Personally, I like that too in games, but I'm also a sucker for UI that makes more sense, haha. Like, if there's a phone in a VN, I'd rather see the phone and be able to physically press the buttons on it via the UI than see the phone on-screen but then be presented with standard choice UI boxes for phone-related options x3

With the phone buttons in this, I was mainly just attempting to train players to know that they can press different buttons if they want to. Cos while it may not let you do certain things in the demo content and guides you towards the options that advance the story, it's important later on in the game that players know they can interact with phone buttons cos there comes a point where what you press on the phone determines which story branch you end up on :3

And I know I could've kinda explained that to players in a proper tutorial, but tutorials in games are a bit of a pet peeve of mine x3 I appreciate learning mechanics and stuff, but I like to have them presented to me as though it's part of the story rather than with big flashing signs saying it's a tutorial, haha.

That's also pretty much why I tried to integrate other things like naming MC etc. into the general story flow cos I just find it jarring to enter names and stuff at the start of a game like you're filling out a form but there's no context for anything x3 It's just more fun for me if stuff like that happens within the context of the story.

I feel like I did an awful job of explaining stuff there xD I'm always so long-winded T_T haha.

So glad to hear it ^-^ Thanks so much for checking out the demo for this and for playing my other games too! 

There's a lot of work still to do on the project, but I'm actively working on it again now with LPB after taking a proper break for Christmas/New year :D

And also thank you for your patience <3 It honestly means so much to me when someone is kind enough to take the time to play my stuff and write something nice afterwards, but it means even more when they're not rushing me to finish things :3 I put enough pressure on myself without getting hurried by others xD

So yeah, thank you for being so awesome <3 <3 <3

I’m so glad you think so :3 It’s not like I can take all the credit for the art side of things since almost everything came from art packs that I purchased, but I did spend a HUUUUGE amount of time editing every single art asset in the game to get things to look exactly as I wanted them to x3 

I edited the colours and tone of everything, which was gruelling cos most of the images didn’t have layers, so I had to do it all in a very time-consuming way >.< And the CGs were all created by meticulously positioning stuff until it looked as about acceptable as I could get it, haha.

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Loading times is honestly something that really pisses me off about Unity/Naninovel >.< I desperately wish there was a way to improve them.

On my PC, it’s not an issue cos everything loads almost instantly, but on the potato laptop, load times can sometimes exceed a full minute!!

I’ve noticed it when trying to play other people’s VNs on the potato too. Largely with ones made using Unity/Nani, but I even have issues playing Renpy games sometimes if they have heavy use of video or animated elements :( 

I’m sure there must be a way to achieve better optimisation, but yeah, I think a big part of the problem is just how Unity/Nani games run in general T_T

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You kind of answered your own question correctly there x3 Yeah, she really is just that resigned, haha. She literally went out there kind of wanting/expecting to die anyways, so when the creature appears, she figures she might as well just go along with things to see what happens.

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There is a pretty strong reason for the narrator rewinding that particular bad end decision, and it’s a personal one :3 

Basically, I dunno if you read anything on the background of why I made this game, but I made it when I was feeling suicidal after getting my own ASD diagnosis. So making the game was kind of my way of processing everything I guess. It was quite cathartic, but I can’t really go back and look at the game now cos it’s too painful to remember feeling the way I did. 

The reason you’re forced into outcomes where Saffie survives is because, deep down, as strongly as I felt I wanted to die at the time, there was still a part of me that wanted to live.

I wanted Saffie to live because that’s what I wanted for myself x3

I couldn't allow any bad endings where Saffie dies to be 'reality' for Saffie because, in a weird way, it felt too much like I would be giving up on myself / reinforcing the idea that I should die.

Even though Saffie isn't me, she was the personification of what I was going through back then, so while we have differences, I felt extremely protective of her, haha.

Heck, when I was making the game, I wasn’t even thinking about other people playing it. Like many of my games, I made it purely for myself. It was only when I got towards the end of making it that I decided I might as well release it just in case it happens to resonate with anyone who might be feeling similarly.

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I guess the other choices determine what kind of future Saffie has alongside whether or not Saffie and Snowe have any romance going on.

Some endings are healthier than others, but the main thing for me was to make sure Saffie survived x3 I will happily admit that some of the endings in there are a bit meh xD My personal favourites are:

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

End 05 - Permafrost Princess
The one where Snowe essentially obliterates the rest of the world to keep Saffie safe x3

End 07 - Beyond The Blizzard
Just cos it's a happier one with hope that's a bit more involved than some of the other 'happy' endings

End 08 - Guardian Angel
Because Saffie has the freedom of living her own life away from Snowe while healing, but he's still being a sneaky yandere through her bear xD
And even though I know it's bad that Snowe's harming other people from afar, it's just kind of sweet that he loves Saffie enough to let her leave, but won't let go of protecting her x3

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Anyways, I’m so, so glad that you still enjoyed the story even if you would have preferred a greater variation in choices :3

It honestly means a lot! Especially considering I happened to see a review on it recently from early 2024 where the person had said they thought the storyline was childish >.<

I mean, it’s a dark fairytale, so in a sense, it’s kind of supposed to have those childish vibes xD But still, they clearly meant it in a negative way rather than positive.

