Hi everyone! Happy new year! I wish you all the best for it: health, money, success, whatever floats your boat! I’ve decided to start the year by looking back to the games I released last year, in 2024 and overall give some insight on how my dev career is going! Let’s get started!!
The Day Being Ace Made Him Stronger is the first game I have released in 2024, for Ace Jam! It wasn’t planned but when I heard of the jam, I’ve decided to try my shot and develop a game quickly.
I think this game is so far one of my most critically-acclaimed (as I’m writing these lines, out of its 42 ratings only 5 aren’t five star-ratings), and it’s quite dazzling to think about this because it was quite a very personal game.
You see, this game was based on my experience with grooming, and I won’t get into details here because that’s not the point of this devlog. And this is overall something I never talk about in real life, and all the people close to me don’t even know it happened, just because, well… this is just something sad, and I’ve overcome it, so I don’t need to bring it and would rather keep it for myself. But this game was a final dot to my journey to accepting my experience, to accepting my status in this situation (a victim) and to finding strength in it leading me to understand my asexuality. So yes, my first game of the year was a very introspective one, and I don’t think I’ve ever put so much of myself in a game. Thank you to all those who supported this project and shared their thoughts. I was moved.
My second game of the year was a rather meatier one for my standards: My Dream Date with the Yandere Serial Killer, a parody of dark romance, narrating the date Yanette, a young woman fascinated with serial killers, stalked one named Yancie and managed to get a date at her place with him. Overall, if you forget the inappropriate joke topics in the game, it is a rather light-hearted game, and I think it never gets too gory, although the characters will say unhinged things that might shock you looool
So, this game was born because I wanted to tackle the yandere trope but couldn’t write it in a serious manner because of how I kind of failed to see how one could actually simp for a yandere character (before I got HUMBLED by Chattercap’s MindMindMind and ended up adoring the yandere character in this game, my dear diabolical Geist…). And with the shelves in book stores being more and more filled with dark romance novels, and it being all the rage on social media too, I thought parodying it would be funny. Overall, if I’m being honest, I genuinely adore this game, despite it being an obvious shitpost. First, it was my first attempt at making a game mobile-compatible, and I honestly did a great job with that; and more important, I think the game meets its goal perfectly: it is HILARIOUS, and sorry if I’m boasting, but really, I rewatched Joy’s stream of it the other day, and gosh, how much fun we had, and how hilarious this game was! I think Carrot summarised it well: whatever you think this game is going to do, it manages to be even more unhinged, and that makes me very proud!! And I know I had to start the writing of the game over, delete some endings, rearrange some scenes etc. because I wasn’t satisfied with it first, so yeah, I’m happy with the result because I know HOW HARD IT WAS to get there looool
And I won’t lie, despite conceiving these characters as parodies at first, I ended up being VERY endeared with Yanette and Yancie. I explained it in the devlog of the game, but Yanette felt quite like a stranger at first (I am no stranger to shitpost, but Yanette is another level I won’t lie), but eventually, she feels like one my characters, and I like it!
In terms of stats, also, well, I know this game is one of my most popular, certainly because it is yandere-adjacent and the trope is still rather trendy. So I’m not surprised, I just hope people don’t go in expecting anything serious looool
The Thread and the Sword is the third installment of a trilogy of games I started in the summer of 2023, of which the first entry was The Daughters of the Sun, and the second Son of the Woods. This series of games, inspired by Jean Racine’s Phaedra, first started as a quick portrayal, due to the game jam it was submitted to, of the titular character’s suicide, Phaedra, choosing death after confessing her shameful love to her step-son, reminiscing how all the women in her family were unfortunate in love for the crime the sun did. This first entry, with When The Wind Blew You Away, is certainly what I would call my most critically-acclaimed game, as it should considering it is HEAVILY inspired by Jean Racine’s writing, which is phenomenal, please read this play and in French if you can.
But anyway, long story short, I got very enthusiastic feedback and, in particular, some feedback seeing Phaedra as a victim (as she paints herself, and as she indeed partly is), and one of the feedback even insulted all the men in their lives. That’s the moment I was like “wait” because… Phaedra’s step-son is her victim, not her tormentor. So that’s the moment I realised I needed to offer a new perspective, and that the idea of the trilogy was born: if the first game offered Phaedra’s perspective, the second should offer Hippolytus’ (her step-son); and eventually, the last game should reveal the truth, the actual confession, and let players form their own opinion. The Thread and the Sword is the last game mentioned.
