That used to happen to me a lot, which is why I now refuse to write anything directly on a web page xD I ramble too much, and it would often get lost, haha. I always write my replies and stuff up in a separate note now where I know I can save them, haha.
The $2 isn't a purchase price anyways, it's just to help the development of the game to fund voice acting and stuff since I can't afford it myself as I don't have money either x3 So if you want a key, feel free to drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
A lot will be changing compared to how the game is now though once the update is out since I've revamped all the old stuff and added a lot more choices so that players have more control over MC's personality and stuff :3
oh shoot that's pretty nice, also thanks for the key thing... Yeah I used to write stories and stuff but I don't do it much anymore, used to post them, idk where tho, but I lost at least 6 pages worth of content just from the lack of a save progress button, sorry I went off-topic, sorry if I'm imposing or anything like that. I just want to say I see a lot of potential in this and stuff and I hope you go through and continue updating this! G'day (sorry if that was awkward at all)
It always sucks to lose a bunch of writing whatever you've written >.< I've sat there replying to messages on forums and stuff in the past where I'd been typing for over an hour only to finally hit send, then watch in horror as the page refreshes, asking me to log in, losing everything xD And while I was trying to write some of the CiQ routes a couple of years ago, my laptop just switched off outta nowhere (it's old and sucks), causing me to lose a few hour's worth of work cos I didn't have autosave turned on in the software settings T_T That was pretty soul-destroying, haha.
You don't need to apologise anyhow! And you're not imposing at all, so don't worry :3 I appreciate you taking the time to write such kind words :D I'm certainly gonna try my best to keep getting updates out for the game. It might take me a while, haha, but I'll keep pushing x3 And don't worry, it wasn't awkward at all :3
I just saw your email and sent over a key, so hopefully, it gets to you alright!
Yay ^-^ I'm so glad you had fun with it! I really hope you'll end up enjoying the new content when I can finally manage to get the update out :3 Thanks for playing!
She looks so prettyyyyy! I love it ^-^ Especially the way you've drawn her eyes! Beautiful :3 I wish I could draw T_T haha. If I could, I think I'd never stop. I was working throughout the week on the sprite for one of the new characters being added in the upcoming update. She's not ready to be revealed yet, but I hope she'll be able to compete with Castoria :D
I've played The Yandere Heaven Vn ( Which is My Favorite Vn Atm) & Than I've just completed this one,I gotta say.You Definitely Understand the word "Yandere" because these vn's you've made so far has me itching for what lies within the future for the both.I Know It'll take some time because i can see the hard work within the two vn's but even so,I'll still be waiting for the both of these outstanding vn's to be completed,Ah & To The Female VA's & Creator Ofc! Ganbatte Kurete Arigato ;)
Glad you enjoyed them both :D I'm a big yandere fan, hehe. My love of yandere characters and wanting to create some of my own was one of the reasons I started making VNs in the first place ^-^
I'm hoping I'll be able to update both games at least once before the end of the year :3 Maybe even twice if things go well!
Thanks for taking the time to play + leave such a nice comment :3
The BxG version of Apartment No.9 also has a female voiced yandere in it if you're interested :D The story is a lot more serious/darker than in YH and DD though. And there's a platonic yandere with a feminine voice in Limbo Line as well :3
Woo! So glad you had fun with what little there is so far! With any luck, you'll find the update to be even better :3 I feel as though the numerous improvements I've made so far to the existing content make a big difference. Now that I've completed those, I can work on introducing another character to the roster and adding more story content for Castor/ia!
Thanks so much for taking the time to play and comment ^-^
THIS LOOKS SO INTERESTING i've been keeping a close eye on this for a really long while but i sadly can't afford it :( but then i saw that you were giving out free keys on the comments and i think that's really nice of you!!! so if it's alright, i would also like to ask for one! i have sent u an email already, thank you so much and i'm really looking forward to playing this game! <3
I'm glad you like the look of it so far :3 It's gonna look waaaay better once I get the update I'm working on released cos I've improved the UI and stuff + added a bunch of mechanics. I feel like it looks much slicker now, but I don't just wanna release that on its own >.< I wanna add the new content as well as part of the same update, so it's gonna probably take me another couple of months or more to get it all finished and ready for release T_T I wish I could clone myself and work faster, haha. I sent a key anyhow :3 Hope you enjoy it even if it's just the old jam version still for now.
Been musing about making my own VN but I think Ren'py would be a lot easier to use than Unity since you basically just drop everything into the corresponding folder. Not sure how that would change the visuals but I've seen incredible looking VN's made in Ren'py. Also, love Castoria's route so far but take as much time as you need on developing. Costs for drawing different poses and expressions along with the voice acting must cost an arm and a leg
Go for iiiit :D I've pretty much been addicted to making VNs ever since I started out trying to create them, haha. Ren'py was actually the very first tool I used since it's free with loads of helpful tutorials. I managed to make a small test project that didn't really have a story, more just learning how to code in choices and such with some placeholder sprites. I didn't enjoy it at all >.< In fact, I almost gave up on the idea of making VNs completely, haha.
It's not that Ren'py was bad. Far from it! It's just I found the coding aspect a total headache. Sure, I didn't give myself enough time to learn everything I needed to, but I spent enough time on the test project to know that I didn't like coding one bit. And that's when I came across Tyranobuilder in a Humble Bundle.
Tyrano promised it was for writers, not coders. For people who just wanted to get on with telling a story using an easy drag and drop interface, but also with the ability to add more in-depth features if you do decide to delve into coding.
In short, it absolutely does what it says on the tin. I found it extremely easy to use, though a tad clunky in execution. I made all of my first ever game (Solipsism Reigns) using it. I wouldn't say I was 100% happy with it, but I did enjoy myself more than when I attempted to use Ren'py.
Years later, when I eventually finished SR, I ended up coming across Naninovel for Unity. From what I could see, it seemed to be the perfect sort of in-between tool that I was looking for. It also promised it was for people not too keen on proper coding, but rather than using a drag and drop interface, it uses simplified scripting. Which is soooo much faster and more efficient than drag and drop, provided you're a swift typer. The scripting language is genuinely easy to understand as well, so I've had very little in the way of headaches, haha.
Darling Duality - Winter Wish, is the first project I created using Naninovel x Unity, and because I was both trying to finish a game while also learning how it all worked within the space of a month, it's not the greatest example of what you can do with it >.< There was a lot I didn't know. My script is extremely messy. Which is why I'm currently going through all of DD's existing content and making sure everything is much smoother while making various tweaks and additions. Because my script was so bad that now I've got so much more experience, it would be too impractical to work with going forward. I've essentially had to rewrite most of it, haha.
For a far better example of what can be done with Naninovel x Unity, I would recommend checking out my Spooktober Jam project, Limbo Line. I feel as though it's much more polished than my other projects, not just because I was able to work with an incredible team of artists during the jam, but because I had learned more in general about how things work by then. Heck, I'm still learning now! I recently discovered how to create particle effects in Unity so that I can use them in Darling Duality :3
Sorry anyhow, I'm rambling here >.< What I'm trying to say is that Ren'py is amazing, and I'd say probably the best tool out there for creating VNs for most people. But for me, I find it much easier and more fun to use Naninovel x Unity :3 Nani did cost a fair bit of money even though I got it at 75% off during a Unity asset store sale, but I'd say it's been worth every penny, and I have no plans to switch to using anything else anytime soon :3 It's all just a matter of personal preference I suppose. With Ren'py, you're learning a skill that can be used for other things since you're learning Python. Naniscript can't be used outside of Naninovel, so it's far less useful as a skill but much easier and faster to grasp if you don't have the head for coding like me x3
I'm sorry I went on for so long there, haha. It's a bad habit I have whenever I get talking about stuff I'm passionate about x3 I'm really glad you've enjoyed what little there is of DD so far :3 With any luck, you'll like it even more once I've got the next update out with everything being revamped to look better, run smoother, and, of course, additional story content!
No problem, mate. I find myself rambling when I talk about something I like the same. Don't worry, Renpy isn't the make-all of visual novels. You use what you're comfortable with. I usually only code in C# in Unity but I like the simplicity of Python.
Moreover, other than just making a label and say "do this", Renpy is kinda my life when it comes to making and modding visual novels. It's good but there are multiple engines just as good or even better so never think you have yo be limited.
The thing I hate the most is that I've spent so long making VNs now, but not taken the time to learn a proper coding language, which I feel is a waste >.< but the problem is, I just hate it so much xD It's my least favourite thing about making VNs, haha. I love seeing it all come together, but actually sitting there and typing out what's necessary to make that happen kinda does my head in >.< I like writing stories, putting BGM together, editing sprites + voice acting... pretty much every aspect of making VNs, aside from the coding part, haha. It's more just a necessity with being a solo dev T_T
I've been giving some serious thought to attempting to learn C# recently though after getting a supposed complete course in a Humble Bundle a while back! Not knowing proper coding does make me feel somewhat inadequate sometimes when it comes to making VNs x3 As though I'm somehow cheating compared to the folks who have made the effort to learn Python and use Renpy! But then that's just me being silly really cos I've taught myself a whole bunch of other stuff instead >.<
I did like the look of Visual Novel Maker for a while, but I read too much about it having a number of issues so that sort of put me off of it.
I mean with you already knowing how to code, you've got so much more choice than me for what you can use, haha. I've been extremely impressed by some of the Renpy games I've played, that's for sure! I guess you're right about never having to limit yourself though :3 Someday I'd like to make a hybrid VN game, but that's a long way off cos I just don't have the required skills/knowledge for that right now, haha.
Good luck if you do end up starting a project anyhow! :3
I'd say I'm somewhat competent with coding instead of knowing how to. It's more of a repetition thing if you know what lines to use to achieve what outcome. Yeah, I like writing stories and I've lost motivation for the same amount of them simply because I think they'd be a ton better with visuals. The ideas are still there, just not taking front and centre at the moment. Giraffe Academy on YT has some really neat beginner courses on different langauages which should be able to help if you're interested.
Being a solo dev has a lot of drawbacks but the payoff is worth it in the early days. I've never really been on a team myself and about all of my work have been for my self gratitude or fantasy. It's fine though, I like to think the more you struggle, the better it's going to feel when you see how it blossoms
I'm very much a tinkerer when it comes to trying to learn stuff, even if it's not the most practical way of learning x3 So most of what I have managed to pick up has been through experimenting, haha. I struggle to find tutorials that I can actually follow >.< I don't know what it is about my darn brain, but instructions have to be written in a very specific way for me to actually understand. I guess that could be my ASD in play there. Many a time I have gone to look up help for stuff, spent ages reading through people's advice and instructions on how to achieve certain things, and just been utterly baffled by it. I often wind up super frustrated. It's as though the instructions are missing key steps, perhaps because they assume the reader would already have that knowledge, but it leaves me lost. So then I just resort to brute-forcing a problem again, haha.
I kinda get what you mean about thinking stuff would be better with visuals because I sometimes come up with ideas for audio dramas, only to buckle and end up making them as VNs instead (pretty much what happened with Darling Duality xD cos it wasn't reeeeally supposed to be a VN, haha.) I'm not sure I could ever go back to thinking about making things as text or audio-only based now because I've been infected by the VN bug x3
I'll have to give Giraffe Academy a look up when I get a chance then! With any luck, I might actually be able to follow the courses :3
Yeah, I definitely enjoy being a solo dev, but not being able to cover all the roles that a team would can sometimes be frustrating >.< Oh, how I wish I could draw! I actually used to think years ago that I would never be capable of working as part of a team cos of my anxiety, and that solo would always be the way to go for me, but after taking the plunge to team up for last year's otome jam and spooktober vn jam, I can honestly say that I reckon being part of a team made each project more fun to work on :3 Especially Limbo Line for spooktober cos that was a pretty big team when you include all the voice actors who were involved. There was such wonderful energy! And there's no way I could've come up with everything that's in the game were I on my own. It was just one of those lovely patches in time where all the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly together ^-^ I think I was hyper pretty much all of September thanks to that, haha. It's really difficult to describe the sheer amount of joy I felt while working on that project with everyone.
All of my stuff has been self-indulgence too pretty much, haha. I don't think I'd even be capable of working on something that I wouldn't be interested in playing myself. I was actually approached last year by someone scouting for writers for a vn-style romance app on mobile. It was paid work, but with pretty strict deadlines. They wanted a sample story to see if I'd be a good fit if I were interested, and encouraged me to take a look at their current content to get an idea of what their users like to read. Since I'm broke and relatively unemployable, I thought I'd give it a shot. Well, I did not enjoy any of the chapters I sampled one bit >.< I tried a few different opening chapters of various genres, but none of them were my cup of tea. I could clearly see the sort of stuff they were after. Essentially smut stories, where choices had next to no impact, the story itself was practically non-existent, the characters were all shallow, and the steamiest of scenes were locked behind a paywall so that users would be forced to purchase the in-game currency to even see them.
Despite that, I attempted to come up with something I thought would be suitable. I purposely dimmed down the details and tried to focus on the tension-building (because one of their guidelines was to have a climactic moment + corresponding choice that could be a microtransaction in every chapter, even though the chapters were only a 5-15 minute read), but I was told that there was still too much detail and not enough drama in my submission >.< They gave me another couple of days to submit a revised version, but I was just honest and told them that I couldn't do it. I already pretty much despised what I submitted the first time. If I shaved any more off of it it would have just been a pointless husk. I could already feel a creeping dread at the thought of having to write an entire story like it, so I backed out. The money wouldn't have been worth the misery it would have caused me.
But yeah, I totally agree that the struggle makes any sort of payoff that much sweeter :3 I'm still blown away every time I get a nice comment on one of my projects! I'd carry on making stuff for as long as I'm enjoying doing it even if nobody else knew it existed, but every single bit of positive feedback I get from others is enough to fuel my hope that I might someday be able to actually make a living doing what I love. I'd rather die than slave away for someone else doing something that I hate anyways (sidenote: I think it was working in retail for a short while that really made that attitude flourish!)
I really should stop rambling anyhow cos I've just gone off on a really long one again, sorry xD I hope you do manage to bring some of your ideas to life in VN form though cos that would be brilliant :3
im not gonna play the game yet (just gonna ready myself after reading that it has self-harm) but seeing the screenshots, just wanted to say that i love the art and the designs for Castor/ia!!
Yeah, I wasn't really sure how to mention the self-harm because I knew it had to be said, but at the same time, it's not really self-harm in the typical sense. I just didn't wanna leave it out of the warnings/triggers because the last thing I want is for anyone to get hurt while playing my games :3
I'm glad you like their character designs! Though, I can't take too much credit for that because I can't draw to save my life >.< The original sprites are from an asset pack I own by a Japanese artist. I changed all the colours myself in GIMP because I like to try and do what I can to make sprite assets in my projects look as unique as possible :3
Happy to have supported and bought Darling Duality! What a fun game, omfg. The immersion in such a short amount of time was nothing short of being on par with going to the movies on release day in a dark cinema with the best popcorn and a delicious slushie. I loved the story you told and I would love to have more of it-- even if it was a book! The idea of a character being brought into "our world" and falling in love with the MC has been done before, sure, but what makes this VN unique is Castor. He/She emphasizes they are their own person, and I love how it brought a depth to the game. I'd love another VN where we get to play the game our MC played, and get to see Castor in his/her glory before being brought into our world. I'll be sure to check out other works of yours! Thank you again for an incredible experience.