I won’t say the name of the person who wrote it, but they rated the game 2 stars and their review was as follows:

"While the mechanics and design where fairly great, the story… Well. It felt really bad. Like a children story by a grown up who try to make something fancy out of a fancy word, but it’s still not a great story at booth.

Sorry writer, but I feel like there should have been a revamp :("

…That’s just not very nice to hear from someone when it’s something I wrote to process my own trauma.

I know that when you publish stuff online, you can’t control whether people consume it, or what they think about it if they do, but still… I didn’t make it for them. I made it for me.

I wasn’t trying to 'make something fancy' out of anything. I was literally just doing something to stop myself from committing suicide at the time >.<

Sometimes I think people make comments and reviews without even considering for a second that devs are just regular people with feelings :( 

I’m extremely fortunate to have received kind comments on most of my games, but when I see negative stuff, or things that are straight-up mean, it just really feels like a slap in the face. I’ll be the first to admit I am not a resilient person when it comes to getting comments like that.

Genuine criticism is fine because that can be constructive if it’s written the right way and comes from a place of goodwill.

But reviews/comments like the one I quoted just hurt. They’re not constructive or helpful in any way. It’s just someone’s opinion and something they could have just kept to themselves. As the saying goes, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all >.<

One day, I’d like to be at a place in myself where I have good enough self-esteem to just let those sorts of comments wash over me so they don’t hurt quite as much, and it’s something I’m trying to work on in therapy x3

But in the meantime, I’m stuck in a place where every time I get something like that on my game pages or my inbox, it makes me wanna quit game dev because the pain it causes makes it feel like publishing what I make isn’t worth it.

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Aside from that, and I know I can't truly blame players for this because the average player won't be aware of it, rating games anything less than 5 stars on itch is extremely damaging to devs >.<

It's itch's fault really for operating the rating system the way they do. But yeah, a 5* rating increases a dev's overall visibility on the site while anything less than 5* decreases it >.< It means some players are giving genuine ratings of 4* or 3* thinking they're just being fair and honest without even realising they could be hurting the dev's chances of others finding their games :( 

I only learned that by being a part of a dev server and joining game jams, so I wouldn't expect players to be aware of it. It's why devs tend to only rate other devs' games 5* even if they only thought it should be like a 3* rating.

Basically, the unspoken rule is, rate 5* if you liked the game, and if you didn't like it, just don't rate at all.

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Even though some of your points could be construed as negative, I understand that they’re your personal preferences, and we all have our own of those, haha. No dev could make someone’s perfect game without heavily consulting with an individual on their preferences at the end of the day. They can do a decent job of appealing to maximum players, but it’s unavoidable that some players will love what they make while others won’t be so keen.

Heck, part of the reason I started making games was because I was finding that while I enjoyed the stuff I was playing, there were certain things I would change if it were me making them, haha.

So yeah, just thank you for posting something nice :3 Because when I read stuff like what you’ve written, it lifts me back up again rather than pushes me down. And that means a lot!

Weeell, that sucks x3 If the save and load symbols are mixed up on this one, you can blame the UI artist for that cos I just used UI from a Japanese UI art pack for most of the UI in this and applied them by whatever they were labelled as >.< Now I wonder if they were labelled incorrectly or if they tend to be the other way around in Japan or something xD It's not something I've paid much attention to cos usually, the buttons in VNs have the words on rather than symbols, haha. (And Lazy Polar Bear drew the UI for the phone and the PC :3)

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You can technically avoid going to Limbo completely by choosing the option to go home right at the start instead of jumping, but yeah, the option to refuse the job doesn't come until later as you found out x3 

I'm the same way, haha. I don't do taking orders. The exception is, if I respect someone, I'm happy to help, but I'm not good with being forced into stuff. The more I'm pushed, the more resistance I'll put up xD

The main reason you can't pick a name for MC in this one is cos their name doesn't matter once they reach Limbo. No one cares what MC's name is, so they will just call em whatever the heck they want to >.< Rude, I know! But that's just how it is, haha. At least Nine is a gender-neutral name I guess x3

Phone breathing generally irritates the heck outta me, ooooor, I find it hot… depends on who's doing the breathing xD

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I know what ya mean cos we all have our preferred types of MCs to play :3

I know I personally tend to get really pissed off playing as most otome heroines cos the majority of em are irritatingly innocent and naive >.<

