itch.io

Bowser's Rating: C+

Spoilers ahead!

Just a quick disclaimer, my grades mean absolutely nothing and I just want to share my thoughts about this piece. I just hope my insight can help foster growth for this team.

I enjoyed reading this VN! Another excellent example of a project that has a perfect scope for a game jam entry.

Here are some of the things I liked:

• The writing style is great. The well-structured sentences and the mindful word choice worked together excellently. It was a great pleasure to read aloud.
•  I'm a big fan of the abstract backgrounds. The heavy use of the visual effects filters and the resulting geometric artifacts it leaves on each background is a wonderful visual treat. A very bold use case of taking (what I'm assuming are) photographs and transposing them into VN backgrounds. Overall, I think it elevated the piece and complimented the art direction well.
• The art style of the sprites is great! They work well to characterize the VN's overall art direction. The same compliments extend to the CG. These were so lovely to look at.
• The story's structure did good work to keep me engaged. Starting with very little information and revealing more and more as things go along kept my eyes glued to the screen.

Here are some things I think could use improvement:

• The writing needed quite a bit of editing. No VN ever gets published completely unblemished by spelling and grammar errors, but it's a persistent problem with this piece. I spot lots of improper punctuation in particular. This would have benefitted from another review or two before publishing.
• There were presentational inconsistencies with the narration and dialogue. It's okay to change perspective, but there needs to be a consistent way to display it so the reader can differentiate who's speaking and when. 
  • Sometimes inner monologue was presented with the name box, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes it was presented in the full screen format, sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes narration was in first person, other times it was in second person. Etc, etc. 
  • I think the changing perspectives benefitted the story, but I would like to see it presented more thoughtfully and consistently.
• I would have liked to see some more emotions from the sprites. You wouldn't even have to change their poses, just a couple of different facial expressions would have went a long way to uplifting the presentation.
• I would have liked to see some custom GUI elements. The default renpy menu, text box, and font aren't bad. However, one way to make your piece standout amongst the sea of low-effort RenPy projects is to do away with those default assets when you can. Tutorials like this can help you for the next project! Also, don't be afraid to ask around for coding help.

I hope you don't find my grading or feedback too harsh. For the most part, a little tender, love, would go a long way. I think a day's worth of work could easily elevate this piece to a "B". A more thoughtful main menu, addressing the narrative perspective issue with the presentation, choosing a stylish font, and an extra round or two of editing would do the trick. Going the extra mile to add more sprite expressions and a custom text box would likely earn you an "A-".

I think you all came together and made something great. Despite my complaints, I really enjoyed reading this story. The other folks who attended the live reading in Discord agree! This entry shows a lot of promise. I look forward to seeing what you all put out next, and don't be afraid to ask the community for help when you need it!

Bowser's Grade: B+

Spoilers ahead!

Just a quick disclaimer that my grades mean nothing and I just want to provide some feedback that will hopefully allow the creator to grow and learn.

This is a short one, but so wonderfully in-scope for a game jam! This is the kind of story that works incredibly well for a month-long project.

Here are some of the things I enjoyed:

• The cohesive art direction is very appreciated. The black and white color palette help sets a rather somber mood, while the toony style of the characters contrasts that mood to bring some levity. Not only does this look charming, it wonderfully compliments the tone of the writing. Well done!
• The custom backgrounds are also very appreciated. I could tell they're screenshots from a video game, but a lot of care went into adding visual effects to match the art style. It ends up elevating the piece overall.
• I enjoyed the writing style! It does great work capturing the authentic thoughts of an early college student, struggling to attune to adult life.
• Sentence structure was also solid! Was a pleasure to read aloud and each sentence flowed very well.
• The way the story ended surprised me in a good way! I was waiting for the hammer to drop, expecting that the main character's entire family had died, or the main character is actually dead themself, or something dark like that. I'm quite happy it didn't go in that direction. I think it's important sometimes to tell grounded stories like this sometimes.
• I resonated a lot with the main character. I too struggle with occasional bouts of low self-esteem, and then feel guilty about having such low-esteem. This piece and the main character work towards normalizing these thoughts and feelings that a lot of young adults struggle with. Overall, I think this story handles it very well.

