✨Trembling Essence [New Update]: 777 surprise poll event!!✨

🎊Thank you guys so much for 777 downloads! I wasn't expecting to achieve this milestone anytime soon so in celebration, it's time for a drawing poll event! 🎊:,D

Everyone that joined my Patreon so far got first dibs for an extra drawing doodle so if you'd like to participate in the future, please consider joining my ->[Patreon]!

Pick which one you'd like to see Noah dressed up on my -> [Tumblr Poll!]

The theme is Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Sein VS Lügner

You have 24 hours to vote, Good luck! :]

I appreciate your kindhearted words, thank you so much for playing! Redoing the scenery for the swamplands and making it feel more immersive was one of my favorite parts to clean up! I'm also happy someone noticed what I was subtly aiming for with some of the Noah CG's. :P

Trembling Essence[New update]:💙Endings guide💙

Helloo guys and welcome new followers! Thank you to everyone that have been supportive of the [New Update] + rating the game! I see the comments and just know they really cheer me up! :,D

⚠️This will have spoilers if anyone reading this hasn't played the Trembling Essence [New Update]!! Please remember that this is still a demo and these are still subject to change!

Here's a link to play the game on itch.io  - [Here!]

If you haven't already and would like to, please rate the game - [Here!]

**It is also possible to get some of these endings through different choices than the ones I provided.⚠️

Here's a guide for all the endings if you couldn't find them:

BAD ENDINGS:

1. You never woke up - "Look for a better place of shelter." -> "Look to the left." -> "Go down the left path." -> "Listen out." -> "Climb back down."

2.Your body gave out - "Look for a better place of shelter." -> "Look to the left." -> "Go down the left path." -> "Listen out." -> Let the timer run out.

3.You were dragged deeper into the water - "Look for a better place of shelter." -> "Look to the right." -> "Go down the right path."

4.You drifted away - "Wait for help." -> "Search for water." -> "Keep walking."

5.You couldn't move - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Search for food and water."

6.You were stabbed in the back - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Stay" -> "Stay" -> "Stay" -> "Stay here and go to sleep."

7.You can't feel anything anymore - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Stay" -> "Stay" -> "Go with him. -> Let the timer run out. -> "Stay on the ground."

8.The cold took you in - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Stay" -> "Go with him." -> "Soup." -> "Go down the hill by yourself." -> "Hold still." -> "Take a bath." -> "Yes." -> "Go outside." -> Go to the door." -> "Get up on your own."

9.You ran away - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Stay" -> "Go with him." -> "Soup." -> "Go down the hill by yourself." -> "I can do it myself." -> "Take a bath." -> "Yes."

Full route endings:

Morning route -

1.You feel asleep feeling reassured - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Go with him." -> "Cookies." -> "Stop him." -> "Hold still." -> "I understand. "Take a bath." -> "Yes." -> "Look around." -> "Open one of the boxes." -> "Open the box." -> "Look inside." -> "Eat one piece of chocolate." -> "Let him help you up." -> "No." -> "I heard something again."

2.You tried going back to sleep - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Go with him." -> "Cookies." -> "Stop him." -> "Hold still." -> "I understand. "Take a bath." -> "Yes." -> "Go outside." -> "Go to the door." -> "Say nothing." -> "Let him help you up." -> "No." -> "Sneak into the kitchen." -> "Take the glass jar." -> "Wake him up."

3.You were caught sneaking around - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Go with him." -> "Cookies." -> "Stop him." -> "Hold still." -> "I understand. "Take a bath." -> "Yes." -> "Go outside." -> "Go to the door." -> "Say nothing." -> "Let him help you up." -> "No." -> "Sneak into the kitchen." -> "Take the glass jar." -> "Check the front door." -> "Check the back door."

???? Ending:

???You don't trust him - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Stay" -> "Stay" -> "Go with him. -> Let the timer run out. -> "Get up." -> "No."-> "Take a shower." -> "Yes."

Afternoon route -

4.You hope tomorrow will be better - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Go with him." -> "Cookies." -> "Stop him." -> "Hold still." -> "I understand. "Take a bath." -> "Yes." -> "Talk to Noah. -> "Knock even louder." -> "I think it'll clear up." -> "Chicken broth." -> "Add some rosemary." -> "Add onion salt mix and garlic powder." -> " Add cayenne pepper." -> "Taste a piece of chicken." -> "Take another piece of chicken." -> "Yes." -> "I was worried about you." -> "We could fix it together."

5.You went to sleep comfortably - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Go with him." -> "Grilled cheese sandwich." -> "Stop him." -> "Hold still." -> "I understand. "Take a bath." -> "Yes." -> "Sneak into Noah's room. -> "Yes." -> "Go inside his room." -> "Say nothing." -> "Tell the truth" -> "Chicken broth." -> "Add some rosemary."-> "Add onion salt mix and garlic powder." -> " Add cayenne pepper." -> "Taste a piece of chicken." -> "Take another piece of chicken." -> "Let him have the rest." -> "Yes." -> "Try and fix it yourself." -> "Give it back to him."

6.You anxiously await the next day - "Wait for help." -> "Continue waiting for help." -> "Go to sleep." -> "Go with him." -> "Cookies." -> "Stop him." -> "Hold still." -> "I understand. "Take a bath." -> "Yes." -> "Sneak into Noah's room. -> "No." -> "Go inside his room." -> "I promise I didn't see anything." -> "Tell a lie." -> "Vegetable broth." -> "Ask him for help." -> "Add both." -> "Add parsley." -> " Add more parsley." -> "Add even more parsley." -> "Add a tiny pinch of paprika and minced garlic." -> "Let him have the rest." -> "Yes." -> "Talk to him" -> "Take it."

Thank you so much for playing, I appreciate your kindhearted words! I'm still in the process of creating a "Endings gallery" but if you still need help getting Bad Ending 9, let me know! :,] 

Thank you for playing! :,D

Trembling Essence Devlog 14: 💕February wrap up!💕

Hellooo and happy warm welcome to new followers! Cheers to the last full game development update on here! 💌🧸

If you're interested in seeing future in depth updates or even be in the credits of the full game, please support me on ->[Patreon]! This tremendously supports the development of the game. 💌

**Speaking of Patreon I'll be making another post over there as a introduction on what's to come! In the future I'll also begin mapping out the design for a unique [Credits] in-game screen for the Sweet honey jar tier now that I've gotten much better at coding!💌

*I'll still post small sneak peeks giving basic updates about game development outside of Patreon, don't worry!*💕 :D

Thank you to everyone that has bought, shared, commented, rated, liked, etc. the Trembling Essence [New Update], I appreciate the continued support! This post might be a little longer than usual but I'll try my best to condense everything. :,]💕 :,]

Behind the scenes:

The last few days of January into the start of February I was pretty much preparing/cleaning up things to announce the [New Update].

Not too long after that I gave my mind a small break from all the constant beta testing and code cleaning. Making silly videos/ Valentine's day easter eggs for the game really helped. I would've added more into the [New Update] but I didn't want too many funny moments to take away from the overall experience while playing. A few days before the release I fixed up a few more issues my play testers and I caught and added tiny upgrades to the interface. After the [New Update] was uploaded I was a bit scatterbrained and needed time to reground myself and prepare for the future. 🌹💌

So what happens now?:

So in very exciting news I was blessed with a new laptop which was something I was not expecting! To go a little further into this, the one I've been using aaallll the way in the beginning was falling apart over time and it kept getting worse once the battery to it stopped working. I mentioned this issue in the past but in the end I wasn't able to replace it so I tried to make things work and it's not going to be long before it stops working completely. I've been slowly transferring what I can over to the new one and getting used to the different set up/lighting/faster loading speed.🌸 :,]

A lot will be happening during the seasonal transition into spring and I want to try my best to keep things in order but overall, while I continue transferring things over I'll be cleaning up interface, etc. I learned a lot in a very short time so I really want to apply what I know while it's still fresh in my mind.🌸

In good news, I have about 10+ or so routes/paths I wrote a looonnnggg time ago that had some scenes I liked and new content I'd like to add into the concepts for Day 4+. Because of this, finishing up Day 4 into Day 5 shouldn't take long to complete. The bad news is my organization skills back then wasn't the best like it is now so I need to do some digging to find these 10+ or so routes/paths.🌸 :,]

