itch.io

Hiya! Nothing public right now but I'll potentially reopen the Discord when Chapter Two releases.

Happy Spooky season to you, too!

Hiya,

Not very likely save for maybe an after story kind of thing but that'd happen wayyyy down the line, haha. No time for characters to get pregnant in a time of war!

Hiya!

This section of the forums is for questions and support for itch.io as a site as a whole, rather than individual projects, which is why No Time To Play was trying to figure out exactly what project you may have meant. (Since a search for 'optimizer' brings up a large amount of unrelated projects in the search)

https://anagan79.itch.io/quest-games-optimizer/devlog/626193/report-bugs-or-have...

This development log for the project you mentioned seems to be the place where the developer is fielding questions and answering them if you wished to communicate with the dev directly on any issues you may have had!

Hiya there!

At the current moment in time it's just Patreon, since I didn't want to spread myself too thin across multiple platforms. But if there was enough interest I could potentially explore it!

That said, it's my hope that the full completed game will be available for purchase on here soon enough so you wouldn't have to worry about going for alpha builds and such.

Heya, 

https://gamemaker.io/en/get

As per their licensing page and FAQ:

"If you want to make money from your game, you need to buy a Commercial License for $99.99 . 

If you want to export to Console you need the Enterprise subscription.

Other than that, everything else is free and unlimited!"

So as long as you're not making money in any way you'd be fine. I assume this also falls under taking donations for a game, so you'd have to be careful about that. You can also see that exporting to web or desktop is on the free tier alongside their GX thing. So you'd be safe on that front!

Type %appdata% into your start menu bar and then hit enter and it should load up the appdata folder, where you'll find the RenPy one with all the saves to delete. You might need to delete the ones saved locally alongside the actual game files too, since I believe they copy over.

Alternatively, provided they haven't modified anything of the RenPy engine too much, you're also able to delete saves in-game by hovering your mouse over them and pressing the 'Delete' key. (The one above the arrow keys, alongside Insert, Home, etc.)

I understand! And you're always welcome to ask for an update whenever you want if you feel it's been too long to put your mind at ease, haha. Since I won't be going anywhere, and intend to see things through to the end even if it's been a heck of a journey.

Heya! I appreciate the kind words, thank you~ I hope the final game will be just as good as Chapter One for people--if not a giant evolution forward, with plenty of fun twists and turns along the way with the story, which I've put a huge focus on this time around!

Hiya there! Apologies--no solid estimate on things just yet as I've been struggling a fair bit. But I'll keep pushing forward with things and apoologise that I can't give anything more concrete as I want to avoid it blowing up in my face as it's done in the past, haha. ;~;

Hiya,

https://itch.io/my-purchases/bundles

This should list all the bundles you've bought!

Hiya,

Feel free to do so!

Thank you very much~ Happy spooky season! Here's to more monster girl goodness on the horizon!

I see! That's odd. Is the page recognising the bought the game and offering the option to download the main game, but it just isn't downloading? Or is the option not there at all?

Did you buy with the account you're posting with and get an email confirming the purchase went through? As I do a search on my records for your username and can't see anyone recently. So it's possible it may be an issue on itch.io's side than mine.

Hello!  Sorry to hear you’re having issues and I’ll do what I can to help solve things!

Can you confirm what system you’re using? Windows, Mac or Linux? And were you able to download the demo fine?

And when you say isn’t working, do you mean it just doesn’t download at all, or the game isn’t starting?

A guide'd definitely be easiest in terms of implementing at the very least--even if it was a .pdf or such!

That said, there were at least a few secrets I wanted people to discover organically first. But maybe after a bit I can reveal them if nobody has found them!

Heya there,

Thank you for your kind words and feedback!

Chapter Two is indeed very complex--far more complex than even the demo in regards to finding some h-scenes. And I suppose I never set out to make a super complicated or obtuse game, but it just sort of happened the more open things became. So a lot of scenes will definitely be missed out on a single playthrough, or even two. Which isn't ideal because naturally I'd like everyone to be able to easily see the work I put in, but it kind of just ended up being a result of the added complexity, haha. ;~;
While I'm purely focused on writing right now, I'll see what I can do to try to make searching for scenes a bit easier. But to answer a few things:

You should be able to save on a choice selection, by right clicking. And text can be rolled back to a degree with the page up and page down keys. Or even the mousewheel scroll. But I know these controls aren't stated outright and are more just built-in features of the engine I use, so will be more intuitive for some than others. Also, in the most recent builds I do have something of a system in place where dialogue choices are marked with a check as to whether you answered them or not (carrying over between saves on a global basis), and sometimes a heart if a specific choice leads to a h-scene right away--but admittedly it's not the most ideal solution either because some scenes hours down the road might only happen because of a mix of choices made rather than any one choice at a specific moment.

Beyond that, I contemplated having a hint system in the gallery, where if you click a scene that's locked it could give a hint as to what you might need to do to see it. But that's a lot of work so it's something I'd need to evaluate once the bulk of the writing is done.

I'm certainly not handwaving your concerns away though, and totally understand where you come from, because I never intended for Chapter Two to get to quite this size, and it's sort of become a victim under its own weight, haha. Because I'm very proud of everything that's in it, and the fact I've made such a long VN, but at the same time I know I'm asking a lot of people to see EVERYTHING in it, unless they're super dedicated.

Heya! Thank you for your kind words!

At the present moment in time I'm refraining from giving any solid estimates as they always backfire on me, haha, and then I only end up disappointing people. But I'm happy with where the current in-development builds are right now and should be looking at a full playable main story very soon, with just side events left to do after. Granted, a fair few of  them, but hopefully they go by faster after I've got all the most complicated stuff done!

