another amazing GEM from you! I love this so much. You spooked me haha~ (Just in case, this contains spoilers so stop reading if u didn’t play the game yet!) So I even went to extras and heard all what you have to say (Don’t ever think is annoying because I enjoy listening to those!) you got me interested there, I want to go to UK just to be spooked lmao. And try your best to stay healthy when doing a JAM haha 🩵 Thank you for this and everyone who participated in this game too! (The bloopers were funny too lmaoo)
Aww, thank you so much for playing this one too ^-^ So, so glad you had fun with it!
Hehe, we do have some good spooks in the UK :D I have no idea how they compare to the rest of the world cos I’m not rich enough to be able to travel abroad and check out different scare attractions in other countries (though, that would be a dream come true if I can someday x3)
I’m thinking I might just try and join another team for Spooktober Jam next year and maybe make a soundtrack for someone else’s project if anyone will have me cos I think that’s the only way for me to be a bit healthier while working on a jam, haha. I did try to make myself work healthier this time and give myself less to do, but that all fell apart pretty quickly and I ran myself into the ground again as usual xD
Thank YOU for playing it and leaving such a lovely comment <3 Hope you have a good rest of the spooky season ^-^
Hope you enjoy the spooky season too! :’3 And I hope you can join a team haha! So you don’t need to overwork yourself again🩵🩵 Looking forward to play more game you made/participate in! Thanks a lot!
Wow, truly came across something special! It was a real delight that, after the first time getting kicked out, I found him waiting with tea LMAO! The voice actors really portrayed the characters well (obsessed with Rhimes wheezing 'heh's lol), and though I feel bad for Linnet (Man, the Peekaboo ending and the gift/'don't come back or else' ending are BRUTAL) it was fun challenging Rhime and wondering what he would do next! (I can fix him LMAO,,,,,) the art is absolutely gorgeous (Rhime flipping off screen is my favourite) and the whole UI and moth theme is so beautiful!!!
Hehe, thank you very much for taking the time to play this one and leave such a kind comment :3
It really wouldn’t be the same without all the amazing voice actors who lent their time and talent to the project! They’re the ones who really breathe life into the characters with their epic performances :D
So glad you liked the VA and the art :3 I’m so proud of everything the team managed to accomplish, and humbled to have been able to work with such an awesome bunch of people! That’s why jams like this are so special! Cos I could never manage to make something like this on my own, that’s for sure. I know there are plenty of talented devs out there who are able to create masterpieces solo cos they can write and draw, but I’m not one of them, haha. I can’t draw to save my life T_T And even though I’m normally a solo dev, I much prefer being part of a team! That feels like it’s where the real magic happens, haha.
I was not prepared for where this game was going to take me but I was so delighted to be along for this ride until the end - a hauntingly beautiful, deeply unsettling aesthetic that never fails to grip me-
Thanks so much for checking out the game! Glad you've had fun with it ^-^
I'm sorry my reply is brief >.< I'm away from home atm with limited internet and only my phone to type on, but to answer your question, if you download the extras file from the game page, you should be able to find what you're looking for from there :3
I think I got all the way to the end, and pretty much got shut down in the end? It was fun, bizarre and at some point it just made me actually genuinely creeped out at what was happening if there was any. I did a whole stream of the playthrough on my Youtube.
Simon, Rhime was just utterly terrifying, for the most part, both in completely different ways, and the voice acting for this is pretty amazing. Simon was the best for how much that voice creeped me out and I wanted to punch him at a few times, lol, I was like, don't make me play Simon says, but somehow, I feel that if hangman was ever actually played, I'll come to regret it too.
The ending on my end was just surreal, and quite meta, very very meta is a much better word and term for it. Although I do feel that I regret playing this after I was just going through an entire week of little to no sleep so my reflexes are awful. And the moment where it kind of revealed what happened, and then Simon just goes all the way is just the best and most unnerving part where I can't even tear my eyes off from it from that point.
Amazing, don't play it when you're sleepy though, like me, or more like half asleep.
Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I’ve been away from home going to visit different spooky attractions, and then I got ill in the process, haha. Caught some sort of nasty cold from somewhere!
Anyways, thank you so much for checking it out and for streaming it on your YouTube <3
I don’t blame you for wanting to punch Simon xD I certainly did while testing, haha. Glad you found parts of it creepy cos I can never tell if something is genuinely creepy or not since I consume so much horror I’m pretty much immune to it at this point x3 Thank you again for all your kind words! I really appreciate you taking the time to play the game ^-^
Great game so far -- I haven't finished playing it yet.
So far I've finished the route R.I.P after sending our well loved protagonist to his death (Cause why not). Unfortunately I'm a little confused about the 'space' I'm told I've given by accessing the first window. I'm curious as to what that means? Tried going back through the game a few times, had a look at the files and a brief scroll down the game page (Not to precise) to find what he was talking about? I really want to have a little peak at it before going onto other routes which is unfortunate. Any ideas anyone?
Despite this the game is really good, while I do believe some small things could've been better executed (Due to personal preference) overall it's a great game with a good storyline and really creative and well made considering the little amount of time spent on it. I look forward to seeing other works~!
Sorry my reply is a bit slow >.< I'm away from home atm with limited internet available and only my phone to type on (walking in the Peak District with my pops + heading to Alton Towers for Scarefest x3) and most of the time since we left I've had no signal at all, haha.
Really glad you've had fun with the game so far ^-^ Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out!
Hehe, that's an interesting choice to go for first time but I approve of the why not attitude :D
To find what you're looking for, download the extras file from the game page (it's a really small file) you should be able to go from there by following the instructions inside :3
I should probably update the walkthrough guide with a note at the end when I get home >.< I'll make an edit and add it to the bottom of the guide page, but itch won't allow me to mess with the post on mobile x3
An absolutely amazing horror experience from my favorite Spooktober writer!
First of all, the UI looks amazing. In the fact the whole game looks amazing. A total trip. And the sound design, perfect! The whole team did a amazing job. I tried both pairs of male and female sounding voices and they all were superb.I am in awe of the scale of the project and how you managed to direct all of it in one month!
SPOILERS BE BELOW HERE
My first reaction was: Oh yeah, cool horror story, you made me unreasonable invested into playing Simon Says just to rip out my heart, good job! Then I saw the "credits" and absolutely lost it when Li went "Who the fuck is Melancholy Marionette" and realized there is even more.
Going meta is kind of hard to pull off but it worked well for you. I could see people getting really annoyed by the game quitting itself and making it hard to see all the content. Though part of the charm is how unpredictable it is. It is what makes the game so amazing and a work of art. I just just hope people don't start to copy you. Only you can get away with these kind of shenanigan!
My first play trough I just acted like myself and tried to be nice but it still ended with Li getting killed because I kept being persistent. The second time, I went full psycho. Yes, I went back and killed the cat. I just had to check if I could. And there was a CG for it! Oh, gosh! I hate you but also love you for that.
Weeell, this is some kinda spooky coincidence cos I just finished playing your Spooktober game and was typing up a comment on your page when my browser crashed (thankfully, I'd already copied most of it to a text doc before it happened, so I only lost like a sentence, haha) and when I reopened it, I saw an itch notification saying you'd commented here! Which means you officially beat me to it x3
Anyways, my brain is trying to refuse to compute that I could possibly be anyone's favourite Spooktober writer x3 I feel so vastly inferior to everyone, haha. But I feel incredibly honoured that you think that and wish I could give you a giant hug of appreciation!! Thank you so much for playing this one and for leaving such lovely feedback <3
I certainly couldn't have made the game that we did without everyone's help and amazing talent :3 It was a bit of a bumpy road in places, and there were times we thought we might have to resort to cutting out big chunks of the game, but we made it in the end. I think this might actually be my first-ever project where 100% of the art is original (none of it by me, of course, since I can't draw to save my life T_T) Cos usually, even when I've had the opportunity to work with awesome artists during other jams, I have still ended up using a few paid or free assets here and there. This time, aside from the fonts and a handful of edited asset pack sound effects, everything else was original stuff made for the jam by various folks on the team ^-^
That's so cool that you tried both pairs of voices too! There was a point where it was looking like it might only be possible to get the BxB pairing fully finished in time for the jam deadline, but thankfully, with a lot of work and not much sleep, we got the full lot of voice combos in there, haha.
!!!There be spoilers below!!!
Hehe, weeeell, you were supposed to be able to play hangman as well as Simon Says, but that was one of the things that very swiftly got slashed with the scope knife cos I realised there was no way we'd have time to add 2 minigames, and also didn't wanna add to the list of needed UI assets >.< So yeah, instead Rhime just has a convenient headache if you try to play hangman xD
Speaking of managing to get stuff done, that point you mentioned about the "credits" well, we had a backup plan to end the game just before there if things went drastically wrong and it wasn't possible to actually finish the remaining sections of the game in time for the end of the jam, haha. I even had an extremely rough alternate draft of the hospital scene where Rhime's reasoning for what happened prior to that is similar but different x3
I would've been gutted if we had no choice but to go with that alternate version because it would've meant ditching the whole idea of Rhime being a deity and all the meta stuff, but it was better than not having an emergency backup plan at all I guess!