Thanks so much for supporting the game ^-^ I'm super happy to hear you enjoyed what little there is of it so far! I feel honoured you think the immersion is like that :3
I can't 100% promise there will be a full version of the game Castor/ia is from to read through, BUT, I can say that their story is far from over :3 In the update I'm currently working on, not only have I added more choices + content throughout Castor/ia's existing story segments, but I'll also be including additional story for them. So you can think of the currently available 'endings' as more like paths splitting off down different routes. I just needed a way to wrap things up so it could all work as a standalone story for the jam since I only had a month to complete something to submit :3
The next update will also add a new character, but it won't even come close to completing the project >.< I have a hell of a lot planned, haha. And I think having episodic releases is probably the only viable way to go with this project because otherwise, it would be years before I could get anything out. Having episodic updates also helps a lot with funding the voice acting because I feel like if I just tried to make the whole game in one go, people might lose interest with there being a lack of updated content, and then I'd never be able to afford to fund VA for the whole game >.<
Anyhow, I'm rambling, sorry x3 If you do end up checking out any of my other games, I hope you enjoy them just as much :D
is there any chance there will be more free copies in the future? i can't afford to pay for any game right now but i'm sooo interested in playing this.
The $2 price isn't a payment/purchase for the game anyways, it's just to support development because my voice director friend told me that if I list it as free to download, people will just take advantage and never donate (that's pretty much exactly what happened when I kept refilling the community copies >.< haha) and then we won't be able to afford voice acting for the game cos it's gonna be around $800 per episode/update, and I sure as hell can't afford that myself, haha.
So while I can't refill the community copies for that reason, you're welcome to drop me an email to melancholicmarionette@gmail.com for a key :3 You don't need to write anything, just put your username from here in the subject and I'll know it's you.
I've never really felt compelled to write a review for any game, so this will be a first! I absolutely loved it and adored both characters and the voice acting. The script was a delight too, I really enjoyed the writing and all it had to offer. I had originally seen ManlyBadassHero play the game a while back, but I could not help but buy the game and try it out for myself since I'm a huge yandere fan haha. I will say that I very much enjoyed Castor's voice lines, his voice is so sweet! I adore his adorable demeanor. I also loved how the MC actually had a personality and some spine to them compared to some MCs from other visual novels and otomes that I've played, it was refreshing.
I can't wait to see any future developments to the game, I'm really excited to see what else is in store. I also played a few of your other games afterwards and really enjoyed them as well. Thank you for making this and I'm glad to have supported you through my purchase. :)
Aww, well I'm honoured and so glad that you did :3 It always lifts my spirits to hear when anyone's enjoyed my stuff, so thank you very much for supporting the project + taking the time to type up some of your thoughts! I really appreciate it ^-^
Providing I can pull it off without ruining anything, MC should have even more personality in the next update because I'm attempting to implement a sort of personality system in order to give players more control over how MC reacts to everything :3 I know what you mean though cos I adore yandere characters, buuuut I can't stand it when you have a yandere LI (or any kinda LI really) + a doormat MC who just lets the LI walk all over them without putting up any sort of resistance x3 It frustrates the hell outta me, haha.
I'm super excited for you to see the big update I'm working on cos I've made so many tweaks already. Everything looks soooo much better aesthetically now + runs smoother. And then, of course, there's the new content! I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through revamping the existing content though, so I'm aiming for roughly the end of spring to get the update out since I reckon it'll take me the rest of March to finish the revamp, then another month or 2 to actually add the new content in >.<
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed some of my other projects too :D If you haven't already played it, I highly recommend Limbo Line cos I feel like that's my most polished project so far :3 The team worked their asses off and I feel like we managed to create a hell of a lot of content for a 1-month jam, haha. It may not be a romance game, but there's still a character with yandere traits in there :P
I honestly hadn't expected much out of this going in as I almost always expect visual novels to be very short as they are often made for game jams, but this was absolutely wonderful!
The voice acting is excellent and I'm really into the script which was extremely well written. The story itself was much longer in each version than I had expected it to, especially being fully voice acted. I found that the sinister route felt a little bit longer than the sweet route but that makes sense (good ole crazy yandere).
I'm super excited to see you continue to develop the game further. And if anyone is considering playing it, do it. Of course, you can ask the dev for a free copy or claim a community version but I think the game is already well worth the two-dollar asking price if you can spare the money, especially since it lends to its further development.
Thank you so much for supporting the game + taking the time to write such a sweet comment! I really appreciate it :3
Certainly can't blame ya for not expecting much going in because it's totally true that many VNs are short cos they're made during game jams, haha. That was exactly the case with this x3 I had an idea for the project as a whole, but I knew I wouldn't be able to actually get much playable content finished in the space of a month that the jam was running for, so I just had to try and think of a decent cut-off point for the game to work as a standalone piece for the jam :3 It certainly didn't help that I'd just switched engines as well, and had to try and learn how the heck to use the new stuff during the jam. Which is why it comes off a tad clunky. My code is messy >.< I'm fixing it all up though now that I'm actively working on the project again, haha.
The sinister route is definitely longer than the sweet route in the game's current state, yeah. I'm hoping to change that as part of the next update though to even the paths out a bit more because the endings in the current version of the game aren't going to be endings in the completed version. That was just where I had to cut it off for the jam. In reality, they're more like the very beginning of the player's path with that character. So I'm hoping I can manage to balance out the lengths of each path once they've split :3
Not only will the overall look of the game be slightly altered once I get the next big update out, but I'm also adding more choices and content to the section of story that's currently available + adding brand new story content for Castor/ia, and introducing the next character :D I really hope you'll continue to enjoy the game as it progresses ^-^
i was browsing through the website when i saw this game. it looks completely interesting and is my complete type of game! it has everything that i want and the devastating part is that i missed the change to get it for freeTvT i'm really sorry but can i still have the free version?
You're welcome to have a key if you wanna drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
You don't need to write anything, just put your username in the subject and I'll know it's you :3
The $2 isn't really a purchase anyhow, it's just to help support the game's development so that I can continue to have voice acting + be able to afford CGs as well. Cos I don't have the money to fund the game myself x3
Just so you know though, I'm working on a big update at the moment that not only adds new content, it revamps everything available in the current demo, so anyone wanting to keep playing once the update is out will have to start over from the beginning cos too much has been changed for old saves to function in the new update once it's out :3
I bought the game and was able to open it on Mac, but I've been stuck on the loading screen for about 8 mins now and was wondering if this was normal or if there's a problem?^^
Hey hey! Thanks so much for supporting the game's development :3
It's definitely not normal >.< The available content in the game right now is more just like a demo, so nothing should take particularly long to load.
Is it stuck before it even gets to the title screen? Because you could try the black screen bug fix version to see if that helps cos there's an issue with some computers on both windows and mac where they just black screen instead of playing the video background on the title screen.
If that doesn't help though, I'm not going to be able to even attempt to fix it at the moment because I'm actively working on the game with a huge update that I hope to release for roughly the end of spring, and because I'm actively tweaking and adding to all the code, I wouldn't be able to export a working version for any system right now because I've made a lot of changes >.< Once the update is out, saves from the current version will be rendered unusable because I've basically rebuilt everything and made a lot of changes so far.
I've actually already completely revamped the title screen. Since I couldn't find the reason why some computers can't load the video background and some can, I've just removed the video background altogether and replaced it with a series of animations built into the game. So not only does it look much fancier, it should technically work for everyone :3 So there's a chance that it'll work fine for you once I release the new update, but because I'm adding new story content and characters, among revamping all of the existing content, it's not something I can do very quickly, unfortunately >.<
If the black screen bug fix doesn't do anything to help you, and if it still won't load up once I've got the big update out, I'll need to send you a development build and ask for you to send me the error logs so that I can try and figure out what's going on. But please feel free to contact itch.io if you want to get your money back because it sucks if it won't work at all for you :(
Sorry I can't be more helpful immediately though >.< I don't have a mac myself or know anybody who does to be able to test mac builds, so I have no way of knowing what could be wrong with mac versions unless people tell me. And even then, it's difficult for me to fix things without knowing what's causing them >.<
I'd absolutely love to have the game on Steam at some point, yeah :3 But the $100 fee to put a game on there is a killer >.< And I wouldn't wanna put it on there until there's more content because it's more just like a demo at the moment, and I read that you only really get 1 shot at promoting a new release on Steam, so you need to make the most of it.
So yeah, the plan is to have it on Steam one day, but it won't be any time soon :( I'm just a solo dev so development is pretty slow even though I work like crazy on my projects, haha. Once I've managed to get a few updates out with more characters, I'll start looking into getting it on Steam more :3
In the meantime, you're welcome to drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
And if you just put your username in the subject, I can send you a key for here so that you can check out the demo :3
I'm actively working on an update right now though, and a lot is gonna change. So once the update is out, any saves from the old version will be useless because I'm not just adding more story content + a new character in the update, I'm also adding things like choosing your player name, pronouns, personality system, and more choices within the existing content for Castor/ia :3
Your game really looks amazing so I'm totally looking forward for the news updates! And hopefully someday seeing it on Steam and get the love it deserves <3
I definitly would love to check out the demo ( ◜‿◝ )♡
I like the plot ^ - ^ im into stories like this *cough* I also like the character design both of the LI and so their V.A. ฅ'ω'ฅ Im just not used at playing with unity, especially if I want to save when there's a choice (｡ŏ_ŏ) I cant save it (;´д｀)ゞ but that's alright. That doesn't stop me from enjoying the game hehe
There's a lot more to come :3 I'm working on the update right now, and it's gonna mean anyone who wants to play will have to redownload + start over from the beginning because not only am I adding more story content & characters, I'm also making loooots of tweaks to the UI & overall appearance of the game + adding things at the start like the ability to name MC and pick pronouns (and more choices in general when it comes to interacting with the characters) so trying to continue from a current save would just break things in the new version when it's out x3
Speaking of saving, I don't know if you're using a normal mouse or like a trackpad on a laptop, but you should be able to use the scroll wheel to rewind when you come across a choice, so that you can make a save before picking a choice option :3 You can't rewind once you've clicked on a choice though.
In the new update, I'm going to add more keyboard shortcuts so that people can open menus using their keyboards cos I didn't know how to do that sorta thing back when I first made this since I was only just starting to learn how Unity works >.< and I know using mouse buttons on a laptop is super awkward x3
Gambatte for making an update (๑ÒωÓ๑) 9 yes, I also noticed about saving before the choice xD I end up doing it from the beginning and some skips :3 thank you for the tip ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ♪)
It's okay, the $2 is only a donation to help fund the project's development anyhow rather than a purchase price :3 Just drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
You don't need to say anything. Just put your username in the subject and I'll know it's you. Then I can reply with the download key :3
You're still welcome to have a key :3 Drop me an email if you like: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
You don't have to write anything in the email. Just put your username in the subject and I'll know it's you ^-^ You might be better off waiting until I have the next update out to play though cos I'm making a lot of changes to the existing content as well as adding lots of new stuff, so when the update is out (I'm aiming for the end of spring, but ya never know what could go wrong, haha) I'm gonna recommend people start again from the beginning :3
I was able to get the community copy and Oh My God. This did not disappoint ( ˙▿˙ ) The full version was very interesting (￢‿￢ ) Both characters are certainly adorable! I do like to think they were from the same developer but different games, kinda like Solipsism Reigns ( ‾́ ◡ ‾́ ) I really love the ASMR style and hope to see more of it soon! ( ´ ω ` )
Yeeeeah, I don't really know what came over me when I wrote some of that stuff xD I think I'd probably been listening to some saucy Japanese drama CDs, haha. Back when I was cutting the VA lines, my headphone cable came out, and my friend who I was staying with at the time heard a couple of those 'interesting' lines, and he was like, WTF?! But you're asexual!! And I was like, yeah, but I can still try to write some low-key steamy stuff, can't I? x3 He was just so shocked it was hilarious.
I'm glad you enjoyed it anyhow ^-^ I'm actively working on the next update now, hoping to have it out by the end of spring, but things might not go according to plan >.< There's just a ridiculous amount of work to do cos I need to tweak all the UI + pretty much rewrite all the existing code because it's awful x3 Back when I made it, I'd only just got the new engine, so I didn't know what I was doing and kinda had to learn fast before the jam was over! Which = really messy code that I can't work with going forward cos it's just impractical, haha. At least it shows I've improved over time though I guess x3
Sorry to hear that >.< Unfortunately, I don't own a mac or know anyone who does, so I can never test mac builds properly :( Which makes fixing bugs on mac extremely difficult.
Is it that the button to access the save menu isn't there? Or does it not show the save/load screen when pressed? Or something else? :o
Either way, what's currently available of the game is pretty much like a short demo, so you should be able to experience all of the content without needing to access the save/load system provided there aren't any other bugs in the way preventing you from proceeding with the story.
I'm actually working on the next update at the moment, and my code from back when this initial episode was released is pretty awful! I'm going to have to rewrite most of it I reckon because it's just so messy and impractical to work with going forward with the new content.
I'm also changing a lot of the UI and stuff while editing the old code before I get into adding the new content. So it's possible the issue will be resolved once I have the new update out. I can't put an exact time on when that will be though cos there's a hell of a lot of work to be done since I've essentially gotta remake what's already released + add a brand new character and other stuff. I'm aiming for the end of spring, but things might not go according to plan.
I'm also hoping to not need to have black screen fix builds in the future because I'm not gonna bother having the video background title screen going forward since it causes issues with some people's computers. It'll be easier just to have 1 build with a static title screen background rather than exporting 1 with video + 1 with a regular png file.
Please still let me know in more detail what it is that's preventing you from accessing the saves though, and I'll try and look into it to see if I can fix it for the next update :3
Hmm, that's definitely a very strange bug then >.< I'm not sure what on earth would cause something like that cos I don't understand how it would occur in the mac version when it doesn't in windows :( I think to get to the root of it, I'd have to send you a development build version of the game and get you to send me log files so I can have a look through and see if I can figure out what's happening there!
The problem is, I can't actually send a dev build because I've been actively adding to and tweaking the old code >.< I imagine it'd just come up with a whole bunch of other errors since it's a work in progress and a bit of a mess right now :( That's if it even functions at all in its current state.
So I'm sorry about that :( If I hadn't started working on it all again and changing stuff in the last few days, I would've been able to send you a dev build and just try to fix the issue for you by looking at the logs and then quickly exporting a new mac build.
I'm changing the save/load UI in the next update, so with any luck, whatever was causing the issue will be fixed, but if not, I'll have to send you a dev build once the new update is out so I can get to the bottom of it.
ok i think i found the problem: the custom cursor (on mac at least) always appears on the bottom right corner of the mouse, so when i think i'm clicking something, macos thinks that im clicking on the top left of the cursor.
maybe thats the reason i couldnt access my save. sorry for getting you into this.
