Hehe :D Yeah, 2023 ended up being a fairly productive year in general! I don't know why, but somehow it felt like I hadn't achieved that much, but then I realised that I made Bitter/Sweet, The Hostage, Tunnel Vision, and Sapphire Snowe all in 2023 xD
I guess it felt like I hadn't done much cos I haven't made much progress on my longer-term projects >.< It was very much a game jams year, haha. I didn't even intend to participate in any jams after I released Tunnel Vision for Spooktober jam, but then I wound up working on Sapphire Snowe for Winter VN jam anyways because it helped me get through a really rough time.
i have not been on itch for quite a while (about a year i think at this point) and immediately came to your profile and you delivered as always!!! downloading rn ill leave my review once i finish the game😍😍
my review is here!!!
spoilers
ok so i dont have a lot of words except...wow. i love love loveee the depth of rhimes character, how simon changes from some sweet little boy to a goblin monkey(? idk he just reminded me of that with the oo oo) also the cg art for the end of the simon says game THREW ME OFF SO HARD i backed up from my laptop😭 just know i tried to punch him 😘 sorbet the cat is super cute btw if you hurt her in the game your going on my list <3 my hand was sweating trying to click the icons😭 very nice how you did the audio with simon in his (monster?) form and how everything was clashing, which could represent li's feelings in the moment and how simons anger consumed him (loved how rhime turned into a mom and told him to shut up) sadly i didnt get some of the other cg's you get from choosing different voices (i did fem, fem) so im missing out a little bit 😭 emilie did so well with rhime's voice!! the fake credit scene reminded me so much of hostage!! xD i was also v v v surprised on how you chose to make li the 'creator' or the game and make rhime break the 4th wall after...best believe i stood there for a good 20 min looking at rhime because so looks so pretty?!!? bad ending or good ending, i loved them all <3 i also loved loved lovedddd the way you made rhime close the window and make the player do a little investigating for the gift!! seeing her get mad because i kept openning the window was so fun kekw also she shampood sorbets coat its canon i saw it i was the bottle!! and the little butterfly on the card in the future ending was such a nice touch of detail on the artists part! as always we had our nice rant from melancholy 🥺the ost's were great too! i loved curious cat and sweet nightmares 😚 seeing this on your page was such a big breath of air for me as i hadnt been on itch or playing indie games since bitter sweet blythe and im so excited for the next game! live laugh love rhime, ill see you next time 😘
<3 I hope you end up having fun with it! It’s a bit of a whacky one, haha. And also I just saw that you gave a 5* rating which is very much appreciated! Thank you for playing this one and for being awesome in general ^-^
of course!! ive admired your games ever since i found yandere haven and your the reason i got into vn's, which i appreciate <3 on an extra note before i leave the actual review, those little months on break are not enough!! im so surpised you havent gotten burnt out yet😭😭
Ahh, man, that’s so cool! :3 Sometimes I worry that with YH being a fandub project, it might actually end up putting people off of checking out my other stuff since it’s not a very accurate reflection of most of my projects >.< so it’s good to hear that that wasn’t the case for you :D
YH has quite a lot of 1* ratings, haha. It’s got plenty of 5* ratings too, thankfully, which helps balance out the overall rating here. A lot of the 1* ratings are so mean though with people saying stuff like “It’s too short”... well, yeah, each volume = 1 CD and it’s still in development, so of course it’s short T_T Still took me hours and hours of work to make it >.< And then most of the other 1* ratings are people saying they think the story sucks, characters suck, it’s too goofy, etc. and none of that is my fault cos I’m just localising the original Japanese content T_T haha.
Weeeell, I have actually burnt out multiple times x3 hehe. Usually though, it’s not just as a result of working too much on these projects, but a mixture of not taking enough breaks + being overwhelmed by life stuff >.< Like last year, I was going into complete shutdown mode shortly after finishing Spooktober Jam. By the end of October, I was pretty much unable to even find the motivation to go on my PC, so I spent most of November as a zombie.
Then all the run-up to Christmas absolutely destroyed me as well, and I spent a lot of December & January away from my PC too x3 I wasn’t capable of much other than sleeping and reading books, haha. Couldn’t even find the energy to play some of the games I’d hoped to during the Christmas break >.<
I should probably try to schedule proper breaks or something, especially after jams. The problem is, when I’m stuck in work mode, I can’t force myself to have breaks because I get really fidgety and can’t enjoy them x3 And when I finally am forced to have a break from being burnt out, I then struggle to get the energy back to achieve work mode again, haha.
Thank you for the awesome review by the way ^-^ So glad you enjoyed it!! Everything below this is me responding to what you said there :3
Hehe, yeah, some of the CG art is properly creepy and I love it :D And yup, Sorbet must be protected at all costs!!
