Darling Duality
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Sinister or sweet?
Pick your poison...
On one fateful night in the middle of winter, a lonely soul's wish is granted.
In a world where everything is often black or white, which path will you take when you encounter the living, breathing version of a love interest from the most recent visual novel that you've been playing?
Please note, the game is currently in development but largely on hold while I finish a long-term project that I began before this one.
For more information about Darling Duality's development, please see this post.
Or check out this post containing a list of answers to the most frequently asked questions about the project.
I hope to add more character routes in the future.
For now, the demo only contains the beginning of Castor/ia's route.
To discover the origin story of a couple of other characters who will have their own route in the game sometime in the future, check out Dawn of the Damned.
(Check out the screenshots for an enlarged version of the profile images. MORE CHARACTERS TO COME.)
- 2 versions of the same character - Choose between Castor (M) and Castoria (F)
- Choose your name & pronouns
- Roleplay/ASMR-like scenario with full English voice acting
- Different endings depending on your choices
- Lots of expression changes that match the voice acting
- Adaptive UI (text boxes change depending on a character's mood)
- Use the scroll wheel on your mouse to fast-forward or rewind through the game (you cannot rewind after making a choice)
Please note that the game was designed so that the expression changes match the pacing of the voice acting, so if you choose to turn the voice acting off, the expression changes will appear to match up strangely with the text.
Also, if you change the text speed in the settings, it will mess with the timing of the expression changes. It's supposed to be more like a roleplay scenario that you listen to (or play through on auto) rather than doing a lot of reading.
- Flashing lights
- Self-harm (in order to try and wake up from a dream)
- Yandere-esque shenanigans
- Suggestive situations
- Depictions of blood
- Physical violence
Written & Created by Melancholy Marionette
Castor VA: Kevin Rineer
www.kevinrineer.com
@kevinrineervo
Castoria VA: Aria Marisa
Voice Director: Anthony Rodriguez
www.anthonyrodriguezvo.com
twitter.com/Cryshulvo
For full credits, please see the document inside the game folder.
Darling Duality is a game that I hope to develop further :3 I have many more character routes planned, along with additional scenarios with Castor + Castoria! The current version/demo serves as a standalone episode but is more like an introduction to one of many characters in a much larger project that is currently in development.
If you want more information about the project's development, please see this post here.
If you have any questions about the project, please check this FAQ first to see if it has already been answered :3
The original version of the game (Darling Duality - Winter Wish) was a game I made for a combination of the Secret Santa Jam + the Winter VN Jam, based on a short story that I wrote called: Say My Name.
It was created in just under 1 month and was the first game I made using Naninovel x Unity, so it was pretty tough trying to finish something to upload in time for the jam deadline while also learning how to use a new engine. The original jam version of the game can still be downloaded. Since then, I have made numerous changes to the current version to better reflect my future vision for the project :3
As always, there are bound to be some small bugs! Aaaand, I'm unable to test the Mac + Linux versions, as I only have access to Windows, so it's entirely possible that those versions don't work >.< I will do my best to fix any bugs encountered anyhow :3
Please use this thread here to comment on any bugs that you find :D
Need help getting the game to open on Mac? Check out this post I made with a few possible fixes!
Or need a walkthrough to discover all the stuff the current demo has to offer?
Check out this post here!
(Or download the text document from the downloads section of the game page :3)
Contact:
If you enjoyed playing through the game demo (or even if you didn't xD), I'd really appreciate hearing your feedback in the comments + ratings are much appreciated too ^-^
If you need help with anything, or just wanna drop me a message about the game, feel free to post a comment, or send me an email: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
You're welcome to buy me a coffee, or support the projects I'm working on by becoming a patron :3
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Free Community Copies
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Free Community Copy
Free community copies are available for those who cannot afford to support the game with money :3
Development log
- Development FAQ84 days ago
- Darling Duality Progress Report & Plans For The Future84 days ago
- 30 Days Wild Fundraising Again (wallpaper + more as thanks :3)Jun 01, 2023
- Demo WalkthroughMar 06, 2023
- Castor Needs YOU! (and he brought flowers ^_-)Mar 04, 2023
- End of the year rambling + 1st CG goal met :3Dec 23, 2022
- Mini-Update ReleasedNov 04, 2022
- Happy Halloween! (+ mini-update delayed due to internet death >.<)Oct 31, 2022
Comments
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Do you intend on making an Android release for this game?
Forget the fact that i was saying his name wrong for the first half of the video... I really enjoyed playing it. I wasn't expecting this level of yandere lol I think I've been reading too many soft yandere ;) Can't wait for future updates!!
Ooooh, damn, he wouldn't be happy about that xD He'd probably wind up pinning you in a corner until you said it right or something, haha.
Glad you had fun with the demo! Thanks so much for checking it out :3
It's funny because he gets even worse with the yandere behaviour in some of the stuff I've written for his sinister route that isn't playable yet >.< buuut, on the flip side, he also gets a lot sweeter on his sweet route too + becomes more like a protective (not so) little puppy the more you teach him, haha.
There are definitely some characters out there with a higher yandere level than Castor currently has though that are absolutely terrifying x3 Actually, even one of my own, Dämmerung from Dawn of the Damned (who will eventually be in Darling Duality) is probably worse than Castor! Maybe not in terms of explosive emotions, but absolutely in terms of actions taken cos the dude does some really messed up stuff in the name of love xD
I used to avoid soft yanderes as a player cos I thought they were boring, but in the past couple of years, I've come to realise I misjudged them haha. Heck, sometimes the soft ones can be creepier than the not-so-soft ones O.O
Thanks again ^-^
I imagine he wouldn't lol wait he gets worst??? Imma cry because I thought it can't! with that said, I'm ready for it plsss & thank you for that because I'm going to play that soon--I'm a sucker for lure, especially finding out he's worse than castor?? omg but while on that, will they be a love interest or a nuisance for Castor?
I cannot wait to see what you cook up xoxo.
Much, much worse x3 There’s some stuff in the script that I think would probably put a fair few people off of him, haha, but it’s totally avoidable with choices!
I haven’t written most of the other character routes in DD yet, so I can’t say with 100% certainty whether or not Castor & Dämmerung will meet at any point, but I haven’t planned on it.
Dämme & Morgen will be love interests :3 But probably not in a typical sense. I haven’t decided exactly what I want to do with them in DD yet x3
And while Dämme isn’t likely to run into Castor, someone else is. The character isn’t in the game yet, but Cana, MC’s best friend who is briefly referenced in the demo, is another LI, and Cana & Castor will definitely be a nuisance to each other, haha.
the demo was so fun! i haven't played through EVERY route fully but i have finished the sweet route and part of the hardcore yandere one, i love castoria with all her craziness and the slightly ax crazy aspect 💞 will all the other love interests also be yanderes? i read in the faq that there'll be more and i was wondering if everyone will be as obsessive as castor/ia if ever. it would be pretty cool playing a dating sim with every LI being a yandere 👀 can't say i've ever played one before... i'll def be keeping up with the game! take care of your health as well <3
That’s awesome that you had fun with the demo :D Thanks so much for checking it out!
The other love interests will all have some level/aspect of yandere-ness to them, yeah :3 They won’t all show it in the same way as Castor/ia, and some will lean into it more than others, but they will all have shades of yandere present with how much of it you see depending on the player’s choices, hehe.
It’s possible some of the future characters might swing more towards yangire than strictly yandere too, but yeah, they will all have those vibes somewhere in them x3
It’s kind of inevitable that I would end up making a game with all yandere LIs because almost every game I’ve ever made features at least 1 yandere LI of some sort and they’re the reason I got into making VNs in the first place :D
Still, I will give players the option to avoid being bombarded by yandere behaviour if they mainly stick to the sweet sides of the characters, haha.
Sadly, development will be quite slow, especially with me focusing on getting CiQ finished first, but I’ll get there eventually x3 I’m hoping I’ll be able to start working on DD full-time sometime next year :3
Thanks so much for your kind words and support! ^-^
This was really fun!! I loved Casper and also the protag. Ahhh really random but i really wanted to see how him getting a job would make MC's rent pay easier 😭🙏 like plz 2 people living togeths is so much cheaper. I am so excited for the update! I'm def gonna play again <3
That’s great :D So glad you had fun playing the demo ^-^
Hehe, well, the next part of the story that shows how getting a job plays out is already written, it’s just I haven’t coded it in yet cos I’m trying to finish some other stuff before coming back to this project x3
It definitely is easier to pay for everything though if you’re a pair, haha. I honestly don’t know how anyone can even live on their own in this day and age when everything is so expensive o.O
Thanks so much for checking out the demo and leaving such a nice comment :3
Oh my god this game already got me hooked this is such a great game I love Castoria so much she is already so charming. Great game btw I might make content based on you're game like an animation if I get good at it (Probably not tho) Hope you can keep working on the game (also what background did you use for the game like which pack from Minickle)
Glad to hear you had fun with Castoria so far in the demo :D Ooo, that would be so cool if you did end up doing that :o And hey, I’m sure you’ll get great at it if you keep practising :3 Finding time to do the things you love can be hard when life has a habit of getting in the way of stuff x3 but passion + practice pays off eventually!
Cheers! I’m kind of struggling to juggle different projects and general life things right now, so this particular project is on hold until I’ve managed to catch up with some other stuff, but once I’m finally finished with the things I need to finish, I’ll be back to working on this project again :3 It’s probably gonna take me a long time to complete this one >.< but I’ll get there in the end!
I used a few different backgrounds from some different Minikle packs + from another background asset pack artist but I can’t remember the name off of the top of my head, and I also can’t remember exactly which backgrounds I changed from the old jam version when I made the new demo version x3
If I had a better memory, I would list all the packs I used assets from, but my memory is terrible, and I have 50+ background asset packs on my PC, most of which are Minikle ones, so it would take me forever to look through them all searching for the backgrounds I used >.< haha. Sorry that's not very helpful >.<
Thanks so much for playing! :3
Thanks for replying and also I get it you probably have too many Minikle packs ready for use but maybe you could send me the picture source files from the game if not I'll just deal with it later since I'm not in a rush to make the room btw I'm learning blender to make you're characters 3D and try to hire some animators riggers and voice actors and that stuff but I'm still young so I don't really have to worry about it for now I've been studying like once a week in online tutors and also goodluck to you I hope you can finish this however long it takes :)
No worries :3 Unfortunately, I won’t be able to send the files because that would break the terms of service that Minikle set for using the assets :( When you buy them, you’re allowed to use them inside projects like games and videos, but it states that you’re not allowed to just post the actual individual files anywhere or share them with anyone outside of a project >.< I guess it’s to make sure everyone who wants to use them has purchased them themselves.