I totally agree about going meta being hard to pull off, and I'm still not entirely convinced we managed it here without being somewhat cringy in the process, haha, but it was a fun experiment to try out :3 I haven't done any forced quits in my projects since Impostor I think, and that was years ago back when I was still using Tyranobuilder!
Aaaand, I can also see people being annoyed by the shutdowns as well, yeah x3 In fact, I annoyed myself when I tried to playtest on my potato laptop because on my PC, the game launches pretty fast, but on my potato, it takes like 30+ seconds to launch sooo, it's kinda painful trying to get some of those endings when you have to keep re-launching the game on a terrible system T_T I really don't think using Naninovel/Unity helps the situation either cos I'm sure it would launch and load waaaay faster if it were a Ren'Py game!
I'm glad that you at least found it amusing more than annoying though :3 Tbh, it wouldn't surprise me if something similar had already been done in some form by someone else! Especially with how meta stuff seems to be getting more popular these days. With any luck though, there's nothing tooooo similar out there >.<
xD I love that you did a full psycho playthrough, haha. That's like what I do when I play stuff like Mass Effect, haha. Always pick the choices that come naturally to me on a first play (usually the 'good' choices), then 2nd play, full renegade :P
Yeeeeah, the cat was a bit of a contentious thing x3 I even said that while a CG would be cool for the shock factor, it might be too upsetting for a lot of people, so maybe it would be better to just have Li close their eyes, and handle that scene in darkness with just SFX in the hope it would somehow make it a bit less grim... but then NeonSaphir drew the CG anyways, and there was no way I was gonna waste it, so we just thought, screw it, it's not like the player is forced to take that action, so let's go for it x3 I have a bad feeling that the animal death content warning might put a lot of people off of even playing the game though >.<
And thank YOU for playing it and for being so sweet and supportive! It means a lot and I really appreciate it :3 Gonna go splurge my ramble about your game in your comments now! Mmmwwaahahahahahahaha :D
Absolutely stunning! This VN is truly full of surprises... which I won't detail here, but needless to say, how clever the writing and structure was brought a big smile to my face more than once! The sprites are great, and there's some really cool backgrounds and visual effects to go along with them. The voice actors all did a great job (I giggled every time at Simon's delivery of "Meow like a kitty cat") and the music was wonderful! I'm going to be listening to that OST for a while longer, I think.
I also gotta mention how much I appreciated being able to choose not only Linnet's pronouns, but their voice as well. That's some extra attention to detail that not every game goes the extra mile for, but you did, and it made me very happy!
I'm amazed that your team made something so interesting and well put together in such a short time. It's a real achievement! I'll be recommending this one to my friends for sure! ^^
I felt so bad asking the voice actors for so many meows x3 But then when they all delivered, I was blown away at how amazingly they went for it! I tried to explain to my brother how happy I was to get such a great variety of meows for the project, and he just gave me an unimpressed look like he often does, and said something along the lines of "What is wrong with you?" >.< haha.
So glad you liked the OST cos I poured my soul into it x3 I'm very rarely proud of or satisfied with whatever my contributions are to a project, but that soundtrack is one of the few things I at least feel content with for once xD I'm absolutely proud of the team as a whole though :3
To me, that's one of the most magical things about Spooktober Jam in general, the fact that you can team up with complete strangers and somehow make a game together just stuns me every year! (Well, not everyone on the team was a stranger x3 but a fair few were people I'd never met before who I was only able to team up with thanks to the jam recruitment channel on DevTalk!) It's such a cool thing to be able to do, and I love it a hell of a lot more than solo dev :D
Hearing you say you appreciate the pronoun and voice options for Linnet makes all the sleepless nights extra worth it ^-^ I can't lie, it did reach a point in the jam where I was beginning to regret the decision to have 2 voices for Linnet & 2 for Rhime xD Well, not regret having them because it was important to me, but regret trying to squeeze them in for the jam deadline >.< Because we were supposed to have an audio engineer on the team who was gonna help me cut voice lines, so I figured the workload for VA wouldn't be too bad if we split it between us, but then she got ill right as the jam began and I wound up having to do it all myself x3
The sensible thing to do at that point would have been to decide to add the remaining voice options post-submission deadline in an update! And I did think it might end up coming to that. In the end though, I decided to just push myself harder to get it all added in time. It would have felt wrong to not get it all in there because, while I never expect to win anything personally, I at least like to hope the folks I've teamed up with might stand a chance for their individual contributions, and I really didn't want to deprive the VAs the opportunity of competing for best voice actor when they'd put so much time and effort into recording their lines!
I hope the team sees all your kind words cos I'm sure it will make em all smile the same as I have while reading your incredibly sweet feedback ^-^ I really appreciate you taking the time to check the game out and spending the time to write such a thoughtful comment too! It means the world to me after I spent the month running myself into the ground to get it done x3 and I couldn't have done it without such an amazing team :3
I did manage to apply the scope knife in places, which is something I've previously failed at, but I definitely need to give myself less to do in the future, haha. Cos as people keep reminding me, skipping sleep and meals because I'm working on a game jam is not an acceptable excuse xD
If your friends do end up checking it out, fingers crossed they have fun as opposed to thinking, what on earth is this insanity?! x3
Took me a while to play this one, doed to the warnings... but saying this openly for anyone next, no, you don't need to harm the kitty.
Now, as for the game... what, just what did I just play? That was such a surrealistic trip, going from a to c and to W all the way back to n and m. I didn't do well on the timed options, and when the credits rolled I was like... allright, I've got an ending, let's wait to reload...
*But no*
It kept going, and going, it felt like a final fantasy final boss, constantly changing forms lol, then I realized I was still playing, and there were still choices to be taken. So I pressed onwards, and quickly realized Rhime was breaking the 4th wall, and that's when it got even MORE interesting.
I just LOVED the whole dialogue when I told Rhime to let Linnet live. Every word you wrote for the player to said, is what I wanted to say. And that touch of the game shutting down and having to open it again... just the cherry on top of what was going on. That CG with Rhime and Linnet happily playing cards was worth all the nightmares!
As for the technical details... I really have nothing to say. Just, flawless in every area. Art, dialogue, VA, programming (heck, I was surprised to see it being a Unity game, and even more how WELL achieved it was, I know first hand how *hard* that is), and I really enjoyed the music too, felt like a nice companion allong the journey!
For real, this game was outstanding. Well done you all! I'm yet to try out some more secrets, so thank you for dropping that walkthrough!
I did wonder if I should put some sort of notice up that animal death is totally avoidable x3 because I worry that having that warning there might completely put some people off from even trying the game >.< which would suck if that were the case :(
Anyways, thank you so much for checking it out and for leaving such an epic review ^-^ I almost cried when I read through it x3 Also, I adore Final Fantasy even those bosses do drive me crazy, so that comparison made me smile, haha.
I guess I will write the rest under spoilers :3
SPOILERS BE BELOW HERE!!!
That’s honestly a huge relief to hear about the player’s lines after telling Rhime to let Linnet live! Cos I kinda agonised over that, haha. There’s no way on earth I could actually predict what people would want to say, and if it wasn’t even close to how someone playing was feeling at the time, it would kinda kill the immersion if it’s supposed to be you, the player speaking, but everything coming out is at odds with how you actually feel >.< In the end, I just tried to go with how I’d feel if it were me having a go at Rhime x3
So glad you got what we considered to be the happiest of all the endings after going through all that :D The very moment I saw that CG finished I just thought, ahh, it’s so nice to have something warm and welcoming in the game when everything else is so bleak xD
And again, it’s a massive relief to hear that things were smooth on the technical side because it’s always my biggest fear >.< haha. I’d be horrified if a team delivered amazing assets and then I messed up putting it all together!
Regarding programming and Unity, I mean, I can only thank Naninovel for that! Had I been using Unity without it, there just wouldn’t have been a game to submit at all xD I’m not even a programmer x3 I can only get by on helpful scripting languages for folks like me who get headaches from trying to write proper code, haha. I still have niggles with both Naninovel and Unity, but I do think Naninovel is a godsend for people like me who are too lazy to learn to code properly >.< Well, I’m not too lazy to learn, it’s more that I tried to but hated it so much I knew I’d never want to make games if that was what I had to do to get them working xD Naninovel makes it just about bearable for me, haha.
Anyways, with any luck, the rest of the team will see all your kind words and smile cos they certainly made my day better just reading what you wrote ^-^ It’s always nice to get feedback from other devs who know just how hard you’ve worked your butt off to get something done :D
I have to thank our editor for writing up that walkthrough cos I certainly wouldn’t have had the brainpower to do it by the end of the jam x3
Thank you again for taking the time to write up such lovely feedback!! It's very much appreciated <3
Oh, definetely on the same boat there. Can use the program, but can't code either, and even if I try to learn, I really don't like it so yeah, know how that goes lol
Then my compliments to the entire team again!!! Had lots of fun!!!
