Oh dear x3 well, I at least hope it wasn't in too awful of a way >.< I almost got diagnosed with BPD a few years back, but then they decided they weren't sure enough to actually make it official, haha. The consensus now is that I might have ADHD fighting with my ASD xD but the jury is still out on it!
Hi I have a question. Would you recommend I play the demo or winter wish? I'm not sure if I should play winter wish if you are redoing the whole game. I might as well play the demo. I hope I'm making sense lmao.
I guess that depends on which version you download. The old 'safe version' is heavily censored to fit the requirements of the jam the game was submitted to at the time, but the most recent upload listed as a demo is currently the most complete version of the game available so far.
There's a lot more content to be added, but if you're referring to the stuff in the current demo like the puffs of smoke covering Castor/ia's modesty and the lack of specifics during the steamy scene, that's just how the game is going to stay, and there won't be a version that removes the censoring for a couple of reasons.
Firstly because there won't really be enough sexual content in the game to really need to, but also because the sprites actually lack detail when it comes to genitals xD Castoria doesn't have any nipples and Castor doesn't have any nipples or man parts, haha. So it would look even weirder if there was nothing covering them x3 This is because the original artist of the sprites only draws the sprites naked without genitalia.
This is an amazing game about a character (we could assume) with borderline personality disorder, from whom I got flashbacks of my ex. But as Ive learned from my past I chose the mostly reasonable answers.. and got poisoned : ) The voice acting and music are simply impeccable, and the visuals are quite immersing!
[I got recommended it from my friend that saw it on Manly Badass Hero's video]
Oh no, flashbacks of an ex probably isn't the greatest thing to experience while playing stuff x3 or at least it wouldn't be for me cos I generally play games to escape reality, haha. I'm glad you still enjoyed what there is of the game so far though!
The good news is that eventually when the game has more content added, you will technically be able to play through a character's route and see only sweetness (or only terror, depending on your choices x3)
That was nice of your friend to recommend it! And yeah, I owe Manly a lot for shining a light on the project :3 I doubt many people would know it exists if he hadn't played it!
I think because it was 5 replies in a chain rather than 1 individual comment, comments 1-4 were marked as spam. So then they were deleted and that just left a wall of 'deleted post' messages on the page. I tried to get rid of the blank deleted messages so that it looked less messy by using the purge option, but that apparently deleted the remaining comment that wasn't marked as spam.
Anyways, I had planned to reply properly, but I'm still ill at the moment and don't have the energy. Pretty much everything you mentioned has been discussed in previous comments anyways, so there's probably not much point in repeating myself x3 It's all stuff that will be fixed/edited with future updates anyhow :3 the whole thing is just one big WIP at the moment. Cheers for checking it out in its current state though!
This game is perfect. It gives me very good laughts and made my day, i was grinning like Lord X from fnf in his song "Cycles" (left pose) when something funny happened
OH MY GOD! I Love this game so much that I'm obsessed. I love Castor. He is so sweet and cute but can get jealous and ignorant. which makes him unique. Will you be making it a full game? I need to see more of Castor. (If you will or you are already making it, could you please tell me when it will be completed)
Glad you like it so far :3 It's currently in development, so yeah, there will be more content for Castor/ia to come + more love interests added to the game as well :D
It's slow going though because my scope for the project is pretty big >.< I'm trying to focus on releasing things sort of episodically to make it easier to progress, but it's still slow cos I'm just 1 person, and quite often, my crappy mental health gets in the way of me being productive + I often feel the need to work on multiple projects at once or I end up burning out if I try to just stick to 1 thing, so that makes things even slower >.< It'll eventually be a full game though, hopefully with even more play time than my first full-length game (Solipsism Reigns).
I can't give any sort of estimate on when the full game will finally be completed because there's just far too much work to do, and to try and fund stuff like voice acting for the entire thing will require an insane amount of money that I don't currently have >.< On a smaller scale though, I hope to have at least 1 more content update out for the project sometime this year, hopefully, more than 1, but I can't say when cos I just never know how stuff is gonna go T_T haha. Cos I already have a bunch of stuff written, I just haven't coded it in yet.
They did such an amazing job, so I'm glad you think so :3 It just sucks that it's looking more and more likely I won't be able to get them back for new content >.<
Yup, what My name's E said :3 Sorry I couldn't get back to you swiftly myself >.< I've been ill since 19th December and only just feeling well enough to jump back on my PC since I got the lurgy! Figured I'd try to do some stuff on my phone, but it was so old and laggy that it was kind of too hard to type much, haha.
But yeah, winter wish is the old outdated version from the jam it was originally made for. The demo is the most up-to-date version with lots of tweaks, improvements, and a bit more content than the old jam version, so it better represents how the game will be going forward :3
The old winter wish jam version was designed to be playable as a standalone story since it had to be made within 1 month for the jam, but I also hoped to be able to turn it into a much longer project in the future. The demo can still be played as a standalone story, but I'll be updating it with more content over time, and it will always be available to play for free. I hope to have the full game as a commercial release in the future, but I'm currently not in a position that allows me to make any of my projects commercial, aside from that, I will always make free copies available to those who can't afford to buy them even if I do have some commercial projects one day cos I know how much it sucks to not be able to afford to buy the stuff you wanna play :3
I was wondering if you where planning on making an android/Samsung version, since thats the only device i have at the moment. I love the way this game looks by the way :)
I sure would like to, but unfortunately, it won't be any time soon if I do :( I've tried to export android builds of several of my short projects, and despite following the tutorials, they always fail >.< so until I can find out what's going wrong or someone can teach me how to do it right, I won't be able to get anything to work T_T I really hope I can get some of my games playable on mobile and maybe even Switch someday though!
Unfortunately, it's not possible to do that :( I don't even know how to use renpy (I've only ever completed 1 basic tutorial project for it that gave me a headache so I decided it wasn't the tool for me x3) so to make anything in renpy would mean me having to learn how to actually use it first.
And then I used to use Tyranobuilder, but stopped using it a long time ago after making my first couple of games with it because of how clunky and buggy of an engine it was >.< I imagine it's probably improved by now with a few updates, but still, it's a frustrating and slow engine to use. And even if it wasn't, remaking anything of this length in another engine would take ages :( and I probably wouldn't be able to replicate most of the effects either since they were made using Unity's particle system.
If it were shorter, it might be more doable, but even just the demo is already too long to do it, and the full game will be a lot longer >.<
After playing through the 'newer' demo, if this is AI related and Caster/Castoria doesn't actually exist and it's some figment of the player's imagination, I'm going to punch a wall. Like, that'd genuinly ruin the entire thing for me. I really want it be magical and not some AI thing that can be taken away. Idgaf if he's/she's a fully sentient AI, it'd still be such a mood kill. Don't get me wrong, love the game a lot!
Well, I'm pleased to say that walls will be safe from your wrath :D I wouldn't be as cruel as to turn the whole thing into a 'and it was all in MC' s head/just a dream/not real' type scenario :3
Funnily enough though, there will be an AI-type character, but they won't be messing with anything to do with Castor/ia. They're more like an optional helper that you can choose to have with you if you agree to be a tester during that phone call at the beginning of the game. Cos it's just a brief demo for now though, you only have the choices to ignore the call or say no thanks to participating >.<
Some of the other character routes I have planned involve characters who come from a more traditional magical background than Castor/ia as well, more from like folklore rather than a video game.
Getting this reply felt like a 100kg weight just got removed from my chest. Extremely glad to hear that you're not curel enough to pull something like that. By the way, what's the game's release date looking like? In a while I imagine, but any ideas as to when?