Ahh, right! Thanks so much for letting me know because if nobody ever told me stuff like this, I'd have no idea, haha. Now I know, I can change the cursor for the mac exports in the future :3 I'm probably going to design a different custom cursor anyhow, so maybe the new one will work better on mac. If not though, there's always the option to just leave that out of the mac version if it causes problems. I guess I can try to do some research as well into how cursors work and look on mac cos I'm clueless when it comes to anything mac-related >.<
Dont apologise anyhow cos that's really useful to know :3
I'm still working away on the update, almost finished with UI overhaul :D A lot is going to change though, not just in terms of content, but I'm adding things that I didn't have time to before, like a personality system that will give decisions more weight. Anyone who wants to play when the update is out will need to redownload the game and start over from the beginning because too much will have changed to make it possible to continue from an old save. There's a whole bunch of options at the beginning now to choose MC's name and pick pronouns and stuff as well :3
We need more otome yandere games, and yours are just too good. I pledged $5 (I wish I could do more, but I'm a college student out of a job for now), in hopes to support you <3
That makes me super happy to hear that you think they're decent ^-^ And thank you for the support! Honestly, everything helps more than I can even put into words! I'm not even a student... I'm just plain old out of a job xD But I treat my projects as though they are my job, even though they're also my hobby :3 Thanks again + good luck with college!
Hey! I came here to see more of your games since I've just been absolutely obsessed with Yandere Heaven and Love in Lockdown!! It's been such a long time since I saw such good yandere games, I just couldn't stop playing until I read everything. I wish I could support you, but unfortunately I'm broke...So I figured rating and commenting would be the best way to support for now ^^' Keep up the good work, I really look forward to seeing more from you!!
That's so cool! I'm really glad you ended up enjoying my other stuff :3 Thanks so much for playing ^-^ I have mixed feelings about Love in Lockdown cos that just didn't come out how I wanted it to at all x3 haha. I really struggled with the writing, and a big part of me wanted to give up and not even bother turning it into a game because I was so unhappy with my story draft for it >.< I decided to just make it anyways because I'd already entered the jam and didn't want to back out. But yeah, I'm not particularly proud of that one x3 So it makes me super happy to know you managed to extract some enjoyment from it despite my personal feelings on it!
Honestly, any kind of support means the world to me ^-^ So yeah, ratings + comments is a huuuuge help. Donations may help me continue developing games when it comes to being able to afford to pay people for their time and talent, but kind words are just as valuable! So I really appreciate it :3
You're welcome to gave a key for DD if you wanna let me know the best place to send it! OR, if you wanna hold on for a little while, I'm making everything free to download on here for like 24 hours or something soon to celebrate the end of yandere jam :3 I just can't do it right now cos I'm on my phone >.< and messing with settings on itch is just really fiddly on mobile, haha. So I can't put the sale thingy on until I'm actually on my PC either later today or tomorrow!
I think all the free copies are out for now, so I think I can wait! I'm currently playing Solipsism Reigns. I'm really loving every game of yours I've tried!! Thank you so much for considering your broke fans haha, I've never seen anyone like you before! I'll do my best to keep on supporting you the way I can!! And honestly, I hope you like Love in Lockdown a little more because it's seriously so good!! I hope you're doing well dear creator ^^
SR is a pretty long one, but also my oldest game, because yes, I was a little bit insane and decided to make a full-length VN for my first project x3 It ended up taking years, haha. I really should have started out with something smaller!
You'll probably notice that it's a lot more clunky than Yandere Heaven and LiL as well, not just because it was the first game I made, but also because it was made in the old engine I was using, which wasn't great, but it was all I knew how to use at the time >.< I think the new engine I'm using nowadays makes stuff turn out a lot smoother!
Well, I'm perma-broke myself soooo, I know the feeling x3 I can pretty much only afford new games by trading in old ones, and that usually means giving up 3 or more just to get 1, haha. So I'll always try to make my stuff available to as many people as possible :3
I guess I was probably too harsh on myself about LiL >.< I'm just glad that you were able to enjoy it! Because knowing that certainly makes me feel less like beating myself up over it every time I see it on my page, haha.
I've just been fixing bugs on Yandere Heaven + starting to try and get my DD project files updated to a newer version of Nani and Unity cos they're pretty out of date now. The problem is, when my stuff is so old that it's missed multiple updates, things always end up breaking when I try to update it all, haha. So I'm probably gonna have to spend a while just fixing all the files!
I'm currently exporting the bug fix builds for Yandere Heaven for upload tonight though, and once they're all up, I'll activate the free copies of DD :3 Unless something goes wrong, I should have it done by midnight my time (GMT), but I can always shoot you a quick reply here to let you know when it's live anyhow :3
No problem dear creator!! It's great hearing you've been working so hard, I hope you've been taking care of yourself :D I hope you get more recognition!!
Yeah, it finished at midnight my time x3 But no worries, you're welcome to drop me an email! You don't even have to write anything. Just put your username in the subject line so I know who it is :3 melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Hey hey! Thanks so much for your interest in the project :3
I made a little post a while back that sort of briefly answers your question, so I'm gonna be a bit lazy and link that since I'm away from home at the moment and can't type very fast on my phone x3 haha.
I did give a more in depth answer in a comment a long time ago, but I'm not entirely sure where abouts that is to go and quote it/copy my answer >.<
The short answer though, is that (hopefully) this will be a commercial game once it's eventually finished. I don't know what sorta price it will be, but it'll have a lot of content. The current $2 price on here is pretty much just a donation to help support the game's development rather than an actual purchase. However, I'll always endeavour to make my games available to anyone who can't afford to support with money + make sure to take into consideration any donations as a discount towards the eventual final release price :3
Came across this game on explore and while i cant afford it i found manly's video on it and im in love with Castoria + voice acting!! wish this game came onto my radar earlier, love your work :))
Thanks for taking the time to write such kind words :3 I really appreciate it! Yeah, I owe Manly a hell of a lot cos if not for him featuring DD, not many people would know the project even exists still since I suck at social media x3 haha.
You're welcome to gave a key anyhow if ya let me know the best place to send it! OR, if you don't mind hanging on a little bit, I'm gonna make everything free to download for like 48 hours or something to celebrate the end of yandere jam :3 I just can't make the changes until I get on my PC either later today or tomorrow cos itch is too hard to fiddle with on mobile, haha.
I'm looking forward to having more time to myself this year to work on DD's development anyhow :3
Hello, dear author! I just played your game, and I'm already a fan of it! Love the character designs, Castoria is so cute hehe. And the music is pretty good, too. I wish you all the best for the next chapter!
Thanks so much for playing + for taking the time to write such a lovely comment ^-^ I really appreciate it! I shall be working as much as possible on the next chapter this month :D So I'll definitely be needing that luck, haha.
I finally got to play this game and what can I say, I.AM.SOLD!!! Castor is such a bae, I can't hate him no matter how I convince myself that he's unstable and dangerous and he might end up killing me lol guess that's my type. VA is superb, art is flawless, story telling is amazing. The author is too kind beyond words. I am looking forward to play your future games, Melancholy Marionette! - Sayaka
I'm glad you ended up enjoying it ^-^ Hehe, yeah, he's kinda adorable and terrifying at the same time x3 Don't tell any of my other characters cos if they ever become sentient, they'll probably murder me, but I think Castor might end up becoming my favourite yandere that I've created, haha.
I'll be working as much as I can on DD's next update throughout this month, and I'm planning for it to include more Castor/ia content along with introducing another character :3 So hopefully, you'll still like him once you've been able to spend more time with him x3
came here from manly, made an account just to say bravo! very well-made looking game! can't play it myself, but I have high hopes for your future with it!
Aww, that's so sweet of you! Thank you :3 I've learned a lot since I released what little is there of the game so far, so when I eventually release the next update which will add another character to the roster along with more content for Castor/ia, I'm also going to have gone over everything that's already there from the old jam submission and tweak a lot of stuff to make it smoother and fancier :3 Cos while I was working on Limbo Line, I learned a lot more about stuff like adding SFX to UI and such, haha.
Can you not play it cos you don't have a system that will run it? :o Or do you just need a key? Cos if you need a key, I can give you one :3
It should end up being a fairly long game once all the planned content is released for it, but it's gonna be a pretty long journey to get there x3
Awesome stuff :D I really appreciate you mentioning it to people cos I am totally abysmal at promoting my stuff cos of my anxiety >.< haha.
Sadly, development is gonna be relatively slow since I'm pretty much working on the project solo (aside from the voice acting, of course :3), but once February is over, it'll be my full-time focus ^-^ I just don't have much free time this February, so rather than trying to get back into working on the next DD update, I figured I'd be better off whipping up something short for itch's first ever Yandere Jam to get me used to working on stuff again after I had a couple of months' break from project stuff cos of my poopy mental health x3 Plus, I mean, it's a Yandere Jam, and yandere is my jam xD How could I not submit something!
With any luck though, once I'm able to dedicate most of my time to DD, I'll be able to get stuck in and make some good progress throughout March and onwards :3 Most of the content for the next update is already written, I just need to tidy it up, finish it off, and get to coding it all in.
And sure, I guess dropping me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com is the easiest way! Don't worry about writing anything in the email cos if you just put your username from here in the subject line then I'll know it's you anyways :3
So glad you ended up enjoying it :3 There's lots more to come, but it's gonna take me a while to make it x3 Which is why I'm gonna do it episodically or it'll be forever until the full game is out >.< I'm quite busy this month and trying to make a submission for itch's first ever yandere jam in the few days I have in February to work on something short. As soon as it hits March, I'll be working solely on getting the next episode of DD released :3
I'd like to have it on Steam eventually, but the $100 fee to add a game there is kind of a killer >.< especially when I don't really have the means to promote my stuff. I will get it on there someday though!
In the meantime, you're welcome to have a key if you wanna let me know where to send it :3
Go for it :3 You don't even need to write anything. If you just put your username from here and DD in the subject line then I'll know it's you :D Just send it to melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Just so you know though, I'm heading to bed for the night, so I probably won't get back to you with a key until I get on my PC tomorrow :3
Hey hey! If it was in the last few days, I've been away from home with little to no internet access x3 My best friend organised a few days away for us as a birthday celebration. I only just got back today, but we live pretty far away from each other, so I'm shattered from all the travel. I'll be back on my PC tomorrow though, so I can check my email and drop you a key then :3 It's just very difficult to do it on my phone cos itch's site is so fiddly on mobile >.<
hello, thought i'd let you know i shot you an email a few days ago, i wanna play this game myself but i can't afford it. (Sorry if you're busy and i come off as annoying, i just really want to play the game, whenever you can, send me an email back)
No worries! I wasn't on my PC yesterday cos it was my birthday but if you hadn't of written this comment, I would never have known you emailed me, as for some reason, your message went into my spam folder rather than my inbox, and I never check the spam >.< I managed to find it though after reading this :3 I've sent you a reply with a key anyhow!
I really loved the game and definitely would love to see more Castoria in the future. While I would not call the characters yandere per se, I kinda have a soft spot for yandere yuri with a sweet ending so I appreciated the gender neutral language for the player with a subtle hint that the character is female. I normally don't comment on them, or think they're well written in games, but I thought the sex scene in the full version was very well written too.
I feel sorry for Castoria (and Castor) as they're kind people with sentience and an obsessive love forced on them. In some ways, they're the victims though the protagonist had no way of knowing what she created when she made that wish. I guess my hope for them would be that they learn to become more rounded and independent people over time but remain with the protagonist.
Thank you. I paid above the minimum price and don't regret. I will look at your other VNs too.
To note, Manly lead me to your work (he got me hooked on VNs in the first place).
I'm not sure if you're the same person I've spoken to on Ko-fi or not (since the username is the same, haha), but regardless, I didn't wanna just leave your comment unanswered! x3
Regarding the gender-neutral language, that was what I originally intended to run with throughout the entire game so that players can sort of decide for themselves whatever they would prefer the characters to be. However, it did make writing the more risque scene pretty difficult, and I'm not entirely sure I possess the ability to continue writing scenes like that without referencing gender at all. So that alongside a number of players preferring more gender-specific language has lead me to think about perhaps just giving the player a choice of pronouns for their MC instead for future updates. Maybe it's the sort of thing I should be running a poll on, I don't know >.<
What I do know is that I don't really think about gender when I write for characters. Maybe my brain is weird or something, but I just don't really see gender when I'm writing. To me, all the characters could be any and all genders x3 So I like to give the player some form of choice.
I'm super glad that you thought that particular scene was well-written too because it's very much outside of my comfort zone xD I wanted to give it a go because I knew I wanted it to be a part of Castor/ia's character. But I myself am asexual, so it was a bit of an awkward one, haha. Editing the voice acting for that scene was uh, interesting! It was kind of like some strange form of embarrassing hell xD
I certainly hope I can show Castor/ia's growth (or escalation into further madness, depending on the player's choices xD) in a satisfying way as their story unfolds :3
I think the gender neutral language is fine without having to add additional choice for specific pronouns but others may disagree. I guess it's a cost/benefit analysis of the extra time put into being able to choose pronouns but if it's easier for you to write modifications of scenes based on pronoun selection that's a reasonable adjustment, I'd just hope neutral pronouns would also remain an option as that would be my personal preference (I prefer to play AFAB non-binary people).
On the issue of the sex scene, maybe the asexuality gave you a more objective look. I was playing a different yandere LI VN recently, and the sex scenes in the sequel made me feel more uncomfortable, first because the author added a visual component which came out of the blue and just made me feel like clicking through the scene faster (I was expecting a before and after like in the first game) and secondly the writing wasn't great but I don't want to criticise too much as I otherwise enjoyed her games. That's before even getting into the issues triple A games have with using sex scenes. I think part of it was Castoria's voice actor was very good at making the lines sound genuine.
The character development is just my personal hopes. I have to put the appeal of yandere and yandere-like characters in the context of abuse I've suffered growing up and in a previous relationship and what that says about me so I think my hope they get a good ending is just a personal psychological need. A yandere-like person irl in a relationship who doesn't grow beyond that is going to end up in an abusive or co-dependent relationship unless their partner is very careful based on the experiences of real people with similar personality disorders (most yandere characters would be a mixture of DSM-5 clusters B and C). I've never seen it explored, usually the yandere ends up the abuser, but I could see a yandere character ending up the victim of abuse because they would be easy to manipulate emotionally.
You're welcome, you've earned the support. I'll continue to support in the future too.
Yeah, I owe Manly a lot cos if he hadn't played this, hardly anyone would know about it still because I totally suck at social media and trying to get my games out there >.< haha.
That's awesome to hear ^-^ I've been inactive for the last couple of months for personal reasons, but I'm back and working on my projects again, so, hopefully, the next episode of DD shouldn't be toooo far away since the writing is almost finished now.
I would certainly love to have it on mobile if I can manage it, yeah :D I only tried exporting one of my games for mobile back when I was using Tyranobuilder, and it just failed completely even though I was following a guide >.< I'm kind of hoping that exporting for Android and IOS from Unity will be an easier process, but I've yet to actually try it!
But yeah, I'm hoping to eventually have my games playable on mobile + Switch as well as PC :3
I'm glad you had fun with it :3 It's been slow going on the dev front due to a lot of issues in my personal life >.< but I'm back now and actively working on my projects again, so with any luck, I should be able to get the next episode out before the end of spring or something :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
Hello i think your game is amazing, i actually can't think of any complaints, it was so well done i was wanting more by the end. Maybe in the future you can bring Cana(i think I'm remembering that correctly, hopefully lol) the best friend into the scene to create drama, external conflicts could be a way to make the good route have some intensity, but whatever you do I'm sure it'll be awesome, like your other games. oh btw just one more thing i swear, did you do all the writing? Because I'm super impressed, i thought it was top notch, you deserve an award. anyways cheers! Happy holidays! Looking forward to whatever you create :)
Hey hey! Thank you for playing through the game and taking the time to comment :3 I really appreciate it!
