Woo! So glad you enjoyed playing it ^-^

Yup, we worked our butts off to get it done x3 probably a little too hard, but I know we weren't the only ones pushing ourselves for the jam, haha. Seems to be the curse of Spooktober cos a lot of teams have put insane amounts of time and effort into their projects :3 I just hope everyone is taking some sorta well-deserved break now and being kind to themselves!

Basically, this was just my attempt at creating a kind of backstory/origin story for a couple of characters who don't yet exist in Darling Duality x3 So if you were to play Darling Duality right now, there would be no mention of them in there whatsoever. I hope to add them both as love interests at some point in the future though! I hope to make it so that you don't have to have played this to understand what's going on with them once they're in Darling Duality, nor would you need to play Darling Duality to get what's going on here. It's supposed to be more just one of those kinds of things that adds a little extra to the experience of both I guess :3

What I will say is that when they eventually become part of the Darling Duality world, everything that takes place in Dawn of the Damned will have happened long ago. So in Darling Duality, we'll be seeing what happened to them in the future.

As for inspiration, I guess it was a lot of things x3

For starters, I felt guilty about taking part in Spooktober Jam because I knew it would mean putting Darling Duality on hold for even longer when it's already long overdue an update >.< So one of the ways I attempted to justify taking part in the jam was to tell myself that if I could somehow make something that could eventually be connected to Darling Duality in some way, it would ease my guilt!

Some of the characters I hope to add to Darling Duality in the future have really rough little outlines, and others were nothing more than vague ideas I'd written down in a single sentence as something to come back to later. Morgen and Damme were just a couple of those 1 sentence ideas, haha. All I had written was that at some point, I wanted to have a pair of characters in Darling Duality who could use the nicknames, the Melancholy Mannequin and the Damned Dollmaker. I have a few of these nicknames noted down to hopefully prompt me into writing them into characters in the future! And these two were probably my favourite prompts.

I don't know if it counts as a trope or not, but I kinda have a thing for like dollmaker x doll relationships xD and also general twisted circus-type stuff x3 Anyone who happens to have played my first ever game will probably realise that from a couple of the characters in there, haha.

Add into the mix that I had recently been listening to a lot of Rammstein as I got to see them live back in the summer earlier this year + started learning German as a result, and little fragments of inspiration began to form! One of the songs that inspired me a little bit was Rammstein's Heirate Mich (yup, that's why I named the CGs after the song xD). I still don't fully understand what's going on in the song even after reading translations (one of the main reasons I wanted to learn German, so that I can actually attempt to grasp stuff myself rather than relying on what others have translated!) but the imagery it gave me was pretty vivid!

I tend to get a lot of inspiration from music of all sorts, whether it has lyrics or is purely instrumental. I don't know what it is about certain tracks, but I can often see entire stories unfolding in my mind just by listening to a piece of music x3 The hard part is actually pulling those stories out of my head >.<

Then there was the creepy mansion background pack that I acquired in a sale. I believe it's called something like Horror Western-Style Backgrounds. But when I named the folder on my PC, I called it Torture Mansion xD Just because of all the strange images in there, haha. Seeing all that stuff gave me so many ideas, and was the basis of Schrat's spell/curse/poem. So I was trying to write a story that tied in with a lot of the image elements from that background pack.

As soon as I had the poem sorted, it was much easier for everything else to just kinda fall into place! I knew I wanted to go for something in the style of a twisted fairytale, so that helped too.

KIND OF SPOILERS BELOW

My biggest concern was it possibly turning out too much like an otome game. Because as much as I love the otome genre, I didn't want it to be the sort of love story where the player is supposed to fall for Damme. Sure, it's still a love story, but it's supposed to be a dark and twisted one that falls into the category of horror or dark fantasy more than anything else x3 I wanted it to be Morgen and Damme's story, with the player standing by as a witness/unfortunate victim, depending on the ending that you get xD I wanted to save the option to actually get loved up with the characters for Darling Duality! :3

Heck, I was initially even hoping to have a version with male Morgen and female Damme so that players could choose. Even to have GxG and BxB options. But it became apparent really early on in the jam that there just wasn't going to be time to implement that >.< I might still do it for Darling Duality, but at the same time, I kind of like the idea of them staying as they are in Dawn of the Damned and players in Darling Duality having to deal with them as a unit.