Honestly, I can't even make a rough guess >.< For the entire game, definitely over a year because I have so much planned. Heck, it may never be truly finished because I already have ideas for 10+ character routes at this point, haha. It's why I'm just working on it sort of episodically. That way, it has end points that can kind of be taken as endings, but can also be continued. If I try and think about it being 100% finished, it'll just make me run away from it cos it's too much, haha. Better to try and keep a smaller scope in my head so as not to demotivate myself x3
To be even more unhelpful though, I can't even say for sure when the next update will be out. I plan to have the next update add the start of the next character (Cana) route along with continuing Castor/ia's. And it's already written, just needs some edits here and there. Sprites for Cana are already done too. So mostly it's just a case of getting the code for it done! But there are other factors I have to consider too, like getting Cgs in there, what's going to happen with voice acting, do I introduce another feature at the same time >.<
And with my mental health being the way it is, I can never predict when I'll be able to be productive and when I'll just be a useless lump of meat x3 Plus I struggle to focus on just 1 project at a time. I find it easier to juggle a couple of different things at once, but that of course means slow progress across multiple things rather than faster progress on 1 thing >.< For example, because there's so much going on in my personal life at the moment with prepping for Christmas and other things, I've been winding down and not doing any project work that involves coding, but I haven't wanted to stop working on stuff entirely, so I've just been working on a video/audio-only side project (The Masked Marionette). Once the new year begins, I'll start juggling again, haha.
But yeah, I don't wanna give rough dates and then completely fail to meet them >.< I'm dreadful at estimating when I'll have stuff done by as well because things always take longer than I think they will! So many times during game jams where I try my best to make schedules, I'll tell myself, right, this part I can do in 2 days... 5 days later and I'm only just finishing it, haha.
So yeah, sorry about that >.< I just can't really say because it's a mystery even to me. When I've got an update that's close-ish to release though, I'll make posts and stuff ahead of time to say that it'll be probably be released around X date :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays + a happy new year!
Woo ^-^ glad you've enjoyed what you've seen so far :3 And that's so awesome that you like them both! Not gonna lie, I have a bit of a softer spot for Castor cos he's like a lost little puppy dog in my eyes x3 but I still have love for Castoria too!
Honestly, I was supposed to have typed up and posted a walkthrough for all the different paths that can be found in the demo within a week of releasing it, but that clearly didn't happen >.<
I feel like it needs one because some of the paths are pretty awkward to get onto + some of the bad endings require you to do some pretty specific things to reach them. I just kept finding other stuff that needed doing or just didn't feel like it T_T Which is pretty stupid of me because it would've been easier to write a walkthrough when everything was fresher in my mind! So all I've done is make it more difficult for myself when I do eventually get around to it >.<
Aww, that's so sweet of you to say <3 I appreciate you taking the time to check out my stuff and leave such a lovely comment :3
Nobody has the full game because it's still in development :3 Actually, it's nowhere near finished. Anyone who has made videos on YouTube has either played through the old version of the game from the jam or the current demo.
But yeah, the demo here is the most up-to-date version right now. I plan to update the project sort of episodically as I add the next part of Castor/ia's story and new character routes :3
This game is very good I'm very excited to see what more this game has to offer.
The demo was very good definitely recommend giving it a shot.
The voice acting was good the backgrounds & music were all good.
I'm very interested in what this game has for the future.
No complaints about what happened in the demo so far and I could feel some creepypasta vibes from the game where glitching, you can only play 1 section, audio problems although those things are pretty cliche it doesn't take or bring the game down in anyway.
Can't wait to see what this game has to offer next :)
Holy moly, you did a 3-parter :o I sure hope you didn't encounter too many bugs cos I haven't really had a chance to do more bug testing since uploading that new demo version >.< haha. And I know there are a few pesky things in there like some audio glitches (unintentional ones, haha) that I don't know how to fix yet T_T
Anyways, I'm loving those thumbnails, especially the P1 one ^-^ Glad you had fun with it! Just wish I could put a rocket up my butt so I could work on it faster, haha. Weirdly I always seem to have less motivation to work on my longer projects compared to my short-burst jam ones >.<I'll get there in the end though! Baby steps x3
That's understandable. Longer projects tend to take a lot more time than short ones and it's really easy to lose motivation on longer projects because of how time-consuming they can be.
Yeah, it's definitely a problem >.< And I tend to grow temporarily bored with stuff if I don't have other stuff to work on as well. Even with 1 month long jams, I can still struggle to focus on just 1 thing for the whole month. As mad as it might've been trying to do 2 games for this year's Spooktober jam, in some ways, it did actually help me finish both by being able to work on them both at once because it meant I didn't get the opportunity to grow bored or or lose motivation for either one :3
It helps a lot to be able to juggle a few different things to switch between, but at the same time, it is frustrating to make little bits of progress on multiple things that look like you've not achieved much compared to lots of progress on one thing >.<
Hope you get to have happy holidays and a super happy new year :3
Damn I also thought castor is "boring" a bit too harsh yeah but goddamn i did not expect him to do something like that >w< like AHHHHHH I'm blushin so hard.I'm so excited to play the whole game!
xD He's a bit of a crazy fella. I feel like calling him boring to his face is really harsh and just unnecessarily mean, haha. But admittedly, I have felt like that when playing dating sim games in the past x3 Like, man, this character's route is so boooring, but I'm a completionist, so I feel the need to unlock all the Cgs and finish the route anyways, but often it's a slog and I can't wait to get to one of the other love interests who is more my cup of tea xD
Unfortunately, though, I can't really give a clear answer to your question >.< I'm unemployed and have a lot of struggles in my personal life, so I'm pretty much just working on this project when I can and feel like it >.<
It's a passion project, but I don't always feel like working on this project alone. I find it easier to work on a few different things at once so that I stay interested in them all, but then ofc, that means progress tends to be quite slow across the board! The only time I manage to get stuff done at a decent speed is when I've signed up to a jam and I know there's a deadline. Then it's more like a fun challenge to make something in a short amount of time and just get it out there :3 But I can't work that way with my bigger projects because I would just burn out >.<
I'll be trying to update the game in a sort of episodic fashion anyhow, so that new content can be introduced faster than if I waited until I'd finished the entire thing to release anything. Cos I have a heck of a lot I wanna do with this, so even if I worked on nothing but this project non-stop, it'd probably still take me well over a year. And then of course there's the challenge of funding stuff like voice acting and art on top of everything else, haha.
So yeah, sorry that I can't be very helpful there >.<
The demo is good, i like the va's, they did a pretty good job. Interesting story, most of the people in the comments probably relate to the mc. Very good! Will be waiting for more :)
Some people are talking about having a "free demo" version.. so can we pay to experience more of the game? How does that work; is it automatic if we just donate when downloading, and if so, how much do we have to donate?
It's because the game page and stuff has only very recently changed. Basically, prior to November this year, the only way to access the game was to make a $2 donation towards funding (or just ask for a free key or download for free at Christmas) but it was pretty much only a demo/game jam version of the game still because it's in development.
For the recent November update, I made a lot of changes to the old version, and re-released it as a demo + removed the $2 donation at the same time.
I did it for a number of reasons. 1 is that I'm having trouble with getting the original voice actors back to voice new lines despite having a small amount of funding to be able to pay them something. Another is that my personal circumstances currently don't permit me to release any of my projects commercially. And the old version of the game was extremely out of date compared to what I'd been working on and my vision for the project as a whole.
I was getting quite a few requests for free keys from people who couldn't afford to donate towards the project's funding, so it seemed silly to keep the downloads locked. Having the free demo makes it more easily accessible for anyone in its current state.
The 'demo' that's currently available, is the most up-to-date version of the game. The only version that has more content right now, is my private WIP version that's still in development. When there's significantly more content available, I'll most likely make a separate version of the more complete game for those who have donated towards funding its development while maintaining a free demo download. And, as always, I'll still give out keys to anyone who can't afford to donate. But right now, the demo is the only download available because there is no full game yet.
