itch.io

Hi Len, it was such an amazing game!!

First, the art was simply gorgeous: the sky the colours, how evocative everything was... Even the textbox blurred in with the field of flowers beautifully, which added to the immersion!

The music too was absolutely gorgeous, you really chose an amazingly melancholic track!

The voice-acting was STELLAR. The two characters were insanely touching! Paulo obviously speaks more, and the actor manages to highlight his vulnerabilty and yet to portray all the weight he used to carry on his shoulders: it is a man with a sense of responsibility, who fulfilled his duties, but is now left alone, pining for a friend he might never see again, with the hope of being nothing but a memory.

The audio engineer also did a great job with everything!! The audios for the two voice actors sounded very consistent!

Finally, the writing, wow, the writing!! Goregeously poetic. And sure, we tend to say, in general, that a writing is poetic because it contains some metaphors and pretty images with delicate grammar and syntax. Here, the text is poetic in a more literal meaning: it sounds like a poem (which makes the performance of the voice actors even more impressive). It rains images, and even the usual "visual novel"-like structure of the lines is sometimes broken to emphasise, instead, the versified nature of them. This really made the game a mesmerising experience and allowed the characters to articulate their feelings in ways that go beyond normal speech: somehow, they even gained some mythical quality (which is quite appropriate with one of the characters being named "Odysseus").

Finally, the story was touching. It is quite the simple one: a man longs to be at least a memory, or the fragment of one, in the mind of his long-lost friend; then, they meet again, putting an end of decades of longing and confronting them to one ultimate truth: do you remember me, Oddie? And it's amazing to see how emotional the story manages to be, not despite its simplicity, but THANKS TO it.

Thanks for the game, Len, and congrats to all the team for the hardwork, it was a gorgeous one!!

Oh, it was an interesting game!! I appreciated getting to know more about Orion's life through the different choices and explore his relationship with Ethan! It really felt like getting to discover a piece of the relationship these two had and, while I would love to know more, I also recognise the point of the game was to keep this vagueness and ambiguity. When did they meet? Forever ago. They are like two flowers in the same vase, in a corner of the room, forgotten until they are someday thrown away together. While the relationship between them really had co-dependency vibes, it managed to be nuanced, far from being stereotypical. I enjoyed that!

The art direction of the game was great too! The sprites in shadow were very well drawn, and the white border around them was a neat addition to make them contrast with the BG. I suppose they were drawn on paper and then scanned? I appreciated how it somehow made the characters even less personal: who are they? Forgotten shadows in a vase, stuck together, having nothing but each other. For the better and for the worse. Congrats on making this game in such a short amount of time!!

This was a lovely game! The music track was enchanting, the art was absolutely gorgeous (really, both Colette and Edmund were beautiful; I loved the variations of Edmund's CG and Colette's was a spectacle of sheer beauty!). The narrative was also very interesting: I can tell there is world-building beyond this game and I'm interested in seeing more of it (I saw you had another game from The Witches Saga, I'll have to play this one!). But beyond that, this story was a short yet impactful narrative about a grim reality alas: the way victims of abuse, through manipulations, and in the mist of their feelings, become willing prisoners of their toxic partners. Congrats on making it in 36 hours!!

This was a great entry, Naarel! It was quite short and was evocative of a lot of things you've suggested about the oneironverse, and yet, I really appreciated the new layer it brought to Meredith and Iris' relationship (and I didn't remember there was such a connection between Eva and Iris herself... I suppose I need to replay Convergence)! I also really loved the music tracks and the way you used the cornflowers. It was really strong symbolically, wonderfully evocative and truly poetic!! The picture of Meredith, desperately looking for the cornflower which won't turn white when she touches it... is a very striking one.

Congrats on the game, it's impressive you made it in less than 36 hours!!!!

LMAOOOO I AM VERY DIFFERENT FROM MY GAMES LOOOOL I SWEAR I'M NOT A SLICE OF HAWAIIAN PIZZA (and yes, I'm French!!)

Dang, I feel honoured, that's so kind, thanks, never hesitate to reach out 😭😭

EFVGBR4F HOW DID THIS COMMENT TURN OUT SO NICE THOUGH DFVDFGF THANK YOU SO MUCH I'M GENUINELY MOVED DCVDCV YOU'RE SO NICE SDCVFDFV

I mean, I can't think of  a single VN who can compare 🙏 (not sure it's for the better though ngl); and more seriously, thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you found it funny because I had SO MUCH FUN writing it

(let's goooo a winning teaaaaaam)

Hi! Today, I wanted to share some pieces of advice since I saw a lot of the participants never joined any jam before. So, congrats on trying to make your first visual novel, and what an honour it is for us to host the jam which will welcome, we hope, the first games of so many flourishing talents! But I also hope these pieces of advice can also be good reminders for veteran devs!

So, this post will be structured as follows:

• Scope of work
• Solo dev or team?
• General Quality of Life advice for your visual novel
• Free online resources!

So, feel free to only consider the points that might be relevant to you! Let's get started:

Scope of work

As tempting as it is to release the game of your dreams and your magnum opus right on the spot, a first thing to realise is that it is not always possible to release a game in 3 months. This is even more true if it is your very first game, since you need to figure out a long of things more experienced devs don't have to! Also, remember that more experienced devs estimate better what work they can produce in a specific amount of time.

Does that mean you should give up on that very specific dream 200k-word project you've had? Well, I don't think so, but you can release a demo, a prototype, a v-slice, call it whatever you want, but basically, a glimpse of it! But of course, if you haven't figured out a project yet, I encourage you to try your hand at a shorter project: you'll get the satisfaction of having completed a full-game and it will teach you a lot of things to apply to bigger projects!

But now, what does a short project look like? Well, I know a lot of VN devs made their debut with the recent O2A2 VN Jam (a game jam about producing VNs less than 1000-words long!), so feel free to explore some entries (and to rate them 5 stars of course, support the devs!!!!!!!!!) to see how they approached the theme. This jam features some myth-themed games! But of course, there are more myth-themed games than this on itch, and here is a (non-exhaustive) list:

• Cassie
• Waiting for Eurydice
• Heart & Soul
• Pre-Odyssey: Odysseus, Penelope and her Ducks
• The Good People
• Eurydice Exhumed
• The Daughters of the Sun (by yours truly!)
• Cupid
• Contemporary Gods
• Kohana

I made sure to play all these and all bring something interesting narrative-wise and which feel very fairy tale-like! Wholesome, funny, bittersweet, romantic, tender, sad, horrific, you have everything here, and, even beyond this jam nsiderations, I warmly encourage you to test all these games and leave a nice review (please don't leave 4-star reviews even if you mean well because apparently itch's algorithm doesn't like that although we're not sur e but it's an empirical observation made by a lot of devs)!

Of course, for Mythology VN Jam, you are not expected to make your game with only one sprite, one background, one music track and in less than 1,000 words, but keep in mind that you don't want to overwork yourself!

Regarding the scope of work, other things are to take into consideration: the more sprites, the more work, the more CGs, the more work (admittedly, it's less work for the dev, but more for the artist), the more music tracks, the more work!

