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You did an absolutely fantastic job!! 😄

Thank you so much! 😊 Hard at work on it as we speak 🫡

😂😂😂 HE REALLY DOES NOT someone needs to come and put some tape over his mouth for a SECOND! And YOU PLAYED BOTH ROUTES, I'm so touched 🥹 I'm glad that you found the MC relatable!! Thank you so much for playing 😊

I had NO IDEA that doechii wrote that song 😆😆 Making that my headcanon for geist's background music now LOL Thank you so much for playing!!! 🥰

OH thank you so much!!!! 🥹 I'm really glad you liked it!! 😆

GOSH you replayed it 😭 I'm really touched that you remembered and wanted to pick it up again 🥹 and 😭😭😭 you use the game to explain what anxiety is like!!! To be honest when I first concepted the game I was mostly like "hehe this will be between me and all the people who happen to have the exact same brand of anxiety 😂" so I was really surprised and happy to see people play it who didn't have anxiety and said that it helped them to understand the experience. THE EVIL MAN WHO LIVES IN YOUR HEAD 😂 honestly... real, and I swear I thought I kicked that guy out long ago and for some reason he keeps moving back in at random times... smh... 

Thank you for playing and for taking the time to leave such a sweet comment 🥹 comments like these really give me so much motivation to continue making games!

That's strange... I'm not sure why that would be happening 😭 The Steam and itch versions both use the same save file, so it's possible that the save got corrupted somehow? I would try going to the settings -> "Delete all save data," and then restart the game and see if that fixes it. Since you downloaded it twice I don't think that the game data itself should be corrupted...

😂 Yes! I hope you enjoy!

😂 Thank you!

"If this is the world as the divine intended... isn't it devious to want it to be different?"

The entire game is, like all of the dev's games, impeccably made - every moment of the game, starting from the ballerina on the start screen, is beautifully and carefully crafted. Moreso than a visual novel, or even a comic, it felt like I was watching an anime LOL While the first act of Melancholic Star was beautifully made, with a change in visual almost every line, this part adds ANIMATIONS on almost every line on top of that, somehow becoming even MORE of a visual marvel.

The writing is, in short, sheer poetry, simultaneously raw and elegant. As with all of this dev's games, their use of choices and text as part of the visual storytelling is pure inspiration. And something that I only noticed late in my playthrough of the initial Melancholic Star is that additional "secrets" are unlocked if you access the history - you can tell "who" is speaking at each moment, and you can also read the garbled text/text that appears in a different language at times.

===SPOILER===

The initial game was at times quite surreal, with a tale told in snippets that at times were difficult to parse in a "concrete" way, possibly because it was told from a child's POV. This game reframes a lot of the events from the original demo, giving you full context - Lily was a star, kidnapped and trapped in a tower, where they were molded into a "princess" and taken apart, harvested for their body parts after the people learned that their parts were valuable. They are lured to the window by Lilith, who promises freedom.

The beginning of Act 2 details the sacrifice of a "lamb" for the gods - confirming that Lily was never truly a "princess," beloved by the people - they were a sacrifice, torn apart for others. As you doubt whether the sacrifice is just, Lilith appears, extending a suspect hand - offering to guide Lily from the tower, granting them the freedom they crave. Even though Lily doesn't KNOW what they want - they just know that they don't want to suffer under the expectations placed upon them - "adding paragraphs to a script" without giving Lily the chance to write those paragraphs themself.

After that, the game picks up where Act 1 left off - Lily escapes the tower, to a place where they can be at peace and simply "dream" - an extension of their dissociation/escape from reality back in the tower. And at first Lily is happy - they make sweet treats and plush dolls - but inevitably they think back to the real world, the "city" - and they face conflicting emotions: anger at being used by the citizens and bitterness that no one cared for them. Yet there is lingering hope (I suppose that Bell is the hopeful voice here?) - a willingness to open their hollow heart. They fight between their hope that things will get better, that perhaps they should return, and their fatigue, their desire to protect themselves in this dream world, where they can simply sleep and rest.

The emotion and feeling presented here is multifaceted. On the one hand, it's very grounded in Lily's feelings and situation - their abuse at the hands of the people who raised them, their struggles with their gender and having parts of themselves both literally and metaphorically stripped away. Yet I also think that the emotions are also something that many people can understand - after being so hurt, the desire to protect yourself by retreating into yourself, away from anyone or anything that can cause you pain.

