itch.io

I've only just started getting into Part 2 of Update 0.4's content, but I think I know enough to confidently say that at least half of these characters would fit into a mental asylum.

Every single character is such a strange yet unique goober. 90% of them likable in their own unique way. While others are completely confusing or rage inducing.  Well... The only one I genuinely dislike (and find rage inducing) is Hazel, everyone else fits into "confusing yet likable" or "weird yet likable," Hazel is still interesting don't get me wrong. I just feel like everything she says/does is a lie and her cheerful/kind demeanor is but a mask hiding an actual demon from Hell. And it's quite easy to see why I feel that way as her demonic side seeps through the mask pretty often. It's especially made clear as she's the one character (so far) whose points are consistently locked behind events, you cannot endlessly repeat her basic hangout events to farm for points as they seemingly ONLY increase when doing her actual unique story events. I'm still interested to see who she actually is, and as such will continue interacting with her though.

Dev posts some free ones every now and then so it's always worth checking Patreon every 2-3 weeks. Though it IS only $2.50 a month which isn't too much but that's kinda hypocritical of me to say because I'm... not subscribed either...

I mentioned it in my response to someone else, but I estimate it'll be out soon. Either July or August... Maybe later than August depending on difficulties encountered. Though I do have to agree that some form of basic tracker would be much appreciated. Gives a rough estimate of how long it'll take. 

Though at the same time it's difficult to estimate work that is yet to be done. I mean how would he know how many words the next update will have when he hasn't written them yet? Or maybe he just gets locked into a loop of adding more stuff to the next update so it stays stuck at 90% for a month or two? He'd pretty much have to have the whole thing already planned out with a designated endpoint to avoid any of the complications with it. Plus maybe the tracker could be seen as a sort of schedule? I know some people get stressed about deadlines and he could be one of them, maybe he'd get stressed cause he didn't add a 1% to the tracker somewhere or something. 

Idk, I think at this point I'm just rambling about nonsense, it'd still be nice to actually see some indicator of the progress being made tho. Maybe just make every 3rd devlog free? Or do a quick free follow-up only containing the rough percentage? Something like "~73% done, give or take"

Sounds like you're just gonna have to gamble and hope it downloads the whole thing. I found that babysitting the download sometimes works. Or deal with an emulator I guess, but that tends to have buggy controls because it's assuming you're using a phone and not a PC/Laptop.

My recommendation is to just check on it periodically and if it's stopped, hit resume. My current internet also bugs out and breaks the download and it occasionally works again if I hit resume. Sometimes it'll get corrupted and say the download is "forbidden", sometimes it won't and it'll actually start downloading again.

The game's only 9 GB. That's small compared to some others I've played. Out of Touch is 19GB for instance.

Splitting the download also wouldn't change much since you'd still have to download and play Part 1 first, then do the same for Part 2, and then finally Part 3. All you're really doing is delaying downloading the full game. If you're worried about turning off your PC and thus losing the download then instead of turning it off, put it into sleep mode with all your windows open. Or start the download, pause it before turning off your PC, then you can SOMETIMES continue it when you boot it back up. Make sure you aren't in Incognito or anything tho so it actually saves the download. It's also usually better to download it all in one go anyways as that's more consistent. If your concern is that it takes too long, then start the download before work, put PC to sleep, go to work, and when you get back it should hopefully be done. 

Only real reason to split a download on Itchio is if you hit the file size limit. Which Out of Touch and Companion of Darkness both reached. Out of Touch, I believe applied for more space and got it. While CoD split the download in half between a season 1 and season 2. So maybe that's something Cosy Cafe will have to do later. Some games avoid the limit entirely by doing external downloads from Mediafire or MEGA, but that comes with their own caveats. Mediafire has ads that are suspicious as hell (fake download buttons) and MEGA only lets you download 5GB then it wants you to wait 6 hours for another 5GB,  it also wants you to download and use their app, BUT it DOES save downloads so long as you pause them before closing it so that's a plus.

Storage space is also a valid concern which I, fortunately, fixed before the price of SSDs skyrocketed. Literally, a month or two after I bought a 1TB drive for ~$100 it tripled in price. So I guess that's ALSO a valid reason to split downloads. But just delete a game or two or store Cosy Cafe on a flashdrive or something. All of which are easier options than deciding to download and deal with an emulator JUST so you don't have to download 9GB.

