itch.io

Hi Gyblls, I'm glad you enjoyed my little VN. Thank you for leaving a comment!

Health comes first so I'm glad you and your family are well. We are often too hard on ourselves when it comes to productivity, but a hiatus is there for a good reason and you should take as much time as you need. Let's hope for a better 2026, and I'm looking forward to your new releases!

Even if Chimera Baloney's reception isn't what you had hoped for, I think it's really cool that you finished the trilogy: that we can experience the full triptych of art pieces that read deeply personal.

Good luck with your journey of learning Godot. Juggling multiple goals remains a forever challenge. I started dipping in Godot tutorials last month, but my momentum was immediately broken by a new VN project of all things. Very love/hate about it since my 2026 resolution is do anything but VN dev, lol. I don't know if you have started on Godot yet, but GDScript syntax resembles python very much (which you may recognise from Ren'Py).

No problem, it was one of these issued I noticed early on, but I considered all my projects finished because I can't afford maintaining them. It's nice to do a little problem solving once in a while and I'm glad it helped you out. 

Happy new year to you as well and good luck with developing your game!

Just noticed a typo: csp is supposed to be named cps, but it was a quick and dirty code to test if it conceptually worked. Copy-pasted the wrong name everywhere... will fix that comment later.

Hi Keinart, your suggestion is very possible. You can measure the character count of the printed dialog line with len(_last_say_what). From there I came up with an approach that supports both the original and your suggestion via a switch that looks at player settings. 

Newly added code is marked in green, blue shows edits.

- New function (you can put it anywhere) is_csp_instant_or_fast  looks at the csp the player has chosen in their preferences. 180 is just some cut-off number for what I consider fast.

- If it's 'normal csp': goes with the old way of telling when the lipflap animation should end. See the edited line in function speaker_callback.

- If it's 'fast csp': ends the animation based on dialog length. See function live2d_lip_flapping. Change the 20 value to what looks good for your animation cycle. I added this same number as a buffer to len(_last_say_what) to guarantee at last some animation even if the text is short.

Hi Feniks, super late reply to your itch comment, but I want to thank you again for your feedback on using a sine function! 💖

The following is a small guide for those who want to try out your suggestion. I played with the constants a bit and I think LIP_FLAP_SPEED_FACTOR should be set somewhere between 10.0 and 15.0. This image highlights which code parts to change.

That's very kind of you, Ratten! I'm glad it has been useful for you.

Hi Mokilil, thank you for using my code!

Are your definitions and script structured something like this? (These same lines can be used in my game project for testing)

I added spacing in the image name after "f", so you don't have to manually hide them constantly when switching to another image for the same character, but that is a matter of preference.

Maybe it's not working correctly because your ford and waynely models don't have the paramMouthOpenY parameter named the same way in their json? 

A quick-and-dirty way to fix this is put in all the available namings you have like this in the live2d_lip_flapping method (this is just the example with hiyori and Epsilon but might not be universal). All the Ren'Py versions I have tested so far allows it, even when model doesn't have a blend_parameter with a particular name. Then you can remove the param_mouth_open_y_label parts in the code too because it's redundant.

No problem! Thank you for the offer, I'll take that in consideration.

Hi DegeneRita,

Thanks for the comment. I don't maintain old code in general, so I wasn't aware that anything broke on a higher Ren'Py version.

For Ren'Py version 8.4.1 (unknown if future versions overhaul the Ren'Py class structures again) you should change this part:

live2d.name[0] into live2d.name[1]  

You don't need the print line, but I added it for debugging it in the console to see what's stored in the live2d.name. In older Ren'Py versions, I don't believe that the 'master' was there, so index 0 isn't storing the name anymore, but it's in 1 instead. In the future I'll see if there is actually a more robust way to read the name, since it was very trial and error looking how the Ren'Py code itself is structured and not necessarily things that are documented on its Live2d page.

I'm glad that this asset had been very useful to you! I don't use Live2D myself and this was just a little exercise for the jam, but it's cool to hear that people actually use it.

I'm sorry to hear about your situation and I hope it improves. Your health is most important!

I remember Manuel when he was just the unnamed pizza delivery guy from your previous game! I knew I was in for a ride and really digging the humour this time as well, made me laugh several times.  I really like Belle's personality and the guys are funny too. 

Definitely looking forward to the full game to see more interactions with the cast (and Belle succeeding to pay her rent, making money is hard... T_T)!  