*Whispers* I see you're very perceptive with remembering Cana, hehe. I probably shouldn't say this because it's kinda spoilers at this moment in time, but Cana is actually the next character who will be introduced and I've already half-written their introductory episode! I won't say too much, but Cana and Castor/ia will definitely get to meet depending on the player's choices :D But ssshh, that's supposed to be a secret for now xD I just hope not many people read my reply to your comment, haha. *Stops whispering*
I do indeed do all the writing, yeah :3 I'm so glad you think it's decent! I'm always very self-conscious about it, especially when I'm working in a team like I did for A9 and Limbo Line, because I tend to worry that my writing will be what lets everything down when everyone else has done such amazing work with art and voice acting! >.< I don't have any proper qualifications when it comes to creative writing aside from my English GCSE from secondary school x3
Thanks for your support ^-^ Hope you have some happy holidays yourself and a super duper new year!
well thank you for making it i had tons of fun it was awesome. *Cough cough* spoilers? What spoilers? I don't see any *whispers* ok i think we're clear, keep going XD that sounds so cool, but also oh boy does that sounds like ticking time bomb, my boy mc is in for one helluva ride especially if he chose the sinister route this drama sounds juicy! Hehe let's go *cough cough stops whispering* anyways, i more than think ur writing is decent, it's spectacular, no where did i get taken back by the dialogue, it never seemed out of place or artificial, it seemed like what an actual gacha game yandere and a normal admittedly tactless mc would say to each other, hell, the fights even felt like they were already an
old married couples lol, it felt very very realistic, and honestly fresh, i so appreciate an mc who has his own feelings, and that there's gonna be problems and fights, it was super entertaining and refreshing, and it flowed naturally, so i can be invested and stay in the flow, definitely some top notch writing, honestly having a piece of paper to say you qualify as a writer is overrated when you've proved your skills over and over again in each game you make, just write what you want to write and read it over and over to tidy it up, if you think it's something you'd read and enjoy than you're done, you can't please everyone because everyone likes different styles so write it for you and watch as you will get more and more appreciation for it. Have a holly jolly Christmas and have a happy new year!
So I stumbled upon this gorgeous game while I was scrolling through itch.io. I recently bought a new laptop so trying out every type of games and I'm huge fan of dating Sims lol. I always play on phone but I wanted to experience on laptop so bought this game. This is simply gorgeous I'm a huge fan of Castor now! Finished both of his routes. I am so sad this gorgeous game isn't famous yet! I really liked it that want to open a fanpage only for Castor. I'm a huge Simp of him now. And not to mention the sound effects, visuals, the voice acting! 😍. I'm waiting for its update!! I want to play it more.
I might actually open a page for him and write fanfics everyday. Sorry if I'm being creepy but I've played several other Similar games and I forgot them but I can't forget about this!! This is beautiful!! Is it possible to release it on phones? Then I would've shared it with everyone! I know it's hard but thank you so much for this. I shouldn't drag this so good luck with improving This game more I'm with youuu!!❤️❤️. I might draw Castor now cuz he is so cute UwU.
I kinda want it to grow like Obey me, Mystic Messenger etc.
Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything at the moment and a lot of stuff going on in my personal life. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave such a kind comment though :3
I'm glad you enjoyed your time with Castor :D There will be plenty more content for him to come in the future + lots of other characters too. It's just going to take me a while to make it all, haha.
If you do end up opening a fan page for Castor, I'd love to see it :3 And I'm sure Castor very much adores having anyone simp for him :D It's not creepy at all anyways! I get really hyped about the stuff I'm passionate about too :3
I do hope to be able to release it on mobile at some point when it's a bit more polished, yeah! I'm not sure how it will go because I haven't tried mobile export with Unity yet. I tried to test it back when I was using Tyranobuilder engine, but it didn't work at all and I was just very confused xD Hopefully, it will go better when I attempt it with Unity, haha. I think a lot of tweaking of the UI will be required though so that it doesn't go all weird on mobile.
It sure would be amazing if the game somehow grew to that level of fame, haha. I doubt it'll ever happen, but I can dream x3 I'd really love to be able to earn a living making VNs someday, even though it's something which is apparently super hard to do :( It might be my only shot at supporting myself because my therapist thinks I'm basically screwed at life because of my autism if I can't manage to make a living out of my games, haha.
Sure! Take your time developing! and take a rest too. I'm sure it will grow more because talents don't stay hidden. I'll always keep giving my support to this game❤️❤️. I can't leave castor behind lol
Just finished playing your game with Castoria. I just have to say I honestly loved it! I was highly impressed with the voice acting and how you did the sprites for the characters. The writing was really good. I also enjoyed how Castoria and the Protag both had interesting personalities. As others have said in the comments, the Protag not being in a blank state and a bit sassy was rather fun plus refreshing to see.
I played the full game and wasn't expecting that final scene at the end. But it turned out to be rather lovely with its resolution. I haven't played the Sinister "route" (would it be called a route?) yet, but the Sweet "route" has me wanting some more! I know you are a rather busy person, but do you have an estimate of when is the next release? If not that's okay! Just keep doing the great work you are doing here! You have definitely made a fan out of me! :D
P.S. Also looking forward, Solipsism Reigns BxG Version whenever it comes out.
Thanks so much for supporting the project and leaving a comment! It's much appreciated ^-^ Glad you enjoyed your time with Castoria even if there's not all that much content there yet!
I've become a little bit obsessed with having a crazy amount of expression changes for sprites in my VNs, haha. I think because I wish I could use Live2D but don't possess the skills, so instead, I try my best to use lots of expression changes and other forms of movement to make scenes look more animated.
I guess once the game is more complete, you could consider the sweet and sinister options to be routes, yeah :3 Cos the 'endings' from the current version are actually more like the end of Castor/ia's 1st episode going by my outline. So in a more completed version, it's more like you're sort of locked in to the sweet or sinister route at that point. Though, there will also be more that goes towards deciding which route you end up on eventually because there will be more choices to make.
My plan was to have an update out in time for Christmas this year that introduces the next character while also adding more content for Castor/ia since it will have been a full year since I released the first part for the jam. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to manage that after all >.< I'm still in the writing stage for the next part, and struggling to concentrate on it. I've got a lot going on in my personal life at the moment, and my routine has kinda gone out of the window :( I've had a lot of appointments to be up early for, which means lots of early nights to bed. The problem is, almost everything I've written has been done so during the night! I don't know why, but I can just focus a lot better on writing when I do it during the night, and I'm not getting the opportunity to do that at the moment >.<
It doesn't help that I haven't worked on the project in such a long time because I was working on a few other jam projects throughout the year. DD is my main focus now though :3 Even if I can't get the next part out in time for Christmas, it should at least end up being sometime in winter or early spring, even if it's 2022 rather than 2021.
And there certainly shouldn't be any more year-long gaps in between updates unless things go very wrong in my life! Haha.
The BxG version of SR is a looooong way off though >.<
Thank you so much for your kind words and your support :3
Sorry, for the very late reply! I didn't realize I got a response from you. Curse you spam! That aside, I did notice the expression changes you have in the game and it was very impressive. It is a lot of work but makes the characters more "real". Still good to hear that sweet and sinister will be their "own" routes.
I hope you have been getting better and life is treating you well. Looking forward to the next update no matter when it comes out. Take care of yourself and stay strong!
No worries! Most of my replies have been super duper late recently anyways because I'm just kinda overwhelmed at the moment and shutting down >.< haha.
Take care yourself and I hope you get to have some happy holidays and a wonderful new year ^-^
HI i dont have much constructive to say other than i really really love this project <3 ive replayed it more times than id like to admit....
the way the yandere sides of castor/ia reveal themselves and how the mc isnt just a blank piece of wood but has an actual backbone, especially the mean stuff they say to castor/ia! i know the art isnt yours but i adore how it looks, you picked perfectly! i wish you luck on your future projects and will be supporting you all the way <3
I really appreciate any and all comments on my projects, so thank you very much for playing what's there of the game so far and taking the time to comment :3 I'm so glad you've enjoyed it so far even though there's not much there yet.
I'm happy you like the MC cos they seem to be a bit like marmite xD People either love it or hate it, haha. I just wanted the story to have a protagonist with a bit more sass because they're gonna end up in a lot of dangerous situations, and I don't want them to be the type of MC that just rolls over and lets bad stuff happen to them cos I've played too many VNs with passive protagonists and it annoys me as a player x3 I do plan on adding more options in future updates though, so that the player has a bit more control over how MC reacts because I also understand how frustrating it is to have an MC act in a way that's really opposed to how you want them to.
I'm glad you like the sprites too cos even though I didn't draw them, I did spend a hell of a lot of time on the colours and creating additional expressions for them that didn't come as standard :3
I had hoped to get the next episode of DD out in time for Christmas, but I don't think that's going to happen because I planned for it to both introduce a new character and add to Castor/ia's content, and a lot of life stuff is going on with me right now so I haven't been able to be as productive as I would like >.<
Thanks for your interest in the project :3 The page isn't particularly tidy at the moment and some of the comments where I answered similar questions to this have been buried >.< haha. I'll have to try and organise the page better when I next update the game!
I'll give you the short(ish) answer, and then I'll also be somewhat lazy and give you the super long answer copy/pasted from something I wrote previously :3
So the short answer is that the game is nowhere near complete right now. What's available is more like a little taster episode for one of many characters :3 I made it during a jam that lasted 1 month, so there's not a huuuuge amount of content there yet. My plan is to have around 10 characters for the full version of the game, with about 3 episodes each. So you could call what's currently released Castor/ia's episode 1 I guess. I'm currently in the process of writing the next character's episode 1 + some additional content for Castor/ia.
The $2 is basically a donation to help fund the project because I have no funding outside of that to pay voice actors, and while I can continue developing the game without putting any money into it if the rest of it goes unvoiced, I feel like voice acting is an important part of the project since it was originally supposed to be an audio drama. I write the scripts in a way that suits voiced better than non-voiced.
Aaaand here's the extra long version if you want it xD
Right now, the project is in a place where I don't even know what an acceptable price would be to charge for the game once it's eventually finished because I don't have experience with releasing commercial games. I kind of never imagined I would ever have the funding available to me to make something to commercial standards. What I do know going by my outlines, drafts, and the like, is that there will be quite a large amount of content by the time the entire thing is finished. Definitely more than $2 worth of content by a long shot.
If you do decide to get Winter Wish, it's more like a donation towards funding the development of the project than a purchase, but I don't think there's any way for me to show it as such here on itch >.< Because WW is quite short and essentially acts as the introductory episode to one character of many.
The biggest challenge in DD's overall development is that it's a project which is pretty reliant on voice acting. Without the VA, it wouldn't have the same flavour I don't think. But VA isn't cheap. For example, after speaking to my friend Anthony (the voice director for Winter Wish) he informed me that to get Castor & Castoria's next episode fully voiced will cost around $800. And me being unemployed means that the only way I can afford to pay the VAs is through supporters donating funds towards the project.
Right now, I'm quite unsure what the best way to proceed is because it's going to cost a lot of money to get each episode for each set of characters voiced. Which means probably asking for some form of money per episode. At the same time, I don't want to piss anyone off who has already donated towards the project >.< because I really appreciate the support and I don't want anyone to feel like their money is being wasted or anything like that.
The other option, of course, is attempting to run a Kickstarter at some point! However, I'm not really sure if enough people would back it when it requires quite a bit of funding. My social anxiety also means I suck at social media and promotion, which isn't exactly a great start to a KS campaign >.< Especially not when the game isn't yet close to completion. So it's a tough situation really.
One of the main reasons I didn't keep working on DD after the jam is because I figured I would never be able to afford to expand it the way I'd like to in a million years because I don't have the money. So I kept it as a side project to work on and continued developing my main project (Clarity in Qualia.) Unfortunately, CiQ hit a brick wall in that I was hoping to run a KS for that in order to fund VA and a CG artist, but there was very little interest in the game when we posted character intro videos on YouTube and stuff. And it's a shame because that one is fully written and if I were to work on just that, I could have the game finished before the end of the year. But I don't know what to do with CiQ when it seems like there aren't many people interested in playing it. So now that I've finished the last couple of jams I wanted to participate in this year (otome jam + Spooktober VN jam) DD is my main project focus.
I'm so sorry for rambling anyhow >.<
What I will say though, is that I hope to always be able to offer free copies of my stuff to anyone who can't afford to support with money because I have been in that position all my life and I know how much it sucks.
TLDR
The $2 for DD Winter Wish is more like a donation towards funding the full game than an actual purchase.
I don't know what the full price of the game will be once it's eventually completed, but anyone who has helped with funding will get a discount off of the full game based on what they donated. And hopefully, some sort of extra goodies as well because I'd like to be able to give some kind of extra thank you to those who have supported the development of the game :3
Character intro episodes will likely be released episodically for now based on what I can afford to pay VAs for their work. But if it gets to the point that a Kickstarter might be viable to complete the entire project, I may attempt that. If successful, I'll then just be able to work on completing the remainder of the game in one chunk.
I will always try to offer free copies of my games for those who cannot afford to support with money for whatever reason.
(I realise that getting funding from various methods could potentially end up quite messy when it comes to issuing discounts and rewards in the end, but I'm not sure how else to deal with funding development right now. I'm willing to go over all donations from all sources manually in order to make sure no one is left out come the full release of the project.)
I'm not 100% sure what options itch.io offers because I have my account set for them to just handle all of that on my behalf because I wouldn't have a clue what to do >.< haha.
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i had a whole ass review... but then it somehow got deleted.
overall great job, especially with how it is a lot more rational with the character
i've watched as much as i can to make a viable review but don't have money :|
looking back on it, prob would be weird to write a review on something i've only watched, so that may have saved me from awkwardness
That used to happen to me a lot, which is why I now refuse to write anything directly on a web page xD I ramble too much, and it would often get lost, haha. I always write my replies and stuff up in a separate note now where I know I can save them, haha.
The $2 isn't a purchase price anyways, it's just to help the development of the game to fund voice acting and stuff since I can't afford it myself as I don't have money either x3 So if you want a key, feel free to drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
A lot will be changing compared to how the game is now though once the update is out since I've revamped all the old stuff and added a lot more choices so that players have more control over MC's personality and stuff :3
oh shoot that's pretty nice, also thanks for the key thing... Yeah I used to write stories and stuff but I don't do it much anymore, used to post them, idk where tho, but I lost at least 6 pages worth of content just from the lack of a save progress button, sorry I went off-topic, sorry if I'm imposing or anything like that. I just want to say I see a lot of potential in this and stuff and I hope you go through and continue updating this! G'day (sorry if that was awkward at all)
It always sucks to lose a bunch of writing whatever you've written >.< I've sat there replying to messages on forums and stuff in the past where I'd been typing for over an hour only to finally hit send, then watch in horror as the page refreshes, asking me to log in, losing everything xD And while I was trying to write some of the CiQ routes a couple of years ago, my laptop just switched off outta nowhere (it's old and sucks), causing me to lose a few hour's worth of work cos I didn't have autosave turned on in the software settings T_T That was pretty soul-destroying, haha.
