Thanks so much for taking the time to give it a try + leaving a comment :3 I'm super glad you enjoyed it! Especially since I enjoyed playing through Hush Little Lily too ^-^
I really need to try and make sure I remember to leave regular comments like this on everyone's game pages when I've tried the games rather than just the jam pages >.<
I got a few of the bad ends on my first foray into your GORGEOUS game... most purposefully because I knew I was making bad decisions and made ample use of the save feature, heheh!
I just want to say I love the game design. Anytime Nine is at their computer and Nyari is in the background reacting or Kiol is standing at ready?? It all adds so much. Your team made great use of that. And all the little extra things you can do with the computer or phone? *chef's kiss*
I love every character. They're so full of life! The character designs, voice acting, and writing are all so well done. I want to be their friends! Even Niard, haha! Nine is a very relatable protagonist, too, and that's super important.
As soon as I finish checking out the many, many more jam games, I am careening straight back into this world because I love everyone and want to know more, more, more! I hope to collect every end.
Just finished trying this game out. I received the first bad ending lol
Overall this game is really well made and there's so many things to do. I really like that this was more than just a visual novel, this game is interactive and protagonist has the ability to browse their computer or dial phone numbers during down time. Dialogue and characters were also really good. There was a lot of funny moments. Playing this game was a pleasant experience and I am impressed by how the team was able to put everything together within a month.
Hehe, oops x3 Thought that one would wind up being my favourite bad ending but it wasn't by the time I'd finished putting everything together, haha.
I'm glad the comedy came across because I've never written comedy stuff before and I really wanted to try and do a mixture of dark humour with slightly creepy! Was kinda worried that it wouldn't be funny though >.<
Hope you guys didn't run into any major bugs because one of the Vas on the team tried the Mac build out earlier and said it's super glitchy T_T I have no way whatsoever to test Mac builds, so I had no idea until now and I don't have a clue as to why the Mac one would be so much worse than windows because I tested to the point where I wasn't having any issues on Windows >.< Wish I could afford a macbook or something for testing!
I do still feel bad for the amount of work everyone had to do x3 Especially when they all had other responsibilities and commitments! I have no idea how they managed to get everything done that they did. I was working a lot of 15 hour days myself because I don't have a job at the moment, but they didn't all have that luxury.
Thanks so much for taking the time to try it and leave a comment :3 Really appreciate it!
Bonus fact: My dad forgot his camera on one of our outings where we saw Canada geese, which he didn't have any pictures of >.< So I took a video of us feeding them seed and was gonna include that in the game, but it did some weird glitch out when I tried to add it where the whole video just looked totally messed up with like blurred colours and distortion o.O I guess it would've made for a random scare, but it also refused to stop playing, so it had to be left out xD
Aaaaand, there were many more goose photos that I left out because it was already getting pretty asset-heavy x3 so I just picked my favourites, haha.
Wow, this really blew me away! I was invested in every second of it and your writing really is captivating: the plot, the dialogue, it's all very polished! The voice acting really lends a whole lot of charm, and the soundtrack really complements the tone of the game really well!
Tava was my favourite character by far, but I was also invested in Nine's story and progression at SSL. My friend was also really interested in this project and said that the dialogue really felt true to life like you were actually at a call center.
I'd like to go through this again to try and get all the chibi art, because it's so cute and a really nice incentive to see more of the game.
Looking at some of the comments, I'm astounded you didn't have a proofreader or tester because everything seemed to play so well!
A very big and heartfelt congratulations to you and your team!
That makes me super happy to hear ^-^ especially regarding the soundtrack because after I tried making one for the first time for Otome Jam, I had heaps of fun, but I was convinced I wouldn't have the ability to make another. I really wanted to try it for this though. I failed at making a full soundtrack because I just couldn't make anything I was happy with for Niard and Nyari's themes >.< so those 2 tracks are ones from asset packs, along with the theme for Limbo's lobby/reception area because I listened to that track on loop while writing that section of the game, and couldn't not include it after that, haha.
It's interesting that Tava wound up being your favourite because I was worried Tava would be the most likely character to sorta fade into the background with them being os quiet compared to the others! And also even more interesting because Tava was voiced by the same person who voiced Anari in your game! I can't remember if I mentioned it actually when I left a comment, but I really loved your entire voice cast! They did such a brilliant job of bringing all the characters to life :3
It certainly wasn't the plan to be without a proofreader or testers >.< haha. I was hoping that a friend of mine might have had the time to proofread, but with the deadline being so tight and her life being pretty busy, she just didn't get to go through it. I always use Grammarly free though before putting any story text into game script just to help me weed out typos, spelling mistakes, and improve my grammar. It doesn't catch everything, and it makes some pretty daft suggestions sometimes >.< but it's better than no help at all :3 A couple of my friends already found one or two typos that I missed + an instance where grammar could have been better for clarity.
And it was my intention to have a major bug-free build for the rest of the team to test a few days before the deadline, but that just didn't happen >.< Instead, I wound up spending too much time tweaking and fixing little things here and there. It's something I need to try and calm down with really because every jam I try to get a test version out, but never do in time! I just get very paranoid that there are big bugs I've missed somewhere, and I don't wanna send anyone a super bugged version cos I feel like it's my responsibility to make sure it's possible to play through most of the game problem-free before getting help weeding out the little issues. I can't seem to stop though. Even just hours away from the deadline, I was still combing over the darn thing like crazy looking for little bugs, re-exporting build after build just to fix like 1 typo I found and stuff >.<
I'm so sorry for rambling on anyhow! I can't help it when I get onto stuff I'm passionate about, haha. So please don't feel like you have to respond to this wall of text x3 But a gigantic congratulations right back at ya to you and your team! Wolfskin's Curse is incredible!! It all plays so polished and professional that if I had downloaded it without knowing it was made for a jam, I would presume it was a commercial game that was a couple of years in the making :3 Oh, and that new cover with the moving smoke is probably the snazziest, most mesmerising cover art I have ever come across on itch!
This was really good :) Liked talking to the callers and being able to give them advice. It was a fun and interesting experience. Didn't expect some of the endings and they took me by surprise (In a good way).
