itch.io

Good morning, I have a few questions regarding the Background & Sprite sections of the rules.

1) Would it be within the rules to have the clouds within the backgrounds move from left to right (the animations are programmed within RenPy)?

2) There will be an object on the sprite, that will be hidden during the story (the cigarette). Would it be within the rules / allowed to animate the smoke in two frames? There won't be any other alterations to the Sprite aside from expression changes & blinking.

3)  Would it be alright to do layers within the background if the background doesn't change within the story? (No new objects, no time alterations etc.) — to create a depth & blur effect during animations within renpy.

Via the Google Drive Link provided below, I added some examples to each of the questions:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gdsWvJXtvrNyw4o4oughF0D-LB9mkfk9?usp=sha...


I would be happy about a swift reply, thank you so much!
Best regard

I'm glad you liked it even with the heartbreak 😂♥️

There is no character customisation— as shown in the „Fate‘s Lovers“ section, the main characters are Asherah (female) and Joseph (male).

No, I've shot these pictures myself and photo edited them with my art program (procreate+ibispaint)

Sure! As long as its narrative driven ♥️

Hiya, we already did that. :)

You only have to click on the "Text vers. of the rules" right above the image version.

No, there aren’t any restrictions. Just keep in your mind that it isn’t AI generated.

good luck!! And I hope you’ll enjoy the development process and participating in the jam! ❤️

Yeah! Sure that’s fine ❤️ We will be checking through the entries at the end of the jam 🥰 Happy game making and good luck on the full release ❤️

I don’t. He got what he deserved.

[Disclaimer: I had the absolute honour of beta-testing this Visual Novel!]

Most of what you're going to read will be spoiler free except for the last section disclaimed as spoiler.

TLDR (Spoiler free)

This is an absolute amazing Visual Novel and will definitely be one of my Top 5 games of 2024! It has a unique story and gameplay, gripping writing, beautiful art that is used in the most emotionally devastating way. The voice actors were cast perfectly for the roles they were embodying.

All in all it was one of the most emotional indie experiences I had in a while! And just like my yapper-in-crime, Chim, had said already; it's an absolute masterpiece.

Chatter, thank you so so much for making this! 

Story 

You are playing from the perspective of Yumeko, an AI, modeled to fit and abide to a lonely & desperate man you're forced to call 'Doctor'.  (He is, what you may call a NEET or ... rather an incel who has never been able to touch another woman before.)

Through choices you are given the chance to alter the course of this story.
Will you be able to break free from his grasp or be carved into the ideal woman he wants you to be?

This story is touching on a lot of heavy subjects, like emotional manipulation, misogyny, (domestic) abuse, so delicately and through a critical lens. 

Writing

This story is so well written; so much details and emotions are conveyed just by letters alone. Yumeko and Doctor are written so distinctively from one another, breathing with personality, emotions, life - but not just the two characters but also the narration. 

The narration especially is intriguing as it is tightly linked to the voice acting in a stylistic manner - but going much more into it might spoiler your experience. I highly encourage you to experience it yourself!

For someone who has trouble paying attention while reading it still had me captivated and invested in the story! I wanted to reach a happy ending so desperately, wanted to help Yumeko...

(The writing forced me to grab my cat for emotional support from time to time.)

Art Work

This Visual Novel's art is so beautiful - Chatter really outdid herself once again. The creative ways the sprite, surroundings and GUI (more on that in the next section) was used to portray Yumeko's desperation, the horror and torment she and you, the reader, are going through amplifies the seemingly futile situation you're put in.

I really can't put it into words how gripping this experience was - All I can say is ... wonderful, breath-taking job.

GUI

As someone who gets hired to design game user-interfaces, this VN's GUI looks absolutely stunning! From the title screen, to the different menu screens and the main screen itself!

I really liked the button designs of the title screen - as well as all the other buttons actually - but the ones in the title screen were especially eye catching and fun to interact with! 

