That was so informative. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us on the development of this game! I appreciate the sharing of your experiences and how you went about it and got through it. I think it's worth rereading these posts in case I ever got stuck somewhere myself. Being driven enough to try to stay consistent for nine novel-length routes over the course of several years sounds so daunting and challenging. I think Gilded Shadows is unique in that regard alone and releasing banger after banger is quite a feat.
As for the game I personally found it a year ago and thought this game was so long already even though not all the routes were completed. I was in no way unsatisfied because I loved each route. They helped me cope through a tough time and even now when I'm better I still enjoy them very much. I loved the customization and it's amazing how much work was put into it. The writing is also very phenomenal and I fell in love with the stories, settings, and each character including the protagonist. Thank you so much for it. I'm glad to be able to enjoy this really amazing work.
Viewing post in Gilded Shadows Retrospective (part II) comments
Gilded Shadows is obviously really long because of the number of love interests - but one of the funniest things to me is that one indie game I know of that is longer (there may be others; but I only know of one) is Our Life. I think that if you include the DLC, it's *quite* a bit longer than GS.
And it only has three LIs. 🤣
The sheer amount of customisation and variation in that game is terrifying. Props to GBPatch for being utterly amazing! (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)
Agreed! I've lost count of how many times I've played Our Life and its DLCs as well. I love the customization in that game too.
With the newly announced polyamory option in Our Life 2, on top of customizing the type of relationship the protagonist can have with the friends/love interests, I'm sure that game will be a really long write too. GBPatch has quite the work ethic too to be able to get betas out every month on her Patreon and in the very least she's communicative with her progress and breaks. Major props! ^^