You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that x3 It was actually me and my friend that wrote and sang the opening theme, haha. But both of us really wanted to try and sound a bit like Vocaloids xD So my friend spent aaaages editing our vocals to try and give them a bit of a Vocaloid kind of sound! Glad to hear it paid off :D I wish I could be Luka x3
woa すごい I really thought they were Vocaloid voices :O I'm a huge fan of vocaloids and when I heard the song I was "Is it them?!" It's very well edited! I loved the melody and the lyrics :) I showed it to a friend and she was like "That's a good song!" I'm glad my little comment makes you happy! If I tell you the truth, after writing it, I worried about how stupid the question was and I got depressed qwq but I'm glad you answered me ^^ thank you
Well, I’m glad it worked then :D I wish I actually did sound like Luka when I sing, haha. The song was a real team effort between myself and my (sadly) ex-friend. It’s a long story, but he basically doesn’t talk to me anymore and I will never really know why because the last time we saw each other in person, everything was fine >.< he just pretty much ghosted me even though we used to live together! I know he got a girlfriend, so maybe that was part of the reason, but still. It sucks to have lost him as a friend :(
But yeah, anyways, he wrote the music, and I wrote the lyrics :3 Then we sang it individually because I was too embarrassed to sing my parts in front of him, so I made him leave the house while I recorded xD And once everything was recorded and he’d made the backing track, he edited our voices to try and make them sound more Vocaloid-like.
I wanted to try and sort of tell the story of the game in the lyrics without giving away spoilers, haha. I really love songs that tell stories, so I was inspired by stuff like Puppet in the Dark by FELT and world.execute(me); by Mili.
You should never feel stupid for asking questions x3 I know it’s easier said than done though >.< But if we didn’t ask questions, we’d never learn anything :3
qnq Something similar happened to me with an ex-friend, it was a somewhat silly fight xD Do you know Wadanohara and the great blue sea? (I think it was called the game) we were fighting because she liked a character (Fukami I think his name was) and my other (Samekichi) and well after that she completely blocked me and we lost contact, that's been a while year and I have not been able to speak to her again, I am very sorry for it
The song really expresses the story very well without any spoilers with very good lyrics ùvú I liked it a lot and I have repeated it too much xD
To me I wish my singing voice was more like IA or Kaai Yuki xD
I also love songs that tell stories, I especially like Vocaloids and Utaites a lot
Thank you Marie, if I have any questions I won't hesitate to ask uwu
That sucks about your ex-friend :( I do know of that, yeah! I’ve never played it myself, but it’s been on my list of things to check out for aaaages!! It always popped up on lists I read about recommendations of games with creepy characters or yanderes in, haha.
That’s a shame you guys lost contact. Whenever that happens to me I always worry if the other person is okay. Cos usually, it’s not like anything really bad has happened or we’ve had a big argument or anything, it’s just more like getting ghosted I guess. It really sucked with my friend cos we were super close years ago. Getting ghosted online is fairly normal for me, but I never imagined I’d get ghosted by someone I knew so well irl when we had such a good friendship. I guess he must’ve just got sick of me and decided he didn’t want me in his life anymore x3
I hope you have other friends who will always stick around at least :3
As for singing, weeeell, I do wish I had a higher-pitched voice, haha. But Luka is probably the closest Vocaloid to my natural singing voice. I just hate having a deep voice in general really T_T
The small version does run on my pc! Yei! xD I've only played a little but it's really a good game! It reminds me a bit of Amnesia with the theme of worlds! I really like the drawings (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧ and the background music is quite nice! I was quite surprised that all the characters had voices <3 there are many Game overs xvx I don't know how many times I've already died :D! but it's quite fun to try again! And anyway I love your games! (≧▽≦)
Huzzah :D Well, I'm glad that version works at least :3 As far as I can remember there wasn't a huge difference, mainly just files shrunk a lot more, but there's not much visual difference other than in the videos.
Amnesia was actually partly what inspired me to make this as my first game :3 Mainly my love for Ukyo xD
I was very lucky to get to work with Destini who did all that epic art and all the voice actors who helped me out too :3 Wouldn't have been possible without everyone!
Yeah, I kinda have a thing for bad ends xD so I thought it would be fun to try and make a game where the point is to collect them all, haha.
Thank you so much again for checking out my stuff and being so sweet ^-^
Idon't really understand why the normal version of the game didn't run on my pc :( I guess it sure is a mystery xD So you like Ukyo :D he is very sweet xD I also like Bad endings even though in Amnesia I got stuck so much for them
I say it again (Maybe I'll repeat it a lot )xD I love your games! and this is one of my favorites <3 kuro is sweet maybe I'll cheer up and play the BxG version and share the game with my friends friends even if they don't really like VN qwq
Hehe, yeah, I think Ukyo is probably still one of my all-time favourites :3 I’m quite behind on otome games now, but I used to play them a lot before I started trying to make games x3 Quite often though, I wasn’t really that interested in a lot of the characters. The most recent one I finished was Cafe Enchante, and while I didn’t fall in love with any of the main characters, I enjoyed the overall story. Shiraishi from Collar x Malice was another one that I liked a lot :D I didn’t really enjoy most of Collar x Malice, but it was worth it for Shiraishi, haha.
Aww, you’re too kind x3 Sadly, you won’t be able to play the BxG version though cos I’m not even close to finishing it >.< It’s completely on hold at this point, but I do hope to try and make it someday! There’s just never enough time T_T
It’s frustrating trying to get friends who don’t like VNs to check them out, haha. I’ve tried in the past but they just turn their noses up at them and say stuff like they’re not proper games x3
xD amnesia was really my first otome game, personally I loved Ikki and Shin a lot and even toma although Kento only bored me x-x
I really don't have friends who like otome VNs or others that sometimes is something sad not having someone to share with
Ah! If you like the voice of Ukyo's voice actor and you know something about Japanese you should play Glass heart princess even though it's from PSP
I haven't heard of those otome games :O I tried to search the internet for Collar x Malice to download it but I haven't I've been lucky qvq (or I haven't searched well I guess xD)
The truth is that I haven't been playing much maybe my last game was Dynamic Chord feat Kyohso
I really admire that I admire that you make games ! I would love to be able to do the same ovo✨ sometimes good ideas come to me but I don't dare to do it qq
If you ever finish the GxB version rest assured that I will play it ÒvÓb
Sorry for the very long message, I hope don't mind me acting so friendly qvq and again thanks for reading and responding to my comments
Awww, poor Kent x3 I actually liked him, haha. I just thought he was kinda cute and sweet, haha. Ikki is the one I thought I’d like the most based purely on looks, but nope, I wound up hating him and his stupid fanclub xD
I played Collar x Malice on PSVita, but I’m pretty sure it’s been rereleased on Nintendo Switch with extra content :3 And it was Switch that I played Cafe Enchante on! I think most otome games seems to be releasing on Switch over here now actually.
You could always get something easy to use like Tyranobuilder or maybe even mess around with Renpy since it’s free :3 You don’t have to put pressure on yourself to release anything, but you could just experiment and see how some of your ideas turn out :D
You have nothing to apologise for x3 and I don’t mind at all :3
Hello ! melancholy marionette I really need your help! I recently downloaded the game to play it on my pc but I don't know how to run it and the internal of my pc started to fill up and I really don't know what to do ｡ﾟ( ﾟஇωஇﾟ)ﾟ｡
Hey hey! Sorry if this is too late to help, I don't tend to go on my PC at weekends >.< I'm hoping you managed to get it working by now, but if not I can try to help, though, I don't know much help I can be because this project is really old and some people's computers seem to have problems opening it :(
If you're on Mac, I probably can't help at all cos I don't own a Mac to test on >.<
If you're on Windows, you should be able to download either the Solipsism Reigns – GxB – Windows or Solipsism Reigns – GxB – windows (smaller version). Once downloaded, unzip the folder like you usually would by right-clicking it and extracting the files.
Once you've extracted the files to a folder, you should have something that looks like this:
Then you double-click on the exe here:
And the game should run.
BUT, depending on your computer's specs, it could take a looong time to actually do anything >.< On my old laptop, it took something crazy like a full 5-7 minutes to actually launch the game after clicking the exe. It looks like it's not doing anything, but it does eventually open. Unless the computer doesn't have enough memory, then it might just not do anything >.< Even on my PC which has relatively decent specs, it still takes about 20 seconds to actually launch though.
If your folder doesn't look like that after extracting the files though, or if clicking the exe opens up something that isn't the game, then it probably means you're one of the unlucky people who has the weird error that I don't know how to fix T_T
thanks for answering ! I'll try to download the smaller version and I'll try again owo, by the way maybe what happened is that since my pc is not very good (only 4GB of ram) the version that weighed more didn't run xD sorry for bothering you with this little error! qvq again thanks for the help ^^
Maybe >.< but still, I would like to hope that 4GB of ram would be enough to run most visual novels :( I know the download size is quite large and it takes a while to start up, but once it's actually running, even the original version should work on most computers. My old potato laptop was a super potato with extremely low specs, but even though it took forever to actually launch after clicking the exe, it did eventually run x3 and once it was running, it was smooth. It was just the startup that caused problems.
Anyways, you have nothing to apologise for x3 I hope that the smaller version ends up working for you at least! :3
Thanks so much ^-^ That's super sweet of you to say <3 The giant no-confidence part of myself wants to shake my head in denial and declare it impossible for anyone to put any of my games in their favourites x3 but I really appreciate that anyone would consider them that way :3 Still hope I will eventually get to remake this one someday, but I don't know when I'm supposed to find the time to do it x3
I played this a while ago and I'm back here to download again so I can replay it, so I figured I'd leave a comment!
I've played most of your games (the other ones are pending!) and they're all really good, but Solipsism Reigns has really made its way into my heart. I love yandere games, and the normal routes definitly gave me that but the '???' route and true end got me so hooked up I stayed up all night to finish them. Definitely one of my favorite games ever, I can't believe it's free (๑>ᴗ<๑)
Aww, well, that's super sweet of you ^-^ And it means a lot that you'd even want to replay it!! If you ever end up playing everything, you'll have to let me know which one winds up being your favourite :3 it's always intriguing to know what sorta stuff different people prefer, haha. Like, Limbo Line is my personal favourite, though, I grew extremely fond of Bitter/Sweet, but some people I've spoken to who have played a few of my games said they liked X game a lot, but then they tried another one of my games and they just couldn't get into it, haha.
I'll always have a soft spot for this project though with it being my very first :3 I can't believe it's gonna be 3 years old this summer o.o I dunno where the time has gone! Honestly don't know what I was thinking trying to make something this long as a first game >.< And I've never managed to make anything of the same length since, although, while it's been on hold for what seems like forever, the writing for CiQ was finished aaaages ago, and I reckon it is probably similar in length to SR, just had a heck of a lot of problems turning it into a game T_T
I'm glad the ??? route was interesting enough to keep you engaged :3 I did worry a little that it might drag a bit or something, or be too weird, I dunno, haha. The whole ??? route was my initial idea for the game though, but then I thought, I can't just do that on its own, there needs to be stuff before it for it to have any sort of impact >.< So I had to try and work backwards from there x3
Funnily enough, my dad said the same thing when I first released the game about it being free xD He still says that now every time I release stuff. It usually goes along the lines of "You're mad! You work yourself half to death and you're not even getting paid for it!!" hehe. He means it in an affectionate way, of course! But at the same time, it does make him sad that I can't make a living from it with all the hours I put in x3
Anyways, I will hush my rambling and just say thank you so much for playing in general and your kind words! Hope you get to have an awesome rest of your April :3
Is anyone else having trouble loading into the game. I was able to install it yet when I try to launch it, it just shows NW.JS and that's about it. If anyone know anything please let me know.
Sorry my reply is quite slow >.< my arm is still broken, so I'm not able to stay on top of stuff very well atm :(
I'm hoping you might have been able to get it to work by now, but I'm guessing probably not because if it was asking you to install something, then it's already gone wrong because you shouldn't have to install anything to play >.< It should just work when you click the. exe file T_T
I know a few people had the same issue in the past though! Not just with my game, but games by other devs made with the Tyranobuilder engine. It's one of the reasons why I decided to stop using the engine and start making stuff with a different engine entirely.
I have no idea what causes this for some people :( and back when someone first brought it up, I tried to find a fix, and made a post with some stuff in, which you can find here :3
I have no idea if any of it works though! And no one ever did get back to me when I queried the engine devs about it. Another reason I stopped using Tyrano >.<
Maybe something will work for you, but I don't hold out much hope :(
I love this game so much! I just wish that there was a BxB version sks- But I love this game! It's incredible how you were able to do all of this, and make it free! I'm definitely going to download this again. I absolutely love yanderes and there's a severe lack of them, well, everywhere. I've been following your itch.io content for a long time, and I'm excited to see what you make in the future! ^w^
I wish I could've made all different kinds of versions >.< I had originally planned to at least have GxB, BxG, BxB, and GxG, but by the time I finished the GxB/otome version, it became clear that it would just take too much time because of how long the game is T_T The BxG version is still in development (albeit very slowly because it's not a priority project), but I had to make the decision to drop the other versions or it would take me years and years to make then and I wouldn't have time to make anything else :( Tbh, it was pretty stupid of me to make such a long game for my first-ever go at making games xD At least with the shorter ones I've made since then, I've managed to be more inclusive with different options :3
I'm glad you still had fun playing it though ^-^ I don't really know how I managed to motivate myself enough to finish it really, haha. It was far too long for a first project, and I did almost give up several times! It was actually the covid lockdown that made me go into overdrive and try to get the last of it finished because it helped take my mind off of how crap everything was >.<
Hehe, lack of yanderes (especially ones with English male voices) was one of my main reasons to get into game dev :D It seems like there are quite a few around nowadays, with more popping up all the time, which is awesome :3 But back when I started this project, I couldn't really find many at all >.< most of the male yanderes I found were in Japanese titles, and even then, there still weren't THAT many in games that had been translated. So I figured I'd try to make one myself x3
I never really intended to end up making multiple games xD it's just after I finished my first project, I kinda wound up addicted to it, and I figured, screw it, I'm just gonna make it my mission to keep adding more and more English-voiced yandere characters to the world, haha.
That's so cool that you've been following my stuff! I appreciate the support <3 I always try to have at least 1 yandere character in my games, or if not a full yandere, then a character with some yandere qualities, haha. Although, I didn't with The Graveyard Shift in the end, but then that was supposed to be an adaptation more than anything and I was pushed for time x3
Hopefully, any stuff I make in the future won't turn out to be disappointing, haha. Thanks for playing this one too ^-^
ahh, i'm sorry for the late reply! suddenly, you've motivated me to finally get on figuring out how to code a game. thank you so much! and i wish you the best of luck with your projects!
I have to say, the different levels of Yandere present kind of gave me whiplash!
Have done the first four routes so far.
Student route: Kuro killed me for agreeing to have a group lunch that included a boy
Mage route: Kuro killed me for being polite and praying to the god that the cleric who was coming with me on an impromptu suicide mission to save the day wanted me to pray to
Detective route: Kuro killed me for trying to find my detective partner before looking for a missing child
Princess route: I literally attacked Kuro and he...apologized for not better understanding my feelings.
I almost felt like I was the Yandere on that route lol
Of course I prefer lower levels of Yandere but it made the route much harder since I couldn't always figure out which choices would get me killed lol
xD I can definitely believe that, haha. Because this was my first-ever game and it's a few years old now, when I look back on it, there's a lot I would change about the writing, especially in the Student route! Cos I pretty much despise that one x3 I would ramble on about the various reasons why I wanted to include all the varying degrees of yandere in the routes, but I don't want to accidentally spoil anything, haha.
I really appreciate you hanging in there and sticking with it though :D Trust me, there is a reason for it all in the end, haha. All I can say without being too spoilery is that everything will make sense when you unlock the ??? route. Don't worry about all the blood, death, and suffering along the way x3 Getting through all those bad ends is the key :3
hi!! i loved this game, its so interesting and i loved how kuro was a lil different in every route <3 just wanted to ask if you could maybe put subtitles for the man (?) that talks sometimes after the route and at the very ending, since english isnt my first language and his voice kina echos and is static a lil it was a bit hard to hear what he said sometimes, just an idea !! still i loved it very much <333
Hey hey! So glad to hear you enjoyed the game :3 Thank you so much for playing <3
If I could add the subtitles, then I would, but sadly, I don't have access to the game files anymore, so I can't make any changes T_T Because this was the first game I made, I had all the files on my old laptop, and unfortunately, I wound up losing them >.< I also don't use the Tyranobuilder Engine anymore.
With it being my first game, I was a bit of an idiot and didn't really think about the fact that it might be helpful to have subtitles for those scenes >.< I do plan to eventually remake the entire game one day though, and I will definitely be sure to include subtitles when I do :3
ahh that’s completely okay !! i’m sorry u lost all the files :(( but i’m glad to know that’s it’s something you would do in the future <33 i hope u have a great day <3
I really like this game and to find a game with a male Yandere in it! I noticed that this game isnt completed released but the BxG version is still continuing. So this this version of the game wont continue?
The GxB/otome version (this version) with a female protagonist and male yandere is completed and released :3 It was the first game I ever made :D And ever since then, I have continued to include both male and female yandere characters in almost all of my games ^-^
The BxG version of this project where the protagonist is male and the love interest is a female yandere is still in development, but very casually, so it won't be ready any time soon x3 but it is happening and will have different sprite art and stuff.
I also hope to remake the released otome version one day with new routes and new sprite art, but that's a loooong way off cos it's my longest game, so it would take ages to completely remake it in the engine I use now >.<
Whats the name that voice in every bad ending calls you? I tried sounding it out and spelling it but a friend of mine thinks i said eczema TT I like how it sounds but i just dunno what the name is
It's 'Anathema' :3 That's funny though xD and, funnily enough, I have eczema, haha. Got it real bad on my hands T_T got ill before Christmas and am still ill now, and having a stupid eczema flare up on both hands really isn't helping things :( that's why I'm so slow to reply, haha.
Sorry it's taken me ages to get back to you >.< I was ill before and during Christmas, and still am now somehow (much better though now, thankfully!) I've not been on my PC, I tried and failed to catch up on stuff on my phone, it's just kinda old and laggy, so it's not the easiest thing to type on x3
Anyways, thanks so much for playing! Glad you enjoyed it :3 I'll do my best to answer your questions ^-^
1) Firstly, it's been a long time, but as far as I can remember, there shouldn't be any major differences between the large and small versions other than the download size. And possibly the little videos and some of the art being of slightly lower quality from being compressed much more in the small version. The larger version should technically be the better one with the higher-quality assets in.
Aaaaand
SPOILERS
2) Cody is actually me x3 I very rarely use my name in stuff because I hate it xD And the main reason I hate it is cos it largely seems to be a male name, but I'm female >.< haha. Annoyingly, there seems to be an alternate (more feminine I guess) spelling of the name that tends to be given to girls (Codie) but nope, my mum went and spelled it the dude way >.> My dad hated it, haha. He wanted to call me Anya! But my mum won. Apparently, she got the name from a female character in an Australian soap that she loved! But in all my life, I've never met another girl called Cody where it was spelled the masculine way like that, only ever dudes and people's male dogs xD
Had the game been made more recently, I have no doubt I would've just used 'Melancholy' or some other shortened version of my dev name instead, but as far as I can remember, I didn't even have a dev name at the time I wrote all of this since it was my first game x3
3) It's really tough to answer your third question with it being so long since I made the game. I think the extras is unclickable until you've completed the game and gotten the main ending, and I know that I put in like a false title screen for the first time you start up the game after having seen that scene with the Architect, but once you've clicked one of the options and discovered that it's a fake title screen, a genuine title screen should replace it where everything works as it should. So if that's not the case, I guess you must've come across some weird sort of bug >.< There are some parts that are intentional for messing with UI and such, but all saves should be accessible when on the not fake version of the title screen.
I'm trying to remember how it was set but I don't know if I'm getting the order right >.< I think once you've seen the scene you mentioned with the Architect, the game is supposed to give you a point in the background that tells the game you've finished it, and that should then persist once the game fake crashes and you restart it. So maybe something went wrong with that somehow and it didn't save the global point to tell the game you've completed it. I don't know why it would do that though because it worked okay when I tested it years ago >.<
It does sound like something has gone wrong though if you can't access the extras. I know some people were having issues with saves because they were reloading older saves when they encountered bad ends, and you don't need to do that, in fact, it's the opposite, you're supposed to be collecting the bad ends, so if you hit one and reload to pick different choices, you'll never be able to unlock all the stuff you need to unlock to get the hidden route since to start that, you need to have X amount of bad ends registered, and to register them, you need to let them play out and just be sent back to whatever world you were in before you hit the bad end x3 But I wouldn't have thought that would be what was causing any issues in your game since you've already seen the Archi stuff!
But yeah, as far as I can remember, you had to unlock everything else and complete the game to unlock extras, but save files shouldn't be getting wiped :(
I wish I could get to the bottom of it and fix it for you somehow, but I don't even have the files anymore >.< it was all on my old laptop that died and I lost everything on it, same goes for Impostor. I have odd files here and there on a USB and portable hard drive from where I made a couple of backups, but not the complete lot to be able to actually work on it. I also don't have Tyranobuilder on any of my systems anymore cos I switched to making stuff with Naninovel in Unity >.< so there's nothing I can do :(
I hope to remake SR in Nani someday now that I have a lot more experience cos there's a lot I'd like to change. I could certainly make it more polished + tweak the writing I'm not happy with (especially student route) + add some new content like a new route or 2 + new sprite art :3 That won't happen any time soon though, and even when I do start working on it, it'll likely take a long, long time to finish >.<
4) As far as I can remember, Anathema was the only name-related easter egg, but it's not the only one of my games that it gets a mention, same goes for Archie ;3 which brings me to your last question!
5) Solipsism Reigns is my first ever game and the first of my projects that Archie appears in, but the character can also be encountered in the GxB/Otome version of Apartment No.9 (though it's much briefer than in SR, so probably not really worth searching for unless the game also interests you!) And then there are some extremely vague references in Limbo Line as well without Archie actually being there.
It's a character I hoped to include more in my projects than I've been able to >.< the problem is that my projects are often made for/during game jams with tight time limits, so the voice actor who plays the character isn't always available within the timeframe of development. It worked out for A9, but hasn't since :( I do hope that I can include Archie more though because the character has a whole story of their own in my head! So yeah, there's a whole lot more to discover about him, it just might be quite awkward to get it all out there x3
I hope you got to have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year yourself! ^-^ With any luck, I won't be ill for much longer because it's getting silly now, haha. I'm really happy you enjoyed the game anyhow! Thank you so much for taking the time to play it and leave a comment <3
And I agree about Dollmaker :P somehow he grew on me so much by the time I finished writing x3 like he worked his way into my heart, haha.
Its such a rarity to come across games that has spooks, yandere's (Is currently a big yandere fan lol), and long interesting story that manages to captivate mah interest :O
Is such a rollercoaster of feels, me had many happy feels and sad feels along da way ; - ;
Yeeeah, I'm a big fan of horror, spooky stuff, yanderes, but also cute things, hehe x3
I used to be a huuuge otome fan too, but I've slowly lost interest in the genre in recent years >.< I think just cos a lot of the stuff I was playing seemed like kinda copy/pasted stories and characters in different settings, so it was like, nah, I'm not gonna fork out £30 for the next release on Switch or whatever, and that's used, heck no way I'm paying £50 for new when they're all kinda samey and I have very little money! Maybe some of the releases in recent years have been amazing though? I dunno. I missed stuff like Cupid Parasite, which admittedly looked intriguing. I did try Cafe Enchante cos I thought it looked adorable, but I got bored fast T_T The big name releases are just waaaaay too expensive to take gambles on really, so I wind up playing indie Vns more than anything nowadays! :3
But anyways, I'm rambling x3
I'm honoured that you feel that way about my stuff ^-^ means a lot! When I started out making this project, it was my very first attempt at creating a VN, I didn't know wtf I was doing, and a huge part of why I made it was because I was sad about the lack of male yanderes out there in the games I was playing, especially English-speaking ones x3 So I was like, screw it, I'm gonna attempt to make a game that is ALL about a romance with a male yandere, haha. And then as you can probably tell, I accidentally got addicted to making VNs in general xD
I honestly didn't think back then that anyone would even play it, haha. I just figured I'd make the sort of thing I wanted to play and just release it out into the wild x3 Told myself that if anyone else happened to play and enjoy it, then that would be a super lovely bonus :D
Fast forward to the future and now it looks so old compared to my more recent stuff x3 I think you can see I learned a lot over the years if you play something like this and then play one of the releases from this year, haha. But this will always be my special baby since it was my first x3 and while there's a lot about it I would like to edit and add to whenever I eventually get around to remaking it, I still can't believe I actually managed to complete a project of that length in the first place, haha. It was a very silly thing to try and do as a first project x3 and I did very nearly wind up abandoning it at several points! It was actually the pandemic and lockdown that kinda booted me up the ass to get a move on and finally finish it.