If you choose to donate any amount, the main thing is that it will fund the game's development, helping to pay for things like voice acting and CG art :3 But you don't technically have to donate anything. I'll be working on the project regardless. It's just if I can't get enough funding for stuff like voice acting, the game will either have to be unvoiced or it might not get worked on much because having VA in my projects is one of my biggest personal motivators, so without it, I tend to lose steam >.<
I can't say for sure anymore because I don't really know what's going to happen with my personal situation or the project >.< It may turn out that I can never ever make a commercial release in my life because of my circumstances, I just don't know :( And while I'll do my best to keep working on the game when I feel like I can and want to, I can't promise with absolute certainty that it will ever be 100% finished in the way that I hope for it to be because it's such a big project and I'm only 1 person x3 I'll just do what I can pretty much.
So yeah, I'm not really in a position to be able to give a proper answer >.<
I thought I replied to this ages ago, but apparently not, so I can only apologise for that >.< I imagine you probably figured this by now, but basically, the game can't actually be bought, any money given on itch, patreon, or ko-fi is put towards funding the game's development because VA and stuff is super expensive and I don't have any money of my own to put towards it >.< A demo is all that's currently available. The finished game will probably wind up being free because I'm still in a position where I can't make any of my stuff commercial, so everyone's donations helps a lot to fund the game :3
I just played through the updated version of the game today and I've got to say that I'm really liking it so far! I think I've played through all the routes and there are a few points that I want to make:
The sound effects are too loud. Even when I had the sound FX set to really low they were still pretty loud.
There's an annoying sound effect that plays whenever you press space to fast forward through text or progress to the next dialogue.
I saw this mentioned before but I don't like how there is no visual indication of which choices are available and unavailable in the demo
I still enjoyed the mini-update though. Really looking forward to how this game will progress in the future!
Hmm, is that all SFX in general? Or like menu ones? I only ask, because they're on separate settings. The normal SFX for like birds singing, showering, all that jazz, should be completely controllable and mutable within the settings. But the ones for when you click on menus and buttons and stuff can't be controlled by the player right now, unfortunately >.<
It's something I very recently found out about to do with attaching SFX to custom UI buttons in Unity with Nani. I can set the volume myself (and I tend to go with 10% precisely because it's too loud at anything above 50%, haha) but then it's set like that forever and players can't change it >.< Someone in DevTalk said they recently discovered the problem too, and that you can fix it by adding a separate script from Nani or something. So provided I can actually learn what it is to make those menu SFX controllable by Nani's sound settings, I should be able to fix that in a future update :3
As for that SFX that plays when you press space to advance text, this is an issue in every single one of my games that I've allowed spacebar to be used for advancing text on in Nani T_T It annoys the crap out of me because I haven't been able to get the issue to reproduce consistently in any of them >.< Sometimes when testing it doesn't do it at all! And sometimes it does it a couple of times and then stops. Other times, it does it constantly to the point that the spacebar is unusable because it's too irritating. I don't really understand what the heck causes it, or why spacebar isn't set as a default advance text option in Nani since it's pretty common for VNs. (Defaults are just mouse click and mouse scroll, so have to add spacebar myself as an input.)
And yeah, I get that could be kinda annoying with the choices that don't actually go anywhere >.< If I wasn't working backwards, I wouldn't have put them in there at all, but I just didn't wanna take the choices out when they're already there and they do lead places in my copy x3 It's just laziness on my part really! Makes it easier for me to continue again cos the code is actually there still to start Cana's route and stuff, it just won't trigger now in that released demo version. It's cos I'm running out of space to make copies of things >.< I need a big external hard drive for backups really, but they're just so expensive, so for now, it's easier to just try and work from single copies. Dunno what I'm gonna do if my PC dies though T_T
I'm glad you still enjoyed it despite those niggles though :3
SPOILER : hello its me broke-ass back again after the free update, well i got a lot to say first of all i really like way game react after the glitching thing like (YOU CAN'T HIDE etc) and the weird game sounds but one thing made me drop the head phones you know it the lovey dovey sound =_= -1 though i like romance, got all ending (i guess) and i actually enjoyed the game (: in short 9/10
Hehe, well, I mean I was hoping that those bits of UI that you're referring to would be voiced as well so that they'd be even creepier :P But yeah, hopefully, they will be at some point!
I still haven't had a chance to write up a walkthrough yet, but I guess once it's up, you'll be able to check and see if you managed to find all the endings currently available in the demo :3 I can't actually remember how many there are xD In the full version, there will be a lot more anyhow! Glad you had fun with it :3
Congrats on the laptop :D And cheers for supporting the project ^-^
Hehe, I went a little crazy and took some of his lines to use as samples in a new track I'm working on + messed around with some of his laughs and chuckles a little with different FX to make them extra creepy, haha. Not gonna lie, I still get goosebumps listening to some of those lines even though I've heard them a billion times xD
The demo was so much fun!!!! Thank you tons for the updates everything is so much more immersive and alot of ways! Im not a pro critic all I have to say is Loved it and cant wait to see more!!!!
I gave the 11/4 update a try, got some first impressions. Did the good route first, I'll probably do bad route later.
The backlog screen is a lot better than last time. I can read it much easier.
The choices still under construction should have a graphic on them which indicates this, instead of clicking on one and finding it isn't ready yet.
It's a nice touch that Cast can still get mean for a little bit if you choose wrong on the good route.
Next chapter sounds like it will be interesting - looking forward to seeing how Cast will handle contact with the outside world. And I predict that Cast is going to have a problem with the landlord at some point.
I'm not sure how Cast will be able to supply ID for a job, though I honestly don't know how the UK handles that. Over here in the US, you need to fill out an I-9 form no more than a few days after you get hired, and that thing asks for lots of ID.
I'm thinking MC would probably be wondering how Cast violated the Law of Energy Conservation to manifest clothes, though MC might figure Cast wouldn't actually know anyway.
Kinda wish the MC would attempt safer reality checks first like attempting to push his pointer finger through his palm or trying to breathe through his nose while holding it closed. Though maybe MC isn't aware of them or he was in a panic.
I had voice acting turned off since I didn't want any jarring shifts between voiced and non-voiced, though I noticed that Cast's grunts still happen, probably as SFX. Not sure if that's intended.
The new backgrounds look pretty nice. It's kinda odd that the MC would leave his giant ground level window all the way open at night though. Honestly looks like anyone could just hop in.
Yeah, the reason those choices are still in there but have the note that tells you it leads nowhere currently is just because I was essentially working backwards to create this demo version x3 In my current version at the time, all those choices do lead somewhere because I'd gotten far enough to put all the stuff in for them, but I didn't want them to be included as part of the demo, so rather than remove too much of the more awkward parts of the code, I kept the choices in there and just made them jump to the 'not currently available' message, as opposed to them jumping to where they should x3
I can imagine it must be a bit annoying, but it was just faster for me to do it like that so that I don't have to make a bunch of copies of the code and can just continue editing my current copy cos I'm running out of space for backup files on my external hard drive, haha. Actually, I'm running out of space on my regular hard drive too now T_T My external one isn't very big though. I should probably buy another one that's a better size, but they're so expensiiiiive >.<"
As for the whole work and ID situation, it doesn't really matter how the UK handles it compared to the US anyways because the game isn't set in either location. It's set in a different reality entirely, where some rules are set, and others change depending on certain actions taken much later on. It's all stuff I can't really explain though because it would be too spoilery for a lot of the ideas I have for much further down the line. Funnily enough, I did once have a job years ago where all they wanted was my name and bank details to pay me xD Which I don't think is standard procedure cos other past jobs have required me to show ID, haha. That one was only temporary though.
And you're correct that grunts and other noises like laughter and stuff are all currently set as SFX since I can't add them through the usual voice mapping method when they're not associated with dialogue, and I can't seem to get the individual one-off voice command function to actually work >.<
Yeah, the curtains are wide open for some reason even in the night version of the background, but the window is shut. Don't ask me why the artists who make background packs sometimes draw closed curtains and sometimes don't, haha. I really wish they would draw both variations! We have our curtains open for a little bit at night with no lights on, but we turn the lights on draw the curtains at some point, haha.
