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Aw thanks bud! Yeah the bounciness is where I had trouble making it look as good as your originals. So it would still be ok to post a partial 3f pack?

Hello, I just wanted to message again to say I'm sorry I never finished the snake skins. I only managed to do the 3 frame version and got stumped on making the 6 frame one look right. Thank you for all of your help back then, and I'm sorry I just left things hanging! I still really adore Hero Printer and I'm just gonna stick to all your wonderful base designs until I can improve my sprite skills.

Noticed a weird little glitch! When I was making my custom assets I was baffled that the engine wasn't loading the Eyes13 I made. I realized the reason is because it always loads the amount of parts you have for Skin00, and Skin00 is missing the Eyes13 file. Maybe you left it out when compiling the zip? When I just duplicated another eye and named it that, it made all the Eyes13s come back for every other skin too.

It wasn't working on mobile for me, I did try clicking on the stars under "more information: rating:"
But it's no biggie, I got it sorted on mobile! Hope my review helps!

Oh how do I do that? I don't think I've ever noticed itchio had a ratings button omg I'm so unobservant. I'd be happy to help if I can!

EDIT: ah it turns out the button just straight up isn't there on mobile. I'd been using that for replies, oops. Ok I'll go find it on desktop!

Oh phew! Ok I won't change the stuff I've made so far, haha. I think it'd look ok if the snake skins are different but I'll try and keep the clothes pieces the same palette. Thanks for the help!

Oh, do we have to stick to this palette for our custom pieces? I'd just been making up my own so far, oops!
I really appreciate all your help bud, its good to catch these places I messed up before its too late.

Thank you bud, that's a great solution! Yeah I think I was getting too hung up on having it keep ALL the existing skirts. It'd totally work great to make just one skirt specialized for tails, one armor, etc. I'd already made two variations for a scaly and unscaly tail (in case people want to do slugs or caterpillars) and lizardlike head or keeping the human one. So it might work better to make all of that modular 'outfit' parts to mix and match!
You're also totally correct that I can't possibly make every colour everyone would want, and they can totally edit it if they need to. Perhaps I'll just include a bonus image with some suggested palettes for other scales, and people can eyedrop them if they want.
Thanks for all your great advice, I'll keep on working hard! I hope you enjoy the sprites when they're done :)

Ah, disregard my last comment! I tested it and making the tail colour a Back part doesn't work anyway. Just doesn't layer right unless I make it Bottoms, in which case I can't have any Bottom parts be compatible with it. Unless I made them all Skins, which would be implausible as it'd be like 20 of them...
Can I just ask for your personal advice on what you think would be more useful as an asset? A snake tail with multiple colours, or a snake tail that can wear skirts?

I've noticed that the file structure for facesets and charsets seems to be different in one way: I can't make a part look different for different skins on a charset, like I can for a faceset.
I was planning on having the furry tail options be replaced by different coloured snake tails, for my snake skin. That way I wouldn't be making a duplicate file structure for every possible colour combination of the snake and human halves. It was working fine on facesets but on charsets I can't make it only replace that part if you select a snake. It means I also can't fix the Bottoms to change to match them.
Is there a different way to do this? Or should I give up on making snakes a new Skin and change the sprites so it could work as a Back or Bottom part to be attached to other Skins? That'd be a shame cos my options would be more limited.
Sorry I've been asking so many questions about how the custom assets work, I really appreciate your help!

Thank you so much, this should help a lot! So just to confirm, the Skins have to still be Skin and nothing but a number afterwards? I couldn't hypothetically have Skin19S or something? But I could put Snake on the pngs of other parts to make it clearer they're part of this set?
I'm also having a little bit of difficulty doing the extra frames for the 6 frame version. Is there a particular rule you had when deciding what parts to get wider, to do that bouncy effect? Was just wondering cos the head seems to get bigger but the arms stay the same, so idk if i should have a wider tail or keep it the same, if contrast with the head is what was intended. It's a very unique vibe and I wouldn't want my sprites to look out of place with the style.
Edit: oh and do we need to have the same amount of pngs for each skin? Cos I noticed the catfolk have 16 eyes and humans have 18. But every other category is always the same size.

Oh a quick extra question! Do the parts all have to keep the same naming scheme as the default ones? For example would my snake Skins have to be Skin07 etc, and eyes be Eyes19 etc? Or could I name them SkinSnake00 or something? Was just thinking cos naturally I'm naming them the number after what's there in the base pack, but if someone else made their same assets they'd probably also call it that, and it'd require a bunch of renaming to use both.