You don't need to apologise anyhow! And you're not imposing at all, so don't worry :3 I appreciate you taking the time to write such kind words :D I'm certainly gonna try my best to keep getting updates out for the game. It might take me a while, haha, but I'll keep pushing x3 And don't worry, it wasn't awkward at all :3
I just saw your email and sent over a key, so hopefully, it gets to you alright!
Finished the game and it was so fun!! Tried to find other games like this but couldn't find any. Looking forward for the new update!! :>
Yay ^-^ I'm so glad you had fun with it! I really hope you'll end up enjoying the new content when I can finally manage to get the update out :3 Thanks for playing!
Thank you so much for a free copy, just played and sketched our beautiful Castoria~
She looks so prettyyyyy! I love it ^-^ Especially the way you've drawn her eyes! Beautiful :3 I wish I could draw T_T haha. If I could, I think I'd never stop. I was working throughout the week on the sprite for one of the new characters being added in the upcoming update. She's not ready to be revealed yet, but I hope she'll be able to compete with Castoria :D
I've played The Yandere Heaven Vn ( Which is My Favorite Vn Atm) & Than I've just completed this one,I gotta say.You Definitely Understand the word "Yandere" because these vn's you've made so far has me itching for what lies within the future for the both.I Know It'll take some time because i can see the hard work within the two vn's but even so,I'll still be waiting for the both of these outstanding vn's to be completed,Ah & To The Female VA's & Creator Ofc! Ganbatte Kurete Arigato ;)
Glad you enjoyed them both :D I'm a big yandere fan, hehe. My love of yandere characters and wanting to create some of my own was one of the reasons I started making VNs in the first place ^-^
I'm hoping I'll be able to update both games at least once before the end of the year :3 Maybe even twice if things go well!
Thanks for taking the time to play + leave such a nice comment :3
The BxG version of Apartment No.9 also has a female voiced yandere in it if you're interested :D The story is a lot more serious/darker than in YH and DD though. And there's a platonic yandere with a feminine voice in Limbo Line as well :3
This was an utter treat-- immersive and dark and delightful.
I cannot wait to see what else you come up with.
Woo! So glad you had fun with what little there is so far! With any luck, you'll find the update to be even better :3 I feel as though the numerous improvements I've made so far to the existing content make a big difference. Now that I've completed those, I can work on introducing another character to the roster and adding more story content for Castor/ia!
Thanks so much for taking the time to play and comment ^-^
THIS LOOKS SO INTERESTING i've been keeping a close eye on this for a really long while but i sadly can't afford it :( but then i saw that you were giving out free keys on the comments and i think that's really nice of you!!! so if it's alright, i would also like to ask for one! i have sent u an email already, thank you so much and i'm really looking forward to playing this game! <3
I'm glad you like the look of it so far :3 It's gonna look waaaay better once I get the update I'm working on released cos I've improved the UI and stuff + added a bunch of mechanics. I feel like it looks much slicker now, but I don't just wanna release that on its own >.< I wanna add the new content as well as part of the same update, so it's gonna probably take me another couple of months or more to get it all finished and ready for release T_T I wish I could clone myself and work faster, haha. I sent a key anyhow :3 Hope you enjoy it even if it's just the old jam version still for now.
My poor ass can't afford it :'( and IT IS ONLY 2$ 😭😭
You're welcome to drop me an email to get a key: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Just put your username in the subject and leave the message blank if you want :3
The $2 isn't a purchase anyways. It's a donation towards the project's development because I can't afford anything either x3 haha.
Been musing about making my own VN but I think Ren'py would be a lot easier to use than Unity since you basically just drop everything into the corresponding folder. Not sure how that would change the visuals but I've seen incredible looking VN's made in Ren'py. Also, love Castoria's route so far but take as much time as you need on developing. Costs for drawing different poses and expressions along with the voice acting must cost an arm and a leg
(no pun intended)
Go for iiiit :D I've pretty much been addicted to making VNs ever since I started out trying to create them, haha. Ren'py was actually the very first tool I used since it's free with loads of helpful tutorials. I managed to make a small test project that didn't really have a story, more just learning how to code in choices and such with some placeholder sprites. I didn't enjoy it at all >.< In fact, I almost gave up on the idea of making VNs completely, haha.
It's not that Ren'py was bad. Far from it! It's just I found the coding aspect a total headache. Sure, I didn't give myself enough time to learn everything I needed to, but I spent enough time on the test project to know that I didn't like coding one bit. And that's when I came across Tyranobuilder in a Humble Bundle.
Tyrano promised it was for writers, not coders. For people who just wanted to get on with telling a story using an easy drag and drop interface, but also with the ability to add more in-depth features if you do decide to delve into coding.
In short, it absolutely does what it says on the tin. I found it extremely easy to use, though a tad clunky in execution. I made all of my first ever game (Solipsism Reigns) using it. I wouldn't say I was 100% happy with it, but I did enjoy myself more than when I attempted to use Ren'py.
Years later, when I eventually finished SR, I ended up coming across Naninovel for Unity. From what I could see, it seemed to be the perfect sort of in-between tool that I was looking for. It also promised it was for people not too keen on proper coding, but rather than using a drag and drop interface, it uses simplified scripting. Which is soooo much faster and more efficient than drag and drop, provided you're a swift typer. The scripting language is genuinely easy to understand as well, so I've had very little in the way of headaches, haha.
Darling Duality - Winter Wish, is the first project I created using Naninovel x Unity, and because I was both trying to finish a game while also learning how it all worked within the space of a month, it's not the greatest example of what you can do with it >.< There was a lot I didn't know. My script is extremely messy. Which is why I'm currently going through all of DD's existing content and making sure everything is much smoother while making various tweaks and additions. Because my script was so bad that now I've got so much more experience, it would be too impractical to work with going forward. I've essentially had to rewrite most of it, haha.
For a far better example of what can be done with Naninovel x Unity, I would recommend checking out my Spooktober Jam project, Limbo Line. I feel as though it's much more polished than my other projects, not just because I was able to work with an incredible team of artists during the jam, but because I had learned more in general about how things work by then. Heck, I'm still learning now! I recently discovered how to create particle effects in Unity so that I can use them in Darling Duality :3
Sorry anyhow, I'm rambling here >.< What I'm trying to say is that Ren'py is amazing, and I'd say probably the best tool out there for creating VNs for most people. But for me, I find it much easier and more fun to use Naninovel x Unity :3 Nani did cost a fair bit of money even though I got it at 75% off during a Unity asset store sale, but I'd say it's been worth every penny, and I have no plans to switch to using anything else anytime soon :3 It's all just a matter of personal preference I suppose. With Ren'py, you're learning a skill that can be used for other things since you're learning Python. Naniscript can't be used outside of Naninovel, so it's far less useful as a skill but much easier and faster to grasp if you don't have the head for coding like me x3
I'm sorry I went on for so long there, haha. It's a bad habit I have whenever I get talking about stuff I'm passionate about x3 I'm really glad you've enjoyed what little there is of DD so far :3 With any luck, you'll like it even more once I've got the next update out with everything being revamped to look better, run smoother, and, of course, additional story content!
No problem, mate. I find myself rambling when I talk about something I like the same. Don't worry, Renpy isn't the make-all of visual novels. You use what you're comfortable with. I usually only code in C# in Unity but I like the simplicity of Python.
Moreover, other than just making a label and say "do this", Renpy is kinda my life when it comes to making and modding visual novels. It's good but there are multiple engines just as good or even better so never think you have yo be limited.
The thing I hate the most is that I've spent so long making VNs now, but not taken the time to learn a proper coding language, which I feel is a waste >.< but the problem is, I just hate it so much xD It's my least favourite thing about making VNs, haha. I love seeing it all come together, but actually sitting there and typing out what's necessary to make that happen kinda does my head in >.< I like writing stories, putting BGM together, editing sprites + voice acting... pretty much every aspect of making VNs, aside from the coding part, haha. It's more just a necessity with being a solo dev T_T
I've been giving some serious thought to attempting to learn C# recently though after getting a supposed complete course in a Humble Bundle a while back! Not knowing proper coding does make me feel somewhat inadequate sometimes when it comes to making VNs x3 As though I'm somehow cheating compared to the folks who have made the effort to learn Python and use Renpy! But then that's just me being silly really cos I've taught myself a whole bunch of other stuff instead >.<
I did like the look of Visual Novel Maker for a while, but I read too much about it having a number of issues so that sort of put me off of it.
I mean with you already knowing how to code, you've got so much more choice than me for what you can use, haha. I've been extremely impressed by some of the Renpy games I've played, that's for sure! I guess you're right about never having to limit yourself though :3 Someday I'd like to make a hybrid VN game, but that's a long way off cos I just don't have the required skills/knowledge for that right now, haha.
Good luck if you do end up starting a project anyhow! :3
I'd say I'm somewhat competent with coding instead of knowing how to. It's more of a repetition thing if you know what lines to use to achieve what outcome. Yeah, I like writing stories and I've lost motivation for the same amount of them simply because I think they'd be a ton better with visuals. The ideas are still there, just not taking front and centre at the moment. Giraffe Academy on YT has some really neat beginner courses on different langauages which should be able to help if you're interested.
Being a solo dev has a lot of drawbacks but the payoff is worth it in the early days. I've never really been on a team myself and about all of my work have been for my self gratitude or fantasy. It's fine though, I like to think the more you struggle, the better it's going to feel when you see how it blossoms
I'm very much a tinkerer when it comes to trying to learn stuff, even if it's not the most practical way of learning x3 So most of what I have managed to pick up has been through experimenting, haha. I struggle to find tutorials that I can actually follow >.< I don't know what it is about my darn brain, but instructions have to be written in a very specific way for me to actually understand. I guess that could be my ASD in play there. Many a time I have gone to look up help for stuff, spent ages reading through people's advice and instructions on how to achieve certain things, and just been utterly baffled by it. I often wind up super frustrated. It's as though the instructions are missing key steps, perhaps because they assume the reader would already have that knowledge, but it leaves me lost. So then I just resort to brute-forcing a problem again, haha.
I kinda get what you mean about thinking stuff would be better with visuals because I sometimes come up with ideas for audio dramas, only to buckle and end up making them as VNs instead (pretty much what happened with Darling Duality xD cos it wasn't reeeeally supposed to be a VN, haha.) I'm not sure I could ever go back to thinking about making things as text or audio-only based now because I've been infected by the VN bug x3
I'll have to give Giraffe Academy a look up when I get a chance then! With any luck, I might actually be able to follow the courses :3
Yeah, I definitely enjoy being a solo dev, but not being able to cover all the roles that a team would can sometimes be frustrating >.< Oh, how I wish I could draw! I actually used to think years ago that I would never be capable of working as part of a team cos of my anxiety, and that solo would always be the way to go for me, but after taking the plunge to team up for last year's otome jam and spooktober vn jam, I can honestly say that I reckon being part of a team made each project more fun to work on :3 Especially Limbo Line for spooktober cos that was a pretty big team when you include all the voice actors who were involved. There was such wonderful energy! And there's no way I could've come up with everything that's in the game were I on my own. It was just one of those lovely patches in time where all the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly together ^-^ I think I was hyper pretty much all of September thanks to that, haha. It's really difficult to describe the sheer amount of joy I felt while working on that project with everyone.
All of my stuff has been self-indulgence too pretty much, haha. I don't think I'd even be capable of working on something that I wouldn't be interested in playing myself. I was actually approached last year by someone scouting for writers for a vn-style romance app on mobile. It was paid work, but with pretty strict deadlines. They wanted a sample story to see if I'd be a good fit if I were interested, and encouraged me to take a look at their current content to get an idea of what their users like to read. Since I'm broke and relatively unemployable, I thought I'd give it a shot. Well, I did not enjoy any of the chapters I sampled one bit >.< I tried a few different opening chapters of various genres, but none of them were my cup of tea. I could clearly see the sort of stuff they were after. Essentially smut stories, where choices had next to no impact, the story itself was practically non-existent, the characters were all shallow, and the steamiest of scenes were locked behind a paywall so that users would be forced to purchase the in-game currency to even see them.
Despite that, I attempted to come up with something I thought would be suitable. I purposely dimmed down the details and tried to focus on the tension-building (because one of their guidelines was to have a climactic moment + corresponding choice that could be a microtransaction in every chapter, even though the chapters were only a 5-15 minute read), but I was told that there was still too much detail and not enough drama in my submission >.< They gave me another couple of days to submit a revised version, but I was just honest and told them that I couldn't do it. I already pretty much despised what I submitted the first time. If I shaved any more off of it it would have just been a pointless husk. I could already feel a creeping dread at the thought of having to write an entire story like it, so I backed out. The money wouldn't have been worth the misery it would have caused me.
But yeah, I totally agree that the struggle makes any sort of payoff that much sweeter :3 I'm still blown away every time I get a nice comment on one of my projects! I'd carry on making stuff for as long as I'm enjoying doing it even if nobody else knew it existed, but every single bit of positive feedback I get from others is enough to fuel my hope that I might someday be able to actually make a living doing what I love. I'd rather die than slave away for someone else doing something that I hate anyways (sidenote: I think it was working in retail for a short while that really made that attitude flourish!)
I really should stop rambling anyhow cos I've just gone off on a really long one again, sorry xD I hope you do manage to bring some of your ideas to life in VN form though cos that would be brilliant :3
im not gonna play the game yet (just gonna ready myself after reading that it has self-harm) but seeing the screenshots, just wanted to say that i love the art and the designs for Castor/ia!!
Yeah, I wasn't really sure how to mention the self-harm because I knew it had to be said, but at the same time, it's not really self-harm in the typical sense. I just didn't wanna leave it out of the warnings/triggers because the last thing I want is for anyone to get hurt while playing my games :3
I'm glad you like their character designs! Though, I can't take too much credit for that because I can't draw to save my life >.< The original sprites are from an asset pack I own by a Japanese artist. I changed all the colours myself in GIMP because I like to try and do what I can to make sprite assets in my projects look as unique as possible :3
Happy to have supported and bought Darling Duality! What a fun game, omfg. The immersion in such a short amount of time was nothing short of being on par with going to the movies on release day in a dark cinema with the best popcorn and a delicious slushie. I loved the story you told and I would love to have more of it-- even if it was a book! The idea of a character being brought into "our world" and falling in love with the MC has been done before, sure, but what makes this VN unique is Castor. He/She emphasizes they are their own person, and I love how it brought a depth to the game. I'd love another VN where we get to play the game our MC played, and get to see Castor in his/her glory before being brought into our world. I'll be sure to check out other works of yours! Thank you again for an incredible experience.
Thanks so much for supporting the game ^-^ I'm super happy to hear you enjoyed what little there is of it so far! I feel honoured you think the immersion is like that :3
I can't 100% promise there will be a full version of the game Castor/ia is from to read through, BUT, I can say that their story is far from over :3 In the update I'm currently working on, not only have I added more choices + content throughout Castor/ia's existing story segments, but I'll also be including additional story for them. So you can think of the currently available 'endings' as more like paths splitting off down different routes. I just needed a way to wrap things up so it could all work as a standalone story for the jam since I only had a month to complete something to submit :3
The next update will also add a new character, but it won't even come close to completing the project >.< I have a hell of a lot planned, haha. And I think having episodic releases is probably the only viable way to go with this project because otherwise, it would be years before I could get anything out. Having episodic updates also helps a lot with funding the voice acting because I feel like if I just tried to make the whole game in one go, people might lose interest with there being a lack of updated content, and then I'd never be able to afford to fund VA for the whole game >.<
Anyhow, I'm rambling, sorry x3 If you do end up checking out any of my other games, I hope you enjoy them just as much :D
is there any chance there will be more free copies in the future? i can't afford to pay for any game right now but i'm sooo interested in playing this.