Contains spoilers;
The ending where you see Niard was one of my favs xD Since Niard and Tava are my favorites. I imagine it must have been something after the end too haha Complimenting them doesn't sound half bad to me :)
AND Kiol- Sorry what xD I knew something was sus about them or Nyari from the start- but still. I can kind of understand them but it doesn't excuse their actions.
I could keep talking about the characters, story and concept but I'll stop here for now :") I will still say, however, that the voice acting was on point and very good.
I'm so glad you had fun with it :3 Thanks for taking the time to play + comment!
Hehe, yeah, that wound up being one of my favourite ends as well, though I think the other secret ending is probably my most favourite of them all x3
I just feel kinda bad for Niard, because yes, they can be irritating, but they are just trying to survive, and everybody hates them for that xD But despite all the hatred, Niard just brushes it off and keeps on keeping on, haha. I feel like the shenanigans Nine and Niard could get up to would be endless! With Nine constantly pulling that unimpressed face, hehe.
You're welcome to drop me a message any time if you'd prefer to discuss anything about the game outside of itch :3
Yeah, everyone worked super hard on this and I owe them all a lot! I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such talented and awesome people ^-^
Same :3 not sure if I got the other secret ending yet since I haven't finished all of them -yet- but I'll be looking after it xD
Also true xd It must be hard for them, if we think about it. Because they can't just go, eat something and feel fulfilled. They are a pretty strong person :) Niard and Nine would be a pretty funny pair tbh xD
Thank you, might as well do that :3
Your hard work really paid off! and we're blessed to have another great game to play ^_^
Yeah, it's kinda like poor Niard has to basically go around begging for food rather than just being able to access it freely >.< It must be a pretty tough way to live. The idea of living off/draining people's energy as food was actually inspired by the TV version of What We Do In The Shadows! There's an energy vampire called Colin, who everyone hates because he drains people's energy by being incredibly dull and bringing the mood down instead of drinking blood xD So I wanted to make a character that was sort of similar to that :3
Well, I'm blessed to have such awesome people playing the game and taking the time to write lovely comments ^-^
This was such a great game! I loved the concept, the mystery was really cool and the comedy parts made me laugh like an idiot 😂 I'd love to see more to the epilogues with the main characters in the good ending and 'good endings?' (or even a sequel!) but considering the jam only lasts for a month, it's completely understandable that it ended where it ended. It's already incredible enough that this game was done in a month! The writing is superb, the art styles fit the story very well and the voice acting and music are amazing. I think my only semi-complaint would be that the game is a bit buggy at times because it can sometimes freeze or even crash (I wonder if this has something to do with Unity itself) but, again, considering this was made in a month I think that's okay since it can be solved later. The Maddie puzzle was very cool but I think maybe the game could give a small hint on how to use the hint it gives you (if that makes sense) on the twitter part. Also, I freaking loved the easter egg from Solipsism Reigns 🌸👌. As for the characters, I loved everyone, even the ones that turned out to be bad. I think Nine and Kiol are my favorites but I also have a soft spot for Nyari and Tava 🥰
Honestly, I'm always really excited to play your games cause' your writing is freaking amazing and all the voice actors in them have very charming voices. As a fellow writer and gamedev, you're a great inspiration to me. I can't wait to play your future creations!
I'm so glad you had fun with it :3 It means a lot! And I'm really happy the comedy was actually funny because I've never written much in the way of comedy before, and didn't have a proofreader or any testers for this because of time constraints with the deadline, which meant I had no idea whatsoever if any of it was actually funny xD
I totally agree that it would be nice to have more detailed epilogues for the main cast! Actually, LPB and I are hoping to work on this project a little more in the future because we both wound up loving the world and characters :3 We're thinking possibly some kind of DLC or the like for Valentine's VN Jam maybe!
I don't suppose you can remember where the game froze or crashed, can you?
I'd love to be able to fix stuff like that if possible :3
I know of a few instances that I'm unsure how to fix. The worst being when Acheros leaves you with Kiol. I managed to fix it for regular play by adding a wait command, but if the player uses skip, skip bypasses wait, and what happens is a weird Unity bug I found info on, but no fixes for :( and it basically continues the game, but breaks the save function >.> So any time the player tries to save, the game will just crash. The only way to avoid it is not using skip on that particular line.
Then there's a very long loading screen when you first enter the office and Nyari has her first line. That was because I put a few loading screens in Apartment No.9, but some players messaged me to say that they think the loading screens were causing problems with their PC's low RAM and making stuff crash. But I didn't wanna eliminate loading entirely because it's a very asset-heavy game and would take so long to load up on launch that some folks might think the game has frozen >.< So I sorta went halfway and split the script into 3 parts. Part 1 is the intro, which is fairly brief for a fast startup time. Then part 2 is where the long load is and it's either loading the entirety of the game with fem Kiol voice or masc Kiol voice.
There's a sound clip somewhere of creepy breathing which is skipped causes a freeze and the only way I could find to fix it is to use the rollback by scrolling backwards on the mouse and allowing the clip to reload and play without skipping.
And then there are 1 or 2 moments in Reiko the werewolf's call that seem like freezes but are actually purposefully places waits for multiple expression changes incoming in the next line. I wasn't sure how to make them flow smoother when there were so many of them >.<
Please let me know if anything else you found if you can :3 I'll do my best to fix stuff!
That easter egg was supposed to go a little further, but there just wasn't time, sadly x3 I always wind up giving myself waaay too much to do with jams, haha.
Oh, which voice option did you go for with Kiol by the way? :o
And man, I honestly don't know how to respond to all your praise cos it's just so lovely of you to say and my crappy no-confidence self is just sat there thinking... I'm not worthy of these kind words >.< haha. But thank you :3 I do really appreciate you taking the time to write all that up!
