Hey hey! Well, that's super sweet that you decided to take the time to write such a lovely review, and I'm really glad you enjoyed it ^-^ Thank you so much!
Yeah, I don't think that many people would even know the game exists if Manly hadn't played it, haha. His video really helped a lot with shining a light on the project :3
When I'm eventually able to add more characters to the game, it will still begin as a normal boring day in the protagonist's life, but you'll be able to choose different ways to go about your day, so, for example, when Cana's route is eventually added, instead of playing the game that Castor/ia is in, you'll be able to choose to text Cana (since Cana is supposed to be MC's childhood friend). And then as I add more and more characters, you'll have more choices about what to do, and whose route you wanna go down :3 Some choices won't be available during the first night though, so the player will have to pick something else and find other characters later on in the game.
Hehe, you never know about those virtual assistants :P They have a lot of people's data! And AI seems to be getting smarter and smarter x3
In the future, you'll definitely have more control over how the protagonist interacts with Castor/ia and the other characters because I'm adding in a lot more choices and a basic personality system :3 Some choices will just be fluff and impact how a character or MC reacts/change the dialogue a little. Other choices will be more important and steer you towards different choices down the line and different endings.
I don't know if you've maybe seen it already, but I made a short video a while ago showing an example of how some of the new choices will work (because some of them will be timed). You can find it here :3
Basically, there will be different kinds of choices. Some normal. Some timed (and with the timed ones, you can choose to let the timer run out, and that will also give a different reaction from if you picked something), and then cruel or kind choices where you just click the heart or the skull to act kindly or cruelly to a character.
Sadly, the update has been badly delayed because even though I had already coded in all the extra choices in the existing parts of Castor/ia's story, I was waiting to hear back from the VAs before releasing it, so that the extra lines of dialogue I've added to go with all the new choices could be included. I also have the continuation of Castor/ia's story written + the start of Cana's route. Unfortunately, though, I haven't heard anything from either of the VAs for Castor/ia :(
But yeah, I'm hoping to make it so that each character has 4 proper endings that you can reach :3 One of them will always include a sweet ending of settling down in one way or another :D The other 3 will be a lot less happy, haha. And there will be a few bad ends along the way as well where poor MC doesn't make it x3
Both VAs did an incredible job voicing Castor/ia :3 That's why I've been so down about the project for most of this year, because I can't seem to get ahold of either of them, so it's looking more and more likely that I won't be able to get either of them back :( I think we're going to need to have a poll so everyone can vote on whether they would prefer to keep the original voice acting in the game and have the rest of Castor/ia's lines unvoiced. Or to try and find voice actors with similar voices to re-record all of the old lines and then the new ones as well. It's not a great situation to be in >.< and it's something that's killed a lot of my motivation to work on the project because I hate the uncertainty of it all :(
I actually didn't find either of the VAs myself. I usually do for my projects, but for this one, I didn't have time to recruit VAs, so my friend who was also voice director on this project (Anthony) did me a huge favour by finding those 2 epic VAs and passing on my scripts to them so that I could get this little demo completed by the end of the Winter VN and Secret Santa Jams!
The thing is, when he recruited them, neither he nor either of them were aware of the fact that this was only a small sort of episode 1 of many for the character, and that I would be writing a lot more in the future. They just thought they were helping out with a short jam game >.< And also, even though I had hopes and plans for the full game in the future, I kinda thought that I would never be able to get full voice acting for it outside of the jam anyways because I would never be able to afford it and didn't have anywhere near enough supporters to get any funding. It was only when Manly played it that people started following the project and supporting it, but it seems as though by then, it was too late to get the voice actors back onboard because they must have moved onto other things or something :(
I totally agree that the game needs VA to work. I mean, I actually wrote the script originally with the intention of it just being an audio drama to put up on YouTube or something, haha. So it was written/designed to be focused specifically around voice acting :3 I only ended up turning it into a VN because when jams came up at the end of the year, I figured I could probably tweak my plans a little and make it into a VN script instead!
But yeah, it's been worrying me for months now that the original VAs have been unresponsive :( I don't want to recast either of them if it can be avoided because they're both absolutely perfect for the part.
I'm glad you like Castoria's character :3 I'm trying to write her as being the sort of yandere who is completely devoted, but is almost childlike with her naivety and outbursts of rage when upset so that in order to get a good ending with her, you kinda have to teach her the correct sorts of ways to behave, show her what is acceptable and what isn't :3 So if you behave like a monster, you will make her into a monster. If you're kind, she will slowly learn to control her emotions a bit better and become more mature.