The $2 price isn't a payment/purchase for the game anyways, it's just to support development because my voice director friend told me that if I list it as free to download, people will just take advantage and never donate (that's pretty much exactly what happened when I kept refilling the community copies >.< haha) and then we won't be able to afford voice acting for the game cos it's gonna be around $800 per episode/update, and I sure as hell can't afford that myself, haha.
So while I can't refill the community copies for that reason, you're welcome to drop me an email to melancholicmarionette@gmail.com for a key :3 You don't need to write anything, just put your username from here in the subject and I'll know it's you.
I've never really felt compelled to write a review for any game, so this will be a first! I absolutely loved it and adored both characters and the voice acting. The script was a delight too, I really enjoyed the writing and all it had to offer. I had originally seen ManlyBadassHero play the game a while back, but I could not help but buy the game and try it out for myself since I'm a huge yandere fan haha. I will say that I very much enjoyed Castor's voice lines, his voice is so sweet! I adore his adorable demeanor. I also loved how the MC actually had a personality and some spine to them compared to some MCs from other visual novels and otomes that I've played, it was refreshing.
I can't wait to see any future developments to the game, I'm really excited to see what else is in store. I also played a few of your other games afterwards and really enjoyed them as well. Thank you for making this and I'm glad to have supported you through my purchase. :)
Aww, well I'm honoured and so glad that you did :3 It always lifts my spirits to hear when anyone's enjoyed my stuff, so thank you very much for supporting the project + taking the time to type up some of your thoughts! I really appreciate it ^-^
Providing I can pull it off without ruining anything, MC should have even more personality in the next update because I'm attempting to implement a sort of personality system in order to give players more control over how MC reacts to everything :3 I know what you mean though cos I adore yandere characters, buuuut I can't stand it when you have a yandere LI (or any kinda LI really) + a doormat MC who just lets the LI walk all over them without putting up any sort of resistance x3 It frustrates the hell outta me, haha.
I'm super excited for you to see the big update I'm working on cos I've made so many tweaks already. Everything looks soooo much better aesthetically now + runs smoother. And then, of course, there's the new content! I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through revamping the existing content though, so I'm aiming for roughly the end of spring to get the update out since I reckon it'll take me the rest of March to finish the revamp, then another month or 2 to actually add the new content in >.<
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed some of my other projects too :D If you haven't already played it, I highly recommend Limbo Line cos I feel like that's my most polished project so far :3 The team worked their asses off and I feel like we managed to create a hell of a lot of content for a 1-month jam, haha. It may not be a romance game, but there's still a character with yandere traits in there :P
Thank you again :3
I honestly hadn't expected much out of this going in as I almost always expect visual novels to be very short as they are often made for game jams, but this was absolutely wonderful!
The voice acting is excellent and I'm really into the script which was extremely well written. The story itself was much longer in each version than I had expected it to, especially being fully voice acted. I found that the sinister route felt a little bit longer than the sweet route but that makes sense (good ole crazy yandere).
I'm super excited to see you continue to develop the game further. And if anyone is considering playing it, do it. Of course, you can ask the dev for a free copy or claim a community version but I think the game is already well worth the two-dollar asking price if you can spare the money, especially since it lends to its further development.
Thank you so much for supporting the game + taking the time to write such a sweet comment! I really appreciate it :3
Certainly can't blame ya for not expecting much going in because it's totally true that many VNs are short cos they're made during game jams, haha. That was exactly the case with this x3 I had an idea for the project as a whole, but I knew I wouldn't be able to actually get much playable content finished in the space of a month that the jam was running for, so I just had to try and think of a decent cut-off point for the game to work as a standalone piece for the jam :3 It certainly didn't help that I'd just switched engines as well, and had to try and learn how the heck to use the new stuff during the jam. Which is why it comes off a tad clunky. My code is messy >.< I'm fixing it all up though now that I'm actively working on the project again, haha.
The sinister route is definitely longer than the sweet route in the game's current state, yeah. I'm hoping to change that as part of the next update though to even the paths out a bit more because the endings in the current version of the game aren't going to be endings in the completed version. That was just where I had to cut it off for the jam. In reality, they're more like the very beginning of the player's path with that character. So I'm hoping I can manage to balance out the lengths of each path once they've split :3
Not only will the overall look of the game be slightly altered once I get the next big update out, but I'm also adding more choices and content to the section of story that's currently available + adding brand new story content for Castor/ia, and introducing the next character :D I really hope you'll continue to enjoy the game as it progresses ^-^
i was browsing through the website when i saw this game. it looks completely interesting and is my complete type of game! it has everything that i want and the devastating part is that i missed the change to get it for freeTvT i'm really sorry but can i still have the free version?
You're welcome to have a key if you wanna drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
You don't need to write anything, just put your username in the subject and I'll know it's you :3
The $2 isn't really a purchase anyhow, it's just to help support the game's development so that I can continue to have voice acting + be able to afford CGs as well. Cos I don't have the money to fund the game myself x3
Just so you know though, I'm working on a big update at the moment that not only adds new content, it revamps everything available in the current demo, so anyone wanting to keep playing once the update is out will have to start over from the beginning cos too much has been changed for old saves to function in the new update once it's out :3
thank you! i already sent an email to you ❤️
I bought the game and was able to open it on Mac, but I've been stuck on the loading screen for about 8 mins now and was wondering if this was normal or if there's a problem?^^
Hey hey! Thanks so much for supporting the game's development :3
It's definitely not normal >.< The available content in the game right now is more just like a demo, so nothing should take particularly long to load.
Is it stuck before it even gets to the title screen? Because you could try the black screen bug fix version to see if that helps cos there's an issue with some computers on both windows and mac where they just black screen instead of playing the video background on the title screen.
If that doesn't help though, I'm not going to be able to even attempt to fix it at the moment because I'm actively working on the game with a huge update that I hope to release for roughly the end of spring, and because I'm actively tweaking and adding to all the code, I wouldn't be able to export a working version for any system right now because I've made a lot of changes >.< Once the update is out, saves from the current version will be rendered unusable because I've basically rebuilt everything and made a lot of changes so far.
I've actually already completely revamped the title screen. Since I couldn't find the reason why some computers can't load the video background and some can, I've just removed the video background altogether and replaced it with a series of animations built into the game. So not only does it look much fancier, it should technically work for everyone :3 So there's a chance that it'll work fine for you once I release the new update, but because I'm adding new story content and characters, among revamping all of the existing content, it's not something I can do very quickly, unfortunately >.<
If the black screen bug fix doesn't do anything to help you, and if it still won't load up once I've got the big update out, I'll need to send you a development build and ask for you to send me the error logs so that I can try and figure out what's going on. But please feel free to contact itch.io if you want to get your money back because it sucks if it won't work at all for you :(
Sorry I can't be more helpful immediately though >.< I don't have a mac myself or know anybody who does to be able to test mac builds, so I have no way of knowing what could be wrong with mac versions unless people tell me. And even then, it's difficult for me to fix things without knowing what's causing them >.<
Do you have plans to put yout game on Steam? I would love to buy it! Sadly itchio won't allow me to use my RUT account (Credit card here in Chile)
So I was wondering if you have plans for it (＾∇＾) I'm really looking forward to it
I'd absolutely love to have the game on Steam at some point, yeah :3 But the $100 fee to put a game on there is a killer >.< And I wouldn't wanna put it on there until there's more content because it's more just like a demo at the moment, and I read that you only really get 1 shot at promoting a new release on Steam, so you need to make the most of it.
So yeah, the plan is to have it on Steam one day, but it won't be any time soon :( I'm just a solo dev so development is pretty slow even though I work like crazy on my projects, haha. Once I've managed to get a few updates out with more characters, I'll start looking into getting it on Steam more :3
In the meantime, you're welcome to drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
And if you just put your username in the subject, I can send you a key for here so that you can check out the demo :3
I'm actively working on an update right now though, and a lot is gonna change. So once the update is out, any saves from the old version will be useless because I'm not just adding more story content + a new character in the update, I'm also adding things like choosing your player name, pronouns, personality system, and more choices within the existing content for Castor/ia :3
Wow that's pretty crazy O.O
Your game really looks amazing so I'm totally looking forward for the news updates! And hopefully someday seeing it on Steam and get the love it deserves <3
I definitly would love to check out the demo ( ◜‿◝ )♡
I like the plot ^ - ^ im into stories like this *cough* I also like the character design both of the LI and so their V.A. ฅ'ω'ฅ Im just not used at playing with unity, especially if I want to save when there's a choice (｡ŏ_ŏ) I cant save it (;´д｀)ゞ but that's alright. That doesn't stop me from enjoying the game hehe
There's a lot more to come :3 I'm working on the update right now, and it's gonna mean anyone who wants to play will have to redownload + start over from the beginning because not only am I adding more story content & characters, I'm also making loooots of tweaks to the UI & overall appearance of the game + adding things at the start like the ability to name MC and pick pronouns (and more choices in general when it comes to interacting with the characters) so trying to continue from a current save would just break things in the new version when it's out x3
Speaking of saving, I don't know if you're using a normal mouse or like a trackpad on a laptop, but you should be able to use the scroll wheel to rewind when you come across a choice, so that you can make a save before picking a choice option :3 You can't rewind once you've clicked on a choice though.
In the new update, I'm going to add more keyboard shortcuts so that people can open menus using their keyboards cos I didn't know how to do that sorta thing back when I first made this since I was only just starting to learn how Unity works >.< and I know using mouse buttons on a laptop is super awkward x3
Thanks for taking the time to play + comment ^-^
Gambatte for making an update (๑ÒωÓ๑) 9 yes, I also noticed about saving before the choice xD I end up doing it from the beginning and some skips :3 thank you for the tip ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ♪)
Hi, the game looks so cool and its totally my type, but i cant pay it, can i have the free version?(sorry for my english im from Argentina)
It's okay, the $2 is only a donation to help fund the project's development anyhow rather than a purchase price :3 Just drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
You don't need to say anything. Just put your username in the subject and I'll know it's you. Then I can reply with the download key :3
Wait did I just waste the chance to get free version????????????? Noooooooooooooooooo!
*sob* After waiting for so long lol *sob*
You're still welcome to have a key :3 Drop me an email if you like: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
You don't have to write anything in the email. Just put your username in the subject and I'll know it's you ^-^ You might be better off waiting until I have the next update out to play though cos I'm making a lot of changes to the existing content as well as adding lots of new stuff, so when the update is out (I'm aiming for the end of spring, but ya never know what could go wrong, haha) I'm gonna recommend people start again from the beginning :3
Woahhhhhh Thank you!!!
I was able to get the community copy and Oh My God. This did not disappoint ( ˙▿˙ ) The full version was very interesting (￢‿￢ ) Both characters are certainly adorable! I do like to think they were from the same developer but different games, kinda like Solipsism Reigns ( ‾́ ◡ ‾́ ) I really love the ASMR style and hope to see more of it soon! ( ´ ω ` )
Yeeeeah, I don't really know what came over me when I wrote some of that stuff xD I think I'd probably been listening to some saucy Japanese drama CDs, haha. Back when I was cutting the VA lines, my headphone cable came out, and my friend who I was staying with at the time heard a couple of those 'interesting' lines, and he was like, WTF?! But you're asexual!! And I was like, yeah, but I can still try to write some low-key steamy stuff, can't I? x3 He was just so shocked it was hilarious.
I'm glad you enjoyed it anyhow ^-^ I'm actively working on the next update now, hoping to have it out by the end of spring, but things might not go according to plan >.< There's just a ridiculous amount of work to do cos I need to tweak all the UI + pretty much rewrite all the existing code because it's awful x3 Back when I made it, I'd only just got the new engine, so I didn't know what I was doing and kinda had to learn fast before the jam was over! Which = really messy code that I can't work with going forward cos it's just impractical, haha. At least it shows I've improved over time though I guess x3
can't access saves in mac version (Possible Black Screen Fix (Mac))
Sorry to hear that >.< Unfortunately, I don't own a mac or know anyone who does, so I can never test mac builds properly :( Which makes fixing bugs on mac extremely difficult.
Is it that the button to access the save menu isn't there? Or does it not show the save/load screen when pressed? Or something else? :o
Either way, what's currently available of the game is pretty much like a short demo, so you should be able to experience all of the content without needing to access the save/load system provided there aren't any other bugs in the way preventing you from proceeding with the story.
I'm actually working on the next update at the moment, and my code from back when this initial episode was released is pretty awful! I'm going to have to rewrite most of it I reckon because it's just so messy and impractical to work with going forward with the new content.
I'm also changing a lot of the UI and stuff while editing the old code before I get into adding the new content. So it's possible the issue will be resolved once I have the new update out. I can't put an exact time on when that will be though cos there's a hell of a lot of work to be done since I've essentially gotta remake what's already released + add a brand new character and other stuff. I'm aiming for the end of spring, but things might not go according to plan.
I'm also hoping to not need to have black screen fix builds in the future because I'm not gonna bother having the video background title screen going forward since it causes issues with some people's computers. It'll be easier just to have 1 build with a static title screen background rather than exporting 1 with video + 1 with a regular png file.
Please still let me know in more detail what it is that's preventing you from accessing the saves though, and I'll try and look into it to see if I can fix it for the next update :3
alright. i can access the save/load menu, but i cant seem to click on the save.
Hmm, that's definitely a very strange bug then >.< I'm not sure what on earth would cause something like that cos I don't understand how it would occur in the mac version when it doesn't in windows :( I think to get to the root of it, I'd have to send you a development build version of the game and get you to send me log files so I can have a look through and see if I can figure out what's happening there!
The problem is, I can't actually send a dev build because I've been actively adding to and tweaking the old code >.< I imagine it'd just come up with a whole bunch of other errors since it's a work in progress and a bit of a mess right now :( That's if it even functions at all in its current state.
So I'm sorry about that :( If I hadn't started working on it all again and changing stuff in the last few days, I would've been able to send you a dev build and just try to fix the issue for you by looking at the logs and then quickly exporting a new mac build.