Cheers for letting Mamahotpan know that! I was just too tied up trying to actually get the demo done + fight through the net troubles, so I only just saw this >.<
I'm glad that you are keeping the older versions up; it really helps for historical purposes to see how much things have changed/improved over time. Please mark the old versions as 'obsolete' or 'outdated' or some other indication in the name on the itch download page so we know about it.
I can help with testing the download thing once it is live to make sure it works in the itch.io desktop application. :)
Work on what you can and focus on that, the rest will follow.
I remember seeing a LP of this a year ago. I wanted to play something while waiting for the Chaos;Head patch, so I gave this a go.
So spoilers and such:
I did choices how I would do things - play along until I could stab Castoria in the back and get her arrested. I feel it would be pretty easy too - I would claim that she and I need to go to the police station so she could get a state ID (since she doesn't legally exist), and then immediately tell the receptionist to separate me from her first chance I get. Bonus points if she has a major overreaction at my betrayal so I can get her for assault as well. She gets dragged to jail kicking and screaming while I get to walk free.
I didn't realize that I saw a condensed version of the Good Ending from the LP I watched - the full Good Ending still feels a bit short compared to the Bad one regardless. Oh well. I was hoping for an opportunity to betray her.
Bad Ending is a blast. I'm amazed the MC survived all that. Dude totally would have died of circulatory shock, but I guess Castoria would never let that happen.
I kinda wish the MC would actually try to fight back when he still could in the bathroom in the Bad Ending. And it could still lead into the next scene - IIRC, she has actual combat experience from her time in the game world, while the MC has basically nothing (that I know of). It wouldn't surprise me if the MC whiffs his first punch and then gets counterattacked hard. It would be like an average joe trying to fight a XCOM rookie in a fist fight.
It makes me wonder where Cana is going to fit into this. The only way she would see the Bad Ending MC is if she somehow got into his home without getting spotted. Good Ending MC has a chance of getting outside to see Cana, but probably only if MC is onboard with my plan to betray Castoria. An MC actually wanting to be with Castoria would not stand a chance of getting out.
I'm not a fan of the backlog background. It can get hard to read text located in the middle of the screen since contrast isn't too good there. Rest of the UI looks alright.
Ahh, but DD isn't set in the same reality that we live in, so things wouldn't necessarily have panned out the way you might hope x3 For example, who is to say that state ID is even a thing? :P I mean, it actually isn't a thing where I'm from, but that doesn't matter because it's a whole other world anyways. I'm not even gonna get into that though because it would mean far too many spoilers x3
Don't worry about the length of those endings currently available anyways because they're not technically endings. They were just suitable endpoints for the purposes of the game jam it was made for. I only had one month to make it while learning how to use the new engine at the same time, so I had to pick some sort of cut-off point that still kinda worked as endings but where I could easily pick up from in the future :3 Think of them as more like the end of the first day or chapter rather than final endings.
In fact, I plan for each character to have 4 different final endings reached by a mixture of choices. And some bad endings along the way too, of course :D
No promises on MC fighting back in the bathroom, but MC will definitely be getting more choices in general, including the ability to fight back more :3 There will be different choices too. I don't know if you've already seen one of the videos I posted earlier this year about some of the new types of choices, but basically, some will simply be to act cruelly or kindly to a character (following the black and white/sinister x sweet theme of the project), some will be more detailed so that you have more control over the way MC acts or what MC says, and some will be timed, where electing not to pick a choice within the time also kinda counts as a choice in itself. Sometimes it might actually be better to do nothing!
Cana fits in a few different ways :3 Once Cana's actually added to the game, you'll have the opportunity to spend time with them before even beginning Castor/ia's route. Or you can try to play a bit of both, though, it's obviously gonna result in drama x3 Technically though, it would be possible to play with just Cana. I'm hoping to have all future characters playable solo depending on MC's choices at the beginning of the game. Some will only be reachable after doing certain other things, discovering stuff while playing other routes, or by refusing to pick any of the activities on the first night that lead to the solo routes of the first bunch of characters. But it will also be possible to encounter a second character while already playing with a first. Again though, I probably shouldn't say too much cos I don't wanna spoil stuff, haha.
As for the backlog background, honestly, it's been so long that I can't even remember what it looks like or if I've already changed it >.< I've been sitting on stuff for a long time now, unfortunately. A whole bunch of new content is written, some of which is coded in already, but I currently have no idea where I stand with the original VAs, which has largely killed my motivation to work on this particular project because it means either having the rest of Castor/ia's lines unvoiced while all the new characters get voice actors or recasting Castor/ia and getting the new VAs to re-record all the old lines >.< Neither of those are things I wanted to do, so I've been holding out, hoping to hear something back from the original cast members and working on other stuff in the meantime. There's gonna come a point though where I just have to put up a poll or something and see which option everyone would prefer and then go from there because I can't wait forever on it :(
It's partly why I plan to release a mini-update very soon. It won't have Cana in it, nor will it contain the continuation of Castor/ia's story, but it will have the new choices within Castor/ia's existing story content so I can at least try to show how the project will play going forward + some of the new UI I made a while ago.
I'll be sure to look into the backlog though and see if I already made changes or not, and if not, I'll see what I can do to make it easier to read the text :3
Thanks for supporting the project and taking the time to leave a comment ^-^
Were it up to me, I'd release the unvoiced version first and then provide voices in a patch later, if VAs are getting hard to find.
There's one Neptunia fangame I follow which did something like that. The guy released the full game with some of the audio out, and then a second version with the audio in. I think he did that because the audio was being weird with compression, but w/e.
There's also a RWBY fangame I've taken an interest in (JPDE) which got the main script of the game done, and then they gradually added voices character by character. That way a VA can do all their lines in one go, and their future willingness to do more lines isn't too important. I think those devs are focusing on specific characters for each update now.
There's also the Falcom way of voicing games, where there's so many voice lines, only the important scenes are voiced.
Of course, I favor the unvoiced first/voice later option, since that means I still get a full game in my hands even if the original VAs never show up.
Oh, and since I live in the US, a State ID exists if you can't get a Driver's License for whatever reason. Since a fantasy character isekai'd to our world wouldn't know the rules of the road, a State ID would be their next best option to present their identity. And of course I would exaggerate a bit that the cops are authorized to grant those. ;D
No worries, it's totally fine! Normally, I would say absolutely, drop me an email or something, and I'll send you a key! But I'm actually planning on dropping the $2 donation on Halloween along with making a small update to the game, so you're actually better off just waiting until the 31st of October, and then you'll be able to download the latest version from the game page :3
It would be a bit of a waste of time starting the current version right now because the update I plan to upload contains changes that will break old saves, so everyone will need to start over from the beginning anyways. It's not gonna have the new character or anything because I still need to sort out voice acting and stuff, but it will contain extra choices within Castor/ia's existing story and provide a better idea of how the game will function in the future :D
I'll also be keeping the old version of the game available to download on the page for anyone who still wants to check that version out, but either way, all versions will be downloadable on Halloween (and after that) for everyone :3
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this made me see my BPD in a completely different light oh god
Oh dear x3 well, I at least hope it wasn't in too awful of a way >.< I almost got diagnosed with BPD a few years back, but then they decided they weren't sure enough to actually make it official, haha. The consensus now is that I might have ADHD fighting with my ASD xD but the jury is still out on it!
Hi I have a question. Would you recommend I play the demo or winter wish? I'm not sure if I should play winter wish if you are redoing the whole game. I might as well play the demo. I hope I'm making sense lmao.
is there an uncensored verison of the game?
I guess that depends on which version you download. The old 'safe version' is heavily censored to fit the requirements of the jam the game was submitted to at the time, but the most recent upload listed as a demo is currently the most complete version of the game available so far.