The process of Day 4+ will start off a bit differently too. Back when I first started out up until recently I would write out the script in sections, draw/colored the CG's afterwards, etc. until the route was done. Even though I like doing this it left me with a lot of scrapped content which included many unused CG's/scripts. Now that Day 3 is finished I want to treat it as a starting ground while I continue out the rest of the game. So much of my initial plans/ideas have changed and I've learned so much so I feel a lot more prepared! I'll probably create a layout showing what'll happen like I did in the past.🌸 >:]

In between this I'll take breaks to catch up on old art I never got a chance to finish since most of my time was put into getting as much as I could done for the [New Update], asks, amongst other things to avoid burn out.🌸

Endings guide:

I'll get to work on creating a Endings guide! I want the [New Update] to simmer a bit more so spoilers aren't seen too early especially for those that are new here and still playing the game. :[]

🩷Q&A / Ask box is open!🩷:

I've gotten a lot of asks recently with the last few days and I appreciate the patience when it comes to me answering them. I'll try to draw unique illustrations but expect some duplicate/sketch-ish art in return! Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers! 🩷 :]

This is all I have to share for right now and I don't want to get too long-winded, Thank you to everyone for all the support I've been given. It doesn't go unnoticed and I will always continue to appreciate it! :,,]🌷

Thank you very much! :,D

Thank you so much! :,,,]

Thank you for playing, It's great knowing you had a good time playing! :,D

💗💌Surprise: Valentines Day doodle finished! 💌💗

💌All finished! Here's the full illustration from the recent Valentines day ->[Poll] with Y/N and Noah! I had a lot of fun working on this and taking my time that I ended up discovered a new drawing technique. :D💌

There's been a small uptick in interactions towards the -> Trembling Essence [New Update]  and joining my Patreon so again thank you to everyone that shared, rated, commented, liked, etc. You have no idea how much this helps behind the scenes!💌 :,]

Only 3 more days until the next Game development post!💌 >:D

Your welcome! :D

Trembling Essence[New update]: Quick hotfix! 🧰🛠️⚙️

Hello guys and welcome new followers! It has been brought to my attention that there was a bug found in the game and has been fixed!

What happened?:

If you played through the game and clicked on the "[Sneak into Noah's room.]" there was a chance that an error screen would occur due to a missing variable. I'm very happy I was told about this and thankful this isn't a game breaking bug, the game can continue like normal if you press "Ignore". The main reason I didn't notice this was because I was using save files that already had this variable checked off and looking further into it, seems to be old code that branched from a redacted outcome if the player(Y/N) backed out of the "[Talk to Noah.]" choice but picked "[Sneak into Noah's room.]" afterwards.

I also updated a swamp animation CG scene that had a black bar at the top of it when Noah picks the player(Y/N) up. Due to my screen settings, I couldn't see it and didn't have the proper "y-align/zoom" set.

If you run into any bugs, glitches, or errors please continue to let me know!  :]

I hope you have a fun time playing and I really appreciate your thoughtful words! :,]

You wake up lost within the swamplands that's surrounded by a large forest. The sense of time is lost on you and the moon is your only guiding light. At some point you can choose to receive help from a man named Noah who resides in the swamp. He has vast knowledge that will aid you in your survival and if you choose to go with him, he'll take you back to his desolate cabin. He just wants to take care of you and keep you safe but there's a lot more to him than he lets on. It's up to you to make certain choices to survive to the end. 

Trembling Essence[New update]: OUT NOW!

You wake up lost within the swamplands that's surrounded by a large forest. The sense of time is lost on you and the moon is your only guiding light. At some point you can choose to receive help from a man named Noah who resides in the swamp. He has vast knowledge that will aid you in your survival and if you choose to go with him, he'll take you back to his desolate cabin. He just wants to take care of you and keep you safe but there's a lot more to him than he lets on. It's up to you to make certain choices to survive to the end. 

The full game is still a work in progress which will include more endings, easter eggs, and more darker/serious topics, this demo has 16 different endings and the average playtime session should be about two hours or more. 

This is NOT a 18+ / NSFW game.

This is still my first installment and creation of a horror/dating-sim game so almost any comments and critique would be greatly appreciated as this is still a demo and subject to change. I'm still learning and open-minded to suggestions. If there's anyone that's a let's player that decides to try this demo out, I'd love to watch your video! :]

A very special thank you to those that have been following this project of mine and being supportive of it. :

Thank you so much for playing and your continued support! :,,]

TREMBLING ESSENCE [New Update]: FEBURARY 14TH 

🧸💌Early happy Valentines Day!💌🧸

As a big thank you and token of my appreciation to everyone that has stuck around and believed in me, I've decided to have this new update for Trembling Essence on Valentines Day!🌷

Pre-save the demo here:[Link]

My ko-fi: [Link]

I've also decided that I'm finally ready to open up a Patreon! If you're interested in seeing more in depth updates or even be in the credits of the full game, my Patreon serves as a monthly-tip jar / game credit perk for those that would like to support the development of the game while my Ko-fi is a alternate tip jar! This helps me tremendously behind the scenes.

All the support I've been given doesn't go unnoticed and I will always appreciate it! 🌷

This [New update] will include:

3 Routes (2 full routes and 1 short route) of Day 3!

A total of 16 Endings:

• 9 Bad endings
• 7 Full route endings
• New CG's/sprites of Noah
• New and improved interface
• All choices officially continue out the rest of Day 3
• New backgrounds in the swamplands/forest
• Updated interactive choices
• Updated animated scenery in certain sections of the game
• Revamped dialog and scenarios throughout the entire game
• Day and night settings
• Fixed visual effects that indicate HP loss/immersive play
• A few Valentine themed / easter eggs have been adjusted!

The average playtime session should be about two hours or more. 

The [Extended Demo] from February 2024 will no longer be canon and will serve as a temporary archive since a lot has been changed from my initial ideas, writing style, and overall storytelling! If you haven't played it yet and would like to just for fun, here's a ->[link!]<-

If you have any questions, feel free to send them in my ask box! I now have a bit more free time now that everything is in it's final stages so expect me to be a bit more active! :]

Trembling Essence Devlog 13: ❄️🌨️Cleaning things up!❄️🌨️

Hellooo hello and welcome new followers, here's a update of what's been going on so far! This post might be a little longer than usual given how much has been done, I tried my best to condense everything. :,]

Morning route progress:

I am happy to conclude that the Morning route is not only finished but all the 6 choice now progress the story completely! I am overall happy with how far I've come. :]

-Beta testing game fixes-

My play testers and I went through the game several times after this and A lot was found and cleaned up. This was a great learning experience. :,]

Here are the things that have been edited/fixed within the game:

-Multiple dialog adjustments throughout the entire game.

-Fixed several CG transition errors in the Afternoon route.

-Added a missing variable in a Afternoon route choice section.

-Placed hidden dialog that balances the routes back into the game.

-Fixed a bug where a missing variable auto-lead to a Bad Ending.

-Adjusted/updated the Bad Endings you can get in the cabin with new dialog/CG animations. Redundant visual effects were removed.

-Fixed a minor bug where Noah's closeness bar was still showing in the Bad Ending's screen.

-Cleaned up the Endings Gallery and removed endings that are no longer obtainable.

-Decided to keep the Bad Ending soundtracks/SFX's transitioning into the ending screen as a quality of life choice.

-Made a custom warning intro screen. This took a while to get right because I kept making mistakes, this initially had a different look but my play testers liked this version better. :,3

-Found a very unique game breaking bug where the warnings screen soft locked gameplay when pressing 'Start'.

-Deleted old dialog from different scenes that were placed elsewhere in the game.

-Fixed up persistent data that was accidently removed during beta testing.

-New CG added for the gyro!! ((I almost forgot to redo this.)) :,3

- A part of the Morning Route section had to be redone due to a missing ending breaking the game.

-A small chunk of dialog from one of the 6 choices after Noah goes to bed was moved later into Day 3 to balance out some of the "light-hearted" moments.

-Fixed a small bug where I accidently added 2 extra variables that made choosing the "Continue to wait." skip an entire scene into the rest of the route.

-Created a new variable for alternate dialog to appear depending on specific choices that initially didn't have any due to an oversight.

-Added a bit more alternate dialog in the Morning route based on your closeness with Noah.

-Switched dialog reactions with 2 variables that were misplaced.

-Added a missing soundtrack towards the end of the Morning route.

-Colored text boxes have been added back into the game again!

-Added animated nighttime window scenes in the Morning route that were missing.

-Removed outdated CG's, animations, visual effects etc.