Dev posts development updates more actively on Patreon. Major dev logs containing important information are usually free to view even without subscriptions.

The most recent free one is Dev log #34 from back in March. In it the dev mentions how the update is about 50% complete. Assuming he has kept the same pace the update should release around July 1st for subscribers, and around July 24th for free. However, I am not subscribed and cannot read the latest dev logs so assuming he has hit a few snags in development (or took a break or two), Chapter 4 could very well release in August or later.

As far as I am aware the dev pretty much works on the game by himself with someone else doing some edits. So it takes time for updates to come out. Especially considering he seems to value both quality AND quantity. Each update basically contains another 40,000ish words, and  phenomenal renders/animations. All without sacrificing the overall quality of the story. If you want proof, just look at that second to last image there. You can quite literally count each and every pore on Eve's skin. There is absolutely no reason to render it at such a high quality, yet the dev did it anyways. And I am forever grateful for all the work he puts into the game even if it means a longer wait.

Not necessary as it's included with Episode 2 or Episode 3.

:O

Makes sense to stuff them into the next major updates instead of dropping small updates that are JUST for grammar and stuff. 

I'll try and drop some lists of various errors and typos I find in that case. And once again it still got the point across, it's just a side effect of my brain latching on to random shit that ultimately doesn't matter. Your English is pretty great though, even with a couple grammar errors/weird word choices the sentences you write still get the point across. So it's far far FAR from the worst I've seen. And besides I think us pointing them out helps you improve even further so it's kind of a win-win... Maybe. I actually don't know how much that helps without explaining why it's incorrect.

Anyways, I'll see what errors I can find and throw them somewhere if I feel like it. Keep up the good work!

I think making a short 0.05 or 0.01 update for some wording changes might be a decent idea at some point, maybe for when you're taking a break from the heavier work since it (hopefully) won't be that taxing? I love the game and find it pretty entertaining so far. But some of the wording confuses me sometimes. 

Like saying "We met Suzzie a month ago." makes it sound like the duo met her a full 30ish days ago when in reality it's been like... 5 to 6 days? (At least it makes it seem that way to me) Unless I missed a timeskip somewhere. Meanwhile simply changing it to something like "We met Suzzie last month." makes it easier to piece together the game's timeframe as the 27th(ish) of April would technically be "last month" although "last week" would be an even more accurate depiction of the time.

And then "All the time" doesn't make sense either as it should be "The whole time." Because "All the time" is more like a response to a question like "How often do you go out to eat?" while "the whole time" is a response to questions similar to what Suzzie asks the MC.

This is just a little nitpick of mine that honestly barely changes anything. I just kinda figured I should mention it just because, since my brain gets stuck up on all the little details, like the timespan of a game, for some reason and other people's brains might end up doing the same.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't see it this way. Maybe with girls he is a bit of a pussy, sure. But otherwise no...

The way the story's set up, the college is his ONLY chance for redemption. He had a shitty childhood, devoted his entire body and soul to volleyball, broke his shoulder so he couldn't play anymore, became angry at everything, pushed everyone away, and did crime. The offer from the Dean is literally his only shot to be even remotely close to volleyball again which is the only thing he's ever truly cared about. He wants to gather the team together because that's the only way he keeps his newfound job and if he beat the shit out of Fiona, she probably wouldn't join (Currently unknown just how important Fiona is to the team so maybe her absence wouldn't change much, except make Lexi quit too). Either that or the Dean would fire/expel/call the cops on his ass for beating up a student. All of which could easily result in him being homeless and on the streets again... Him acting like that is easily attributed to him not WANTING to be homeless. Because I'm pretty sure nobody ever wants that. Then there's also the fact that because he basically never gave anyone other than the mirror the time of day, it makes at least a little bit of sense that he wouldn't be good with women.

I feel like that punch from Fiona did more mental damage than physical. He already tried to get each member to show up, bungled it with Eve and Zoe, while Lexi just said that it'd be boring, and Fiona punching him was as clear of a "no" as you could possibly get. He was literally on his last legs there. Couldn't even bring himself to get riled up enough to attack her. And I already mentioned why attacking her would be a bad idea.

