Cheers, good to see that those have been cleaned up!

Oh! I'm sorry, I thought sales were set by devs on Steam. In any case, excited to finally pick this one up on here!

Will the sale on Steam right now be applied here on Itch as well? I prefer to buy games here if I can, but the currency conversion makes it pricey.

This has quite the original puzzle mechanic! And you got a lot of leverage out of it. I found a handful of the platform-oriented rooms a bit annoying―it's one thing to fail at a test of reflexes, and another to fail because you can't see anything―but the room design in general was really clever.

I loved the scraps of lore, and the QR code element gave a cool delay to the information you gain that made it feel like it had more weight once you "decoded" it. One gimmick would have been enough, so I love that there are two and that they work so well together. Although I can see why other players found it annoying, particularly if you don't time things well enough for a screenshot before the code gets whisked away.

I'm not sure I really understood the ending, but that means I'll be thinking about it for a while longer and that's not at all a bad thing. Brilliant submission! 

Yay, update! Thank you for clarifying what choosing your hemisphere does, I love that it aligns with the seasons in realtime!

Hello! I've only just gotten started with this, but I'm really loving it so far. It's great that the seeds are mystery seeds and you only get to find out what they are once you plant them and add them to the book. The pixel art is gorgeous, and I love the amount of thought and detail you put into each plant!

I was surprised by how slowly the hearts accumulate, but as a design decision it does force me to really treat it like an idle game and just let it run in the background (although I've forgotten to water my waxy diamondback a few times already, whoops). Some sort of timer or health bar to show when they next need to be watered would have been a cool addition!

I do have a few early game questions that might be nice to answer in the tutorial at the beginning: what does choosing northern vs. southern hemisphere at the start of the game do? Is three the maximum number of plants before you have to begin harvesting them to make room? If I harvest a plant, can I randomly get the seeds for it a second time or is it gone forever?

Love the idea and theme behind this! The art is beautiful.

I was a bit disappointed to realize that there is no "good" ending, since the first thing I thought to try was a run where I only watered the tree without picking from it, or watered it and simply let myself be "robbed" of the fruit when I picked it. I know it's outside the scope of the game, but it would have been neat if doing so eventually unlocked a character who links to a willing community of helpers who share the spoils.

This was pleasant to play! I ended up wishing I hadn't maxed out the bird stat so soon. The giant flock of them made it too difficult to see my trees and it stripped the fun out of it before I finished maxing everything out, but I liked the simplicity and the sense of progression before then. The birds added a fun element of using your reflexes to the usual clicking and waiting.

Very belated, but you can find some of the rules if you click on the question mark from the calendar screen. One of them is that your mature crops are converted into peas at the end of a season, then every 300 peas are turned into one snail. All extra peas are lost.

Just finished this! I enjoyed my time with it.

I especially loved how the finished puzzles were placed in the context of a gallery, though I wished the text that had accompanied the puzzles was included somehow, or else meta commentary about the stories. I was saddened to find that only the Mondrian exhibit had that, I would have loved to know the inspiration/thought process behind the other two.

The opening dialogue was extremely charming (a non-judgemental response to asking what a museum is!), and none of the mechanics overstayed their welcome.

Super cute! I loved the little hint descriptions of each cat and the way they all have their own meow! It's very much in the spirit of Hidden Folks to encourage you to click on every one. Donated a fiver to my local shelter in appreciation. Thanks for sharing this with all of us!

Hi, will the Steam summer sale discount be applied here as well? I prefer to pick games up on Itch to support the site and creators, but the Steam discount at the moment is hard to match.

Hi, will the Steam summer sale discount be applied here as well? I prefer to buy games on Itch when I can.

The gameplay in this wasn't half-bad! I thought it would be more like snake, where you couldn't run into your tail, but dealing with enemies and figuring out how to warp to different zones was a satisfying enough challenge. I ended up stopping at Zone II, Level 2 because the enemy was bothersome to beat, but I think with more polished graphics people might give this a look.

I love the concept behind this! It's been a nice way to spend an afternoon so far.

Small error I noticed: the petalless flower's entry in the beast table appears to be incomplete and cut off partway through the sentence.

The game isn't finished yet! It's being released route by route.

She's very cute! I love seeing her waddle around the screen while I'm busy and petting her occasionally.