Haha, yeah, I don't really know where that suggestive situation came from xD it's not usually the sort of stuff I write, but it felt like it fit well in the scenario x3
I'm the same, only I love yandere guys, haha. I still like yandere girls too, but it's the guys I prefer! That means a lot thought that you think so highly of Castoria ^-^ I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with liking characters like that cos at the end of the day, it's all fiction, and heck, it's better to find fun in spending time with fictional yandere characters where it's actually safe x3 cos real life yandere relationships are just bad for everyone involved really >.< abusive relationships of any kind, in reality, are just not good. No harm done in games though as long as players know what they're getting themselves into and read content warnings and stuff :3
I'm pleased to say there will be more Castor/ia eventually :3 other characters who have both sweet and sinister sides too! Like I said earlier, the entire next chunk of Castor/ia's story is already written (though could do with a little editing) and the extra choices with them are already coded in. My plan was to release updates in like episodes, so basically, all of Castor/ia's next episode up to a good stopping point again is written. Castor/ia's full story isn't finished yet though.
I'm not happy at all with my progress on the project cos it's been slow this year for a number of reasons >.< I'll get there in the end, but it's gonna take me years to try and do everything I wanted to do with the game. That's another reason I think releasing chunks of new episodes is probably better than waiting for me to complete everything and release all in one go. I'm terrified of possibly finding new VAs though and then having them leave T_T
Speaking of artwork, CGs are something currently missing from the game that will eventually be added because I'm planning to commission my artist friend for CGs when she has time :3 So a scene like the one where Castor/ia has the knife is likely to end up as one of the scenes that gets a CG.
I can add blood to her sprite easily enough, but I don't know if I'd be able to edit her sprite in a way that it looks like she's holding a knife. I'd have to mess around and see if I could get it to work :3
With the sprite facial expressions for these particular sprites, the default sprites come from an asset pack. The first thing I do is edit all the colours to make them look different from default because I don't like to use them as they come if I can help it. I like to edit them so that they look unique to my projects :3 And then they come with a set number of facial expressions in png files or you can open up the PSD file and have more control over editing. In the PSD file, everything is on a different layer. So, that means that I can combine different facial expressions if the default ones available aren't enough for what I want. For example, if only one default expression comes with closed eyes, and by default, it has a closed mouth, but I want an expression with eyes closed and open mouth, I can just make copies of one of the expression layers that has the closed eyes, and one that has the open mouth. I can then erase the closed mouth from the first one, and erase the open eyes from the second one, and voila :D I now have a new expression with closed eyes and open mouth, haha.
Sorry if that's not very helpful x3 I feel like I didn't really explain it very well >.<
I do it a lot because I'm a sucker for details x3 So I made quite a few extra expressions for Castor/ia, haha. Sometimes, if I wanna get even fancier, I might take a mouth I like from a different character and combine it with pre-existing eyes xD Depending on the original proportions, I can sometimes even swap a sprite into an outfit that was intended for a completely different sprite just by tweaking the angles and scaling the body a bit.
It's all a lot of effort, and I know most people just take what you get by default in the asset pack and go with that, but I like to go crazy with the editing, haha. I feel like it's worth it, especially to make more expressions and have them in the middle of sentences in-game rather than just at the start or end of a line :3 I feel like it makes the characters seem a bit more alive.
Yeah, I totally agree. I don't think it's anywhere near ready for a steam release. I don't know if I will ever end up putting any of my games on Steam. I did think about it for the projects I've completed, but I just don't think it would be worth the amount of money you have to pay them to have your stuff on there. Since I don't really use social media and don't do much to promote my projects because I find all that too stressful, I think if I put anything on Steam it would just get buried with how many games are on there. You'd need like a proper marketing manager or something I think to be able to have any success with Steam >.<
Add to that the fact that I'm probably gonna be stuck in a position for the rest of my life where I'm not allowed to make money, only to accept donations, and it sorta renders Steam pointless cos I'd have to put all of my games on there for free and couldn't even earn back the fee for listing them :(
It would certainly be a dream come true to actually be able to make a living from creating VNs :3 And it was a dream I used to have. It's just I've pretty much given up on it at this point >.< I'm still making stuff because I enjoy it, so it would be silly to stop, haha. But yeah, I don't really know how a person is ever supposed to go from being unemployed to making a living doing something they love when they're kinda stuck thanks to mental health problems and stupid government rules.
Honestly though, I have a little spark of hope restored whenever I read something as sweet as what you've taken the time to type up :3 It really means a lot that you support the project, had fun with what little of it there is so far, and took the time to send such kind words my way <3 So thank you, I appreciate it more than you know ^-^