Now I already mentioned how the character "did crime," which I would say that it shows he isn't a pussy, but it's only mentioned in passing comments and his past isn't actually shown on screen. Maybe if more of it was shown onscreen it'd be better (idea for the dev there). Another thing is that the bad endings (usually for hitting/insulting women) COULD be more drawn out to better drive home just how badly the MC has it. Now there is also the option to slap Eve in the face, but it comes from the MC's anger towards her and just not understanding that she herself is someone with a weird personality. Which you know, he's trying to prevent and overcome that anger. So if your idea of a "strong man" is a man who gets so angry and gives in to that anger that he beats women... Then you should probably step back and rethink your definition.

In the end, it's an AVN and you should accept that even with a "pussy MC" it's still one of the better ones out there. The story's a classic example of an underdog story and the characters get better and more likeable the longer you play (cause you learn more about them and they undergo character development). If you want an AVN without a "pussy" as the MC, try out Nature of Magic (not an insult directed towards NoM, it's just also a good game and I'm genuinely recommending it to you.) Then there's Eternum where the MC gradually becomes better too.

I got a toothbrush and a water flosser for it. But no sticker :(

Sweet, what a great gift after my dentist appointments (even though they honestly weren't as bad as I was expecting)

(A bunch of it's AI generated. I guess when you've used practically every public domain song in existence you've gotta have an AI make the rest or something, idk at least it sounds good.)

Click on your phone in the game, then the music button. At the bottom of the music screen the track that's currently playing will be there, click on that, then the download button. It opens up a link to a MEGA folder with all of the game's music in it.

Yeah, I kinda figured that was the case after I read the messages. Maybe you can figure some other way to get early access stuff on here, or Itch will eventually update it and actually make it work. But for now that and Ko-Fi are kinda your only options without making more extra work for yourself.

I believe (and hope) it'll only be temporary. If you wanna download 0.45 right now, you'd have to find the public release on patreon (not even a need for a membership/account as the 0.45 public release is completely unlocked.)

After reading some messages, I've come to a conclusion:

You shouldn't have early access on Itchio. Period. The way the pricing works seems to actively go against what you wanted to do with it.

The ONLY workaround I can think of (Itchio might not like it though, and it's probably more work than it's worth) is for you to create a COMPLETELY NEW PAGE each time you want to release an update in early access on Itch.

So you'd have this page becoming the main one, where the updates come out for free once two weeks have passed. Then you'd create an identical copy of this one for the T2 early access version, price it at $20, and move the V0.46 files from the main page over to the T2 one. A week later, you lower the T2's price to $10 and make it the T1 early access page instead (this would be fine and NOT cause the same problems you're having now). HOWEVER, for V0.47 you'd have to delete the V0.46 page, move the V0.46 files to THIS one, make another identical copy, add the V0.47 files to it, then price that NEW COPY at $20 for a week, then repeat the process with each update.

Now in regards to abandoning Itchio completely... Please don't. Itch makes it fairly easy to find, download, and access these kinds of games. As well as interact with the communities surrounding said games. Abandoning it would most likely result in a loss of visibility more than anything. For me, I'd be more annoyed that I'd have to click an extra 3 times whenever an update comes out. (I'm lazy, shut up)

After reading some messages, which I shall not disclose here, the price is caused by Itchio's jankyness when it comes to pricing. I believe it'll be fixed in at most 2 weeks when the update is meant to come out for free.

You did an oopsie boss, you accidentally priced the ENTIRE game at $20 instead of only the 0.46 update.

(I've been reading the messages in the discord and it's probably better off NOT having early access on Itch)

It took me about 20 tries but I finally managed to solo the bandit fight without items or Selene’s help. I kinda wish the reward was better though considering that it was kinda tough to do.

Despite the only reward being 300 exp instead of 150ish, it was still a pretty fun fight to try and win solo.

Pretty sure Steam let's about anything that isn't straight up illegal or a virus onto Steam. If I remember correctly it DOES cost $100 USD no matter if it's free or not though.

