AHHH 😭 Haven't played this game in a while, but I still love Castor ♡♡ he's my number one bbg still love the story tho, hope future updates will be good too!
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
I remember playing this game so long ago and it definitely still holds a soft spot in my heart. I absolutely adore the art(I could stare at Castor all day) and I cant wait to see how this games evolves into something absolutely amazing! Keep up the great work and don't forget to take breaks and get ample rest!!
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
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
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
I love the art, va, and the stories. I couldn't take my eyes off from both of characters so i played it 4 times, 2 with Castor and the other 2 with Castoria. they both are adorable :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 for checking it out :3 I hope to eventually have all my games on Steam someday, but that $100 fee per game is a real killer >.< That's why itch is so helpful, cos they don't charge devs to upload their games here :D
Yeah, it sucks >.< haha. I think you can claw the money back from them if your game manages to make X amount of sales, but that doesn’t help devs who are releasing stuff for free because they will never make anything x3
omg this game so good, i love the cover, the font and the art! i mean the character is good too, i hope this game will have more notice. thank u for made this <333
Mild problem: adjusting the volume doesn't seem to affect menu sounds? Even turning the master volume and all volume sliders down, the sounds when clicking buttons and navigating menus is unaffected.
Yeah, sadly that was an old Naninovel bug (which has since been fixed at least :3) that shouldn't be a problem once the game is updated. It's just that exporting an update with that fix in isn't an easy task >.<
If it were quick to do, I'd release an update of the demo that fixes that issue + some other UI-related gremlins, but the version of Naninovel that the demo was made in is so incredibly out of date now that any update will break most of the code in the demo T_T
Basically, I will need to start the game from scratch with the latest version of Nani. But I don't feel that's worth doing until there's more actual content to add story-wise. So, for now, the janky demo will have to suffice x3 Sorry aboot that! And cheers for checking it out :3
Ahhhhhh yeah that makes sense. Thanks for the response! I'll just turn my pc volume down for now then. Very intriguing demo though! Definitely have to dig into it and see some of the other available routes. Looking forward to more.
No worries :3 I honestly wish there was a quick way to edit and re-export a new version of the demo though cos knowing of all the stuff in it that’s janky really bothers me xD Maybe I can find some sort of way to do it that won’t break the whole thing >.<
(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.
Hey, I'm using Mac and downloaded the Mac version, but can't unzip it. It doesn't give me the option to unzip it, just compress it, Is it something on my end? I'm pretty sure I've played other games by you before but I haven't run across this issue, I don't really know any differences in how games are set up either, I even had to look up how to unzip a file to try to do it. Mac is complicated sometimes man. ;^; But if you could check on if it's anything on your end, or any tips to help that'd be appreciated, i'm sorry to bother you. I just hadn't seen any comments on any Mac users having an issue, I know many users don't really use a MacBook to play games
Hey hey! Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I've been super busy with irl stuff all of October and haven't had a chance to go on my PC still (typing this on my phone while waiting at an appointment x3)
Firstly, thanks so much for checking out some of my games, and I'm glad you were able to play others without problems :3
Mac is a complete mystery to me as I don't own one or know anyone who does that I could borrow from to test stuff >.<
BUT... you're definitely not alone cos I've had Mac users in the past state various steps they've had to do to get different itch games to work while others seem to have no trouble.
It got to a point where I made a big list of everyone who commented and turned it into a megapost :3 I list it on all of my game pages, so you might have even have found it yourself by now, but in case not, it's this one here:
Honestly, none of what's written there means anything to me, haha. But with you being a Mac user, hopefully, at least something on there will make sense to you and will work! :3
Oh my god nooo I WAS ONE MORE STEP AWAY FROM PLAYING IT THIS WHOLE TIMEEEE. I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT UNZIPPING AND GOT CONFUSED TOWARDS THE CONTENTS AND STUFF. I got it now, the link you have did indeed help, it had that one step that I didn't know about to get it to open. thank you for answering! Your reply speed is fine, I'm finally getting back this direction 30 days later XD. I feel special X'D. I can't wait to play it now that I actually managed to load it ^^
When I look at the instructions people have written, I always think I would struggle to know what to do if I had a Mac, cos it all looks super confusing to me, haha.
