itch.io

You're very kind, thank you! :)

Glad to say that another VN is on the way! Family emergency is slowing things down a bit, but I'm hopeful to get back to work on it once I'm back home!

Thanks again!!

Drac

Of course, I understand that :) So, as I mentioned, I'm out of the country, so I'm not in a situation to change the source code, but I did make a quick fix for you:

Step one: Download this file from Dropbox (download button is on the top right corner)

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fsfnlpb1z3fmojcc5jj4b/options.rpy?rlkey=n92zn9zg0...)

Step two: Move this file to the game folder (...\ValentinesRain-1.0-pc\game). When it asks to replace the file, click yes.

This will attach all the looping channels to the music slider in the preference screen, so you will be able to control the sound that way, in game.

Hopefully this fixes it! Once I'm back home, I'll try to look into updating the game (there's a few other fixes I have in mind for it). Let me know if you have other questions =)

Drac

Hey there! Hmm, I haven't coded this game in a while, but if memory serves me right, I might have created separate channels for looping background noise/music on certain points, which would not have a control in the renpy menu. Sadly, im out of the country for a month due to a family emergency, so im a bit limited in what I can do, but maybe i could do some sort of quick fix for you if I can; which OS are you using (Windows, android, apple, or linux)? 

(If its apple or linux, it might be a bit harder for me to fix, but ill definitely try)

Thank you so much for the kind words! I agree with you when it comes to the sprites; it's a lesson learned on my part, and its my intention to have more varied art assets in my next game (and from a far better artist than me!).

As for the playable characters, it certainly was a roller-coaster to write! I understand why it's not made a lot in VNs; it's a lot of work haha!

Thanks again! :)

Drac

PS: Love the CSI meets Saw comment, very accurate!!

Awesome to hear! I'm glad you enjoyed it before and hope you have a good time in that next playthrough :)

Thank you! That's very kind to say :) I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

Hey there :) The tentative title is called Spruce Valley. It's still being worked on, as are the art pieces, so it very much is alive but still got quite a bit of work to be done on it. I want to make sure that the writing is even better, and that there is plenty of art assets, so it stands out as an improvement of my first work. Thanks for the interest! I'm sorry for the wait, but I hope it'll be worthwhile.

Thanks and sorry! =P

Jokes aside, thank you for your rating and comment! I'm really glad you enjoyed the story!

Drac

Many thanks! I have enjoyed reading through those and have learned some useful stuff! Those stats were particularly interesting :) having read that, I think I may be on the right path with my next story, hopefully haha!

Though I guess I might be hampered by the whole algorithm thing ^^'' not too fond of all that stuff, but I'll definitely try some of the stuff there.

Thanks again!

Thanks, I'll check 'em out ^^

On youtube? Oh wow, didn't know my game made it there haha! Which channel if you don't mind me asking? ^^

I'm glad you're enjoying the game so far!! I really appreciate it =)

I remember you commenting a while back haha! Didn't know that the game was the reason you made an account, but I appreciated greatly the feedback :)

Absolutely ^^ I guess I just heard so many times how choices don't matter in VNs, that in trying to avoid that, I've kind of went overboard. There's a sweet spot in between no choices and too many, just got to find it haha!

Thanks again for your support man, means alot :)

Thank you for the kind words! I'm very happy to hear that you've enjoyed the game! Thank you as well for you valid points! English is not my first language, so I'm not surprised to hear that some errors slipped through ^^''

As for more games, I'm happy to report that I'm working on one right now haha! Things have been slow because I want to have a good, compelling story. Valentine's Rain was years in the making after all, but with the art being done by a far more talented artist, I can focus my all on the writing :)

Thanks again!!

Drac

Alrighty, sorry I couldn't be more help but hope you enjoy the game when you can! =)

Oh! It's fine really haha, I just didn't want to seem like I ignored you ^^ you can leave it there, no problem :)

Of course ^^

Hmm, could be but you said you've played other games, and Ren'py (the engine used) is not that demanding... it is a 1080p resolution though, so maybe that's pushing the limits? I'm not quite sure I'm afraid...

Checking on my phone, the size is 480 Mb after installation. It's got a sizable collection of music, so maybe that could be it?

Otherwise, I'm honestly not sure =S I'm sorry, I wish I could be of better help...

Just so it doesn't seem like I'm leaving your comment here without response, I've answered your question (maybe?) on your comment on the main page :) let me know if that's not working out!

Drac

Hi there!