Here are some areas of improvement:

• I would have loved to see some custom UI elements for this piece. The default DejaVu Sans font and text box luckily weren't tonally dissonant from the art style, but I would love to see the extra effort put into the presentation. It helps differentiate the piece from more low-effort RenPy projects, and it goes a long way to elevating the piece overall.
• In the interest of not making this review too long, I don't want to meticulously list out the individual issues I had with the writing. But to summarize, I think all you have to do is just keep writing! You'll do some great work finding your voice, upgrading your word choice, and improving your sentence structure after some practice.

Overall, it was a great pleasure to read this one. I think you show some great promise as a writer, artist, and developer. Keep making things! I very much look forward to your next project 💖.

Bowser's Grade: B

Spoilers ahead!

Just want to quickly state that my grades mean nothing and I just want to share my thoughts in the hopes it helps the creators grow.

Side note, I can't be unbiased since Brick is a friend and Martini and Jim have both helped me with Chord Progressions.

Let me start of by saying how thoroughly impressed I am that this piece has, not one, not two, but three custom songs that feature vocals. Getting all of that done within the span on a month must've been grueling work, but I'm thoroughly impressed with the results. As someone who spent several months writing, recording, and producing a custom song for his own VN, game recognizes game. Well done.

The presentation is fabulous in this piece as well. Custom UI, the title sequence, the various "leanback" sequences, and 100% illustrated backgrounds, *chefs kiss*. A lot of intention and effort went into the many aspects of the visual design and I'm here for it. Also quite enamoured with the CG's and sprite style. Roar and Jim did a wonderful job.

The visual designs for the characters are also through-the-roof. I love how each sprite has their own style, personality, and silhouette. I'm a big fan of their bold poses as well, not opting for the standard hand-on-hips and crossed arms variants. I think it paid off well.

I'm a big fan of the premise. As a rock and metal enjoyer myself, a period piece exploring the alternative music scene in Seattle during the 90's immediately got me really excited. I'm also glad to see that the subject matter of the story explored the good, bad, and ugly aspects of it. I especially think the ugly parts were handled well.

The sentence structure and word choice for the writing were a pleasure to read aloud. The character dialogue especially felt good to read. These characters each had their own unique voice that felt authentic to their personalities and backgrounds. 

With the glazing out of the way, I want to review the bits I'm critical of:

• Presentation
  • I really wish these sprites offered more than just one expression. It's cool how they changed outfits! However, I would have appreciated at least one or two emotional variants. Personally, I'd rather see emotional variation than clothing variety. I know it's a jam, and compromises have to be made, but I think with better planning this could have been achieved.
  • I have a minor gripe with the particular font chosen. I think a handwritten font style presented on notebook paper is a solid choice! This particular font had some weird quirks that felt frustrating to read. In particular, I hated how lowercase "m" and a sentence-ending period would mesh. Minor gripe.
• Writing/Story
  • As discussed, I had a great time reading the dialogue and the sentence structure (minus a few hiccups at the end) worked really well. Not going to give any notes there. My main issue lies with the story structure.
  • Very rarely do I find myself criticizing a VN for having pacing that's too fast. But I think the rapid time skips did more of a disservice to the piece than helped it.
    • My main issue with this rapid pacing structure is that it leaves little time for the reader to get attached to the characters. Months of relationship building, intimate conversations, and conflict are glossed over and only spoken about in retrospect. I think Pat is a stand-out example. We're told about her and Everett coming out to each other after the fact in narration. This leaves very little impact on me as a reader. That's the type of intimate moment I'd much rather be shown rather than told about. As a result, I didn't care much for Pat as a character. I felt like I didn't get to know her very well and that made her relapse much less impactful on me as a reader.
    • The rapid pacing also does a disservice to the romantic tension that the reader should be feeling between Everett and Curtis. The tension starts when they first meet, but slowly fades as the story progresses. By the time we get to the end, that tension doesn't exist anymore and the impact of Curtis's death is dampened as a result.
  • The ending.
    • The way the story ended I think just simply didn't work. Looking back on it, there were the "breadcrumbs" that hinted at the experience being a simulation. The glitchy effects, the digital text style of the dates, and I guess the rapid pacing all work together to hint at it. However, this kind of ending just didn't have the payoff that I think was intended.
    • Tonally, I find the simulation ending jarring. It's a story about the 90's Seattle rock scene... then we shift into a sci-fi-esque ending. It's a strange place to end considering where we started. It's not to say this could never work, but you'd have to be extremely clever with your writing to earn that kind of ending. I also think it'd take several thousand more words to make the setup and payoff more exciting.
    • This ending doesn't provide any thematic insight into the story. The simulation itself doesn't offer any insight to the characters, the story, or the story's theme. A simple time skip to the future would have sufficed without the simulation.
    • From what I can gather, one of the main things the ending wanted to touch on is how Everett is now dealing with his own addictions after being so critical of Curtis's. I think that's a fine path to go down! It allows the character to grow and reflect. However, if I may make a suggestion, I think a better route to go down would have Everett take on his own opiate addiction after taking painkillers during his recovery from the car-crash. I think that would have fit the story's themes while keeping the story grounded in reality.

