itch.io

This is the kind of project I've always wished to make, but never had the courage for. Stay strong, my friend.

Hi, thank you so much <3

I'm glad you enjoyed the game! I'm really happy with my decision to re-release it with the recent patch, there may be more in the future but for now I'm busy finishing another project and also trying to get by in university, so there's a lot of my mind.

If you'd like to support my work, don't forget to give the game a rating on Itch (upper right corner of the game's page), it helps to promote it to more people.

That depends on what you mean by that. As for content warnings, you have descriptions of domestic abuse, sexual violence, self-harm, suicide, all sorts of dark themes that you might expect in a horror game. The reason why I hesitate to call it strictly 18+ is because there's no nudity and no realistic gore shown or really described in detail. But I would say due to the disturbing themes alone, player discretion is definitely advised. If you aren't sure about the content, feel free to download the demo before playing the paid build - there's a full list of content warnings at the start and you can get a feel for the general atmosphere of the game.

That said I started developing this game at age 15 so I'm not gonna police anyone, but definitely be careful if any of these themes might be triggering for you. 

Hi hi, thank you <3

I'm glad you liked the demo, there's a lot more content in this most recent build. It's great to serve as an inspiration for other projects, can't wait to see what you come up with!

Could you contact me on Discord (.vviktor369) or in Twitter DMs (@navypink_dev)? I  would love to answer all your questions, but don't want to crowd the comment section too much.

Because the game prioritizes patient routes when determining your route, it first checks if you've spent at least two session with each of them (or you get fired), and if there's any one you've spent five sessions with (because that's the one whose route you're getting). If you still haven't gotten fired and don't have a route, the game checks the conditions for Dr. Sharpe's route, which is an equal amount of sessions spent with each patient during week 1 (3 each, including their introduction on Monday) and getting a good "score" during the job interview (so if he says "It has been a pleasure" at the end before dismissing you). You know you're on his route if he asks to follow you outside after the Friday event - then all you have to say is "I don't mind" and you're good. Hopefully that helped, I might put together a "How to get on each route" walkthrough to spare people the frustration of getting stuck on week 1 (instead of getting stuck later on, when the stakes are higher >:) ).

No problem!

The game was in development for about 4.5 years before its cancellation, so there was a lot of time to implement branching paths, minigames, etc (sadly not enough to actually finish it). I'm currently finalizing another project, after which I might do another small update to Absolution similar to Patch C.1, but we'll see.

Thank you for your support and I hope you have fun exploring all the different paths.

The game is updated for PC right now so feel free to download the new version.

Oh boy, hang on

Fixing this one rn, will update the game with the fix soon

(You can also go back to the patients' rooms hallway, go through the doors with the scary words written on them until you find an axe, pick it up, return to the room with the cupboard and the window and smash the window to skip the puzzle involving the cloth and newspaper, but it comes with a sanity penalty so be careful since it might be near-impossible to make it to the end of the build with that outcome)

Also, thank you for the kind word, I'm glad you're enjoying the game ~

I fixed it, but it will probably take another ~1-1.5 hour for the new build to compile and upload.

Following some investigation, this issue seems to be exclusive to Dr. Sharpe's route. I'm not sure what's causing it yet since it's quite a baffling one, but while I'm fixing it, feel free to try the other routes - they work just fine as far as I can tell.

That is extremely strange, will investigate and update the game once it's fixed

Thank you <3
There was a longer paid build up on itch for a while, but I took it down after I stopped working on the game because I didn't want people to buy it thinking that it would be finished and then be disappointed in the incomplete product. I might republish it at some point, though.

Thank you <3
I took it down for a while so it's really surprising to see new people finding it after all this time.

Yeah, that's the idea. Feel free to hit me up any time, after today I should be fairly free.

Oh, that's very kind of you. I would be open to doing something to make up for the lack of refund, though, like an art commission of a similar value or something of that sort. You can contact me on discord (ViktorS#6314) if you want to talk about something like that.

I think it sadly is, yes. I thought it would be on hiatus but unfortunately, things have happened that made me reconsider that. I appreciate the long-lasting support, either way.

Hello, please contact itch.io support with the same email you used to log into itch.io, I can't issue refunds myself.

Hello, I've been using itch.io as a developer for a while but I'm about to switch to a slightly different type of project and I need some information on how exactly itch.io's download keys work.

I'm planning to publish a book, both in physical and pdf form, and I want all the digital downloads to be available on itch.io as its own project. Additionally, everyone who buys a physical copy would gain access to the digital version for free. I've been planning to include a download key as a QR code inside the physical copy of the book, but I'm uncertain about how exactly that would work. Can every download key only be used once? If so, I would need to print them separately from the book and distribute individually, one for each copy, which would make a big difference in planning out the whole digital integration. Also, if the same download key was used by several people, would itch.io keep track of how many copies were claimed and by who, to avoid possible exploits and link sharing?