Hope you have a happy holidays and also a happy new year :3
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
I absolutely love this game, I completely fell in love with Castoria's sweet yandere charms!! I can't wait for more content with her, I hope that you will be in a good headspace to continue soon! Thank you for an awesome experience, this is one of my top visual novels ever, no doubt!! <3
So glad to hear it & thanks so much for checking it out ^-^
Also thank you for the well-wishes too! I'm chugging along, but I haven't been able to make much progress with anything since the end of September >.< Partly cos October is my busiest month of the year for irl stuff (scare attractions are one of my special interests, so October is the only month of the year I tend to go out a lot, haha), but also due to physical illness and general depression :( I'm hoping things will pick up soon!
Thanks so much for the support :3 it means a lot <3
Just finished and geez this is so right up my alley! I loved almost every moment of it, especially the creepy glitches/distortion effects haha😈 Also, I'm such a sucker for soft-looking male yandere AHHHHHH I can't wait for the full release!
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
I LOVE this game already and it's just the demo, it's hitting me in all the right spots. The team is absolutely awesome and I cannot wait for the full release!!
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
So glad to hear you like the demo :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
I can kind of give an approximate release date for the full game, but it’s likely to be inaccurate >.< and also probably not what anyone who is waiting for the full game wants to hear :(
Basically, I am not actively working on the project right now and haven’t done so for quite some time because there are other things I am trying to finish first.
So, for starters, my active project and number 1 priority to finish and release is LOVESTARVED, which I think probably won’t be fully finished until early 2025 possibly. It really depends on a lot of different things.
My friend and I hoped we might be able to release the full otome version of LOVESTARVED by the end of October this year, but my PC died shortly after we managed to release the demo, and I’ve been without a PC to work on ever since :( I’m hoping to have a new one up and running ASAP.
And then I also plan to finish a really old project called Clarity in Qualia before Darling Duality because I already have the story 100% written for Clarity in Qualia, whereas I haven’t even gotten close to finishing Darling Duality’s writing yet.
So my 2nd priority after LOVESTARVED is done is to finish Clarity in Qualia, which I anticipate will probably take me up to somewhere around the end of 2025/beginning 2026 possibly.
Only after both of those are done so I plan to return to actively working on Darling Duality again. Once I do start working on it again, probably in 2026, it will likely take me at least 1-2 years to make with how much I have planned for it >.< So that would mean a possible release of the full game in 2027/2028 T_T
Of course, that’s just a super loose estimate! It could end up being sooner, but it could also end up being later >.<
It’s really hard for me to try and approximate stuff like that cos I’m just a solo dev, and I never know what is going to happen in life to delay things and stuff x3 Sometimes when I get bad burnout, or when my depression really kicks my ass, it can mean months of not even being able to work on projects :(
On top of that, I sometimes have to give in to my impulses if a random idea pops into my head because if I don’t work on it, it haunts me and I can’t concentrate on anything else xD That’s kind of what happened with LOVESTARVED. My schedule for this year was to work on & finish Clarity in Qualia! When I started the year, LOVESTARVED wasn’t even a thing, but the idea entered my head one day, and I couldn’t resist >.<
Like with Clarity in Qualia, LOVESTARVED’s story is already fully written, so it’s a case of getting all the coding finished now, which takes forever T_T haha.
In the meantime, I don’t know if you have already seen it or if you’d even be interested, but I have a separate game related to Darling Duality which is complete :3 It’s basically the backstory of 2 characters who will eventually be in Darling Duality. It’s called Dawn of the Damned, and you can find it here.
If you're into yandere characters in general, feel free to check out my other projects, as most of them have at least 1 yandere in, haha.
I just played this and ahhh !!!!!!!!!! I'm absolutely in love with this game. I'll be eagerly awaiting any updates in the future!!! The volatile nature of the love interests is so exhilarating to read. . . is it bad I would pay Castor to stab me? Hello!! He is so attractive I am definitely a fangirl now. and his voice actor!!! Is so perfect for him, it's a really pretty voice. . . and it sounds real good when angry. explodes
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.