Thank you for leaving such a kind comment, nihomi! 

I've taken a break from the project so that I can reevaluate what I want to do with it and get a better idea of what needs to be overhauled. Still need to update the game page because right now it's misleading (for multiple reasons) and it sounds as if I'm trying to finish it for the SuNoFes jam that's currently running. That I already know is certainly not true, haha.

I absolutely love this microfiction VN series! The concept of alternate / parallel universe romance and remembering details of it while the current you cannot be with that person is something I've always found intriguing. 

You present it beautifully with poetic prose that is accompanied by gorgeous painterly storybook CGs: it has that feeling of watching life unfold as a bittersweet nostalgic movie. The minimality of the specific lines that are spoken by the characters leaves a strong impression too, makes you really linger on that specific memory. 

Is there also a part 3? (I can't find it on the jam page).

Hi, thank you for playing my game!

To answer your question, there is only one ending, and the novelist always responds the same way. Basically it doesn't matter at all what you write in the text box. It's only a bit of a meta thing that you can put in your thought for roleplaying (and I can't see what you wrote anyway). This was made for a special VN jam that every word in the story script counts towards the 1000 words limit, so instead of letting the player pick a response from predefined options like what you normally have in an IF/VN, I wanted to do something different to bypass the restriction.

Hi, thank you so much for leaving such a nice comment! 

Yes, the flower button is quite too hidden... I realised. 😅 I wanted it to be hidden for the first-time player so I made it to look as if it's an illustration that is part of the GUI overlay (it had been a lesson for me to telegraph these things better when I make a new game, whenever I go outside the box of standard Ren'Py VN UI). Not clicking the button leads to the generic ending, and the idea was that you try to figure out from there how to get to the other endings.

There are some extra instructions in the "Help" screen. The "Endings" screen should also keep track for you which story parts you've already seen.

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the game. 😊

Hi Eggs, the documentation for Ren'Py imagebutton is on this page: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/screens.html#imagebutton

You supply a different image for each state, and when that button is in a particularly state, Ren'Py automatically looks up the correct image under that name.

You don't need an image for all the states, if that state is not used.

- selected is only relevant if you use the button like a toggle.

- insensitive is for when there are times the button is disabled.

I had these in my project in game/gui/button folder, and I tried to match them by each quick menu button type with a different colour.

(The delete button set isn't part of the quick buttons, but I already marked it in the image. You can ignore it.)

I don't know if it helps but I tend to do a 'Force Recompile' before running a project.

Thank you for playing "The Snowperson" and leaving a comment! I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it, but unfortunately this VN project is cancelled. The story may continue in a different game format, but it depends on my schedule for next year and there are other projects I want to finish first. 

This project is fairly old and there's probably code I could write differently, though I don't revisit old stuff (so many new project ideas and not enough time). Regardless, I'm very happy it had been helpful to you and thank you for crediting me!

Yes, it's probably not a thing that players are cautious about, usually the worst you get is a broken link to a non-existing page. When you wrote your comment I was also suddenly thinking about whether displaying @handlename could have been alternative for the label, but a player might not recognise it as a clickable link. Not to mention, there are so many Twitter alternatives nowadays and a handle wouldn't be clear which site it represents. So your way of doing with "Twitter" as label is still the most common and intuitive for an average Ren'Py player as other devs do it the same way as well from what I've seen.

I wish you all the success for finishing your game!

Hi, I'm glad you managed to find the solution after all! What you do is indeed correct.

I wrote the code that the 'label' and 'url' both show the same value 'url' because in Ren'Py you can't see the link where you're going to be redirected to unlike a browser, so for someone who doesn't want to click on a link they don't trust they can at least type it manually. Admittedly, it's not exactly pleasing for the UI, or it can take a lot of space too.

Thank you for such kind words, Jaylus! I have a soft spot for the literal nobodies and unimportant background characters in a story. To be honest, I only discovered them by chance through lore research and it's somehow mind-blowing to me that there are so many more deities we rarely hear of.

Thank you again for hosting the jam. It's been a very fascinating experience for me. I never do game mockup art and this turned out to be more challenging than I thought. I usually start with the code and figure out the look and actual game by trial and error (depending on the type of game, sometimes I also write an informal design document first) and art tends to be last in pipeline to replace the placeholders. I design the visuals around the limitations of my own skills to what extend I can implement within a game engine. 