I don’t mind looking through the files and finding the names of the packs for you though :3 It’s just I don’t have any spare time to do it at the moment is all, so it might be a few months from now or something before I have the opportunity to search the correct pack names and make a list. Whenever I have the time though, I can try to write down all the names of the packs and link to the site I purchased them from, and I’m pretty sure there are small previews of what’s in most of the pack, so you should be able to view them for reference there without purchasing them :3
That’s so cool that you’re trying to learn Blender! My brother actually wants to do the same :D Sometimes you can get online courses and stuff for animation in Humble Bundles, but I have no idea if they’re any good because I’ve never used them before myself. I think I actually had one from there was like a beginner’s course for Blender that I sent to my brother cos I figured I would find it too hard x3
It’s great to keep up with studying stuff like that though if you can fit it in :3
Thank you ^-^ I will keep going even if it is at the pace of a snail, haha. Small steps and any progress is better than no progress at all :D Hope you get to have lots of fun learning stuff and just plenty of good times in general :3
Honestly yeah I get it looking trough files isn't the best thing you should be doing right now but the fact that you even considered that is pretty neat and nice of you. also you're brother wants to learn blender too? who knows maybe me and you're brother can collab sometime but that's highly unlikely just a hope for me. I also learn blender at an actual offline course so it's better quality but I need to pay for it to continue I also have ADD it's been a long time it just kinda manifest in me blasting music and imagining stuff also I hope you will be able to finish the game by 2030-ish but if not then just keeping working on it I hope this game can finally be a bit more recognized. good luck :)
To be honest, my brother will probably never actually get around to it x3 He’s one of those sorts of people who says he wants to do lots of things and then ends up not actually doing any of them >.< You never know though!
I hope you’re able to continue the course though and that it’s helpful :3 Having ADD must make it hard to focus on courses and stuff. To be honest, I don’t know that much about ADD, but the people I’m seeing at the moment think I have ADHD combined with my autism xD They think the two kind of cancel out traits from the other, haha. I tend to hyperfocus on things like crazy, but then I also end up getting fidgety and having to stop and focus hard on something else. It’s kind of annoying to deal with because it makes me do everything slower when I keep getting distracted >.<
I hope I’ll be able to finish it by then too! :3 But yeah, even if not, I’ll still keep working away until it’s done, haha.
Thank you and good luck to you too! :3
How do i tell you THAT THE MUSIC IN THE GAME IS FIRE DUDE, UNIRONICALLY NEED THEM ON SPOTIFY!! Like some of the tracks on the sinister route were worth to just stop for a little to vibe to the music, love everything omg
I’m so glad you like the soundtrack so far :D There’s a loooot more to come, haha. What’s currently in the demo is a mixture of music tracks from asset packs that I own + my own original music tracks :3
Sadly, I can’t upload the asset pack tracks anywhere as the terms of use state that you can only use them within a project. You’re not allowed to post them on their own anywhere since that would potentially result in the artist’s losing income as their asset packs are commercially available. Almost all of the tracks I use from packs come from Japanese artists.
It’s a bit of a different problem when it comes to tracks I’ve made myself x3 I would actually love to have all of my original music on Spotify! The problem is the cost >.<
A lot of distribution services require payment to even host your tracks on Spotify :( Often it’s a monthly or yearly sub too, and your tracks will be removed if you don’t keep your sub active. You can pay a higher price to have stuff on there permanently, but I’m unemployed, so it’s not money I can afford to spend x3 Some services will distribute for free, but they want dibs on all royalties and stuff if you were ever somehow lucky enough to make money off of your music >.<
For that reason, I currently only make my original music tracks available in-game on unlockable music players, on YouTube (currently missing my OSTs for Apartment No.9, Limbo Line, Dawn of the Damned, The Graveyard Shift, and Sapphire Snowe - I will upload more when I get a chance x3), or available to download as high-quality wav files for all Patreon & Ko-Fi supporters or those who donate at least $5 via itch.io.
I’m looking into the possibility of getting FLCloud since I use FLStudio, and with an FLCloud subscription, you can upload your tracks to Spotify at no extra cost as far as I can work out! It’s just if you stop your sub, your tracks disappear I think. Tbh though, I need to remaster a lot of my older stuff like the ones in Darling Duality because I didn’t really know anything about mastering tracks back when I made em, so volume and bass and stuff aren’t great on most of em >.<
You can find all the original tracks I made for Darling Duality on YouTube for now though :3 It’s not many atm. If the music you liked is not on there, it means it was an asset pack track rather than one of my originals, haha.
Since Darling Duality is such a big project though, I hope to continue using a mixture of asset pack tracks that I think fit well + carry on creating some brand new original tracks of my own for the game :3
Sorry that my reply was so long xD I can’t help myself rambling T_T But I’m super happy you like the music! Thank you so much for checking out the project :D
Omg ty so much for replying! And dw, i do understand how hard is to get stuff on spotify, but the tracks that are already in the game are so firee! I will take a look in youtube, ty smm ! Please keep up the good work! I already love this game and im super eager to see more of it! ♡♡♡
No problem at all :3 Tbh, I have the same problem with Steam xD It would be nice to have all my games on there, but when they want $100 fee per game, it’s like, yeeeeah, that’s a lot of money T_T haha. I’m just glad that itch exists cos it means poor people like me have a place where we can host our stuff!
Thank YOU for being so supportive! Even before I taught myself how to start making music for my projects, trying to find the right sort of music to match the scenes in my games was always one of my favourite parts of trying to make games, so it means a lot when anyone has something positive to say about the music side of things :D
I was very excited to play this game but every time I want to enter I see a black screen with music in the background and that didn't change, I waited 20 minutes and nothing happened 😭😭😭 (sorry for my bad English)
That’s strange :o It sounds like a bug that happened for some people with one of the much older versions of the game >.< It was an issue caused by certain PCs being unable to load video files (as the title screen used to feature a video background.)
I fixed that a long time ago though by replacing the video file with regular png image files and animating them in-engine.
Which version was it that you downloaded?
For reference, the most recent one that is recommended to download is the file called (depending on your OS):
Darling Duality - Demo - (Windows)
Darling Duality - Demo - (Mac)
Darling Duality - Demo - (Linux)
Any of the other files are old and outdated versions that are only there for posterity so that people can see how the game has changed over time if they want to. The full game isn’t out yet and won’t be for a long time :3
Thanks for your interest in the project. If you still have the problem, I’m not entirely sure what would fix it >.< but I can look into it when I’m actively working on the project again to try and make sure that it’s fixed for you when the full game is released eventually :3
Oh, and your English is great :D
Just finished playing the sweet Route of Castor and I am obsessed with it, I can't wait to play this game once the demo is completely finished!
I absolutely love the art and story line that goes with it, also thank you for the 99 save slots lmao. That is very helpful if you like certain moments or want to see other moments without having to completely restart the game if you don't like redoing gameplays.
10/10 overall. The glitched scene was very interesting to look at with all the choices scattered across the screen. Again I love this Demo so much it was such a fun experience I would definitely suggest this game to others.
Glad to hear you had fun with the demo! Thanks so much for checking it out ^-^ It’s gonna be quite some time before the full thing is eventually finished, but I’ll get there in the end, haha.
Hehe, weeeell, technically you can thank Naninovel for the 99 save slots cos that’s how many come by default on the save/load UI and I never tweak any of the actual settings, just the look of it x3 I feel you though cos I always save a LOT when I’m playing pretty much anything, but especially with VNs!
That’s really kind of you to say :3 Thanks again for taking the time to play the demo and leave such a nice comment! <3
ı personally don't like yanderes and ı like chill games but Premesie sounded SO İNTERESİNG so ı downloaded it.
I really enjoyed the soft route saying 'Woah, you are slightly creepy and it shows but interinggggg', and in the devilish route ı actually started to sweat! like- IT REALLY STRESSED ME OUT.
tho, not my cup of tea, and ı plan to go full soft route if it continues ı believe it's really a great game for hardcore yandere lovers!
Ah, man, well, that means a heck of a lot that you still decided to check it out even though they're not your cup of tea :3 I feel the same way about tsunderes, haha. They seem so popular but I'm yet to find one that I don't want to kick in the balls xD
Yeeeeah, when the path splits between the sweet and the sinister sides, it splits pretty drastically x3 But I'm hoping to write each character's route in a way that there will always be the option to almost entirely avoid the yandere behaviour altogether for those who prefer clingy and obsessive types without them trying to cut you up, haha. And on top of that, there should also be a way to kind of get back onto the sweet side of a character even if you accidentally wandered down the sinister path and vice versa, it's just the ending might not be quite as sweet or sinister as it would be if you'd gone purely down one path :3
I'm sorry for the stress on the sinister side of things though x3 It gets much worse in some of the content I've written that's not currently in the demo, haha. But the sweet side just gets fluffier :D
And that actually makes me really happy that you'd say you think it would be a great game for hardcore yandere lovers :3 I've always kinda felt like maybe the lack of 18+ content in my yandere games maybe makes them seem somewhat tame compared to a lot of the other stuff that's out there, haha. That and the fact that I often focus more on the psychological side of things over sheer blood and shock factor.
Thanks so much for taking the time to check out the demo and leave such a thoughtful comment :3
If you happen to like the sweeter side of Castor/ia, you might possibly like Blythe from my game Bitter/Sweet because, orange Blythe specifically, is very squishy and sweet, haha. I guess it depends on how you feel about stories that mention mental health stuff. It's supposed to be a chill game though x3
that's a pretty solid plan! I can't wait what the finished product be like! :O
Yeah, it’s just gonna take a while to actually execute the plan, haha. Sometimes I wish I could clone myself so I could do multiple tasks at once xD or just be part of a team rather than a solo dev x3
this is genuinely so good!! i love castor sm
Castor loves you too :P probably a little too much >.< haha.
So glad you like what little there currently is of the game :3 Progress on the project is pretty slow right now, but there’s more to come in the future! Thanks so much for checking it out ^-^
Is there an estimated date for when the full game will be released?I loved Castoria and I would really love to see more of her and the story
Funnily enough, I just finished typing up an FAQ post today, and that's the first question on there, haha. You can find it here if you want to read it :3
In short though, I honestly can't say :( All I can tell you is that it won't be anytime soon, sadly.