Thank YOU for playing it and for your kind words <3
Also, happy holidays and I hope you have a super happy new year ^-^
Yee, indeed Otome's haven't been very interesting these day's since it all sorta feels the same. I'm having difficulty finding VN's that are as amazing as urs, not saying they aren't talented as well, they just don't capture my short attention span (╥﹏╥)
The fact that this is your first project is heckin amazing!!! It is indeed special like u said :O
I hope u has happy holidayz + new yearz 2!!! May u have many happy days in the years to come! 🥂🎊
Man it has been a long time I've played this game and when I tried to play it again it's seems quite different from what i remembered? The overlay and the UI system i mean.
Nothing should have changed on this since it was released cos I haven't uploaded any new builds or updated it at all :o Pretty much all of my projects have stayed the same as they were when they were first uploaded aside from Darling Duality, which recently got a small update and a complete overhaul of the UI and choices :3
But yeah, nothing should have changed with SR because I've not touched it. Unless you happened to have played the reeeeally old demo version that I put out years ago before the full release of the game. Cos that was super rough and probably did have quite different UI and stuff x3
I see you decided to check this one out after DD <3 This one was the first game I ever made, so it's not as polished as DD in terms of how it looks and plays, but there's certainly more of a story to sink your teeth into at least since it's a full-length game :3
I hope you end up having fun with the rest of it ^-^
Yup! Just started the third route, and wow, it's really well-done for your first game! Really love your creations, keep up the good work and thank you :)
It works fine on Windows for me on both my PC and our family potato laptop >.< Could it possibly be a compatibility issue? I only ask because this is my oldest game, made in an engine I no longer use, and someone recently commented on one of my other old games made in the same engine saying that it didn't work for them on Windows 11 until they went into properties and ran the compatibility shooter, so you could try that I guess. If that doesn't work, I'd need a lot more information about what's happening to try and get to the bottom of why it won't run for you, and even then, I still likely wouldn't be able to fix it because, as I said, I don't use that engine anymore :(
I am trying soo hard yet I am still not being able to play... each time I try to open the game from the folder I keep getting a message on something called nodewebkit or so and it keeps on telling me, "cannot extract package"... I have enough memory, its not my antivirus, I have even tried other methods etc etc... Do you have any suggestions? :(
Hey! Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I'm working on some stuff for Spooktober VN Jam again this year, so I haven't really been checking here since I've been super busy with that.
I don't suppose you managed to get it to work in the end?
Unfortunately, there probably isn't any advice I can offer, which sucks :( I know that what you said it a common-ish problem with games made in Tyranobuilder because back when I used that engine, I was searching for answers myself and came across several support threads on their Steam pages from other devs asking the same thing. As far as I'm aware, it was never fixed >.< The devs of the engine just said to people, yeah, that happens sometimes and we don't really know why, but usually it fixes itself... It was that sort of attitude towards fixing bugs in the engine that made me decide to stop using it (among other reasons.)
So yeah, I have no idea why it does that for some people and not for others :( Are you on windows or mac? Cos I think it probably happens to more people on mac, though I've seen it can still happen to windows users. All I know is that you're not even supposed to see the nodewebkit bit. The game is just meant to launch when you click the exe >.< If the nodewebkit thing is coming up, something has somehow gone very wrong.
I can't even do any investigating because I don't use the engine anymore >.< I made SR and Impostor with it, then got fed up with how buggy it was and switched to Nani x Unity. So I'm sorry I can't be of more help :( It really sucks to be powerless to do anything when someone actually wants to check out one of my games >.<
There is no need to apologise. After all, I am quite late as well :') . Ah well, that is a shame. I was looking forward to your game. Guess I will settle for your other games... which seem to be amazing! Also, I wish you best of luck for the stuff you are working on! Do not overwork yourself though. :)
Yeah, sorry about that though that I wasn't able to help you get it working :( It really sucks! I hope my more recent games that I've made since switching engines will work for you at least x3 especially since I just released another two for Spooktober VN Jam yesterday!
And thank you :3 I kinda did massively overwork myself throughout September for the jam, which is why I'm so late to respond again x3 but now that it's over, I definitely plan to take it easier and try to rest up and recover :3
Hey there! Sorry to make this random reply 2 months later, but someone posted something in the IMPOSTOR comments that made me wonder if it might possibly make a difference in getting this to open for you since both SR and that were made with the same engine :3
The person said that they couldn't get IMPOSTOR to open and that they're on Windows 11. They said that they went into properties and did the compatibility troubleshooter, which solved the problem and it opened fine for them after that!
It might not work for your situation with this one, but I figured I'd give you a shout just in case :3
….. Let us ignore the fact that I am replying this late. Thank you for your suggestion! It did not work, but I could have done something wrong. I will try again later and inform you if things do change! Thank you for your consideration!
Also, I played 'Dawn of the damned' recently and I must say your work is wonderful! I really enjoyed the plotline and the design of the game is really gorgeous! I will soon be playing 'The graveyard shift' as well. Thank you for all your efforts and take care! :D
Don't worry about that x3 my replies are almost always late, haha. I'm dreadful at managing to keep up with everything because I just get overwhelmed far too easily, and then it's like my brain short circuits and I have to wait for it to reboot xD
That sucks that it didn't work >.< Now I'm wondering how many people might be trying to play it only for it to not even run for them :( If it were quick, I'd just remake the whole thing in the new engine as it is, but even if I didn't change a single thing, it'd probably still take me months to do that >.<
That's awesome though, so glad you enjoyed Dawn of the Damned :3 It was a lot of fun to make! Hope you end up enjoying The Graveyard Shift too! Thanks for your kind words ^-^
Aww, that's so great to hear! I'm really glad you enjoyed it ^-^ Even though it's been quite some time since I released it, my dad actually said to me again this weekend just gone, I still can't believe you released a game of that length for free xD I've lost track of the number of times he's said that over the years, haha. I'm just overjoyed that anyone is still playing and having fun with it!! Back when I was making it, I kinda just figured only a few of my friends would play it! That it would go unnoticed by the rest of the world x3
your dad's right and he sounds so incredibly sweet, i wish you both good health! i saw my friend play a commercial vn that costs $10 and they completed it + all the endings in just under a day lol.. huge waste of money, and it just reminded me of this game and how much more fun i had for free xD the selfish uni student part of me that knows i couldnt have played it if it costed money is really happy that it's free, but i also cant deny that it's worth more than most commercial games i've seen playthroughs of.. also, i know people have asked about why kuro physically looks so feminine, but i actually like him that way and that's why (among other reasons ofc) detective kuro and ??? kuro r my faves!! also looking forward to seeing more of the architect!
He really is, bless him, and thanks :3 Yeah, my brother has said he's bought stuff before (though not VNs, just indie games in general) that has cost around the same and he's finished it all in one night, and then been a bit disappointed.
I mean, when it comes to big commercial releases, I can't even afford to buy games new anymore xD Been priced out, haha. I'm waiting to play The Quarry, but I just can't afford to spend more than £30 max on a game and they release at like £50 nowadays >.<
Anyways, I'm just glad you enjoyed SR and happy that you think it's worth more than some of the commercial VNs out there :3 It sure would be nice if I could somehow make a living making stuff like that, but it seems as though that's unlikely to ever be a possibility with the way things work in my country and my personal circumstances :(
I'm glad you like Kuro's feminine look! I was kinda annoyed that I had to make him that way initially, but as I worked on the project, the sprites kinda grew on me, haha. Then I couldn't imagine him looking any other way.
Oh, and if you haven't already checked it out, Archie does make a brief appearance in Apartment No 9 (otome version), but it's quite a depressing sorta story in that one with a lot of trigger warnings, so it's probably not worth doing all the stuff required to see Archie if the story doesn't sound like your cup of tea, haha.
Question for a new player: is there any way to turn off the voice acting but not the sound effects or background music? I've always felt more comfortable when I can just read the dialogue aloud in my head, and I don't want to fully turn off the music or sound effects unless there's no other option
Thanks for checking out the game :3 As far as I can remember, you'd have to turn off all SFX to get the voices muted as well. Don't quote me on it, but I think you can still keep the BGM volume up. It's been so long that I can't quite remember though >.< I just remember the fact that at the time of making the game, Tyranobuilder (the engine I used to make it) had no option built-in to let a dev differentiate voice acting from other SFX, so I think it all had to go in the same category, unfortunately!
It's one of the many reasons why I wound up switching to using a different engine in the end, cos with what I use now, not only can I put the voice acting on a separate channel to SFX, but I can even easily add individual volume sliders for each character, which is sooo much better! But yeah, it's not an option in SR, sadly :(
This game was really fun! I really loved the '???' route but the princess and mage routes were close to my heart too. The Kuro in the mage route was my favourite yandere, but the soft fox yandere in the princess route was really lovely too. The school route was the shortest but I really loved the everyday feel and Lana really warmed my heart even though we couldn't have much screentime with her. I would have loved to see more of Shiro and the original MC/Anathema together, I really liked their story and wish that we could see more of their backstory. Shiro was so cool and I can see how strong his love was, and the good endings where we saw sneak peeks of him melted my heart - I just wanted to give a big hug to him. By the way, who is '???' and why are they always calling out for Anathema?
Glad you enjoyed it :3 And that's awesome that you liked the contrasting mage and princess route Kuros :D I really wanted there to be at least 1 softer, much calmer version of Kuro in there while still making sure he was a yandere, haha. I was worried that the whole princess route might come off as boring compared to the other routes though >.< so that's great you still had fun with it!
The student route is the first route I ever wrote for the game, which I guess is why it came out so much shorter than the others + is probably the worst written of them all >.< It's something I hope to improve on if/when I ever get around to remaking the game with new art and extra content :3 I'm glad you still liked that route though. Lana is kinda the friend I never had but wished I did while at school, haha. It certainly would've made life much easier to have someone like that around :3
Expanding on original MC's story is also something I'd like to do in the remake, perhaps through epilogues or flashbacks of some sort as well :3
I guess I should probably put a spoilers thing here to answer your last question x3
Spoilers
The character who calls out for Anathema is my 4th wall-breaking character who doesn't yet have an official name, but has been nicknamed Archie (short for Architect). So when the character is speaking to Anathema, rather than speaking to a character within the game, they are speaking to you, the player. You are Archie's 'Anathema' :3 The character also features briefly in one of my other games (Apartment No.9 GxB/otome version), and I hope to continue trickling bits of him into my projects as time goes on ^-^
Thanks so much for taking the time to play through the game and leave such a lovely comment :3
Omg so excited to see you reply!!! That makes sense, the school route was short but I really enjoyed it and wanted to see more of it. School!Kuro was the hottest one hahah imo except XXX was great too (trying to avoid spoiling their name). I would definitely love to see OG!MC story being expanded!
Spoilers
I loved the XXX route, it was so good and left me wondering so much about them and their LI. Like Shiro was amazing, I really thought I got his name when I had 4 letters, I was like SHION. But Shiro makes more sense lol, because Kuro vs. Shiro. Shiro shitting on Kuro and the clones hurt because they are copies but I can understand why he seems them as abominations or like fake copies, I can't imagine the pain of watching clones of your love being manipulated and hurt and just not having their memories of you? Would have broken me. But it's also why I really liked Shiro and god, he really did have a presence when he came. I could see the darker parts of him and his deep love too for MC, like what we see yandere!Kuro does when he just literally agrees to destroying the world with MC if that's what she wants and how much he loves her and will support any decision he made. I WAS SO ANGRY AT DAD THO, ALL THE MONSTER HE CREATED AND NEEDED TO BE DESTROYED, HE WAS THE CAUSE ARGHHGHKSDFHJS I wanted to flip at him so bad. I was like you hot and I had a crush on you but now screw you to pieces. Hehe thank you for sharing this game with us!
Omg, rambled so much and forgot about the Architect, ohh, that's so cool, I was reading his letter and him chasing us through games make so much sense now because Shiro can't do that. I've been meaning to play Apartment 9 so I am looking forward to seeing him there too (I shouldn't be but he's interesting hahahahahah).
I'm glad you still enjoyed that route :3 Yeah, hopefully, Ill manage to get there one day with a full remake! I really wanted to make a version with fem Kuros as well at some point, but it's so much work T_T I wish I could clone myself to work on different stuff at the same time, haha.
SPOILERS
Yeah, Kuro and Shiro's names are a bit corny x3 but I couldn't help it, haha. I just figured it was perfect for them.
And yeah, Isaac is definitely one heck of a giant asshole xD He certainly deserves much more than a few slaps for all the trouble he caused everyone and the pain he put em all through!
Thanks so much again for playing :3 I really appreciate it!
They were a little bit awkward to use because I had to buy each one individually. At the time, the dev/s who made the sprite maker didn't have a bundle, but that was years ago, so maybe they have now! A bundle of some sort at a discounted price sure would've been nice. I think they were like $10 each or something. They're also all in Japanese, but since you can see the changes as you make them to the character, you sorta just get used to which sections are which and memorise it. The worst thing was that it was quite laggy to use, but that could have just been my awful laptop x3
This is the site I first saw the stuff! I think it was linked from lemmasoft forums or something on a thread about free use backgrounds for VNs because the creator made a couple of pieces of background art that anyone can download and use for free. From there, I found the sprite stuff by just sorta generally browsing through the site with Google translate on x3 http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~gakai/index.htm
This section lists all the stuff they've released for sale. It looks like they've made even more since I last purchased anything! https://gakaiblog.at.webry.info/
I don't think you have to use the maker that's packaged with each download though. As far as I can remember, they included a giant PSD file as well!
EDIT - I should probably also mention that not all the sprites are from the T.O.P. sprite makers. If you look at the screenshots and notice some of them look a slightly different style, it's because I also used other sprite resources from someone called Blue Forest to make some of the characters that I couldn't manage to with the T.O.P. ones. Mainly all the side characters. Only the MC and Kuro sprites are T.O.P.
T-T I love this game and you all who helped with creation of this game <3 So much was put into making this, the game feels so alive Im so glad Solipsism Reigns exists, thank you! : D
From what I remember you mentioned in extras, there is not many english male yanderes, right? Its sad :c I luv yanderes, they are so interesting :3 Im really happy someone is making games about them! Kuro became one of my favourite yanderes, especially Detective Route Kuro oh my god..... he is so fascinating it should be illegal haha
When i started playing i expected something different. But it appeared to be so complex and deep. unique plot <3 It will stay in my mind for a long time i think... but im still wondering.... how would game look like if it was +18 XDD im curious how certain scenes that could happen if this was +18 XDDDDDD oh sinful me, sorry nevermind haha XD
I adore all the details, so many endings, pictures, sprites... but my favourite ones are like these after true ending, the things the voice is telling us, overall the whole conversation > , < Even music changed O.O ....and after turning on the game again.... he was talking to us again.... i looove this breaking 4th wall intrigues me :>
Also opening which plays before the game.... i became quite addicted to it to be honest XD I added it to my music playlist on youtube and i listen to it quite often
Normally, such a cool game would have more videos on youtube about it, its weird theres not much :< like...only one gameplay video? would you mind if somebody upload Solipsism Reigns gameplay on youtube? O.O
....i dont even know what else i can add... i really adore the game and maybe i will play BxG version someday to see how different things are there... female kuro could be interesting too :> i must check out your other games cuz this one left a really good impresion on me. i had so much fun :3 Wish you luck with other projects and the best in life! ^ w ^
Yay \^0^/ I'm super happy you had fun playing it! I'm glad the love and effort comes across cos it was certainly one big passion project, haha. I'll be forever grateful to those who volunteered their time and talent to help me out with it, especially with it being my first game :3
Yeah, at the time I made the game, one of my motivations was wanting to see more English-speaking male yanderes just because there seemed to be plenty of female ones about, and a fair few Japanese-speaking male yandere characters in bigger Japanese VN releases. But I hadn't really come across many English male yanderes in games, so I thought, ya know what, I'm gonna make one myself x3 And ever since, it's been my mission to keep adding yandere characters of all kinds to the world in each game that I make :D
I know there are a lot more OELVNs around now featuring yandere males, which is awesome! I haven't played them all yet, so I'm not sure how many of them are voiced. Either way, it's wonderful that more devs are including characters like that in their games :3 Heck, we even had the first Yandere Jam on itch.io this year <3
But yeah, I'm a huuuuge fan of yanderes, yangires, and all kinds of characters with darker personality aspects and traits, so I always want to include characters like that in my games because I find them fascinating :3 My main project, Darling Duality, will feature an entire cast of characters who all have a dark side. They won't necessarily all be 100% yandere, but they will all have yandere-like traits. And even in Limbo Line, which contains no romance, I still included a platonic yandere-like character, hehe.
Detective Kuro is one of my more favorite versions of him too, though it was Dollmaker Kuro that wound up winning my heart over them all in the end, haha. That was mainly due to Tim's incredible voice acting making me feel genuinely sorry for the character!
I think it would probably be a very spicy game if it were 18+ xD Though I'm not entirely sure I would be able to do such scenes justice with being asexual myself >.< I certainly wouldn't say no to attempting to write some bonus scenes like that for the eventual remake of the game though! And I have tried to write suggestive scenes in some of my other games (Apartment No.9 and Darling Duality both have one, haha. So does Love in Lockdown, but I still don't like how most of that turned out xD)
Hehe, yeah, I had a lot of fun making those post-game scenes :3 You can meet that character again briefly in Apartment No.9 upon reaching a certain ending if you're interested :D And that's not the last of it either because I have more plans for that character to appear in some of my future projects too.
That's so awesome you like the opening song as well :3 My friend and I spent ages making that, haha. It was tough because we had sorta conflicting ideas xD I wrote all the lyrics, but he kept telling me to cut them down because they were too long, and he said that electronic music like that doesn't usually have many lyrics. I kept saying, but I'm trying to tell a story with the song, and if I cut too much out, it won't make any sense x3 Eventually, we were able to compromise and come up with a way to do what we both wanted to do with the track :3
I guess it probably doesn't have much in the way of videos of it because not that many people know it exists x3 I've never been very good at getting my games out there since I suck at social media and would prefer to avoid it altogether, haha. So unless people happen to talk about and recommend my games, they'll never reach that many people. Also, I think the way the sprites look in the screenshots probably puts a lot of people off of even trying the game! >.< I don't mind at all though if anyone wants to upload gameplay of SR on YouTube :3 In fact, I really appreciate it when people feature my projects there since it helps shine some light on them so people know they exist.
I would recommend playing Apartment No.9 next if you do end up checking out my other games :3 Just because it's quite a different setting + that character from SR is in there. But I personally think Limbo Line is my best finished project so far! Darling Duality is still in development with a big update (hopefully) coming out at the end of spring.
Thanks so much for taking the time to play through the game + leave such a lovely comment :3 Thank you for all your kind words! I hope you have a lovely week!!
Hey there! Just dropping by again to share my thoughts on this awesome game. First of all it was just amazing! Like the writing was just so good that I felt like I was actually the one experiencing them, the art was perfect for every scene as well in my opinion! It was long but I think that made it better since more content to enjoy!! It took me a while to finish the ??? route since I got kind of busy but I sure am glad that I finally got to see it! Kind of sad that I finished it but hey I'm glad I even got to see it in the first place!
I also got confused as heck many times but most of my answers were cleared up with the ??? route. It sure was a very big surprise. I was like so shocked ^^'
Thanks so much for all your kind words :3 I'm glad you ended up enjoying it!
There's still a lot about it that I'd like to change x3 mainly large segments of my writing, haha, and all of the sprites. I should be able to tweak what I want to when I eventually get around to remaking it anyhow :3
It was just a huuuuge mistake for me to attempt to make a full-length game as my first project, haha. I should've put it on hold and made something smaller while learning how things worked. But I guess at least I got there in the end!
I'm glad the ??? largely cleared things up anyhow :3 I know not everything makes 100% sense even after playing the ??? route, haha. I confused myself a lot while writing because I was essentially going backwards since the ??? route was my original idea, but I felt as though its events required justification, and so the ??? route couldn't really be a standalone story. And even though that route was the first idea that sparked everything else, it was the last route I actually wrote in full because I was trying to sort of go in order. I had had notes more than an actual outline >.< I didn't really know what I was doing, so I was pretty much pantsing throughout most of it x3
And then I had to rush the endings too in the ??? route because I found out that Tim, Kuro's voice actor, was going to be moving to Japan for work, and unable to continue voice acting. So it was a big rush from there to get his scripts written ASAP before he was gone, haha. Again though, that's another really big mistake I made - getting voice actors involved with the project before I'd even finished writing the whole story >.< I just didn't have the experience to do things in a very organised way!
Thanks so much for sticking with it until the end anyhow :3 I'm glad you had fun :D
Well that was one crazy ride. I'll admit I wasn't really expecting much from this, I stumbled my way here from otomegames on reddit, having just played Nightshade and coming to the realisation that I actually do like yanderes (despite my previous opinion that I didn't), I saw this recommended on a few threads and thought why not. I was, however, sceptical, the sprites looked a bit dated and I usually watch/play anime stuff with Japanese VA (English always feels too dramatic to me), so colour me surprised when I realised I loved it all. The sprites are adorable and the VA's are brilliant (Kuro's does get a special mention, but I enjoyed the others as well), and that's not even mentioning the story yet! I also really like the opening song, enough that I've found and listened to it many times on youtube. Anyone who might be browsing reviews, on the fence about whether or not to play this, I highly recommend doing so.
Spoilers
I started on the detective route, because I didn't really intend on playing more than one route and I liked detective Kuro's design best, I also managed to dodge almost all the bad ends and was confused why Kuro had been rated 'high' on yandere-ness (I revised that opinion once I did get them). The ending got me, I was confused and curious and just had to know what was going on, cue using all my free time to play the other routes.
Overall I think gamer Kuro is my favourite, I liked that he could interact with more than just the big bad, and it felt like he developed the most out of all the Kuro's, (that one bad end though, I was not prepared, having come from soft fox Kuro, I was expecting the same level of low yandere-ness, not something that could rival mage Kuro). ??? route Kuro is a close second though, even with the stuff he keeps in his pockets. Honourable mentions to student Kuro, who spooked me even before we'd reached a bad ending, and mage Kuro, who got nudged out of second place (although, I never quite understood the seeming split personality he had). I did enjoy princess and detective Kuro, but not quite as much as the others.
The ??? did a good job of wrapping things up and answering almost all of my questions, whilst also throwing out some new, interesting revelations. I'll also say here that all the routes in general did a great job at hinting and dropping information whilst not being super obvious about what was going on. The story itself was interesting and sad and strong throughout, I thoroughly enjoyed myself playing it. (The heck was with that bit after though? That seriously spooked me, and I was playing in the middle of the day! Brilliantly done, good wall breaking).
Now I just need to decide if I can wait a few months for the update to play Darling Duality.
Well, I'm super glad you decided to give it a chance :3 I know that sorta feeling cos I've had reservations about the odd game in the past, wound up just giving em a go, and then was pleasantly surprised, haha.
Also, that's so cool to know that it's been recommended ^-^ I just kinda assumed not that many people even know it exists x3 So that's really sweet people have enjoyed it enough to give it a mention. Makes me super happy to know that :3
I have to agree with you about the sprites, haha. Unfortunately, that was the best I could do at the time >.< It's one of the things I'm still really unhappy with years later, along with a large chunk of my writing xD But I hope to one day remake the entire game (in the engine I'm using now cos Tyrano kinda sucked) with brand new sprite art, writing revisions, and some new routes + extra scenes!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the English voice acting ^-^ Everyone put so much time and effort into bringing the characters to life. I'll never be able to thank them all enough for volunteering their time and talent to the project.
