Heyy, I have a small problem. I downloaded the demo but once I try to open it it says I don't have the required "access rights"? or something like that (I don't know how to properly translate it) to open the program. How can I fix it?
Hey hey! Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I was away from home this past week, so I'm only just reading comments that I missed. Hopefully, you managed to get it working, but if not, I hope I'll be able to help :3
Is it the Mac version you're trying to play? Or is it the Windows or Linux version?
If it's Mac, there are a few things you can try which are listed here :3
I don't own a Mac myself, but everything on the list is something that has worked for other Mac users in the past. I hope you manage to get it working :3
i love this game sm! im excited when finally the full version will come out, also tysm for making a mac version! unfortunately half of the games i wanted to play arent on mac but thankfully there is still people who still make mac versions <3
Thanks so much for playing the game, and also glad to hear that it actually works for you on Mac! ^-^ I don't own a Mac, and neither does anyone I live with, so I can't actually test the Mac builds, sadly >.< I just export them anyways and hope that they work the same as the Windows ones x3
It's quite amazing to see a demo be this good. Although, this game is very repetitive after playing this a couple of times i just to how the storyline is headed towards it feels like every decision i made in the game would twist the ending a little bit. I'm not really one for critiquing people but that's because i really want to see how the finished product would look since most of the negatives of this game could easily be fixed since all it needs is more content to be added.
Well, I'm super glad you think it's decent :3 To be fair, it has been updated since the original release for the game jam it was made for because back then, I was only just starting to learn how to use the new software, haha. But that was largely aesthetic improvements in the UI and stuff rather than content.
At the moment, I think the demo doesn't do a very good job of showing my vision for the project as a whole because it's just way too incomplete >.< and I know a lot of stuff leads to dead ends (like with the company at the start and with the talk of MC's best friend), but hopefully, once I've finally managed to get more added, it'll be easier to see that there's a whole bunch of stuff going on that's not even related to Castor/ia, that they're just 1 of many options in the game. Cos right now, it sort of gives the impression that the whole thing is about them when it isn't >.< It's just that's all I could get done back when I made the start of their story for the Winter VN jam x3
Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to leave a comment :3
OH MY GOSH!! I just finished playing the demo and I just had to express how much I loved it! I was immediately drawn by the premise, I think it's such an interesting idea for a game and it's definitely something I've fantasized about before LMAO ^__^ I also adore the art, the character designs are so beautiful, and the voice acting is really really great! The part where Castor whispers in your ear caught me off guard – in a good way hehehe! This was so fun to play and I am beyond excited to see more of this game. Thank you for creating it and sharing it with us, and I wish you the best of luck with continuing it. :]
Thanks so much for checking the demo out ^-^ and for your kind comment too <3
Hehe, not gonna lie, I have waaaaay too much fun doing the whispering-in-the-ear stuff in most of my games xD Sometimes I purposely put the whispering direction in my scripts for the voice actors on lines that I think would work well like that, and other times, voice actors just happen to whisper a line anyways, and I immediately think, yup, that's going in one ear x3 I just remember the first time I listened to an audio drama CD where it happened, and I sat there with my headphones on just stunned thinking, well, that was cool! Always wanted to try and include in my stuff ever since :D
Thank you for the luck too! I definitely need it x3 development on this is waaaay behind where I would like it to be >.< there's always so much I wanna do in general and never enough time to actually do it T_T I guess any sort of progress is better than no progress at all though at least x3
Very happy I discovered this game, the writing is very strong and the horror aspect of the game does extremely well, most games rely on just pure violence or gore but your scenes use just writing and dialoge to convey sheer emotion and atmosphere. Definetly among the best bad endings I think ive ever seen.
Having read up on some of your post, it's also extremely impressive how you've managed to keep up working on this game, alongside putting out other projects with no loss of passion.
That means a lot cos I'm a huuuuuge fan of bad endings in general, haha. Whether it's in visual novels, other game genres, or films and stuff, I just find them more fun than good endings x3 So much so that the very first VN I made was choc full of bad ends and you had to collect them all in order to unlock the true route xD I always try to make bad endings as fun and interesting as I can rather than just have them feel like an afterthought cos I know as a player, I get really annoyed when I find bad ends in games that are over in a few seconds and don't have a lot of point to them T_T Tbh, sometimes I worry if I've put too much effort into the bad ends in my games and not enough into the good ends, and it maybe feels unbalanced or something/not rewarding enough when you get a good end, haha. But oh well, it's all just for fun at the end of the day :D
Thanks so much for your kind and supportive words :3 It can certainly be a struggle sometimes, haha. This project in particular feels like a marathon >.< I'm never happy with how slowly things are progressing on it when I know how huge the scope is. Sometimes it feels like it's impossible to envision how the heck I'm gonna finish it to the standard that I hope to, which is why I try to work on it in little chunks so as not to get demotivated by the enormity of the task, haha. Working on other, shorter, little game jam projects really helps me to sort of slap my brain back into a more productive mode when I start drifting x3 but at the same time, I can't deny that it also massively slows down development on this project when I wind up taking entire months away from this to focus on game jam stuff >.< The problem is that even if the passion is always alive, my ability to actually be productive isn't T_T and it feels like one of those things where I can't force it even when I really want to. So it's like I have to sit around and wait for my brain to get into the right gear to actually get stuff done.
Any time I work on this or on jam projects, I wind up feeling guilty about another project of mine where I fully finished the writing years ago, but has been on hold since long before I even made DD >.< There's just never enough time to do everything, and that sucks, haha. I just hope that both projects will eventually be finished at least :3 Cheers for checking it out!
this is like my biggest fantasy!!!! dude this is great, if it releases i'll def get it, even if it costs money! <3 i feel like u read all my old old fanfics and wrote this xD love it sm
xD well, that's handy then, haha. It's gonna take me forever to finish the entire thing properly >.< But I'm hoping I'll get there in the end! Glad you like what there is so far anyhow :3 cheers for checking it out!
for some reason im trying to redownload the game today bc i deleted it bc of storage issues and as im tryimng to redownload it everytime i try to it says removed
Hmm, that's strange >.< Do you know which version you originally downloaded? Because if it was from before I updated all the files with the most recent demo version late last year, that might be the cause! Cos I had to rename stuff and delete other stuff that was no longer relevant.
The latest version is the one called 'Darling Duality - Demo - (Windows/Mac/Linux)' and because so much was changed in that version, it means save files from the older versions can't be carried over cos they would just break the game >.<
That's awesome that you had fun with it so far :D Thanks so much for playing! I wish I could clone myself a few times to get updates out faster, haha. I hate that there's so much I wanna do but can't do it all at once x3 Then again, I don't think multiple versions of me would be a good idea >.< the world doesn't need that!
I've see many praises here, so I will play a bit of devil's advocate. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this game, especialy because of Castoria, however it is clear that it needs more to not be "another" game.
Of course it is just a Demo and it is made by only one person, but there is some core things that I wonder if it could not be improved, although of course I am not demanding for perfection.
Be noted for those who did not play, there will be spoilers, you have been advised, I recommend for you to play as it is worth it and then come back to see the rest if you so desire.
Graphics/Visuals/Interface:
Look, the character design is probably one of the things that makes the characters so charming, be it with Castor or Castoria, however all the rest is... lackluster to say the least. There is a lot of potential though, for exemple the simple logo, the entire part where the character glitches on the game especially how the interface changes to the situation, I loved it so much as well as the letters when it is on "yandere" mode and the unique (I'll call it arabic for sake of calling it something) arabic letters, really, all of those are very charming and they do well it's purpose while give the game a clear identity. That being said, I can not say the same for some goofy parts and other bothersome things, for exemple, when you are "playing" winter wish, it is in some kind of DS or Swich that doesn't looks great and helps give the feel of a an amateur made game, this happens mostly because it tries to give a 3d feeling... in a 2d game, that usually doesn't mix well, as in 2d the perspective for depth and texture is different so it feels out of place. Other goofy thing I find is the twisting of the letters in the entry of the game, like it really kills the vibe, especially because it starts really well, the logo moving across, glitching and then giving you the options is a really solid execution, although I'd argue that it could be shorter and done a bit faster; however the twisting of the letters isn't clean, it takes a lot of time that makes me be like "bro, I just want to play the game, let me play it", and worse when I want to quit, because whenever I quit, the entry plays all over again when closing the game should be something quick, since there is no prompt to ask if I wan't to go to the main screen or just close the game. Perhaps it would be better to mix the original winter wish main menu with the demo, make the just lozenge glitch and then the options with the name appearing? Also, for the interface, whenever there is the 2 options for lovely or yan, a text appearing about what would one say is apreciated, as well as an option to remove the guide to what options would lead to what, and of course, making the order of the text random maybe with a visual representation of the lozenge twisting and inverting. As a resume, embrace the glitches, unique letters and the 2d for the graphics and visuals, define a clear identity to the game, while try to reject things that would remove the simplicity of things.
Story/Characters/Interactions:
The personality duality is by far the strongest point of the game, as well as so far the focal point of the game. Yet there are some things that feel... off, or to be more precise, that needs more development before certain situations happen, for exemple, the character development of the MC is abrupt to say the least and some decisions aren't fluid; when you start the game - skipping the AI and childhood friend part as I'll talk about it later - the MC is like "dam hot af Castoria, dream girl bla bla bla" and then he says she isn't his type to 2s later start treating her like shit and that her route is just bothersome, to later being able to treat her like a goddess basicaly, I know it is "darling duality" but making the MC be bipolar for free like this isn't great, it makes the story feel empty, rushed and worse, sloppy. If the point is to make the MC like this, then develope more about it, altough I wouldn't recommend. Meanwhile, for the love interest there isn't much to criticize, it is very well written, albeit there is some things that could be implemented to deepen their personalities. Castor and Castoria are the figureheads of the game, implementing other characters is not a bad things, but it is when it is waaayy to disconnected, for exemple, the start of the demo you are talking with a company about AI's ???? Why? and I don't mean in what is the story reason, but why it is there, at the start? Even if there is a good reason, it feels to disconected if for exemple I choose not to talk with them, that is not good, why not instead this about them later when the love interest talks about money, this way it is given a reasonable reason for one understand why would the MC looks for a shady AI company, it creates the intrigue about if it is related to Castor(ia) appearing, or perhaps would it be an sapient AI, what would the Castor(ia) think about it if you brough it home because of the necessity of money etc. While about the childhood friend, although it is fine for having an interaction with her at the start, if we don't, will she appear worried later? Would Castor(ia) be fine with it appearing? How would promissing or not to just belong to Castor(ia) affect what it thinks about the childhood friend, those options have me high hopes for those things, however it also made me question if there was plans to develop as such, because if not, then what is the point? Why give a situation that makes the player hope may happen something but just being a false option? This wouldn't be a good thing as it would make the story feel disconnected and with that "missing" sensation. We do know that Castor(ia) can change it's appearence in reality, so some powers it has, therefore leaving this as a loose end is unwise. Therefore it is recomended to develop on this as well, while I recommend to keep it just as the power of transforming her clothes, the cultural shock and force of habbit could create many situations that deepen her personality as a person. As a resume, embrace the struggle between being normal and the obsession of Castor(ia) as the focal point of the story and making a solid MC that can embrace her crazyness or reject it, while avoid creating loose ends and empty interactions.