(Note: SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW so you may want to scroll past if you're thinking of playing this game!)
Being a fan of the Saw movie series and psychological thrillers in general, I enjoy horror stories that involve waking up in locked rooms with no memory of the manner of getting there and being forced to play death games. This is why I was especially excited to check this out. Once the meta aspects started creeping in, I started to suspect that the game was going to take an unexpected turn. But this suspicion could not have prepared me for the rollercoaster ride that followed!
I tend not to scrutinize content warnings before downloading games because I generally don't get triggered by the usual horror fare, but the moment I saw animal death among the warnings upon launching, I started to second-guess my choice to download this. However, I decided to soldier on. When I arrived at the relevant choice, I was like NOPE. ABSOLUTELY NOT. I'm ready to die and ready to kill any other humans, but I am NOT killing any animals. I was so grateful that the game didn't force me to go down that route though I wouldn't have complained either since it was my own fault for not reading the warnings too closely. I may have a problem because seeing the bloodied mouth of the animal in question made me go: "Aww, how adorable!"
I figured out midway that the names were anagrams so I was excited to see if my knowledge would aid me during a game of Hangman, but I didn't get to play that one, at least during my playthrough.
The Simon Says game was super fun and thrilling! I don't do to well with timed choices and time pressure in general, but a generous use of the save slots got me through it! When the game turned deadly at some point, I actually felt the terror twisting my stomach, but I could not look away. I was so riveted by all the occurrences.
Once I arrived at my ending, the game shut down on its own. Upon relaunching, the screen just stays black. I skimmed the walkthrough, but I'm still not sure what's going on. My computer is clunky and old so it could be an issue with my device. Regardless, I did thoroughly enjoy my playthrough so I don't feel dissatisfied with the experience as a whole.
Other assorted aspects of this project I enjoyed: the art; the inclusive customization options; the voice acting, especially the expressiveness of Rhime's masculine option (I'm not somebody who specifically looks for voice acting when choosing what to play but it's always a positive feature to have); the bright, almost psychedelic color palette; the enigmatic and intriguing look of the game page; and the soundtrack, which suited each scene wonderfully. I see that the writer also composed the soundtrack, which is such an impressive feat! You should be very proud of yourself!
Overall, this is a very well-made and entertaining VN. Congratulations to everybody in the team for doing such an amazing job!
(Note: Copy-pasting this comment from the Spooktober VN Jam 2023 page.)
(Also copy/pasted from the jam page cos it would be a bit weird if I responded to this differently here xD)
Holy moly, thanks so much for taking the time to write up such a detailed review/feedback! I massively appreciate that :3 I thought I was writing a lot in what I was typing, but you've definitely done waaaay better than me, haha. Reading what you've written, I feel like maybe I should've expanded more on my thoughts on each story I've read so far! Cos I feel like I've been too brief with just summarising >.<
Anyways, *high five* for the Saw love :D Hope you get to see the new one if you want to to! I was planning to this week but I've been too busy and exhausted, so hoping to catch it next week instead :3
I guess I better say everything else under spoilers x3
Ahoy there! There be spoilers below!!!
I know what you mean about content warnings cos I'm generally unphased by most things in the content I consume x3 It's very hard to upset or disturb me because I've consumed so much horror throughout my life that I'm pretty desensitised! That one was one I was worried about when thinking of players though, and as a player myself, if a game gave me a choice to do that, I wouldn't pick it, I would also kill a human character before an animal one if it came down to it xD Tbh, I had the same reaction when I first saw the finished sprite for bloody-mouthed Sorbet x3 LPB made her such a cute kitty, haha.
That's so cool that you figured out the names were anagrams! <3 But yeeeah, hangman as a minigame was one of the victims of the scope knife xD Fem voices almost were too because I wasn't anticipating having to cut all the voice audio and add fx myself this time since we were hoping to have my best friend's sister join us for all things audio-editing and SFX design, but she got ill for the month, so, sadly, that didn't happen. It was definitely a struggle to deal with, but I'm glad I still managed to get it in there in time for the jam deadline cos it would've been extremely unfair to the VAs if I hadn't :(
So glad you had fun with Simon Says at least :3 I'm not really a lover of minigames or puzzles myself x3 so it's always really difficult to know if I've done stuff like that justice as a dev when I dislike it as a player, haha. I really wanted to try and include something like that though just to attempt to add more jeopardy to Linnet's escape!
That sucks so badly that you couldn't get past the eventual relaunch though :( It sounds horrible to say, but I hope it was cos your computer is clunky and old xD Just because I tested it on my PC and my potato laptop, and most of the team have played it by this point too, and none of us had an issue getting it to work, so if it is a problem with the game, I imagine it'll be a nightmare to try and figure out the cause and fix it T_T
More than that though, I wish Unity wasn't so slow on older systems >.< because I'm guessing that's what the issue is :( I don't suppose you remember if it took a while to launch the game the very first time you started it up? And if you experienced kinda long load times at the points where there were loading screens? Aaaand, when you tried to relaunch and got a black screen, how long did you wait until giving up on it?
You don't have to answer that btw cos I imagine you're probably busy! I thought I would ask just to see if it's maybe the same problem I had when I tested it on my potato laptop x3 Basically, on my half-decent PC that I made the game on, startup only takes about 3 seconds whether it's first time or relaunching for story purposes, and load times are around 5-10 seconds on loading screens.
BUT
On my potato laptop, it's a different story >.< Startup takes around 30 seconds, loading times on load screens take between 33-45 seconds :( And relaunches for story purposes take between 30-50 seconds on a black screen like you mentioned T_T
It all loads eventually, but it's so, so SLOW, haha. I get the splash screen come up pretty fast on the potato, but then it stays on a black screen for ages before everything actually kicks in. It would be interesting to know if it would have eventually loaded on yours after a considerable amount of time like it does on my potato, or if your computer just straight up says nope and nothing will ever happen no matter how long you wait >.< Cos I firmly believe my potato is more potato-y than other people's potatos xD The stupid thing takes around 15 minutes to actually boot up from sleep or shut down, haha. So I kinda use that as a way of thinking, well, if it works on this awful thing, surely it'll work on anything x3
It's an issue I've noticed with everything I've ever made using Naninovel/Unity :( And when I've asked about it to try and improve performance on potato systems, I've never gotten further than the answer 'It's just Unity' >.< Which is beyond frustrating, haha. It makes Ren'Py seem vastly superior because games made using that run much more smoothly on my potato (unless they include animation like blinking/lip flaps and stuff, in which case, my potato just freezes up and dies xD)
But yeah, it's especially irritating in the case of this project because only 1 of the 5 endings can be reached without relaunch >.< I suppose while I'm asking questions, I should probably ask which ending branch you were on? Just to make sure it was one of the intentional crashes you reached and not a random unintentional one that we somehow missed in testing x3 Again though, please don't feel as though you have to answer!
Anyways, I'm glad it didn't spoil it for you at least x3 It is still really annoying though that I can't seem to find a way to improve performance in any of my Naninovel games :( Funnily enough, I had the same issue with my older Tyranobuilder ones too! My first game took something like over a minute to launch on my potato laptop o.O And I always try my best to optimise assets, but that doesn't seem to make any difference to overall performance, just total download size >.<
What confuses me even more is that, with Tunnel Vision for example, on my potato, once things have eventually loaded, everything runs really smoothly, like no lag on button presses or with transitions and stuff like I get when I try to play some Ren'Py made games on it, but those launch and load times with my Naninovel made projects are beyond horrific instead T_T
I'm sure Philip will be over the moon to hear your thoughts on his voice acting if he reads this :D And same goes for LPB for the fact that you pointed out the colour palette cos she had a very specific vision for the artistic direction of stuff :3
I'm also a happy bunny to hear you enjoyed the soundtrack ^-^ I actually love making music more than I do writing nowadays xD To the point that I think next year, I'm just gonna try and join a team as a composer if anyone will have me cos I keep kinda running myself into the ground being project lead giving myself waaaay too much work x3 I was working 15-18 hour days for Spooktober, and that's just, well, daft tbh and I don't know why I put myself through that >.< (well, I do, because I have issues with obsession and tunnel vision thanks to my ASD xD) I think if I'm just focusing on making music, I'll have a much more relaxed time jamming for once! And it'll be a totally different experience to join someone else's team :3
Thank you so much again for taking the time to both play through the game and for such amazing feedback ^-^ I appreciate it more than I can even put into words and I'm sure the rest of the team do too! Also, right back at ya with the congratulations cos your team's project is an absolutely thrilling and funky bundle of fun <3
Omggg as soon as I saw you released a new game, you have no idea how fast I was to click the download button!! I really love your horror-romance story, it’s out of the box and very unique. The settings were very immersive and the voice actors did a really good job! The art is so unique and breathtaking as well!