When it comes to VA, I've always enjoyed both English and Japanese in anime and games. I tend to sorta ping pong between them, depending on the quality of dubs available anyways x3 I've always had a soft spot for English VA in games especially though, just because I find it easier to stay immersed in a world where the spoken language is my native one. For me, it means certain lines have more impact when I can directly understand them as they're being said rather than reading subtitles. And yeah, that can sometimes result in some pretty cringeworthy moments xD but I'll take that when it means everything as a whole hits me harder :3
So yeah, I'm just super passionate about English VA in VN games since they're so personal, and really want to try and shine a spotlight on how awesome English VA can be. Cos I feel like a lot of people have that sorta image in their heads of bad anime dubs from years ago, and that impression has stuck, so a lot of people just automatically avoid English VA because of that >.< I wanna show that English VA of today can be wonderful :D
I'll have to pass on your comments to Tim about his performance as Kuro if he's not already seen this, because to this day, he still beats himself up about it, thinking that someone else could do better >.< I keep telling him that's impossible. He IS Kuro, haha.
I'm so happy you like the opening song too! My friend and I worked ridiculously hard on that x3 I think we drove each other insane in the process, haha, but it was a lot of fun.
I really appreciate you taking the time to play through the game, write such a sweet and thoughtful comment, and recommended it to others, so thank you very much ^-^
SPOILERS
I'm glad you started on the detective route cos that was my favourite one to write besides the ??? one :3 And I feel like anyone who begins with the student route might get a bad impression of the game because it's the first one I wrote, and I personally feel as though it needs a hell of a rewrite >.< It's always worried me that if people are playing in the order on the route select screen, they'll play the student one and then call it quits :( So yeah, I'm happy the detective one reeled you in at least x3
"??? route Kuro is a close second though, even with the stuff he keeps in his pockets."
That made me chuckle out loud xD
There wasn't really a huge amount of thought that went into the split-personality part of mage Kuro beyond me thinking it would be a fun way to show poor Kuro's craziness manifesting in a different way from all the horror going on in 'reality'. There are quite a few bits here and there like that which don't entirely make sense >.< With any luck, I can rectify that when I get around to rewriting it all :3
I'm relieved that the ??? route cleared up most of your questions though :3 I did end up confusing myself quite a bit while writing because I didn't know about outlines and stuff at the time >.< And the ??? route was essentially the idea I had which sparked everything else. I wanted to make a game with the events of the ??? route, but thought that it would come across weird if I didn't have any build up or explanation for those events. And so I kinda had to work backwards to create what came before in order to justify all of the ??? route x3
And it's also a relief to hear that you think stuff was revealed without being too obvious cos that was one of my huuuuuuuge concerns, haha. I couldn't for the life of me tell if I was giving too much or not enough away at any given point in the game >.<
And as for what came after, it's certainly not the last you'll hear from that character if you end up playing some of my other stuff, hehe. If you want to meet again, I recommend playing Apartment No.9 :3 And there are some brief references in a small part of Limbo Line too, but they're extremely tiny and easy to overlook. I do have future plans for the character though that are a while away from popping up x3
With DD, I would say it's probably better to wait just because you'd have to start over when the update is out since too much is changing for saves from the old version to possibly function post-update + the whole game is going to look and run so much better in general (I hope!) but it's up to you :3
If you did wanna just check it out now though, I guess at least you'd get to see how much has changed if you decided to continue playing after the update :D You'd have to replay a small amount of content, but with the update, even the old content is being expanded (more dialogue options + impactful choices with Castor/ia at the beginning of their story.) So hopefully, it won't be too boring replaying the start of their story since it will also contain new stuff.
I feel as though I'm rambling now anyhow, so I'll shut up x3 Thank you again for everything!
It's been recommended a couple of times on yandere threads there, plus a few of your other games, I actually ended up with this, DD and Yandere Heaven all open as potential games to play before I even realised they were all by the same person xD
Oh, there's definitely a sub superiority thing when it comes to anime stuff, personally, if it's an anime I watched as kid, I'll usually watch it in English, cause I'm used to the voices and the anime was usually cheesy anyway (digimon, yu-gi-oh, etc). Nowadays, I suppose it's a mix of either feeling the voices don't fit the characters, or that there isn't a dub/the dub is way behind the sub, or just that sub tends to be my default now. In terms of VN, I've only really played otome (dangranronpa being an exception, I did actually play that in English, thinking about it, and I enjoyed the VA's there) and it's hard to find otome games voiced in English.
I definitely agree that things have more impact in English though, even when I recognise some Japanese words, it doesn't hit as hard. This game did emphasise that I've got to say, some of the stuff Kuro said! (Looking rather pointedly at mage Kuro here, did not expect the insult he dropped and it hit!) It's good to see you supporting English VAs though, it would be nice to see English VAs and dubs in things supported more.
And for sure Tim is Kuro! He did a great job, let him know that if/when you do remake this (and I'll definitely be back to replay if you do), he'd better be back as Kuro too, otherwise 100% I'll be complaining! ;D
Spoilers
I honestly still really liked the student one, I think starting on the detective route did set things up and help me understand stuff better, but I don't think I would've been put off if I'd played student first.
Ah, yeah, the pantsing way of writing, it's fun but you do inevitably end up with some plot holes. Still, I do think the story is solid, I didn't spot anything that was story/immersion breaking. Like I said, was a bit confused with mage Kuro, but when it didn't crop up in any other route I figured it was probably something like that, (and he did come across as one of the more unstable Kuro's.)
Yes, I'm a big fan of how stuff was revealed! Enough for it to be very intriguing, but not so much to figure out more than the basics of what was happening. I feel like it's hard to find reveals that aren't either a bit of a let down or really obvious, so I'm always super excited and happy when I find a reveal that's done well, (which I think this definitely was).
Ooh, I did wonder if that character would crop up in some of your other stuff! How fun, I'm definitely curious about them so that's more games added to my list to play! As for DD, I'm trying to convince myself to wait but I probably won't xD I don't mind replaying stuff, especially good stuff, so I'll likely end up playing before and then replaying after the update.
Nothing wrong with a bit of rambling :3 And thank you for making such an awesome game!
Well, I really appreciate that it has been :3 I totally suck at getting my stuff out there with how rubbish I am at social media, haha. I'm trying harder this year to do a little more on that front, but I really struggle with it >.<
Haha, yeah, I know what you mean cos I grew up watching the dubs of all of those animes :3 I'm generally happy with whatever I can get nowadays, haha. I remember I initially watched the dubbed version of Psycho Pass, but was desperate to see the next series as soon as possible, so I switched to subs, but it was soooo strange watching it half and half! It was like the characters were completely different >.< I tend to watch anime subbed more than dubbed now, unless I'm watching it with my family cos my brother prefers dubs as long as they're not awful.
I'm just glad to see so many OELVNs being created cos I remember back when I first discovered VNs were a thing, there was very little available outside of a small handful of big Japanese releases on PS Vita + a lot pay-per-route mobile stuff. I still love playing through the big VN releases from Japan when I get time (so many get localised now that my backlog keeps growing, haha), but I also really enjoy the variety in indie OELVNs nowadays :D
Hahaha x3 Ahh man, I did wonder if that particular line was a bit too much! Especially when I eventually heard it voiced xD In fact, as I edited Tim's voice acting throughout the game, any time Kuro went yandere mode, I was sat there editing with a face like this o.o
To be honest, I don't think I could ever cast someone else as Kuro! If it comes down to it with the remake that he's not available or doesn't wanna do it for whatever reason, I think I'd just have to leave any new lines unvoiced cos it would just seem so wrong to have the character voiced by anyone else >.<
I'm absolutely terrible for pantsing x3 Even nowadays when I do write an outline, I'll still end up massively deviating from it >.< The problem is that when I'm in the mood for writing, I get a bit like those videos you see of people who are supposedly possessed by a ghost and writing manically x3 I'll wind up typing away, and before I know it, I've gone completely off track xD So I confuse myself a lot >.< but at the same time, for whatever reason, my brain doesn't seem to like sticking to a structure much, so it's the only way I can manage to work.
I'm just glad you think I didn't mess up anything too badly with the story in SR x3 There's a lot I'd change and edit now, but at the time, I'd just been working on it all for so long that I didn't have the brainpower left to attempt any tweaks x3 + with Tim leaving for Japan to live and work, unable to continue voicing Kuro, I had to push myself to finish writing his scripts before he was gone. Again, that's entirely my fault for not planning stuff properly, haha. I was sending him scripts each time I finished a route. I should really have waited until I'd finished the writing completely before even getting voice actors involved. But I just didn't think ahead at the time. I did a lot of stuff really awkwardly while making SR just cos I had no experience and didn't know any better >.<
I know what you mean about it being hard to find reveals that aren't a let down or really obvious cos I'm a huge fan of thrillers, and it's not often that I'm genuinely hit by a reveal nowadays. In fact, some of the series' I've watched recently have been brilliant overall and I've enjoyed them immensely, but the big reveals at the end have just made me think, well, that makes no sense whatsoever >.< Like, I don't wanna say the shows and mention spoilers, but what keeps happening in what I've watched lately is that the person behind everything always ends up being a character that you could never have suspected in a million years, not because there were cleverly disguised clues or anything, but because it's so out of character for the character in question that it's just not even believable. And it's had the opposite impact on me to what a reveal is supposed to have, cos I always just think, but that's silly >.< Instead of, holy crap!
But yeah, it does mean that when I do come across a reveal that's done really well, my mind is just blown and I love it xD
Well, the content additions for the existing parts of Castor/ia's story is rising by the day x3 So replaying should be more eventful at least, haha. I'm a little worried it's getting out of control at this point because I decided to add a sort of personality system, and now I don't know if there are too many choices and little alterations in responsive dialogue! I mean, I feel like more is better when it comes to choices and the impact they have, but at the same time, it increases the workload immensely x3 And while I don't mind putting in the extra effort, I worry about keeping track of it all + keeping on top of bugs and making sure everything's working the way it should.
Whatever you end up doing, I hope you have fun with it :3 And thank YOU for playing!
Marketing is such a nightmare, and there's so many platforms to market on and trying to keep up to date with it all is overwhelming, so can definitely understand the struggle! Good luck with it!
Yes, there never used to be much variety with VNs, I played quite a few of those mobile ones, but waiting for the story tickets to recharge was such a pain, and they were a bit too pricey to spend on, so it's great to have so much choice nowadays. I've got a few Japanese ones on my to play list, and a bunch of routes I still need to finish xD Been nosing around indie titles as well, so my list is also growing, haha!
Nah, I think that line was great, it shocked me, but in a good way! Kuro's voice in yandere mode did honestly spook me a few times (again, in a good way), also nearly always the 'about to die' sign xD It would be really weird if someone else voiced Kuro, bit like the whole swapping from subs to dubs in anime, or the other way around, I'd personally be fine with new lines being unvoiced, would also be a little weird, but less weird than a new voice.
You can never escape the pantsing way! >:3 I'm the same though, will write a lovely outline that makes perfect sense, and then a character will decide that, actually, they don't want to do that, and that what they do want to do requires a complete rewrite. I've resigned myself to it now and just patch the holes afterwards, not sure that's the best way of doing things though ^^;
The first thing I ever wrote is an absolute mess of plot holes and awkward writing, I don't think I would've guessed that this was your first project or that you were on a time limit, it's turned out so well!
Oh, for sure, a lot of reveals are either easily guessed, a let down or just don't make sense. The best reveals are the ones were you look back on the story and go, 'oh yeah', but it is hard to find those. I mostly hang out in fantasy, so there isn't always a reveal, but whenever there's a really good one, I'm guaranteed to remember it for a long time, there's some stuff were I don't really remember the story, but I do remember that it had a good reveal xD
I gave into temptation x3 I played both routes, and am looking forward to replaying both when the updates come out. I'll probably wait for the update to drop a review, but in short, I loved both routes and your writing is brilliant. Balancing a good amount of choices is difficult, very easy for it to get out of hand and become overwhelming, I think (from comments on choice games, rather than VNs admittedly), that people usually prefer a small amount of impactful choices over a large amount of choices that are more or less the same. Whatever you end up doing though, I look forward to it! :D
Yeah >.< I can't cope with it really if I'm honest x3 I'm just about managing to make a couple of tweets a week and that's me at my limit, haha. Heck knows how I'm ever supposed to try and get stuff on Steam or possibly make any Kickstarter without paying someone to handle all that for me cos I'm just hopeless!
I used to play some of the free ones with tickets and stuff, but man, it did my head in waiting, so I wound up mainly playing the pay-per-route ones like the ones Voltage released. Even back before they changed everything with the big merge, I couldn't keep up with the sheer amount of content they were spitting out. I used to ask if I could get a Google Play card for Christmas, and then try to spend the credit as wisely as possible on whatever was on sale, haha. I think Enchanted in the Moonlight was one of the first ones I played from them cos I loved the look of Miyabi x3 I did have a blast with em at the time, but as soon as I discovered there were VNs on PC that you could just buy as a one-off purchase and get the whole game, I never went back to mobile ones, and it was then that I realised how shallow the stories were that I'd been reading on mobile in comparison to some of the longer, more in-depth PC VNs I'd downloaded. I did, of course, make an exception for Mystic Messenger, haha. I wasn't a fan of the premise for Dandelion or Nameless, but I still wound up loving both games just because the characters were so cool!
But yeah, boy did the cost add up for pay-per-route stuff when I calculated compared to just buying PC VNs >.< I was horrified xD It would've cost me like over £70 in total to play all the Enchanted in the Moonlight content that I played back in the day! Not really acceptable >.<"
My backlog is so ridiculous at this point that even if I sat and read every single day, I don't think I'd clear it in a year x3 and that's just my VN backlog not even including all the other kinds of games I wanna play xD
Hehe, pantsing party for life x3 I'm glad it's not just me, haha.
"I've resigned myself to it now and just patch the holes afterwards, not sure if that's the best way of doing things though ^^;"
That is basically now my life xD Makes me feel much better about it knowing you're the same! I can just about stick to bullet points, and that's it. But I mean, I have fun, and that's the main thing xD
I adore the TV series, Inside No.9 cos there's almost always a twist of some sort in each episode. Usually, it's a pretty decent twist as well, which is quite incredible considering the number of episodes x3 They're not always mind-blowing reveals, but usually pretty amusing and satisfying. If I had the time, I'd love to make a VN version of every single episode xD And one of my favourite films/theatre shows of all time is Ghost Stories cos the reveal in that is beautiful and makes you see everything differently when you rewatch it after knowing the ending :3
I'm glad you had fun with what little there is of DD ^-^ It should play out somewhat differently in the update cos I've added so many choices and variations to scenes that I've wound up writing roughly 100 extra lines of dialogue for Castor/ia to go in the segment of the story that already exists for them, haha. I certainly wouldn't wanna put any more than I have because I'm at my limit for keeping track of stuff now, haha.
Most of the choices are impactful later on, but some have a more immediate effect. The reason I've gone with so many more choices though is because a fair few people said they wished they had more control over MC's responses cos they feel like MC is a bit too much of an asshole, which I totally understand xD So I've given players more control of MC's personality but made sure that the cumulative effects of their personality type help to determine what choices are available later on + what ending they're steered towards :3
I really wish I could work faster cos I'm dying to show the new version of the game x3 but it's gonna take me a while to actually add all the brand new stuff now I'm done with the revamp T_T and I've wound up deciding to add 2 new characters instead of just 1 because of the way I want to implement one of them >.< I need many clones x3
I'm on the gamer route right now (I've played all except the ??? one), but I couldn't wait to write a review. This game is just so, so good, and you can feel the love and passion from the creator. Fox-boy Kuro is so far my fave (I mean, the picture of you holding his cheek at the ending was so wholesome omg), but the detective Kuro is close. And Kuro's voice acting is also so well done!
Super excited to finally reach the ??? route! Almost scared to play anymore because I don't want it to end, lol. Finally, some good FOOD for us yandere lovers (I swear, most games just involve female yandere love interests) :')
I will be donating money for this game when I have the financial means. It's only right, given how much I've enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing your hard work and creativity with us <3
I can't even tell you how happy that makes me to hear that ^-^ It means a lot, especially when SR was my first game and there are a lot of things I'd change about it now that I have more experience. One thing I worry about is that people might play it after playing my newer stuff and think it's awful in comparison or something x3 Just cos I'm using a better engine now and have learned so much more about making VNs than I knew back when I released this.
I do not know why I decided to make a game of this length as a first project x3 It wasn't exactly the wisest idea, haha. I do hope to remake it someday with better writing, brand new art for all the sprites, and add new routes/content :3
If it's any comfort, the ??? route is longer than the other routes, haha. So there's still some time before it's all over x3 I hope you end up enjoying that last route though :3 It's technically supposed to be the main game cos it was the first concept I came up with and then essentially worked backwards to justify it since I didn't think it would make much sense to have just that one route as a game without any prior explanation for its events x3
Wanting to add more male yanderes to the world was one of my biggest reasons for getting into making VNs in the first place :D It seemed like female yans far outnumbered the male ones, especially when it came to English-speaking ones x3 So yeah, I kinda made it my mission to create stories that have at least 1, if not more, male yandere characters in :3
Heck, even though there's no romance in Limbo Line, I still included what could be described as a platonic yandere character, haha. Yandere is just my jam x3
Thank YOU for playing + taking the time to comment with such kind words :3 It means the world to me to find out when folks have enjoyed anything I've made. Especially with how crappy my mental health can get, haha. Honestly, hearing a few kind words can really lift my spirits on a bad day, and massively boost my motivation on any day ^-^ I really hope you'll continue to enjoy my content :3 Hope you have a happy weekend!
Ahhh, I'm so glad that my comment could make you happy! That's partially the reason I posted it. Creating games can be super exhaustive work, and honestly, I'm impressed you have the persistence to see them through and not get burnt out (and I'm so glad you do complete them... what's your secret? Excess coffee? Do you have a body double?)
Sorry to hear about your mental health! Your mind can be so deceiving and mean sometimes. I hope you keep fighting with the knowledge that me and many others love and appreciate you and your work :)
It definitely gave me some warm fuzzy goodness ^-^ so thank you again :3
I mean, I do sometimes experience burnout, but it's usually just my mental health being crappy in general or something else that's happened in my personal life that causes it rather than working on projects x3 I know I kinda do spend an unhealthy amount of time working on my projects cos it's been pointed out to me by family, friends, and my therapist xD In her words "It's not normal to spend 13+ hours a day working, even if it is a hobby..." >.<
I just struggle to manage my time because when I try to step back and play stuff, I feel like I should be using that time to make stuff instead T_T I'm trying harder to relax during the evenings more, haha. Even though I'd actually rather only watch like 1 episode of something with my family and then go back to working on projects xD I'm not really the type to binge-watch stuff cos I get too restless, haha. And I don't tend to work on projects over the weekend unless I'm participating in a jam with a tight deadline.
Buuuuut... I do indeed drink a hell of a lot of coffee xD I wish I had a double cos then I could work on 2 projects at once, hehe. Though, my double would probably disobey me and run off somewhere >.>
I mean, I've discovered that while the amount of time I spend on projects might not exactly be the healthiest, it's absolutely good for my mental health in general having something to focus on :3 But yeah, I'll just keep going no matter what. And every time I get a lovely comment, it's like getting a little rocket boost :D
I also get restless when I watch too much TV, lol. It's odd having depression and anxiety, because you simultaneously want to do lots and nothing, all at once. I totally understand wanting to have your focus somewhere else. Honestly, I think it's pretty impressive that you're so dedicated. As long as you're keeping yourself healthy! :)
(Btw I'm also a coffee fiend, it's how I get through most of my college load. If you like somewhat bitter coffee, getting a cold brew with a shot of espresso has always been my go-to!)
Haha, yeah, it is a weird one! Usually, I feel more like I wanna do lots, and if I don't, I feel ridiculously guilty, so that sorta helps kick m butt into gear a lot of the time x3 Other times though, I just feel utterly hopeless >.< When I'm not participating in jams, I certainly try to maintain a degree of physical fitness by exercising daily + eating relatively healthy. That kinda just goes out the window during jam crunch time though, which is bad x3
Since the pandemic though, my dad and I have sorta agreed that we need to have more weekends away and stuff together just to get out and see more of the country, so we've arranged little trips here and there every few months or so, so that we've got stuff to look forward to that also gives us a break from the daily grind :3
Hehe, all hail the might coffee :D I don't mind bitter coffee! I usually have mine kinda mellow, but generally, I'll drink any sorta coffee that's available xD Cold brews in summer are heavenly though! I remember the first time I found a place that said they did a cold brew mocha, but they also let you add syrup of your choice, so I tried one with hazelnut syrup and it tasted like icy Nutella x3 So good!
( ´ºωº` ) Ok I'm a whore for yanderes, and this takes the cake. It was a little tough for me to get the secret route, but I managed through it! Kuro can have my heart anyday <3. And I really like the other characters as well! (Especially Topper hgghhghhh ^(o≧∀≦)o) The gamer route was my favorite, it made me a little emotional at the end. I really enjoyed it nonetheless ( ´ ω ` )
Aww ^-^ I'm glad you had fun! Thanks so much for playing :3 Not gonna lie, I love Topper too x3 Jacob did an insanely (no pun intended there >.<) good job with that crazy clown voice!
Since I always put at least 1 yandere in my projects, I hope you'll enjoy those characters too if you end up playing with any of them :D
I just finished playing Solipsism Reigns and I really enjoyed it. And now I can’t get it out of my mind, I just love Kuro so much. I know they’re all Kuros but I feel like I prefer certain kuros over other Kuros, but I'd say my favorites are detective route Kuro and doll maker Kuro.
Spoilers
I like that the detective route Kuro, despite having a high yandere level, he still listens to the protagonist and doesn’t read her mind. And perhaps due to the sprite, he looks more confident than the rest. I like the bad ending where he gouged her eyes so the protagonist won’t look at others and only look at him alone, it’s just so fitting for a yandere. But the bad ending that leaves the most impression is when the protagonist got captured by Topper, even with her mind broken, she feels something when snow touches her, I assume it reminds her of Kuro’s icy touch. Truth be told, I actually like Farro as well, haha. I like this route for its creepiness and the ??? route best. As for the doll maker Kuro, I just feel so sorry for him :( ‘Fixing the dolls’ was a coping mechanism for all the things he had encountered, and the scene when his sanity returned and he repeatedly hit his head against the wall broke my heart…
I think my least favorite Kuro is the mage route Kuro, I am terrified of him. Out of all the bad endings, I think his are the most violent. I know yanderes are violent and illogical but it seems he finds pleasure in torturing for no reason as opposed to being too overbearing that they kill their love interest. Sometimes I wonder if I can handle a yandere boyfriend IRL, I think yeah perhaps, as long as I don’t look at other guys or don’t upset him I should be fine. However, this mage route changed my mind. The protagonist only asked for his suggestion for which direction to go, didn’t trigger him or anything, and he went full psycho T[]T. But really, I don’t hate him, if anything it’s because of him that I have a deeper impression of this VN and discovered more yanderes. But yeah, I still prefer other Kuros over him (I don’t want to die so easily, haha).
Oh, I have a question regarding Isaac, I want to know what his ideal ‘weapon’ is like? It seems he wants to erase the original’s personality completely, so I wonder what his perfect ‘weapon’ is like.
Finally, thank you so much for creating this game! I really, really like it. I hope you’ll continue to make more games with yandere guys in the future :D Have a nice day!
Sorry for my suuuuper duper slow reply >.< I've not really been online the past couple of months due to personal reasons, but I'm back now.
I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed playing through SR, especially with it being my oldest game now because every time I look back at it and how much I've learned since then, all I can see are its faults x3
I don't blame you for preferring certain Kuros because even I have my favourites over others, haha. Dollmaker wound up stealing my heart somehow, largely due to Tim's incredible performance!
Interestingly, your favourite routes were my favourite routes to write! I guess it kinda shows in the game that I had less interest in the themes of the other routes (especially the student one >.<) haha.
I certainly wouldn't advise having a yandere boyfriend IRL for your own safety >.< I adore yandere characters in games and stuff, but any kind of abuse like that in reality is just never fun :( And if you ever do find yourself in such a relationship, you need to tread really carefully and try to do what's best for your own health and wellbeing rather than get sucking into something that's gonna ruin your life.