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 ^-^
Keep into account my rating and thoughts may change upon full release; these are only my oppinions of the demo so far!
Well, I think I ought to start off with the positives first. The music fucking ROCKS, on god. Very atmospheric too. Speaking of atmosphere, it is extremely well set in the menu-like choice sequences, such as in the beggining or when choosing the gender of the love interest. Along with the dialogue, they give a very cool vibe that feels like it sets you up for this immensely cool grand experience and if that's not a KILLER way to start your game I don't know what is! Hypppeeee
The story/narrative so far isn't too much of note; I'd appreciate a bit of an explanation in-game on how LI leaves the game and forms into the real world, however I have the sneaking suspicion this might've been explained should we have gone to the AI transplant meeting thing. Speaking off. I think it's a very odd choice to have the refusal of that be the option that we're limited to. Infact, I am rather disgruntled with how many options are unavailable. I understand that this is a demo, however even as one, it feels unfinished in that regard. Imo, you should've developed all choices to a satisfying point before ending the demo, not just focusing on one.
Well, either way, what I do think is innovative and cool is the nice spin on VN choice mechanics. The duality system is really a cool idea however a little misused in practise. Oftentimes, the "evil" options are options that would've been reasonable in MC's position.
Voice acting wise, out of curiosity, I checked out both dubs. I have to say the female actor did a better job emotively. However, both actors to an extent sound a little, robotic?, in their delivery. I'm willing to believe this is a stylistic choice to an extent, them being game characters an all. However I would've liked to see a more obvious change in both sound and expressiveness when they're out of the game, but instead it appears more subtle and gradual, almost unrecognisable. Some lines were delivered with great emotion, but I do feel the performance overall could've used an improvement(should this not have been a stylistic choice). The glitchy sequence I feel overused the glitchy-ness of the voices just by a smidge, it made the situation a little funny which unfortunately diminishes it's creep factor.
My biggest qualm, though, is the lack of adequate content warnings for what happens ingame. As of writing this, and before I had played the game, both the in-game warning and game page warnings had been "suggestive situations". I don't think this fully emphasises how far the game goes. Instead, I believe the game should not only expressively warn that there will be nudity, but also add an SA warnings as well. Here is my reasoning as to why; not only does LI lay on top of MC NAKED, but this is also done without any consent from MC. Shortly afterwards, they comment on MC's possible lack of control, and then make/attempt to make yet another forceful advance, even if this just a kiss. Later on in the game, MC is essentially drugged and given the context of these prior occurences, I think drugging should also be a TW. I myself have been fortunate enough to not have experienced SA and it was enough to make me really uncomfortable, I can't imagine how an actual victim could be affected by this without proper warning.
That aside, I also think the intro sequence with the title screen ought to not happen everytime one goes to the title screen; it gets annoying after a couple times. I also found about 2 non-game -breaking bugs, but I will use the thread to comment on those.
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
Hii, i just finished the demo & it's very good and interesting🥹 i love Castor sm because he's so adorable (maybe i'll fanart him hehe). Anyway i can't wait for future updates !!!(≧▽≦)💕
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
In love, I really like how the LI is written, and their designs are gorgeous. I love how you made the main character aware of the LI's lack of nipples, I've always found it a little weird how LI's usually don't have any. (Great game)
<3 I can’t take much credit for sprite designs because the sprites in this are purchased assets that I painstakingly recoloured just to make them more unique cos I know it’s almost impossible to find asset pack sprites that aren’t in other games, haha. It would have been nicer to commission an artist, but the full game will need so many sprites that it would be unaffordable to get that many drawn up without a looooot more funding x3
But yeah, it’s always amused me that most sprite assets I own have a naked option, but regardless of the gender, they have no nipples xD I have some r18 sprites where they actually do have nips, haha, but I don’t really make r18 games so they’re not especially helpful x3
Unfortunately not for a long, looooon time >.< I have to finish the PC version first before I can even think about starting adaptation for Android, sadly T_T
Aaaand, I’ve never managed to export a successful working Android build of anything during tests either, so there’s that hurdle too :(
I absolutely intend to try though! It’s just not gonna be anytime soon >.<
Its a little disappointing when characters give off very submissive vibes and then are doms-like did he HAVE to be a dom? Couldn't I have chosen? Otherwise I did enjoy this game when I played it, I liked the concept!
