Glad to hear it, and thanks for checking it out :3

If you want a long and detailed explanation about updates, feel free to read the first reply I wrote recently to Rooree23 whose comment is just below yours! It's a bit of a catastrophic brain splurge though, so I can try to also write a quick answer, haha.

So yeah, the tldr answer would be, unfortunately,  there won't be any updates for Darling Duality in the near future. The project is currently on hold while I try to finish a different project first.

My current actively in development project is Lovestarved :3

Once I've finished the full version of that, I will decide what to work on next.

DD just isn't a priority right now for a whole bunch of different reasons, but I will absolutely be returning to it eventually. It's just going to take a loooong time to finish when I do get back to working on it cos I plan for it to be longer than any of the other games I've released in the past + it's gonna need a hell of a lot more funding than I currently have >.<

I appreciate your interest in the project though! :3 And if you haven't already seen it, Dawn of the Damned is a finished game I released which is part of the Darling Duality universe (it's a separate story of more characters that I hope to add as love interests to Darling Duality in the future!)

So glad to hear you love what's there in the demo :3 It's a little messy, but I hope to tidy it up when I'm working more actively on this particular project again in the future! x3

And I'm glad the FAQ thingy came in handy in the end :D It is pretty easy to miss cos there's a lot of text on the page in general >.< haha.

Unfortunately, my situation has largely gotten worse instead of better, which is... well, frustrating >.< But I'm still dragging myself along trying to do my best! I'm in therapy, which isn't really helping so far, but the team have promised they won't stop until they find something that eventually works on my silly brain xD

Anyways, I really appreciate the support <3 It means a lot that you took the time to check out the demo and then come to comment something so kind :3 I will definitely get there in the end with this project, so your patience is very much appreciated ^-^ Hope your year is going well so far!

I'm glad you decided to check it out despite its demo status :3 and even more glad that you ended up enjoying it ^-^

Unfortunately, development is gonna be suuuuper slow since it's not even currently my active project (Lovestarved is), but also just my life has been a shitshow in general lately so I haven't been able to do much of anything xD

Really appreciate you taking the time to play and comment <3

<3 Thanks so much for checking out the demo!!

Unfortunately,  there are apparently sometimes issues opening itch games on Mac :( I don't have a Mac, and I don't know anyone personally who does, so I can't even test stuff on Mac >.<

Thankfully, enough Mac players have spent time on itch figuring out different ways to launch games from here though! So I put together a post of their advice, which you can find here :3

https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/darling-duality-winter-wish/devlog/227880/...

The tactic that seems to work for most people is to download the itch.io launcher, then download games through that and launch the games from the launcher.

There are other methods on the list though, so, with any luck,  you'll find one that works for you :3

Hehe, oh dear x3 Well, going by the next few segments that are written but not currently implemented, things will get waaaay worse than being stabbed if you continue on the sinister path :P

Unfortunately, there won't be an update to this particular project anytime soon though :(

This project is on pause while I work on finishing another project of mine called Lovestarved.

But development on everything has been paused recently cos I've been out of action in general and unable to go on my PC thanks to a mixture of burnout, followed by illness, followed by injury >.< haha. I've been having a lot of bad luck so far this year x3

But I will eventually be working on this game again at some point :3 I just don't have a specific time as to when.

Thanks for taking the time to check out the demo and leave a comment though! <3

<3 And Castor loves you too! :P

Sadly, development will be super slow since I've been through a real bad patch lately and not been capable of doing much work on anything at all >.< Add to that the fact that this isn't my current active project, and yeah... it's gonna be a while before I get around to adding to this T_T I'll get there eventually though!

Thanks so much for checking out the demo :3

<3 It means a lot that you think so :3 I'm so glad you like Castoria cos she sure as hell loves you :P

Sorry it's taken so long to reply >.< I've been going through some stuff lately that has basically made it so I couldn't go on my PC much at all these past few months :( So yeah, not much progress with anything, sadly. 