Thank you so much for taking the time to play through it all and leave such a lovely comment :3 I really appreciate it! And I will absolutely be making more games with yandere guys in the future :D I've kinda made it my mission to always have at least 1 yandere dude of some kind in every game I make :3
Sorry again that my reply is so slow >.< If you end up playing my other games, I hope you enjoy them as much as SR ^-^
SPOILERS
Regarding Isaac, he pretty much just wanted a weapon that would do exactly as he commands. He didn't really want any hint of the original's personality to remain because he knew that would make her too difficult to control. He wanted to extract all the strength, love, and power from MC and Shiro's relationship and focus it into weapon form. I realise it's not something that makes a whole lot of sense xD But that particular concept was inspired by a French film I saw many years ago called Martyrs.
It's a little difficult to explain, but basically, in the film, this cult-like group captures and tortures young girls until they reach a state of transcendence and witness glimpses of the afterlife. The group is trying to discover what comes after. So that's sort of where the idea came from that torture = means to achieving an end in terms of changing someone's mental abilities. In Martyrs, the girls transcend and can see the afterlife before passing, in SR, the pain and suffering is extracted from each experiment and put into OG MC to essentially give her superpowers.
I guess a lot of folks might say it's crappy/lazy writing xD But I personally enjoy reading/watching stuff like that even if it is a little far-fetched, so I wanted to include it x3
Ah, hello, I absolutely adore this game and the elements within. And as much as I'd like to write a review I would love to finish the game first. I'm experiencing an issue where I finished the princess route and during the ending cutscene, the screen froze. I was using the skipping function earlier and it got stuck. I still hear music and audio playing, but I'm not able to do anything. I tried to unfreeze the screen or to access the other menus but nothing works. Is there any way to solve this without restarting the game? Last time I saved this game was yesterday, so I might lose a lot of progress.
Hey hey! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game so far :3 But sorry you've run into such an annoying problem >.<
I don't think there's much I can do to help because the engine I used to make the game has known problems with freezing and crashing when the skip mode is used >.< Or at least it did back when I made this, it's possible they've managed to fix it in an update by now! The freezes tend to be random for people with different computers, and because it's not a problem I can replicate on my end, it's not something I can fix, sadly :( It's one of the many reasons I stopped using Tyranobuilder once I found something better for making VNs.
The only thing I could really do is send you save files of where you were up to so that you don't have to replay stuff from when you last saved.
Sorry about that >.< It really sucks :( I hope it doesn't ruin your enjoyment of the game too much! And thank you so much for checking it out :3
Ah, I understand :) Maybe I should avoid using the skip button too much for this reason. And well, I booted up the game again after I had to close it as the issue didn't seem to resolve after around an hour or so of the game being open. >.<
It does seem that they saved the art from the bad ends I had completed, and they are in the gallery. However, the last save file is from the start of the mage route before I finished all the ends. I had already gotten the good ending in each route and was revisiting them to get all the bad ends. I finished collecting them in the student, mage, and princess route. I'm not sure if this means that my progress was saved or not, but it's definitely not saved in the save files. :/
And nope, it hasn't ruined my experience with the game; it just reminds me that I should make more saves so in case something like this happens. I won't have to backtrack as much. Thank you got your response. ^ ^
Yeah, it really sucks because the whole point of having a skip button is to help save time, but if it breaks the game, it's kind of a pointless function >.<
The way Tyranobuilder works by default is that all images like CGs, once viewed, will unlock in the gallery even if the game isn't saved, so that's why those are still there. It's so that you can start a new game and stuff without losing any gallery progress :3
But yeah, the endings that you got won't have saved like the CGs have >.< because they're tied to the save files instead. So for example, if you were to go back through one of the routes and just go for the good ending, the game won't recognise that you got any of the bad endings for unlocking the ??? route before the game froze >.< It'll only count the ones from your last save, unfortunately :( So you'll have the CGs, but not the actual bad ending points that count towards unlocking the route.
That makes it even harder to know which ones you've got and which ones you haven't >.< There is a loophole that I left in the game though for getting easy bad ends if you need to exploit that for unlocking the ??? route without actually having to go through all of the bad endings again :3
I'm still sorry you've experienced such an annoying problem with the game anyhow >.<
Hehe, well, there is a bit of a long-winded explanation for that! Basically, I'm not an artist, and I'm poor so I also don't have the money to hire an artist. This was my very first game. I was an idiot and made the scope of the project faaaar too big for a first project. I lacked sprite resources in general, but even with having a larger resource library at my disposal now, I would still not be able to create the cast of characters in SR with just one set of assets because there are too many world/costume changes going on >.<
So basically, the only way I could possibly create the number of unique sprites required for the game, was to use a set of character creator things that I purchased. The main problem being, there are hardly any creators/generators out there that allow you to make male sprites :( And so, I had to use flat-chested female bodies for most versions of Kuro. They look feminine because they are technically female base sprites. I used the smallest eyes available to each and tried to make their hairstyles more androgynous, but there was no avoiding most of them coming out looking like girls, sadly.
I do hope to remake the otome version someday with a complete art overhaul that would hopefully rectify the problem because the sprite art in the original version is something that has always bothered me about it, along with large parts of my writing which are in dire need of a rewrite!
I'm glad you still decided to give the game a chance anyhow :3 And that you liked the story even if the sprites do give off very feminine vibes, haha.
Thanks for both of your lovely comments here and on DD! It's much appreciated :3
oh its fine! i love all ur work rn im going thru a massive binge of ur games! i just honestly, the story is so amazing! keep up the good work, and thanks for the explanation!
hello, this game brought me out of lurker territory. i just wanna say thank you for this amazing story, and there's not much i can say that hasn't been discussed already.
i love all the characters, except maybe the one you can call the 'main villain' (but even then is he actually one?). they are all complex with their own motivations and personalities, and that's rare in vns. sometimes they end up stuck playing a trope and characterization falls flat. you really did a good job avoiding that!
anyway, i'm looking forward to your other games and meeting 'him' again. he doesn't actually have to worry about me forgetting about him, or at least, i wouldn't.
Hey hey! Aww, I pretty much live in lurker territory myself, haha. Thank you for playing through the game and dropping by to comment!
I'm so glad you feel that way about the characters. That makes me incredibly happy to hear that's how they come off :3 I've never had much confidence in anything I do, so when I read such kind words from people such as yourself, it really lifts my spirits! I do plan to remake this someday in the engine I'm using now, with revised art, writing, and new content :D I was sorta just muddling through and learning as I went when I put this all together, haha. So there's a lot I would like to attempt to improve.
I'm actually working on a game right now for Otome Jam 2021! So, hopefully, you'll find that enjoyable :3 Thanks again for your lovely comment! It's much appreciated ^-^
I want to play this game and i'm just kinda confused on the characters hehe... Sorry but i'm confused about the gender and its kinda hard for me to tell what it is
The heroine of the story that you play as is always female in every route. Your love interest, Kuro, is always male :3
The reason that Kuro looks so feminine is because I'm not an artist, and at the time of making this, I only had access to limited sprite resources, so I had to use female sprite bodies in the generator software I'd purchased to try and make them look as male as possible, haha. So while Kuro's appearance is pretty feminine, he's male.
UwU Thank you very much for explaining about the characters and tbh I've been thinking about the gender for a long time but didn't have the courage to ask! :> Again, Thank you
hello!! i've only just discovered this game a few days ago, and i've yet to finish it, but i'm really loving it so far - the story is really interesting and intriguing (i can't wait to get to the ??? route), really well-written, and i especially love the GUI/UI and voice acting (was not expecting someone to suddenly talk to me at the very start of the game and upon getting an ending...i was left pleasantly shook), as well as how we get to play through several settings and themes. i think it's really cool!
i noticed that a BxG version and possibly a remake of this one are/would be in the works? if you're interested or happen to need any help, even if these two might not be a priority at the moment, me and my friend (who i dragged to join me and also really likes the game) would love to draw sprites and CGs for both of those, for free. ^^ my twitter is @PurrpleBun, but if you'd rather talk more about this somewhere else, i wouldn't mind that either.
thank you for all your hard work and i hope you have a wonderful day!
Hey hey! Thanks for taking the time to play through the game and leave a comment :3 I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! Hopefully, you'll have just as much fun with the rest of it :D I'm glad you like the voice acting. A lot of people volunteered their time and talent to help bring the project to life :3
I certainly always need help with art because I can't draw to save my life, haha. I'm currently working with an artist who is creating CGs and new sprites for the BxG version, and I hope to work with them on the future otome version remake too, but you never know what will happen in the future! It's entirely possible that the workload would be far too much for one artist to handle alone, or they may become too busy to continue helping. I really appreciate the offer and I'm definitely interested in working with you guys :3
You're welcome to drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com for further discussion. I'm incredibly inactive on Twitter because I just can't keep up with social media >.< I'd rather work in a cave and have someone else handle that sorta thing for me as far as my projects are concerned, haha. I do use Discord for project-related communication though, so you're welcome to add me there if that's easier than emailing back and forth!
Thanks again for playing! I hope you both enjoy the rest of the game :3 Have a wonderful weekend yourselves ^_^
I just wanna ask one question before downloading this game. Kuro is basically my companion, and the route i choose is the girl, so that means the protagonist is a male, right? I just wanna get rid of the confusion that the route i choose is actually who i'm going to be! It basically adds to confusion the description of the GxB version!
This page is for the otome version of the game, so the protagonist that you play as is female. Each route that you pick determines the role that the protagonist takes on within that route, but it's always a she, and Kuro, your love interest, is always a he.
The alternate version featuring a male protagonist and a female Kuro still hasn't been finished because I'm busy working on other projects at the moment + I've teamed up with someone who is creating CGs specifically for that version, otherwise it would have no CGs at all.
Sorry, my english might seem a bit awkward but it is not my first langage.
I've played lots of VN but I'm not usually into otome games (unfortunatelly those tends to be too cliché and not credible enough for my tastes). I must say I didn't know I'd enjoyed the yandere trope so much before I played your game^^ This was a good surprise.
I enjoyed the concept of your game and I liked Kuro a lot (he was not just a stupid trope but a real fleshed out character). He made me blush as much as he scared me. I think it's a good thing because it means you portrayed him in a credible way, and the character fulfilled his purpose.
As a writer myself I know that feedbacks can be very usefull and I think that it's a shame that indies creators receive too few of them. Because some works would deserve more support. I think you deserve to know that your VN is good and enjoyable.
The writing is nice, the story kept me interested until the end, the sprites are beautifull even if sometimes the different styles don't match very well with each other (not sure my sentence means something lol).
I would personally have prefered to see the same sprite (one for kuro and one for the MC) with just a different hairstyle and outfit in each scenario for more immersion (and because it would have been more coherent with the ending). I'm curious to know why you chose different sprites (I don't want to spoil anything, but I think you see what I mean ^^).
Finally, I have only two majors complaints. I can't express the first one without spoiling the whole thing, so... I shall not write it here (if you want we could chat about it somewhere else). I think you are not responsible for the second one (it's certainly the engine's fault) but even if I have a very good pc the game is very long to start. I don't really mind, but I think it's worth mentioning.
Anyway... I enjoyed the ride a lot. I came for the horror elements and I ended in love with a yandere ;)
My favorite route was the detective route. I can explain why in more details if you want. My fav Kuro was the one during the detective one too, and during the princess one (I mean the personnality, because my fav design was the student route Kuro he he). My fav side character was Isabelle from the detective route too (I wish I could have kissed her instead of you know who)^^ Ah and my fav MC... hum... I'm not sure, i enjoyed them all except the MC in the student route (she's a bit dense lol) and the one in the gamer route (even if I enjoyed this route a lot. This scenario is very well built).
Have you ever considered publishing this game on steam? It would give you faaaaar more visibility, especially if you add few trophies (for ex one trophy per bad end. It's quite easy to do this with steam).
If you have difficulties to find female voice actors for the other versions of your game, or even for this one (I might be wrong but I think rabbit has a male voice althought she is a girl? Maybe you didn't find an actress) I could give you a hand (or my vocal chords in this case). I have a mezzo-soprano voice, but you must know that I have a french accent ;) so I'm not sure if I can help.
Have a nice day, keep on the good work and don't forget to dream ;)
No worries, I think your English is brilliant :3 I could certainly understand everything that you wrote.
Thank you so much for taking the time to play through the game and leave some feedback! It's very much appreciated :D I'm super glad that you enjoyed it!
I sort of know what you mean about otome games, haha. I'm a fan of the genre, but they can get very repetitive >.< As you say, a lot of them have characters in that just start feeling like walking tropes, sadly. I know the focus is supposed to be on romance, but I feel like that can sometimes leave the overall story seriously lacking. There are very few VNs I've played where the balance felt just right. I don't think I achieved a very good balance with SR because it's a bit lacking in romantic scenes compared to the volume of bad ends, haha. That's something I plan to fix at a later date though :3
It means a lot to me that you feel like Kuro was a real fleshed-out character because I really wanted him to be more than just a generic yandere dude. So it makes me very happy to hear that you think he was believable! I'm rather passionate about the yandere character trope in general, but you just don't seem to see all that many male yandere characters compared to female ones. Sometimes there's just too much crazy and not enough love as well when it comes to yandere characters, haha. It was really important to me that this was still a love story, despite all the horror going on x3
Yeah, feedback is a huge help! I do hope that I can make VNs as more than just a hobby someday, and in order to do that, I need to hear people's opinions and have a better idea of what works and what doesn't for people, rather than just going with solely what I would do myself. SR is like my baby, but with it being my first project, I now know there are several things I could have done better! I've learned a lot since starting work on SR, and hopefully, I'll be able to completely remake the game at some point into a more definitive version. You're right that it's difficult to get feedback as an indie dev, so any and all is most welcome :D It doesn't help that I don't have much of a social media presence either >.< I'm almost completely reliant on word of mouth for spreading the word about my projects.
Yeah, I know what you mean about the sprites, haha. It's something that still really bothers me about the game, and something I plan to rectify in the future remake! I want to have one artist draw all of the sprites so that the art is consistent across the board. There was no way I could afford that for this version though, and so I was stuck with using sprite creator software that I purchased. The trouble was, the game required so many sprites that the art from one software wasn't enough to cover it, and so I had to use art from various different software, where the pieces were drawn by completely different artists >.< And you probably noticed that the sprite for Topper looks completely different from everything else, haha. That's because, in all my software, there was nothing at all for clown/jester-style clothing, so I had to go to Fiverr and pay someone $5 to draw me sprite based on my awful descriptions and references >.<
That's interesting that you say you would prefer to see the same sprite for Kuro and MC, and it is something I thought about possibly doing for the eventual remake. Sadly, it wasn't possible with the sprite resources that I had, because while I could easily have used the same sprite body and changed their hairstyles for each route, I wouldn't have been able to give them suitable clothing to fit the different worlds, because each sprite body only comes with limited clothing options :( I was very restricted by my art resources overall, unfortunately. It would have been great to have been able to afford artists to draw everything for me, but with needing so many assets, I just didn't have the funds. I sorta had to make do with the cheapest assets that I could find to use.
Thank you for not posting spoilers :3 If you wanted to let me know what the first complaint is, you could use one of the text headers (it's the first symbol called 'format') and write 'spoilers' in caps like this:
SPOILERS
Then press enter a few times and start typing out what you wanted to say, because that way, anyone who might happen to be reading your comment would be able to see that there are spoilers below and it'd be their choice to read on or not :3 And Itch will hide most of your comment by putting a clickable 'read more' part. If you'd rather email me though, you can always drop me a message to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Yeah, you're right that the second one is the engine's fault, sadly :( I even made sure to compress all the game's assets as much as possible to keep the size as low as it could be without compromising image or audio quality, but due to the way the engine works, it does result in very slow load times cos of the size of the game >.< It's one of many reasons I want to eventually remake the whole thing! Now that I have a new engine, I probably won't use Tyranobuilder again because there are just too many annoying aspects. It's great for starting out, but the team behind it don't seem to be in a hurry to fix any of the incredibly annoying issues with the engine >.< I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to jump into making VNs without learning any code. It's just once you have a better idea of what you're doing in general, it becomes quite frustrating to use.
I'm glad you enjoyed the game overall though :D
The detective route was probably my favourite one to write :3 Feel free to explain in more detail why it was your favourite if you want to! I'd certainly be interested to know your thoughts. That's awesome that you liked Isabelle as well :D Yeah, student route MC is a bit on the dense side, haha.
Honestly, I would absolutely love to get the game on Steam! The trouble is, with it being a free game, I can't afford the £100 (or something like that) publishing fee >.< When I get around to the remake though, I might attempt a Kickstarter or something to help pay for various things. I just want the game to be as good as it can possibly be. If I could somehow get funded, it would allow me to get better quality assets and, as you say, to get the game on Steam as well :3 I would also be a bit embarrassed to put the game on Steam in its current state just because of the bugs with the engine >.< I want players to have as smooth an experience as possible, and I feel like Tyrano gets in the way of that. If I can remake it using the engine I have now, it'll be much more polished!
You're right about Rabbit, haha. I did cast a female voice actor in the role, but she sorta just vanished on me >.< so I ended up using the guy who I had cast as the male version of Rabbit instead to play the female version too! It's entirely possible I might need more voice actors for both the upcoming BxG version and the otome remake. I know for certain that I am missing a few voices for the BxG version, and that some parts will need to be rerecorded. There's certainly nothing wrong with having a French accent anyhow :3 I actually think that an accent like that could suit a character like Rosemary. Also, in the BxG version, some of the characters are like genderbent versions, haha. So there might be things like a female Christo, and I think a French accent could suit a female Christo pretty well. I'm a long way off of sorting that sorta stuff out though at the moment, so I'd have to get back to you on that closer to the time :3
I hope you have a nice day too + that you're managing to stay safe! Thank you again for all your feedback :D I really appreciate you taking the time to type it all up!
Wonderful game. I am usually the person who doesn't like linear games, but makes exceptions for a good plots games. I love it. The regular routes were interesting to explore, creepy in a good way. The final route made me cry several times. The voice acting really made me fill "into the atmosphere". The voice acting and music really made the experience even better (the first novel i used my headphones to listen to the sounds, coz it was good!) The dialogue after true ending was also very entertaining.(breaking 4th wall huh) I am just very impressed tbh. Keep going with visual novels, guys! I will support you
Thank you so much for your kind words + for playing through the game :3 I really appreciate it! Yeah, the voice actors all worked really hard to help me bring this project to life, so I'm super glad you enjoyed their performances :D
It means a lot to me that you took the time to write such a lovely comment! Thank you very much for your support + have a lovely week ^_^
uuuuuumm...It took me about 2 hours to download the game, bcmy dumbassinstalledthe mac version instead- So, basically i was trying to open up the game, and i extracted the files and when it was done it said:
so uh.. any ideas of how i can fix this..? cuz i'd really like to play this game, the MCs are cute... The guys are cute.. the artstyle is stunning, and it has a very interesting concept i'd like to experience.. so by any chance, would anyone be so kind to please lend me a hand?
Hey hey! Sorry for my slow reply, and also for the fact that I'm probably not gonna be of much help here >.<
I've not come across that issue before, so I'm not really sure what to suggest :( Is it an old system you're running it on or maybe one with very little spare memory? I know the devs of the engine have said before that if a computer doesn't have enough free memory then it might not be able to run the game until some space has been cleared.
If you've got plenty of free space, and it's not going to take you too long, you could try downloading the larger Windows version instead, just in case there's an issue specifically with the smaller version for some reason. I'll try redownloading each Windows version myself from here and see if I can manage to replicate the issue, but they worked fine for me when I uploaded them originally, so I'm probably not going to be able to help >.< I'll do some Googling though and report back anything I find that might be of use!
Oh, one other thing could possibly be antivirus software stopping it from running I guess! Because every single game I've made so far tends to get blocked by my antivirus the first time I open it up. It just does a scan, then allows it through. But I'm not sure how other antivirus software works. It's possible it may just block it from running completely.
Thanks so much for checking out the game :3 I really hope we can manage to find a solution to get it up and running for you!
tysm! I dont have that issue anymore thanks to you,but.. sorry to bother you again... Though now when i extract the game files the exported application doesn't open and just gives me a blank note file. is that normal or am i doing something wrong? Also i'm on a Windows Vista, and i installed the smaller version i got this pc about a year ago.. do i need a 64 bit perhaps...?? also don't worry i'm pretty slow at replying too, so we're on the same boat.. ^^'
It's no bother at all :3 I'm glad that one issue is solved, but it sucks that something else is still preventing you from playing >.<
That's definitely not supposed to happen. When you run the .exe, it should just load up the game (which can take a while depending on system specs.) I'm by no means a tech expert, but if it's opening in notepad or something instead, something must have gone wrong somewhere >.< I would imagine something in your system settings, but I wouldn't really know what to change to stop it from doing that :( As far as I can remember, when you export a game made in Tyrano for Windows, it should just work with most versions of Windows.
I did some Googling, and I can find fixes for systems where all .exe files are opening in notepad, but nothing specific for just one, or it being blank >.< All those fixes seem to mention fixing stuff in the registry, but I wouldn't wanna tell you to go messing with stuff when I don't even know for sure if that would fix it, and I certainly wouldn't want you to accidentally screw up your computer somehow :(
I did download the small version for Windows from here after reading your first comment, just to check the download wasn't randomly broken or something, but it still starts up fine for me.
I'm sorry I can't be of more help >.< Like I said, I'm not the most techy person when it comes to computer problems, so I'm not sure what the solution could be :(
i'm very sorry for the late reply! Lately i've been staying up quite late to get my pc to work right for the game.
i'll try to download the file again in hopes for a better result, thank you very much for your concern and information! I'll keep you updated! I hope you have a lovely day/night!
No worries at all! I'm still sorry that I can't be of more help :( I know how frustrating it can be trying to get stuff to work cos I once tried to get my old PSVR headset working with my PC, and loads of people had managed it just fine, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't get it to work for me so I had to give up in the end >.<
I hope you do manage to get it working :3 I wanted to be able to have a browser version available for anyone that had issues running the downloadable game at all, but sadly, it's too large to be able to host it as a browser game, even the smaller version :( Good luck! And thank you :3 I hope you have a lovely day/night yourself!
Okay, so, I have no idea if this will help at all, but I copied the error you posted into Google, and one of the things that came up was a YouTube link to this short video. It seems to be the same sort of error, but the fix seems to be related to antivirus stuff. I'll link it to you anyhow just in case it's helpful at all :3
Sadly, this is because of the engine I used called Tyranobuilder. The config is a default one that comes with the engine when you start a new project. You should be able to figure out what does what by just messing around with the various settings :3
Sorry for my slow replies to your comments >.< I've not been at my PC much the last couple of days cos I've had some other stuff to sort out. Yeah, the guide on the ??? route isn't 100% accurate as you can unlock and play the ??? without seeing both Gamer route endings. I just figured there was no need to edit it because it's probably best to view each different ending anyhow for CG gallery completion :3
This is my first time coming across this game on this site. And with the number of positive reviews, I'm devastated that it did not happen sooner. I'm downloading it now and looking forward to playing it! I'll come back and let you know what I thi
Hey hey hey!!!! This game is SO AWESOME!!!!!! I'm not done yet, about to do the Detective route before I get to the '???' route but this game is still amazing!!!
Edit: I figured out my issue! I was a dumb! Lol. Thats what I get for staying up all night playing the game!!
Aww, thank you so much for your kind words! I appreciate you taking the time to play through the game and leave a comment :3 I hope enjoy the rest of the game!
I didn't see what you wrote at the end before your edit, haha, but I'm glad you managed to figure out a solution anyhow :D
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oh! I forgot to ask the ones who sing the opening are Vocaloids? their voices resemble those of Luka and kaito ( ╹▽╹ )
You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that x3 It was actually me and my friend that wrote and sang the opening theme, haha. But both of us really wanted to try and sound a bit like Vocaloids xD So my friend spent aaaages editing our vocals to try and give them a bit of a Vocaloid kind of sound! Glad to hear it paid off :D I wish I could be Luka x3
woa すごい I really thought they were Vocaloid voices :O I'm a huge fan of vocaloids and when I heard the song I was "Is it them?!" It's very well edited! I loved the melody and the lyrics :) I showed it to a friend and she was like "That's a good song!" I'm glad my little comment makes you happy! If I tell you the truth, after writing it, I worried about how stupid the question was and I got depressed qwq but I'm glad you answered me ^^ thank you
Well, I’m glad it worked then :D I wish I actually did sound like Luka when I sing, haha. The song was a real team effort between myself and my (sadly) ex-friend. It’s a long story, but he basically doesn’t talk to me anymore and I will never really know why because the last time we saw each other in person, everything was fine >.< he just pretty much ghosted me even though we used to live together! I know he got a girlfriend, so maybe that was part of the reason, but still. It sucks to have lost him as a friend :(
But yeah, anyways, he wrote the music, and I wrote the lyrics :3 Then we sang it individually because I was too embarrassed to sing my parts in front of him, so I made him leave the house while I recorded xD And once everything was recorded and he’d made the backing track, he edited our voices to try and make them sound more Vocaloid-like.