Now, if you lack ideas that could be executed in a short game, here is a non-exhaustive list of things you might consider:

• Rewriting of iconic scenes from mythology (Medea hesitating to kill her children; Odysseus telling the Cyclops his name is "Nobody"; Leda meeting the swan; Pandora opening the box etc.)
• Transposition of a myth in our daily lives (you spend a day with Zeus or something)
• Something more theatre-focused, as myths were the support of many Greek tragedies
• You are an angel working at Cupid inc. and your job is to make two people fall in love with each other: will you succeed?
• A researcher discovers a myth that has never been heard of
• Characters from different mythologies meet

Of course, you can mix ideas, adapt them etc.; I don't pretend those are perfect or should be used as they are, but if it can be a framework, then I'll be happy! Some of these ideas could definitely be longer games (not gonna lie the Andersen idea is something I could COMPLETELY make someday if nobody does frgtrf).

But now, if we're talking scope of work, something we have to talk about is also...

Solo dev or team?

(yes, to quote a French meme, "t'as vu la bête de transition ?")

So, of course, a good way to handle bigger-scope projects is to work as a team, rather than all alone. The main difficulty would be, first, to find teammates and then to direct the team.

To find teammates, there isn't any miracle; but in general, I think having a well-put document explaining what you want is a good thing to have. If you need an example or a template, here is the one I made for one of my visual novels, When The Wind Blew You Away. Voice Acting can be a bit different, and here is the document I wrote for another one of my games, The Daughters of the Sun. Feel free to share it on social media (twitter should be your best bet as there are a lot of different talents there, despite the platform being broken)! But don't forget to use the hashtag #MythologyVNJam, we will make sure to retweet you!

You can also use other websites: CastingCallClub is primarily made for VA (so you should consider it if you intend to have voice acting in your game, despite the platform not being the most ergonomic in my opinion), but you can use it to recruit artists, writers and programmers too! You can also put an announce on the LemmaSoft forum (being able to create an account will require you to go to a discord server though).

Talking of Discord servers, maybe you can try finding VAs or artists in relevant Discord servers, although I've never experienced finding artists on an art Discord server myself.

One thing you can use is also the community tab of this game jam, in which you actually are if you're reading this! So don't hesitate!

Now, you could also work as a solo dev: it spares you the whole recruiting process or the struggles of finding people who will deliver your vision as expected, but it also puts more pressure on your own shoulders: you'll often need to take care of everything yourself (art, GUI, writing, code, music), so you should really think twice at the scope of your project to keep it manageable. Of course, there always are online resources, but we're going to list them later!

General Quality of Life advice

Now, there are just a few minor flaws I see in VNs, especially from newer devs. That's why I want to bring your attention to these issues.

First, and I'm talking to people like me, who are mostly writers, rather than artists and think: "Well, what matters most is the story!" because that's how we experience VNs... NO. No, the story is as equally important as the visuals. First, the visuals are what is going to attract players, but even so, visual novel-telling is different from novel-telling. If you really don't care about visuals and want your story to only be focused on text, perhaps consider exploring an interactive fiction format? And I see you guys coming: even in NVL format, visuals are important (as wonderfully illustrated by the fantastical VN On Mount Ségou is; I wholeheartedly recommend it).

Then, the main thing you want to keep in mind when designing your GUI is READIBILITY!!! For instance, this isn't acceptable:

So, make sure your menu items and your text is always readable!

Also, and here, I'm targetting Ren'Py devs: change the default font. Admittedly, Deja Vu Sans isn't that horrible of a font, but if your GUI gets very specific, you would like the font to match! For instance, I see so many games with very fancy and elegant GUI using it rather than opting for a serif font, and what a shame! Admittedly, it's a detail, but hey, quality of life is in the details!

The following advice is obvious, but I'll always remind it: puncutation isn't optional and, although a few typos here and there rarely bother (I mean, it would be hypocritical from me to mock typos), spelling mistakes being too frequent really is detrimental to the quality of your game. There are tools online to check your spelling (like Scribens), so feel free to use them if you know you have trouble with that!

Last advice: if you use a pre-made Ren'Py GUI, do not use their options.rpy file, keep your default one, or else, your save directory is going to be shared with all the games using the GUI. Another trick, if for some reason you really want to use their options.rpy file, is to open it, go to the line "define config.save_directory" (in general, it's line 146 of options.rpy), and to change the directory.

Online Resources

When you don't have the financial or material means to work with a team, online resources are god-sent, and there are a lot of them on itch! But itch now has one problem which didn't exist even one year ago... the website is now flooded with AI-generated content. So be careful! Now, you just have to go to the assets page and to search for what you want! For instance, use the visual novel tag for visual novel-specific assets (and you can use several tags for research, so you can combine visual novel + sprite or visual novel + background), so feel free to browse! Of course, you can find assets elsewhere, and CloudNovel is an excellent website to find sprites and backgrounds. And if we talk about backgrounds, how not to mention UncleMugen! Admittedly, his backgrounds are modern, but who knows what idea you have in your bright mind! In general, if you're not afraid of photo-editing, you can try to take a look at websites offering copyright-free pictures (Pexels, Pixabay, Freepik...).

Also, for music, I wholeheartedly recommend dova-syndrome! You'd like to explore more (pixabay also proposes music tracks), but dova-syndrome is a solid one. Feel free to consult the Free Music Archive, and have a thought for classical musics who are now in the public domain (Bach, Mozart and alike). For sound effects, pixabay is at it again, but Zapsplat is a very rich website!

And I guess that's it! Phew, I hope I didn't make it too stressful and that this post might be helpful instead! Also, if anyone wants to share some more free resources for devs to use, feel free to post them below! But let's all remember the main priority is to have fun! So just make a game that'll make you happy!

Naarel, this game left me a bit speechless. I don't have a headache anymore so I can comment, but I have to thank you for making it. It was strong - you are strong for creating this.

I don't know how to approach it, so I guess I'll just share my own emotions? I honestly felt... numb. Which is good... I mean, not feeling numb lol, but, without going too much into unnecessary details, when I used to have suicidal thoughts of my own, what I generally felt was numbness. Not necessarily sad, but desperate to find an exist, a loophole, anything that would give meaning to life, or make me want to live again. My most frequent thought was: "Well, if I attempt suicide and survive, maybe I'll find new perspectives?" So yeah, I didn't cry playing the game, because I never even cried for myself: I was strangely nonchalant about it, and that's something you managed to hit... However, other players felt sad, cried and I think that's a testament to the authenticity of what you did: whatever it is, you managed to touch  on something which is at the core of the "suicidal ideation" experience which, rather than chanelling a specific emotion, evokes something true to the person who went through it.

And I'm happy I didn't give in. I'm happy you didn't give in. I'm sad for the people who decided to leave. And I'm proud of you for creating something so beautiful, and, if the game in question wasn't the seed of it, I'm happy that you managed to turn something so horrible into the catalyst of something authentic and, again, and perhaps it's the wrong word to use, beautiful. Not because suicide is beautiful or to be glamourised: beautiful because you refused this. You refused to instrumentalise it, to paint it under any sorts of colours: you stood proud and stared at it, in everything it is. Not something gruesome. Not something freeing. Just void. Thanks for finishing this game. Ewelina would be proud too.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you found it funny! I had LOTS of fun writing it too looool

Aw, that's sweet, I'm glad you took some of your time to play them!!!! Thanks for the videos and the commentary, it is amazing to watch!!

Hi Box, thanks for your feedback! And for Sandra, yes lol, sure, she's burnt-out, but she needs to learn how to communicate, this would have spared an unnecessary quiproquo!