Someday I will actually get round to playing some of your stuff! I'm especially interested in The Dream Drinker because that's a concept that really fascinates me :3 I just rarely give myself any time to actually play stuff these days and I know I should >.< It's just hard to tear myself away from making things cos I start feeling a bit useless if I slack off :(
But yeah, I'm super proud of everyone on the team :3 Not only did they work their asses off, but they also really helped to cheer me on when things started getting tough! I certainly couldn't have created this without them ^-^
Please don't feel like you have to reply to my giant wall of rambling if you don't want to by the way! I know I asked a few questions, but I wouldn't want ya to feel obligated x3 I'm sorry I ramble so much >.< haha.
Don't worry about the wall of text, I'm always guilty of writing walls of text myself xD hehe
Your comedy writing was great!! I especially loved the scenes where Niard was present and tried to trick Nine into giving them a compliment xDDD. Nine was hilarious too when they complained about certain phone calls and made fed up faces lol. Still, if you're ever up for a collab (please tell me if I'm being too overfamiliar sgkbdksb, don't want to make you uncomfortable), I'd love to help! Writing dialogue is my favorite thing in the world when it comes to writing and many times it's stupid jokes lmao. I really admire the way you write mystery and horror cause' it's something I'd love to explore more myself (especially mystery, which is my favorite genre ever).
Oh!!! A Valentine's DLC?? That sounds great, if you ever end up doing it it's gonna be a blast!! I wonder if it's weird that I want to date Kiol because, well... them being the way they are in the story lol.
As for the freezes, I do remember the screen loading a lot, like you mentioned, when Nine first enters the office and Nyari says her first line. I think the game freezed on me when I kept saving and loading too much and also because I spammed the skip button xD so that probably made my PC tell me to yametekudastop and the game would crash. I also noticed that when you skip, many of the voices keep being listened; I wonder if that has to do with Unity itself? Cause' when I play voiced VNs that are made in Renpy I don't think the voices are heard. So maybe it's a Unity thing? If I can think of anything else I remember, I'll be sure to tell you! :3
The easter egg was great! Maybe, if you end up doing a DLC for this game, you can expand upon the easter egg there! And I feel you, jams are always such a busy time and sadly you never get around to do everything you had in mind, but they're always an amazing journey and great way to earn more experience and learn!
For Kiol, I chose the male voice option! All the voices were great but gosh I'm such a sucker for male voices in possible romantic options (〃ﾟдﾟ〃) uwaaa
Aww, don't sell yourself short, your writing is really good and I'm sure it'll get even better!! I understand about having low confidence, though, I struggle with that myself sometimes and it's not a pleasant feeling but when you ever feel like that, remember trying not to compare yourself with others but with your past self and seeing how much you've improved! We sometimes feel like there's this giant staircase that we've got to climb but forget to look back at the huge number of steps we've already climbed. I don't know if my words are any help but I at least want you to know that I'm a big fan of your writing and that you're not alone in feeling low-confidence *hugs*
As for my games, thank you so much!! I'd love it if you ever get a chance to play one of them and tell me your thoughts but, by all means, don't feel pressured to do so! Hehe, I'm happy to know you're especially interested in The Dream Drinker! That's my latest game and my first time ever writing something "horror-like"; the idea was first born as a short story but then got turned into a game. Panacea does have a bit of a mysterious vibe as well but I want to re-do that game from scratch and turn it into a visual novel cause' I feel I didn't do my story justice in RPG Maker, even if it's a demo >.< (plus that engine is harder than it looks T__T).
It really shows that you and your team gave it your all with this game. It's also really nice to know you had each others' back and that you cheered each other on! <3
Oh boy, I wrote a giant wall of text myself xD I'm sorry for the rambling. Thank you so much for taking your time to reply to my comments (both here and on the walkthrough guide post) and for sharing your games with us players!! :D
I'm glad the stuff actually came off as funny :3 And man, yeah, I really love LPB's unimpressed faces for Nine! They are so expressive, haha. Well, all of the expressions are, but the unimpressed ones are probably my favourite because Nine just looks so fed up x3
I'm always up for different kinds of collabs :D Since working with a team on Otome Jam this year, I've discovered that I much prefer working on teams than solo when it comes to jams! I don't really ever wanna work solo on a jam again now x3
Dialogue is also my favourite thing to write so *high five* hehe. Well, if we do wind up making something for a Valentine's Jam, you could always hop on board and help me out with some of the writing! Especially when this type of game is the sort that could really use additional writers for more variation in the phone calls :3
I don't think it's that weird that you'd want to date Kiol because tbh, I would xD I just kinda feel sorry for Kiol really!
Ahh, fair enough x3 Yeah, I have no idea how lots of save/load and skipping affects different people's PCs because my computer is fairly decent so if I do it a lot, I don't have a problem, BUT, if I were to do the same thing on my old laptop, it would definitely crash >.< My laptop struggles to even run VNs. It takes like 10 mins just to launch SR on there xD It's really tough to know what sort of settings to use when it's impossible to predict what system specs people have. I would have put more loads into Limbo Line so that it didn't take as long to load stuff, but I was worried about the folks who played A9 and said their PCs didn't like lots of loading >.< I just dunno what a good balance is!
As for the voices and skip, it sort of is a Unity/NaniNovel thing but it's also largely down to the way I make stuff with my multiple expression changes in one line of text x3
So, basically, in NaniNovel, there is the option to like drag and drop voice lines into the script using something called the voice map utility. There are a few different ways of doing it, but the main thing is that it saves you from having to write code for every single voice line you want to add like you would do when adding SFX. And it does make things a hell of a lot easier!
And there is an option within the text printers that you use to stop playing voice lines when the next line of text appears. This would presumably be what you would use if you wanted every voice line to stop playing as soon as you move on. However, it conflicts with the way I like to add several expression changes per line of dialogue >.<
Basically, I add the expression changes within the text, so that they happen while the text is scrolling and the player is reading, BUT, when you add them in the middle of the text, even though the text is all on one line, Nani then treats it as though it is separate lines, broken up by the expression changes. So not like 10, 11, 12, but more like 10.1, 10.2, 10.3. And when I tick the option within the text printers to stop playing dialogue on each new line, it messes with my inline expression changes because as soon as it reaches expression change no1, it thinks that the line is over, so it stops playing the voice line mid-sentence >.<”
I've yet to find a way around this! There must be one. And if there's not, I'm sure the software dev would add something to make it possible. But for now, the only way I can have multiple expression changes in 1 sentence is to also have voice lines still playing during skip. Thankfully, each new voice line does immediately stop the previous one from playing so that it's not too much of a cacophony, haha.