I wanted to try and sort of tell the story of the game in the lyrics without giving away spoilers, haha. I really love songs that tell stories, so I was inspired by stuff like Puppet in the Dark by FELT and world.execute(me); by Mili.
You should never feel stupid for asking questions x3 I know it’s easier said than done though >.< But if we didn’t ask questions, we’d never learn anything :3
qnq Something similar happened to me with an ex-friend, it was a somewhat silly fight xD Do you know Wadanohara and the great blue sea? (I think it was called the game) we were fighting because she liked a character (Fukami I think his name was) and my other (Samekichi) and well after that she completely blocked me and we lost contact, that's been a while year and I have not been able to speak to her again, I am very sorry for it
The song really expresses the story very well without any spoilers with very good lyrics ùvú I liked it a lot and I have repeated it too much xD
To me I wish my singing voice was more like IA or Kaai Yuki xD
I also love songs that tell stories, I especially like Vocaloids and Utaites a lot
Thank you Marie, if I have any questions I won't hesitate to ask uwu
That sucks about your ex-friend :( I do know of that, yeah! I’ve never played it myself, but it’s been on my list of things to check out for aaaages!! It always popped up on lists I read about recommendations of games with creepy characters or yanderes in, haha.
That’s a shame you guys lost contact. Whenever that happens to me I always worry if the other person is okay. Cos usually, it’s not like anything really bad has happened or we’ve had a big argument or anything, it’s just more like getting ghosted I guess. It really sucked with my friend cos we were super close years ago. Getting ghosted online is fairly normal for me, but I never imagined I’d get ghosted by someone I knew so well irl when we had such a good friendship. I guess he must’ve just got sick of me and decided he didn’t want me in his life anymore x3
I hope you have other friends who will always stick around at least :3
As for singing, weeeell, I do wish I had a higher-pitched voice, haha. But Luka is probably the closest Vocaloid to my natural singing voice. I just hate having a deep voice in general really T_T
The small version does run on my pc! Yei! xD I've only played a little but it's really a good game! It reminds me a bit of Amnesia with the theme of worlds! I really like the drawings (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧ and the background music is quite nice! I was quite surprised that all the characters had voices <3 there are many Game overs xvx I don't know how many times I've already died :D! but it's quite fun to try again! And anyway I love your games! (≧▽≦)
Huzzah :D Well, I'm glad that version works at least :3 As far as I can remember there wasn't a huge difference, mainly just files shrunk a lot more, but there's not much visual difference other than in the videos.
Amnesia was actually partly what inspired me to make this as my first game :3 Mainly my love for Ukyo xD
I was very lucky to get to work with Destini who did all that epic art and all the voice actors who helped me out too :3 Wouldn't have been possible without everyone!
Yeah, I kinda have a thing for bad ends xD so I thought it would be fun to try and make a game where the point is to collect them all, haha.
Thank you so much again for checking out my stuff and being so sweet ^-^
Idon't really understand why the normal version of the game didn't run on my pc :( I guess it sure is a mystery xD So you like Ukyo :D he is very sweet xD I also like Bad endings even though in Amnesia I got stuck so much for them
I say it again (Maybe I'll repeat it a lot )xD I love your games! and this is one of my favorites <3 kuro is sweet maybe I'll cheer up and play the BxG version and share the game with my friends friends even if they don't really like VN qwq
It is indeed a mystery x3
Hehe, yeah, I think Ukyo is probably still one of my all-time favourites :3 I’m quite behind on otome games now, but I used to play them a lot before I started trying to make games x3 Quite often though, I wasn’t really that interested in a lot of the characters. The most recent one I finished was Cafe Enchante, and while I didn’t fall in love with any of the main characters, I enjoyed the overall story. Shiraishi from Collar x Malice was another one that I liked a lot :D I didn’t really enjoy most of Collar x Malice, but it was worth it for Shiraishi, haha.
Aww, you’re too kind x3 Sadly, you won’t be able to play the BxG version though cos I’m not even close to finishing it >.< It’s completely on hold at this point, but I do hope to try and make it someday! There’s just never enough time T_T
It’s frustrating trying to get friends who don’t like VNs to check them out, haha. I’ve tried in the past but they just turn their noses up at them and say stuff like they’re not proper games x3
xD amnesia was really my first otome game, personally I loved Ikki and Shin a lot and even toma although Kento only bored me x-x
I really don't have friends who like otome VNs or others that sometimes is something sad not having someone to share with
Ah! If you like the voice of Ukyo's voice actor and you know something about Japanese you should play Glass heart princess even though it's from PSP
I haven't heard of those otome games :O I tried to search the internet for Collar x Malice to download it but I haven't I've been lucky qvq (or I haven't searched well I guess xD)
The truth is that I haven't been playing much maybe my last game was Dynamic Chord feat Kyohso
I really admire that I admire that you make games ! I would love to be able to do the same ovo✨ sometimes good ideas come to me but I don't dare to do it qq
If you ever finish the GxB version rest assured that I will play it ÒvÓb
Sorry for the very long message, I hope don't mind me acting so friendly qvq and again thanks for reading and responding to my comments
Awww, poor Kent x3 I actually liked him, haha. I just thought he was kinda cute and sweet, haha. Ikki is the one I thought I’d like the most based purely on looks, but nope, I wound up hating him and his stupid fanclub xD
I played Collar x Malice on PSVita, but I’m pretty sure it’s been rereleased on Nintendo Switch with extra content :3 And it was Switch that I played Cafe Enchante on! I think most otome games seems to be releasing on Switch over here now actually.
You could always get something easy to use like Tyranobuilder or maybe even mess around with Renpy since it’s free :3 You don’t have to put pressure on yourself to release anything, but you could just experiment and see how some of your ideas turn out :D
You have nothing to apologise for x3 and I don’t mind at all :3
Hello ! melancholy marionette I really need your help! I recently downloaded the game to play it on my pc but I don't know how to run it and the internal of my pc started to fill up and I really don't know what to do ｡ﾟ( ﾟஇωஇﾟ)ﾟ｡
Hey hey! Sorry if this is too late to help, I don't tend to go on my PC at weekends >.< I'm hoping you managed to get it working by now, but if not I can try to help, though, I don't know much help I can be because this project is really old and some people's computers seem to have problems opening it :(
If you're on Mac, I probably can't help at all cos I don't own a Mac to test on >.<
If you're on Windows, you should be able to download either the Solipsism Reigns – GxB – Windows or Solipsism Reigns – GxB – windows (smaller version). Once downloaded, unzip the folder like you usually would by right-clicking it and extracting the files.
Once you've extracted the files to a folder, you should have something that looks like this:
Then you double-click on the exe here:
And the game should run.
BUT, depending on your computer's specs, it could take a looong time to actually do anything >.< On my old laptop, it took something crazy like a full 5-7 minutes to actually launch the game after clicking the exe. It looks like it's not doing anything, but it does eventually open. Unless the computer doesn't have enough memory, then it might just not do anything >.< Even on my PC which has relatively decent specs, it still takes about 20 seconds to actually launch though.
If your folder doesn't look like that after extracting the files though, or if clicking the exe opens up something that isn't the game, then it probably means you're one of the unlucky people who has the weird error that I don't know how to fix T_T
thanks for answering ! I'll try to download the smaller version and I'll try again owo, by the way maybe what happened is that since my pc is not very good (only 4GB of ram) the version that weighed more didn't run xD sorry for bothering you with this little error! qvq again thanks for the help ^^
Maybe >.< but still, I would like to hope that 4GB of ram would be enough to run most visual novels :( I know the download size is quite large and it takes a while to start up, but once it's actually running, even the original version should work on most computers. My old potato laptop was a super potato with extremely low specs, but even though it took forever to actually launch after clicking the exe, it did eventually run x3 and once it was running, it was smooth. It was just the startup that caused problems.
Anyways, you have nothing to apologise for x3 I hope that the smaller version ends up working for you at least! :3
Came to revisit this game! I really enjoyed the voice acting and the story, I had fun looking at the QnAs :) the writing is also really nice <3
Aww, that's so sweet that you'd want to revisit it ^-^ Thanks so much for all your kind words <3
This has been my fav otome game for a long long time and I keep finding myself coming back to it, LOVE IT!! I love all your games <3
Thanks so much ^-^ That's super sweet of you to say <3 The giant no-confidence part of myself wants to shake my head in denial and declare it impossible for anyone to put any of my games in their favourites x3 but I really appreciate that anyone would consider them that way :3 Still hope I will eventually get to remake this one someday, but I don't know when I'm supposed to find the time to do it x3
Thank you very much for all your kind words :3
I played this a while ago and I'm back here to download again so I can replay it, so I figured I'd leave a comment!
I've played most of your games (the other ones are pending!) and they're all really good, but Solipsism Reigns has really made its way into my heart. I love yandere games, and the normal routes definitly gave me that but the '???' route and true end got me so hooked up I stayed up all night to finish them. Definitely one of my favorite games ever, I can't believe it's free (๑>ᴗ<๑)
Aww, well, that's super sweet of you ^-^ And it means a lot that you'd even want to replay it!! If you ever end up playing everything, you'll have to let me know which one winds up being your favourite :3 it's always intriguing to know what sorta stuff different people prefer, haha. Like, Limbo Line is my personal favourite, though, I grew extremely fond of Bitter/Sweet, but some people I've spoken to who have played a few of my games said they liked X game a lot, but then they tried another one of my games and they just couldn't get into it, haha.
I'll always have a soft spot for this project though with it being my very first :3 I can't believe it's gonna be 3 years old this summer o.o I dunno where the time has gone! Honestly don't know what I was thinking trying to make something this long as a first game >.< And I've never managed to make anything of the same length since, although, while it's been on hold for what seems like forever, the writing for CiQ was finished aaaages ago, and I reckon it is probably similar in length to SR, just had a heck of a lot of problems turning it into a game T_T
I'm glad the ??? route was interesting enough to keep you engaged :3 I did worry a little that it might drag a bit or something, or be too weird, I dunno, haha. The whole ??? route was my initial idea for the game though, but then I thought, I can't just do that on its own, there needs to be stuff before it for it to have any sort of impact >.< So I had to try and work backwards from there x3
Funnily enough, my dad said the same thing when I first released the game about it being free xD He still says that now every time I release stuff. It usually goes along the lines of "You're mad! You work yourself half to death and you're not even getting paid for it!!" hehe. He means it in an affectionate way, of course! But at the same time, it does make him sad that I can't make a living from it with all the hours I put in x3
Anyways, I will hush my rambling and just say thank you so much for playing in general and your kind words! Hope you get to have an awesome rest of your April :3
Is anyone else having trouble loading into the game. I was able to install it yet when I try to launch it, it just shows NW.JS and that's about it. If anyone know anything please let me know.
Sorry my reply is quite slow >.< my arm is still broken, so I'm not able to stay on top of stuff very well atm :(
I'm hoping you might have been able to get it to work by now, but I'm guessing probably not because if it was asking you to install something, then it's already gone wrong because you shouldn't have to install anything to play >.< It should just work when you click the. exe file T_T
I know a few people had the same issue in the past though! Not just with my game, but games by other devs made with the Tyranobuilder engine. It's one of the reasons why I decided to stop using the engine and start making stuff with a different engine entirely.
I have no idea what causes this for some people :( and back when someone first brought it up, I tried to find a fix, and made a post with some stuff in, which you can find here :3
I have no idea if any of it works though! And no one ever did get back to me when I queried the engine devs about it. Another reason I stopped using Tyrano >.<
Maybe something will work for you, but I don't hold out much hope :(
I love this game so much! I just wish that there was a BxB version sks- But I love this game! It's incredible how you were able to do all of this, and make it free! I'm definitely going to download this again. I absolutely love yanderes and there's a severe lack of them, well, everywhere. I've been following your itch.io content for a long time, and I'm excited to see what you make in the future! ^w^
I wish I could've made all different kinds of versions >.< I had originally planned to at least have GxB, BxG, BxB, and GxG, but by the time I finished the GxB/otome version, it became clear that it would just take too much time because of how long the game is T_T The BxG version is still in development (albeit very slowly because it's not a priority project), but I had to make the decision to drop the other versions or it would take me years and years to make then and I wouldn't have time to make anything else :( Tbh, it was pretty stupid of me to make such a long game for my first-ever go at making games xD At least with the shorter ones I've made since then, I've managed to be more inclusive with different options :3
I'm glad you still had fun playing it though ^-^ I don't really know how I managed to motivate myself enough to finish it really, haha. It was far too long for a first project, and I did almost give up several times! It was actually the covid lockdown that made me go into overdrive and try to get the last of it finished because it helped take my mind off of how crap everything was >.<
Hehe, lack of yanderes (especially ones with English male voices) was one of my main reasons to get into game dev :D It seems like there are quite a few around nowadays, with more popping up all the time, which is awesome :3 But back when I started this project, I couldn't really find many at all >.< most of the male yanderes I found were in Japanese titles, and even then, there still weren't THAT many in games that had been translated. So I figured I'd try to make one myself x3
I never really intended to end up making multiple games xD it's just after I finished my first project, I kinda wound up addicted to it, and I figured, screw it, I'm just gonna make it my mission to keep adding more and more English-voiced yandere characters to the world, haha.
That's so cool that you've been following my stuff! I appreciate the support <3 I always try to have at least 1 yandere character in my games, or if not a full yandere, then a character with some yandere qualities, haha. Although, I didn't with The Graveyard Shift in the end, but then that was supposed to be an adaptation more than anything and I was pushed for time x3
Hopefully, any stuff I make in the future won't turn out to be disappointing, haha. Thanks for playing this one too ^-^
ahh, i'm sorry for the late reply! suddenly, you've motivated me to finally get on figuring out how to code a game. thank you so much! and i wish you the best of luck with your projects!
No need to apologise x3 Thank you for the luck, I will certainly need it, haha. And I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavours too ^-^
I have to say, the different levels of Yandere present kind of gave me whiplash!
Have done the first four routes so far.
Student route: Kuro killed me for agreeing to have a group lunch that included a boy
Mage route: Kuro killed me for being polite and praying to the god that the cleric who was coming with me on an impromptu suicide mission to save the day wanted me to pray to
Detective route: Kuro killed me for trying to find my detective partner before looking for a missing child
Princess route: I literally attacked Kuro and he...apologized for not better understanding my feelings.
I almost felt like I was the Yandere on that route lol
Of course I prefer lower levels of Yandere but it made the route much harder since I couldn't always figure out which choices would get me killed lol
xD I can definitely believe that, haha. Because this was my first-ever game and it's a few years old now, when I look back on it, there's a lot I would change about the writing, especially in the Student route! Cos I pretty much despise that one x3 I would ramble on about the various reasons why I wanted to include all the varying degrees of yandere in the routes, but I don't want to accidentally spoil anything, haha.
I really appreciate you hanging in there and sticking with it though :D Trust me, there is a reason for it all in the end, haha. All I can say without being too spoilery is that everything will make sense when you unlock the ??? route. Don't worry about all the blood, death, and suffering along the way x3 Getting through all those bad ends is the key :3
Thanks so much for taking the time to play it <3
hi!! i loved this game, its so interesting and i loved how kuro was a lil different in every route <3 just wanted to ask if you could maybe put subtitles for the man (?) that talks sometimes after the route and at the very ending, since english isnt my first language and his voice kina echos and is static a lil it was a bit hard to hear what he said sometimes, just an idea !! still i loved it very much <333
Hey hey! So glad to hear you enjoyed the game :3 Thank you so much for playing <3
If I could add the subtitles, then I would, but sadly, I don't have access to the game files anymore, so I can't make any changes T_T Because this was the first game I made, I had all the files on my old laptop, and unfortunately, I wound up losing them >.< I also don't use the Tyranobuilder Engine anymore.
With it being my first game, I was a bit of an idiot and didn't really think about the fact that it might be helpful to have subtitles for those scenes >.< I do plan to eventually remake the entire game one day though, and I will definitely be sure to include subtitles when I do :3
Thank you again ^-^
ahh that’s completely okay !! i’m sorry u lost all the files :(( but i’m glad to know that’s it’s something you would do in the future <33 i hope u have a great day <3
Hello!
I really like this game and to find a game with a male Yandere in it! I noticed that this game isnt completed released but the BxG version is still continuing. So this this version of the game wont continue?
The GxB/otome version (this version) with a female protagonist and male yandere is completed and released :3 It was the first game I ever made :D And ever since then, I have continued to include both male and female yandere characters in almost all of my games ^-^
The BxG version of this project where the protagonist is male and the love interest is a female yandere is still in development, but very casually, so it won't be ready any time soon x3 but it is happening and will have different sprite art and stuff.
I also hope to remake the released otome version one day with new routes and new sprite art, but that's a loooong way off cos it's my longest game, so it would take ages to completely remake it in the engine I use now >.<
Whats the name that voice in every bad ending calls you? I tried sounding it out and spelling it but a friend of mine thinks i said eczema TT I like how it sounds but i just dunno what the name is
It's 'Anathema' :3 That's funny though xD and, funnily enough, I have eczema, haha. Got it real bad on my hands T_T got ill before Christmas and am still ill now, and having a stupid eczema flare up on both hands really isn't helping things :( that's why I'm so slow to reply, haha.
Sorry it's taken me ages to get back to you >.< I was ill before and during Christmas, and still am now somehow (much better though now, thankfully!) I've not been on my PC, I tried and failed to catch up on stuff on my phone, it's just kinda old and laggy, so it's not the easiest thing to type on x3
Anyways, thanks so much for playing! Glad you enjoyed it :3 I'll do my best to answer your questions ^-^
1) Firstly, it's been a long time, but as far as I can remember, there shouldn't be any major differences between the large and small versions other than the download size. And possibly the little videos and some of the art being of slightly lower quality from being compressed much more in the small version. The larger version should technically be the better one with the higher-quality assets in.
Aaaaand
SPOILERS
2) Cody is actually me x3 I very rarely use my name in stuff because I hate it xD And the main reason I hate it is cos it largely seems to be a male name, but I'm female >.< haha. Annoyingly, there seems to be an alternate (more feminine I guess) spelling of the name that tends to be given to girls (Codie) but nope, my mum went and spelled it the dude way >.> My dad hated it, haha. He wanted to call me Anya! But my mum won. Apparently, she got the name from a female character in an Australian soap that she loved! But in all my life, I've never met another girl called Cody where it was spelled the masculine way like that, only ever dudes and people's male dogs xD
Had the game been made more recently, I have no doubt I would've just used 'Melancholy' or some other shortened version of my dev name instead, but as far as I can remember, I didn't even have a dev name at the time I wrote all of this since it was my first game x3
3) It's really tough to answer your third question with it being so long since I made the game. I think the extras is unclickable until you've completed the game and gotten the main ending, and I know that I put in like a false title screen for the first time you start up the game after having seen that scene with the Architect, but once you've clicked one of the options and discovered that it's a fake title screen, a genuine title screen should replace it where everything works as it should. So if that's not the case, I guess you must've come across some weird sort of bug >.< There are some parts that are intentional for messing with UI and such, but all saves should be accessible when on the not fake version of the title screen.
I'm trying to remember how it was set but I don't know if I'm getting the order right >.< I think once you've seen the scene you mentioned with the Architect, the game is supposed to give you a point in the background that tells the game you've finished it, and that should then persist once the game fake crashes and you restart it. So maybe something went wrong with that somehow and it didn't save the global point to tell the game you've completed it. I don't know why it would do that though because it worked okay when I tested it years ago >.<
It does sound like something has gone wrong though if you can't access the extras. I know some people were having issues with saves because they were reloading older saves when they encountered bad ends, and you don't need to do that, in fact, it's the opposite, you're supposed to be collecting the bad ends, so if you hit one and reload to pick different choices, you'll never be able to unlock all the stuff you need to unlock to get the hidden route since to start that, you need to have X amount of bad ends registered, and to register them, you need to let them play out and just be sent back to whatever world you were in before you hit the bad end x3 But I wouldn't have thought that would be what was causing any issues in your game since you've already seen the Archi stuff!
But yeah, as far as I can remember, you had to unlock everything else and complete the game to unlock extras, but save files shouldn't be getting wiped :(
I wish I could get to the bottom of it and fix it for you somehow, but I don't even have the files anymore >.< it was all on my old laptop that died and I lost everything on it, same goes for Impostor. I have odd files here and there on a USB and portable hard drive from where I made a couple of backups, but not the complete lot to be able to actually work on it. I also don't have Tyranobuilder on any of my systems anymore cos I switched to making stuff with Naninovel in Unity >.< so there's nothing I can do :(
I hope to remake SR in Nani someday now that I have a lot more experience cos there's a lot I'd like to change. I could certainly make it more polished + tweak the writing I'm not happy with (especially student route) + add some new content like a new route or 2 + new sprite art :3 That won't happen any time soon though, and even when I do start working on it, it'll likely take a long, long time to finish >.<
4) As far as I can remember, Anathema was the only name-related easter egg, but it's not the only one of my games that it gets a mention, same goes for Archie ;3 which brings me to your last question!
5) Solipsism Reigns is my first ever game and the first of my projects that Archie appears in, but the character can also be encountered in the GxB/Otome version of Apartment No.9 (though it's much briefer than in SR, so probably not really worth searching for unless the game also interests you!) And then there are some extremely vague references in Limbo Line as well without Archie actually being there.
It's a character I hoped to include more in my projects than I've been able to >.< the problem is that my projects are often made for/during game jams with tight time limits, so the voice actor who plays the character isn't always available within the timeframe of development. It worked out for A9, but hasn't since :( I do hope that I can include Archie more though because the character has a whole story of their own in my head! So yeah, there's a whole lot more to discover about him, it just might be quite awkward to get it all out there x3
I hope you got to have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year yourself! ^-^ With any luck, I won't be ill for much longer because it's getting silly now, haha. I'm really happy you enjoyed the game anyhow! Thank you so much for taking the time to play it and leave a comment <3
And I agree about Dollmaker :P somehow he grew on me so much by the time I finished writing x3 like he worked his way into my heart, haha.
I love all your games so heckin much! \(> w <)/
Its such a rarity to come across games that has spooks, yandere's (Is currently a big yandere fan lol), and long interesting story that manages to captivate mah interest :O
Is such a rollercoaster of feels, me had many happy feels and sad feels along da way ; - ;
Tank u 4 creating dis master piece+(´^ω^`)+
Aww *high five* Well, I'm glad you do ^-^
Yeeeah, I'm a big fan of horror, spooky stuff, yanderes, but also cute things, hehe x3
I used to be a huuuge otome fan too, but I've slowly lost interest in the genre in recent years >.< I think just cos a lot of the stuff I was playing seemed like kinda copy/pasted stories and characters in different settings, so it was like, nah, I'm not gonna fork out £30 for the next release on Switch or whatever, and that's used, heck no way I'm paying £50 for new when they're all kinda samey and I have very little money! Maybe some of the releases in recent years have been amazing though? I dunno. I missed stuff like Cupid Parasite, which admittedly looked intriguing. I did try Cafe Enchante cos I thought it looked adorable, but I got bored fast T_T The big name releases are just waaaaay too expensive to take gambles on really, so I wind up playing indie Vns more than anything nowadays! :3
But anyways, I'm rambling x3
I'm honoured that you feel that way about my stuff ^-^ means a lot! When I started out making this project, it was my very first attempt at creating a VN, I didn't know wtf I was doing, and a huge part of why I made it was because I was sad about the lack of male yanderes out there in the games I was playing, especially English-speaking ones x3 So I was like, screw it, I'm gonna attempt to make a game that is ALL about a romance with a male yandere, haha. And then as you can probably tell, I accidentally got addicted to making VNs in general xD
I honestly didn't think back then that anyone would even play it, haha. I just figured I'd make the sort of thing I wanted to play and just release it out into the wild x3 Told myself that if anyone else happened to play and enjoy it, then that would be a super lovely bonus :D
Fast forward to the future and now it looks so old compared to my more recent stuff x3 I think you can see I learned a lot over the years if you play something like this and then play one of the releases from this year, haha. But this will always be my special baby since it was my first x3 and while there's a lot about it I would like to edit and add to whenever I eventually get around to remaking it, I still can't believe I actually managed to complete a project of that length in the first place, haha. It was a very silly thing to try and do as a first project x3 and I did very nearly wind up abandoning it at several points! It was actually the pandemic and lockdown that kinda booted me up the ass to get a move on and finally finish it.