I'm changing the save/load UI in the next update, so with any luck, whatever was causing the issue will be fixed, but if not, I'll have to send you a dev build once the new update is out so I can get to the bottom of it.
alright, i understand. take your time.
ok i think i found the problem:
the custom cursor (on mac at least) always appears on the bottom right corner of the mouse, so when i think i'm clicking something, macos thinks that im clicking on the top left of the cursor.
maybe thats the reason i couldnt access my save. sorry for getting you into this.
anyway the game is actually pretty cool
Ahh, right! Thanks so much for letting me know because if nobody ever told me stuff like this, I'd have no idea, haha. Now I know, I can change the cursor for the mac exports in the future :3 I'm probably going to design a different custom cursor anyhow, so maybe the new one will work better on mac. If not though, there's always the option to just leave that out of the mac version if it causes problems. I guess I can try to do some research as well into how cursors work and look on mac cos I'm clueless when it comes to anything mac-related >.<
Dont apologise anyhow cos that's really useful to know :3
I'm still working away on the update, almost finished with UI overhaul :D A lot is going to change though, not just in terms of content, but I'm adding things that I didn't have time to before, like a personality system that will give decisions more weight. Anyone who wants to play when the update is out will need to redownload the game and start over from the beginning because too much will have changed to make it possible to continue from an old save. There's a whole bunch of options at the beginning now to choose MC's name and pick pronouns and stuff as well :3
We need more otome yandere games, and yours are just too good. I pledged $5 (I wish I could do more, but I'm a college student out of a job for now), in hopes to support you <3
That makes me super happy to hear that you think they're decent ^-^ And thank you for the support! Honestly, everything helps more than I can even put into words! I'm not even a student... I'm just plain old out of a job xD But I treat my projects as though they are my job, even though they're also my hobby :3 Thanks again + good luck with college!
Hey! I came here to see more of your games since I've just been absolutely obsessed with Yandere Heaven and Love in Lockdown!! It's been such a long time since I saw such good yandere games, I just couldn't stop playing until I read everything. I wish I could support you, but unfortunately I'm broke...So I figured rating and commenting would be the best way to support for now ^^' Keep up the good work, I really look forward to seeing more from you!!
That's so cool! I'm really glad you ended up enjoying my other stuff :3 Thanks so much for playing ^-^ I have mixed feelings about Love in Lockdown cos that just didn't come out how I wanted it to at all x3 haha. I really struggled with the writing, and a big part of me wanted to give up and not even bother turning it into a game because I was so unhappy with my story draft for it >.< I decided to just make it anyways because I'd already entered the jam and didn't want to back out. But yeah, I'm not particularly proud of that one x3 So it makes me super happy to know you managed to extract some enjoyment from it despite my personal feelings on it!
Honestly, any kind of support means the world to me ^-^ So yeah, ratings + comments is a huuuuge help. Donations may help me continue developing games when it comes to being able to afford to pay people for their time and talent, but kind words are just as valuable! So I really appreciate it :3
You're welcome to gave a key for DD if you wanna let me know the best place to send it! OR, if you wanna hold on for a little while, I'm making everything free to download on here for like 24 hours or something soon to celebrate the end of yandere jam :3 I just can't do it right now cos I'm on my phone >.< and messing with settings on itch is just really fiddly on mobile, haha. So I can't put the sale thingy on until I'm actually on my PC either later today or tomorrow!
Thank you for your support :3
I think all the free copies are out for now, so I think I can wait! I'm currently playing Solipsism Reigns. I'm really loving every game of yours I've tried!! Thank you so much for considering your broke fans haha, I've never seen anyone like you before! I'll do my best to keep on supporting you the way I can!! And honestly, I hope you like Love in Lockdown a little more because it's seriously so good!! I hope you're doing well dear creator ^^
SR is a pretty long one, but also my oldest game, because yes, I was a little bit insane and decided to make a full-length VN for my first project x3 It ended up taking years, haha. I really should have started out with something smaller!
You'll probably notice that it's a lot more clunky than Yandere Heaven and LiL as well, not just because it was the first game I made, but also because it was made in the old engine I was using, which wasn't great, but it was all I knew how to use at the time >.< I think the new engine I'm using nowadays makes stuff turn out a lot smoother!
Well, I'm perma-broke myself soooo, I know the feeling x3 I can pretty much only afford new games by trading in old ones, and that usually means giving up 3 or more just to get 1, haha. So I'll always try to make my stuff available to as many people as possible :3
I guess I was probably too harsh on myself about LiL >.< I'm just glad that you were able to enjoy it! Because knowing that certainly makes me feel less like beating myself up over it every time I see it on my page, haha.
I've just been fixing bugs on Yandere Heaven + starting to try and get my DD project files updated to a newer version of Nani and Unity cos they're pretty out of date now. The problem is, when my stuff is so old that it's missed multiple updates, things always end up breaking when I try to update it all, haha. So I'm probably gonna have to spend a while just fixing all the files!
I'm currently exporting the bug fix builds for Yandere Heaven for upload tonight though, and once they're all up, I'll activate the free copies of DD :3 Unless something goes wrong, I should have it done by midnight my time (GMT), but I can always shoot you a quick reply here to let you know when it's live anyhow :3
Thanks again for all your kind words!
No problem dear creator!! It's great hearing you've been working so hard, I hope you've been taking care of yourself :D I hope you get more recognition!!
Aaaand, it should be working now if I've done everything correctly to set it to free download for a limited time :3
AAAAA did I miss it?!?! D: It's not free for me
I'm so sorry but would you mind if I just contacted you? I couldn't access my laptop yesterday D:
Yeah, it finished at midnight my time x3 But no worries, you're welcome to drop me an email! You don't even have to write anything. Just put your username in the subject line so I know who it is :3
melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Hello, I was curious, if we buy the full version for 2$, does that include the future episodes if ever, or are they separate payment? Thanks
Hey hey! Thanks so much for your interest in the project :3
I made a little post a while back that sort of briefly answers your question, so I'm gonna be a bit lazy and link that since I'm away from home at the moment and can't type very fast on my phone x3 haha.
https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/darling-duality-winter-wish/devlog/271784/...
I did give a more in depth answer in a comment a long time ago, but I'm not entirely sure where abouts that is to go and quote it/copy my answer >.<
The short answer though, is that (hopefully) this will be a commercial game once it's eventually finished. I don't know what sorta price it will be, but it'll have a lot of content. The current $2 price on here is pretty much just a donation to help support the game's development rather than an actual purchase. However, I'll always endeavour to make my games available to anyone who can't afford to support with money + make sure to take into consideration any donations as a discount towards the eventual final release price :3
Came across this game on explore and while i cant afford it i found manly's video on it and im in love with Castoria + voice acting!! wish this game came onto my radar earlier, love your work :))
Thanks for taking the time to write such kind words :3 I really appreciate it! Yeah, I owe Manly a hell of a lot cos if not for him featuring DD, not many people would know the project even exists still since I suck at social media x3 haha.
You're welcome to gave a key anyhow if ya let me know the best place to send it! OR, if you don't mind hanging on a little bit, I'm gonna make everything free to download for like 48 hours or something to celebrate the end of yandere jam :3 I just can't make the changes until I get on my PC either later today or tomorrow cos itch is too hard to fiddle with on mobile, haha.
I'm looking forward to having more time to myself this year to work on DD's development anyhow :3
You are the sweetest person for giving this game out for free, its downloading now :) thank you so much and i'm so excited to play!!
Hello, dear author! I just played your game, and I'm already a fan of it! Love the character designs, Castoria is so cute hehe. And the music is pretty good, too. I wish you all the best for the next chapter!
Thanks so much for playing + for taking the time to write such a lovely comment ^-^ I really appreciate it! I shall be working as much as possible on the next chapter this month :D So I'll definitely be needing that luck, haha.
I finally got to play this game and what can I say, I.AM.SOLD!!! Castor is such a bae, I can't hate him no matter how I convince myself that he's unstable and dangerous and he might end up killing me lol guess that's my type. VA is superb, art is flawless, story telling is amazing. The author is too kind beyond words. I am looking forward to play your future games, Melancholy Marionette! - Sayaka
I'm glad you ended up enjoying it ^-^ Hehe, yeah, he's kinda adorable and terrifying at the same time x3 Don't tell any of my other characters cos if they ever become sentient, they'll probably murder me, but I think Castor might end up becoming my favourite yandere that I've created, haha.
I'll be working as much as I can on DD's next update throughout this month, and I'm planning for it to include more Castor/ia content along with introducing another character :3 So hopefully, you'll still like him once you've been able to spend more time with him x3
came here from manly, made an account just to say bravo! very well-made looking game! can't play it myself, but I have high hopes for your future with it!
Aww, that's so sweet of you! Thank you :3 I've learned a lot since I released what little is there of the game so far, so when I eventually release the next update which will add another character to the roster along with more content for Castor/ia, I'm also going to have gone over everything that's already there from the old jam submission and tweak a lot of stuff to make it smoother and fancier :3 Cos while I was working on Limbo Line, I learned a lot more about stuff like adding SFX to UI and such, haha.
Can you not play it cos you don't have a system that will run it? :o Or do you just need a key? Cos if you need a key, I can give you one :3
It should end up being a fairly long game once all the planned content is released for it, but it's gonna be a pretty long journey to get there x3
Believe me when I say I'll be staying updated as best I can, and I already told a few of my friends who like vns about this game!
I would be thankful for a key though, would I need to email you?
Awesome stuff :D I really appreciate you mentioning it to people cos I am totally abysmal at promoting my stuff cos of my anxiety >.< haha.
Sadly, development is gonna be relatively slow since I'm pretty much working on the project solo (aside from the voice acting, of course :3), but once February is over, it'll be my full-time focus ^-^ I just don't have much free time this February, so rather than trying to get back into working on the next DD update, I figured I'd be better off whipping up something short for itch's first ever Yandere Jam to get me used to working on stuff again after I had a couple of months' break from project stuff cos of my poopy mental health x3 Plus, I mean, it's a Yandere Jam, and yandere is my jam xD How could I not submit something!
With any luck though, once I'm able to dedicate most of my time to DD, I'll be able to get stuck in and make some good progress throughout March and onwards :3 Most of the content for the next update is already written, I just need to tidy it up, finish it off, and get to coding it all in.
And sure, I guess dropping me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com is the easiest way! Don't worry about writing anything in the email cos if you just put your username from here in the subject line then I'll know it's you anyways :3
holy moly this is so well made- i had so much fun with this - that im really looking forward to more-
I wish u the best on this and ur other projects - i cant wait for more honestly but no pressure really
again thanks for the key
So glad you ended up enjoying it :3 There's lots more to come, but it's gonna take me a while to make it x3 Which is why I'm gonna do it episodically or it'll be forever until the full game is out >.< I'm quite busy this month and trying to make a submission for itch's first ever yandere jam in the few days I have in February to work on something short. As soon as it hits March, I'll be working solely on getting the next episode of DD released :3
wish u the best!! stay healthy and take care of urself
i wish this game was on steam so i could buy it ;__; cause i cant on itchio
I'd like to have it on Steam eventually, but the $100 fee to add a game there is kind of a killer >.< especially when I don't really have the means to promote my stuff. I will get it on there someday though!
In the meantime, you're welcome to have a key if you wanna let me know where to send it :3
i would love to have a key - should i perhaps sent u an email? and ask
Go for it :3 You don't even need to write anything. If you just put your username from here and DD in the subject line then I'll know it's you :D Just send it to melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Just so you know though, I'm heading to bed for the night, so I probably won't get back to you with a key until I get on my PC tomorrow :3
Hey hey! If it was in the last few days, I've been away from home with little to no internet access x3 My best friend organised a few days away for us as a birthday celebration. I only just got back today, but we live pretty far away from each other, so I'm shattered from all the travel. I'll be back on my PC tomorrow though, so I can check my email and drop you a key then :3 It's just very difficult to do it on my phone cos itch's site is so fiddly on mobile >.<
dw take ur time - wish ya a good night
hello, thought i'd let you know i shot you an email a few days ago, i wanna play this game myself but i can't afford it. (Sorry if you're busy and i come off as annoying, i just really want to play the game, whenever you can, send me an email back)
My mail: tynatyn66@gmail.com
No worries! I wasn't on my PC yesterday cos it was my birthday but if you hadn't of written this comment, I would never have known you emailed me, as for some reason, your message went into my spam folder rather than my inbox, and I never check the spam >.< I managed to find it though after reading this :3 I've sent you a reply with a key anyhow!
I really loved the game and definitely would love to see more Castoria in the future. While I would not call the characters yandere per se, I kinda have a soft spot for yandere yuri with a sweet ending so I appreciated the gender neutral language for the player with a subtle hint that the character is female. I normally don't comment on them, or think they're well written in games, but I thought the sex scene in the full version was very well written too.
I feel sorry for Castoria (and Castor) as they're kind people with sentience and an obsessive love forced on them. In some ways, they're the victims though the protagonist had no way of knowing what she created when she made that wish. I guess my hope for them would be that they learn to become more rounded and independent people over time but remain with the protagonist.
Thank you. I paid above the minimum price and don't regret. I will look at your other VNs too.
To note, Manly lead me to your work (he got me hooked on VNs in the first place).
I'm not sure if you're the same person I've spoken to on Ko-fi or not (since the username is the same, haha), but regardless, I didn't wanna just leave your comment unanswered! x3
Regarding the gender-neutral language, that was what I originally intended to run with throughout the entire game so that players can sort of decide for themselves whatever they would prefer the characters to be. However, it did make writing the more risque scene pretty difficult, and I'm not entirely sure I possess the ability to continue writing scenes like that without referencing gender at all. So that alongside a number of players preferring more gender-specific language has lead me to think about perhaps just giving the player a choice of pronouns for their MC instead for future updates. Maybe it's the sort of thing I should be running a poll on, I don't know >.<
What I do know is that I don't really think about gender when I write for characters. Maybe my brain is weird or something, but I just don't really see gender when I'm writing. To me, all the characters could be any and all genders x3 So I like to give the player some form of choice.
I'm super glad that you thought that particular scene was well-written too because it's very much outside of my comfort zone xD I wanted to give it a go because I knew I wanted it to be a part of Castor/ia's character. But I myself am asexual, so it was a bit of an awkward one, haha. Editing the voice acting for that scene was uh, interesting! It was kind of like some strange form of embarrassing hell xD
I certainly hope I can show Castor/ia's growth (or escalation into further madness, depending on the player's choices xD) in a satisfying way as their story unfolds :3
Thank you so much for the support :3
Yeah, I'm the same person. :)
I think the gender neutral language is fine without having to add additional choice for specific pronouns but others may disagree. I guess it's a cost/benefit analysis of the extra time put into being able to choose pronouns but if it's easier for you to write modifications of scenes based on pronoun selection that's a reasonable adjustment, I'd just hope neutral pronouns would also remain an option as that would be my personal preference (I prefer to play AFAB non-binary people).
On the issue of the sex scene, maybe the asexuality gave you a more objective look. I was playing a different yandere LI VN recently, and the sex scenes in the sequel made me feel more uncomfortable, first because the author added a visual component which came out of the blue and just made me feel like clicking through the scene faster (I was expecting a before and after like in the first game) and secondly the writing wasn't great but I don't want to criticise too much as I otherwise enjoyed her games. That's before even getting into the issues triple A games have with using sex scenes. I think part of it was Castoria's voice actor was very good at making the lines sound genuine.
The character development is just my personal hopes. I have to put the appeal of yandere and yandere-like characters in the context of abuse I've suffered growing up and in a previous relationship and what that says about me so I think my hope they get a good ending is just a personal psychological need. A yandere-like person irl in a relationship who doesn't grow beyond that is going to end up in an abusive or co-dependent relationship unless their partner is very careful based on the experiences of real people with similar personality disorders (most yandere characters would be a mixture of DSM-5 clusters B and C). I've never seen it explored, usually the yandere ends up the abuser, but I could see a yandere character ending up the victim of abuse because they would be easy to manipulate emotionally.