I did read somewhere once that the best way to improve your writing is to keep at it, so I guess that's all I can do x3 I do feel like I've improved since SR at least! It sucks you also struggle with low self-confidence too sometimes :( It's a really hard place to climb out of when you're down there. That's a really wonderful way of looking at things though! I never really thought of viewing it like that because I often end up seeing what others have made and think to myself, wow, that's amazing... I can't possibly do anything like that >.< and it sorta makes me feel like crap xD I'll try to compare myself to myself rather than to others from now on :3 Thank you! Have some *hugs back* :D
I can totally believe that RPG Maker is harder than it looks because I have one of the versions on Steam that came in the same bundle as Tyrano, and I loaded it up one day without having looked at any tutorials, and I just thought O.O that looks terrifying xD And I've never gone any further with it, haha.
Yeah, I couldn't have wished for a lovelier, harder working, more supportive team :3 Everyone was incredible!
Don't apologise anyhow x3 It's totally fine with me, haha. I'm happy to hear from you ^-^
Hehe, yeah, Nine's expressions were super cool. I think the unimpressed ones were my favorites too because of how funny they were xD
I totally get you on the working on teams for a game jam! The Dream Drinker is a game I also made with a team and it was a great experience plus I didn't go insane by trying to make everything myself in such a short amount of time lol. And by all means, if you guys end up wanting to make something for the Valentine's Jam, I'd love to help you with the writing! (Maybe even some simple art) <3 Also, yaaay, dialogue-writing lovers unite! *high fives back*
Glad I'm not alone in wanting to date Kiol, hehehe. I feel sorry for them too, they must have gone insane listening to other peoples' problems for such a long time ;__;
Aaah, I see, so the expression changes are what makes it tricky to mute the voice lines when skipping! That makes sense! But I totally understand, I think I'd prioritize the expression changes as well over muting sound when skipping, to make it simpler!
Definitely, the more you do something consistently, the more you improve! Be it writing, drawing, or other skills! Still, I totally relate to you on the feeling bad when comparing myself to others. Sadly, my inner voice sometimes does it at times (inner voice noooo!) but I try not to let it win! >:3 I think it's always better to compare yourself with your past self since, that way, you see just how much you improve and don't dismiss your improvement! After all, everyone improves at their own pace ^w^/
Yeah, RPG Maker can look really intimidating for beginners :'D I made the mistake of making something that included not so beginner friendly stuff and got frustrated, but I eventually want to try making something again, just much smaller! So that I can get experience and improve slowly but consistently <3
Your team sounds like a blast, it's nice to hear (or read, rather? lol) that you guys had a lovely experience making this game together! \^w^/
Thank you for this nice rambling-chat, I had a lot of fun!!! >w<
I'm always up for chatting on Discord or Twitter if you ever want to :D Hope you have an amazing day!! <3
And man, yeah, it does take a hell of a lot of weight off your shoulders if you're not trying to make everything! I'm certainly no artist, so I struggle badly when trying to come up with UI and stuff. And even if I have decent-looking assets from a sprite pack I've bought or something, it's just not the same as having original assets. It's nice to have assets that are actually unique to the game and more versatile in use. There's no way on earth I could have made Limbo Line the way I envisioned it with stock assets. It just wouldn't have been possible.
But yeah, you're welcome to hop on board the crazy train with us if we do end up doing something for a Valentine's Jam x3 The more the merrier!
Yeah, it's a tough one because it is annoying to have the voice lines continuing to play >.< I should really just ask the software devs if there's another way around it where I can keep my mid-sentence expression changes and still stop the voices from playing somehow! Cos you're right, I definitely wanna keep prioritising the expressions because I've come to really love having all those changes going on, even if it does take ages to code them in x3
It's so easy to wind up feeling bad comparing yourself to others >.< I tell myself time and time again to just not look. To concentrate on my own stuff and don't mind what other people are up to. But I like looking because it's also inspiring to see everyone's work + I enjoy playing indie Vns as much as making them! So I guess it's a case of finding that balance where you can admire the work of others without it making you feel crappy in yourself, haha. I think your words are very wise though, and like I said, I'm gonna try and do that from now on :3
That's pretty much what I did with SR, haha. I had all this stuff in mind, with absolutely no idea how to execute it, and everything was learning on the go. At one point I was thinking... why did I start out so big? T_T There's so much I would change about SR now that I have more knowledge, haha.
Just accepted your Discord friend request :3 You can always message me on either, but Discord is probably better because I sometimes end up forgetting about Twitter >.< haha.
Playing through this with a couple friends was a blast. the writing slaps. Finding the hidden ARG-esque secret ending was great. overall very fun way to spend a night.
I'm super glad you guys had fun with it ^-^ It was an absolute blast to make! Even if I am now in a state of semi-hibernation and zombification from having waaaay too many late nights during the jam, haha.
I'd wanted to try an ARG type thing in one of my games for a while but lacked the brain capacity to come up with any sort of satisfying puzzle >.< I'm kinda terrible at puzzles myself, so making one was a big challenge! That's brilliant you figured it out though! I was a little worried people might not even spend enough time playing the game to even find it, let alone solve it x3
Thanks so much for taking the time to play + drop a comment :3
Hope you enjoy it ^-^ I'm gonna go hibernate now cos I've had hardly any sleep for quite a while now xD It was super tough to finish on time and I needed every second I could get, but we made it!
← Return to odd predicament
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
This is such a fun concept. I really enjoyed it! I love the character designs and the little interactions.