No clue how to actually go through the process of getting the game ON to Steam, but the $100 USD cost means you should probably wait a bit anyways.

I believe Itchio also does this for games that aren't indexed yet. In other words, the dev is a new account, made a game and released it, and it has yet to be verified and added to the search results. Which causes the same message to appear.

Usually a good idea to wait until it disappears, or run a trillion virus/malware scans after downloading/launching it.

Yeah, I don't really know how version numbers work. I thought I knew, but then literally everyone just kinda goes with whatever they want with no defined system lol.

I've found that going off of the 0.9 -> 1.0 rule tends to be pretty accurate depending on how much content's in each update though. But then you have things like SuperHuman which is on 0.99999 now and I thought after 0.99 it'd be 1.0.

Judging by his other game the 1.0 version will be the completed version. Current version's 0.3, so we've got 0.7 more to go.

Nah, I've got to agree with the guy on gating the comfort scene. Locking an option to comfort someone behind a point check doesn't make sense. The Miharu scene? Yes, that one makes sense. But not comforting someone. 

Using Vanny as an example also doesn't work as best as you think it does. Most of her choices are common sense. She's infinitely stronger than you so lying's a bad idea, she's a princess so being lewd is (usually) a bad idea, etc. The only one that's a trap is "keep looking" or "look away." She's also missing the choices that make you choose between 2 different girls, which Ayase has multiple of, as well as a few Lust or Love choices which Cross Realms straight up doesn't have. It doesn't have choices that lower love, but raises lust (or makes you choose between the two) because there is no lust stat.

Looking at the walkthrough for New Horizon, comforting Ayase is locked behind 13 POINTS and the maximum you can get is 15, though I counted 16. My response changes depending on whether I miscounted or the DEV miscounted. Plus I think one of those points is AFTER the scene anyways.

• If you can get a max of 16 points total, then I agree with you and this guy's complaining about nothing (though I still think the option shouldn't be gated to begin with as it could be an act of friendship not romance) But 16 points gives you 3 mistakes which is pretty fair I suppose.
• If you can get a max of 15 points total, then I'd have to agree with his complaints as that'd only give you TWO mistakes before you miss it. Basically forcing you to min-max your points with Ayase in order to get a flag/condition set. Which may or may not be important in future updates. (it's importance changes based off of how it affects future updates) This could result in missing content with future characters as a result. Especially considering that KS seems pretty strict with the point checks. I missed a SINGLE point with Ayase and missed one of her scenes. ONE point. 90% of AVNS might be like that but even they wouldn't let me miss a scene if I missed ONE point at some point in the game.

Here to also recommend Crimson High.

Man, the MC is just collecting rare powers and titles left and right.

I wonder what else he’s gonna end up getting before the end of this game.

Was not expecting one of these games to have stock trading but I'm down for it.

Dev mentioned that that's already planned for the future.

I don’t mind the combat system but maybe make it so hitting 1-6 would place whatever you’re highlighting into that tile?

Like, I press 1 over a basic attack and it’s placed automatically into the 1st tile depending if you count from top to bottom.

Just covering my bases just in case lol.

Sounds good, thanks for the reply! I'll get right into 1.1 soon and see what's up. Wish you luck!

I did read about the 1.1 changes on some of the free posts and how you felt the original felt rushed, made the MC and Mia feel a bit dumb, and made Suzzie feel shallow. So the changes for that I completely understand.

I just kinda wish I could play the original 1.1 side by side to see the differences cause I'm curious about what people pointed out as well as what Suzzie scenes were added in. 

Also as a side note, I do feel the need to apologize if my comment came off rude or annoying in a few places. I kinda struggle to get the right emotions across when I write and I tend to CAPITALIZE, underline, italicize, and put words in bold that I want to put emphasis on. Which has been mistaken for me being angry in the past.

Maybe I'll wait until 1.2 to give a proper review then? Especially with how its supposed to basically be the start of everything else. 1.0's the character introductions, 1.1 seems to be the MC and Mia fixing up the office (haven't played much of it yet as I've gotten distracted by people playing Battle Brothers), and from what I've heard about 1.2 it's supposed to be the beginning of the actual running a business/company part.  Also posting memes/images in replies is pretty fucking funny, I love it. Oh and since you do seem to be constantly looking for feedback, I don't mind the lesbian scenes existing, the flashback scene wouldn't bother me, and I wouldn't mind future lesbian scenes (which will either be skippable or written to be threesomes as well).