The official Unreal Engine twitter account advertises it if that helps alleviate any concerns as to its legitimacy: https://twitter.com/UnrealEngine/status/1696583742964322475/

I can't comment on the lack of forum though, being unfamiliar with jam pages. It's possible they had it disabled due to the sheer number of people that may partake, and not being around to moderate things themselves here, so encourage people to congregate through other means.

Heya!

I believe the best advice for a first project is to start small. Go in with the intention of making something that largely exists to familiarise yourself with the tools first and foremost rather than the dream game you want to make. Because I understand how appealing that may seem at first, but as you've experienced firsthand, burnout and mental blocks can come in swift and fast and be quite demoralising.

But if you make something small and simple, like say, just a test game with a single town, a single dungeon, with limited characters, enemies and such, you'll feel quite a sense of accomplishment when it all comes together and you realise you can indeed see a project to completion.

Will the first project you make be the best thing ever? Probably not! Will it be worth publishing and putting out there? Again, probably not. (Again talking about test projects here!) But the biggest thing you'll get from it is experience. You'll be more familiar with the tools. Know what works and doesn't work. You'll be able to get more daring and expand more in future projects--and perhaps build up to making the large project of your dreams eventually.

Making an RPG, even on a small scale, is a big undertaking between balancing the mechanics, fleshing out the maps, and of course the writing. It's a loooong journey to get even a shorter RPG with a few hours of gameplay. That's why I advise the smallest scale test projects to build up confidence and not get too demoralised in case you stall out on a far larger thing from the get go.

Of course, everyone has different ways of developing that work for them--but I hope it helps at least in a small way if you're feeling lost right now and looking how best to approach things!

Heya!

The main options you have for driving traffic to your game are through making a release post in the release announcements forum (but make sure you follow the rules for how to post on there), utilising dev logs, and tagging your game correctly so that it appears in the search for those looking for those sorts of games.

Otherwise, most other traffic driven towards game pages will be external, done on social media and the like. Every game is going to have its own audience, though, and there's no sure-fire way to get eyes on it given the immense competition there is also vying for attention.

Thank you--your words of support and encouragement are just what I need right now, I think, haha. Since I definitely have my ups and downs, and want to make something enjoyed by all! And no worries at all--the thought alone is more than enough. <3

Hiya there!

If you're looking for work as an artist, you can post a thread in this forum: https://itch.io/board/10020/help-wanted-or-offered

Just be sure to read the rules there to make sure your thread fits all the guidelines!

yeah she'll do that 👻

Hiya,

Slowly chipping away on things! Some days progress is better than others and other times I'm bashing my head against the wall hoping words will come out, so it's been a challenge. Apologies for the wait. I've learned a lot of things with the development of this and will know to scale things back a lot more for future chapters, haha. ;~;

I'm not confident enough to give an estimation right now and am talking things one in development release at a time until I'll hopefully have something complete and ready to sell as a full product!

Heya! Were those purchases made before you swapped the payment mode over--as I don't think it retroactively changes how those payments were made and they're still being held by itch.io as a result, thus the need for the tax interview!

Hiya,

If you have your project in draft mode, when you view the page you'll find a 'secret' url link at the top next to the draft icon. This link can be shared with other people without making the project public, and lets them see the project page, too.

Thank you for the kind words!

And for sure, I can see how the choices would be tough, haha. Luckily you can always go back and redo things and nothing is permanent, so you get the best of all worlds~

Heya!

Nothing too extreme in that regard beyond the main character getting wrapped up in a few instances by bandages, a tail, etc. But I'm not sure it'd constitute as actual bondage, haha.

Heya,

It's my understanding that paid games can take a little while longer to be approved and indexed, especially if it's an account's first paid title. I don't believe they work on weekends either and the estimated timeframe is more for business days, so I'd say to wait an extra week or two before getting worried! Also, a lot of the estimations they have on their FAQs and such are perhaps a touch outdated and as itch.io has grown, I believe it's been taking a tiny bit longer for them to catch up on everything.

I'd like to think I can manage that at least, but I suppose I shouldn't jinx myself, haha.

And for sure--working on any one thing for a prolonged amount of time comes with its own challenges outside of just making the game. My own mental strain, disappointed people waiting for the release, and everything in between. Though I'm the most disappointed and frustrated with myself out of anyone, I think and strive to take everything I've learned into account for the next game. Since gosh have I learned a lot on this journey, haha.

Thank you once more for your continued support~

It has been a while, hasn't it? Gosh. I can only apologise for how long things have taken and hope that the game is worth the wait in the end! At the very least, you can  be rest assured that things haven't been abandoned or that I've vanished into the ether. I sometimes just struggle more days than others to get the writing where I want it, which when you factor in the huge size of the script this time around, has made for a tumultuous cycle for sure.

I've learned my lesson though and subsequent games are going to be much shorter and less ambitious. I just gotta follow through with everything I planned for this one and hope I stick the landing.

Thank you for your support and I promise your patience will be rewarded soon enough!

Heya,

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there's any one method. It's just what itch.io may decide to personally promote on a whim if it catches their eye, ranging from popular, to lesser known games.

Ah, that's fair for sure, and hopefully a solution can be found or developed for those facing the same issues as you!

I think to a degree, the site just wasn't built with these large-scale bundles in mind so potential issues do arise with large libraries and everything they entail and cracks begin to surface and that as of right now, the manpower just isn't there to develop and accommodate for it still, or the other quality of life things people have been asking for over the years. That's just my guess, though, and it could be for any number of reasons that certain requests and such aren't acted on.

You are most welcome~ Hopefully that helps you complete the gallery!