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 :)
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
Hey hey! I'm glad you like the look of it :3 Unfortunately, the game won't have a full release any time soon in general >.< and while I would definitely love to eventually have it available on Android, I'm not sure if it's going to be possible because I haven't managed to get any of my games to work on Android yet T_T so I'd need someone who can teach me how to make them work cos all my android builds just seem to fail, haha. I will be trying to get all my games on more platforms in the future though :3
Ahh, that sucks x3 My best friend's laptop actually does the same with all of my games whenever she's tried to play them xD It's just because the security is overprotective and because they're just indie games, they don't always recognise that the files are perfectly safe >.<
In fact, when I export builds to start testing them before releasing, my own antivirus tries to stop me playing through my own games xD It's like... uhm, antivirus, I made this, it's fine, it's safe! x3
I guess it's probably different for each kind of security software, but with mine I just tick a box to tell it that it's fine, and then it lets me play with no problems :3
Glad you like the look of the project anyhow! :D Hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Hello!!!! i'm a new player!! i just finish playing the demo! this game is one of the most favorite VN i ever played in my live!! I loveeeeeeeee Castor so muchhhhhhh!! Can't wait for more update/content!!! ♪(^∇^*)
Hey hey! Sorry I'm so late to respond >.< I got really overwhelmed with stuff lately :( But that's fantastic to hear! :D I'm so glad that you enjoyed the demo :3
Sadly, progress with this project is pretty slow, but I'm hoping to have the opportunity to work on it some more in 2024!
Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out :3 I hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Hello, I need some help. I'm trying to download this game, but everytime I try, it says removed. And when I finally get to download it, I can't open the zipped files, it says failed. I have many storage and good internet. What should I do?
That sounds very strange >.< It’s not an issue I’ve ever come across on itch before, but it must be something weird going on with the website on your end because I can download and unzip the files just fine on my computer :( They’ve never been removed or anything.
Your best bet is probably to contact itch.io themselves because I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it on my end >.<
You could tell them the same thing you wrote here + let them know that the dev said there’s nothing wrong with the files.
Played the original a year-ish ago. I can't tell you how exciting it was to look back over it due to a little bit of nostalgia only to find that it's got a full project now!
Castor/ia has certainly won my heart over, so I very much look forward to seeing how it all turns out!
Quick Edit: And I don't mean just excitement for that one character of course, but the others you've got in store as well.
Aww, thanks so much for returning to the project to check it out again :3 I’m really glad you like it so far!
Unfortunately, it’s going to take me a looooong time to actually get the entire project finished for a whole bunch of reasons (gonna make a proper post about it soon so I can’t explain everything x3) but it’ll get there in the end, haha.
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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 :)
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
Finished the demo, absolutely loved it, I am completely feral for Castor, pretty priest yandere boy with a sweet voice got me barking fr <3
Hehe, aww, well, Castor loves you too :P So glad you had fun with the demo! Thanks for playing + hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Hi, this game look amanzing and really beatiful this gonna be released for android i really wanted to play this cool game :)
Hey hey! I'm glad you like the look of it :3 Unfortunately, the game won't have a full release any time soon in general >.< and while I would definitely love to eventually have it available on Android, I'm not sure if it's going to be possible because I haven't managed to get any of my games to work on Android yet T_T so I'd need someone who can teach me how to make them work cos all my android builds just seem to fail, haha. I will be trying to get all my games on more platforms in the future though :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays!
thanks you are too kind i hope you have a happy holiday too <3, why don't see a tutorial (i don't know how talk this on inglish) on the youtuber?
if you give me yandere love IM IN!!!!!
this looks so good but when I try opening it I get a popup saying windows is protecting my pc I'm sure this game is amazing tho <3
Ahh, that sucks x3 My best friend's laptop actually does the same with all of my games whenever she's tried to play them xD It's just because the security is overprotective and because they're just indie games, they don't always recognise that the files are perfectly safe >.<
In fact, when I export builds to start testing them before releasing, my own antivirus tries to stop me playing through my own games xD It's like... uhm, antivirus, I made this, it's fine, it's safe! x3
I guess it's probably different for each kind of security software, but with mine I just tick a box to tell it that it's fine, and then it lets me play with no problems :3
Glad you like the look of the project anyhow! :D Hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Hello!!!! i'm a new player!! i just finish playing the demo! this game is one of the most favorite VN i ever played in my live!! I loveeeeeeeee Castor so muchhhhhhh!! Can't wait for more update/content!!! ♪(^∇^*)
Hey hey! Sorry I'm so late to respond >.< I got really overwhelmed with stuff lately :( But that's fantastic to hear! :D I'm so glad that you enjoyed the demo :3
Sadly, progress with this project is pretty slow, but I'm hoping to have the opportunity to work on it some more in 2024!
Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out :3 I hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Oh dear!!!! i hope you feel alright!! dont push yourself too hard!!! :( （づ￣3￣）づ╭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️～ HAVE MY LOVE!!!
Hello, I need some help. I'm trying to download this game, but everytime I try, it says removed. And when I finally get to download it, I can't open the zipped files, it says failed. I have many storage and good internet. What should I do?
That sounds very strange >.< It’s not an issue I’ve ever come across on itch before, but it must be something weird going on with the website on your end because I can download and unzip the files just fine on my computer :( They’ve never been removed or anything.
Your best bet is probably to contact itch.io themselves because I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it on my end >.<
You could tell them the same thing you wrote here + let them know that the dev said there’s nothing wrong with the files.
Their email address is: support@itch.io I think.
I hope they manage to fix it for you :3
Okay, thanks! (^-^)
Played the original a year-ish ago. I can't tell you how exciting it was to look back over it due to a little bit of nostalgia only to find that it's got a full project now!
Castor/ia has certainly won my heart over, so I very much look forward to seeing how it all turns out!
Quick Edit: And I don't mean just excitement for that one character of course, but the others you've got in store as well.
Aww, thanks so much for returning to the project to check it out again :3 I’m really glad you like it so far!
Unfortunately, it’s going to take me a looooong time to actually get the entire project finished for a whole bunch of reasons (gonna make a proper post about it soon so I can’t explain everything x3) but it’ll get there in the end, haha.
Thank you so much for the support :3