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thank youu<3 the besties achievement isn't actually achievable yet so don't die! it'll be in there soon💕 there's an achievement guide here which mentions which ones are achievable thus far, but be aware of spoilers:)

I really enjoyed this process!! I honestly thought I was gonna be one of the last submissions so I'm glad to see I'm not the only procrastinator here (affectionate) -- I had a lot of fun working on my game, using it as a space to try some new writing styles/format and I'm really excited to get into reading everyone else's games!! ty everyone who submitted - I've been delighted by the turnout💕💕💕

really loved this!! the atmosphere was great and the writing is lovely🥰

I think it's around 390k words! not 100% sure, but that's my guess:)

yup, it's just the three parts! she's only a short one<3 glad you enjoyed!

yes, that's supposed to happen - if you killed Rohan and lied about it, there's no reason to lie about xir appearance; if you left xem alive and lied about it, the operative is basically fishing for information about xem from the director, and not really planning ahead.

so - something I could definitely make clearer in the writing - the Project is a sub-operation within Scytha, and a lot of the wider company aren't aware of it. Lance wouldn't have clearance to know about specific projects, especially not one like Hadea, so he wouldn't know IVI exists - all he knows is that Rohan's got something high-tech and shady and xe's cagey about what it is. as far as he's concerned, his job is to take you all into custody. and yes, Rohan's very much using a fake ID👀

as for the dead body bug, I'll try to hunt that down, thank you! and I'm glad you enjoyed the game<3

I would say so - although we did generally have text based games in mind, provided it's still narrative-focused and interactive (and about queer vamps), I wouldn't want to tell you not to submit it! sometimes the creative process carries you away lmfao

The ROs are Nash, Rohan, Leanna, Ki-Ha, Rhaxa, and Imxa (who hasn't been introduced yet - she appears in the coming update!). Leanna is only romanceable by female or nonbinary operatives, and Ki-Ha is only romanceable by male operatives :)

Yes! There is an update coming next week, in fact<3

I'm glad you enjoyed it! it was just a one-off short, there won't be any more coming to this particular game<3

choosing to/not to sleep with rohan in chapter one has no impact on friendship/rivalry - the different routes come from how you treat xem later. you get friendship points for listening to xem, showing interest in xir opinions and particularly from showing care/worry about IVI, while rivalry points come from shutting xem down, disregarding xir opinions on IVI, and being pro-scytha in your conversations. you can romance xem on either route, whatever your choices in chapter one - the only locks at the moment are at the end of chapter three, and these choices are available regardless of if you're friendly or rivals.

the update is very nearly done - it probably won't be released in the next couple of days, but I'm in the process of finishing it off and cleaning it up for release in january!

thank you sm<33 I'm glad you're enjoying the game!

hey! I think (and the other mods are welcome to weigh in, here) that we're pretty relaxed about what "counts" as interactive - we want this to be inclusive, so I would say as long as there's some measure of interactivity*, you're good!

(*"interactivity" is a fairly broad term - it can be within the UI, or the narrative, or the game mechanics, but as long as the player can interact with the game in some way, I would say it counts :))

we have no plans to make one at the moment, no! :)

there isn’t one at the moment - if there's interest I can definitely put one together, but it won't be until after the next update! not all the achievements are currently... achievable, at the moment, so don’t worry about not getting them all yet :-)

that's fine! any games centring lgbt+ vampires are welcome - while we accept horror games this isn't a horror-specific jam :)

hi! yes, provided the focus is on vampires there's nothing stopping you from including any other monsters! :-)

Thank you!!<33

And that scene varies depending on your relationship with Rohan! if you're on the rivalry route, you'll get that scene; if you're on the friendship route, you'll get the other one hehe

I'm aiming for around the end of the year, but that's not set in stone. I am still actively working on the game, but I have a full-time job and other commitments so things are moving slowly (but they are still moving!).

some of the achievements aren't unlockable yet! they'll become available in later chapters, including the two you mentioned :-)

😭😭😭ngl this comment really made my day - thank you so much!! it's very flattering to get such a thoughtful reponse, and I'm honestly delighted by how much thought you've put into this. the operative is such a fun character to write, and I'm really glad you're enjoying them so much - I know they're not everyone's cup of tea as a Playable Character but it's good to know that people like them and feel attached to their ops!

i really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out and send it, it's incredibly encouraging<3333

I guess it's up to your interpretation, but I'd also say it's worth remembering that Leanna and Ki-Ha are civilians, and they're also undergoing a very traumatic experience; they're not dealing with things as well as they could, for sure, and no-one on this ship is equipped to deal with the operative's trauma in any real way (you'd need a whole fleet of therapists for that).

Nash has... a lot going on haha, again, you'll find out more in coming chapters🙊 and as for getting IVI back, that's definitely the fastest way but it's not the only way. I'm certainly not writing it such that not choosing that option leads you by default into forgiving Rohan, or letting it go; hopefully, all available routes will contain equally interesting content👀

thanks again for taking the time to comment!<3

hi! first of all, thanks for your comment - I'm glad you're enjoying the game, and I hope you continue to do so<3

To address your questions:

1) the civilians don't know you - they don't have any clue about the extent of Scytha's experimentation, and they don't know Rohan. particularly at first, they have no reason to believe either you or Rohan about what's going on, and when (if) the MC explains, they don't automatically start trusting you. Ki-Ha in particular distrusts you as Scytha staff, and Leanna, frankly, is more concerned with keeping her family safe than your feelings. she has no guarantee that any attempt at revenge on Rohan isn't going to have collateral damage, after all.

