itch.io

! lovely to see this on itch!! been obsessed since the very first CS demo, I am so so happy to see you progress to the final version. Some of the best writing and character exploration I've read period, in and out of interactive fiction. go pheo go!!

these all sound like such good changes. can't wait to play day 4 🥰🥰🥰

i forgot to say months ago but the way that this game has been revamped this year is incredible! Moth's sprite is gorgeous and the map and social media element is both hilarious and such a smart way to build suspense and paranoia. excellent work, love this game <3

this seems super interesting, i love these characters 5ever. what point in the AA timeline is this around?

loving friend's redesign <3

this put to words a lot of feelings that i've had for a long time but could never properly describe. it hits hard. thank you.

a behemoth of an update, thank you so much!

omg omg omg omgomgomgomg

No like for real, I don't think I have words for how happy this makes me?? this is one of the most unique yandere games and the comedic writing is actually effective??? i was just thinking about this game the other day, this news makes me so happy <3 

if there's a ko-fi or patreon i'm unaware of, i'm looking to change that right now!

yes yes yes yes yes finally something for me!! as a demographic??!? WHAT -- i'm playing this asap

LongStory is definitely one of the games that pushed me in the direction of writing interactive fiction myself. Love you guys, so excited for the demo <3

i didn't see any body types like that, but whatever. guess it just means "guy" now

This was great and I agree. I was literally thinking of Carpenter and Cronenberg just as their names came up. Adding this to my cadre of creative mantras. There's a lot of me that holds back in my creative subject matter for the exact reason of not wanting to be off-putting in how much I care about certain things. And on a separate note, I've been internally debating whether or not to make sex and the interactions around it actually influential and thematically tied into the plot of the games I'm writing. That's where I want to go with it naturally, but I think I've mainly been worried I'd alienate people with my perspective on sex and power dynamics. But like... controversial social dynamics that can be a mix of empowering and toxic are one of the things I am passionate about analyzing, dissecting, and writing. Basically, this was a really affirming read and I appreciate it lol. 

YES!!! So excited for this demo! You are such a creative powerhouse! <3

which ones are twinks...?

nightmare. loved it. simple story-telling from our perspective <3

heads up: this doesn't run at all on firefox

I don't leave comments as often as I should but I spent hours playing your game when I first downloaded it a few weeks ago and was blown away. Was not expecting SO much to already be drawn and written in a work that's still in progress. And I love that there is proper gender inclusion because, for once!!!!, I can play as any of my sexy OCs or myself???? Like, once my finances are no longer trash, I'm definitely joining the Patreon. Excellent work! (I just wish the waterworks content was a lot less about drinking lol)

Tamarack's hairstyles 😭😭😭😭 i love them

alright, as someone who enjoys and has purchased other games of yours and does not use social media, the only context I have for any of this is this post. I haven't played Night and Day yet. Idk if this post is meant to come off as an apology or a reflection to someone with no context (like me or a potential new reader?), but it doesn't come off as much of either. do with that what you will, i suppose. 

I feel like I don't understand what actually happened here beyond reading the line in the screencap and seeing why that would offend some people. I'm African and that line out of context made me wince seeing it just now. But this post mainly reads as jarring and defensive so I'm very, very lost now.

as a nonbinary person who recently figured out what flavors of transmasculinity make sense to me, i can't overstate how exciting this announcement is 🥰

I have the attention span of a walnut and it's very hard for me to sit down and try out short game experiences, but I am so so glad I stuck it out for this one. It wasn't even sticking it out, I was immediately engaged! Excellent writing, excellent choices in timeline. Excellent use of choices! When it just cut to the courthouse outfit decision, it was a gut punch. Impossible choices, i s2fg. I'm non-binary and my experiences with dysphoria are very different from a lot of what is depicted here, but so so much of it hits the same. I just need to thank you that much more as a fellow trans person for the emotional labor that goes into creating an experience like this.

awesome game! i'm sharing it with irl friends, cis and trans alike <3 take care and thank you! 

