heya. thank you so much for checking in. i always like these messages on here where someone was expecting some smut game then gets caught up in the story. really glad you're enjoying it. and don't worry, i'm not going anywhere. full steam ahead <3
Aaryn
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these discord links are weird. I'll paste it here and see if copying it will work. some people occasionally get an invalid message but others join without a problem. it's been the same link for a few years now. try pasting it.
https://discord.com/invite/qAG3qek
hey thank you so much for playing and for taking the time to let you know it got you in the feels :) don't worry, i'm not going anywhere. i'm finishing up the tail end of the next update now so hopefully we'll see the next 1/3 of chapter 7 in the revamp very soon. thanks again. really appreciate it <3
haha, yeaaaaaah... i know a lot of people want that sequel or even the spin-off-- especially for one character in particular. i do think if i do something like that i'll be excited to announce it and i'm hoping that people would get amped up knowing that i plan on doing them justice. but we'll see. i do take this thing serious and there's still a billion things i need to learn about all this stuff. the revamp is very much growing with the visuals and I'm really trying to challenge myself there to do new and creative things-- many of which could be applicable to other projects but we'll see. i'm terrible at making plans. i sorta just sit down and roll with this stuff, i guess. i like the world and the characters and i dont want to be spoiled either so i really just try not to look too far down the road :)
seriously appreciate your excitement and energy, though. means the world to me to see people enjoy this thing. it was a friggen acciden that i even did it to start with
heya, thanks so much for playing and letting me know you enjoyed it. actually my original idea when i finished was to unlock a braden route then drop you back at the beginning to play it all through from his perspective but i ended up scrapping that. i felt like zack's headspace was more my style of writing and i wasn't sure how I'd juggle braden narrating and try to keep my overly dramatic writing style under control (braden struggles with school stuff so i couldn't really see him writing lengthy dramatic sentences and i honestly enjoy that nonsense). the other aspect of braden-- and i wont go into detail here because of spoilers-- but braden's arc and how he feels was very different to a lot of people and i thought that was awesome. people were able to mold braden to fit both him and their own vision of his feelings and the more i thought about it, me writing his route would take that from them so i scrapped it. braden's character imo was way more powerful with the mystery and ambiguous narrative that i thought i could ever write him.
but yeah, thank so much for playing and just taking time to leave a comment and stuff here. i really appreciate the interest and i'm just happy you enjoyed it :)
Heya, so the short answer is I'm hoping this month but depending it could be early next month.
longer more detailed answer: so without mentioning spoilers, this next update has 4 new locations we haven't seen in the revamp. After looking at those sets from the original game, they needed work. In the grand scheme of the revamp, updates have been much quicker than the original game because i didn't have to do any writing-- just polish what was there or reorganize it. the last few updates have had almost zero writing stuff but polish. but most of the locations we see in the game are gradually visited as the updates go-- allowing me to slowly work on them over time. this update is the exception because it drops 4 new places into one update. there was a ton of work there. i've rebuilt some of them, completely relit them, and done some texture updates. that turned out to be a lot. Then, compared to the original, the number of CGs was easily tripled. Right now I have over 600 in this update along when most updates have had around 300ish. It's just a really graphic intense update. that being said, I'm on the last scene now and I wanna get it out there. I still have coding, music, testing, then editing and stuff.
if you're curious and you want to see some of the work, I've posted stuff on my bsky account. more teasers than usual to try and compensate for the extra time so people know that I'm actually working on this thing.
[Teasers are kinda spoilery though so heads up]
heya, thanks for reading. i wont comment too much about the ending here because i dont want to spoil things for people. i know a lot of people check the comments down here before they even start to play but there's definitely a lot of though put into the ending and the entire story. I know a lot of people have asked for a sequel and we'll see. i take things like that seriously because i sorta view myself as a gatekeeper for the characters and i dont want to run the story into the ground. i am definitely not opposed to spin-offs though. a lot of the side characters are just fun and i'm open to continuing or doing side projects with them if the moment is right. thanks so much for reading and posting. i really appreciate the energy and thanks for taking my little project seriously <3
bah, somehow i overlooked this follow-up response and I sincerely apologize. thank you so much for coming back after you finished it and i'm glad you enjoyed it-- and both routes and the twists. you made me laugh at feeling bad for other visual novels. I have no doubt others will do as well if not better. there's talented people out there with amazing stories to tell. this was my first attempt so I'm incredibly honored you felt so moved by it and hold it in such high regards. thank you again so much for playing and for just taking time to give such generous feedback. really appreciate this more than you know <3
@Arlana95. yes, that's Zack the MC. i will say that my social media page has been a bit smutty lately and probably isn't a fair representation of the game itself. check out the description above but it's a very slow burn, story-focus. yes, there's adult content but it's purpose is to drive the story so there's not really any pointless nudity in here. it's just a story about sexuality that doesn't cut the camera
wow, thank you so much. you're very kind and i really appreciate you taking the time to post about your experience. i'm grateful you found value in it and saw it as therapeutic. i tried hard to weave that into the story and have something that felt realistic and genuine. sorry about all the feels-- apparently, i like emotional stories and i didn't know. but genius? haha... nah, i'm just some internet dude tinkering around.
