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This was all I got from the message I sent to support over 2 weeks ago, I joined this project a while back and it's been stuck on NSFW even though it's not at all NSFW by any screenshots, or posts.

Game: https://lalalewds.itch.io/aforesttail

As for updating the age confirmation myself, I'm unable to change the option as it just says
"This page has been marked as containing sensitive content by a moderator.
If you think that's a mistake, please send a message to itch.io support"
To which I did send a support message in, but it's been over 2 weeks and n response. I've even tried responding to the email to check in, but nothing happens.

If anyone can give me any insight, it'd very much appreciate it. Maybe I've overlooked something

Sonzo, you GET IT. You really do. As for being a mirror, it gives me what I need to know. Being a mirror means that we share those likes and it once more confirms that I'm not just wasting my time with things I like along. This is equally as important for devving as getting new ideas, however for me, it's 100x more important to know that I'm on the right track with coding and Lewd's on the right track with her art. 

1. Good story, check. Gameplay will be no less than spectacular, I assure that. Options of freedom will start small as not to overwhelm, but after the "tutorial phase," you'll be in an open world, so, want to visit the Demon Lord? Go for it~ Solid music is where I'm paying others, though. I have no sense of musical talent, and I know that. However, there are incredible musicians that have been happy to work alongside us! I mean whew, that night music is just so good.
2. I can't spill it, but you're on the right track with expectations here. I can at least say it's got a great balance of things. Not 1:1, but balanced properly. Meaning in moments and proper relief when needed.
3. EXACTLY. Breaking every pot in the kingdom and having the guard just laugh it off "Oh, you kids!" No no no, my friend, these cost money, get caught and you'll hear about it. Get away with it and you'll see the consequences of your actions fall on that poor woman who makes these pots. You'll also be remembered and spoken of in good deeds. Don't worry, we balance the world properly. :)
4. True, burnout is bad, but right now I have coding A Forest Tail as my hobby and Calculus and Physics as my classes. Coding is my escape from being burnt out from school. While it IS quite an undertaking, I have time and that's all I need. No one pushing dates, so we can expect quality with each addition. My goal is to make quality from the sounds changing when you walk from stone to dirt to tile all the way to the depth of a secret in the dungeon that, to my knowledge, has yet to be done. Quality. First.
5. Agreed. I got the inspiration of a living world from Majora's Mask. The town had all sorts of things to get involved in and you actually do stop a robbery at one point. A living world is a world worth living in. That's the idea we have floating between us and A Forest Tail.
6. I'm glad so many people agree with this. It's common in games and I just don't get it. It's only fun when you're doing something ELSE at the same time. Quality. FIRST.
7. Good news, combat is nothing shallow. I have, as of writing this, successfully written in Active Combat and Turn Based Combat to be in sync. 
   1. If you can take out an enemy in one shot in the open world, you can avoid going into a turn based combat. If you're level is far greater than the enemy you're fighting, you ALSO avoid a meaningless turn based fight.
   2. If the enemy is a boss, you enter a field spawned battle encounter where you fight in turns in the open world right in front of everyone. The field around you prevents others from getting involved, but you'll bring your party members as long as their close by. The style is JRPG-inspired and you can escape ONLY if everyone in the party succeeds the quick time event during the escape sequence. 
      
      1. You also have to turn base fight certain enemies if their close to your level.
      2. ALSO some enemies will bring friends to the fight, so that single slime in that cave by himself may actually have a Pumpking and an Aura Wolf waiting nearby. Certain skills can tell you the chance of other enemies when you scan an enemy in the world. Exciting right? I'm programming that in now, not a spoiler, you learn that pretty early and you'll be glad you did :))
8. There is a LOT of this in A Forest Tail. From planting forest crops in the Haunted Forest to see them mutate into different types ( Strawberries > {Go try it and find out} ) to finding that the {NPC} you delivered that {ITEM} to actually {PLOT DEVICE} and now {Future plot device}. RARELY will you do something that's just like "Oh deliver this, that's all." No no, there's almost always more to it. Unless you're running with the Merchant's Guild, which you may do a lot of delivering actually.