-Added a Delete button into the Save/Load files! So here's a funny little story. For the longest time I didn't know you could delete save/load files by pressing the "Delete" key, I just saved over them with a new save or added them into a new slot. One day I accidently pressed the "Delete" key while hovered over one of my saves by accident and discovered it! I'm pretty sure this isn't known that well so I wanted to fix that. :[]

Towards the end of fixing everything one of my play testers went back through some of the routing two more times and ended up finding a couple more errors that we initially didn't catch. :,D

Outside of other things that enter spoiler territory that's all I can really say for now.

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi ->[Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game!

Thank you guys for all your continued support, I really appreciate it!

Trembling Essence Devlog 12: 🫧Beta testing + Happy new year!🫧

Heelllloooo and welcome new followers hope you all are enjoying winter break so far and early🫧HAPPY NEW YEAR!🫧 Here's a update of what's been going on behind the scenes for the last part of 2025! :,,,]

Morning route progress:

Surprisingly enough there wasn't a lot left for me to do as I initially thought. I have maybeee... 2 CG's left that need to be redone and cleaning out left over old dialog/content that is outdated. I also tweaked some of the variables to make sure choices were fair and balanced leading up to this. It was tough at first but without spoilers, I had a better time just reducing a specific choice selection scene by 1, so now it's 3 choices instead of 4!

I almost forgot to mention this but I did another quality of life change and added faintly similar dialog into the routing that covers certain situations throughout the game. It's really hard for me to explain without spoilers but don't worry, it's just to keep the player(Y/N) better informed when replaying the game through different routes and nothing too extreme.

Fixing the "Endings Collection." :

One major Quality of Life fix I wanted to do is add some form of a animation scene with numbered text telling you what ending you got because I made things too vague once you reached an ending in the [Extended Demo].

Here's a sneak peek of what one of the ending scenes look like now!<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/804508485969690624/trembling-essence-devlog-12-beta-testing-happy?source=share" target="_blank" ]<here]!<="" a=""> </a>

I really wanted/needed to fix is the "Endings Collection." When I initially added it into the [Extended Demo] I kept it simple since I was still new to everything and didn't want to break the game by accident. With where I am now I had some ideas in my mind on how I wanted it to look.

Before:

After:

Since the "Talk to Noah.", "Look around.", "Go to sleep.", and "Continue to wait." choices officially progress from the "To be continued" screen in the [Extended Demo] the "Neutral Ending's" tab isn't needed anymore so I had to re-organize the Endings collection and put things in a specific order that I felt was best. Somehow I ended up discovering a missing ending for a very specific part of the game. I wasn't able to figure out how this happened but I did fix it. This isn't 100% finished but this is how it looks so far, I even added a hover text color and a border around the text too! :,]

I went into all of this thinking it would be fairly easy but this took A LOT longer than expected to figure out because I wanted to do cool screen transitions with some text buttons and different hues/effects etc. Once I finally figured it out I added a bit more flair to other things in the game I didn't know how to do back then. There's still a couple of small things I wanna fix up but it's not that important, I just want to make sure it works! :D

<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/804508485969690624/trembling-essence-devlog-12-beta-testing-happy?source=share" target="_blank" ]<here]!<="" a=""> </a>

<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/804508485969690624/trembling-essence-devlog-12-beta-testing-happy?source=share" target="_blank" ]<here]!<="" a="">Most of everything else leans a bit into the spoiler zone so I can't say too much else but at some point my play testers and I will be going through everything such as bugs, glitches, grammar, dialog adjustments, etc. going into January and just maybeee I'll post some sneak peeks! :D </a>

<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/804508485969690624/trembling-essence-devlog-12-beta-testing-happy?source=share" target="_blank" ]<here]!<="" a=""> </a>

<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/804508485969690624/trembling-essence-devlog-12-beta-testing-happy?source=share" target="_blank" ]<here]!<="" a=""> </a>

<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/804508485969690624/trembling-essence-devlog-12-beta-testing-happy?source=share" target="_blank" ]<here]!<="" a=""></a>If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game!

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

🫧Thank you guys for all the support through 2025! Even though I got very quiet towards the end on here I've been improving a lot behind the scenes, hopefully into 2026 things will continue to get better! :D 🫧

Trembling Essence Devlog 11:🎄Finishing things up + future demo update?!?🎄

Hellllooo hi and welcome new followers hope you all had a great fall break, thank you so much for the recent influx of support from my last Devlog, I really wasn't expecting anything given how quiet I've been since the end of September. :,,] Here's another somewhat small update of what's been going on behind the scenes for the last part of November into December! ((I thought November had 31 days so I missed uploading this by a day. :,P))

Not too long after I posted the Trembling Essence Devlog 10.5: I got very busy once again at the start of November and when I tried to work on the game when I could, it was really difficult to get back into it until aboutttt last week when I finally had genuine free time. I gave myself a few more days to re-center and I tried my best to catch up from where I kind of left off.

Morning route progress:

Once I got the hang of things again I picked up the pieces and continued through the last parts of the Day 3 in the "Morning route." Now that it's only 3* routes instead of 4, it is possible to get small yet brand new scenes in the game so I had to bring everything up to date which included updating the checklist that dictates how the route progresses since the [Talk to Noah], [Look around.], [Go to sleep.] and [Continue to wait.] choices at the time were outdated and not complete in the [Extended Demo].

Right now there's one final part I need to work on and making sure all of the pacing is smoothly done.

I went on to edit two-ish scenes that took place at the start of Day 3 and placed them towards the end instead. This cleaned up some old dialog and pacing issues which ended up reducing abouttt.. 1-3 choices that kind of dragged these scenes out a bit too long for my liking. One cool thing that came out of this was being able to include a CG I had removed a long time ago back into the game! :D

I also cleaned out a bunch of outdated code that happened with certain CG transitions and in the process of doing so, found very old dialog/sentence structure that really needed to be removed/re-done to make the flow of the story better. I didn't notice this because some of these scenes only happen if you're closeness with Noah isn't high enough but not low enough to register a Bad Ending. *There were also a lot of sentences that I ended up combing together too which there was a LOT of.

IS THE FUTURE UPDATE COMING OUT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?:

I was really hoping it would be out before the end of the year but I still can't guarantee anything. :,,,] I was too busy in October/half of November to make enough progress into finalizing things and I don't want to rush this update out when I still have a few more Quality of life changes that still need to be done. :[]

I didn't want this future update to take so long but I have to remember that I'm balancing 3* routes instead of just 1 and I re-did most of everything from the start of the game + updated unfinished choices which is going to require a lot of time to do. :,,]

There's other stuff being taken care of behind the scenes, but I don't want to drag this devlog out too long/avoiding spoilers. :[]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game!

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you guys for all the continuous support even though I've been very quiet on here, I really appreciate it a whole bunch!! Hopefully I'll get a chance to be more active this month but again, no promises! :,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 10.5:🍂Finishing the Morning route!?🍂

Hellooo helloo and welcome new followers! Given the circumstances of 🎃🍬Spooky Month🎃🍬 taking up a lot of time I made an exception to do a small update of what's been going on behind the scenes for the early part of November. There will be another update at the end of the month to balance things out! :]

Firstly, 🎃🍬🧡 HAPPY BELATED SPOOKY MONTH!! 🎃🍬🧡I hope you all had a fun and safe happy Halloween last week! I really wish I could've done more at the time but there were spooky shenanigans going on towards the end of the month, specifically stuff that was out of my control BUT I will finish the "Surprise event!: It's Noahween part 2!🪦" :,] If anything this will give me more time to put back concepts of what I originally wanted back into the drawing. :P

Morning route progress:

There were some moments where I tried to get a little bit of the "Morning route" cleaned up during 🎃🍬Spooky Month🎃🍬 but I'm still editing things around. I got a bit further with the story building so I only have a few things left over that need to be updated.

Even though little was done, In some pretty great news I'm at the last part of Day 3 for the "Morning Route" and things are somewhat calming down into November by abbouutttt 65%-ish or so. Once I get the last parts of it finished up I'll go into heavy playtesting mode along with my play testers if/when they're available.

Here are some of things that need to be finished:

1. Grammar checks.

2. Fix the "Endings Collection." *

*To go a little bit deeper with this, the "Talk to Noah.", "Look around.", "Go to sleep.", and "Continue to wait." choices officially progress from the "To be continued" screen from the [Extended Demo] so I have to go and adjust the Endings collection. This also means the "Bad Ending's" being cleaned up too since I calmed down from adding so many. I also plan to do a Quality of Life fix to this too but that'll be in the future once I'm 100% certain this is what I want! :]

3. Update CG's.

4. Fix some outdated coding for CG/animations.

There's probably more stuff that also needs tending to but it hasn't crossed my mind just yet. :[]

Here's a very tiny sneak peek:

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game!

