Posted March 13, 2023 by melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
Okay, so, there's a lot to say here and it's going to take me a few days to type it out because my dominant arm is currently broken in multiple places x3 I wanted to make a fancier post with a celebratory image or something, but I can't really use my PC right now, nor can I type properly on my phone, so this will have to do! I'll explain more about what happened to my arm further down if you really want to know xD but I won't ramble about it first cos there are more important things to say :3
Thank You ^-^
So yeah, firstly, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has downloaded and played Bitter/Sweet so far ^-^ And an extra thank you to everyone who was kind enough to leave a lovely comment and/or 5* rating for the game!
It's the first time I've ever released a project that has managed to reach 1000+ downloads in 3 days :3 So it's one of those milestone-type things that really means a lot to me! Especially considering the fact that I've been making games for a few years now and have released quite a lot for various game jams.
It can sometimes get disheartening to pour my soul into something and work my butt off to get it done in time for a jam deadline, only to release it into the wild and watch it get passed over xD Take Dawn of the Damned, for example... I released that for last year's Spooktober VN Jam, but it only has 2400 total downloads and 25 ratings x3 and some of my other projects have been out for over a year, yet are still sat on less than 1000 total downloads. I see other devs release demos that accumulate hundreds of ratings within mere days, leaving me sitting there thinking, wtf am I doing wrong? Haha.
I've been completely blown away by all the kind comments and stuff to do with this project :3 And I'd be mad not to try and plug Limbo Line here if you enjoyed Bitter/Sweet, because it's got the same lead artist (plus art from other awesome artists too!) and is one of my most overlooked projects despite being my personal favourite x3 So yeah *pokes you* go check it out if you haven't already :P
Oh, and a quick note on ratings just for anyone who doesn't realise - anything less than 5* is actually kind of damaging to a project's visibility on itch because it makes it more difficult to discover in searches >.< It's silly really because a 4* or 3* rating should be considered a good thing, but sadly, with the way itch works, if you rate less than 5* it's more damaging than not rating at all in most cases. I only say this because a few people have rated the game 2* despite commenting that they enjoyed it or thought it was well-made, and I'm guessing most people probably don't realise how much that can impact a game's visibility in searches x3 It's daft because it means devs basically have to ask for 5* ratings even if that doesn't accurately reflect how a player would rate the game >.<
OST & Blue Blythe Route Answers :3
While I'm here, I also want to answer a couple of quick questions that have been asked under reviews/ratings where itch doesn't allow me to reply >.< I don't know why it only lets you respond to comments and not to reviews still.
Regarding Bitter/Sweet's original music tracks:
I will be releasing all the original tracks I made on YouTube as soon as I can :3 And supporters on Ko-fi & Patreon will be able to download the OST in the form of the higher quality wav files once I'm able to upload them. I'd hoped to be able to do that sometime this week, but now that my arm is buggered, it's probably not going to happen for at least a few weeks now >.<
Regarding blue Blythe's route release:
I don't have a concrete release date that I can give, unfortunately, but it's something I absolutely want to work on at some point :3 It's just hard to say when it will be completed because both Lazy Polar Bear and I are busy with other projects + with me now being out of action, I probably won't even be able to do any dev work at all over the next month >.<
I think that was the two main queries anyhow :3 And I can only apologise if you've messaged me or sent comments that I haven't replied to yet. I'm still going to attempt to type stuff while my arm is healing, but it's very slow going, haha, so it might take quite some time T_T
The destruction of my arm x3
Sooo, yeah, basically, last week, my right arm and wrist was broken in multiple places, rendering me largely out of action >.< I was walking into town for an appointment when someone on an electric scooter crashed into me at speed. The impact knocked me to the ground and I fell quite awkwardly. Along with multiple cuts and bruises, I managed to break my arm and wrist in the process, resulting in a trip to A&E where the Dr's gave me painkillers, took x-rays, and ultimately put my arm in a cast + gave me a sling as well. They said it could take around 6 weeks to heal, and that it may not necessarily heal 100% since I've broken the same arm in the past >.< (as a kid at school when I got stuck in something, waited for help, realised no one was coming, and attempted to free myself, haha.)
The guy who hit me was very apologetic, but yeah, these scooters have become a bit of an epidemic in the town I live! Lots of people ride them really fast without considering pedestrians >.< I had a few close misses last year, and my dad and I even joked that someone is gonna get hurt one day!
Typically, the arm that's out of action is my dominant arm >.> So I only have the use of my left hand at the moment, which I have awful co-ordination with x3 The only way I can type is by having my phone on a surface nearby and attempting to tap keys with my left hand's fingers, which is extremely slow, clumsy, and quickly exhausting because of the weird position I have to hold my body in. I did try text-to-speech, but it didn't work particularly well, so I'm a bit stuck for now, haha.
Sometimes I wonder if the universe does stuff like this to force me to take breaks (no pun intended >.<) from game dev xD Though, it's not a very helpful break because sleeping is nigh impossible now x3
Anyways, since I'm going to be unable to respond to stuff promptly or properly anytime soon, I figured I'd take the time to try and type this up to at least explain what's going on :3
So yeah, once again, thank you so much to everyone who has been so supportive of Bitter/Sweet (and all my endeavours in general) ^-^ It means the world to me and I love you all! I hope you have a magnificent March <3