It's not even close to being finished. I hardly worked on it at all in 2023, and I don't anticipate even fully focusing on it until either the 2nd half of this year or in 2025 because I've got other things to deal with first that take priority >.<
So yeah, if I'm not starting to work on it full-time until late 2024/early 2025ish, it probably means I won't actually be able to finish it until something like 2026 T_T Maybe I will be lucky though and have the opportunity to finish it faster than that. It's really too hard to tell at this point.
I'm sorry that's not exactly a very helpful answer. There's even more info on why it's going to take so long in this post here if you feel like reading it (but it's a very long ramble x3)
I'm glad you like what's there so far though even though it's not that much yet :3 Thanks so much for playing the demo!
Cannot wait to see this game finished.
Honestly if the creator finished the writing and did the voice acting later so we can get the game quicker that would be great! However I'm just a vn fan so probably take my opinion with some salt.
In all seriousness I hope to see a completed game and the creator to make more fantastic projects!
I can only apologise that it will more than likely be quite some time to actually get it finished >.< but I’ll get there in the end :3 baby steps, haha.
Funnily enough, I’m typing up this reply at the same time as typing another reply to a comment on this project that also mentions voice acting stuff, but I rambled A LOT there, so I will try to write a shorter version here x3
The TLDR version is that without voice acting, I have no motivation and I hate every word of my writing so I wouldn’t be able to release it without voice acting >.< I know I’m weird T_T Pretty much any other dev would probably just release it all without VA first to get it done faster cos it’s the logical thing to do, but it just wouldn’t work for me cos without VA I’d just want to burn all my writing and never let it see the light of day x3
I appreciate the support though and I’m glad you’re interested in the project :3 I’ll absolutely get this finished eventually, it’s just gonna take quite a while because there’s a hell of a lot to do on it still and I have other projects that I want to get released first since I have a project older than this where I finished the writing years ago but ran into problems with it so haven’t been able to finish the coding yet >.< Once that one is out of the way, this one will be my main long-term project priority :3 I find I have to work on smaller side projects at the same time though because I get bored just working on one thing at a time, which makes everything take even longer x3
Hope the new year has started out awesomely for you!! :3
I hope you can get back into this game for 2024! I know you were worried about VAs and stuff, but I think a lot of people would be willing to let go of voiced lines if it means the game could come out quicker. Maybe opt for VA that's more sound-based? (characters make a sound to indicate their tone during the line, instead of fully voicing the line) I prefer that method anyways, because I read way faster than the VAs, and it would be cheaper to do since you would only need a VA to record sighs, laughs, grunts, or small, frequently used phrases (like "What?!" or "I love you!") Just a thought!
All in all, though prioritize yourself first. I saw your update about your diagnosis. I'm currently getting my doctorate in clinical psychology, so I understand how much fatigue can occur just to exist as an adult with ASD. If you need to take another year, or even drop this project entirely and focus on new, more uplifting projects, then please do so! As much as we look forward to this game being updated, I think most people would understand. You have real talent, so do what's necessary to keep growing as an artist.
I just copy/pasted this into the reply box from my notes and I can only apologise that it turned out to be gigantic x3
I’m hoping to work on it in some capacity this year, but it’s still not going to be a top priority because the guilt I have over having finished the writing for another long-term project years ago (Clarity in Qualia) is just too big x3 I desperately want to get that made first because I feel like it makes more sense to finally complete and release it before focusing primarily on Darling Duality since the writing for CiQ is finished and the writing for DD is nowhere near finished >.<
I know that’s probably not what anyone who’s following me specifically for DD wants to hear, but it’s what makes sense to me. Especially since I can’t write effectively unless I’m in the right frame of mind for it. Whereas I can code and stuff without needing to feel it because it’s a boring task whenever it’s tackled, haha.
I’ll try not to ramble on about the different reasons that have caused delays to this particular project’s development here though cos I’ve already drafted a ridiculously long post explaining everything x3 I just haven’t posted it yet because I wanted to get out at the same time as my 2024 schedule, which isn’t quite finished yet.
What you say about voice acting makes total sense, and I have no doubt that almost any other dev would definitely go that route because it would be the best compromise! Unfortunately, though, it wouldn't work for me personally for a couple of reasons >.<
As a player, I can’t stand partial voice acting or just like efforts and sound-based grunts and stuff x3 I would rather 0 voice acting, or full voice acting, anything in between irritates the heck out of me and has even put me off of finishing playing games in the past that I’ve otherwise been enjoying. But more than that, as a dev, voice acting is a huuuuuge motivator for me. If I know that a script I’m trying to write won’t have full voice acting, I essentially lose all motivation to write it at all >.< I have one project where I tried my best to plough on despite finding out I wouldn’t be able to get it voiced, and I truly believe that the game is awful for that reason (among a couple of others) x3 It’s the Love in Lockdown ones. They’re just reeeeally bad because my heart wasn’t in it in the end >.<
This will probably sound kind of crazy and somewhat pathetic, but I can’t stand my writing and my characters always feel so hollow without voices >.< For me, it’s the talent of voice actors that gives the characters a soul and allows me to actually begin to accept them along with the rest of my writing x3 Without voices in mind for the characters, I want to scrap all my writing and burn it to the ground, haha.
So even if players would rather a project had no or minimal voicing in order to get it out faster, it wouldn’t work because I wouldn’t be able to finish the project at all T_T So yeah, it’s more of a personal thing I guess. Even when I manage to finish all of the writing, I don’t think I would ever be content enough with it to actually release it without VA, regardless of what players might think >.<
In all honesty, I try my best to avoid thinking too much about what players might want in general since I find that far too overwhelming x3 If people happen to like what I’m doing, then that’s incredible and I really appreciate it a lot, but at the end of the day, this is a hobby that essentially functions as a coping mechanism to combat my depression and suicidal thoughts, so the priority with my projects is generally just doing whatever I can to keep my stupid brain occupied and somewhat content so that I don’t completely fall apart, haha. I don’t really have the energy in me to think about pleasing others in the process >.< It was only with getting my autism diagnosis that I actually learned it's something incredibly common for autistic people to do, using their special interest as a thought blocker!
I wish I could cater more for players because then I might stand a better chance at making the hobby into something I could actually support myself with like therapists keep telling me is my only hope of earning a living in life doing xD But I just don’t have anything left in me to devote to that side of things and I think it would potentially destroy my enjoyment of the hobby altogether if I try. Which is scary to think about because I genuinely don’t know how I would cope with life if I wasn’t doing this, haha.
Actually, I don’t know why this happens with me, and you might know with being a psychology student, but it’s one of those things that seems kind of absurd to me x3 Basically, when this particular project began getting more interest after Manly’s video, I was elated. I couldn’t believe so many people were interested in the project, and it made me super excited to return to it after I’d put it on hold to work on other things. But that very quickly turned into being completely overwhelmed x3 All of a sudden, people had expectations for this side project that I’d put on the backburner to return to at some point, and the weight of those expectations felt crushing.
I went from - holy moly, this is amazing, people like the project!!! To - I wish everyone would just leave me alone and stop expecting things from me T_T pretty quickly.
It’s a weird one because I never stopped being immensely grateful for the support people have shown at any point. But the more people started asking about updates, or suggesting features and story arcs, the more I wanted to boot the project off the face of the earth and run as far away from it as possible xD
I DO want to work on it, and I still have a huge passion for it and drive to finish it at some point. But I want to do it when I feel like it at my own pace. And I think the problem is, most of the time, when people make suggestions or they ask about updates, they don’t mean to pressure me at all, but I feel pressure anyway because (like an idiot) I put that pressure on myself >.< So it’s crushing nonetheless. It’s not the only reason progress on this has been so slow, but it’s definitely one of the big contributing factors.
The really crazy stupid thing is, I probably would have gotten further by now with (specifically the writing side of) the project if it had never received that attention, haha. Buuuut, on the flip side, without that attention and the support that came as a result of it, I likely also would never be able to implement full voice acting for all the characters I hope to create for it since I wouldn’t have the funding to pay for it all. As it stands, I have a much better chance of getting multiple characters fully voiced thanks to everyone’s generous support for the project :3
The support is clearly a super positive thing that I’m forever grateful for! I just wish my brain knew how to better handle the expectation side of things, haha. I think If I were ever in a position to run a Kickstarter for any of my projects, if it was actually fully funded, I might break from the weight of the following expectation >.<
I think that’s partly why I’m addicted to game jams. Because I know I have X amount of time, usually 1 month, to create and complete a concept, and once that time is up, I can release it into the wild knowing that I did my best with the time I had and that it’s then behind me. Folks can make of it what they will because the whole thing is there in front of them. Darling Duality was different because my aim was to release a self-contained story within the jam timeframe, with the intention of expanding on it as and when I was able to post-jam. I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford voice acting, so I’d put it to one side as something to work on in the distant future. I now know that making demos and concepts and releasing them is a bad idea for me for a whole host of different reasons, not just the expectation stuff, but things like losing voice actors as well.
I guess it’s all part of learning, haha. I’m at a point now where I’m going to try my best to participate in fewer jams in general in order to make some progress on my older long-term projects that I have yet to finish. Having CiQ, this, and Bitter/Sweet incomplete is irritating the heck outta me x3 And any jam I do participate in, I’ll be aiming to create a complete project within the jam, something short that I won’t be coming back to in the future, or at least not that exact story.
I really appreciate you saying to prioritise myself first, by the way :3 Because I do have a bad habit of forgetting to when I get overwhelmed, and I pressure myself to do stuff when I’m not feeling it because I think it’s what other people want me to do, and then it just turns out all wrong, haha.
It also means a heck of a lot for you to acknowledge how exhausting it can be just to exist with ASD because I feel like a lot of people don’t realise that or can’t comprehend it >.< Before my diagnosis, I used to think I was such a weak person because I thought that everyone else was dealing with the same issues as me, they were just able to somehow handle it all better. Getting the diagnosis has meant I now know that things I thought bothered everyone don’t even register with a lot of people xD Especially when it comes to the sensory side of things, haha. Half the time, I have to have a nap when I get back from the supermarket because the crowds, noise, and fluorescent lighting just sap the life out of me x3 It’s a relief to know that I’m not necessarily weak, I just have a different kind of brain. But I do feel like society has a long way to go in regards to understanding how seriously mental health stuff can impact people in general >.< For example, my own mum still believes that anxiety and depression aren’t things. She thinks that people just need to suck it up and get on with it >.<” I think she only thinks that way because she’s never had anxiety or depression, haha.