There's other issues I had with the story structure, but I think I'll leave it there. Ultimately, I think this kind of story would have really benefited from the addition of several scenes and several thousand words if it weren't a game jam project. The more sensible solution would be better scope management and finding ways the make the story work better with fewer words. I think trying to cover several years worth of events in 12k words wasn't the best decision. I think if the narrative scope was homed in, the resulting piece would have been much better.

Despite my complaints, I enjoyed this entry! It was a pleasure to read and the folks who watched the stream agreed. I think you did a really good job, Brick. You worked really hard on this and that hard work shows. I'm looking forward to your future projects 💖

Bowser's Grade: A-

Spoiler's ahead!

My grade either means everything or nothing to Cetus. It depends on what kind of day he's having uwu.

For anyone else reading, just know I'm heavily biased since Cetus is a good friend, and I work with JimmytheFloof and Martini on my main project. That said, I'm trying my best to grade as fairly as I can.

I already talked with Cetus about most of my thoughts about his newest project, but I figure I'd outline them in writing for posterity.

The art style is gorgeous. Jasper's backgrounds are such a great compliment to Jim's sprites. Darlington is an eerie, but beautiful place. The art direction captures that perfectly.

Can't say I have very many notes on sound design. Martini does good work. What more can I say about a good boy who makes good music? 💖

The way the denizens were puppeted was fantastic. No notes for Wattson.

Moving on to why that "minus" isn't a "plus".

• I think the writing suffered from the onslaught of too many GRE words. Narratively, it makes sense. The main character is hyper-analytical, hyper-observant, and seeks to use elevated language when he can. That said, there is a balance that needs to be struck. There comes a point where it comes off as too grating and too exhausting for your average reader.
• I would have liked for the three denizens to have more intention. They each reveal aspects of the MC's personality and Darlington. However, I think if each of them served a grander, thematic purpose, it would have made each conversation more impactful.
  • My guess is that the three missing people are manifested as the three denizens. That said, I don't see a very strong narrative thread tying them together. Maybe I missed it.
• As discussed, we can work on making the larger theming of loneliness = hunger more subtle.
• We could do with a ~5% word count cut. I think cutting out a lot of the elevated vocabulary would serve well to that end.
• I wasn't a fan of seeing the default DejaVu Sans font. The default black RenPy text box actually works quite well for this piece, but I think picking out a better font would have done so much work to elevate the presentation.

One thing I'm very proud of Cetus for is the improvement of his writing style going from Before You Depart to Nepenthes. A lot of the "amateur" writing pitfalls (overuse ellipses, distasteful use of all caps, overwriting, poor sentence structure, etc.) were virtually non-present in the final product. You've really come into your own style and it works very well. So proud of you 💖.

The last bit of praise I want to offer the story is this... I don't understand vore. I don't understand what makes it appealing to those who do enjoy it. I've had many people try to explain it to me, but it doesn't do much to help bridge the gap.

This story has done more to help me understand the appeal of vore more than any explanation ever could. It illustrates the power that storytelling has to help us understand each other, and I think that's an incredible thing. The fact that this piece has me contemplating the power of storytelling in general I think is a grand testament to how well crafted this story is.

Bowser's Grade: B

Just want to make clear my grades mean nothing and I just want to share my thoughts with the team to hopefully foster some creative growth.

My absolute favorite thing about this entry is the meta-narrative. The idea of finding a VHS tape of some random episode of a long-forgotten, Saturday-morning cartoon is delightful. It also serves as a brilliant way to manage the scope of the project for a game jam entry. Well done.

The characters are incredibly fun. They fit into their Saturday-morning cartoon archetypes very well while also giving a mature, furry audience exactly what they want. This echos true for the character writing and the visual character designs.