Aww, well, that's super sweet of you ^-^ I'm glad you liked it even though it's quite mad, haha. I did wonder if it's maybe a mess cos sometimes I find it hard to organise all my random ideas into something that makes any sort of sense xD
It was certainly a lot of fun to work on, and it's thanks to having such an awesome team that everything came together in the end :3
Really appreciate you taking the time to play it and leave such a kind comment <3
I had such a blast with this one the music is so good (simon says has no right to be as good as it is) the art is just so well drawn and the story was just perfect getting all the endings & cgs was really enjoyable 10/10 this one was definitely one of if not my favorite game of yours<3 i feel bad for sorbet though :(
Makes me the happiest of bunnies to know you liked the soundtrack :3 I poured my soul into this one more than any other so far, haha. Tried really hard to think and plan it as like a whole soundtrack rather than just one track at a time like I usually do x3 So with any luck, it sounds like everything is supposed to in there as part of one big score!
That particular track was one of the few I played to my brother, and his feedback was an unimpressed face + the words "Why does it sound like Pirates of the Carribean gone to an EDM rave?" xD I had a hell of a lot of fun working on that track and that scene as a whole though, so that's what matters x3
Honestly, it's kind of a relief to hear you say it could be up there as a favourite of all my stuff cos I was saying to Lazy Polar Bear, I bet this one will be passed over by a lot of people the same as Limbo Line T_T I just had a bad feeling, haha. Cos it seems like a good percentage of the people who follow my projects only play the ones marked as dating sims >.< And it still bugs me that so many people don't check out Limbo Line, haha. So it would suck so much if people skipped this one too :(
So yeah, I really appreciate you playing this one! And I'm so glad you ended up liking it :3 Definitely wouldn't have been possible without such an awesome team!
funnily enough limbo line was the first game of yours that I had ever played and I loved it a lot all of the characters were so charming in their own ways (big props to the VA's for that) it stood out as really unique to me cause I'd never really played a visual novel with voice acting before. id say probably that it tunnel vision and apartment no.9 are my top 3 favorites of your games but its hard to choose they're all really good :3
Ah, man, if I could reach through the internet and give you a big hug, I would x3 Your top 3 are basically the 3 that get the least love, haha. Well, I guess it's too early to say for Tunnel Vision, but it wouldn't surprise me if it shares the same fate as poor Limbo Line >.<
I love all the stuff I've worked on over the years (well, besides Love in Lockdown, which can get in the bin x3) but I think maybe a lot of the people who follow me here are only really interested in Darling Duality >.< Which is great that they are interested in it at all and I appreciate that they are! But it does get disheartening when I see that often people don't look at my other projects x3 cos as much as I adore DD as a project, I have more love for all the ones you listed than I do for DD xD and from a dev point of view, I feel like they're all better games than DD too!
So yeah, I'm really glad that you've taken the time to check out some of my less-played stuff. It means a lot. So just thank you for being you I guess :3
I really like DD but its super sad that the other games don't really get the attention they deserve apartment no.9 and limbo line deserve way more love than they get they're so well done there were multiple times where I thought I had finally understood what was really going on and then i got hit with the narrative equivalent of a fast ball
Well, I'm glad that you at least have that opinion :3 That alone means a lot to me!
I think what you said is precisely why I think the ones you listed are better than DD, haha. I mean, sure, I'm gonna build on the story for DD, but right now, it's more like a dating sim/roleplay-y kinda thing without much substance. and that's why it constantly baffles me that that's the most downloaded one!
Whereas A9, LL, and this have proper stories x3 And I'm a sucker for a twist as a reader/player, so I will always think those things that have moments that really slap you round the face are more fun than those that don't xD
xD That is perfectly valid and I do not blame you for a single second for feeling that way, haha. In fact, I would happily put a mob together and help x3
Kinda just relieved to have the f*cker outta my head tbh! Now you guys can deal with that mess and get bullied instead of me :P
It is certainly blew my expectations! I got 3 of 5 endings, might have to see the walkthrough after this. You and your team deserve more recognition!
Very big accomplishment to complete this in one month. One thing I dislike about Unity is sometimes the click response feels unresponsive/slow, but I guess that's the engine limitation, not your fault.
I found out like an hour ago that the walkthrough was slightly wrong xD It was my fault >.< Myonette wrote it up perfectly, but she didn't include CGs because, at the time she wrote it, we weren't 100% sure how many of the planned CGs we'd actually manage to get finished. So I was updating the walkthrough last night to add all the CG unlocks into it, and clearly, I was just too tired and not thinking straight because I messed up on some of the last few and got the numbers the wrong way around >.< I've managed to correct both the page & downloadable versions now though, haha.
Anyways, that really means a lot :3 Thank you so much!
I still find it absolutely insane what can be achieved in just a month, haha. I always think I've worked my absolute hardest and that I couldn't possibly have done more, and then I start playing through other people's games and find they have stories like triple the length xD And I sit there thinking, hoooooly moly, that's just... wow!
Really though, I think anyone who manages to submit something playable in a month-long game jam should give themselves a huge pat on the back because it's a crazy thing to do when you consider how many people say they want to make a game/write a book, etc. and never end up doing it in their entire life x3
It does kind of feel like September just disappeared in the blink of an eye though! Not that I mind since October is my favourite month of the year :P
Yeeeeah, tbh, that does kinda bum me out about Unity >.< I'm no expert, so I never know if it's Unity's fault or something to do with Naninovel. All I know is that none of the games I've made with Nani in Unity run anywhere near as smoothly as people's Ren'Py games T_T and the load times for my Nani games on our potato laptop are just horrific. What takes 3 seconds on my PC will take 30 seconds to load on the potato :(
Spent most of today just trying to stay away from my PC and recover, but tomorrow, I'm gonna start a mega marathon of spooktober games :D So excited to play as much as possible!!
i've gotten through one ending so far and bothered rhime a million times and ohhh my goodness i love this game<3 i went for both fem voices this time and both voices are sooo pretty!! this unnerved me a lot and the interactive portions were honestly so cool, i made the mistake of playing simon says but it was still so interesting to go through
i also wanna take a bit to just say that the ost is AMAZING!!! i don't often really pay attention to background music in games but i really enjoyed this one. this was a great game to see released when i got home it's so good!! thank you for another beautiful creation
Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words as always <3
I'm in mega paranoid mode at the moment, terrified I uploaded the wrong builds or missed some horrific bug somehow, haha. So to know you reached an ending brings me some small amount of relief! My brain always convinces me that even if I test stuff over and over and don't encounter any issues, that there are still issues there somewhere, I just haven't found them yet x3
Glad you've been having fun with it so far ^-^ The whole cast did a phenomenal job! I'm just really proud of the team in general :3 It always amazes me at the end of jams when you see a game come together cos it's like, you know how it happened, you worked your butt off to make it, but it still somehow seems like a miracle that it's out there in the wild when at the start of the month it was just an idea xD
It brings me joy beyond words to hear you say that about the soundtrack ^-^ of all the osts I've worked on, I poured my soul into this more than any other, haha. I tried my best to see if I could create a soundtrack that was more cohesive cos like, with most of my soundtracks, I make each track without thinking too much about the soundtrack as a whole. I mean, I did kind of try to do some repeating motifs in the Bitter/Sweet one, and again in The Hostage, but I feel like there either wasn't enough time or the limitations of the jam meant I couldn't quite achieve what I was hoping to x3 But with this one, I finally feel like I made a proper soundtrack for the first time, haha.
It's not often I'm content with my own work, but I'm genuinely proud of the soundtrack this time x3 if people came here to say my writing sucked but they liked the soundtrack, I'd still be a happy bunny xD
Thank YOU for being so sweet again :3 I really appreciate all your kind words as always <3
← Return to nightmare
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SPOILER
i like bugging the bug man :)
ALSO OMFG THIS WAS SO WACK????? LIKE DAMN BUT LIKE REALLY GOOD ALSO FUCK SIMON YOU CREEPY LIL THING JUST LET ME WIN THE GAME >:(((
Hehe, glad to hear it :P Sorry about Simon though x3 He is a bit of little shit, haha. Thanks so much for playing <3
another amazing GEM from you! I love this so much. You spooked me haha~ (Just in case, this contains spoilers so stop reading if u didn’t play the game yet!) So I even went to extras and heard all what you have to say (Don’t ever think is annoying because I enjoy listening to those!) you got me interested there, I want to go to UK just to be spooked lmao. And try your best to stay healthy when doing a JAM haha 🩵 Thank you for this and everyone who participated in this game too! (The bloopers were funny too lmaoo)
Aww, thank you so much for playing this one too ^-^ So, so glad you had fun with it!
