Credits are on the game page, but I'm just putting them here as well out of paranoia, haha. They might be easier to read here too I guess since there's a lot of text on the game page >.<

[TEAM]

Writing + OST + Directing + Created by Melancholy Marionette

Concept + Sprite + CG + Background + UI + Logo & Page Art by Lazy Polar Bear

CG Art by NeonSaphir / Xavier

CG Art by Violora

Sprite Art by Polaris

Sprite Sketches by Apririnn

Editing/Proofreading by Myonette (a sentient jar)

Ren'Py Extras by Lanae

[CAST]

Suoni V Linnet -  (masculine voice) Ryan X. Messcher

Suoni V Linnet - (feminine voice) sir samgrace

Rhime Gant -  (masculine voice) Philip Kraaijenhof

Rhime Gant - (feminine voice) Emilie Brewer

Simon -  Meg TheLovableDork

Narrator & Misc -  Dominic Devlin

Yay! That’s my personal favourite too x3 And very interesting that it’s a rare thing to find :o Tbh, I would like to explore it more at some point! And I’d gladly read anything you wrote that explored it too cos it’s a fun one to deal with, haha.

Sorry I’m so slow to reply btw, I have kind of been doing the ol’ hyperfocus for Spooktober Jam this month x3 I even named the project Tunnel Vision xD Did it for a number of reasons, but partly cos bits of it represent my inability to approach jams in a healthy manner, haha.

Glad you think so about the music! I’ve also done a full original soundtrack for the spooktober project that I’ll hopefully be able to release later today, and the soundtrack for it was probably the most fun I’ve had yet making an ost ^-^ I pretty much poured my entire soul into it, haha.

Thanks for your kindness and awesomeness in general <3

Sorry for my slow reply >.< I’ve been laser-focused on spooktober jam this month, so I’ve fallen really far behind on my replies in general 🙁

Thanks so much for playing it! And I’m really glad you had fun with it :3

Sorry I’m so slow to reply >.< Just been super-focused on Spooktober Jam this month x3 It wasn’t the wisest idea to do O2A2 and then go straight into prep for Spooktober without a break, but there ya go xD Hoping to release the project later today though, so the main thing is we made it :D 

Thanks so much for playing this one too! ^-^ Really glad you had fun with it and it means a lot that you like the OST! Working with the voice actors on this one was so great that I asked them both if they wanted to team up for Spooktober as well, and we did, hehe.

Hooray for jam :P

Thanks for always being so awesome <3

So glad you liked it! Thank you so much for taking the time to check it out and leave such a sweet comment <3

Woo! I love that you describe it as trippy, hehe. Tbh, a lot of the weird mechanics and stuff were just me experimenting with how far I could push the limitations and cheeky exceptions within the jam rules, haha.

I did kinda wonder if the sections of repeated dialogue would become tedious >.< But I wanted to try it out cos the rules stated you could repeat blocks of text via code and they wouldn’t count towards the total word limit. When I finished the script, I realised it was sort of possible to chop up a lot of the dialogue an rearrange it while still having it make some kind of sense xD So I thought, screw it, let’s see if we can do something with this, haha.

I know some people have said they found it quite irritating, and I can’t say I blame them xD But I’m glad that other, like yourself, found it interesting in some way :3

It was certainly an honour to get to work with such talented voice actors! They were so brilliant to work with that I asked them both if they would team up with me for spooktober jam this month :D So both of them are voice the masculine and feminine voice options for one of the characters in my spooktober game that I hope to release later today ^-^ They’re both doing different sorts of voices, so it’s pretty fun to hear how versatile they are!

I’m a happy bunny to get a chef’s kiss, haha. That means a lot! I hope you ended up having fun with the other endings too ^-^ Thanks so much for playing!

Hehe :3

Aww, that means a lot <3 I’m such a sucker for atmosphere in stuff, so it makes me a very happy bunny to hear that I managed to make a decent one for this :3 Especially when it was under such restrictive circumstances, haha. I was really worried the whole thing would wind up coming off as kinda empty and hollow with all the restrictions and such!

And I’m so glad you like the soundtrack too ^-^ It was sooo much fun to make!

Thank YOU for playing it and taking the time to write up such a kind comment :3

Waaaaah! Thank youuu <3 I haven’t had a chance to watch your video yet cos I’ve been laser-focused on Spooktober Jam and hope to release the project for that later today, but I will absolutely be watching it as soon as I can cos you’re just pure awesome ^-^

So glad you enjoyed this one anyhow!