It's understandable! I thought that my suggestion probably would be short-sighted, as I don't know much about programming. I'll just tone down the scope for my snake tail set for now, and I can always add extra colours in future if things change. Currently got 4 of them and I hope I can finish it this week! I wanna modify the Bottoms into things a snake can wear instead of just telling people "don't use that option" haha. And gonna swap the cat and dog tails for different pattern snake tails cos they don't overlay right. But it's a little time consuming. Also including some faces and mouths as a bonus~!

I really appreciate it! I'm non-binary myself and its rare for game assets to have options to make characters who are androgenous. Thanks for being so awesome! And wow that coding sounds super complex and cool, thanks for explaining!

Oh darn! I'd also started making some fantasy skintone ideas, but it seems every Skin needs to have a full duplicate file structure of every clothing part for the Face file. I think I'll avoid making too many Skins then if it means the file size would balloon hugely for each one.
A possible suggestion for the future, maybe it'd be possible to organise Skins by "category"? For example all human ones could share the same outfit parts with no changes. Cos it seems only Eyes, Mouths and Brows have differences between human skin 00, 01 and 02. Then the cats have different hats, so they'd share skin category 2, and have one set of all the clothing between them, and so on. But I don't know if it's possible in the programming to set different parts to share different folders like that?
In any case, I'll just focus on my snake tails and make them for the three human skin colours for now. Hooray!

Oh that's what I meant, I'm making it a skin! Haha I wouldn't categorize being a snake as a new gender. Gotta add that I appreciate a lot that the engine calls them Shapes and you can mix and match any one with any gendered parts like facial hair and dresses. That's so awesome!
I'm enjoying the update so far but realizing oops the stuff I already started making had the wrong format! I didn't realise you needed to make the sprites without outlines. Do I have to make a separate outline file and put it somewhere? Or will the engine automatically create them? Should I take all the outlines off my files and then it'd work?

Hi, just another comment! When the update comes to let us add custom parts, would we be allowed to share them here? I've already started working on a snake tail base body and a bunch of skintone recolours. I'd be happy to post them here if anyone needed them. I'm having so much fun playing around with the editor I'd love to spread the hype~!

Super excited for the update!! You're already passing on happiness by providing such great art for people's games 🤩

Oh hell yeah mate that's awesome!! I've already started making edits for my characters so I'd be happy to get to use them in the maker. I'm doing a snake tail body, it's been super fun so far!

And no worries bud, I'm happy to help! I've been in a similar place before struggling with health and finances so I just thought "here's an awesome artist who deserves less stress today!" I'm already repaying the generosity other people have given me in the past when I was the one suffering. It's good to pass on some happiness!

This is so awesome!! I'd been searching for months for a good larger RPGmaker base that looks more cute and chibi. Most of the ones on itchio go for hyper realism or sexualized proprotions for some reason. This pack looks AMAZING!! A whole maker to mix and match all these parts?! You've got so much more here than everyone else's packs! Even two sets of frame lengths for use in different engines? Buddy, you're spoiling us!
I saw your fundraiser for a new tablet and I'm gonna try and donate as much as I can! All your hard work deserves to be paid back with a little good luck in life.

Enjoy your well deserved relaxation! You've done a great service for the world!

Omg so cute!! I really liked how you draw Eggman, and all the familial scenes with Sage and Metal. This was really adorable and I'd love to see more!

You've gotta fix the eggmobile perfectly without Orbit and Cubot's help (cyan wire, anticlockwise) and also get the nuts and bolts from the drawer and give them to metal sonic who'll make a metal flower to give to Eggman. If that's all done, kissing him at the end should give the true ending

Road Block and Panic Attack II are also soooo good! I love all the infamous indomitable flip machines having this stocky immoveable wall kind of build. And showing so much personality with the designs! Sgt Bash as a rad grandma general with a cyborg arm, absolute genius! This is a maximally varied cast of swole girlfriends and I thank you for my life

I was gonna say as soon as I saw her DAMN YEAH this is exactly what I imagined and using the Nemesis name is just MWAH extra touch of deep lore there. Loving the passion for the series! These are RESEARCHED lesbians!!!

Love her as an unhinged feral fancy grandma, yessssss

Oh fuck yeah I hope Diotoir is in here

My lil hell sofa deserves to be the scrunkliest gay

Thanks, glad to know it's just a problem on my end! I'll try opening on pc instead of mobile. Sorry for the trouble!

Hi, is anyone else having the glitch I'm having? The page for the cinema background is just a mess of unreadable green pixels. It's only that page and nothing else.