Sorry for rambling a bit off track there anyhow x3 Thanks so much for playing and taking the time to comment! If you do end up playing my other games, I hope you enjoy them, and I also hope that you get to have a happy Halloween! :3

Hey hey! No worries, I can understand what you're saying just fine and your English is great :3

Sadly, because this was made for a 1 month game jam (and I was trying to make 2 games in 1 month instead of just 1) I only had about 4-5 days to actually write most of the story xD So yeah, there are a lot of things that could have used more detail or been covered. In fact, there's A LOT of backstory + lore + extra stuff that was swimming around in my head but never actually made it into the game because of time restrictions. I knew that if I actually wanted to finish both games for the jam's deadline, I would have to make sure that I didn't go crazy with the writing x3

I wanted the main focus to be the mystery of it all and document Damme's descent into madness, and also wanted it to come across like a twisted fairytale-type story, so that's why I wound up deciding to only show glimpses of the character's relationship pre-curse as flashbacks. Also, I plan to expand their overall story at some point in my main project, Darling Duality :3

Glad you loved the OST ^-^ I had soooo much fun making it :D And yeah, it was such a privilege to get to work with such amazing voice actors on the project :3

Thanks so much for taking the time to play through it all and for stopping by to leave a comment as well <3  

I guess I better put the rest under...

SPOILERS

You're absolutely right that it was intentional regarding Morgen not seeming to love Damme as much as he loved her :D I wanted players to wonder if she even ever loved him at all, or if they were just friends and Damme's love was unrequited. I didn't want to show it specifically one way or another because I would prefer that players make up their own minds on how truly in love either of them were, hehe.

And as for Damme having nothing else, I mean, I don't really have anything else myself, haha. I have my family and I have 1 friend that I actually get to see in person. So if I lost my family, she would be the only person I had left >.< Of course, I have all my online friends too :3 But the flashbacks of Damme and Morgen were set during a time when there was no internet. By the time we are in the 'present' day where you're playing as MC instead of playing as Morgen, time has moved on quite a lot. I didn't explain this very well in the game >.< and with Morgen and Damme technically being immortal, I didn't want to specify the number of years that had passed either, it just would've been a long, long time x3

But yeah, while it wasn't explained during the flashbacks, Damme would've been the type to keep to himself. He was very close to his family, and Morgen was his one childhood friend. Everything he was doing in his life was to either help out his family or what his family wanted him to do. So for him, Morgen was a bit like having a sanctuary away from home. Someone who he could confide in that wasn't family. I guess she seemed so perfect to him because that was all he knew. Maybe if he'd met other girls, he wouldn't have fallen so hard for Morgen x3 But his family and Morgen were his everything. Without them, he would be nothing. Just lost and alone.

Again, the reason why there only ended up being a few different endings was mainly because of time restrictions >.< However, I also purposefully didn't implement a couple of the ideas I had because I decided that I want to save them to be part of their story whenever they eventually end up in Darling Duality x3 I also largely hope to make their tale one of revenge once it's expanded upon. So I sort of needed her to hate him in the end for the purposes of where I want to take their story next. That's not set in stone though, and I do agree and think it would be nice to also have an ending where things are less bitter :3

Thanks so much for playing and for your kind words <3 It means a lot that you say you like the writing style since it's something I've never had much confidence in.

And also, those video scenes were such a pain in the butt xD Basically, none of them are actually video files. They're all just made to look like videos, but they're actually all a bunch of commands in the code. All because when I first put a video background on the title screen of one of my older games, some players said that it didn't play. They just got a blank screen >.< And blank screen = they couldn't proceed with the game T_T That was with mp4, so I tried changing it to an ogv file instead, which fixed the problem for some players and broke it for others who had previously had no issues with the mp4 version! >.< Ever since then, I've tried to just use commands to create fake videos because I figure there's less chance of that causing issues for people, haha. But yeah, it's a massive pain in the bum x3