And I’ve heard a lot of opinions about this trilogy and about its games, but here’s mine: The Thread and the Sword is my favourite. Admittedly, a bit unfairly, since it builds upon what the two first games have built, but at the same time, that’s the point of a good sequel (although it is technically a prequel), it’s not meant to just use the same characters without bringing anything meaningful to the work(s) it is derived from. So yes, I think it uses everything used in the two previous games and, in particular, in The Daughters of the Sun (especially its core feature with the sprite colours indicating a change in characters) to characterise Phaedra. And since the strength of the first game, according to feedback, is how it managed to recreate an impression of theatre in a visual novel, I think the last one does that even better, beyond any comparison. And honestly, this game is certainly one of my favourite of mine, but this whole series is, since it was all inspired by the one work that has led me to start a master’s thesis in literature despite having graduated in maths (which I teach today by the way if you guys were curious about my real-life job lol), and yes, the master’s thesis is about it!
So yes, I love this game and I’m very proud I released it this year!
Rendez-Doug is the longest game I’ve released, around 30k words. Which isn’t a lot per say for a visual novel, but hey, I’m an indie dev and this was all developed in one month, so give me a break!! Rendez-Doug narrates how Sandra and Adriel (you can choose between a male and a female protagonist) create links with their introverted, uninteresting co-worker named Doug.
Honestly, this story was conceptualised when I released The Day Being Ace Made Him Stronger at the start of the year. Indeed, a part of this game was to also celebrate ace representations in media, and I thought that I could have some wholesome ace representations in my stories, since they in general depict characters struggling with their asexuality (be it the Prince from Kissing Snow-White, tormented with the concept of true love’s kiss to prove one’s love; Katekyo in Katekyo’s First Date who gets shamed for being ace; and Jace’s asexuality being denied by his abuser in The Day Being Ace Made Him Stronger). So, while Doug’s arc still involves his asexuality, it is never seen as a problem by anyone in this game, which is overall VERY wholesome.
This was my NaNoRenO project for 2024; if you read my previous devlog, you can tell I’m going into a different direction for 2025 lol. Honestly, I think Rendez-Doug is the game I’m the least satisfied with from this year, but let’s be honest: it has two routes depending on the protagonist you choose, six endings, 30k words, a custom GUI, a main menu illustration, three sprites each with two outfits, and all this under a month while being awfully sick for a week and while still polishing The Thread and the Sword, so I need to give myself a break and admit I did a great job with Rendez-Doug. It’s cute, it’s wholesome, and I think that, despite everything, Doug manages to be a VERY endearing character, and that was the point: simple doesn’t mean boring!
But I think my experience with the game is overall tainted with how NaNoRenO went last year. To be honest, I participated in the jam in 2022 and 2023, each time with something heavy on my heart. In 2022, I lost my grandfather while developing The Life I Lost, which dramatically changed the trajectory of the game (but it certainly is one of my favourite stories of mine). In 2023, after months of depression, I found the strength to work on a story and a topic I’ve been wanting to tell for a long time, High School Lolita - my crushing love story, which is my favourite game of mine so far; and clearly, in my dev work, I know there was a before and after High School Lolita. The Life I Lost has had fair success in two years (certainly the pregnant tag and people looking for games catering to inflation fetish stumbling upon it), and High School Lolita has been getting more and more noticed in the last months, which makes me very happy because it sincerely deserves it loool, I adore it!
So yeah, despite me developing these two games in a bad place, I sincerely love them and, in particular, I am very comforted by the experience I had developing them, and they made me adore NaNoRenO as a game jam. Rendez-Doug has had an opposite trajectory. I wasn’t feeling particularly sad when developing it, but NaNoRenO was an… exhausting experience, to say the least. I don’t want to undermine the support I’ve received, and I am very grateful for it, but let’s be honest: some players really can’t behave. Of course, a small portion of them; but still, they were loud, obnoxiously bombing games with low ratings for no reason other than them existing, and some even allowed themselves to be very condescending towards devs, and one player even ended up using one of my own games amongst others to give another dev a lecture about what good visual novel writing is????????????? Like, sincerely guys, if you read this, don’t do this, I don’t want my work to be used to belittle others, that’s not the point, I support all devs as long as they pour their heart into their work and craft it with care and respect!