Overall, I need that mirror talk sometimes. We can get in our own heads and be 3 days into coding a combat and thing "Does anyone even care?" Then find out, yes, yes they do. That's why I really appreciate you taking the time to say this rather than assuming I already know it. I promise, I don't. Unlike Lewd, I'm human and I doubt myself at least 7 times before breakfast everyday. This dropped that number to 3, so thank you, Sonzo. I can't wait to see what you think of this game when it's got some meat to it.

Amazing, and thank you. I've noted all of this down and so far you and I have a lot of interests in common so this is working out very well. I won't comment on everything for the sake of spoiling things and creating a small novel, but I have some responses to this incredible insight. 

Before I say anything, I love Stardew, and it's amazing that a solo dev made that game, but I'm going to learn from it's shortcomings and make sure each piece of this game is fulfilling as the base building aspect. One thing, especially, is the ability to base up ANYWHERE. I'm working on a "plots" system where there's a ton of building locations and you can claim them and expand by doing certain things. More base, plus you can choose a location that just fits YOU.

Speaking of Vanity/Decor, that's a HUGE piece of A Forest Tail. Customization and being unique is something I adore in games. I want to be different, as different as possible so no screenshot on the internet could ever be "me"

Having something to show for is huge for me, too. Goes back to Payday 2, having that mass of money just because feels fun. In games like A Forest Tail, you'll have your choice of Legendary and Mythic Monsters to tame with some HEAVY requirements. (Rarities go from Uncommon, Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, to Mythic) and the classes of monsters goes all the way to Catastrophe Level :))

You'll also have your base to deck out with items, fish, cosmetics, furniture, etc. TONS of options in weapons since you'll be able to forge your own tools and weapons. So, you WILL have the ability to show your adventures up front to anyone who comes by. One more reason we're making this a game you can server host with up to 48 players.

Also Achievements and guidance for what things to do, very yes. We've talked about this endlessly in past games. It becomes really dry when you just don't have anything to really do. It's all done, and now you're just sort of existing looking for the next thing to do.

No stress, Players will be regularly updated with new side quests, the Adventurer's guild will have quests, the Fisherman's Guild will have quests, the NPC's will ALL have random quests, the over arching story will also be a massive undertaking, there's more but those are secrets to find in game.

As for changing the way the game plays, as I'm coding I'm doing everything in a way that SHOULD make it possible to have a built in randomizer. Every item, enemy, boss, fish, NPC, etc should be able to swap with other's of their type to make the game more interesting. Some things, such as Vampires in the Haunted Forest, probably won't leave that place due to logic reasons, but with this you can turn it on and potentially fish up a mythic sword while an endgame chest might house a boot. :)

I wish I had the dev skill to be like elden ring, but I'll be honest, those aren't people making games, they are beyond people at this point. Legends all of them. The created ideas I never even knew we could think of. Same for BG3, no matter what, it's like the devs knew you'd try it. I love it. THAT sort of thing I'm trying to do, but it's gonna take time.

Learning curves are the death of a good game. You're right about Terraria being a LOT to take in without prior knowledge and Stardew VERY gently guiding you into the next thing until you can really stand on your own. There's a balance here, and I'm hoping to strike at that. Not enough to overwhelm, but enough so that you're never left with less that a few things to do. In game fundementals class, we refer to it as "agency." Giving players CHOICE in a game rather than 1 object to do in order to progress. Breath of the wild has incredible Agency. You can take on the final boss RIGHT AWAY, you nut. A Forest Tail is open world as well, so, you can also do that here, but it's not gonna go well for ya.

Evoland sounds like a game I need to try. Just from the little search I did, just now, it looks wild. Looks like multiple games in one and I reallllly like that idea.

As for cozy farm game, perhaps A Forest Tail seems like that, but it's rated Mature and not for NSFW. It's got themes to it that deserve a Mature rating. It's super cute up front and it can stay that way, but if you go looking, just like anywhere else, you're going to find some dark places. 

You don't have to, and you could play the entire game never knowing about that stuff, but you can also find out :))

Overall, again, thank you! I'm fully inspired and I'm more certain than I was before that this is a game that I'll enjoy with at least a few other people, not just myself. Though I really can't wait to play it at it's full capacity. 