The music is immaculate.  Everything's period appropriate while also being well-composed and well-produced. Can't tell you how wide I was smiling when I first heard that title track. That title screen has a lot of impact and leaves a great first impression. No notes on the music. Well done Dieselsaurus/ KOMODOMODE.

The art style is very charming. The design of the sprites and the comic CG fit the project's art direction so well.

Flattery out of the way, I want to offer my critique to explain the "B".

• Presentation
  • One of my main issues is how incredible the presentation starts... then it fizzles out soon after. We're introduced to an incredible title screen, accompanied by an exhilarating title track. We click "start" and then taken to a fantastic comic book sequence... just for the presentation lose all steam for the rest of the VN. We have sprites with singular expressions, default RenPy UI, and photoshopped backgrounds. It unfortunately highlights a lot of missed potential.
  • To be clear, I don't want to punish you all for having such a strong start and then not maintaining that same level of production throughout the rest of the runtime. If the comic and title screen weren't impactful at all, I'd be more inclined to give you a "C".
  • I found the singular expression sprites distracting. You had characters arguing, celebrating, lamenting, and battling all with the same look on their face all throughout the story (aside from Phase). 
    • I think if given just an extra couple hours of work, you could have each character sporting 2 or 3 extra emotions (maybe excluding Limiter, he might take longer). I'm not an artist myself, so I hope I'm not woefully out of line with that suggestion. That said, I think all it would take for some of these characters is just redrawing the shape of the mouth, eye brows, and eyes. You wouldn't even need to adjust their pose. Subtle changes like that can make a huge difference.
  • I was also disappointed with the default RenPy UI and the default font, DejaVu Sans. Changing out the text box does take a good deal of work, I'll grant you that. But changing the font is a very easy fix (download the .TTF and change one line of code). In all honesty, the hardest part is picking out your favorite one. It does so much work to elevate the presentation and differentiate it from lower quality RenPy projects.
  • If I may make a suggestion, during the livestream on the FVN Discord server, Camazule made the brilliant suggestion to make the textbox present itself as subtitles. Not only would you be elevating your project from a presentation standpoint, but it'd go a long way to serve the meta-narrative as well. No joke, I'd easily raise my grade to an "A-" if that were to be done along with adding sprite expressions.
• Writing
  • I want to start by saying, it was solid! The characters had tons of personality, charm, and natural sounding dialogue. I do have some notes, though.
  • I think the script could have benefitted from a 10-15% cut in word count. Just look for redundant exposition, lengthy explanations, or just otherwise needless passages. Your average Saturday morning cartoon is ~15 minutes long. I think erring of being too short would work in your favor.
  • Creating a furry visual novel for adults that's themed for a kids cartoon can definitely be tough to write for. You have to keep a balance between making the dialogue kid-appropriate while also appealing to your actual adult audience. I think this was handled well, but could use some improvement.
  • This review is already too long, so I won't go through and meticulously detail every blemish I found. I'm more than happy to discuss further with any of the team if you need some specific examples. And it's just my opinion, too! Maybe I'm out of line.

Judging from what I saw, I'm going to make a guess and say that you all wanted to accomplish a lot more with this visual novel but were limited on time. Nothing wrong with that! It's the nature of game jams. 

That said, I can't help but see a lot of lost potential that holds it back. Especially since that potential could have been realized with a rather small amount of work. I think a "B+" could have easily been earned with a different font and a handful of sprite expressions.

If given more time, you all could have gone further. More writing polish and a second comic CG for the final battle would have easily made this an "A".

Regardless of the reason for that lost potential, I would love to see this project get a glow-up later on down the line. Not sure if that's everyone's intention, but it would be incredible to see.

You all made something wonderful. If anything, this VN is fun. And it's more than apparent that's what you all set out to do. It was a pleasure reading this one. Looking forward to your next project(s) 😸.

Bowser's Grade: A-

I'll start off by saying my grades mean nothing and I just want to impart some advice to the creators. Hopefully this will help you all grow and thrive.

One of the most endearing aspects of this story is how well it captures the slice-of-life genre. From the writing, the presentation, down to the title Deer Diary. It feels like we're reading what is an honest-to-goodness diary entry from an enthusiastic campground staff member. Such a treat.

The story lacks a strong plot and focuses more on the characters to drive the story forward. However, that's exactly the function of slice-of-life. It exists to made mundane, day-to-day life interesting, and I think the writing serves that purpose perfectly.

