Hello!!!! i'm a new player!! i just finish playing the demo! this game is one of the most favorite VN i ever played in my live!! I loveeeeeeeee Castor so muchhhhhhh!! Can't wait for more update/content!!! ♪(^∇^*)
Hey hey! Sorry I'm so late to respond >.< I got really overwhelmed with stuff lately :( But that's fantastic to hear! :D I'm so glad that you enjoyed the demo :3
Sadly, progress with this project is pretty slow, but I'm hoping to have the opportunity to work on it some more in 2024!
Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out :3 I hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Hello, I need some help. I'm trying to download this game, but everytime I try, it says removed. And when I finally get to download it, I can't open the zipped files, it says failed. I have many storage and good internet. What should I do?
That sounds very strange >.< It’s not an issue I’ve ever come across on itch before, but it must be something weird going on with the website on your end because I can download and unzip the files just fine on my computer :( They’ve never been removed or anything.
Your best bet is probably to contact itch.io themselves because I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it on my end >.<
You could tell them the same thing you wrote here + let them know that the dev said there’s nothing wrong with the files.
Played the original a year-ish ago. I can't tell you how exciting it was to look back over it due to a little bit of nostalgia only to find that it's got a full project now!
Castor/ia has certainly won my heart over, so I very much look forward to seeing how it all turns out!
Quick Edit: And I don't mean just excitement for that one character of course, but the others you've got in store as well.
Aww, thanks so much for returning to the project to check it out again :3 I’m really glad you like it so far!
Unfortunately, it’s going to take me a looooong time to actually get the entire project finished for a whole bunch of reasons (gonna make a proper post about it soon so I can’t explain everything x3) but it’ll get there in the end, haha.
Oops! All of this time, I was calling it Winulator, but that's a different Windows emulator for old games, and I got them mixed up. It's actually called Winlator. XD So sorry about that!
I finally managed to play this game on an app called Winulator! I think it's a new app, and, though the text moves slowly, I can play it from beggining to end, and the sound works perfectly! l can't believe I almost missed out on this game; it is amazing! Magnificent, even! I hope I can play your other games on Winulator as well. I'm just so happy right now!
:o Hooooly moly, that's so cool! I'll have to check it out myself, haha. So glad you found a way to make it happen though :3 I'll have to let some of my friends know about it cos they wanna be supportive and check out my stuff, but they only have android phones for gaming, and I'm still faaaar too incompetent to get android builds working >.< haha.
I don't suppose changing the text speed to instant or something would help with the slow text issue? :o I know it'd mess up the expression change timings, but I guess it depends if the slow text is annoying or not x3
I'm really glad you were able to play the demo in some form though :3 And thanks for sticking around to try and play it even though I wasn't able to get a solution to you! I'd be very interested to know if it can play the latest project I worked on, haha. Heck, even my dad has wanted to check out my stuff to see wtf I've been making, but he only has an android phone and an iPad xD
If you tell your friends about Winulator, tell them to use the graphics driver called LLVMpipe, otherwise, the game might not work. They should also probably try Winulator 1.1 first, because I haven't tried the newest version yet, and I don't know what games it can play. Also use the dx components called 'native windows'. I think it's better.
Changing the text speed might help, but I think Yandere Heaven might need it more, especially when it switches to 'manga mode'.
I have downloaded Tunnel Vision, but I am still playing Yandere Heaven. I could try playing it now though.
It's so strange, though; your games are the only ones that work so far on Winulator. I can play the very beginning of Blank by maneki_mushi, but then it freezes, and I can't continue. And I can't even get passed the loading screen of Curse Torn by puma, because the game crashes. You must be doing something right with your games.
One last thing: Winulator needs A LOT of storage space. At least 2 or 3 gigabyte to install the obb image, and 500 mb to make a 'container' to run and manage your game.
I actually deleted 4 gigabyte to install the obb imag, but I had some space left over, so use your own judgement to decide how much storage space to use.
I forgot the name of Castor's voice actor, but he is SO talented! If you can, tell him Tatiana says that he sounds really cute. That's my name, by the way.
Cheers for all the info, and no worries on the slightly wrong name :3 maybe the people who made it shouldn’t have made the name so similar xD
That is weird though if my games work but Blank didn’t because, as far as I remember, Maneki Mushi used Naninovel & Unity same as me for that project, so I dunno why mine would work and that one wouldn’t >.< No idea about Curse Torn and what engine it was made with, but that’s still really odd :o
I don’t exactly do anything special when I build my games x3 It’s kinda just all handled by Unity when I ask it to throw out a build for me, haha.
Understandable that it needs a lot of space! That might be a bit of an issue for some of my friends cos they have quite old devices, but we shall see x3
Kevin is indeed extremely talented, and I would happily pass on your lovely comment to him, but I’ve never actually had contact with him myself >.< This is the only project of mine where I wasn’t in charge of casting x3 So I have no way of contacting either of the VAs on the project cos that was all handled by a friend of mine who was voice director at the time :( Tatiana is an awesome name btw!! :3
Blank did seem to have similar assets to your game, including MonoBleedingEdge. I tried every graphics driver, including 'Turnip + Zink' which doesn't usually work, anyway, switched the dx components to Wine instead of Windows, but it still freezes right when the 'shadow' zooms into the screen so you can talk to it.
Cursetorn is made with Unity as well, so I'm completely puzzled as to what could be wrong. Maybe some asset messed up, but I don't know why.
Those are the only two other games I wanted to play besides yours, and I am so disappointed.
I have an android 11, and I still had to delete a lot of games, including one gb games like Our Life Beginnings and Always, and Dandelion Wishes Brought To You, as well as Club Suicide, a 4 gb game, and your other game, Solipsism Reigns, which is like 4 gb if I remember correctly, so I wish your friends good luck.
That is completely understandable! I'm sure that others have told him how talented he is as well, so it's perfectly fine.
Thank you so much! I'm sure that you have a beautiful name too!
Yeah, I don’t even know what the MonoBleedingEdge thing is tbh but it exports with every single Unity game I’ve made x3 That is really weird though cos with Blank having less in total assets, you would’ve thought that it would have a higher chance of running more smoothly!
Turns out my friends don’t actually want to try it cos they said it sounds too complicated and confusing x3 So I guess they’ll never know, haha.
Oh, trust me, my name is awful xD My own dad didn’t even like it and wanted to call me something completely different, but my mum got her way on naming me and said my dad could name my brother instead as a compromise x3
IM PRETTY SHOCKED THAT URE THE SAME CREATOR THAT MADE YANDERE HEAVEN xD i really love that game!! AND I'M VERY EXCITED FOR THE FULL RELEASE!! ill come back every year to check this game out =D
Oh, man, your avatar is so adorable, I can't stop looking at it xD So glad to hear you liked Yandere Heaven! And this one too :3
If you're a fan of yandere characters in general, feel free to check out my other projects cos practically all of em (apart from The Graveyard Shift which is just horror/comedy/mystery) feature at least 1 yandere of some sort, haha.
Thanks, its a chibi version of Ina from Hololive that Ina herself commission for an April Fool day, I think it was 2021 and totally, I just love yanderes.
Hehe x3 Well, I'm really glad you like Yandere Heaven cos it seems like that particular project is like Marmite xD I'm really grateful to have gotten so many kind comments about it, but at the same time, it's the one that's netted me the most hate >.<
If you're a yandere fan in general though, pretty much all of my games feature at least 1 yandere character of some sort :D Some of em are on the sweeter side, some more sinister, and others more platonic!
If you're interested in the backstory of some of the other characters that will be added to this project sometime in the future, feel free to check out Dawn of the Damned :3
your welcome and im defo checking out dawn of the damned !! , after checking out all the games that uve made, i realised that ive played almost all of them!! can pretty much say im a big fan of u now xD ily for always curing me with ur games during my bad days :33333
Demo review: This looks interesting and I'll come back when it is fully released.
However, I can't really get into the demo. It's constantly telling me about features then saying 'This isn't available in the demo.' including that my actions won't influence the chapter in the demo. Then the first choice I made it said 'This isn't available in the demo'. I feel like it'd be better to just not show all those parts at this point because it makes it look like I'm not going to get ANYTHING in the demo. I decided to close it at that point because it seems like the demo is just telling me I can't pick choices, my choices wouldn't impact the ending, and it'll spend 5 minutes letting me know all the things I can't do.
The intro was also super long and the transition scene while you're trying to close the game is really slow, so I force closed the game. I'm sure these will be changed in the real game and I'd have more energy for the slowness if I felt like things would happen for my patience but as it stands it's confusing and not building my appetite.
That’s totally understandable :3 I mean, I personally don’t tend to play demos at all, regardless of the state they’re in, haha. I just find it kind of annoying to only be able to play part of a game knowing I’ll have to play a section again if I play the full release! If I like the look of something, I’ll just wait until it’s finished.
There are a couple of reasons why the demo is the way it is, but I’ve spoken about them before in previous comments, so I’ll try not to ramble too much >.<
The first one is that all those dead ends do go somewhere in my working copy, and it was easier to just block players from accessing them than create a separate version with all the branches entirely removed because, at the time, I didn’t have any space left on my hard drive and no alternative devices to create copies/backups on x3
And the second reason was kinda to take some of the pressure to respond to certain things off of myself a bit because a lot of people seemed to be under the impression after seeing Manly’s video of the old jam version of the game that the thing is entirely about Castor/ia, which it isn’t >.< It’s just that, at the time, I was working on the project for a jam that only lasts 1 month, and so I needed to create something that was self-contained enough to submit by the jam deadline while also keeping it open to continue later on.
I was being bombarded with questions about whether or not there was more to come for Castor/ia or if everything in Manly’s video was it. The jam version just didn’t reflect how I intend the project to be overall, so I tried to give a better idea of the direction I hoped to take it in by doing a UI overhaul, showing the beginning of how the personality system works, and showing that there is
A: More to Castor/ia’s story + B: Other branches available that are unrelated to Castor/ia.
I can totally see how it would be annoying to keep getting hit with dead end options though! But for me personally, it has saved me a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again by having the current demo out there x3 If you’re interested in seeing the self-contained version, the original jam version of the game is still available to download on the page for posterity.
Yeah that does make sense, and people knowing the potenital range of the full game is good.
I think being able to differentiate the active and inactive options in the demo might be good. I dunno if it's doable but maybe the text or background colour could be slightly different (while still maintaining a good contrast).
I understand you're balancing a lot of things in doing this though.
RE demo's in general, I have really bad memory so I don't mind playing a demo to get excited because in a few months all I'll know is 'I really want to play this' but not any of what the demo had haha. It works well for replay value and makes it less cumbersome to have just a demo in the meantime.
But some games end up being abandoned and it's sad when both the fans and author get blueballed by whatever situation makes it impossible to finish the game lol
If you are able to make tweaks like I mentioned, I'll try the demo out again, but if not, I'll wait until it's fully ready. So best of luck with the project.
It would be fairly easy to differentiate the options in the current demo now that I have more knowledge about UI and stuff :3 At the time of making the updated demo though, I still didn't know all that much about how Unity UI works >.< There's quite a lot I would change now that I've learned a lot more, haha.
If it weren't such a massive pain in the butt and time-consuming to export and upload builds, I'd make fixes like that and update the demo cos actually making the changes would be fairly quick, but it's so much hassle to make new builds that it's not really worth the stress >.<
Hehe, my brother plays demos repeatedly while waiting for releases! And he binges trailers for everything, whereas I tend not to even watch trailers x3
I mean, this demo is here too early really because the game is nowhere near finished. Unlike my shorter jam projects, this one is a big, long-term thing that will take me years to make.
The only reason it's even labeled as a demo at all is because of the whole thing again of constantly being asked if there will be more story >.< I didn't want people to keep making the assumption that the old upload was all there was ever going to be. At the same time though, I don't want people to expect it to be finished any time soon.
When I made the self-contained version of it for the jam, I had every intention of continuing it at some point, but in a very casual way over a long period of time. I wasn't expecting it to ever get any attention, so I had planned to put it on the back-burner because I knew I likely wouldn't be able to afford to get the rest of it voiced (as the VAs in it were basically doing a favour to the voice director by voicing in it at short notice for the jam). And even now, I don't have anywhere near enough funding to get everything I have planned fully voiced. Not to mention the issue that a heck of a lot of time passed between the initial jam release and the game getting attention, so the VAs involved have moved on to other things and are unlikely to reprise their roles >.<
It also doesn't help that this somehow seems to have become my most popular project, but it's not a priority project for me personally because I have other stuff to finish before I finish this >.< For example, I have an older project than this which is already fully-written and a full-length script like my first ever release. It would be kind of insane for me to work on writing and stuff for this when I already have a finished script for a different project that needs making into a playable game x3
I'll get there with everything eventually, but my progress on projects outside of jams with deadlines is pretty slow cos I'm just one person doing it all as a hobby, haha.
It does suck when stuff gets abandoned. I've backed a few projects in the past on Kickstarter and stuff that never saw the light of day cos the team behind em broke down :(
I'd like to hope that folks here who are interested in this particular project would look at my profile in general and see that I do finish what I've started :3 Life has a habit of getting in the way a lot, so it's gonna take a heck of a long time to get anywhere with a long one like this, but I don't plan to abandon it. I just have other stuff that takes priority like game jams and finishing that other long-term project first x3
Thank you for the luck! I feel like I will need it, haha :3
Wow yeah that's a lot of work. As a non developer, I don't know how hard most of these things are, or at least time consuming, or how many annoying bugs can pop up when you fix one thing. So that's fair.
Yeah sounds like you're doing a lot and it's amazing as a 1 person team. :) haha your brother sounds like my ex, they get reallyyyy into things and binge every available crumb possible for as long as possible. Waiting years for one episode of a series or chapter of a game. Lol It's honestly impressive. I just forget for ages then come back like 'Oh this seems like something I would like. Oh, I did like it, 3 times already apparently. Nice taste, past me!' lol
Yeah if I'm interested in a dev, the first thing I do is look at their profile at anything else they do, I'm sure I'm not alone in that. :D On that note, I've been wanting to play Apartment no 9and bitter sweet for a while! lol
Best of luck with your projects. I wonder if starting multiple games is similar to fabric crafters starting multiple projects and half finishing them. It seems like a general 'creative person' problem, that we have too many ideas and create too many projects for a lifetime. Just kinda funny.
I'll keep checking on progress on your games anyway, I appreciate your in-depth replies, I'm sure feedback can be really nerve wracking and I always appreciate when someone is really open and welcoming of feedback especially as I don't always know if it's going to hit someone on a bad day!
I think it's virtually impossible for players to envision how much time it takes to achieve different things with game dev unless they've dipped their toes into it themselves, haha. Same as I'd have no idea how much time and effort goes into getting an F1 car up and running or something x3 Actually, dealing with bugs as a solo dev is almost as time-consuming as making the games themselves xD It's so hard to test everything and attempt to anticipate how players might behave when you're just one person. And the longer the game or the more branches it has, the harder it gets >.< Add in the fact that everyone is playing on a different setup to you and it just kinda becomes a bit of an impossible task, haha. I do my best, but I don't think I'd ever manage to get my games running 100% smoothly for everyone cos there's always something lurking out there that will go wrong x3
Hehe, weeell, I wouldn't say my brother is quite THAT bad x3 but he is definitely a completionist! He plays most things on Xbox, and he will not discard them until he's unlocked every achievement possible. He'll also go back through a long game just to find 1 tiny thing that he missed. He'd actually be pretty good at playtesting, I imagine! But he won't touch my stuff since it can't possibly be decent if his sister made it T_T
It's cool that you do that, and I always assumed that's what many people do since I'm also the same! But from looking at my project's analytics, I can see that a pretty hefty majority of my followers here on itch dropped in for this project in particular, and haven't even viewed my other ones, let alone downloaded em to check em out xD Which to me is incomprehensible because if I play something I like from a dev, I wanna know everything else they've done since, chances are, I will like at least 1, if not more, of their other projects x3 It makes it feel a bit like DD is a cursed project, haha.
That's extremely interesting to me that you'd be curious about Apartment No.9 as well! It's one of my least-viewed/played projects x3 but I do actually think it's better than DD, haha. Actually, it was the first ever project that I teamed up with people for during a jam!
And Bitter/Sweet is special to me because I got to make it with my good friend Lazy Polar Bear, but also because it's the one closest to home. I tend to stay away from putting too much of myself into projects, but with that one, I decided to see how it would work out. There's still 1 route remaining to add to that project, but the other route is fully playable :3
Thank you very much for the luck! I feel like it's something I could always do with having plenty of x3 Haha, I think you're probably right there about the multiple projects dilemma! I've spoken to many devs over the years who have multiple things on the go at once xD It's like a curse >.< I try to keep it somewhat under control by stopping myself from just starting new things every time an idea comes to me, haha. And I have a priority list atm which looks something like: Try to get an episode of The Masked Marionette out before the end of 2023 - Finish 2nd Bitter/Sweet route for Yandere Jam 2024 - Construct & release Clarity in Qualia before continuing to write for Darling Duality - Continue working on Darling Duality while participating in a limited number of game jams x3 So there's a plan there, haha. It's just one that spans years and is gonna take a long time to complete xD
Oh, yeah, feedback is a tricky beast, haha. It can hit differently at different times depending on your mood and frame of mind. I think genuine constructive feedback like yours is always helpful and appreciated, even if it ends up being something I'm incapable of implementing! What's not helpful is when someone essentially just verbally assaults you with a list of things they dislike and provides no reasoning as to why while also offering no constructive form of doing things differently x3 I think the problem with a lot of feedback that devs get is that often, it's related to the story of the projects they're creating, and unless a dev has specifically asked for feedback on that element, it's more than likely unhelpful and unwanted >.< When it comes to the more technical side of things though, constructive criticism can help make the game much better!
Anyways, thank you for everything you've taken the time to write up so far :3 I genuinely appreciate it when I have the opportunity to engage with people at length like this! Hope you're having a fabulous spooky season so far :D
I won't tell how it is good, i would spoil some things. This is a gem, so better see for yourself. Trust me, this is really good, so much love and work is in it. Hope the developer knows their work is loved.
@the dev: Please take your time and no pressure. You are doing good stuff here. We let you cook
If I knew Python, I’d use Ren’Py, but I don’t x3 so I’d have to learn that first, and I did try to years ago and hated it, which is why I wound up using Tyranobuilder, then Naninovel instead T_T
A web version would just be extremely laggy and virtually impossible to play, which sucks, cos it would be a much easier thing to do since I can just switch to a web export. But I tried a web version of an even smaller project than this as a test in the past, and it was just unplayable with the lag and stuff >.<
Learning Ren'Py would be the best long-term option, but I just don't know if my brain can take it xD I was almost completely put off of trying to make my first VN when I tried Ren'Py years ago, haha. Just wasn't fun at all to use >.< Well, putting stuff together in Tyrano and Nani hasn't exactly been fun either, it's the part of gamedev I hate the most the programming and such x3 but at least it's bearable for me with Nani, haha.
