itch.io

Ceri here! 

Wowza, that's a lot of new content coming~! Occult Mingle looks cool and I'm curious to see what else the plot will entail aside from its' genteral premise. I understand that RoD will have to go on the backburner for OcMin to be completed first. Nonetheless, I know that the final products will be up to your and players' standards!

Anyway, Indie horror game recs because I orbit around them daily (and as someone who's recently become a Silent Hill enthusiast):

Signalis (Survival horror/puzzle PS1-style heavily inspired by Resident Evil (mechanics-wise) and Silent Hill (story, atmosphere and puzzle-wise) with endings tied to your playstyle + a secret conclusion accessible via second playthroughs)

Killer Frequency (Murder-mystery/puzzle/reverse survival horror where you're a radio DJ helping potential victims survive a serial killer over the course of one very fateful night)

The Tartarus Key (Puzzle/adventure PS1-style horror about finding a way out of a Saw-esque booby trapped mansion. Comes with great comedy and atmosphere)

Fear the Spotlight (Survival horror/puzzle PS1-style game about uncovering the truth behind a fire that destroyed a high school's theater building)

Lies of P (Dark fantasy/sci-fi Souls-like RPG that retells The Adventures of Pinocchio in a Belle Epoche world where mechanical puppets powered by strange crystals have become hostile to their human creators. Don't know if anyone in the FF team is into Souls-likes but just thought I'd suggest this anyway. The fandom's hilariously obsessed about the pretty boy automaton protagonist and I say this as someone who's actually in said fandom and has massive amounts of LoP fan art on her blog)

Teleforum (Horror mystery visual novel following a camera man and his colleague interviewing the widow of a recently deceased co-worker regarding the strange circumstances surrounding her husband's death)

Hollow Cocoon (Survival horror/puzzle; inspired by the trifecta of PS2 J-horror cult classics (Kuon, Siren and Fatal Frame))

Reveil (Psychological horror/puzzle; delves into a circus manager searching for his missing wife and daughter through increasingly surreal environments)

Indie games in production/releasing in the near future to wait on for:

Still Wakes The Deep (Spring 2024; survival horror set aboard an oil rig off the coast of Scotland during the mid-1970s)

Hollowbody (Q1-Q2 024; tech noir survival horror inspired by PS2 survival horror classics set in a dystopic near-future Britain)

Post Trauma (Spring 2024; psychological/survival horror that pays due respects to the likes of SH4: The Room where a middle aged train conductor must find a way out of an eerie surreal realm to return to his world)

Bye Sweet Carole (2024; dark fantasy hand drawn/animated puzzle platformer inspired by classic Disney movies and Clock Tower)

Sorry, We're Closed (a la mode games) (2024; A cool, queer homage to PS1 survival horror classics with a funky art direction and a veritable cast of unusual characters to get to know)

Slitterhead (TBD; from the man who gave PS1 players the very first Silent Hill game)

No Return (BlameTech) (TBD; psychological thriller-horror that got influenced from P.T. and Devotion)

Leak (Black Point) (TBD; psychological horror with survival elements that has the distinct premise of a former water-testing facility worker searching for his missing family and why a sinister corporation that recently acquired his former place of occupation may have a major role in the disappearances of his wife and son)

Ceri here with one last question: Will RoD eventually reveal what ultimately happened to Patricia or has Daybreak already mentioned what might've became of her?

Ceri here!

So it's been a while and I'm definitely forgetting a few details but are Katie and Nick simply just friends? I know the former's mother, Patricia, suspecting her daughter was dating the latter all the way back in Rumination with Katie lying to her mom as a cover to keep her safe from the monster hunting business (which as we know from the true end of Rumanition, turned out bad with Katie getting bitten and Nick badly injured in addition to Patricia meeting an uncertain fate). A few questions about Remnants of Dawn:

1. How many possible endings will RoD have?

2. Related to the above, as RoD was in pre-production when you guys released Rumanition, will one of the endings still tie into Runanition's true end?

3. Will Felix show up indirectly in RoD at some points?

4. Is RoD going to contain LGBT+ themes of any kind?

Off topic-ish, but here's some cool indie horrors that've been making the rounds:

- Bramble: The Mountain King (Inspired by Scandinavian folklore, epic visuals, cool enemy designs, interesting boss fights, cool story and an awesome soundtrack)

- My Friendly Neighborhood (Sesame Street gets crossed with Resident Evil! The horror-comedy is excellent, the weapons are inventive...full release coming July 18, 2023)

- FAITH: The Unholy Trinity (Creepy exorcism horror with a intriguing twisty story and an insane amount of incredible rotoscoped animations)

- The Voidness (Sci-fi horror following an astronaut navigating a dark research base with a LIDAR device while avoiding monsters lurking within)

THAT sequel hook...*starts yelling*

Ceri here!