The main screen is set up as though you are having a video chat application opened; on the left is Yumeko and on the right the 'chat', where Yumeko & Doctor are interacting with one another. It is neatly set up and has an almost realistic yet fantastical look to it!

All around; interacting with the user interface was truly an inspiring experience, from which I can take so much knowledge from! Amazing job!

Gameplay

During the gameplay and depending on what choices you pick, a heart parameter fills up and may alter the ending you might get in the end.

Is it a good or a bad thing?
You'll only know by playing the game yourself :D

All I can say (without getting too spoilery in my commentary) is, that it was a unique gameplay experience you see rarely in Visual Novels - jam entries in particular. 

(Especially with how the concept was spun around on how you're supposed to achieve an ending.)

Voice Acting

The voice direction and integration in this was so well done! Every voice actor did an fantastic job conveying their roles. 

(I got especially frustrated with Doctor, so big kudos to his VA Michael Mishkin :'D)

Spoilers

So, we've made it this far in the comment and you really want to read my opinion full of spoilers now, huh?
I hope for the love of God, that you've played the game and were able to make the absolute gripping experience I had yourselves.

Okey, so here I come - please beware that I will let my 'professional mask' slip a bit and speak more freely now.

From the very beginning I absolutely HATED Doctor. He nearly made me vomit (I was gagging) a bunch of times with what nonesense and absolute degen shit he was spouting. All he wants in the end is some obedient doll, that cleans and cooks after him, gives him children, provides for him and tells him what an amazing Chad he is. But all he is, is a filthy loser with an inferior complex.

Of course in all my choices at first I went against him. Which made him angry, turn me off and reprogram me, so that I was only left with the option to agree with him in the end. I felt exactly what Yumeko must have felt (even though 'she's just an AI') - absolutely violated and desperate. I felt violated in my rights to chose, in my rights to be happy and free and this is what this game conveyed so amazingly in its writing and gameplay. 

How the more hearts you got, the more you are actually being manipulated into his 'perfect/ideal woman', how the sprite bugged out of sheer desperation, how the screens changed color the further you progressed and when you've reached the final stage; how everything was pink, how Yumeko was 'dolled up' -- as though she was truly in love but you just knew this wasn't the case. And OH MY GOD THE VOICE ACTING.

A bit more about the voice acting / the narrators (yes, plural). Throughout the entire story there are three female narrators that have a certain narration style to them, indicating the route / progress of manipulation. (Another banger stylistic choice Chatter.)

So in the end it was 'The Statue' (VA: Justine Leah Hince) narrating this story; even rewording stuff that was previously said about Doctor as though he was the best person to ever grace this earth (ew, I know).

And in the end I had reached the first ending, where you end up being his completely manipulated doll, the perfect woman that he wanted you to be.

Afterwards I got the other two endings; those you reach by outright agreeing to him without fighting back / disagreeing with him first. This allows you to not get 'reprogrammed' every time so that you can only answer to what he wants you to answer.

As soon as you are being transferred from a 'program' into a humanoid person; you are presented with the option to either refuse or accept him. - Accepting him would lead you to a life where you KNOW you are just being abused and getting mistreated but you're also scared of the outside, the unknown - since all you know is him and if you refuse him you choke him to death; which in my opinion is VERY deserved. And feels very relieving - especially after all the torment I went through of listening to his degen ass. 

On a serious note: I really think the 2nd ending, where you stay with him without being reprogrammed, is much more devastating than the first one in my opinion. Because you actively know your own values and preferences, yet you stay and let yourself and your dignity get trampled on - while the Yumeko in the 1st ending is much more ... oblivious to it since she has been emotionally manipulated so much to a point that she thinks what Doctor says is gospel and the only truth...

This comment is getting pretty long and my hands and brain are starting to hurt from writing so much BUT all in all this game is an absolute masterpiece and one of the best games I've played in a long long time.
There hasn't been a story that had me this hooked, this emotionally devasted - like this one.

Thank you for blessing us with this, Chatter!