Yeah, we had 4 different artists on the team for this :3 And I edited a hell of a lot of backgrounds from a big pack that I got on sale from DLsite. I just didn't want anyone on the team overworking themselves on my behalf because I remember during the jam last year, the artists were still up at like 4am same as me, and I felt really bad >.< I know everyone tends to work their butts off during Spooktober, haha, but I just feel like if I'm gonna be on teams and drag people into my madness, they shouldn't end up suffering for it x3 I'm fine with forcing myself to stay up each night and get very little sleep, but I don't want others doing it if it can be avoided :3 So I just thought it would be nice if we could manage to split the work up evenly between multiple artists so that hopefully, no one would overwork or injure themselves by the end of the jam x3

I think with the sheer number of backgrounds I wanted to use to try and tell the story, even if I had teamed up with a dedicated background artist, they probably would've slapped me through the digital aether if I asked for that many backgrounds in 1 month xD

I still need to download your game on my proper PC so I can try and get past the bit I got stuck on with my stupid potato laptop! I need to see the end ^-^

Yeah, I adore purple hair too x3 hehe.

I know what you mean about the dialogue text boxes. Morgen's is the only one where you can really see the name properly since she has the butterfly on hers to help make it clearer. I tried to fix it for the others by adding a semi-transparent box behind their names, which helped a bit compared to having nothing at all behind them, but yeah, it didn't really work because they're still hard to see properly :( haha.

And yeah, sadly, the VA still playing when you click through the text or use skip text mode is something I have had a problem with ever since I started using Naninovel and I have no idea how to fix it >.< In the settings, it will stop playing a voice line when another voice line begins so that nothing overlaps at least, so it's only really a problem when there is no voice line coming up soon after, like if it goes to a loading screen as you mentioned.

It bothers me too, haha. The problem is, there is a setting to make VA stop playing when a text line has finished printing, and that would work perfectly for stopping all the VA properly if not for the fact that I like to make the sprite's facial expressions change in the middle of text printing as well as at the start or end of lines. Because making those mid-sentence expression changes breaks the function for stopping VA >.< It's because it sees the insertion of an expression change within the code as a line of text ending.

So for example, if it went something like:
“I'm starting to speak a sentence now, [change facial expression from calm to shouting] but I'm getting angrier as I speak.”

The game would start playing the VA right up to the printed comma, and as soon as it hits the command to change the expression, the VA would stop, and it wouldn't resume playing the rest of the line afterwards :(

So it's like I have to choose between whether I want the VA to stop perfectly every time or whether to keep mid-sentence expression changes for sprites >.<

I really like having more sprite expression changes, so I generally stick with that since the VA continuing to play problem only really occurs if a player is skipping lines anyways. And I'm the sort of player who either puts voiced VNs on auto mode or waits for the full line to finish playing before clicking to advance the text, so I only find it to be a bigger issue while skipping text on additional playthroughs trying to get different endings and stuff, haha. Similarly, changing the speed of the text being printed can also screw some things up.

I wish I knew how to make it work better, but sadly, I don't T_T haha.

Anyways, sorry for rambling x3 I just thought I'd try to explain why it's like that, haha.

Thanks so much for taking the time to play through it and leave such a lovely comment ^-^

That makes me super happy that you chose to describe it that way because I was trying to go for a twisted fairytale sorta thing with this one :3

Means a lot that you approve of the writing since it's something I never have much confidence in. My dad keeps telling me I need to give myself more credit, haha. That I put myself down about it way too much >.< I just don't know how the heck people manage to grow self-belief x3 Sometimes I feel like I might be finally starting to gain some, but then one thing or another will happen that makes me question everything again. I'm just glad I've finally started to feel proud of the stuff I've been making in recent years rather than a little ashamed like I was when I started out. That's a form of progress I guess, haha.