Anyway, I talked too much, even though I wanted to say more, I see a lot of potential, especially since the story so far is already good, but improving those topics is what differentiate between a mediocre/regular dating sim to a genuinely good indie game; honestly I wouldn't mind waiting 5 years from now if it ment on this being at least a good finished game. What can I say, I got hooked on Castoria, she has a great concept story so far and a voice actress that can be threatening and hit that sweet spot when needed, so I've been looking at this gem ever since I manly posted that video, I give my highest wishes for this to be a bomb.
Yeah, there is a lot of positivity here, which is wonderful ^-^ and I can still hardly believe it + really appreciate it :3 But what you don't see is the negative stuff I get sent privately to my email, haha. The positives still massively outweigh the negatives, thankfully, but it doesn't stop the nasty stuff from really getting to me and massively demotivating me when I read it >.<
Manly playing the game was both a blessing and a curse, haha. A blessing because, otherwise, hardly anyone would even know the game exists still, and the level of support has been incredible :3 But a curse because it has also attracted a number of people who, while they profess to love the game, have proceeded to make demands of me in private, saying that if I don't include X or Y content for Castor/ia, or if I don't change X or Y that they don't like about the project, then they will trash it and everything else that I release o.O Of course, there are also just haters too >.< And worse than that, but I won't go into more detail because my arm is still broken at the moment, and it's still quite difficult to type with just one hand for now x3 So I can only apologise for that! If I could use both hands, I'd type out a much more in-depth response!
Firstly, regarding art aspects, there's not much I can do to change most things because I'm not an artist :( (that's why there are no CGs in the game, though I am commissioning my artist friend LPB to create some for future updates :3) All the sprites are assets that are edited by me in order to avoid using them with their default appearances. I spent many hours in GIMP recolouring them and adding additional facial expressions that they didn't come with by default. All the backgrounds are assets. And yup, you probably guessed it by now, the switch-like console is also just an edited asset x3 The UI is the only part of the art that's mostly made by me. Some of it is a combo of edited assets + my own stuff, but most of it is stuff I managed to put together in GIMP. As I said though, I'm no artist. I can't draw to save my life >.<
All of that amounts to giving the feeling of an amateur made game because the game is technically made by an amateur, haha. I have no formal experience or training in any aspect of game dev x3 It started as a hobby, out of wanting to make a game that contained the stuff I wanted to see because, at
the time, I played a lot of VNs and none quite had what I was hoping for in a game - an English-voiced male yandere character, where the yandere romance was the only romance, but there was still a proper story behind it all (and so, I made my first game around that, Solipsism Reigns :3) I may have gained a lot of experience over the years since I started making games, even completely switching engines at one point. Heck, I even managed to teach myself how to start making music so I could include some original tracks in my games, but still, I am not an artist, nor a writer, nor a coder, or composer. Everything I've ever done is self-taught. And making games is a hobby that helps me to cope with my depression and other mental health problems x3 As my friend once put it upon seeing my first game finished, - 'I don't know how you did it when you can't even draw, but boy, you sure are resourceful!' haha.
I'm also unemployed, so when it comes to game dev, all I have to put towards projects is the stuff that people kindly donate :3 Which means that, for example, I can't really afford to hire an artist to draw a better-looking version of the device that MC plays Winter Wish on. Cos any funding needs to go towards CGs or voice acting.
There is a key you can press to force skip the title screen animations, but I can't remember which one it is, and I can't check since I can't go on my PC atm with my broken arm x3 I know what you mean though about needing a more efficient way to quit and stuff cos it is quite slow.
Won't say too much regarding bipolar MC cos the jury is still out on whether I am bipolar myself or not xD My therapist once suspected I might be, but now she thinks perhaps I might have ADHD as well as my autism, and that the two together at war sort of mimic bipolar traits. Anyways, I do get what you're saying, but the game is supposed to be all black and white with little to no grey area for both MC and the love interests. The player can indeed make MC less believable and more unstable by ping-ponging between cruel/kind options and acting polar opposites, but everything will have consequences in the end, and there is a point to being able to do it all, it just doesn't really show yet in the demo like a lot of things cos the story isn't far enough in for a lot of stuff to make much sense >.< Even if a player goes full kind/sweet mode though, it still won't result in a typically healthy relationship with any of the characters. It will be less crazy than the alternative options, and probably considered the 'good' route or ending, but yeah, it still won't be healthy, because the whole concept is about how black and white thinking and extremes aren't healthy x3
Castor and Castoria might be the only available love interests atm, but I was planning to have many more routes than that (2 of which are already partially written, just not in the demo yet x3) For example, Cana, the childhood friend mentioned in the demo, is a love interest with their own route, and depending on the player's choices, Castor/ia and Cana could well wind up encountering each other, where there are, of course, consequences :3
The stuff to do with Kiaria Corp and the AI I really can't say much about without walking right into spoiler territory. All I can say is that it has to be at the beginning for things to work the way I eventually want them to. It might seem nonsensical now, but there's a reason for it x3 Trust me, once it's actually implemented, it will make sense. The problem is that almost everyone thinks the game is mainly Castor/ia's story, and that the story begins with MC and Castor/ia, but that's only because that's all that's playable for now. Because that's all I could finish in time for the game jam it was originally submitted to. In reality, Castor/ia is actually just an option in a much bigger game that I had planned to make. The story doesn't have to start with Castor/ia. Heck, once the full game is eventually finished years from now, a player could play without even encountering Castor/ia if they chose to do so. I think I might have briefly mentioned it in the past on Patreon/Ko-Fi, but I don't really remember.
I would've left out the AI and Cana branches from the demo to save confusion, but the problem was, I didn't have space to make backup copies of my working copy and the public demo release. In my working copy, the branches that are inaccessible in the demo do actually lead to more content, but it's unfinished. Because I don't have space for backups, it was easier for me to leave those branches in and block them off than to completely remove them and then have to add them in again >.< It's stupid, I know. But my PC is old, my hard drive is full, and it was pretty much my only option :(
And yeah, I already touched on Cana, the childhood friend, but to give a solid answer to all those questions, basically, everything you asked is already written into the story :3 So all of those things will be answered. It's just I haven't been able to actually make any of it playable yet (part of it is playable in my working copy, but I'm nowhere near finished coding in all of the stuff that's been written already >.<) But yeah, Cana will have their own playable route. Player choices will determine if Cana and Castor/ia discover each other's existence, and if they do, there will be consequences according to the choices previously made.
Hehe, I would say more too if it wasn't for my stupid arm >.< Typing atm is just so slow and awkward. I appreciate you taking the time to write everything that you did though :3 Constructive criticism is always helpful! Often, people will say they don't like X or Y, but offer no suggestions on how to improve, so it's always nice to hear different opinions on stuff with actual suggestions. It's just a shame that there's not much I can do about some of the points that you raised, like the art stuff >.<
And being completely honest, it might actually take 5 years or more for me to properly fully finish the project xD the scope is pretty big, and a lot gets in the way of progress :( My mental health issues mean my productivity comes in spikes. I find it easier to work on multiple projects at once rather than just one. Negative emails, comments, and reviews make me want to quit the project because, at the end of the day, I'm making it for fun, and if it stops being fun, I have no willpower to keep going >.< Funding is difficult because voice acting is expensive, and I can't even run a Kickstarter or anything because of my personal situation. I live in a country where because of my mental health issues, I have to accept government aid in order to survive and be able to afford food and stuff, but while accepting that help, I'm not allowed to try to make any sort of income, even if it's just a tiny amount, it's not allowed, and if I did, I would immediately lose my aid, then I wouldn't be able to afford food >.< Aaaand, to top it off, one of the voice actors is unlikely to reprise their role even with payment offered. Soooo, yeah, there are a lot of barriers that make development quote slow :( haha. And that's not even including the fact that my arm got broken in several places a few weeks ago xD so I haven't been able to work on anything since then, and I'm stuck like that until it's healed.
I'm glad you like what little is there so far in the demo though and that you can see potential in the project :3 With any luck, it will be finished eventually! Just gotta keep taking it in baby steps I guess.
Hi, I'm very glad that even with your broken arm, you managed to type so much, I know how much it must suck, hope it didn't hurt or anything in the process.
I'm also happy about how you took my contructive criticism. And about the art stuff, don't blame yourself for it, although I wouldn't recommend for you to try and do everything, try and diverge it, you said about your friend but for exemple, why not also do in your patreon, asking or doing a contest for some assets to be in the game? Heck you could do it right here and I'm sure your e-mail would be flooded with it; you could allow for it to leave the signature in the asset and, I mean if I was good at it, I would do it, it would be so cool to see a dope art of mine with my signature in it and in a game I love to top it all off. Still for an amateur you should be proud of yourself, it is already above avarage from most amateurs games, especially considering that you do it all basically.
I don't judge that you have those possible mental problems, after all I date a esquizofrenic, so perhaps that made me question why it felt too bipolar (and maybe why I like the yandere and maniputalitive nature of the game), still, I wouldn't say it is a bad thing for it to be like this in the game, after all as you said it is meant to be like that, however - and I assume that is a hard thing to do - just because it is meant to be like that, doesn't mean it shouldn't be deepened; maybe in the best friend route with her questioning the MC and/or Castor(ia) about their seemingly bipolar way of talking? One way to make it more natural is to put a bit of yourself in it, as a player of D&D and other RPG's, I do this a lot of the time and it gives more vividity (I assume you already do this, but well it doesn't hurt to recommend).
And story wise, I'm glad to hear all of that and I'll put my faith on you. That being said, although that is for you to decide, I wouldn't recommend for the other routes to be completely disconected from one another, for that each route would be to have way good and deep on it's own, wich sure it can be nice, but I would argue it is way harder to do, by making it conected, each route can enhance each other by adding details and perspectives, also giving the sence of a cohesive storytelling and a clear image of what the game is about, the only problem is if it feels forced cof cof disney star wars films.