And yes, simple things can be cute! Thanks again for your feedback (and the livestream, I started watching the VOD!)

Hey, I watched your video, thank you SO MUCH for sharing your reactions to the game, it's always a pleasure to read!! And I have to agree, Dylan did a STELLAR job on Hippolytus! I hope part 3 doesn't disappoint, it's definitely the most dramatic of the three lol!

Hi, thanks a lot for your amazing comment! The idea that my game and my experience could help someone confirm they're on the aroace spectrum is still mind blowing to me, I couldn't wish for anything more (and yes, fuck Alois lol).

EDIT: On International Ace Day moreover, what a date to remember!

Hi, thanks a lot for your kind feeback! I'm glad you had fun with the whole protag selection feature, I did too! And yes, I wanted this game to be a way to let the player experience a variety of relationships you can have with an ace person, and portray all as positive!

(cries thanks for noticing the itch page I worked hard to make it look pretty)

What can I say Carrot... WHAT CAN I SAY

THE EMOTIONS. THE WHIRLWIND OF EMOTIONS I WAS CAUGHT IN (admittedly, it was more bearable the previous part but STILL) BUT GOODNESS WHAT A CONCLUSION.

Okay. Okay. Okay. It's alright, I'll gather my thoughts.

First of all, WHAT?? SO MUCH ART??? AND I ONLY DID GENZOU'S ROUTE???? EVERYTHING IS SO PRETTY????? Like, really, the composition of the CGs was AMAZING, I loved the animations too, the succession of them to narrate very dramatic scenes (because this climax is still very dramatic looool). YOUR USE OF MUSIC, IT'S ALWAYS SO CLEVER, IT ALWAYS SETS SUCH A MOOD I AM IMPRESSED EACH AND EVERY TIME HOLY GOLLY MOLLY IGGY (yes, I need to create new interjections now)

The writing was, per usual, great and, per usual, made me discover French expressions used in English loool ("en masse" here dvdcvb). Your phrasing is both poetic, metaphorical even, and yes so visceral when it needs to. It perfectly supported the different moments of horror, fright, action and peace. Because I did say it: this finale is a WHIRLWIND OF EMOTIONS, it felt warm, then cold, blurry then clear, pure then soiled... it was an amazing finale, the perfect conclusion to a perfect game. An amazing culmination of everything that has been set up, and looking back on some things noticed during act 1 finally make sense and be explored.

I alas can't say much without spoilers. Just know, reader, that this game is amazing, be it the art, the writing, the music, the emotions, the heart, the themes... Oh, these themes!!! Play it, you won't regret it.

#### ------ SPOILER PORTION ----- ####

CARROT. CARROT. CARROT. OH MY GOD, THE THEMES OF THIS LAST PART RESONATED SO MUCH WITH ME YOU HAVE NO IDEA AT SOME POINTS SOME SCENES EVEN FELT CLOSE TO SCENES AND THEMES FOR FUTURE GAMES (Happy :) in particular I was screaming AND I CAN'T EXPLAIN BECAUSE OF SELF SPOILERS BUT DAMN THIS HIT SO CLOSE TO HOME YOU BROKE MY SOUL AGAIN) DFVFDDFDFGFDFG AND YOU EXECUTED IT SO WELL I AM IMPRESSED.

First, finally, we got to see Buck's struggle and how her dehumanisation has indeed turned her. This also was a GREAT WAY to highlight Hunar as a character, the comfort he's brought her and how losing this last connection, the last thing that made her human made her snap and do the unutterable i.e. putting her own child in at best a questionable state to go back to a place where she could have peace, at worst, in an ironically wooden coffin. This theme of the monster residing in the perception of others, rather than being something inherent to a person, really touched me a lot, and it was the perfect conclusion for Bucks. Seeing her being called a monster, disgusting for helping a bug... was sad, and I adored how these little things are what, in the end, ended up breaking her.

Another theme that touched me a lot is the theme of innocence, the way it gets corrupted and, when we lose this childhood innocence, what the best we can do is. Growing up is hard. Growing up is difficult. Growing up is becoming a more complex person, because the world around you gets more complex. You start questioning yourself. You are subjected to norms. The questions multiply like rabbits. And only the ignorant can remain innocent, because the world has its darker colours, and so do we. So, when childhood seems far away, and the world around us gets more obscure, when people start harming each other deeply... what can we do?

Being nice. Being kind to others. Trying to understand them. Apologising for our wrondoings. Always making sure we act with kindness and respect. These are the things we can do. And your potrayal of this message was absolutely gorgeous. This is something that rings very personally with me, as these are things I firmly believe in.

I ADORED Saydie, and that is an UNDERSTATEMENT. She is an incarnation of innocence and yet, Iggy cannot connect with her. Of course he cannot: he is grown. He's been selfish and mean, he's hurt the others around him. And yet, he follows her, considers the perspective she presents and realises: when you look for others, and don't let them on the side... you make them happy.

I loved how this was the culmination of Iggy's arc: being good to others, bringing them happiness. His wish isn't for his friends to be this happy: "I want to make my friends this happy", I appreciated he took the matter into his own hands, because I agree: happiness is something you build by supporting others (you can tell it was already a theme in The Life I Lost with the "if you want to enjoy roses in life, you have to go get them" loool so I'm not lying when I say you really NAILED themes that REALLY resonate with me).

And I loved that these characters, after everything, could go back in time, get a new chance at trying things again and doing them better. Sure, we cannot do that in real life, and we have to grow from our mistakes. But in real life, we don't necessarily get through what these characters go through either loool. And more than that, it really reinforced the message of the game by contrasting the original timeline and the new one. And seeing these characters happier, realising their dreams and being still imperfect, of course, because who isn't, but so much healthier.

That being said, I wasn't expecting the tree to be a yandere looool, but I truly adored it. The reveal of Saydie's corpse was striking, and its interventions were amazing, displaying new layers of these characters. This tree is the guilt we feel while exploring the world and discovering that, no, we're not the children we were, and that we have more twisted wishes and experiences. Well, some of them are normal, some are a result of our own suffering and some... are indeed a result of the world getting to us. Well... that's okay. Without getting into too many untasteful details you can guess from The Day Being Ace Made Him Stronger, as this comment section isn't the place to share them lol, but accepting exploring a soiled world will also soil you, and that some soil is okay as long as you act with kindness was an excellent message. This cult, this fascination for childhood is pointless: people don't grow into children. And we have to accept to grow into healthy adults instead.

The romance was also GREAT! I played Genzou's and am watching Joy play the two others right now loool but from what I can tell from Genzou's route and Joy's stream, you wrote these scenes wonderfully, really. It felt consistent with what you set up in the game and well-earned. I loved how the LI is the one to defend us against Bucks, it showed they cared.

In conclusion, it was an amazing game, Carrot, and I hope you are proud of you. I've been following the development of it for years now, and, if it was great from the start, you've truly grown as a creator and a person too, and this final part shows it. This whole game shows it. It is an inspiring story about kindness, empathy and how to navigate a world not meant for those who are innocent. This also is a game about LGBT-issues, one of the most amazing ace representations I've ever seen in a piece of media, not to say THE MOST amazing... Thank you, Carrot, really. This game will stick to me all my life, and will be a stone of all I create, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Time for a confession: you and your game are the reason I've started working on Waterlily on the Froth lol. When I played the previous part, I felt so strongly about it that I wanted to create something that would make me feel feelings as strong... so ta-dah...