Thanks so much for playing and for your kind words :3

That's so kind of you to say <3 I always worry when I release new stuff that it might be disappointing to anyone who happens to have played my previous games x3 It's one of those weird things I struggle with, haha. Always doubting myself >.<

With my stupid depression, it's really easy to forget sometimes that I have such sweet and wonderful people supporting me :3 so I will try my best to always come here and look at the lovely comments like yours when I'm feeling low to remind me that the voice in my head telling me I suck is just a stupid voice and it doesn't mean anything x3 What really matters is listening to what caring people like you have said ^-^

So yeah, thank you for everything. I really appreciate it <3 And please don't apologise for your English :3 I think it's great! Heck, I have known people who are native English speakers who don't type it as well as you have :D

(Sorry this got so long x3 I wrote it up in a doc and now that I've pasted it, I see that it's a giant wall of text xD)

Thank you so much <3 That means a lot! Definitely wouldn't have been possible without all the incredible artists on the team because I can't draw to save my life x3

It's funny you should mention the cursor because I was a little concerned about the shape, haha. I've used custom cursors in Unity before once or twice, but they've always been arrow-shaped still. This was the first time I attempted to try one and use the feature to change the hotspot on it. Cos when I dropped it in there, it didn't work well at all on the default settings! I feel like it's still not 100% accurate >.< but it was the best I could get it to go. Also, the team that made Red String Theory totally have me beat in the beautiful butterfly cursor department :P Theirs is just so darn pretty :3

I'm glad the food close-ups had an impact :D They're from a background pack, but when I first saw them, I thought, these are interesting! Cos you don't tend to get stuff like that very often in asset packs. Weirdly, everything came in bmp file format and the wrong size for the way I wanted to make the game, but I spent ages editing almost all of the backgrounds, haha. I was trying to get a kinda slightly ominous and old-timey feel for everything inside the mansion, and then a more soft and dreamy feel for the flashback stuff.

And that makes me unbelievably happy to hear your comments on the story! My mental health has never been great, so I spend a lot of time doubting and second-guessing myself on pretty much everything I do >.< It makes it extremely difficult to know whether I've managed to write something half-decent or just splurge out some nonsense, haha. In terms of horror factor as well, I struggle to know what other people might actually find scary/spooky/creepy/disturbing because I consume so much of the genre that nothing really shocks me anymore xD I'm well and truly desensitised. I've become the sort of person who goes to scare attractions in October, and while everyone else is walking through leaping and screaming at every jump scare, I'm generally gasping in awe at the set design and grinning like an idiot when actors deliver lines perfectly into my ear, just admiring the whole performance, loving every second, but not being even remotely scared x3

So yeah, it's nice to know that it actually works as a horror piece! Because if no one told me that, I would be forever wondering if it even hit the mark, haha.

It means a hell of a lot everything you've said, so thank you so much for taking the time to play through it and leave such lovely feedback ^-^

I'm excited to check out your project when I get a chance to play more of the jam games! As soon as I saw the screenshots on the jam page, I thought, oh man, this reminds me of my love affair with choose your own adventure books <3 I read so many of those when I was younger, and naturally, when I discovered VNs were a thing, that was a very happy moment of my life, haha.

I'm trying my best to play everyone's games throughout the month, but because there are so many and it's difficult to actually choose, I've largely been leaving it down to itch to decide my play order cos I've been using the 'random' filter x3 I might have to be cheeky and abandon it for a bit though because I did also make a separate (huge) list of all the ones that excited me upon first looks, and The Wolf of Derevnya is on there!

Thanks so much for your kind words :3

Admittedly, I did begin to regret the number of lines of dialogue I wound up writing, especially for Dämme, haha. One night, my dad was wishing me goodnight, and he asked how things were going + told me I should get more sleep, haha. I said to him, I think it's gonna be another 5am bedtime tonight because I want to finish getting all these voice lines cut and edited if I can. He just sighed, then laughed, and said "Well, you did this to yourself." xD

And you have no idea how much it means to me that you think positively of the writing! I was so, so anxious that maybe it was just a sorta messy splurge of ideas that didn't come together all that coherently >.< haha. Things always make sense to me in my head, but I struggle with knowing whether or not they make sense to anyone else once I spill it all out into a game. That combined with me having very little confidence in anything that I do = a lot of worrying whenever I release stuff.

I honestly enjoy the sleepless nights of pushing myself during jams that mean a lot to me because when I'm working away on something like that, it helps so much with my mental health just to be able to escape from reality for a whole month and bury myself in a project. Though, I realise the way I work during jams isn't particularly healthy! To get such lovely feedback makes it all seem even more worth it though, so thank you again :3 I sure as heck couldn't have done it without such a wonderful team!