itch.io

In fairness most devs are writing the story as they release episodes. In my case, my story was fully written from the start. I'm just coding and doing the art. That enhances my speed quite a lot. 🤣🤣

Ha ha. I try to get them out as soon as I can but I know it can feel like a long wait!

Boooo for laptop death. ;o;

Well. Don't tell anyone I told you but the next project has about 220,000 words written already. (～￣▽￣)～

Aww - I hope it takes your mind off being sick. I was really sick a couple of weeks ago (though it's hot here. LoL).

It sucks so much. ≧ ﹏ ≦

Hopefully you recover soon!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. ┗( T﹏T )┛

Hehehe >=3

I quite enjoy throwing curve balls with things like this. I definitely feel like Asher is the one people would suspect of pulling something like that so making Daaz the one to do it was more fun (though it's also in character for him if we look at it from another angle of course) because I felt like people wouldn't see it barrelling towards them.

I'm glad you enjoyed that.

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And Noel's CG. That may be the first time I've ever put the MC's foot in a CG. I usually joke it doesn't matter what their legs and feet are like because they're never on screen. Proved myself wrong finally. 🤣

Enjoy the food! ╰(*°▽°*)╯

I hope you enjoy it!

(´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

╰(*°▽°*)╯ Huzzah!

Noel really is the best wifey!

Thank you for existing in my comments! (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

Ho ho ho! I hope you enjoy the spices and plots and funny, flirty conversations!

Coding the last of the CGs as we speak!

Thank you! I will tell the team you said so! (It's me. I'm the team. Rofl) ╰(*°▽°*)╯

Hmmmmmmmmm. 

CRC failed usually indicates a corrupted file. Which could be happening during the download based on cursory research. In this case, two files are triggering the issue: archive.rpa, and reuben_sprite.psd

Archive.rpa is a file created by renpy to essentially hide the game code. Everything gets encrypted and bundled into this file.  So the script, the images, the music - all of those things are packaged up into this archive file. The CRC failed is saying there's some kind of error in that file.

Reuben_sprite.psd is Reuben's photoshop file. This file isn't even used by the code at any point, that file somehow being corrupted wouldn't normally cause issues (there are honestly tons of superfluous files that exist but never get used) because the game never even attempts to access it. 

Google attributes CRC failed to several possibilities:

- network transmission noise

- download issues

- storage media issues

- some issue with the compression utility itself (IE 7zip itself is causing the corruption)

I have sent in a request for a Steam key. But while that is brewing (since it can take a day or so to get them), if you want to try some other solutions, you can DM me so we can talk through some other options involving unique download solutions (especially on the chance downloading from Steam still won't help.) 

I think at this point since it's a very niche problem that may need a you-specific solution, if you want to continue to troubleshoot, it's best to just work in DMs!

I can be reached:

On tumbler as steamberrystudio

On twitter as steamberryesh

On bluesky as steamberrystudio

You can also join the Discord and reach out to me there!
https://discord.gg/RxMyQddrba

Hello again,

I've been sitting on this for a bit trying to think of how to explain what I'm seeing with these errors.

Basically when building a game in an engine, the engine functions as a framework code that I then put my personal game code into to create a game that works - so there's the Renpy code which is part of the game engine and there's my code for Gilded Shadows specifically. 

The errors that you're getting appear to be errors from problems in the engine framework - the code of the game engine itself, not the code I created for my game. Basically core components like necessary variables or attributes defined in Ren'pys engine files seem to be missing.

This suggests something is happening during download that is corrupting or removing those files.

This means it's not something I can just go in and fix because it doesn't seem to be an issue with the code I created.

I just wanted to explain this because I know it may feel like I'm just throwing random solutions at the wall but these are the only things I know to try to get a functioning download. Here are some additional suggestion (these will all require removing the game and downloading from scratch each time)

- check anti-virus and firewall settings to make sure it's not somehow interacting with the download.

- if you are using the itch app, try downloading the zip file directly from the game page and unzipping to your desktop and launching from there instead.

If those don't work, my last resort would be to potentially send you a Steam key and see if using Steam can bypass whatever is happening during the download process here because even the Itch launcher is essentially just downloading the same zip file to your app data folder. But Steam's launcher works a bit differently. So maybe that could help?

Let me know if those two solutions help and if not, we can discuss if you'd like to try a Steam key and see if attempting it over there works.

