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it's certainly very different than my usual project size, yes. this project in particular was very nice, being a lot of individual scenes with huge variety so i could avoid feeling stuck working on the same thing, and i had a LOT of passion for this particular work which made it relatively easy to avoid burnout. releasing it truly felt like nothing else i've ever worked on!! i remember having some mental wires crossed that day - i was getting so much positive attention from friends and acquaintances that i kept unconsciously thinking it was my birthday, haha. 

more big projects are definitely on my mind, but i think it'd have to be something sort of like this, where there's enough variety for me to not feel totally stuck. maybe a superhero twine (or something?) similar to shallowcreek, i have a few VNs an artist friend and I are both excited about, maybe a few other things. i've been spread pretty thin on hobbies lately and that makes it hard to commit to anything, especially since it's not my job (sadly) but yes, now that i've had a taste for making something i'm truly immensely proud of i am certain to continue chasing this feeling in one way or another 

thanks so much again for playing!!

oooooooh wow what a spectacular comment. thanks so much for taking the time to check it out!! gosh.

i spent such a long time on this project (and learning twine) that act 2 is pretty significantly different from act 1, which thankfully sort of manifested in a smooth progression of complexity but yes, having that level of quality all the way through would have been nice.  looking back, i really should have done more in the first act especially, but i was determined to release it as a finished project in november, and a number of scenes - even ones that were partially done - just had to go.

also i'm really glad you liked the lizard shaman guy. i think he's my personal favorite deep down!! lenti and oliver bumping into sir griffin again and betraying each other to him would have been SO fucking good oh my god. maybe something for the increasingly-less-vague idea of a future expansion.

 a renpy version would be pretty amazing!! and i do think there's a pretty significant chunk of players who see twine (regardless of all the effort i put into visual polish) and close the tab, but gosh, my limited experience working on visual novel projects has made me realize that even my most conservative ideations of art assets is an absurd amount of work that would ALL have to be outsourced. maybe one day!! but probably not for shallowcreek.

thanks so much for playing!! i can't easily express how excited i was to see a comment with your name on it and i'm really happy to hear you liked it enough to play it to the end!!

i dunno if anything in my future will be bigger than shallowcreek!!! but i have been thinking about some ideas for a vn.....

very true!! and gosh, i don't know if it's more fun, but it definitely does make a difference in things actually getting made. when i pushed to finish my text game last year i was doing weekly sprints and meetings with my dev team and without that, i certainly would not have finished it by the deadline, especially since i ended up cutting it very close anyway!! i think it's interesting that, in my experience, "forcing" art vs making it when you're really inspired doesn't actually change the final quality all that much. the only way to set yourself up for making something low-quality is, in my opinion, refusing to experiment or challenge yourself regularly and/or settling when something doesn't feel quite right 

there absolutely is!! honestly it's a very grounding truth that's very easy to kind of skirt around with excuses like "I'm just learning" or "I'll come back to this." makes me want to pick something out of the backlog and really commit to finishing it. even projects that i've been pretty passionate about just have too much of the "work" part and i drop them in favor for lighter, faster projects. part of that it's not my job (sadly) so it's a lot easier to treat it like a hobby. but the singular major project i've actually committed to finishing is the thing i'm most proud of so gosh, maybe i should try treating it like work again and force myself to ship stuff!!

...gosh. wow. incredibly sexy answer 

gosh, so exciting!! the content, I mean, not you being killed. It's pretty amazing that you can keep yourself motivated on one project for such a sustained period, honestly!!! I can't work on the same thing for more than a few weeks without it feeling dreadfully stale, with one notable exception. how do you not chase every hot idea that passes through your mind??

very exciting! It sounds like this one will be the biggest in the series, content-wise, on launch? will it still be split into a few releases like the previous entries were? I hope this release date lets you work at a realistic steady pace and still gives you time to relax and play games and stuff!!

wow!! I checked my substar account and there was somehow no payment method attached!! I still got a receipt from earlier in the month though so I'm not sure if that was part of the problem

Thanks so much for playing!! Can I offer you any help finding any scenes you missed?? It was tricky to find a balance between exploration feeling meaningful and quests having enough clarity!! 

Thanks so much for playing!! And never say never about a sequel!! (Or maybe expansion)

wow, this is awesome!! I really enjoyed playing through this, especially the full submission ending. great stuff!!

Very nice!! I had a lot of fun playing through this

currently, not really any plans to expand this!! if I did, it would be a while from now in one, enormous act 3 (or maybe just a sequel)

but just in case I'd love to hear your suggestions!!

thanks so much for playing it!!!

hell yeah!!! can't wait!!!

thanks for playing!! Oliver misses you too!!

Thanks so much for playing!! Currently, not really planning any expansions to this. I wanted to release something that felt complete when it came out and I think I succeeded in that!! I'll still be writing more and definitely making more adventures like this in the future, though!!

thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed!!

aw thank you, i'm so glad you enjoyed!!!

high praise, thank you!!

Done!! Sorry about that!!

Ohhhh I see!! Gosh, I'm so glad you figured it out!!

And gosh, so so happy to hear he had such an impact on you~~ I only hope the second act can compete!!

thanks for playing!!! gosh, i was originally going to make some sort of gallery/bad end checklist thing, but it ended up being way more cluttered and less flavorful than the final quest log design. maybe for future projects!!

Perhaps a little more variety of experience to bring to him~?

Everything to do with the prince is before the sword!!

it's at the very very end of a certain bat quest!

wow, thank you!!

thank you!

gosh, for a hint about the bat endings:

in act 2, if you're a vampire's thrall, there are a couple opportunities to seed vampiric control of the town, by converting its most devoted defenders!! (two different questlines!)

Oh no! I'll look into this. Sorry about that!

In part 1? It's  sort of hidden. Try messing around with different options at night!

Amazing game! Nice variety of scenes, hot character and enemy designs, and really fun and interesting gameplay. Everything you'd expect from this dev team, really. 

Definitely worth the price and makes me even more excited for a potential sequel or whatever else this team has in the works!!

I'm getting a "failed to load: img/system/Window.png" error on this version

What an amazing project - an unbelievable word count, a daring idea even in concept, and outstanding execution through and through!! I know you've already inspired me and at least one other to take up or continue similar projects just because of this astounding and well-earned success

stellar!! truly outstanding. horny and endearing and lovely all the way. I'm reminded how much I truly adore this aesthetic. delightful!!

amazing!! i have such a crush it's unreal

Hell yeah indeed!! I loved this. I just wish the loss scenes were longer or had more variety! Especially the game overs. Still, the concept is amazing and the execution is delightful. Wonderful!

It's for if you have a second monitor positioned vertically above your main. When it's checked, you can throw her upward, watch her arc gracefully through your upper monitor, and then see her land back down on your lower one. A little niche but I think it's pretty fun and adds a bit more compatibility!!

wow i actually really like this a lot!! like the very beginnings of a vampire immersive sim. so cool

Weird! Is she still walking around and doing stuff like normal, just with a black box behind her? Can you give me any steps to recreate this? Also, what OS are you on?