You're welcome, you've earned the support. I'll continue to support in the future too.
i am here because of manly but all i have to say is nice shoutout lol
Yeah, I owe Manly a lot cos if he hadn't played this, hardly anyone would know about it still because I totally suck at social media and trying to get my games out there >.< haha.
I loved the game, it was so sweet! I'm not sure if you've said already or not but do you have any plans to have it available for mobile?
That's awesome to hear ^-^ I've been inactive for the last couple of months for personal reasons, but I'm back and working on my projects again, so, hopefully, the next episode of DD shouldn't be toooo far away since the writing is almost finished now.
I would certainly love to have it on mobile if I can manage it, yeah :D I only tried exporting one of my games for mobile back when I was using Tyranobuilder, and it just failed completely even though I was following a guide >.< I'm kind of hoping that exporting for Android and IOS from Unity will be an easier process, but I've yet to actually try it!
But yeah, I'm hoping to eventually have my games playable on mobile + Switch as well as PC :3
Ah, sounds good. Thank you for the reply and take care ok?
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I´m simping for Castor so much haha. I loved your game, I definitely can´t wait for more! :)
I'm glad you had fun with it :3 It's been slow going on the dev front due to a lot of issues in my personal life >.< but I'm back now and actively working on my projects again, so with any luck, I should be able to get the next episode out before the end of spring or something :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
Hello i think your game is amazing, i actually can't think of any complaints, it was so well done i was wanting more by the end. Maybe in the future you can bring Cana(i think I'm remembering that correctly, hopefully lol) the best friend into the scene to create drama, external conflicts could be a way to make the good route have some intensity, but whatever you do I'm sure it'll be awesome, like your other games. oh btw just one more thing i swear, did you do all the writing? Because I'm super impressed, i thought it was top notch, you deserve an award. anyways cheers! Happy holidays! Looking forward to whatever you create :)
Hey hey! Thank you for playing through the game and taking the time to comment :3 I really appreciate it!
*Whispers* I see you're very perceptive with remembering Cana, hehe. I probably shouldn't say this because it's kinda spoilers at this moment in time, but Cana is actually the next character who will be introduced and I've already half-written their introductory episode! I won't say too much, but Cana and Castor/ia will definitely get to meet depending on the player's choices :D But ssshh, that's supposed to be a secret for now xD I just hope not many people read my reply to your comment, haha. *Stops whispering*
I do indeed do all the writing, yeah :3 I'm so glad you think it's decent! I'm always very self-conscious about it, especially when I'm working in a team like I did for A9 and Limbo Line, because I tend to worry that my writing will be what lets everything down when everyone else has done such amazing work with art and voice acting! >.< I don't have any proper qualifications when it comes to creative writing aside from my English GCSE from secondary school x3
Thanks for your support ^-^ Hope you have some happy holidays yourself and a super duper new year!
well thank you for making it i had tons of fun it was awesome. *Cough cough* spoilers? What spoilers? I don't see any *whispers* ok i think we're clear, keep going XD that sounds so cool, but also oh boy does that sounds like ticking time bomb, my boy mc is in for one helluva ride especially if he chose the sinister route this drama sounds juicy! Hehe let's go *cough cough stops whispering* anyways, i more than think ur writing is decent, it's spectacular, no where did i get taken back by the dialogue, it never seemed out of place or artificial, it seemed like what an actual gacha game yandere and a normal admittedly tactless mc would say to each other, hell, the fights even felt like they were already an
old married couples lol, it felt very very realistic, and honestly fresh, i so appreciate an mc who has his own feelings, and that there's gonna be problems and fights, it was super entertaining and refreshing, and it flowed naturally, so i can be invested and stay in the flow, definitely some top notch writing, honestly having a piece of paper to say you qualify as a writer is overrated when you've proved your skills over and over again in each game you make, just write what you want to write and read it over and over to tidy it up, if you think it's something you'd read and enjoy than you're done, you can't please everyone because everyone likes different styles so write it for you and watch as you will get more and more appreciation for it. Have a holly jolly Christmas and have a happy new year!
This is gonna be a long comment
So I stumbled upon this gorgeous game while I was scrolling through itch.io. I recently bought a new laptop so trying out every type of games and I'm huge fan of dating Sims lol. I always play on phone but I wanted to experience on laptop so bought this game. This is simply gorgeous I'm a huge fan of Castor now! Finished both of his routes. I am so sad this gorgeous game isn't famous yet! I really liked it that want to open a fanpage only for Castor. I'm a huge Simp of him now. And not to mention the sound effects, visuals, the voice acting! 😍. I'm waiting for its update!! I want to play it more.
I might actually open a page for him and write fanfics everyday. Sorry if I'm being creepy but I've played several other Similar games and I forgot them but I can't forget about this!! This is beautiful!! Is it possible to release it on phones? Then I would've shared it with everyone! I know it's hard but thank you so much for this. I shouldn't drag this so good luck with improving This game more I'm with youuu!!❤️❤️. I might draw Castor now cuz he is so cute UwU.
I kinda want it to grow like Obey me, Mystic Messenger etc.
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Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I'm a bit overwhelmed with everything at the moment and a lot of stuff going on in my personal life. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave such a kind comment though :3
I'm glad you enjoyed your time with Castor :D There will be plenty more content for him to come in the future + lots of other characters too. It's just going to take me a while to make it all, haha.
If you do end up opening a fan page for Castor, I'd love to see it :3 And I'm sure Castor very much adores having anyone simp for him :D It's not creepy at all anyways! I get really hyped about the stuff I'm passionate about too :3
I do hope to be able to release it on mobile at some point when it's a bit more polished, yeah! I'm not sure how it will go because I haven't tried mobile export with Unity yet. I tried to test it back when I was using Tyranobuilder engine, but it didn't work at all and I was just very confused xD Hopefully, it will go better when I attempt it with Unity, haha. I think a lot of tweaking of the UI will be required though so that it doesn't go all weird on mobile.
It sure would be amazing if the game somehow grew to that level of fame, haha. I doubt it'll ever happen, but I can dream x3 I'd really love to be able to earn a living making VNs someday, even though it's something which is apparently super hard to do :( It might be my only shot at supporting myself because my therapist thinks I'm basically screwed at life because of my autism if I can't manage to make a living out of my games, haha.
Thank you so much for the support ^-^
Sure! Take your time developing! and take a rest too. I'm sure it will grow more because talents don't stay hidden. I'll always keep giving my support to this game❤️❤️. I can't leave castor behind lol
I'm excited for future updates though ( /^ω^)/♪♪
Hello,
Just finished playing your game with Castoria. I just have to say I honestly loved it! I was highly impressed with the voice acting and how you did the sprites for the characters. The writing was really good. I also enjoyed how Castoria and the Protag both had interesting personalities. As others have said in the comments, the Protag not being in a blank state and a bit sassy was rather fun plus refreshing to see.
I played the full game and wasn't expecting that final scene at the end. But it turned out to be rather lovely with its resolution. I haven't played the Sinister "route" (would it be called a route?) yet, but the Sweet "route" has me wanting some more! I know you are a rather busy person, but do you have an estimate of when is the next release? If not that's okay! Just keep doing the great work you are doing here! You have definitely made a fan out of me! :D
P.S. Also looking forward, Solipsism Reigns BxG Version whenever it comes out.
Thanks so much for supporting the project and leaving a comment! It's much appreciated ^-^ Glad you enjoyed your time with Castoria even if there's not all that much content there yet!
I've become a little bit obsessed with having a crazy amount of expression changes for sprites in my VNs, haha. I think because I wish I could use Live2D but don't possess the skills, so instead, I try my best to use lots of expression changes and other forms of movement to make scenes look more animated.
I guess once the game is more complete, you could consider the sweet and sinister options to be routes, yeah :3 Cos the 'endings' from the current version are actually more like the end of Castor/ia's 1st episode going by my outline. So in a more completed version, it's more like you're sort of locked in to the sweet or sinister route at that point. Though, there will also be more that goes towards deciding which route you end up on eventually because there will be more choices to make.
My plan was to have an update out in time for Christmas this year that introduces the next character while also adding more content for Castor/ia since it will have been a full year since I released the first part for the jam. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to manage that after all >.< I'm still in the writing stage for the next part, and struggling to concentrate on it. I've got a lot going on in my personal life at the moment, and my routine has kinda gone out of the window :( I've had a lot of appointments to be up early for, which means lots of early nights to bed. The problem is, almost everything I've written has been done so during the night! I don't know why, but I can just focus a lot better on writing when I do it during the night, and I'm not getting the opportunity to do that at the moment >.<
It doesn't help that I haven't worked on the project in such a long time because I was working on a few other jam projects throughout the year. DD is my main focus now though :3 Even if I can't get the next part out in time for Christmas, it should at least end up being sometime in winter or early spring, even if it's 2022 rather than 2021.
And there certainly shouldn't be any more year-long gaps in between updates unless things go very wrong in my life! Haha.
The BxG version of SR is a looooong way off though >.<
Thank you so much for your kind words and your support :3
Sorry, for the very late reply! I didn't realize I got a response from you. Curse you spam! That aside, I did notice the expression changes you have in the game and it was very impressive. It is a lot of work but makes the characters more "real". Still good to hear that sweet and sinister will be their "own" routes.
I hope you have been getting better and life is treating you well. Looking forward to the next update no matter when it comes out. Take care of yourself and stay strong!
No worries! Most of my replies have been super duper late recently anyways because I'm just kinda overwhelmed at the moment and shutting down >.< haha.
Take care yourself and I hope you get to have some happy holidays and a wonderful new year ^-^
HI i dont have much constructive to say other than i really really love this project <3 ive replayed it more times than id like to admit....
the way the yandere sides of castor/ia reveal themselves and how the mc isnt just a blank piece of wood but has an actual backbone, especially the mean stuff they say to castor/ia! i know the art isnt yours but i adore how it looks, you picked perfectly! i wish you luck on your future projects and will be supporting you all the way <3
I really appreciate any and all comments on my projects, so thank you very much for playing what's there of the game so far and taking the time to comment :3 I'm so glad you've enjoyed it so far even though there's not much there yet.
I'm happy you like the MC cos they seem to be a bit like marmite xD People either love it or hate it, haha. I just wanted the story to have a protagonist with a bit more sass because they're gonna end up in a lot of dangerous situations, and I don't want them to be the type of MC that just rolls over and lets bad stuff happen to them cos I've played too many VNs with passive protagonists and it annoys me as a player x3 I do plan on adding more options in future updates though, so that the player has a bit more control over how MC reacts because I also understand how frustrating it is to have an MC act in a way that's really opposed to how you want them to.
I'm glad you like the sprites too cos even though I didn't draw them, I did spend a hell of a lot of time on the colours and creating additional expressions for them that didn't come as standard :3
I had hoped to get the next episode of DD out in time for Christmas, but I don't think that's going to happen because I planned for it to both introduce a new character and add to Castor/ia's content, and a lot of life stuff is going on with me right now so I haven't been able to be as productive as I would like >.<
Thank you so much for the support :3
Will there be a full version or is this the complete game?
Thanks for your interest in the project :3 The page isn't particularly tidy at the moment and some of the comments where I answered similar questions to this have been buried >.< haha. I'll have to try and organise the page better when I next update the game!
I'll give you the short(ish) answer, and then I'll also be somewhat lazy and give you the super long answer copy/pasted from something I wrote previously :3
So the short answer is that the game is nowhere near complete right now. What's available is more like a little taster episode for one of many characters :3 I made it during a jam that lasted 1 month, so there's not a huuuuge amount of content there yet. My plan is to have around 10 characters for the full version of the game, with about 3 episodes each. So you could call what's currently released Castor/ia's episode 1 I guess. I'm currently in the process of writing the next character's episode 1 + some additional content for Castor/ia.
The $2 is basically a donation to help fund the project because I have no funding outside of that to pay voice actors, and while I can continue developing the game without putting any money into it if the rest of it goes unvoiced, I feel like voice acting is an important part of the project since it was originally supposed to be an audio drama. I write the scripts in a way that suits voiced better than non-voiced.
Aaaand here's the extra long version if you want it xD
Right now, the project is in a place where I don't even know what an acceptable price would be to charge for the game once it's eventually finished because I don't have experience with releasing commercial games. I kind of never imagined I would ever have the funding available to me to make something to commercial standards. What I do know going by my outlines, drafts, and the like, is that there will be quite a large amount of content by the time the entire thing is finished. Definitely more than $2 worth of content by a long shot.
If you do decide to get Winter Wish, it's more like a donation towards funding the development of the project than a purchase, but I don't think there's any way for me to show it as such here on itch >.< Because WW is quite short and essentially acts as the introductory episode to one character of many.
The biggest challenge in DD's overall development is that it's a project which is pretty reliant on voice acting. Without the VA, it wouldn't have the same flavour I don't think. But VA isn't cheap. For example, after speaking to my friend Anthony (the voice director for Winter Wish) he informed me that to get Castor & Castoria's next episode fully voiced will cost around $800. And me being unemployed means that the only way I can afford to pay the VAs is through supporters donating funds towards the project.
Right now, I'm quite unsure what the best way to proceed is because it's going to cost a lot of money to get each episode for each set of characters voiced. Which means probably asking for some form of money per episode. At the same time, I don't want to piss anyone off who has already donated towards the project >.< because I really appreciate the support and I don't want anyone to feel like their money is being wasted or anything like that.
The other option, of course, is attempting to run a Kickstarter at some point! However, I'm not really sure if enough people would back it when it requires quite a bit of funding. My social anxiety also means I suck at social media and promotion, which isn't exactly a great start to a KS campaign >.< Especially not when the game isn't yet close to completion. So it's a tough situation really.
One of the main reasons I didn't keep working on DD after the jam is because I figured I would never be able to afford to expand it the way I'd like to in a million years because I don't have the money. So I kept it as a side project to work on and continued developing my main project (Clarity in Qualia.) Unfortunately, CiQ hit a brick wall in that I was hoping to run a KS for that in order to fund VA and a CG artist, but there was very little interest in the game when we posted character intro videos on YouTube and stuff. And it's a shame because that one is fully written and if I were to work on just that, I could have the game finished before the end of the year. But I don't know what to do with CiQ when it seems like there aren't many people interested in playing it. So now that I've finished the last couple of jams I wanted to participate in this year (otome jam + Spooktober VN jam) DD is my main project focus.
I'm so sorry for rambling anyhow >.<
What I will say though, is that I hope to always be able to offer free copies of my stuff to anyone who can't afford to support with money because I have been in that position all my life and I know how much it sucks.
TLDR
(I realise that getting funding from various methods could potentially end up quite messy when it comes to issuing discounts and rewards in the end, but I'm not sure how else to deal with funding development right now. I'm willing to go over all donations from all sources manually in order to make sure no one is left out come the full release of the project.)
Thank you for the reply, but may I also know if you happen to accept through gcash or any other services besides what is offered here?
I'm not 100% sure what options itch.io offers because I have my account set for them to just handle all of that on my behalf because I wouldn't have a clue what to do >.< haha.
I have a Ko-fi account and a Patreon as well if they're any help at all :3 The links are on my dev page here: https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/
I don't think I've heard of gcash before but I can look into it :3 Sorry, I'm not very clued up on that sort of thing >.< haha.