I'm hoping to be able to get back to working on projects sometime in June/July though :3 

Thanks for taking the time to play some of my games!

And Castor still loves you :P <3

I can only apologise that the development of the project is so slow >.< It's been on pause for a while and will continue to be while I prioritise finishing other projects first just because this one is so damn long, haha.

It makes sense for me to finish stuff that's shorter and/or already fully written, so I'm trying to finish and release Lovestarved first. That's what I'm currently working on.

Then there's one more project after that that I wanna tackle and release before I get back into working on this one x3

Sometimes I wish I had a team to work with cos it sucks how long it takes to do stuff solo >.< I appreciate your support though!! And Castor will never stop loving you, so he's just patiently waiting for the moment he finally gets to spend more time with you :D

That means a lot that you still even remember it if it's been a long time since you played it :3 I can only apologise that development has been so slow for the project >.< I still intend to work on and finish it at some point, but I've just had to prioritise a mixture of irl stuff and other projects for my own sanity, haha.

Right now, Lovestarved is my main project that I'm aiming to finish since it's much shorter than this one and is already fully written + has almost all of the voice acting delivered :3 Hoping to finish it sometime this year after life got in the way of finishing it last year x3 And then there's one more old project I wanna go back to and finish before finally getting back to working on DD again.

Your patience is beyond appreciated though :3 Seriously, it means so much to have support like yours!

I have a bad habit of putting a lot of pressure on myself, and sometimes that is made much worse by the odd person here and there also adding pressure on me to finish or work on something they're waiting for >.< Maybe they think acting that way will motivate me somehow, but it does the opposite x3 Whereas kind words like yours absolutely encourage me to keep going :3

So thank you <3

Thanks so much for checking out the demo :D I can only apologise that so many things currently lead to dead ends x3 I probably should have made the demo a lot cleaner, but I was in a rush to try and show more clearly that there would be other routes available in the future. In that rush though, I kinda wound up making the demo a mess T_T haha.

Once I’m actively working on the project again though, I will probably try to tidy up and re-release the demo :3 Jus gotta finish some other projects first before I come back to this one x3

So glad you like Castor though! Thanks for playing <3

Thanks for playing! :3

It’s nowhere near finished yet, but in the full game, I plan for story branches to go all over the place :D I did a rough drawing a long time ago which is a complete mess, haha. But I will clean it up once I’m working on the project properly again.

But yeah, I’m hoping to include a loooot of choices :3 Some where they have an instant impact, and some where you won’t see the result of them until much later on.

Testing everything is gonna be a nightmare I think, haha. One thing’s for certain is that there will be plenty more dead ends cos I’m a total sucker for bad endings xD

Thanks again for checking it out <3

Aww, I’m so glad you ended up liking both of them! I have more of a soft spot for Castor (sorry Castoria T_T) but I try to treat them both equally, haha. Sadly, the VA is probably going to be different once the full game is eventually released because there have been some issues that will mean I need to recast >.< but I’m sure the new VAs will do an awesome job too :3

Thanks so much for checking out the demo <3

That’s awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed the little demo :3 Thanks so much for checking it out <3

I’m so glad you think so ^-^ Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to write something so sweet! <3

(copying my reply -with a couple of edits - from the other thread in case anyone happens to see this and has a similar problem with their computer)

Since I see you posted a similar thing on another project of mine, I can only assume there's something your computer really doesn't like about games made using Naninovel in Unity :(

What that could be I have zero idea without troubleshooting, and that would sadly be impossible at the moment as I am too unwell to get on my PC. It would also require me to export and send to you a separate dev build of the game for you to send me any error logs that your computer generates, so quite longwinded >.<

I know it's not helpful to say, but plenty of other people have played this and The Hostage from start to finish without any issues at all, so it must be something specific to your device :(

I appreciate you checking out the games regardless! I'm just sorry that they don't seem to work correctly on your computer for whatever reason cos that sucks for both of us T_T

That's  just one of the woes of everyone having different devices I guess. I know everything I make works on both my PC and on the family potato laptop (albeit slower loading on the potato) cos I test stuff for ungodly amounts of time before releasing, but that doesn't mean the games will run perfectly on every device out there, unfortunately. 