Thank YOU for playing it and for your kind words <3
Also, happy holidays and I hope you have a super happy new year ^-^
Yee, indeed Otome's haven't been very interesting these day's since it all sorta feels the same. I'm having difficulty finding VN's that are as amazing as urs, not saying they aren't talented as well, they just don't capture my short attention span (╥﹏╥)
The fact that this is your first project is heckin amazing!!! It is indeed special like u said :O
I hope u has happy holidayz + new yearz 2!!! May u have many happy days in the years to come! 🥂🎊
Man it has been a long time I've played this game and when I tried to play it again it's seems quite different from what i remembered? The overlay and the UI system i mean.
Nothing should have changed on this since it was released cos I haven't uploaded any new builds or updated it at all :o Pretty much all of my projects have stayed the same as they were when they were first uploaded aside from Darling Duality, which recently got a small update and a complete overhaul of the UI and choices :3
But yeah, nothing should have changed with SR because I've not touched it. Unless you happened to have played the reeeeally old demo version that I put out years ago before the full release of the game. Cos that was super rough and probably did have quite different UI and stuff x3
Only finished the first route and I'm loving this game so far :)!
I see you decided to check this one out after DD <3 This one was the first game I ever made, so it's not as polished as DD in terms of how it looks and plays, but there's certainly more of a story to sink your teeth into at least since it's a full-length game :3
I hope you end up having fun with the rest of it ^-^
Yup! Just started the third route, and wow, it's really well-done for your first game! Really love your creations, keep up the good work and thank you :)
<3
This game doesn't launch on windows.
It works fine on Windows for me on both my PC and our family potato laptop >.< Could it possibly be a compatibility issue? I only ask because this is my oldest game, made in an engine I no longer use, and someone recently commented on one of my other old games made in the same engine saying that it didn't work for them on Windows 11 until they went into properties and ran the compatibility shooter, so you could try that I guess. If that doesn't work, I'd need a lot more information about what's happening to try and get to the bottom of why it won't run for you, and even then, I still likely wouldn't be able to fix it because, as I said, I don't use that engine anymore :(
I am trying soo hard yet I am still not being able to play... each time I try to open the game from the folder I keep getting a message on something called nodewebkit or so and it keeps on telling me, "cannot extract package"... I have enough memory, its not my antivirus, I have even tried other methods etc etc... Do you have any suggestions? :(
Hey! Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I'm working on some stuff for Spooktober VN Jam again this year, so I haven't really been checking here since I've been super busy with that.
I don't suppose you managed to get it to work in the end?
Unfortunately, there probably isn't any advice I can offer, which sucks :( I know that what you said it a common-ish problem with games made in Tyranobuilder because back when I used that engine, I was searching for answers myself and came across several support threads on their Steam pages from other devs asking the same thing. As far as I'm aware, it was never fixed >.< The devs of the engine just said to people, yeah, that happens sometimes and we don't really know why, but usually it fixes itself... It was that sort of attitude towards fixing bugs in the engine that made me decide to stop using it (among other reasons.)
So yeah, I have no idea why it does that for some people and not for others :( Are you on windows or mac? Cos I think it probably happens to more people on mac, though I've seen it can still happen to windows users. All I know is that you're not even supposed to see the nodewebkit bit. The game is just meant to launch when you click the exe >.< If the nodewebkit thing is coming up, something has somehow gone very wrong.
I can't even do any investigating because I don't use the engine anymore >.< I made SR and Impostor with it, then got fed up with how buggy it was and switched to Nani x Unity. So I'm sorry I can't be of more help :( It really sucks to be powerless to do anything when someone actually wants to check out one of my games >.<
There is no need to apologise. After all, I am quite late as well :') . Ah well, that is a shame. I was looking forward to your game. Guess I will settle for your other games... which seem to be amazing! Also, I wish you best of luck for the stuff you are working on! Do not overwork yourself though. :)
Thank you for the reply!
Yeah, sorry about that though that I wasn't able to help you get it working :( It really sucks! I hope my more recent games that I've made since switching engines will work for you at least x3 especially since I just released another two for Spooktober VN Jam yesterday!
And thank you :3 I kinda did massively overwork myself throughout September for the jam, which is why I'm so late to respond again x3 but now that it's over, I definitely plan to take it easier and try to rest up and recover :3
Hope you get to have a happy and spoopy October!!
Hey there! Sorry to make this random reply 2 months later, but someone posted something in the IMPOSTOR comments that made me wonder if it might possibly make a difference in getting this to open for you since both SR and that were made with the same engine :3
The person said that they couldn't get IMPOSTOR to open and that they're on Windows 11. They said that they went into properties and did the compatibility troubleshooter, which solved the problem and it opened fine for them after that!
It might not work for your situation with this one, but I figured I'd give you a shout just in case :3
….. Let us ignore the fact that I am replying this late. Thank you for your suggestion! It did not work, but I could have done something wrong. I will try again later and inform you if things do change! Thank you for your consideration!
Also, I played 'Dawn of the damned' recently and I must say your work is wonderful! I really enjoyed the plotline and the design of the game is really gorgeous! I will soon be playing 'The graveyard shift' as well. Thank you for all your efforts and take care! :D
Don't worry about that x3 my replies are almost always late, haha. I'm dreadful at managing to keep up with everything because I just get overwhelmed far too easily, and then it's like my brain short circuits and I have to wait for it to reboot xD
That sucks that it didn't work >.< Now I'm wondering how many people might be trying to play it only for it to not even run for them :( If it were quick, I'd just remake the whole thing in the new engine as it is, but even if I didn't change a single thing, it'd probably still take me months to do that >.<
That's awesome though, so glad you enjoyed Dawn of the Damned :3 It was a lot of fun to make! Hope you end up enjoying The Graveyard Shift too! Thanks for your kind words ^-^
yandere femboy bf and weeks worth of gameplay for free.... easily 10/10 and one of my faves on itchio :3
Aww, that's so great to hear! I'm really glad you enjoyed it ^-^ Even though it's been quite some time since I released it, my dad actually said to me again this weekend just gone, I still can't believe you released a game of that length for free xD I've lost track of the number of times he's said that over the years, haha. I'm just overjoyed that anyone is still playing and having fun with it!! Back when I was making it, I kinda just figured only a few of my friends would play it! That it would go unnoticed by the rest of the world x3
your dad's right and he sounds so incredibly sweet, i wish you both good health! i saw my friend play a commercial vn that costs $10 and they completed it + all the endings in just under a day lol.. huge waste of money, and it just reminded me of this game and how much more fun i had for free xD the selfish uni student part of me that knows i couldnt have played it if it costed money is really happy that it's free, but i also cant deny that it's worth more than most commercial games i've seen playthroughs of.. also, i know people have asked about why kuro physically looks so feminine, but i actually like him that way and that's why (among other reasons ofc) detective kuro and ??? kuro r my faves!! also looking forward to seeing more of the architect!
He really is, bless him, and thanks :3 Yeah, my brother has said he's bought stuff before (though not VNs, just indie games in general) that has cost around the same and he's finished it all in one night, and then been a bit disappointed.
I mean, when it comes to big commercial releases, I can't even afford to buy games new anymore xD Been priced out, haha. I'm waiting to play The Quarry, but I just can't afford to spend more than £30 max on a game and they release at like £50 nowadays >.<
Anyways, I'm just glad you enjoyed SR and happy that you think it's worth more than some of the commercial VNs out there :3 It sure would be nice if I could somehow make a living making stuff like that, but it seems as though that's unlikely to ever be a possibility with the way things work in my country and my personal circumstances :(
I'm glad you like Kuro's feminine look! I was kinda annoyed that I had to make him that way initially, but as I worked on the project, the sprites kinda grew on me, haha. Then I couldn't imagine him looking any other way.
Oh, and if you haven't already checked it out, Archie does make a brief appearance in Apartment No 9 (otome version), but it's quite a depressing sorta story in that one with a lot of trigger warnings, so it's probably not worth doing all the stuff required to see Archie if the story doesn't sound like your cup of tea, haha.
Question for a new player: is there any way to turn off the voice acting but not the sound effects or background music? I've always felt more comfortable when I can just read the dialogue aloud in my head, and I don't want to fully turn off the music or sound effects unless there's no other option
Thanks for checking out the game :3 As far as I can remember, you'd have to turn off all SFX to get the voices muted as well. Don't quote me on it, but I think you can still keep the BGM volume up. It's been so long that I can't quite remember though >.< I just remember the fact that at the time of making the game, Tyranobuilder (the engine I used to make it) had no option built-in to let a dev differentiate voice acting from other SFX, so I think it all had to go in the same category, unfortunately!
It's one of the many reasons why I wound up switching to using a different engine in the end, cos with what I use now, not only can I put the voice acting on a separate channel to SFX, but I can even easily add individual volume sliders for each character, which is sooo much better! But yeah, it's not an option in SR, sadly :(
I see... thanks for the reply anyhow! :D
This game was really fun! I really loved the '???' route but the princess and mage routes were close to my heart too. The Kuro in the mage route was my favourite yandere, but the soft fox yandere in the princess route was really lovely too. The school route was the shortest but I really loved the everyday feel and Lana really warmed my heart even though we couldn't have much screentime with her. I would have loved to see more of Shiro and the original MC/Anathema together, I really liked their story and wish that we could see more of their backstory. Shiro was so cool and I can see how strong his love was, and the good endings where we saw sneak peeks of him melted my heart - I just wanted to give a big hug to him. By the way, who is '???' and why are they always calling out for Anathema?
Glad you enjoyed it :3 And that's awesome that you liked the contrasting mage and princess route Kuros :D I really wanted there to be at least 1 softer, much calmer version of Kuro in there while still making sure he was a yandere, haha. I was worried that the whole princess route might come off as boring compared to the other routes though >.< so that's great you still had fun with it!
The student route is the first route I ever wrote for the game, which I guess is why it came out so much shorter than the others + is probably the worst written of them all >.< It's something I hope to improve on if/when I ever get around to remaking the game with new art and extra content :3 I'm glad you still liked that route though. Lana is kinda the friend I never had but wished I did while at school, haha. It certainly would've made life much easier to have someone like that around :3
Expanding on original MC's story is also something I'd like to do in the remake, perhaps through epilogues or flashbacks of some sort as well :3
I guess I should probably put a spoilers thing here to answer your last question x3
Spoilers
The character who calls out for Anathema is my 4th wall-breaking character who doesn't yet have an official name, but has been nicknamed Archie (short for Architect). So when the character is speaking to Anathema, rather than speaking to a character within the game, they are speaking to you, the player. You are Archie's 'Anathema' :3 The character also features briefly in one of my other games (Apartment No.9 GxB/otome version), and I hope to continue trickling bits of him into my projects as time goes on ^-^
Thanks so much for taking the time to play through the game and leave such a lovely comment :3
Omg so excited to see you reply!!! That makes sense, the school route was short but I really enjoyed it and wanted to see more of it. School!Kuro was the hottest one hahah imo except XXX was great too (trying to avoid spoiling their name). I would definitely love to see OG!MC story being expanded!
Spoilers
I loved the XXX route, it was so good and left me wondering so much about them and their LI. Like Shiro was amazing, I really thought I got his name when I had 4 letters, I was like SHION. But Shiro makes more sense lol, because Kuro vs. Shiro. Shiro shitting on Kuro and the clones hurt because they are copies but I can understand why he seems them as abominations or like fake copies, I can't imagine the pain of watching clones of your love being manipulated and hurt and just not having their memories of you? Would have broken me. But it's also why I really liked Shiro and god, he really did have a presence when he came. I could see the darker parts of him and his deep love too for MC, like what we see yandere!Kuro does when he just literally agrees to destroying the world with MC if that's what she wants and how much he loves her and will support any decision he made. I WAS SO ANGRY AT DAD THO, ALL THE MONSTER HE CREATED AND NEEDED TO BE DESTROYED, HE WAS THE CAUSE ARGHHGHKSDFHJS I wanted to flip at him so bad. I was like you hot and I had a crush on you but now screw you to pieces. Hehe thank you for sharing this game with us!
Omg, rambled so much and forgot about the Architect, ohh, that's so cool, I was reading his letter and him chasing us through games make so much sense now because Shiro can't do that. I've been meaning to play Apartment 9 so I am looking forward to seeing him there too (I shouldn't be but he's interesting hahahahahah).
I'm glad you still enjoyed that route :3 Yeah, hopefully, Ill manage to get there one day with a full remake! I really wanted to make a version with fem Kuros as well at some point, but it's so much work T_T I wish I could clone myself to work on different stuff at the same time, haha.
SPOILERS
Yeah, Kuro and Shiro's names are a bit corny x3 but I couldn't help it, haha. I just figured it was perfect for them.
And yeah, Isaac is definitely one heck of a giant asshole xD He certainly deserves much more than a few slaps for all the trouble he caused everyone and the pain he put em all through!
Thanks so much again for playing :3 I really appreciate it!
Would it be possible to know what sprite maker you used? I love that art style v much
Sure! They are by a person/group? called T.O.P.
They were a little bit awkward to use because I had to buy each one individually. At the time, the dev/s who made the sprite maker didn't have a bundle, but that was years ago, so maybe they have now! A bundle of some sort at a discounted price sure would've been nice. I think they were like $10 each or something. They're also all in Japanese, but since you can see the changes as you make them to the character, you sorta just get used to which sections are which and memorise it. The worst thing was that it was quite laggy to use, but that could have just been my awful laptop x3
This is the site I first saw the stuff! I think it was linked from lemmasoft forums or something on a thread about free use backgrounds for VNs because the creator made a couple of pieces of background art that anyone can download and use for free. From there, I found the sprite stuff by just sorta generally browsing through the site with Google translate on x3
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~gakai/index.htm
This section lists all the stuff they've released for sale. It looks like they've made even more since I last purchased anything!
https://gakaiblog.at.webry.info/
I don't think you have to use the maker that's packaged with each download though. As far as I can remember, they included a giant PSD file as well!
EDIT - I should probably also mention that not all the sprites are from the T.O.P. sprite makers. If you look at the screenshots and notice some of them look a slightly different style, it's because I also used other sprite resources from someone called Blue Forest to make some of the characters that I couldn't manage to with the T.O.P. ones. Mainly all the side characters. Only the MC and Kuro sprites are T.O.P.
Thank you!
T-T
I love this game
and you all who helped with creation of this game <3
So much was put into making this, the game feels so alive
Im so glad Solipsism Reigns exists, thank you!
: D
From what I remember you mentioned in extras, there is not many english male yanderes, right?
Its sad :c
I luv yanderes, they are so interesting :3
Im really happy someone is making games about them!
Kuro became one of my favourite yanderes, especially Detective Route Kuro oh my god.....
he is so fascinating it should be illegal haha
When i started playing i expected something different. But it appeared to be so complex and deep. unique plot <3
It will stay in my mind for a long time i think...
but im still wondering.... how would game look like if it was +18 XDD im curious how certain scenes that could happen if this was +18 XDDDDDD oh sinful me, sorry nevermind haha XD
I adore all the details, so many endings, pictures, sprites... but my favourite ones are like these after true ending, the things the voice is telling us, overall the whole conversation > , <
Even music changed O.O
....and after turning on the game again.... he was talking to us again.... i looove this
breaking 4th wall intrigues me :>
Also opening which plays before the game.... i became quite addicted to it to be honest XD
I added it to my music playlist on youtube and i listen to it quite often
Normally, such a cool game would have more videos on youtube about it, its weird theres not much :< like...only one gameplay video? would you mind if somebody upload Solipsism Reigns gameplay on youtube? O.O
....i dont even know what else i can add... i really adore the game
and maybe i will play BxG version someday to see how different things are there... female kuro could be interesting too :>
i must check out your other games cuz this one left a really good impresion on me. i had so much fun :3
Wish you luck with other projects and the best in life! ^ w ^
Yay \^0^/ I'm super happy you had fun playing it! I'm glad the love and effort comes across cos it was certainly one big passion project, haha. I'll be forever grateful to those who volunteered their time and talent to help me out with it, especially with it being my first game :3
Yeah, at the time I made the game, one of my motivations was wanting to see more English-speaking male yanderes just because there seemed to be plenty of female ones about, and a fair few Japanese-speaking male yandere characters in bigger Japanese VN releases. But I hadn't really come across many English male yanderes in games, so I thought, ya know what, I'm gonna make one myself x3 And ever since, it's been my mission to keep adding yandere characters of all kinds to the world in each game that I make :D
I know there are a lot more OELVNs around now featuring yandere males, which is awesome! I haven't played them all yet, so I'm not sure how many of them are voiced. Either way, it's wonderful that more devs are including characters like that in their games :3 Heck, we even had the first Yandere Jam on itch.io this year <3
But yeah, I'm a huuuuge fan of yanderes, yangires, and all kinds of characters with darker personality aspects and traits, so I always want to include characters like that in my games because I find them fascinating :3 My main project, Darling Duality, will feature an entire cast of characters who all have a dark side. They won't necessarily all be 100% yandere, but they will all have yandere-like traits. And even in Limbo Line, which contains no romance, I still included a platonic yandere-like character, hehe.
Detective Kuro is one of my more favorite versions of him too, though it was Dollmaker Kuro that wound up winning my heart over them all in the end, haha. That was mainly due to Tim's incredible voice acting making me feel genuinely sorry for the character!
I think it would probably be a very spicy game if it were 18+ xD Though I'm not entirely sure I would be able to do such scenes justice with being asexual myself >.< I certainly wouldn't say no to attempting to write some bonus scenes like that for the eventual remake of the game though! And I have tried to write suggestive scenes in some of my other games (Apartment No.9 and Darling Duality both have one, haha. So does Love in Lockdown, but I still don't like how most of that turned out xD)
Hehe, yeah, I had a lot of fun making those post-game scenes :3 You can meet that character again briefly in Apartment No.9 upon reaching a certain ending if you're interested :D And that's not the last of it either because I have more plans for that character to appear in some of my future projects too.
That's so awesome you like the opening song as well :3 My friend and I spent ages making that, haha. It was tough because we had sorta conflicting ideas xD I wrote all the lyrics, but he kept telling me to cut them down because they were too long, and he said that electronic music like that doesn't usually have many lyrics. I kept saying, but I'm trying to tell a story with the song, and if I cut too much out, it won't make any sense x3 Eventually, we were able to compromise and come up with a way to do what we both wanted to do with the track :3
I guess it probably doesn't have much in the way of videos of it because not that many people know it exists x3 I've never been very good at getting my games out there since I suck at social media and would prefer to avoid it altogether, haha. So unless people happen to talk about and recommend my games, they'll never reach that many people. Also, I think the way the sprites look in the screenshots probably puts a lot of people off of even trying the game! >.< I don't mind at all though if anyone wants to upload gameplay of SR on YouTube :3 In fact, I really appreciate it when people feature my projects there since it helps shine some light on them so people know they exist.
I would recommend playing Apartment No.9 next if you do end up checking out my other games :3 Just because it's quite a different setting + that character from SR is in there. But I personally think Limbo Line is my best finished project so far! Darling Duality is still in development with a big update (hopefully) coming out at the end of spring.
Thanks so much for taking the time to play through the game + leave such a lovely comment :3 Thank you for all your kind words! I hope you have a lovely week!!
Hey there! Just dropping by again to share my thoughts on this awesome game. First of all it was just amazing! Like the writing was just so good that I felt like I was actually the one experiencing them, the art was perfect for every scene as well in my opinion! It was long but I think that made it better since more content to enjoy!! It took me a while to finish the ??? route since I got kind of busy but I sure am glad that I finally got to see it! Kind of sad that I finished it but hey I'm glad I even got to see it in the first place!
I also got confused as heck many times but most of my answers were cleared up with the ??? route. It sure was a very big surprise. I was like so shocked ^^'
Thanks so much for all your kind words :3 I'm glad you ended up enjoying it!
There's still a lot about it that I'd like to change x3 mainly large segments of my writing, haha, and all of the sprites. I should be able to tweak what I want to when I eventually get around to remaking it anyhow :3
It was just a huuuuge mistake for me to attempt to make a full-length game as my first project, haha. I should've put it on hold and made something smaller while learning how things worked. But I guess at least I got there in the end!
I'm glad the ??? largely cleared things up anyhow :3 I know not everything makes 100% sense even after playing the ??? route, haha. I confused myself a lot while writing because I was essentially going backwards since the ??? route was my original idea, but I felt as though its events required justification, and so the ??? route couldn't really be a standalone story. And even though that route was the first idea that sparked everything else, it was the last route I actually wrote in full because I was trying to sort of go in order. I had had notes more than an actual outline >.< I didn't really know what I was doing, so I was pretty much pantsing throughout most of it x3
And then I had to rush the endings too in the ??? route because I found out that Tim, Kuro's voice actor, was going to be moving to Japan for work, and unable to continue voice acting. So it was a big rush from there to get his scripts written ASAP before he was gone, haha. Again though, that's another really big mistake I made - getting voice actors involved with the project before I'd even finished writing the whole story >.< I just didn't have the experience to do things in a very organised way!
Thanks so much for sticking with it until the end anyhow :3 I'm glad you had fun :D
Well that was one crazy ride. I'll admit I wasn't really expecting much from this, I stumbled my way here from otomegames on reddit, having just played Nightshade and coming to the realisation that I actually do like yanderes (despite my previous opinion that I didn't), I saw this recommended on a few threads and thought why not. I was, however, sceptical, the sprites looked a bit dated and I usually watch/play anime stuff with Japanese VA (English always feels too dramatic to me), so colour me surprised when I realised I loved it all. The sprites are adorable and the VA's are brilliant (Kuro's does get a special mention, but I enjoyed the others as well), and that's not even mentioning the story yet! I also really like the opening song, enough that I've found and listened to it many times on youtube. Anyone who might be browsing reviews, on the fence about whether or not to play this, I highly recommend doing so.
Spoilers
I started on the detective route, because I didn't really intend on playing more than one route and I liked detective Kuro's design best, I also managed to dodge almost all the bad ends and was confused why Kuro had been rated 'high' on yandere-ness (I revised that opinion once I did get them). The ending got me, I was confused and curious and just had to know what was going on, cue using all my free time to play the other routes.
Overall I think gamer Kuro is my favourite, I liked that he could interact with more than just the big bad, and it felt like he developed the most out of all the Kuro's, (that one bad end though, I was not prepared, having come from soft fox Kuro, I was expecting the same level of low yandere-ness, not something that could rival mage Kuro). ??? route Kuro is a close second though, even with the stuff he keeps in his pockets. Honourable mentions to student Kuro, who spooked me even before we'd reached a bad ending, and mage Kuro, who got nudged out of second place (although, I never quite understood the seeming split personality he had). I did enjoy princess and detective Kuro, but not quite as much as the others.
The ??? did a good job of wrapping things up and answering almost all of my questions, whilst also throwing out some new, interesting revelations. I'll also say here that all the routes in general did a great job at hinting and dropping information whilst not being super obvious about what was going on. The story itself was interesting and sad and strong throughout, I thoroughly enjoyed myself playing it. (The heck was with that bit after though? That seriously spooked me, and I was playing in the middle of the day! Brilliantly done, good wall breaking).
Now I just need to decide if I can wait a few months for the update to play Darling Duality.
Well, I'm super glad you decided to give it a chance :3 I know that sorta feeling cos I've had reservations about the odd game in the past, wound up just giving em a go, and then was pleasantly surprised, haha.
Also, that's so cool to know that it's been recommended ^-^ I just kinda assumed not that many people even know it exists x3 So that's really sweet people have enjoyed it enough to give it a mention. Makes me super happy to know that :3
I have to agree with you about the sprites, haha. Unfortunately, that was the best I could do at the time >.< It's one of the things I'm still really unhappy with years later, along with a large chunk of my writing xD But I hope to one day remake the entire game (in the engine I'm using now cos Tyrano kinda sucked) with brand new sprite art, writing revisions, and some new routes + extra scenes!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the English voice acting ^-^ Everyone put so much time and effort into bringing the characters to life. I'll never be able to thank them all enough for volunteering their time and talent to the project.