I'll just conclude it all with a thank you. Thank you for creating this. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you sharing your thoughts and your vision of the world through this game. Thank you for all the art you put inside it. Thank you for such an emotional conclusion. I am looking forward to the rest of your creative journey. Please never stop inspiring others by sharing the stories and themes blazing in your soul. Because I'll endlessly thank you.

Hey! I played the part of the game which was released so far and OH MY GOD it was actually amazing?????

First, we can't ignore the level of polish this game has, especially for a game developed under a month. It is fully-voiced. The sound-design is impeccable. The coding is engaging. The many beautifully-drawn character sprites bring so much life to it. The character design is gorgeous and immersive. The backgrounds are superb.

First of all, kudos to the sound engineering and the acting direction because, goodness, it was IM-MA-CU-LATE, and that's an understatement. The nuance in the characters' emotions, the sound effects, the speeches being used as such, even the GUI, holy molly, it was amazing!! The interpretation of the characters gave so many layers to their personality, it is insane!!

The music was gorgeous too, very immersive and well-composed! I even stopped myself during my playthrough just to listen to it, because it really was that beautiful.

The game was very polished: first of all, the GUI looks highly professional and is implemented amazingly. But beyond that, the way the game is coded is very immersive: the camera movements were delightful (cf. the mechs walking), the game doesn't hesitate to move the sprites around, use fade to black transition to suggest things. A game has rarely managed, by its coding alone, to make me feel like I was in the shoes of the POV character.

The art was also amazing! The two CGs present so far looked gorgeous, and the way the game presented these CG scenes made it an even more polished experience. But I can't ignore the INSANE amount of sprites?? All this done under a month??? And the characters looked GORGEOUS?? Yonah, Zeke, Shiloh, Nahum, Mari and Ester are so pretty I BLUSHED?????? And even the other characters were beautiful beyond measure (for example, Tamara is too young to make me blush, but she is my favourite character design)? And let's talk about the character design: it was varied, the characters all felt different, the outfits they wear are A-MA-ZING, with a special highlight on the outfits of the royal family and of the military. And if that wasn't enough, some characters have SEVERAL outfits.

So, all these many qualities, and I haven't even started talking about the beautiful writing yet. Ah! the writing! The phrasing was absolutely beautiful, and that's an understatement. I loved how the story managed to show instead of telling, and yet to keep us doubtful, always unsure of the characters and their intentions. This is a story of manipulation, of betrayal, of characters not hating each other and yet being manipulative. Darius is the incarnation of this.

I also adored the balance of the story: it knew how to conjugate its darker topics with light-hearted and even humourous scenes, while still managing, in those scenes, to explore the relationships and inner conflicts of the characters. I loved the relationship the members of the military have with each other. I loved Tamara and Ira's relationship. I loved the nuances of Sarai's relationship with her family. I loved the very twisted relationship between Shiloh and Darius. The obsession Nahum had for his sister. And I could multiply the examples. I loved how, overall, the game didn't shy away from portraying nuanced characters, to explore the toxic dynamics that sometimes exist between them. I loved how you could feel all these characters had a background, a story, something to tell, and that there is more going on about them that the game shows.

The plot itself is also VERY interesting, and I'm curious to see how it will finish because the demo ends on a CLIFFHANGER. And without giving spoilers here, I do love the set-up of everything, of all the relationships, the posts the characters are at, the situation they're in... and I can't way to see everything explode in the climax!

Congrats to all the team for the tremendous work and the high-quality of this work. You rarely encounter a game like this, and I really mean it.

Hi, I'll just use this comment to answer to the edit of your rating.

The first thing I'd like to contextualise is that both the game you compared to WTWBYA and your itch username were kept anonymous. I do not encourage anyone to take any action against you either. I fail to see how this is bullying. Similarly, you are not being silenced: your reviews are still there and nope, although you might feel like it, you are factually not being silenced. If you're allowed to critique games, we are also allowed to critique your reviews.

For the situation I mentioned in the thread, I am sorry, but what you wrote wasn't critique (what you did for Rendez-Doug wasn't either, but it was overall fine with me because you presented it as your opinion, rather than advice on what I should be doing), it was pure and cold slander, completely unaware of what the game is. This game specifically mentions, on its page, that it is one-minute long: what kind of character development do you expect to have in one minute? And how can you expect something similar to When The Wind Blew You Away, which is around 13k words? This kind of feedback is not helping, because you are not giving the dev advice to improve their own approach, you decide to criticise it because it doesn't cater to your tastes. It is okay to have tastes, we all do: but there is a difference between a game doing a poor job and a game just not doing what you enjoy. I'll use your review of Rendez-Doug as an example: you mentioned not enjoying that Sandra was using the expression "cottage core", because it was nothing but a trendy word not fitting the narrative. Well, this game happens nowadays and Sandra, in particular, is a graphic designer, who is well aware of aeshetics of the sort: it completely fits the narrative and is consistent with her character. For example, I'm working right now on a game set in the 19th century, and the protagonist of this game wouldn't use indeed an expression like "cottage core", just like Sandra wouldn't use the word "gibface" to insult someone. You may or may not like the expression "cottage core" to describe things, it is within your own rights: but now, how is this an actual flaw?

And I'm using this example to keep the other game relatively anonymous, because I personally didn't mind that much your review of Rendez-Doug, but this illustrates the main issue of the review you let to the dev: you did not even try to understand their approach. Even worse, by telling them to check actual "good" VNs, you're implying their game is factually bad. You advise them to read, I quote "well-written novels", assuming they don't. You oppose this game to "REAL" poetry. So, you indeed do not explicitly say that "I know better than you what good visual novel writing is", but this is what you're communicating.

You mention being surprised by my reaction because my games indeed do not condone "bullying", which is true, but my games also carry a lot of other messages. In When The Wind Blew You Away, for example, when Peter finds out that Amanda doesn't love fizzy bears anymore, he isn't mad at her because she doesn't correspond to the Amanda he used to know and appreciate. No, instead, he asks her what she likes, wanting to discover and appreciate the 17-yo girl Amanda has become for who she is, rather than for who she was, and ends up falling in love with her again.

But let's suppose it stopped there: you played a game, failed to judge it in a relevant manner and gave it a poor rating, well, I wouldn't have minded. We get one-star ratings all the time, and we do have our fair share of questionable feedback. However, I had two major problems with your critique of this game, because it didn't stop there. First of all, well, I really didn't appreciate the fact you used my game to tell another dev theirs is bad. My work encourages kindness and empathy, even when giving feedback. For example, you thought it was sad that Doug because he couldn't tell Sandra she sings bad (which Sandra already knows): Doug is just not rude enough to kill Sandra's enjoyment by leaving unrequired feedback, since Sandra isn't training, but just having fun. Admittedly, rating a game is different because we are exposed and indeed seeking feedback. But having a careful and respectul approach, when you critique something, is always a good thing. I'll use one of my own games as an example: here, you can find feedback a person gave me about the way I handled volume in one of my games, and I'll let you read the discussion. Do I sound angry because L. dared to criticise something about my work? No, not at all, because he considered me enough to phrase it politely, and to still look fairly at the overall experience. It's not about being hypocritical or sugarcoating things. I genuinely hate it when people use "honesty" as an excuse to be rude, "blunt" even to use a word you chose to use to qualify your review of the game in question after the dev had blocked you. Deciding to leave feedback without thinking of basic courtesy isn't honesty, it's just disrespecting the person you're giving feedback to. I do give feedback, and I am honest when I give it: however, one constant thing is that I CARE about the person I am reviewing and therefore explain my ideas, justify them and always leave room for contradiction. "Walking on egg shells" is just a sign of respect to the content you consumed.