Y'all are consistently amazing and work so hard to get all this content out in such a consistent manner! I can't wait for Derek's DLC, this is beyond exciting 🥰🥰 and less than a week to wait!!

not me screaming at derek to put a shirt on

but for real, so excited for this!! i haven't been a patron in a long time, but i'll never forget how excited i was when first learning there'd be a Derek DLC to begin with. can't wait to throw my money at you guys <3

And his brothers are such a master class in good character design 😊 love the work you all do

awesome! thank you for pointing that out to me :)

love this concept and the way the game looks and feels! but the music i heard is not what i would call relaxing 😅 felt like I was robocop typing up Edgar Allen Poe, did not vibe. would be cool if there was a button to skip tracks? unless i missed it!

yasssssssss. and loving the new artistic direction?? this is major, thank you for the update!

@the dev, if you want me to shut up and delete my comments, i will

"development hell" is a term that is used when a project has been delayed indefinitely because of internal factors like a lack of competency, people not being paid, conflicting concepts that have not been resolved, high stress work environments, bad leadership/management, etc.

a single dev not updating their freeware on itch.io after a year or however long is not 'development hell.' it's just life.

speaking as a creative writer and a coder, there are few things more irritating than someone blowing up your account, DMs, inbox, comments, whatever repeatedly asking for updates when you don't owe them anything. of course it's lovely that you like a person's project, but projecting your disappointment at their speed in creating it is the worst, most entitled way you can express that. your sadness is irrelevant to my comment and from the way you've described it, asking for updates over and over, it sounds like you've been pestering this dev for a while.

as for behaving: i speak bluntly. you don't have to like that.

i could not thank you enough!!!! not only are these mini games really fun and interesting, but the aesthetics in some of them, especially Ghost Story, are literally exactly what I'm trying to achieve in my own Twine game. I'm switching to Twine from ChoiceScript but it's been a nightmare because I'm a hands-on learner... so this is literally, literally perfect.

I've tipped you. And sent you such good vibes. You just made this giant endeavor of mine seem possible. Thank you! And I can't wait to check out your other work when I've got the free time 👀

this is so entitled, jfc. are you paying this person? do you even know if they're healthy or alive? get over it. the internet is full of unfinished projects. the sadfaces are such nonsense. sorry to all devs that have to put up with comments like this.

I can't emphasize enough how much I admire this team's ideas and commitments to portrayal of personality and especially interpersonal relationships. It's not at all a simple thing to code these kinds of variations and I think that's why this is the first time I'm seeing it done in such interesting, dynamic ways (at least in an English-language interactive fiction/visual novel format). My biggest interests in life are human psychology, dynamics, and relationships and this is the only life/dating sim I've played where I could tell the writers cared about that stuff as much as I do 😆 I've started writing a game myself since I first started backing OL1 like... oh gosh, 2 years ago? when was it 😅 But yeah, I say that because this dev team's clear passion and innovation with coding human interaction has inspired a lot of the decisions I am making with my own game today.

You guys rock, I can't wait for OL2! and I really can't wait to try out the new relationship system!!

hi! i originally purchased the seduce me games years ago on Steam and i've just purchased the racial justice bundle and have become aware of this re-release (v exciting). I'm wondering because the language on the summary is vague: Is the main character still only female with a fixed name? altho i might be misremembering the fixed name part.

thanks! good luck with addressing the influx of comments, i'm sure you're blowing up these days.