I absolutely will!! The game really struck a chord with me because of my own experiences with transness, and a similarly abusive mum. It was honestly EXACTLY what I needed when I played this, it's gonna stick in my memory forever! I'd be overjoyed to see more! And I'm happy I could help!

Thanks for such a kind reply!

Hello, I played the game and loved it a lot! As a nonbinary person this resonated SO much and I'd be really excited to see any future games continuing this story. I wish the protagonist and the monster sibling could be happy together!

I've noticed other people also got the glitch of the game crashing in an infinite loop from pressing the cancel button. I figured out how to fix it in my playthrough! It's something in the portraitless save menu script messing up and it crashes the game cos it's looking for a portrait file (even though it doesn't need it). Just putting any file in the faces folder and naming it Actor1.png makes it all work again. (Even a blank file or a random meme lol!)
Hope that can help!

No problem! I'm glad it was okay!

Oh, also another small thing I was confused about. It seemed a bit rude of Kesh that he just assumed Queenie is a female and started using she/her pronouns. I expected there to be a point where he'd find out what gender this sansik actually is, and being like "oops sorry" or "oh, relieved I got it right!" It just felt a bit odd that the reader never actually finds out if Queenie is okay with being called a girl or not.

A really interesting concept and engaging story, but it felt a bit rushed in places. I want to make it clear before I start with my criticisms that I did deeply enjoy the story! So a section covering my favourite parts:

I'm a non-binary person myself and I'm deeply invested in stories that use monsters and body horror to deliver a trans-positive message. Everything about the worldbuilding of the sansik was excellent, I especially liked small details like how the translator-types speak with their chest not their throat. This felt reminiscent of how crickets make their "singing" by rubbing their legs together, and other unusual bug communication. The unusual syntax of their speech was also fascinating, I found Queenie so adorable with that "larva is too unformed to walk yet?" moment! The descriptions of all of the body horror were also really well done, delivering angst when they needed to, and at other times being beautiful and symbolic of Kesh's growing freedom and sense of self. The scene with the grubs was also really effective at going from "aww maybe they're not all bad- OH GOD THEYRE KILLING THEIR OWN BABIES- oh wait those weren't real babies". It definitely helped to get into the hero's head as he didn't know whether to trust the bugs yet. Overall I just felt like I wanted a whole book about it, yknow? The sansik society! I wish the story gave more time to the growing familial bond between Kesh and Queenie, instead of her only being a part of the story at the very beginning and end.

That brings me on to: my critiques and suggestions.

 It was hard to get engaged in the lead's attachment to Aster as his best friend when we'd never actually seen any of his normal life in the human colony with her. This also hurt the drama of his transformation into a wasp, the lack of setup of the status quo meant no frame of reference for it being shaken up. The actions of the human scientists also made very little sense, if they knew he was a wasp child all along and were keeping him as an experiment, why wasn't he guarded or secured in any way? Why was it so easy for the bullies to kidnap and abandon him in the wasteland? And why did the scientists show no interest whatsoever in recovering him and refuse all the sansik's offers to bargain? He's their important test subject, right? It also felt bizarre how easily they gave up and let the sansik take him. It was just "you can't take him, he's a Big Dangerous Girl Wasp!" "Actually he's trans" "aww shit, guess we can't do anything to stop you now. Let's go home guys". It made sense as a reason why the sansik would accept him, but not why the humans would let them do that.

A lot of the other parts of the book felt similar, like we were skipping ahead big chunks of time mid paragraph, or not fully going into each plot point. The biggest problem is that it's a great story but there isn't enough of it. If you would ever consider making a longer length sequel to this, I want to say I'd definitely be interested!

I also found the morality a little weird involving the wasps. It felt fundementally strange that this story about a kid finding out he was a wasp would involve his found family with an entirely separate species of sentient bugs, and the wasps are treated as always evil both by the humans and the sansik. Even he himself has no guilt whatsoever over killing a wasp?? I was baffled why he wouldn't attempt to communicate with it, or why the story was acting as if they aren't sentient. What makes him special so that he's the only one who retains his sentience after transforming? I feel it should have been explained. Or we should have actually had a plotline about the wasps not actually being evil, and perhaps him serving as a bridge to make peace between them and the sansik. Honestly I just kept going back to the scene about the grub-mimics and feeling increasingly sad for them as we learned our hero is basically the exact same thing. Do the sansik just continue killing every child that gets infected by the wasps? Is Kesh the only exception? Why? And why is he just fine with this?

