itch.io

Just wanted to leave a comment about how much I really love your work!

I love how you give your characters depth without launching into index pages with 20 paragraphs of backstory nestled away in a link, within a link, within a link. In some other stories, the characters you interact with feel like they melt into the code when you stop talking to them, but I don't feel the same when I'm playing this IF.

I also love how you write about some heavier themes without being overly gratuitous, or needlessly explicit about certain details. Think it really helps some people who have bad experiences with those topics not settle into the scene too heavily, and at the same time, leave readers who don't share the same experiences with enough detail to interpret the scene accurately.

Lastly, I wanna say that I'm really sorry to hear about Shadow :( I already love story!Shadow to bits, and promise to love him forevermore. I think it's a lovely gesture to immortalise his memory in this IF!

All the best for the future chapters, and remember to take care of yourself while working on this amazing project :)

Just to highlight what the other reply to you mentioned, this game will mainly revolve around you and TWO other main characters, which are Tamarack and Qiu. The main point of this game isn't for it to be a romance visual novel, but to explore how you would react and feel if you grew up together with the both of them, along with all of the other side characters.

I'd recommend you check this game out anyway, but try to view it as though you're living in Golden Grove instead of just trying to get together with a particular character! You will definitely have a much more fulfilling experience. This is why GBPatch's games stand out from the rest of the other visual novel experiences, imo. Their goal isn't to deliver another inane run-of-the-mill rom-com story, but for you to experience growing up in a universe that they painstakingly crafted.

To answer your questions specifically, though:

1. Customisation options are really only limited to you. This includes your pronouns, name, visual appearance and how your room looks. Adjusting relationship dynamics only apply to Qiu and Tamarack.

2. The demo was crafted that way to show an example of how characters will change between the few time-skips that happen in between the main story. Depending on your choices, Tam or Qiu will react to you differently after the time-skip. Eg. you constantly spoke over Tam and constantly brushed her or her comments off. She might appear more reserved, or act more brusquely towards you.

3. Outfit customisation will most probably be limited to the beginning of every Step. This is because characters reference what you chose to wear/if you wore your hair differently/etc. It would be hell for the programmers to account for every state change if they allowed customisation at any point of time in the game.