Well, about the problems with gaining money, it must suck, I live in Brasil and I don't know the rules for those kinds of supports nor how to cheat the system, however can't you use someone to bypass such a thing? for exemple, you are working with a pseudonym, so if you made a bank acount in your (mother/father/brother/psychologist (yes, really)/family/etc) name, it wouldn't trigger the government, the system is very balanced with no exploits, so try and search for ways to exploit the hell out of it, and don't feel sorry for asking your psychologist or anyone really for this kind of help either, they will understand.
This game takes my breath away! The artwork, voice acting, and the writing is amazing and delightful! I can't wait for what's to come! Thank you for making such a wonderful game. <3
Glad you were enjoying it :3 Unfortunately, development is pretty slow for a whole bunch of different reasons >.< and I can't even work on anything atm cos my dominant arm is broken, haha. But hoping to get an update out later in the year still :3
Thank you :3 It's very frustrating just waiting to get better because it feels like it's taking forever, haha, but I guess I just have to be patient x3
Waiting and making sure youre recovered is better than not waiting and rushing things for sure haha, i understand your frustration ;<< ill still be here by the time youve recovered!!
Just wanted to say you did an amazing job with this! Played it two times in a row and had a blast each time! Would love to make fanarts of Castor he definitealy stole my heart
Aww, thank you so much for checking it out and I'm so glad you had fun with what's there so far :3
That would be epic if you do end up making any fanarts :D Feel free to post them here in the comments if you do, or you're welcome totweet them to me or tag me in on Tumblr, and I'll do my best to repost if you don't mind :3
Hopefully, you've managed to get it to open by now, but if not, from what I've been told, the easiest way to get it to work is to download the itch.io app, and then play all games via app :3 Failing that, with any luck, something on this list of suggestions by other mac users will help!
1. I acted how I genuinely would act in this situation(be as polite as possible while trying to figure wtf is going on) and um things ended up fine, luckily.
2. It says this is a demo is there a full release yet becuase I would love to see the full story.
Glad you had fun with what there is so far :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
That's good :D As long as you pick the right choices, you should largely be able to avoid sinister stuff if you'd prefer to only see the sweeter/fluffier side of a character ^-^
Sadly, the current demo is the most up-to-date version of the game aside from my own personal working copy. It's a really big project and I'm just one person with (frustratingly) fluctuating motivation, so progress has been super slow for a number of reasons :( One of the biggest problems is that I tend to tire easily if I'm only working on 1 project at a time. It's like I need to have multiple things on the go to keep my motivation up, but ofc, that means that progress is often slow across the board >.< I've also been ill for quite a while, and only just getting back into dev stuff again for the first time this year by teaming up with my friend to make a little something for this year's yandere jam, which we managed to release today :3
This game is just...amazing in so many ways. The interface...the characters...the plotline itself, you could really see this was a labor of love by the creator. I'm very much looking forward to the completed game!
I'm so glad you like what there is so far of the game ^-^ it's come a long way since the original jam version of it in terms of improvements that I've made, but even the original version I poured my heart into, haha. Unfortunately, development has been pretty slow for a whole bunch of different reasons >.< but progress is happening little by little, haha.
Oh dear x3 well, I at least hope it wasn't in too awful of a way >.< I almost got diagnosed with BPD a few years back, but then they decided they weren't sure enough to actually make it official, haha. The consensus now is that I might have ADHD fighting with my ASD xD but the jury is still out on it!
Hi I have a question. Would you recommend I play the demo or winter wish? I'm not sure if I should play winter wish if you are redoing the whole game. I might as well play the demo. I hope I'm making sense lmao.
I guess that depends on which version you download. The old 'safe version' is heavily censored to fit the requirements of the jam the game was submitted to at the time, but the most recent upload listed as a demo is currently the most complete version of the game available so far.
There's a lot more content to be added, but if you're referring to the stuff in the current demo like the puffs of smoke covering Castor/ia's modesty and the lack of specifics during the steamy scene, that's just how the game is going to stay, and there won't be a version that removes the censoring for a couple of reasons.
Firstly because there won't really be enough sexual content in the game to really need to, but also because the sprites actually lack detail when it comes to genitals xD Castoria doesn't have any nipples and Castor doesn't have any nipples or man parts, haha. So it would look even weirder if there was nothing covering them x3 This is because the original artist of the sprites only draws the sprites naked without genitalia.
This is an amazing game about a character (we could assume) with borderline personality disorder, from whom I got flashbacks of my ex. But as Ive learned from my past I chose the mostly reasonable answers.. and got poisoned : ) The voice acting and music are simply impeccable, and the visuals are quite immersing!
[I got recommended it from my friend that saw it on Manly Badass Hero's video]
Oh no, flashbacks of an ex probably isn't the greatest thing to experience while playing stuff x3 or at least it wouldn't be for me cos I generally play games to escape reality, haha. I'm glad you still enjoyed what there is of the game so far though!
The good news is that eventually when the game has more content added, you will technically be able to play through a character's route and see only sweetness (or only terror, depending on your choices x3)
That was nice of your friend to recommend it! And yeah, I owe Manly a lot for shining a light on the project :3 I doubt many people would know it exists if he hadn't played it!
I think because it was 5 replies in a chain rather than 1 individual comment, comments 1-4 were marked as spam. So then they were deleted and that just left a wall of 'deleted post' messages on the page. I tried to get rid of the blank deleted messages so that it looked less messy by using the purge option, but that apparently deleted the remaining comment that wasn't marked as spam.
Anyways, I had planned to reply properly, but I'm still ill at the moment and don't have the energy. Pretty much everything you mentioned has been discussed in previous comments anyways, so there's probably not much point in repeating myself x3 It's all stuff that will be fixed/edited with future updates anyhow :3 the whole thing is just one big WIP at the moment. Cheers for checking it out in its current state though!
This game is perfect. It gives me very good laughts and made my day, i was grinning like Lord X from fnf in his song "Cycles" (left pose) when something funny happened
OH MY GOD! I Love this game so much that I'm obsessed. I love Castor. He is so sweet and cute but can get jealous and ignorant. which makes him unique. Will you be making it a full game? I need to see more of Castor. (If you will or you are already making it, could you please tell me when it will be completed)
Glad you like it so far :3 It's currently in development, so yeah, there will be more content for Castor/ia to come + more love interests added to the game as well :D
It's slow going though because my scope for the project is pretty big >.< I'm trying to focus on releasing things sort of episodically to make it easier to progress, but it's still slow cos I'm just 1 person, and quite often, my crappy mental health gets in the way of me being productive + I often feel the need to work on multiple projects at once or I end up burning out if I try to just stick to 1 thing, so that makes things even slower >.< It'll eventually be a full game though, hopefully with even more play time than my first full-length game (Solipsism Reigns).
I can't give any sort of estimate on when the full game will finally be completed because there's just far too much work to do, and to try and fund stuff like voice acting for the entire thing will require an insane amount of money that I don't currently have >.< On a smaller scale though, I hope to have at least 1 more content update out for the project sometime this year, hopefully, more than 1, but I can't say when cos I just never know how stuff is gonna go T_T haha. Cos I already have a bunch of stuff written, I just haven't coded it in yet.
They did such an amazing job, so I'm glad you think so :3 It just sucks that it's looking more and more likely I won't be able to get them back for new content >.<
Yup, what My name's E said :3 Sorry I couldn't get back to you swiftly myself >.< I've been ill since 19th December and only just feeling well enough to jump back on my PC since I got the lurgy! Figured I'd try to do some stuff on my phone, but it was so old and laggy that it was kind of too hard to type much, haha.
But yeah, winter wish is the old outdated version from the jam it was originally made for. The demo is the most up-to-date version with lots of tweaks, improvements, and a bit more content than the old jam version, so it better represents how the game will be going forward :3
The old winter wish jam version was designed to be playable as a standalone story since it had to be made within 1 month for the jam, but I also hoped to be able to turn it into a much longer project in the future. The demo can still be played as a standalone story, but I'll be updating it with more content over time, and it will always be available to play for free. I hope to have the full game as a commercial release in the future, but I'm currently not in a position that allows me to make any of my projects commercial, aside from that, I will always make free copies available to those who can't afford to buy them even if I do have some commercial projects one day cos I know how much it sucks to not be able to afford to buy the stuff you wanna play :3
I was wondering if you where planning on making an android/Samsung version, since thats the only device i have at the moment. I love the way this game looks by the way :)
I sure would like to, but unfortunately, it won't be any time soon if I do :( I've tried to export android builds of several of my short projects, and despite following the tutorials, they always fail >.< so until I can find out what's going wrong or someone can teach me how to do it right, I won't be able to get anything to work T_T I really hope I can get some of my games playable on mobile and maybe even Switch someday though!
Unfortunately, it's not possible to do that :( I don't even know how to use renpy (I've only ever completed 1 basic tutorial project for it that gave me a headache so I decided it wasn't the tool for me x3) so to make anything in renpy would mean me having to learn how to actually use it first.
And then I used to use Tyranobuilder, but stopped using it a long time ago after making my first couple of games with it because of how clunky and buggy of an engine it was >.< I imagine it's probably improved by now with a few updates, but still, it's a frustrating and slow engine to use. And even if it wasn't, remaking anything of this length in another engine would take ages :( and I probably wouldn't be able to replicate most of the effects either since they were made using Unity's particle system.
If it were shorter, it might be more doable, but even just the demo is already too long to do it, and the full game will be a lot longer >.<
After playing through the 'newer' demo, if this is AI related and Caster/Castoria doesn't actually exist and it's some figment of the player's imagination, I'm going to punch a wall. Like, that'd genuinly ruin the entire thing for me. I really want it be magical and not some AI thing that can be taken away. Idgaf if he's/she's a fully sentient AI, it'd still be such a mood kill. Don't get me wrong, love the game a lot!
Well, I'm pleased to say that walls will be safe from your wrath :D I wouldn't be as cruel as to turn the whole thing into a 'and it was all in MC' s head/just a dream/not real' type scenario :3
Funnily enough though, there will be an AI-type character, but they won't be messing with anything to do with Castor/ia. They're more like an optional helper that you can choose to have with you if you agree to be a tester during that phone call at the beginning of the game. Cos it's just a brief demo for now though, you only have the choices to ignore the call or say no thanks to participating >.<
Some of the other character routes I have planned involve characters who come from a more traditional magical background than Castor/ia as well, more from like folklore rather than a video game.