For big companies, it's not so much of an issue cos they can get a whole team to troubleshoot, but I'm just one person making games as a hobby x3

There are a billion different reasons that a PC could fail to run a game properly. I've come across a fair few bugs in other people's indie games I've played. Sometimes, I'll download something that has no sound at all, even though I've seen video playthroughs and know the game has sound. I know there's something my PC doesn't like about the game for there to be no sound for me, but I have no way of knowing the cause, and the dev wouldn't stand much of a chance of figuring it out without going through time-consuming tests.

Computers can be a nightmare sometimes >.<

im a mac user too, i was able to unzip the file just fine it might just be you 😣

Thanks so much for checking out both of em! And for the luck too cos I will definitely need it x3

Glad you had fun with them :3 I don't know if some of the other stuff I've made will be your cup of tea or not (mostly yandere vibes in them or horror of some description, haha), but feel free to check out my other projects in the meantime cos it's gonna takes me aaaages to get the full version of Darling Duality finished >.<

Thank you again for the kind words and checking out my games <3

Glad you enjoyed the demo :D Thanks so much for checking it out!

It's a little rough around the edges & there are a bunch of things I'd really like to fix, but I will already need to remake the demo content from the ground up cos all the updates to the engine will have broken everything by the time I actually finish the game x3

Hehe, gotta love the softbois x3 Whether or not Castor stays one or becomes more of a monster will be down to your choices in the full game :D

Unfortunately, development on this is waaaay behind while I finish some other shorter projects first >.< but it will be finished eventually. I'm just not entirely sure when at this point. I'll be sure to post a proper update once I'm actively working on it again though :3

Thank you for checking out the demo & for the kind words of support! <3

Well, that’s brilliant to hear :D So glad you had fun with the demo! Cheers for checking it out ^-^

I can only apologise that the full release is such a long way off >.< Many of my other games feature yandere-type characters though, so if you’re into that, feel free to check em out in the meantime :D

Thanks so much for checking out the demo & leaving such a lovely comment! ^-^ I can only apologise that development on this particular project is so slow >.< It’s on hold right now while I finish a couple of other projects first, but I’ll get back to this one eventually :3

I definitely wouldn’t recommend paying Castor to stab you x3 and even if you did, he’d likely refuse to do it for money, haha. If he thought you really, really wanted him to do it though, and that it would make you happy... he’d just do it to try and make you smile/win your affection x3

Since you said you enjoyed Castor’s volatile nature as a love interest, feel free to check out my other games :3 Almost all of them have love interests like that in them, haha. Although, they are all somewhat different from each other. Some are softer, some are more manipulative, and some have even angrier explosions xD But all of them love MC deeply, even if it’s not in the healthiest way, haha.

Thanks again for playing! :3

I hope I will be able to at some point :3 It will be a long way off though because I need to finish the PC version of the game first >.< then I have to learn how to make Android builds work because currently, I don’t know how to make them x3

And Castor loves you too :P probably a little too much x3

Since this is only a demo and the full game is a looong way off (it’s currently on hold while I finish other projects that I started, but once they’re done, this will be my main priority), if you happen to like yandere characters in general, almost all of my games feature at least 1 yandere LI :D I try to write a different kind of yan for most of my projects, so some are soft, others not so much, and some are a mix x3

Thanks so much for checking out the lil demo for this one! I’m glad you had fun with it ^-^

It’s okay, the demo is pretty ancient at this point anyways, and I’m already well aware of how badly it needs a remake, haha. There just isn’t much point in doing that at the moment because the project is currently on hold while I finish other projects, and when I do come back to actively working on this one again, I will need to pretty much remake the entire thing from scratch for a bunch of different reasons x3

One is because it’s waaaaay behind the current version of Naninovel that I’m using. It was one of the first things I made when I got Nani a few years ago, so I didn’t know anywhere near as much as I do now about how to use the software. Many of the niggles in this old demo can easily be fixed just by using a more up-to-date version of Nani now I know how to do more with it :3

But updating the project files to the latest version of Nani will break pretty much everything in the demo + I’m gonna have to recast voice actors (already covered the reasons behind that in past comments/posts, so I won’t repeat myself cos it’s a loooong story >.<), so I might as well just completely start over with it when the time comes!