On the note of character writing, Ryan did an excellent job giving each character a distinct voice and personality. You pick up on their mannerisms right away, and they're all quite charming. Not only that, but the character writing and character sprites work together in perfect harmony. Well done.

The presentation is through-the-roof. Custom UI, the diary graphic with the doodles, and the cute art style of the character sprites all work together in perfect harmony. I'm also thoroughly impressed with Marms's ability to learn RenPy in the span on a month and take advantage of its more advanced features. The transitions and movements of the sprites is such a wonderful visual treat.

There's a few pieces of criticism I'd like to levy that kept this from being an "A+".

• Would have loved to see more effort put into the backgrounds.
  • It's so cool how these were all photos taken by Marsh. I love the thought and care that went into that. However, I think going the extra mile to do more than just blur the backgrounds would have sealed the deal.
  • If I can make a suggestion, perhaps finding some layer effects in photoshop to help make these photos appear more like watercolor paintings could help achieve better visual harmony. It'd help capture that "crafty" sort of feel we get from the diary, scribbles, notebook paper, and the sprite art style.
  • There's a dissonance that's created when the background appear too lifelike and the characters in the foreground appear in their tooney art style. This is especially dissonant when there are human people in the photos as well.
• Writing could have used some trimming.
  • Ryan did a terrific job. Honestly, I think a 5% reduction in word count would accomplish everything I'm looking for. Just look for redundant exposition, lengthy explanations, or just otherwise needless passages. Listing exact examples would be tedious, but I'm happy to go through the story again to find examples with you guys if you want.
• The voice acting could have used more intention.
  • So, here's the thing. I'm gonna look like a big hypocrite because I implement partial voice acting in a very similar way in Chord Progressions. Just hear me out, though.
  • Partial voice acting is tough. As much as we'd love to have our projects be fully voice acted, the time and money required for such a feat is too grand and out-of-scope for most VN projects. Partial voice acting is often the compromise. That said, it can feel jarring and random to readers if implemented without intention. This can lead to the voice acting detracting to the VN rather than adding value.
  • That said, I think when you add a layer of intention behind partial voice acting, it starts to do work to elevate the piece. I think the best way to do this is to have a "system."
    • So, in ChoPro, my "system" is this:
      • Every time a character is introduced for the first time, their first one or two lines are voice acted.
      • Anytime a very meaningful/impactful line is spoken, it's voice acted (most of the time... maybe).
      • Everytime a new scene is introduced, the first line of that scene if voice acted (most of the time... maybe).
    • This system honestly isn't that great... I haven't cracked the code. However, I think if you guys can come up with your own system and give it a try, that can in turn help us collectively get closer to the right answer. 
      • PLEASE HELP ME MARSH I CAN'T CRACK THE CODE I NEED HELP
  • Adding in "barks," or short vocalizations (sigh, laugh, scoff, etc.)  often serve as a great way to assist the sparse voice acted lines. It rounds out the soundscape and helps remind readers of what the characters sound like.
    • You did do some of this! But I would like to see more thoughtful implementation for the next project.

I'll leave you with those notes and just remind the team that this was a lovely project that was wonderfully directed. I'm very proud of Marsh for leading this team so well and bringing this excellent vision to life. You all should feel very proud of yourselves, and I'm very much looking forward to reading That Summer Day 😸

Bowser's Grade: A+

Just would like to start off by saying my grades mean nothing and I'm just giving my feedback for the benefit of the creator. Hopefully my insight helps you grow and learn.

This review will be rather short because this is just a homerun on all fronts. The presentation was immaculate. The sound design was incredible. The art direction is divine.

This is a wonderful example of a project with perfect scope-management. This is the kind of project that works so incredibly well for game jams. It's a short story packaged with wonderful art direction that is more than manageable for a month-long game jam.

In the interest of keeping this review "spoiler free", I'm not going to render any writing advice or my thoughts about the ending. You're simply on a higher level than I am. In the interest of not leading you astray for your future projects, I'll keep those comments to myself.

"Keep doing what you're doing" is unfortunately not very actionable advice. But at the very least, I hope it builds your confidence for your future projects. Very well done 😸

(Edit: Changing my grade from A- to just A. It's more consistent with how I've been grading other works.)

Bowser's Grade: A- A 

Spoilers ahead!

Let me start off by saying my grades mean nothing and I just want to document my feedback for the sake of letting these wonderful creators know my thoughts so they can hopefully grow and learn. I think you all did a terrific job with this one.