aww. thanks so much. this is very kind and sweet. i'm honored you'd think that it's one of the best and i'm really grateful that you enjoyed the slow burn approach. i know it's not for everyone but i agree with you and think that it helps pull me into the world more and just generally creates more investment. we'll see on the sequel. i know a lot of people want more but i want to be careful with that. there's a lot of people that have trusted me with these characters and i want to take that role seriously
hey, y'all team zack peeps were cute so i made you something as a warm-up today
heya, thanks so much for playing and leaving your thoughts. I hope, if you do finish up the story in the older version, that it still holds up. there's definitely a difference in quality that's almost laughable at this point. but, i will say i was getting better by the end of the original story so you're definitely seeing the better half of the original at this point.
chapter 6 was popular in the original and it was definitely a turning point in the story where the story sorta "grew up" in the adult genre rather than just focusing on naughty stuff all the time.
i wanted the game to be free because i wasn't sure how things would turn out. while I guess paying for my "time" is a thing, I had no idea what i was doing so my time didn't really feel like it had much value since I was learning in real time. but i also think there's a lot of greed out there and i wanted to create something that was just based on donation and that was it. i think it makes people take you a bit more serious. plus, there was some important reflection stuff in this and I've gotten thousands of letters over the years from people that were moved by it. there's no reason to have payment be an obstacle to others enjoying that if it will bring them happiness.
and you make some pretty bold comparisons to other games there so i'll definitely say thank you for that. despite the original being much lesser quality, i'm still proud of the journey of it. i hope you enjoy the second half. you got a lot of story left. let me know what you think
Thank you so much for leaving feedback and I'm really glad you enjoyed the project. I really wanted to do something new here and put a different spin on the genre. I think the NSFW stuff means so much more when there's a build-up or an investment in the characters. Also, you're not alone in jumping over to the v021 to finish the story after starting the Remake. Plenty more work to be done on it. Thanks so much for playing <3
heya:) thanks so much for stopping by and trying out the project. I'm glad you're enjoying it. So over on the Patreon page I've dropped 2 sets of teasers for the next update. v15 is a ton of image work and i've already broken the Revamp record for images and I still have 3 scenes left to do. Basically there's new environments that needed reworked before i even started doing the images. that being said, there's minimal writing work to do so it's mostly just pics. No ETA right now but i promise I'm working on it. gonna be at least another month I'm guessing. If you wanna see some of the teasers, you can check out my Bluesky account. there's some free ones as well as a small snapshot of the newest teasers I dropped.
https://bsky.app/profile/aarynstr8.bsky.social
heya :)
So right now, the revamp only goes up to a portion of chapter 7. The entire story is 10 chapters and the chapters pretty much get longer as the story goes. So right now, I'd say the revamp is probably somewhere around halfway through. so that includes all versions of the revamp, PC, MAC, and android.
the original is still all 10 chapters on all platforms. if you didn't want to wait, a lot of people have been starting the revamp and playing until it stops then jumping over to pick up the end of the story on the original but there is a massive quality drop. massive.
otherwise, it's still gonna be awhile. i'm going as fast as i can but i also want quality stuff to the best of my current ability
i was hoping i wouldn't come off offensive or just disregarding your suggestion. legit the community would eat me alive. every time i introduced a new supporting character like half the people started barking at them. every supporting character in this story legit has to defend why they're allowed in the room just so the community wouldn't destroy them :p
haha. so i read this and my first instinct was to laugh just because of past fan reactions but, in short, if I did something like that, I would probably end up on one of those cold case murder shows and i'd never be found again, lol.
so the background here (and this will have very minimal spoilers), when i first introduced Mikhail, there was some hate. people already wanted him gone because he was a liability. which honestly played into the beginning parts of his arc-- that not everyone is a bad guy. in fact, one of the primary reasons for the scene in Mikhail's dorm room was to address the hate and drive that point home that it's ok to have allies that happen to be the same gender as your preference. because of the slow-burn of this story, people really quested for the ship of zack and braden and anything that would get between that needed taken out of the equation. At this point, even introducing anything extra would probably blow up in my face and ultimately defeat the purpose of writing this (if you play all the way to the end of the original or wait on the revamp ending, this will hopefully make more sense).