Right now I'm working on making a NavMesh to give NPCs and Enemies more LIFE, so when you go hiding, they roll to see where you might be rather than giving up or just always knowing where the player is. That and NPC schedules are going to require this for sure. I could avoid it and just let them freeze up when their path is blocked, but that's so lame. I CAN make it amazing, so why wouldn't I? Right? 

Heh, weekend plans, set.
One of these days maybe I'll make a discord server for A Forest Tail. 

Yeah, I follow you on that.

What about a game that continues to act on that satisfaction. You do a quest and feel satisfied about it, and that opens a new quest to try and that leads to a new area and that leads to a new ore and that leads to new weapon creation combos and that leads to new damage and that opens new options for quests and repeat.

A good dev can chain that satisfaction. Rather than keeping you hoping it gets great, you could just instead continue being greater with each choice. Doesn't that sound more fun?

Great potential here. Good on you for coding for linux AND windows, by the way!

I also approve this choice. Happy sounds for good deed make brain chemicals go weeeee!

Gonna weight in on this, but you and I've talked about this with A Forest Tail, already. I'm just getting my words out to the rest in case someone wants to compare opinions.

If we look at the success of historical games of the past and what others talked about, it's the leveling system that leads you to become stronger, the loot system that gives statistical advantages, and some amount of grind. Balance is the true goal of a good game, regardless of RPG or otherwise. 

Short term: Keep the immediate feedback loop going by rewarding small goals. Sound effects and other feedback light up those happy joy chemicals in the brain and tell you when you've done something right, silence can leave one questioning if they're doing something wrong. 

For our game, it's going to have some escapism as well. Players can immerse themselves in a character that may not be possible in the real world and the RP aspect of the A Forest Tail will give them the power to live that life with others at the same time, creating unique experiences that you can't create with a casual solo playthrough. That, along with the variety of loot, leveling skills, and areas will create a game that isn't like others and as such will hold it's own in the world without too much comparison to other games. It's comparable, yes, but not too comparable to any one single game.

From both Game Dev Minor and my experience in making servers in other games. 

You have an amazing talent with pixel art!

Wanted to say THANKS for letting me use this in my up coming multiplayer RPG, A Forest Tail. Your tracks are perfect. So many others try to make a full symphony and it's just noise, but THIS truly is a set of cozy tunes. that won't drown out the gameplay.

Well, when you do, please let me know if you think it can be better in any way.

It's amazing to see filmcow improving the world

Your front page says No AI, but this says AI assisted, which one is mistaken? Is this AI assisted or not? Like almost anyone, I won't use AI in my games.

Any chance of previews?

Not to necro a thread, but have you had a chance to play the newest updates yet? Lots of changes. 

Sorry for such a delay on responses to this, I joined the project AFTER this topic was created, but I'd like to give some insight. The initial dev, LalaLewd, started this project as an art professional with some light coding skills and I joined her later as a software engineer. So, the development was initially very slow considering she was solo, in school and working a full time job, on top of that learning how to code in an engine as she went along. She did well for her own, but now I'm here to really send things along. 

So, if you are still interested in this game, it's come a long way from when you first tried it. I'd recommend seeing it now. It's hit the 1 year mark as of April, and the Demos out right now show a lot of the foundations in place. World building is a later phase once I get NPCs+Schedules, Combat, etc in place. I'd say we're about 85% complete on foundations. 

In the end, we're both indie devs making a game for the first time and it's a passion project so it might take a little longer. Though, I think that makes it shine. I hope you'll give it another go and let me know what you think. I've been working on responses and getting patches out based on player reviews, so feel free to tell me your thoughts!

So far, here we are:

Test the game screen sliver issue on other monitors.

In dev tests, the game launches properly in windowed mode, maximized to fill the screen. 
TODO- test further in release mode to see if there are inconsistencies on current PC 
/ Allow settings to save preference for players who launch in full screen mode. 

Make settings accessible from the main menu.

Check!
TODO -  Polish settings menu during UI polish phase to bring it all together.
Deferred until new UI and main menu are in place. 
Resolved for now, check back later.

Fix the cutoff menu icons with the new menu art.