Speaking of the lesbian scenes though how is making them optional going to work? Like I click the option and that's that, I never see it again? Or will it be on a scene by scene basis? Is it only for Jade and Noe's flashback scene? How will the future scenes work?

I'm not exactly sure how to ask what I want to ask tbh. I guess something like, the future scenes in 1.4 and 1.7 have been rewritten to be threesomes. Am I going to be forced to see the lesbian version if I saw the flashback between Jade and Noe? Is it 100% guaranteed to be a threesome now no matter what I choose? Will there be optional lesbian scenes that AREN'T also written to be threesomes but are skippable/written out of the story depending on what option I chose?

[MASSIVE WALL OF TEXT WARNING]

So I just finished the introduction and I'm loving it so far. The game's got a lot of neat little touches that make it feel alive. For instance the custom clothing (or custom textures on clothing?) is a really nice touch that I haven't seen in that many of these games before. The character designs are really well done too, I especially love some of the outfits they wear.

I also really enjoy how deeply you dived into the MC's and Mia's relationship. Most games that give the MC an already pre-established girlfriend tend to just leave it at that. They basically just say "This is the MC's girlfriend, ok bye" and leave it there. But this game is different in that it decides to actually show you multiple stages of their relationship in detail allowing you to get a pretty sizable look at both of their characters which is much appreciated. It allows you to actually develop interest in the characters yourself instead of trying to force you to be interested in them. 

Can't really say much about the story as it doesn't really kick off in the intro. But so far it IS a fairly interesting premise and it DID catch my attention. So I'm excited to play through 1.1's content. 

With all that said I do want to leave a bit of a warning I guess. I've read the comments and learned about some past drama and rewrites due to it. So I wanna give a piece of advice here. Try not to deviate from YOUR vision too much. I feel like if you constantly rewrite and change too many things you'd risk losing your edge, your motivation I guess. It'd stop feeling like it's YOUR story that YOU'RE making and the overall quality of it may drop as a result of that. Let me use Zenless Zone Zero as an example. It had a rocky start but it felt unique, and it felt like something the devs WANTED to make, something they were confident in, and I could feel that as a player. Then the devs began removing TV mode, and the amount of detail began dropping too, there were less neat interactions between characters, less detail in the environment, then later began changing the whole formula in season 2. It wasn't bad initially, but last minute rewrites to the story followed and then following the rewrites came issues with voice acting. To me it began feeling like it was moving  away from what the devs actually wanted. They began moving away from THEIR vision out of fear that it'd be rejected by the players. I already feel like this game is something I'm gonna be following for a long time and I don't want it to go the same direction as ZZZ did.

Now I want to clarify something while I'm at it. Feedback IS good, Criticism IS good, and it's something you SHOULD be using to improve and grow as a developer/writer/whatever. But at the same time it can be dangerous as it could lead to that sort of loss of motivation I mentioned earlier. The mistake the ZZZ devs did was fold to everything their players said about the game. If YOU think that something is TRULY essential to your game, then I think you should argue for it, try and make people see the reasons WHY it's in the game. Or at least that's how MY brain operates, there's certain things I don't find excusable at all and I'd make sure to tell you about them but otherwise I'm willing to change my opinion provided the right reasons. Alternatively, find a middle ground. A solution that both you AND the players are happy with WITHOUT compromising the game's integrity.