I've been talking to a friend who uses Ren'Py though, so we might end up teaming up on some stuff in the future :3
I'd be a happy bunny if I didn't have to deal with programming stuff too much, haha. I just wanna write and make soundtracks x3
It is a massive dick move what Unity are planning to do, but afaik, it’s not actually likely to ever impact me from what I understand anyhow. Cos the way my brother explained it when he first told me about it, it sounds like the fees only come into play when you have X number of installs + X number of sales/revenue, and that you have to meet both to get hit with the fees.
I honestly can’t see my projects ever reaching anything close to the cap for installs or revenue, haha. I mean, I have no way of keeping track of installs, but across all my projects across all time, I don’t even have a fraction of the downloads mentioned.
I just checked out their docs on it again, and it seems they’ve updated it even further to not include folks using Unity personal, which is what I use. And the figures say $1,000,000 revenue and 1,000,000 engagements… neither of which I imagine I would reach in my lifetime xD I’m only on 150k downloads across all my projects over all time.
I really love this game a lot I can't wait to see this game complete, There's no much games focused on yanderes out there and it's refreshing to play some of those and with such quality. (Sorry if my english is bad, I speak spanish)
Your English is fantastic! I’d never have guessed it wasn’t your first language :3 I’m so glad you like the game so far even though there’s not much there yet. I’m a big yandere fan myself, which is why most of my games have at least 1 yandere character in 😛
question, Will this game ever be released on Steam? Whenever I try one of those unzipper programs they either contain viruses, are a bit of a rip-off, or just straight scams, Steam is simply easier for me to trust and play games on, though if this game was playable in the itchio browser I'd be pretty thankful :)
oh, I didn't know steam charged that much to let devs upload their games on steam. And about the browser game issue, that's alright I wouldn't mind playing a glitchy version but that's alright, thank you for explaining the situation anyway.
As someone who has recently gotten into VN and has grown a preference for the yandere subgenre, this game has been my absolute favorite thus far, and it might prove difficult for another VN to claim that spot.
The way that the dev made damn near all of your answers -- or even lack of, which is super interesting! -- so impactful is admirable. It's honestly my favorite aspect of the game. You could've selected a majority of "skull" answers, but then throw in a couple of "heart" answers for some flair or even no answer at all? What turned into this delightfully chaotic ending might turn into this pleasantly bittersweet ending or a completely sugar-coated romantic one. You can only imagine how it could be vice versa with a majority of "heart" answers that suddenly turned into primarily "skull" answers.
It honestly makes the experience so enjoyably confusing because it forces you to have this mixed feeling towards the character. First, it's just another LI character, so you're kinda indifferent, but then you act all cutesy just to get a reaction from them. Then, something shifts and you become intentionally antagonistic to see what might happen. You then start to see things escalate so you draw back a bit, and they start being really sweet to you so you start to like them. But then something's off again and you feel suspicious of the character so that gremlin tells you to be antagonistic again, then the character reacts and you start to feel this weird cross of hate and fear towards them. And it just goes back and forth like that, especially when toying with different dialogue choices.
I love it. I love the character, the dialogue, the purposeful intent of the dev, and the overall direction that this game is going in. I can honestly say that I cannot wait for the full release.
Awesome job, dev, and kudos to the VAs that helped make it come alive! It's one thing to imagine the voice in your head, but to actually hear it does have a different impact.
Hehe, that’s great to hear you’ve ended up falling for the yanderes :P I was like that too when I first got into VNs and came across them, haha. But man, that’s so sweet of you to say about this project! I feel like it’s not worthy, but thank you so much and I’m really glad you’ve enjoyed what’s there of it so far ^-^ Pretty much all of my projects have at least 1 yandere in, haha. Not all of em, but most of em. And even the ones without yanderes still have creepy characters instead xD
That’s awesome to hear you like the choices/personality system too :3 It’s something I’m hoping to keep expanding with the project so that everything adds up to different consequences to reflect all the choices made. I’m so glad you say it’s enjoyably confusing, haha. I find it confusing myself xD but it was kind of the point to make it more difficult to keep track of choices, sort of forcing players to pick on the spot just going by their instinct at the time. I realise that a system like that must also be frustrating for some players though + makes it quite hard to follow a guide and see all possibilities too >.<
Unfortunately, it’s gonna take me years to finish it for a whole number of reasons, but I’m determined to get there eventually :3 Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to type up such kind words! I really appreciate the support <3
Are they really impactful? The first thing the demo told me was that the choices would impact the chapter then said 'This isn't available in the demo'. Then the first choice you get in the game, isn't a choice, it told me that my choice wasn't available in the demo and forced the other one instead.
I had to close the game as it seemed to be directly telling me more than once that the demo wasn't going to be choice based and would keep showing me things I can't do anything with. :/
Maybe I'll have more patience with it another day but I'd just rather it not tell me all the things I might be able to pick in a year or two but can't now (only after I try to pick them).
You're referring more towards the path that you can take versus the choices themselves. Because it's a demo, the path is definitely more guided -- or rather set -- on the completed parts, and the Dev definitely stops you from deviating off that path for the time being. I ran into the same roadblocks of "this isn't available in the demo"; however, the pathway that you CAN play definitely has some relatively intense choice value! I don't want to spoil it, but there are two different times where a lack of response (literally selecting nothing) will put you on a different subpath.
So yeah, to me at least, it's pretty choice heavy, and I assume that it'll only get more intense as the game reaches completion. Since then, I did play a significantly MORE choice heavy game, but I'd still list this one as a choice-heavy game, just not as high up on the list as it originally was
Definitely give it another try in the upcoming days though! I thought it was rather good, especially one subpath in particular ;)
I'd just rather it not show choices I can't pick because it's not a choice in that situation. Even in a demo.
Like an alternative would be to have the non-active choices be a different colour so I know in the demo 'this would be an option and we're leaving it visible but not much point clicking it'. As it is right now I just got through lots and lots of 'this isn't available, this isn't, this isn't' and it killed my drive to continue the demo because I felt like it was unclear what would be possible to engage with. For me, I engage in the game by trying to see how I'd feel in that situation and picking what matches my feelings most, if the options are limited in this way, I stop being able to be in my feelings and connecting with the character, because I'm constantly going 'Wait what?'.
So I will only be able to play this when either it's finished or the demo has the non-active options more clearly labelled before I click them. Otherwise it feels like it's saying 'NO! No choices. Only unspecified choice!' [insert that lil dog meme lol].
I'm sure they will have great choices when it's done and I don't doubt there's choices throughout but as it stands right now, as far as I got, it gave the impression you will only have one path and it won't let you know until you pick a choice that you picked the 'wrong' one, and then response as thought you picked another one. It's just stressful for me personally lol
I’d like to try and get the game to have as many language options available as possible :3
So if I can manage to have a Chinese language version, that would be brilliant!
However, that will probably only be for the full game release, which is a very long way off, so it’s going to take a lot of time to actually finish the game first >.<
Having played both the old version and the new demo, I'm quite excited to see the final product! It is a game that is rather intriguing for the Yandere lovers (with rather sweet moments as well), I especially loved the voice acting. Will be sure to check out the final product when it comes out!
Aww, thanks for playing both versions :3 I’m glad you like the look of where it’s going! Unfortunately, the full game is still a heck of a long way off, but I’ll get there eventually x3 Thanks so much for the support <3
It’s hard to say with absolute certainty because the full game is a loooong way off, like, years away x3 but most likely, yes, it will probably be free :3
Alright thank you! Also one last question- is the name Castor based off Roman mythology...? Or is it based off the plant? I feel like its more based off the plant cause I think it's toxic and then Castor/ia can be toxic sometimes in the game- did I phrase this correctly ;v;?
Tbh, I’m not sure what made me come up with the name Castor at the time xD
Usually, I spend ages thinking of suitable names, and often my characters are named for pretty specific reasons with meanings behind the names or their names representing things, but with Castor and Castoria, it was just one of those weird ones where for some reason, I had it in my head without looking at anything and just rolled with it xD
Some people have since told me that Castor means some pretty funny things in other languages, haha. That would be pretty cool though if it happens to be a toxic plant though cos, as you say, it would be quite suitable :D
I would love for there to be an android version of all my games, but frustratingly, I can't figure out how to get an android build working :( I've tried with smaller projects in the past, and after following all of the instructions, it always fails >.< So unless someone can physically teach me how to do it properly so it works, I'm not likely to manage to figure it out on my own.
And, unfortunately, I have no idea x3 Probably not this year though! I've had waaay too much stuff going on to even work on the project at all so far this year >.< Broken arm back in March really didn't help things, haha. That meant 3 months of not even being able to go on my PC :(
And for the rest of the year, there's Spooktober jam in September that I'd like to participate in, so that's gonna occupy the entire month, then I'll need a small break to recover in October, and then I'll probably be working on some other stuff in November/December if I get time to.
Hoping to get blue Blythe's route out for next year's yandere jam which is in February, so that'll be the start of 2024 covered x3
There's never enough time in a day to do everything I'd like to do, haha. And, unfortunately, DD has to take a back seat until I can sort out everything else that I need to or wanna get done >.<
Hi~ Just wanted to say that the demo alone is making me anticipate for more from DD. The fun part so far is having to flip a coin in the first few choices such as either going for Castor/ia (landing on heads had me go for Castor). After that however, I was taken into a rollercoaster ride of emotions. But yeah, I hope to see the full release in the future~ Art takes time to craft, and I've got plenty of time to wait~
[On the other hand, my sister saw Castor on my screen. I had to explain that while I swing both ways, this choice wasn't deliberate. Rather, it was a choice made by fate. Looking back now, that was very poor choice of words on my part lol.]
Hey hey! Well, that’s awesome :3 I’m glad you had fun with the demo! Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to type up a comment :D And your patience is much appreciated also cos I don’t deal with expectations well xD It makes me want to go hide in a cave and never come out again, haha.
xD
Well, hopefully, your sister at least kind of knew what you meant! And heck, it’s still better than my brother’s comment from the other day. I was working on this new bite-sized project, and because the theme is all red and black, I set my room light to red each night while I was working on it so I could get more immersed, but my brother just looked in and said:
“Why does it look like a brothel in your room?” T_T
Ah, I can relate with the expectations thing as well~ Kinda why I prefer not sticking out too much in group projects since it makes me fear the worst possible outcome often...
That being said though, seems like your brother's familiar with them districts to make such a connection then, lol. Overall though, my sister now considers me as straight like spaghetti noodles. Better than being straight like ribbons, I guess~ w
Hey hey! Absolutely love this game. I saw the original build in ManlyBadAssHero's video. Then I set out on my own to play it because I wanted to hear Castor. By the time I found it, it was the more in depth demo build. I spent forever trying to get all paths and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll keep a non-pressuring eye on this project. Take things at your own pace.
But I must ask, the asset pack song, "Welcome to Our World". Where exactly did you find it? I have been looking everywhere for it as it's so good. I looked in the credits file of the game but got even more lost. XD
Hey hey! Aww, that’s awesome, glad to hear it ^-^ Yeah, it sucks that I haven’t really been able to make much real progress on the project in recent times, but at least I got the updated demo out, haha. Hopefully, it at least does a half-decent job of sorta showing the way I want the project to look in the future :3
It means a lot that you’re happy to wait anyhow :3 I know I’ve been ridiculously slow to work on this project, and I don’t anticipate that changing any time soon cos I’ve got a lot of other stuff I want to prioritise >.< I have no intention of abandoning it though :3 so the no-pressure approach is much appreciated. I actually find it extremely demotivating to be pressured for updates and stuff x3 even if it’s done with the best of intentions from someone who just likes what’s there and wants to see more, just having that sort of pressure and expectation there makes me want to run a million miles away and hide xD Whereas a few kind words with no pressure makes me feel more like it’s okay to keep going and take things at my own pace ^-^
As for that particular asset pack song, in all honestly, I couldn’t even remember which one it was by the name alone, so I had to go look in my files xD It’s actually called “Tragedy” I just tend to rename all of my tracks to better fit whatever the project is x3 And it’s from the Symphonical Rain Sound Library Vol.2 by AZU Soundworks. I just went to dig up the link to their page so you could check it out if you wanted to, but weirdly, all their assets have disappeared and it’s now showing as a blank page to me o.O So I’m not sure what’s happened there >.< I guess they must’ve pulled their stuff from the site that I bought their packs from for some reason! I did some more digging, found their old website, which said it had moved, but when I clicked the new site link, that didn’t exist either :( There are some other pretty good ones in that volume actually! I was probably gonna use them in something at some point, haha. I keep getting carried away and making my own music for recent projects though.
Speaking of which, I’m just about to release a new bite-sized one for a couple of different micro jams if you’re interested in more creepy fun xD
Hey. Thanks for even taking the time to look through your files for me. I'm touched, honestly. I get so scared to ever ask people things like that so you made my day. Through some crafty snooping I was able to find their catalog on a JP website and the song on YouTube. So thanks again! XD
(Here's the link. It leads to that song specifically but maybe you can find the other song you were looking for. :https://azu-soundworks.net/?p=19673)
I'll definitely look into your micro jams. I'm invested in your creative prowess now. Hang in there!
No problem :3 I know what you mean cos I always worry if I’m bothering people or not >.< As the saying goes though, you won’t know if you don’t ask x3
That’s pretty neat you were able to find their stuff though! I clicked on like 3 links when I gave it a go, and they were all just dead ones, haha. I gave up pretty quickly after that xD Cheers for letting me know :3
And just thanks for being so sweet in general! You hang in there yourself ^-^
Pretty Interesting so far, you have a really unique style in your games. One bit of feedback I have (unless you're already planning on doing this) But a lot of menu-based sounds aren't affected by any volume sliders, so when I enter a menu or click something in the main menu for example, Its way louder than what I have all the sliders set to. Other than that, I'm a fan of this game, and I am excited to see where it goes!
Glad you like what’s there so far :D And thank you, that’s really kind of you to say ^-^
Oh, yeah, I know about those menu sounds and I can only apologise, haha. At the time of adding them to that demo, I didn’t realise there was no way to control them within the game settings >.< I have since discovered what you have to do to link them up with the in-game settings so that you can actually lower them with the SFX volume slider, haha. So I’ll absolutely be doing that whenever I next update the demo :3
The really silly thing is, as they are, they’re attached to Unity UI buttons, but they’re all set to play at a volume of 0.1 of their total volume, so I dunno why on earth they came out to loud o.O Anyways, I shall be rectifying it at least, haha.
is this game possible to be played on Chromebook? I've always seen games on this site that look really interesting but I never get to fully experience them due to not having a compatible device
Hello, you can download/buy the OFFICIAL game file of the game that you wish to play here in itch.io then enter the website named 'Joiplay' then download the latest application version + renpy plug in
After that you'll be able to find your way through, however if you ever struggle with anything you can ask me or google it.
*Note: this is for mobile phones, if you have Android that is.
That's interesting :o Does the renpy plugin still work with games made in other engines, or just renpy? Because my old games are made in Tyranobuilder, and most of my games (including this one) are made with Naninovel in Unity >.< If not, are there any alternative plugins that would work with Tyranobuilder and Unity games?
I can never seem to actually get exported Android builds from Unity to work :(
I honestly couldn't say for certain because I don't really know much about how Chromebooks work >.< but I'm going to guess probably not because I was under the impression that they may only run things like Android apps that you can get on the Google Play store? And, sadly, I haven't been able to get any of my games to function with Android builds yet :(
That’s fantastic to hear :3 I’m glad you enjoyed what’s available at the moment, even if it isn’t that much. Unfortunately, development on this is going to be extremely slow for a number of reasons >.< but I’ll get there in the end! Cheers for checking it out ^-^
Well, I won’t stop you :D Though both at the same time would be difficult since they’re technically the same entity >.< We could always find someone to do a multiverse merger though x3
Glad you like what little there is so far ^-^ I hate to say it, but there’s not a whole lot going on with development currently and likely won’t be for a while because I’m just too busy to properly work on it lately >.< but I’ll get there in the end, haha.
it doesn’t have a android ver
( ≧Д≦) IK THAT I ALREADY PLAYED THIS BUT I GOT ATTACHED TO YOUR CASTOR THAT U CREATED, I LUV HIMMM SM AAAAAAA I WANNA PLAY MORE ND AGAIN ND AGAIN BUT IT DOESNT HAVE A ANDROID VER
(‘A`)
Yeah, sadly, I haven’t managed to get any of my games to work on Android T_T I did try a while back with one of the shorter ones, followed the tutorial exactly, but nope, it wouldn’t even run, just a black screen >.< It’s frustrating because I’d really like to get everything to work on mobile. I know it would be a lot of effort resizing UI and stuff to fit the screen properly, but it would be worth it because I have friends who can only play games on mobile >.< I just need help from someone who knows what they’re doing and can show me where things are going wrong cos I don’t know how to figure it out by myself when the tutorial I followed ended in utter failure :( haha.
Glad you like it :D Whether it’s choosing tracks from ones that I own from music packs or trying to make my own BGMs, selecting the right music for my games is one of my favourite parts of game dev :3 Cheers for checking out the project!
Unfortunately, only a short demo is currently available. There will be a full game release at some point, but I can't say when because there's a heck of a lot of work to do, problems with funding, and never enough time in a day to do everything I want to do, haha. I have no intention of abandoning any of my projects though, so the full game will be available one day :3
Hi! I was just going through itch.io games and the thumbnail looked pretty interesting, so I jumped for it (especially after realising it had yandere themes). I liked it so far, the VAs did a pretty great job as well (especially in chara)! I don't mind it taking time at all, it was a good one.