Icons are not cutoff in dev testing. 
TODO - Test release build for icon cutoff
Possibly an issue that will be deferred until the new menu is in place.

Add an exit button to the character creator.

Check!
Exit button is in place
TODO - Polish button to fit the theme during next UI polish phase.

Add a table preview to the character creator so players can see sitting poses.

Check!
Some poses can't show the props due to being used in multiple scenarios (Swinging a tool uses some farmes from planting and all tools.) 
**Specifying specific tools etc would be tremendous work that can be done at the end game polish stage if it's still requested.

Fix the creator options that no longer allow color changes.

Check!

Delete the duplicate straw hat.

Check!
Deleted duplicate shroom heads from testing as well.

Make the character creator layering less confusing.

Long term in progress, Some things are moved around, but ultimately, there are a lot of options to give full customization in case some players want certain items outside of others
For example, you can put your tail behind your clothes by using an unders tail or put it over your clothes by using the overs tail. It's to allow choice in game rather than forcing players to choose what I think is best suited. 

It allows for some goofy things to happen, but in the end if that's what a player wants, it's up to them to choose that.

Remove cloaks from the unders category.

Check!
These were left here by mistake when the layer order was originally flipped, long ago.

Make Lamia automatically remove legs, remove shoes, socks, and bottoms.

After talking to a couple of others, it's decided to leave this in as well in case players want the choice to just be goofy. Taking it away prevents the chance for someone to come up with some strange reason for their Lamia to have feet, so I'm leaving it in since it's a choice whether you use it or not.

Fix the red pixels on selected inventory items.

Check!
New focus shape added to the game, animated version is coming later.

Make inventory page flipping change direction based on the selected tab.

CHECK!
I made this way more complicated than it needed to be. Then I redid the whole thing and it was way easier.

Update control settings so they use player settings instead of hard-coded buttons.

I think it's fixed. I think. 80% sure. Really need to fix the settings UI
Working on settings UI now.

Continue working on proper player health and death behavior.

########### in progress
Deferred until combat is complete

Expand the pickup radius.

Check!
rings of magnetism are now in game as well and can REALLY expand on that radius

Add a transition back to the previous area to prevent the area softlock.

Check!

Make bushes provide sticks.

########### in progress
Deferred until I finish studying for my Calc exam this week. 

Fix the old man dialogue flag so it only dings once.

Check!

Add item tooltips.

Check! 
This was very much needed, thank you, Fire-Dancer

Add an in-game mirror for character creator access.

########### in progress

Lewds beat me to the first thanks, but I can at least go over some depth in what we have now and what's still being worked on. 

But first, THANK YOU. Setting up the tile mapping took about ~3 weeks, but it's going to make the game buttery smooth with movement, slopes, hills, etc will be so nice and comfy rather than blocky and sticky. It murders my fun when I keep getting stuck on things in a game so I took super care to set the foundation on the mapping to prevent it. I'm nearly brought to tears seeing someone noticing my hard work. I love it.

Also, thank you for reporting even the small things. It's so easy to overlook something, so I really appreciate you doing this. I'm going to respond to each of your notes in order, if that's okay.

• 1920x1080 is going to be a standard, though it may change to 720 and keep ratio to prevent stretching. For now it's all 1080
• The game screen sliver is interesting since it's set to launch on primary monitor, 1080, windowed, center screen. I'll to some testing on my other monitors to see if I can find what's causing it to sliver the bottom on you. I might have it set to just launch full screen on releases.
• Settings being intouchable in main menu is a problem I should have fixed by now, but the reason I haven't is we're remaking the main menu, ehem lewd spoiling that here cough cough, ANYWAYS, thank you for reminding, me. I've got it at the top of my list now, it's going to be ideal to have settings accessable from the main menu.
• Icons cutoff will likely be fixed with the new menu art as well.

