I see... I thought I had managed to remove her content from the public build, but I must have missed a step. The short explanation is that Kyoko's story was pushed to v9, and I planned to introduce her to Sim Akiramine in that version as well. As you suspected, that upcoming story is planned to focus on Kyoko and Orino. 

(As for her inclusion in Sim Akiramine, Kyoko doesn't have anyone other than Orino as an option because I felt like the age gap between her and the rest of the cast would make most of the potential pairings difficult to believe. For some additional context, Kyoko actually originated in another of my stories from this setting, and her adopted daughters are about the same age as the main cast of this game.)

Hopefully that clarifies things a bit, but let me know if there is anything else that could use explaining. I hope that Kyoko's bonus content slipping through to the public build wasn't too confusing.

I may need a little more context to answer that. Where did you see the name Kyoko?

I still vaguely recall playing an early version of the game... it feels so long ago now. I'm curious to see how the remake looks, so hopefully the pre-production is almost finished and the project itself can start soon. Take your time, but I'm interested in seeing the results.

Since the game is being made in the same engine as my other visual novels (Ren'Py), I do think I'll release an Android version of the game. I'm not entirely sure yet if there will be significant changes between the desktop and mobile version, but it shouldn't be too hard to get at least something working on Android. (And with my other games all being on Android now, I think it would make sense to include an Android version.)

Glad it's working now. Hopefully a later version of Ren'Py will fix the AMD issues, but unfortunately that's not something I know how to fix myself.

Does the text display properly on the older versions of the game? If so, which versions are those? Also, which Ren'Py versions are listed in the game/script_version.txt files? If it's not a font issue, the best I can think of is that Windows 8 doesn't like changes Ren'Py has made to graphics handling between versions.

Does this affect all text in the game, or just that font? I'm not sure I've ever seen this kind of bug, so I'm not sure what could be going on.

If it's a font issue, maybe try going into the game/fonts folder and installing the fonts. If that doesn't work, I might need more information to know what's going on.

For the music, my main recommendation for the moment would be to lower the volume in the game settings. (I usually have it at ~60% for my testing.) I used to have code in some of my games that would default the music volume to something other than 100%, but it didn't always work because it would have to be a fresh install, thus its removal. I can potentially look into putting it back in, but it would still require a clean install to do anything in its current form. (Otherwise, the player's setting would get overridden.)

(If the problem continues even with the game volume lowered, you may have to also lower the volume on your PC/phone. In my experience, headphone volumes over 40% can become deafening really quick, and my phone requires a toggle to allow past 70%.)

Best I can think of is that maybe the logo is trying to display at the landscape layout's size, but is cut off by the borders of the portrait layout's size. If that's the case, swapping layouts a few times might fix it. However, that can be a bit wonky sometimes (since sometimes it crashes instead of restarting a few times), so I'm not sure I recommend that if everything else seems to work. I can look into it, but I'd probably need different hardware to test it...

I'm glad you liked the music! I also feel like switching to a custom OST was a good decision, and I really like how JadeVater handled the new tracks.

Did this logo glitch happen more than once? I'm not sure what could have caused it, since I've not seen it myself...

Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad you ended up liking the game.

When it comes to the development of the game, I feel like the open beta-style demos really helped Blooming Nightshade and Flowering Nightshade become the games they are now. Getting early feedback was something that I missed when I switched from making fangames to original games like Eldritch Academy. But the flipside was that BN/FN were also seen at points when they weren't really coming together yet, which I think turned some people off. (I recall an early comment I saw about FN v1 or v2 somewhere calling it creepy and forced.)

At any rate, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the game. v6 was a big milestone for Flowering Nightshade, and I'm glad that there are people who are enjoying the game.

https://jackkel-dragon.itch.io/eldritch-academy

I'm not familiar with Itaru or the A3! franchise, but I'm not entirely surprised that such a character exists elsewhere. The idea of a refined or regal-looking character having a sloppy hidden side has been around for a while, so it was a probably just matter of time before that secret was "video game addiction" for more than one character of that archetype.

As for it being a spoiler, in Shiori's context I feel like it's one of those "first episode"-spoilers, where it's hard to really keep it a secret even if I try to. (Especially now that Flowering Nightshade's game page immediately spoils it for Blooming Nightshade.)

This shouldn't affect too many people, but I just uploaded a hotfix for the Android build of the game. One of the required files for the layout-swapping wasn't updated properly before, but everything should be good in the new file.

Is the existing alternate font still too hard to read? I believe the alternate font is Malgun Gothic, which I'm told is the system default in Korean Microsoft products because it was easier to read than the previous defaults.

(The other font used by the game is Meiryo, but I think that only gets used for kanji. That is also a common font for clarity, though.)

Two fun facts from this:

1. Dialogue and such that isn't plot-essential often ends up being created this way, with something going on in the world being converted into a vague reference. For instance, some other stories have had references to The Walking Dead and the MCU. (One even had a veiled Star Wars reference that was plot-relevant.)
2. Since this game was started in 2018, I had no idea what 2020-2021 was actually going to be like. I wanted to find some way to explain why no one is worried about a pandemic, and ended up turning it into a joke.