The funny thing is, I think how casual this project is is also part of why I’ve not felt like working on it much lately! I was in a somewhat happier place when I started it, and I think that shows in how much more playful and non-serious the story is, haha. My other projects are fairly dark and more serious than this, and I reckon that’s because that’s the place my head is at most of the time. To me, this project is kinda like just silly dating sim fuzz stuff that doesn’t mean anything beyond the fun of romance and building relationships with characters x3 And it does endlessly confuse me that this seems to be the one that’s the most popular out of everything I’ve worked on because I truly believe it’s not even close to being the best of my projects >.< I actually struggle to understand exactly what it is about this project in particular that people like. Because I can see in my analytics on itch.io that many people who play this and enjoy it don’t check out my other games. So I’m constantly asking myself, why this one? x3
I guess it could be down to my autism that I can’t comprehend why someone would play this and not my other stuff because I just analyse it all and when I scrutinise my writing and other aspects, I think it falls way short on this project compared to probably Apartment No.9, Limbo Line, Bitter/Sweet, Dawn of the Damned, Tunnel Vision, and Sapphire Snowe. Technically, all of those are better games. I feel the writing is stronger, the soundtracks are better, the sound design in general is better x3 there’s more to the artwork, there’s more in general. So yeah, I’m just forever puzzled by that, haha.
I still love this project just as much as any of my other projects, of course! I just don’t get why other people have grown more interested in this particular one when I view it as inferior x3 Sometimes I imagine it feels a bit like how musical artists with one-hit wonders must feel when an audience only wants to hear that one hit song xD And the artist must be thinking, but guys… I have all this other stuff too, ya know… don’t you want to hear any of that? T_T Thankfully, I’m somehow lucky enough to have supporters who do check out my other projects even if this is the one that initially caught their eye, and I think it’s largely thanks to them that I haven’t gone completely insane, haha.
But yeah, the only way I’m ever dropping this project is if I die or somehow become unable to use a computer x3 That’s the only way I’ll ever drop any of my projects, haha. Even if no one else cared about Darling Duality anymore and lost interest because it took me so long to work on it, I’d still finish it and release it because I can’t stand leaving things unfinished :3
It honestly means a hell of a lot to me though what you said about taking more time and stuff because hearing that sort of thing does genuinely help. It allows me to stop being quite so hard on myself if other people give me permission to take my time. And I know that’s daft because I shouldn’t need other people’s permission at all >.< But for whatever reason, I do, haha. Because without it, I just feel guilty 24/7 that I haven’t been able to achieve as much as I would have liked by now. And that guilt is pretty paralysing. Sometimes it can be the opposite and spur me into action or increase motivation, but most of the time, it just cripples me and makes me feel useless and despairing >.< So yeah, I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you :3
And just thank you in general for taking the time to type up such a thoughtful and kind comment as a whole! I still don’t know if I have it in myself to think of myself as an artist x3 but it means so much that you would say that!
I can’t say that I know much about what’s involved with getting a clinical psychology doctorate but I can imagine it must be a heck of a lot of work, so I hope that you’re having fun along the way + that it all goes fantastically for you :3 It’s a great thing to be doing! I went to study psychology at college in the hopes of better understanding my own anxiety and depression (and just cos I always found psychology fascinating in general), but I dropped out after having a complete breakdown and never completed the course even though I was enjoying the content >.< I think if I’d known I was autistic back then and had support, I might’ve stood a better chance! But I was also being abused by someone I thought was a friend at the time, so that didn’t help matters either. Still, I do think having support would’ve made some sort of difference. I’m at a point now where my anxiety is so crippling I wouldn’t be able to go back to college unless I had some sort of helper with me.
Thank you again and good luck with everything!! :3
Oh, and I’m sorry that I rambled so much >.< Please, please, please don’t feel as though you have to reply to all/any of this by the way x3 I just went off on one cos I can’t help it, haha.
Don't apologize! I'm thrilled that you responded! I've played Bitter/Sweet before, (this comment just reminded me that I still have to rate it!) and I really enjoyed it! A few of your other projects are on my "to play" list, too!
I'm happy to hear that you've put up a boundary for your passion projects. So many people are so money-focused, they can't understand when you keep a talent for yourself. I sew, myself, and I like to make really fun decorative pillows out of scrap fabric and other odds and ends. I had an interior designer offer me $600 per pillow if I started working for her, and my mom was so angry that I turned the offer down. I've found that having just a single person waiting for me to finish a pillow or costume is enough to kill the entire project, and all the joy I get from it. I have two costumes and 3 pillows that have been in a trunk, unfinished, for anywhere from 1-5 years, just because someone took an interest and started expecting results. So yes, I completely get how attention would stall the project. If one person's attention is enough to make me drop projects entirely, I have no idea how I'd cope with your situation. I think about it every time I read comments asking itch.io creators when their project will be updated. So many of these games are passion projects, and pressure can kill the vibes. (Although, to anyone else reading this, I'm sure you only mean to express your excitement for the game! I do not think badly of you.) Your hobbies are supposed to relax you outside of the day-to-day stressors and expectations, so adding expectations onto your hobbies can make your feelings towards your projects get... weird.
When I originally made that comment, the thought crossed my mind that removing voice acting would make it less of a "Melancholy Marionette" game, which actually made me quite sad! Voice acting is a very "you" part of your games! I only offered the idea in case the stress of obtaining actors was outweighing the joy of making the game. I'm glad that voice acting is a way for you to get around your hang-ups about your own writing. The voice actors you've hired so far have been very talented, too! I have no idea where you find them, but they're honestly the best I've heard out of any of the other itch.io VNs that I've played.
Anyways, I hope your new plans for development help to balance out the stress! I wanted to say "don't worry about it!" But I always hate when people say that. Instead, maybe "I hope you have even more fun with the stuff you enjoy!"
Huzzah :D
Yeeeah x3 I’ve had a few friends get kinda mad at me for not pushing harder on the money-making side of things just cos they want to see me succeed, but it’s difficult to explain to them that there are certain things which will just kill my passion x3 Would I like to be able to somehow live off of doing this as a hobby and finally be able to support myself to live an independent life? Hell, yeah! I’d LOVE that x3 But I’m not prepared to kill my passion for the hobby in the process >.< I know the chances of it just happening out of sheer luck are slim to none, but I just can’t do all the things required to push for it because it’ll suck my soul dry T_T
I’m honestly so glad to read that it’s something you can understand and have experience with yourself because sometimes I feel like I must be insane, haha. It’s nice to know that there are others out there who get it :3
No amount of money in the universe is enough to counter the dreadful feeling of being obligated to do something for someone just because they’ve shelled out for it. It’s not worth killing the joy and the passion over because the hobby is priceless.
I hope someday you find the passion to continue with those few unfinished projects in your own time without any pressure or expectation from any outsiders or yourself :3
I guess, as you say, part of the problem is that a lot of people are money-focused, so they just don’t realise that not everyone out there is doing what they do to make money >.<
And yeah, I don’t think anyone means any harm by it at all, they’re just expressing their excitement which can also be really motivating for devs :3 I mean, even those of us who do it as a hobby still like to know that there are folks out there who find our stories interesting enough to show enthusiasm for what we’re creating :D It would be horrible to release something you’ve put your heart into only to be faced with complete silence.
As you say, your hobbies are supposed to relax you though, so adding expectations can definitely make your feelings towards your projects get weird x3 I guess it’s all about finding some sort of balance. I don’t think I’m quite there yet with that, haha. I think the best I can do for now is what I did with typing up the big explanation post and FAQ that I recently posted, and then just get on with things as best as I can.
I do genuinely think that I’ll be able to work on this particular project a little easier once I’ve cleared my guilt of not having finished the longer project that came before it, haha. And I know now not to start a new long-term project until I finish what I’ve got on the go first x3
Haha, aww, that actually means a lot that you would think leaving out voice acting would make it less of a Melancholy Marionette game :3 I think that’s one of the many reasons I despise Love in Lockdown so much, haha. It doesn’t feel like one of my games at all, and part of that is due to the missing voice acting making it feel to me as though it’s missing a soul x3
I knew you were only trying to offer a helpful suggestion anyhow :3 I think maybe initially when I realised it was going to be difficult or impossible to get the same VAs back, it did cause a lot of stress and killed off much of the joy >.< It was only when I told myself it really wasn’t the end of the world because it’s only a very small portion of the overall content, and that there are so many amazing VAs out there who will be able to smash the role, that I kinda got over that hurdle, haha.
Acquiring VA for every character in the game will undoubtedly be a big challenge, but I reckon having CiQ hanging unfinished over me has always been the big dark cloud that put the breaks on DD x3 Because I kinda always knew that not many people cared for CiQ and were waiting for DD. But I also knew deep down I wouldn’t be able to get on with DD until CiQ is done, even though I kept trying to deny that fact to myself. It was just something I didn’t want to face because the last thing I wanted to do was let anyone down who’s waiting for DD. So it was just easier to avoid the situation altogether I guess and bury my head in game jams >.<
It’s daft because it’s just meant delaying things even longer on both projects. Though, I don’t regret participating in the jams at all because it was a lot of fun and exactly what I needed at the time, haha.