Out of all the MC's I've written, Loni in Lovestarved is probably the closest to the types of characters I'd prefer to play as cos Loni has a dark side and a lot of fight in her depending on player choices x3 I don't think it shows much in the demo, but she has some pretty fucked up moments later on in the game if on certain story branches. You can still play her as kinda innocent, but I prefer how she is if the player explores her dark side more :P

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I don't know exactly which endings you've found, but I guess you must've got bad end 02 by default if you saw the vampire call cos, if I'm remembering correctly, answering that call leads to an unavoidable bad ending x3 But if you don't answer, the main story keeps going :3

There is 1 ending in particular that is yandere-esque, but you've gotta meet a few different conditions I think to get that ending. I can't remember how off of the top of my head though cos it's been a while since I made this one >.<

I just checked the walkthrough guide though, and it looks like it's bad ending 04 which has the somewhat yandere vibes. You have to make it all the way to the final day while avoiding some of the other bad endings earlier on in the story, and then pick the ‘Go Home’ choice when asked.

There's a hidden extra ending AFTER bad end 04 as well depending on how you treated Niard, haha.

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Both Nine from Limbo Line and Loni from Lovestarved are stuck in Limbo, but like, different sectors of Limbo. Tbh, I think I would prefer to be in the neon dump that Loni's stuck in than trapped in the offices like Nine xD

Where Loni is might be kinda grim, but I couldn't do the whole call centre thing, and the lights in the offices are waaaay too bright for me >.< It'd drive me insane!

So glad you wound up having fun with this one anyhow :3 

Don't feel as though you have to answer this, but did you happen to find any of the hidden numbers to call on the phone or the ARG side quest related to some of the stuff on the PC? :o 

I know there's a lot that would be easy to miss since you're limited with what you can do on your break times in-game x3 I can't even remember how you find all the hidden numbers and side quests and stuff without checking the guide >.< I had sooo much fun making the side quest with the alternate reality game elements though, even if it is pretty basic!

I've wanted to include more stuff like that in other projects, but it just doesn't really fit in most of the stuff I've made or I haven't had the time in a jam timeframe to put in all the extra work of including something like it :(

Thanks again for playing this one too :3

:D Well, it took a little while, but I think it finally came out at midnight :3

I haven't had a chance to post about it yet, but it seems to have gone live :3

https://open.spotify.com/album/1CpElSPHCnmAy2NtUPoezK

And Castor still loves you :P <3

I can only apologise that the development of the project is so slow >.< It's been on pause for a while and will continue to be while I prioritise finishing other projects first just because this one is so damn long, haha.

It makes sense for me to finish stuff that's shorter and/or already fully written, so I'm trying to finish and release Lovestarved first. That's what I'm currently working on.

Then there's one more project after that that I wanna tackle and release before I get back into working on this one x3

Sometimes I wish I had a team to work with cos it sucks how long it takes to do stuff solo >.< I appreciate your support though!! And Castor will never stop loving you, so he's just patiently waiting for the moment he finally gets to spend more time with you :D

There are a few reasons for the choice of phone buttons in the beginning even though only one continues the story, so I guess I'll try to separate them :3

• The order you press phone button options in initially doesn't matter, so players are essentially guided into clicking a specific option to continue. This lets the player know that you can interact with different options, and that's important for later segments of the game where the phone options you choose impact the story branch you end up on.

Having it be interactive from the start acts as a sort of tutorial without having to completely spell it out for players that they're learning they can press different phone buttons for different options x3 Cos I personally hate it in games when they say a tutorial is a tutorial. For me, it breaks immersion.

But yeah, the phone options might not have any impact in the beginning, but they do in later in the game (in part of the story that isn't available in the demo - cos like most of my games, this game was made for a game jam, so we just got as far as we could within the jam timeframe and stopped at a point in the script that felt okay to pause at :3)

• Another reason is just that it's nicer to have different kinds of UI for choices in general rather than the plain old choice boxes x3 Having the parts that take place on the phone looks prettier with phone UI

• The phone in general is also a bit of a nod to anyone who has played Limbo Line. In Limbo Line, you have an interactive phone that you can actually enter numbers into by pushing the number buttons. If you enter random numbers in it, chances are, you will just get a random response, but there are numbers hidden throughout the game to find and call, and those have more to them, some even start side quests :3

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As a side note, Deadly Desires is a company that's encountered by Limbo Line's MC too, but they're not particularly involved with them. In Limbo Line, MC can wind up calling Deadly Desires though, and even help out one of their employees.

Limbo Line is more about that sorta thing. You have a PC to use as well as the phone, and you can find the passwords for protected folders throughout the game. There's also an alternate reality game-style side quest, but I have no idea if it still works or not cos part of the puzzle-solving involved finding some specific social media accounts and other things outside of the game xD I think maybe it does cos someone asked for help with solving the last step of the ARG back in November last year, and I don't think they would have been able to get to the last step if the social media accounts were deactivated.