It's a poignant painting of someone who has been abused, abused so much that they simply don't want to be hurt anymore, they don't want to be robbed of  what makes them whole, robbed of everything until they finally fade away - even though they simply wanted to belong somewhere. Erasing themselves in an effort to be loved, without realizing that they never would be loved either way. A particularly heartwrenching scene comes when Lily recalls being taken apart for their "parts" - and at the end, the culprit remarks - "Do we even need... to keep it alive?" The "it" is only revealed if you go into the History, and it's heartbreaking - in the end, they didn't view the princess as a person, or even a girl, but as a "thing" to be cut up and used as they pleased.

As Lily ponders, still feeling lost, they come to a conclusion - that they do not want to be rescued, or perceived, that what they seek is within themself.  As they come to this conclusion a silhouette that appears to be a spindle appears on screen - perhaps suggesting that they are pricking their finger on the spindle like Sleeping Beauty, purposefully entering deeper into their "slumber" and self isolation, far from the outside world, by their own decision - embodying both the "wicked" Carabosse and the "good" Lilac fairy from the tale - until they can find their true self, unaffected by the gazes of others.

The section after that is particularly brilliant - as Lily tries to decide what they want, conflicting choices pop up on screen. After each selection, more choices pop up - some contradicting each other in irreconcilable ways, so you can't possibly pick between them - until the choices all become indecipherable. It's a fantastic way of communicating Lily's difficulty when making a choice, both in terms of visuals and gameplay. Lily then asks - "What do I wish for?" before Lilith gives the answer - "Stardust" - to be broken into fragments and reformed.

It's an ambiguous conclusion, one that feels both triumphant and tragic. On the one hand, I want to tell Lily that there is hope, that they should try one more time, that there are good people out there. Yet on the other hand, I applaud them - for finally realizing that they don't need anyone else, that they should try to focus on figuring out who they are and what they want. Still, Lilith's motivations are murky - being broken apart into stardust feels so harsh, so violent... but maybe that's what Lily needs?

Overall, this was simply beautiful, not just in terms of the art and execution but also in terms of the emotions and soul on display. Although my own experience is quite different from Lily's, I felt their emotion and pain in a very visceral and personal way that's hard to describe - it spoke to my soul, to be cliche about it. The first Melancholic Star was a game that really stuck with me, and I have a feeling that this one will as well.

Fantastic job to the dev!!! (I'm sorry that I wrote too much)

With men like this, girl deserves to choose the bea- I mean, dragon... (Thank you for giving me the opportunity to beta read/test this fantastic game!) Overall, it was beautifully made and very polished, and I really loved this take on the "princess trapped in a tower."

The VAs all absolutely knocked it out of the park and were perfectly fitting for their roles. I especially loved the breadth of emotion from Amaia's VA, from her more playful lines with Vasserelli to her scared and enraged lines with Azaiah and Caleb, the majesty of Happho's voice, and how Azaiah's VA managed to effortlessly go from sounding heroic to sinister. The background music was also very well chosen, particularly during the intro scene and the climax.

The art assets were gorgeous! I really liked the framing of the GUI, with the borders on each side - it evoked the feeling of reading an illuminated manuscript, with a real medieval flair to it. It was also a very clever way of communicating the change in setting each time. The soft, painterly style and soft pastel colors were really lovely, and I really liked the character designs as well (Amaia was gorgeous, and I especially liked how "dragon-like" Azaiah appeared - as well as the contrast between his black armor and Caleb's white armor). In particular, I thought that Happho's design was very unique and fitting - more like a Chinese dragon, where dragons are associated with wisdom and royalty, than the more typically monstrous/animalistic Western-style dragons. There were an incredible amount of CGs (PARTICULARLY for a Nano game, with the strict time limit), and they all served to make the game feel particularly cinematic.

SPOILERS

I really loved this take on "the princess trapped in a tower" - rather than being trapped there, the tower is a place where Amaia finds freedom to find herself. The entire game evokes the feeling of "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf. It's an essay that I was thinking about particularly recently after reading more about Tolstoy and his horrific marriage. The diary of Sofia Tolstoy is particularly enlightening - in it, she declares that there were very few female writers/artists/composers in her time because their energies are consumed by their families and their husbands - their artistic abilities remain "embryonic and atrophy" and by the time they have finished raising their children to adulthood, it is too late for them to become "anything." These concepts are very well integrated into TDP. While Happho frees Amaia from her marriage, most importantly, she gives Amaia time and a "room" to rediscover her passion for the piano, which was taken from her by her domineering fiance. Her freedom comes not from killing the abuser that cages her - it comes from finding herself.