TL,DR: I'm lost on how download keys work and if the same one can be used to grant access to multiple people, help appreciated.

That's unclear yet, but I do want to go back to Absolution eventually.

The game is on hold, yes.

Hi, I'm planning to write a devlog post about the current situation soonish, since I don't want to keep you guys in the dark.

Hello, thank you for playing the game!

What you're describing sounds like the result of lower affection the first two times you tried to start a route - nothing changes in the Dr. Sharpe conversation depending on affection, but you can only get on a route if your schedule is right and if you've made enough right choices with the patient whose route you chose. I hope that clears things up, because the choice you made differently shouldn't affect anything.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the game <3

Hi, I'm glad you're interested in the game!

Content warnings mainly have to do with mentions or descriptions of heavy topics, like suicide, child abuse, sexual/physical assault or derealization, general mental health-related triggers. Content warnings related to actual graphics would be partial nudity, blood and jumpscares. Also like, a generally dark atmosphere (but not always!). There's also some swearing.

Thank you, I really appreciate your perspective on the game!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed Michael's route <3

I did consider making a walkthrough, but due to the game still being in development and receiving changes and updates, it's entirely possible that a walkthrough would actually become inaccurate and misleading with the next update.

If you need guidance for specific choices, I offer that on my discord server and in tumblr  asks, whichever works better for you. I assume that what you're getting stuck on is the choice in the dream sequence on Friday of week 2 or Thursday of that week when you go talk to him in his room. Generally, the affection meter typically comes into play last so it's more likely that there were some specific choices that you made on week 2.

Hi, thank you for your comment. It's so cool that you're actually doing counselling work, I wish you the best in that!

This game is a visual novel with minor elements of romance, but it is primarily a horror game. Romance is not, and was never meant to be, the focus, and even in scenes featuring it, there is no aspect of traditional "dating". If you want a more classic otome experience, you may not like this game.

The main character is not a doctor, some characters use it to refer to her as an honorific of sorts but she has no medical education nor is a PhD. Hope that clears things up.

Thank you, I'm almost sure this is fixed in the next update but I'll take a look again today.

Hi, I'm interested in illustration work, I sent you a discord invite (Navypink#6314). Here's my art blog for reference.

Hi, I'm not sure if this is still open, but I have art commissions open as well as experience working on VNs, check out my art blog here if you're interested.

A sprite set would cost you 15-30$ depending on the amount of facial expressions.  I'm also willing to do CGs at a price of around 20-30$ per piece, depending on the complexity. Feel free to contact me on discord at Navypink#6314, on tumblr at @navypinkdev or @navypinkdraws, or via email at navypink999@gmail.com.

Thank you Sayuri ~

Thank you <3

I think you're right in that it was the healthiest decision to make - I'm slowly unlearning the toxic mindset of fulfilling other people's expectations that was taught to me, but it's been hard liberating myself from it.

Don't worry about your english, I'm not a native english speaker either and I'm sorry about the payment issues. I've had similar problems where itch.io takes a chunk of my earnings because international transfers so uh :|

Yeah, I think it's actually a good thing. Thank you <3

Thank you for your support <3

Thank you, thank you, thank you <3 I honestly really appreciate your comment and since I remember you following me a year ago, thank you sticking with the game for as long as you have.

I've also struggled with anxiety for as long as I remember, so a lot of my writing the disorders comes from personal experience. I'm glad people think it's good representation.

The art style is probably the most divisive aspect of the game, every now and then I see people asking me to redo all the graphics from scratch or commission an artist to do it for me, so it's nice to see that some people like the current graphics. I try to improve slowly, but if I kept trying to redo everything, I would be stuck in a constant loop of fixing graphics and not actually working on the game. I'm glad you like the music, it's honestly surprising to me that as someone who only started making any for this project I sometimes get praised for that too.

If you have the time, don't forget to fill out my feedback survey here and check out all the useful links here.

~ Navypink

The game had some small issues so I'm uploading a new build. However, my internet connection decided to screw me over and decided to take an hour every time. It's almost done right now, though, so hang on for a few more minutes, please. Sorry about the inconvenience >.<

Oh my god, I'm so glad to hear I inspired you to go into clinical psychology, it's such an understaffed profession so your decision makes me really happy <3

Thank you for purchasing and playing, I'm glad you enjoyed the game so far! If you want to discuss Build A with other people who have played it, consider joining the discord server, the link on this page should work.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on week 3 once Build B drops on the 20th this month, much love,
~ Navypink

Ah, thank you for all the kind words <3 I'm glad the discord is serving its purpose.

It really warms my heart when I see people praising Absolution for being unique - with how many VNs are out there, it's very discouraging to hear that people find something for themselves in the game.

The coding is something that I'm pretty ambitious with (which has backfired sometimes when I set out to do more than I could) so I'm glad that you appreciate it. If you need a tutorial on anything from Absolution coding-wise, I'm happy to provide those on the server.

Have a nice start into the new year too, Asher.