I also can’t ignore the… questionable game which got released, using the death and even the suicide of its love interest to get ratings from players, with the promise of “bringing back the LI to life”, which… well, some devs were rightfully furious about the game asking for ratings and the dev encouraging people to create alt accounts which is forbidden by itch; but honestly, I didn’t care much about that, I was just flabbergasted at the rather insensitive take on suicide… I won’t go into more detail since, well, you’re here to read about my games looool, but if you can handle the subject matter, please go play Naarel’s I Won’t Finish This Game if you haven’t already. I cannot say this is a beautiful game, because that isn’t the point: it tackles its topic as it is, not beautiful, not ugly, but raw.
But long story short: NaNoRenO was rather displeasing overall to be honest??? Otome Jam was a bit too if I’m being honest, at least, not as good as in 2023, but I guess the game I released for it went more unnoticed, so I overall had a better experience with it? But yes, overall, I’m very worried about exposing my games to larger audiences through more popular jams because, honestly, there definitely has been a switch, and players are ruder than they used to be in the indie community. So I’ll try NaNoRenO this year, but if it turns out to be a displeasing experience again, it will certainly be my last participation in the jam. So, not because of Rendez-Doug itself lol, but because of what has surrounded it.
The River of Rebirth is one of my more niche games, as it went rather unnoticed (with which I’m fine lol). This one is particular because I got feedback from my twitter followers to define it (genre, number of endings, gender of protagonist etc.). As a dev, I had a lot of fun experimenting with NVL formats for one of my games, because I don’t often use it per say (in general, for NVL-adjacent games or moments, of which Beyond the Fairy Tale is a good example, I just use screens, for those curious about the Ren’Py details, since I kind of like moving the text around).
The River of Rebirth was a story I struggled to write, because it was supposed to be romance (voted by followers), but I didn’t find it truly romantic… instead, it is quite sad: River lost their husband Ambrose almost 50 years ago and has spent their whole life trying to find a way to bring him back to life. Now they can, but who, between Ambrose and River, really needs to be brought back to life?
I think this conflict is the strength of the game, with its magical ambiance: the romance scene is all set, the magic works, the dead lover appears before your eyes, but then, bam: you’re 72, he’s still 24, and he wonders why you’re trying to bring him back to life instead of the son you had with him, who also died on the same day. Feedback said one ending in particular had a rather unique take on the “bringing back your lover to life” trope, since it directly confronts the protagonist, River, to the consequences of their attempt: dooming Ambrose to the same fate. And let’s say that in one ending, Ambrose isn’t having it loool
Overall, I am very happy with this game, despite it taking more time than it should have, but hey, I gotta give myself a break!
My masterpiece. My one and only true love. The game I was born to write. Shrek is love. Shrek is life. And fuck capitalism.
More seriously, swamp opera was developed under a game as a shitpost story being some cheap Shadow the Hedgehog x Shrek fanfiction. So the point was to make the game purposefully bad, and even worse than my other shitpost games like My Dream Date with the Yandere Serial Killer, Kawaii-chan and Bacon Monster: a Forbidden Love Story or Meeting my weird parents-in-law. So, I tried to make the art horrendous, the writing terrible (not even correcting my numerous typos, and before you ask, no, no typos were on purpose, I really am a typo king dfvgfdfvb), and overall making it ridiculous. But of course, in a wholesome funny way despite anything, but honestly, this game is just a fever dream. From a dev perspective though, it was quite interesting to think of what choices I would need to make to make it particularly bad: the colours obviously, but also the music. Not that the tracks were bad per se, but I made sure they were distracting and never fitting the action for example! So yeah, if you want to have a laugh, go play it; I’m not sure it’s as funny as My Dream Date with the Yandere Serial Killer, which is sincerely hilarious, but it is very funny, and it felt good not to take myself too seriously!
The demo of The Priestess, the Shepherd and the Doom of Patras was released for Otome Jam (and is the game I have to update next month!). While the game itself is rather dramatic and tragic, the demo so far is an introduction, portraying Comaetho’s disturbing nature, and Melanippus being a baby girl.
Honestly, this game isn’t innocent, as it is my attempt at writing a yandere protagonist you kinda can root for but not entirely: Comaetho is indeed ready to sacrifice everything for Melanippus, and you can expect her to turn quite yandere-ish in the full game, haha.
So far, I guess this game is one of my more polished, be it the GUI, the CGs (which are full illustrations, and at the number of 3 in the current demo), sprites for five characters so far (eight for the full game), even the main menu has its custom illustration, like Rendez-Doug or My Dream Date with the Yandere Serial Killer had… I even HAND-DREW THE BACKGROUNDS. So yeah, a lot of work was poured into it, because there also was a lot of love.