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As for there only being one person/scenario though, unfortunately, that's how it's gonna stay x3 This game is supposed to be about Loni and Erys’ twisted romance. So aside from the side characters, it's just them.

The script is fully-written so the remaining work I've got to do on the game is finish coding it. But yeah, there are no plans to add any other love interests to the story.

Once the otome version is complete, my focus will be adding the masculine version of Loni and feminine version of Erys so that players have the choice of playing GxB, BxG, BxB, or GxG :3

Even though Limbo Line doesn't have romance, it does allow you to do friendship building with each of the characters to unlock extra scenes with them.

Because Limbo Line focuses less on personal relationships and more on helping as many people as possible though, with Lovestarved, I really wanted to do a big zoom-in and focus purely on two lovers instead :3

Lovestarved is Loni and Erys’ story, but the way it winds up is still fairly open. It can get super dark and twisted if the player makes Loni choose certain things, or it can almost be cute if other paths are chosen… almost x3

But yeah, the full game has 31 endings. The demo only has 7, so I've got a loooot of stuff still to add, haha.

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As for Steam, I would honestly love to have all of my games on there, including this one once it's finished, but the $100 fee they charge per game kinda shuts me out at the moment >.< I'm trying to raise funds to cover Steam fees, but since I've made a fair number of games now, it would cost me over $1000 to get them all on Steam T_T 

I'm unemployed thanks to my crap mental health and autism, so I can't afford to throw money at that sorta thing. And most donations I get towards my projects go towards paying voice actors and other aspects of development.

I think Steam refund you the fee if your game reaches a certain threshold in $$$ of sales, but since my games are free, I would never physically be able to reach that threshold :(

Hoping I can have my stuff on Steam one day though :3

Cheers for checking this one out too!

Fair enough on A9! I have also avoided certain games based on artwork that turned me off, so I totally get it :3

I dunno which ending you got on Tunnel Vision cos there are a few different ones, most of which are pretty dark or gory x3 There is an endings guide for it, but if it wasn't your cup of tea anyhow, that can't be helped, haha.

I know some people seem to get a different project called Touchstarved (I think that's what it's called?) mixed up with Lovestarved x3 Just cos they both have the word ‘starved’ in the title I guess. Lovestarved is basically a Limbo Line spinoff about the world's escort service, Deadly Desires. You don't have to have played Limbo Line for Lovestarved to make sense though and vice versa cos the two stories are mostly unrelated.

With Limbo Line, I guess it depends what sorta stuff you're looking for in a game and what you would consider mild :3 I don't really know what sorta stuff you're looking for.

There are some pretty dark endings, but if a player was looking for something like dark sexual content, for example, it doesn't have that. The mature stuff in there is all non-sexual. There isn't any romance in it either, so it's not like it's a dating sim. There's a yandere in there, but a platonic yandere. (I realise there are also arguments around whether platonic yanderes are even a thing that can exist, but that's a debate I can't even be bothered to have anymore, haha).

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The problem with trying to go in too many directions with that particular ending in Bitter/Sweet though, is that you have to keep the reveal from the ‘true’ ending in mind.

For reference, I might as well be super clear and actually say it here, but I'll do so under spoilers on the off chance someone else reads this x3

Ahoy! There be SPOILERS below!!! x3

So yeah, with the ‘true’ end revealing on the title screen that Blythe is basically an antidepressant medication, it makes it a bit harder to play into certain themes too strongly. Especially when the game was supposed to be an exaggerated parallel of my own experience of being on certain kinds of antidepressants (this is something I think I mentioned in the extras section).

I did want to leave it a little open to interpretation still because I'm not a huge fan of when endings are 100% explained and told as gospel. I find it more fun when there's room to draw your own conclusions and come up with different theories. Which is a big part of why I revealed the whole 'Blythe is an antidepressant' thing as a visual element on the title screen post-'true’ end credits rather than writing it into the story x3

If MC were locked up for murder, those in charge of MC would either increase the dose of medication, which would in turn increase Blythe's influence over MC. Or they could potentially take MC off of the medication, either completely, or to trial them on a different kind of med. If the medication was changed or stopped, Blythe would technically disappear because MC only experiences Blythe as ‘real’ because it's a side effect of the Blythe antidepressant.

Basically, if we take the ‘true’ ending to actually be the truth of how Blythe exists, then Blythe only exists because MC is taking the drug named Blythe.

