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Hahaha. No. That would take a lot longer to rework than a week. To do that, I'd have to rewrite half the story. No, this was just a scene or two from Ch 5 that i needed to scrap. Minor setback. I'll finish this story as its been written so far. People on other sites can tag my stuff however they want. They already do anyway.

So glad you enjoyed it! Right now I'm working on ch5 of New Year's Day(e). As soon as I'm done with that, Siren Song Ch3 is next.  If I were to guess, I'd say Q1 of 2025. I'll keep you posted through my devlog here.

Yeah, I have a Discord. Anyone's welcome to come bug me anytime! 

https://discord.gg/dVq9NBHQC5

Nah...I'll be OK. Just being a little bummy right now. Being the n00b at work can sap anyone's confidence. All-in-all I'm doing better than I was, so it's a net positive with a slight negative side-effect. No biggie. I'll get over it and back to confidently slinging obscenely wholesome goodies in no time...although a little cheerleading never hurts!

Thanks! If you haven't read it, you can try "Christmas Eve", the prequel to NYD. I also have "Siren Song" which is still in production. 

As far as other developers, I would highly recommend checking out Lockheart's work starting with the VN "A Petal Among Thorns". His work inspired me to start creating VN's in the first place, and, as I'm sure you'll notice, very heavily influenced the first couple of chapters of Christmas Eve. Other than Lockheart's work, I also think I've been inspired/influenced by a good many other great creators here on Itch including, but certainly not limited to Jestur (Ripples) and Niichan (My Bully is My Lover). Their stuff is awesome, but so are a lot of others'. Good luck and happy reading/playing!

For sure. As a drummer I was always like *Shakes fist at sky* "DAMN YOU, DRUM MACHINES!!!!" But after playing around with these AI generators, I've found that for this application, they're pretty fun. Plus, they provide a certain amount of discretion and anonymity that some people might prefer if they're submitting music to a "pervy game".

You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for the kind words. A few days ago I started playing around with AI generated music. I pasted in the lyrics to Charlie and Bobby's songs and filled out different prompts, and, viola! A song with vocals and everything. It's all at once impressive, fun, and terrifying how good some of the songs turn out. If you or anyone else wants to use that medium to create songs, feel free to send me the results. I'd love to hear them. I'll post the lyrics in the Siren Song devlog.

Thanks so much. It really means a lot to me that you or anyone else feels a connection to my stories or the characters within them. And, as you said, when you look at this genre, these may seem like a bunch of pervy stories/games at first glance, but there is a lot more than that to some (if not a majority) of them. I love my characters. Even though they get up to all kinds of crazy fantasy antics, I really do like the people they are when they're not in the middle of a spicy scene. It's nice to know that you do too. It's very encouraging to hear and I really appreciate it!

Ha! Well, if you do, you'll have plenty of time to replay it all. This is gonna be fun. I've been holding a few cards really close to my chest since before I completed Christmas Eve. It's going to feel like I'm doing something wrong by laying them down, but it's also really exciting. I can't wait. I mean, I know on some level it's just a silly, pervy story, but...it's MY silly, pervy story. I hope you and everyone else enjoys what I have in store for you!

Thanks! It's been a lot of fun to make. Glad to know you've enjoyed it so far!

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it. The sequel, "New Year's Day(e)" is  currently in development, but the first 4 chapters are available to play. The sequel picks up the story right after the end of "Christmas Eve". Feel free to play it. It gets more into the relationships of Daye and the other girls. It also has a different tone and can get pretty dramatic at points, so consider yourself warned. I also have the first two chapters of Siren Song available, so be sure to check that one out, too. Thanks again. Cheers!

I think it must be on your end. I just tried all three and they worked fine. Maybe try a different browser like Chrome vs Firefox?

Thanks! I'm actually putting the finishing touches on the opening scene right now. It's looking good!

That's actually very cool. I never considered that my writing "voice" had an accent. I guess I didn't realize how my use of vernacular also carries an inherent accent. I guess I used a sledgehammer to get my point across when I could've just given it a nudge with a finger instead and gotten the desired result (I have a tendency to do that from time to time). I'll keep this in mind going forward. Thanks again!