Also like how you introduced the tws was extremely good imo. Like you went step by step into it instead of it being 1 pg. Sure, more longer stuff, but I think it was pretty good anyway. I do want things to move as soon as I click the enter button (not for the Voice Acted parts but mostly for the TW parts) but otherwise I have no qualms. Maybe a bit of designing as well because the Arabic type font doesn't seem to fit so far but maybe that part is just me as it's a stylistic choice (I hoped that there was a bit more blue because Winter Wish and something akin to more classical-English type font idk, like ingame there could be more royalish English but again that's just my preferences). Story wise, it unfolded very nicely and I have no issues there as said. Hope to see more soon :D
Oh, that's so cool that you thought the thumbnail was interesting! I never know whether I've done a good job of making those look attractive enough, haha, and DD's one is one that I've always felt needs improving x3 I'm glad you had fun with what's there so far anyhow :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
I still need to tweak a lot of stuff to do with the UI to be fair. I think there's a way to make the trigger warnings go faster, but I can't remember what it is since it's been quite a while since I put all that together x3 There's a key that speeds it up somewhere though, haha. As for colours and fonts, with any luck, it will make more sense and look more suitable once more of the game is available :3 Because the genre of the full game is kinda more like fantasy/sci-fi/psychological horror I guess. There's gonna be some clashing of ancient stuff with technological stuff. The Winter Wish part was actually specific to the game jam this project was originally submitted to (the Winter VN jam + the Secret Santa jam) and actually doesn't have a whole lot of relevance to the full game that I'm planning (aside from it being the title of the game that Castor/ia is from, of course) because Castor/ia is just one character in part of a bigger project where you'll be able to choose other character routes too :3
Sadly, there aren't likely to be any updates soon for a whole bunch of different reasons that I've mentioned over these past few months in posts and comments, but I'll get there one day, haha. If only there were more time in the world x3
Yeah, the thumbnail was pretty cool, can't object to that. The coding thing makes sense, it's not a major issue! I don't create games so I (of course) will not know it firsthand, but I can imagine how stressful it would be to create all of this and with not much (if at all) monetary returns, especially when you hire a VA. I'd love to hear more updates because it feels good and I don't mind having just one route out of a billion to play if the plot is great, and in this case, it is! The Voice Acting part is an addon because I usually don't listen to that but I realised that it brought out more things about this man only to see how well it suited him. Take your time, I'll be around if it gets updates :D
It is indeed a lot of work, haha. Sometimes it’s a bit of a chore trying to do different aspects of it by yourself when it’s tasks that you don’t find particularly enjoyable x3 Like for example, I’m not really a coder. I hate coding. I use the software I use because it cuts out having to write proper code and lets you use a simplified scripting language instead, so that’s a big help, but it’s still like writing thousands of lines of code and it’s something I find extremely monotonous and highly unenjoyable, haha. It has to be done though if I want the game to work, so I just have to suck it up and get on with it xD It must be nice to be part of a permanent team where everyone has different roles covered and everyone gets to do mainly tasks they enjoy!
Voice acting was actually one of my main motivators to start making VNs and still is now :3 I just really love it, haha. To me, if I know I can’t get VA for a project I’m working on, it really kills my motivation to work on it at all cos one of my favourite parts of making games is getting to hear the characters come to life with voice acting x3 As a player, I guess I’m kind of the opposite to you because I generally won’t play a game if there is no voice acting included, haha.
Love this game concept and the adaptability for the story. Its super immersive which is what I personally love for dating sims when it feels like you're being addressed and in the story, not just a placeholder that you communicate through. Quick question, as this game is a part of the queer games bundle this year but is still in development does that mean when the game is officially released, players wont have to repurchase it?
That's so nice to hear :3 I'm really glad it comes across that way and that you had fun with it so far!
I'm not 100% sure what's actually going to happen when the full game is eventually available cos it's gonna be quite some time from now, and it's possible it might not even be a commercial release in the end because it really depends on what my personal situation is like at the time. But anyone who gets it as part of the queer games bundle, or any other bundle absolutely won't have to repurchase it :3
And in the event that the full game release winds up being free, I'll probably still have something like an exclusive route/character for anyone who supported the game's development either through something like this bundle, as a donation to the project here on itch, or by supporting over on ko-fi or patreon! ^-^
Totally understandable and appreciate the response! I hope you take as much time as you need with this game as usually deadlines and stress affect the project's end result. Good luck with the process and cant wait for the official release (way further down the line ofc)! ♡♡
Cheers for the luck cos I will absolutely need it x3 and an even bigger thank you for the patience and understanding :3 Honestly, you have no idea how much it means because I've been through stages of immense guilt with some of my projects (this one included x3) for not being able to get things done very quickly and feeling like I'm letting myself and others down because of that >.<
I gave up setting myself deadlines and such for long-term projects this year because so many things kept happening that meant I'd repeatedly fail to hit my own targets, haha. It's definitely less stressful to just make progress when possible rather than trying to force it when it's not always possible x3
Of course! Ive never done game design or development so I cant be one to talk but Ive always noticed games thag get abandoned are usually always the ones that push for consistent and fast updates. Especially as you have your personal life to deal with and this game along with the others youve made are stuff that you chose to put free time into, its important us consumers and a part of the community at least do the decency of being understanding and patient for something we're not owed. It shouldn't be super stressful for you so please take as much time and rest as you need so youre happy with your efforts and also in general content with your work versus personal life balance.
Yeah, I can see how it would be easy to burn out pretty fast if you’re constantly going at it >.< I’ve followed the development of a few games I was excited for in the past where it was only small teams of like 2-3 people working on them, and they wound up abandoned cos of stress and stuff, like the project work was basically destroying their friendships until they were forced to stop to actually save what was left of their friendships >.< And solo devs who have just had to quit or slow right down because of different life circumstances.
I think for me personally, the big issue is that I put a lot of stress on myself x3 Even if no one at all was trying to hurry me, I’d still wind up feeling bad about working slowly or feel like I’m letting myself or others down somehow >.< It’s like I’ve been sucked into the crunch culture and it’s kinda hard to get out because I do enjoy working on stuff a lot.
But then when I do get the odd comment where someone actually is complaining about how slow updates have been or the like, that winds up kinda validating the guilty feelings I’ve already been generating by myself, if that makes any sense >.< So it’s a bit of a vicious cycle because it then takes someone saintly like yourself to come along and remind me that actually, it’s okay for me to work at my own pace after all!
Because it’s a hobby that I treat like work, I find it super hard to actually switch off, haha. My brother keeps saying I should just not go on my PC at all on one weekday so that I’m having a complete break from projects to actually spend time doing the other things I enjoy. My dad reckons instead that I should get off of my PC when he comes home from work to sort of use that as a schedule, like the working day is over now, so switch off and relax. It’s not as easy as that though x3
“so you're happy with your efforts and also in general content with your work versus personal life balance"
That’s where I really struggle, haha. Because it seems like no matter how much or how little I get done on my projects, I never feel satisfied that I’ve done enough, so then I feel like I don’t deserve time to relax or do other things >.< It’s something I’m trying much harder this year to work on though :3 And hearing what you’ve said definitely helps a lot! I definitely need to keep your words in mind the next time I’m sitting here beating myself up about not doing enough.
Thank you again and I hope your week is going well so far :3
i really love this game and it really is interesting but jesus i hate this text sound it's so damn loud and no matter what i do it's stays sooo loud it really was a torture to klick though the dialogue
Glad you like it, but that's weird about the sound cos there isn't supposed to be a sound for clicking through text >.< I didn't put one there, and I never encountered one while testing, so some sort of bug must've occurred in your playthrough >.< I'll try and look into it, but if I can't replicate it on my end or find what caused it, I probably won't be able to fix it :(
I know a couple of others had a weird SFX bug where a loud SFX played when pressing spacebar to advance text, which wasn't supposed to happen, and reducing SFX volume in the settings didn't change the volume of the bugged effect, so I'm wondering if it's the same issue! It's really strange cos I can't get it to do that on my copy >.< and others who reported it said that it stopped on its own when they saved and reloaded a file or quit and restarted the game. So it's a pretty strange one >.< I'm wondering if it has something to do with spacebar key bindings or something, cos everyone who reported it was using spacebar to advance text rather than mouse click or scroll wheel. Whatever it is, I'm hoping I'll be able to fix it somehow anyways!
This isn't really related to the game, the game looks really good and I'm interested in playing it, but I have a quick question. Is the logo or the name inspired by Set It Off? It might just be me but I figured I'd ask, thank you
The name is mainly cos I really love alliteration and try to make as many of my project titles as possible include it if I can x3 With this one being a dating sim focusing on the theme of duality, I figured it would be a decent title :D Duality is something I've been interested in for a long time cos it plays a big part in my own life. Heck, I even have tattoos that represent the concept of duality it's that important to me x3
With the logo though, I knew I had to get the black and white in there, buuuut, I do like a lot of Set it Off songs, and so I've seen their duality diamond! So maybe that subconsciously influenced the use of a diamond in the logo! :o Never really thought about it before, but that would make sense, haha. It had to be a shape that I could eventually use in different parts of the UI too, so it's practical. But yeah, I mean, SiO must've been in my brain when I went with that, haha.
Funnily enough though, while there are a few songs on SiO's Duality album that I love, I don't like the song they did with that title, haha. Elsewhere is probably their first album I'm happy to not skip a track or two on!
I really love this game a lot! First time I find a V/N of yandere characters that has left me so hooked! I really liked how Castor changes from hyper mega sweet cuteness to yandere obsessive! I will be patiently waiting for the full game (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
First off: This game is absolutely fantastic with the story and the voice acting. You really put the emphasize on "Quality over Quantity" in regards to production and writing, And what's even more surprising that even though this game you're developing is not finished yet, People still love it to death here. I can't wait to see the final product of this golden game will be like. So well done, You're making people happy
Second off: I have not seen you mention or anybody else asking about suggestions in regards to the story/Lore of the game so I wanted to know if you would be willing to listen and consider potential plot points you could add the game. Because I have a few ideas I would like to suggest to you
I'm glad you think so :3 The original jam version was pretty rushed since I only had 1 month to make it from scratch x3 which is why I went back and polished a lot of it much later on with improving the UI and stuff while adding some small additions and tweaks to the existing content.
Honestly, it's still beyond surprising for me too that the project has received so much love! I think I likely owe much of that to Manly for shining a light on it in the first place :3 Because, before that video, it didn't really have much in the way of views or downloads. As with all of my games, people probably wouldn't know any of them exist if not for word of mouth because I find social media super stressful, and so it's nigh impossible for me to actually promote the stuff I make >.< The strange thing is though, itch.io's analytics show that many of the people who play and enjoy DD don't go on to check out my other stuff for some reason, which has always baffled me, especially considering that I personally reckon both Limbo Line and Bitter/Sweet are better than DD is x3 Heck, Dawn of the Damned is related to DD with it showing the backstory of some of the characters yet to be added, but that has practically no downloads in comparison even though I posted that they're linked, haha.
Actually, I hate to say it, but I'm kind of drowning in suggestions and feedback at this point xD That's not to say I'm not happy to listen to more because I always am :3 Admittedly, I do have some concerns though when it comes to that sort of thing, but you'll have to bear with me as I clumsily try to explain myself on that front, haha. I can be extremely rambly, so I can only apologise for that T_T A lot of it probably won't even apply to you or what you want to suggest, but it's stuff I feel like I need to get off of my chest in general and may copy to create a post at some point that acts as a sort of explanation I can potentially point to in the future as a way to respond faster rather than covering stuff I've already been over in the past.
The TLDR version would be something like, I don't mind suggestions at all, but whether or not I can take them on board often depends on what aspect of things they're related to.
Actually implementing stuff that's suggested to me is often impractical due to a mixture of differing reasons, such as my skillset not being up to it, clashes with what I already have written or planned but that isn't currently in the demo, or lack of funds. Or more simply, I had already planned to do something similar to a suggestion anyways. There may not be much playable content yet, but there's a fair amount of writing already complete, and I know where I want to go with the overall story, as well as with several character routes.
The proper explanation is as follows.
Sooo, the biggest problem that I have with suggestions is that a lot of stuff is repeated because it's difficult for anyone to locate or find out what's already been suggested and discussed previously due to some of it being long buried in the comments on the game page, and some of it being through private conversations over email or Discord >.<
Now, I could attempt to solve that issue by creating some sort of list that groups everything together in one place and putting a link to that on the game page, BUT, I've found that more often than not, the information on the game page isn't always read before posts are made or messages sent, and that's understandable because there's already a lot of information there as it is and I can't imagine people want to go trudging through it all. But the fact remains that making a list would more than likely wind up being a waste of time, and I'd still end up repeating myself over and over trying to respond to everything x3
And the second biggest thing kinda ties in with the first, and that's that a lot of the suggestions I've received so far are things I was planning to include anyways, but haven't had a chance to yet x3 or things that I just physically wouldn't be able to because my skillset wouldn't allow for it.
But there's more >.<
One big part of the problem is that I don't think everyone who's interested in the project understands that Castor/ia is just one character in the game out of (hopefully) a cast of other characters. This isn't Castor/ia's story alone. It's just that, as I mentioned earlier, the project was originally started for a game jam with a 1-month time limit, and so I was conscious of that and tried to create something that was a complete story in itself, but that I could also continue to work on at some point and expand.
That's why in the updated demo, I added a tiiiny bit more to where the original demo left off, to make it clear that the 'endings' of the original jam version of the game, weren't actually proper endings, more like the end of the first part of one character's route, and would continue past that point, branching off in different directions. And I also left a lot of dead ends in there like mentioning the AI and Cana (which I realise now can be quite frustrating to the player >.<) to show that there is more going on than just Castor/ia's route. In reality, my plans for the game include a fair few character routes, and all those choices in the beginning that currently don't lead anywhere in the demo are just some of the choices that will start you off on other routes for characters that haven't been introduced yet.
Because I haven't revealed much about the lore of the world the game is set in (and I can't really do so without a bunch of spoilers) it means that a lot of suggestions and feedback are immediately moot just on the basis that the people giving the suggestions don't have all the same information that I do >.<For example, a lot of people have said that X or Y doesn't make sense in the context of Castor/ia's story, or that X or Y doesn't appear to have relevance to Castor/ia's story. And these are often things that I've already accounted for in my completed writing or notes, but that aren't part of the game yet. So I find myself continuously explaining to people that X or Y will make sense eventually x3
The full story is nowhere near fully written, but the next segment of it continuing Castor/ia's story and beginning Cana's is, and a few trusted friends and acquaintances have looked over the script and provided their honest thoughts and feedback on it, which has been immensely helpful :3 I also post certain things to Patreon and Ko-Fi for supporters to vote on when anything like that comes up in development and I'm struggling to make a decision by myself, but they're mainly aesthetic decisions, such as the hairstyle of female Cana's sprite.
And even more... (sorry T_T)
The attention the project received after Manly's video has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, the positivity and overall support has been incredible, and I can't thank everyone enough for playing through what little there is of the game so far, taking the time to type up kind comments, and even donating towards the project's development :3 But at the same time, the sheer level of expectation that has arisen for the project as a result has also been the source of quite a bit of stress. Sometimes to the point that I almost wish I never made it in the first place >.<
Most of the negativity is confined to my dev inbox, so while it mainly looks like sunshine and rainbows over here on the game page, that isn't the whole truth x3 But it's not people hating on the project for various reasons that gets me down because I know by now to ignore hateful comments that aren't in any way constructive. My biggest demotivator is a small number of players who actually like the project, but who take it upon themselves to make demands of me or pressure me to work faster on it. I've had people demand that X or Y is in the game because they want it to be and they donated $5 towards the project, so somehow, by their logic, that means I should have to do as they say >.<
Sometimes it feels like people forget that I'm just one person working on making video games as a hobby >.<No one's paying me to do this.
Of course, I'm beyond grateful for any donations that I receive towards development because, without that support, I wouldn't be able to include things like voice acting and CGs (and the project would be worse in general), but it doesn't change the fact that I'm human, not a machine, and I have a life outside of game dev.
Donations make it possible for me to get a little closer to realising the vision I have for the project, but it's not a form of income. I make games because I enjoy doing it. As nice as it would be to be able to earn a living doing something I love, at this point, I don't feel as though it's something that will ever happen for me for a number of reasons I've discussed at length in older posts, and I've made peace with that. If it reaches a point where I'm no longer in love with doing it, then I'll take a big break from it or just stop completely >.< I sincerely hope that never happens because it's really not a hobby that I want to ever fall out of love with, but some days when things get too much, it does feel like leaving it all behind would be the easier option.
So yeah, expectation is a funny thing. When people are patient and supportive, it's something that can motivate and inspire meto keep going and work even harder :3 but on the flip side, when it comes at me in a more aggressive, negative form, it can be absolutely crippling. I find it far easier to work on jam games because there is little to no expectation.
Heck, I didn't think I'd ever have the opportunity to even expand on this project outside of the jam I originally made it for even though I really wanted to, just because of stuff like the cost of voice acting. Those who voiced what's currently there did so out of the kindness of their hearts because it was for a jam. I knew I'd never be able to afford to have them back in a million years because I don't have much money myself. And since getting voice acting into my projects is a massive motivator for me, I had accepted that I'd likely have to leave things as they were at the end of the jam because I didn't really want to work on a full-length version of the game if it wasn't going to have voice acting.
Of course, that changed once the project got more attention and support, but at the same time, has also created an entirely new dilemma in that the period of time between the game being released for the jam and the game actually becoming somewhat known (and gaining support as a result) was pretty big, meaning that even after getting some funding together, the voice actors involved in the project at the time have moved onto other things and aren't necessarily interested in reprising their roles. That's something which is looking more and more likely, though not certain. But whatever happens, it's something that's out of my control >.< That's just one of the many problems you can end up with if you start something but don't have the funds to finish it the way you'd like.
I was joking with a friend the other day that game dev is an odd hobby to have because sometimes you end up with strangers essentially shouting over your shoulder that you should work faster, or that they don't like X part and it should be more like Y. Or that they think X should be included here and Y there. But that wouldn't happen with a lot of other hobbies x3 Like with my mum's cross stitching, or my dad's bird watching, haha. Again though, there's plenty of positive stuff too :3 It's just sometimes the negative voices are the ones that shout louder >.< and that's when it's not fun anymore.
Anyways, I'm gonna wind up going completely off track in a minute, so I will try to curtail this essay x3
As I said, I don't mind listening to suggestions at all, I just can't make any promises because, at the end of the day, this is a hobby. I didn't set out to make these games for anyone in particular, and I'd never be as foolish enough to try and please people either because that would just be a road that leads to misery and disaster since you can't please everyone.
So all I can do is keep trying to do the things I enjoy, and if other people end up coming across the stuff I release into the wild and they enjoy it too, then that's the best bonus to a hobby that I could ever hope for :3
Also, I realise that trying to read long posts like this with the font on this page is kinda difficult >.< I'm gonna try and change the font to something more readable when I get a chance, but I have to go now and make dinner, so that's a job I need to remember to do later x3
I must admit, I didn't expect the video and popularity that Manly got for this game could've ended up as both a positive and negative effect. Thanks for telling me that, I learned something new now
And don't worry about the expectations of you with regards, Although I may not you know personally or your friends working with you, I trust you all have it all figured and planned and with this, It's all going to end up good in the end
So there was people who donate a bit of money to you along with saying "add this into game" as a demand. I am surprised to hear that as happened but don't worry, I'm not going to act like that and say something like "add this to game right now because it sounds good". Instead I just want to give you a few ideas I had in mind and you can entirely decide if you want to add or refuse them. I'll be alright with either choice you make.