Actually, I have a project with a much more submissive yandere LI, but I don’t know if it would be your cup of tea because MC is also quite submissive too >.< It’s this one here.
But yeah, I know what you mean! I personally used to hate submissive yanderes, but they’ve grown on me over the years :D Almost to the point that I prefer them, but only if they aren’t complete pushovers and retain the ability to be manipulative x3
All but one of my projects features at least one yandere LI, but admittedly, most of them fall on the more dominant side due to my personal preferences, haha.
When Darling Duality is eventually finished, there will be a lot more in the way of choices that shape both the personality of the player character & the LIs :3 It’s just a long way off of completion T_T
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 :(
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
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?
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 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.
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 >.<
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
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
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
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 ^-^
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!
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!"
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 ^-^
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.
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
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
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AHHH 😭 Haven't played this game in a while, but I still love Castor ♡♡
he's my number one bbgstill love the story tho, hope future updates will be good too!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
I remember playing this game so long ago and it definitely still holds a soft spot in my heart. I absolutely adore the art(I could stare at Castor all day) and I cant wait to see how this games evolves into something absolutely amazing! Keep up the great work and don't forget to take breaks and get ample rest!!
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
i did infact play every route and im jolly. i love castor. YAHHOO
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
Like, you get to make out with the LI, get killed by the LI, get stabbed almost to death by the LI, and uh... I dunno
Also, unlocked all dialogues with both Castor and Castoria :DD (I think)
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
I love the art, va, and the stories. I couldn't take my eyes off from both of characters so i played it 4 times, 2 with Castor and the other 2 with Castoria. they both are adorable :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
This game has potential, I love the character design. If this is on Steam I would 1000% put it on my wishlist!!
Thanks for checking it out :3 I hope to eventually have all my games on Steam someday, but that $100 fee per game is a real killer >.< That's why itch is so helpful, cos they don't charge devs to upload their games here :D
I'm glad you like the look of the demo anyhow ^-^
Wow I didn't know you have to pay $100 just to sell a game on Steam... that hurts D:
Still, hope your game gets some more love in the future!
Yeah, it sucks >.< haha. I think you can claw the money back from them if your game manages to make X amount of sales, but that doesn’t help devs who are releasing stuff for free because they will never make anything x3
Thank you again <3
I loved it!!
I will play other games of yours until this one gets updated!!
I loved it so far!!
Keep up the good jooob!!
That’s awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed the little demo :3 Thanks so much for checking it out <3
omg this game so good, i love the cover, the font and the art! i mean the character is good too, i hope this game will have more notice. thank u for made this <333
I’m so glad you think so ^-^ Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to write something so sweet! <3
Mild problem: adjusting the volume doesn't seem to affect menu sounds? Even turning the master volume and all volume sliders down, the sounds when clicking buttons and navigating menus is unaffected.
Yeah, sadly that was an old Naninovel bug (which has since been fixed at least :3) that shouldn't be a problem once the game is updated. It's just that exporting an update with that fix in isn't an easy task >.<
If it were quick to do, I'd release an update of the demo that fixes that issue + some other UI-related gremlins, but the version of Naninovel that the demo was made in is so incredibly out of date now that any update will break most of the code in the demo T_T
Basically, I will need to start the game from scratch with the latest version of Nani. But I don't feel that's worth doing until there's more actual content to add story-wise. So, for now, the janky demo will have to suffice x3 Sorry aboot that! And cheers for checking it out :3
Ahhhhhh yeah that makes sense. Thanks for the response! I'll just turn my pc volume down for now then. Very intriguing demo though! Definitely have to dig into it and see some of the other available routes. Looking forward to more.
No worries :3 I honestly wish there was a quick way to edit and re-export a new version of the demo though cos knowing of all the stuff in it that’s janky really bothers me xD Maybe I can find some sort of way to do it that won’t break the whole thing >.<
Thanks again for checking it out anyhow :3
I tried to play it two times and two times it froze. Cannot do anything besides getting to a loading screen and freezing.