There's a lot more content to be added, but if you're referring to the stuff in the current demo like the puffs of smoke covering Castor/ia's modesty and the lack of specifics during the steamy scene, that's just how the game is going to stay, and there won't be a version that removes the censoring for a couple of reasons.
Firstly because there won't really be enough sexual content in the game to really need to, but also because the sprites actually lack detail when it comes to genitals xD Castoria doesn't have any nipples and Castor doesn't have any nipples or man parts, haha. So it would look even weirder if there was nothing covering them x3 This is because the original artist of the sprites only draws the sprites naked without genitalia.
This is an amazing game about a character (we could assume) with borderline personality disorder, from whom I got flashbacks of my ex. But as Ive learned from my past I chose the mostly reasonable answers.. and got poisoned : )
The voice acting and music are simply impeccable, and the visuals are quite immersing!
[I got recommended it from my friend that saw it on Manly Badass Hero's video]
Oh no, flashbacks of an ex probably isn't the greatest thing to experience while playing stuff x3 or at least it wouldn't be for me cos I generally play games to escape reality, haha. I'm glad you still enjoyed what there is of the game so far though!
The good news is that eventually when the game has more content added, you will technically be able to play through a character's route and see only sweetness (or only terror, depending on your choices x3) That was nice of your friend to recommend it! And yeah, I owe Manly a lot for shining a light on the project :3 I doubt many people would know it exists if he hadn't played it!
Thanks for checking it out :D
🔥GREAT GAME!🔥
Thanks so much for checking this one out too <3
My comment got deleted? K
I think because it was 5 replies in a chain rather than 1 individual comment, comments 1-4 were marked as spam. So then they were deleted and that just left a wall of 'deleted post' messages on the page. I tried to get rid of the blank deleted messages so that it looked less messy by using the purge option, but that apparently deleted the remaining comment that wasn't marked as spam.
Anyways, I had planned to reply properly, but I'm still ill at the moment and don't have the energy. Pretty much everything you mentioned has been discussed in previous comments anyways, so there's probably not much point in repeating myself x3 It's all stuff that will be fixed/edited with future updates anyhow :3 the whole thing is just one big WIP at the moment. Cheers for checking it out in its current state though!
This game is perfect. It gives me very good laughts and made my day, i was grinning like Lord X from fnf in his song "Cycles" (left pose) when something funny happened
OH MY GOD! I Love this game so much that I'm obsessed. I love Castor. He is so sweet and cute but can get jealous and ignorant. which makes him unique. Will you be making it a full game? I need to see more of Castor. (If you will or you are already making it, could you please tell me when it will be completed)
Glad you like it so far :3 It's currently in development, so yeah, there will be more content for Castor/ia to come + more love interests added to the game as well :D
It's slow going though because my scope for the project is pretty big >.< I'm trying to focus on releasing things sort of episodically to make it easier to progress, but it's still slow cos I'm just 1 person, and quite often, my crappy mental health gets in the way of me being productive + I often feel the need to work on multiple projects at once or I end up burning out if I try to just stick to 1 thing, so that makes things even slower >.< It'll eventually be a full game though, hopefully with even more play time than my first full-length game (Solipsism Reigns).
I can't give any sort of estimate on when the full game will finally be completed because there's just far too much work to do, and to try and fund stuff like voice acting for the entire thing will require an insane amount of money that I don't currently have >.< On a smaller scale though, I hope to have at least 1 more content update out for the project sometime this year, hopefully, more than 1, but I can't say when cos I just never know how stuff is gonna go T_T haha. Cos I already have a bunch of stuff written, I just haven't coded it in yet.
Oh wow, the VAs are really good in this one!
Also, why so toxic? Pixis likes🤒
They did such an amazing job, so I'm glad you think so :3 It just sucks that it's looking more and more likely I won't be able to get them back for new content >.<
I have a question what is the demo vs winter wish version?
winter wish is jam.ver and demo is longer/better
Thanks so much for answering that :3 I was too ill recently to check here and respond to stuff >.<
Yup, what My name's E said :3 Sorry I couldn't get back to you swiftly myself >.< I've been ill since 19th December and only just feeling well enough to jump back on my PC since I got the lurgy! Figured I'd try to do some stuff on my phone, but it was so old and laggy that it was kind of too hard to type much, haha.
But yeah, winter wish is the old outdated version from the jam it was originally made for. The demo is the most up-to-date version with lots of tweaks, improvements, and a bit more content than the old jam version, so it better represents how the game will be going forward :3
The old winter wish jam version was designed to be playable as a standalone story since it had to be made within 1 month for the jam, but I also hoped to be able to turn it into a much longer project in the future. The demo can still be played as a standalone story, but I'll be updating it with more content over time, and it will always be available to play for free. I hope to have the full game as a commercial release in the future, but I'm currently not in a position that allows me to make any of my projects commercial, aside from that, I will always make free copies available to those who can't afford to buy them even if I do have some commercial projects one day cos I know how much it sucks to not be able to afford to buy the stuff you wanna play :3
I really like the game so far! Keep up the amazing work! I'll be rooting and waiting!
Glad to hear it! Thanks so much for the support ^-^
wooaaah i love this game sm already its so interesting!! cant wait for future updates!
Glad you like what there is so far :3 Hopefully, the stuff that's still to come will be fun too :D
I was wondering if you where planning on making an android/Samsung version, since thats the only device i have at the moment. I love the way this game looks by the way :)
I sure would like to, but unfortunately, it won't be any time soon if I do :( I've tried to export android builds of several of my short projects, and despite following the tutorials, they always fail >.< so until I can find out what's going wrong or someone can teach me how to do it right, I won't be able to get anything to work T_T I really hope I can get some of my games playable on mobile and maybe even Switch someday though!
Glad you like the look of it ^-^
Excuse me, is it at least possible to port or recreate it in renpy or tyrano builder, so that it can at least be played on joiplay?
Unfortunately, it's not possible to do that :( I don't even know how to use renpy (I've only ever completed 1 basic tutorial project for it that gave me a headache so I decided it wasn't the tool for me x3) so to make anything in renpy would mean me having to learn how to actually use it first.
And then I used to use Tyranobuilder, but stopped using it a long time ago after making my first couple of games with it because of how clunky and buggy of an engine it was >.< I imagine it's probably improved by now with a few updates, but still, it's a frustrating and slow engine to use. And even if it wasn't, remaking anything of this length in another engine would take ages :( and I probably wouldn't be able to replicate most of the effects either since they were made using Unity's particle system.
If it were shorter, it might be more doable, but even just the demo is already too long to do it, and the full game will be a lot longer >.<
It's okay, I understand.
After playing through the 'newer' demo, if this is AI related and Caster/Castoria doesn't actually exist and it's some figment of the player's imagination, I'm going to punch a wall. Like, that'd genuinly ruin the entire thing for me. I really want it be magical and not some AI thing that can be taken away. Idgaf if he's/she's a fully sentient AI, it'd still be such a mood kill.
Don't get me wrong, love the game a lot!
Well, I'm pleased to say that walls will be safe from your wrath :D I wouldn't be as cruel as to turn the whole thing into a 'and it was all in MC' s head/just a dream/not real' type scenario :3
Funnily enough though, there will be an AI-type character, but they won't be messing with anything to do with Castor/ia. They're more like an optional helper that you can choose to have with you if you agree to be a tester during that phone call at the beginning of the game. Cos it's just a brief demo for now though, you only have the choices to ignore the call or say no thanks to participating >.<
Some of the other character routes I have planned involve characters who come from a more traditional magical background than Castor/ia as well, more from like folklore rather than a video game.
Anyways, I'm glad you like it so far :3
Getting this reply felt like a 100kg weight just got removed from my chest. Extremely glad to hear that you're not curel enough to pull something like that. By the way, what's the game's release date looking like? In a while I imagine, but any ideas as to when?
Well, that's good x3 I'm glad to hear it!