So I would like you to give you my ideas through discord has I had seen you mention it. Do you perhaps have a server for this or do you want to give your tag and I can give you my ideas there?
Or if you want me to say them here on this comment section, I'll be perfectly okay with that
Neither did I, haha. It was all so incredible in the beginning cos it started out as 100% positivity, but I suppose it was inevitable that with more attention, it was gonna end up attacked at some point by people who don't like it >.< Sometimes it's for the strangest reasons too! For example, I've had people have a go at me just because there are pronoun choices. Or because you can choose Castor instead of Castoria. I don't really get why anyone would get so angry at there essentially being more choice and inclusiveness in a game x3 If you don't like the other pronouns, or you only want to pick Castoria and never Castor, then you can... No one is forcing the options, so if you don't want them, just ignore them. At least that would be my logic, haha.
To be honest, when I started out making my first game, I never imagined in a million years that I'd end up getting hate mail of any kind o.O I kinda didn't think anyone would even find or play my games really, haha.
It's up to you if you're comfortable posting your ideas here or if you'd prefer to email them to me (melancholicmarionette@gmail.com). I am also on discord, but I find it a lot easier to respond to stuff here on itch or by email cos of the character limits on Discord and my inability to condense my rambling >.<
Whichever you end up doing, just know that it might take me quite a while to get back to you >.< I try my best to be as fast I can with responding to first-time messages and questions, but after that, I usually try and start responding to stuff in date order, and because I fell so far behind on that sort of thing while my arm was broken, I'm struggling to catch up again on replies atm. I just wouldn't want you to send something and then not hear from me for ages and think I'm ignoring you is all, cos that absolutely isn't the case >.< I'm just a bit in over my head right now and will reply when I can :3 For reference, it might wind up being around 2-3 months >.<
Youch, I mean I didn't notice any updates for quite a long time to say the least. Whatever the case though, I hope you do well, if it so happens that completing the game becomes an impossible task, spare yourself from the futile effort.
I don't know if you happen to have read through another recent comment of mine, (my reply to 'Duck Tear Popper' just below these ones to 'They took my name') but that goes into a lot more detail about the actual reasons why I haven't been able to make much progress on this or any of my other projects recently x3
The TLDR version though is that I was very ill back in December last year, then I was working on Yandere Jam back in February this year once I was finally better, then someone broke my arm back in March this year, and then when the cast came off at the end of April, I've been playing catchup on my inbox all through May/June. + my IRL responsibilities have increased and I have less time in general to jump on my PC and work on stuff >.<
The biggest problem now is there's just never being enough time in a day to do everything I have to/want to do, haha.
Unless I happen to randomly pop my clogs or something, I should be able to complete DD eventually x3 Whether or not it's to the standard I had hoped is another matter! And whether or not I will be able to include everything I hope to still remains to be seen, but I should be able to complete it in some form at least. It's just gonna take a heck of a lot of time.
I think it took me around 3 years to make my first-ever game to completion because I was an idiot and tried to make a full-length game for my first project >.< And if I can make DD the way I hope to make it, it should be longer than SR! I can't remember if it was 2016 or 2017 that I started SR, but I eventually released it in June 2020. Everything else I've finished since then has been much shorter jam game projects.
Heck, I have the writing for another full-length project (CiQ) finished a long time ago >.< but ran into funding problems with that for voice acting + art so actually getting all the coding done for it has been on hold for a couple of years. A biiiig part of me wants to finish that before working on DD more because it makes the most sense with the story already being fully written + with me starting it before DD as well. I feel like a lot of people might get mad at me if I did that though because it seems like DD is the most popular of my projects >.< I do hope to eventually complete both of them though cos it would be a huuuuge waste of the roughly 125k words already written for CiQ.
Anyways, I appreciate the well-wishes :3 And I intend to keep going with all of my projects for as long as I can ^-^ even if I can only go at snail speed x3
Unfortunately, I can't really give much of a solid date for anything because I've had a couple of pretty big setbacks in the last 6 months that have meant not really getting to work on anything at all other than the thing my friend and I managed to submit to Yandere Jam earlier this year. Aside from that, I've essentially made 0 progress with my other projects >.< Aaaand, I have less time nowadays in general to work on things for a number of reasons.
But yeah, after I released the most recent update in November last year, all I've been able to do since then is commission LPB for the first lot of CGs, which she's currently working on :3 I personally haven't been able to touch the project though.
In December, I caught some kind of nasty superbug that knocked me for six until mid-January. So I spent all of Christmas ill. When I was finally well enough to go out again in mid-January, I had to meet some friends and family that I hadn't been able to see over Christmas. I just about managed to get back on my PC during February in time to team up with LPB and make Bitter/Sweet for Yandere Jam 2023. Once that ended at the end of Feb, I began trying to catch up on my inbox, but in the first week of March, a dude on an e-scooter crashed into me while I was walking to an appointment in town, the result was me winding up with a broken arm (and my dominant one at that >.<) So my arm had to have a cast put on and I was told to rest and wait for it to heal. In that time, I couldn't really use it to do anything, so I was completely off of my PC for almost 2 months waiting for it to heal up. I couldn't even hold my phone or a controller or anything properly in order to try and stay on top of my inbox or play any games.
I finally got to take the cast off at the end of April and start doing more serious physio, and once back on my PC and able to type again, I began trying to catch up on my replies. I pretty much spent the entirety of May responding to messages and stuff from a mixture of friends and people who had recently discovered my games and gotten in touch. Now we're into June and I still haven't managed to finish typing up replies to everyone >.<
I'm almost caught up with itch aside from a few older comments which I need to go hunting for because I can no longer easily access them from notifications. But I'm still waaaay behind on emails and discord dms, same goes for anything on tumblr. I have some longer messages from all the way back in December that I still haven't managed to get a response typed up to yet because they're part of long conversations where I need a couple of days to actually get the entire thing finished.
Honestly, I'm not even sure how to cope at this point x3 I was already struggling before my arm got broken. Being forced to spend so much time away from my PC has just meant that things have piled up even more. But even without that, I'm frequently overwhelmed by everything I'm trying to juggle, haha.
I don't want to start ignoring comments and messages and stuff because it would just feel so wrong. I've always thought that if a person has taken the time to check my stuff out and then cared enough to sit and type out a message of some sort, then the least I can do as thanks is reply. I'd never want anyone to contact me and then not hear back ever >.< I want to be able to show that I appreciate the support.
The dilemma is that, the longer I spend typing up replies, the less time I have to work on the projects themselves. And since I'm just one person, I can't do both at once x3 I dunno, maybe people wouldn't really care all that much if they never got a response from me? But even if it didn't bother them, it would bother me >.< I've always tried my best to reply to everything.
And even if I were to start ignoring all comments and messages related to my projects, that still wouldn't change the fact that I struggle to keep on top of replying to my friends over discord and email x3 It's become a running joke now with some of my friends that being friends with me is more like having a penpal because they have to wait a few months to hear back from me >.< Which is okay as long as they're cool with that, but I don't want it to get to the point that I wind up losing some of the friendships I have because I can't manage to stay in contact consistently :(
Aaaaand, then we come to the fact that these days, I sometimes don't get much more than an hour or two on my PC, which isn't really enough to achieve much >.< I really need entire days to myself without any interruptions to be able to get decent progress made. Days like that are rarer now though. I've essentially become my brother's carer even though I can barely look after myself x3 He has a lot of physical and mental health problems, so he has quite a lot of appointments and such to go to. My dad used to be able to afford to either take a morning off to take him or finish work early to, but he can't afford to do that nowadays with the cost of everything skyrocketing. He needs to work every hour that he can >.< So on top of the usual household chores that I do, I now have to take my brother to all of his appointments as well, which can take up the entire day sometimes because I don't have my own car (can't afford one), my brother refuses to use public transport, and so we have to walk to them, and they're all over an hour's walk away x3
Sooo, yeah, I'm in a state where I'm just constantly knackered pretty much, haha. And I've learned to stop setting myself schedules and timed goals because life keeps throwing so many things at me lately that it just got increasingly frustrating to repeatedly fail at all the targets I set myself. It's easier to just try and do what I can - when I can, and that way I beat myself up a little less for not achieving as much as I would like x3
At the end of 2022, my plan for 2023 was to release an episode of Masked Marionette every couple of months, with the first being at the end of Feb/start of March, then the next at the end of April, and then a few bigger gaps. Alongside that, I hoped to participate in Yandere Jam, O2A2 Jam, and Spooktober VN Jam. And I wanted to get at least 1, but hopefully 2 updates out for DD, along with hopefully some coding progress on CiQ.
Well, all that I've managed to do so far this year is participate in Yandere Jam >.< I don't know if I'll have the time to dedicate to the other two. I really, really hope so. I haven't got a single episode of Masked Marionette out though. And 0 progress on both DD and CiQ.
Everything is on hold for June because I'm participating in 30 Days Wild again since nature is extremely important to me and the UK is going down the shitter with our government not giving a crap about the environment or the wildlife that lives in it >.<
So it'll be July before I get back into proper project work again. But even then, I'll probably only get a few hours a day that I can work on anything rather than the 7+ hours a day that I used to have. And the summer is always my least productive time of year because the heat and bright sunlight never fail to make me ill each year.
At this rate, I don't anticipate me managing to get an update out for DD this year because while everything I wanted to include in it is already written, only a tiny fraction of it is actually coded so far, and I've still got the voice acting problems to sort out. Maybe a miracle of some sort will happen and I'll manage to make some good progress with it, but I really don't want to make any promises or set myself targets because I will more than likely keep running into setbacks that will hurt if I'm telling myself I have to get X done by X date.
Right now, most of my days look like this:
Get up, eat breakfast. Do physio and other exercise for an hour (I put on a full stone in weight while I was recovering from my broken arm, so I need to do an hour's exercise minimum now to try and lose it again, as I have hypothyroidism and put weight on crazy fast when I can't workout >.<) Do household chores (sometimes this might mean going out to get parts of our food shopping for the week, and since it means going to multiple shops by foot, sometimes it takes 3 hours+ >.<) Have lunch (at like 3pm >.<”) Finish any other chores that need doing or appointments my brother needs to go to PC time – get replies typed up for a couple of hours Cook dinner for my family Eat dinner and watch an episode or two of something Make any preparations for the next day that need doing, try and get a few more replies done if I have the energy Collapse into bed
That's not what my days used to look like xD I used to: Get up, eat, go on my PC to do a couple of hours of work on projects Pause for exercise (but only like 30 mins workout cos I didn't need to lose weight) Do any chores that needed doing (generally less time spent on that cos there was less to do as my dad and I shared them) Go on my PC again for around 3-5 hours to do a mixture of project work + replies. Cook dinner (sometimes my dad did that too, which would mean more time to work on stuff for me, nowadays, I cook every night cos my dad is too exhausted from work) Eat dinner and watch an ep of something Go back on my PC for another hour or so. My dad would head to bed, then I would go back on my PC again until like 3-5am working on stuff again.
But now I'm too tired from having been running around all day doing chores or taking my brother to appointments, so come 11pm, I'm also exhausted and go to bed at the same time my dad does >.< And, of course, with my depression and stuff, sometimes I just don't feel capable of doing anything at all in a day, even feeding myself.
Heck, before I moved back in with my family after the pandemic, I was living with my friend, and I used to just get up at 7am every day when his alarm went off, shower, and start working on stuff, didn't even exercise or break for lunch. Cooked dinner, ate it, went straight back to working on stuff until like 3am. Then my friend and I would just kinda blitz the housework on a weekend after like a month or more of not having done any xD
That would not fly with my dad, haha. I keep on top of it at home for his sanity. And I know that if I left it, rather than asking me to do it, he would just seeth silently inside and do it himself, and then I'd feel awful because he doesn't deserve that when he's up at 5am every day, breaking his back at work, and then too tired to do anything when he finally gets home at 6pm, all to keep a roof over our heads because both of his children are too mentally crippled to actually get a normal job and help support the household >.<
My dad is extremely sweet and doesn't mind me being slower on housework and stuff when I want to work on a jam since he understands they generally involve quite a tight deadline, but once a jam is over, things are back to normal again, and I generally have a lot of catching up to do as well since I will have neglected so much while the jam was running.
I still don't even give myself more than an hour or two per week to actually play games because I know I can't afford to if I wanna get anywhere with my replies and with my project progress x3 and so my backlog of stuff I really hope to play someday continues to grow, haha.
I realise that was a waaaaay longer answer than was needed x3 I just can't be concise >.< and this is one of the reasons why I get behind on my messages and stuff xD Cos if someone types me 1 sentence, 99.9% of the time I will type back a paragraph or more, haha. So you can imagine what happens if people type me a few paragraphs... I then type back with an essay x3 I'm gonna blame that on my autism cos I dunno what else would cause me to be incapable of stopping rambling and oversharing on stuff >.<
Anyways, I also realise it's not a very helpful answer either! More just one giant explanation of why things haven't been going particularly smoothly. But that's all I've got. It is what it is. I just have to keep going and hope that I eventually get somewhere.
First of all, thanks for the extremely long reply. I sure wasn't expecting an essay of a reply! Second of all, it's really admirable of you to do all the stuff that you mentioned, especially the part about taking your brother to his appointments on top of working on your games. It took me a while to read all of that but I did it haha.
After reading all of that, I kinda feel bad for asking in the first place. It's just that DD is the game that I'm the most interested in seeing get finished and it's the game that made me discover you and your other works. Don't mind me though, just take your time on DD and your other projects because I too have depression and I know how difficult it can be to deal with sometimes. I take anti-depressants and honestly, I don't know if I could function properly in life without them.
No worries, and sorry about the length x3 I really struggle to condense the stuff I type, especially when I'm trying to explain things, haha. But at least I suppose I can copy/paste some of what I wrote if I need to for future queries or anything rather than typing out another essay :D
You don't need to feel bad for asking anyways x3 It's understandable that you'd want to know because it has been a heck of a long time without any updates. But the only reason I haven't posted anything about development is cos there hasn't been any progress, haha.
Actually, you saying that DD is the game that you're most interested in seeing get finished reminds me of another point that I forgot to mention in my essay xD The fact that even though I do want to work on the game and eventually finish it, there are other projects that I've prioritised over DD purely based on doing what I want to do the most. For example, I didn't have to participate in Spooktober VN Jam and make 2 games for that, and I didn't have to mess around creating the Masked Marionette afterwards, same as I didn't have to participate in this year's Yandere jam either x3 All of those things combined are a pretty significant number of hours sunk into other stuff that is time I could have used to work on DD instead. But I didn't because I wanted to do all that other stuff more >.<
So it's not just being busy with IRL stuff, having some unfortunate setbacks, and spending a lot of time trying to catch up on replies. It's also a choice I made to focus my energy and time on other things. But when you add all of it together, it = almost no progress made on DD.
Tbh, I'm thinking maybe after I do eventually finish DD and CiQ, I might not start any more long-term projects because it's just so much harder to get stuff done compared to smaller, shorter jam games.
I do want to work on DD though :3 It's just not always my highest priority so I'm gonna be like a snail x3
That sucks that you have depression too :( I wouldn't wish it on anyone! But if the antidepressants are helping at least a little bit, then that's good I guess :3 I once had a friend who couldn't live without them, and they really helped him a lot to cope with his anxiety and depression. What helped him the most though was a complete lifestyle change cos he was extremely unhappy in his job, which was one of the major causes of his depression. He eventually decided to move back in with his parents so that he could save up and start his own business instead. I still haven't found an antidepressant that actually works for me >.< So far, all the ones I've tried have just given me awful side effects without really helping at all!
There's no shame in having to take them though. Life can be really hard >.< You have to do whatever you can and take any help you can get to keep going :3
Wow XD i played both endings and i really enjoyed it! The story is so enthralling and the art work is just beautiful! I'll definitely be back for the full release!
Thanks so much for checking it out and leaving such a sweet comment! Super glad you had fun with what's there so far in the demo ^-^
Unfortunately, it's going to be quite a while until the proper full release cos stuff keeps happening that results in me not getting to work much on the project (plus the fact that there's a heck of a lot I wanna add to make it a full-length game doesn't help x3) but with any luck, I'll get there in the end :3
I'll be updating it sort of episodically whenever I have something significant finished to add at least anyhow, whether that be the next part of an existing character's route or adding the start of a new character's route! Still don't know if the next update I do will just be adding the CGs that are currently in-progress for the existing demo content, or whether to wait on adding those on their own until I have more new content to add along with them >.<
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Hello!!!! i'm a new player!! i just finish playing the demo! this game is one of the most favorite VN i ever played in my live!! I loveeeeeeeee Castor so muchhhhhhh!! Can't wait for more update/content!!! ♪(^∇^*)
Hey hey! Sorry I'm so late to respond >.< I got really overwhelmed with stuff lately :( But that's fantastic to hear! :D I'm so glad that you enjoyed the demo :3
Sadly, progress with this project is pretty slow, but I'm hoping to have the opportunity to work on it some more in 2024!
Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out :3 I hope you get to have happy holidays!!
Oh dear!!!! i hope you feel alright!! dont push yourself too hard!!! :( （づ￣3￣）づ╭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️～ HAVE MY LOVE!!!
Hello, I need some help. I'm trying to download this game, but everytime I try, it says removed. And when I finally get to download it, I can't open the zipped files, it says failed. I have many storage and good internet. What should I do?
That sounds very strange >.< It’s not an issue I’ve ever come across on itch before, but it must be something weird going on with the website on your end because I can download and unzip the files just fine on my computer :( They’ve never been removed or anything.
Your best bet is probably to contact itch.io themselves because I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it on my end >.<
You could tell them the same thing you wrote here + let them know that the dev said there’s nothing wrong with the files.
Their email address is: support@itch.io I think.
I hope they manage to fix it for you :3
Okay, thanks! (^-^)
Played the original a year-ish ago. I can't tell you how exciting it was to look back over it due to a little bit of nostalgia only to find that it's got a full project now!
Castor/ia has certainly won my heart over, so I very much look forward to seeing how it all turns out!
Quick Edit: And I don't mean just excitement for that one character of course, but the others you've got in store as well.
