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Hi! I don't mind at all, I really appreciate it ♡ thank you so much for playing! 

Let me start by telling you I'm really grateful for the time you took to try to help better my game. I want to make sure you know I'm not upset about your comment at all, and I read all of it carefully while I thought in my mind about the full story I have in mind for it.

That being said, reading through your list of predictions about the story has really told me I am on the right track, as there is just one of them that is true and it's already clearly stated and confirmed at the end of the demo I published, so it isn't a prediction but something you know from simply playing the game. Every other statement was false, so my story isn't really as predictable as you might think. I especially feel the need to clarify something: all the characters in this story that are gay or bi aren't that way because of abuse, but simply because they have always liked men. Lysander was always gay, even in his past, even when he was still a good person and long before he ever met Syryus. The same goes for Syryus himself. They were born that way.

I have to say I'm a little confused by the orc example. I really don't see anything wrong with adding details to characters' personalities. If  the orcs are so brutal they rape people, that's just something that tells me, as a reader/player/whatever medium is used to convey the story, just how nasty and bad these orcs are. I want to hear it. It gives me important hints about the characters and makes the story feel more real. If we started thinking that way about every detail, behavior, quirk of any character that doesn't add anything in particular to the main story, all the characters of all the stories in the world would just behave all the same way, bland and plain, with nothing setting them apart. 

Even though, as I said, I'm really grateful for your time and for all the feedback you're providing, I think your list of theories confirmed that it's a little too early to have an opinion about what happens in the game and you're rushing to judge something that doesn't even exist yet. There is so much of the backstory of the characters that you don't know, that no one but me and my closest friends know, that I'm wondering how you're judging the events of the game as useless without being sure if they will have an explanation in the future or not. If I can give you a piece of advice, I think when you play a demo and you want to be helpful to the developer, you should keep in mind you're only seeing a small part of the experience. You should remember that before rushing to think, "Oh, this thing that happened here is useless to the plot," because you don't know much about the plot until you've played the full version. Maybe something you thought didn't add anything to the story is actually a crucial event that has a lot of meaning, and you just don't know yet. 

Unfortunately, there's a specific reason why Mallory has to die right at that moment, so early in the game. It has to do with Lysander's habits, and it will be explained later on. There is no way for me to postpone her death without completely altering Lysander's character, and I don't really see a reason to do that. Her death wasn't just an excuse for Syryus to be able to tell the player Lysander used to be good. If I'm being honest with you, the whole monologue at the end was completely unplanned, I just added it at the end because it felt right, and Mallory's death had already been decided long before. There's a reason why I created her, if her death so early on wasn't justified I simply wouldn't have made her and Lyam would have been the only one venturing into the forest and needing shelter.

About Lyam's naive behavior, I just thought of an easy fix that would make him falling asleep more believable. I'll implement it in the next version of the game. As for him not confronting Lysander about the names, I already explained myself. Lyam is meant to be shy and weak at the beginning of the game, not able to stand up for himself. You did, however, make me realize that maybe him peacefully going to sleep  after feeling something was off is a bit of a stretch. That will be fixed. Thank you. 

About Mallory calling Lyam "big brother" instead of "Lyam," I'm not a native speaker, so it didn't sound weird to me, but thank you for the tip. I'll make sure to discuss it with my husband, the proofreader of the game. He's from the United States, and he already went through all the text boxes and fixed anything he found that didn't sound good to him.  Maybe he just didn't pay much attention to it, but I'll ask him if he thinks I should change it.

One last thing: Syryus asked Lyam for forgiveness when he was asleep. He wouldn't dare say something like that to his face, not when he just lost his sister. He was mostly talking to himself, trying to process the pain he went through. If you think the next morning Lyam will wake up, find the will in his heart to forgive his sister's murderer, and peacefully step out of his room to go grab breakfast, that's not how things will go. You said Lyam will need to have a strong reason to ever forgive Lysander. While Mallory being revived is not an option, that doesn't mean he'll just forgive him for no reason, forgive him fully, or forgive him at all. It will be actually up to the player to decide, and it will have its consequences on the ending. 

Whether you feel like giving this game another chance in the future or not, it is completely up to you. If you decide you're not interested and it's not for you, nothing's wrong with that! Everyone has their own tastes. If you think you'd like it, you're welcome to play the full version when it comes out.

Thank you again for everything!

Hi! Thank you for playing my game.

About the name, I never intended The Forest to be the title, but I've been struggling to come up with a different one. I'm going to change it later on when I get a better idea, and "The Forest" is most likely just going to be the name of the first chapter.