As is evident with comments like yours, my fear of letting people down is kind of unfounded anyhow since 99.9% of people following the project have been nothing but understanding and super supportive :3 So I’m gonna do my best from now on to stop putting unnecessary pressure on myself and just pootle along at my own pace :D
I can’t speak for the VAs in DD specifically since it’s the only project of mine that I didn’t cast them myself x3 I think they were either friends of the voice director or perhaps people he found within his circles, which are probably somewhat different to mine since he’s not social media-averse like I am x3 But for most of my projects, I’ve found folks by running stuff on CastingCallClub :D It’s been a brilliant place to find incredible voice actors! Every time I put a casting call up on there I’m just blown away by everyone’s immense talent ^-^
Thank you :3 It probably sounds really backwards, but I think giving up hope on game dev actually being a means to support myself at some point has also kind of released me from some of the pressure I was putting on myself. I know some would tell me not to be such a pessimist, haha. It doesn’t mean I’ll put any less passion into my projects though. Just that I won’t have that expectation set for myself that I absolutely have to ‘succeed’. As the lady who diagnosed my ASD put it, "It’s better to focus on what you CAN do rather than what you CAN’T" x3
Hehe, yeah, it’s a simple enough suggestion to stop worrying about stuff, but actually making it happen is a whole other story xD I think what you went for alternatively is very fitting and extremely sweet :3 Thank you so much for all your wise words and for sharing your own experiences! I really appreciate it. I hope you get to have the most fabulous of Februarys and a fantastic rest of 2024 in general ^-^
Seems cool but I can't read most of all these fonts for the life of me 😭
Dang i can read em just fine lol
It’s a relief to know that you and some others can read it okay x3 but I guess it is a problem because fakesawman isn’t the first person to say they’re having difficulty with reading some of the fonts. I’m gonna try and change it soon when I get a chance so that it’s hopefully easier to read for more people :3
I try to match page fonts to in-game fonts for better cohesion, but they never come out exactly the same on the page as they do in-game because I have less control over the size and spacing and stuff on the page version >.< I think I’m just gonna have to pick some fonts that work better on the page cos to be fair, it does look kinda ugly and a bit of a mess compared to the pages I’ve made more recently now that I have a lot more experience designing stuff, haha.
Oh, alright fine with me :3
Sorry about that x3 The page definitely needs a rehaul! I try to match fonts on the pages to what’s used in the project, but the problem is, they don’t always turn out the same on the itch page >.< usually, they’re a lot smaller for starters, and I have no control over making them bigger or clearer :(
I’m glad you think it seems cool at least, haha. I’ll be attempting to redesign the page soon, so hopefully, that’ll make everything somewhat easier to read :3
2 years it has been a long time. There's defenetly more content in the demo at least as for as i can remember. looking forward when this is completed!
Yeah, it's definitely been a while x3 When I released the original version of this for the jam, I'd hoped to continue working on it sometime, but had no plans to anytime soon since I knew it would require a huuuge amount of money for voice acting, and I wasn't likely to get that anytime soon, haha. Then when Manly played it, I suddenly got support from the project out of nowhere! But because it was so long after the original release, I wasn't even remotely prepared to work on it all of a sudden, and the voice actors involved had moved on to other things x3
At the same time though, since more people were checking it out, I didn't really want people playing the old jam version and thinking that's all there would ever be, so I made the new demo to try and give a better idea of how I hope the project to pan out in the future :3 It's still pretty far from how I'd like it to look though >.<
There's a lot of finished content that sadly isn't in that demo (like CGs for Castor/is + most of the opening part of Cana's route) but I didn't want to update the demo with that stuff until I can get it all voiced + polished more.
I haven't worked on the project for most of 2023 though for a whole bunch of different reasons >.< And I was hoping to have a post out before Christmas that goes into more detail explaining the different factors that have prevented me from making much progress with this particular project, but I've been so stressed, ill, and busy because of Christmas that I probably won't be able to get the post finished and posted until January T_T
I'm hoping I will be able to work on it some more in 2024 at least! But I'm probably not going to get any updates for the game out next year because I'm not going with an episodic plan anymore >.< it just won't work. So I'll only be updating once full routes are actually finished to avoid having the same issue again with losing voice actors and stuff x3 But yeah, I'll explain more about that when I eventually manage to get a post done :3
So yeah, completion is still a loooong way off, sadly >.< I really appreciate the support though! Hope you have happy holidays :3
Hehe, aww, well, Castor loves you too :P So glad you had fun with the demo! Thanks for playing + hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Hi, this game look amanzing and really beatiful this gonna be released for android i really wanted to play this cool game :)
Hey hey! I'm glad you like the look of it :3 Unfortunately, the game won't have a full release any time soon in general >.< and while I would definitely love to eventually have it available on Android, I'm not sure if it's going to be possible because I haven't managed to get any of my games to work on Android yet T_T so I'd need someone who can teach me how to make them work cos all my android builds just seem to fail, haha. I will be trying to get all my games on more platforms in the future though :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays!
thanks you are too kind i hope you have a happy holiday too <3, why don't see a tutorial (i don't know how talk this on inglish) on the youtuber?
if you give me yandere love IM IN!!!!!
this looks so good but when I try opening it I get a popup saying windows is protecting my pc I'm sure this game is amazing tho <3
Ahh, that sucks x3 My best friend's laptop actually does the same with all of my games whenever she's tried to play them xD It's just because the security is overprotective and because they're just indie games, they don't always recognise that the files are perfectly safe >.<
In fact, when I export builds to start testing them before releasing, my own antivirus tries to stop me playing through my own games xD It's like... uhm, antivirus, I made this, it's fine, it's safe! x3
I guess it's probably different for each kind of security software, but with mine I just tick a box to tell it that it's fine, and then it lets me play with no problems :3
Glad you like the look of the project anyhow! :D Hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Hello!!!! i'm a new player!! i just finish playing the demo! this game is one of the most favorite VN i ever played in my live!! I loveeeeeeeee Castor so muchhhhhhh!! Can't wait for more update/content!!! ♪(^∇^*)
Hey hey! Sorry I'm so late to respond >.< I got really overwhelmed with stuff lately :( But that's fantastic to hear! :D I'm so glad that you enjoyed the demo :3
Sadly, progress with this project is pretty slow, but I'm hoping to have the opportunity to work on it some more in 2024!
Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out :3 I hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Oh dear!!!! i hope you feel alright!! dont push yourself too hard!!! :( （づ￣3￣）づ╭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️～ HAVE MY LOVE!!!
Hello, I need some help. I'm trying to download this game, but everytime I try, it says removed. And when I finally get to download it, I can't open the zipped files, it says failed. I have many storage and good internet. What should I do?
That sounds very strange >.< It’s not an issue I’ve ever come across on itch before, but it must be something weird going on with the website on your end because I can download and unzip the files just fine on my computer :( They’ve never been removed or anything.
Your best bet is probably to contact itch.io themselves because I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it on my end >.<
You could tell them the same thing you wrote here + let them know that the dev said there’s nothing wrong with the files.
Their email address is: support@itch.io I think.
I hope they manage to fix it for you :3
Okay, thanks! (^-^)
Played the original a year-ish ago. I can't tell you how exciting it was to look back over it due to a little bit of nostalgia only to find that it's got a full project now!
Castor/ia has certainly won my heart over, so I very much look forward to seeing how it all turns out!
Quick Edit: And I don't mean just excitement for that one character of course, but the others you've got in store as well.
Aww, thanks so much for returning to the project to check it out again :3 I’m really glad you like it so far!
Unfortunately, it’s going to take me a looooong time to actually get the entire project finished for a whole bunch of reasons (gonna make a proper post about it soon so I can’t explain everything x3) but it’ll get there in the end, haha.
Thank you so much for the support :3
Oops! All of this time, I was calling it Winulator, but that's a different Windows emulator for old games, and I got them mixed up. It's actually called Winlator. XD So sorry about that!
I finally managed to play this game on an app called Winulator! I think it's a new app, and, though the text moves slowly, I can play it from beggining to end, and the sound works perfectly! l can't believe I almost missed out on this game; it is amazing! Magnificent, even! I hope I can play your other games on Winulator as well. I'm just so happy right now!
:o Hooooly moly, that's so cool! I'll have to check it out myself, haha. So glad you found a way to make it happen though :3 I'll have to let some of my friends know about it cos they wanna be supportive and check out my stuff, but they only have android phones for gaming, and I'm still faaaar too incompetent to get android builds working >.< haha.
I don't suppose changing the text speed to instant or something would help with the slow text issue? :o I know it'd mess up the expression change timings, but I guess it depends if the slow text is annoying or not x3
I'm really glad you were able to play the demo in some form though :3 And thanks for sticking around to try and play it even though I wasn't able to get a solution to you! I'd be very interested to know if it can play the latest project I worked on, haha. Heck, even my dad has wanted to check out my stuff to see wtf I've been making, but he only has an android phone and an iPad xD
If you tell your friends about Winulator, tell them to use the graphics driver called LLVMpipe, otherwise, the game might not work. They should also probably try Winulator 1.1 first, because I haven't tried the newest version yet, and I don't know what games it can play. Also use the dx components called 'native windows'. I think it's better.
Here is where to get it:
https://github.com/brunodev85/Winlator/releases
And here is the explanation of how to install it: https://github.com/brunodev85/winlator
Changing the text speed might help, but I think Yandere Heaven might need it more, especially when it switches to 'manga mode'.
I have downloaded Tunnel Vision, but I am still playing Yandere Heaven. I could try playing it now though.
It's so strange, though; your games are the only ones that work so far on Winulator. I can play the very beginning of Blank by maneki_mushi, but then it freezes, and I can't continue. And I can't even get passed the loading screen of Curse Torn by puma, because the game crashes. You must be doing something right with your games.
One last thing: Winulator needs A LOT of storage space. At least 2 or 3 gigabyte to install the obb image, and 500 mb to make a 'container' to run and manage your game.
I actually deleted 4 gigabyte to install the obb imag, but I had some space left over, so use your own judgement to decide how much storage space to use.
I forgot the name of Castor's voice actor, but he is SO talented! If you can, tell him Tatiana says that he sounds really cute. That's my name, by the way.
Cheers for all the info, and no worries on the slightly wrong name :3 maybe the people who made it shouldn’t have made the name so similar xD
That is weird though if my games work but Blank didn’t because, as far as I remember, Maneki Mushi used Naninovel & Unity same as me for that project, so I dunno why mine would work and that one wouldn’t >.< No idea about Curse Torn and what engine it was made with, but that’s still really odd :o
I don’t exactly do anything special when I build my games x3 It’s kinda just all handled by Unity when I ask it to throw out a build for me, haha.
Understandable that it needs a lot of space! That might be a bit of an issue for some of my friends cos they have quite old devices, but we shall see x3
Kevin is indeed extremely talented, and I would happily pass on your lovely comment to him, but I’ve never actually had contact with him myself >.< This is the only project of mine where I wasn’t in charge of casting x3 So I have no way of contacting either of the VAs on the project cos that was all handled by a friend of mine who was voice director at the time :( Tatiana is an awesome name btw!! :3
Blank did seem to have similar assets to your game, including MonoBleedingEdge. I tried every graphics driver, including 'Turnip + Zink' which doesn't usually work, anyway, switched the dx components to Wine instead of Windows, but it still freezes right when the 'shadow' zooms into the screen so you can talk to it.