In regards to the Lesbian content being rewritten/removed/whatever. There's a game that's going through something similar in those regards. The source of your drama was a flashback lesbian scene between two future Love Interests. The game I'm referencing here is ECHOES by Oldcat/Lyk4n. Lyk4n's drama originated from a short flashback scene where the MC caught his ex-gf cheating on him. Technically NTR, so I understand the drama there more than the drama here. The parallels between the two is simple, both CAN be viewed as NTR as they both involve a character the MC is/will be romantically involved with, doing something with a different character that ISN'T the MC. However, whereas ECHOES is actually a form of NTR used as plot/character development. The scene from this game just straight up isn't NTR as neither character was involved with the MC at the time of the scene occurring. Both situations have made me realize just how fanatical people are about NTR, so much so that they seem to begin these crusades against things that are easily misinterpreted as NTR. Making it all optional is a fairly good solution to it as it DOES remove that scene, but I still feel like whenever it's re-added the fanatics would still consider it NTR because it's a flashback between the two characters. So I think whenever it's drummed back up, you should ignore them. You've already given them a solution, so now it's up to them whether or not to take it. Tying it back to my previous paragraph, I wouldn't recommend completely writing it out of the story either.

That's honestly everything I've got to say. Or to be more accurate, I'm actively stopping myself from saying more or else this would probably end up being a couple hundred pages long. I tend to easily ramble about things and that translates into writing as well. Ultimately you're the developer, so you get the final say in whatever decisions are made about the game, I just wanted to provide my input on the matters at hand. Overall, I AM enjoying the game so far as it is now and really look forward to future updates. So I wish you well with the development of the game.

Edit: After reading a few of the free patreon posts. It looks like you kinda already knew a lot of this huh? Sorry for repeating it then lol.

The problem is: It IS optional, there IS a skip button, and it's NOT dominant in the story (so far, and I hope it stays that way).

It's a flashback to the MC catching his ex cheating on him. That's it. Literally it. It's even hinted at BEFORE you even see the flashback when the MC looks at the picture of him, his ex, and his "best friend" and he then mention's something along the lines of "them rewriting the script without him" or "writing their own love story behind the scenes" or something like that. Doesn't take a genius to assume something's going on between those two. Then lo and behold, the flashback happens.

The hate's undeserved in this scenario imo as the scene accomplishes its goal which is to establish the MC's past, give you a key reason as to why he's basically trying to "become" someone else by completely changing his personality, and establish a sort of antagonist/hyper douchebag that nobody likes. Hence the whole "Lies we tell ourselves" part of the game's title as well as its constant references to "wearing masks." His personality change is just a mask he wears due to the betrayal.

"Add semi open sections in some plot points..."

Reminds me of what Out of Touch does and how they sometimes have sections at the beginning of an arc where it's just a bunch of the characters walking around. You get to walk to different locations, talk to the group at each location, and examine each location. There's even sometimes optional stuff included, like extra bits of story or lore. My favorite thing to do is to go to the Subway/Train Station in that game and examine it, almost every character goes "Why the fuck am I here? What was the point of even coming here?"

I cannot find that last hamster for the life of me. I've got 108/109 and I just can't find the guy. I'm assuming he appears after Rio appears but he evades my sight even with hints enabled.

Edit: Found it.

NOTE: 

It looks like in order to download Chapter 1.5 for FREE, you must go to the patreon and find the Chapter 1.5 post. It appears to have been unlocked and can now be accessed for free.

I have to be completely honest here. I think one of my favorites things in this game (like top 3) are the dev notes.

It's a PURE nostalgia hit from things like Half Life and Left 4 Dead and the developer commentary in them.

Also worthy of note, is that this game is INCREDIBLY well made AND all the art's amazing too!

There's a link to a free online version of Chapter 1 in the Chapter 2 BETA dev log.

Plus I think chapter 1 can now be downloaded for free.

I'm just bad with social cues man. No clue why, but I have a hard time reading people unless it's so incredibly obvious that even a blind person could see it. I'm slightly better at it IRL, but fictional characters are tough sometimes.

I'm good at detecting "twist" villains and strange things. Like all of Harry's tells for instance. You go out to eat/hang out with him and suddenly some weird shit happens. Yeah, THAT I can piece together as being strange/suspicious/weird/ a telling sign of something being off. But with more subtle things I just can't read them at all. Sometimes I can notice some body language or the character's smile disappearing when something is said, etc.

But for the most part I just can't really pick out any cues like that. I also seem to struggle with idioms, poetic/philosophical things, as well as hidden meanings behind words. If I think a sentence has a different meaning than what is actually said, I end up rereading it like 20 times until I either give up or am satisfied with whatever explanation I came up with.