I also quite liked how, in the end, Amaia does not simply seek to carry on Happho's legacy, freeing brides from unwanted marriages. Instead, she seeks to provide girls with a space to explore their ambitions. It's a touching way to communicate how women's rights have been slowly fought for over time, building on the efforts of women that came before.

I also appreciated the breadth of "masculine" representation. Of course, you have Azaiah - the domineering face of toxic masculinity and oppression. However, he's not "evil" - certainly not at first glance. At most he seems like a "bold, assertive, ambitious" man - the kind of man that you could see running a kingdom - until you learn what he did to Vasserelli. But at the same time you have Amaia's kind, caring father Horacio - who nonetheless perpetuates antiquated beliefs by believing that he needs to quickly arrange for a strong husband who can take care of his kingdom and his daughter, focusing on Azaiah's 'strength" while ignoring his true colors. And while Caleb means well and truly loves Amaia, his belief that he is the "white knight" coming to save the princess is simply another flavor of the toxic masculinity that Azaiah embodies - a masculinity that positions himself as the hero, and Amaia as his damsel and love interest. I think that while Azaiah is the only clearly "vile" one of the three, I appreciated how all three "weighed down" on Amaia's freedoms in various ways. However, at the same time, you have Vasserelli - who respects Amaia's talents and cultivates her ambitions, while encouraging his daughter to do the same - showing that it is not a war of "genders," but of oppressive systems and mindsets.

I'll also touch on Happho's character. She really felt like a surrogate mother to Amaia, which was fitting, as Amaia never grew up with a mother to teach or guide her. The scenes where they were cooking together, and Happho opened up about her own experiences in the past, felt very warm, and it felt like Happho was a parental figure, helping Amaia to "grow up." It was a surprising take on the typically "monstrous dragon," but perfectly fitting for the story that the dev wanted to tell.

Overall this was a fantastic game about female empowerment - I hope that all women can find a "room of one's own"  as Amaia does. Fantastic job to the dev!

OH GOSH you're too kind 😭😭😭 Thank you so much for the kind words 🥹

I'm really glad that you liked the conceit of the gameplay 😭 It was interesting hearing how different people played - and how quickly people "understood" what I was going for 😂 Some people understood at the very first choice, and some people stood their ground multiple times - hoping for a different result. I talked about it with some dev friends of mine and we theorized that it was related to how comfortable/safe people feel in speaking their mind based on their IRL experiences, though I suppose I'll never know for sure 🤔

😂 AND LOL honestly I was worried that people might find the game too frustrating to play because of the Doctor's rambling 😂 it is part of the intended experience, but... I'm glad that a lot of people played through the whole game regardless LMAO

And I'm so glad 🥹 I have a very soft spot for that ending as well! As much as I like angst, I always want to leave the player with a hopeful feeling rather than despair. But I admit that it's not the most realistic one, as you mentioned 😅 Your analysis captured my intent with the game pretty much perfectly - to convey how being stuck in a toxic situation can slowly rob you of your sense of self until you're molded until whatever you abuser wants you to be (which I thought was a very fitting theme for a "Pygmalion/Galatea" game!)

(AWW I'M GLAD that the narrators felt like Yumeko's friends - when I was writing their dialogue I always envisioned the narrators as Yumeko's older friends or aunties, giving her advice 😂)

Gosh I can't express how thankful I am for your thougtful comment and for taking the time to play 😭 I hope that my future works don't disappoint!

Ohhh now this is very interesting 🤔 Admittedly it has been a hot minute since I read Death of a Salesman (I should really give it a reread sometime), and I never thought to view it through that kind of lens - but it makes a lot of sense 🤔 I've been reading quite a few books recently (Anna Karenina, most recently), where the "Madonna-wh*re complex" seems very apparent 😂 and I think that this kind of mindset has been historically prevalent (even among women, who desperately want to play the role of the "Madonna" - and "not like the other girls" - another topic that I hope to tackle sometime soon, haha!).

I'M REALLY GLAD THAT YOU ENJOYED IT, and especially that you thought it was thought provoking - and connected it with other media! I have a really strong personal interest in this kind of cross-media analysis 😂 I'm always writing little mini essays for myself (like the nerd I am...) so knowing that the little game I made was thought-provoking to someone else fills me with a lot of joy 😂 I'm so honored 😭 Thank you for playing and taking the time to comment!!