PSA (Spoilers): HAHAHAHAH, eat shit Doctor!!! Get what you deserve!

Sure! It should mainly be story / narrative driven - like the focus should be on that.

You are free to play with any types of atmosphere, but throughout the story there should be a point in time of somberness / melancholy represented. It doesn't have to be the same atmosphere all the time.

Hiya,

I have a quick question (again). Do times displayed like this (displayed a screenshot, don't know if its showing up: its  "08/08/113 - 1:00 AM") count as word count? Since I can't really find it in the rules.

Hiya!! 

Thank you for your reply! ❤️

At first I didn’t quite understand what you meant, but now I do, haha!

 Would it also be possible to crop stuff from the main menu or game menu backgrounds and repurpose them or is it only restricted to the background itself? 👀

Hello everyone ♥️!

I have a question in regards to the O2A2 regulations; especially in regards to the sprites.

I am planning to make a chatsim-esque entry with sequences of where the characters chat and where one of the characters calls in via a video chat. I was thinking of using a sprite and background for those video call sequences.

My question is; Would the icons next to the chatbubbles count to the UI or as a separate sprite? 
In my opinion it belongs to the GUI since it is part of the user interface of the chatsim - but I want to make sure it's within the rules.

Thank you in advance
Anna

This is the first time, I’m making a negative comment / review on somebody else’s project, but I feel like I have to say something after watching this shit show transpire over this past week.

Before I elaborate, a little disclaimer: This is solely against the team leader and creator of this project: Jenny Vi Pham and not directed at any of the team members. For what they were given, the artists and composer did a great job.

This is solely directed at Jenny and I hope she takes to heart what I’m saying, at least tries to reflect and show some form of compassion and understanding.

1) Suicide & character death as a form to emotionally manipulate the player.

I’m starting with my most important and the heaviest topic from the beginning, since - frankly speaking - as a writer myself and someone affected by suicide (personally and through the loss of people close to me) I am disgusted.

The execution of the murder & suicide scenes were absolutely out of place and insensitive, suicide especially is such a sensitive topic and with how the narrative portrayed it, there was no build up to it or the cat “being the main villain”.

But what was worse was: After I reached the (DDLC copycat of a) suicide ending, the cat ending played.

In this ending the cat (loosely introduced in the beginning) reveals themselves as some supernatural / spiritual being - telling the player that they are “powerless in this world” but not “powerless in that world (reality)” and that they can bring him back to life by leaving 5.000 rates on the itchio page.

This (to me and with the hanging ending I got right before this played ) suggests “Oh you can save him from killing himself by leaving 5.000 ratings on the itch page” - which is undisputedly DISGUSTING.

And since the  majority of the fans seem to be minors - proven by the people in the fanserver as well as the comments left on here - of course they would want him back!

2) No age restriction

Moving on right to the next topic: Minors - This (and I can’t believe I have to say this) IS NOT A GAME FOR MINORS. Despite this game being so graphic (especially visually, depicted by the hanging) there is NO age restriction either on this site, nor a disclaimer on the page or within the game. (At least when I played it.)

THIS IS NOT A GAME FOR MINORS.

This is actively going against itch’s terms of service.

3) Support and encouragement in the creation of alt accounts

Jenny has encouraged her fans multiple times over the course of the “full release” to make alt accounts and rating the game.

She has additionally been holding the death of Zilas over her fans’ heads, shown by clips from her VODs as well as the numerous tweets she made about it.

This just more and more feeds into the exploitation of her fans’ emotions and strong will to reach the good ending.

Some examples:

"[holding food into the camera] something Zilas will never ever be able to enjoy again unless it hits 5k"

"watch me make a video with me like 'How I killed my character and became popular out of it'

"If you guys actually make alt accounts, if you really love Zilas that much, I will give you Zilas"

"See, that's a possibility of him coming back to life; so, if you just work hard, you can bring him back to life"

She also tweeted a daily rate counter, showing how many “souls” have to be taken to revive Zilas.