When it comes to VA, I've always enjoyed both English and Japanese in anime and games. I tend to sorta ping pong between them, depending on the quality of dubs available anyways x3 I've always had a soft spot for English VA in games especially though, just because I find it easier to stay immersed in a world where the spoken language is my native one. For me, it means certain lines have more impact when I can directly understand them as they're being said rather than reading subtitles. And yeah, that can sometimes result in some pretty cringeworthy moments xD but I'll take that when it means everything as a whole hits me harder :3
So yeah, I'm just super passionate about English VA in VN games since they're so personal, and really want to try and shine a spotlight on how awesome English VA can be. Cos I feel like a lot of people have that sorta image in their heads of bad anime dubs from years ago, and that impression has stuck, so a lot of people just automatically avoid English VA because of that >.< I wanna show that English VA of today can be wonderful :D
I'll have to pass on your comments to Tim about his performance as Kuro if he's not already seen this, because to this day, he still beats himself up about it, thinking that someone else could do better >.< I keep telling him that's impossible. He IS Kuro, haha.
I'm so happy you like the opening song too! My friend and I worked ridiculously hard on that x3 I think we drove each other insane in the process, haha, but it was a lot of fun.
I really appreciate you taking the time to play through the game, write such a sweet and thoughtful comment, and recommended it to others, so thank you very much ^-^
SPOILERS
I'm glad you started on the detective route cos that was my favourite one to write besides the ??? one :3 And I feel like anyone who begins with the student route might get a bad impression of the game because it's the first one I wrote, and I personally feel as though it needs a hell of a rewrite >.< It's always worried me that if people are playing in the order on the route select screen, they'll play the student one and then call it quits :( So yeah, I'm happy the detective one reeled you in at least x3
"??? route Kuro is a close second though, even with the stuff he keeps in his pockets."
That made me chuckle out loud xD
There wasn't really a huge amount of thought that went into the split-personality part of mage Kuro beyond me thinking it would be a fun way to show poor Kuro's craziness manifesting in a different way from all the horror going on in 'reality'. There are quite a few bits here and there like that which don't entirely make sense >.< With any luck, I can rectify that when I get around to rewriting it all :3
I'm relieved that the ??? route cleared up most of your questions though :3 I did end up confusing myself quite a bit while writing because I didn't know about outlines and stuff at the time >.< And the ??? route was essentially the idea I had which sparked everything else. I wanted to make a game with the events of the ??? route, but thought that it would come across weird if I didn't have any build up or explanation for those events. And so I kinda had to work backwards to create what came before in order to justify all of the ??? route x3
And it's also a relief to hear that you think stuff was revealed without being too obvious cos that was one of my huuuuuuuge concerns, haha. I couldn't for the life of me tell if I was giving too much or not enough away at any given point in the game >.<
And as for what came after, it's certainly not the last you'll hear from that character if you end up playing some of my other stuff, hehe. If you want to meet again, I recommend playing Apartment No.9 :3 And there are some brief references in a small part of Limbo Line too, but they're extremely tiny and easy to overlook. I do have future plans for the character though that are a while away from popping up x3
With DD, I would say it's probably better to wait just because you'd have to start over when the update is out since too much is changing for saves from the old version to possibly function post-update + the whole game is going to look and run so much better in general (I hope!) but it's up to you :3
If you did wanna just check it out now though, I guess at least you'd get to see how much has changed if you decided to continue playing after the update :D You'd have to replay a small amount of content, but with the update, even the old content is being expanded (more dialogue options + impactful choices with Castor/ia at the beginning of their story.) So hopefully, it won't be too boring replaying the start of their story since it will also contain new stuff.
I feel as though I'm rambling now anyhow, so I'll shut up x3 Thank you again for everything!
It's been recommended a couple of times on yandere threads there, plus a few of your other games, I actually ended up with this, DD and Yandere Heaven all open as potential games to play before I even realised they were all by the same person xD
Oh, there's definitely a sub superiority thing when it comes to anime stuff, personally, if it's an anime I watched as kid, I'll usually watch it in English, cause I'm used to the voices and the anime was usually cheesy anyway (digimon, yu-gi-oh, etc). Nowadays, I suppose it's a mix of either feeling the voices don't fit the characters, or that there isn't a dub/the dub is way behind the sub, or just that sub tends to be my default now. In terms of VN, I've only really played otome (dangranronpa being an exception, I did actually play that in English, thinking about it, and I enjoyed the VA's there) and it's hard to find otome games voiced in English.
I definitely agree that things have more impact in English though, even when I recognise some Japanese words, it doesn't hit as hard. This game did emphasise that I've got to say, some of the stuff Kuro said! (Looking rather pointedly at mage Kuro here, did not expect the insult he dropped and it hit!) It's good to see you supporting English VAs though, it would be nice to see English VAs and dubs in things supported more.
And for sure Tim is Kuro! He did a great job, let him know that if/when you do remake this (and I'll definitely be back to replay if you do), he'd better be back as Kuro too, otherwise 100% I'll be complaining! ;D
Spoilers
I honestly still really liked the student one, I think starting on the detective route did set things up and help me understand stuff better, but I don't think I would've been put off if I'd played student first.
Ah, yeah, the pantsing way of writing, it's fun but you do inevitably end up with some plot holes. Still, I do think the story is solid, I didn't spot anything that was story/immersion breaking. Like I said, was a bit confused with mage Kuro, but when it didn't crop up in any other route I figured it was probably something like that, (and he did come across as one of the more unstable Kuro's.)
Yes, I'm a big fan of how stuff was revealed! Enough for it to be very intriguing, but not so much to figure out more than the basics of what was happening. I feel like it's hard to find reveals that aren't either a bit of a let down or really obvious, so I'm always super excited and happy when I find a reveal that's done well, (which I think this definitely was).
Ooh, I did wonder if that character would crop up in some of your other stuff! How fun, I'm definitely curious about them so that's more games added to my list to play! As for DD, I'm trying to convince myself to wait but I probably won't xD I don't mind replaying stuff, especially good stuff, so I'll likely end up playing before and then replaying after the update.
Nothing wrong with a bit of rambling :3 And thank you for making such an awesome game!
Well, I really appreciate that it has been :3 I totally suck at getting my stuff out there with how rubbish I am at social media, haha. I'm trying harder this year to do a little more on that front, but I really struggle with it >.<
Haha, yeah, I know what you mean cos I grew up watching the dubs of all of those animes :3 I'm generally happy with whatever I can get nowadays, haha. I remember I initially watched the dubbed version of Psycho Pass, but was desperate to see the next series as soon as possible, so I switched to subs, but it was soooo strange watching it half and half! It was like the characters were completely different >.< I tend to watch anime subbed more than dubbed now, unless I'm watching it with my family cos my brother prefers dubs as long as they're not awful.
I'm just glad to see so many OELVNs being created cos I remember back when I first discovered VNs were a thing, there was very little available outside of a small handful of big Japanese releases on PS Vita + a lot pay-per-route mobile stuff. I still love playing through the big VN releases from Japan when I get time (so many get localised now that my backlog keeps growing, haha), but I also really enjoy the variety in indie OELVNs nowadays :D
Hahaha x3 Ahh man, I did wonder if that particular line was a bit too much! Especially when I eventually heard it voiced xD In fact, as I edited Tim's voice acting throughout the game, any time Kuro went yandere mode, I was sat there editing with a face like this o.o
To be honest, I don't think I could ever cast someone else as Kuro! If it comes down to it with the remake that he's not available or doesn't wanna do it for whatever reason, I think I'd just have to leave any new lines unvoiced cos it would just seem so wrong to have the character voiced by anyone else >.<
I'm absolutely terrible for pantsing x3 Even nowadays when I do write an outline, I'll still end up massively deviating from it >.< The problem is that when I'm in the mood for writing, I get a bit like those videos you see of people who are supposedly possessed by a ghost and writing manically x3 I'll wind up typing away, and before I know it, I've gone completely off track xD So I confuse myself a lot >.< but at the same time, for whatever reason, my brain doesn't seem to like sticking to a structure much, so it's the only way I can manage to work.
I'm just glad you think I didn't mess up anything too badly with the story in SR x3 There's a lot I'd change and edit now, but at the time, I'd just been working on it all for so long that I didn't have the brainpower left to attempt any tweaks x3 + with Tim leaving for Japan to live and work, unable to continue voicing Kuro, I had to push myself to finish writing his scripts before he was gone. Again, that's entirely my fault for not planning stuff properly, haha. I was sending him scripts each time I finished a route. I should really have waited until I'd finished the writing completely before even getting voice actors involved. But I just didn't think ahead at the time. I did a lot of stuff really awkwardly while making SR just cos I had no experience and didn't know any better >.<
I know what you mean about it being hard to find reveals that aren't a let down or really obvious cos I'm a huge fan of thrillers, and it's not often that I'm genuinely hit by a reveal nowadays. In fact, some of the series' I've watched recently have been brilliant overall and I've enjoyed them immensely, but the big reveals at the end have just made me think, well, that makes no sense whatsoever >.< Like, I don't wanna say the shows and mention spoilers, but what keeps happening in what I've watched lately is that the person behind everything always ends up being a character that you could never have suspected in a million years, not because there were cleverly disguised clues or anything, but because it's so out of character for the character in question that it's just not even believable. And it's had the opposite impact on me to what a reveal is supposed to have, cos I always just think, but that's silly >.< Instead of, holy crap!
But yeah, it does mean that when I do come across a reveal that's done really well, my mind is just blown and I love it xD
Well, the content additions for the existing parts of Castor/ia's story is rising by the day x3 So replaying should be more eventful at least, haha. I'm a little worried it's getting out of control at this point because I decided to add a sort of personality system, and now I don't know if there are too many choices and little alterations in responsive dialogue! I mean, I feel like more is better when it comes to choices and the impact they have, but at the same time, it increases the workload immensely x3 And while I don't mind putting in the extra effort, I worry about keeping track of it all + keeping on top of bugs and making sure everything's working the way it should.
Whatever you end up doing, I hope you have fun with it :3 And thank YOU for playing!
Marketing is such a nightmare, and there's so many platforms to market on and trying to keep up to date with it all is overwhelming, so can definitely understand the struggle! Good luck with it!
Yes, there never used to be much variety with VNs, I played quite a few of those mobile ones, but waiting for the story tickets to recharge was such a pain, and they were a bit too pricey to spend on, so it's great to have so much choice nowadays. I've got a few Japanese ones on my to play list, and a bunch of routes I still need to finish xD Been nosing around indie titles as well, so my list is also growing, haha!
Nah, I think that line was great, it shocked me, but in a good way! Kuro's voice in yandere mode did honestly spook me a few times (again, in a good way), also nearly always the 'about to die' sign xD It would be really weird if someone else voiced Kuro, bit like the whole swapping from subs to dubs in anime, or the other way around, I'd personally be fine with new lines being unvoiced, would also be a little weird, but less weird than a new voice.
You can never escape the pantsing way! >:3 I'm the same though, will write a lovely outline that makes perfect sense, and then a character will decide that, actually, they don't want to do that, and that what they do want to do requires a complete rewrite. I've resigned myself to it now and just patch the holes afterwards, not sure that's the best way of doing things though ^^;
The first thing I ever wrote is an absolute mess of plot holes and awkward writing, I don't think I would've guessed that this was your first project or that you were on a time limit, it's turned out so well!
Oh, for sure, a lot of reveals are either easily guessed, a let down or just don't make sense. The best reveals are the ones were you look back on the story and go, 'oh yeah', but it is hard to find those. I mostly hang out in fantasy, so there isn't always a reveal, but whenever there's a really good one, I'm guaranteed to remember it for a long time, there's some stuff were I don't really remember the story, but I do remember that it had a good reveal xD
I gave into temptation x3 I played both routes, and am looking forward to replaying both when the updates come out. I'll probably wait for the update to drop a review, but in short, I loved both routes and your writing is brilliant. Balancing a good amount of choices is difficult, very easy for it to get out of hand and become overwhelming, I think (from comments on choice games, rather than VNs admittedly), that people usually prefer a small amount of impactful choices over a large amount of choices that are more or less the same. Whatever you end up doing though, I look forward to it! :D
Yeah >.< I can't cope with it really if I'm honest x3 I'm just about managing to make a couple of tweets a week and that's me at my limit, haha. Heck knows how I'm ever supposed to try and get stuff on Steam or possibly make any Kickstarter without paying someone to handle all that for me cos I'm just hopeless!
I used to play some of the free ones with tickets and stuff, but man, it did my head in waiting, so I wound up mainly playing the pay-per-route ones like the ones Voltage released. Even back before they changed everything with the big merge, I couldn't keep up with the sheer amount of content they were spitting out. I used to ask if I could get a Google Play card for Christmas, and then try to spend the credit as wisely as possible on whatever was on sale, haha. I think Enchanted in the Moonlight was one of the first ones I played from them cos I loved the look of Miyabi x3 I did have a blast with em at the time, but as soon as I discovered there were VNs on PC that you could just buy as a one-off purchase and get the whole game, I never went back to mobile ones, and it was then that I realised how shallow the stories were that I'd been reading on mobile in comparison to some of the longer, more in-depth PC VNs I'd downloaded. I did, of course, make an exception for Mystic Messenger, haha. I wasn't a fan of the premise for Dandelion or Nameless, but I still wound up loving both games just because the characters were so cool! But yeah, boy did the cost add up for pay-per-route stuff when I calculated compared to just buying PC VNs >.< I was horrified xD It would've cost me like over £70 in total to play all the Enchanted in the Moonlight content that I played back in the day! Not really acceptable >.<"
My backlog is so ridiculous at this point that even if I sat and read every single day, I don't think I'd clear it in a year x3 and that's just my VN backlog not even including all the other kinds of games I wanna play xD
Hehe, pantsing party for life x3 I'm glad it's not just me, haha.
"I've resigned myself to it now and just patch the holes afterwards, not sure if that's the best way of doing things though ^^;"
That is basically now my life xD Makes me feel much better about it knowing you're the same! I can just about stick to bullet points, and that's it. But I mean, I have fun, and that's the main thing xD
I adore the TV series, Inside No.9 cos there's almost always a twist of some sort in each episode. Usually, it's a pretty decent twist as well, which is quite incredible considering the number of episodes x3 They're not always mind-blowing reveals, but usually pretty amusing and satisfying. If I had the time, I'd love to make a VN version of every single episode xD And one of my favourite films/theatre shows of all time is Ghost Stories cos the reveal in that is beautiful and makes you see everything differently when you rewatch it after knowing the ending :3
I'm glad you had fun with what little there is of DD ^-^ It should play out somewhat differently in the update cos I've added so many choices and variations to scenes that I've wound up writing roughly 100 extra lines of dialogue for Castor/ia to go in the segment of the story that already exists for them, haha. I certainly wouldn't wanna put any more than I have because I'm at my limit for keeping track of stuff now, haha.
Most of the choices are impactful later on, but some have a more immediate effect. The reason I've gone with so many more choices though is because a fair few people said they wished they had more control over MC's responses cos they feel like MC is a bit too much of an asshole, which I totally understand xD So I've given players more control of MC's personality but made sure that the cumulative effects of their personality type help to determine what choices are available later on + what ending they're steered towards :3
I really wish I could work faster cos I'm dying to show the new version of the game x3 but it's gonna take me a while to actually add all the brand new stuff now I'm done with the revamp T_T and I've wound up deciding to add 2 new characters instead of just 1 because of the way I want to implement one of them >.< I need many clones x3
I'm on the gamer route right now (I've played all except the ??? one), but I couldn't wait to write a review. This game is just so, so good, and you can feel the love and passion from the creator. Fox-boy Kuro is so far my fave (I mean, the picture of you holding his cheek at the ending was so wholesome omg), but the detective Kuro is close. And Kuro's voice acting is also so well done!
Super excited to finally reach the ??? route! Almost scared to play anymore because I don't want it to end, lol. Finally, some good FOOD for us yandere lovers (I swear, most games just involve female yandere love interests) :')
I will be donating money for this game when I have the financial means. It's only right, given how much I've enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing your hard work and creativity with us <3
I can't even tell you how happy that makes me to hear that ^-^ It means a lot, especially when SR was my first game and there are a lot of things I'd change about it now that I have more experience. One thing I worry about is that people might play it after playing my newer stuff and think it's awful in comparison or something x3 Just cos I'm using a better engine now and have learned so much more about making VNs than I knew back when I released this.
I do not know why I decided to make a game of this length as a first project x3 It wasn't exactly the wisest idea, haha. I do hope to remake it someday with better writing, brand new art for all the sprites, and add new routes/content :3
If it's any comfort, the ??? route is longer than the other routes, haha. So there's still some time before it's all over x3 I hope you end up enjoying that last route though :3 It's technically supposed to be the main game cos it was the first concept I came up with and then essentially worked backwards to justify it since I didn't think it would make much sense to have just that one route as a game without any prior explanation for its events x3
Wanting to add more male yanderes to the world was one of my biggest reasons for getting into making VNs in the first place :D It seemed like female yans far outnumbered the male ones, especially when it came to English-speaking ones x3 So yeah, I kinda made it my mission to create stories that have at least 1, if not more, male yandere characters in :3
Heck, even though there's no romance in Limbo Line, I still included what could be described as a platonic yandere character, haha. Yandere is just my jam x3
Thank YOU for playing + taking the time to comment with such kind words :3 It means the world to me to find out when folks have enjoyed anything I've made. Especially with how crappy my mental health can get, haha. Honestly, hearing a few kind words can really lift my spirits on a bad day, and massively boost my motivation on any day ^-^ I really hope you'll continue to enjoy my content :3 Hope you have a happy weekend!
Ahhh, I'm so glad that my comment could make you happy! That's partially the reason I posted it. Creating games can be super exhaustive work, and honestly, I'm impressed you have the persistence to see them through and not get burnt out (and I'm so glad you do complete them... what's your secret? Excess coffee? Do you have a body double?)
Sorry to hear about your mental health! Your mind can be so deceiving and mean sometimes. I hope you keep fighting with the knowledge that me and many others love and appreciate you and your work :)
Hugs from the Southern U.S. <3
It definitely gave me some warm fuzzy goodness ^-^ so thank you again :3
I mean, I do sometimes experience burnout, but it's usually just my mental health being crappy in general or something else that's happened in my personal life that causes it rather than working on projects x3 I know I kinda do spend an unhealthy amount of time working on my projects cos it's been pointed out to me by family, friends, and my therapist xD In her words "It's not normal to spend 13+ hours a day working, even if it is a hobby..." >.<
I just struggle to manage my time because when I try to step back and play stuff, I feel like I should be using that time to make stuff instead T_T I'm trying harder to relax during the evenings more, haha. Even though I'd actually rather only watch like 1 episode of something with my family and then go back to working on projects xD I'm not really the type to binge-watch stuff cos I get too restless, haha. And I don't tend to work on projects over the weekend unless I'm participating in a jam with a tight deadline.
Buuuuut... I do indeed drink a hell of a lot of coffee xD I wish I had a double cos then I could work on 2 projects at once, hehe. Though, my double would probably disobey me and run off somewhere >.>
I mean, I've discovered that while the amount of time I spend on projects might not exactly be the healthiest, it's absolutely good for my mental health in general having something to focus on :3 But yeah, I'll just keep going no matter what. And every time I get a lovely comment, it's like getting a little rocket boost :D
Hugs back from the UK ^-^
I also get restless when I watch too much TV, lol. It's odd having depression and anxiety, because you simultaneously want to do lots and nothing, all at once. I totally understand wanting to have your focus somewhere else. Honestly, I think it's pretty impressive that you're so dedicated. As long as you're keeping yourself healthy! :)
(Btw I'm also a coffee fiend, it's how I get through most of my college load. If you like somewhat bitter coffee, getting a cold brew with a shot of espresso has always been my go-to!)
Best of luck, my friend from across the pond!
Haha, yeah, it is a weird one! Usually, I feel more like I wanna do lots, and if I don't, I feel ridiculously guilty, so that sorta helps kick m butt into gear a lot of the time x3 Other times though, I just feel utterly hopeless >.< When I'm not participating in jams, I certainly try to maintain a degree of physical fitness by exercising daily + eating relatively healthy. That kinda just goes out the window during jam crunch time though, which is bad x3
Since the pandemic though, my dad and I have sorta agreed that we need to have more weekends away and stuff together just to get out and see more of the country, so we've arranged little trips here and there every few months or so, so that we've got stuff to look forward to that also gives us a break from the daily grind :3
Hehe, all hail the might coffee :D I don't mind bitter coffee! I usually have mine kinda mellow, but generally, I'll drink any sorta coffee that's available xD Cold brews in summer are heavenly though! I remember the first time I found a place that said they did a cold brew mocha, but they also let you add syrup of your choice, so I tried one with hazelnut syrup and it tasted like icy Nutella x3 So good!
Thank youuuu ^-^ And to you too!
( ´ºωº` ) Ok I'm a whore for yanderes, and this takes the cake. It was a little tough for me to get the secret route, but I managed through it! Kuro can have my heart anyday <3. And I really like the other characters as well! (Especially Topper hgghhghhh ^(o≧∀≦)o) The gamer route was my favorite, it made me a little emotional at the end. I really enjoyed it nonetheless ( ´ ω ` )
Aww ^-^ I'm glad you had fun! Thanks so much for playing :3 Not gonna lie, I love Topper too x3 Jacob did an insanely (no pun intended there >.<) good job with that crazy clown voice!
Since I always put at least 1 yandere in my projects, I hope you'll enjoy those characters too if you end up playing with any of them :D
Hello, Melancholy Marionette
I just finished playing Solipsism Reigns and I really enjoyed it. And now I can’t get it out of my mind, I just love Kuro so much. I know they’re all Kuros but I feel like I prefer certain kuros over other Kuros, but I'd say my favorites are detective route Kuro and doll maker Kuro.
Spoilers
I like that the detective route Kuro, despite having a high yandere level, he still listens to the protagonist and doesn’t read her mind. And perhaps due to the sprite, he looks more confident than the rest. I like the bad ending where he gouged her eyes so the protagonist won’t look at others and only look at him alone, it’s just so fitting for a yandere. But the bad ending that leaves the most impression is when the protagonist got captured by Topper, even with her mind broken, she feels something when snow touches her, I assume it reminds her of Kuro’s icy touch. Truth be told, I actually like Farro as well, haha. I like this route for its creepiness and the ??? route best. As for the doll maker Kuro, I just feel so sorry for him :( ‘Fixing the dolls’ was a coping mechanism for all the things he had encountered, and the scene when his sanity returned and he repeatedly hit his head against the wall broke my heart…
I think my least favorite Kuro is the mage route Kuro, I am terrified of him. Out of all the bad endings, I think his are the most violent. I know yanderes are violent and illogical but it seems he finds pleasure in torturing for no reason as opposed to being too overbearing that they kill their love interest. Sometimes I wonder if I can handle a yandere boyfriend IRL, I think yeah perhaps, as long as I don’t look at other guys or don’t upset him I should be fine. However, this mage route changed my mind. The protagonist only asked for his suggestion for which direction to go, didn’t trigger him or anything, and he went full psycho T[]T. But really, I don’t hate him, if anything it’s because of him that I have a deeper impression of this VN and discovered more yanderes. But yeah, I still prefer other Kuros over him (I don’t want to die so easily, haha).
Oh, I have a question regarding Isaac, I want to know what his ideal ‘weapon’ is like? It seems he wants to erase the original’s personality completely, so I wonder what his perfect ‘weapon’ is like.
Finally, thank you so much for creating this game! I really, really like it. I hope you’ll continue to make more games with yandere guys in the future :D Have a nice day!
Sorry for my suuuuper duper slow reply >.< I've not really been online the past couple of months due to personal reasons, but I'm back now.
I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed playing through SR, especially with it being my oldest game now because every time I look back at it and how much I've learned since then, all I can see are its faults x3
I don't blame you for preferring certain Kuros because even I have my favourites over others, haha. Dollmaker wound up stealing my heart somehow, largely due to Tim's incredible performance!
Interestingly, your favourite routes were my favourite routes to write! I guess it kinda shows in the game that I had less interest in the themes of the other routes (especially the student one >.<) haha.
