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this game does some really interesting things with ren'py, going through it was definitely an experience. i love how non-linear it feels and how much you can interact with it (going through blog posts, finding hidden scenes in the save/load menu, the choice at the end with the eyes), even if the actual story is pretty much kinetic. i loved the general presentation and the art too, with the subtle animations and the largely black + white colour palette with the occasional pops of red and blue. it's clear a lot of thought went into the presentation, it's positively oozing with meaning without the game explicitly spelling the meanings out to you.

i won't talk about the subject matter (well it's fitting giving the themes of the game haha), but i did enjoy this a lot. the ending also felt surprisingly hopeful, which maybe felt antithetical to the author in the story wanting to make depressing stories to better reflect reality? but i did like the way it wraps up. it feels very unique, i don't think i've read a vn quite like it before. thank you very much for creating it!

i don't remember if i left a comment on this before (maybe i did?), but i really enjoyed this vn when i read it; it's so atmospheric! i love the character designs and the general mood!

Thank you! The aesthetics were inspired in part by NSO so I'm glad it came across haha

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

The music was all composed originally for this game. No pre-existing tracks were used or remixed.

You have to launch the .app file if you want to play the Mac build.
I've heard from other developers that macs don't like to open Itchio downloads which aren't certified as a security feature, so your mac might refuse to open the file. If you can't get the .app to run after downloading the game from Itchio, you would be better off claiming a free Steam key for the game and launching it through Steam instead. Steam's launcher can bypass Mac's security and the game should open properly then.

Oh, you're right! Thank you very much!
I've fixed the issue now, so the android builds of the game (and the demo) should all be playable at the moment. Hopefully there will no more issues with the android build!

Obsession is a sequel to It gets so lonely here, you'll probably get more out of this VN if you've also read that.

I don't think the composer uploaded the extra tracks in Sweetest Monster Refrain anywhere. I can ask them about it, though!

It's not on Steam, but if it was it would be free just like the Itchio release.

All of my games are made in Ren'py, so they all support self-voicing. If you press V on your keyboard while playing all of the text will be voiced. You can find more information about that here.

Bit of a late reply haha but thank you very much! I'm very fond of the character designs too; I think the artist did a great job. I think the art really matches the atmosphere of the story and the general writing style.

And I'm very fond of the characters too, despite Bell and Robin being The Way They Are haha

Thank you once again! I hope you enjoy the sequel too!

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! <3

Thank you for checking it out! I'm glad you enjoyed it! <3
And I have released literally dozens of other VNs haha, I've been making VNs for over 10 years! You can see all of my stuff if you check out my Itchio profile!

Robin/Bell sharing one body selfcest is actually an incredible idea hahaha I wish I had thought of that myself...
Legit everything would have turned out so much better if the story had played out like that instead...

I also thought the ending Robin gets is the only real way this story can end based on the (gestures vaguely) everything that happens haha
He got what he deserved in the end haha ;;

Two.

!!!
thank you very much for your comment, that's very kind of you! i'm glad that you enjoyed it!
i had a lot of fun writng it, my boys are my favourites haha ;;; i like to put them in various situations so i've written quite a bit about them over the years haha, so if you like them there's a fair few more vns about them out there ;;
tysm! <3

To get CG16 you start a new game from the beginning. There's an extra scene you can unlock near the start once you've read either one of the good endings. Just skip the text you've seen already, the game will stop for you when you reach the new scene.

Thank you so much! This story was meant to have a cosy, wintery sort of feeling, so I'm glad it came across! <3

!!! Thank you very much, this is such a kind comment!

I had fun writing it, I love writing dark and oppressive stories... I should probably do it more often, I don't write horror very often. I also don't write VNs with choices all that often either, so this was a bit of an experiment. I should probably do more of that too.

I think ths VN is definitely less ambituous than DDLC (it has fewer art assets, it's a lot shorter, and I wrote the whole thing in like a week...? I don't remember the exact timeframe but I finished it rather quickly), and it's less of a polished experience. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much though, it's nice being compared to such a popular and polished VN!

I'm glad to know you were able to get it working! And I'm glad you enjoyed it too!

If somebody volunteers to translate the game into Turkish then I will add the translation, but I'm not going to actively look for people to translate the game myself.