I'm not a professional in IT, but I can certainly try! Is this a problem you've had only with this game or any APKs you've downloaded through itch.io?

If it's the latter, the problem may be with your permissions regarding third party apps. Essentially, a security feature of your phone makes it, by default, prevent any apps from a source that Samsung does not recognize, including Itch.io. To allow your install to proceed, you need to go into your settings => Apps. Then from that screen, at the top right, select the menu and choose "Special Access". Then from the list, select Install Unknown Apps. You can then select the browser from where you downloaded the APK, download the app again, and it should install :)

If that doesn't work or if you've never had an issue with APKs from itch.io before, let me know! I'm not sure how I could fix it, because i just tested out the download on my phone and it works fine, but maybe I can find something else.

Thanks for stopping by!

Drac

I understand completely! I wouldn't call the game conventionally scary, but it is a dark game, so probably wouldn't recommend it. Either way thanks for dropping by!

Drac

PS: Sorry for the late reply!! Been a crazy few months

My apologies for the lateness of my reply!! Let's say things have been crazy since the holidays and leave it at that =_=

*****SPOILERS*****
Thanks for sharing that last little bit there! I have to admit that I am quite entertained by how many different conclusions people have come to in regards to the game! I have peppered the story with Red Herrings (e.g because the story implied that Valentine is Canid, well, I decided that half of the characters would be Canid lol), so yes, even Fabio's demeanor is meant to throw off people. Yet its still not that far fetched to find out who the culprit is; with all the information in the game you can get (if you go for the bad ending/save no one that you can), the real one ticks off all the boxes ^^

Thanks again for sharing!

Drac

As you may have seen below, I have a terrible habit of having wordy comments, so I hope you will forgive me if it's a tad long haha!

First of all, a big thank you, really. Your words are beyond kind! It made me really happy to read it, I can't really describe it. Believe me, it was a crazy project to do on my own, so my mind is boggled too at times thinking about it! The funny thing is, when it comes to choices, the entire thing spawned from a crazy idea that I had, which was "What if a main character could die right at the start if the player chose to... and the story would just continue?". Little did I know what I was getting myself into haha!

I also have to say that I really -really- appreciate you mentioning the music! It is quite amazing what others have made and allowed for use under creative commons, and I'm thankful for them all, but your comment alone makes me glad I spent literal hundreds of hours pouring through track after track XD

And thank you again for the kind personal words ^^ It's been a journey, but hey, no road is without its bumps on the road!

Ah yes, the endings. Thank you for your honesty :) as hard as it is to put out a creative work like a VN, it's also tough to be honest how we feel about things to someone else when work is needed. It might surprise you to hear it, but I agree with you! I can tell you the reasons, that there are 30 variations of the endings, that I was beyond exhausted from making sense of over 150 variables that impact to a greater or lesser degree how things proceed, that I had run out of creative juices so to speak. But a pilot that makes an excellent take-off and a great trip, but crashes the plane on landing can't be told he did a good job. A drastic analogy but you get what I mean =P I won't promise anything, as I don't want to make a commitment, but if only for readers like you who've obviously liked the story I made and the characters, I will try to rethink if I want to redo the ending at some point. Again, no promises; it's hard for me to justify working on a project that did not really have success, but let's say that I have at least the motivation after reading your comment :)

Thank you also for reporting that bug! As I said earlier, there are over 150 variables, so I'm pretty impressed that yours is the first error report I'm getting loll! I'll take that as a good sign that my QA, while not flawless, at least isn't too too bad haha! I'll look into it :) Sadly, I don't know exactly when I'll patch it, but it's duly noted. I apologize that the game ended for you at that point though, I hope you didn't lose too much time retracing your steps =(

As for the spelling mistakes, I appreciate the heads up! A friend of mine kindly combed through the scripts and also pointed out a few mistakes here and there, so I'll take a look at those we're and were as well :) And I do care haha! It's amazing how a typo can take you out of the experience, so gotta make sure there's as few as possible! Though 455k words without an editor, there's bound to be a few here and there =S Add that English is not my first language, so yeah, it's a recipe for disaster lol!

Thank you again for taking the time to write this lovely comment :) I know it will never be a best seller, I know very few people will actually ever read it, and even from the few that do, it may be polarizing... But know that you've made an aspiring writer very happy, simply for playing it :) Thank you!!

Drac

Thank you for your comment! I always welcome criticism, and certainly hope to improve as it goes :) Sorry to hear that you haven't enjoyed it as much as I would hope, but I still hope you had a good time of it.