I just tried the demo today and my main issue was that the MC's personality was so fixed (honestly p similar to my own, but i always do like 3 or 4 playthrus of dating sims with an original character who is not at all like me). Glad to see there are now MC personality types and that it's available on Steam. I think I'll be buying this later ^ ^

ahhh, i get your points far clearer now. I don't really engage in fan communities for many things anymore, maybe if I'd had an impression of the reaction to him so far I would have gotten that before. yeah, you are right about that particular dialogue being a contradiction. In fact, it kind of makes the romance seem railroaded a bit, huh. It would def make more sense if he hadn't said that back in the bar, good point. 

thank you guys so much for uploading a demo! i've been following the project for a while, but i'm just not the kind of person who can put money down on a game without trying it first, especially ones still in development. after trying the demo, i was so pleased to see how good the writing and worldbuilding is. it's hard for me to take the omegaverse seriously, not as a concept but in its execution because of the kind of content it has generated. i was pleasantly surprised to see that the tone of the story and, most importantly, the desire and clarity of mind the protagonist has in wanting to be his own person and defy the system are executed very well (and extremely relatable).

i'll be buying right now. excellent work so far!

Damon's prob my fave character, too, but I do think you might be reading into him a bit incorrectly... I don't think the Chapter 2 and 3 motivations contradict because even though Damon doesn't judge the MC for who they are (which meshes with his Ch. 2 attitude), he doesn't care for the MC more than he does the gigantic potential reward of turning them in. By this point, hasn't it only been a few days or weeks? It's Damon who states that turning the MC in would be enough to clear literally everyone on board's bounties, so... I actually think that fits very well with his tendency to have certain people's backs. We just aren't priority, quite yet.

And as for him not apologizing but then wanting to explain himself (? unfamiliar 'cause i haven't played the patched update yet), I still think that makes sense: Cal rejected the idea and Damon has no intention of making him reverse that decision. Everyone has to be on the same ship together and in some cases (*ahem* my MC's), Damon still might have to be your mentor. He def comes off to me as the type of person to want to air everything out at once, regardless of tact or timing, especially since I imagine 1) the others might give him crap for voicing that idea in the first place and 2) the MC is likely to get involved in more high stakes situation just by virtue of being on the ship, so Damon wouldn't want any unsaid bullshit to interfere with his ability to keep the others (and yea, prob even the MC) safe. 

lol i am also the type of reader/player who deeply reads into interesting characters and Damon's captured my interest quite a lot. I enjoyed reading what you had to say about him, though. I think it'd be fair for the MC themself to be confused by these somewhat contradicting attitudes, though!

so you can only play as a girl? i read the whole page, i think i already know the answer, but i also think i'm just wishing it was otherwise lol. straight dating sims just haven't appealed to me in forever, but i wish i could play this one -_-' after playing the Our Life demo, i desperately wanted to buy a full game by you guys

i apologize in advance for the novella i'm about to write to you guys lol
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1) Who's your favorite character so far and why?
I enjoy all of them so far! Interested to get to know the two ROs introduced so far. I love the 'childhood friend who wants to be taken seriously' kind of person Dai seems to be but so far my fave is def Kou. I wish I had gotten a better grasp on Kazuo's personality, I can't really figure him out yet. He seems a bit naive despite being a little serious (wondering if the magazine feature would help him not be lonely), but that's certainly not a bad thing and actually quite endearing. He laments his appearance being the highlight of his featured article, but then when referring to his last secretary, he immediately talks about her being beautiful? (specifically the tone of "She was beautiful, sure,") Was the subtle misogyny there on purpose? I'd like a stronger sense of who he is, though ofc that might be hard to get with the demo at the length it currently is. I also really like Dai and Kou's character design--not enough gap-toothed romantic interests in fiction, by far!

2) How's the pacing and writing? (We're looking for proofreaders for the final script too!)
Most of my notes on the writing are suggestions about word choice, conflation, and tone, way too many small notes to make here (esp since this comment is too long already). In case the mention of your search for a proofreader is an open call, let me know! I don't claim to be a professional proofreader, but I am a writer myself and have done a lot of proofreading in the past (gay fanfic, mostly lol. but good fanfic, I swear). If you'd like to vet me, see some of my own writing, talk to the writer I used to proofread for or anything like that--I'm open to it. I like the premise enough that I'd be happy to contribute if you're at all interested :]

3) What aspects of the game do you like?
Most of all, I like the characters and the set-up. I'm a sucker for office romances and I'm a sucker for inexperienced daters getting swept up in a workplace romance especially. I think the rest of this comment makes clear what I like about this game so far.