Hehe, we do have some good spooks in the UK :D I have no idea how they compare to the rest of the world cos I’m not rich enough to be able to travel abroad and check out different scare attractions in other countries (though, that would be a dream come true if I can someday x3)
I’m thinking I might just try and join another team for Spooktober Jam next year and maybe make a soundtrack for someone else’s project if anyone will have me cos I think that’s the only way for me to be a bit healthier while working on a jam, haha. I did try to make myself work healthier this time and give myself less to do, but that all fell apart pretty quickly and I ran myself into the ground again as usual xD
Thank YOU for playing it and leaving such a lovely comment <3 Hope you have a good rest of the spooky season ^-^
Hope you enjoy the spooky season too! :’3 And I hope you can join a team haha! So you don’t need to overwork yourself again🩵🩵 Looking forward to play more game you made/participate in! Thanks a lot!
This games is perfection, the story, the art and there's a walkthrough too! Congratulations guys good job I have amazing time playing this game 😊💗
Aww, that means a lot that you think so! Thank you so much for playing it and for taking the time to leave such a sweet comment ^-^
!!SPOILERS!!
Wow, truly came across something special! It was a real delight that, after the first time getting kicked out, I found him waiting with tea LMAO! The voice actors really portrayed the characters well (obsessed with Rhimes wheezing 'heh's lol), and though I feel bad for Linnet (Man, the Peekaboo ending and the gift/'don't come back or else' ending are BRUTAL) it was fun challenging Rhime and wondering what he would do next! (I can fix him LMAO,,,,,) the art is absolutely gorgeous (Rhime flipping off screen is my favourite) and the whole UI and moth theme is so beautiful!!!
Amazing job, props to you and the team! (ᵔ◡ᵔ)*:･ﾟ
Hehe, thank you very much for taking the time to play this one and leave such a kind comment :3
It really wouldn’t be the same without all the amazing voice actors who lent their time and talent to the project! They’re the ones who really breathe life into the characters with their epic performances :D
So glad you liked the VA and the art :3 I’m so proud of everything the team managed to accomplish, and humbled to have been able to work with such an awesome bunch of people! That’s why jams like this are so special! Cos I could never manage to make something like this on my own, that’s for sure. I know there are plenty of talented devs out there who are able to create masterpieces solo cos they can write and draw, but I’m not one of them, haha. I can’t draw to save my life T_T And even though I’m normally a solo dev, I much prefer being part of a team! That feels like it’s where the real magic happens, haha.
Thank you so much for all your kind words <3
I was not prepared for where this game was going to take me but I was so delighted to be along for this ride until the end - a hauntingly beautiful, deeply unsettling aesthetic that never fails to grip me-
Woo! I’m glad you had fun with the journey :D Thanks so much for checking it out! And for such a lovely comment too :3 That really means a lot ^-^
You never fail to amaze me! Love the atsethics of this game. well done marionette. cant wait to play the rest
Aww, I’m glad you decided to check this one out too! Your videos are always a lot of fun :D Thanks so much for giving this one a go <3
AHHH this game was so good!! I was so surprised with the endings, this was so cool and fun! I'm so glad I finally was able to play!
So glad you had fun with this one!! Thanks so much for playing ^-^
The art,story,osts everything is absolutely stunning *chefs kiss*
But I just have a question:
SPOILERS!!!
Where should I put the password 'Nightmare'?
I couldnt managed to find it T-T
Yeah same, really wanted to try it out. :(
Thanks so much for checking out the game! Glad you've had fun with it ^-^
I'm sorry my reply is brief >.< I'm away from home atm with limited internet and only my phone to type on, but to answer your question, if you download the extras file from the game page, you should be able to find what you're looking for from there :3
Okay, I will check it out. Thanks <3
I think I got all the way to the end, and pretty much got shut down in the end? It was fun, bizarre and at some point it just made me actually genuinely creeped out at what was happening if there was any. I did a whole stream of the playthrough on my Youtube.
Simon, Rhime was just utterly terrifying, for the most part, both in completely different ways, and the voice acting for this is pretty amazing. Simon was the best for how much that voice creeped me out and I wanted to punch him at a few times, lol, I was like, don't make me play Simon says, but somehow, I feel that if hangman was ever actually played, I'll come to regret it too.
The ending on my end was just surreal, and quite meta, very very meta is a much better word and term for it. Although I do feel that I regret playing this after I was just going through an entire week of little to no sleep so my reflexes are awful. And the moment where it kind of revealed what happened, and then Simon just goes all the way is just the best and most unnerving part where I can't even tear my eyes off from it from that point.
Amazing, don't play it when you're sleepy though, like me, or more like half asleep.
Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I’ve been away from home going to visit different spooky attractions, and then I got ill in the process, haha. Caught some sort of nasty cold from somewhere!
Anyways, thank you so much for checking it out and for streaming it on your YouTube <3
I don’t blame you for wanting to punch Simon xD I certainly did while testing, haha. Glad you found parts of it creepy cos I can never tell if something is genuinely creepy or not since I consume so much horror I’m pretty much immune to it at this point x3 Thank you again for all your kind words! I really appreciate you taking the time to play the game ^-^
Great game so far -- I haven't finished playing it yet.
So far I've finished the route R.I.P after sending our well loved protagonist to his death (Cause why not). Unfortunately I'm a little confused about the 'space' I'm told I've given by accessing the first window. I'm curious as to what that means? Tried going back through the game a few times, had a look at the files and a brief scroll down the game page (Not to precise) to find what he was talking about? I really want to have a little peak at it before going onto other routes which is unfortunate. Any ideas anyone?
Despite this the game is really good, while I do believe some small things could've been better executed (Due to personal preference) overall it's a great game with a good storyline and really creative and well made considering the little amount of time spent on it. I look forward to seeing other works~!
Sorry my reply is a bit slow >.< I'm away from home atm with limited internet available and only my phone to type on (walking in the Peak District with my pops + heading to Alton Towers for Scarefest x3) and most of the time since we left I've had no signal at all, haha.
Really glad you've had fun with the game so far ^-^ Thanks so much for taking the time to check it out!
Hehe, that's an interesting choice to go for first time but I approve of the why not attitude :D
To find what you're looking for, download the extras file from the game page (it's a really small file) you should be able to go from there by following the instructions inside :3
I should probably update the walkthrough guide with a note at the end when I get home >.< I'll make an edit and add it to the bottom of the guide page, but itch won't allow me to mess with the post on mobile x3
Hope you get to have a brilliant weekend! :3
"Don't forget to feed the cat!"
An absolutely amazing horror experience from my favorite Spooktober writer!
First of all, the UI looks amazing. In the fact the whole game looks amazing. A total trip. And the sound design, perfect! The whole team did a amazing job. I tried both pairs of male and female sounding voices and they all were superb.I am in awe of the scale of the project and how you managed to direct all of it in one month!
SPOILERS BE BELOW HERE
My first reaction was: Oh yeah, cool horror story, you made me unreasonable invested into playing Simon Says just to rip out my heart, good job! Then I saw the "credits" and absolutely lost it when Li went "Who the fuck is Melancholy Marionette" and realized there is even more.
Going meta is kind of hard to pull off but it worked well for you. I could see people getting really annoyed by the game quitting itself and making it hard to see all the content. Though part of the charm is how unpredictable it is. It is what makes the game so amazing and a work of art. I just just hope people don't start to copy you. Only you can get away with these kind of shenanigan! My first play trough I just acted like myself and tried to be nice but it still ended with Li getting killed because I kept being persistent. The second time, I went full psycho. Yes, I went back and killed the cat. I just had to check if I could. And there was a CG for it! Oh, gosh! I hate you but also love you for that.
Thank you for making this game!
Weeell, this is some kinda spooky coincidence cos I just finished playing your Spooktober game and was typing up a comment on your page when my browser crashed (thankfully, I'd already copied most of it to a text doc before it happened, so I only lost like a sentence, haha) and when I reopened it, I saw an itch notification saying you'd commented here! Which means you officially beat me to it x3
Anyways, my brain is trying to refuse to compute that I could possibly be anyone's favourite Spooktober writer x3 I feel so vastly inferior to everyone, haha. But I feel incredibly honoured that you think that and wish I could give you a giant hug of appreciation!! Thank you so much for playing this one and for leaving such lovely feedback <3
I certainly couldn't have made the game that we did without everyone's help and amazing talent :3 It was a bit of a bumpy road in places, and there were times we thought we might have to resort to cutting out big chunks of the game, but we made it in the end. I think this might actually be my first-ever project where 100% of the art is original (none of it by me, of course, since I can't draw to save my life T_T) Cos usually, even when I've had the opportunity to work with awesome artists during other jams, I have still ended up using a few paid or free assets here and there. This time, aside from the fonts and a handful of edited asset pack sound effects, everything else was original stuff made for the jam by various folks on the team ^-^
That's so cool that you tried both pairs of voices too! There was a point where it was looking like it might only be possible to get the BxB pairing fully finished in time for the jam deadline, but thankfully, with a lot of work and not much sleep, we got the full lot of voice combos in there, haha.