Getting this reply felt like a 100kg weight just got removed from my chest. Extremely glad to hear that you're not curel enough to pull something like that. By the way, what's the game's release date looking like? In a while I imagine, but any ideas as to when?
Honestly, I can't even make a rough guess >.< For the entire game, definitely over a year because I have so much planned. Heck, it may never be truly finished because I already have ideas for 10+ character routes at this point, haha. It's why I'm just working on it sort of episodically. That way, it has end points that can kind of be taken as endings, but can also be continued. If I try and think about it being 100% finished, it'll just make me run away from it cos it's too much, haha. Better to try and keep a smaller scope in my head so as not to demotivate myself x3
To be even more unhelpful though, I can't even say for sure when the next update will be out. I plan to have the next update add the start of the next character (Cana) route along with continuing Castor/ia's. And it's already written, just needs some edits here and there. Sprites for Cana are already done too. So mostly it's just a case of getting the code for it done! But there are other factors I have to consider too, like getting Cgs in there, what's going to happen with voice acting, do I introduce another feature at the same time >.<
And with my mental health being the way it is, I can never predict when I'll be able to be productive and when I'll just be a useless lump of meat x3 Plus I struggle to focus on just 1 project at a time. I find it easier to juggle a couple of different things at once, but that of course means slow progress across multiple things rather than faster progress on 1 thing >.< For example, because there's so much going on in my personal life at the moment with prepping for Christmas and other things, I've been winding down and not doing any project work that involves coding, but I haven't wanted to stop working on stuff entirely, so I've just been working on a video/audio-only side project (The Masked Marionette). Once the new year begins, I'll start juggling again, haha.
But yeah, I don't wanna give rough dates and then completely fail to meet them >.< I'm dreadful at estimating when I'll have stuff done by as well because things always take longer than I think they will! So many times during game jams where I try my best to make schedules, I'll tell myself, right, this part I can do in 2 days... 5 days later and I'm only just finishing it, haha.
So yeah, sorry about that >.< I just can't really say because it's a mystery even to me. When I've got an update that's close-ish to release though, I'll make posts and stuff ahead of time to say that it'll be probably be released around X date :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays + a happy new year!
Woo ^-^ glad you've enjoyed what you've seen so far :3 And that's so awesome that you like them both! Not gonna lie, I have a bit of a softer spot for Castor cos he's like a lost little puppy dog in my eyes x3 but I still have love for Castoria too!
Honestly, I was supposed to have typed up and posted a walkthrough for all the different paths that can be found in the demo within a week of releasing it, but that clearly didn't happen >.<
I feel like it needs one because some of the paths are pretty awkward to get onto + some of the bad endings require you to do some pretty specific things to reach them. I just kept finding other stuff that needed doing or just didn't feel like it T_T Which is pretty stupid of me because it would've been easier to write a walkthrough when everything was fresher in my mind! So all I've done is make it more difficult for myself when I do eventually get around to it >.<
Aww, that's so sweet of you to say <3 I appreciate you taking the time to check out my stuff and leave such a lovely comment :3
Nobody has the full game because it's still in development :3 Actually, it's nowhere near finished. Anyone who has made videos on YouTube has either played through the old version of the game from the jam or the current demo.
But yeah, the demo here is the most up-to-date version right now. I plan to update the project sort of episodically as I add the next part of Castor/ia's story and new character routes :3
This game is very good I'm very excited to see what more this game has to offer.
The demo was very good definitely recommend giving it a shot.
The voice acting was good the backgrounds & music were all good.
I'm very interested in what this game has for the future.
No complaints about what happened in the demo so far and I could feel some creepypasta vibes from the game where glitching, you can only play 1 section, audio problems although those things are pretty cliche it doesn't take or bring the game down in anyway.
Can't wait to see what this game has to offer next :)
Holy moly, you did a 3-parter :o I sure hope you didn't encounter too many bugs cos I haven't really had a chance to do more bug testing since uploading that new demo version >.< haha. And I know there are a few pesky things in there like some audio glitches (unintentional ones, haha) that I don't know how to fix yet T_T
Anyways, I'm loving those thumbnails, especially the P1 one ^-^ Glad you had fun with it! Just wish I could put a rocket up my butt so I could work on it faster, haha. Weirdly I always seem to have less motivation to work on my longer projects compared to my short-burst jam ones >.<I'll get there in the end though! Baby steps x3
That's understandable. Longer projects tend to take a lot more time than short ones and it's really easy to lose motivation on longer projects because of how time-consuming they can be.
Yeah, it's definitely a problem >.< And I tend to grow temporarily bored with stuff if I don't have other stuff to work on as well. Even with 1 month long jams, I can still struggle to focus on just 1 thing for the whole month. As mad as it might've been trying to do 2 games for this year's Spooktober jam, in some ways, it did actually help me finish both by being able to work on them both at once because it meant I didn't get the opportunity to grow bored or or lose motivation for either one :3
It helps a lot to be able to juggle a few different things to switch between, but at the same time, it is frustrating to make little bits of progress on multiple things that look like you've not achieved much compared to lots of progress on one thing >.<
Hope you get to have happy holidays and a super happy new year :3
Damn I also thought castor is "boring" a bit too harsh yeah but goddamn i did not expect him to do something like that >w< like AHHHHHH I'm blushin so hard.I'm so excited to play the whole game!
xD He's a bit of a crazy fella. I feel like calling him boring to his face is really harsh and just unnecessarily mean, haha. But admittedly, I have felt like that when playing dating sim games in the past x3 Like, man, this character's route is so boooring, but I'm a completionist, so I feel the need to unlock all the Cgs and finish the route anyways, but often it's a slog and I can't wait to get to one of the other love interests who is more my cup of tea xD
Unfortunately, though, I can't really give a clear answer to your question >.< I'm unemployed and have a lot of struggles in my personal life, so I'm pretty much just working on this project when I can and feel like it >.<
It's a passion project, but I don't always feel like working on this project alone. I find it easier to work on a few different things at once so that I stay interested in them all, but then ofc, that means progress tends to be quite slow across the board! The only time I manage to get stuff done at a decent speed is when I've signed up to a jam and I know there's a deadline. Then it's more like a fun challenge to make something in a short amount of time and just get it out there :3 But I can't work that way with my bigger projects because I would just burn out >.<
I'll be trying to update the game in a sort of episodic fashion anyhow, so that new content can be introduced faster than if I waited until I'd finished the entire thing to release anything. Cos I have a heck of a lot I wanna do with this, so even if I worked on nothing but this project non-stop, it'd probably still take me well over a year. And then of course there's the challenge of funding stuff like voice acting and art on top of everything else, haha.
So yeah, sorry that I can't be very helpful there >.<
The demo is good, i like the va's, they did a pretty good job. Interesting story, most of the people in the comments probably relate to the mc. Very good! Will be waiting for more :)
Some people are talking about having a "free demo" version.. so can we pay to experience more of the game? How does that work; is it automatic if we just donate when downloading, and if so, how much do we have to donate?
It's because the game page and stuff has only very recently changed. Basically, prior to November this year, the only way to access the game was to make a $2 donation towards funding (or just ask for a free key or download for free at Christmas) but it was pretty much only a demo/game jam version of the game still because it's in development.
For the recent November update, I made a lot of changes to the old version, and re-released it as a demo + removed the $2 donation at the same time.
I did it for a number of reasons. 1 is that I'm having trouble with getting the original voice actors back to voice new lines despite having a small amount of funding to be able to pay them something. Another is that my personal circumstances currently don't permit me to release any of my projects commercially. And the old version of the game was extremely out of date compared to what I'd been working on and my vision for the project as a whole.
I was getting quite a few requests for free keys from people who couldn't afford to donate towards the project's funding, so it seemed silly to keep the downloads locked. Having the free demo makes it more easily accessible for anyone in its current state.
The 'demo' that's currently available, is the most up-to-date version of the game. The only version that has more content right now, is my private WIP version that's still in development. When there's significantly more content available, I'll most likely make a separate version of the more complete game for those who have donated towards funding its development while maintaining a free demo download. And, as always, I'll still give out keys to anyone who can't afford to donate. But right now, the demo is the only download available because there is no full game yet.
If you choose to donate any amount, the main thing is that it will fund the game's development, helping to pay for things like voice acting and CG art :3 But you don't technically have to donate anything. I'll be working on the project regardless. It's just if I can't get enough funding for stuff like voice acting, the game will either have to be unvoiced or it might not get worked on much because having VA in my projects is one of my biggest personal motivators, so without it, I tend to lose steam >.<
I can't say for sure anymore because I don't really know what's going to happen with my personal situation or the project >.< It may turn out that I can never ever make a commercial release in my life because of my circumstances, I just don't know :( And while I'll do my best to keep working on the game when I feel like I can and want to, I can't promise with absolute certainty that it will ever be 100% finished in the way that I hope for it to be because it's such a big project and I'm only 1 person x3 I'll just do what I can pretty much.
So yeah, I'm not really in a position to be able to give a proper answer >.<
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Heyy, I have a small problem. I downloaded the demo but once I try to open it it says I don't have the required "access rights"? or something like that (I don't know how to properly translate it) to open the program. How can I fix it?
Hey hey! Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I was away from home this past week, so I'm only just reading comments that I missed. Hopefully, you managed to get it working, but if not, I hope I'll be able to help :3 Is it the Mac version you're trying to play? Or is it the Windows or Linux version? If it's Mac, there are a few things you can try which are listed here :3
I don't own a Mac myself, but everything on the list is something that has worked for other Mac users in the past. I hope you manage to get it working :3
KEEP IT UP!!!!
Thanks so much for checking it out! :3 Hope 2023 is treating you well so far!
bops
i love this game sm! im excited when finally the full version will come out, also tysm for making a mac version! unfortunately half of the games i wanted to play arent on mac but thankfully there is still people who still make mac versions <3
i hope you have a nice day!
Thanks so much for playing the game, and also glad to hear that it actually works for you on Mac! ^-^ I don't own a Mac, and neither does anyone I live with, so I can't actually test the Mac builds, sadly >.< I just export them anyways and hope that they work the same as the Windows ones x3
Hope you have a nice day too! :3
It's quite amazing to see a demo be this good. Although, this game is very repetitive after playing this a couple of times i just to how the storyline is headed towards it feels like every decision i made in the game would twist the ending a little bit. I'm not really one for critiquing people but that's because i really want to see how the finished product would look since most of the negatives of this game could easily be fixed since all it needs is more content to be added.