(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 >.<
Hey, I'm using Mac and downloaded the Mac version, but can't unzip it. It doesn't give me the option to unzip it, just compress it, Is it something on my end? I'm pretty sure I've played other games by you before but I haven't run across this issue, I don't really know any differences in how games are set up either, I even had to look up how to unzip a file to try to do it. Mac is complicated sometimes man. ;^; But if you could check on if it's anything on your end, or any tips to help that'd be appreciated, i'm sorry to bother you. I just hadn't seen any comments on any Mac users having an issue, I know many users don't really use a MacBook to play games
im a mac user too, i was able to unzip the file just fine it might just be you 😣
Hey hey! Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I've been super busy with irl stuff all of October and haven't had a chance to go on my PC still (typing this on my phone while waiting at an appointment x3)
Firstly, thanks so much for checking out some of my games, and I'm glad you were able to play others without problems :3
Mac is a complete mystery to me as I don't own one or know anyone who does that I could borrow from to test stuff >.<
BUT... you're definitely not alone cos I've had Mac users in the past state various steps they've had to do to get different itch games to work while others seem to have no trouble.
It got to a point where I made a big list of everyone who commented and turned it into a megapost :3 I list it on all of my game pages, so you might have even have found it yourself by now, but in case not, it's this one here:
https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/darling-duality-winter-wish/devlog/227880/...
Honestly, none of what's written there means anything to me, haha. But with you being a Mac user, hopefully, at least something on there will make sense to you and will work! :3
Thanks again for your interest in the game <3
Oh my god nooo I WAS ONE MORE STEP AWAY FROM PLAYING IT THIS WHOLE TIMEEEE. I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT UNZIPPING AND GOT CONFUSED TOWARDS THE CONTENTS AND STUFF. I got it now, the link you have did indeed help, it had that one step that I didn't know about to get it to open. thank you for answering! Your reply speed is fine, I'm finally getting back this direction 30 days later XD. I feel special X'D. I can't wait to play it now that I actually managed to load it ^^
Ahh x3 Well, at least you know for the future :D
When I look at the instructions people have written, I always think I would struggle to know what to do if I had a Mac, cos it all looks super confusing to me, haha.
Hope you have a happy holidays and also a happy new year :3
i loved this game and also played Dawn of the damned now just for me to wait for the full release goodluck with ur projects they're great
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
I absolutely love this game, I completely fell in love with Castoria's sweet yandere charms!! I can't wait for more content with her, I hope that you will be in a good headspace to continue soon! Thank you for an awesome experience, this is one of my top visual novels ever, no doubt!! <3
So glad to hear it & thanks so much for checking it out ^-^
Also thank you for the well-wishes too! I'm chugging along, but I haven't been able to make much progress with anything since the end of September >.< Partly cos October is my busiest month of the year for irl stuff (scare attractions are one of my special interests, so October is the only month of the year I tend to go out a lot, haha), but also due to physical illness and general depression :( I'm hoping things will pick up soon!
Thanks so much for the support :3 it means a lot <3
That's okay, definitely take your time! I hope that you have fun at the attractions! :3
Just finished and geez this is so right up my alley! I loved almost every moment of it, especially the creepy glitches/distortion effects haha😈 Also, I'm such a sucker for soft-looking male yandere AHHHHHH I can't wait for the full release!
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
ITS JUST WHAT I NEEDED AFTER SO MANY NOVEL
KEEP GOING!
Thank you for checking out the demo & for the kind words of support! <3
I LOVE this game already and it's just the demo, it's hitting me in all the right spots. The team is absolutely awesome and I cannot wait for the full release!!
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
a 10/10
i really like this game
its underrated af
can you atleast give an approximate for the release date for the full game pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
So glad to hear you like the demo :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
I can kind of give an approximate release date for the full game, but it’s likely to be inaccurate >.< and also probably not what anyone who is waiting for the full game wants to hear :(
Basically, I am not actively working on the project right now and haven’t done so for quite some time because there are other things I am trying to finish first.
So, for starters, my active project and number 1 priority to finish and release is LOVESTARVED, which I think probably won’t be fully finished until early 2025 possibly. It really depends on a lot of different things.