another reason there's only one "romance" route is that choosing the guy you wanted was never the point of this. it was more about addressing the dynamics of relationships and friendships and dealing with those obstacles and sexuality in general. If you've read any background on the story: this is my first attempt at writing something and i'm historically awful at multitasking so i made a very early decision with this story that rather than have multiple romance routes with like 5 different guys that may be half-way fleshed out-- i elected to write one story (with 2 different perspective routes in it) and hopefully flesh that one route out more than most people would have expected. so basically do one right rather than half-ass five of them. it also takes coding experience to juggle multiple routes and i had no idea what i was doing. I quite literally googled every line of code until i got the hang of it.
so odds are i wont add any additional routes.i dont wanna mess it up :p
the revamp quality is incredible compared to the older version--especially since you played through the first part of the older version. I'm really proud at the additions and it's really let me relive things all over again with adding in the music and sound effects and *gasp* other students at the college! lmao.
without going into too many details for spoilers, you still had quite a bit left. i feel like every chapter gets progressively longer than the previous one. well, i hope you enjoy it when i finally get this damned thing done :)
sorry if you thought there was a wait. i thought i'd been cranking these updates out super fast considering the amount of work involved. it's been around every 2 months right now which is way faster than the original where i had to outline the story plus write every update from scratch. i try my best but i'm sorry to say it's not going to get any faster or the project will suffer, i'm already on this 7 days a week. hope you enjoy though
Straight!? Revamp v14.0 is now FREE For Download comments · Replied to Misa-chan in Straight!? Revamp v14.0 is now FREE For Download comments
Hey, thank you so much. glad it ran you through all the feels. i really wanted something that pulled people in and made the characters feel real. i think you need that for the emotional scenes to work. i know it's a very niche story but thanks so much for giving it a shot. if you haven't checked out the Revamped version, though, I definitely recommend it. It's pretty established now and is waaaaaay better. (also, your screen name cracked me up :p). all the best and stay safe out there <3
oh for sure, the Revamp is insanely better. i do think the original starts to get better around chapter 5 or 6 when i started to just write how i wanted to. the revamp is also way more cinematic with the camera shots-- we only see that at the end of the original. plus, i think the sound and music really adds to the vibe. i'm with you on the "heart" thing, i think the slow burn makes things matter. gives you time to get attached, frustrated, and feel things along with the characters
heya, thanks a lot. glad you're enjoying the story. Just so you know the public version is the same as the Patreon version. I just release early on Patreon for donations then 3 weeks later drop it free on Patreon as well as here. people have been generous with support and I've always wanted the project to be free. I'm honored you think it's one of the best you've read. i know i did something a bit different here and tried to interject a lot more heart into an erotic game and rather than the erotic stuff being the primary purpose of the project-- it's more of a compliment to the content and the story rather than just jumping from one slutty scene to the next. that stuff gets boring to me. in terms of support, take your time. like i said, the game is free for a reason so please take care of yourself and those you love first before you chip in money to my project. that being said, if you do get into a position to toss in monetary support, I'd honestly recommend doing it on Patreon first: over there the support will unlock extra stuff like picture sets and things like that. Over here, there's nothing to unlock. If you're not interested in the extra stuff: either one works. But again: please don't feel pressured. The first part of Chapter 7 will be dropping over here on 12/10 for free so you don't have too long of a wait. thank you so much for reading and just letting me know you're enjoying it. seriously appreciate it. be safe and all the best <3
thank you so much. i'm glad you appreciated the slow burn and sometimes inconsistent take on this. I wanted complicated characters for this story that started out fairly superficial because i feel like that's what people expect in these types of games. irl we learn more about people through conversation, behaviors, or their opinions on things and that's really what's showcased here. i wanted more of a story that unfolded through dialogue than i did something with a ton of action or complicated choices
Heya, thank you for the well written note and I'm stoked that it impacted you in such a way as to give you a new perspective and renew some love for your bf. Also, congratulations on 14 years. that's a pretty long time and should be respected and i hope it continues to grow for you both.
in terms of your suggestions: yes, i plan on translations eventually but i think it will be difficult just because i apparently write with sooooo much slang. i never really expected non-english speakers to even get through it originally so it's been incredibly rewarding to hear that people are motivated enough by the project to wade through this thing, lol. I do plan on trying to work with people on the discord to get it as accurate as possible but we'll see. languages are complex and inconsistent obviously so who knows how that translation will turn out.
i see what you're saying with dialogue and maybe that's something i could add. there's a few spots in the later parts of the game where i did that. i just very much see all the random stuff that seems less important as still being character development or giving you background that may come into play later. when i sit down and read books, i usually like massive ones with a ton of details. but i also think that conversation is how relationships naturally evolve so i really focused on a lot of dialogue that spans everything from serious to existential to anger to teasing the crap out of each other. I definitely think it's a lot for a non-native English speaker to struggle with 'cause i get really wordy sometimes :p
things like that may come after the revamp project is completely finished where i may be able to go back and just do some touch-up updates and stuff :)