I wish there was a way to force her to stop following the cursor around, though. It's a little frustrating when I'm trying to click on a tab or something and she keeps running underneath the mouse.

Annnd fixed it, kind of. For some reason my VPN seems to have been interfering; once I switched it off, the payment pages came up like usual.

Sorry to trouble everyone! I think I'll leave the topic up just in case someone else has the same issue in the future.

Ditto. Just tried to buy it, but I'm getting "Failed to create PayPal payment (422)." Is the account attached to the game out of date or something?

So, I've been trying to buy a number of games from the winter sale for the past day...but every time I click "pay with ____," whether that's Paypal or my credit card, it just loads the front page of the website instead of taking me to a page to pay. I've tried doing it in another browser, I've tried logging out and paying for the games incognito in case it was an account issue. Nada. I'm starting to get worried I'll miss all the discounts.

EDIT: To be clear, this isn't happening with one game or one developer, it's happening with every game I try to pay for across multiple developers.

Entirely fair, but also I really liked Jolene. Hoo was super, super cute and my second favourite person to kiss.

I'd love the option to hide games I've supported in my library (not delete them, necessarily, just put them somewhere so that they don't show up when I click on the whole collection). Obviously you can carefully curate your individual purchases, but buying bundles means you frequently get a lot of games you don't actually intend on playing, which make it harder to browse your collection for games to download. Steam has this feature, and I've also found it useful for hiding games I've already played and not enjoyed.

You can just create a whole new collection for "things I actually want to play" currently, but then you have the extra work of adding your new purchases to that collection each time instead of it being done automatically for you.

I don't think you can up the amount. Better luck next time?

I live in China. The pandemic's been casting its shadow here since the New Year's celebrations, or what we managed of them before all events were abruptly cancelled and people began to panic. It was very strange then, speaking to my friends outside of the country and seeing how their normal lives got on, while dealing with this surreal experience of being both in the center of the epidemic and completely isolated from it alone in my apartment.

Now it seems like the situation is reversed. I read news stories about ice rinks being used as morgues and elderly patients being taken off respirators to save young ones because of equipment shortages. Then I go outside into the perfect spring sunshine, with children who are still off from school giggling, biking around, flying kites. Families are getting a rare chance to spend time together, and now that the immediate threat is gone there are more people smiling than not. That doesn't feel real, either.

So it's nice, you know, to have a game that pulls that weird, distant sense of death and panic and loss that's been looming overhead since January, and concentrates it down into something as small and tangible as what gets left behind. It's soothing to play something that reminds me that death is both painful and normal, that we can mourn the loss that the world's going through without turning it into a horror story. It's okay to be scared for the people you love and still find quiet enjoyment in the fact that the plum trees are blooming.

I already considered myself a "death positive" person, though I didn't have a word for it before. My friends humour me when  I babble to them about burial methods and drag them to necropolises for sightseeing, but they don't quite get it. I never realized there were communities out there for people who do.

So A Mortician's Tale made me feel less alone during a difficult time, in more ways than one. Thank you.

Happy anniversary, RE Alistair++! You were probably my first otome game that was truly good and also not a deviantART flash game.

This is the cutest celebration post, I've got to make some of these.

Wonderful, thank you!

ETA: For anyone who, like me, wasn't sure where to get your backer ID, go to the project page and click on the tier you backed ("View your pledge"). It's at the bottom of the Reward section.

Would it be possible to make Steam codes available for people who paid for the Itch version during the Kickstarter? I assumed going into it that we were being given an either/or choice of Steam or Itch, but now Itch codes have been made available to Steam backers (for completely understandable reasons). Plus it looks like all new purchases on Itch come with Steam keys, but keys aren't available to the original backers for some reason? 

I'm really not trying to be a jerk! But if I'd known we were the only ones who wouldn't be given the option of owning the game on both platforms, I would have waited to buy it on Itch post-Kickstarter instead.

Congrats on the release! Will there be a new demo?

Thanks for letting me know! I'll wait 'til it's patched in to give this a spin, then. Can't wait to try it out!

Just got this in the Halloween bundle! Is there a way to fullscreen the game? I can't seem to find an options menu, and as it is right now, the bottom part of the screen gets cut off by my taskbar.