Character Creator:

• Exit button on screen, very good idea. Honestly, never even thought about it, but that's a good idea.
• Add a table to see what sitting looks like in creator, another good idea. The legs do hide behind the tables, so it'll make more sense when I get those sprites in the creator. Adding that
• Ahh, I need to fix those so you can alter the colours. I've been fiddling around with palette swapping to keep asthetics clean and I probaly broke those in the process. Added to the list now!
• The duplicate strawhat was from my testing palette swaps. Originally there were only going to be 5-10 premade pallets but I spent a ton of time setting up the creator to auto pallete the colour chosen based on the main colour so it auto creates the accents. Delete duplicate hat, added to the list!
• I need to rework a ton of things in the creator it seems. I've been deferring them in orde rto focus other things, but I didn't realize how much had piled up~ So, thank you for that! I think I know what you mean with the unders being toggle-able. As for the cloaks being in unders, I meant to remove that, but definitely forgot since to after I relocated them. The layering of the creator is so touchy, so some things were duplicated into other layers in case players want to wear certain things over others. Though, it does make it confusing. I need to make that less confusing for sure. 
• You're definitely right that Lamia and Lt. Dan should be happening at the same time, I'll still leave Lt. Dan to be used on it's own in case a player want;s to create a Spirit/Ghost character, however I can make Lamia remove legs for sure. Otherwise it does look a little silly.
• Shoes and socks being used with Lamia does create a strange unpolished look in the creator. I'll set the Lamia option to automatically remove shoes, socks, and bottoms automatically when active.

Inventory (The bain of developers)

• I never noticed the red pixels on selected items. Absolutely fixing that right now.
• As for book inventory slot offset, I'm a little confused on what you mean.
• As for page flipping, I agree and I can do that! If the player selects a tab below the one they're in, then it goes one way and vice versa. IMMERSION!!
• Admittedly, I haven't tested the control settings just yet, so thank you for checking that. I'll update that in the code to rely on those settings rather than hard coded buttons because I'm absolutely sure that's what's causing it.

Gameplay:

• Health for the player is data only right now (you won't die at 0) since combat is still in the works, so I will be working on that, but I'm not sure exactly when I'll be finished with combat since it has 2 systems for it. One is fighting in the open and the other is the turn based combat that happens with certain enemies.
• I ALSO felt the pickup radius was to small, there are magnet rings to increase that, but I still think you're right and pickup radius needs to be expanded.
• I know exactly what you're referring to with area softlock. I need to add a transition back to the previous area. I'll have that in the next update.
•  Another good point. I keep meaning to work on the bushes as a means to get sticks as well, but It's been deferred so many times. I'm adding up on the list of items now, though. We definitely need more than just the old man for getting items. Speaking of old man I need to fix his dialogue flag to only ding once when it opens. The constant dinging is less fun over time.
• Tooltips are definitely on the way. I'm not sure when, but soon. I've been fighting the invenotory system in an ongoing war to get it to do what I want. We got to drag and drop and it's just been throwing temper tantrums at me ever since. Though I will win this war. Trust me. I have the ultimate weapon, a keyboard. Jokes aside, I'll put this on the list for fixes. It definitely needs to get done. Plus, it would help me when I'm testing placeholder items that have all the same icon and I have to drop them to find out what they are. Specifically all the fishing equipment :'))
• Character creator in game is a definite on the way mirror that will be added, soon. I wasn't sure if I should link it to house progress, or just let players do that from the beginning. It's heavily RP focused, so customization of one's character is a high priority, so, you're right, it should be in sooner than later and accessable. Added to the list!

Conclusion:

I have quite the list now

1. Test the game screen sliver issue on other monitors.
2. Look into launching release builds in fullscreen if needed.
3. Make settings accessible from the main menu.
4. Fix the cutoff menu icons with the new menu art.
5. Add an exit button to the character creator.
6. Add a table preview to the character creator so players can see sitting poses.
7. Fix the creator options that no longer allow color changes.
8. Delete the duplicate straw hat.
9. Make the character creator layering less confusing. (I'm open for ideas on this)
10. Remove cloaks from the unders category.
11. Make Lamia automatically remove legs, shoes, socks, and bottoms.
12. Fix the red pixels on selected inventory items.
13. Make inventory page flipping change direction based on the selected tab.
14. Update control settings so they use player settings instead of hard-coded buttons.
15. Continue working on proper player health and death behavior. (Finish combat ABS and TBS)
16. Expand the pickup radius.
17. Add a transition back to the previous area to prevent the area softlock.
18. Make bushes provide sticks.
19. Fix the old man dialogue flag so it only dings once.
20. Add item tooltips that include descriptions.
21. Add an in-game mirror for character creator access.