Thanks so much for taking the time to give it a try + leaving a comment :3 I'm super glad you enjoyed it! Especially since I enjoyed playing through Hush Little Lily too ^-^
I really need to try and make sure I remember to leave regular comments like this on everyone's game pages when I've tried the games rather than just the jam pages >.<
Nawwww. I think whether it's regular or jam comments, it's all the same XD. It's the thought that counts <333
I got a few of the bad ends on my first foray into your GORGEOUS game... most purposefully because I knew I was making bad decisions and made ample use of the save feature, heheh!
I just want to say I love the game design. Anytime Nine is at their computer and Nyari is in the background reacting or Kiol is standing at ready?? It all adds so much. Your team made great use of that. And all the little extra things you can do with the computer or phone? *chef's kiss*
I love every character. They're so full of life! The character designs, voice acting, and writing are all so well done. I want to be their friends! Even Niard, haha! Nine is a very relatable protagonist, too, and that's super important.
As soon as I finish checking out the many, many more jam games, I am careening straight back into this world because I love everyone and want to know more, more, more! I hope to collect every end.
Thank you so much for working hard on it!
Just finished trying this game out. I received the first bad ending lol
Overall this game is really well made and there's so many things to do. I really like that this was more than just a visual novel, this game is interactive and protagonist has the ability to browse their computer or dial phone numbers during down time. Dialogue and characters were also really good. There was a lot of funny moments. Playing this game was a pleasant experience and I am impressed by how the team was able to put everything together within a month.
Hehe, oops x3 Thought that one would wind up being my favourite bad ending but it wasn't by the time I'd finished putting everything together, haha.
I'm glad the comedy came across because I've never written comedy stuff before and I really wanted to try and do a mixture of dark humour with slightly creepy! Was kinda worried that it wouldn't be funny though >.<
Hope you guys didn't run into any major bugs because one of the Vas on the team tried the Mac build out earlier and said it's super glitchy T_T I have no way whatsoever to test Mac builds, so I had no idea until now and I don't have a clue as to why the Mac one would be so much worse than windows because I tested to the point where I wasn't having any issues on Windows >.< Wish I could afford a macbook or something for testing!
I do still feel bad for the amount of work everyone had to do x3 Especially when they all had other responsibilities and commitments! I have no idea how they managed to get everything done that they did. I was working a lot of 15 hour days myself because I don't have a job at the moment, but they didn't all have that luxury.
Thanks so much for taking the time to try it and leave a comment :3 Really appreciate it!
REALLY COOL AND GOOD. My only complaint: Not enough goose pics.
Cheeky bugger x3 HOOOOONK!!
Bonus fact: My dad forgot his camera on one of our outings where we saw Canada geese, which he didn't have any pictures of >.< So I took a video of us feeding them seed and was gonna include that in the game, but it did some weird glitch out when I tried to add it where the whole video just looked totally messed up with like blurred colours and distortion o.O I guess it would've made for a random scare, but it also refused to stop playing, so it had to be left out xD
Aaaaand, there were many more goose photos that I left out because it was already getting pretty asset-heavy x3 so I just picked my favourites, haha.
Wow, this really blew me away! I was invested in every second of it and your writing really is captivating: the plot, the dialogue, it's all very polished! The voice acting really lends a whole lot of charm, and the soundtrack really complements the tone of the game really well!
Tava was my favourite character by far, but I was also invested in Nine's story and progression at SSL. My friend was also really interested in this project and said that the dialogue really felt true to life like you were actually at a call center.
I'd like to go through this again to try and get all the chibi art, because it's so cute and a really nice incentive to see more of the game.
Looking at some of the comments, I'm astounded you didn't have a proofreader or tester because everything seemed to play so well!
A very big and heartfelt congratulations to you and your team!
That makes me super happy to hear ^-^ especially regarding the soundtrack because after I tried making one for the first time for Otome Jam, I had heaps of fun, but I was convinced I wouldn't have the ability to make another. I really wanted to try it for this though. I failed at making a full soundtrack because I just couldn't make anything I was happy with for Niard and Nyari's themes >.< so those 2 tracks are ones from asset packs, along with the theme for Limbo's lobby/reception area because I listened to that track on loop while writing that section of the game, and couldn't not include it after that, haha.
It's interesting that Tava wound up being your favourite because I was worried Tava would be the most likely character to sorta fade into the background with them being os quiet compared to the others! And also even more interesting because Tava was voiced by the same person who voiced Anari in your game! I can't remember if I mentioned it actually when I left a comment, but I really loved your entire voice cast! They did such a brilliant job of bringing all the characters to life :3
It certainly wasn't the plan to be without a proofreader or testers >.< haha. I was hoping that a friend of mine might have had the time to proofread, but with the deadline being so tight and her life being pretty busy, she just didn't get to go through it. I always use Grammarly free though before putting any story text into game script just to help me weed out typos, spelling mistakes, and improve my grammar. It doesn't catch everything, and it makes some pretty daft suggestions sometimes >.< but it's better than no help at all :3 A couple of my friends already found one or two typos that I missed + an instance where grammar could have been better for clarity.
And it was my intention to have a major bug-free build for the rest of the team to test a few days before the deadline, but that just didn't happen >.< Instead, I wound up spending too much time tweaking and fixing little things here and there. It's something I need to try and calm down with really because every jam I try to get a test version out, but never do in time! I just get very paranoid that there are big bugs I've missed somewhere, and I don't wanna send anyone a super bugged version cos I feel like it's my responsibility to make sure it's possible to play through most of the game problem-free before getting help weeding out the little issues. I can't seem to stop though. Even just hours away from the deadline, I was still combing over the darn thing like crazy looking for little bugs, re-exporting build after build just to fix like 1 typo I found and stuff >.<
I'm so sorry for rambling on anyhow! I can't help it when I get onto stuff I'm passionate about, haha. So please don't feel like you have to respond to this wall of text x3 But a gigantic congratulations right back at ya to you and your team! Wolfskin's Curse is incredible!! It all plays so polished and professional that if I had downloaded it without knowing it was made for a jam, I would presume it was a commercial game that was a couple of years in the making :3 Oh, and that new cover with the moving smoke is probably the snazziest, most mesmerising cover art I have ever come across on itch!
This was really good :) Liked talking to the callers and being able to give them advice. It was a fun and interesting experience. Didn't expect some of the endings and they took me by surprise (In a good way).