Well, I'm super glad you think it's decent :3 To be fair, it has been updated since the original release for the game jam it was made for because back then, I was only just starting to learn how to use the new software, haha. But that was largely aesthetic improvements in the UI and stuff rather than content.
At the moment, I think the demo doesn't do a very good job of showing my vision for the project as a whole because it's just way too incomplete >.< and I know a lot of stuff leads to dead ends (like with the company at the start and with the talk of MC's best friend), but hopefully, once I've finally managed to get more added, it'll be easier to see that there's a whole bunch of stuff going on that's not even related to Castor/ia, that they're just 1 of many options in the game. Cos right now, it sort of gives the impression that the whole thing is about them when it isn't >.< It's just that's all I could get done back when I made the start of their story for the Winter VN jam x3
Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to leave a comment :3
OH MY GOSH!! I just finished playing the demo and I just had to express how much I loved it! I was immediately drawn by the premise, I think it's such an interesting idea for a game and it's definitely something I've fantasized about before LMAO ^__^ I also adore the art, the character designs are so beautiful, and the voice acting is really really great! The part where Castor whispers in your ear caught me off guard – in a good way hehehe! This was so fun to play and I am beyond excited to see more of this game. Thank you for creating it and sharing it with us, and I wish you the best of luck with continuing it. :]
Thanks so much for checking the demo out ^-^ and for your kind comment too <3
Hehe, not gonna lie, I have waaaaay too much fun doing the whispering-in-the-ear stuff in most of my games xD Sometimes I purposely put the whispering direction in my scripts for the voice actors on lines that I think would work well like that, and other times, voice actors just happen to whisper a line anyways, and I immediately think, yup, that's going in one ear x3 I just remember the first time I listened to an audio drama CD where it happened, and I sat there with my headphones on just stunned thinking, well, that was cool! Always wanted to try and include in my stuff ever since :D
Thank you for the luck too! I definitely need it x3 development on this is waaaay behind where I would like it to be >.< there's always so much I wanna do in general and never enough time to actually do it T_T I guess any sort of progress is better than no progress at all though at least x3
Very happy I discovered this game, the writing is very strong and the horror aspect of the game does extremely well, most games rely on just pure violence or gore but your scenes use just writing and dialoge to convey sheer emotion and atmosphere. Definetly among the best bad endings I think ive ever seen.
Having read up on some of your post, it's also extremely impressive how you've managed to keep up working on this game, alongside putting out other projects with no loss of passion.
Be proud of what you accomplished!
That means a lot cos I'm a huuuuuge fan of bad endings in general, haha. Whether it's in visual novels, other game genres, or films and stuff, I just find them more fun than good endings x3 So much so that the very first VN I made was choc full of bad ends and you had to collect them all in order to unlock the true route xD I always try to make bad endings as fun and interesting as I can rather than just have them feel like an afterthought cos I know as a player, I get really annoyed when I find bad ends in games that are over in a few seconds and don't have a lot of point to them T_T Tbh, sometimes I worry if I've put too much effort into the bad ends in my games and not enough into the good ends, and it maybe feels unbalanced or something/not rewarding enough when you get a good end, haha. But oh well, it's all just for fun at the end of the day :D
Thanks so much for your kind and supportive words :3 It can certainly be a struggle sometimes, haha. This project in particular feels like a marathon >.< I'm never happy with how slowly things are progressing on it when I know how huge the scope is. Sometimes it feels like it's impossible to envision how the heck I'm gonna finish it to the standard that I hope to, which is why I try to work on it in little chunks so as not to get demotivated by the enormity of the task, haha. Working on other, shorter, little game jam projects really helps me to sort of slap my brain back into a more productive mode when I start drifting x3 but at the same time, I can't deny that it also massively slows down development on this project when I wind up taking entire months away from this to focus on game jam stuff >.< The problem is that even if the passion is always alive, my ability to actually be productive isn't T_T and it feels like one of those things where I can't force it even when I really want to. So it's like I have to sit around and wait for my brain to get into the right gear to actually get stuff done.
Any time I work on this or on jam projects, I wind up feeling guilty about another project of mine where I fully finished the writing years ago, but has been on hold since long before I even made DD >.< There's just never enough time to do everything, and that sucks, haha. I just hope that both projects will eventually be finished at least :3 Cheers for checking it out!
this is like my biggest fantasy!!!! dude this is great, if it releases i'll def get it, even if it costs money! <3
i feel like u read all my old old fanfics and wrote this xD love it sm
xD well, that's handy then, haha. It's gonna take me forever to finish the entire thing properly >.< But I'm hoping I'll get there in the end! Glad you like what there is so far anyhow :3 cheers for checking it out!
for some reason im trying to redownload the game today bc i deleted it bc of storage issues and as im tryimng to redownload it everytime i try to it says removed
Hmm, that's strange >.< Do you know which version you originally downloaded? Because if it was from before I updated all the files with the most recent demo version late last year, that might be the cause! Cos I had to rename stuff and delete other stuff that was no longer relevant.
The latest version is the one called 'Darling Duality - Demo - (Windows/Mac/Linux)' and because so much was changed in that version, it means save files from the older versions can't be carried over cos they would just break the game >.<
it works perfectly fine now that was just me sorry! :O)
Oh, cool, well, that's good that it works now :3 No worries!
Wow this game was amazing to play! I really can't wait for more updates to come!
That's awesome that you had fun with it so far :D Thanks so much for playing! I wish I could clone myself a few times to get updates out faster, haha. I hate that there's so much I wanna do but can't do it all at once x3 Then again, I don't think multiple versions of me would be a good idea >.< the world doesn't need that!
I've see many praises here, so I will play a bit of devil's advocate. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this game, especialy because of Castoria, however it is clear that it needs more to not be "another" game.
Of course it is just a Demo and it is made by only one person, but there is some core things that I wonder if it could not be improved, although of course I am not demanding for perfection.
Be noted for those who did not play, there will be spoilers, you have been advised, I recommend for you to play as it is worth it and then come back to see the rest if you so desire.
Graphics/Visuals/Interface:
Look, the character design is probably one of the things that makes the characters so charming, be it with Castor or Castoria, however all the rest is... lackluster to say the least. There is a lot of potential though, for exemple the simple logo, the entire part where the character glitches on the game especially how the interface changes to the situation, I loved it so much as well as the letters when it is on "yandere" mode and the unique (I'll call it arabic for sake of calling it something) arabic letters, really, all of those are very charming and they do well it's purpose while give the game a clear identity.
That being said, I can not say the same for some goofy parts and other bothersome things, for exemple, when you are "playing" winter wish, it is in some kind of DS or Swich that doesn't looks great and helps give the feel of a an amateur made game, this happens mostly because it tries to give a 3d feeling... in a 2d game, that usually doesn't mix well, as in 2d the perspective for depth and texture is different so it feels out of place. Other goofy thing I find is the twisting of the letters in the entry of the game, like it really kills the vibe, especially because it starts really well, the logo moving across, glitching and then giving you the options is a really solid execution, although I'd argue that it could be shorter and done a bit faster; however the twisting of the letters isn't clean, it takes a lot of time that makes me be like "bro, I just want to play the game, let me play it", and worse when I want to quit, because whenever I quit, the entry plays all over again when closing the game should be something quick, since there is no prompt to ask if I wan't to go to the main screen or just close the game. Perhaps it would be better to mix the original winter wish main menu with the demo, make the just lozenge glitch and then the options with the name appearing?
Also, for the interface, whenever there is the 2 options for lovely or yan, a text appearing about what would one say is apreciated, as well as an option to remove the guide to what options would lead to what, and of course, making the order of the text random maybe with a visual representation of the lozenge twisting and inverting.
As a resume, embrace the glitches, unique letters and the 2d for the graphics and visuals, define a clear identity to the game, while try to reject things that would remove the simplicity of things.
Story/Characters/Interactions:
The personality duality is by far the strongest point of the game, as well as so far the focal point of the game. Yet there are some things that feel... off, or to be more precise, that needs more development before certain situations happen, for exemple, the character development of the MC is abrupt to say the least and some decisions aren't fluid; when you start the game - skipping the AI and childhood friend part as I'll talk about it later - the MC is like "dam hot af Castoria, dream girl bla bla bla" and then he says she isn't his type to 2s later start treating her like shit and that her route is just bothersome, to later being able to treat her like a goddess basicaly, I know it is "darling duality" but making the MC be bipolar for free like this isn't great, it makes the story feel empty, rushed and worse, sloppy. If the point is to make the MC like this, then develope more about it, altough I wouldn't recommend.
Meanwhile, for the love interest there isn't much to criticize, it is very well written, albeit there is some things that could be implemented to deepen their personalities. Castor and Castoria are the figureheads of the game, implementing other characters is not a bad things, but it is when it is waaayy to disconnected, for exemple, the start of the demo you are talking with a company about AI's ???? Why? and I don't mean in what is the story reason, but why it is there, at the start? Even if there is a good reason, it feels to disconected if for exemple I choose not to talk with them, that is not good, why not instead this about them later when the love interest talks about money, this way it is given a reasonable reason for one understand why would the MC looks for a shady AI company, it creates the intrigue about if it is related to Castor(ia) appearing, or perhaps would it be an sapient AI, what would the Castor(ia) think about it if you brough it home because of the necessity of money etc. While about the childhood friend, although it is fine for having an interaction with her at the start, if we don't, will she appear worried later? Would Castor(ia) be fine with it appearing? How would promissing or not to just belong to Castor(ia) affect what it thinks about the childhood friend, those options have me high hopes for those things, however it also made me question if there was plans to develop as such, because if not, then what is the point? Why give a situation that makes the player hope may happen something but just being a false option? This wouldn't be a good thing as it would make the story feel disconnected and with that "missing" sensation.
We do know that Castor(ia) can change it's appearence in reality, so some powers it has, therefore leaving this as a loose end is unwise. Therefore it is recomended to develop on this as well, while I recommend to keep it just as the power of transforming her clothes, the cultural shock and force of habbit could create many situations that deepen her personality as a person.
As a resume, embrace the struggle between being normal and the obsession of Castor(ia) as the focal point of the story and making a solid MC that can embrace her crazyness or reject it, while avoid creating loose ends and empty interactions.