4) Not the first time 

This is not the first time Jenny being criticised for her lack of care when it comes to the insensitive dealings with topics such as suicide.

Within her Otome Jam 2023 entry “Innerlog” she carelessly dealt with the topic of suicide and carelessly mocked it throughout the narrative.

People tried to comment on it, trying to voice their concerns but she blocked any form of criticism. 

5) No accountability 

It’s clearly visible that Jenny has not learned from criticism and has been actively deflecting from criticism she got for her coverage on Going Live.

I feel sorry for the team who has to deal with all this now and I pity all the fans being emotionally manipulated like this and actively feeding into this desire for attention and popularity this creator clearly does not deserve.

Actually she should be glad that with these many ToS violations that this project wasn’t taken off of itch yet - or her entire account at that.

Couldn't have worded it better tbh.

#Non-Spoiler Section

I just finished playing MindMindMind and maaan, Chatter, you are such an inspiration! All the hard work you put into this project is just astounding; the amazing and sheer amount of artwork, the writing, multiple endings, choices AND the GUI - mmmhh-hm!
Top-Notch, 10/10, legendary.

To get all of this done within the limited timeframe of a month?! In this quality?! It's no wonder why this project is getting its deserved attention and feedback!

I'm so proud of you! Thank you so much for delivering this masterpiece and making it for us! ♥️

#Spoiler Section

To get the most important question out of the way: I'm #TeamGeist ALL THE WAY. - I love my men toxic and unbearably insufferable (Teehee, yes I'm down bad.)

ANYWAYS, back to the story; I really love and appreciate the writing and especially the topic: social anxiety and mental illnesses. The dealing of topics, personifying the negative thoughts that come with social anxiety and various mental illnesses; the personification in form of Geist, clinging to us like a desperate lover, stalking narcissist, who thinks he knows what's best for you, whispering your worst fears in your ears (teehee, stop Geist, that tickles uwu).

And then the introduction of Kalei, the soft sweetheart, who grounds you and helps you getting out of your shell, showing you a world beyond what Geist tries to picture for you.

I especially love the ending in Kalei's rout (he has two btw - didn't know that until Butter pointed that out to me; WHERE ARE GEIST'S TWO ENDINGS, HUH CHATTER?!?!? I WON'T STAND FOR THIS INJUSTICE!) because it isn't like "Oh Geist and with him all my negative thoughts disappeared; happily ever after." but a realistic portrayal that he still lingers around, still trying to seduce you with his fear inducing whispers, trying to drag you into your past patterns - that it just isn't as bad anymore. I really love this depiction of such a realistic character portrayal and development.

All in all, thank you so so much for bringing this amazing experience to us and especially thank you for bringing Geist to me. He is very delicious indeed.

Please don't hesitate to ask us any questions about this jam!

Okey! Gotcha! I will do that then! ♥️
(Making a new UI similar to the previous one.) 

Thank you so much for your quick answers!

Ah, I see. 

Well, that's troubling... Since this means I would have to make an entirely new UI. I really, really don't want to use some basic place holder just to update in the end and have people play with a low quality UI first. I would like to present a "finished produkt" at the end of the Jam after all... 

(More work for me.. yaaay. Crunch, here I come.)

Would it be alright if the UI is similar to the one I made for the Winter VN Jam entry, to at least have consistency within the UI as well as to have less more work?

Hello! 💛

I have a question regards of the usage of assets:

For NaNoRenO I’m planning on creating another side story of my passion project “Under The False Sky” - for that I would like to reuse the same UI throughout the entire series. (For consistency etc.)

The assets aren’t really “publicly available” to use, but  they weren't made specifically for the NaNoRenO entry either.’

Would I still be allowed to use them?

Here is the link to the mentioned side story, where the UI already appears in: 

https://elduator.itch.io/utfs-bloodcovered-snow

(If I were to make alterations of the UI or adjustments I would of course do it within the time frame of the jam.)

I hope I conveyed what I meant appropriately.