DFGDF WELL I'M VERY HONORED TO HEAR THAT, I'm glad that you enjoyed the game 😭😭😭 (and hehe that's my favorite ending, too! 🤭)

GOSH thank you so much, you're too kind 😭 I agree that the VAs did an utterly WONDERFUL job! They were actually the first VAs I got to work with, and I was so lucky to have the chance 😭 It really made me much more enthusiastic about including more VA in my games! Thank you for playing, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed! 

Gosh, I'm honored 🥹 as a writer, I'm so touched when the stories that I tell ring true to people's IRL experience! I had similar experiences 🥲 sometimes it's not easy, but I hope that you're doing well 💪 Thank you so much for playing! ☺️

OHHH this was such an interesting devlog? I really loved reading all your thoughts laid out like this 🤔 AND I DID NOT THINK ABOUT SHER AND SHARIAR BEING IN A LAVENDER MARRIAGE BUT IT IS SO TRUE...

(For future topics I would like to read more about my favorite little man mudhik and especially about his relationship with his wife and Shariar!) 

Hello!! Thank you so much for the kind offer, but unfortunately a lot of the coding for The Perfect Woman was quite experimental, so I didn't include any support for translations. I'm trying to include this feature in my future releases, though! But the offer was SO kind, thank you 🥹

HELLO, gosh 😭 I'm so happy to hear that 🥹The game was based on a pretty similar (anxiety-ridden) part of my own life 😅  so I'm really glad that it rings true to your experience too 🥹 Your praise is too kind, thank you 😭 (and hehe the VAs did SO fantastically, they were absolutely perfect for the roles!)

I really can't express how much comments like this mean to me 💦 As a creative, I'm always so happy when someone can feel understood through my work 😭 Again, thank you so much for playing and taking the time to comment, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed playing 🥹

AH yes unfortunately I didnt release an Android build for Kanau, once I release all 3 it will be out for Android 🫡 I hope you enjoy it then, and thank you for the kind words! 😊 

DANG that is very high praise, thank you so much 😭😭😭 I really did want to paint both Nelli and Raku as highly flawed but still sympathetic, so I'm glad to hear that 🥹 I'm really grateful that you played, and I hope that you enjoy the next game! ☺️

😂 Hopefully they're interesting things! Thank you for playing!! 

I actually started implementing it after "The Perfect Woman"! So all the projects I release from now on should have the feature! 

😭 THANK YOU for reading my rambling, I'm so honored that you took the time!! And honestly that's a very fair question 🤔 I decided to leave the ending largely up to the player's decision and what they envision for how Yumeko's story plays out after the fact. Whether she gets captured by the police, or if her body runs on power and she runs out of battery 😂 or if she finds other robots in a similar position and goes to live with them... Personally I like to think that she eventually finds a friendly human that helps her navigate her new life 😊 and even if she's not very experienced, her cognition has advanced enough that people think that she's human (but maybe I just want her to have a happily ever after 😂)

Hello, hello!! Oh gosh, thank you so much 🥹 That's so kind of you! Unfortunately with the way that I coded the game, I didn't incorporate a way to easily change the language 😓 I've updated this with my current games, but MindMindMind was made with old code, sadly 😭 so I think it would be a bit difficult to implement! Thank you so much for offering, though 😭 it is too kind!!!

GOSH you made an account just to post this 😭 I'm very touched, thank you! And I completely agree, I didn't originally design the game with VA in mind, but it ended up being an INTEGRAL part of the experience, in my opinion! All of the VAs were utterly fantastic and I couldn't have asked for a better cast. Thank you again for playing (and for shouting out my post-mortem as well, gosh!) and I hope that my next game is fun to play, too! 😄

Thank you for the kind words 😂 I really appreciate it, and I'm glad that you enjoyed playing! 

I won't respond to most of this except to say that I have different beliefs, and my beliefs are reflected in the stories that I choose to tell. I would advise that you not interact with my work since it will only upset you. However, I will say that I do not appreciate you leaving such a lengthy, mostly irrelevant comment on my game, which you have not bothered to play. Most of all, I do not appreciate that you have made such broad statements about my character and beliefs (most of which are frankly untrue). It is massively disrespectful to me, and I will not tolerate these sorts of comments. I am leaving this comment up to make a point, but I will delete them in the future. 