I wanted to draw action screenshots that look as if they are straight out of a game, but I spent too much time tweaking the outfits and didn't reserve enough time to think about the main content and GUI elements. When I had to pick what I want to finish before submission date, I went for a dedicated itch cover because for playable jam submissions I'd never been able to make one that is not composed of reused assets. At least the character designs are definitive and will serve as reference for hypothetical future in-game models, which again will be simplified a bit. I'm going for the miniature house fairy vibes as shown on the cover - tiny gods in the metaphorical and literal sense - and the non-chibi proportions are how they looked in the past. I don't know when I'll update the page with more content and it's probably not soon, but I hope to come back to this project someday.

Do you mean force-shrink the menu hamburger at certain story moments (f.e. CGs)? quick_menu_is_open is a newly added Ren'Py variable, so you should be able to easily control its value in Ren'Py scripts where you want it to happen.

Force shrink hamburger:

$ quick_menu_is_open = False

Force open hamburger:

$ quick_menu_is_open = True 

---

Or if you mean hiding everything that has to do with quick menu buttons.

The big button's visibility is controlled by the quick_menu variable (I kept the same name as Ren'Py's default), and right now the 6 quick buttons are separate from this. This is my first project and it's been ages, but I've now rechecked and notice that it is a bit of oversight to not write the following check in screen quick_buttons() in the following way:

if quick_menu_is_open and quick_menu:

 By applying this change, then you can use these following statements.

Force hide quick buttons:

$ quick_menu = False

Force show quick buttons:

$ quick_menu = True

So exciting to see that the development is going well for you! Can't wait to see the final conclusion(s). This almost feel like an end of an era, wow, still a bit strange to sink in.

Ahahaha, here comes that person who is only allowed to pick Neutral Epilogue. But I'm not even upset if that's the fate for Iggy in my OW savefile. 😆 There's something authentic about playing VNs with the first run not even targeting a specific ending and just let the flow take you. I think that it gives the extra personal touch for each player that  you have your 'own' unique journey. Don't worry, I'm a completionist and would replay VNs to see everything the dev has to offer, but I still have an extra soft spot for the first run.

Congratulations with the huge achievement! 🥳 I just downloaded the newest update. I caught up with Part Two of "Quaint" last month, and I'm super looking forward to see the Masquerade Ball and all the different conclusions play out. Since I'm not used to tackling VNs of this size, I probably have to pick a nice quiet month to marathon through it all instead of jumping right into it so soon.

Yes, you should first refer to the official Ren'Py documentation for how to customise the GUI: https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/gui.html#colors-fonts-and-font-sizes. I checked again and I haven't overwritten the default fontcolours in the extra styles I've defined so what you see are the default values defined in your project's gui.rpy.

Yes, go ahead. I'm glad it could be useful to you. Have a nice day too!

Thank you for leaving such a nice comment, TheHolyDyntan! Don't worry about sharing your thoughts, I love reading about theories from other people, especially when they contain so much details.

Not to mention that a few days ago I just told someone how I got a DevLog draft that remains unfinished, but this is the perfect timing to share some of my old thoughts regarding the inspirations. I think that would give better idea about the lore. At the same time I don't want to enforce specific interpretations, when this is a standalone short story that is more reliant on the player to fill in the gaps.

- You weren't completely wrong about 'Ghost'. While it is indeed about ghosting, I also wanted to add some ambiguity to the ending title. Evelyn isn't a literal ghost, but I envisioned her to be a metaphorical spectre for taking on Eva's appearance who is important in Suzanne's memory, so she's haunting her and also vanishes as easily. For that reason the story does allude her to have a ghostly quality (before you posted this comment, I had actually made a Halloween art of Evelyn that can be found on my social media, and that she probably should dress up as a ghost). I took inspiration from "Silent Hill 2" where you have James who receives a letter from his late wife Mary and then he meets Maria in the town Silent Hill who looks like Mary who died from a disease, but she has a different dress style, so who is Maria really? (I won't say much more about that game, because I always end up spoiling too much) However what I can say about my own VN is that I wanted to go for a direction where the actual reveal is surprisingly mundane slice-of-life and the spookier parts are only to mislead.