Aww, thanks so much for returning to the project to check it out again :3 I’m really glad you like it so far!
Unfortunately, it’s going to take me a looooong time to actually get the entire project finished for a whole bunch of reasons (gonna make a proper post about it soon so I can’t explain everything x3) but it’ll get there in the end, haha.
Thank you so much for the support :3
Oops! All of this time, I was calling it Winulator, but that's a different Windows emulator for old games, and I got them mixed up. It's actually called Winlator. XD So sorry about that!
I finally managed to play this game on an app called Winulator! I think it's a new app, and, though the text moves slowly, I can play it from beggining to end, and the sound works perfectly! l can't believe I almost missed out on this game; it is amazing! Magnificent, even! I hope I can play your other games on Winulator as well. I'm just so happy right now!
:o Hooooly moly, that's so cool! I'll have to check it out myself, haha. So glad you found a way to make it happen though :3 I'll have to let some of my friends know about it cos they wanna be supportive and check out my stuff, but they only have android phones for gaming, and I'm still faaaar too incompetent to get android builds working >.< haha.
I don't suppose changing the text speed to instant or something would help with the slow text issue? :o I know it'd mess up the expression change timings, but I guess it depends if the slow text is annoying or not x3
I'm really glad you were able to play the demo in some form though :3 And thanks for sticking around to try and play it even though I wasn't able to get a solution to you! I'd be very interested to know if it can play the latest project I worked on, haha. Heck, even my dad has wanted to check out my stuff to see wtf I've been making, but he only has an android phone and an iPad xD
If you tell your friends about Winulator, tell them to use the graphics driver called LLVMpipe, otherwise, the game might not work. They should also probably try Winulator 1.1 first, because I haven't tried the newest version yet, and I don't know what games it can play. Also use the dx components called 'native windows'. I think it's better.
Here is where to get it:
https://github.com/brunodev85/Winlator/releases
And here is the explanation of how to install it: https://github.com/brunodev85/winlator
Changing the text speed might help, but I think Yandere Heaven might need it more, especially when it switches to 'manga mode'.
I have downloaded Tunnel Vision, but I am still playing Yandere Heaven. I could try playing it now though.
It's so strange, though; your games are the only ones that work so far on Winulator. I can play the very beginning of Blank by maneki_mushi, but then it freezes, and I can't continue. And I can't even get passed the loading screen of Curse Torn by puma, because the game crashes. You must be doing something right with your games.
One last thing: Winulator needs A LOT of storage space. At least 2 or 3 gigabyte to install the obb image, and 500 mb to make a 'container' to run and manage your game.
I actually deleted 4 gigabyte to install the obb imag, but I had some space left over, so use your own judgement to decide how much storage space to use.
I forgot the name of Castor's voice actor, but he is SO talented! If you can, tell him Tatiana says that he sounds really cute. That's my name, by the way.
Cheers for all the info, and no worries on the slightly wrong name :3 maybe the people who made it shouldn’t have made the name so similar xD
That is weird though if my games work but Blank didn’t because, as far as I remember, Maneki Mushi used Naninovel & Unity same as me for that project, so I dunno why mine would work and that one wouldn’t >.< No idea about Curse Torn and what engine it was made with, but that’s still really odd :o
I don’t exactly do anything special when I build my games x3 It’s kinda just all handled by Unity when I ask it to throw out a build for me, haha.
Understandable that it needs a lot of space! That might be a bit of an issue for some of my friends cos they have quite old devices, but we shall see x3
Kevin is indeed extremely talented, and I would happily pass on your lovely comment to him, but I’ve never actually had contact with him myself >.< This is the only project of mine where I wasn’t in charge of casting x3 So I have no way of contacting either of the VAs on the project cos that was all handled by a friend of mine who was voice director at the time :( Tatiana is an awesome name btw!! :3
Blank did seem to have similar assets to your game, including MonoBleedingEdge. I tried every graphics driver, including 'Turnip + Zink' which doesn't usually work, anyway, switched the dx components to Wine instead of Windows, but it still freezes right when the 'shadow' zooms into the screen so you can talk to it.
Cursetorn is made with Unity as well, so I'm completely puzzled as to what could be wrong. Maybe some asset messed up, but I don't know why.
Those are the only two other games I wanted to play besides yours, and I am so disappointed.
I have an android 11, and I still had to delete a lot of games, including one gb games like Our Life Beginnings and Always, and Dandelion Wishes Brought To You, as well as Club Suicide, a 4 gb game, and your other game, Solipsism Reigns, which is like 4 gb if I remember correctly, so I wish your friends good luck.
That is completely understandable! I'm sure that others have told him how talented he is as well, so it's perfectly fine.
Thank you so much! I'm sure that you have a beautiful name too!
Yeah, I don’t even know what the MonoBleedingEdge thing is tbh but it exports with every single Unity game I’ve made x3 That is really weird though cos with Blank having less in total assets, you would’ve thought that it would have a higher chance of running more smoothly!
Turns out my friends don’t actually want to try it cos they said it sounds too complicated and confusing x3 So I guess they’ll never know, haha.
Oh, trust me, my name is awful xD My own dad didn’t even like it and wanted to call me something completely different, but my mum got her way on naming me and said my dad could name my brother instead as a compromise x3
IM PRETTY SHOCKED THAT URE THE SAME CREATOR THAT MADE YANDERE HEAVEN xD i really love that game!! AND I'M VERY EXCITED FOR THE FULL RELEASE!! ill come back every year to check this game out =D
REALLY?? I also love Yandere Heaven, this game is so good! I cant wait for the full game
Oh, man, your avatar is so adorable, I can't stop looking at it xD So glad to hear you liked Yandere Heaven! And this one too :3
If you're a fan of yandere characters in general, feel free to check out my other projects cos practically all of em (apart from The Graveyard Shift which is just horror/comedy/mystery) feature at least 1 yandere of some sort, haha.
Thanks, its a chibi version of Ina from Hololive that Ina herself commission for an April Fool day, I think it was 2021 and totally, I just love yanderes.
Hehe x3 Well, I'm really glad you like Yandere Heaven cos it seems like that particular project is like Marmite xD I'm really grateful to have gotten so many kind comments about it, but at the same time, it's the one that's netted me the most hate >.<
If you're a yandere fan in general though, pretty much all of my games feature at least 1 yandere character of some sort :D Some of em are on the sweeter side, some more sinister, and others more platonic!
If you're interested in the backstory of some of the other characters that will be added to this project sometime in the future, feel free to check out Dawn of the Damned :3
And thanks for playing this one too <3
your welcome and im defo checking out dawn of the damned !! , after checking out all the games that uve made, i realised that ive played almost all of them!! can pretty much say im a big fan of u now xD ily for always curing me with ur games during my bad days :33333
Ahh, haha, well, that’s awesome :D Thanks so much for playing so many of my projects ^-^
And thank YOU cos reading lovely comments like yours always cheers me up when I’m having a bad day myself :3
Demo review: This looks interesting and I'll come back when it is fully released.
However, I can't really get into the demo. It's constantly telling me about features then saying 'This isn't available in the demo.' including that my actions won't influence the chapter in the demo. Then the first choice I made it said 'This isn't available in the demo'.
I feel like it'd be better to just not show all those parts at this point because it makes it look like I'm not going to get ANYTHING in the demo.
I decided to close it at that point because it seems like the demo is just telling me I can't pick choices, my choices wouldn't impact the ending, and it'll spend 5 minutes letting me know all the things I can't do.
The intro was also super long and the transition scene while you're trying to close the game is really slow, so I force closed the game.
I'm sure these will be changed in the real game and I'd have more energy for the slowness if I felt like things would happen for my patience but as it stands it's confusing and not building my appetite.
That’s totally understandable :3 I mean, I personally don’t tend to play demos at all, regardless of the state they’re in, haha. I just find it kind of annoying to only be able to play part of a game knowing I’ll have to play a section again if I play the full release! If I like the look of something, I’ll just wait until it’s finished. There are a couple of reasons why the demo is the way it is, but I’ve spoken about them before in previous comments, so I’ll try not to ramble too much >.<
The first one is that all those dead ends do go somewhere in my working copy, and it was easier to just block players from accessing them than create a separate version with all the branches entirely removed because, at the time, I didn’t have any space left on my hard drive and no alternative devices to create copies/backups on x3
And the second reason was kinda to take some of the pressure to respond to certain things off of myself a bit because a lot of people seemed to be under the impression after seeing Manly’s video of the old jam version of the game that the thing is entirely about Castor/ia, which it isn’t >.< It’s just that, at the time, I was working on the project for a jam that only lasts 1 month, and so I needed to create something that was self-contained enough to submit by the jam deadline while also keeping it open to continue later on.
I was being bombarded with questions about whether or not there was more to come for Castor/ia or if everything in Manly’s video was it. The jam version just didn’t reflect how I intend the project to be overall, so I tried to give a better idea of the direction I hoped to take it in by doing a UI overhaul, showing the beginning of how the personality system works, and showing that there is
A: More to Castor/ia’s story + B: Other branches available that are unrelated to Castor/ia.
I can totally see how it would be annoying to keep getting hit with dead end options though! But for me personally, it has saved me a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again by having the current demo out there x3 If you’re interested in seeing the self-contained version, the original jam version of the game is still available to download on the page for posterity.
Yeah that does make sense, and people knowing the potenital range of the full game is good.
I think being able to differentiate the active and inactive options in the demo might be good. I dunno if it's doable but maybe the text or background colour could be slightly different (while still maintaining a good contrast).
I understand you're balancing a lot of things in doing this though.
RE demo's in general, I have really bad memory so I don't mind playing a demo to get excited because in a few months all I'll know is 'I really want to play this' but not any of what the demo had haha. It works well for replay value and makes it less cumbersome to have just a demo in the meantime.
But some games end up being abandoned and it's sad when both the fans and author get blueballed by whatever situation makes it impossible to finish the game lol
If you are able to make tweaks like I mentioned, I'll try the demo out again, but if not, I'll wait until it's fully ready. So best of luck with the project.
It would be fairly easy to differentiate the options in the current demo now that I have more knowledge about UI and stuff :3 At the time of making the updated demo though, I still didn't know all that much about how Unity UI works >.< There's quite a lot I would change now that I've learned a lot more, haha.
If it weren't such a massive pain in the butt and time-consuming to export and upload builds, I'd make fixes like that and update the demo cos actually making the changes would be fairly quick, but it's so much hassle to make new builds that it's not really worth the stress >.<
Hehe, my brother plays demos repeatedly while waiting for releases! And he binges trailers for everything, whereas I tend not to even watch trailers x3
I mean, this demo is here too early really because the game is nowhere near finished. Unlike my shorter jam projects, this one is a big, long-term thing that will take me years to make.
The only reason it's even labeled as a demo at all is because of the whole thing again of constantly being asked if there will be more story >.< I didn't want people to keep making the assumption that the old upload was all there was ever going to be. At the same time though, I don't want people to expect it to be finished any time soon.
When I made the self-contained version of it for the jam, I had every intention of continuing it at some point, but in a very casual way over a long period of time. I wasn't expecting it to ever get any attention, so I had planned to put it on the back-burner because I knew I likely wouldn't be able to afford to get the rest of it voiced (as the VAs in it were basically doing a favour to the voice director by voicing in it at short notice for the jam). And even now, I don't have anywhere near enough funding to get everything I have planned fully voiced. Not to mention the issue that a heck of a lot of time passed between the initial jam release and the game getting attention, so the VAs involved have moved on to other things and are unlikely to reprise their roles >.<
It also doesn't help that this somehow seems to have become my most popular project, but it's not a priority project for me personally because I have other stuff to finish before I finish this >.< For example, I have an older project than this which is already fully-written and a full-length script like my first ever release. It would be kind of insane for me to work on writing and stuff for this when I already have a finished script for a different project that needs making into a playable game x3
I'll get there with everything eventually, but my progress on projects outside of jams with deadlines is pretty slow cos I'm just one person doing it all as a hobby, haha.
It does suck when stuff gets abandoned. I've backed a few projects in the past on Kickstarter and stuff that never saw the light of day cos the team behind em broke down :(
I'd like to hope that folks here who are interested in this particular project would look at my profile in general and see that I do finish what I've started :3 Life has a habit of getting in the way a lot, so it's gonna take a heck of a long time to get anywhere with a long one like this, but I don't plan to abandon it. I just have other stuff that takes priority like game jams and finishing that other long-term project first x3
Thank you for the luck! I feel like I will need it, haha :3
Wow yeah that's a lot of work. As a non developer, I don't know how hard most of these things are, or at least time consuming, or how many annoying bugs can pop up when you fix one thing. So that's fair.
Yeah sounds like you're doing a lot and it's amazing as a 1 person team. :) haha your brother sounds like my ex, they get reallyyyy into things and binge every available crumb possible for as long as possible. Waiting years for one episode of a series or chapter of a game. Lol It's honestly impressive. I just forget for ages then come back like 'Oh this seems like something I would like. Oh, I did like it, 3 times already apparently. Nice taste, past me!' lol
Yeah if I'm interested in a dev, the first thing I do is look at their profile at anything else they do, I'm sure I'm not alone in that. :D On that note, I've been wanting to play Apartment no 9and bitter sweet for a while! lol
Best of luck with your projects. I wonder if starting multiple games is similar to fabric crafters starting multiple projects and half finishing them. It seems like a general 'creative person' problem, that we have too many ideas and create too many projects for a lifetime. Just kinda funny.
I'll keep checking on progress on your games anyway, I appreciate your in-depth replies, I'm sure feedback can be really nerve wracking and I always appreciate when someone is really open and welcoming of feedback especially as I don't always know if it's going to hit someone on a bad day!
I think it's virtually impossible for players to envision how much time it takes to achieve different things with game dev unless they've dipped their toes into it themselves, haha. Same as I'd have no idea how much time and effort goes into getting an F1 car up and running or something x3 Actually, dealing with bugs as a solo dev is almost as time-consuming as making the games themselves xD It's so hard to test everything and attempt to anticipate how players might behave when you're just one person. And the longer the game or the more branches it has, the harder it gets >.< Add in the fact that everyone is playing on a different setup to you and it just kinda becomes a bit of an impossible task, haha. I do my best, but I don't think I'd ever manage to get my games running 100% smoothly for everyone cos there's always something lurking out there that will go wrong x3
Hehe, weeell, I wouldn't say my brother is quite THAT bad x3 but he is definitely a completionist! He plays most things on Xbox, and he will not discard them until he's unlocked every achievement possible. He'll also go back through a long game just to find 1 tiny thing that he missed. He'd actually be pretty good at playtesting, I imagine! But he won't touch my stuff since it can't possibly be decent if his sister made it T_T
It's cool that you do that, and I always assumed that's what many people do since I'm also the same! But from looking at my project's analytics, I can see that a pretty hefty majority of my followers here on itch dropped in for this project in particular, and haven't even viewed my other ones, let alone downloaded em to check em out xD Which to me is incomprehensible because if I play something I like from a dev, I wanna know everything else they've done since, chances are, I will like at least 1, if not more, of their other projects x3 It makes it feel a bit like DD is a cursed project, haha.
That's extremely interesting to me that you'd be curious about Apartment No.9 as well! It's one of my least-viewed/played projects x3 but I do actually think it's better than DD, haha. Actually, it was the first ever project that I teamed up with people for during a jam!
And Bitter/Sweet is special to me because I got to make it with my good friend Lazy Polar Bear, but also because it's the one closest to home. I tend to stay away from putting too much of myself into projects, but with that one, I decided to see how it would work out. There's still 1 route remaining to add to that project, but the other route is fully playable :3
Thank you very much for the luck! I feel like it's something I could always do with having plenty of x3 Haha, I think you're probably right there about the multiple projects dilemma! I've spoken to many devs over the years who have multiple things on the go at once xD It's like a curse >.< I try to keep it somewhat under control by stopping myself from just starting new things every time an idea comes to me, haha. And I have a priority list atm which looks something like: Try to get an episode of The Masked Marionette out before the end of 2023 - Finish 2nd Bitter/Sweet route for Yandere Jam 2024 - Construct & release Clarity in Qualia before continuing to write for Darling Duality - Continue working on Darling Duality while participating in a limited number of game jams x3 So there's a plan there, haha. It's just one that spans years and is gonna take a long time to complete xD
Oh, yeah, feedback is a tricky beast, haha. It can hit differently at different times depending on your mood and frame of mind. I think genuine constructive feedback like yours is always helpful and appreciated, even if it ends up being something I'm incapable of implementing! What's not helpful is when someone essentially just verbally assaults you with a list of things they dislike and provides no reasoning as to why while also offering no constructive form of doing things differently x3 I think the problem with a lot of feedback that devs get is that often, it's related to the story of the projects they're creating, and unless a dev has specifically asked for feedback on that element, it's more than likely unhelpful and unwanted >.< When it comes to the more technical side of things though, constructive criticism can help make the game much better!
Anyways, thank you for everything you've taken the time to write up so far :3 I genuinely appreciate it when I have the opportunity to engage with people at length like this! Hope you're having a fabulous spooky season so far :D
I won't tell how it is good, i would spoil some things. This is a gem, so better see for yourself.
Trust me, this is really good, so much love and work is in it. Hope the developer knows their work is loved.
@the dev: Please take your time and no pressure. You are doing good stuff here. We let you cook
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That’s so sweet of you to say :3 I really appreciate your kind words a patience <3
Unity is now charging you every time someone installs your game:
https://unity.com/pricing-updates
Looks like it takes effect in December? Still this is awful.
This is another reason I like Ren'py. And I can play Ren'py games on android using the Joiplay app.
If I knew Python, I’d use Ren’Py, but I don’t x3 so I’d have to learn that first, and I did try to years ago and hated it, which is why I wound up using Tyranobuilder, then Naninovel instead T_T
It's okay. I just wish you could either port Darling Duality to Tyranobuilder, or make a web version. But, that's just me being selfish
If I could do it easily, I would x3
A web version would just be extremely laggy and virtually impossible to play, which sucks, cos it would be a much easier thing to do since I can just switch to a web export. But I tried a web version of an even smaller project than this as a test in the past, and it was just unplayable with the lag and stuff >.<
Learning Ren'Py would be the best long-term option, but I just don't know if my brain can take it xD I was almost completely put off of trying to make my first VN when I tried Ren'Py years ago, haha. Just wasn't fun at all to use >.< Well, putting stuff together in Tyrano and Nani hasn't exactly been fun either, it's the part of gamedev I hate the most the programming and such x3 but at least it's bearable for me with Nani, haha.