Comaetho’s myth is rather unknown, and honestly, you can read the devlog I wrote for the game if you want to know more, but I think this game is a good indicator of how my work is going to evolve in general: more narrative games, a bit longer than my usual bite-sized games, although not dramatically long, allowing me to explore genres, personalities, situations, myths, concepts, social and health matters etc. For example, my NaNoRenO 2025 game (which will certainly be named The Dragon Princess) will absolutely have similar vibes (although Amaia is a much less morally-grey protagonist than Comaetho lol).
The Ghosts of Troy is my O2A2 game for this year, just like The Daughters of the Sun was for 2023. And this time, inspired by my second favourite mythological play from Racine: Andromache. The game particularly focuses on Andromache’s dilemma between her fidelity to Hector, which would lead to her son’s death, and the life of her son, which is the last treasure she has kept from Hector, and which can only be saved my marrying her kidnapper and tormentor, Pyrrhus. Honestly, this sounds like the plot of a dark romance, but I really enjoyed writing it through the perspective Racine offers us: Andromache being torn, haunted by the memory of Troy, and having between her hands its only remnant in her son. And I thought her solution to the dilemma was tragic, but also quite empowering in some way, although this vision has been challenged by the feedback. But to me, she manages to save her son while refusing to subject herself to Pyrrhus’ orders, even if it’s at the cost of her own life.
In terms of genre, the game is quite similar to The Daughters of the Sun, although I wanted it to feel like a painting, rather than a theatre play, and honestly, I genuinely ADORE the art for this game, certainly my best art for a game this year with the one we’ll talk about after. I wanted it to feel Greek, anciently so, and I hope it managed to feel that way.
And well, while this game wasn’t the more notable in my dev career, I just love it, and I absolutely love how the two heroines of Racine I have depicted (Phaedra and Andromache) couldn’t be any more different!
Just like The Day Being Ace Made Him Stronger, the first game of the year, the last one, God bless you, is a very personal game, based on my very own feelings haha.
First of all, I think I’ve never got more complimented about my art than I did for this game, which is quite interesting, because I did try to get closer to my “traditional” style when I use colour pencils (I tend to put a lot of colours everywhere in a happy mess lol), so that’s quite interesting! Honestly, this kind of art makes the piece very atmospheric, but is certainly too strong for most CGs I would draw (for example, if I need a background etc.), but I can see a lot of it that I can incorporate in my art style! If I’m being honest, I do prefer Andromache’s illustration, but well, different strokes for different folks!
I’ve already commented the reception of this game in the last devlog, so well, I don’t have much to add, but it is a venting piece, and I’m glad I got it out. In particular, this was my participation to yuri jam. I had only participated before once, with Meeting my weird parents-in-law, which was a shitpost game, so I wanted to tackle a more emotional experience for it. I don’t have a lot of GL games, and even not a lot planned (only A Camellia with Petals has some sapphic subtext, but to be honest, I wouldn’t frame it as a GL game), but I ought to do more, and God bless you has convinced me of that!
I thought I hadn’t been very active in 2024, but I’ve actually released nine games, so just one less than what I did in 2023 if I remember well and… dang???? I will definitely take it slower for 2025 however, as I want to work on longer projects. But I can at least know these should (I insist on “should”) be released:
Which already makes quite a lot! I hope I can manage to do everything; if not, that’s okay! If more, hurray!!
I would also like to thank all the people who have supported me, either by playing my games, rating it, leaving comments, adding them to collections, contributing to them by either beta-testing, editing or voice acting. I am very grateful to be part of the indie VN community, surrounded by so many creatives, infinitely talented and also infinitely nice. Thank you for all, and once again, happy new year!
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DANG HOW DID YOU RELEASE NINE GAMES THIS YEAR, I kept thinking that we got to the ending but then realized "OH WAIT that released this year too..." It was a great year for you (which is funny because I also recall you were going to take it easy in the latter half LMAO), and it seems like next year will be no less productive... WE'RE GETTING THE PHANTOM BL FGHFGHFG and good luck with yaoi jam again, fourth time's the charm...
I HAVE NO IDEA I THOUGHT I RELEASED LESS GAMES THAN THIS BUT APPARENTLY NOT DFCDFVBGC (and well, in the second half, I guess I released 3 games...... I did take it easier!!!!!!!)... AND PHANTOM BL IS MY OBSESSION, IT IS GIVING ME LIFE, IT IS THE REASON FOR WHICH I BREATHE