Honestly, I can't even make a rough guess >.< For the entire game, definitely over a year because I have so much planned. Heck, it may never be truly finished because I already have ideas for 10+ character routes at this point, haha. It's why I'm just working on it sort of episodically. That way, it has end points that can kind of be taken as endings, but can also be continued. If I try and think about it being 100% finished, it'll just make me run away from it cos it's too much, haha. Better to try and keep a smaller scope in my head so as not to demotivate myself x3
To be even more unhelpful though, I can't even say for sure when the next update will be out. I plan to have the next update add the start of the next character (Cana) route along with continuing Castor/ia's. And it's already written, just needs some edits here and there. Sprites for Cana are already done too. So mostly it's just a case of getting the code for it done! But there are other factors I have to consider too, like getting Cgs in there, what's going to happen with voice acting, do I introduce another feature at the same time >.<
And with my mental health being the way it is, I can never predict when I'll be able to be productive and when I'll just be a useless lump of meat x3 Plus I struggle to focus on just 1 project at a time. I find it easier to juggle a couple of different things at once, but that of course means slow progress across multiple things rather than faster progress on 1 thing >.< For example, because there's so much going on in my personal life at the moment with prepping for Christmas and other things, I've been winding down and not doing any project work that involves coding, but I haven't wanted to stop working on stuff entirely, so I've just been working on a video/audio-only side project (The Masked Marionette). Once the new year begins, I'll start juggling again, haha.
But yeah, I don't wanna give rough dates and then completely fail to meet them >.< I'm dreadful at estimating when I'll have stuff done by as well because things always take longer than I think they will! So many times during game jams where I try my best to make schedules, I'll tell myself, right, this part I can do in 2 days... 5 days later and I'm only just finishing it, haha.
So yeah, sorry about that >.< I just can't really say because it's a mystery even to me. When I've got an update that's close-ish to release though, I'll make posts and stuff ahead of time to say that it'll be probably be released around X date :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays + a happy new year!
not sure of how many endings there are but everything I got so far is y u m m y
I genuinely can't decide if I like Castor or Castoria better, they're both my babies <3
excited for more, planning to soon buy a ko-fi or signing Patreon because I just love your projects so much ><
Woo ^-^ glad you've enjoyed what you've seen so far :3 And that's so awesome that you like them both! Not gonna lie, I have a bit of a softer spot for Castor cos he's like a lost little puppy dog in my eyes x3 but I still have love for Castoria too!
Honestly, I was supposed to have typed up and posted a walkthrough for all the different paths that can be found in the demo within a week of releasing it, but that clearly didn't happen >.<
I feel like it needs one because some of the paths are pretty awkward to get onto + some of the bad endings require you to do some pretty specific things to reach them. I just kept finding other stuff that needed doing or just didn't feel like it T_T Which is pretty stupid of me because it would've been easier to write a walkthrough when everything was fresher in my mind! So all I've done is make it more difficult for myself when I do eventually get around to it >.<
Aww, that's so sweet of you to say <3 I appreciate you taking the time to check out my stuff and leave such a lovely comment :3
where do i get full game? i see the youtubers with the full game but i only have the demo do i download the outdated version or something
Nobody has the full game because it's still in development :3 Actually, it's nowhere near finished. Anyone who has made videos on YouTube has either played through the old version of the game from the jam or the current demo.
But yeah, the demo here is the most up-to-date version right now. I plan to update the project sort of episodically as I add the next part of Castor/ia's story and new character routes :3
ok thanks
This game is very good I'm very excited to see what more this game has to offer.
The demo was very good definitely recommend giving it a shot.
The voice acting was good the backgrounds & music were all good.
I'm very interested in what this game has for the future.
No complaints about what happened in the demo so far and I could feel some creepypasta vibes from the game where glitching, you can only play 1 section, audio problems although those things are pretty cliche it doesn't take or bring the game down in anyway.
Can't wait to see what this game has to offer next :)
Holy moly, you did a 3-parter :o I sure hope you didn't encounter too many bugs cos I haven't really had a chance to do more bug testing since uploading that new demo version >.< haha. And I know there are a few pesky things in there like some audio glitches (unintentional ones, haha) that I don't know how to fix yet T_T
Anyways, I'm loving those thumbnails, especially the P1 one ^-^ Glad you had fun with it! Just wish I could put a rocket up my butt so I could work on it faster, haha. Weirdly I always seem to have less motivation to work on my longer projects compared to my short-burst jam ones >.<I'll get there in the end though! Baby steps x3
Thanks for playing this one too :3
That's understandable. Longer projects tend to take a lot more time than short ones and it's really easy to lose motivation on longer projects because of how time-consuming they can be.
Yeah, it's definitely a problem >.< And I tend to grow temporarily bored with stuff if I don't have other stuff to work on as well. Even with 1 month long jams, I can still struggle to focus on just 1 thing for the whole month. As mad as it might've been trying to do 2 games for this year's Spooktober jam, in some ways, it did actually help me finish both by being able to work on them both at once because it meant I didn't get the opportunity to grow bored or or lose motivation for either one :3
It helps a lot to be able to juggle a few different things to switch between, but at the same time, it is frustrating to make little bits of progress on multiple things that look like you've not achieved much compared to lots of progress on one thing >.<
Hope you get to have happy holidays and a super happy new year :3
This game was so unpredictable, I love it!!
Glad you like what there is so far :3 Cheers for playing!
^^
Wow this was really good! I can't wait for the full game! ♥
Thanks so much for checking it out :3 Glad you enjoyed what there is so far!
Damn I also thought castor is "boring" a bit too harsh yeah but goddamn i did not expect him to do something like that >w< like AHHHHHH I'm blushin so hard.I'm so excited to play the whole game!
xD He's a bit of a crazy fella. I feel like calling him boring to his face is really harsh and just unnecessarily mean, haha. But admittedly, I have felt like that when playing dating sim games in the past x3 Like, man, this character's route is so boooring, but I'm a completionist, so I feel the need to unlock all the Cgs and finish the route anyways, but often it's a slog and I can't wait to get to one of the other love interests who is more my cup of tea xD
Liked the game a lot.
How long approximately will it take to see the full version?
Glad to hear you like what there is so far :3
Unfortunately, though, I can't really give a clear answer to your question >.< I'm unemployed and have a lot of struggles in my personal life, so I'm pretty much just working on this project when I can and feel like it >.<
It's a passion project, but I don't always feel like working on this project alone. I find it easier to work on a few different things at once so that I stay interested in them all, but then ofc, that means progress tends to be quite slow across the board! The only time I manage to get stuff done at a decent speed is when I've signed up to a jam and I know there's a deadline. Then it's more like a fun challenge to make something in a short amount of time and just get it out there :3 But I can't work that way with my bigger projects because I would just burn out >.<
I'll be trying to update the game in a sort of episodic fashion anyhow, so that new content can be introduced faster than if I waited until I'd finished the entire thing to release anything. Cos I have a heck of a lot I wanna do with this, so even if I worked on nothing but this project non-stop, it'd probably still take me well over a year. And then of course there's the challenge of funding stuff like voice acting and art on top of everything else, haha.
So yeah, sorry that I can't be very helpful there >.<
The demo is good, i like the va's, they did a pretty good job. Interesting story, most of the people in the comments probably relate to the mc. Very good! Will be waiting for more :)
Yeah, they did fantastically :3 Glad you like what there is so far! Thanks for checking it out <3
Some people are talking about having a "free demo" version.. so can we pay to experience more of the game? How does that work; is it automatic if we just donate when downloading, and if so, how much do we have to donate?
It's because the game page and stuff has only very recently changed. Basically, prior to November this year, the only way to access the game was to make a $2 donation towards funding (or just ask for a free key or download for free at Christmas) but it was pretty much only a demo/game jam version of the game still because it's in development.
For the recent November update, I made a lot of changes to the old version, and re-released it as a demo + removed the $2 donation at the same time.