- I would say that 'Elope' probably is canon that if I made a sequel, which I have no plans for though. I would continue from this point because the other endings don't really lead anywhere. Back then while writing I didn't necessarily saw 'Elope' as the true ending, but that has more to do with my pet peeves and wondering if the romance plotline went too fast. To justify it that it's not that quick, I like to think that they already formed a close bond from previous text conversations, and Evelyn might not trust Suzanne completely yet however she feels obliged to keep her safe. I'm perhaps one of these unusual VN players who don't always see the romantic ending as the best ending. However while playtesting my own game, I had the suspicion that 'Elope'-line would have the highest probability to be the last ending the player encounters, so I caved in to make them get closer to each other because it somehow felt right as a final. I should note that conceptually it wasn't originally labelled as a romance story. Yes, they're lesbians on a date... but they don't have to end up together, so I thought.

- It's not elaborated on what the flower is because there wasn't a lot of space in O2A2 VN Jam so I just kept it vague. I won't lie that I wasn't thinking about battle shounens like "Hunter x Hunter" and "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", because I'm a sucker for the genre and ESP as power system in general: in particular the videogame "The World Ends With you" (TWEWY) which I also drew inspiration from. So I pictured the lily to be something that physically doesn't exist, but it also isn't visible to other espers, so it's only within Suzanne's mind as a representation of her power.

Since I wanted to write a story in a style that is majorly tailored for a queer female audience (or anyone that enjoys that genre) - I was in the josei mood even though the jam wasn't up - I would feature slightly different story beat than what's appealing in shounen with the life-or-death struggles/stakes where combatants may try to kill each other. To reflect that, the espers in 'Faceless Date' only meet up to get more information out from each other, and leave if it gets too dangerous, no blood drawn. Suzanne doesn't know this, she only wants to impress her date even though she does find Evelyn a bit odd. 😂 Evelyn initially wants to know if Suzanne is the dangerous type of esper and sets up the date, but at the same time she's also quite attached to Suzanne or definitely feels sorry for her, so she's forcing herself to act detached in some of the endings.

I also don't know how Evelyn's powers work exactly, but you are correct that she couldn't show photos of herself because her real appearance doesn't resemble Eva, and with the long distance she can't channel Suzanne's energy. I had a tragic element planned for Evelyn that she can't pick her own appearance (unfortunate characters who get powers that are detrimental have always intrigued me), so it is Suzanne broadcasting on Evelyn when she is close to her.

Evelyn is extra tuned towards perceiving the flow of ESP energy, but she cannot see what information is stored in people's thoughts. When Suzanne is mindreading, unbeknownst to her, some of other espers can tell she's sucking in the thoughts of people around them. I think it makes most sense that Suzanne's lily is not visible to Evelyn, because Evelyn would definitely stop Suzanne from overexerting herself. I totally haven't fleshed out the details of the other espers, so it's a bit difficult to write about it. Evelyn might be from a group with more espers in it? Although I can also see myself change this detail if I redo the lore for a hypothetical sequel. What's true though is that she has her powers for far longer than Suzanne.

The 'broadcasters' are the scary espers who have control over destructive telekinesis, pyrokinesis and the such. Both Suzanne and Evelyn are the typical support type protagonists and would be horribly matched if they ever cross paths with them. Although I rather not think about it, I prefer to let Suzanne and Evelyn have a peaceful life than turn it into some horror story. 😭

- The only little bit of information you get about Eva is if you picked "A bizarro coincidence". Eva was Suzanne's first girlfriend in high school and Eva broke up with Suzanne. They went apart soon after that and right now Eva is living a normal life somewhere else. The car accident should occur later. Suzanne's attachment to Eva is meant to be disproportionate, somewhat petty even. I wanted to write it as an aspect of oneself might find extremely unflattering and do not want to admit to it, yet at the same time it's difficult to let some feelings go that are insignificant if you look at it rationally. I wanted Eva to be a tie in to show what person Suzanne is and why she would develop mindreading abilities, granted it happens magically, but say you're not picking your superpowers by choice but it magically forms based on your personality? It's left up to the player to interpret if the powers are a negative side of said perosn or just a neutral facet of them. Evelyn is not judging Suzanne for this. She also has her own insecurities that are not revealed in the story.

Thank you for making the tools and writing the Ren'Py tutorials! The tutorials contain a lot of useful information that is not easily found when you only read the official Ren'Py documentation. A lot of times you can eventually get code to work but not understanding why it works or whether it is even implemented efficiently.

This is such a great Spooktober VN entry that got everything you could ask for in the spooky season with the right balances and cohesiveness! It got the cute moments and sweet romance, interspersed with tragedy and heavier serious topics like abuse by parent, and surprisingly suspenseful moments that are straight out of the horror genre.