Ha! Sorry if it ruined the immersion of the scene. To be honest, I hesitated to write it out that way for just that reason. I got mixed reviews from my "test audience", so I said screw it and left it in. 

Trust me, I meant no disrespect. This is the way my entire family talks. It's *supposed* to be a more mid-Atlantic country twang. I know you guys down in GA sound a bit different from us in NC, TN, or VA. Either way, if I missed the mark, or worse, made it more of a distraction than a cute dialect thing, I apologize. I love Willow's character and I really DO love the Southern/country accent - I think it's sexy as hell, so I also hope you're not offended by my clumsy attempt to bring it into my story. The last thing I wanted was to make it a Hollywood caricature we've all heard and grumbled about our entire lives.

Thanks for reading my stories. I'm glad you're liking things so far regardless of accents, phonics, etc. Thank you so much for saying something. I need this kind of feedback! I may go back and adjust things a bit when I release chapter 3 just to tone it down a little.

Anyway, thanks again! Now back to working on Ch5 of NYD!

Awesome. I'm glad you liked them all! Outside of a couple of cameos, I don't currently have plans for a big crossover of any kind, but if a story idea pops into my head at a later date that involves both casts, then I may change my mind. I definitely don't want to share the girls at all, though.

Thanks so much for helping support my work! Please keep in mind, Christmas Eve was my first attempt at a VN, so it's a little rough around the edges (more so than my other stuff)!

Give me a few minutes and I will fix this. I thought I had it pointed to the correct files. I'll get the correct ones loaded up. I'll put them onto itch proper so you shouldn't need to use Mega at all. For what it's worth, the only difference between 0.4.1 and 1.0.0 is a couple of minor adjustments like the outline of the text and such. The story itself, as well as the images are all exactly the same.

EDIT: All builds have been updated. Sorry for the confusion!

This VN is very story-rich, so there's a lot of story to get through before any spicy stuff happens. There's a definite build-up happening, but (small spoiler below)

things do get a little spicier toward the end of chapter 2.

Hey! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I really think the music adds another dimension to the story as well. I found most if not all of it on the pixabay website. It's a site that offers free 'royalty free', no copywrite music. I believe there are a list of artists in the credits at the end of the game. Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy New Year's Day(e). I'm currently working on chapter 2 of Siren Song which is very "music forward", so check it out as well!

I think he means Doki Doki Literature Club

So glad to hear you're liking things so far. Yes, i fully plan to start work on ch5 of NYD as soon as im do e with ch2 of Siren Song! I cant wait. I have a lot of cool things planned.

Thanks! Im glad you enjoyed it. The scene you're talking about is from chapter 4 during the Eve/Daye fight.

Nope, I do not plan on including any of that type of content in any of my games. 

Let me know if you play NYD, and if you do, let me know what you thought!

Thanks so much for your words. I really appreciate it. Yeah, addiction really is terrible. This isn't the first and unfortunately, will probably not be the last friend I lose this way. I try not to blame myself for too much of the things that are out of my control, but I think we all find ourselves beating ourselves up unnecessarily from time to time, so thanks for saying that in particular. And, yes, sometimes you just have to let go of the arguments. Depending on the disagreement, being the bigger person, taking the high road and letting the other person "win" if you need to can help you both be happier in the long run (at least I think so).

As far as my dad goes, it was just his time. Thankfully it was quick and painless. 

But yeah...I've kinda let some of this pain and anger seep into my stories for better or for worse.

Thanks for playing my games. I'm glad you're enjoying them. Working on the first half of the final scene of Ch4 right now!

Hey, yeah, I remember our conversation.

Creating these stories has been awesome. I wish it was something I could do for an actual job, but that's not looking too likely. I'm kinda hoping I can learn enough about writing through creating these games to maybe write a book someday. That'd be cool. Let me know when your game is done. I'd like to check it out.

Thanks! Yeah, that ending was crazy. And yes, Eve is a cutie, for sure. I hope everyone likes what I'm doing with chapter 4!

Thanks for understanding. Yes, it is just me doing all of it. Thankfully I have some good people over on my Discord telling me when I need to fix stuff. That said, it definitely makes me feel like a dumb-dumb when I screw up the fix that was meant to fix a fix. ;P Oh, well. No biggie. Oh, and thanks for the support! I truly appreciate it!