Gosh, thank you so much for playing, I'm glad that you enjoyed it! 🥹 I do know that sometimes people "understand" what Geist is right from the start 🤣 but I do love it when it takes a little bit of time to "click" and there's the "ah-ha" moment of "so THAT'S what that jerk is!" It's too true, sometimes it takes some time to realize that everyone is too wrapped up with their own troubles to care too much about how awkward you're being 🤣 I'm glad that you found the ending satisfying 🙏 after an entire game of listening to him, I hope it was worth it! 😆

Yes! They were truly so kind 😭 You can find all their socials linked in the "Credits" section above, or in the "Credits" section in game! I really recommend checking them out, they're all wonderfully talented!

Gosh, that's very kind of you 😭 I'm really glad you enjoyed (and found the ending surprising 😂) I was truly so lucky that so many fantastic voice actors volunteered to work on this project! Thank you again for playing and taking the time to comment! 

THANK YOU, Kalei is one of my favorite love interests that I've written, and I'm glad I did the topic justice! 😊

OHH gosh you are too kind, thank you for checking out another one of my games!! 😭 💦 💦  (Ohh very correct regarding Geist!) I'm really glad that you enjoyed it and touched that you saw your own experience in the story; I based the game a lot on my past self, and so it's been really validating to hear that people shared similar experiences, or that they realized things about themselves by playing. It really makes me glad that it was a worthwhile story to tell 🥹  I wish you the best of luck with your own Geist 💪 and thank you again for playing and taking the time to leave your thoughts! 

GOSH THANK YOU 😭😭 the voice actors did UTTERLY FANTASTIC, I was so lucky to work with them!! 

And thank you so much 😭 I don't deserve the praise! I'm really glad that Nelli's prickliness made sense in the end 😂 And ohh well that's a bit of an (open) secret... 

====SPOILER FOR KANAU===

Raku knows Nelli from before college, but Nelli only "met" him in college. I cover this part in Kanau, which is the prequel (you can play it on itch too, it's linked above 😂) 

Thank you again for playing and taking the time to comment 🥹 

Gosh THANK YOU, I'm really happy that the representation was good 😭 (and that you're in a much better place now 😂 when I look back now, allowing yourself to be controlled by your fears is really the scariest thing 😂) Thank you so much for playing ☺️ 

THAT'S VERY FAIR 😂 It is a "kinetic" visual novel (i.e. a VN without choices), but I understand that's not everyone's cup of tea. But since it was a prologue there was really only one way for it to go 😂 so adding choices felt a bit odd somehow. I do agree about giving people more options though 🤔 my next releases I'll be working more on adding more endings 💪 (this is a weakness of mine 😂) Thank you for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed the story even if you wished there were choices!

Oh they do both (so $100 fee plus 30% of the sales). It's a reasonable ask and the $100 prevents the platform from being flooded with spammers, but unfortunately it makes it difficult to justify putting free games on there 😅 I do plan to release some games with DLC  🤔 hopefully it goes well 😂 

LOL it's interesting reading your play-by-play impressions... 😂 I am glad that you got the overall impression that I wanted and thought it was a good hook ("why is Nelli acting like this, what is going on, and why is she being so mean to her bf, who is nothing but nice to her? And certainly not just because she's a tsun...") 🤭 I hope you find the endings interesting! 

And thank you for your compliments on the writing and art 😭 this was my second game that I released and my first game that was properly finished, and I wasn't really that confident at the time 💦 (I have gained a bit of confidence since then and I think I've improved a bit as a dev! 💪 Hopefully LOL)

Oh gosh 😂 I am flattered someone took the time! And AHH makes sense, I see! The demo (i.e. the first 2 games) should come on Steam sometime in the next few months (I just need to find the time to put the new build together 😂 )! And ohh yes! Unfortunately Steam charges a $100 fee for every submission, and this trio of games in particular will be free (hmm mainly because it was originally intended to be free, and also because of the content that it deals with, I wouldn't want to charge money for it), so I figured I'd save $200 by submitting them as a trilogy instead of individual titles lolol but I do intend to release some more yan flavor games that will be separate 😊 A couple more early this year, and maybe one later in the fall! All of them will have romantic endings of some flavor or another, but I've been in a tragedy mood, so we'll see how happy they are... I hope that you enjoy when you get to play 😊

Oh gosh I'm flattered 😭 and so glad you found it there! I've been holding off the Steam release since it's a trio of three games total and I need to refactor them into one package for Steam 😂 so the first two games got released here first, but the last installment will be released close to simultaneously!

I hope you enjoy 😊