Anyway, I talked too much,
even though I wanted to say more, I see a lot of potential, especially since the story so far is already good, but improving those topics is what differentiate between a mediocre/regular dating sim to a genuinely good indie game; honestly I wouldn't mind waiting 5 years from now if it ment on this being at least a good finished game. What can I say, I got hooked on Castoria, she has a great concept story so far and a voice actress that can be threatening and hit that sweet spot when needed, so I've been looking at this gem ever since I manly posted that video, I give my highest wishes for this to be a bomb.Yeah, there is a lot of positivity here, which is wonderful ^-^ and I can still hardly believe it + really appreciate it :3 But what you don't see is the negative stuff I get sent privately to my email, haha. The positives still massively outweigh the negatives, thankfully, but it doesn't stop the nasty stuff from really getting to me and massively demotivating me when I read it >.<
Manly playing the game was both a blessing and a curse, haha. A blessing because, otherwise, hardly anyone would even know the game exists still, and the level of support has been incredible :3 But a curse because it has also attracted a number of people who, while they profess to love the game, have proceeded to make demands of me in private, saying that if I don't include X or Y content for Castor/ia, or if I don't change X or Y that they don't like about the project, then they will trash it and everything else that I release o.O Of course, there are also just haters too >.< And worse than that, but I won't go into more detail because my arm is still broken at the moment, and it's still quite difficult to type with just one hand for now x3 So I can only apologise for that! If I could use both hands, I'd type out a much more in-depth response!
Firstly, regarding art aspects, there's not much I can do to change most things because I'm not an artist :( (that's why there are no CGs in the game, though I am commissioning my artist friend LPB to create some for future updates :3) All the sprites are assets that are edited by me in order to avoid using them with their default appearances. I spent many hours in GIMP recolouring them and adding additional facial expressions that they didn't come with by default. All the backgrounds are assets. And yup, you probably guessed it by now, the switch-like console is also just an edited asset x3 The UI is the only part of the art that's mostly made by me. Some of it is a combo of edited assets + my own stuff, but most of it is stuff I managed to put together in GIMP. As I said though, I'm no artist. I can't draw to save my life >.<
All of that amounts to giving the feeling of an amateur made game because the game is technically made by an amateur, haha. I have no formal experience or training in any aspect of game dev x3 It started as a hobby, out of wanting to make a game that contained the stuff I wanted to see because, at
the time, I played a lot of VNs and none quite had what I was hoping for in a game - an English-voiced male yandere character, where the yandere romance was the only romance, but there was still a proper story behind it all (and so, I made my first game around that, Solipsism Reigns :3) I may have gained a lot of experience over the years since I started making games, even completely switching engines at one point. Heck, I even managed to teach myself how to start making music so I could include some original tracks in my games, but still, I am not an artist, nor a writer, nor a coder, or composer. Everything I've ever done is self-taught. And making games is a hobby that helps me to cope with my depression and other mental health problems x3 As my friend once put it upon seeing my first game finished, - 'I don't know how you did it when you can't even draw, but boy, you sure are resourceful!' haha.
I'm also unemployed, so when it comes to game dev, all I have to put towards projects is the stuff that people kindly donate :3 Which means that, for example, I can't really afford to hire an artist to draw a better-looking version of the device that MC plays Winter Wish on. Cos any funding needs to go towards CGs or voice acting.
There is a key you can press to force skip the title screen animations, but I can't remember which one it is, and I can't check since I can't go on my PC atm with my broken arm x3 I know what you mean though about needing a more efficient way to quit and stuff cos it is quite slow.
Won't say too much regarding bipolar MC cos the jury is still out on whether I am bipolar myself or not xD My therapist once suspected I might be, but now she thinks perhaps I might have ADHD as well as my autism, and that the two together at war sort of mimic bipolar traits. Anyways, I do get what you're saying, but the game is supposed to be all black and white with little to no grey area for both MC and the love interests. The player can indeed make MC less believable and more unstable by ping-ponging between cruel/kind options and acting polar opposites, but everything will have consequences in the end, and there is a point to being able to do it all, it just doesn't really show yet in the demo like a lot of things cos the story isn't far enough in for a lot of stuff to make much sense >.< Even if a player goes full kind/sweet mode though, it still won't result in a typically healthy relationship with any of the characters. It will be less crazy than the alternative options, and probably considered the 'good' route or ending, but yeah, it still won't be healthy, because the whole concept is about how black and white thinking and extremes aren't healthy x3
Castor and Castoria might be the only available love interests atm, but I was planning to have many more routes than that (2 of which are already partially written, just not in the demo yet x3) For example, Cana, the childhood friend mentioned in the demo, is a love interest with their own route, and depending on the player's choices, Castor/ia and Cana could well wind up encountering each other, where there are, of course, consequences :3
The stuff to do with Kiaria Corp and the AI I really can't say much about without walking right into spoiler territory. All I can say is that it has to be at the beginning for things to work the way I eventually want them to. It might seem nonsensical now, but there's a reason for it x3 Trust me, once it's actually implemented, it will make sense. The problem is that almost everyone thinks the game is mainly Castor/ia's story, and that the story begins with MC and Castor/ia, but that's only because that's all that's playable for now. Because that's all I could finish in time for the game jam it was originally submitted to. In reality, Castor/ia is actually just an option in a much bigger game that I had planned to make. The story doesn't have to start with Castor/ia. Heck, once the full game is eventually finished years from now, a player could play without even encountering Castor/ia if they chose to do so. I think I might have briefly mentioned it in the past on Patreon/Ko-Fi, but I don't really remember.
I would've left out the AI and Cana branches from the demo to save confusion, but the problem was, I didn't have space to make backup copies of my working copy and the public demo release. In my working copy, the branches that are inaccessible in the demo do actually lead to more content, but it's unfinished. Because I don't have space for backups, it was easier for me to leave those branches in and block them off than to completely remove them and then have to add them in again >.< It's stupid, I know. But my PC is old, my hard drive is full, and it was pretty much my only option :(
And yeah, I already touched on Cana, the childhood friend, but to give a solid answer to all those questions, basically, everything you asked is already written into the story :3 So all of those things will be answered. It's just I haven't been able to actually make any of it playable yet (part of it is playable in my working copy, but I'm nowhere near finished coding in all of the stuff that's been written already >.<) But yeah, Cana will have their own playable route. Player choices will determine if Cana and Castor/ia discover each other's existence, and if they do, there will be consequences according to the choices previously made.
Hehe, I would say more too if it wasn't for my stupid arm >.< Typing atm is just so slow and awkward. I appreciate you taking the time to write everything that you did though :3 Constructive criticism is always helpful! Often, people will say they don't like X or Y, but offer no suggestions on how to improve, so it's always nice to hear different opinions on stuff with actual suggestions. It's just a shame that there's not much I can do about some of the points that you raised, like the art stuff >.<
And being completely honest, it might actually take 5 years or more for me to properly fully finish the project xD the scope is pretty big, and a lot gets in the way of progress :( My mental health issues mean my productivity comes in spikes. I find it easier to work on multiple projects at once rather than just one. Negative emails, comments, and reviews make me want to quit the project because, at the end of the day, I'm making it for fun, and if it stops being fun, I have no willpower to keep going >.< Funding is difficult because voice acting is expensive, and I can't even run a Kickstarter or anything because of my personal situation. I live in a country where because of my mental health issues, I have to accept government aid in order to survive and be able to afford food and stuff, but while accepting that help, I'm not allowed to try to make any sort of income, even if it's just a tiny amount, it's not allowed, and if I did, I would immediately lose my aid, then I wouldn't be able to afford food >.< Aaaand, to top it off, one of the voice actors is unlikely to reprise their role even with payment offered. Soooo, yeah, there are a lot of barriers that make development quote slow :( haha. And that's not even including the fact that my arm got broken in several places a few weeks ago xD so I haven't been able to work on anything since then, and I'm stuck like that until it's healed.
I'm glad you like what little is there so far in the demo though and that you can see potential in the project :3 With any luck, it will be finished eventually! Just gotta keep taking it in baby steps I guess.
Hi, I'm very glad that even with your broken arm, you managed to type so much, I know how much it must suck, hope it didn't hurt or anything in the process.
I'm also happy about how you took my contructive criticism. And about the art stuff, don't blame yourself for it, although I wouldn't recommend for you to try and do everything, try and diverge it, you said about your friend but for exemple, why not also do in your patreon, asking or doing a contest for some assets to be in the game? Heck you could do it right here and I'm sure your e-mail would be flooded with it; you could allow for it to leave the signature in the asset and, I mean if I was good at it, I would do it, it would be so cool to see a dope art of mine with my signature in it and in a game I love to top it all off. Still for an amateur you should be proud of yourself, it is already above avarage from most amateurs games, especially considering that you do it all basically.
I don't judge that you have those possible mental problems, after all I date a esquizofrenic, so perhaps that made me question why it felt too bipolar (
and maybe why I like the yandere and maniputalitive nature of the game), still, I wouldn't say it is a bad thing for it to be like this in the game, after all as you said it is meant to be like that, however - and I assume that is a hard thing to do - just because it is meant to be like that, doesn't mean it shouldn't be deepened; maybe in the best friend route with her questioning the MC and/or Castor(ia) about their seemingly bipolar way of talking? One way to make it more natural is to put a bit of yourself in it, as a player of D&D and other RPG's, I do this a lot of the time and it gives more vividity (I assume you already do this, but well it doesn't hurt to recommend).And story wise, I'm glad to hear all of that and I'll put my faith on you. That being said, although that is for you to decide, I wouldn't recommend for the other routes to be completely disconected from one another, for that each route would be to have way good and deep on it's own, wich sure it can be nice, but I would argue it is way harder to do, by making it conected, each route can enhance each other by adding details and perspectives, also giving the sence of a cohesive storytelling and a clear image of what the game is about, the only problem is if it feels forced
cof cof disney star wars films.Well, about the problems with gaining money, it must suck, I live in Brasil and I don't know the rules for those kinds of supports nor how to cheat the system, however can't you use someone to bypass such a thing? for exemple, you are working with a pseudonym, so if you made a bank acount in your (mother/father/brother/psychologist (yes, really)/family/etc) name, it wouldn't trigger the government, the system is very balanced with no exploits, so try and search for ways to exploit the hell out of it, and don't feel sorry for asking your psychologist or anyone really for this kind of help either, they will understand.
This game takes my breath away! The artwork, voice acting, and the writing is amazing and delightful! I can't wait for what's to come! Thank you for making such a wonderful game. <3
Thank you for checking it out and taking the time to leave such a lovely comment as well <3 Glad you like what's there so far :3
So sad the demo was so short :( was having lots of fun
Glad you were enjoying it :3 Unfortunately, development is pretty slow for a whole bunch of different reasons >.< and I can't even work on anything atm cos my dominant arm is broken, haha. But hoping to get an update out later in the year still :3
Take your time!! Ill wait as long as needed for your amazing games, and have a speedy recovery!
