in coaching classesAnimesh ChaubeyThe duo worked 15 to 16 hours on a daily basis for three months to make their vision come to reality Along with the storyline mini games characters and shows the visual novel has original music over 30 tracks created by Chaturvedi to match the mood of the different plots and turns in the visual novel ldquoIt was a huge riskrdquo they admit ldquoas there were only two of us doing all of it and we werenrsquot even sure how people would react to it It was a fresh concept in the Indian anime communityrdquoThe notforprofit initiative aims at reaching more people and bolster the anime community of the country It was inspired by Indian OTT show Kota Factory similar games namely Adventures with Anxiety and Ace Attorney and movies like Midsommar and Hereditary They have also adapted the game into a webcomic mdash JEE Diaries where they continue the story with the same characters This book which is free to read has crossed 100 thousand views since its release in February They assure us that this is not the end for the game and that players keep an eye out for updates ldquoTill then they can enjoy the webcomicrdquo Chaubey the art director reminds usLog on to beaconsaijeediariesFreeOther creators to watch out for Mumbai in anime verseThis page brings anime characters to Mumbai and extends their storyline as they learn the ways of a typical MumbaikarLog on to thecomixindia Mythology meets animeCatch Krishna fight demons alongside Naruto or Bheem sporting the ace anime look as famous Indian epics and anime come under the same roof every SundayLog on to jazylhdraws Animated danceEnjoy Indians dancing in anime style to trending regional songs on InstagramLog on to cartoon_statuz