2) Joia also doesn't know you - she's a kid, and she's frightened and among strangers, and yeah she leans towards you as the person who saved her, but she leans towards Rohan as a person who is nice to her, and any show of violence from any of you is frightening to her. again, she has no reason to trust you except for your behaviour, which can be aggressive and erratic, and the reasons for that aren't clear to her.

3) Rohan is projecting a lot onto you - this is a deliberate character choice. Xe is a dick, I'm not denying that, but xe has reasons and xe's behaving that way deliberately. it's a defense mechanism, and it'll be explained in later chapters, but if you're not interested in that development, there is a very easy way to not have to deal with it beyond chapter 3 :)

4) if you're talking about on the station in chapter 3, xe doesn't bring IVI with xem then - she's left on the ship with Ki-Ha and Rhaxa. if you mean on Portia's ship, it's because the operative is very conscious that their rescue hinges on them behaving themself, and again, portia doesn't have the context to know if any sort of violence is 'justified'.

the operative isn't a person who inspires great trust in people - you show up on Leanna's ship, waving a weapon around and carrying a child who clearly isn't yours, you can potentially make threats against multiple other people in that first five minutes, and your behaviour going forwards doesn't exactly suggest //safety//. Nash also has their reasons for maybe not reacting as intensely as you might expect, which will come out in later chapters, but I have to say, I also think like... Leanna's reaction boils down to her asking you not to be violent around her family; Ki-Ha is pretty understanding, even if you did choose certain options in chapter 3, and Nash will offer to kill xem for you. I don't know what kind of a response you're hoping for, but they all have their reasons for not encouraging the operative to go on a violent rampage while they're trapped on a ship with you.

I hope this cleared some things up for you! thanks again for the comment<3

hi! if you're getting the error that says "no valid storage adaptors", that's an issue that comes of itch not being able to access your cache - you can either try using a different browser or disable any tracking blockers like privacybadger :) if its a different error you're getting, can you let me know what it says/what happens when you try to launch the game?

Thanks!

hi, you can find a list of the ROs here - I realise it's a bit of a pain to navigate to from itch, I'll add the link to the page here lmao<3

hi! yep, all explicit scenes will be avoidable and are not required as part of any romance. there will also be fade-to-black type options if you'd rather not read the explicit scene :)

thank you! that should now be fixed.

thank you! the gender selection choice comes in the shower scene, just before you go to the bar in chapter 1 - it's a separate choice from the pronouns :)

Hi, this is unfortunately an itch/twine problem - I recommend trying the game in a different browser to see if that helps?

should now be fixed! broke that while trying to fix something else💀my bad!

there will be differences in the pacing for different plot threads, yes - while you'll obviously be cut out of certain content in some cases, there will also be content in later chapters that's only accessible via those routes. hopefully, once the game's complete, it will all feel balanced! :) 

this is a result of twine not being able to access cookies on your browser - make sure cookies are enabled for itchio, and sometimes disabling tracking blockers like privacybadger can help! if you'd rather not disable cookies on your everyday browser, you could use a different browser just to access the game :)

Thank you! I'm glad the UI works well, that's an important factor for me.

There are 6 romance options - Nash, Rohan, Leanna, Ki-Ha, Rhaxa, and Imxa (who hasn't been introduced yet). I'm aiming to get plenty of interaction with all of them into the game, so hopefully the romances will be satisfying and enjoyable :)

yeah, twine relies on browser cookies to maintain saves so if you're clearing your cache or switching browsers regularly they'll disappear. To get around it, if when you go to save you hit "save to disk" you should be able to download a file - store that on your hard drive then when you want to load it up you can hit "load from disk" and open that file.

I do try to smooth over any inconsistency between updates that could mess with saves, but be aware that loading saves from previous updates always comes with the risk of jankiness with certain variables not being set properly. This is a risk regardless of if you save to disk or leave your saves in the browser, but it hopefully shouldn't be too much of a problem with this game.

that is an option, yeah! as a note, though, I'd prefer to keep these comments spoiler-free as much as possible :)

thank you! I'm glad you enjoy the variation <3

Leanna's (and Ki-Ha's) romances are locked depending on your MC's gender, not pronouns - the gender selection comes shortly after the scene in the locker room with Nash in ch1, separate from the pronoun choice. it's another in-line cycing link, so you might've missed it during that scene.

yes! next update is a while away, but it's very much still an active project :)

thanks! i've added some screenshots, although this template was designed more with teaching people to code sugarcube in mind than aesthetics lmao

thank you!! I'm glad you're both putting so much thought into it <33 I know Rohan is uhhh polarising lmao, xe's intended to be that way - but what I will say is that there is a lot of stuff yet to come out. What Rohan did is undeniably messed up (and I wouldn't have included the options in ch3 if I didn't want people taking that route) but as you say, the others are going to have their own opinions on it, and those opinions might change as they, and you, find out more :-)
thank you both for the thoughtful comments, I really appreciate it!

thank you! Rhaxa does use both he & they pronouns, but that conversation shouldn't be cropping up twice, I'll fix that!