Why, hello again! Fancy seeing you here :P Thanks so much for playing this one too! ^-^

Hehe, weeeeeeeeeeeeeell, if you liked Philip’s epic voice acting… guess what… you can hear him again as the masculine voice for Rhime in my Spooktober jam project that I’m hoping to release later today :D In fact, Emilie is in there too playing feminine Rhime :P They were both so brilliant to work with on The Hostage that I asked them both if they would be up for joining a team for Spooktober ^-^

And yeah, I did FINALLY finish FE3H, haha. Well, I didn’t do the church route yet still, but from what I understand, it’s pretty similar to Golden Deer, so I’m hopefully not missing out on too much overall! I absolutely loved it <3 Now I need to play the warriors version + engage! As much as I loved Jeritza though, I still ended up finding Hubert more attractive xD If only he wasn’t so obsessed with Edel, haha.

So glad you think so! Thanks so much for playing this one as well <3 And that means a heck of a lot regarding the soundtrack! I don’t really get all that much feedback on my original soundtracks compared to other aspects of my projects, but attempting to make them brings me so much joy, haha. I’d like to hope I’ve improved since I started trying to work on music!

Actually, I’ve made a complete OST for the spooktober jam project I’ve been working on throughout September, and I feel genuinely proud of it, haha. I reckon it might be my most cohesive one so far in the sense that it sounds like a proper score or something rather than just a bunch of random tracks thrown together! I tried to link a lot of the tracks together with repeating motifs and stuff like I did with the one for The Hostage, but I feel like it comes across better in this Spooktober project with it being a longer game that required more tracks :3

That’s nuts to me that you’d have the Bitter/Sweet tracks playing like that, but I’m extremely honoured ^-^ Your comment as a whole almost brought me to tears of joy x3 I just really love trying to make soundtracks, haha, so it means a lot that you’d think so highly of them <3 I love it so much that I kind of wish I could do it as a job or something, haha. I’m also kind of exhausted from taking on so much work for spooktober jam, and was thinking that maybe next year, rather than leading a project, I might just try and join a team as a composer instead! I dunno if anyone would want me though, haha.

Hehe, believe me, I couldn’t get that damn wah ba baduh outta my head xD I both loathe and love it at the same time! It felt like a perfect fit for the scene though x3 I’ve made 2 vocal tracks for the spooktober project that aren’t as catchy as that one, but hopefully still decent! It’s an opening and ending theme, and I actually like them more than any of the other vocal tracks I’ve made so far! I also made a track that was ridiculously fun to work on, but when I played it to my brother, his only comment was, why does it sound like the Pirates of the Caribbean have gone to an EDM rave? xD It fits the scene though, damn it x3 Hoping to release the project later today anyhow!

But yeah, thank you for all your kind words! It really means a lot :3

Cheers, I appreciate that! Making my own soundtracks for my projects is actually one of my favourite parts of gamedev though, so I wouldn’t really want to give it up x3 I’m happy to work on collaboration tracks though!

Woo! So glad you enjoyed it ^-^ Thanks for playing it! Hehe, I’m such a sucker for bloopers, I honestly wish everything came with bloopers xD I find my rambles so cringy x3 but as long as at least 1 person gets something out of em, I’ll keep recording em, haha.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply >.< Just been mega-focused on this year’s spooktober jam, haha. Hoping to release the project later today :3

Yeeeeah, I think SR is probably my longest game, which is silly since it was the first one I ever made xD That was such a stupid thing to do and I almost quit multiple times, haha. That’s interesting that you’re not an anime fan, but I’m glad you’ve still been able to enjoy some of my stuff despite it sharing that sorta art style :3 I do think it’s cool when visual novels step away from that anime sorta art style though cos it’s nice to see the different types of art out there!

I listened to the song, and I like the lyrics a lot :D It’s very dark and poetic!