Anyways, thanks for choosing to check out the demo anyhow! I’m glad you like the music and atmosphere in general :3 There will be a lot more original music in the eventual full game, as I now make full OSTs for my projects. The demo only has a few original tracks because I had only recently started dabbling in making music back then x3

There is indeed an explanation later on in the story regarding how Castor/ia leaves the game, but I won’t say what it is cos it would spoil major stuff further down the line x3 Just know that it’s covered eventually, haha.

Actually, the reason that you can’t do much with the AI branch of the story (and also why so many choices are blocked off in general) is that there are a lot of features and routes planned that were impossible to showcase in the demo, sadly.

Basically, I had this even shorter demo originally cos I made it in under 1 month for Winter VN Jam. Then Manly randomly did a playthrough of that outta nowhere much later after I’d released the demo as a self-contained chapter of a much larger project that I put on hold, but with Manly’s video came an influx of eyes on the project, and that put me in a bit of awkward position when people started assuming that what Manly played was all there was. A worrying number of people who saw the video thought that was the end of the story >.< Or they assumed that the game was all about/only about Castor/ia, and that was never my intention.

My plan was to start Castor/ia’s story and end it at a point where it was self-contained to make it tie up nicely for the jam I was making it for while leaving it open to continue at a later date. I kinda got swamped with people asking if there was gonna be more, and I just wasn’t expecting so many people to suddenly look at the project when it was in a state that I wasn’t particularly proud of >.<

So, to try and give people a better idea of the direction I was hoping to take the project in, I tried my best to put together a remade version of the demo that clearly showed there would be more character routes and features, in the hope that all the questions would stop x3 It was very rushed. I realised it would be frustrating to keep encountering blocked-off paths, but it was better than constantly being asked the same questions over and over again because I was really struggling to keep answering. 

The demo that’s currently on here to download is more like a working copy of my old project files with parts blocked off because there wouldn’t be any point pursuing them when they aren’t written yet >.< They’re literally just there to show that there are things in the game other than Castor/ia x3

But like I said, it was super rushed because I just wanted to get something out there as fast as I could to stop all the misunderstandings that kept happening after Manly’s video.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the entire thing needs remaking from scratch, I would update it to make it much more polished. As it stands though, that would be far too time-consuming, so sadly, it’s stuck in the super rough state that it is until I’m actively working on the project again :( 

It all boils down to the fact that when I made the original demo, I wasn’t expecting anyone to play it >.< I couldn’t have anticipated all the attention it would get from Manly randomly playing it x3 And I’m extremely grateful for that :3 It’s just that it was never really ready to be viewed by a larger audience, and still isn’t now really, haha. It’s not even remotely to the same sort of standard as my more recent full releases T_T

But yeah, that’s that explained anyhow, haha.

As for content warnings, that sort of falls under a similar issue as above >.< When I first made this, as far as I was aware, people weren’t making especially detailed content warnings and triggers for their projects, or at least, I hadn’t come across that in any of the stuff I was playing. Of course, times have changed, and I do now include detailed content warnings and trigger information in all of my recent projects. I put larger lists in-game, and on the game pages here on itch. I put a main list that is visible by default, followed by an expandable dropdown list that’s far more detailed (but contains spoilers), covering everything I can think of.

Again, that’s because it’s something I’ve learned how to do more recently.

In the past, I had no idea you could even make hidden dropdowns on itch pages >.< So all of my older games, like this one, are somewhat lacking in the level of detail for content warnings, and I do absolutely intend to rectify that at some point, it’s just I haven’t had the time to do it yet >.< It does need doing for all of my older projects though!