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Even though it's been fairly quiet, I really appreciate the support on here, Thank you! :,,]

Surprise event!: It's Noahween part 2!🪦

I wanna do things differently this time! I have a couple of sketches left over from previous Noahween's that didn't get finished or was never posted. I would like to finish at least one of these but in the form of a mystery! >:3

🎃👻🍬🦇💀🧡🎃👻🍬🦇💀🧡

The emoji's in this poll from my Tumblr corresponds to a hint of what describes the character sketch! Vote [Here!]<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/798620236647661568/surprise-event-its-noahween-part-2?source=share" target="_blank" ]<here]!<="" a=""></a>

🎃👻🍬🦇💀🧡🎃👻🍬🦇💀🧡

You have 24 hours to vote! Good luck! >:]

💜Noahween: Rengoku Kyojuro finished!🧡

All finished! Here's Noah dressed up as Rengoku Kyojuro from the Noahween poll! I wasn't expecting this to take as long as it did but I'm happy to have finally finish this piece, it was a lot of fun to do! :,]

Only 8 days left of spooky month so If I have enough time I'll still try and do this at least 2 more times but I'll just keep it to just 1 illustration instead of 2 :,]

💜Surprise event!: Noahween Results!🧡

Thank you to everyone that participated in the poll and left comments, 68 people voted in total! Yay! :]

Overall, Kyojuro Rengoku won for Noah to dress up as! :,,] 🎃

I was really surprised at how close the voting was the entire time, I really can't wait to get started on this! >:]

The doodle is just for the post itself and not the final art piece!

🍂Surprise event!: It's Noahween! >:]🍂

For the celebration of spooky month I want to bring back this small event with Noah since I had a lot of fun doing this last year and Halloween is one of Noah's favorite holidays after all! :P

Here's an old post about Noah's Halloween fun facts: [Here]!

Theme 1: Demon slayer

I made a poll about this on my Tumblr if you would like to vote there. [Here!]

🎃 ̟࿔*:⋆There will only be 24 hours to vote, good luck! :] ̟࿔*:⋆🎃

Trembling Essence Devlog 10:💙Going into the Morning route + Fail-safe balance!!💙

Hi helloo and welcome new followers, here's how game progression is going! :]

Quick recap:

I plan on doing a future update hopefully before the end of the year that serves as a quality of life to fix issues from the [Extended Demo] I didn't catch during the initial release. This includes updating most of the script, CG's, and bringing the overall story up to date with how I want things to be. :]

I usually get very busy closer to the end of the year so I tried to get as much as I could done. So far I've been editing the "Morning route" and updating most of the story building which includes outdated CG's. I did end up getting a good amount finished before spooky month starts! :,,]

I want to be super careful with the pacing but this shouldn't take as long compared to the "Afternoon route" which took more time than expected when the [Talk to Noah], [Look around.], [Go to sleep.] and [Continue to wait.] choices were outdated and not complete.

Morning route adjustments + Fail-safe balance:

I only played/fixed a little bit of the "Morning route" back in the spring of this year when I wanted to do 4* routes. Now that it's only 3 I now have to go back and pretty much adjust everything I did during that time and make sure all of the pacing is done correctly.

The 'Morning route' might be abouttt 65%-80%(??) different depending on your choices but I still need to do a bit more work towards this. Some choices were edited/combined and a good amount of dialog/certain scenes were updated to make the flow of the story a bit better. While I was going through the demo I found more continuation issues that I didn't catch. If Noah's closeness towards the player(Y/N) doesn't lead to a Bad Ending but isn't high enough you'd get alternative dialog but when the game continues the rest of Day 3, an error would happen. There was also a section of dialog in this that I decided to cut since it's very outdated and I think It may have added as a form of 'filler dialog' initially but I'm not sure anymore. I also added 2 more fail-safe's in the game to balance things out a bit more. These have also been adjusted with updated dialog and CG's.

I'm reallllyyy hoping these fail-safe's aren't too intrusive during game-play. I'll probably do a poll about this in the future after the update to the [Extended Demo] has been out for a while. :,,,]

Choice progress:

Here's the progress on the choices being updated. At first I had a good idea on what to do and I got pretty far with my ideas but unfortunately I hit a writers block during the middle of this month because there was a continuation issue that I just couldn't write around. There were also some interactions that happened way too early in Day 3 between the player(Y/N) and Noah that ended up creating 3 branching arcs that were too spoiler-y and too much for me to try handle. Eventually I got help from my play tester and we bounced off ideas and there was a happy solution in the end that I liked. Speaking of my play testers, in good news both of them were able to test out the new content and I got a lot of great feedback! :,D

New CG's + sneak peeks:

I was really looking forward to re-doing a lot of the CG's for the "Morning route". Back when I uploaded the [Extended Demo] this route was actually missing(?) CG's but at the time, I really wasn't good at perspective so a lot of them were scrapped. Something funny happened while I was testing things out though, I discovered I had two different living room CG's that were slightly different in morning hues. I have no idea how I didn't catch this when uploading the [Extended Demo] back then but one good thing that came out of this was finding a hidden Noah sprite behind the CG's which got a laugh out of me. Speaking of this I ended up finding a few more in different sections too. :P

*Speaking of CG's, certain ones might be re-used in specific parts of the game for Day 4+ etc, just in case/to save on file space. :,,,]

Here's an example of what I mean! This CG can be seen in the "Afternoon route" but things like lighting etc, will be adjusted for different times of the day in the routes. :]

Other than other stuff being taken care of behind the scenes, I don't think I have much else to say for right now. :[]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game!

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you guys for all the continuous support, I really appreciate it!! Happy early spooky month! >:]

Trembling Essence Devlog 9:💙Finishing up the afternoon route!💙

Hi helloo and welcome new followers! Now that things are quieting down from summer break here's how game is going! :]

Quick recap:

I plan on doing a future update that serves as a quality of life to fix issues from the [Extended Demo] I didn't catch during the initial release. This includes updating most of the script, CG's, and bringing the overall story up to date with how I want things to be. :]

This update might be a little short again as I'm trying to avoid spoilers. Overall, I've been finishing up the "Afternoon route" by updating most of the outdated CG's and placing new ones in. With all of them done I went through and double-checked/did a lot of testing.

Choice progress:

This is how far I've come with these choices so far! Yaya! >:D This includes dialog, fixed CG's, testing, choices, grammar checks, etc. The "Continue to wait." choice still isn't up there for right now but I'm happy that I'm slowly starting the process into updating the "Morning route"! :D

New CG's:

Before:

After:

One of my favorite parts was re-doing a lot of the CG's. I didn't realize how much I improved until I did side-by-side comparisons and kept track of what could be adjusted. I really like going for an immersive-like feel towards scenes so it was nice doing an even better job at making it be known. I also learned how to optimize images and save up space within the game. >:]

**Certain CG's might be re-used in specific parts of the game in Day 4+ etc, just in case/to save on file space. :,,,]

Afternoon route finalization:

In 2024 I hadn't played this route in months after uploading the [Extended Demo] so I had a fresh perspective of what I wanted to adjust once I finished updating the start of the game leading up to Noah going back to his room. I began fixing up this route in late December of 2024 into the spring of 2025-ish and even though I got a good amount done, this was during a time where I wanted to do 4* routes. Now that it's only 3 I had to go back and pretty much adjust everything I did during that time and make sure all of the pacing was done correctly. It was very rough at first having to change so much of what I originally had planned but with the help of my play testers and you guys answering some of the polls I did, everything eventually went smoothly. :,,]

With everything finished, I'd say the 'Afternoon route' is abouuuutttttt 85%(??) different depending on your choices. :,] Speaking of choices I did edit/combine some of them to make the flow of the story a bit better. I have no plans on updating anything else for this route again unless it's for minimal stuff otherwise it'll just lead to a loop of burnout. :[]

Other than that, I don't think I have much else to say towards the 'Afternoon route'. Anything else that I left out is more than likely something I want to be experienced through the future update instead. :P

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game!

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you for all the continuous support, I really appreciate it!! :,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 8:💙Route progress + New CG's!💙

Hellloo and welcome new followers, It doesn't feel like it's been a whole month but it has so here's how things are going! :]

This update might be a little short this time because I want to avoid as much spoilers as I possibly can but I've been balancing out the game routing and redrawing some outdated/new CG's. So far I've been focused on the "Afternoon" as of late.