Tbh, I’m not sure what made me come up with the name Castor at the time xD

Usually, I spend ages thinking of suitable names, and often my characters are named for pretty specific reasons with meanings behind the names or their names representing things, but with Castor and Castoria, it was just one of those weird ones where for some reason, I had it in my head without looking at anything and just rolled with it xD

Some people have since told me that Castor means some pretty funny things in other languages, haha. That would be pretty cool though if it happens to be a toxic plant though cos, as you say, it would be quite suitable :D

It’s possible it might be in the very far away future, but definitely not anytime soon since Steam charge a $100 fee to add games there >.<

QwanGetMad is right though, you shouldn’t need any kinda dodgy programs to open the game :3

Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be much point in me making a browser version, as the game is too large for it to possibly run smoothly on a browser :(

Your English is fantastic! I’d never have guessed it wasn’t your first language :3 I’m so glad you like the game so far even though there’s not much there yet. I’m a big yandere fan myself, which is why most of my games have at least 1 yandere character in 😛

Aww, that means a heck of a lot! Thank you so much for playing + being so sweet <3

If I knew Python, I’d use Ren’Py, but I don’t x3 so I’d have to learn that first, and I did try to years ago and hated it, which is why I wound up using Tyranobuilder, then Naninovel instead T_T

It is a massive dick move what Unity are planning to do, but afaik, it’s not actually likely to ever impact me from what I understand anyhow. Cos the way my brother explained it when he first told me about it, it sounds like the fees only come into play when you have X number of installs + X number of sales/revenue, and that you have to meet both to get hit with the fees. 

I honestly can’t see my projects ever reaching anything close to the cap for installs or revenue, haha. I mean, I have no way of keeping track of installs, but across all my projects across all time, I don’t even have a fraction of the downloads mentioned. 

I just checked out their docs on it again, and it seems they’ve updated it even further to not include folks using Unity personal, which is what I use. And the figures say $1,000,000 revenue and 1,000,000 engagements… neither of which I imagine I would reach in my lifetime xD I’m only on 150k downloads across all my projects over all time.

That’s so sweet of you to say :3 I really appreciate your kind words a patience <3

That’s totally understandable :3 I mean, I personally don’t tend to play demos at all, regardless of the state they’re in, haha. I just find it kind of annoying to only be able to play part of a game knowing I’ll have to play a section again if I play the full release! If I like the look of something, I’ll just wait until it’s finished. There are a couple of reasons why the demo is the way it is, but I’ve spoken about them before in previous comments, so I’ll try not to ramble too much >.<

The first one is that all those dead ends do go somewhere in my working copy, and it was easier to just block players from accessing them than create a separate version with all the branches entirely removed because, at the time, I didn’t have any space left on my hard drive and no alternative devices to create copies/backups on x3

And the second reason was kinda to take some of the pressure to respond to certain things off of myself a bit because a lot of people seemed to be under the impression after seeing Manly’s video of the old jam version of the game that the thing is entirely about Castor/ia, which it isn’t >.< It’s just that, at the time, I was working on the project for a jam that only lasts 1 month, and so I needed to create something that was self-contained enough to submit by the jam deadline while also keeping it open to continue later on.

I was being bombarded with questions about whether or not there was more to come for Castor/ia or if everything in Manly’s video was it. The jam version just didn’t reflect how I intend the project to be overall, so I tried to give a better idea of the direction I hoped to take it in by doing a UI overhaul, showing the beginning of how the personality system works, and showing that there is

A: More to Castor/ia’s story + B: Other branches available that are unrelated to Castor/ia.

I can totally see how it would be annoying to keep getting hit with dead end options though! But for me personally, it has saved me a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again by having the current demo out there x3 If you’re interested in seeing the self-contained version, the original jam version of the game is still available to download on the page for posterity.

So glad you had fun with it ^-^ And I’m happy you liked the balloon game cos that was soooo much fun to make, haha. And yay for shenanigans :P

Sorry I’m so slow to reply btw >.< Just been super focused on Spooktober Jam, haha.

Thanks so much for playing this one :3

I’m not sure I understand >.<

<3 Glad to hear it! Thanks so much for playing ^-^

Honestly, it’s been so long since I made this game that I can’t remember if there’s a hint anywhere x3 But I can give you one :3 It’s basically the name that the entity refers to you by!

If you didn’t catch it though, I’ll write it further down in this comment! Thanks so much for playing btw <3

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

As far as I can remember, it should be: Anathema

xD

Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I’ve just been mega-focused on this year’s spooktober VN jam! Hoping to release the project later today :3

Hmm, tbh, it’s so long since I made it that I couldn’t say for sure xD Especially since I don’t know what’s allowed and what isn’t on different streaming platforms >.<

It doesn’t have any sexual content in it, I know that much! But there is some gory/bloody imagery! I’m glad you like it anyhow :3

You can listen to the soundtrack on YouTube now if you want to :3

x3 well, I’m glad you had fun with it ^-^ Thanks for checking it out!