4)  How is the UI?  What did you like about it? What did you not like about it?
As someone whose vision is worsening, I can't overstate how much I appreciate the text size. There are some VN demos that I've had to abandon lately just because my eyes hurt looking at them and I'm p sure RenPy does not have a mod to adjust text size. But the font has gotta go, I can't think of anything more unappealing than Times New Roman. No way I'm the only person whose eyes glaze over when they have to read something in the text they wrote all of their school papers in. It also just doesn't look very nice at this size, something else to consider if you choose to switch fonts. As for actual UI talk:

I really like the choice UI! The fade, the way they pop up, heck yes. There is, however, this line underneath each rectangle? It doesn't look intentional so much as it looks like it wasn't erased properly, so I'd suggest either making it bolder or cleaning it up entirely. Ah, and there's a weird dot on the upper left-hand corner of the text box when the speech avatar isn't covering it up that I found distracting.

5)  How is the hook for the story? Did it made you play until the end? If it didn’t, what made you stop?
Yep, consider me hooked! Interesting characters, nice character art, and a protagonist that I can envision falling for the romance options. That's most of what I need to enjoy a romance VN.

6) How is the music for the demo so far? Does it match the vibe of the game? Is it distracting?
I actually quite like the music, I think it does a good job of establishing the vibe the game is going for. My one issue with it is that the main game track's trumpet seems super loud?? and that certainly gets annoying, if it was closer to the volume of the other instruments in the track, I wouldn't have an issue with the BG music at all.

7) What other improvements can we make to enhance your experience?
A few! I hope this is helpful and not over-stepping.
- I initially wasn't going to mention this since so often VN projects feature commissioned/contracted art, but I see that the writers are also the artists for this game. Kazuo in bed looks very different from him on the magazine cover... and both of those look nothing like the art style of his speech avatar, all three of which we see in relatively quick succession. I know CG art sometimes differs from other character art in visual novels, but to have all 3 look so different from one another breaks immersion quite a bit and quite early in the demo.

- This, I'm not quite sure how to describe, so I'm sorry if I confuse you. I don't hate the idea of having the simple sketches for the backgrounds and I like the drawings themselves. However, it really didn't work for me while playing for a few reasons. The backgrounds do not follow the same scale or dimensions, so there's this feeling of inconsistency between scenery right now. They also feel very flat and I think this has to do with the scenery color palettes matching the background too much. Maybe if the scenes were their own boxed image instead of being images laid transparently on top of a plain background color? Or even just having the color outside of the last outline on screen being something different or neutral. Something about the colors needs to be broken up or diversified in some way, I think... The windows in Kazuo's office also don't look right being the same shade as the whole background, that certainly contributed to making the best designed of these sceneries look and feel flat. And this, I believe, ties into...

- The presentation of the RO sprites feels... a little too close up? It doesn't work for how the office scene is presented since we sort of see the whole room, or at least a large portion of it. I also think they'd look better in the center of the screen, instead of off to the right, and not overlapping.

- There's also the issue of sprite... hm, not proportion, but possibly how it presents on screen? For whatever reason (and I tried to place it, but couldn't quite figure it out myself), Kou's sprite seems like it's just placed lower than Dai's, as opposed to his sprite showing a shorter figure? I'm not entirely sure why, but it might have to do with the sprites cutting off kind of high on the body for a visual novel. I think the common base line for character sprites would be far better at right around the hip for the shortest character or slightly lower. Dai looks fine, which is why I think this might be what's causing this impression for me.
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Ohhkay, that's my long-ass feedback done with. I hope that was of some help and not just overly verbose. I like the demo, though, I'll be following you guys, for sure. Whatever direction you end up going in, I'll be rooting for you! Looking forward to the demo's next iteration!