I did it for a number of reasons. 1 is that I'm having trouble with getting the original voice actors back to voice new lines despite having a small amount of funding to be able to pay them something. Another is that my personal circumstances currently don't permit me to release any of my projects commercially. And the old version of the game was extremely out of date compared to what I'd been working on and my vision for the project as a whole.
I was getting quite a few requests for free keys from people who couldn't afford to donate towards the project's funding, so it seemed silly to keep the downloads locked. Having the free demo makes it more easily accessible for anyone in its current state.
The 'demo' that's currently available, is the most up-to-date version of the game. The only version that has more content right now, is my private WIP version that's still in development. When there's significantly more content available, I'll most likely make a separate version of the more complete game for those who have donated towards funding its development while maintaining a free demo download. And, as always, I'll still give out keys to anyone who can't afford to donate. But right now, the demo is the only download available because there is no full game yet.
If you choose to donate any amount, the main thing is that it will fund the game's development, helping to pay for things like voice acting and CG art :3 But you don't technically have to donate anything. I'll be working on the project regardless. It's just if I can't get enough funding for stuff like voice acting, the game will either have to be unvoiced or it might not get worked on much because having VA in my projects is one of my biggest personal motivators, so without it, I tend to lose steam >.<
Ic. If we donate now, will we get access to the paid version when its eventually released?
I can't say for sure anymore because I don't really know what's going to happen with my personal situation or the project >.< It may turn out that I can never ever make a commercial release in my life because of my circumstances, I just don't know :( And while I'll do my best to keep working on the game when I feel like I can and want to, I can't promise with absolute certainty that it will ever be 100% finished in the way that I hope for it to be because it's such a big project and I'm only 1 person x3 I'll just do what I can pretty much.
So yeah, I'm not really in a position to be able to give a proper answer >.<
That was a great kiss
impressive
unforgettable
Glad you think so ^-^
As a no life loser I give this game a 10/10 for what they have so far added.
Hi! I just bought the game, but I am only able to download the demo - is there anyway to fix this?
I thought I replied to this ages ago, but apparently not, so I can only apologise for that >.< I imagine you probably figured this by now, but basically, the game can't actually be bought, any money given on itch, patreon, or ko-fi is put towards funding the game's development because VA and stuff is super expensive and I don't have any money of my own to put towards it >.< A demo is all that's currently available. The finished game will probably wind up being free because I'm still in a position where I can't make any of my stuff commercial, so everyone's donations helps a lot to fund the game :3
I just played through the updated version of the game today and I've got to say that I'm really liking it so far! I think I've played through all the routes and there are a few points that I want to make:
I still enjoyed the mini-update though. Really looking forward to how this game will progress in the future!
Hmm, is that all SFX in general? Or like menu ones? I only ask, because they're on separate settings. The normal SFX for like birds singing, showering, all that jazz, should be completely controllable and mutable within the settings. But the ones for when you click on menus and buttons and stuff can't be controlled by the player right now, unfortunately >.<
It's something I very recently found out about to do with attaching SFX to custom UI buttons in Unity with Nani. I can set the volume myself (and I tend to go with 10% precisely because it's too loud at anything above 50%, haha) but then it's set like that forever and players can't change it >.< Someone in DevTalk said they recently discovered the problem too, and that you can fix it by adding a separate script from Nani or something. So provided I can actually learn what it is to make those menu SFX controllable by Nani's sound settings, I should be able to fix that in a future update :3
As for that SFX that plays when you press space to advance text, this is an issue in every single one of my games that I've allowed spacebar to be used for advancing text on in Nani T_T It annoys the crap out of me because I haven't been able to get the issue to reproduce consistently in any of them >.< Sometimes when testing it doesn't do it at all! And sometimes it does it a couple of times and then stops. Other times, it does it constantly to the point that the spacebar is unusable because it's too irritating. I don't really understand what the heck causes it, or why spacebar isn't set as a default advance text option in Nani since it's pretty common for VNs. (Defaults are just mouse click and mouse scroll, so have to add spacebar myself as an input.)
And yeah, I get that could be kinda annoying with the choices that don't actually go anywhere >.< If I wasn't working backwards, I wouldn't have put them in there at all, but I just didn't wanna take the choices out when they're already there and they do lead places in my copy x3 It's just laziness on my part really! Makes it easier for me to continue again cos the code is actually there still to start Cana's route and stuff, it just won't trigger now in that released demo version. It's cos I'm running out of space to make copies of things >.< I need a big external hard drive for backups really, but they're just so expensive, so for now, it's easier to just try and work from single copies. Dunno what I'm gonna do if my PC dies though T_T
I'm glad you still enjoyed it despite those niggles though :3
Can't wait for the arc where MC end up in trouble cause Castor/ia legally doesn't exist.
Like literally a bureaucratic nightmare.
But yeah, game's shaping up to be one of the best VN I have seen. Great work.
Haha, oh dear x3 Depends on what the rules are where MC lives I suppose! Thanks so much for your support :3
SPOILER : hello its me broke-ass back again after the free update, well i got a lot to say first of all i really like way game react after the glitching thing like (YOU CAN'T HIDE etc) and the weird game sounds but one thing made me drop the head phones you know it the lovey dovey sound =_= -1 though i like romance, got all ending (i guess) and i actually enjoyed the game (: in short 9/10
Hehe, well, I mean I was hoping that those bits of UI that you're referring to would be voiced as well so that they'd be even creepier :P But yeah, hopefully, they will be at some point!
I still haven't had a chance to write up a walkthrough yet, but I guess once it's up, you'll be able to check and see if you managed to find all the endings currently available in the demo :3 I can't actually remember how many there are xD In the full version, there will be a lot more anyhow! Glad you had fun with it :3
It was amazing! I really liked it!
I will be following the development of your project! And you are a very sweet and pleasant writer.(◍•ᴗ•◍)
Aww, thank you so much for your kind words and support ^-^ Glad you had fun with it!
ahhhh after buying the game and waiting for so long I'm ecstatic I finally got to play it (just got the laptop today :)
absolutely fawning over castor ☆*.o(≧▽≦)o.*☆
Congrats on the laptop :D And cheers for supporting the project ^-^
Hehe, I went a little crazy and took some of his lines to use as samples in a new track I'm working on + messed around with some of his laughs and chuckles a little with different FX to make them extra creepy, haha. Not gonna lie, I still get goosebumps listening to some of those lines even though I've heard them a billion times xD
Finally looks like the waiting was worth it (:
The demo was so much fun!!!! Thank you tons for the updates everything is so much more immersive and alot of ways! Im not a pro critic all I have to say is Loved it and cant wait to see more!!!!
I'm really glad you think so ^-^ Thanks so much for playing it and for your kind words :3
I gave the 11/4 update a try, got some first impressions. Did the good route first, I'll probably do bad route later.
Pretty cool. Looking forward to more.
Yeah, the reason those choices are still in there but have the note that tells you it leads nowhere currently is just because I was essentially working backwards to create this demo version x3 In my current version at the time, all those choices do lead somewhere because I'd gotten far enough to put all the stuff in for them, but I didn't want them to be included as part of the demo, so rather than remove too much of the more awkward parts of the code, I kept the choices in there and just made them jump to the 'not currently available' message, as opposed to them jumping to where they should x3
I can imagine it must be a bit annoying, but it was just faster for me to do it like that so that I don't have to make a bunch of copies of the code and can just continue editing my current copy cos I'm running out of space for backup files on my external hard drive, haha. Actually, I'm running out of space on my regular hard drive too now T_T My external one isn't very big though. I should probably buy another one that's a better size, but they're so expensiiiiive >.<"
As for the whole work and ID situation, it doesn't really matter how the UK handles it compared to the US anyways because the game isn't set in either location. It's set in a different reality entirely, where some rules are set, and others change depending on certain actions taken much later on. It's all stuff I can't really explain though because it would be too spoilery for a lot of the ideas I have for much further down the line. Funnily enough, I did once have a job years ago where all they wanted was my name and bank details to pay me xD Which I don't think is standard procedure cos other past jobs have required me to show ID, haha. That one was only temporary though.