I'll have to keep an eye on this one... I really want to see more romance games where the couple is together for most of the game. I feel like too many focus on the excitement of the "chase" and hinges conflict on whether the couple gets together, assuming things will be perfect afterwards.

Still need to try the demo, but I like the premise of the story and characters from the description. I hope the development of the project goes well.

That is actually a good idea, I'll see if I can add that in somehow.

As for phone resolution, it was under the display settings in the emulated Galaxy A20. Display size, maybe? Making the icons bigger -> lower resolution.

I'll come back later today or sometime tomorrow with the results of the config option tests.

In my frustration at this problem not being fixed, I went and created an emulator for the Galaxy A20 to try to pinpoint the problem. The issue seems to be that there is no definition for the Galaxy A20 within Ren'Py, and so it uses the default (size-based) method to determine whether the device is a phone or tablet, which comes up with "tablet" for screens larger than 6 inches. Since Ren'Py doesn't recognize the device as a phone at all, even my workaround here doesn't help.

At this point, I might have to force all Android devices to use the phone layout to make it work on the Galaxy A20 and similar phones. While I consider my options, can you try lowering the screen resolution on your device temporarily and try opening the game with that setting? It managed to trick the emulator into using the layout for phones, but I don't know if it works on real devices.

Ran into a bug that sounds similar to some other reported bugs, but I'm not certain how to determine what went wrong or if there is a workaround.

Situation: Early in Chapter 5, I click on the task to continue the story. The task disappears, but no story event plays.

Is there a way to check what event was meant to play, and force it to play with a debug tool? Or does this kill that playthrough's story triggers?

Update: https://itch.io/post/2815841

An update: I need confirmation on people using big Android phones, but I may have pinpointed what could be causing the problem. See, Ren'Py defines "small" mobile devices as having 6 inch screens or smaller, and "medium" devices as anything else. Looking up the Galaxy A10, it apparently is large enough to count as a "medium", but has the form factor of a phone rather than a tablet.

In the new GUI code, I've been using "small" and "medium" variants as the way to differentiate between phones and tablets, since that is the recommended way of handling the variants for maximum compatibility. But since there are now phones that have bigger screens, those phones may break the GUI code and try to display the tablet GUI on a phone screen.

If I could get a confirmation on this happening in the current hotfix, I can look into another hotfix to correct this issue. I prefer to follow the recommendations when it comes to things I can't test, but it seems like I may have to change the variant names if my hunch here is correct...

In what way is the screen getting forced into portrait mode? The game is supposed to be in portrait mode on Android devices, but it should be using a layout that was designed for portrait mode. Are you playing the game on a phone or a tablet?

A hotfix has been released using Ren'Py 7.4.3. Let me know if this problem continues to appear in that version.

I'm afraid I can't really give an estimate unless I know when the next update for Ren'Py will be stable. I think there may be a prerelease version now, but it's not usually a good idea to release games made with a non-stable version of the engine. I also can't be sure if the fix works until I put out the new build, since I don't have any other devices to test on.

Short version: Depends on when Ren'Py 7.4.3 comes out and whether or not it actually fixes the issue with Samsung displays.

It's strange that it's happening on a non-Samsung device... It's my understanding that Ren'Py currently has a known issue with newer Android phones, but I thought it was a Samsung-specific issue. Hopefully Ren'Py is updated to fix the issue soon, because I'm not sure if there's anything I can do on my end to fix the issue faster. I may need to just rebuild the Demo v5 APK once the issue is fixed in Ren'Py...

That looks like it might qualify as a newer phone. Based on a quick search, that was released in 2019, while my phone was first released in 2017. So it's probably part of the issue that was mentioned in the thing I read, which means it will hopefully be fixed in the next Ren'Py release. On the downside, this means I can't actively do anything to fix the issue myself, since I'm not familiar with the code Ren'Py uses to make Android files. I may have to figure out a way to re-build the APK version of Demo v5 once the Ren'Py update fixes the issue.

What kind of device are you playing on? I've read that the current version of Ren'Py doesn't display properly on certain types of devices, but the details were vague beyond "newer Samsung devices". I only have one device that I can test on, and I don't ever get the newest phone...

What kind of mobile device are you playing on? The orientation shouldn't have changed between v4 and v5, so I'm a bit confused as to what might be happening. (Phones are still using portrait mode, while tablets will approximate landscape. The aspect ratios have changed, but not the basic layout.)

Also, I read that some people with the newer Android devices can barely get Ren'Py games to run after the 7.4.0 update. The developer of Ren'Py is working on a fix for 7.4.3, but since 7.4.2 just came out it's going to be at least a week or so before the hotfix comes out. Sounds like I may need to come up with a way to re-package v5 when that patch comes out... (I've already started implementing changes for v6, but if the game isn't playable then I should try to put a playable version out, one way or another.)

Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

Nightshade

• Writing and Design: Jackkel Dragon
• Character Designs: Hiragi-HOUX

Made with Ren'Py

• Character Illustrations by Nii
• Background Graphics by Minikle
• BGM by JadeVater

Nightshade

• Writing and Design: Jackkel Dragon
• Character Designs: Hiragi-HOUX

Made with Ren'Py

• Character Illustrations by Nii
• Background Graphics by Minikle
• Additional Outfit Designs by Jeroz
• Font by Denise Chan
• BGM sourced from TAM Music Factory (Demo v4 and earlier)
• BGM by JadeVater (Demo v5 and later)

Nightshade

• Writing and Design: Jackkel Dragon
• Character Designs: Hiragi-HOUX

Made with Ren'Py

• Character Illustrations by Nii
• Background Graphics by Minikle and rakatb
• Font by Denise Chan
• BGM sourced from TAM Music Factory (v11 and earlier)
• BGM by JadeVater (v12 and later)

Nightshade

• Writing and Design: Jackkel Dragon
• Character Designs: Hiragi-HOUX

Made with Ren'Py

• Character and Event Illustrations by Nii
• BGM by JadeVater
• GUI Design by Re.Alice
• Background Graphics by Badriel, Minikle, mugenjohncel, and rakatb
• Sound Effects sourced from Taira Komori
• Logo Fonts created by Lauren Thompson, Salman Boosty, Kotonoha Kuju, and Dharma Type

Nightshade

• Writing and Design: Jackkel Dragon
• Character Designs: Hiragi-HOUX

Made with Ren'Py

Versions 1 and 2

• Character Illustrations by Daphinteresting
• Event Illustrations by Nii and Margaret Chylak
• Monster Illustrations by emihaumut
• Additional Illustrations by Misaki
• Background Graphics by rakatb, kimagure After, and Minikle
• GUI Design by potouto
• Playtesting by Chronicles, Blackcross, and Zelan
• Logo Fonts created by Lauren Thompson, Salman Boosty, and Kotonoha Kuju
• Sound Effects sourced from Taira Komori and Freesound users (GameAudio, Sergenious, JoelAudio, debsound, klankbeeld, InspectorJ, supafrycook2, dkiller2204, alonsotm, sypherzent, Vendarro)
• BGM sourced from SENTIVE.NET (SLOS)

Version 3

• Character and Event Illustrations by Nii
• Monster Illustrations by emihaumut
• Additional Illustrations by Misaki
• Background Graphics by rakatb, kimagure After, and Minikle
• Logo Fonts created by Lauren Thompson, Salman Boosty, and Kotonoha Kuju
• BGM by JadeVater

As a further update, I've finished the first draft for the Orino scenes that were fully outlined. With not enough material to bang out the rest of the route, I'm starting to consider leaving a "To be continued" at the end of the current content again, even though it meant resurrecting some deleted code.

In addition, I'm really iffy on the BGM placement in the game thus far, and I'm very close to simply ripping the music out until I can take the time to do it properly. I've not committed to that plan, but it's in consideration. (Other factors that helped create this idea include the fact that I usually do testing with sound muted unless working directly on audio elements, and my growing interest in finding a new source for the music tracks.)

Overall, what is left for Demo v4, at a minimum, is:

• Revision pass on Kiku's route
• Revision pass on Orino's route (so far)
• Art implementations for Orino's route (so far)
• BGM placement or removal

I'll try to post another update when more of these are finished, but we'll see how things go.

Since not everyone here is going to be seeing the Twitter updates, I decided to make a few notes here.

Firstly, the initial draft of Kiku's route is pretty much finished. I still want to do at least one revision pass, but the story should be complete.

Second, I'm waffling on whether or not to finish Orino's route before putting out Demo v4. I want to at least finish the events that I've outlined, but I'm still working on a very loose plan for the last third of her story, so I don't know how quickly that can be finished.

Third, there are going to be more GUI updates/changes in the next build. Hopefully most of them are positive, but some are a bit more drastic than originally planned.

Lastly, Kiyomi/Atsuko/Shiori routes are not going to be until v5 at the earliest, since I'd like to get something out before the end of the year and I can't promise I can finish those routes soon.

As a bonus note, I'm torn on whether to submit to the Yuri Game Jam again this year. The rules are lax enough that I might do so to get some visibility, but I have no idea how much work and/or how many releases I'll actually have in October...

At any rate, depending on how I handle Orino's story for Demo v4, it's possible that the next build may be coming soon. We'll have to see how things turn out and hope they go smoothly.

There's still no way to estimate how much longer the rest will take to accomplish, but I've been able to do a number of things that might make future progress easier. I'd like to at least finish the first draft of the routes for Kiku and Orino before the next public release, especially since the system I had in place for the "to be continued" message no longer works in the current build.

Ideally, the rest of the story for Kiku/Orino will hopefully come out this year. The other three main routes and any bonus stories will take longer, especially since some of them need new outlines. (In particular, Kiyomi's route was nearly finished when I realized I didn't like how it turned out, so that needs to start from scratch.)

Short version:

• No promised dates yet
• Kiku/Orino next, hopefully by end of year
• Kiyomi/Atsuko/Shiori next year
• Non-Himeka routes after main routes finished