Contains spoilers;
The ending where you see Niard was one of my favs xD Since Niard and Tava are my favorites. I imagine it must have been something after the end too haha
Complimenting them doesn't sound half bad to me :)
AND Kiol- Sorry what xD I knew something was sus about them or Nyari from the start- but still. I can kind of understand them but it doesn't excuse their actions.
I could keep talking about the characters, story and concept but I'll stop here for now :")
I will still say, however, that the voice acting was on point and very good.
I'm so glad you had fun with it :3 Thanks for taking the time to play + comment!
Hehe, yeah, that wound up being one of my favourite ends as well, though I think the other secret ending is probably my most favourite of them all x3
I just feel kinda bad for Niard, because yes, they can be irritating, but they are just trying to survive, and everybody hates them for that xD But despite all the hatred, Niard just brushes it off and keeps on keeping on, haha. I feel like the shenanigans Nine and Niard could get up to would be endless! With Nine constantly pulling that unimpressed face, hehe.
You're welcome to drop me a message any time if you'd prefer to discuss anything about the game outside of itch :3
Yeah, everyone worked super hard on this and I owe them all a lot! I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such talented and awesome people ^-^
Same :3 not sure if I got the other secret ending yet since I haven't finished all of them -yet- but I'll be looking after it xD
Also true xd It must be hard for them, if we think about it. Because they can't just go, eat something and feel fulfilled. They are a pretty strong person :)
Niard and Nine would be a pretty funny pair tbh xD
Thank you, might as well do that :3
Your hard work really paid off! and we're blessed to have another great game to play ^_^
Yeah, it's kinda like poor Niard has to basically go around begging for food rather than just being able to access it freely >.< It must be a pretty tough way to live. The idea of living off/draining people's energy as food was actually inspired by the TV version of What We Do In The Shadows! There's an energy vampire called Colin, who everyone hates because he drains people's energy by being incredibly dull and bringing the mood down instead of drinking blood xD So I wanted to make a character that was sort of similar to that :3
Well, I'm blessed to have such awesome people playing the game and taking the time to write lovely comments ^-^
This was such a great game! I loved the concept, the mystery was really cool and the comedy parts made me laugh like an idiot 😂 I'd love to see more to the epilogues with the main characters in the good ending and 'good endings?' (or even a sequel!) but considering the jam only lasts for a month, it's completely understandable that it ended where it ended. It's already incredible enough that this game was done in a month! The writing is superb, the art styles fit the story very well and the voice acting and music are amazing. I think my only semi-complaint would be that the game is a bit buggy at times because it can sometimes freeze or even crash (I wonder if this has something to do with Unity itself) but, again, considering this was made in a month I think that's okay since it can be solved later. The Maddie puzzle was very cool but I think maybe the game could give a small hint on how to use the hint it gives you (if that makes sense) on the twitter part. Also, I freaking loved the easter egg from Solipsism Reigns 🌸👌. As for the characters, I loved everyone, even the ones that turned out to be bad. I think Nine and Kiol are my favorites but I also have a soft spot for Nyari and Tava 🥰
Honestly, I'm always really excited to play your games cause' your writing is freaking amazing and all the voice actors in them have very charming voices. As a fellow writer and gamedev, you're a great inspiration to me. I can't wait to play your future creations!
❤☺️
I'm so glad you had fun with it :3 It means a lot! And I'm really happy the comedy was actually funny because I've never written much in the way of comedy before, and didn't have a proofreader or any testers for this because of time constraints with the deadline, which meant I had no idea whatsoever if any of it was actually funny xD
I totally agree that it would be nice to have more detailed epilogues for the main cast! Actually, LPB and I are hoping to work on this project a little more in the future because we both wound up loving the world and characters :3 We're thinking possibly some kind of DLC or the like for Valentine's VN Jam maybe!
I don't suppose you can remember where the game froze or crashed, can you?
I'd love to be able to fix stuff like that if possible :3
I know of a few instances that I'm unsure how to fix. The worst being when Acheros leaves you with Kiol. I managed to fix it for regular play by adding a wait command, but if the player uses skip, skip bypasses wait, and what happens is a weird Unity bug I found info on, but no fixes for :( and it basically continues the game, but breaks the save function >.> So any time the player tries to save, the game will just crash. The only way to avoid it is not using skip on that particular line.
Then there's a very long loading screen when you first enter the office and Nyari has her first line. That was because I put a few loading screens in Apartment No.9, but some players messaged me to say that they think the loading screens were causing problems with their PC's low RAM and making stuff crash. But I didn't wanna eliminate loading entirely because it's a very asset-heavy game and would take so long to load up on launch that some folks might think the game has frozen >.< So I sorta went halfway and split the script into 3 parts. Part 1 is the intro, which is fairly brief for a fast startup time. Then part 2 is where the long load is and it's either loading the entirety of the game with fem Kiol voice or masc Kiol voice.
There's a sound clip somewhere of creepy breathing which is skipped causes a freeze and the only way I could find to fix it is to use the rollback by scrolling backwards on the mouse and allowing the clip to reload and play without skipping.
And then there are 1 or 2 moments in Reiko the werewolf's call that seem like freezes but are actually purposefully places waits for multiple expression changes incoming in the next line. I wasn't sure how to make them flow smoother when there were so many of them >.<
Please let me know if anything else you found if you can :3 I'll do my best to fix stuff!
That easter egg was supposed to go a little further, but there just wasn't time, sadly x3 I always wind up giving myself waaay too much to do with jams, haha.
Oh, which voice option did you go for with Kiol by the way? :o
And man, I honestly don't know how to respond to all your praise cos it's just so lovely of you to say and my crappy no-confidence self is just sat there thinking... I'm not worthy of these kind words >.< haha. But thank you :3 I do really appreciate you taking the time to write all that up!