Thank you :3 It's very frustrating just waiting to get better because it feels like it's taking forever, haha, but I guess I just have to be patient x3
Waiting and making sure youre recovered is better than not waiting and rushing things for sure haha, i understand your frustration ;<< ill still be here by the time youve recovered!!
you are amazing :3)
You're amazing :D
Just wanted to say you did an amazing job with this! Played it two times in a row and had a blast each time! Would love to make fanarts of Castor he definitealy stole my heart
Aww, thank you so much for checking it out and I'm so glad you had fun with what's there so far :3
That would be epic if you do end up making any fanarts :D Feel free to post them here in the comments if you do, or you're welcome to tweet them to me or tag me in on Tumblr, and I'll do my best to repost if you don't mind :3
I use both but usually post my art on twitter, I will definitely be drawing him as soon as I get the time!
Help, I really want to play this game but I can't open it?
Please help! :(
Hopefully, you've managed to get it to open by now, but if not, from what I've been told, the easiest way to get it to work is to download the itch.io app, and then play all games via app :3 Failing that, with any luck, something on this list of suggestions by other mac users will help!
Thank you!! This really helps! I can finally play it <3
I love this game but 2 things to say/ask
1. I acted how I genuinely would act in this situation(be as polite as possible while trying to figure wtf is going on) and um things ended up fine, luckily.
2. It says this is a demo is there a full release yet becuase I would love to see the full story.
Glad you had fun with what there is so far :3 Thanks so much for checking it out!
That's good :D As long as you pick the right choices, you should largely be able to avoid sinister stuff if you'd prefer to only see the sweeter/fluffier side of a character ^-^
Sadly, the current demo is the most up-to-date version of the game aside from my own personal working copy. It's a really big project and I'm just one person with (frustratingly) fluctuating motivation, so progress has been super slow for a number of reasons :( One of the biggest problems is that I tend to tire easily if I'm only working on 1 project at a time. It's like I need to have multiple things on the go to keep my motivation up, but ofc, that means that progress is often slow across the board >.< I've also been ill for quite a while, and only just getting back into dev stuff again for the first time this year by teaming up with my friend to make a little something for this year's yandere jam, which we managed to release today :3
This game is just...amazing in so many ways. The interface...the characters...the plotline itself, you could really see this was a labor of love by the creator. I'm very much looking forward to the completed game!
I'm so glad you like what there is so far of the game ^-^ it's come a long way since the original jam version of it in terms of improvements that I've made, but even the original version I poured my heart into, haha. Unfortunately, development has been pretty slow for a whole bunch of different reasons >.< but progress is happening little by little, haha.
Thanks so much for checking it out :3
this made me see my BPD in a completely different light oh god
Oh dear x3 well, I at least hope it wasn't in too awful of a way >.< I almost got diagnosed with BPD a few years back, but then they decided they weren't sure enough to actually make it official, haha. The consensus now is that I might have ADHD fighting with my ASD xD but the jury is still out on it!
Hi I have a question. Would you recommend I play the demo or winter wish? I'm not sure if I should play winter wish if you are redoing the whole game. I might as well play the demo. I hope I'm making sense lmao.
is there an uncensored verison of the game?
I guess that depends on which version you download. The old 'safe version' is heavily censored to fit the requirements of the jam the game was submitted to at the time, but the most recent upload listed as a demo is currently the most complete version of the game available so far.
There's a lot more content to be added, but if you're referring to the stuff in the current demo like the puffs of smoke covering Castor/ia's modesty and the lack of specifics during the steamy scene, that's just how the game is going to stay, and there won't be a version that removes the censoring for a couple of reasons.
Firstly because there won't really be enough sexual content in the game to really need to, but also because the sprites actually lack detail when it comes to genitals xD Castoria doesn't have any nipples and Castor doesn't have any nipples or man parts, haha. So it would look even weirder if there was nothing covering them x3 This is because the original artist of the sprites only draws the sprites naked without genitalia.
This is an amazing game about a character (we could assume) with borderline personality disorder, from whom I got flashbacks of my ex. But as Ive learned from my past I chose the mostly reasonable answers.. and got poisoned : )
The voice acting and music are simply impeccable, and the visuals are quite immersing!
[I got recommended it from my friend that saw it on Manly Badass Hero's video]
Oh no, flashbacks of an ex probably isn't the greatest thing to experience while playing stuff x3 or at least it wouldn't be for me cos I generally play games to escape reality, haha. I'm glad you still enjoyed what there is of the game so far though!
The good news is that eventually when the game has more content added, you will technically be able to play through a character's route and see only sweetness (or only terror, depending on your choices x3) That was nice of your friend to recommend it! And yeah, I owe Manly a lot for shining a light on the project :3 I doubt many people would know it exists if he hadn't played it!
Thanks for checking it out :D
🔥GREAT GAME!🔥
Thanks so much for checking this one out too <3
My comment got deleted? K
I think because it was 5 replies in a chain rather than 1 individual comment, comments 1-4 were marked as spam. So then they were deleted and that just left a wall of 'deleted post' messages on the page. I tried to get rid of the blank deleted messages so that it looked less messy by using the purge option, but that apparently deleted the remaining comment that wasn't marked as spam.
Anyways, I had planned to reply properly, but I'm still ill at the moment and don't have the energy. Pretty much everything you mentioned has been discussed in previous comments anyways, so there's probably not much point in repeating myself x3 It's all stuff that will be fixed/edited with future updates anyhow :3 the whole thing is just one big WIP at the moment. Cheers for checking it out in its current state though!
This game is perfect. It gives me very good laughts and made my day, i was grinning like Lord X from fnf in his song "Cycles" (left pose) when something funny happened
OH MY GOD! I Love this game so much that I'm obsessed. I love Castor. He is so sweet and cute but can get jealous and ignorant. which makes him unique. Will you be making it a full game? I need to see more of Castor. (If you will or you are already making it, could you please tell me when it will be completed)
Glad you like it so far :3 It's currently in development, so yeah, there will be more content for Castor/ia to come + more love interests added to the game as well :D
It's slow going though because my scope for the project is pretty big >.< I'm trying to focus on releasing things sort of episodically to make it easier to progress, but it's still slow cos I'm just 1 person, and quite often, my crappy mental health gets in the way of me being productive + I often feel the need to work on multiple projects at once or I end up burning out if I try to just stick to 1 thing, so that makes things even slower >.< It'll eventually be a full game though, hopefully with even more play time than my first full-length game (Solipsism Reigns).
I can't give any sort of estimate on when the full game will finally be completed because there's just far too much work to do, and to try and fund stuff like voice acting for the entire thing will require an insane amount of money that I don't currently have >.< On a smaller scale though, I hope to have at least 1 more content update out for the project sometime this year, hopefully, more than 1, but I can't say when cos I just never know how stuff is gonna go T_T haha. Cos I already have a bunch of stuff written, I just haven't coded it in yet.
Oh wow, the VAs are really good in this one!
Also, why so toxic? Pixis likes🤒
They did such an amazing job, so I'm glad you think so :3 It just sucks that it's looking more and more likely I won't be able to get them back for new content >.<
I have a question what is the demo vs winter wish version?
winter wish is jam.ver and demo is longer/better
Thanks so much for answering that :3 I was too ill recently to check here and respond to stuff >.<
Yup, what My name's E said :3 Sorry I couldn't get back to you swiftly myself >.< I've been ill since 19th December and only just feeling well enough to jump back on my PC since I got the lurgy! Figured I'd try to do some stuff on my phone, but it was so old and laggy that it was kind of too hard to type much, haha.
But yeah, winter wish is the old outdated version from the jam it was originally made for. The demo is the most up-to-date version with lots of tweaks, improvements, and a bit more content than the old jam version, so it better represents how the game will be going forward :3
The old winter wish jam version was designed to be playable as a standalone story since it had to be made within 1 month for the jam, but I also hoped to be able to turn it into a much longer project in the future. The demo can still be played as a standalone story, but I'll be updating it with more content over time, and it will always be available to play for free. I hope to have the full game as a commercial release in the future, but I'm currently not in a position that allows me to make any of my projects commercial, aside from that, I will always make free copies available to those who can't afford to buy them even if I do have some commercial projects one day cos I know how much it sucks to not be able to afford to buy the stuff you wanna play :3
I really like the game so far! Keep up the amazing work! I'll be rooting and waiting!
Glad to hear it! Thanks so much for the support ^-^
wooaaah i love this game sm already its so interesting!! cant wait for future updates!
Glad you like what there is so far :3 Hopefully, the stuff that's still to come will be fun too :D
I was wondering if you where planning on making an android/Samsung version, since thats the only device i have at the moment. I love the way this game looks by the way :)
I sure would like to, but unfortunately, it won't be any time soon if I do :( I've tried to export android builds of several of my short projects, and despite following the tutorials, they always fail >.< so until I can find out what's going wrong or someone can teach me how to do it right, I won't be able to get anything to work T_T I really hope I can get some of my games playable on mobile and maybe even Switch someday though!
Glad you like the look of it ^-^
Excuse me, is it at least possible to port or recreate it in renpy or tyrano builder, so that it can at least be played on joiplay?
Unfortunately, it's not possible to do that :( I don't even know how to use renpy (I've only ever completed 1 basic tutorial project for it that gave me a headache so I decided it wasn't the tool for me x3) so to make anything in renpy would mean me having to learn how to actually use it first.
And then I used to use Tyranobuilder, but stopped using it a long time ago after making my first couple of games with it because of how clunky and buggy of an engine it was >.< I imagine it's probably improved by now with a few updates, but still, it's a frustrating and slow engine to use. And even if it wasn't, remaking anything of this length in another engine would take ages :( and I probably wouldn't be able to replicate most of the effects either since they were made using Unity's particle system.
If it were shorter, it might be more doable, but even just the demo is already too long to do it, and the full game will be a lot longer >.<
It's okay, I understand.
After playing through the 'newer' demo, if this is AI related and Caster/Castoria doesn't actually exist and it's some figment of the player's imagination, I'm going to punch a wall. Like, that'd genuinly ruin the entire thing for me. I really want it be magical and not some AI thing that can be taken away. Idgaf if he's/she's a fully sentient AI, it'd still be such a mood kill.
Don't get me wrong, love the game a lot!