Take care and thanks for playing!

I've noticed that as well, oh well, some folks just have way too much time on their hands I guess.

First hate comment, had to happen at some point I suppose, just wish it were more creative

Hi there! Sorry to disappoint, but Valentine's Rain does not contain romance :( Keep your eyes peeled tho! My next VN will have romance in it, hopefully something to look forward to! ^^

Nice! Congratz! It's not easy to get the best ending :D

Thank you so much for your comment! Since you took the time to be thorough here, I will try to do the same for a response :)

The fact that you felt something for all the characters really makes me happy, though I understand, much like the comment below yours, the disappointment that comes with the fate of some characters. All I can really say about it is that everything's been thoroughly planned and all outcomes carefully thought out; whether it's for character development or shock value to the reader, there's a reason behind it all.

When it comes to the art, your criticism is completely valid and one I've heard before from my close knit friends that play tested it. The lack of art variety (and arguably quality) is linked to two things: my overall apathy with drawing and a depression to boot. I'm not going to go into sob stories here, it's just a fact of my life I've been working to overcome. Whether it's a direct result of the depression or not, drawing has become something I don't enjoy anymore. The art you see was painstakingly made as is, so I went for the bare minimum. I agree with you that some scenes could have been improved with visuals, but it was (and still is) something that is very difficult for me to do. It does not excuse it, but I certainly hope this gives you a bit of insight into why it's so. My next VN will be illustrated by another artist, thankfully, so there should be more variety of sprites (expressions!!) and some CGs at least, so that should be something to look forward to :)

As for your suggestion of an alternate timeline, I actually like that a lot! There would certainly be things I could explore more with those characters and different outcomes could certainly be interesting. That being said, I stand by the decisions I've made relating to the story of Valentine's Rain. I'm all for exploring what ifs though!

And lastly, regarding contributions, the fact that you want to at all means already so much to me ^^ I used to have the donate button active here on Itchio, but some friends told me it dissuaded others from downloading the game. For me, it's more important that people feel free to play the game than any coin I could make. I created Valentine's Rain to be an experience to be enjoyed by the most people possible. And in having played the game yourself and commenting about it, you've already given me more support than you can imagine ^^ So yeah, consider that mission accomplished haha!

Thanks again for playing the game! Despite the art and some disagreements with the dramatic turns of events, I do hope you still had a good experience :)

Thanks so much! I hope it will be worthwhile haha :)

Aww, that's a really kind offer! I will have to respectfully decline, however, though it really means a lot that you'd offer ^^ I have a few reasons but the two big ones are the scope of the project itself and quality assurance. It might not seem like so but the game total 450000 words, which would be quite an undertaking to translate for anyone. As for quality assurance, while I have no doubt you would do an excellent translation job, I wouldn't be able to verify it, which is really important to me. This product has my name on it and while there are mistakes in it, I pride myself in having personally quadrupled checked every update and every path to ensure there were as few as possible.

Thanks again for the offer though! Really means a lot ^^

*Spoilers!!*

Thanks so much for your feedback and for playing the game! I totally understand the hurt when it comes to Butch, it was a hard decision because I really liked him as a character too, and I debated a long time, but for Trinity's character development, it was a necessary step... I hope this gives you a bit of insight in the decision process that came with it ^^

As for coming up with Valentine, I don't even know myself how I conjured up someone as messed up as him XD

Thank you very much for your kind words! To answer your final question, I do plan another VN! It will be completely different than Valentine's Rain, however; the plan is for a more linear romance/horror VN. It's still in conceptual stages and I also have a different artist doing the artwork for it; so it could take a few months before it's ready, sadly.

Thanks again for your comment and review! It means the world to me!

Drac

PS: your english is perfectly fine haha; english is also my second language believe it or not; don't underestimate your abilities! :)

Yeah, it's a pretty brutal update XP Valentine's Rain is definitely not a feel good story I'm afraid, but I hope you're enjoying it none-the-less ^^

Haha! Glad you're enjoying it ^^ You don't have to wait much longer, I'll be posting a new update in a little over a week from now =)

Oh my gosh, you're far too kind, thank you so much for writing this comment! It really motivates me to keep going ^^ It makes me really happy to hear that you're enjoying the game! Thanks for your support! =)

Yours is the kind of comment that make me love to write haha! Thanks so much for your feeback, I'm glad you're enjoying it so far =)

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it ^^