The problem is, I’m just one person who gets very easily overwhelmed (I have ASD >.<), so it can take me a while to get around to ticking off tasks on my giant (and seemingly neverending) to-do list :( 

Nowadays, I use a specific resource to help me compile my big lists of warnings/triggers which is quite comprehensive and includes a lot of stuff I would never even think to mention. 

Back when I first started making games, people seemed to just be using warnings similar to like what you see for films or when starting a Netflix show (just like 3-5 vague bullet points), so I just did the same. It’s a tough one because, of course, I would never want to hurt anyone who encounters my stuff >.< but I also had folks tell me in the past that even a vague warning kinda spoiled their enjoyment of some of my stories because it sort of acted like a spoiler. 

I’m not sure about including nudity as a warning though since it’s only a topless sprite with censored nudity/no genitals on show, as PEGI says that sorta thing can even be in games rated 12 >.< Even PEGI 16 says it covers erotic nudity or sexual intercourse without visible genitals. And that in general, “depiction of nudity in a non-sexual context does not require a specific age rating.” As far as I can remember, when the characters are briefly naked, there isn’t any sexual stuff going on. Heck, the nakedness is even there specifically to represent innocence and rebirth into a new world. However, I do completely agree that drugging needs to be added when I update the lists!

It’s interesting that you mention how an actual victim of SA could be affected though because I am one myself.

In fact, I’ve endured more non-consensual sexual experiences than I have consensual ones throughout the course of my life! I'm actually asexual/demisexual myself, but that was hardly going to matter to the people who chose to abuse me. That’s one of the many perils of being an autistic woman >.< especially as a teen/young adult. I was extremely gullible and easy to take advantage of. By the time I realised what was going on, it was too late.

Despite that, I don’t find I’m ever harmed in any way by fictional content covering the sorts of experiences I’ve had in reality. Sure, the odd scene in something might bring up a bad memory or two, but it passes in a flash and I’m no worse off for it. I know that won’t be the case for everyone though! I just wanted to point out that when you mention how a victim might feel, I am one of those victims.

I guess that’s partly why triggers/warnings are such a contentious issue because everyone is so different >.< It’s impossible to know what might hurt one person and not even remotely impact another.

I’m just the sort of person who doesn’t really get triggered by anything in fictional content despite my past being filled with enough trauma and abuse that I could curate an entire gallery of horrors x3 And as a gamer in her thirties, I’ve played my fair share of games that just straight-up slapped that sorta stuff in my face with no warning whatsoever. For me personally, I find my brain just completely separates fictional content from anything that’s ever happened to me in reality. Like I said, I realise everyone is different though :3

I would like to hope that if someone finds something even remotely triggering or making them uncomfortable in some way, regardless of whether they've seen warnings or not,  they would just disengage with that piece of media immediately >.<

Being able to create hidden dropdown lists on the game page is a real blessing when it comes to that sort of thing because it means it’s up to each individual as to whether or not they want to view the fully detailed list and be prepared at the cost of also being spoiled, or to just heed the main warnings without going into any detail :3

As a player, I personally prefer all content warnings to be hidden/revealable, as I don’t want any spoilers whatsoever for stuff I’m about to play cos that completely ruins the experience and immersion for me.

But yeah, whenever I actually have a chance, I plan to put those detailed dropdowns on all of my older project pages that don’t currently have them! It just might take a while because, as usual, I’m completely swamped with stuff and struggling to stay on top of things >.<

As for the intro sequence, I know how to edit that sorta thing now :D Again, it’s just a case of literally not knowing at the time how to code it in a way that avoids playing the full sequence every time, haha. Now that I have the knowledge, I can implement an instant-loading version of the title screen when backing out of menus and stuff :3

Cheers again for checking it out!