Cursetorn is made with Unity as well, so I'm completely puzzled as to what could be wrong. Maybe some asset messed up, but I don't know why.
Those are the only two other games I wanted to play besides yours, and I am so disappointed.
I have an android 11, and I still had to delete a lot of games, including one gb games like Our Life Beginnings and Always, and Dandelion Wishes Brought To You, as well as Club Suicide, a 4 gb game, and your other game, Solipsism Reigns, which is like 4 gb if I remember correctly, so I wish your friends good luck.
That is completely understandable! I'm sure that others have told him how talented he is as well, so it's perfectly fine.
Thank you so much! I'm sure that you have a beautiful name too!
Yeah, I don’t even know what the MonoBleedingEdge thing is tbh but it exports with every single Unity game I’ve made x3 That is really weird though cos with Blank having less in total assets, you would’ve thought that it would have a higher chance of running more smoothly!
Turns out my friends don’t actually want to try it cos they said it sounds too complicated and confusing x3 So I guess they’ll never know, haha.
Oh, trust me, my name is awful xD My own dad didn’t even like it and wanted to call me something completely different, but my mum got her way on naming me and said my dad could name my brother instead as a compromise x3
IM PRETTY SHOCKED THAT URE THE SAME CREATOR THAT MADE YANDERE HEAVEN xD i really love that game!! AND I'M VERY EXCITED FOR THE FULL RELEASE!! ill come back every year to check this game out =D
REALLY?? I also love Yandere Heaven, this game is so good! I cant wait for the full game
Oh, man, your avatar is so adorable, I can't stop looking at it xD So glad to hear you liked Yandere Heaven! And this one too :3
If you're a fan of yandere characters in general, feel free to check out my other projects cos practically all of em (apart from The Graveyard Shift which is just horror/comedy/mystery) feature at least 1 yandere of some sort, haha.
Thanks, its a chibi version of Ina from Hololive that Ina herself commission for an April Fool day, I think it was 2021 and totally, I just love yanderes.
Hehe x3 Well, I'm really glad you like Yandere Heaven cos it seems like that particular project is like Marmite xD I'm really grateful to have gotten so many kind comments about it, but at the same time, it's the one that's netted me the most hate >.<
If you're a yandere fan in general though, pretty much all of my games feature at least 1 yandere character of some sort :D Some of em are on the sweeter side, some more sinister, and others more platonic!
If you're interested in the backstory of some of the other characters that will be added to this project sometime in the future, feel free to check out Dawn of the Damned :3
And thanks for playing this one too <3
your welcome and im defo checking out dawn of the damned !! , after checking out all the games that uve made, i realised that ive played almost all of them!! can pretty much say im a big fan of u now xD ily for always curing me with ur games during my bad days :33333
Ahh, haha, well, that’s awesome :D Thanks so much for playing so many of my projects ^-^
And thank YOU cos reading lovely comments like yours always cheers me up when I’m having a bad day myself :3
Demo review: This looks interesting and I'll come back when it is fully released.
However, I can't really get into the demo. It's constantly telling me about features then saying 'This isn't available in the demo.' including that my actions won't influence the chapter in the demo. Then the first choice I made it said 'This isn't available in the demo'.
I feel like it'd be better to just not show all those parts at this point because it makes it look like I'm not going to get ANYTHING in the demo.
I decided to close it at that point because it seems like the demo is just telling me I can't pick choices, my choices wouldn't impact the ending, and it'll spend 5 minutes letting me know all the things I can't do.
The intro was also super long and the transition scene while you're trying to close the game is really slow, so I force closed the game.
I'm sure these will be changed in the real game and I'd have more energy for the slowness if I felt like things would happen for my patience but as it stands it's confusing and not building my appetite.
That’s totally understandable :3 I mean, I personally don’t tend to play demos at all, regardless of the state they’re in, haha. I just find it kind of annoying to only be able to play part of a game knowing I’ll have to play a section again if I play the full release! If I like the look of something, I’ll just wait until it’s finished. There are a couple of reasons why the demo is the way it is, but I’ve spoken about them before in previous comments, so I’ll try not to ramble too much >.<
The first one is that all those dead ends do go somewhere in my working copy, and it was easier to just block players from accessing them than create a separate version with all the branches entirely removed because, at the time, I didn’t have any space left on my hard drive and no alternative devices to create copies/backups on x3
And the second reason was kinda to take some of the pressure to respond to certain things off of myself a bit because a lot of people seemed to be under the impression after seeing Manly’s video of the old jam version of the game that the thing is entirely about Castor/ia, which it isn’t >.< It’s just that, at the time, I was working on the project for a jam that only lasts 1 month, and so I needed to create something that was self-contained enough to submit by the jam deadline while also keeping it open to continue later on.
I was being bombarded with questions about whether or not there was more to come for Castor/ia or if everything in Manly’s video was it. The jam version just didn’t reflect how I intend the project to be overall, so I tried to give a better idea of the direction I hoped to take it in by doing a UI overhaul, showing the beginning of how the personality system works, and showing that there is
A: More to Castor/ia’s story + B: Other branches available that are unrelated to Castor/ia.
I can totally see how it would be annoying to keep getting hit with dead end options though! But for me personally, it has saved me a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again by having the current demo out there x3 If you’re interested in seeing the self-contained version, the original jam version of the game is still available to download on the page for posterity.
Yeah that does make sense, and people knowing the potenital range of the full game is good.
I think being able to differentiate the active and inactive options in the demo might be good. I dunno if it's doable but maybe the text or background colour could be slightly different (while still maintaining a good contrast).
I understand you're balancing a lot of things in doing this though.
RE demo's in general, I have really bad memory so I don't mind playing a demo to get excited because in a few months all I'll know is 'I really want to play this' but not any of what the demo had haha. It works well for replay value and makes it less cumbersome to have just a demo in the meantime.
But some games end up being abandoned and it's sad when both the fans and author get blueballed by whatever situation makes it impossible to finish the game lol
If you are able to make tweaks like I mentioned, I'll try the demo out again, but if not, I'll wait until it's fully ready. So best of luck with the project.
It would be fairly easy to differentiate the options in the current demo now that I have more knowledge about UI and stuff :3 At the time of making the updated demo though, I still didn't know all that much about how Unity UI works >.< There's quite a lot I would change now that I've learned a lot more, haha.
If it weren't such a massive pain in the butt and time-consuming to export and upload builds, I'd make fixes like that and update the demo cos actually making the changes would be fairly quick, but it's so much hassle to make new builds that it's not really worth the stress >.<
Hehe, my brother plays demos repeatedly while waiting for releases! And he binges trailers for everything, whereas I tend not to even watch trailers x3
I mean, this demo is here too early really because the game is nowhere near finished. Unlike my shorter jam projects, this one is a big, long-term thing that will take me years to make.
The only reason it's even labeled as a demo at all is because of the whole thing again of constantly being asked if there will be more story >.< I didn't want people to keep making the assumption that the old upload was all there was ever going to be. At the same time though, I don't want people to expect it to be finished any time soon.
When I made the self-contained version of it for the jam, I had every intention of continuing it at some point, but in a very casual way over a long period of time. I wasn't expecting it to ever get any attention, so I had planned to put it on the back-burner because I knew I likely wouldn't be able to afford to get the rest of it voiced (as the VAs in it were basically doing a favour to the voice director by voicing in it at short notice for the jam). And even now, I don't have anywhere near enough funding to get everything I have planned fully voiced. Not to mention the issue that a heck of a lot of time passed between the initial jam release and the game getting attention, so the VAs involved have moved on to other things and are unlikely to reprise their roles >.<
It also doesn't help that this somehow seems to have become my most popular project, but it's not a priority project for me personally because I have other stuff to finish before I finish this >.< For example, I have an older project than this which is already fully-written and a full-length script like my first ever release. It would be kind of insane for me to work on writing and stuff for this when I already have a finished script for a different project that needs making into a playable game x3
I'll get there with everything eventually, but my progress on projects outside of jams with deadlines is pretty slow cos I'm just one person doing it all as a hobby, haha.
It does suck when stuff gets abandoned. I've backed a few projects in the past on Kickstarter and stuff that never saw the light of day cos the team behind em broke down :(
I'd like to hope that folks here who are interested in this particular project would look at my profile in general and see that I do finish what I've started :3 Life has a habit of getting in the way a lot, so it's gonna take a heck of a long time to get anywhere with a long one like this, but I don't plan to abandon it. I just have other stuff that takes priority like game jams and finishing that other long-term project first x3
Thank you for the luck! I feel like I will need it, haha :3
Wow yeah that's a lot of work. As a non developer, I don't know how hard most of these things are, or at least time consuming, or how many annoying bugs can pop up when you fix one thing. So that's fair.
Yeah sounds like you're doing a lot and it's amazing as a 1 person team. :) haha your brother sounds like my ex, they get reallyyyy into things and binge every available crumb possible for as long as possible. Waiting years for one episode of a series or chapter of a game. Lol It's honestly impressive. I just forget for ages then come back like 'Oh this seems like something I would like. Oh, I did like it, 3 times already apparently. Nice taste, past me!' lol
Yeah if I'm interested in a dev, the first thing I do is look at their profile at anything else they do, I'm sure I'm not alone in that. :D On that note, I've been wanting to play Apartment no 9and bitter sweet for a while! lol
Best of luck with your projects. I wonder if starting multiple games is similar to fabric crafters starting multiple projects and half finishing them. It seems like a general 'creative person' problem, that we have too many ideas and create too many projects for a lifetime. Just kinda funny.
I'll keep checking on progress on your games anyway, I appreciate your in-depth replies, I'm sure feedback can be really nerve wracking and I always appreciate when someone is really open and welcoming of feedback especially as I don't always know if it's going to hit someone on a bad day!