The sprites and CGs look very good with the face animations and cinematic camera movements. The creepy SFX and panning when traversing the house are very much appreciated as a horror movie fan (staircase scene is so tense).

I absolutely enjoy the theme of how ghosts and regrets are portrayed - I won't say more about this because it's better left for players to experience it on their own - which makes for a touching tearjerker of a ride. 

Thank you for your comment! I'm glad you find it helpful.

I wanted to post a long-form comment/review because I had a lot of thoughts on this, but then I would postpone writing that out even more, so here's the summary version of it.

This is a very thought-provoking VN on a difficult subject material and handles it with care. I like to look at how VNs are structured, what choices do and what endings you get from them.

What I appreciate in this VN is the element of inevitability: the format is that it mainly has one consistent flow for the main story, but your choices lead to a different finale and epilogue showing a snippet of Chloe's life as an adult. Regardless of Chloe how feels towards her teacher, whether she as a teenager is 'blind' to the statutory rape or she is fully aware that she is uncomfortable with the inappropriateness, it has the message that both are equally valid reactions to abuse and it avoids any form of victim blaming. Very often I see the former getting lambasted as someone being stupid for not realising, because 'if they acted differently, every bad thing would be avoided', when it's the abuser who should get all blame.

Stylistically I enjoy the art style a lot and the visual effects that make you very uncomfortable when it gets to the dark scenes.

Small note: Lucie's clown nose is my favourite sprite!

Thank you for such a lovely comment, Cerise Makes! I'm glad you enjoyed my game's mechanic and that you found it work well as an O2A2 entry. I loved hearing your thoughts. I'll try to respond to each of your words.

The background art could be more detailed, but at some point my drawing hand was probably crying so I rushed the bookstore design a bit, and it means a lot that the energy still came across. I wasn't sure if Evelyn dressed cottagecore enough because I'm not the most knowledgeable about fashion, but I wanted her to look a little bit 'extra' so that you can tell that she's a main character of a story despite the somewhat plainness. I probably should thank 'Blossom VN Jam' for everything related to the art and setting! Because every time I'm stuck with what idea to pick, I do the 'let's think about flowers' trick and let that guide me. 😆

About the world-building, sadly enough I wrote myself a bit in the corner that I didn't plan far ahead. Therefore it's written as if there would be a sequel, however it's self-contained. A lot of times, players have better ideas of how to fill in what happens next.

Concerning the dialogue boxes, this VN was made before the balloon feature was officially available Ren'Py 8, so two textbox locations were defined depending who is speaking. It's far easier to achieve the effect nowadays, and I really recommend you to play with the balloon feature. Can't wait to see what effects you create with it!

The loading screen is a new addition that is edited from the Thank You art mentioned in one of the devlogs. I'm happy you like the cycling little Evelyn. ☺️

I played your game and it oozes style in all ways! Graphically with the changing colours and the use of geometric shapes for VFX. I wasn't expecting the car by the end of one ending and my mind was blown trying to decipher how the panelling effect is created. Or how you show rain with primal shapes. You can totally feel the noir throughout the entire prose and Tabetha plays the femme fatale role perfectly. I found the writing quite refreshing because I don't see VNs often in this style. I love the mysterious jazzy piano music that really immerses you as if you're sitting in the bar with Lara (I love her bob cut design and how her sprite depicts her side-profile). Every element together makes it a very fulfilling package!

Thanks for leaving  a comment BakaHentai! This was made for a minimalism VN jam and I wanted a different outcome if you/Suzanne acted differently hence there are multiple endings to reflect that. Due to the 1000-word limit a lot of the endings are written a bit open-ended, but the main purpose is to get to know the characters a bit better by revealing different information about them. 

Thank you for your kind comment! :D

This is a poem with a very important reminder on the treatment of transgender people, and hopefully more see this and reflect on the state of the world and what they can do about it. I like the addition of choice options and the finale is truly impactful. 

Thank you for your playing my VN and leaving this kind comment, Naarel! I'm glad you enjoyed the Lily Mechanic and overall package. I had brainstormed on the rough concept of the VN in advance, but it was a little bit of a gamble doing jam projects like this as it depends on whether the code I come up in jam period will play out the same as sketched in the game design. I finished the story script first with the expectation that everything goes right, and in the worst case I would have the entire plot unfold with normal choice buttons and redo the story to have that flow nicely, but luckily it's straightforward that everything can be accomplished with default Ren'Py elements like buttons, screen logic, and some variables.