Choice progress:

I decided to make a progress bar chart to kind of give an estimate on how far I've gotten with the choices that can be made in the game! This includes dialog, fixed CG's, testing, choices, grammar checks, etc. The "Continue to wait." choice isn't up there for right now.

Update to the Afternoon route:

I've been warming up to the new content and I feel a lot more positive about how it's turning out compared to a few weeks ago.

I am being super careful with the pacing and my play testers have been very helpful through all of this so they deserve some credit! It took way more time than expected for me to get used to the new changes that fixes some if not most of the issues I came across when the [Talk to Noah], [Look around.], [Go to sleep.] and [Continue to wait.] choices were outdated and not complete. There was a chunk of a dialog scene that was cut however, I turned a part of it into a choice instead! I like this a lot more and it makes it easier for the story to flow correctly! :]

Here are some sneak peaks from the new content! >:3

New CG's:

I talked about this here and there but I do plan on updating some of the very old/outdated CG's in the game. At first, it was starting to look as if doing this would drag [Extended Demo] update out later into the year but I noticed I've gotten a bit faster with drawing CG's. Even though my art style fluctuates a lot I am happy seeing how far I've come with my overall drawing skills! :,]

For this scene I wanted to go for a foreboding atmosphere:

When it comes to updating these I try to look at the "bigger picture" :P and think about what all could be improved.

I don't want to spoil where this takes place but I've been wanting to fix this for a very long while. Around the time I originally drew the old version I was still getting used to drawing and I didn't have an official reference sheet for Noah yet ((still don't buttt I still want to improve my art skills a little more :P)). I thought the outcome of the old one was good back then but now I feel very different about it.

I had to go and search for the old file because I actually liked the old background itself, just not the way I colored it. For some odd reason it took longer to fix the old version of the background because I originally colored the door frames brown?? I have no idea why I did that as the area where his bedroom door etc is are varying shades of a cream/tan white color. Once I finally got it to look correctly, I went on to fix Noah's overall look in the frame. I wanted to have Noah's pose facing more towards the front and take up more of the shot versus him leaning on the door frame.  

My play testers really helped me out when it came to advice so for the tense atmosphere of the situation, I added some animation too and more depth to the shading. Once everything was settled they did a couple of tests and gave it a thumbs up! One thing that also made me happy is being able to convey this part using only 4* CG's instead of the old version having 7! :,] I have no plans on updating these CG's again unless it's for minimal stuff otherwise it'll just lead to burnout. :[]  

Speaking of CG's I'm really happy going through and cleaning so much of this up. I never knew just how much space these drawings were taking up until I compared them to the old drawings. Hopefully when all of this is fixed up I'll have enough space to keep it under 1GB by the time Day 4-7 are added in the full game! :D

Right now I'm still replacing a lot of the old CG's but once I'm done with that, testing, etc, I'll go forward with the Morning route which is going to need some TLC. :,] I think this game development post is long enough so I'll stop here!

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game!

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you to everyone's continued support, I really appreciate it!! :,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 7:💙Going through the cabin routes!💙

Hellloo hello and welcome new followers, HAPPY SUMMER BREAK WOOHOOO!!! It's been a whole month so here's how things are going! :]

I'm getting better at balancing out the game and it's routing BUT, I can't progress too far into the "Morning and Afternoon routes" until I bring the "6" choices up to code! :D

I'll try and avoid as much spoilers as I possibly can. I talked about this a while back about how these choices would progress story-wise but I didn't talk about what happens when you do pick them.

Small cabin update!:

This is a small summary but my play tester recently played through the updated version of the cabin where I adjusted Noah's sprites, dialog, the player(Y/N)'s dialog, CG's, etc. Here's what was improved:

There was some dialog I had to go back and redo as it gave away potential spoilers too early. Certain scenes were adjusted due to comments in the past that expressed that Noah reactions towards the player(Y/N) gave off the impression that he's blushing/flustered a lot. These parts were actually suppose to represent the moment just being awkward. When my play tester went through the updated segments, it was mentioned that Noah's reactions and expressions towards the player(Y/N)/choices came off a little too cold which wasn't my intentions. :,[

I think when I originally updated all of this, I didn't have as many sprites of Noah around that time compared to now so I cleaned up the areas once more. Everything should be good now! :,]

"Talk to Noah.":

I wrote up a different way for the story to progress but it'll take time for me to get used to this change so it'll probably have several adjustments over time.

In the [Extended Demo], there's a brief time skip that leads to Noah being asleep before the player(Y/N) finally decides to confront him and I think the dialog after this was a bit longer too before you get the "To be continued" screen.

Parts of it extended from old code that lead to an extremely different situation compared to now. I removed a separate choice where you could "opt" out of knocking on his door or not, this was more of a quality of life decision to progress the story along and to avoid a continuity issue I discovered when I was testing everything. I wanted to be careful on file size/optimization and I originally thought about re-using a previous CG but I figured out better ways to save on space! 

I also came across a bizarre bug that caused one of Noah's sprites to disappear throughout the game. I somehow managed to fix it however.. I don't know what I did?? :,D  Playtester's advice: So in really good news my play tester was able to play some of this and gave some pointers on what could be fixed for the progression of the story.

Outside of a few grammar issues, etc. It looks as though its good to go! Other than that I can happily say that this choice now progress and no longer has a "To be continued." end screen! :,,]

"Go outside":

I was only able to tweak this choice a bit so I can't really give any details on what all was fixed just yet!

"Look around.":

I can't really give any details on what all was fixed just yet but I can say that I have some cool concepts planned in the future! :,]

"Sneak into Noah's room.":

I did go through and adjust this choice quite a lot. I was going through and balancing the variables and I'm not 100% sure if this is in the [Extended Demo] or not but the player(Y/N) actually loses so much closeness with Noah that If you 'made the wrong choice' once, you'd get auto-routed into a bad ending which wasn't suppose to happen. It's been fixed but I still need to do some more testing.

Another major change is this scene. Midway through December 2024 up until the start of March of this year, I went through the afternoon route and made adjustments to the choices, story-building, and overall pacing of the route to make the closeness build-up feel more rewarding given that I'm aiming for more of a slow-burn.

Everything was about 95% done but I now have to go back and make sure that everything progresses correctly now that new content has been added that might conflict with this choice and it's progression into the story. I can't say much else because of spoilers but my play testers really liked it! :,]

"Continue to wait.":

In good news I have plans on how this choice progresses the story however, I can't really give any details just because I haven't gotten to it yet. :,]

"Go to sleep.":

In the [Extended Demo], the player(Y/N) finally decides to actually listen to Noah's advice and go to sleep which would then lead to the "To be continued" screen.

Due to spoilers I can't say what happens now but I do like the new outcome a lot more. :,P Playtester's advice: My play tester was able to play some of this and gave some pointers on what could be fixed but Other than that I can happily say that this choice now progress and no longer has a "To be continued." end screen! :,,]

A lot more has been completed behind the scenes but I think this game development post is long enough so I'll save it for later! I am happy that I'm getting closer to updating the [Extended demo]!! >:,]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]!

All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Since the battery to my computer still dead I might open up chibi commissions through here BUT i need time to figure it out. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

Thank you to everyone that recently sent in asks! I see them and at some point I will respond, I appreciate the small influx of interest! :,D

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you to everyone's continued support, especially those that have been here since the beginning, I appreciate it!! :,]

Hi and welcome new followers, it's been another 2 weeks since part 1 so here's part 2 of how things are going in this month of May! :]

So leaving off from part 1, I found a way to organize and keep up with everything I create for this game moving forward and I've been happily pacing myself.

Before I could continue with anything else, I had to bring a certain path/route up to date with the rest of the game. In good news, I manage to finish this pretty quickly!

Route progression with play testers:

One thing I want to talk about is the route progression of the game. I was going to talk about this in depth with a Master-post however, it's still in the works and I ultimately decided that once I finally have all of Day 3 sorted out I'll hopefully have it ready.

Does this mean a bunch of content will be scrapped?:

Will any of this be added for the next [Extended Demo] update?:

Fail safe + Variable callback balance!:

It's time to talk about them! :D

In the [Extended Demo] I used a lot of these as callbacks for the player(Y/N)'s choices, closeness with Noah, etc in order to make sure these had an affect on the overall story building. I'm getting better at keeping up with these and I'm making them easier to go through. Due to spoilers I can't say much else although, I can talk about one other thing I added into the game which is a [fail safe!]