Downloaded and played this through tonight and I had a blast with your game! I love the blocky cartoony art style for the main cast, how the player gets further and surprisingly deep insight coupled with shockingly sound life advice on each of the MC's love interests on each individual route during the first night and how they play off each others' personalities in the main game. The special route was pretty interesting to witness unfold and I even got the good end on the first go! The story and backgrounds may be simple yet there's a clear charm to it all through the character writing and expressive sprites! CG design is fresh and I applaud how you were spot-on with the depth perception for the ones with the LIs using their weapons during the living room battle in the cabin near the conclusion. Also enjoyed how the endings chose to stay realistic for such a situation like this but still remain hopeful for the main cast. My favorite route is actually Joel's which I played through first and enjoyed immensely (Let's be real here, I'm a sucker for good pairings that seemingly aren't as close at the start and appear to have little in common at first glance along with his battle CG being the most kickass of the 3). Thank you for making this experience and sharing it with the world!! Wishing you the best of luck on all your future projects down the line!

(P.S. Found a slight typo during the confrontation in the cabin's kitchen during the main game. The word 'hatchet' is misspelt as 'hatched')

Ceri from Tumblr here!

Checked out the demo for MG today! Liked how the beginnings of the story was laid out. The Mariposa de Sol's history is genuinely interesting. It's going to be something when Clara and the others eventually encounter the ghost there! Between the (current) love interests, I'd say that Quincey is my favorite as he's the most understanding of Clara's situation. Also liked the little touch of Foster being scared of horror in general. You don't really see that many male characters in fiction who're like that. The backgrounds are simple but still nice to look at. I can't wait to see how the investigation and romance routes go in the full release!

Suggestions

1. I know that this would lead to a lot of work on your end, but the in-game menu screens could have a similar general layout and color scheme to  fit the  game's GUI. The sliders for the settings and history screens could be customized in the shape of the butterflies in the GUI and logo (light blue butterflies against dark grey scroll bars for a nice contrast)?

2. An option to be able to toggle the font colors between black and white to make it easier for players with vision difficulties?

3. The save slots could have a big grey butterfly at the center of them that turns light blue or yellow when the player mouses over one of them.

4. An extras menu with dev notes on what inspired you to make the game and a CG gallery.

Ceri here!\

Made it all the way to the True End thanks to spotting important clues early on and during the investigation process! How the mystery was laid out and the character interactions are so good. My favorite characters were Dea and Hawley as I loved their snarky banter and the way they bounced off the other cast members personalities. Maggie is a real spitfire (and I mean that in the nicest way possible)! The hug CG between our two lead lovers was hella precious. It's clear that there was a lot of love and effort put into this work. Thanks for the hint in the boiler room; it really helped! Overall, 10 out of 10, would watch Nowak get his ass handed to him by an imp again!

I've managed to play up until the first investigatiom scene, clicked on the wheeled cart, the body in the furnace, the scrap of fabric, the imp in the lower left corner then selected the 'I worked too hard for all this to be all for nothing' option and that's where I'm stuck at. Do you need to check areas of interest in a certain order or is there something I'm missing? Btw, the story/character writing is stellar and the general design and feel of the game is flat out goregeous!

Ceri here!

Just came off playing Rumination. As a fan of the first game, the writing and artwork are very well done as it was in the original. The lead up to that ending, boi...I saw on the main page that you guys are in the process of creating the finale to what has become an amazingly written trilogy of games. I really wanna know what happens to Patricia now and how the heck Nick is going to be able to get out of this situation!

P.S. I know the third and final installment of the UAN trilogy is in pre-production at this time but without giving much away, will players be seeing the story again through Nick's or Katie's POVs?

Just downloaded the game to my PC!  But can you add 'Genre: Visual novel' to the drop down 'More information' menu? This'll help get the game out to a wider audience! 

Ceri here!

Before the start of the Winter VN Jam 2020, I decided to browse the hashtag for the jam and I found your team's project The idea of a Disney-like otome intrigued me so I went to the recruitment  Lemmasoft Forums post  to learn more about the story. As the weeks went on, I started checking every single Twitter post made for Eternal Winter I fell in love with the character designs, backgrounds, just about everything the game had to offer. Also saw a CG preview for the Leonis route and it was absolutely gorgeous! So when it came time for Eternal Winter to arrive on itch.io, I jumped aboard and started reading!

First Impresssions

- The story from reading the summary, feels like a fusion between The Snow Queen and Cinderella Phenomenon. It's interesting and the pieces of world building that the player gets from Lumine's interactions with each of her potential love interests paints an intriguing  system of how much the current ruling family has begun to slowly sever friendly relationships with neighboring lands.. The hint of Goddess lore seems very interesting..  I want to hear more of this world's resident deity.

- The UI is absolutely stunning. Props to MadScientist for it! I love the spinning snowflakes next to the dialog box and behind the logo along with the moving borders for confirmation options and when an option is moused over in the main menu. The icons and pages for the credits page are plenty pretty.