Thank you, once again, for taking the time to give me all of this information. You spent your time to help me, the least I can do is make sure it gets done. So, look forward to the upcoming update!

Edit: one more thing, you can find the dev area in the back of the tent near the fire. Get back to the main world by going into the waterfall cave north of where you spawn in the dev zone. It's a secret :>

Feedback is a great idea. I need to have sounds for things to give audio feedback and especially some kind of visual feedback. I may not get all of it added in before the next version comes out, but I promise to have a portion of the sound effects in there along with more visuals. I think I can definitely add a (!) for when there's something you can interact with like an NPC.

You make a really good point. I need to make that more obvious. Thank you, for the update! I'll be putting a new version out this week and that, along with more taming updates and potentially fishing, will be in there.

You're amazing :)

Thank you for fueling this game. It's just Lalalewd and I, so having someone else tell us it's all worth it really means a lot. 

Right?? I'm genuinely excited to play this with a group of people and just see how it unfolds. Though I'm worried the world might be too big. In a small community server you may have trouble finding others. 

Ohhh I'm gonna put everyone's player icon on the map and have it update where they are unless they toggle it off in the menu :))

I love the free updates for this pack! It's a purchase that just gets better over time, thank you!

These are really well made!

Amazing pack. I probably already commented on this, but this is absolutely incredible. The ease with which I can put it into my project has saved me literally months of time. Thank you.

I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't actually come with any tails other than cat, but it's saving me some time. I'd recommend updating the description.

After reading this I FEEL INCREDIBLY INSPIRED TO CODE THIS INTO THE NEXT ALPHA. It may make it in but I'm really hoping to get a new alpha out next week, potentially next Friday. I have some sleepless mechanics, tree cutting, real time battling, and I think some dialogue that should be making it in. I'm going to push and try to add at least one turn based fight into the alpha to test the system, but it may not make it until the next one. I'm almost finished setting up the core mechanics so I can just focus on the fun things. 

also random events are a MUST. Some will be linked to RNG through the year so each year is unique. A lot of my time lately has been on a special event that's linked to the player's level of sleep deprivation.

:))

:))) I won't spoil it but I think everyone should try that little challenge to see what happens. For fun, I'll try to get some hints to it into the next alpha.
The combat should work well, but it won't be hard to pull back if it isn't well received I'll pull it back and go with just one or the other. Maybe even a slider to disable the turn based battles when you start a new game.

I'd like to put it on mobile sometime after release, but the major factor is how well it does. Spreading the word of A Forest Tail helps a lot, so thank you to everyone sharing the game. 

Also, the initial release is planned for steam. I'm partnered and I have the page made, but I'm waiting until I have a little more to show before I list it publicly. Though, it be fine to list it now and let it get wishlisted and followed.

thanks for the inspiring words~

I'll make sure each minute is spent with curiosity and wonder as you create the ideal village, perfect your fit, and gain the followers that you love. I have a new video of some gameplay coming out today to show the music and transitions in areas.

this is the greatest set of tiles I've seen anywhere. Including the fact you went ahead and prepared these in Tiled for easy use. I'm amazed and relieved at how seamless you've made this, thank you.

Yeah this has my vote, you should add it to the list

This is brilliant information to digest. thanks again for being detailed with this stuff. I'm on the side of 4 being the best option overall as well. I'm looking at 2 again and I could see it being good if I do some tweaking to how it all meshes.

that would indeed be hella work, but it's not impossible. this is pretty good and I'm going to keep in mind for when we finish the main sets and go through the polish phase on the dialogue. 

in order of preference:
Like- 4 1 3 5 2 -dislike. 

i just thought about it, but i should add transparency to the background of the text box. I should also get the design for the box finished. and do my history quiz. pain.

@pedro0071

I checked out both versions. They run for me, so you may be experiencing something unique on your end. I'm not sure what it could be, but I'll reupload it if you keep having issues. I'm also going to update the names on the files to make it easier to differentiate to old vs new.