Also, just personally from my trans perspective, it felt that the parts about that weren't explored very much. I left the book uncertain what exactly happened. Whether it meant that Kesh himself was always a trans man, whether he was biologically female but the scientists raised him as a man and didn't tell him for some reason, or if it meant his human form was male but when he turned into a wasp his body transitioned between the sexes? Regardless of what happened, it was still good to see a positive trans or trans metaphorical character, and how the reveal of his biological sex wasn't a negative, it was the thing that saved his life in the end!

I hope that my comment doesn't come off as too rude, I just really enjoyed the book but felt it had some missed potential. I felt confused why there weren't any comments at all on this page yet, when it's a really interesting story! So I wanted to give the best fleshed out review I could manage. Thank you for writing this, and thank you for contributing to the helping Palestine bundle!

Oh awesome thank you! I assumed there was no way to win the dialogue with Karen at the beginning cos it seemed like one of those obligatory game starting cutscenes that always goes the same way haha. That's a neat way to hide an ending!

And oh that's how you unlock dates! I was having trouble figuring out which places unlock which other places. I got the anime and the cat ones so now thanks to your help I have them all phew! Gonna try and play some more and hope I can get a better ending!

Its really impressive you made a game with his many endings during a game jam! But I'm finding it really impossible to get any of them. I can never seen to raise her affection enough to avoid the bad end and whenever I try and romance the other girl instead Kuku just murders me, even if I never did anything to hint to her I was interested so it makes no sense she's acting like I'm cheating when we're just friends. Would it be possible to post a guide or maybe hints on what the requirements are for each ending?

Also confused what to do to get the other two cat type endings cos whatever I do after she adopts the cat I always seem to just get cat cafe.

YES
I CHERISH THEM ALL
AAAA
addy maximum chaotic energy holy shit also BEST FLOOFHAIR

Really excited to support this project as it progresses!!! I'm already so attatched to everybody just from this little slice of time with them!

I really loved this, it was great how it metaphorically relates SO MUCH to the current experience so many people have with long distance relationships during lockdown. 

But it's also great wish fullfillment for how I wish we could all really go on magical imaginary walks to the beach together, or share the taste of food through the phone!

And then it was SO relateable how Marjoram's magic backfiring if she overuses it is a metaphor for anxiety from pushing yourself too hard to like.. act normal, and pretend you aren't stressed, when really its okay to be vunerable and the people who love you will understand.

I especially liked that there's two different endings but neither of them is a bad end. It's just "you pushed yourself too hard and had a panic attack, but get comforted and learn its okay to take a break when you need it" or "you realize you're beyond your limits before the panic attack happens, and take a break when you need it, and your girlfriend is proud of you" They both end on the same uplifting note! Even if you fail, it isn't the end of the world, and she won't stop loving you!

So yeah this was a super awesome heartwarming little game and I love it loads, and I'm cheering on these adorable characters and their adorable love!!

The only small suggestion I have is that maybe somewhere in the game it can say how many endings there are, so you know when youve got them all? I know it says on the itchio description that there are two but whoops I didn't read that before playing so I was wondering if I missed an ending. (Since theres no bad endings lol , I thought I missed it!)

Aww this is cute! I get anxious a lot when doing stuff alone and I know it's irrational but I can't stop feeling it. This is a nice little idea to help people who have this problem!

It means so much to hear this, seriously! Its so rare to get a chance to hear confirmations about stuff like this, you're a really great creator for answering people's questions like this!
Aaaa I'm even more hyped to follow all of your future projects now!!

That was so AMAZING!

I loved all the creative speculative fiction aspect, like the worldbuilding of how Iris deals with mimicking a physical form she's not used to. That was really intriguing and helped so much to get inside her head!
And I loved that the 'moral' of the whole thing was that nobody is really 'perfect', and that even if you love somebody more than anything else it's not healthy to idolize them as if you're worthless and they never feel pain ever. It really hit me right in the heart when Iris opened up to Lily at the end, yknow? God that was SO GOOD!

Kind of random additional comment: am I just being silly to get a bit of transgender headcanons here? I don't know if I'm imposing my own experiences onto this, but to me it felt like Iris didn't have any big traditional magic reason to hate her 'true name', it just wasn't her 'true name' even though it was what she was born with. And maybe that was intentionally meant to be relateable to trans people, or maybe it was just a coicnidence, but it added even more reasons why this story hit me so hard in the emotions. it was just really well made! Thank you so much for this great little slice of an intriguing romance, and I'd love to see more adventures of this amazing couple in the future!