Someday I will actually get round to playing some of your stuff! I'm especially interested in The Dream Drinker because that's a concept that really fascinates me :3 I just rarely give myself any time to actually play stuff these days and I know I should >.< It's just hard to tear myself away from making things cos I start feeling a bit useless if I slack off :(
But yeah, I'm super proud of everyone on the team :3 Not only did they work their asses off, but they also really helped to cheer me on when things started getting tough! I certainly couldn't have created this without them ^-^
Please don't feel like you have to reply to my giant wall of rambling if you don't want to by the way! I know I asked a few questions, but I wouldn't want ya to feel obligated x3 I'm sorry I ramble so much >.< haha.
Don't worry about the wall of text, I'm always guilty of writing walls of text myself xD hehe
Your comedy writing was great!! I especially loved the scenes where Niard was present and tried to trick Nine into giving them a compliment xDDD. Nine was hilarious too when they complained about certain phone calls and made fed up faces lol. Still, if you're ever up for a collab (please tell me if I'm being too overfamiliar sgkbdksb, don't want to make you uncomfortable), I'd love to help! Writing dialogue is my favorite thing in the world when it comes to writing and many times it's stupid jokes lmao. I really admire the way you write mystery and horror cause' it's something I'd love to explore more myself (especially mystery, which is my favorite genre ever).
Oh!!! A Valentine's DLC?? That sounds great, if you ever end up doing it it's gonna be a blast!! I wonder if it's weird that I want to date Kiol because, well... them being the way they are in the story lol.
As for the freezes, I do remember the screen loading a lot, like you mentioned, when Nine first enters the office and Nyari says her first line. I think the game freezed on me when I kept saving and loading too much and also because I spammed the skip button xD so that probably made my PC tell me to yametekudastop and the game would crash. I also noticed that when you skip, many of the voices keep being listened; I wonder if that has to do with Unity itself? Cause' when I play voiced VNs that are made in Renpy I don't think the voices are heard. So maybe it's a Unity thing? If I can think of anything else I remember, I'll be sure to tell you! :3
The easter egg was great! Maybe, if you end up doing a DLC for this game, you can expand upon the easter egg there! And I feel you, jams are always such a busy time and sadly you never get around to do everything you had in mind, but they're always an amazing journey and great way to earn more experience and learn!
For Kiol, I chose the male voice option! All the voices were great but gosh I'm such a sucker for male voices in possible romantic options (〃ﾟдﾟ〃) uwaaa
Aww, don't sell yourself short, your writing is really good and I'm sure it'll get even better!! I understand about having low confidence, though, I struggle with that myself sometimes and it's not a pleasant feeling but when you ever feel like that, remember trying not to compare yourself with others but with your past self and seeing how much you've improved! We sometimes feel like there's this giant staircase that we've got to climb but forget to look back at the huge number of steps we've already climbed. I don't know if my words are any help but I at least want you to know that I'm a big fan of your writing and that you're not alone in feeling low-confidence *hugs*
As for my games, thank you so much!! I'd love it if you ever get a chance to play one of them and tell me your thoughts but, by all means, don't feel pressured to do so! Hehe, I'm happy to know you're especially interested in The Dream Drinker! That's my latest game and my first time ever writing something "horror-like"; the idea was first born as a short story but then got turned into a game. Panacea does have a bit of a mysterious vibe as well but I want to re-do that game from scratch and turn it into a visual novel cause' I feel I didn't do my story justice in RPG Maker, even if it's a demo >.< (plus that engine is harder than it looks T__T).
It really shows that you and your team gave it your all with this game. It's also really nice to know you had each others' back and that you cheered each other on! <3
Oh boy, I wrote a giant wall of text myself xD I'm sorry for the rambling. Thank you so much for taking your time to reply to my comments (both here and on the walkthrough guide post) and for sharing your games with us players!! :D
Hehe, ramblers unite :D
I'm glad the stuff actually came off as funny :3 And man, yeah, I really love LPB's unimpressed faces for Nine! They are so expressive, haha. Well, all of the expressions are, but the unimpressed ones are probably my favourite because Nine just looks so fed up x3
I'm always up for different kinds of collabs :D Since working with a team on Otome Jam this year, I've discovered that I much prefer working on teams than solo when it comes to jams! I don't really ever wanna work solo on a jam again now x3
Dialogue is also my favourite thing to write so *high five* hehe. Well, if we do wind up making something for a Valentine's Jam, you could always hop on board and help me out with some of the writing! Especially when this type of game is the sort that could really use additional writers for more variation in the phone calls :3
I don't think it's that weird that you'd want to date Kiol because tbh, I would xD I just kinda feel sorry for Kiol really!
Ahh, fair enough x3 Yeah, I have no idea how lots of save/load and skipping affects different people's PCs because my computer is fairly decent so if I do it a lot, I don't have a problem, BUT, if I were to do the same thing on my old laptop, it would definitely crash >.< My laptop struggles to even run VNs. It takes like 10 mins just to launch SR on there xD It's really tough to know what sort of settings to use when it's impossible to predict what system specs people have. I would have put more loads into Limbo Line so that it didn't take as long to load stuff, but I was worried about the folks who played A9 and said their PCs didn't like lots of loading >.< I just dunno what a good balance is!
As for the voices and skip, it sort of is a Unity/NaniNovel thing but it's also largely down to the way I make stuff with my multiple expression changes in one line of text x3
So, basically, in NaniNovel, there is the option to like drag and drop voice lines into the script using something called the voice map utility. There are a few different ways of doing it, but the main thing is that it saves you from having to write code for every single voice line you want to add like you would do when adding SFX. And it does make things a hell of a lot easier!
And there is an option within the text printers that you use to stop playing voice lines when the next line of text appears. This would presumably be what you would use if you wanted every voice line to stop playing as soon as you move on. However, it conflicts with the way I like to add several expression changes per line of dialogue >.<
Basically, I add the expression changes within the text, so that they happen while the text is scrolling and the player is reading, BUT, when you add them in the middle of the text, even though the text is all on one line, Nani then treats it as though it is separate lines, broken up by the expression changes. So not like 10, 11, 12, but more like 10.1, 10.2, 10.3. And when I tick the option within the text printers to stop playing dialogue on each new line, it messes with my inline expression changes because as soon as it reaches expression change no1, it thinks that the line is over, so it stops playing the voice line mid-sentence >.<”
I've yet to find a way around this! There must be one. And if there's not, I'm sure the software dev would add something to make it possible. But for now, the only way I can have multiple expression changes in 1 sentence is to also have voice lines still playing during skip. Thankfully, each new voice line does immediately stop the previous one from playing so that it's not too much of a cacophony, haha.