About the main character, he has his own personality and thoughts. While he does think it's weird Lysander knows their names (and there's a reason for this, it will be explained later on), and questions many things during the game that he feels are off, he never speaks out because he's worried he's going to upset and scare Mallory. He doesn't get any chance to speak to Lysander without her present, and he definitely doesn't want to leave her alone in a stranger's house, so he just drops it and tries to stay calm and rational, thinking they were going to leave first thing in the morning the following day anyways. Lysander was very polite and welcoming, and he thought if anything happened during the night he would have woken up for sure (which he did, just not as fast as he needed to) but ultimately he felt like he had no reason to suspect Lysander specifically after how nice he was to them. Even though he felt worried and knew something was off, he tried to stay positive and didn't think one of them would just die during the night like that. That's his choice and his personality as Lyam, the main character in the game; the player has every right to suspect Lysander and not trust him, but Lyam decided to. I played many games, and sometimes, the main characters' actions, thoughts, and personalities don't align with mine. I think that's unavoidable in a 3rd person game. If I wanted the player to be the main character, I would have structured the whole game differently and maybe let them pick the character's name and looks, but in the end this is Lyam and Mallory's story, and Lyam was definitely naive, and that's on him. 

About the "ending," there's a specific reason why Lysander picked Mallory over Lyam, and it's hinted at towards the end of the demo. The game and its story are far from finished. This was just a "prologue" to the whole story, and the Hansel and Gretel scenario you thought the game was all about was just its beginning. The rest of the story has very little to do with it, and the main focus will be uncovering Lysander and Syryus' pasts and their true nature. I'm sorry you weren't surprised by Lysander not being evil in the past, but it wasn't meant to surprise the player. Syryus' speech at the end was meant to introduce the concept that the relationship between him and Lysander is not the simple and straightforward master-servant relationship it seems to be.

I'm sorry this isn't the horror game you were hoping for, but it's still far from done. If you still have suggestions and advice to make the game more interesting I would love to hear about it and I'll keep them in mind as I continue working on it, as long as they don't go against the backstory of the characters that the players don't know much about yet. Let me know how I can contact you to discuss your ideas!

Thank you for your time and feedback, I appreciate it.

Hello! Thank you so much for your video. It was a lot of fun to watch. I'm so happy you like it! It looks like Syryus is everyone's favorite character ♡ He is definitely going to get more scenes in the full version. Stay tuned!

Hi! Thank you for playing my game and for your feedback. I'll certainly keep it in mind as I work on the full version!

Hello, it'so nice to see you again! Thank you so much for the video.

First of all, I'm so sorry about that letter. I'm a very fast reader, so I didn't realize how fast it was until my friends tested the game and noticed, but by then I had already published it. I'll definitely go back and slow it down when I release more of the game.

I'll also make sure to fix that little issue with the cutscene with the repeated dialogue as soon as Lyam and Mallory get in the mansion. I was aware of the issue before I published the game, but I didn't have enough time to fix it before the deadline.  

I'm glad you liked Syryus! I noticed you were curious about his pronouns. He goes by he/him (and so do Lysander and Lyam).

Thank you again for playing the demo and for your feedback. I'm excited to fix all the issues you encountered and release more of the game in the future. I don't have a date yet unfortunately, but I'll work hard on it and try to post updates about the developement as I go!

Hello! Here's the link. Thank you so much again! https://broken-doll.itch.io/the-forest

I think 3 or 4 hours are all I need. I already got back to work!

Would you really do that? Thank you so much! I'll go back to work right away! I just had a few things to touch up. How can I submit it and when's my deadline?

I tried very hard but unfortunately even with the deadline extension I couldn't make it... I would have if I had a few more hours. I hope there will be another queer vampire game jam in the future!

Thank you so much! 

Hey! Thank you so much. It means a lot to me that you enjoyed my game. 

I would love to fix the bugs a bit and continue it in the future, especially when the book I took the story from (my best friend's book, I made this game for them) gets translated and published in English too. Unfortunately I don't have a specific time frame in mind, but in the future it will most likely happen.

For now I'm focusing on another project, an exploration game made in RPG Maker MV (a game engine I'm far more familiar with than the one I used for Roland Project - The Tainted). If you're interested in seeing more from me, stay tuned! It's a little early to know exactly when it will be out, but I'm doing my best. 

Thanks again for your video and your encouraging words!

Thank you for playing :)

Sorry for the late reply! You can switch characters during the shooting minigame by pressing U and J on the keyboard. The character you get when you press U has weak bullets that shoot fast, while the character for J has very strong bullets with a much longer cooldown. It takes some strategy to get rid of all of them, but it is possible. :) Good luck and thank you for playing!

Thank you for playing! I chose the U and J keys because the characters are named Ursula and Jason, so I thought it made sense, but the Q and E key would be more convenient. I'll keep it in mind in case I ever decide to work on this game again to fix some bugs :)

Thank you for your feedback. I didn't have time to add all the features I had in mind, but I'll take this into account if I ever decide to update or remake the game.

Thank you for your feedback, I'm glad you liked it. I'm a little busy at the moment but as soon as I get some time I'll make sure to check out your game!

Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm glad you liked the game :)

Thank you so much for the gameplay!

It was so much fun watching you play my game. I'm sorry about the bugs, but this was the very first game I ever made and I had to finish it quickly for a game jam. I have no more time to work on it at the moment but in the future I will probably try to make it better! I tested the game a lot myself and it is possible to win without using the bug, but it takes a little bit of practice and strategy.

I'm glad you liked it and you had fun playing it♡