This entry has been my favorite so far. It doesn't earn my highest grade, but I have to do my best to divorce the particular way this visual novel resonates with me and any """objective analysis""" I'm rendering.

The presentation is through the roof. Custom UI, the side sprite, the CG's, and the overall art direction all coalesce together very well. This is definitely one of the best use cases of how to properly implement "using photoshop filters on IRL photos for a visual novel".

I'm thoroughly charmed by the world building, despite it being literally IRL. It's frankly brilliant how each characters' presentation is in line with their "inner self", whether they're being presented as an anthropomorphic animal character or a human being. I think I, and many other furry VN developers, have pondered the question, "how could I make a visual novel about real people going to a real furry convention?" I think this nails it perfectly. Well done.

However charmed I am with the world building, I'm even more charmed by the characters. Each character has their own voice, their own style, and their own way of speaking that make them unique and exciting. The main character especially nails the thoughts, feelings, and personality of your archetypical gay furry man. This is something I've attempted to capture in Chord Progressions with my MC, Eddy. I think Swift nails this better than Eddy does.

This story does a great job of accurately detailing what actually happens at furry conventions, while still dramatizing the experience for the sake of creating an interesting story. I think most avid con-goers know that trying to regail a play-by-play story of what happened at their favorite furry convention usually isn't super interesting as a narrative. It ends up being a disjointed list of joyful experiences that doesn't have a cohesive throughline. Nothing wrong with that for casual conversation, but you can't really build a visual novel out of that kind of experience. That said, I'm thoroughly impressed with how this story didn't do that. There's a plot, not an incredibly strong one, but a plot nonetheless. Not only that, it's a great narrative thread that runs throughout the story and affects each character in unique ways.

While the ending was sad, I think it was great. I've read countless Twitter threads from friends and acquaintances who had to leave a furry con early because of a terrible experience. It's always so heartbreaking, and Swift's story breaks my heart in a similar way. 

However, it's just one con. In the moment, it feels like your whole life is falling apart. I certainly have felt that myself at the end of a terrible con experience. What I find incredible is just how well the story captures that feeling.  Despite this, there's always the chance the next convention will be better! And I love that we get that little, hopeful glimpse into Swift's next adventure.

Alright, I'm done glazing. I need to detail why that "minus" isn't a "plus" "A" doesn't have a "plus".

I'm my heart-of-hearts, it's an A+++. This story feels like it was uniquely made for me and I can gush about it all day. But I have some critical notes.

I think some more time needed to be invested in polishing the writing. I think it's quite polished already, but more is needed in my opinion. The story structure is solid, and I think it accomplishes everything it needs to. I wouldn't change any story beats or the order they happen.

My main issue lies with sentence structure, primarily, the prevalent use of run-on sentences in the narration. Breaking them up I think would resolve the struggles I encountered when it came to the ease of reading. Often times, these sentences contained several unique ideas that could be broken down. I understand, to some extent, it "fits" the narrator. He's rather chatty, and often has wandering thoughts that are supplanted mid-way through other thoughts. However, I think we can still achieve that characterization without needing to overuse run-on sentences.

As a side note, the dialogue was fabulous. Run-on sentences didn't show up very often during Swift's dialogue. Narration was the main problem area.

Another thing I'd like to address is the didactic parts of the narrative. Nothing wrong with implementing political and social commentary in your piece. I do it all the time. But, for my tastes at least, I think making things more subtle would have benefited the piece overall. Many times, I felt like I was being "talked at" rather than being "talked to", if that makes sense. The main example that comes to mind is the scene on the bus where the details of the Pulse nightclub tragedy were recounted. There was a lot of factual reporting of the tragedy that I think distracted from the narrative. I definitely wouldn't toss out that scene, but I think some restructuring and word-cutting would do the trick.

On a similar note, I think the story itself is a tad overwritten. A good 5-10% reduction on the word count I think would help the flow and pacing beautifully. Granted, the flow and pacing are already excellent, but there's some room for improvement.

With the critical bits out the way, I'm telling you right now, I'm eagerly awaiting a sequel. I want to find out what happens to Swift at MFF. I want to see if there's ever going to be a conflict resolution between him and Osgood. I want to learn more about Swift's new fossa friend. The fact that I'm craving more is such a good sign that what you all made here is fabulous.

Thank you for this entry. It was a wonderful pleasure to read this one.

That's very allowed!

I'll be around, in and out of fursuit!