I did read somewhere once that the best way to improve your writing is to keep at it, so I guess that's all I can do x3 I do feel like I've improved since SR at least! It sucks you also struggle with low self-confidence too sometimes :( It's a really hard place to climb out of when you're down there. That's a really wonderful way of looking at things though! I never really thought of viewing it like that because I often end up seeing what others have made and think to myself, wow, that's amazing... I can't possibly do anything like that >.< and it sorta makes me feel like crap xD I'll try to compare myself to myself rather than to others from now on :3 Thank you! Have some *hugs back* :D
I can totally believe that RPG Maker is harder than it looks because I have one of the versions on Steam that came in the same bundle as Tyrano, and I loaded it up one day without having looked at any tutorials, and I just thought O.O that looks terrifying xD And I've never gone any further with it, haha.
Yeah, I couldn't have wished for a lovelier, harder working, more supportive team :3 Everyone was incredible!
Don't apologise anyhow x3 It's totally fine with me, haha. I'm happy to hear from you ^-^
Ramblers unite! *high five*
Hehe, yeah, Nine's expressions were super cool. I think the unimpressed ones were my favorites too because of how funny they were xD
I totally get you on the working on teams for a game jam! The Dream Drinker is a game I also made with a team and it was a great experience plus I didn't go insane by trying to make everything myself in such a short amount of time lol. And by all means, if you guys end up wanting to make something for the Valentine's Jam, I'd love to help you with the writing! (Maybe even some simple art) <3 Also, yaaay, dialogue-writing lovers unite! *high fives back*
Glad I'm not alone in wanting to date Kiol, hehehe. I feel sorry for them too, they must have gone insane listening to other peoples' problems for such a long time ;__;
Aaah, I see, so the expression changes are what makes it tricky to mute the voice lines when skipping! That makes sense! But I totally understand, I think I'd prioritize the expression changes as well over muting sound when skipping, to make it simpler!
Definitely, the more you do something consistently, the more you improve! Be it writing, drawing, or other skills! Still, I totally relate to you on the feeling bad when comparing myself to others. Sadly, my inner voice sometimes does it at times (inner voice noooo!) but I try not to let it win! >:3 I think it's always better to compare yourself with your past self since, that way, you see just how much you improve and don't dismiss your improvement! After all, everyone improves at their own pace ^w^/
Yeah, RPG Maker can look really intimidating for beginners :'D I made the mistake of making something that included not so beginner friendly stuff and got frustrated, but I eventually want to try making something again, just much smaller! So that I can get experience and improve slowly but consistently <3
Your team sounds like a blast, it's nice to hear (or read, rather? lol) that you guys had a lovely experience making this game together! \^w^/
Thank you for this nice rambling-chat, I had a lot of fun!!! >w<
I'm always up for chatting on Discord or Twitter if you ever want to :D Hope you have an amazing day!! <3
Yeah, they just kinda ooze “for fuck's sake” xD
And man, yeah, it does take a hell of a lot of weight off your shoulders if you're not trying to make everything! I'm certainly no artist, so I struggle badly when trying to come up with UI and stuff. And even if I have decent-looking assets from a sprite pack I've bought or something, it's just not the same as having original assets. It's nice to have assets that are actually unique to the game and more versatile in use. There's no way on earth I could have made Limbo Line the way I envisioned it with stock assets. It just wouldn't have been possible.
But yeah, you're welcome to hop on board the crazy train with us if we do end up doing something for a Valentine's Jam x3 The more the merrier!
Yeah, it's a tough one because it is annoying to have the voice lines continuing to play >.< I should really just ask the software devs if there's another way around it where I can keep my mid-sentence expression changes and still stop the voices from playing somehow! Cos you're right, I definitely wanna keep prioritising the expressions because I've come to really love having all those changes going on, even if it does take ages to code them in x3
It's so easy to wind up feeling bad comparing yourself to others >.< I tell myself time and time again to just not look. To concentrate on my own stuff and don't mind what other people are up to. But I like looking because it's also inspiring to see everyone's work + I enjoy playing indie Vns as much as making them! So I guess it's a case of finding that balance where you can admire the work of others without it making you feel crappy in yourself, haha. I think your words are very wise though, and like I said, I'm gonna try and do that from now on :3
That's pretty much what I did with SR, haha. I had all this stuff in mind, with absolutely no idea how to execute it, and everything was learning on the go. At one point I was thinking... why did I start out so big? T_T There's so much I would change about SR now that I have more knowledge, haha.
Just accepted your Discord friend request :3 You can always message me on either, but Discord is probably better because I sometimes end up forgetting about Twitter >.< haha.
Happy Wednesday to you!!
Playing through this with a couple friends was a blast. the writing slaps. Finding the hidden ARG-esque secret ending was great. overall very fun way to spend a night.
I'm super glad you guys had fun with it ^-^ It was an absolute blast to make! Even if I am now in a state of semi-hibernation and zombification from having waaaay too many late nights during the jam, haha.
I'd wanted to try an ARG type thing in one of my games for a while but lacked the brain capacity to come up with any sort of satisfying puzzle >.< I'm kinda terrible at puzzles myself, so making one was a big challenge! That's brilliant you figured it out though! I was a little worried people might not even spend enough time playing the game to even find it, let alone solve it x3
Thanks so much for taking the time to play + drop a comment :3
awww yisss!!! thanks for the lovely game~ You've worked hard on it!
Hope you enjoy it ^-^ I'm gonna go hibernate now cos I've had hardly any sleep for quite a while now xD It was super tough to finish on time and I needed every second I could get, but we made it!
I'm happy for yah! get some rest Me-san! You deserved it, and don't worry, we will be sure to enjoy every second of the game~