!!!There be spoilers below!!!
Hehe, weeeell, you were supposed to be able to play hangman as well as Simon Says, but that was one of the things that very swiftly got slashed with the scope knife cos I realised there was no way we'd have time to add 2 minigames, and also didn't wanna add to the list of needed UI assets >.< So yeah, instead Rhime just has a convenient headache if you try to play hangman xD
Speaking of managing to get stuff done, that point you mentioned about the "credits" well, we had a backup plan to end the game just before there if things went drastically wrong and it wasn't possible to actually finish the remaining sections of the game in time for the end of the jam, haha. I even had an extremely rough alternate draft of the hospital scene where Rhime's reasoning for what happened prior to that is similar but different x3
I would've been gutted if we had no choice but to go with that alternate version because it would've meant ditching the whole idea of Rhime being a deity and all the meta stuff, but it was better than not having an emergency backup plan at all I guess!
I totally agree about going meta being hard to pull off, and I'm still not entirely convinced we managed it here without being somewhat cringy in the process, haha, but it was a fun experiment to try out :3 I haven't done any forced quits in my projects since Impostor I think, and that was years ago back when I was still using Tyranobuilder!
Aaaand, I can also see people being annoyed by the shutdowns as well, yeah x3 In fact, I annoyed myself when I tried to playtest on my potato laptop because on my PC, the game launches pretty fast, but on my potato, it takes like 30+ seconds to launch sooo, it's kinda painful trying to get some of those endings when you have to keep re-launching the game on a terrible system T_T I really don't think using Naninovel/Unity helps the situation either cos I'm sure it would launch and load waaaay faster if it were a Ren'Py game!
I'm glad that you at least found it amusing more than annoying though :3 Tbh, it wouldn't surprise me if something similar had already been done in some form by someone else! Especially with how meta stuff seems to be getting more popular these days. With any luck though, there's nothing tooooo similar out there >.<
xD I love that you did a full psycho playthrough, haha. That's like what I do when I play stuff like Mass Effect, haha. Always pick the choices that come naturally to me on a first play (usually the 'good' choices), then 2nd play, full renegade :P
Yeeeeah, the cat was a bit of a contentious thing x3 I even said that while a CG would be cool for the shock factor, it might be too upsetting for a lot of people, so maybe it would be better to just have Li close their eyes, and handle that scene in darkness with just SFX in the hope it would somehow make it a bit less grim... but then NeonSaphir drew the CG anyways, and there was no way I was gonna waste it, so we just thought, screw it, it's not like the player is forced to take that action, so let's go for it x3 I have a bad feeling that the animal death content warning might put a lot of people off of even playing the game though >.<
And thank YOU for playing it and for being so sweet and supportive! It means a lot and I really appreciate it :3 Gonna go splurge my ramble about your game in your comments now! Mmmwwaahahahahahahaha :D
Absolutely stunning! This VN is truly full of surprises... which I won't detail here, but needless to say, how clever the writing and structure was brought a big smile to my face more than once! The sprites are great, and there's some really cool backgrounds and visual effects to go along with them. The voice actors all did a great job (I giggled every time at Simon's delivery of "Meow like a kitty cat") and the music was wonderful! I'm going to be listening to that OST for a while longer, I think.
I also gotta mention how much I appreciated being able to choose not only Linnet's pronouns, but their voice as well. That's some extra attention to detail that not every game goes the extra mile for, but you did, and it made me very happy! I'm amazed that your team made something so interesting and well put together in such a short time. It's a real achievement! I'll be recommending this one to my friends for sure! ^^
Hooray for spoopy surprises :D
I felt so bad asking the voice actors for so many meows x3 But then when they all delivered, I was blown away at how amazingly they went for it! I tried to explain to my brother how happy I was to get such a great variety of meows for the project, and he just gave me an unimpressed look like he often does, and said something along the lines of "What is wrong with you?" >.< haha.
So glad you liked the OST cos I poured my soul into it x3 I'm very rarely proud of or satisfied with whatever my contributions are to a project, but that soundtrack is one of the few things I at least feel content with for once xD I'm absolutely proud of the team as a whole though :3
To me, that's one of the most magical things about Spooktober Jam in general, the fact that you can team up with complete strangers and somehow make a game together just stuns me every year! (Well, not everyone on the team was a stranger x3 but a fair few were people I'd never met before who I was only able to team up with thanks to the jam recruitment channel on DevTalk!) It's such a cool thing to be able to do, and I love it a hell of a lot more than solo dev :D
Hearing you say you appreciate the pronoun and voice options for Linnet makes all the sleepless nights extra worth it ^-^ I can't lie, it did reach a point in the jam where I was beginning to regret the decision to have 2 voices for Linnet & 2 for Rhime xD Well, not regret having them because it was important to me, but regret trying to squeeze them in for the jam deadline >.< Because we were supposed to have an audio engineer on the team who was gonna help me cut voice lines, so I figured the workload for VA wouldn't be too bad if we split it between us, but then she got ill right as the jam began and I wound up having to do it all myself x3
The sensible thing to do at that point would have been to decide to add the remaining voice options post-submission deadline in an update! And I did think it might end up coming to that. In the end though, I decided to just push myself harder to get it all added in time. It would have felt wrong to not get it all in there because, while I never expect to win anything personally, I at least like to hope the folks I've teamed up with might stand a chance for their individual contributions, and I really didn't want to deprive the VAs the opportunity of competing for best voice actor when they'd put so much time and effort into recording their lines!
I hope the team sees all your kind words cos I'm sure it will make em all smile the same as I have while reading your incredibly sweet feedback ^-^ I really appreciate you taking the time to check the game out and spending the time to write such a thoughtful comment too! It means the world to me after I spent the month running myself into the ground to get it done x3 and I couldn't have done it without such an amazing team :3
I did manage to apply the scope knife in places, which is something I've previously failed at, but I definitely need to give myself less to do in the future, haha. Cos as people keep reminding me, skipping sleep and meals because I'm working on a game jam is not an acceptable excuse xD
If your friends do end up checking it out, fingers crossed they have fun as opposed to thinking, what on earth is this insanity?! x3
Took me a while to play this one, doed to the warnings... but saying this openly for anyone next, no, you don't need to harm the kitty.
Now, as for the game... what, just what did I just play? That was such a surrealistic trip, going from a to c and to W all the way back to n and m. I didn't do well on the timed options, and when the credits rolled I was like... allright, I've got an ending, let's wait to reload...
*But no*
It kept going, and going, it felt like a final fantasy final boss, constantly changing forms lol, then I realized I was still playing, and there were still choices to be taken. So I pressed onwards, and quickly realized Rhime was breaking the 4th wall, and that's when it got even MORE interesting.
I just LOVED the whole dialogue when I told Rhime to let Linnet live. Every word you wrote for the player to said, is what I wanted to say. And that touch of the game shutting down and having to open it again... just the cherry on top of what was going on. That CG with Rhime and Linnet happily playing cards was worth all the nightmares!
As for the technical details... I really have nothing to say. Just, flawless in every area. Art, dialogue, VA, programming (heck, I was surprised to see it being a Unity game, and even more how WELL achieved it was, I know first hand how *hard* that is), and I really enjoyed the music too, felt like a nice companion allong the journey!
For real, this game was outstanding. Well done you all! I'm yet to try out some more secrets, so thank you for dropping that walkthrough!
I did wonder if I should put some sort of notice up that animal death is totally avoidable x3 because I worry that having that warning there might completely put some people off from even trying the game >.< which would suck if that were the case :(
Anyways, thank you so much for checking it out and for leaving such an epic review ^-^ I almost cried when I read through it x3 Also, I adore Final Fantasy even those bosses do drive me crazy, so that comparison made me smile, haha.
I guess I will write the rest under spoilers :3
SPOILERS BE BELOW HERE!!!
That’s honestly a huge relief to hear about the player’s lines after telling Rhime to let Linnet live! Cos I kinda agonised over that, haha. There’s no way on earth I could actually predict what people would want to say, and if it wasn’t even close to how someone playing was feeling at the time, it would kinda kill the immersion if it’s supposed to be you, the player speaking, but everything coming out is at odds with how you actually feel >.< In the end, I just tried to go with how I’d feel if it were me having a go at Rhime x3
So glad you got what we considered to be the happiest of all the endings after going through all that :D The very moment I saw that CG finished I just thought, ahh, it’s so nice to have something warm and welcoming in the game when everything else is so bleak xD
And again, it’s a massive relief to hear that things were smooth on the technical side because it’s always my biggest fear >.< haha. I’d be horrified if a team delivered amazing assets and then I messed up putting it all together!
Regarding programming and Unity, I mean, I can only thank Naninovel for that! Had I been using Unity without it, there just wouldn’t have been a game to submit at all xD I’m not even a programmer x3 I can only get by on helpful scripting languages for folks like me who get headaches from trying to write proper code, haha. I still have niggles with both Naninovel and Unity, but I do think Naninovel is a godsend for people like me who are too lazy to learn to code properly >.< Well, I’m not too lazy to learn, it’s more that I tried to but hated it so much I knew I’d never want to make games if that was what I had to do to get them working xD Naninovel makes it just about bearable for me, haha.