A [fail safe]? What's that and WHY!?:

I don't have plans on changing this in the future. A lot of the code had to be updated to get it to work which surprisingly took a lot of time for me to adjust to.

CG updates and optimization!:

Before:

After:

This won't be too long but in very exciting news I found a really awesome way to save on space/optimization towards the game!

Here are some very old and outdated examples of this.:

I had a lot of fun messing around with the different hue's, saturations, etc however, this made the file size of the game itself too large and I was barely able to upload the [Extended demo] as it exceeded 1GB and it's not even complete which heavily worries me. :,,,,[

Also, I made two new hyper links that will be on my pinned [Extended Demo] post!:

• Noah's spotify playlist's:[Listen to it here!]
• For video meme's regarding Noah will be in #Noah: meme videos

I'm still working on stuff behind the scenes which includes some stuff regarding Noah's birthday month, it's just a little scattered right now! :,D

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive.

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/new/ask/zombeebunnie" ] <strong="">[Here] </a> or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you guys for the continued support and influx of downloads for the [Extended Demo] recently! I really appreciate it! :,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 5:💙Back into the cabin + route clean up💙

Helloooo and welcome new followers, it's been 2 weeks since the last update so here's part 1 of how things are going this month of May! :]

Firstly I want to say a big thank you as there's been a recent influx of ratings being given towards the [Extended Demo], this really helps the game behind the scenes!! Noah's birthday post for his Spotify playlist also did really well on itch.io which is very awesome given Noah's views towards his birthday! :,,,]

I'm going to go through the last few things that needed some clean up before going straight to the cabin! I mentioned before that I had some CG's and 2 more endings that needed an update.

I'm not sure if I gave these unique names so I'm going to call them downpour and marsh:

The Downpour:

Sadly I can't post any of the screenshots here since they're animated but you can see them on my tumblr [Here!]

This one was tremendously fixed and upgraded.

To sum it up, even though this ending is similar to one that happens in the [Extended Demo] it plays out in a different area and has two animated sequences instead of one. A animated CG I had for another ending was placed here which gives it a better immersive experience. It took some time to get it to work correctly but I think this ending might be a good 2nd/3rd favorite of mine, specifically for the beginning of the game. :[]

The Marsh:

This one got a fairly large update as far as the dialog goes and there are new CG's that happen here.

I don't want to say too much but Noah and the player(Y/N) react differently towards each other in this path due a continuity issue I came across when going through this. I'm also still in the process of cutting out stuff that isn't as necessary as I originally thought it would be and calming down on the habit of over-doing things.

**I also went through and updated a lot of the animated sequences that still had old code attached to them which makes it easier for me to read and stay organized. In even better news, I was lucky enough to find some old CG files that I needed to bring up to date with all that's new in the game and fix an issue with one animation having a small bug that turned out to be a typo. After I fixed up all of that I adjusted/removed more 'dialog fluff' and fixed more SFX's that weren't in the correct places. :[]

Outside of needing to test through everything etc, I can now confidently say that the start of the game up to the cabin is 100% finished!! Woohoo! :D

Once I update the [Extended Demo] in the future, it'll have a total of 7 different endings specifically through the beginning of the game up until the player(Y/N) and Noah reach the cabin.

IT'S FINALLY CABIN TIME OMG?!:

In really great news I found a way to keep up with everything I create for this game moving forward and I've been pacing myself. To give a bit of back story, I've written a ton of stuff for this game however, the old way my saving method made it hard for future me to find everything I did. Now that I'm getting better at organizing things I've been adapting as I go.

A lot of dialog and choices have been fixed from this, nothing too crazy but I did switch certain responses from the player(Y/N) around depending on your closeness with Noah.

That being said, I found a lot of continuity/balancing issues specifically regarding a certain path/route in the game that's more on the negative side. To be fair, this is probably one of the weakest parts of the game right now since I never really had the chance to expand on it after I uploaded the [Extended Demo] and much has changed since then. After going through more of the script, I feel more comfortable keeping this one just a bit more linear(??) instead. I have no idea how to explain this without spoilers being involved. :,]

Anywho, In great news I managed to get all the way to the 5 choices you can make at this part once Noah goes back to his room.

Playtester's advice + Updated choices:

So on and off for the past few weeks I've been talking to both of my play testers about the cabin section and this specific scene. After the recent polls I created, I was having writers block which made it difficult to progress since the "Talk to Noah.", "Look around.", "Go to sleep.", and "Continue to wait." stem from very old and outdated code/routes that contained spoilers, weak writing, etc. I expressed ideas on how to move forward with the choices and they gave feedback when I was struggling. :,,,,]

"Talk to Noah.":

I managed to find a decent idea on how to go about the "Talk to Noah" choice. This one used to progress from the players(Y/N)'s choices but all of this was cut due to early spoilers/over-doing it and a lot of it isn't canon anymore. This had a unique CG too but since I want to be careful on file size/optimization I might re-use a previous CG instead since I plan on redrawing it. There was a continuity issue I came across too but I think I might've found a way around this. I was debating on how the story will progress from this choice but as I was typing this, an idea came to mind! Woohoo! :[]

"Look around.":

I'm going to be vague but I was lucky enough to find a decent balance with the "Look around." choice. I was really surprised from recent polls that this choice was picked the most so I do want to focus on this one a little more. This option used to have a different situation happen but I don't think I ever got that far from the outdated code and when I came back to it, all of it isn't canon anymore. I have a interesting way in progressing the story from it which will help certain parts of the game get more shine! I also plan on re-doing the CG at some point now that my drawing skills have improved! :]

"Go to sleep.":

I won't have to be too vague with this one but there was a new route intended for this choice. I don't think I ever posted any screenshots from this one specifically because I started working on the [Extended Demo] surprise update back in late 2023. Out of all the routes I wrote up, the strongest ones story-wise were the "Morning" and "Afternoon" route. At some point I'll have to go and find the route for this one.

"Continue to wait.":

I won't be vague with this one too since a lot has changed but to give some backstory, this choice actually led to a completely different route as a sort of "Wait...THERE'S MORE? :[]" situation that I think I posted screenshots from but I'm not sure. As I started working on the [Extended Demo] surprise update, everything that happened here got put on hold since it wasn't strong story-wise.  Much has changed since then and I've been talking with my play testers on how to progress the story from this choice since this sort-of put a wrench in things since I don't want this pick to line up with the "Afternoon" route. Some ideas have been swirling around in my mind on what to do but nothing is 100% confirmed yet. :,,,]

There's been a lot of stuff I've been working on behind the scenes which involves adjusting a lot of outdated variables, failsafe situations, etc. but I'll talk about all of that in the next game development post! :D

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive.

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask  or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

This is part 1 of 2 of the update so I'll stop here. Thank you guys for the continued support and influx of ratings for the [Extended Demo]! I really appreciate a whole bunch! :,]

🎂✨🍰Happy birthday Noah!🎂✨🍰:

Since Noah's birthday is May 7th, here is his official Spotify playlist!: [Click Here!~]

Noah's choice in music progressed and changed over time before and during the events of the game. I tried my best to incorporate this in 1 playlist but I didn't like the sudden jump into different genres so now it's 4 separate playlists that'll have a description for each one.**

1. In the beginning years of his finance career, Noah enjoyed and mainly stuck to instrumental jazz music. It's the kind of sound you would possibly hear in elevators, jazz clubs, commercials etc. Later on in his career something happened which caused him to no longer listen to the jazz genre and his music choices became melancholy for a short while. [Click here to listen.]

2. With a time skip, his music developed more into a interesting form of Smooth/Neo-soul with hints of gospel sounds mixed in. [Click here to listen.]

3. This goes on for a while until something causes Noah to go into a deep ambient state towards music and this lasts for a long time. [Click here to listen.]

4. In the end, Noah's music choices ultimately develop into what he listens to currently which is influenced by not only R&B, alternative indie, and neo-soul with lo-fi textures but, his friends tastes in music! **There are still hints of deep ambient music mixed in but it's from a better healthier, headspace. [Click here to listen.]

**Please note: The description of these playlists are still undergoing music adjustments and additions. :,]

🎂💙Noah's birthday fun facts💙🎂:

🍰🎊Here's a small recap🍰🎊:

Noah used to celebrate his birthday but certain reasons caused him to lose interest in it during until his mid 20's. He treats it like any other day or completely forgets. If Y/N shows interest in celebrating his birthday he would be very happy about knowing you cared enough to do it anyway and he'd eventually find joy in it again.