I've been talking to a friend who uses Ren'Py though, so we might end up teaming up on some stuff in the future :3
I'd be a happy bunny if I didn't have to deal with programming stuff too much, haha. I just wanna write and make soundtracks x3
It is a massive dick move what Unity are planning to do, but afaik, it’s not actually likely to ever impact me from what I understand anyhow. Cos the way my brother explained it when he first told me about it, it sounds like the fees only come into play when you have X number of installs + X number of sales/revenue, and that you have to meet both to get hit with the fees.
I honestly can’t see my projects ever reaching anything close to the cap for installs or revenue, haha. I mean, I have no way of keeping track of installs, but across all my projects across all time, I don’t even have a fraction of the downloads mentioned.
I just checked out their docs on it again, and it seems they’ve updated it even further to not include folks using Unity personal, which is what I use. And the figures say $1,000,000 revenue and 1,000,000 engagements… neither of which I imagine I would reach in my lifetime xD I’m only on 150k downloads across all my projects over all time.
I played many visual novels even the classics but this is my favorite
Aww, that means a heck of a lot! Thank you so much for playing + being so sweet <3
I really love this game a lot I can't wait to see this game complete, There's no much games focused on yanderes out there and it's refreshing to play some of those and with such quality. (Sorry if my english is bad, I speak spanish)
Your English is fantastic! I’d never have guessed it wasn’t your first language :3 I’m so glad you like the game so far even though there’s not much there yet. I’m a big yandere fan myself, which is why most of my games have at least 1 yandere character in 😛
question, Will this game ever be released on Steam? Whenever I try one of those unzipper programs they either contain viruses, are a bit of a rip-off, or just straight scams, Steam is simply easier for me to trust and play games on, though if this game was playable in the itchio browser I'd be pretty thankful :)
You should be able to extract without an unzipper program.
It’s possible it might be in the very far away future, but definitely not anytime soon since Steam charge a $100 fee to add games there >.<
QwanGetMad is right though, you shouldn’t need any kinda dodgy programs to open the game :3
Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be much point in me making a browser version, as the game is too large for it to possibly run smoothly on a browser :(
oh, I didn't know steam charged that much to let devs upload their games on steam. And about the browser game issue, that's alright I wouldn't mind playing a glitchy version but that's alright, thank you for explaining the situation anyway.
As someone who has recently gotten into VN and has grown a preference for the yandere subgenre, this game has been my absolute favorite thus far, and it might prove difficult for another VN to claim that spot.
The way that the dev made damn near all of your answers -- or even lack of, which is super interesting! -- so impactful is admirable. It's honestly my favorite aspect of the game. You could've selected a majority of "skull" answers, but then throw in a couple of "heart" answers for some flair or even no answer at all? What turned into this delightfully chaotic ending might turn into this pleasantly bittersweet ending or a completely sugar-coated romantic one. You can only imagine how it could be vice versa with a majority of "heart" answers that suddenly turned into primarily "skull" answers.
It honestly makes the experience so enjoyably confusing because it forces you to have this mixed feeling towards the character. First, it's just another LI character, so you're kinda indifferent, but then you act all cutesy just to get a reaction from them. Then, something shifts and you become intentionally antagonistic to see what might happen. You then start to see things escalate so you draw back a bit, and they start being really sweet to you so you start to like them. But then something's off again and you feel suspicious of the character so that gremlin tells you to be antagonistic again, then the character reacts and you start to feel this weird cross of hate and fear towards them. And it just goes back and forth like that, especially when toying with different dialogue choices.
I love it. I love the character, the dialogue, the purposeful intent of the dev, and the overall direction that this game is going in. I can honestly say that I cannot wait for the full release.
Awesome job, dev, and kudos to the VAs that helped make it come alive! It's one thing to imagine the voice in your head, but to actually hear it does have a different impact.
Hehe, that’s great to hear you’ve ended up falling for the yanderes :P I was like that too when I first got into VNs and came across them, haha. But man, that’s so sweet of you to say about this project! I feel like it’s not worthy, but thank you so much and I’m really glad you’ve enjoyed what’s there of it so far ^-^ Pretty much all of my projects have at least 1 yandere in, haha. Not all of em, but most of em. And even the ones without yanderes still have creepy characters instead xD
That’s awesome to hear you like the choices/personality system too :3 It’s something I’m hoping to keep expanding with the project so that everything adds up to different consequences to reflect all the choices made. I’m so glad you say it’s enjoyably confusing, haha. I find it confusing myself xD but it was kind of the point to make it more difficult to keep track of choices, sort of forcing players to pick on the spot just going by their instinct at the time. I realise that a system like that must also be frustrating for some players though + makes it quite hard to follow a guide and see all possibilities too >.<
Unfortunately, it’s gonna take me years to finish it for a whole number of reasons, but I’m determined to get there eventually :3 Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to type up such kind words! I really appreciate the support <3
Are they really impactful? The first thing the demo told me was that the choices would impact the chapter then said 'This isn't available in the demo'. Then the first choice you get in the game, isn't a choice, it told me that my choice wasn't available in the demo and forced the other one instead.
I had to close the game as it seemed to be directly telling me more than once that the demo wasn't going to be choice based and would keep showing me things I can't do anything with. :/
Maybe I'll have more patience with it another day but I'd just rather it not tell me all the things I might be able to pick in a year or two but can't now (only after I try to pick them).
I think the choices are impactful for sure!
You're referring more towards the path that you can take versus the choices themselves. Because it's a demo, the path is definitely more guided -- or rather set -- on the completed parts, and the Dev definitely stops you from deviating off that path for the time being. I ran into the same roadblocks of "this isn't available in the demo"; however, the pathway that you CAN play definitely has some relatively intense choice value! I don't want to spoil it, but there are two different times where a lack of response (literally selecting nothing) will put you on a different subpath.
So yeah, to me at least, it's pretty choice heavy, and I assume that it'll only get more intense as the game reaches completion. Since then, I did play a significantly MORE choice heavy game, but I'd still list this one as a choice-heavy game, just not as high up on the list as it originally was
Definitely give it another try in the upcoming days though! I thought it was rather good, especially one subpath in particular ;)
I'd just rather it not show choices I can't pick because it's not a choice in that situation. Even in a demo.
Like an alternative would be to have the non-active choices be a different colour so I know in the demo 'this would be an option and we're leaving it visible but not much point clicking it'. As it is right now I just got through lots and lots of 'this isn't available, this isn't, this isn't' and it killed my drive to continue the demo because I felt like it was unclear what would be possible to engage with.
For me, I engage in the game by trying to see how I'd feel in that situation and picking what matches my feelings most, if the options are limited in this way, I stop being able to be in my feelings and connecting with the character, because I'm constantly going 'Wait what?'.
So I will only be able to play this when either it's finished or the demo has the non-active options more clearly labelled before I click them. Otherwise it feels like it's saying 'NO! No choices. Only unspecified choice!' [insert that lil dog meme lol].
I'm sure they will have great choices when it's done and I don't doubt there's choices throughout but as it stands right now, as far as I got, it gave the impression you will only have one path and it won't let you know until you pick a choice that you picked the 'wrong' one, and then response as thought you picked another one. It's just stressful for me personally lol
未来会有中文版吗？
I’d like to try and get the game to have as many language options available as possible :3
So if I can manage to have a Chinese language version, that would be brilliant!
However, that will probably only be for the full game release, which is a very long way off, so it’s going to take a lot of time to actually finish the game first >.<
Having played both the old version and the new demo, I'm quite excited to see the final product! It is a game that is rather intriguing for the Yandere lovers (with rather sweet moments as well), I especially loved the voice acting. Will be sure to check out the final product when it comes out!
Aww, thanks for playing both versions :3 I’m glad you like the look of where it’s going! Unfortunately, the full game is still a heck of a long way off, but I’ll get there eventually x3 Thanks so much for the support <3
Hello! Quick question- will the full version be free to play?
It’s hard to say with absolute certainty because the full game is a loooong way off, like, years away x3 but most likely, yes, it will probably be free :3
Alright thank you! Also one last question- is the name Castor based off Roman mythology...? Or is it based off the plant? I feel like its more based off the plant cause I think it's toxic and then Castor/ia can be toxic sometimes in the game- did I phrase this correctly ;v;?
Tbh, I’m not sure what made me come up with the name Castor at the time xD
Usually, I spend ages thinking of suitable names, and often my characters are named for pretty specific reasons with meanings behind the names or their names representing things, but with Castor and Castoria, it was just one of those weird ones where for some reason, I had it in my head without looking at anything and just rolled with it xD
Some people have since told me that Castor means some pretty funny things in other languages, haha. That would be pretty cool though if it happens to be a toxic plant though cos, as you say, it would be quite suitable :D
Is there going to be a android version? And do you have any idea when the next update is out?
I would love for there to be an android version of all my games, but frustratingly, I can't figure out how to get an android build working :( I've tried with smaller projects in the past, and after following all of the instructions, it always fails >.< So unless someone can physically teach me how to do it properly so it works, I'm not likely to manage to figure it out on my own.
And, unfortunately, I have no idea x3 Probably not this year though! I've had waaay too much stuff going on to even work on the project at all so far this year >.< Broken arm back in March really didn't help things, haha. That meant 3 months of not even being able to go on my PC :(
Ever since it healed and I can work on stuff again, I've been focusing on irl chores and tasks, catching up on messages that I missed while I couldn't type, and trying to do one of the game jams I've wanted to do for years.
And for the rest of the year, there's Spooktober jam in September that I'd like to participate in, so that's gonna occupy the entire month, then I'll need a small break to recover in October, and then I'll probably be working on some other stuff in November/December if I get time to.
Hoping to get blue Blythe's route out for next year's yandere jam which is in February, so that'll be the start of 2024 covered x3
There's never enough time in a day to do everything I'd like to do, haha. And, unfortunately, DD has to take a back seat until I can sort out everything else that I need to or wanna get done >.<
Hi~ Just wanted to say that the demo alone is making me anticipate for more from DD. The fun part so far is having to flip a coin in the first few choices such as either going for Castor/ia (landing on heads had me go for Castor). After that however, I was taken into a rollercoaster ride of emotions. But yeah, I hope to see the full release in the future~ Art takes time to craft, and I've got plenty of time to wait~
[On the other hand, my sister saw Castor on my screen. I had to explain that while I swing both ways, this choice wasn't deliberate. Rather, it was a choice made by fate. Looking back now, that was very poor choice of words on my part lol.]
Hey hey! Well, that’s awesome :3 I’m glad you had fun with the demo! Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to type up a comment :D And your patience is much appreciated also cos I don’t deal with expectations well xD It makes me want to go hide in a cave and never come out again, haha. xD
Well, hopefully, your sister at least kind of knew what you meant! And heck, it’s still better than my brother’s comment from the other day. I was working on this new bite-sized project, and because the theme is all red and black, I set my room light to red each night while I was working on it so I could get more immersed, but my brother just looked in and said: “Why does it look like a brothel in your room?” T_T
Ah, I can relate with the expectations thing as well~ Kinda why I prefer not sticking out too much in group projects since it makes me fear the worst possible outcome often...
That being said though, seems like your brother's familiar with them districts to make such a connection then, lol. Overall though, my sister now considers me as straight like spaghetti noodles. Better than being straight like ribbons, I guess~ w
Hey hey! Absolutely love this game. I saw the original build in ManlyBadAssHero's video. Then I set out on my own to play it because I wanted to hear Castor. By the time I found it, it was the more in depth demo build. I spent forever trying to get all paths and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll keep a non-pressuring eye on this project. Take things at your own pace.
But I must ask, the asset pack song, "Welcome to Our World". Where exactly did you find it? I have been looking everywhere for it as it's so good. I looked in the credits file of the game but got even more lost. XD
Hey hey! Aww, that’s awesome, glad to hear it ^-^ Yeah, it sucks that I haven’t really been able to make much real progress on the project in recent times, but at least I got the updated demo out, haha. Hopefully, it at least does a half-decent job of sorta showing the way I want the project to look in the future :3
It means a lot that you’re happy to wait anyhow :3 I know I’ve been ridiculously slow to work on this project, and I don’t anticipate that changing any time soon cos I’ve got a lot of other stuff I want to prioritise >.< I have no intention of abandoning it though :3 so the no-pressure approach is much appreciated. I actually find it extremely demotivating to be pressured for updates and stuff x3 even if it’s done with the best of intentions from someone who just likes what’s there and wants to see more, just having that sort of pressure and expectation there makes me want to run a million miles away and hide xD Whereas a few kind words with no pressure makes me feel more like it’s okay to keep going and take things at my own pace ^-^
As for that particular asset pack song, in all honestly, I couldn’t even remember which one it was by the name alone, so I had to go look in my files xD It’s actually called “Tragedy” I just tend to rename all of my tracks to better fit whatever the project is x3 And it’s from the Symphonical Rain Sound Library Vol.2 by AZU Soundworks. I just went to dig up the link to their page so you could check it out if you wanted to, but weirdly, all their assets have disappeared and it’s now showing as a blank page to me o.O So I’m not sure what’s happened there >.< I guess they must’ve pulled their stuff from the site that I bought their packs from for some reason! I did some more digging, found their old website, which said it had moved, but when I clicked the new site link, that didn’t exist either :( There are some other pretty good ones in that volume actually! I was probably gonna use them in something at some point, haha. I keep getting carried away and making my own music for recent projects though.
Speaking of which, I’m just about to release a new bite-sized one for a couple of different micro jams if you’re interested in more creepy fun xD
Hey. Thanks for even taking the time to look through your files for me. I'm touched, honestly. I get so scared to ever ask people things like that so you made my day. Through some crafty snooping I was able to find their catalog on a JP website and the song on YouTube. So thanks again! XD
(Here's the link. It leads to that song specifically but maybe you can find the other song you were looking for. :https://azu-soundworks.net/?p=19673)
I'll definitely look into your micro jams. I'm invested in your creative prowess now. Hang in there!
No problem :3 I know what you mean cos I always worry if I’m bothering people or not >.< As the saying goes though, you won’t know if you don’t ask x3
That’s pretty neat you were able to find their stuff though! I clicked on like 3 links when I gave it a go, and they were all just dead ones, haha. I gave up pretty quickly after that xD Cheers for letting me know :3
And just thanks for being so sweet in general! You hang in there yourself ^-^
Pretty Interesting so far, you have a really unique style in your games. One bit of feedback I have (unless you're already planning on doing this) But a lot of menu-based sounds aren't affected by any volume sliders, so when I enter a menu or click something in the main menu for example, Its way louder than what I have all the sliders set to. Other than that, I'm a fan of this game, and I am excited to see where it goes!
Glad you like what’s there so far :D And thank you, that’s really kind of you to say ^-^
Oh, yeah, I know about those menu sounds and I can only apologise, haha. At the time of adding them to that demo, I didn’t realise there was no way to control them within the game settings >.< I have since discovered what you have to do to link them up with the in-game settings so that you can actually lower them with the SFX volume slider, haha. So I’ll absolutely be doing that whenever I next update the demo :3
The really silly thing is, as they are, they’re attached to Unity UI buttons, but they’re all set to play at a volume of 0.1 of their total volume, so I dunno why on earth they came out to loud o.O Anyways, I shall be rectifying it at least, haha.
is this game possible to be played on Chromebook? I've always seen games on this site that look really interesting but I never get to fully experience them due to not having a compatible device
Hello, you can download/buy the OFFICIAL game file of the game that you wish to play here in itch.io then enter the website named 'Joiplay' then download the latest application version + renpy plug in
After that you'll be able to find your way through, however if you ever struggle with anything you can ask me or google it.
*Note: this is for mobile phones, if you have Android that is.
That's interesting :o Does the renpy plugin still work with games made in other engines, or just renpy? Because my old games are made in Tyranobuilder, and most of my games (including this one) are made with Naninovel in Unity >.< If not, are there any alternative plugins that would work with Tyranobuilder and Unity games?
I can never seem to actually get exported Android builds from Unity to work :(
I honestly couldn't say for certain because I don't really know much about how Chromebooks work >.< but I'm going to guess probably not because I was under the impression that they may only run things like Android apps that you can get on the Google Play store? And, sadly, I haven't been able to get any of my games to function with Android builds yet :(
i love this game, and cannot wait for more, i've already fell in love with this game even though i just finished it all
That’s fantastic to hear :3 I’m glad you enjoyed what’s available at the moment, even if it isn’t that much. Unfortunately, development on this is going to be extremely slow for a number of reasons >.< but I’ll get there in the end! Cheers for checking it out ^-^
i wanna be with both of them
Well, I won’t stop you :D Though both at the same time would be difficult since they’re technically the same entity >.< We could always find someone to do a multiverse merger though x3
It would be hell if they where to meet each other 💀
I can’t wait for the full game! I want to wife Castor up!
:o Is that wedding bells I hear? x3
XD
I'm completely in love with this game and will be keeping up to date with everything as it progresses
Glad you like what little there is so far ^-^ I hate to say it, but there’s not a whole lot going on with development currently and likely won’t be for a while because I’m just too busy to properly work on it lately >.< but I’ll get there in the end, haha.
it doesn’t have a android ver ( ≧Д≦) IK THAT I ALREADY PLAYED THIS BUT I GOT ATTACHED TO YOUR CASTOR THAT U CREATED, I LUV HIMMM SM AAAAAAA I WANNA PLAY MORE ND AGAIN ND AGAIN BUT IT DOESNT HAVE A ANDROID VER (‘A`)
Yeah, sadly, I haven’t managed to get any of my games to work on Android T_T I did try a while back with one of the shorter ones, followed the tutorial exactly, but nope, it wouldn’t even run, just a black screen >.< It’s frustrating because I’d really like to get everything to work on mobile. I know it would be a lot of effort resizing UI and stuff to fit the screen properly, but it would be worth it because I have friends who can only play games on mobile >.< I just need help from someone who knows what they’re doing and can show me where things are going wrong cos I don’t know how to figure it out by myself when the tutorial I followed ended in utter failure :( haha.
I think the BGM of the game is great! It's hard for me to see so much music in other games, sooo I'm fucking love it <33
(and ur painting surprised me so much!!!)
Glad you like it :D Whether it’s choosing tracks from ones that I own from music packs or trying to make my own BGMs, selecting the right music for my games is one of my favourite parts of game dev :3 Cheers for checking out the project!
I need this plis where ful gem :
Unfortunately, only a short demo is currently available. There will be a full game release at some point, but I can't say when because there's a heck of a lot of work to do, problems with funding, and never enough time in a day to do everything I want to do, haha. I have no intention of abandoning any of my projects though, so the full game will be available one day :3
Hi! I was just going through itch.io games and the thumbnail looked pretty interesting, so I jumped for it (especially after realising it had yandere themes). I liked it so far, the VAs did a pretty great job as well (especially in chara)! I don't mind it taking time at all, it was a good one.