My friend and I hoped we might be able to release the full otome version of LOVESTARVED by the end of October this year, but my PC died shortly after we managed to release the demo, and I’ve been without a PC to work on ever since :( I’m hoping to have a new one up and running ASAP.
And then I also plan to finish a really old project called Clarity in Qualia before Darling Duality because I already have the story 100% written for Clarity in Qualia, whereas I haven’t even gotten close to finishing Darling Duality’s writing yet.
So my 2nd priority after LOVESTARVED is done is to finish Clarity in Qualia, which I anticipate will probably take me up to somewhere around the end of 2025/beginning 2026 possibly.
Only after both of those are done so I plan to return to actively working on Darling Duality again. Once I do start working on it again, probably in 2026, it will likely take me at least 1-2 years to make with how much I have planned for it >.< So that would mean a possible release of the full game in 2027/2028 T_T
Of course, that’s just a super loose estimate! It could end up being sooner, but it could also end up being later >.<
It’s really hard for me to try and approximate stuff like that cos I’m just a solo dev, and I never know what is going to happen in life to delay things and stuff x3 Sometimes when I get bad burnout, or when my depression really kicks my ass, it can mean months of not even being able to work on projects :(
On top of that, I sometimes have to give in to my impulses if a random idea pops into my head because if I don’t work on it, it haunts me and I can’t concentrate on anything else xD That’s kind of what happened with LOVESTARVED. My schedule for this year was to work on & finish Clarity in Qualia! When I started the year, LOVESTARVED wasn’t even a thing, but the idea entered my head one day, and I couldn’t resist >.<
Like with Clarity in Qualia, LOVESTARVED’s story is already fully written, so it’s a case of getting all the coding finished now, which takes forever T_T haha.
In the meantime, I don’t know if you have already seen it or if you’d even be interested, but I have a separate game related to Darling Duality which is complete :3 It’s basically the backstory of 2 characters who will eventually be in Darling Duality. It’s called Dawn of the Damned, and you can find it here.
If you're into yandere characters in general, feel free to check out my other projects, as most of them have at least 1 yandere in, haha.
Thank you for your interest in the game :3
Yeah its alright
ill be waiting for the game for full completion tho
since your game was my first ever Visual Novel game
I just played this and ahhh !!!!!!!!!! I'm absolutely in love with this game. I'll be eagerly awaiting any updates in the future!!! The volatile nature of the love interests is so exhilarating to read. . . is it bad I would pay Castor to stab me? Hello!! He is so attractive I am definitely a fangirl now. and his voice actor!!! Is so perfect for him, it's a really pretty voice. . . and it sounds real good when angry. explodes
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
Please make a android version of this🙏
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
Very good! I already love Castor a whole bunch!! So good that I'm willing to pay for the whole game lol
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 ^-^
Keep into account my rating and thoughts may change upon full release; these are only my oppinions of the demo so far!
Well, I think I ought to start off with the positives first. The music fucking ROCKS, on god. Very atmospheric too. Speaking of atmosphere, it is extremely well set in the menu-like choice sequences, such as in the beggining or when choosing the gender of the love interest. Along with the dialogue, they give a very cool vibe that feels like it sets you up for this immensely cool grand experience and if that's not a KILLER way to start your game I don't know what is! Hypppeeee
The story/narrative so far isn't too much of note; I'd appreciate a bit of an explanation in-game on how LI leaves the game and forms into the real world, however I have the sneaking suspicion this might've been explained should we have gone to the AI transplant meeting thing. Speaking off. I think it's a very odd choice to have the refusal of that be the option that we're limited to. Infact, I am rather disgruntled with how many options are unavailable. I understand that this is a demo, however even as one, it feels unfinished in that regard. Imo, you should've developed all choices to a satisfying point before ending the demo, not just focusing on one.
Well, either way, what I do think is innovative and cool is the nice spin on VN choice mechanics. The duality system is really a cool idea however a little misused in practise. Oftentimes, the "evil" options are options that would've been reasonable in MC's position.