🎉🎂🥳What type of birthday cake would Noah like?🎉🎂🥳:

Noah honestly isn't that picky when it comes to birthday cake as long as some form of effort was put into it. For the flavor, he does like and prefer vanilla flavored cake and maybe even cookies & cream. His least favorite cake would be the kind that has that artificial chocolate taste.

You'd win him over if you made him a frog or duck themed cake, he'd find that very thoughtful and endearing.

🎁🎉If he could have anything, what would Noah want for his birthday?🎁🎉:

He would really want lounge wear, preferably in the color realm of dark earth tones. If you want to go a step further, a good flannel shirt or hoodie would make him happy. For necessities he'd ask for maybe a pair of comfortable boxers and a good shaving kit for his beard. Speaking of bath products, Noah loves to smell good and any body wash that leans into the essential oil Lavender, Mint, Cashmere Wood, Sandalwood, and Amber category is a plus. This would also include some cologne's but I have something planned for this so I'll save it for another post. :]

🫧Does Noah like party theme's?🫧:

He does and would like to be surprised, If you asked him what theme he'd want specifically he most likely wouldn't have an answer for you until weeks later. He does have a soft spot for silly lighthearted theme's that would catch him off guard.

🥤Does Noah have any food preferences for his birthday?🥤:

He does actually! If Y/N went out their way to cook anything or order out, his top 2 picks would be:

1. Grilled BBQ - Chicken, burgers, hotdogs, ribs, steak. 2. Seafood - Catfish, crab legs, shrimp, lobster. **For the sides it would be between corn on the cob, red beans & rice, sweet beans, collard greens, macaroni & cheese, potato salad. Any left overs would be saved and eaten over the next few days. Noah would be very happy if you surprised him with some lavender/taro boba!

May is considered his birthday month so hopefully I'll be able to post more drawings and fun facts about Noah, etc! :,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 5:💙WHY ARE WE BACK IN THE SWAMP?!?💙

Hi and welcome new followers, doesn't feel like it's been a month since the last update but here's how things are going! :]

This update will probably be a little small. I was trying to catch up with asks, drawing, etc. but I wasn't able to get to everything and I became very busy afterwards. :,,]

*Also, the Trembling Essence: 😤💪April fools 👁️👃👁️mystery event[NOT CLICKBAIT]?! will be delayed since I got too busy to work on it. :,,[

BACK IN THE SWAMP!!?!? NOOOO!!!:

I mentioned this a little bit in previous posts but the very start of the game will be about 60-80%(?) different from the [Extended Demo] since my writing and story telling improved. I only have 2 CG's and one alternate route with a timer bug that needed to be finished. I took a break from all of this months back to avoid burn-out but I thought it would be a good idea to go and finish it all up since it kept being mentioned! :D

Game fixes:

Even though things are still prone to change, I want to make sure whatever future update(s) I give towards the [Extended Demo] is something that won't be changed outside of minor things like grammar, bugs, etc and is more in canon with what I truly want for the game. Now that I'm getting better at what I truly want I've been cutting out stuff that isn't as necessary as I originally thought it would be and calming down on the habit of over-doing things. This makes it easier for me to adjust and not deal with burn-out. :]

Choice updates:

I'm only going to talk about the choices that got major updates to keep this short.

I went through each ending one at a time and adjusted as I went. I combed through some of the dialog and fixed the long pacing by combining sentences and/or removing 'dialog fluff'. Another thing I've been doing is fixing all of the out of place SFX's that happen in certain paths.

The cave:

Originally, there was going to be 3 endings for this but I removed 1 and changed how the player(Y/N) reacts to being in this area. I had to use a old screenshot since the other one I used kept getting taken down. This one was a little tricky to fix since there's a new scenario here but most of everything else prettyyyy much stayed the same. :]

The Creek:

This one has only 1 ending now instead of 2 and the player(Y/N) reacts differently here. This was easier to update but a CG was removed towards the end since I have a different way of approaching this area in the future. >:]

The Chasm:

Speaking of endings, this one was heavily fixed.

To sum it up, it took a really long time to get to this ending since the player(Y/N) was continuously venturing through the terrain. Believe it or not but this one was actually a lot longer before I removed a chunk of the path previously. Some time ago I said the ending was awkwardly abrupt and I didn't like that but now that I have better clarity I toned it down even more. The player(Y/N) will wander but.. just not as long this time. :,] A CG that was added here has been removed and placed elsewhere. This was unexpected but I'm happy about this because it adds to the immersive gameplay I enjoy adding and it happens to matches the atmosphere! :,D

Timer bug fix:

It's time(:P) to talk about this small addition to the game!

These timers won't be used that often but they'll be in places where I feel the situation requires quick decision making. There's a path you can get that includes a timer but somehow it got bugged and even though it didn't crash the game it pushed the player(Y/N) into a false route(?) with Noah which was pretty funny but not suppose to happen. In really good news, it was an easy fix and I am grateful it wasn't something that would leave me having to start over. :P

There's 2 more endings I need to get through but these shouldn't take too long to complete. Most of what I saw that needed fixing was fairly minor. :[]

Back into the cabin! YESSS!!:

This section will be short since I was mainly brainstorming with my play testers about the cabin section throughout this month and mainly focused on dealing with finalizing the beginning of the game after I paused midway through fixing up the morning route. I also plan on talking about the cabin in a future game development post that will be split into two in May since the whole idea of what's going on behind the scenes will be really long most likely. Woohoo! :[]

From the recent polls I've created, I brainstormed how to go from this section of the game, specifically the "Talk to Noah.", "Look around.", "Go to sleep.", and another choice which is still up in the air. It's been difficult since these choices stem from very old and outdated code/routes that contained spoilers, etc. This specific section of the game is a personal memory so I'm trying my best to avoid removing these choices specifically due to that. :,D  In good news I managed to have a conversation with both of my play testers about everything and where to go from this. I expressed ideas on how to move forward with the choices and they gave feedback when I was having writers block. :,,,,]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. I will most likely spend this time going through and catching up on everything I missed. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask [here] or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

This update is getting fairly long so I'll stop here. Thank you guys for the continued support and influx of downloads for the [Extended Demo]! I wasn't expecting much since I've been busy, I appreciate a whole bunch! :,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 4:💙 Poll results + Analyzing the script💙

Helloooo and welcome new followers, here's how the progress of the game is going! :]

There will be spoilers if you haven't played through the [Extended Demo], specifically the MORNING route. Click here if you would like to play! :]

**A big thank you to the recent influx of interest towards Noah and the game itself! I have to catch up with a lot I missed but I am very grateful! :D

Onto the poll results!:

Thank you to everyone that played the [Extended Demo] and recently participated in some of the recent polls I've created! It's still optional but I would really appreciate any feedback on why you picked your decision to this one if you still would like to! This really helps me out moving forward with my game developing process! :,]

I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into to this: The results left me very surprised especially towards "Talk to Noah" and "Look around" being picked the most out of everything else and the "Go outside" having the lowest, which explains a few concerns I had behind the scenes given this one has the Morning route attached to it. With this information, I'll take all of it into consideration while I continue working on things behind the scenes! :D  

I talked about this a few months ago but the "Talk to Noah" and "Look around" choice are being revamped and updated. There's some old game development posts that showed some of the old CG's and dialog with it but extends from very old code which had major spoilers in the script before I got better at pacing the story and realizing that I was missing the other half of Day 3 during that time. :S  

In good news around this time I managed to have a conversation with my play tester about everything and we had a very good talk about where to go from this. I expressed a couple of ideas on how to move forward with the choices and they gave back a good amount of feedback I needed when I was struggling with writers block. :,D

Onto the game development!:

Here is a small recap:

Midway through December up until the start of March, I went through the afternoon route and made adjustments to the choices, story-building, and overall pacing of the route to make the closeness build-up feel more rewarding given that I'm aiming for more of a slow-burn. Outside of more testing and grammar checks, CG's, etc, everything is about 95% done!

Morning route progress:

Since this is still just the second half of Day 3, I'm still trying to be extra careful with balancing a meaningful slow-burn and not over-doing it. :,]

The last time I played through the Morning route was around the start of spring(?) back in 2024 before I went and fixed up the beginning of the game leading up to the cabin.