Hehe, that’s great to hear you’ve ended up falling for the yanderes :P I was like that too when I first got into VNs and came across them, haha. But man, that’s so sweet of you to say about this project! I feel like it’s not worthy, but thank you so much and I’m really glad you’ve enjoyed what’s there of it so far ^-^ Pretty much all of my projects have at least 1 yandere in, haha. Not all of em, but most of em. And even the ones without yanderes still have creepy characters instead xD

That’s awesome to hear you like the choices/personality system too :3 It’s something I’m hoping to keep expanding with the project so that everything adds up to different consequences to reflect all the choices made. I’m so glad you say it’s enjoyably confusing, haha. I find it confusing myself xD but it was kind of the point to make it more difficult to keep track of choices, sort of forcing players to pick on the spot just going by their instinct at the time. I realise that a system like that must also be frustrating for some players though + makes it quite hard to follow a guide and see all possibilities too >.<

Unfortunately, it’s gonna take me years to finish it for a whole number of reasons, but I’m determined to get there eventually :3 Thanks so much for checking it out and taking the time to type up such kind words! I really appreciate the support <3

Unfortunately, the inner circle of the Masked Marionette is currently experiencing some difficulties among the high-ranking members, so all new invitations and activities are on hold for now. Invitations will resume once things have calmed down :3 

I’d like to try and get the game to have as many language options available as possible :3

So if I can manage to have a Chinese language version, that would be brilliant!

However, that will probably only be for the full game release, which is a very long way off, so it’s going to take a lot of time to actually finish the game first >.<

Aww, thanks for playing both versions :3 I’m glad you like the look of where it’s going! Unfortunately, the full game is still a heck of a long way off, but I’ll get there eventually x3 Thanks so much for the support <3

Aww, well, hopefully, it managed to meet your expectations! x3

Really glad you like the voice acting :3 Both VAs are sensational in this ^-^

Hope you have fun with it <3

Hehe, glad you like those sorts of small details :D I find that type of stuff so satisfying, haha.

And I’m really glad you loved the game as well ^-^ especially considering it’s the one I personally hate the most out of everything I’ve made x3 I’m really surprised you liked it enough to come back to it again, but that’s brilliant <3 

Thanks so much for playing it + for being so sweet :3

Glad you enjoyed the game and thanks so much for playing <3

I used to include resolution options in my projects, but I stopped for the most recent couple of releases just because no matter what I did, the UI always seemed to be messed up one way or another in any other resolution than the one I designed it in :( haha. Which is weird because there’s a setting that’s supposed to make it auto-scale. That did sort of work in some ways, but never perfectly, so I figured it was better to just force one resolution than have options where it’s messed up >.< The problem is, I’m not a coder, so I don’t know how to fix these things T_T haha.

Sorry x3 I was really short on time when I finished up this one, haha. I was an idiot for trying to make 2 games for 1 jam >.< and I will never be attempting that ever again, haha. I managed to ramble for DotD, but there was just no time left to do much for the extras of this one cos I finished it second x3

Oh, boy, well, thank you so much for playing so much of my stuff <3 That must’ve taken a while to go through even if a lot of them are quite short, haha. 

Glad you managed to get all the CGs in the end and that you had fun with it despite the frustration x3 

Hehe, yeah, it was quite a big team for this one because there was so much needed for art assets and so many voices for all the characters :D We worked our butts off to get it done in time for the end of the jam, but it was a real blast to work on! Definitely more fun than working solo for sure ^-^

That’s very considerate of you about spoilers :3 And man, that’s insane that you managed to do it all without the walkthrough x3 I probably wouldn’t even be able to do that myself xD

Thank you so much again for being so amazing ^-^

So glad you like this one ^-^ It’s one of the ones that doesn’t get many downloads >.< haha. Which sucks cos the team and I worked our asses off to get it made in time for the end of the jam!

Yeah, I was in the process of learning German as a beginner, so I thought it would be cool to try and include some in the game :D Sadly, I’ve since put learning on hold cos I reached a bit of a brick wall in terms of not being able to afford the rest of the lessons >.< haha. I hope to go back to it someday though :3 

And honestly, it brings a big smile to my face that you noticed the Rammstein lyrics :D All of my games have random song lyrics in them somewhere, but it’s very rare that anyone actually recognises them, haha. So it’s really cool that you did!

And you’re right, it was actually the Rammstein song Heirate Mich that partially inspired the story for this project :3 I’d been to see them twice during the summer that year, so I was a bit obsessed xD Got mixed feelings about em now with all the controversy >.<

Also, good luck with the German :3 Hope you make it further than I did! Haha.