Best regards,

Ann

Thank you so much for your kind words, Jax!

And also thank you so much for being part of this project and helping me out with managing the team - as team management isn't my strongest skillset, you made the month of December worthwhile and an amazing dev experience!

I'm so glad that we managed to produce such a good product and the memories we've made during development!

Thank you so much, Dana! ♥️

Our voice director (Branden Loera) and audio engineer (Eric Sheffield) (as well as the voice actors and all other team members of course!) put so much effort into this project - so I'm glad to see that though the story genre might not be your cup of tea, it was still a great experience for you!

Thank you so much for enjoying UTFS | Blood:Covered Snow, ebi!

This was my first time completely coding / scripting a Visual Novel, so I'm glad to see I did the project and team justice! ♥️

Everyone has worked so hard on this which I why it makes me happy to see that their hard work seems to have paid off! ✨

It wasn't public yet due to issues with uploading the files! But it is up now, thank you so much for your patience! ♥️

You are such a mad lad. Istg.

I just finished playing this entry and - oh my god - where should I begin?

This was absolutely beautiful!

From the (hot) character art of Nico (he was blinking, that was so cool), to the wonderfully drawn background art (with the duck as easteregg, hahaha!).

The UI was ABSOLUTELY STUNNING - and such an inspiration! It was so well made & had me click around and on different stuff! I really loved the "now playing" in the title screen and the little profile pictures. This is such an attention to detail!! 

The writing and voice acting of Jax was so well done! It had me fooled a few times, thinking Nico was talking to me for real! Not going into the story too much but I don't trust the parents NOR Nico 😂 - though my (thirsty) heart might tell you otherwise!

Thank you so much for making this game and for everybody's hard work on it! You work is so greatly appreciated and I really wish for it to have a continuation! :( 💛

Ahhh! Thank you so so much for your nice words, ebi! They are very appreciated by everyone in the team! 💛

Yes, we put a lot of thought into YnK's UI and how to design it. I'm really glad you liked it! 🥀

Everybody in the team worked hard to get this demo out in time and everybody should be really proud of the work they've done (especially with that truly tight schedule in mind)! I couldn't be prouder as a creative lead! ☺️

I'm also relieved to hear that the MC and our little H.S.-boys (Haru Sano, Hiro Sasaki haha) caught your attention! We deliberately made the MC more vulgar and sassy to stray away from the "innocent Otome heroine" stereotype. - And in regards to how Hiro develops in his route... you'll just have to wait and find out when the full game is released! ; )

I just finished playing Cage Heart and OH MAN - this demo left me feeling things! A lot of things!

(Most of the time I was giggling and rolling around in my bed .)

First of all: The story and the writing style is so intriguing! The way every love interest was introduced and the mystery which follows the heroine, the town and every love interest piqued my interest and I really want to find more out - not gonna lie, Clark's kinda sus.

The character and CG art is amazing! I really like the art style. But the thing that really captivated me the most in regards to art direction is the UI - cause man this is some sick and sleek UI design! (As a fellow UI artist, this really really inspires me!) I really loved interacting with the menu and the different buttons, seeing the different animations.

Now to the voice acting - maaaan - this is some dedication. The quality of the voice acting was extremely good and authentic! (Even the moaning, like geez! I had to cover my mouth from all the giggling.) The choice for VAs was extremely well done! They fit so well to the characters!

In regards to love interests, I like all the characters extremely (which rarely is the case for me)! But I must say, Dane has a special place in my heart - I don't know but submissive men do something deep inside of me. Haha!

All in all this was an extremely good VN and definitely one of my highlights from this Otome Jam! I can't wait for the full release to play each route and get to know of each Love Interest's little secret!

Man, Olivia. How dare you make such a good demo and end it just like this? 😭
The writing was so well done! So smooth, easy to read and yet descriptive and immersive! I appreciated the teasing and sarcastic dynamic of the MC and Alvarez and how he slowly "opened up" to her a little more!