I can never tell with 4th wall break stuff if people will find it entertaineing or just kinda cringey and annoying x3 cos I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, haha. I had to do it though cos it amuses me xD
But yeah, the team put so much love and detail into their work from the voice acting to the art :3 I could never have made something like this on my own, that’s for sure.
So glad you liked the OST too :D It was a loooot of fun to work on! And also that’s really interesting that you’d mention the curious cat track cos while I was ridiculously pleased to have found a synth that sounded a bit cat-like to use in the track, I was worried it was possibly a bit repetitive or grating x3 And sweet nightmares was sort of a last-minute addition, haha. It wasn’t something I had on my checklist for tracks to make, but it ended up feeling like something was missing, so I kinda rushed to put that track together, haha.
Thanks again for being so sweet ^-^ Rhime wishes you the sweetest of nightmares :P
I have to admit that no game has ever made me want to go through all the extras and endings like this one. I played it for 3-5 hours straight, found a lot of endings, and used the guide to find the last one. I also had a lot of trouble figuring out how the walkthrough worked, but in the end, I was able to find all the endings and pictures—the last one I found by accident. I must admit that I played this game for so long that it was midnight when I was done! In all honesty, I kind of wish I had gone on a small date with Rhime because this game was incredibly entertaining and well-made for the span of 1 month! Nevertheless, I want to thank Melancholy, the voice actors, and jam, for this wonderful game! and the small extras in "mel's rambling" and other things. I'm looking forward to the next one, and may your dreams be full of Nightmares!
That’s so awesome to hear :D Puts a big smile on my face to know it had you hooked for a while ^-^
I always wonder when it comes to jam games made in a mad month’s rush if they even make any sense or if they’re just a giant messed up blob of ideas that’s just baffling xD So it means a lot when anyone says they’ve enjoyed playing through and makes me beat myself up just that little bit less, haha. It’s always tempting to just keep adding and adding to things, but then they get outta control x3 and sure, they can be updated post-jam, but since I already have a handful of projects waiting to be finished, I tried my best to make this one a complete story within the jam timeframe so it wasn’t yet another project that I have to go back and finish, haha.
I’m glad you managed to get all the endings and artwork in the end :3 Thanks so much for playing and for showing the team some love <3 May all your dreams be nightmares too :P
This was an amazing experience! I already came into it blind but just when I was starting to understand what was going on, something new came in and blindsided me! (IN A GOOD WAY) I wish this game could get more attention, there's so much love and care put into these games! There really is so much of this game and it's all so intriguing! I actually would love to know more about the characters, but we'll see♫
Thanks so much for checking out this one too!! <3 Very much appreciated :3 And so glad that you had fun with it :D I haven't had a chance to watch your video yet, with any luck, I might get some time to over Christmas, but I'll be definitely be recommending it to some of my friends who don't play games themselves but do like watching other people play! Cos your videos are always a delight :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays with lots of tasty noms!! ^-^
Thank you so much!! And goodness your games are some of the most interesting that I have the honor to play, thank YOU! Hope you have a wonderful holiday as well!!♫♪
First of all amazing is what I have to say. You've done it again <3 I do need some help tho so spoiler below
okay so I got the R.I.P ending and once we get the 'gift' Rhime gives us, I dowloaded the extra file and typed in nightmare. All was going good until I had to download the mac version of that file, but it wont let me open it. Ik how it goes w mac version so never had a problem downloading anything, so I'm confused why it won't let me open this file :(
I'm so sorry that my reply is horrifically slow >.< I have pretty much been out of it for all of December. I just got too overwhelmed with everything and couldn't cope with much, so as a result, I'm now crazy behind on my replies :(
Thanks so much for your kind words! So glad you had fun with the game :3
SPOILERS
Ah, man, that sucks about the gift >.< Unfortunately, I didn't actually make that myself. I made the main game with Naninovel, and someone else in the Spooktober team made Rhime's gift in Ren'Py. I tested the Windows version that she made and that works perfectly, but as always, I had no way of even opening the Mac one >.< and as far as I know, she doesn't have a Mac either, so she wouldn't have been able to test it :(
I could mention it to her, but since she can't test Mac stuff, I'm guessing she probably wouldn't be able to fix the Mac version >.< You're not missing out on tooooo much because it's basically just the extras section there as a separate download. It's got the OST in a music player, blooper reels, bonus art like sketches and other doodles from the different artists on the team, and my rambling about the project.
I guess I could maybe just upload all that stuff in a folder or something so it can just be downloaded directly from the gift page! Cos it's a shame if no one on Mac can see any of that bonus content >.< I probably won't have time to do it this year, but I'll make sure to get it all uploaded sometime in January!