Darrell and Chester are the only routes available right now. More routes will be written later.

Hello. Please do not click on any suspicious links in this comment section.

Hi friends! Please don't click on suspicious links in this comment section. There is no "updated version" or "leaked version" of Chord Progressions. I haven't even started coding the next build yet lmao.

In a way, handling side story content is helping me with the burnout. Sometimes, when I can't advance the main story, working on a side story helps tremendously.

I'm planning on releasing another Staccato episode publicly before the end of the year.

This might help https://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Mac_Launcher

This is a device issue, not an issue with Chord Progressions' code. This is more of a "glitch" and not a "bug".

Reposting this since these bots/spammers like to post suspicious links late at night and I can't catch them until the next day 😡

DO NOT click on any links you may find in this comment section. The version available to download here on itch is most recent version of Chord Progressions. Click the "download now" button above.

That is the wildest fuck up I've ever seen RenPy do 💀

Hello. Do not click on any links you may find in this comment section. The version available to download here on the itch page is most recent version of Chord Progressions. Click the "download now" button above.

Trent's route has never been an option. Just Chester and Darrell at the moment. More characters will have routes in the future.

Build 6 took away the ability for the player to assign the MC a name. You're not tripping hehe

Check the Options menu and see if the voice volume is low.

Working on some final touches. I've also been struggling with spotty internet today... hopefully I can get this up in the next 2-3 hours. Sorry for the extra wait! 

Likely posting Build 7 in ~12 hours. Stay tuned!

I'm not sure yet. So far, every in-game day has been 10-20k words, I don't plan on that being a consistent thing. I'm aiming for every route to be 100-200k words (not sure yet).  Probably will be completing Darrell and Chester's routes sometime in 2026.

Only Darrell and Chester at the moment. Trent, Cliff, Dave, and Pat routes are planned for the future.

It's okay if the route makes you feel uncomfortable. There's an inherent power imbalance between MC/Eddy and Chester, which will come more into focus as the story progresses. Not everyone is going to want to indulge in that fantasy, and that's okay. This is partly why I decided to work on Darrell's route in tandem with Chester's. 

Please be careful when you use the word "grooming". It often implies that an adult is seeking to abuse a minor. Eddy is a 25-year-old man and Chester is not seeking to abuse him.

Thanks for the feedback :>

Thanks for the feedback! I'll fix these issues in the next build.

Please keep the typos coming if you find more! But please redirect the feedback to the Bugs & Feedback dev log.

Hiya! Unfortunately with Android issues, the problem is almost always is the device and not the game. If a save file is corrupted, it's not possible to recover it.

To save time, you can go to Options -> Skip Unseen Text to quickly get back to where you were in the story. Should take a few minutes.

Don't worry too much about the choices. All choice combinations lead to Chester's route. If you want Darrell's route, you just either have to pick the edgy outfit, pre game with Cliff, or get wings with Darrell. Just one of those 3. 

Thanks!

Martini's songs: https://martinidog.bandcamp.com/album/chord-progressions

FAFO: https://rhythmbastard.bandcamp.com/track/f-a-f-o-w-bowserpuma

The "content creator edition" censors porn scenes. If you want to see the regular porn scenes, download the standard version.

It's on the to-do list.

Hi! Sorry that happened :(. Sometimes RenPy (our game engine) can make mistakes, or your operating system can make a mistake with storing info on your device.

Chapter skips is something I'd like to implement sometime in the future.

One bit of advice I can offer in the meantime, you can go to the "Options" menu, and click on "Unseen Text" under "Skip". Now, you can just press the "tab" key on your keyboard and quickly skip ahead to where you last left off. The same trick works with most visual novels developed with RenPy.

If you're on Android, you can just click on the "skip" button in the quick menu and it'll do the same thing.

Chester's route will continue on Episode 8. We're currently working on Episode 7 right now.

Not sure what you mean by "corny text". But I've gone through and made heavy edits to the story. I made a lot of adjustments that either condense information or just get rid of stuff that I personally don't find tasteful anymore.

I'll explain in more depth in a future devlog. But the main reason is that the MC is his own person with a specific past, personality, and motivations. He's not as much of a "blank slate" as I had originally envisioned. Making him "Eddy" also eases a voice acting constraint I've had to deal with for the past couple of years. It makes it easier for me to write and record lines when my VA's can say "Eddy".

Just need another hour or two... hang tight!