I think it's virtually impossible for players to envision how much time it takes to achieve different things with game dev unless they've dipped their toes into it themselves, haha. Same as I'd have no idea how much time and effort goes into getting an F1 car up and running or something x3 Actually, dealing with bugs as a solo dev is almost as time-consuming as making the games themselves xD It's so hard to test everything and attempt to anticipate how players might behave when you're just one person. And the longer the game or the more branches it has, the harder it gets >.< Add in the fact that everyone is playing on a different setup to you and it just kinda becomes a bit of an impossible task, haha. I do my best, but I don't think I'd ever manage to get my games running 100% smoothly for everyone cos there's always something lurking out there that will go wrong x3
Hehe, weeell, I wouldn't say my brother is quite THAT bad x3 but he is definitely a completionist! He plays most things on Xbox, and he will not discard them until he's unlocked every achievement possible. He'll also go back through a long game just to find 1 tiny thing that he missed. He'd actually be pretty good at playtesting, I imagine! But he won't touch my stuff since it can't possibly be decent if his sister made it T_T
It's cool that you do that, and I always assumed that's what many people do since I'm also the same! But from looking at my project's analytics, I can see that a pretty hefty majority of my followers here on itch dropped in for this project in particular, and haven't even viewed my other ones, let alone downloaded em to check em out xD Which to me is incomprehensible because if I play something I like from a dev, I wanna know everything else they've done since, chances are, I will like at least 1, if not more, of their other projects x3 It makes it feel a bit like DD is a cursed project, haha.
That's extremely interesting to me that you'd be curious about Apartment No.9 as well! It's one of my least-viewed/played projects x3 but I do actually think it's better than DD, haha. Actually, it was the first ever project that I teamed up with people for during a jam!
And Bitter/Sweet is special to me because I got to make it with my good friend Lazy Polar Bear, but also because it's the one closest to home. I tend to stay away from putting too much of myself into projects, but with that one, I decided to see how it would work out. There's still 1 route remaining to add to that project, but the other route is fully playable :3
Thank you very much for the luck! I feel like it's something I could always do with having plenty of x3 Haha, I think you're probably right there about the multiple projects dilemma! I've spoken to many devs over the years who have multiple things on the go at once xD It's like a curse >.< I try to keep it somewhat under control by stopping myself from just starting new things every time an idea comes to me, haha. And I have a priority list atm which looks something like: Try to get an episode of The Masked Marionette out before the end of 2023 - Finish 2nd Bitter/Sweet route for Yandere Jam 2024 - Construct & release Clarity in Qualia before continuing to write for Darling Duality - Continue working on Darling Duality while participating in a limited number of game jams x3 So there's a plan there, haha. It's just one that spans years and is gonna take a long time to complete xD
Oh, yeah, feedback is a tricky beast, haha. It can hit differently at different times depending on your mood and frame of mind. I think genuine constructive feedback like yours is always helpful and appreciated, even if it ends up being something I'm incapable of implementing! What's not helpful is when someone essentially just verbally assaults you with a list of things they dislike and provides no reasoning as to why while also offering no constructive form of doing things differently x3 I think the problem with a lot of feedback that devs get is that often, it's related to the story of the projects they're creating, and unless a dev has specifically asked for feedback on that element, it's more than likely unhelpful and unwanted >.< When it comes to the more technical side of things though, constructive criticism can help make the game much better!
Anyways, thank you for everything you've taken the time to write up so far :3 I genuinely appreciate it when I have the opportunity to engage with people at length like this! Hope you're having a fabulous spooky season so far :D
I won't tell how it is good, i would spoil some things. This is a gem, so better see for yourself.
Trust me, this is really good, so much love and work is in it. Hope the developer knows their work is loved.
@the dev: Please take your time and no pressure. You are doing good stuff here. We let you cook
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That’s so sweet of you to say :3 I really appreciate your kind words a patience <3
Unity is now charging you every time someone installs your game:
https://unity.com/pricing-updates
Looks like it takes effect in December? Still this is awful.
This is another reason I like Ren'py. And I can play Ren'py games on android using the Joiplay app.
If I knew Python, I’d use Ren’Py, but I don’t x3 so I’d have to learn that first, and I did try to years ago and hated it, which is why I wound up using Tyranobuilder, then Naninovel instead T_T
It's okay. I just wish you could either port Darling Duality to Tyranobuilder, or make a web version. But, that's just me being selfish
If I could do it easily, I would x3
A web version would just be extremely laggy and virtually impossible to play, which sucks, cos it would be a much easier thing to do since I can just switch to a web export. But I tried a web version of an even smaller project than this as a test in the past, and it was just unplayable with the lag and stuff >.<
Learning Ren'Py would be the best long-term option, but I just don't know if my brain can take it xD I was almost completely put off of trying to make my first VN when I tried Ren'Py years ago, haha. Just wasn't fun at all to use >.< Well, putting stuff together in Tyrano and Nani hasn't exactly been fun either, it's the part of gamedev I hate the most the programming and such x3 but at least it's bearable for me with Nani, haha.
I've been talking to a friend who uses Ren'Py though, so we might end up teaming up on some stuff in the future :3
I'd be a happy bunny if I didn't have to deal with programming stuff too much, haha. I just wanna write and make soundtracks x3
It is a massive dick move what Unity are planning to do, but afaik, it’s not actually likely to ever impact me from what I understand anyhow. Cos the way my brother explained it when he first told me about it, it sounds like the fees only come into play when you have X number of installs + X number of sales/revenue, and that you have to meet both to get hit with the fees.
I honestly can’t see my projects ever reaching anything close to the cap for installs or revenue, haha. I mean, I have no way of keeping track of installs, but across all my projects across all time, I don’t even have a fraction of the downloads mentioned.
I just checked out their docs on it again, and it seems they’ve updated it even further to not include folks using Unity personal, which is what I use. And the figures say $1,000,000 revenue and 1,000,000 engagements… neither of which I imagine I would reach in my lifetime xD I’m only on 150k downloads across all my projects over all time.
I played many visual novels even the classics but this is my favorite
Aww, that means a heck of a lot! Thank you so much for playing + being so sweet <3
I really love this game a lot I can't wait to see this game complete, There's no much games focused on yanderes out there and it's refreshing to play some of those and with such quality. (Sorry if my english is bad, I speak spanish)
Your English is fantastic! I’d never have guessed it wasn’t your first language :3 I’m so glad you like the game so far even though there’s not much there yet. I’m a big yandere fan myself, which is why most of my games have at least 1 yandere character in 😛
question, Will this game ever be released on Steam? Whenever I try one of those unzipper programs they either contain viruses, are a bit of a rip-off, or just straight scams, Steam is simply easier for me to trust and play games on, though if this game was playable in the itchio browser I'd be pretty thankful :)
You should be able to extract without an unzipper program.
It’s possible it might be in the very far away future, but definitely not anytime soon since Steam charge a $100 fee to add games there >.<
QwanGetMad is right though, you shouldn’t need any kinda dodgy programs to open the game :3
Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be much point in me making a browser version, as the game is too large for it to possibly run smoothly on a browser :(
oh, I didn't know steam charged that much to let devs upload their games on steam. And about the browser game issue, that's alright I wouldn't mind playing a glitchy version but that's alright, thank you for explaining the situation anyway.
As someone who has recently gotten into VN and has grown a preference for the yandere subgenre, this game has been my absolute favorite thus far, and it might prove difficult for another VN to claim that spot.
The way that the dev made damn near all of your answers -- or even lack of, which is super interesting! -- so impactful is admirable. It's honestly my favorite aspect of the game. You could've selected a majority of "skull" answers, but then throw in a couple of "heart" answers for some flair or even no answer at all? What turned into this delightfully chaotic ending might turn into this pleasantly bittersweet ending or a completely sugar-coated romantic one. You can only imagine how it could be vice versa with a majority of "heart" answers that suddenly turned into primarily "skull" answers.
It honestly makes the experience so enjoyably confusing because it forces you to have this mixed feeling towards the character. First, it's just another LI character, so you're kinda indifferent, but then you act all cutesy just to get a reaction from them. Then, something shifts and you become intentionally antagonistic to see what might happen. You then start to see things escalate so you draw back a bit, and they start being really sweet to you so you start to like them. But then something's off again and you feel suspicious of the character so that gremlin tells you to be antagonistic again, then the character reacts and you start to feel this weird cross of hate and fear towards them. And it just goes back and forth like that, especially when toying with different dialogue choices.
I love it. I love the character, the dialogue, the purposeful intent of the dev, and the overall direction that this game is going in. I can honestly say that I cannot wait for the full release.
Awesome job, dev, and kudos to the VAs that helped make it come alive! It's one thing to imagine the voice in your head, but to actually hear it does have a different impact.
Hehe, that’s great to hear you’ve ended up falling for the yanderes :P I was like that too when I first got into VNs and came across them, haha. But man, that’s so sweet of you to say about this project! I feel like it’s not worthy, but thank you so much and I’m really glad you’ve enjoyed what’s there of it so far ^-^ Pretty much all of my projects have at least 1 yandere in, haha. Not all of em, but most of em. And even the ones without yanderes still have creepy characters instead xD
That’s awesome to hear you like the choices/personality system too :3 It’s something I’m hoping to keep expanding with the project so that everything adds up to different consequences to reflect all the choices made. I’m so glad you say it’s enjoyably confusing, haha. I find it confusing myself xD but it was kind of the point to make it more difficult to keep track of choices, sort of forcing players to pick on the spot just going by their instinct at the time. I realise that a system like that must also be frustrating for some players though + makes it quite hard to follow a guide and see all possibilities too >.<
Unfortunately, it’s gonna take me years to finish it for a whole number of reasons, but I’m determined to get there eventually :3 Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to type up such kind words! I really appreciate the support <3
Are they really impactful? The first thing the demo told me was that the choices would impact the chapter then said 'This isn't available in the demo'. Then the first choice you get in the game, isn't a choice, it told me that my choice wasn't available in the demo and forced the other one instead.
I had to close the game as it seemed to be directly telling me more than once that the demo wasn't going to be choice based and would keep showing me things I can't do anything with. :/
Maybe I'll have more patience with it another day but I'd just rather it not tell me all the things I might be able to pick in a year or two but can't now (only after I try to pick them).
I think the choices are impactful for sure!
You're referring more towards the path that you can take versus the choices themselves. Because it's a demo, the path is definitely more guided -- or rather set -- on the completed parts, and the Dev definitely stops you from deviating off that path for the time being. I ran into the same roadblocks of "this isn't available in the demo"; however, the pathway that you CAN play definitely has some relatively intense choice value! I don't want to spoil it, but there are two different times where a lack of response (literally selecting nothing) will put you on a different subpath.
So yeah, to me at least, it's pretty choice heavy, and I assume that it'll only get more intense as the game reaches completion. Since then, I did play a significantly MORE choice heavy game, but I'd still list this one as a choice-heavy game, just not as high up on the list as it originally was
Definitely give it another try in the upcoming days though! I thought it was rather good, especially one subpath in particular ;)
I'd just rather it not show choices I can't pick because it's not a choice in that situation. Even in a demo.