Thanks! I'm glad you're liking everything so far.

As far as learning game development goes? This is it. This is me learning. If you look back at "Christmas Eve", you'll notice a pretty big difference in image quality, coding, animations, and writing as opposed to NYD. I have always enjoyed reading and I have a knack for telling stories. I also love video games. 

I was a CAD design engineer in a past life, so I applied some of those skills to working with DAZ Studio to create the images. The rest has been a series of trial and error, forums, videos and this and other communities giving me advice on how to write Ren'Py code, make better images, etc.

It's been hard work, but I also find it fun. If you're interested in trying it out, download DAZ and Ren'Py (both are free), and I'll give you what advice I can.

Thanks! I'm glad to hear you're liking things so far! Chapter 3 is shaping up nicely (or at least I think so), so I hope you like where I take things.

I really want to do a gallery/scene replay options, but the coding is beyond my current skill level (which is pretty weak). I'll get there eventually!

You're kind of right, but it was meant to convey that: 

Spoiler:

keeping Mia there against HER will could possibly lead to a kidnapping charge, not Kaylee. Kaylee is going with Mia voluntarily because of her sense of duty as Mia's daughter. The MC says "You don't have to go", and Kaylee responds, "Yes I do. This time I do."

If that bit was confusing to the reader, I apologize, but that is what I meant to get across.

I appreciate the feedback in any case. I'll read through that part again and see if I can think of a better way to phrase things. Maybe tweak it when I release ch. 3.

BtW, I tried using Butler a while back and couldn't figure it out. I'll try again because I really would prefer to host the files directly on itch. I've sent them messages requesting more space for my games and I never get a response. Thank you for trying to help though. I truly do appreciate it.

I'll look into it.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've tried different file formats and compressions and can't get it below the 1GB limit without sacrificing tons of visual quality. If anyone knows how to and can help/teach me, I'd really appreciate it.

Yep! Chapter 1 is anyway. Here you go. Thanks for playing!

When i try it i get the choice: open in Mega App or Open in Browser. Choose open in browser and you shouldn't have any problems.

Hey! You shouldn't need to sign up with Mega just to download. It should do a "pre-download" and then actually download the file really quickly once it reaches 100%. I dunno why it works this way, it just does.  I hope this helps!

Unfortunately, I don't have the skills or the know-how to port it to Android. I wish I did. I've looked into it and it's pretty complicated (at least for me). I'm sure there will be someone who does it for all of us soon. Sorry it wasn't me!

There's no reason to worry about that. New Year's Day(e) is a continuation of the Christmas Eve story. It will pick up right where Christmas Eve left off. The main difference will be that New Year's Day(e) will focus on Dayton more than Eve. That being said, Eve will still be in this story quite a bit, as well as Kaylee and Becky. You will also meet some new characters and see how they influence the story. 

Thanks for your commitment to Christmas Eve, though. It was a lot of fun to create, but the fun has just begun!

~ Jonesy

Well, happy birthday in advance! Yes, Dayton is a bit different from Eve in personality for sure. While still a sweetheart, she can quickly become a handful. She's a very loyal friend, daughter, and sister, but she's not too big on patience or tolerance. In short, she's a little bit of a hot-head. Most people would call her a firecracker (erhem...pun intended?).

As far as availability and pricing, I think I will be offering this chapter to my Patreon subscribers a bit early, but I will offer it here on Itch with the same optional donation that I have set up for Christmas Eve. I am still learning this craft and this is a labor of love at this point. Maybe once I've become more established as a creator I'll venture into the more complex world of cross-platform marketing and release dates. Seems like a lot of unneeded stress right now.

I'm very excited to see how the world receives this next chapter. I love it, but sometimes that isn't an indication that others will. Either way, I'm not too worried. I do this for myself first. If others happen to like it, then that's awesome. If not, that's OK too.

Thanks again for all your enthusiasm and positive support!

Hey, thanks for the positive feedback! You know, I thought about doing the same thing, kind of like "Star Wars: A New Hope", "The Empire Strikes Back", etc., but for whatever reason decided against it. Maybe I'll rename it in the future and make it a whole series with different "seasons" or "volumes". 
Anyway, thanks again. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Chapter 1 of NYD is almost done!