The other thing that really bugged me off is you deciding that this user wasn't open to critique and wasn't worth supporting because they blocked you. It is also a major theme of one of my games: everyone is allowed to send their own boundaries. For example, and I won't be too lengthy about it because you didn't like it, but in High School Lolita, Chloé starts healing after she starts setting boundaries and leaving the influence of her groomer. In When The Wind Blew You Away, when Peter explains not being ready to talk about the abuse he endured, trying to force him actually lowers his affection for you in terms of stats. Another game of mine, My Eternal Night with a Star, is about a woman not feeling ready to have her first sexual intercourse with her boyfriend, and such boyfriend proving his love by letting her set her boundaries and encouraging her in doing so. Another example? In He tasted like poison, an actual NSFW game I wrote, the main character is in emotional turmoil because he doesn't manage to set boundaries with the man he loves. This is a constant.

And in your case, this user was completely allowed to block you, and you deciding your feedback was so valuable them not considering it only means they don't want to improve displays indeed entitlement. If anything, this is narcissistic behaviour. And I'm happy for you that you enjoyed Rendez-Doug, but my point has never been about it anyway. I do think your review of Rendez-Doug isn't very relevant (Adriel as a gossiping antagonist for Sandra's route, for example, is a HORRIBLE narrative-design idea: how are players supposed to root for him in his route if he's meant to be such a mean-spirited character?). It was about you completely ignoring what the game you rated tried to do and using my game as a comparison. Which is quite contradictory on your part: for some reason, I would think highly enough of my work to refuse criticism of it, and yet, my point is that I don't think highly enough of my work to be used the way you did. Because I would never use my work that way, because I respect others and I fight for others to get respected. Maybe I'm overreacting, feel free to call me hysterical even, that my reaction is April Fools-worthy: this is pure indignation, I am indeed angry and saddened by the fact another developer, especially a developer who relesed their FIRST visual novel, got criticised so harshly and that my work was the blade of your "verbal guillotine".

I wanted to answer to this, and you're free to answer to, but I don't really see how we could pursue this discussion, as I don't see how you could change your ways, so it is highly probable that I won't answer after this. I wish you a nice day/evening.

Hi Pri, thanks for trying this game out! I'm glad you had fun with Sandra's route (and would be curious to know your thoughts about Adriel's when/if you end up playing it loool, it is a vastly different one!).

Yes, that was the concept: getting to know your boring ace co-worker thanks to rendezvous, and it was funny to think of events and quirks to give the characters (the Barbie thing was calling to me, how could I refuse...). And yes, the idea of being able to have an ace romance was very important to me, as I wanted to create fluffy ace content, especially after The Day Being Ace Made Him Stronger lol

And yes, it didn't feel natural to have them be love-struck the way Peter and Amanda were in WTWBYA for example, so it felt natural to have them having a less intense approach to their feelings and letting the player imagine how they would grow! I was worried it would come off as unsatisfying though so I'm glad you appreciated it and that it made it special!

Thanks for playing and leaving your thoughts, Pri, I always appreciate them!!

Wow, thanks for your detailed feedback, I am very happy you appreciated the game! If I've improved in a lot of departments since I released it (and thinking that HSL was only released a year ago makes me dizzy), this game can't help but me my favourite of mine because of its story!

Thanks for appreciating the character-writing, and you're right: Matthieu was written, more than after Humbert Humbert from Lolita, after Phaedra (which I'm allowing myself to mention here because you played The Daughters of the Sun), the Queen's remorseful passion for her step-son being here turned into the teacher's inappropriate affection for his student. And you're raising interesting points regarding his characters, and there are indeed several ways to read them: for Matthieu, I detailed a bit the way I see him in a devlog, but long story short, a mixture of self-depreciation and narcissism. He doesn't think highly of himself, so when he finds a kindred soul in Chloé, he loves her mostly as a way  to love himself. However, he does realise this relationship is problematic (considering Chloé is 16, and his student), which only makes his own self-hatred grow. Ultimately, his many meltdowns are indeed a way for him to get reassured by Chloé, so that he can be comforted in his attitude (that's why he ends up telling the whole school about their relationship when she finally rejects him and tells him it is not okay for him to use a minor, and even his victim, as emotional support). And you're therefore right when it comes to Matthieu's projection into the novel: he fails to see it as anything other than the apology of a groomer because that's what he is reading in it.

Thank you for the compliments on the GUI! The "crayon"/"doodle" vibe is indeed to anchor the game into Chloé's very naïve and innocent views, and to highlight that, despite what she pretends or is trying to, Chloé, in the end, remains a child.

And finally, I had a lot of fun referencing a lot of classical works! It isn't always appropriate to do so in every story alas, but here, I was happy I could get quite heavy (and I even get heavier in the genderbend sequel I'm developing right now haha, I guess the groomers being literature teachers help).

Once again, thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and your appreciation for the game, it comes a lot coming from you!

Hi! This was so fun to play at, oh my God!!

I think what has struck me the most so far is THE ARTISTIC DIRECTION OF THIS GAME, HOLY **** (it's a children's book after all), IT WAS SO GOOD! The character design is amazing, the GUI is gorgeous, and everything was very reminescent of a how to draw manga book! And the drawing mini-game was SUCH A HIGHLIGHT OH MY GOD REN'PY SORCERY

Now, the story is interesting so far, it's a very unique take on the isekai trope! Sakura and Pigma are adorable and funny, and I'm curious about where this will lead to. I do hope Mica manages to gain some confidence about their work!!

Congrats on making it under a month!!!!

HELLO THIS DEMO HAD NO RIGHT TO END ON SUCH A CLIFFHANGER AAAAHHHHHHH

This demo was A-DO-RA-BLE, despite starting with a CG which is actually NOT adorable loool

I think a huge highlight is the cast. Call me shallow, but I appreciated how PRETTY everyone was (I promise I'll talk about the writing), but geez, Ladymeowsith's artstyle is always so pretty dffdf; the character design was great too!! I do love Addison's round and adorable face, it really makes them approachable (in both their masculine and feminine-presenting designs), the love interests (Warren and Mack) were gorgeous, Micah is a smol boy I want to carry and Isaias is SO PRETTY DFVFGBF (give me a blond and I'm out there loool); the BG art was very neat too, and I really loved how pretty the GUI was! I also think the way the music was used in this game was very effective and natural, especially when it comes to setting the mood of the scenes.

The story so far is so interesting!!! I did love the character-writing! Addison is a very positive protag, that they had wholesome interactions with everyone, the friendly banter between Warren and Isaias was very neat at it helped deconstructing his "intimidating" character, and Warren's interactions with Micah kind of gave him interesting volumes and layers as a character. I also adored spending time with Mack, he is so chill and was a nice, comforting contrast to Addison (to whom I could relate lol, I'm also obnoxious when it comes to being on-time, I'm never late loool).

Now, I'll give some more spoilery feedback, so beware reader, and play the cute demo with handsome boys before reading it, this game will make your heart fluffy.