I certainly wouldn't advise having a yandere boyfriend IRL for your own safety >.< I adore yandere characters in games and stuff, but any kind of abuse like that in reality is just never fun :( And if you ever do find yourself in such a relationship, you need to tread really carefully and try to do what's best for your own health and wellbeing rather than get sucking into something that's gonna ruin your life.
Thank you so much for taking the time to play through it all and leave such a lovely comment :3 I really appreciate it! And I will absolutely be making more games with yandere guys in the future :D I've kinda made it my mission to always have at least 1 yandere dude of some kind in every game I make :3
Sorry again that my reply is so slow >.< If you end up playing my other games, I hope you enjoy them as much as SR ^-^
SPOILERS
Regarding Isaac, he pretty much just wanted a weapon that would do exactly as he commands. He didn't really want any hint of the original's personality to remain because he knew that would make her too difficult to control. He wanted to extract all the strength, love, and power from MC and Shiro's relationship and focus it into weapon form. I realise it's not something that makes a whole lot of sense xD But that particular concept was inspired by a French film I saw many years ago called Martyrs.
It's a little difficult to explain, but basically, in the film, this cult-like group captures and tortures young girls until they reach a state of transcendence and witness glimpses of the afterlife. The group is trying to discover what comes after. So that's sort of where the idea came from that torture = means to achieving an end in terms of changing someone's mental abilities. In Martyrs, the girls transcend and can see the afterlife before passing, in SR, the pain and suffering is extracted from each experiment and put into OG MC to essentially give her superpowers.
I guess a lot of folks might say it's crappy/lazy writing xD But I personally enjoy reading/watching stuff like that even if it is a little far-fetched, so I wanted to include it x3
Ah, hello, I absolutely adore this game and the elements within. And as much as I'd like to write a review I would love to finish the game first. I'm experiencing an issue where I finished the princess route and during the ending cutscene, the screen froze. I was using the skipping function earlier and it got stuck. I still hear music and audio playing, but I'm not able to do anything. I tried to unfreeze the screen or to access the other menus but nothing works. Is there any way to solve this without restarting the game? Last time I saved this game was yesterday, so I might lose a lot of progress.
Hey hey! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game so far :3 But sorry you've run into such an annoying problem >.<
I don't think there's much I can do to help because the engine I used to make the game has known problems with freezing and crashing when the skip mode is used >.< Or at least it did back when I made this, it's possible they've managed to fix it in an update by now! The freezes tend to be random for people with different computers, and because it's not a problem I can replicate on my end, it's not something I can fix, sadly :( It's one of the many reasons I stopped using Tyranobuilder once I found something better for making VNs.
The only thing I could really do is send you save files of where you were up to so that you don't have to replay stuff from when you last saved.
Sorry about that >.< It really sucks :( I hope it doesn't ruin your enjoyment of the game too much! And thank you so much for checking it out :3
Ah, I understand :) Maybe I should avoid using the skip button too much for this reason. And well, I booted up the game again after I had to close it as the issue didn't seem to resolve after around an hour or so of the game being open. >.<
It does seem that they saved the art from the bad ends I had completed, and they are in the gallery. However, the last save file is from the start of the mage route before I finished all the ends. I had already gotten the good ending in each route and was revisiting them to get all the bad ends. I finished collecting them in the student, mage, and princess route. I'm not sure if this means that my progress was saved or not, but it's definitely not saved in the save files. :/
And nope, it hasn't ruined my experience with the game; it just reminds me that I should make more saves so in case something like this happens. I won't have to backtrack as much. Thank you got your response. ^ ^
Yeah, it really sucks because the whole point of having a skip button is to help save time, but if it breaks the game, it's kind of a pointless function >.<
The way Tyranobuilder works by default is that all images like CGs, once viewed, will unlock in the gallery even if the game isn't saved, so that's why those are still there. It's so that you can start a new game and stuff without losing any gallery progress :3
But yeah, the endings that you got won't have saved like the CGs have >.< because they're tied to the save files instead. So for example, if you were to go back through one of the routes and just go for the good ending, the game won't recognise that you got any of the bad endings for unlocking the ??? route before the game froze >.< It'll only count the ones from your last save, unfortunately :( So you'll have the CGs, but not the actual bad ending points that count towards unlocking the route.
That makes it even harder to know which ones you've got and which ones you haven't >.< There is a loophole that I left in the game though for getting easy bad ends if you need to exploit that for unlocking the ??? route without actually having to go through all of the bad endings again :3
I'm still sorry you've experienced such an annoying problem with the game anyhow >.<
i love the writing, story, evrything but why do they guys look like girls? i honestly feel like its gxg thing
Hehe, well, there is a bit of a long-winded explanation for that! Basically, I'm not an artist, and I'm poor so I also don't have the money to hire an artist. This was my very first game. I was an idiot and made the scope of the project faaaar too big for a first project. I lacked sprite resources in general, but even with having a larger resource library at my disposal now, I would still not be able to create the cast of characters in SR with just one set of assets because there are too many world/costume changes going on >.<
So basically, the only way I could possibly create the number of unique sprites required for the game, was to use a set of character creator things that I purchased. The main problem being, there are hardly any creators/generators out there that allow you to make male sprites :( And so, I had to use flat-chested female bodies for most versions of Kuro. They look feminine because they are technically female base sprites. I used the smallest eyes available to each and tried to make their hairstyles more androgynous, but there was no avoiding most of them coming out looking like girls, sadly.
I do hope to remake the otome version someday with a complete art overhaul that would hopefully rectify the problem because the sprite art in the original version is something that has always bothered me about it, along with large parts of my writing which are in dire need of a rewrite!
I'm glad you still decided to give the game a chance anyhow :3 And that you liked the story even if the sprites do give off very feminine vibes, haha.
Thanks for both of your lovely comments here and on DD! It's much appreciated :3
oh its fine! i love all ur work rn im going thru a massive binge of ur games! i just honestly, the story is so amazing! keep up the good work, and thanks for the explanation!
hello, this game brought me out of lurker territory. i just wanna say thank you for this amazing story, and there's not much i can say that hasn't been discussed already.
i love all the characters, except maybe the one you can call the 'main villain' (but even then is he actually one?). they are all complex with their own motivations and personalities, and that's rare in vns. sometimes they end up stuck playing a trope and characterization falls flat. you really did a good job avoiding that!
anyway, i'm looking forward to your other games and meeting 'him' again. he doesn't actually have to worry about me forgetting about him, or at least, i wouldn't.
thanks again for this great game!
Hey hey! Aww, I pretty much live in lurker territory myself, haha. Thank you for playing through the game and dropping by to comment!
I'm so glad you feel that way about the characters. That makes me incredibly happy to hear that's how they come off :3 I've never had much confidence in anything I do, so when I read such kind words from people such as yourself, it really lifts my spirits! I do plan to remake this someday in the engine I'm using now, with revised art, writing, and new content :D I was sorta just muddling through and learning as I went when I put this all together, haha. So there's a lot I would like to attempt to improve.
I'm actually working on a game right now for Otome Jam 2021! So, hopefully, you'll find that enjoyable :3 Thanks again for your lovely comment! It's much appreciated ^-^
I want to play this game and i'm just kinda confused on the characters hehe... Sorry but i'm confused about the gender and its kinda hard for me to tell what it is
The heroine of the story that you play as is always female in every route. Your love interest, Kuro, is always male :3
The reason that Kuro looks so feminine is because I'm not an artist, and at the time of making this, I only had access to limited sprite resources, so I had to use female sprite bodies in the generator software I'd purchased to try and make them look as male as possible, haha. So while Kuro's appearance is pretty feminine, he's male.
UwU Thank you very much for explaining about the characters and tbh I've been thinking about the gender for a long time but didn't have the courage to ask! :> Again, Thank you
hello!! i've only just discovered this game a few days ago, and i've yet to finish it, but i'm really loving it so far - the story is really interesting and intriguing (i can't wait to get to the ??? route), really well-written, and i especially love the GUI/UI and voice acting (was not expecting someone to suddenly talk to me at the very start of the game and upon getting an ending...i was left pleasantly shook), as well as how we get to play through several settings and themes. i think it's really cool!
i noticed that a BxG version and possibly a remake of this one are/would be in the works? if you're interested or happen to need any help, even if these two might not be a priority at the moment, me and my friend (who i dragged to join me and also really likes the game) would love to draw sprites and CGs for both of those, for free. ^^ my twitter is @PurrpleBun, but if you'd rather talk more about this somewhere else, i wouldn't mind that either.
thank you for all your hard work and i hope you have a wonderful day!
Hey hey! Thanks for taking the time to play through the game and leave a comment :3 I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! Hopefully, you'll have just as much fun with the rest of it :D I'm glad you like the voice acting. A lot of people volunteered their time and talent to help bring the project to life :3
I certainly always need help with art because I can't draw to save my life, haha. I'm currently working with an artist who is creating CGs and new sprites for the BxG version, and I hope to work with them on the future otome version remake too, but you never know what will happen in the future! It's entirely possible that the workload would be far too much for one artist to handle alone, or they may become too busy to continue helping. I really appreciate the offer and I'm definitely interested in working with you guys :3
You're welcome to drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com for further discussion. I'm incredibly inactive on Twitter because I just can't keep up with social media >.< I'd rather work in a cave and have someone else handle that sorta thing for me as far as my projects are concerned, haha. I do use Discord for project-related communication though, so you're welcome to add me there if that's easier than emailing back and forth!
Thanks again for playing! I hope you both enjoy the rest of the game :3 Have a wonderful weekend yourselves ^_^
I just wanna ask one question before downloading this game. Kuro is basically my companion, and the route i choose is the girl, so that means the protagonist is a male, right? I just wanna get rid of the confusion that the route i choose is actually who i'm going to be! It basically adds to confusion the description of the GxB version!
This page is for the otome version of the game, so the protagonist that you play as is female. Each route that you pick determines the role that the protagonist takes on within that route, but it's always a she, and Kuro, your love interest, is always a he.
The alternate version featuring a male protagonist and a female Kuro still hasn't been finished because I'm busy working on other projects at the moment + I've teamed up with someone who is creating CGs specifically for that version, otherwise it would have no CGs at all.
I hope that helps to clear things up :3
Sorry, my english might seem a bit awkward but it is not my first langage.
I've played lots of VN but I'm not usually into otome games (unfortunatelly those tends to be too cliché and not credible enough for my tastes). I must say I didn't know I'd enjoyed the yandere trope so much before I played your game^^ This was a good surprise.
I enjoyed the concept of your game and I liked Kuro a lot (he was not just a stupid trope but a real fleshed out character). He made me blush as much as he scared me. I think it's a good thing because it means you portrayed him in a credible way, and the character fulfilled his purpose.
As a writer myself I know that feedbacks can be very usefull and I think that it's a shame that indies creators receive too few of them. Because some works would deserve more support. I think you deserve to know that your VN is good and enjoyable.
The writing is nice, the story kept me interested until the end, the sprites are beautifull even if sometimes the different styles don't match very well with each other (not sure my sentence means something lol).
I would personally have prefered to see the same sprite (one for kuro and one for the MC) with just a different hairstyle and outfit in each scenario for more immersion (and because it would have been more coherent with the ending). I'm curious to know why you chose different sprites (I don't want to spoil anything, but I think you see what I mean ^^).
Finally, I have only two majors complaints. I can't express the first one without spoiling the whole thing, so... I shall not write it here (if you want we could chat about it somewhere else).
I think you are not responsible for the second one (it's certainly the engine's fault) but even if I have a very good pc the game is very long to start. I don't really mind, but I think it's worth mentioning.
Anyway... I enjoyed the ride a lot. I came for the horror elements and I ended in love with a yandere ;)
My favorite route was the detective route. I can explain why in more details if you want. My fav Kuro was the one during the detective one too, and during the princess one (I mean the personnality, because my fav design was the student route Kuro he he). My fav side character was Isabelle from the detective route too (I wish I could have kissed her instead of you know who)^^ Ah and my fav MC... hum... I'm not sure, i enjoyed them all except the MC in the student route (she's a bit dense lol) and the one in the gamer route (even if I enjoyed this route a lot. This scenario is very well built).
Have you ever considered publishing this game on steam? It would give you faaaaar more visibility, especially if you add few trophies (for ex one trophy per bad end. It's quite easy to do this with steam).
If you have difficulties to find female voice actors for the other versions of your game, or even for this one (I might be wrong but I think rabbit has a male voice althought she is a girl? Maybe you didn't find an actress) I could give you a hand (or my vocal chords in this case). I have a mezzo-soprano voice, but you must know that I have a french accent ;) so I'm not sure if I can help.
Have a nice day, keep on the good work and don't forget to dream ;)
No worries, I think your English is brilliant :3 I could certainly understand everything that you wrote.
Thank you so much for taking the time to play through the game and leave some feedback! It's very much appreciated :D I'm super glad that you enjoyed it!
I sort of know what you mean about otome games, haha. I'm a fan of the genre, but they can get very repetitive >.< As you say, a lot of them have characters in that just start feeling like walking tropes, sadly. I know the focus is supposed to be on romance, but I feel like that can sometimes leave the overall story seriously lacking. There are very few VNs I've played where the balance felt just right. I don't think I achieved a very good balance with SR because it's a bit lacking in romantic scenes compared to the volume of bad ends, haha. That's something I plan to fix at a later date though :3
It means a lot to me that you feel like Kuro was a real fleshed-out character because I really wanted him to be more than just a generic yandere dude. So it makes me very happy to hear that you think he was believable! I'm rather passionate about the yandere character trope in general, but you just don't seem to see all that many male yandere characters compared to female ones. Sometimes there's just too much crazy and not enough love as well when it comes to yandere characters, haha. It was really important to me that this was still a love story, despite all the horror going on x3
Yeah, feedback is a huge help! I do hope that I can make VNs as more than just a hobby someday, and in order to do that, I need to hear people's opinions and have a better idea of what works and what doesn't for people, rather than just going with solely what I would do myself. SR is like my baby, but with it being my first project, I now know there are several things I could have done better! I've learned a lot since starting work on SR, and hopefully, I'll be able to completely remake the game at some point into a more definitive version. You're right that it's difficult to get feedback as an indie dev, so any and all is most welcome :D It doesn't help that I don't have much of a social media presence either >.< I'm almost completely reliant on word of mouth for spreading the word about my projects.
Yeah, I know what you mean about the sprites, haha. It's something that still really bothers me about the game, and something I plan to rectify in the future remake! I want to have one artist draw all of the sprites so that the art is consistent across the board. There was no way I could afford that for this version though, and so I was stuck with using sprite creator software that I purchased. The trouble was, the game required so many sprites that the art from one software wasn't enough to cover it, and so I had to use art from various different software, where the pieces were drawn by completely different artists >.< And you probably noticed that the sprite for Topper looks completely different from everything else, haha. That's because, in all my software, there was nothing at all for clown/jester-style clothing, so I had to go to Fiverr and pay someone $5 to draw me sprite based on my awful descriptions and references >.<
That's interesting that you say you would prefer to see the same sprite for Kuro and MC, and it is something I thought about possibly doing for the eventual remake. Sadly, it wasn't possible with the sprite resources that I had, because while I could easily have used the same sprite body and changed their hairstyles for each route, I wouldn't have been able to give them suitable clothing to fit the different worlds, because each sprite body only comes with limited clothing options :( I was very restricted by my art resources overall, unfortunately. It would have been great to have been able to afford artists to draw everything for me, but with needing so many assets, I just didn't have the funds. I sorta had to make do with the cheapest assets that I could find to use.
Thank you for not posting spoilers :3 If you wanted to let me know what the first complaint is, you could use one of the text headers (it's the first symbol called 'format') and write 'spoilers' in caps like this:
SPOILERS
Then press enter a few times and start typing out what you wanted to say, because that way, anyone who might happen to be reading your comment would be able to see that there are spoilers below and it'd be their choice to read on or not :3 And Itch will hide most of your comment by putting a clickable 'read more' part. If you'd rather email me though, you can always drop me a message to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Yeah, you're right that the second one is the engine's fault, sadly :( I even made sure to compress all the game's assets as much as possible to keep the size as low as it could be without compromising image or audio quality, but due to the way the engine works, it does result in very slow load times cos of the size of the game >.< It's one of many reasons I want to eventually remake the whole thing! Now that I have a new engine, I probably won't use Tyranobuilder again because there are just too many annoying aspects. It's great for starting out, but the team behind it don't seem to be in a hurry to fix any of the incredibly annoying issues with the engine >.< I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to jump into making VNs without learning any code. It's just once you have a better idea of what you're doing in general, it becomes quite frustrating to use.
I'm glad you enjoyed the game overall though :D
The detective route was probably my favourite one to write :3 Feel free to explain in more detail why it was your favourite if you want to! I'd certainly be interested to know your thoughts. That's awesome that you liked Isabelle as well :D Yeah, student route MC is a bit on the dense side, haha.
Honestly, I would absolutely love to get the game on Steam! The trouble is, with it being a free game, I can't afford the £100 (or something like that) publishing fee >.< When I get around to the remake though, I might attempt a Kickstarter or something to help pay for various things. I just want the game to be as good as it can possibly be. If I could somehow get funded, it would allow me to get better quality assets and, as you say, to get the game on Steam as well :3 I would also be a bit embarrassed to put the game on Steam in its current state just because of the bugs with the engine >.< I want players to have as smooth an experience as possible, and I feel like Tyrano gets in the way of that. If I can remake it using the engine I have now, it'll be much more polished!
You're right about Rabbit, haha. I did cast a female voice actor in the role, but she sorta just vanished on me >.< so I ended up using the guy who I had cast as the male version of Rabbit instead to play the female version too! It's entirely possible I might need more voice actors for both the upcoming BxG version and the otome remake. I know for certain that I am missing a few voices for the BxG version, and that some parts will need to be rerecorded. There's certainly nothing wrong with having a French accent anyhow :3 I actually think that an accent like that could suit a character like Rosemary. Also, in the BxG version, some of the characters are like genderbent versions, haha. So there might be things like a female Christo, and I think a French accent could suit a female Christo pretty well. I'm a long way off of sorting that sorta stuff out though at the moment, so I'd have to get back to you on that closer to the time :3
I hope you have a nice day too + that you're managing to stay safe! Thank you again for all your feedback :D I really appreciate you taking the time to type it all up!
Wonderful game. I am usually the person who doesn't like linear games, but makes exceptions for a good plots games. I love it. The regular routes were interesting to explore, creepy in a good way. The final route made me cry several times. The voice acting really made me fill "into the atmosphere". The voice acting and music really made the experience even better (the first novel i used my headphones to listen to the sounds, coz it was good!) The dialogue after true ending was also very entertaining.(breaking 4th wall huh) I am just very impressed tbh. Keep going with visual novels, guys! I will support you
Thank you so much for your kind words + for playing through the game :3 I really appreciate it! Yeah, the voice actors all worked really hard to help me bring this project to life, so I'm super glad you enjoyed their performances :D
It means a lot to me that you took the time to write such a lovely comment! Thank you very much for your support + have a lovely week ^_^
uuuuuumm...It took me about 2 hours to download the game, bc my dumbass installed the mac version instead- So, basically i was trying to open up the game, and i extracted the files and when it was done it said:
! Cannot execute "C:\Users\39320\AppData\Local\Temp\Rar$EXa8996.11891\Solipsism Reigns (smaller version).exe"
so uh.. any ideas of how i can fix this..? cuz i'd really like to play this game, the MCs are cute... The guys are cute.. the artstyle is stunning, and it has a very interesting concept i'd like to experience.. so by any chance, would anyone be so kind to please lend me a hand?
Hey hey! Sorry for my slow reply, and also for the fact that I'm probably not gonna be of much help here >.<
I've not come across that issue before, so I'm not really sure what to suggest :( Is it an old system you're running it on or maybe one with very little spare memory? I know the devs of the engine have said before that if a computer doesn't have enough free memory then it might not be able to run the game until some space has been cleared.
If you've got plenty of free space, and it's not going to take you too long, you could try downloading the larger Windows version instead, just in case there's an issue specifically with the smaller version for some reason. I'll try redownloading each Windows version myself from here and see if I can manage to replicate the issue, but they worked fine for me when I uploaded them originally, so I'm probably not going to be able to help >.< I'll do some Googling though and report back anything I find that might be of use!
Oh, one other thing could possibly be antivirus software stopping it from running I guess! Because every single game I've made so far tends to get blocked by my antivirus the first time I open it up. It just does a scan, then allows it through. But I'm not sure how other antivirus software works. It's possible it may just block it from running completely.
Thanks so much for checking out the game :3 I really hope we can manage to find a solution to get it up and running for you!
tysm! I dont have that issue anymore thanks to you,but.. sorry to bother you again... Though now when i extract the game files the exported application doesn't open and just gives me a blank note file. is that normal or am i doing something wrong? Also i'm on a Windows Vista, and i installed the smaller version i got this pc about a year ago.. do i need a 64 bit perhaps...?? also don't worry i'm pretty slow at replying too, so we're on the same boat.. ^^'
It's no bother at all :3 I'm glad that one issue is solved, but it sucks that something else is still preventing you from playing >.<
That's definitely not supposed to happen. When you run the .exe, it should just load up the game (which can take a while depending on system specs.) I'm by no means a tech expert, but if it's opening in notepad or something instead, something must have gone wrong somewhere >.< I would imagine something in your system settings, but I wouldn't really know what to change to stop it from doing that :( As far as I can remember, when you export a game made in Tyrano for Windows, it should just work with most versions of Windows.
I did some Googling, and I can find fixes for systems where all .exe files are opening in notepad, but nothing specific for just one, or it being blank >.< All those fixes seem to mention fixing stuff in the registry, but I wouldn't wanna tell you to go messing with stuff when I don't even know for sure if that would fix it, and I certainly wouldn't want you to accidentally screw up your computer somehow :(
I did download the small version for Windows from here after reading your first comment, just to check the download wasn't randomly broken or something, but it still starts up fine for me.
I'm sorry I can't be of more help >.< Like I said, I'm not the most techy person when it comes to computer problems, so I'm not sure what the solution could be :(
i'm very sorry for the late reply! Lately i've been staying up quite late to get my pc to work right for the game.
i'll try to download the file again in hopes for a better result, thank you very much for your concern and information! I'll keep you updated! I hope you have a lovely day/night!
No worries at all! I'm still sorry that I can't be of more help :( I know how frustrating it can be trying to get stuff to work cos I once tried to get my old PSVR headset working with my PC, and loads of people had managed it just fine, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't get it to work for me so I had to give up in the end >.<
I hope you do manage to get it working :3 I wanted to be able to have a browser version available for anyone that had issues running the downloadable game at all, but sadly, it's too large to be able to host it as a browser game, even the smaller version :( Good luck! And thank you :3 I hope you have a lovely day/night yourself!
Okay, so, I have no idea if this will help at all, but I copied the error you posted into Google, and one of the things that came up was a YouTube link to this short video. It seems to be the same sort of error, but the fix seems to be related to antivirus stuff. I'll link it to you anyhow just in case it's helpful at all :3
I went to config but it was in Japanese.
Sadly, this is because of the engine I used called Tyranobuilder. The config is a default one that comes with the engine when you start a new project. You should be able to figure out what does what by just messing around with the various settings :3
there was a character that was described as dressing in "plain religious robes" and then he looked like THAT asofowegtnfh
I seem to have unlocked the ??? route, despite not having unlocked every Gamer ending. I got scared, so I went back.
Sorry for my slow replies to your comments >.< I've not been at my PC much the last couple of days cos I've had some other stuff to sort out. Yeah, the guide on the ??? route isn't 100% accurate as you can unlock and play the ??? without seeing both Gamer route endings. I just figured there was no need to edit it because it's probably best to view each different ending anyhow for CG gallery completion :3
This is my first time coming across this game on this site. And with the number of positive reviews, I'm devastated that it did not happen sooner. I'm downloading it now and looking forward to playing it! I'll come back and let you know what I thi
Thanks so much for playing! I hope you enjoy it :3
Hey hey hey!!!! This game is SO AWESOME!!!!!! I'm not done yet, about to do the Detective route before I get to the '???' route but this game is still amazing!!!
Edit: I figured out my issue! I was a dumb! Lol. Thats what I get for staying up all night playing the game!!
Aww, thank you so much for your kind words! I appreciate you taking the time to play through the game and leave a comment :3 I hope enjoy the rest of the game!
I didn't see what you wrote at the end before your edit, haha, but I'm glad you managed to figure out a solution anyhow :D