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Don't hate me here, but I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree that more endings = always good >.< My reasoning: I've played waaaay too many commercial Japanese VNs full of pointless bad ends at this point x3

Now, don't get me wrong, I usually LOVE bad ends! I tend to enjoy them more than good ends, haha. The problem is, a lot of VNs pack tonnes of bad ends in that are sooooo boring. They feel like a complete waste of time because often, they're not bad enough, but even more often, they just don't really do much of anything beyond be an irritating inconvenience to players trying to 100% the game or meet certain conditions to unlock hidden routes/scenarios :( 

I'm all for more decent bad ends in games, gimme loads if they're epic bad ends! x3 But more doesn't always necessarily = better. Sometimes more is just a chore >.<

As a side note, I've never played Particles of Reality, and probably never will. It was on my radar at one point, but I remember when I looked it up thinking it's just not really my cup of tea, and my backlog is so huge at this point that I really needed to try and condense it somehow x3

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To be honest, most of my games were made in under 1 month xD Because I'm a game jam addict T_T 

Bitter/Sweet was made for Yandere Jam, which only lasts a month. So the content that's currently available is basically what I was able to complete within the jam's 1 month time frame :3

Some of my stuff was made even faster though, like The Hostage, which was made in under 1 week for O2A2 jam. That jam is so much fun x3 I really love how all the limitations force you to come up with something you can squeeze in to the restrictions!

Solipsism Reigns is my first (and only) game that I didn't make specifically for a jam. That took a few years from start to finish to complete >.< I was my grandma's carer when I started working on the game though, so I was only getting to spend like 1-2 hours per day on it.

But yeah, I find that writing is the most difficult part of game jams in general because if it's a 1-month jam, you really need to try and have the full story script finished within the first week of the jam if you wanna stand a chance at actually submitting a finished game by the jam deadline >.<

It's fun, buuuut it also means you're kinda forced to think fast and run with a first draft, which is pretty much always gonna mean the writing is weak in places, if not throughout :( 

At least you can always update stuff when a jam is over :3 Even that comes with issues though because sometimes, voice actors are happy to play characters for game jam games, but may not want to reprise the same roles later on once the jam is done >.< That means script revisions aren't always possible without recasting. And even if recasting happens, re-cutting, editing, and implementing voice lines that you've already done once is a nightmare to have to go and do a second time cos it's so time-consuming T_T

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As for Blue's route, weeeeell, when I say it's supposed to be mainly spicy fluff, I'm still talking DARK spicy fluff :P Some of what I've written is already sort of along the lines of some of the things you've mentioned :D

What I've got so far is definitely heavy on the manipulation side of things. Somewhat on the abusive side, but in a twisted caring kinda way x3

I've had a tad too many manipulative and abusive men in my actual life, so I'm kinda always conscious of that stuff cos what's fun in fiction isn't always so fun in reality >.<

I don't tend to get triggered by anything, but there are still certain things I avoid writing in fiction because they're things I've actually been through and don't particularly want to write about them in a fantasy kinda way x3 

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There is indeed a warnings section on the page, but I adore your idea of having separate warnings/triggers for each version of Blythe :3 I will absolutely make sure to do that when the time comes so that it's extra clear to players what to expect from each, and then they can avoid whatever they might not be into. As you say, it's good to help players choose better :D

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The singing voice choice at the start is literally just to choose whether you want Blythe to have a masculine voice or a feminine voice :3 Whichever you pick determines for both versions of Blythe for the rest of a playthrough. 

I've tried to include masculine and feminine voice options for the love interests in as many of my games as possible just to be more inclusive :3 Sometimes the sprites will appear physically different too, but because Blythe is designed to be androgynous, the sprites look the same whichever voice players pick.

It doesn't change anything else about the story because you pick MC's name and pronouns separately. So yeah, it's just a choice for Blythe's voice.

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I do appreciate the YouTube recommendation, but I'd be lying if I said I was actually gonna look the guy up >.< I just really don't like watching stuff on YouTube. I find written articles easier to digest than people speaking. Like if I need an answer for something in the form of a tutorial or whatever, if videos are the only option available, I will just go back to trying to figure out whatever the problem was by myself x3 I dunno if it's cos of my autism or something, but I just can't seem to process information very well in audio/video form >.<

There is a guide on the game page, yeah :3 Well, a link to the guide anyways since I made it in a separate post that I linked back to the page. It's here: https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/bittersweetblythe/devlog/496221/walkthroug...

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I don't know if I could consider myself a skilled writer, but it means a lot that you would say that :3

I always assume my writing is clumsy >.< Partly cos of always having to run with hastily typed first drafts for game jams, but mainly cos I don't have much faith in anything I do, haha. I still haven't learned how to actually grow some self-esteem x3

Doesn't help that I always feel like an impostor when it comes to everything about game dev since I'm entirely self-taught.