And you're correct that grunts and other noises like laughter and stuff are all currently set as SFX since I can't add them through the usual voice mapping method when they're not associated with dialogue, and I can't seem to get the individual one-off voice command function to actually work >.<
Yeah, the curtains are wide open for some reason even in the night version of the background, but the window is shut. Don't ask me why the artists who make background packs sometimes draw closed curtains and sometimes don't, haha. I really wish they would draw both variations! We have our curtains open for a little bit at night with no lights on, but we turn the lights on draw the curtains at some point, haha.
Dev took the links down for a few days. Something to do with pushing an update, I hear.
Cheers for letting Mamahotpan know that! I was just too tied up trying to actually get the demo done + fight through the net troubles, so I only just saw this >.<
I'm glad that you are keeping the older versions up; it really helps for historical purposes to see how much things have changed/improved over time. Please mark the old versions as 'obsolete' or 'outdated' or some other indication in the name on the itch download page so we know about it.
I can help with testing the download thing once it is live to make sure it works in the itch.io desktop application. :)
Work on what you can and focus on that, the rest will follow.
thank you
I remember seeing a LP of this a year ago. I wanted to play something while waiting for the Chaos;Head patch, so I gave this a go.
So spoilers and such:
I did choices how I would do things - play along until I could stab Castoria in the back and get her arrested. I feel it would be pretty easy too - I would claim that she and I need to go to the police station so she could get a state ID (since she doesn't legally exist), and then immediately tell the receptionist to separate me from her first chance I get. Bonus points if she has a major overreaction at my betrayal so I can get her for assault as well. She gets dragged to jail kicking and screaming while I get to walk free.
I didn't realize that I saw a condensed version of the Good Ending from the LP I watched - the full Good Ending still feels a bit short compared to the Bad one regardless. Oh well. I was hoping for an opportunity to betray her.
Bad Ending is a blast. I'm amazed the MC survived all that. Dude totally would have died of circulatory shock, but I guess Castoria would never let that happen.
I kinda wish the MC would actually try to fight back when he still could in the bathroom in the Bad Ending. And it could still lead into the next scene - IIRC, she has actual combat experience from her time in the game world, while the MC has basically nothing (that I know of). It wouldn't surprise me if the MC whiffs his first punch and then gets counterattacked hard. It would be like an average joe trying to fight a XCOM rookie in a fist fight.
It makes me wonder where Cana is going to fit into this. The only way she would see the Bad Ending MC is if she somehow got into his home without getting spotted. Good Ending MC has a chance of getting outside to see Cana, but probably only if MC is onboard with my plan to betray Castoria. An MC actually wanting to be with Castoria would not stand a chance of getting out.
I'm not a fan of the backlog background. It can get hard to read text located in the middle of the screen since contrast isn't too good there. Rest of the UI looks alright.
Ahh, but DD isn't set in the same reality that we live in, so things wouldn't necessarily have panned out the way you might hope x3 For example, who is to say that state ID is even a thing? :P I mean, it actually isn't a thing where I'm from, but that doesn't matter because it's a whole other world anyways. I'm not even gonna get into that though because it would mean far too many spoilers x3
Don't worry about the length of those endings currently available anyways because they're not technically endings. They were just suitable endpoints for the purposes of the game jam it was made for. I only had one month to make it while learning how to use the new engine at the same time, so I had to pick some sort of cut-off point that still kinda worked as endings but where I could easily pick up from in the future :3 Think of them as more like the end of the first day or chapter rather than final endings.
In fact, I plan for each character to have 4 different final endings reached by a mixture of choices. And some bad endings along the way too, of course :D
No promises on MC fighting back in the bathroom, but MC will definitely be getting more choices in general, including the ability to fight back more :3 There will be different choices too. I don't know if you've already seen one of the videos I posted earlier this year about some of the new types of choices, but basically, some will simply be to act cruelly or kindly to a character (following the black and white/sinister x sweet theme of the project), some will be more detailed so that you have more control over the way MC acts or what MC says, and some will be timed, where electing not to pick a choice within the time also kinda counts as a choice in itself. Sometimes it might actually be better to do nothing!
Cana fits in a few different ways :3 Once Cana's actually added to the game, you'll have the opportunity to spend time with them before even beginning Castor/ia's route. Or you can try to play a bit of both, though, it's obviously gonna result in drama x3 Technically though, it would be possible to play with just Cana. I'm hoping to have all future characters playable solo depending on MC's choices at the beginning of the game. Some will only be reachable after doing certain other things, discovering stuff while playing other routes, or by refusing to pick any of the activities on the first night that lead to the solo routes of the first bunch of characters. But it will also be possible to encounter a second character while already playing with a first. Again though, I probably shouldn't say too much cos I don't wanna spoil stuff, haha.
As for the backlog background, honestly, it's been so long that I can't even remember what it looks like or if I've already changed it >.< I've been sitting on stuff for a long time now, unfortunately. A whole bunch of new content is written, some of which is coded in already, but I currently have no idea where I stand with the original VAs, which has largely killed my motivation to work on this particular project because it means either having the rest of Castor/ia's lines unvoiced while all the new characters get voice actors or recasting Castor/ia and getting the new VAs to re-record all the old lines >.< Neither of those are things I wanted to do, so I've been holding out, hoping to hear something back from the original cast members and working on other stuff in the meantime. There's gonna come a point though where I just have to put up a poll or something and see which option everyone would prefer and then go from there because I can't wait forever on it :(
It's partly why I plan to release a mini-update very soon. It won't have Cana in it, nor will it contain the continuation of Castor/ia's story, but it will have the new choices within Castor/ia's existing story content so I can at least try to show how the project will play going forward + some of the new UI I made a while ago.
I'll be sure to look into the backlog though and see if I already made changes or not, and if not, I'll see what I can do to make it easier to read the text :3
Thanks for supporting the project and taking the time to leave a comment ^-^
Were it up to me, I'd release the unvoiced version first and then provide voices in a patch later, if VAs are getting hard to find.
There's one Neptunia fangame I follow which did something like that. The guy released the full game with some of the audio out, and then a second version with the audio in. I think he did that because the audio was being weird with compression, but w/e.
There's also a RWBY fangame I've taken an interest in (JPDE) which got the main script of the game done, and then they gradually added voices character by character. That way a VA can do all their lines in one go, and their future willingness to do more lines isn't too important. I think those devs are focusing on specific characters for each update now.
There's also the Falcom way of voicing games, where there's so many voice lines, only the important scenes are voiced.
Of course, I favor the unvoiced first/voice later option, since that means I still get a full game in my hands even if the original VAs never show up.
Oh, and since I live in the US, a State ID exists if you can't get a Driver's License for whatever reason. Since a fantasy character isekai'd to our world wouldn't know the rules of the road, a State ID would be their next best option to present their identity. And of course I would exaggerate a bit that the cops are authorized to grant those. ;D
I feel ashamed to ask but may i get a copy ?
No worries, it's totally fine! Normally, I would say absolutely, drop me an email or something, and I'll send you a key! But I'm actually planning on dropping the $2 donation on Halloween along with making a small update to the game, so you're actually better off just waiting until the 31st of October, and then you'll be able to download the latest version from the game page :3
It would be a bit of a waste of time starting the current version right now because the update I plan to upload contains changes that will break old saves, so everyone will need to start over from the beginning anyways. It's not gonna have the new character or anything because I still need to sort out voice acting and stuff, but it will contain extra choices within Castor/ia's existing story and provide a better idea of how the game will function in the future :D
I'll also be keeping the old version of the game available to download on the page for anyone who still wants to check that version out, but either way, all versions will be downloadable on Halloween (and after that) for everyone :3
understandable its not a problem to wait thank you