If I appreciated how positive Addison was, the game makes something clear: this is a façade of perfection, an act they perform to get people to like them. However, something grimmer is happening behind the scene, and I kinda suspect it to be supernatural?? Something the game highlighted well and even showed thanks to Micah, Warren and Mack is that everyone loves Addie: even our frightening not-boss is jealous of our co-worker because he wants to spend time with us, when we only spend one meeting together! So I wonder if Addie's secret isn't about something that makes people love them, and that they need, to prove themself worthy of this love they receive, to be act as perfectly as possible. So, this is my theory/guess so far lol, but I'm excited to find out what the final answer will be!

Congrats on releasing this great demo and for making it under a month!! I had a lot of fun playing it, and I am looking forward to the rest!!!

P.-S.: please please tell me Isaias is the secret love interest, he's a Greek God I swear he is so pretty oh my god

EDIT: remembered the tweet mentioning Isais isn't datable... micah is great don't get me wrong but now I'll be MOURNING

Hey! I played the game and it was a very great experience!

First of all, I appreciated the character design (and the art in general) a lot: Caius is a babe, period! The character arc was polished and particularly VERY well-shaded, and the background art was absolutely GORGEOUS. The GUI was also very elegant and theme-appropriate. I also did enjoy the animations during the main battle, and the compendium was a great addition as it added a lot of lore! It was also implemented very naturally.

The story was interesting: it really explored the theme of grey morality very interestingly. I was at first a bit worried with Griswyr as he sounded like a very bad guy, but the story developed the themes in a very interesting way, and in the end, I think both him and our "enemy" (I'll try avoiding spoilers) were two monsters with different ways of disregarding moral values, which was interesting. For some reason, I think I was witnessing, when it comes to both, a fight between a lack of moral values, rather than a clash of values as it is usually written, and it really was a refreshing take!

Of course, my boy Caius was here to carry the reflection on morality as an actual moral character, and his conflicts were interesting. I liked that he remained overall faithful to himself, although the writing still managed to nuance him and make him evolve throughout the story.

It was overall a great game, congrats on making it under a month! I'm now VERY curious to see the rest of Caius' adventures (I am simping., this man has a hold on me....), and to discover more of the world! I saw Aurielle being mentioned which reminded me I really need to play Tears of a Mermaid lol (planned to so because I hosted OUAT, but I'm definitely more curious now!!)

Hi, I played the game and I adored it!

I really enjoyed how striking everything was: first, the artistic direction was absolutely GORGEOUS, and I'm definitely getting the artbook (hehe, it's soon my birthday, I can treat myself...). The writing was very nice and very fluid, with a lovely style.

The story and character-writing reminded me of the one I see in online short comics, which was really striking with the way you presented your visual novel! I adored the way you handled the character-writing to display both our insecurities and what we project onto others, in a very nuanced and yet striking way. You really nailed everything, and the game managed to get rid of superfluous details while still polishing the core of what it wanted to communicate about collaboration and understanding enriching us more than rivalry. I would describe it as a crystal clear sound, echoing beautifully in an pure white room, giving it meaning through its melody.

Congrats on making it, it was a gorgeous experience!

P.-S.: I hope my post-scriptum won't feel inappropriate, but I saw the awful rating an equally awful user gave you, and I actually am the developer of one of the games they mentioned, When The Wind Blew You Away. I am SO sorry for their review, and they were objectively wrong in comparing our two games, as we did make very different story-telling decisions. Their review says nothing about the objective quality of your game, it only reveals their entitlement and their lack of literacy. I also wanted to highlight that I completely disapprove comparing games like that, because, just like what you told in this game, I value union, harmony and collaboration, rather than rivalry and competition. You were right to block them.

Oooh, thanks for letting me know and congrats on the release!!

Aaaah, thanks for your feedback L, I appreciate it! I'm glad you found Adriel's route funny, wholesome and that it brought you comfort! Putting Wilhelm's scream was too funny to ignore, it felt very Doug for some reason!!

And sure, make sure to be in the right headspace to play Sandra when/if you want to do so, games are meant to be fun, not to be forced!

(And I can't promise anything, but I feel like Rendez-Doug, out of all my games, is the one for which writing DLC stories would be the easiest lol, I feel like it is so slice-of-life that I'd just need to think of random concepts to use these characters!)

Thank you so much (there are many games you can check on my profile but admittedly He tasted like poison is my only NSFW game loool, maybe in the future...)

the fact you created an acocunt just to comment this is such a HIGHLIGHT in my day you have no idea dfvgfdfgf

And dang, sorry for the tears and for your past experiences, Adam is a jackass I hope you find better people than those like him dcvfdfvgf

Hey! I played the gameand I didn't expect it to be that adorable! For some reason, I expected it to be darker, or to have some horror twist, so the fact it was all humour and fluff was VERY refreshing, and was a lot of fun!!

The Hellion was a very charming character: his expressions were adorable and the voice-acting gave him so much personality!! Despite being of a more sceptical nature, I could only but give in to his request, and I found myself happy to have helped a little demon making his dream come true!

The art was also gorgeous, and I particularly ADORED the use of colours, it looked wonderful! The little hints of saturated colours gave everything a hint of pop that really set the mood of the game.

Congrats on making this game, it was really fun and adorable!!

Hi Carrot, thanks for your detailed feedback, I am so happy this game made your heart fluffy (for once loool).

YES IT WAS A BIT OF A HAZARD TO GET THE SAVE MENU TO LOOK LIKE POLAROIDS but in the end, it worked fine, hurra!! And I'm glad you appreciated the use of the music, the GUI etc.! I like you also appreciated the characters, I wanted the protagonists to fit with the overall pink-ish vibe of the game and to have Doug being just in earthy, comfortable but overall boring colours.

Writing the two routes was definitely a lot of work, as they had to feel different despite having the same premise and overall similar goals (MC connects with Doug through either love or friendship). Adriel definitely is chaotic and I had a lot of fun writing it and yet, yet, hide something more vulnerable about him behind his clown-like attitude! For Sandra, it's funny you saw the route as very platonic! It is meant to be flexible but I'll admit my personal headcanon is them in a throuple ace!Sandra dating Doug and Adriel being the hugging bestie! But I had a lot of fun writing these little "outings", not to say dates, or even rendez-vous, and showing different sides of Doug!

For Doug's arc, it is FELT lol; at the same time, you're kinda like "well, I can't forbid someone to have a sexual life just for my sake" but at the same time, it is heatbreaking, because you start fearing you'll never be enough: I hope this game showed that Doug, you, me, every ace person is enough, and that it's just a matter of meeting the right person, not to fix us *heavy looks at Lara* but to love us in ways which are authentic to us!

AND YES ONE MONTH (+) I RELEASED THE THREAD AND THE SWORD I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LOL; I'm overall very happy that you enjoyed the game and that it brought you comfort, and I hope the other variations/endings, if you decide to try them, bring you similar good feelings (my personal favourite is Adriel's friendship one haha)!

Thanks again for your kind, detailed and thoughtful feedback Carrot, I always appreciate it so so much!!

Geist is enough of a good reason to play this game, I don't care what the haters will say!!