Well, I'm pleased to say that walls will be safe from your wrath :D I wouldn't be as cruel as to turn the whole thing into a 'and it was all in MC' s head/just a dream/not real' type scenario :3
Funnily enough though, there will be an AI-type character, but they won't be messing with anything to do with Castor/ia. They're more like an optional helper that you can choose to have with you if you agree to be a tester during that phone call at the beginning of the game. Cos it's just a brief demo for now though, you only have the choices to ignore the call or say no thanks to participating >.<
Some of the other character routes I have planned involve characters who come from a more traditional magical background than Castor/ia as well, more from like folklore rather than a video game.
Anyways, I'm glad you like it so far :3
Getting this reply felt like a 100kg weight just got removed from my chest. Extremely glad to hear that you're not curel enough to pull something like that. By the way, what's the game's release date looking like? In a while I imagine, but any ideas as to when?
Well, that's good x3 I'm glad to hear it!
Honestly, I can't even make a rough guess >.< For the entire game, definitely over a year because I have so much planned. Heck, it may never be truly finished because I already have ideas for 10+ character routes at this point, haha. It's why I'm just working on it sort of episodically. That way, it has end points that can kind of be taken as endings, but can also be continued. If I try and think about it being 100% finished, it'll just make me run away from it cos it's too much, haha. Better to try and keep a smaller scope in my head so as not to demotivate myself x3
To be even more unhelpful though, I can't even say for sure when the next update will be out. I plan to have the next update add the start of the next character (Cana) route along with continuing Castor/ia's. And it's already written, just needs some edits here and there. Sprites for Cana are already done too. So mostly it's just a case of getting the code for it done! But there are other factors I have to consider too, like getting Cgs in there, what's going to happen with voice acting, do I introduce another feature at the same time >.<
And with my mental health being the way it is, I can never predict when I'll be able to be productive and when I'll just be a useless lump of meat x3 Plus I struggle to focus on just 1 project at a time. I find it easier to juggle a couple of different things at once, but that of course means slow progress across multiple things rather than faster progress on 1 thing >.< For example, because there's so much going on in my personal life at the moment with prepping for Christmas and other things, I've been winding down and not doing any project work that involves coding, but I haven't wanted to stop working on stuff entirely, so I've just been working on a video/audio-only side project (The Masked Marionette). Once the new year begins, I'll start juggling again, haha.
But yeah, I don't wanna give rough dates and then completely fail to meet them >.< I'm dreadful at estimating when I'll have stuff done by as well because things always take longer than I think they will! So many times during game jams where I try my best to make schedules, I'll tell myself, right, this part I can do in 2 days... 5 days later and I'm only just finishing it, haha.
So yeah, sorry about that >.< I just can't really say because it's a mystery even to me. When I've got an update that's close-ish to release though, I'll make posts and stuff ahead of time to say that it'll be probably be released around X date :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays + a happy new year!
not sure of how many endings there are but everything I got so far is y u m m y
I genuinely can't decide if I like Castor or Castoria better, they're both my babies <3
excited for more, planning to soon buy a ko-fi or signing Patreon because I just love your projects so much ><
Woo ^-^ glad you've enjoyed what you've seen so far :3 And that's so awesome that you like them both! Not gonna lie, I have a bit of a softer spot for Castor cos he's like a lost little puppy dog in my eyes x3 but I still have love for Castoria too!
Honestly, I was supposed to have typed up and posted a walkthrough for all the different paths that can be found in the demo within a week of releasing it, but that clearly didn't happen >.<
I feel like it needs one because some of the paths are pretty awkward to get onto + some of the bad endings require you to do some pretty specific things to reach them. I just kept finding other stuff that needed doing or just didn't feel like it T_T Which is pretty stupid of me because it would've been easier to write a walkthrough when everything was fresher in my mind! So all I've done is make it more difficult for myself when I do eventually get around to it >.<
Aww, that's so sweet of you to say <3 I appreciate you taking the time to check out my stuff and leave such a lovely comment :3
where do i get full game? i see the youtubers with the full game but i only have the demo do i download the outdated version or something
Nobody has the full game because it's still in development :3 Actually, it's nowhere near finished. Anyone who has made videos on YouTube has either played through the old version of the game from the jam or the current demo.
But yeah, the demo here is the most up-to-date version right now. I plan to update the project sort of episodically as I add the next part of Castor/ia's story and new character routes :3
ok thanks
This game is very good I'm very excited to see what more this game has to offer.
The demo was very good definitely recommend giving it a shot.
The voice acting was good the backgrounds & music were all good.
I'm very interested in what this game has for the future.
No complaints about what happened in the demo so far and I could feel some creepypasta vibes from the game where glitching, you can only play 1 section, audio problems although those things are pretty cliche it doesn't take or bring the game down in anyway.
Can't wait to see what this game has to offer next :)
Holy moly, you did a 3-parter :o I sure hope you didn't encounter too many bugs cos I haven't really had a chance to do more bug testing since uploading that new demo version >.< haha. And I know there are a few pesky things in there like some audio glitches (unintentional ones, haha) that I don't know how to fix yet T_T
Anyways, I'm loving those thumbnails, especially the P1 one ^-^ Glad you had fun with it! Just wish I could put a rocket up my butt so I could work on it faster, haha. Weirdly I always seem to have less motivation to work on my longer projects compared to my short-burst jam ones >.<I'll get there in the end though! Baby steps x3
Thanks for playing this one too :3
That's understandable. Longer projects tend to take a lot more time than short ones and it's really easy to lose motivation on longer projects because of how time-consuming they can be.
Yeah, it's definitely a problem >.< And I tend to grow temporarily bored with stuff if I don't have other stuff to work on as well. Even with 1 month long jams, I can still struggle to focus on just 1 thing for the whole month. As mad as it might've been trying to do 2 games for this year's Spooktober jam, in some ways, it did actually help me finish both by being able to work on them both at once because it meant I didn't get the opportunity to grow bored or or lose motivation for either one :3
It helps a lot to be able to juggle a few different things to switch between, but at the same time, it is frustrating to make little bits of progress on multiple things that look like you've not achieved much compared to lots of progress on one thing >.<
Hope you get to have happy holidays and a super happy new year :3
This game was so unpredictable, I love it!!
Glad you like what there is so far :3 Cheers for playing!
^^
Wow this was really good! I can't wait for the full game! ♥
Thanks so much for checking it out :3 Glad you enjoyed what there is so far!
Damn I also thought castor is "boring" a bit too harsh yeah but goddamn i did not expect him to do something like that >w< like AHHHHHH I'm blushin so hard.I'm so excited to play the whole game!
xD He's a bit of a crazy fella. I feel like calling him boring to his face is really harsh and just unnecessarily mean, haha. But admittedly, I have felt like that when playing dating sim games in the past x3 Like, man, this character's route is so boooring, but I'm a completionist, so I feel the need to unlock all the Cgs and finish the route anyways, but often it's a slog and I can't wait to get to one of the other love interests who is more my cup of tea xD
Liked the game a lot.
How long approximately will it take to see the full version?
Glad to hear you like what there is so far :3
Unfortunately, though, I can't really give a clear answer to your question >.< I'm unemployed and have a lot of struggles in my personal life, so I'm pretty much just working on this project when I can and feel like it >.<
It's a passion project, but I don't always feel like working on this project alone. I find it easier to work on a few different things at once so that I stay interested in them all, but then ofc, that means progress tends to be quite slow across the board! The only time I manage to get stuff done at a decent speed is when I've signed up to a jam and I know there's a deadline. Then it's more like a fun challenge to make something in a short amount of time and just get it out there :3 But I can't work that way with my bigger projects because I would just burn out >.<
I'll be trying to update the game in a sort of episodic fashion anyhow, so that new content can be introduced faster than if I waited until I'd finished the entire thing to release anything. Cos I have a heck of a lot I wanna do with this, so even if I worked on nothing but this project non-stop, it'd probably still take me well over a year. And then of course there's the challenge of funding stuff like voice acting and art on top of everything else, haha.
So yeah, sorry that I can't be very helpful there >.<
The demo is good, i like the va's, they did a pretty good job. Interesting story, most of the people in the comments probably relate to the mc. Very good! Will be waiting for more :)
Yeah, they did fantastically :3 Glad you like what there is so far! Thanks for checking it out <3
Some people are talking about having a "free demo" version.. so can we pay to experience more of the game? How does that work; is it automatic if we just donate when downloading, and if so, how much do we have to donate?
It's because the game page and stuff has only very recently changed. Basically, prior to November this year, the only way to access the game was to make a $2 donation towards funding (or just ask for a free key or download for free at Christmas) but it was pretty much only a demo/game jam version of the game still because it's in development.
For the recent November update, I made a lot of changes to the old version, and re-released it as a demo + removed the $2 donation at the same time.
I did it for a number of reasons. 1 is that I'm having trouble with getting the original voice actors back to voice new lines despite having a small amount of funding to be able to pay them something. Another is that my personal circumstances currently don't permit me to release any of my projects commercially. And the old version of the game was extremely out of date compared to what I'd been working on and my vision for the project as a whole.
I was getting quite a few requests for free keys from people who couldn't afford to donate towards the project's funding, so it seemed silly to keep the downloads locked. Having the free demo makes it more easily accessible for anyone in its current state.
The 'demo' that's currently available, is the most up-to-date version of the game. The only version that has more content right now, is my private WIP version that's still in development. When there's significantly more content available, I'll most likely make a separate version of the more complete game for those who have donated towards funding its development while maintaining a free demo download. And, as always, I'll still give out keys to anyone who can't afford to donate. But right now, the demo is the only download available because there is no full game yet.
If you choose to donate any amount, the main thing is that it will fund the game's development, helping to pay for things like voice acting and CG art :3 But you don't technically have to donate anything. I'll be working on the project regardless. It's just if I can't get enough funding for stuff like voice acting, the game will either have to be unvoiced or it might not get worked on much because having VA in my projects is one of my biggest personal motivators, so without it, I tend to lose steam >.<
Ic. If we donate now, will we get access to the paid version when its eventually released?
I can't say for sure anymore because I don't really know what's going to happen with my personal situation or the project >.< It may turn out that I can never ever make a commercial release in my life because of my circumstances, I just don't know :( And while I'll do my best to keep working on the game when I feel like I can and want to, I can't promise with absolute certainty that it will ever be 100% finished in the way that I hope for it to be because it's such a big project and I'm only 1 person x3 I'll just do what I can pretty much.
So yeah, I'm not really in a position to be able to give a proper answer >.<