Thanks so much for playing and I hope you get to have happy holidays :3
I have always had a deep appreciation of your games and this one is another good one... HOWEVER, this is the first time I've ever hit a trigger that afaik was only mentioned in this page's content warnings (second from the last, Mel, if you're curious). Which is a bummer. I don't usually check them because I don't want major spoilers and I have very few triggers anyways. Unfortunate that one kind of blindsided me in this case lol.
Technically nothing wrong was done because--as mentioned before--it was mentioned in the content warnings on this page, but part of me wishes that there was a more visible trigger warning placed where I would have found it more readily.
SPOILERY CLARIFICATION BELOW -------------------------------------------------------- Animal death was mentioned in a separate un-collapsed area above the extended content warnings. Making the distinction between human death (which is unclear and I assumed adult since that's standard for horror experiences) and specifically CHILD death would have been much appreciated. I have young children and just the thought of harm coming to any child is very difficult to deal with. If there WAS a more clear content warning placed in the game itself that I missed, please let me know.
All that aside, I'm a big fan of your works and I wish you the best! Have a lovely day!
Hmm, that’s a tricky one for reasons I’ll explain under a spoiler in a sec, but before that, I’m sorry that you hit that particular trigger unaware >.< As you said, it’s there on the page, but I know a lot of people don’t read game pages before playing and downloading stuff for all sorts of different reasons. Like you, when I’m playing things myself, I never read triggers on game pages cos I don’t want spoilers, and I don’t generally get triggered by the games I choose to play. Still, I want to apologise because the last thing I want is for anyone to come to any harm playing my stuff :( Games are supposed to be a fun form of escapism, not something you wind up experiencing hurt from, so I’m really sorry about that.
I also really appreciate that you’ve played my games, and it means a heck of a lot to know you’ve enjoyed them too :3 So thank you so much for that! Also just noticed by clicking on your page that you're co-writing Invite Me In, which is so cool :3 It's on my long list of stuff to check out at some point! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the year ^-^
SPOILERY MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION
So yeah, man, I find it pretty hard to write up the warnings/triggers for my projects in general because there isn’t anything that tends to get me when I play, so I use this big database that has a huuuuge list of triggers, and then I try to think of whether or not the project features stuff from that list.
That particular one, death of a child, I ended up listing under the [Off-Screen & Mentioned] section because of the conversation that Rhime has with Linnet during the hospital scene, and then when Linnet brings it up again in the final part of the game.
However, I was unsure if I should even include it at all since technically, no children actually died at any point during the game. But the trigger database talks about also listing things that are mentioned even if they’re not actually shown so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to include it there.
The reason I say that no children actually died is because the child Rhime refers to Linnet killing is entirely fictional. The whole pregnancy part is just another one of Rhime’s sick games to taunt poor Linnet with >.< There is no baby, and Linnet never actually killed a child at any point. Admittedly though, all that stuff is ambiguous and left for the player to conclude. Also, whether or not Rhime truly had a child with another deity is up for debate. The character might seem somewhat sincere about it and even appear to be traumatised by it, but Rhime is also a liar x3 Even I don’t know what really happened in Rhime’s past before being imprisoned, and whether or not Rhime can be trusted.
In my head, I think maybe because I knew that none of it was real, that somehow made it less horrific in a sense, but when I sit here and think about the scene, especially the hospital one and how emotionally charged it is, I can see how that conversation alone could be triggering just because of what’s said. So that’s entirely on me >.< I didn’t even think of it as being a particularly triggering subject at the time :(
The general ‘death - human and animal’ trigger was there to cover all the deaths in the game, though technically, again, no one truly died in the traditional sense. I thought it was best to separate the human and animal ones though because the team discussed it and concluded that what can potentially happen to Sorbet could be a significant enough trigger for some players in itself that it was worth mentioning separately.
All of what I’ve written so far though is going on the assumption that it was the mentioned child death stuff that was the triggering part. It also occurs to me that it might have been Simon instead.
I suppose some people might also consider Simon’s death to be the death of a child, though I always saw the character as inhuman since that’s what Rhime chose to make him. Really, the only human in this one is the player because all of the characters within the game are just Rhime’s creations, dreams, and nightmares.
You’re correct that there was no in-game warning about that particular trigger, it is only present in the content warnings dropdown on the page. So yeah, I am sorry about that >.<
Knowing that you were still triggered by that particular subject though makes me wonder how to handle triggers in the future. It’s so hard with horror to not give away spoilers with triggers, which is why I always try my best to put the main big ones in-game and on the page, and then all of them, no matter how small, in the spoilers dropdown on the page.