I didn't even really get an education as a kid cos my school couldn't be bothered to teach anything. I only passed my GCSEs by studying textbooks at home. And I never had the opportunity to go to college/university because I was trapped in an abusive relationship and confined in his house. So yeah, I guess I just always feel kinda inadequate and inferior to all the folks out there who have actually had the opportunity to study stuff and get real degrees and experience etc. x3

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I do intend to keep writing for this until I have Blue's route finished anyhow :3 I'm not entirely sure when cos my main focus is finishing Lovestarved before anything else, and then I also have another older project I wanna finish since the script was written years ago >.<

Just not sure what to prioritise after that because I want to get back to working on Darling Duality. That's a really long project though, so maybe I'd be better of finishing Blue Blythe's route before getting into that. Cos once I get working on Darling Duality again, I'll probably be on that for a couple of years or more x3 

Sometimes I wish I could clone myself and make my clones work on my projects so I can have some time off to play games xD My clones would probably just wind up murdering me or something though knowing my luck!

Thanks again for all your insight :3 I'm so glad you wound up enjoying this one. Hope you have lots of fun gaming and writing in general :D

Even that would annoy others though because if they're expecting just a novel, they may be annoyed that it appears more like a game when it has visuals, a soundtrack, and voice acting >.<

I feel like it is about as clearly marked on the page as I could make it at this point though cos it's literally under the ‘Features’ section in a bullet point, which I'd like to hope a majority browsing the page would read :3 It looks like this:

Then again, it seems a significant number of people who have played don't even realise it's a fandub of a drama CD series, and that's practically the first thing on the page, so maybe there is just no hope of most people reading the notice >.<

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I used to love the Choice of Games stuff :D And before that, I used to read the old Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure books :3

I know what you mean anyhow cos in most of my other games, I do tend to use that method of having some choices that are just there for fluff or a sprinkling of lore but don't have any real impact + other choices that either have an immediate impact on a story branch or a cumulative one that's only revealed later on in the story :D

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I would check out Perfect Love, but honestly, my VN backlog is a mountain at this point T_T I have over 100 itch games I want to play but haven't managed to yet, haha. Many of which are yandere games x3 The problem is, gaming is awkward for me nowadays cos my setup isn't ideal, and I feel ridiculously guilty when I try to take a break from game dev to actually play games :(

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But yeah, I do have bullet points under headers for both features and warnings on most of my game pages, the problem is, a lot of the time, people don't tend to read much of the page before playing >.<

I asked my brother at one point what he's like as a player and also his friends. He said he personally reads all the page details and follows different devs, but he said he's the exception in his friend circle x3 He said his friends tend to only look at YouTube playthroughs, screenshots,  or trailers, then download or buy based on that without reading any of the description text at all.

He also said his friends don't follow devs. They get their recommendations purely from YouTubers, so even if they love a game by a certain dev, they have no idea if that dev has released other projects they might like because they don't play stuff unless it's recommended by the YouTubers they follow >.< That seems like insanity to me, but I guess it must be fairly normal if that's how all of his friends find their games!

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PS. Apologies in advance for the incoming spam! I'm about to reply to all your comments at once x3

I know I'm weird, but I have trouble switching tasks, so when it comes to responding to comments or replying to things in general, I struggle to just reply to 1 thing, and then go back to another task. So instead, I give myself an entire day of the week dedicated to replying to things, haha. And when it comes to replying to your comments, I've kind of written a LOT >.<

So yeah, sorry about that x3

Please don't feel like you even have to read all of it if you don't want to, let alone respond to it, haha.

Cheers for checking out this tiny game :3

If you need help finding the different endings, there is a walkthrough guide here:

https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/impostor/devlog/190207/walkthrough-contains-spoilers

That means a lot that you still even remember it if it's been a long time since you played it :3 I can only apologise that development has been so slow for the project >.< I still intend to work on and finish it at some point, but I've just had to prioritise a mixture of irl stuff and other projects for my own sanity, haha.

Right now, Lovestarved is my main project that I'm aiming to finish since it's much shorter than this one and is already fully written + has almost all of the voice acting delivered :3 Hoping to finish it sometime this year after life got in the way of finishing it last year x3 And then there's one more old project I wanna go back to and finish before finally getting back to working on DD again.

Your patience is beyond appreciated though :3 Seriously, it means so much to have support like yours!

I have a bad habit of putting a lot of pressure on myself, and sometimes that is made much worse by the odd person here and there also adding pressure on me to finish or work on something they're waiting for >.< Maybe they think acting that way will motivate me somehow, but it does the opposite x3 Whereas kind words like yours absolutely encourage me to keep going :3

So thank you <3

Thank YOU for choosing to check it out! :3

Weeeell, that wish may come true sooner than you think :D I actually recently finished getting the tracks ready for release on Spotify :3 They needed some tweaking cos I noticed some of the tracks had issues that kinda hurt your ears if you listened to them on too high of a volume >.< aheh. I tried my best to fix that! Now I just need to actually submit the OST for upload to Spotify :3

Actually, I might just go ahead and do it after I hit send on this comment so I don't wind up forgetting to do it x3 It usually takes between 5 days to 2 weeks once I've submitted a release for it to actually go live though.