Okay, first and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS for making such a game in less than a month, and still managing to slide in a VERY HIGH-QUALITY artbook everyone should buy!! *points guns at the readers*

More seriously, MindMindMind is an excellent visual novel on the technical aspect: the coding is very smooth and the GUI very intuitive. The writing, and we're used to it with Chattercap, is nothing short of excellent. This is the first time that, in this dev's work, that we get a first-person narration, and the balance between making things sound natural and yet still very elegantly written. The art is CHEF'S KISS and I havea particular fondness for GEIST'S SPRITE and I swear I am not biased in any sort. More seriously, the little additions for Kalei's expressions were adorable, and the CG work was absolutely gorgeous. The backgrounds were for the most part very nice photographs edited beautifully, and the way the backgrounds changed to indicate mood shifts at several instances in the game was great. One of the backgrounds, however, was hand-drawn: the bedroom. It was beautifully rendered.

The voice-acting too was excellent and I cannot highlight it enough. I found both voice actors extremely warm-sounding, and yet, so different: while Kalei sounds friendly and warm, Geist's warmness is meant to lure you into staying with him. The voice actors did a great job, congrats to them!

The story is a very interesting one. The premise of being followed by a ghost is naturally quite alluring, but he manages to be a very interesting and nuanced threat to the protagonist's personal arc. The other love interest, Kalei, was a perfect contrast: if Geist will try everything he can to "lock you up", Kalei, on the other hand, opens the protagonist's perspectives, making them discover a part of the world they could never had otherwise.

Long story short: PLAY THIS GAME AND DATE THIS GHOST. And the pretty classmate too. This game is definitely worh your time.

#### ----- OH MY GOD SPOILERS ----- ####

The main theme of MindMindMind is piñata-crafting... okay, I'm kidding, it is social anxiety, and it is portrayed wonderfully through the character of Geist and his relationship with the protagonist.

Whether Geist is mostly metaphorical or not is up to you, but there is no doubt he is a metaphor to some extent: he represents all the anxious thoughts one can have, these paralysing, daunting slabs we throw at ourselves, preventing us from experimenting, experiencing life because... what if we failed? What if we looked ridiculous? What if we bothered others? What if, what if, what if. Geist is the incarnation of what these "what ifs" can be in their most toxic incarnation. The thought is seductive, and it's difficult to keep them away: they are always here, somehow.

Geist is therefore the incarnation of the protagonist's social anxiety. A very good idea from the game is to represent him as warm, coaxingly so, because anxiety is comfortable: after all, what is wrong with not going out if you'd rather stay home? And that's where the game strikes very hard, and that's where the trigger warnings have to be considered fully: Geist is very convincing. I do not suffer from social anxiety myself, although I did at some point in my life: so, although his words couldn't reach me, I still found them convincing to some extent. Geist will tell you there is nothing wrong with you, that you not being sociable is just part of your personality, not necessarily a problem. In reality, the line is thin: there is a difference between choosing to stay in your dormroom because you want to rest, and choosing to do so because you are afraid of seeing others. The writing has enough finesse to exploit this ambiguity and portray Geist as an immense threat to the protagonist's well-being: he is certainly one of the most frightening yandere characters I've ever encountered in fiction, because he is indeed very charming, and manages to convince you of something working against you.

The game, however, wants to be more than the narration of a character giving in to their anxiety: it wants to be an empowering story, showing that these thoughts, if they might not completely disappear, can be defeated. The subversion is interesting: Geist is a threat to the protagonist only because they give in; but refusing to believe his toxic words is enough to overcome him and turn him into a much less threatening antagonist. However, this salutary refusal is complicated, and is progressively built upon during the game, when you choose to spend time with Kalei. Kalei respects the protagonist's boundaries; Kalei tries to introduce them to new things, while still caring for them, which isn't a burden for him. More than that, Kalei mirrors the protagonist slightly. He indeed mentions being told that he talks too much, gets in an argument with his friends, isn't a fan of parties... Despite being an extrovert and not suffering from social anxiety, he still has sometimes a hard time to navigate through everything, which is fine and fairly realistic. Coming from an extrovert: even we have social batteries! I truly appreciated this take.

The two endings of the game are very interesting: Geist is a classical "cage" ending for yandere stories, but the cage is metaphorical and even subverted: it is a place crafted for and by the protagonist, since Geist is just a reflection of their own anxiety. It is therefore natural that they find a sense of comfort. This ending is the triumph of Geist as a villain: he is seen as sweet, soft by the protagonist, he managed to gaslight us into trusting his words and believing he is what we need.

Kalei's ending, however, is very strong: the protagonist has a confrontation with Geist, finally actively fighting their own anxious thoughts, and the game sends a lot of very healthy and positive messages, while remaining very realistic: sometimes, meeting people will indeed go wrong and as predicted by the anxious thoughts. But if it happens, it's okay, life isn't over. And it is worth trying anyway to find the people with whom things will go smoothly. Life is made of experiences, not all of them will be positive, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be explored nonetheless.

It's on this note that the game then has one of the most beautiful scenes I've seen in a visual novel: Geist lets the protagonist go. He accepts their determination, wishing them good luck in a world that goes beyond him and what he can comprehend. Not that he completely leaves: the anxious thoughts don't leave. But he slowly accepts the protagonist's new life, letting them heal. And similarly, and reciprocally, the protagonist acknowledges that Geist will always be there and that... that's okay. I cannot emphasise how gorgeous and emotional it was in game, it almost made me tear up. The maturity with which the topic is tackled is nothing short of impressive: yes, anxiety is difficult and no, it won't magically leave because you start hanging out with a classmate. Sometimes things will be amazing, sometimes they will be horrible. But that's okay. That doesn't mean we're not healing: just that healing isn't a straight line.

Congrats on releasing this game, Chatter, and thanks for having me as a beta-tester, it was an honour! I had a blast playing it and it really was magnificent!

Hi Malia, thanks for your feedback!

Your words are very nice and kind, thank you so much! I'm always making sure to work on projects I feel passionate about indeed and to tell stories I want to tell! That's what gives it meaning to everything after all. I hope my future projects will remain as fresh, I know I'm working hard for it!!

comment too long, i'm not reading ciao

Okay, more seriously, thanks for the very long comment, as if yor many comments during the beta-testing weren't enough already loool. But more seriously, thank you so much for all your kind words about the art, the GUI and the writing. You're completely right about the photograph theme, that's indeed about the forging of memories, which is a theme. While it's an obvious one considering Doug's arc, it's actually quite relevant to Adriel too (cf. the connection he makes between an event in his past and what happens in his route).

I'm glad the routes felt very different even with the same premise, trying to figure out how to make them two very different, it required a lot of thinking!

**** ooooh spoilers ****

Well, you're right with your analysis, you basically caught everything! I would just highlight that the way Adriel helps Doug getting rid of his pottery, if very different from the way Sandra does it in her romantic ending, is actually quite relevant: in Adriel's route, Doug is violently confronted with the fact he has to let them go. And his peaceful reaction to it is meant to show something about him: he has moved on, and the memories don't hurt anymore, unlike Adriel, who is still trying to escape from his feelings.

And yes, Adriel's relationship with Doug was meant to feel at first more "masculine", with bonding over things like "fighting", as I thought it would be an interesting contrast with the fact the two men are very cuddly (maybe it's me being bothered with the whole "men don't experience their emotions because they don't let them control them" thing we've been seeing more and more on social media).

For Sandra, exactly! There is also one theme about art and creation, and how to still feel passionate about what you create when things seem hopeless. And a common theme between the two routes is obviously finding meaning in the work place!