It’s a fine line to walk because, on one hand, I really don’t want to hurt anyone, but on the other hand, I’ve had some people say they want to play my games, but have chosen not to based on certain triggers they’ve seen mentioned in those dropdowns, or that they went to watch someone play on YouTube, but stopped watching when the triggers screen game up cos they thought the game would be too scary for them. The problem there is that the triggers often make things sound a lot worse than they actually are >.< And on the complete other end of the scale, I’ve had people use the triggers as a barometer for anticipation, hoping that the more there are, the scarier the game will be, and then they're disappointed to find out that it’s not that scary at all >.<
It’s so hard to know what the best thing to do is, and I’ve watched debates from other devs play out on the subject too, haha. Some argue that all triggers should be clear and present in-game regardless of whether or not they contain spoilers of any kind. Others argue back that having them all there where you have no choice but to read them spoils the entire game experience for them because they know what’s coming/what to expect from certain scenes, and it kills any sort of tension, effectively ruining some of the horror aspects of the game.
So yeah, I’m really not sure what the answer is here :( I thought up until now that I had found the best way to handle it by having main triggers in-game and a full list under spoilers on the page, but if something still blindsided you, then clearly there needs to be a different way of doing things in the future. I’m just not sure what it is >.<
If you have any suggestions though, I’d be more than happy to hear them! So please feel free to leave anything like that here in this thread or if you’d prefer, you can always drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
I feel like it's really hard to get the balance on this sort of stuff right, but I don't get much feedback on content warnings, and it's important so I would like to be able to.
Hey hey! I just wanted to say that I did read your reply that you typed up a while back, but I haven't had a chance to respond until now >.< I came to read over it again and reply, but I see that you've deleted it x3 I can only apologise that it's taken me so long to get around to replying. I just got totally and completely overwhelmed with everything and pretty much shut down >.< So as a result, I'm horrendously behind on all my replies. I think it was just one of those phases that happens sometimes where when I can't cope with everything, I just focus on one thing that I can do, and everything else gets completely neglected cos I can't function properly >.< yay, autism!
I can't remember exactly everything that you said, but I remember thinking that it was all very well-written and helpful! I wanted to thank you for taking the time to type it up :3
But yeah, I remember agreeing with much of what you said and thinking you had made some really good points and suggestions. I would say if you happened to have the post anywhere to dm it to me on Discord or send it in an email or something so I could go over it again, but I'm guessing you probably don't have it now, haha.
Wow... This game is truly one of a kind. I really liked the story, the voice acting, the art, the atmosphere, and the music a lot! I did not expect the story to go that way and in a way that's one of my favorite too!
I just want to give appreciation once again to the voice acting and the music. They are really good~ (Currently listening to Deity in the Dark as I'm writing this~)
Aww, that means a heck of a lot so thank you very much for taking the time to play through it and then coming here to type up such a sweet comment :3
I’ve been in a bit of a bad way this month and starting to doubt my ability to make a decent soundtrack, so it’s incredibly uplifting to hear that you enjoyed the music ^-^
May all your dreams be nightmares too :P Hope you had a fabulous spooky season :3
Awesome game and a good choice for a Halloween Special :)
My only problem was on my end was the fact that I recorded my very first playthrough of the game took a little over an hour. Then when I go to edit the video I realized I only recorded the audio and not the actual game and uhh yeah that kind of pissed me off >:(. Had to replay it again the next day cause I wanted to make a video on it. Again my bad on that.
Also in Part 2 if you choose to watch for whatever reason near the ending the audio gets laggy and I have no idea how to fix it sooo sorry if you ever watch it... which will probably be nobody XD
Other than that this game was lovely.
Characters: Amazing
Background: Amazing
Voice Acting: Amazing
Story: One hell of a ride
I can 100% recommend this game is 100% worth your time. :)
*High five* So glad you think so! And thanks so much for playing this one too ^-^
Man, that really sucks you had to go back and replay to capture the video though >.< I would’ve been devastated if that happened to me x3 That’s nuts you even had the patience and dedication to go back through it again!!
I once sat typing out a chunk of story draft for a project on my potato laptop when it randomly crashed on me and I lost around an hour’s worth of writing x3 It made me want to cry cos it didn’t save and I didn’t have a backup, so I have a sense of how crushing it must’ve been x3
I also feel the pain of having no idea how to fix things cos mystery bugs are always popping up and wreaking havoc on my life >.< haha.