The way you incorporated the soundtracks and the character sprite direction was also amazingly executed! It made everything come to life and made you feel like you were directly involved!

And the voice acting... omg. Especially at the last scenes, I couldn't contain myself. I was giggling like a teenager, rolling around and hiding my face. 👉🏻👈🏻 He is such a good fit for Alvarez!

About the story itself: So many questions were thrown in the room, what's the organisation, why are they looking for her and what's Alvarez' role in all of it? I can't wait to get to know all of it!

You left me craving more for this story and for Alvarez! I can't wait for the full visual novel! 🥹🫶🏻

Hahaha, thank you for playing the demo and liking the premise and characters! - I can't wait to show more stuff of the project in the future! 💛

And yes, Jiyuu is such a loveable and totally normal cat!

Thank you so much for checking Yominokuni's demo out, Flori! 💛

I'm really happy you enjoyed playing through the game and liked the setting and the glossary!! 

And yes, Rei is a ray (haha) of sunshine! Always there to keep the team together and making sure everyone feels happy and comfortable. - Such a sweetheart!

I can't wait to show updates of the project in the future!

I'm glad to hear you've liked the game so far - and I apologize you weren't able to delve into any of the routes. Since they are still in production, we decided to only show the Prologue and Chapter 0 to introduce the player to the world of Yominokuni. 💛

I hope you'll be looking forward to future updates of the game! 🥀

Ahhh! Thank you so so much for giving Yominokuni a chance and liking it ! 🥀

I'm relieved to hear you find interest in the world building and story of Yominokuni! 💛

Yes, we wanted to make the heroine a bit different from "classical" otome games, a bit more vulgar and straight to the point and wanted to give her a few flaws, which make her stand out more.
As for Haru... yes, he has a few secrets he wants to keep hidden - but will the heroine be able to reveal them?  👀

I hope you are looking forward to future updates and again thank you so much for playing Yominokuni's demo!

Thank you so much for playing this game and for being part of the dev-journey! 💛

Thanks to you and the amazing ideas you've brought into the project, it truly became what it's supposed to be! - As well as your writing! (You know it already, but I'm really in love with your writing.) The scenes you've wrote for the demo were phenomenal! 

I'm so happy you liked the investigation sequence and bad end! As well as the whole playing experience! I'm really excited for the future of this project!🥀

Thank you so much! Ahh! I'm really glad you like the demo! 😭💛

I have so many things to say and I have so many feelings after finishing the demo! I don't know where to begin.

First of all: I knew your writing is absolutely amazing, but you really outdid yourself with this demo! The writing is superb and you are able to feel the emotions from the very beginning! 💛

The character sprites with their various emotions, the soundtracks, effects and different BGs is making the demo even better and are implemented really really well to strengthen the emotions conveyed through the writing!  

It's also amazing you created all of this with the limited time and by yourself / as a solo dev while still working as a writer on another game jam entry!

(Spoilers)
As for the story itself: This was a great prelude to the full story, we got a great introduction to Danielle and her struggles and trauma from losing her parents without being able to reconcile and how her "normal" life suddenly flips upside down - everything she might have known was actually shrouded in mystery! 

I really like the distinctive character designs and how each character is different / recognisable from one another; through their appearance and personality!
I think Antonio, Renzo and Angelo are my favourite! (in that order) I just really love Antonio's maturity and seemingly cold-hearted matter-of-factness, Renzo being the polar opposite, being humorous and caring (by giving her the present to cheer her up) while Angelo is much more of a brute trying to prove himself different from his family and to restore his honor!

Angelo's and Ren's "fighting" scene was hilarious! 😭

I think their routes might be really really interesting with the story beats you've set up in the demo!

(You can guess who I chose at the end 😌)

(I can understand why everyone likes Luca tho - his nice and caring attitude towards Danielle is really intriguing, though I can't trust it just yet!)

Thank you so much for creating DOAS and showing this to us! I can't wait to see future updates of the project and play the full game one day!