Like an alternative would be to have the non-active choices be a different colour so I know in the demo 'this would be an option and we're leaving it visible but not much point clicking it'. As it is right now I just got through lots and lots of 'this isn't available, this isn't, this isn't' and it killed my drive to continue the demo because I felt like it was unclear what would be possible to engage with.
For me, I engage in the game by trying to see how I'd feel in that situation and picking what matches my feelings most, if the options are limited in this way, I stop being able to be in my feelings and connecting with the character, because I'm constantly going 'Wait what?'.
So I will only be able to play this when either it's finished or the demo has the non-active options more clearly labelled before I click them. Otherwise it feels like it's saying 'NO! No choices. Only unspecified choice!' [insert that lil dog meme lol].
I'm sure they will have great choices when it's done and I don't doubt there's choices throughout but as it stands right now, as far as I got, it gave the impression you will only have one path and it won't let you know until you pick a choice that you picked the 'wrong' one, and then response as thought you picked another one. It's just stressful for me personally lol
未来会有中文版吗？
I’d like to try and get the game to have as many language options available as possible :3
So if I can manage to have a Chinese language version, that would be brilliant!
However, that will probably only be for the full game release, which is a very long way off, so it’s going to take a lot of time to actually finish the game first >.<
Having played both the old version and the new demo, I'm quite excited to see the final product! It is a game that is rather intriguing for the Yandere lovers (with rather sweet moments as well), I especially loved the voice acting. Will be sure to check out the final product when it comes out!
Aww, thanks for playing both versions :3 I’m glad you like the look of where it’s going! Unfortunately, the full game is still a heck of a long way off, but I’ll get there eventually x3 Thanks so much for the support <3
Hello! Quick question- will the full version be free to play?
It’s hard to say with absolute certainty because the full game is a loooong way off, like, years away x3 but most likely, yes, it will probably be free :3
Alright thank you! Also one last question- is the name Castor based off Roman mythology...? Or is it based off the plant? I feel like its more based off the plant cause I think it's toxic and then Castor/ia can be toxic sometimes in the game- did I phrase this correctly ;v;?
Tbh, I’m not sure what made me come up with the name Castor at the time xD
Usually, I spend ages thinking of suitable names, and often my characters are named for pretty specific reasons with meanings behind the names or their names representing things, but with Castor and Castoria, it was just one of those weird ones where for some reason, I had it in my head without looking at anything and just rolled with it xD
Some people have since told me that Castor means some pretty funny things in other languages, haha. That would be pretty cool though if it happens to be a toxic plant though cos, as you say, it would be quite suitable :D
Is there going to be a android version? And do you have any idea when the next update is out?
I would love for there to be an android version of all my games, but frustratingly, I can't figure out how to get an android build working :( I've tried with smaller projects in the past, and after following all of the instructions, it always fails >.< So unless someone can physically teach me how to do it properly so it works, I'm not likely to manage to figure it out on my own.
And, unfortunately, I have no idea x3 Probably not this year though! I've had waaay too much stuff going on to even work on the project at all so far this year >.< Broken arm back in March really didn't help things, haha. That meant 3 months of not even being able to go on my PC :(
Ever since it healed and I can work on stuff again, I've been focusing on irl chores and tasks, catching up on messages that I missed while I couldn't type, and trying to do one of the game jams I've wanted to do for years.
And for the rest of the year, there's Spooktober jam in September that I'd like to participate in, so that's gonna occupy the entire month, then I'll need a small break to recover in October, and then I'll probably be working on some other stuff in November/December if I get time to.
Hoping to get blue Blythe's route out for next year's yandere jam which is in February, so that'll be the start of 2024 covered x3
There's never enough time in a day to do everything I'd like to do, haha. And, unfortunately, DD has to take a back seat until I can sort out everything else that I need to or wanna get done >.<
Hi~ Just wanted to say that the demo alone is making me anticipate for more from DD. The fun part so far is having to flip a coin in the first few choices such as either going for Castor/ia (landing on heads had me go for Castor). After that however, I was taken into a rollercoaster ride of emotions. But yeah, I hope to see the full release in the future~ Art takes time to craft, and I've got plenty of time to wait~
[On the other hand, my sister saw Castor on my screen. I had to explain that while I swing both ways, this choice wasn't deliberate. Rather, it was a choice made by fate. Looking back now, that was very poor choice of words on my part lol.]
Hey hey! Well, that’s awesome :3 I’m glad you had fun with the demo! Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to type up a comment :D And your patience is much appreciated also cos I don’t deal with expectations well xD It makes me want to go hide in a cave and never come out again, haha. xD
Well, hopefully, your sister at least kind of knew what you meant! And heck, it’s still better than my brother’s comment from the other day. I was working on this new bite-sized project, and because the theme is all red and black, I set my room light to red each night while I was working on it so I could get more immersed, but my brother just looked in and said: “Why does it look like a brothel in your room?” T_T
Ah, I can relate with the expectations thing as well~ Kinda why I prefer not sticking out too much in group projects since it makes me fear the worst possible outcome often...
That being said though, seems like your brother's familiar with them districts to make such a connection then, lol. Overall though, my sister now considers me as straight like spaghetti noodles. Better than being straight like ribbons, I guess~ w
Hey hey! Absolutely love this game. I saw the original build in ManlyBadAssHero's video. Then I set out on my own to play it because I wanted to hear Castor. By the time I found it, it was the more in depth demo build. I spent forever trying to get all paths and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll keep a non-pressuring eye on this project. Take things at your own pace.
But I must ask, the asset pack song, "Welcome to Our World". Where exactly did you find it? I have been looking everywhere for it as it's so good. I looked in the credits file of the game but got even more lost. XD
Hey hey! Aww, that’s awesome, glad to hear it ^-^ Yeah, it sucks that I haven’t really been able to make much real progress on the project in recent times, but at least I got the updated demo out, haha. Hopefully, it at least does a half-decent job of sorta showing the way I want the project to look in the future :3
It means a lot that you’re happy to wait anyhow :3 I know I’ve been ridiculously slow to work on this project, and I don’t anticipate that changing any time soon cos I’ve got a lot of other stuff I want to prioritise >.< I have no intention of abandoning it though :3 so the no-pressure approach is much appreciated. I actually find it extremely demotivating to be pressured for updates and stuff x3 even if it’s done with the best of intentions from someone who just likes what’s there and wants to see more, just having that sort of pressure and expectation there makes me want to run a million miles away and hide xD Whereas a few kind words with no pressure makes me feel more like it’s okay to keep going and take things at my own pace ^-^
As for that particular asset pack song, in all honestly, I couldn’t even remember which one it was by the name alone, so I had to go look in my files xD It’s actually called “Tragedy” I just tend to rename all of my tracks to better fit whatever the project is x3 And it’s from the Symphonical Rain Sound Library Vol.2 by AZU Soundworks. I just went to dig up the link to their page so you could check it out if you wanted to, but weirdly, all their assets have disappeared and it’s now showing as a blank page to me o.O So I’m not sure what’s happened there >.< I guess they must’ve pulled their stuff from the site that I bought their packs from for some reason! I did some more digging, found their old website, which said it had moved, but when I clicked the new site link, that didn’t exist either :( There are some other pretty good ones in that volume actually! I was probably gonna use them in something at some point, haha. I keep getting carried away and making my own music for recent projects though.
Speaking of which, I’m just about to release a new bite-sized one for a couple of different micro jams if you’re interested in more creepy fun xD
Hey. Thanks for even taking the time to look through your files for me. I'm touched, honestly. I get so scared to ever ask people things like that so you made my day. Through some crafty snooping I was able to find their catalog on a JP website and the song on YouTube. So thanks again! XD
(Here's the link. It leads to that song specifically but maybe you can find the other song you were looking for. :https://azu-soundworks.net/?p=19673)
I'll definitely look into your micro jams. I'm invested in your creative prowess now. Hang in there!
No problem :3 I know what you mean cos I always worry if I’m bothering people or not >.< As the saying goes though, you won’t know if you don’t ask x3
That’s pretty neat you were able to find their stuff though! I clicked on like 3 links when I gave it a go, and they were all just dead ones, haha. I gave up pretty quickly after that xD Cheers for letting me know :3
And just thanks for being so sweet in general! You hang in there yourself ^-^
Pretty Interesting so far, you have a really unique style in your games. One bit of feedback I have (unless you're already planning on doing this) But a lot of menu-based sounds aren't affected by any volume sliders, so when I enter a menu or click something in the main menu for example, Its way louder than what I have all the sliders set to. Other than that, I'm a fan of this game, and I am excited to see where it goes!
Glad you like what’s there so far :D And thank you, that’s really kind of you to say ^-^
Oh, yeah, I know about those menu sounds and I can only apologise, haha. At the time of adding them to that demo, I didn’t realise there was no way to control them within the game settings >.< I have since discovered what you have to do to link them up with the in-game settings so that you can actually lower them with the SFX volume slider, haha. So I’ll absolutely be doing that whenever I next update the demo :3
The really silly thing is, as they are, they’re attached to Unity UI buttons, but they’re all set to play at a volume of 0.1 of their total volume, so I dunno why on earth they came out to loud o.O Anyways, I shall be rectifying it at least, haha.
is this game possible to be played on Chromebook? I've always seen games on this site that look really interesting but I never get to fully experience them due to not having a compatible device
Hello, you can download/buy the OFFICIAL game file of the game that you wish to play here in itch.io then enter the website named 'Joiplay' then download the latest application version + renpy plug in
After that you'll be able to find your way through, however if you ever struggle with anything you can ask me or google it.
*Note: this is for mobile phones, if you have Android that is.
That's interesting :o Does the renpy plugin still work with games made in other engines, or just renpy? Because my old games are made in Tyranobuilder, and most of my games (including this one) are made with Naninovel in Unity >.< If not, are there any alternative plugins that would work with Tyranobuilder and Unity games?
I can never seem to actually get exported Android builds from Unity to work :(
I honestly couldn't say for certain because I don't really know much about how Chromebooks work >.< but I'm going to guess probably not because I was under the impression that they may only run things like Android apps that you can get on the Google Play store? And, sadly, I haven't been able to get any of my games to function with Android builds yet :(