Thank you again for being so awesome and for all your words of encouragement <3
← Return to nightmare
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I just came back lurking in itch again after a year. omg, i didn't know u make new one ,
Hehe :D Yeah, 2023 ended up being a fairly productive year in general! I don't know why, but somehow it felt like I hadn't achieved that much, but then I realised that I made Bitter/Sweet, The Hostage, Tunnel Vision, and Sapphire Snowe all in 2023 xD
I guess it felt like I hadn't done much cos I haven't made much progress on my longer-term projects >.< It was very much a game jams year, haha. I didn't even intend to participate in any jams after I released Tunnel Vision for Spooktober jam, but then I wound up working on Sapphire Snowe for Winter VN jam anyways because it helped me get through a really rough time.
Hope 2024 is going well for you so far! :3
i have not been on itch for quite a while (about a year i think at this point) and immediately came to your profile and you delivered as always!!! downloading rn ill leave my review once i finish the game😍😍
my review is here!!!
spoilers
ok so i dont have a lot of words except...wow. i love love loveee the depth of rhimes character, how simon changes from some sweet little boy to a goblin monkey(? idk he just reminded me of that with the oo oo) also the cg art for the end of the simon says game THREW ME OFF SO HARD i backed up from my laptop😭 just know i tried to punch him 😘 sorbet the cat is super cute btw if you hurt her in the game your going on my list <3 my hand was sweating trying to click the icons😭 very nice how you did the audio with simon in his (monster?) form and how everything was clashing, which could represent li's feelings in the moment and how simons anger consumed him (loved how rhime turned into a mom and told him to shut up) sadly i didnt get some of the other cg's you get from choosing different voices (i did fem, fem) so im missing out a little bit 😭 emilie did so well with rhime's voice!! the fake credit scene reminded me so much of hostage!! xD i was also v v v surprised on how you chose to make li the 'creator' or the game and make rhime break the 4th wall after...best believe i stood there for a good 20 min looking at rhime because so looks so pretty?!!? bad ending or good ending, i loved them all <3 i also loved loved lovedddd the way you made rhime close the window and make the player do a little investigating for the gift!! seeing her get mad because i kept openning the window was so fun kekw also she shampood sorbets coat its canon i saw it i was the bottle!! and the little butterfly on the card in the future ending was such a nice touch of detail on the artists part! as always we had our nice rant from melancholy 🥺the ost's were great too! i loved curious cat and sweet nightmares 😚 seeing this on your page was such a big breath of air for me as i hadnt been on itch or playing indie games since bitter sweet blythe and im so excited for the next game! live laugh love rhime, ill see you next time 😘
<3 I hope you end up having fun with it! It’s a bit of a whacky one, haha. And also I just saw that you gave a 5* rating which is very much appreciated! Thank you for playing this one and for being awesome in general ^-^
of course!! ive admired your games ever since i found yandere haven and your the reason i got into vn's, which i appreciate <3 on an extra note before i leave the actual review, those little months on break are not enough!! im so surpised you havent gotten burnt out yet😭😭
Ahh, man, that’s so cool! :3 Sometimes I worry that with YH being a fandub project, it might actually end up putting people off of checking out my other stuff since it’s not a very accurate reflection of most of my projects >.< so it’s good to hear that that wasn’t the case for you :D
YH has quite a lot of 1* ratings, haha. It’s got plenty of 5* ratings too, thankfully, which helps balance out the overall rating here. A lot of the 1* ratings are so mean though with people saying stuff like “It’s too short”... well, yeah, each volume = 1 CD and it’s still in development, so of course it’s short T_T Still took me hours and hours of work to make it >.< And then most of the other 1* ratings are people saying they think the story sucks, characters suck, it’s too goofy, etc. and none of that is my fault cos I’m just localising the original Japanese content T_T haha.
Weeeell, I have actually burnt out multiple times x3 hehe. Usually though, it’s not just as a result of working too much on these projects, but a mixture of not taking enough breaks + being overwhelmed by life stuff >.< Like last year, I was going into complete shutdown mode shortly after finishing Spooktober Jam. By the end of October, I was pretty much unable to even find the motivation to go on my PC, so I spent most of November as a zombie.
Then all the run-up to Christmas absolutely destroyed me as well, and I spent a lot of December & January away from my PC too x3 I wasn’t capable of much other than sleeping and reading books, haha. Couldn’t even find the energy to play some of the games I’d hoped to during the Christmas break >.<
I should probably try to schedule proper breaks or something, especially after jams. The problem is, when I’m stuck in work mode, I can’t force myself to have breaks because I get really fidgety and can’t enjoy them x3 And when I finally am forced to have a break from being burnt out, I then struggle to get the energy back to achieve work mode again, haha.
Thank you for the awesome review by the way ^-^ So glad you enjoyed it!! Everything below this is me responding to what you said there :3
Hehe, yeah, some of the CG art is properly creepy and I love it :D And yup, Sorbet must be protected at all costs!!