Thanks so much for taking the time to check the game out, see all the endings, and write up such lovely comments! Your enjoyment and praise of the game means the world ^-^

Totally don’t blame you for being put off by how some of the characters acted or voiced opinions in the beginning x3 I fear that some people may feel that way and probably wouldn't proceed with the rest of the game as a result >.< haha. But I’m super glad that you did, and that everything made sense in the end :3

It’s still one of my least downloaded (or even viewed) projects x3 So it means even more that you chose to play this one :D Your recommendation is much appreciated <3 Thank you so much for everything ^-^

Aww, poor bunnies x3 But they’re so cuuuuute and floofy x3

Anyways, thanks for giving this one a go as well! So glad to hear you like the art ^-^ A whole bunch of games I’ve made wouldn’t have been possible without the awesomeness of Lazy Polar Bear and her amazing art!

If you like her art style, we’ve worked on a fair few projects together that all have yandere vibes of some kind :D If you haven’t already checked em out, take a peek at:

Limbo Line (this one’s a finished project) 

Tunnel Vision (also a completed project)

Aaaand Lovestarved (only a long demo currently available for this one, but it’s our active project that we’re hoping to finish sometime this year after many irl things prevented us from finishing it last year x3) 

She also drew the sprites and CG art for the BxG version of Apartment No.9 (another finished project). The otome version of Apartment No.9 has art by a few different artists instead.

Anywaaaaays... Blue Blythe is a bad bunny x3 Well, I mean, Orange isn’t exactly a saint either, but compared to Blue, Orange is an angel xD

To answer your question, there are 2 separate reasons why the ‘Oblivious End’ is an end. One general, and one practical. They do kinda tie into each other though.

The general reason is because, as you surmised even without there being a hint of it, it’s the end of the road for MC. The fact that you figured that means it probably wasn’t really necessary to show it. We know that MC has pretty much murdered some random strangers at that point, so they’re gonna be apprehended and locked away somewhere.

And it’s the practical reason that answers exactly why I didn’t expand on the ending x3 Because, in truth, I would have liked to have shown MC locked away, still oblivious to the consequences of their actions until Blythe is either forcibly taken from them OR the opposite, they wind up seeing even more of Blythe as a result, leading them to live the rest of their life in a complete haze of fantasy when in reality, they’re trapped. The second option would be more what Blythe was hoping to achieve x3 If the first option came true, it would have meant game over for Blythe too.

Anyways, rambling, sorry x3 The practical reason was that I had to write and create the game for a game jam in under 1 month, haha. So in order to finish telling the story I was trying to tell in such a short space of time, I had to be conscious of word count. Expanding on that scene was just something that had to be sacrificed T_T That’s not to say it won’t ever be expanded on though :3 With the jam and its time constraints over, I’m free to add it in whenever I get around to adding Blue’s route at least :D 

I guess that brings me neatly onto Blue’s route! Basically, you’re not really missing much story-wise by Blue’s route not being there. My intention with Blue’s route is more to add some spicy fluff x3 There might be vague additional hints of story stuff in there that ties in with Orange, but for the most part, the actual story is complete with Orange. We can kinda view Orange's route as the 'true' path to take.

I don’t know if you have encountered it, but the ‘true’ ending, if you can call it that, gives the final reveal on the title screen. That should explain most stuff. The problem is, I realise it’s possible to miss it >.<

A friend of mine who can’t play my games but likes to check em out watched someone stream it. The streamer got the true end, then they sat on the title screen for like 2 secs before closing the game. My friend just about managed to see and realise what was spawning in and she got the hint, but she said the streamer had no idea T_T They completely missed the reveal and consequently spent a while trying to guess the meaning of the end even though it was right there on the title screen >.<

Maybe it was stupid of me to do a reveal in that way, but I wanted it to be subtle x3 I didn’t wanna write a scene that straight-up explained everything. I wanted to show it, and have players go “Ooooh… I get it now”. I guess maybe it was a bit too subtle >.<

Sorry for rambling on for so long in both of my replies to your comments btw x3 And don't feel as though you need to reply :3 I just always feel like if someone takes the time to play my stuff and leave a comment, I should take the time to respond, buuuuuut... sometimes my responses can get long xD Thanks again for playing ^-^

Cheers for checking this one out! :3

I totally get what you’re saying about it not really being a game, but that’s kind of a debate that’s been raging for years when it comes to certain types of visual novels x3

I dunno if you’ve ever played any or heard of them, but there is a type of VN called kinetic visual novels. They’re still technically games since devs coded and created them, but they have no choices whatsoever, literally none, and so no branching paths either.

They tend not to have any minigames, or even the option to enter a player character’s name. The only interaction players have is clicking to proceed with the story. They’re still marketed and sold as games though, it’s just they’re not interactive and don’t have actual gameplay, haha. I know, it’s a weird one x3

The thing is though, I think VNs with choices and branching narratives are much more popular than kinetic VNs these days, and so a lot of people who play VNs aren’t even aware that kinetic VNs are a thing, so when they play a VN, they’re expecting choices etc. by default.