~Esh 

EDITED for more info:

Hello! Can you try to fully remove the game from your PC and re-download, then re-unzip the game files?  **This includes removing any previous versions of the game**

A coder friend confirmed that "rv" is something from the back end of Renpy. It's possible that one of the renpy engine files is missing or corrupted.

I've identified that this is may be relating to Renpy's in-built rollback/rollforward feature. Can you give me a few more details?

- are you attempting to roll back or roll forward using either your mouse wheel or the page up/page down buttons

- is the crash happening before or after you input a player name 
 

I still think that it's possible there's something wrong with your build of the game - such as a file corruption that happened during the game download. And right now the only thing I can suggest is still try to fully remove everything from the game off your PC and re-download. If you are using the Itch.io launcher, this may include going into your app data and removing the folder from there.

Let me know if that helps.

~Esh

Ugh yeah. I woke up today and my right hand and arm chose violence so I wasn't able to draw at all. ;~; 

It's so frustrating because Chapter 10 really is just waiting on the art and I've had this huge flare of pain. I hate it. 

But you are all way too cute and charming to be threknolls! ~(￣▽￣)~*

Anyway!
Noel is like "Noll" (yes, rhymes with bowl). I personally say "ih-ren" for Yren but a lot of people do say "Ren" and I think it's acceptable.

As always, situations with things like chronic pain are always a bit up and down so I'll be fine! OwO

Thanks for the well-wishes! 

Thank you!

Kav's bonus scene unlocks at the same time as Noel's scene does and will be available once Noel's is!

WSC can be wishlisted on Steam here. I'm not sure when it will go live there - some time after Chapter 10 goes live.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3946180/When_Stars_Collide/

~Esh

Ah, yeah, the name thing happens sometimes. 

It has to do with the fact that there are about 100 nicknames that can trigger one of six canon full names for the MC, which will get used by some of the characters later. (For instance, playing as Wil triggers other characters to refer to the MC as "Rishilwin" sometimes). This has caused some repeated issues with the name formatting - particularly with older saves.

It has some compatibility issues that I've been trying to fix and it keeps rearing its head (it works in my build so I can't really test or recreate it on my own).

But I'll keep tweaking and fine tuning it.  <3

And thank you for the rest of the comment. I really like doing all the outfit changes. It's fun for me art-wise and I like having the characters match the in-story context when possible.

Thank you for taking the time to leave me such a lovely comment! I appreciate you. (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

The LIs will wait for you! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

╰(*°▽°*)╯

Go forth! Win the smooches! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

Thank you! 

No worries! I am resting. I know it seems like I must be working non-stop to get the chapters out so fast but I promise it's not that. ~(￣▽￣)~*

~(￣▽￣)~* Yay!!

You are worth spoiling! ╰(*°▽°*)╯

Thank you! 

We really do want to finish the third route but it requires new backgrounds which is a bit of a hold up. We may need to find someone who can somewhat replicate the ones done by the other BG artist (and who can replace some of the ones I hastily threw together myself.

But I'd love to write Lachan's route. He's such a fun character and that route was meant to tie up some loose ends with MC's family. So I think it would be a fun one to add whenever we have the time and ability!

Kav's third CG should be the one that requires you to not check out the spooky shadow in the hallway in Chapter 3.

Raif's 6th CG  requires you to go engineering first during the attack on the ship.

If those are still not unlocking for you please let me know so I can get more details and we can troubleshoot.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. *runs away* ╰(*°▽°*)╯

Hope you enjoy it!

Thank youuu! ╰(*°▽°*)╯

I will not be adding any more options for Wil. 

It's already a lot of work as-is with 8 hairstyles, two faces/head shapes, and 4 bodies. Piercings would also require me to completely revamp how the hairstyles are layered on the sprites since some hairstyles show only one ear and some show two ears, which means it would be a struggle to get any earrings to layer correctly with the current set up.

This is already a very feature-heavy project for something accessible as "pay what you want." And the more options and features I add, the less fast I will be able to push updates. 

Censorship always starts the same way - they pick something that is easy to attack because it's morally questionable (there was one game in particular that sparked all this) and you use it to make a sweeping attack that catches a lot of other things that are totally fine.

They ostensibly claim they are "protecting" girls and women - but how many women just had their revenue streams cut off because their games were delisted?

It's all so fake. It's an attempt to control, hidden behind the word "protect."

Always.

No problem!

You can share the official public guide that is linked to on the game page, yes. <3