With a new and fresh perspective of what needs to be done, I went back to the script and went over how I want certain parts of the game to happen. I noticed several inconsistencies that really needed fixing which is largely due to pacing/spoilers happening way too early for my liking. :,]

When choosing the 'Go outside' and the choices after it, I updated it with better dialog between the player(Y/N) and Noah.

It's nothing too extreme but just a nice quality of life to get a better understanding how Noah responds to this. I also fixed how much HP you lose along with editing the additional visual effects that happen here. It was originally split into 2 HP loss situations but now it's only one.

I won't say which scene but there was one part of this route I was going to ultimately cut but I've spent a lot of time brainstorming and came up with an idea on how I want it to go moving forward which might include a new CG and choices being made to give it more meaning. This is all still up in the air and I want to have my play testers check everything out first before I continue with it just in case I end up over-doing it again. :,,,]

Weird bug found?:

I also found a couple of mismatched sprites and a weird bug where a CG of Noah pops up towards the end of the Morning route, I have no idea how it happened or if this can occur in the [Extended Demo]. I can only hope it's not though. :,]

CG clean up:

Around the time I had announced the [Extended Demo] back in early 2024 there were parts of the Morning route that was actually suppose to have CG's but since I was still developing my art style I couldn't do much perspective art like I wanted to.

**As far as CG clean up goes, I do have plans to update some of these in both routes but for now I will keep them as placeholders until I get just a bit more practicing in. There's also 1 or 2+(?) new ones I have planned for this but I'm not ready to share them yet. :D

I think that's about as far as I've gotten up until I couldn't work on the game for about a week and a half so I'll stop here. :[]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. I will most likely spend this time going through and catching up on everything I missed. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/new/ask/zombeebunnie" rel="noopener" target="_blank" ]<here]<="" a=""></a><a href="https://www.tumblr.com/new/ask/zombeebunnie" rel="noopener" target="_blank" ]<here]<="" a=""> or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!</a>

Thank you everyone for the continued support! :,]

Trembling Essence:💙Quick question poll!💙

Hi guys hope all is well! I'm going through the script/game and I would like to know, given everything leading up to this scene, which choice did you pick when you played the [Extended Demo]?

Please only answer if you played the [Extended Demo], if you haven't and would like to here's a link to the game!

I created a poll about this on my Tumblr, [Click here] if you would like to vote on it!

It's optional but I would really appreciate any feedback on why you picked your decision, honest answers please.

This will stay pinned for about 1 week until all the results are in, thank you guys for all of your support in this! >:]

Thank you so much for all your support, I hope you have a fun time playing! :,]

Trembling Essence Devlog 3:💙Final touch ups to the Afternoon route!💙

Hi and welcome new followers, it doesn't feel like it's been a while month! Here's an update to progress of the game! :]

There will be spoilers if you haven't played through the [Extended Demo], specifically the afternoon route. Click here if you would like to play! :]

*To avoid confusion from my last game development post, please note that game updates about the game will be every two weeks to possibly 1 month(???) this year since I didn't clarify that correctly in devlog 2.

This post will be a little all over the place since there was week and a half where I wasn't able to work on the game mixed in with drawing practice. :,]

The cooking scene:

Outside of testing everything, this section won't be tampered with any further! Woohoo!

While I went to clean up this section with new and updated content I unfortunately had really bad writers block and it took a while before I was finally able to adjust. What caused most of this was redoing a lot of the old code and new callbacks. In the [Extended Demo] I didn't specify them correctly and tweaking it with new situations was hard to do. Once completed I went back and did a couple of test runs and there were still issues with Noah's responses. In the end I decided to just keep what I managed to fix and remove the rest. There was left over new content I forgot to take out in certain choices and pushed it further into Day 4+ to keep the pacing balanced.  *Callbacks in canon with how Noah reacts to what's added into the soup are still here! :[]

The sewing scene:

Around this section is when the writers block was really getting to me. I really loved what was originally here along with the new content but not being able to go back and continue from where I left off for almost a week and a half was hard to get used to.

At some point while I was working on all of this I lost the new script I created for this scene and I thought I saved over it by accident and would have to start all of it from scratch if I couldn't find it.  In very good news, I found it! I accidently saved it in a different folder. :,P  For now I decided to combine the new content with the version from the [Extended Demo] which includes quality of life changes to the dialog/scenes/choices etc. This will take some time to go through and I want to be extra careful not to misplace anything this time. :P

Animated scene:

Sadly I can't post it here but on my Tumblr you can see the little video animation clip I added!<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/777219781881380864/the-cooking-scene?source=share" target="_blank" ]<click="" here="" if="" you="" want="" to="" see="" it!]<="" a="">[Click here if you want to see it!]</a>

I finally got the chance to add in a animation scene! Yay! :D

I talked about this some time last year about wanting to animate this part of the game to give that immersive view of how bad the storm is outside. Originally I had planned to animate the morning, afternoon, and evening scenes too but after going over it with my play tester we both agreed that it should only be animated during parts of the game when it's genuinely needed.

Weird glitch/bug encounter solved?:

<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/777219781881380864/the-cooking-scene?source=share" target="_blank" ]<click="" here="" if="" you="" want="" to="" see="" it!]<="" a=""></a>

I have no idea how this happened but at some point through testing out the game, 3 CG's turned completely black, specifically CG's where the player(Y/N) would turn out the lights. I didn't catch it at first until I noticed the screen was too dark and you literally couldn't see anything. I went through the images folder and all of them were pitch black. I thought I would have to go back and remake the images but it somehow fixed itself?

More stuff was added behind the scenes BUT I'm not ready to share it just yet and I don't want this update post to be too long. I'm going to take some time out and complete everything else I didn't get the chance to work on and hopefully by the next game development post I'll be working on the morning route! :,D

<a href="https://www.tumblr.com/zombeebunnie/777219781881380864/the-cooking-scene?source=share" target="_blank" ]<click="" here="" if="" you="" want="" to="" see="" it!]<="" a=""> </a>

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi [Here]! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

I had a lot of fun answering recent asks I've been sent!

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

That's all I have to share right now. Thank you everyone for the support and patience! :,]

🩷Trembling Essence: Vote on future game content🩷

This is a question that's been floating around in my mind for some time now and I would like to know your guys thoughts and perspective!

Would you rather have small game updates:

This means there would be small but slightly semi-frequent updates to the [Extended Demo] every time I finish a specific section of the game. [Just for Day 3] Example: Only the start of the game leading up to cabin before Noah goes to bed would be updated with new content since the Morning/Afternoon routes aren't finished yet.

or

Would you rather wait for big game updates:

This means there would be large updates to the [Extended Demo] every time I finish multiple sections of the game/route etc. [Just for Day 3] Example: The start of the game leading up to both the Morning and Afternoon routes will be updated with new content. I am almost finished with Afternoon route and then I'll start working on the Morning route.

*This is all still subject to change but I do want to know your thoughts. :] *

I created a poll on my Tumblr that will be up for about a week! Click here if you'd like to vote!

Please only vote if you've played the [Extended Demo]!

🩷Happy Valentines Day with Noah! 💜

Thank you to everyone that participated in the 🩷Surprise event!🩷

For the 3 emoji's : ❀༉‧💋♡⸝˚.✩⸝💌⊹🌹°˖➴❀༉ ended up winning!

I wanted this finished on Valentine's Day but it would've been rushed and incomplete. In the end it took about 3 Days(?) in total to draw everything and I love how it turned out! :,D

Here's some Valentine's Day fun facts:

He genuinely likes the concept of Valentine's Day and would probably rank it as his third/forth favorite holiday, Halloween is his ultimate favorite.

Leading up to Valentine's day, he would keep it simple while diligently making sure you have a enjoyable one. There are times where it seems like he isn't listening but he actually pays attention and takes note of what means something to you, just as long as he's not too tired.  

Even though red roses are commonly given on Valentine's Day, Noah would rather give the player(y/n) their preferred flowers if possible.  He would surprise you with your favorite home-cooked meal along with a personal made card in cursive reflecting on all the time spent with the player(Y/N) since he feels that has more sentimental value.  

If the weather permits it, he'd happily take you on a adventure through the swamp and finish it off with star-gazing under the stars.

🩷Surprise event!: Valentines Day with Noah! 💜

For the upcoming celebration of Valentine's day, a pop-up art event highlighting Noah's affection towards the player(Y/N) would be an amazing addition it! 🩷

I have a poll up on my Tumblr if you would like to participate, click here!

🩷There will only be 24 hours to vote, good luck! :]🩷