Voice acting wise, out of curiosity, I checked out both dubs. I have to say the female actor did a better job emotively. However, both actors to an extent sound a little, robotic?, in their delivery. I'm willing to believe this is a stylistic choice to an extent, them being game characters an all. However I would've liked to see a more obvious change in both sound and expressiveness when they're out of the game, but instead it appears more subtle and gradual, almost unrecognisable. Some lines were delivered with great emotion, but I do feel the performance overall could've used an improvement(should this not have been a stylistic choice). The glitchy sequence I feel overused the glitchy-ness of the voices just by a smidge, it made the situation a little funny which unfortunately diminishes it's creep factor.
My biggest qualm, though, is the lack of adequate content warnings for what happens ingame. As of writing this, and before I had played the game, both the in-game warning and game page warnings had been "suggestive situations". I don't think this fully emphasises how far the game goes. Instead, I believe the game should not only expressively warn that there will be nudity, but also add an SA warnings as well. Here is my reasoning as to why; not only does LI lay on top of MC NAKED, but this is also done without any consent from MC. Shortly afterwards, they comment on MC's possible lack of control, and then make/attempt to make yet another forceful advance, even if this just a kiss. Later on in the game, MC is essentially drugged and given the context of these prior occurences, I think drugging should also be a TW. I myself have been fortunate enough to not have experienced SA and it was enough to make me really uncomfortable, I can't imagine how an actual victim could be affected by this without proper warning.
That aside, I also think the intro sequence with the title screen ought to not happen everytime one goes to the title screen; it gets annoying after a couple times. I also found about 2 non-game -breaking bugs, but I will use the thread to comment on those.
Overall, 3/5
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!
That is so cool :o I imagine Castor would be over the moon if he were presented that x3 big squishy hugs would be in order, haha.
Also, thanks so much for checking out the demo ^-^
thank you, and your welcome!! ^^ Can’t wait to see the finished product of the game!
Hii, i just finished the demo & it's very good and interesting🥹 i love Castor sm because he's so adorable (maybe i'll fanart him hehe). Anyway i can't wait for future updates !!!(≧▽≦)💕
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
In love, I really like how the LI is written, and their designs are gorgeous. I love how you made the main character aware of the LI's lack of nipples, I've always found it a little weird how LI's usually don't have any. (Great game)
<3 I can’t take much credit for sprite designs because the sprites in this are purchased assets that I painstakingly recoloured just to make them more unique cos I know it’s almost impossible to find asset pack sprites that aren’t in other games, haha. It would have been nicer to commission an artist, but the full game will need so many sprites that it would be unaffordable to get that many drawn up without a looooot more funding x3
But yeah, it’s always amused me that most sprite assets I own have a naked option, but regardless of the gender, they have no nipples xD I have some r18 sprites where they actually do have nips, haha, but I don’t really make r18 games so they’re not especially helpful x3
Thanks so much for checking out the demo :3
When will the android version out?? Please do this game for android versio too😭😭 i loved ur gameee so muchh
Unfortunately not for a long, looooon time >.< I have to finish the PC version first before I can even think about starting adaptation for Android, sadly T_T
Aaaand, I’ve never managed to export a successful working Android build of anything during tests either, so there’s that hurdle too :(
I absolutely intend to try though! It’s just not gonna be anytime soon >.<
Its a little disappointing when characters give off very submissive vibes and then are doms-like did he HAVE to be a dom? Couldn't I have chosen? Otherwise I did enjoy this game when I played it, I liked the concept!
However I know Submissive yandere's are a Niche, stuff is tough when your a Dom girl who likes Yanderes ;w;
Actually, I have a project with a much more submissive yandere LI, but I don’t know if it would be your cup of tea because MC is also quite submissive too >.< It’s this one here.
But yeah, I know what you mean! I personally used to hate submissive yanderes, but they’ve grown on me over the years :D Almost to the point that I prefer them, but only if they aren’t complete pushovers and retain the ability to be manipulative x3
All but one of my projects features at least one yandere LI, but admittedly, most of them fall on the more dominant side due to my personal preferences, haha.
When Darling Duality is eventually finished, there will be a lot more in the way of choices that shape both the personality of the player character & the LIs :3 It’s just a long way off of completion T_T
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! ^-^
I hope this game is still in development <3 its such a gem
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:
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
Do you intend on making an Android release for this game?
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
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