Also like how you introduced the tws was extremely good imo. Like you went step by step into it instead of it being 1 pg. Sure, more longer stuff, but I think it was pretty good anyway. I do want things to move as soon as I click the enter button (not for the Voice Acted parts but mostly for the TW parts) but otherwise I have no qualms. Maybe a bit of designing as well because the Arabic type font doesn't seem to fit so far but maybe that part is just me as it's a stylistic choice (I hoped that there was a bit more blue because Winter Wish and something akin to more classical-English type font idk, like ingame there could be more royalish English but again that's just my preferences). Story wise, it unfolded very nicely and I have no issues there as said. Hope to see more soon :D
Oh, that's so cool that you thought the thumbnail was interesting! I never know whether I've done a good job of making those look attractive enough, haha, and DD's one is one that I've always felt needs improving x3 I'm glad you had fun with what's there so far anyhow :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
I still need to tweak a lot of stuff to do with the UI to be fair. I think there's a way to make the trigger warnings go faster, but I can't remember what it is since it's been quite a while since I put all that together x3 There's a key that speeds it up somewhere though, haha. As for colours and fonts, with any luck, it will make more sense and look more suitable once more of the game is available :3 Because the genre of the full game is kinda more like fantasy/sci-fi/psychological horror I guess. There's gonna be some clashing of ancient stuff with technological stuff. The Winter Wish part was actually specific to the game jam this project was originally submitted to (the Winter VN jam + the Secret Santa jam) and actually doesn't have a whole lot of relevance to the full game that I'm planning (aside from it being the title of the game that Castor/ia is from, of course) because Castor/ia is just one character in part of a bigger project where you'll be able to choose other character routes too :3
Sadly, there aren't likely to be any updates soon for a whole bunch of different reasons that I've mentioned over these past few months in posts and comments, but I'll get there one day, haha. If only there were more time in the world x3
Yeah, the thumbnail was pretty cool, can't object to that. The coding thing makes sense, it's not a major issue! I don't create games so I (of course) will not know it firsthand, but I can imagine how stressful it would be to create all of this and with not much (if at all) monetary returns, especially when you hire a VA. I'd love to hear more updates because it feels good and I don't mind having just one route out of a billion to play if the plot is great, and in this case, it is! The Voice Acting part is an addon because I usually don't listen to that but I realised that it brought out more things about this man only to see how well it suited him. Take your time, I'll be around if it gets updates :D
It is indeed a lot of work, haha. Sometimes it’s a bit of a chore trying to do different aspects of it by yourself when it’s tasks that you don’t find particularly enjoyable x3 Like for example, I’m not really a coder. I hate coding. I use the software I use because it cuts out having to write proper code and lets you use a simplified scripting language instead, so that’s a big help, but it’s still like writing thousands of lines of code and it’s something I find extremely monotonous and highly unenjoyable, haha. It has to be done though if I want the game to work, so I just have to suck it up and get on with it xD It must be nice to be part of a permanent team where everyone has different roles covered and everyone gets to do mainly tasks they enjoy!
Voice acting was actually one of my main motivators to start making VNs and still is now :3 I just really love it, haha. To me, if I know I can’t get VA for a project I’m working on, it really kills my motivation to work on it at all cos one of my favourite parts of making games is getting to hear the characters come to life with voice acting x3 As a player, I guess I’m kind of the opposite to you because I generally won’t play a game if there is no voice acting included, haha.
Thank you for your support :3 It means a lot.
THIS GAME IS SO GOOOOD, I LOVE THE WRITING TYSM FOR MAKING THIS
Thank YOU for playing it and being so kind ^-^
Me bisexual, The game:Hi😀
Hehe <3
I'M LITERALLY SO IN LOVE WITH CASTOR LIKE RAWRAWRWRARWARWRARWRRARWRARWARARRARWARRWAR I WANT TO EAT HIM
Now you just have to be careful that Castor doesn’t eat you x3
Love this game concept and the adaptability for the story. Its super immersive which is what I personally love for dating sims when it feels like you're being addressed and in the story, not just a placeholder that you communicate through. Quick question, as this game is a part of the queer games bundle this year but is still in development does that mean when the game is officially released, players wont have to repurchase it?
That's so nice to hear :3 I'm really glad it comes across that way and that you had fun with it so far!
I'm not 100% sure what's actually going to happen when the full game is eventually available cos it's gonna be quite some time from now, and it's possible it might not even be a commercial release in the end because it really depends on what my personal situation is like at the time. But anyone who gets it as part of the queer games bundle, or any other bundle absolutely won't have to repurchase it :3
And in the event that the full game release winds up being free, I'll probably still have something like an exclusive route/character for anyone who supported the game's development either through something like this bundle, as a donation to the project here on itch, or by supporting over on ko-fi or patreon! ^-^
Totally understandable and appreciate the response! I hope you take as much time as you need with this game as usually deadlines and stress affect the project's end result. Good luck with the process and cant wait for the official release (way further down the line ofc)! ♡♡
Cheers for the luck cos I will absolutely need it x3 and an even bigger thank you for the patience and understanding :3 Honestly, you have no idea how much it means because I've been through stages of immense guilt with some of my projects (this one included x3) for not being able to get things done very quickly and feeling like I'm letting myself and others down because of that >.<
I gave up setting myself deadlines and such for long-term projects this year because so many things kept happening that meant I'd repeatedly fail to hit my own targets, haha. It's definitely less stressful to just make progress when possible rather than trying to force it when it's not always possible x3
So yeah, again, a big ol' thank you ^-^
Of course! Ive never done game design or development so I cant be one to talk but Ive always noticed games thag get abandoned are usually always the ones that push for consistent and fast updates. Especially as you have your personal life to deal with and this game along with the others youve made are stuff that you chose to put free time into, its important us consumers and a part of the community at least do the decency of being understanding and patient for something we're not owed. It shouldn't be super stressful for you so please take as much time and rest as you need so youre happy with your efforts and also in general content with your work versus personal life balance.
Yeah, I can see how it would be easy to burn out pretty fast if you’re constantly going at it >.< I’ve followed the development of a few games I was excited for in the past where it was only small teams of like 2-3 people working on them, and they wound up abandoned cos of stress and stuff, like the project work was basically destroying their friendships until they were forced to stop to actually save what was left of their friendships >.< And solo devs who have just had to quit or slow right down because of different life circumstances.
I think for me personally, the big issue is that I put a lot of stress on myself x3 Even if no one at all was trying to hurry me, I’d still wind up feeling bad about working slowly or feel like I’m letting myself or others down somehow >.< It’s like I’ve been sucked into the crunch culture and it’s kinda hard to get out because I do enjoy working on stuff a lot.
But then when I do get the odd comment where someone actually is complaining about how slow updates have been or the like, that winds up kinda validating the guilty feelings I’ve already been generating by myself, if that makes any sense >.< So it’s a bit of a vicious cycle because it then takes someone saintly like yourself to come along and remind me that actually, it’s okay for me to work at my own pace after all!
Because it’s a hobby that I treat like work, I find it super hard to actually switch off, haha. My brother keeps saying I should just not go on my PC at all on one weekday so that I’m having a complete break from projects to actually spend time doing the other things I enjoy. My dad reckons instead that I should get off of my PC when he comes home from work to sort of use that as a schedule, like the working day is over now, so switch off and relax. It’s not as easy as that though x3
“so you're happy with your efforts and also in general content with your work versus personal life balance"
That’s where I really struggle, haha. Because it seems like no matter how much or how little I get done on my projects, I never feel satisfied that I’ve done enough, so then I feel like I don’t deserve time to relax or do other things >.< It’s something I’m trying much harder this year to work on though :3 And hearing what you’ve said definitely helps a lot! I definitely need to keep your words in mind the next time I’m sitting here beating myself up about not doing enough.
Thank you again and I hope your week is going well so far :3
i really love this game and it really is interesting but jesus i hate this text sound it's so damn loud and no matter what i do it's stays sooo loud it really was a torture to klick though the dialogue
Glad you like it, but that's weird about the sound cos there isn't supposed to be a sound for clicking through text >.< I didn't put one there, and I never encountered one while testing, so some sort of bug must've occurred in your playthrough >.< I'll try and look into it, but if I can't replicate it on my end or find what caused it, I probably won't be able to fix it :(
I know a couple of others had a weird SFX bug where a loud SFX played when pressing spacebar to advance text, which wasn't supposed to happen, and reducing SFX volume in the settings didn't change the volume of the bugged effect, so I'm wondering if it's the same issue! It's really strange cos I can't get it to do that on my copy >.< and others who reported it said that it stopped on its own when they saved and reloaded a file or quit and restarted the game. So it's a pretty strange one >.< I'm wondering if it has something to do with spacebar key bindings or something, cos everyone who reported it was using spacebar to advance text rather than mouse click or scroll wheel. Whatever it is, I'm hoping I'll be able to fix it somehow anyways!
This isn't really related to the game, the game looks really good and I'm interested in playing it, but I have a quick question. Is the logo or the name inspired by Set It Off? It might just be me but I figured I'd ask, thank you
The name is mainly cos I really love alliteration and try to make as many of my project titles as possible include it if I can x3 With this one being a dating sim focusing on the theme of duality, I figured it would be a decent title :D Duality is something I've been interested in for a long time cos it plays a big part in my own life. Heck, I even have tattoos that represent the concept of duality it's that important to me x3
With the logo though, I knew I had to get the black and white in there, buuuut, I do like a lot of Set it Off songs, and so I've seen their duality diamond! So maybe that subconsciously influenced the use of a diamond in the logo! :o Never really thought about it before, but that would make sense, haha. It had to be a shape that I could eventually use in different parts of the UI too, so it's practical. But yeah, I mean, SiO must've been in my brain when I went with that, haha.
Funnily enough though, while there are a few songs on SiO's Duality album that I love, I don't like the song they did with that title, haha. Elsewhere is probably their first album I'm happy to not skip a track or two on!
I really love this game a lot! First time I find a V/N of yandere characters that has left me so hooked! I really liked how Castor changes from hyper mega sweet cuteness to yandere obsessive! I will be patiently waiting for the full game (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
Glad to hear you like it ^-^ and also appreciate your patience cos I am currently working like a snail at everything in life xD
First off: This game is absolutely fantastic with the story and the voice acting. You really put the emphasize on "Quality over Quantity" in regards to production and writing, And what's even more surprising that even though this game you're developing is not finished yet, People still love it to death here. I can't wait to see the final product of this golden game will be like.
So well done, You're making people happy
Second off: I have not seen you mention or anybody else asking about suggestions in regards to the story/Lore of the game so I wanted to know if you would be willing to listen and consider potential plot points you could add the game. Because I have a few ideas I would like to suggest to you
I'm glad you think so :3 The original jam version was pretty rushed since I only had 1 month to make it from scratch x3 which is why I went back and polished a lot of it much later on with improving the UI and stuff while adding some small additions and tweaks to the existing content.
Honestly, it's still beyond surprising for me too that the project has received so much love! I think I likely owe much of that to Manly for shining a light on it in the first place :3 Because, before that video, it didn't really have much in the way of views or downloads. As with all of my games, people probably wouldn't know any of them exist if not for word of mouth because I find social media super stressful, and so it's nigh impossible for me to actually promote the stuff I make >.< The strange thing is though, itch.io's analytics show that many of the people who play and enjoy DD don't go on to check out my other stuff for some reason, which has always baffled me, especially considering that I personally reckon both Limbo Line and Bitter/Sweet are better than DD is x3 Heck, Dawn of the Damned is related to DD with it showing the backstory of some of the characters yet to be added, but that has practically no downloads in comparison even though I posted that they're linked, haha.
Actually, I hate to say it, but I'm kind of drowning in suggestions and feedback at this point xD That's not to say I'm not happy to listen to more because I always am :3 Admittedly, I do have some concerns though when it comes to that sort of thing, but you'll have to bear with me as I clumsily try to explain myself on that front, haha. I can be extremely rambly, so I can only apologise for that T_T A lot of it probably won't even apply to you or what you want to suggest, but it's stuff I feel like I need to get off of my chest in general and may copy to create a post at some point that acts as a sort of explanation I can potentially point to in the future as a way to respond faster rather than covering stuff I've already been over in the past.
The TLDR version would be something like, I don't mind suggestions at all, but whether or not I can take them on board often depends on what aspect of things they're related to.
Actually implementing stuff that's suggested to me is often impractical due to a mixture of differing reasons, such as my skillset not being up to it, clashes with what I already have written or planned but that isn't currently in the demo, or lack of funds. Or more simply, I had already planned to do something similar to a suggestion anyways. There may not be much playable content yet, but there's a fair amount of writing already complete, and I know where I want to go with the overall story, as well as with several character routes.
The proper explanation is as follows.
Sooo, the biggest problem that I have with suggestions is that a lot of stuff is repeated because it's difficult for anyone to locate or find out what's already been suggested and discussed previously due to some of it being long buried in the comments on the game page, and some of it being through private conversations over email or Discord >.<
Now, I could attempt to solve that issue by creating some sort of list that groups everything together in one place and putting a link to that on the game page, BUT, I've found that more often than not, the information on the game page isn't always read before posts are made or messages sent, and that's understandable because there's already a lot of information there as it is and I can't imagine people want to go trudging through it all. But the fact remains that making a list would more than likely wind up being a waste of time, and I'd still end up repeating myself over and over trying to respond to everything x3
And the second biggest thing kinda ties in with the first, and that's that a lot of the suggestions I've received so far are things I was planning to include anyways, but haven't had a chance to yet x3 or things that I just physically wouldn't be able to because my skillset wouldn't allow for it.
But there's more >.<
One big part of the problem is that I don't think everyone who's interested in the project understands that Castor/ia is just one character in the game out of (hopefully) a cast of other characters. This isn't Castor/ia's story alone. It's just that, as I mentioned earlier, the project was originally started for a game jam with a 1-month time limit, and so I was conscious of that and tried to create something that was a complete story in itself, but that I could also continue to work on at some point and expand.
That's why in the updated demo, I added a tiiiny bit more to where the original demo left off, to make it clear that the 'endings' of the original jam version of the game, weren't actually proper endings, more like the end of the first part of one character's route, and would continue past that point, branching off in different directions. And I also left a lot of dead ends in there like mentioning the AI and Cana (which I realise now can be quite frustrating to the player >.<) to show that there is more going on than just Castor/ia's route. In reality, my plans for the game include a fair few character routes, and all those choices in the beginning that currently don't lead anywhere in the demo are just some of the choices that will start you off on other routes for characters that haven't been introduced yet.
Because I haven't revealed much about the lore of the world the game is set in (and I can't really do so without a bunch of spoilers) it means that a lot of suggestions and feedback are immediately moot just on the basis that the people giving the suggestions don't have all the same information that I do >.< For example, a lot of people have said that X or Y doesn't make sense in the context of Castor/ia's story, or that X or Y doesn't appear to have relevance to Castor/ia's story. And these are often things that I've already accounted for in my completed writing or notes, but that aren't part of the game yet. So I find myself continuously explaining to people that X or Y will make sense eventually x3
The full story is nowhere near fully written, but the next segment of it continuing Castor/ia's story and beginning Cana's is, and a few trusted friends and acquaintances have looked over the script and provided their honest thoughts and feedback on it, which has been immensely helpful :3 I also post certain things to Patreon and Ko-Fi for supporters to vote on when anything like that comes up in development and I'm struggling to make a decision by myself, but they're mainly aesthetic decisions, such as the hairstyle of female Cana's sprite.
And even more... (sorry T_T)
The attention the project received after Manly's video has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, the positivity and overall support has been incredible, and I can't thank everyone enough for playing through what little there is of the game so far, taking the time to type up kind comments, and even donating towards the project's development :3 But at the same time, the sheer level of expectation that has arisen for the project as a result has also been the source of quite a bit of stress. Sometimes to the point that I almost wish I never made it in the first place >.<
Most of the negativity is confined to my dev inbox, so while it mainly looks like sunshine and rainbows over here on the game page, that isn't the whole truth x3 But it's not people hating on the project for various reasons that gets me down because I know by now to ignore hateful comments that aren't in any way constructive. My biggest demotivator is a small number of players who actually like the project, but who take it upon themselves to make demands of me or pressure me to work faster on it. I've had people demand that X or Y is in the game because they want it to be and they donated $5 towards the project, so somehow, by their logic, that means I should have to do as they say >.<
Sometimes it feels like people forget that I'm just one person working on making video games as a hobby >.< No one's paying me to do this.
Of course, I'm beyond grateful for any donations that I receive towards development because, without that support, I wouldn't be able to include things like voice acting and CGs (and the project would be worse in general), but it doesn't change the fact that I'm human, not a machine, and I have a life outside of game dev.
Donations make it possible for me to get a little closer to realising the vision I have for the project, but it's not a form of income. I make games because I enjoy doing it. As nice as it would be to be able to earn a living doing something I love, at this point, I don't feel as though it's something that will ever happen for me for a number of reasons I've discussed at length in older posts, and I've made peace with that. If it reaches a point where I'm no longer in love with doing it, then I'll take a big break from it or just stop completely >.< I sincerely hope that never happens because it's really not a hobby that I want to ever fall out of love with, but some days when things get too much, it does feel like leaving it all behind would be the easier option.
So yeah, expectation is a funny thing. When people are patient and supportive, it's something that can motivate and inspire meto keep going and work even harder :3 but on the flip side, when it comes at me in a more aggressive, negative form, it can be absolutely crippling. I find it far easier to work on jam games because there is little to no expectation.
Heck, I didn't think I'd ever have the opportunity to even expand on this project outside of the jam I originally made it for even though I really wanted to, just because of stuff like the cost of voice acting. Those who voiced what's currently there did so out of the kindness of their hearts because it was for a jam. I knew I'd never be able to afford to have them back in a million years because I don't have much money myself. And since getting voice acting into my projects is a massive motivator for me, I had accepted that I'd likely have to leave things as they were at the end of the jam because I didn't really want to work on a full-length version of the game if it wasn't going to have voice acting.
Of course, that changed once the project got more attention and support, but at the same time, has also created an entirely new dilemma in that the period of time between the game being released for the jam and the game actually becoming somewhat known (and gaining support as a result) was pretty big, meaning that even after getting some funding together, the voice actors involved in the project at the time have moved onto other things and aren't necessarily interested in reprising their roles. That's something which is looking more and more likely, though not certain. But whatever happens, it's something that's out of my control >.< That's just one of the many problems you can end up with if you start something but don't have the funds to finish it the way you'd like.