Anyways, with any luck, the rest of the team will see all your kind words and smile cos they certainly made my day better just reading what you wrote ^-^ It’s always nice to get feedback from other devs who know just how hard you’ve worked your butt off to get something done :D
I have to thank our editor for writing up that walkthrough cos I certainly wouldn’t have had the brainpower to do it by the end of the jam x3
Thank you again for taking the time to write up such lovely feedback!! It's very much appreciated <3
Oh, definetely on the same boat there. Can use the program, but can't code either, and even if I try to learn, I really don't like it so yeah, know how that goes lol
Then my compliments to the entire team again!!! Had lots of fun!!!
(Note: SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW so you may want to scroll past if you're thinking of playing this game!)
Being a fan of the Saw movie series and psychological thrillers in general, I enjoy horror stories that involve waking up in locked rooms with no memory of the manner of getting there and being forced to play death games. This is why I was especially excited to check this out. Once the meta aspects started creeping in, I started to suspect that the game was going to take an unexpected turn. But this suspicion could not have prepared me for the rollercoaster ride that followed!
I tend not to scrutinize content warnings before downloading games because I generally don't get triggered by the usual horror fare, but the moment I saw animal death among the warnings upon launching, I started to second-guess my choice to download this. However, I decided to soldier on. When I arrived at the relevant choice, I was like NOPE. ABSOLUTELY NOT. I'm ready to die and ready to kill any other humans, but I am NOT killing any animals. I was so grateful that the game didn't force me to go down that route though I wouldn't have complained either since it was my own fault for not reading the warnings too closely. I may have a problem because seeing the bloodied mouth of the animal in question made me go: "Aww, how adorable!"
I figured out midway that the names were anagrams so I was excited to see if my knowledge would aid me during a game of Hangman, but I didn't get to play that one, at least during my playthrough.
The Simon Says game was super fun and thrilling! I don't do to well with timed choices and time pressure in general, but a generous use of the save slots got me through it! When the game turned deadly at some point, I actually felt the terror twisting my stomach, but I could not look away. I was so riveted by all the occurrences.
Once I arrived at my ending, the game shut down on its own. Upon relaunching, the screen just stays black. I skimmed the walkthrough, but I'm still not sure what's going on. My computer is clunky and old so it could be an issue with my device. Regardless, I did thoroughly enjoy my playthrough so I don't feel dissatisfied with the experience as a whole.
Other assorted aspects of this project I enjoyed: the art; the inclusive customization options; the voice acting, especially the expressiveness of Rhime's masculine option (I'm not somebody who specifically looks for voice acting when choosing what to play but it's always a positive feature to have); the bright, almost psychedelic color palette; the enigmatic and intriguing look of the game page; and the soundtrack, which suited each scene wonderfully. I see that the writer also composed the soundtrack, which is such an impressive feat! You should be very proud of yourself!
Overall, this is a very well-made and entertaining VN. Congratulations to everybody in the team for doing such an amazing job!
(Note: Copy-pasting this comment from the Spooktober VN Jam 2023 page.)
(Also copy/pasted from the jam page cos it would be a bit weird if I responded to this differently here xD)
Holy moly, thanks so much for taking the time to write up such a detailed review/feedback! I massively appreciate that :3 I thought I was writing a lot in what I was typing, but you've definitely done waaaay better than me, haha. Reading what you've written, I feel like maybe I should've expanded more on my thoughts on each story I've read so far! Cos I feel like I've been too brief with just summarising >.<
Anyways, *high five* for the Saw love :D Hope you get to see the new one if you want to to! I was planning to this week but I've been too busy and exhausted, so hoping to catch it next week instead :3
I guess I better say everything else under spoilers x3
Ahoy there! There be spoilers below!!!
I know what you mean about content warnings cos I'm generally unphased by most things in the content I consume x3 It's very hard to upset or disturb me because I've consumed so much horror throughout my life that I'm pretty desensitised! That one was one I was worried about when thinking of players though, and as a player myself, if a game gave me a choice to do that, I wouldn't pick it, I would also kill a human character before an animal one if it came down to it xD Tbh, I had the same reaction when I first saw the finished sprite for bloody-mouthed Sorbet x3 LPB made her such a cute kitty, haha.
That's so cool that you figured out the names were anagrams! <3 But yeeeah, hangman as a minigame was one of the victims of the scope knife xD Fem voices almost were too because I wasn't anticipating having to cut all the voice audio and add fx myself this time since we were hoping to have my best friend's sister join us for all things audio-editing and SFX design, but she got ill for the month, so, sadly, that didn't happen. It was definitely a struggle to deal with, but I'm glad I still managed to get it in there in time for the jam deadline cos it would've been extremely unfair to the VAs if I hadn't :(
So glad you had fun with Simon Says at least :3 I'm not really a lover of minigames or puzzles myself x3 so it's always really difficult to know if I've done stuff like that justice as a dev when I dislike it as a player, haha. I really wanted to try and include something like that though just to attempt to add more jeopardy to Linnet's escape!
That sucks so badly that you couldn't get past the eventual relaunch though :( It sounds horrible to say, but I hope it was cos your computer is clunky and old xD Just because I tested it on my PC and my potato laptop, and most of the team have played it by this point too, and none of us had an issue getting it to work, so if it is a problem with the game, I imagine it'll be a nightmare to try and figure out the cause and fix it T_T
More than that though, I wish Unity wasn't so slow on older systems >.< because I'm guessing that's what the issue is :( I don't suppose you remember if it took a while to launch the game the very first time you started it up? And if you experienced kinda long load times at the points where there were loading screens? Aaaand, when you tried to relaunch and got a black screen, how long did you wait until giving up on it?
You don't have to answer that btw cos I imagine you're probably busy! I thought I would ask just to see if it's maybe the same problem I had when I tested it on my potato laptop x3 Basically, on my half-decent PC that I made the game on, startup only takes about 3 seconds whether it's first time or relaunching for story purposes, and load times are around 5-10 seconds on loading screens.
BUT
On my potato laptop, it's a different story >.< Startup takes around 30 seconds, loading times on load screens take between 33-45 seconds :( And relaunches for story purposes take between 30-50 seconds on a black screen like you mentioned T_T
It all loads eventually, but it's so, so SLOW, haha. I get the splash screen come up pretty fast on the potato, but then it stays on a black screen for ages before everything actually kicks in. It would be interesting to know if it would have eventually loaded on yours after a considerable amount of time like it does on my potato, or if your computer just straight up says nope and nothing will ever happen no matter how long you wait >.< Cos I firmly believe my potato is more potato-y than other people's potatos xD The stupid thing takes around 15 minutes to actually boot up from sleep or shut down, haha. So I kinda use that as a way of thinking, well, if it works on this awful thing, surely it'll work on anything x3
It's an issue I've noticed with everything I've ever made using Naninovel/Unity :( And when I've asked about it to try and improve performance on potato systems, I've never gotten further than the answer 'It's just Unity' >.< Which is beyond frustrating, haha. It makes Ren'Py seem vastly superior because games made using that run much more smoothly on my potato (unless they include animation like blinking/lip flaps and stuff, in which case, my potato just freezes up and dies xD)
But yeah, it's especially irritating in the case of this project because only 1 of the 5 endings can be reached without relaunch >.< I suppose while I'm asking questions, I should probably ask which ending branch you were on? Just to make sure it was one of the intentional crashes you reached and not a random unintentional one that we somehow missed in testing x3 Again though, please don't feel as though you have to answer!
Anyways, I'm glad it didn't spoil it for you at least x3 It is still really annoying though that I can't seem to find a way to improve performance in any of my Naninovel games :( Funnily enough, I had the same issue with my older Tyranobuilder ones too! My first game took something like over a minute to launch on my potato laptop o.O And I always try my best to optimise assets, but that doesn't seem to make any difference to overall performance, just total download size >.<
What confuses me even more is that, with Tunnel Vision for example, on my potato, once things have eventually loaded, everything runs really smoothly, like no lag on button presses or with transitions and stuff like I get when I try to play some Ren'Py made games on it, but those launch and load times with my Naninovel made projects are beyond horrific instead T_T
I'm sure Philip will be over the moon to hear your thoughts on his voice acting if he reads this :D And same goes for LPB for the fact that you pointed out the colour palette cos she had a very specific vision for the artistic direction of stuff :3
I'm also a happy bunny to hear you enjoyed the soundtrack ^-^ I actually love making music more than I do writing nowadays xD To the point that I think next year, I'm just gonna try and join a team as a composer if anyone will have me cos I keep kinda running myself into the ground being project lead giving myself waaaay too much work x3 I was working 15-18 hour days for Spooktober, and that's just, well, daft tbh and I don't know why I put myself through that >.< (well, I do, because I have issues with obsession and tunnel vision thanks to my ASD xD) I think if I'm just focusing on making music, I'll have a much more relaxed time jamming for once! And it'll be a totally different experience to join someone else's team :3
Thank you so much again for taking the time to both play through the game and for such amazing feedback ^-^ I appreciate it more than I can even put into words and I'm sure the rest of the team do too! Also, right back at ya with the congratulations cos your team's project is an absolutely thrilling and funky bundle of fun <3
Omggg as soon as I saw you released a new game, you have no idea how fast I was to click the download button!! I really love your horror-romance story, it’s out of the box and very unique. The settings were very immersive and the voice actors did a really good job! The art is so unique and breathtaking as well!