Ah thank you so  much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I had a lot of fun writing this one... I don't think I intended for Abel to have quite so many Issues when I was conceiving the story, but I felt like it made thematic sense what with Edmund's own relationship with his sister and all of the unresolved Family Drama which was present in The Fairy's Secret... It felt like it would be a good thing to explore and expand upon, hence why Abel became the way he is haha
I became very fond of him as I was working on the story, so I'm glad other people like him too!

The kind words are very much appreciated! <3

The Steam version of Idleness is 100% identical to the Itchio version, so if the Itchio version doesn't work I'm doubtful that the Steam version would. I can try and take another look at it later, but as I don't have a Mac it will be more or less impossible for me to troubleshoot any issues on my own.

Are you opening the .app file? If you try to launch the .exe it won't work on Mac, as the .exe file is the Windows build.
I've had a few people report that my Mac builds don't work on Itchio, but it always turned out to be that the person was trying to open the wrong file.

Thank you very much!

Thank you so much! I'm glad that you enjoyed it!
I don't usually make branching VNs haha (a lot of my stories are purely linear) so I'm glad adding in the choices + various endings added to the overall experience!
And yeah, if you want to get The Worst Endings you have to be pretty mean to Zero haha ;; I tried to make the good/bad choices pretty apparent (most of the time, at least) so players would't get blindsided by the bad endings.

The art for this story is gorgeous, I love how it turned out. It's so pretty haha, the artist did a great job.

Thank you for your kind comments, reading them made my day! <3

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
A lot of the endings are pretty short bad endings (like letting your stress or thirst max out, or not making your rent in time), which might be easy to miss haha
And writing this was a lot of fun; I had a good time working on all of the dialogue!

I made myself laugh writing some of the silly lines in this game haha
Thank you, I hope you enjoy it!

I've added a Steam key option to the game and it should be functioning as intended. I can see that several people have claimed Steam keys for the game already, so I pesume that it's all set up properly. If it's not working for you, it's probably an issue with Itchio itself.
If you want you can email me (ebihimes@gmail.com) with proof of your purchase on Itchio and I can send you a key there.

The Steam and Itchio builds of the game are 100% identical. If the works on Steam, it should work on Itchio.
I imagine the issue is that you're trying to open the wrong file in the Itchio version, which is why it isn't launching.
You need to open the .app file, not the .exe.

When you say 'the Steam version works', do you mean the Steam version works on mac? Or were you playing the Steam version on a different PC or laptop?

aaa thank you so much!!! i'm glad that you enjoyed it, and i'm glad you found it sweet! abel is a pretty prickly character and i know one steam reviewer at least disliked him immensely lmao so i'm glad some people appreciate him <3

and yeah, ed is from another time but he's already been living in the modern day for over a year when in fair spirits starts, so he has a handle on a lot of stuff already... i also thought it would be funny if he was a more reliable/responsible driver than abel despite him being born in an era when cars don't exist lmao

i think i naturally tend to be a bit wordy when i write (+ i've read a lot of classic novels) so ed's more old-fashioned first person narration also came easy to me haha ;;

i had fun writing the parallels between ed and abel and how they both cope with grief (+ their relationships with their sisters), so i'm glad it was fun to read and think about! i thought their own past traumas would give ed and abel some nice common ground too, even if their personalities are pretty different and they both come from different time periods.

thank you so much for the long comment! it was really nice to read through it haha, i'm very fond of ed and abel so it's nice that you liked reading about them! thank you!!! <3

thank you very much! <3

Thank you for checking it out!

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I wonde if it'd be awkward to recommend a story with so many r18 scenes to your family though hahaha ;;;

Well I guess there is the all ages version...

Thank you so much! I'm glad you appreciate all of the British-ishms haha

Thank you so much! That's so kind of you!
I had a lot of fun writing Robin too haha, especially in Refrain. I became very fond of him, I think his internal narration is kind of endearing despite all of the bad things he has done haha
And I like Bell a lot too, she was also an interesting character to write about! This story is very dark but I did have fun with it, I wrote the first draft of the script pretty quickly.

And Ashes can be read on its own. Scars is a 'what-if' spinoff which happens like 70% of the way into Ashes's timeline. Ashes is a complete story on its own, so if you're not too into BL you can skip Scars and not miss too much (though I am very fond of it).

Thank you so much! I'm glad that you enjoyed it!