TONS of wishlisted games in that bundle. I bought it as soon as I saw it on the front page.

Three quarters of the way there!

THIS. More poly routes in otome games, please. Ones that aren't just jokey harem endings. The only other game I can think of that has that is SoulSet.

I know, right? I'm so used to watching Kickstarters for stuff I really care about barely eke through, if they get funded at all. It's refreshing to have one that seems to be doing well right off the bat!

Fair enough! I'll stop fretting and turn my attention to plugging the campaign on every social platform. ^.^

I just pledged! Ahhh, it's doing so well, that's wonderful! The early bird tiers are almost gone. I'm glad to see the Kickstarter boycott hasn't affected things too much. (I've decided this will be the last project I back and promote before joining in.)

One small note! You mention that the Blackcross & Taylor Bundle comes with your other games, but it's not listed as one of them in the FAQ, which would probs be helpful just in case someone gets confused. (Yes, I'm an overly meddling and anxious person.)

Anyways, congrats on the launch!  I'm looking forward to following the campaign and all the bonus content on Tumblr!

Well, that's a recommendation if I ever saw one.

Hi, again! I'm so pleased that you've raised the game's price. I'm sure you were a bit taken aback by all of us protesting cheap content, haha.

I'm really happy you went with my TRoS suggestion! Adding it automatically to higher tiers was really generous, but this is more flexible and makes the cheap price of higher tiers much fairer to you. I've seen add-on tier FAQs before. I can find one for you if you want a template to use. :)

And the B&T bundle tier, yay! I know you must be tired of hearing this, but it's priced a bit low. I hazarded £45 at TToW's original price, £12. Now that TToW's £20, you're actually charging for less than the asking price of your games, which is £42. Don't forget they're getting the letters and wallpapers as well! At least bump it to break-even?

In terms of pricing in general...it's better now! Beta access, Join the Cast and Budding Playwright are priced well. Fit for a Queen's great. It gives those "superbacker" types something to pledge if they like the project. And I can get the Epistolary tier, yay!

I still feel like you're undercharging for Lady's Maid and the POV tiers. Anything that affects game content like that is usually at least $100! You, or your artist, will be putting a lot of time and work into collaborating with those backers.

The description for Fashionista's much clearer now! Being allowed to design an in-game outfit that's actually part of the world is rad. I still feel like it should be limited to one character, though, especially if you're not allowing any male options! That would give four people the opportunity of purchasing the tier instead of two.

Speaking of which, I'm assuming the reason male characters aren't included in Fashionista is for story reasons? If not, maybe consider having them as options? There might be people willing to pledge to dress e.g. Frederique or Leopold up, since they're quite popular! And again, having lots of characters available means more people can pledge for a high tier.

And unlike the POV tiers, you don't have to worry much about people picking the same characters to dress up. Few people pledge for tiers that pricey, and one character could theoretically get more than one special outfit.

For the POV tiers... I'm just kinda worried there will be someone who buys one without messaging you, or two people will back it around the same time asking for the same character before you can update the description, or someone will change their mind halfway through the campaign... People are terribly inconvenient that way.

FWIW, Kickstarter quarantines sold-out tiers it in a separate section from the available ones. So if you use individual limited tiers, the amount people would have to scroll to see all the rewards would lower over the course of the campaign as the tiers get taken. If you're really worried about having too many, I guess you could also double the price and combine the TToW/TRoS tiers, so there's just one tier with two scenes for each character?

So it turns out I was wrong about needing to click on the tier to see the price in your local currency! Whoops. It's actually displayed automatically, right beneath the actual price. So again, you don't need to worry about including that info in the description itself. :)

I'm not sure what price point you're thinking of when you say you can't afford a trailer, so I can't really offer a lot of specific advice, but I think that's one of the most essential components of a Kickstarter page. It's what people will look for first, and some will click away by default if it's not there.

I'd really, really recommend getting a trailer done, even just a cheap 30-second one like the freelance spot Y Press linked, if it's at all feasible. Better to invest a small amount now than to wonder if it would've helped after a failed campaign, right?

Thanks for listening to my other feedback! Hope we're not overwhelming you with all this. <3

I'm probably going to end up writing a lot, as always. So I'll split this into two comments. This one's solely about the reward tiers!