I was joking with a friend the other day that game dev is an odd hobby to have because sometimes you end up with strangers essentially shouting over your shoulder that you should work faster, or that they don't like X part and it should be more like Y. Or that they think X should be included here and Y there. But that wouldn't happen with a lot of other hobbies x3 Like with my mum's cross stitching, or my dad's bird watching, haha. Again though, there's plenty of positive stuff too :3 It's just sometimes the negative voices are the ones that shout louder >.< and that's when it's not fun anymore.
Anyways, I'm gonna wind up going completely off track in a minute, so I will try to curtail this essay x3
As I said, I don't mind listening to suggestions at all, I just can't make any promises because, at the end of the day, this is a hobby. I didn't set out to make these games for anyone in particular, and I'd never be as foolish enough to try and please people either because that would just be a road that leads to misery and disaster since you can't please everyone.
So all I can do is keep trying to do the things I enjoy, and if other people end up coming across the stuff I release into the wild and they enjoy it too, then that's the best bonus to a hobby that I could ever hope for :3
Also, I realise that trying to read long posts like this with the font on this page is kinda difficult >.< I'm gonna try and change the font to something more readable when I get a chance, but I have to go now and make dinner, so that's a job I need to remember to do later x3
I must admit, I didn't expect the video and popularity that Manly got for this game could've ended up as both a positive and negative effect. Thanks for telling me that, I learned something new now
And don't worry about the expectations of you with regards, Although I may not you know personally or your friends working with you, I trust you all have it all figured and planned and with this, It's all going to end up good in the end
So there was people who donate a bit of money to you along with saying "add this into game" as a demand. I am surprised to hear that as happened but don't worry, I'm not going to act like that and say something like "add this to game right now because it sounds good". Instead I just want to give you a few ideas I had in mind and you can entirely decide if you want to add or refuse them. I'll be alright with either choice you make.
So I would like you to give you my ideas through discord has I had seen you mention it. Do you perhaps have a server for this or do you want to give your tag and I can give you my ideas there?
Or if you want me to say them here on this comment section, I'll be perfectly okay with that
Neither did I, haha. It was all so incredible in the beginning cos it started out as 100% positivity, but I suppose it was inevitable that with more attention, it was gonna end up attacked at some point by people who don't like it >.< Sometimes it's for the strangest reasons too! For example, I've had people have a go at me just because there are pronoun choices. Or because you can choose Castor instead of Castoria. I don't really get why anyone would get so angry at there essentially being more choice and inclusiveness in a game x3 If you don't like the other pronouns, or you only want to pick Castoria and never Castor, then you can... No one is forcing the options, so if you don't want them, just ignore them. At least that would be my logic, haha.
To be honest, when I started out making my first game, I never imagined in a million years that I'd end up getting hate mail of any kind o.O I kinda didn't think anyone would even find or play my games really, haha.
It's up to you if you're comfortable posting your ideas here or if you'd prefer to email them to me (melancholicmarionette@gmail.com). I am also on discord, but I find it a lot easier to respond to stuff here on itch or by email cos of the character limits on Discord and my inability to condense my rambling >.<
Whichever you end up doing, just know that it might take me quite a while to get back to you >.< I try my best to be as fast I can with responding to first-time messages and questions, but after that, I usually try and start responding to stuff in date order, and because I fell so far behind on that sort of thing while my arm was broken, I'm struggling to catch up again on replies atm. I just wouldn't want you to send something and then not hear from me for ages and think I'm ignoring you is all, cos that absolutely isn't the case >.< I'm just a bit in over my head right now and will reply when I can :3 For reference, it might wind up being around 2-3 months >.<
Youch, I mean I didn't notice any updates for quite a long time to say the least. Whatever the case though, I hope you do well, if it so happens that completing the game becomes an impossible task, spare yourself from the futile effort.
I don't know if you happen to have read through another recent comment of mine, (my reply to 'Duck Tear Popper' just below these ones to 'They took my name') but that goes into a lot more detail about the actual reasons why I haven't been able to make much progress on this or any of my other projects recently x3
The TLDR version though is that I was very ill back in December last year, then I was working on Yandere Jam back in February this year once I was finally better, then someone broke my arm back in March this year, and then when the cast came off at the end of April, I've been playing catchup on my inbox all through May/June. + my IRL responsibilities have increased and I have less time in general to jump on my PC and work on stuff >.<
The biggest problem now is there's just never being enough time in a day to do everything I have to/want to do, haha.
Unless I happen to randomly pop my clogs or something, I should be able to complete DD eventually x3 Whether or not it's to the standard I had hoped is another matter! And whether or not I will be able to include everything I hope to still remains to be seen, but I should be able to complete it in some form at least. It's just gonna take a heck of a lot of time.
I think it took me around 3 years to make my first-ever game to completion because I was an idiot and tried to make a full-length game for my first project >.< And if I can make DD the way I hope to make it, it should be longer than SR! I can't remember if it was 2016 or 2017 that I started SR, but I eventually released it in June 2020. Everything else I've finished since then has been much shorter jam game projects.
Heck, I have the writing for another full-length project (CiQ) finished a long time ago >.< but ran into funding problems with that for voice acting + art so actually getting all the coding done for it has been on hold for a couple of years. A biiiig part of me wants to finish that before working on DD more because it makes the most sense with the story already being fully written + with me starting it before DD as well. I feel like a lot of people might get mad at me if I did that though because it seems like DD is the most popular of my projects >.< I do hope to eventually complete both of them though cos it would be a huuuuge waste of the roughly 125k words already written for CiQ.
Anyways, I appreciate the well-wishes :3 And I intend to keep going with all of my projects for as long as I can ^-^ even if I can only go at snail speed x3
Hahaha, then I truly wish you good luck.
Cheers! I will most likely need it x3
I don't want to sound rude but, when will more of this game be finished??
Unfortunately, I can't really give much of a solid date for anything because I've had a couple of pretty big setbacks in the last 6 months that have meant not really getting to work on anything at all other than the thing my friend and I managed to submit to Yandere Jam earlier this year. Aside from that, I've essentially made 0 progress with my other projects >.< Aaaand, I have less time nowadays in general to work on things for a number of reasons.
But yeah, after I released the most recent update in November last year, all I've been able to do since then is commission LPB for the first lot of CGs, which she's currently working on :3 I personally haven't been able to touch the project though.
In December, I caught some kind of nasty superbug that knocked me for six until mid-January. So I spent all of Christmas ill. When I was finally well enough to go out again in mid-January, I had to meet some friends and family that I hadn't been able to see over Christmas. I just about managed to get back on my PC during February in time to team up with LPB and make Bitter/Sweet for Yandere Jam 2023. Once that ended at the end of Feb, I began trying to catch up on my inbox, but in the first week of March, a dude on an e-scooter crashed into me while I was walking to an appointment in town, the result was me winding up with a broken arm (and my dominant one at that >.<) So my arm had to have a cast put on and I was told to rest and wait for it to heal. In that time, I couldn't really use it to do anything, so I was completely off of my PC for almost 2 months waiting for it to heal up. I couldn't even hold my phone or a controller or anything properly in order to try and stay on top of my inbox or play any games.
I finally got to take the cast off at the end of April and start doing more serious physio, and once back on my PC and able to type again, I began trying to catch up on my replies. I pretty much spent the entirety of May responding to messages and stuff from a mixture of friends and people who had recently discovered my games and gotten in touch. Now we're into June and I still haven't managed to finish typing up replies to everyone >.<
I'm almost caught up with itch aside from a few older comments which I need to go hunting for because I can no longer easily access them from notifications. But I'm still waaaay behind on emails and discord dms, same goes for anything on tumblr. I have some longer messages from all the way back in December that I still haven't managed to get a response typed up to yet because they're part of long conversations where I need a couple of days to actually get the entire thing finished.
Honestly, I'm not even sure how to cope at this point x3 I was already struggling before my arm got broken. Being forced to spend so much time away from my PC has just meant that things have piled up even more. But even without that, I'm frequently overwhelmed by everything I'm trying to juggle, haha.
I don't want to start ignoring comments and messages and stuff because it would just feel so wrong. I've always thought that if a person has taken the time to check my stuff out and then cared enough to sit and type out a message of some sort, then the least I can do as thanks is reply. I'd never want anyone to contact me and then not hear back ever >.< I want to be able to show that I appreciate the support.
The dilemma is that, the longer I spend typing up replies, the less time I have to work on the projects themselves. And since I'm just one person, I can't do both at once x3 I dunno, maybe people wouldn't really care all that much if they never got a response from me? But even if it didn't bother them, it would bother me >.< I've always tried my best to reply to everything.
And even if I were to start ignoring all comments and messages related to my projects, that still wouldn't change the fact that I struggle to keep on top of replying to my friends over discord and email x3 It's become a running joke now with some of my friends that being friends with me is more like having a penpal because they have to wait a few months to hear back from me >.< Which is okay as long as they're cool with that, but I don't want it to get to the point that I wind up losing some of the friendships I have because I can't manage to stay in contact consistently :(
Aaaaand, then we come to the fact that these days, I sometimes don't get much more than an hour or two on my PC, which isn't really enough to achieve much >.< I really need entire days to myself without any interruptions to be able to get decent progress made. Days like that are rarer now though. I've essentially become my brother's carer even though I can barely look after myself x3 He has a lot of physical and mental health problems, so he has quite a lot of appointments and such to go to. My dad used to be able to afford to either take a morning off to take him or finish work early to, but he can't afford to do that nowadays with the cost of everything skyrocketing. He needs to work every hour that he can >.< So on top of the usual household chores that I do, I now have to take my brother to all of his appointments as well, which can take up the entire day sometimes because I don't have my own car (can't afford one), my brother refuses to use public transport, and so we have to walk to them, and they're all over an hour's walk away x3
Sooo, yeah, I'm in a state where I'm just constantly knackered pretty much, haha. And I've learned to stop setting myself schedules and timed goals because life keeps throwing so many things at me lately that it just got increasingly frustrating to repeatedly fail at all the targets I set myself. It's easier to just try and do what I can - when I can, and that way I beat myself up a little less for not achieving as much as I would like x3
At the end of 2022, my plan for 2023 was to release an episode of Masked Marionette every couple of months, with the first being at the end of Feb/start of March, then the next at the end of April, and then a few bigger gaps. Alongside that, I hoped to participate in Yandere Jam, O2A2 Jam, and Spooktober VN Jam. And I wanted to get at least 1, but hopefully 2 updates out for DD, along with hopefully some coding progress on CiQ.
Well, all that I've managed to do so far this year is participate in Yandere Jam >.< I don't know if I'll have the time to dedicate to the other two. I really, really hope so. I haven't got a single episode of Masked Marionette out though. And 0 progress on both DD and CiQ.
Everything is on hold for June because I'm participating in 30 Days Wild again since nature is extremely important to me and the UK is going down the shitter with our government not giving a crap about the environment or the wildlife that lives in it >.<
So it'll be July before I get back into proper project work again. But even then, I'll probably only get a few hours a day that I can work on anything rather than the 7+ hours a day that I used to have. And the summer is always my least productive time of year because the heat and bright sunlight never fail to make me ill each year.
At this rate, I don't anticipate me managing to get an update out for DD this year because while everything I wanted to include in it is already written, only a tiny fraction of it is actually coded so far, and I've still got the voice acting problems to sort out. Maybe a miracle of some sort will happen and I'll manage to make some good progress with it, but I really don't want to make any promises or set myself targets because I will more than likely keep running into setbacks that will hurt if I'm telling myself I have to get X done by X date.
Right now, most of my days look like this:
Get up, eat breakfast.
Do physio and other exercise for an hour (I put on a full stone in weight while I was recovering from my broken arm, so I need to do an hour's exercise minimum now to try and lose it again, as I have hypothyroidism and put weight on crazy fast when I can't workout >.<)
Do household chores (sometimes this might mean going out to get parts of our food shopping for the week, and since it means going to multiple shops by foot, sometimes it takes 3 hours+ >.<)
Have lunch (at like 3pm >.<”)
Finish any other chores that need doing or appointments my brother needs to go to
PC time – get replies typed up for a couple of hours
Cook dinner for my family
Eat dinner and watch an episode or two of something
Make any preparations for the next day that need doing, try and get a few more replies done if I have the energy
Collapse into bed
That's not what my days used to look like xD I used to:
Get up, eat, go on my PC to do a couple of hours of work on projects
Pause for exercise (but only like 30 mins workout cos I didn't need to lose weight)
Do any chores that needed doing (generally less time spent on that cos there was less to do as my dad and I shared them)
Go on my PC again for around 3-5 hours to do a mixture of project work + replies.
Cook dinner (sometimes my dad did that too, which would mean more time to work on stuff for me, nowadays, I cook every night cos my dad is too exhausted from work)
Eat dinner and watch an ep of something
Go back on my PC for another hour or so.
My dad would head to bed, then I would go back on my PC again until like 3-5am working on stuff again.
But now I'm too tired from having been running around all day doing chores or taking my brother to appointments, so come 11pm, I'm also exhausted and go to bed at the same time my dad does >.< And, of course, with my depression and stuff, sometimes I just don't feel capable of doing anything at all in a day, even feeding myself.
Heck, before I moved back in with my family after the pandemic, I was living with my friend, and I used to just get up at 7am every day when his alarm went off, shower, and start working on stuff, didn't even exercise or break for lunch. Cooked dinner, ate it, went straight back to working on stuff until like 3am. Then my friend and I would just kinda blitz the housework on a weekend after like a month or more of not having done any xD
That would not fly with my dad, haha. I keep on top of it at home for his sanity. And I know that if I left it, rather than asking me to do it, he would just seeth silently inside and do it himself, and then I'd feel awful because he doesn't deserve that when he's up at 5am every day, breaking his back at work, and then too tired to do anything when he finally gets home at 6pm, all to keep a roof over our heads because both of his children are too mentally crippled to actually get a normal job and help support the household >.<
My dad is extremely sweet and doesn't mind me being slower on housework and stuff when I want to work on a jam since he understands they generally involve quite a tight deadline, but once a jam is over, things are back to normal again, and I generally have a lot of catching up to do as well since I will have neglected so much while the jam was running.
I still don't even give myself more than an hour or two per week to actually play games because I know I can't afford to if I wanna get anywhere with my replies and with my project progress x3 and so my backlog of stuff I really hope to play someday continues to grow, haha.
I realise that was a waaaaay longer answer than was needed x3 I just can't be concise >.< and this is one of the reasons why I get behind on my messages and stuff xD Cos if someone types me 1 sentence, 99.9% of the time I will type back a paragraph or more, haha. So you can imagine what happens if people type me a few paragraphs... I then type back with an essay x3 I'm gonna blame that on my autism cos I dunno what else would cause me to be incapable of stopping rambling and oversharing on stuff >.<
Anyways, I also realise it's not a very helpful answer either! More just one giant explanation of why things haven't been going particularly smoothly. But that's all I've got. It is what it is. I just have to keep going and hope that I eventually get somewhere.
First of all, thanks for the extremely long reply. I sure wasn't expecting an essay of a reply! Second of all, it's really admirable of you to do all the stuff that you mentioned, especially the part about taking your brother to his appointments on top of working on your games. It took me a while to read all of that but I did it haha.
After reading all of that, I kinda feel bad for asking in the first place. It's just that DD is the game that I'm the most interested in seeing get finished and it's the game that made me discover you and your other works. Don't mind me though, just take your time on DD and your other projects because I too have depression and I know how difficult it can be to deal with sometimes. I take anti-depressants and honestly, I don't know if I could function properly in life without them.
No worries, and sorry about the length x3 I really struggle to condense the stuff I type, especially when I'm trying to explain things, haha. But at least I suppose I can copy/paste some of what I wrote if I need to for future queries or anything rather than typing out another essay :D
You don't need to feel bad for asking anyways x3 It's understandable that you'd want to know because it has been a heck of a long time without any updates. But the only reason I haven't posted anything about development is cos there hasn't been any progress, haha.
Actually, you saying that DD is the game that you're most interested in seeing get finished reminds me of another point that I forgot to mention in my essay xD The fact that even though I do want to work on the game and eventually finish it, there are other projects that I've prioritised over DD purely based on doing what I want to do the most. For example, I didn't have to participate in Spooktober VN Jam and make 2 games for that, and I didn't have to mess around creating the Masked Marionette afterwards, same as I didn't have to participate in this year's Yandere jam either x3 All of those things combined are a pretty significant number of hours sunk into other stuff that is time I could have used to work on DD instead. But I didn't because I wanted to do all that other stuff more >.<
So it's not just being busy with IRL stuff, having some unfortunate setbacks, and spending a lot of time trying to catch up on replies. It's also a choice I made to focus my energy and time on other things. But when you add all of it together, it = almost no progress made on DD.
Tbh, I'm thinking maybe after I do eventually finish DD and CiQ, I might not start any more long-term projects because it's just so much harder to get stuff done compared to smaller, shorter jam games.
I do want to work on DD though :3 It's just not always my highest priority so I'm gonna be like a snail x3
That sucks that you have depression too :( I wouldn't wish it on anyone! But if the antidepressants are helping at least a little bit, then that's good I guess :3 I once had a friend who couldn't live without them, and they really helped him a lot to cope with his anxiety and depression. What helped him the most though was a complete lifestyle change cos he was extremely unhappy in his job, which was one of the major causes of his depression. He eventually decided to move back in with his parents so that he could save up and start his own business instead. I still haven't found an antidepressant that actually works for me >.< So far, all the ones I've tried have just given me awful side effects without really helping at all!
There's no shame in having to take them though. Life can be really hard >.< You have to do whatever you can and take any help you can get to keep going :3
Wow XD i played both endings and i really enjoyed it! The story is so enthralling and the art work is just beautiful! I'll definitely be back for the full release!
Thanks so much for checking it out and leaving such a sweet comment! Super glad you had fun with what's there so far in the demo ^-^
Unfortunately, it's going to be quite a while until the proper full release cos stuff keeps happening that results in me not getting to work much on the project (plus the fact that there's a heck of a lot I wanna add to make it a full-length game doesn't help x3) but with any luck, I'll get there in the end :3
I'll be updating it sort of episodically whenever I have something significant finished to add at least anyhow, whether that be the next part of an existing character's route or adding the start of a new character's route! Still don't know if the next update I do will just be adding the CGs that are currently in-progress for the existing demo content, or whether to wait on adding those on their own until I have more new content to add along with them >.<