I can never tell with 4th wall break stuff if people will find it entertaineing or just kinda cringey and annoying x3 cos I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, haha. I had to do it though cos it amuses me xD
But yeah, the team put so much love and detail into their work from the voice acting to the art :3 I could never have made something like this on my own, that’s for sure.
So glad you liked the OST too :D It was a loooot of fun to work on! And also that’s really interesting that you’d mention the curious cat track cos while I was ridiculously pleased to have found a synth that sounded a bit cat-like to use in the track, I was worried it was possibly a bit repetitive or grating x3 And sweet nightmares was sort of a last-minute addition, haha. It wasn’t something I had on my checklist for tracks to make, but it ended up feeling like something was missing, so I kinda rushed to put that track together, haha.
Thanks again for being so sweet ^-^ Rhime wishes you the sweetest of nightmares :P
I have to admit that no game has ever made me want to go through all the extras and endings like this one. I played it for 3-5 hours straight, found a lot of endings, and used the guide to find the last one. I also had a lot of trouble figuring out how the walkthrough worked, but in the end, I was able to find all the endings and pictures—the last one I found by accident. I must admit that I played this game for so long that it was midnight when I was done! In all honesty, I kind of wish I had gone on a small date with Rhime because this game was incredibly entertaining and well-made for the span of 1 month! Nevertheless, I want to thank Melancholy, the voice actors, and jam, for this wonderful game! and the small extras in "mel's rambling" and other things. I'm looking forward to the next one, and may your dreams be full of Nightmares!
That’s so awesome to hear :D Puts a big smile on my face to know it had you hooked for a while ^-^
I always wonder when it comes to jam games made in a mad month’s rush if they even make any sense or if they’re just a giant messed up blob of ideas that’s just baffling xD So it means a lot when anyone says they’ve enjoyed playing through and makes me beat myself up just that little bit less, haha. It’s always tempting to just keep adding and adding to things, but then they get outta control x3 and sure, they can be updated post-jam, but since I already have a handful of projects waiting to be finished, I tried my best to make this one a complete story within the jam timeframe so it wasn’t yet another project that I have to go back and finish, haha.
I’m glad you managed to get all the endings and artwork in the end :3 Thanks so much for playing and for showing the team some love <3 May all your dreams be nightmares too :P
This was an amazing experience! I already came into it blind but just when I was starting to understand what was going on, something new came in and blindsided me! (IN A GOOD WAY) I wish this game could get more attention, there's so much love and care put into these games! There really is so much of this game and it's all so intriguing! I actually would love to know more about the characters, but we'll see♫
Thanks so much for checking out this one too!! <3 Very much appreciated :3 And so glad that you had fun with it :D I haven't had a chance to watch your video yet, with any luck, I might get some time to over Christmas, but I'll be definitely be recommending it to some of my friends who don't play games themselves but do like watching other people play! Cos your videos are always a delight :3
Hope you get to have happy holidays with lots of tasty noms!! ^-^
Thank you so much!! And goodness your games are some of the most interesting that I have the honor to play, thank YOU! Hope you have a wonderful holiday as well!!♫♪
First of all amazing is what I have to say. You've done it again <3 I do need some help tho so spoiler below
okay so I got the R.I.P ending and once we get the 'gift' Rhime gives us, I dowloaded the extra file and typed in nightmare. All was going good until I had to download the mac version of that file, but it wont let me open it. Ik how it goes w mac version so never had a problem downloading anything, so I'm confused why it won't let me open this file :(
I'm so sorry that my reply is horrifically slow >.< I have pretty much been out of it for all of December. I just got too overwhelmed with everything and couldn't cope with much, so as a result, I'm now crazy behind on my replies :(
Thanks so much for your kind words! So glad you had fun with the game :3
SPOILERS
Ah, man, that sucks about the gift >.< Unfortunately, I didn't actually make that myself. I made the main game with Naninovel, and someone else in the Spooktober team made Rhime's gift in Ren'Py. I tested the Windows version that she made and that works perfectly, but as always, I had no way of even opening the Mac one >.< and as far as I know, she doesn't have a Mac either, so she wouldn't have been able to test it :(
I could mention it to her, but since she can't test Mac stuff, I'm guessing she probably wouldn't be able to fix the Mac version >.< You're not missing out on tooooo much because it's basically just the extras section there as a separate download. It's got the OST in a music player, blooper reels, bonus art like sketches and other doodles from the different artists on the team, and my rambling about the project.
I guess I could maybe just upload all that stuff in a folder or something so it can just be downloaded directly from the gift page! Cos it's a shame if no one on Mac can see any of that bonus content >.< I probably won't have time to do it this year, but I'll make sure to get it all uploaded sometime in January!