For the cheating thing, I wanted to offer a mature but still clear stance on it: Doug's wife position is understandable, as sex can indeed be an important part of a relationship for some, and I don't believe in the idea of everyone being able to separate love from sex, and don't believe that it is necessarily a bad thing. However, no matter what you experience, what you have to do is communicate (which Doug's wife actually did, but after cheating alas), and I wanted to make sure Sandra and Adriel, who have a different perspective on the matter than Doug, highlight the fact cheating is wrong!

Once again, thanks for your very kind words, I'm glad you appreciate the game! Let's get back to trauma now!!!!

Hey! I played the game and had a lot of fun with it!!

First of all, the fact it was drawn on actual cels is a HUGE highlight of the game. It gave it a very authentic and strong artistic direction, which I really enjoyed. The character design too was very great! And finally, mention to the omg so cute GUI!

The story was also very wholesome! I appreciate the depiction of "anime" culture and I think it's the first time I see a piece of media articulate how appreciating anime has changed (for example, where I lived at least, it was "childish" to enjoy animes 12-13 years ago; nowadays, it's become very mainstream), and how difficult it can be to navigate through a community that has transformed into something that isn't made for you anymore.

The story between the two leads was also very cute! Whether it is platonic or not, it was a nice thing to see them parallel each other, and the themes surrounding Skye (about being trapped in her cosplays, forced to please fans she doesn't even like that much anymore) is interesting. I especially enjoyed the comment about her creating lewd content to meet the requests, as I've been thinking a bit about people in their late teens but majors or early 20s creating lewd content, and if they weren't putting themselves at the mercy of the vagaries of life, at an age at which you can't necessarily project yourself into being 40 (while I think it's less of an issue for older adults with a more stable situation)? Anyway, I'm just rambling and it's not that interesting haha, but it gave me things to think about!

The overall message of the game was very sweet, and I enjoyed the idea of just taking things as they come, at your own pace, rather than letting doubts or questions get the best of you. Just have fun, respect your boundaries and others', and you'll be good.

It was a great game, congrats on making it under a month!!

Thanks hehe, I'm glad you enjoyed the horror of the last bits of the game, because I'll agree this situation is very horrific!

And yes! The previous games were meant to be monologues, but since this one involves characters talking and moving all around, experiencing a variety of emotions, I decided to include narration (+ the dialogue and the way it flows is really identical to Racine's play, so I still needed to do my job and write some lines which are mine lol)

A SADIST DCVBDF but I'm happy it made you see things from a new perspective, now that you've been confronted with Hippolytus' relationship with Phaedra! And thank you for making time to play this trilogy, getting your feedback was so great!!

For the colours, yes, there is a bit more to it: when Phaedra becomes pink, she is the exact same colour Ariadne was in TDOTS. And she becomes pink the exact moment she mentions she would have outstripped her had Hippolytus come down to the Labyrinth to slay the Minotaur instead of Theseus: basically, it's a way to show she's projecting herself into Ariadne's shoes. And for the red, it's to show her as "monstruous" as Pasiphaë (who banged a bull lol),  basically, to show the moments she stops appearing human to Hippolytus.

(And thanks, I corrected it lol)

Haha, thanks for playing, I'm glad you had fun! I know I did have fun writing these endings lol

(I'm actually French so I completely agree with you, military time is the correct thing lol... for the nose in the smiley, inexcusable indeed...)

Aaaah, thanks for your detailed feedback!

Your reading is very interesting here! Admittedly, this whole series is meant to be up to interpretation but your take is surprisingly empathetic towards Phaedra. It does make sense though: what I got from abuse is that, even when you see your abusers commit the most inhuman things, you also see how vulnerable they are. And while I think that nobody is unsavable (and that Phaedra deserves her rehabilitation), I do also believe that the victims aren't the one who need to save their abusers (not that you said that lol just sharing my thoughts).

And yes, Phaedra's sucicide even has one more consequence: she took it from Hippolytus, she stole the resolve he takes at the end of Son of the Woods (however, if I'm being honest, Hippolytus dies right after this game, hence the final background, with the sword stained with blood and the wave; it's the tragedy reaching him no matter what, and the wave is connected to the way he dies in the myth: dragged down by his horses, frightened of the sea monster Hippolytus just killed; players are free to interpret the ending as they wish, but I'll admit that's what I have in mind lol).

I'm glad you appreciated Hippolytus enough to want to comfort him, haha. For Ariadne, there are two versions of the myth: the most famous one narrates her marrying Dionysus, god of wine-making; however, another version, which is the one Racine followed in his play and that I followed myself here, is Ariadne committing suicide out of despair after being abandoned by Theseus, for whom she betrayed her father and her country (yeah, Ariadne would definitely deserve her own game loool).

For the voice acting, I'll admit I don't know how to make the volume of the voice lines louder without having it sound saturated, but yes, the issue will exist in nthe whole series efrgvbf; and for the wavy effect, I used Wattson's Ren'Py Wave Shader (cf. credits), but I'm glad you appreciated the effect!

Thanks for your feedback, excited to hear what you have to say of the final game! Hopefully you'll enjoy it, it sure is a wild ride (and is also longer than the two others combined haha).

Let's gooooooo I'll cherish this 0.5 bonus point loool

(honestly, there might be a way to set the default volume to a specific value, I'll need to explore that indeed for the next time I make a voiced game, because this flaw is particularly apparent in The Thread and the Sword lol!)

Aaah, hi Carrot, thanks for your detailed feedback!!

First, I have to say I LOVE how you include your live-reactions loool it's so enjoyable to see!!

Overall, I'm glad you find the games cohesive with each other, that really was the idea! Especially since, in TDOTS trilogy, the whole "monochromatic characters (+) dark background" is the tragedy lol (hence SOTW's very different colour scheme before its final line: Hippolytus ran from the tragedy, but is still doomed to it anyway... poor baby)

I really enjoyed using the music in this game to convey the evolution of the scene (and some thematic relevancy lol) so I'm happy you enjoy the use of it!!

For the poetry of the lines, especially if you think of all the dialogues, I won't take any credit, it's all Racine loool

Now, thanks for sharing your detailed feedback and you're right: I indeed intended to expand on everything the two previous games have set up, using everything that made them "them" to convey the actual chaotic situation (+ I felt like the two other games teased so much how horrific this confession was that this game had to be quite intense lol). And you're right, that's the direction of this trilogy: the first game shows you the pain of a woman who did the unutterable, victim to a curse despite herself; the second game shows you her actual victim and serves as a reminder that, curse or not, her actions still had consequences so she's not as innocent as she thinks; and eventually, the final game is meant to reveal what happened and let the player judge of the situation. So that's why the play order is important lol as starting with TTATS kinda reveals the climax

Thanks for your compliments on the CGs, I had a lot of fun implementing them and "layering" them to add some animations (I mean, you're a master to follow in that regard lol).

"I feel like this belongs in a library or something next to all the other classics" OMG OKAY THIS WAS SO NICE I AM GOING TO SCREAM AND CRY AND ROLL ON THE GROUND AND- thank you  Carrot, I'm glad! I'll admit this series of VNs really has a unique vibe in comparison with mine loool but I'm very happy with it!

Thanks again for all your kind words, and your years-long support at this point, I really appreciate them A LOT!!!!