Hey hey! Thanks so much for checking out the demo ^-^ I’m really glad you enjoyed it! It’s still kinda clunky >.< but there doesn’t seem like much point in me fixing stuff when I will need to remake it all from scratch once I’m working on the project full-time again (cos the updated version of Naninovel will break pretty much everything in the demo xD)

If you do end up making fanart of Castor, definitely give me a poke cos I’d love to see it :D 

Thank you for playing & for your kind words :3

Glad to hear that you still enjoyed playing the demo even if it wasn’t an exact fit for your tastes :3 The good news though is that in the finished version of the game, there technically will be the option to play with a submissive version of Castor :D It’s just you will kind of have to tame him first x3

Other characters will start out more submissive than Castor/ia though! 

I guess it probably doesn’t come across much in the demo, but if you go down the start of the sweet path rather than the sinister one, you can just about see how Castor/ia could end up becoming more submissive based on your choices. It’s just there’s a looooot that isn’t implemented yet as the game is still in the very early stages of development, and sadly, the demo doesn’t do the greatest job of accurately representing my vision for the finished project >.< haha.

Thanks so much for playing and taking the time to comment! ^-^

The good news is, it absolutely is still in development :3

The bad news is, it’s not actively in development because I’m trying to finish a different big project that I started before this one x3 

After I released my first ever game which took me like 3 years or something to make cos it was quite a long one, I started something else almost right away (CiQ) but that’s been on hold for far too long while I’ve worked on other things >.<

Once CiQ is finished, Darling Duality will become my next priority long-term project to work on though :3

I don’t anticipate being able to work on Darling Duality at any point in the remainder of this year though because my schedule for 2024 is already packed. It looks something like this: 

• Completing a brand new short-ish game (probably around 40-50k words) for a game jam that’s running this year (most likely it will be part 01 release for the jam around 1st July with part 02 coming probably later in the year)

• Working towards finishing CiQ since I started it long before beginning DD (writing for CiQ was finished years ago, but the game never got past the demo stage for a whole bunch of reasons >.< and all the art and stuff is now getting a complete overhaul) I had hoped to possibly release CiQ by the end of this year, but I don’t think that’s going to happen, so I might have to push it back to like summer 2025 or something!

So yeah, I’m not likely to have the chance to work on Darling Duality until possibly Autumn 2025 maybe >.< Which is a long way off, and then development to completion will probably take another 1-3 years T_T It’s really hard to tell tbh cos I never know what crap life is gonna throw at me that slows down progress, haha.

The main thing though is that it will be finished eventually one day :3 

I’ve created this problem by being too enthusiastic and making more than 1 long-term project at once xD I’ve finished plenty of projects at this point, but tackling the longer ones is harder with how much time they eat up >.<

I’ve learned my lesson though and won’t be starting any more long-term projects until CiQ and DD are completed :3 And I’m cutting down how many game jams I participate in too so that I can spend more time focusing on long-term stuff, haha.

Sorry for the giant ramble anyhow xD Hope you’re having an awesome April :3

I should probably have put this on the FAQ x3 I’ll try to update it with this answer when I get a chance, haha.

The TLDR answer is: I hope so! But it won’t be any time soon, sadly >.<

The longer answer is, I would honestly love to release Android versions of all of my projects :3 The problem is, the couple of times that I tested it on small projects, the builds succeeded, but they didn’t run >.< I just got a blank screen in the test environment :( 

I have literally no idea what I did wrong cos I followed all the steps of a guide multiple times, but I still haven’t been able to get any Android builds to work. What doesn’t help is that my PC is pretty old and can’t really handle the load of Android Studio + Unity >.< But more than that, I’m just not a very techy person, so I think I might need help from another dev who has more idea how to do that sort of thing, haha. Cos I would also love to get my games on Switch, and my brother keeps saying I should try to have some on Xbox too, but I can’t get anything other than PC builds to work T_T

For this particular project, there will be even more problems because the final version of it will be pretty big, and I’m guessing I will have to tweak A LOT of things with the UI and stuff to get it to display decently on a phone >.< And this project itself is nowhere near completion for PC release and probably won’t be for at least another couple of years cos I’ve got other projects that are a priority to finish before this one :( 

But yeah, I do hope to in the future! :3