Thanks so much for playing and I hope you get to have happy holidays :3
I have always had a deep appreciation of your games and this one is another good one... HOWEVER, this is the first time I've ever hit a trigger that afaik was only mentioned in this page's content warnings (second from the last, Mel, if you're curious). Which is a bummer. I don't usually check them because I don't want major spoilers and I have very few triggers anyways. Unfortunate that one kind of blindsided me in this case lol.
Technically nothing wrong was done because--as mentioned before--it was mentioned in the content warnings on this page, but part of me wishes that there was a more visible trigger warning placed where I would have found it more readily.
SPOILERY CLARIFICATION BELOW
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Animal death was mentioned in a separate un-collapsed area above the extended content warnings. Making the distinction between human death (which is unclear and I assumed adult since that's standard for horror experiences) and specifically CHILD death would have been much appreciated. I have young children and just the thought of harm coming to any child is very difficult to deal with. If there WAS a more clear content warning placed in the game itself that I missed, please let me know.
All that aside, I'm a big fan of your works and I wish you the best! Have a lovely day!
Hmm, that’s a tricky one for reasons I’ll explain under a spoiler in a sec, but before that, I’m sorry that you hit that particular trigger unaware >.< As you said, it’s there on the page, but I know a lot of people don’t read game pages before playing and downloading stuff for all sorts of different reasons. Like you, when I’m playing things myself, I never read triggers on game pages cos I don’t want spoilers, and I don’t generally get triggered by the games I choose to play. Still, I want to apologise because the last thing I want is for anyone to come to any harm playing my stuff :( Games are supposed to be a fun form of escapism, not something you wind up experiencing hurt from, so I’m really sorry about that.
I also really appreciate that you’ve played my games, and it means a heck of a lot to know you’ve enjoyed them too :3 So thank you so much for that! Also just noticed by clicking on your page that you're co-writing Invite Me In, which is so cool :3 It's on my long list of stuff to check out at some point! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the year ^-^
SPOILERY MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION
So yeah, man, I find it pretty hard to write up the warnings/triggers for my projects in general because there isn’t anything that tends to get me when I play, so I use this big database that has a huuuuge list of triggers, and then I try to think of whether or not the project features stuff from that list.
That particular one, death of a child, I ended up listing under the [Off-Screen & Mentioned] section because of the conversation that Rhime has with Linnet during the hospital scene, and then when Linnet brings it up again in the final part of the game.
However, I was unsure if I should even include it at all since technically, no children actually died at any point during the game. But the trigger database talks about also listing things that are mentioned even if they’re not actually shown so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to include it there.
The reason I say that no children actually died is because the child Rhime refers to Linnet killing is entirely fictional. The whole pregnancy part is just another one of Rhime’s sick games to taunt poor Linnet with >.< There is no baby, and Linnet never actually killed a child at any point. Admittedly though, all that stuff is ambiguous and left for the player to conclude. Also, whether or not Rhime truly had a child with another deity is up for debate. The character might seem somewhat sincere about it and even appear to be traumatised by it, but Rhime is also a liar x3 Even I don’t know what really happened in Rhime’s past before being imprisoned, and whether or not Rhime can be trusted.
In my head, I think maybe because I knew that none of it was real, that somehow made it less horrific in a sense, but when I sit here and think about the scene, especially the hospital one and how emotionally charged it is, I can see how that conversation alone could be triggering just because of what’s said. So that’s entirely on me >.< I didn’t even think of it as being a particularly triggering subject at the time :(
The general ‘death - human and animal’ trigger was there to cover all the deaths in the game, though technically, again, no one truly died in the traditional sense. I thought it was best to separate the human and animal ones though because the team discussed it and concluded that what can potentially happen to Sorbet could be a significant enough trigger for some players in itself that it was worth mentioning separately.
All of what I’ve written so far though is going on the assumption that it was the mentioned child death stuff that was the triggering part. It also occurs to me that it might have been Simon instead.
I suppose some people might also consider Simon’s death to be the death of a child, though I always saw the character as inhuman since that’s what Rhime chose to make him. Really, the only human in this one is the player because all of the characters within the game are just Rhime’s creations, dreams, and nightmares.
You’re correct that there was no in-game warning about that particular trigger, it is only present in the content warnings dropdown on the page. So yeah, I am sorry about that >.<
Knowing that you were still triggered by that particular subject though makes me wonder how to handle triggers in the future. It’s so hard with horror to not give away spoilers with triggers, which is why I always try my best to put the main big ones in-game and on the page, and then all of them, no matter how small, in the spoilers dropdown on the page.