I agree that some of your tiers could definitely use a price boost, and that the cost of the game in general could be higher as well. It has twice the amount of words as Heaven's Grave! Please do consider it, even if it's just boosting the price up to $17/£13.5. Anything up to $20 would be quite fair, I think, for ~20 hours of gameplay and generously un-gated bonus content.

I also think you'd be justified for charging a little extra for the "fan disc" content, but it seems like you've already thought that one out and decided against it. You could still consider including the extra content for all backers, then releasing it as paid DLC or part of a "special edition" for non-backers post-release.

Remember, you're not being greedy, you're doing your best to raise money so you don't let down your fans. We want you to succeed! Being good to the people who love your games means trying to raise as much as you can, to make the best product you can.

I wrote a list of suggested tiers/prices below, rather than listing all the minor changes. Assume all of them include the tiers' perks unless it says otherwise!

SUGGESTED TIERS/PRICES:

1.  £2 Thank you/backer updates/name in credits
2. £6 Wallpapers
3. £7 Copy of TRoS (+thank you/updates/name in credits, no wallpapers)
4. £10/11.5 Thorns of War Early Bird
5. £12/13.5 Thorns of War
6. £19/20.5 Thorns of War + TRoS Bundle
7. £25 Three love letters
8. £30 All love letters
9. £45? Blackcross & Taylor Bundle Pack (A copy of Heaven's Grave, Thorns of War, TRoS, and The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, plus all previous perks. Not to be included with higher tiers.)
10. £60 Beta access 
11. £80 Choose a POV scene (Thorns/Rose) 
12. £120 Fashionista (only one NPC outfit, not two!)
13. £130 Lady's Maid (She's the main character, so changing her outfit feels more special!)
14. £160 Join the Cast
15. £200 Budding Playwright

I'm repeating myself from another comment, but TRoS should have a low tier at the game's regular price, so anyone who just wants to try the series for the first time can, without a major financial commitment.

Instead of automatically including a copy of TRoS in every tier above it, have the option to "add" a copy by pledging the combined cost of the two tiers (e.g. pledge £30 for the love letters + £7 for TRoS = £37).

Some people who already own TRoS won't want a second copy. Having it as an "add-on" stops backers from feeling like they're paying for a key they won't use, gives you less work mailing out superfluous keys, and means that anyone who wants a copy at a higher tier can still get it. That said, I suggested a tier that bundles both TRoS and ToW to make it easy for the many people who will likely want to get that option.

Have a step-by-step FAQ about how to add TRoS to your tier, and mention it in the description of the TRoS tier (e.g. "a key for The Rose of Segunda can be added to any tier. Check the FAQ!") Once the Kickstarter is over, ask the backers to mention if they added a copy to their tier in the backer survey.

I recommended Tier 9 (a bundle of all your games) because it would be easy to fulfill and provide immediate backer satisfaction. They'll be getting three awesome games right away! It also advertises how you've made lots of games before, and it could provide extra exposure and reviews for Heaven's Grave. You can include a sentence or two about each game in the FAQ with links to their Itch/Steam pages, too.

For the Fashionista and Lady's Maid tiers, I was a bit confused as to when the outfit would appear in-game, and whether this included love interests. Will you write a scenario around the outfit to include it in the game? Or does it appear in bonus art?

For the POV scenes, it says "first come, first served," but you'd have to somehow make it obvious to anyone considering the tier which characters are still available, which could change over the course of the campaign as people swap tiers. Even if you try to do it in order of who backed first, I'm not sure Kickstarter provides you with the tools to keep track.

I'm not sure what the best solution would be. Personally, I think it could be fun, if a bit messy, to have separate tiers for all the characters. Limited to one each. So someone would buy the "Charlotte: Thorns of War" tier if they want to choose her scene. It would put pressure on backers to quickly snatch the tier of their favourite characters, plus it'll be fun for everyone to see which tiers get taken, dropped, switched around, etc.

At its current price, I'll be getting the Epistolary Romance tier because I know I'll desperately want all the letters when the game is released. £30 ($50 in my currency) is about as high as I can go on my current budget. I totally understand if you want to raise the cost of it, but I'd probably drop back down to the game-only tier if that happened. I'm not sure if this would hold true for other backers as well, but I thought it might be helpful for you to know!