Aww, well, that's super sweet of you ^-^ I'm glad you liked it even though it's quite mad, haha. I did wonder if it's maybe a mess cos sometimes I find it hard to organise all my random ideas into something that makes any sort of sense xD
It was certainly a lot of fun to work on, and it's thanks to having such an awesome team that everything came together in the end :3
Really appreciate you taking the time to play it and leave such a kind comment <3
I had such a blast with this one the music is so good (simon says has no right to be as good as it is) the art is just so well drawn and the story was just perfect getting all the endings & cgs was really enjoyable 10/10 this one was definitely one of if not my favorite game of yours<3 i feel bad for sorbet though :(
Woo! \^0^/ So happy to hear that <3
Makes me the happiest of bunnies to know you liked the soundtrack :3 I poured my soul into this one more than any other so far, haha. Tried really hard to think and plan it as like a whole soundtrack rather than just one track at a time like I usually do x3 So with any luck, it sounds like everything is supposed to in there as part of one big score!
That particular track was one of the few I played to my brother, and his feedback was an unimpressed face + the words "Why does it sound like Pirates of the Carribean gone to an EDM rave?" xD I had a hell of a lot of fun working on that track and that scene as a whole though, so that's what matters x3
Honestly, it's kind of a relief to hear you say it could be up there as a favourite of all my stuff cos I was saying to Lazy Polar Bear, I bet this one will be passed over by a lot of people the same as Limbo Line T_T I just had a bad feeling, haha. Cos it seems like a good percentage of the people who follow my projects only play the ones marked as dating sims >.< And it still bugs me that so many people don't check out Limbo Line, haha. So it would suck so much if people skipped this one too :(
So yeah, I really appreciate you playing this one! And I'm so glad you ended up liking it :3 Definitely wouldn't have been possible without such an awesome team!
#justice4sorbet >.<
funnily enough limbo line was the first game of yours that I had ever played and I loved it a lot all of the characters were so charming in their own ways (big props to the VA's for that) it stood out as really unique to me cause I'd never really played a visual novel with voice acting before. id say probably that it tunnel vision and apartment no.9 are my top 3 favorites of your games but its hard to choose they're all really good :3
Ah, man, if I could reach through the internet and give you a big hug, I would x3 Your top 3 are basically the 3 that get the least love, haha. Well, I guess it's too early to say for Tunnel Vision, but it wouldn't surprise me if it shares the same fate as poor Limbo Line >.<
I love all the stuff I've worked on over the years (well, besides Love in Lockdown, which can get in the bin x3) but I think maybe a lot of the people who follow me here are only really interested in Darling Duality >.< Which is great that they are interested in it at all and I appreciate that they are! But it does get disheartening when I see that often people don't look at my other projects x3 cos as much as I adore DD as a project, I have more love for all the ones you listed than I do for DD xD and from a dev point of view, I feel like they're all better games than DD too!
So yeah, I'm really glad that you've taken the time to check out some of my less-played stuff. It means a lot. So just thank you for being you I guess :3
I really like DD but its super sad that the other games don't really get the attention they deserve apartment no.9 and limbo line deserve way more love than they get they're so well done there were multiple times where I thought I had finally understood what was really going on and then i got hit with the narrative equivalent of a fast ball
Well, I'm glad that you at least have that opinion :3 That alone means a lot to me!
I think what you said is precisely why I think the ones you listed are better than DD, haha. I mean, sure, I'm gonna build on the story for DD, but right now, it's more like a dating sim/roleplay-y kinda thing without much substance. and that's why it constantly baffles me that that's the most downloaded one!
Whereas A9, LL, and this have proper stories x3 And I'm a sucker for a twist as a reader/player, so I will always think those things that have moments that really slap you round the face are more fun than those that don't xD
Oh my god that jerk. Why. I wish I could reach through the screen and fight [REDACTED] personally.
xD That is perfectly valid and I do not blame you for a single second for feeling that way, haha. In fact, I would happily put a mob together and help x3
Kinda just relieved to have the f*cker outta my head tbh! Now you guys can deal with that mess and get bullied instead of me :P
Looks beautiful, will share my thought after play it
Glad you think so :3 Hope you end up having fun with it!
It is certainly blew my expectations! I got 3 of 5 endings, might have to see the walkthrough after this. You and your team deserve more recognition!
Very big accomplishment to complete this in one month. One thing I dislike about Unity is sometimes the click response feels unresponsive/slow, but I guess that's the engine limitation, not your fault.
I found out like an hour ago that the walkthrough was slightly wrong xD It was my fault >.< Myonette wrote it up perfectly, but she didn't include CGs because, at the time she wrote it, we weren't 100% sure how many of the planned CGs we'd actually manage to get finished. So I was updating the walkthrough last night to add all the CG unlocks into it, and clearly, I was just too tired and not thinking straight because I messed up on some of the last few and got the numbers the wrong way around >.< I've managed to correct both the page & downloadable versions now though, haha.
Anyways, that really means a lot :3 Thank you so much!
I still find it absolutely insane what can be achieved in just a month, haha. I always think I've worked my absolute hardest and that I couldn't possibly have done more, and then I start playing through other people's games and find they have stories like triple the length xD And I sit there thinking, hoooooly moly, that's just... wow!
Really though, I think anyone who manages to submit something playable in a month-long game jam should give themselves a huge pat on the back because it's a crazy thing to do when you consider how many people say they want to make a game/write a book, etc. and never end up doing it in their entire life x3
It does kind of feel like September just disappeared in the blink of an eye though! Not that I mind since October is my favourite month of the year :P
Yeeeeah, tbh, that does kinda bum me out about Unity >.< I'm no expert, so I never know if it's Unity's fault or something to do with Naninovel. All I know is that none of the games I've made with Nani in Unity run anywhere near as smoothly as people's Ren'Py games T_T and the load times for my Nani games on our potato laptop are just horrific. What takes 3 seconds on my PC will take 30 seconds to load on the potato :(
Spent most of today just trying to stay away from my PC and recover, but tomorrow, I'm gonna start a mega marathon of spooktober games :D So excited to play as much as possible!!
i've gotten through one ending so far and bothered rhime a million times and ohhh my goodness i love this game<3 i went for both fem voices this time and both voices are sooo pretty!! this unnerved me a lot and the interactive portions were honestly so cool, i made the mistake of playing simon says but it was still so interesting to go through
i also wanna take a bit to just say that the ost is AMAZING!!! i don't often really pay attention to background music in games but i really enjoyed this one. this was a great game to see released when i got home it's so good!! thank you for another beautiful creation
Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words as always <3
I'm in mega paranoid mode at the moment, terrified I uploaded the wrong builds or missed some horrific bug somehow, haha. So to know you reached an ending brings me some small amount of relief! My brain always convinces me that even if I test stuff over and over and don't encounter any issues, that there are still issues there somewhere, I just haven't found them yet x3
Glad you've been having fun with it so far ^-^ The whole cast did a phenomenal job! I'm just really proud of the team in general :3 It always amazes me at the end of jams when you see a game come together cos it's like, you know how it happened, you worked your butt off to make it, but it still somehow seems like a miracle that it's out there in the wild when at the start of the month it was just an idea xD
It brings me joy beyond words to hear you say that about the soundtrack ^-^ of all the osts I've worked on, I poured my soul into this more than any other, haha. I tried my best to see if I could create a soundtrack that was more cohesive cos like, with most of my soundtracks, I make each track without thinking too much about the soundtrack as a whole. I mean, I did kind of try to do some repeating motifs in the Bitter/Sweet one, and again in The Hostage, but I feel like there either wasn't enough time or the limitations of the jam meant I couldn't quite achieve what I was hoping to x3 But with this one, I finally feel like I made a proper soundtrack for the first time, haha.
It's not often I'm content with my own work, but I'm genuinely proud of the soundtrack this time x3 if people came here to say my writing sucked but they liked the soundtrack, I'd still be a happy bunny xD
Thank YOU for being so sweet again :3 I really appreciate all your kind words as always <3
Idk if im strong enough to play this game if the cat dies, but its so gorgeous :')))
Glad you think so :3
SPOILERS
The cat's death can be completely avoided ^-^