It’s a fine line to walk because, on one hand, I really don’t want to hurt anyone, but on the other hand, I’ve had some people say they want to play my games, but have chosen not to based on certain triggers they’ve seen mentioned in those dropdowns, or that they went to watch someone play on YouTube, but stopped watching when the triggers screen game up cos they thought the game would be too scary for them. The problem there is that the triggers often make things sound a lot worse than they actually are >.< And on the complete other end of the scale, I’ve had people use the triggers as a barometer for anticipation, hoping that the more there are, the scarier the game will be, and then they're disappointed to find out that it’s not that scary at all >.<
It’s so hard to know what the best thing to do is, and I’ve watched debates from other devs play out on the subject too, haha. Some argue that all triggers should be clear and present in-game regardless of whether or not they contain spoilers of any kind. Others argue back that having them all there where you have no choice but to read them spoils the entire game experience for them because they know what’s coming/what to expect from certain scenes, and it kills any sort of tension, effectively ruining some of the horror aspects of the game.
So yeah, I’m really not sure what the answer is here :( I thought up until now that I had found the best way to handle it by having main triggers in-game and a full list under spoilers on the page, but if something still blindsided you, then clearly there needs to be a different way of doing things in the future. I’m just not sure what it is >.<
If you have any suggestions though, I’d be more than happy to hear them! So please feel free to leave anything like that here in this thread or if you’d prefer, you can always drop me an email to: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
I feel like it's really hard to get the balance on this sort of stuff right, but I don't get much feedback on content warnings, and it's important so I would like to be able to.
Hey hey! I just wanted to say that I did read your reply that you typed up a while back, but I haven't had a chance to respond until now >.< I came to read over it again and reply, but I see that you've deleted it x3 I can only apologise that it's taken me so long to get around to replying. I just got totally and completely overwhelmed with everything and pretty much shut down >.< So as a result, I'm horrendously behind on all my replies. I think it was just one of those phases that happens sometimes where when I can't cope with everything, I just focus on one thing that I can do, and everything else gets completely neglected cos I can't function properly >.< yay, autism!
I can't remember exactly everything that you said, but I remember thinking that it was all very well-written and helpful! I wanted to thank you for taking the time to type it up :3
But yeah, I remember agreeing with much of what you said and thinking you had made some really good points and suggestions. I would say if you happened to have the post anywhere to dm it to me on Discord or send it in an email or something so I could go over it again, but I'm guessing you probably don't have it now, haha.
It's okay anyways. I'm just sorry I'm so slow >.<
I hope you get to have happy holidays anyhow! :3
Wow... This game is truly one of a kind. I really liked the story, the voice acting, the art, the atmosphere, and the music a lot! I did not expect the story to go that way and in a way that's one of my favorite too!
I just want to give appreciation once again to the voice acting and the music. They are really good~ (Currently listening to Deity in the Dark as I'm writing this~)
May all your dreams be nightmares.
Aww, that means a heck of a lot so thank you very much for taking the time to play through it and then coming here to type up such a sweet comment :3
I’ve been in a bit of a bad way this month and starting to doubt my ability to make a decent soundtrack, so it’s incredibly uplifting to hear that you enjoyed the music ^-^
May all your dreams be nightmares too :P Hope you had a fabulous spooky season :3
Awesome game and a good choice for a Halloween Special :)
My only problem was on my end was the fact that I recorded my very first playthrough of the game took a little over an hour. Then when I go to edit the video I realized I only recorded the audio and not the actual game and uhh yeah that kind of pissed me off >:(. Had to replay it again the next day cause I wanted to make a video on it. Again my bad on that.
Also in Part 2 if you choose to watch for whatever reason near the ending the audio gets laggy and I have no idea how to fix it sooo sorry if you ever watch it... which will probably be nobody XD
Other than that this game was lovely.
Characters: Amazing
Background: Amazing
Voice Acting: Amazing
Story: One hell of a ride
I can 100% recommend this game is 100% worth your time. :)
*High five* So glad you think so! And thanks so much for playing this one too ^-^
Man, that really sucks you had to go back and replay to capture the video though >.< I would’ve been devastated if that happened to me x3 That’s nuts you even had the patience and dedication to go back through it again!!
I once sat typing out a chunk of story draft for a project on my potato laptop when it randomly crashed on me and I lost around an hour’s worth of writing x3 It made me want to cry cos it didn’t save and I didn’t have a backup, so I have a sense of how crushing it must’ve been x3
I also feel the pain of having no idea how to fix things cos mystery bugs are always popping up and wreaking havoc on my life >.< haha.
Thank you again for being so awesome and for all your words of encouragement <3