- Character designs are gorgeous. Leonis and Aster's is my favorite. In terms of personalities, going with the messy hair for Aster works with his teasing nature towards Lumine. Lumine reminds me of a more mellow Miyoko from Dark Nights. yet not afraid to lampshade on certain situations when she wants to It's an interesting twist to have Leo as a former orphan from the same orphanage as our heroine and be acquainted with her. Yoru is pretty much a workaholic but wants to do his best to keep his family business afloat despite restrictions.

Suggestion

- Would you consider adding the 'Story rich' tag to the drop down 'More information' menu? Considering the amount of world building and lore from various side characters on each route, I think that Eternal Winter could qualify as belonging in that tag.

All in all, a very solid demo. Can't wait to see how Lumine's story unfolds in the full version.

Ceri here!

So from what I'm gathering from this devlog, the game will be split into 3 Acts with the extended demo combining the first 2. As such, Act 3 will release during 2021 to complete the project, correct?

If so, I'm excited to play the extended demo whenever it comes out and will patiently wait for the full release!

Ceri here (again)!

So I jumped aboard the full version today and let me tell ya, it was a blast to read through! The story was able to really grip me past the point of where the alpha demo ended and the reveals were all built up pretty well thanks to closer observation of certain areas  and characters through the game. I won't say anything further but the true ending is just *chef's kiss* the right amount of bittersweet!

Kudos to the team for this and any future creations down the game dev road!

(P.S. About the 8th ending, is it also a bad ending?)

Ceri here!

At the start of the Spooktober Jam, I discovered the first sketches of the main cast of characters for your project while browsing through the hashtag for the jam. The concept of battling inner demons while solving a murder mystery was what drew me to your game as I'm a big fan of Occult Crime Police (which has a more comedic bent to it and is more spooky than out-right horror) and anything that has a strong focus on its narrative.

So I downloaded and read through the alpha demo today. Here's my thoughts

First Impressions

-  I like how the slow reveal of what occured 4 months prior to the game's start plays out during Nick's first night in the cabin and if he chooses to look at the dead deer after he meets Grayson.

- Felix has quite the ominous air to him despite his courteous and dapper appearance. Definitely keeping my eye on this guy.

- Grayson is quite an oddball but has a fun personality and I see a lot of myself in her. Now I'm curious about her backstory

Questions

1. Will you be adding more options to the main menu (such as settings , extras and quit) in the full release plus a CG gallery and ending reference guude in the extras?

2. I think the title screen and other menu pages would look better iwith a dark grey or black color scheme with white or bright red lettering for the options to fit with the drama oriented mood of the game.

3. How many good and bad endings (no spoilers)?

4. Will the full release be 100% free?

I will return with a review of the full release when it comes out! Here's to you guys for drawing me into such an interesting story!

Ceri here!

Was scrolling through the Lemmasoft Forums Works-In-Progress page out of boredom and discovered your project a few days before the demo’s release. As I’ve been into epic narrative type stories for the past few years, I felt that it was time to return to my roots of gentle slice of life tales with a fantastical touch and I found that in A Cottage Story!  

First Impressions 

Both the main menu screen and  UI evoke a quaint homely feel with the story being quite in-depth yet a delight to read! The subtitles popping up during Nimruil and Rufus’ first meeting made me snort with laughter. Looks like the two of them have hit it off quite well! The way you created the character designs plus background art is down-to-earth yet natural in its own way. I now even have the meadow scene as my desktop background. My compliments to your skill in illustration and aesthetic! 

Of the friendship/love interests when I first saw them on the main post, I really like Nimruil’s character design as their outfit reminds me of Rayla from The Dragon Prince in color motif along with certain aspects of their personality. Getting into the game itself, Klafka’s attitude is somehow hilarious yet she means well in being there for the protagonist through thick and thin since childhood. Rufus is a sweet boy who’s plenty bookish with eclectic taste and insightful on a lot of topics. Nimruli’s something of a ham, is the sassiest of the trio and seems to be integral to more of Emory’s development and growing curiosity of the outside world. 

Suggestions 

• Make the other menu screens in the same style as the main menu itself (like flipping to different pages in the book) 
• Add an ‘Extras’ option on the main menu which contains a CG gallery for the routes and character design and story concept notes 
• Give the action/choice options a fancy border similar to the text box 

Well, that’s it for my review on the A Cottage Story demo. Looking forward to what the full game will bring (especially Nim’s antics as Emory’s roommate and how they would interact with Klafka)!! 

I did! But it still goes to credits...maybe there's a bug preventing the bonus CG from showing up?

So I played the updated version of the game and got the good ending with all characters at max friencship level (sparkling hearts) but the bunus illustration doesn't show up? It just goes to credits after showing the player Patches' relationship status with the others??