That’s why I tried to be clear on the page that there is only 1 choice per scenario, cos I didn’t want folks to go in expecting something else and wind up disappointed >.< Though, I did write that waaay at the bottom of the page, so I’ve now added it under the features section too in case that’s of any help to someone checking out the page in the future, haha.

As a gamer, I also struggle to view kinetic VNs as true games, but as a dev, when I know how much work has gone into coding something even if it doesn’t have choices, I’m also more inclined to still see those sorts of things as games. They’re just a really niche type of game, haha.

I don’t know if there’s any truth to it, but I remember reading that in Japan, it’s extremely frowned upon for streamers to stream the entirety of a kinetic VN since they don’t have choices and it might impact a game’s sales if potential players just watched a stream knowing that they will see 100% of the content cos there are no choices.

Anyways, I dunno if you saw my notices about this project before playing it (not blaming you at all if you didn’t cos I know many people don’t read game pages these days), but there’s a solid reason for this particular project not having choices :3

Basically, it’s an English fandub of a Japanese drama CD series. So unlike my other projects where the stories and characters are original concepts, this is literally just me localising some CDs and giving them visuals.

I didn’t want to mess with the original story of the CDs since it’s not my story and not my characters, so I only presented the 1 choice that appears in the CDs :3 Of course, with those, it’s just audio so you can’t click anything, but what happens is the track ends on the choice, then the listener just chooses which of 2 tracks to play next to get the love interest/ending that they want for that scenario.

I could have added extra choices, but that just wasn’t my intention with this project, especially when it’s originally in Japanese. I just wanted to share some random CDs that initially got me into yandere stuff with a wider audience :3

The original Japanese CDs were aimed solely at straight women. Making a fandub VN like this made it possible for me to not only open up the shenanigans to non-Japanese speakers but also allowed me to do things that aren’t possible with an audio CD, such as giving players a choice of pronouns or choosing the gender of the love interests they want to pursue :D 

I did think about making an audio-only fandub, but in the end, I chose to go the VN route because I thought it would be more fun with some visuals + I kinda always envisioned the CD scenes in my head in a certain way, and I figured it would be amusing to try and pull those images from my mind and put em on a screen xD

Anyways, that was a long ramble, I’m sorry >.< I’m glad that you enjoyed the story and the art anyhow :3 Cheers again for checking it out!

Ahh, that means so much <3 Not gonna lie, I’m always low-key terrified when I release new projects that anyone who happens to have played any of my other games and enjoyed them might end up thinking whatever the new thing is kinda sucks x3 Especially if they happen to be waiting patiently for a project I've not finished yet like DD >.<

Gotta love those sneaky snake-type peeps :D I love Erys’ eyes so much!! LPB sure knows how to make em captivating ^-^

Massive thanks for checking this one out too, and also many thanks for the well-wishes :3 My stupid PC still isn’t ideal even though the one I’m using now is the 3rd one they sent out >.< It does work, but there is still stuff wrong with it :( I’m just hoping it will work well enough for me to keep working on projects!

Hope you have an awesome year in general ^-^

:D Can’t believe it took me so long to get this one up x3 I’ve tweaked some of the Bitter/Sweet tracks to fix some issues that were annoying me, and it’s ready for uploading now… I just have to make the time to actually do it, haha.

Cheers! I will try :3 It's gonna get more difficult to release all the older soundtracks I made before this one because the older the soundtrack, the more issues there are with some of the tracks, haha. This one is far from perfect still, but the older ones are worse >.< They're in dire need of some tweaking and mastering since I had no clue mastering was even a thing back then x3

Even now, I still wouldn't say I know what I'm doing cos I just stumble along trying my best, but I know enough to know that the quality of some of the older OSTs I made isn't ideal xD

Oh, nice! Congrats on your new PC :D I hope it works better than mine cos mine just seems to be dodgy even though it’s been replaced twice now T_T

Hope you end up having fun whenever you do play the game :3 And that you get to have an awesome January in general!

Thanks so much for checking out the demo :D I can only apologise that so many things currently lead to dead ends x3 I probably should have made the demo a lot cleaner, but I was in a rush to try and show more clearly that there would be other routes available in the future. In that rush though, I kinda wound up making the demo a mess T_T haha.

Once I’m actively working on the project again though, I will probably try to tidy up and re-release the demo :3 Jus gotta finish some other projects first before I come back to this one x3

So glad you like Castor though! Thanks for playing <3

Thanks for playing! :3

It’s nowhere near finished yet, but in the full game, I plan for story branches to go all over the place :D I did a rough drawing a long time ago which is a complete mess, haha. But I will clean it up once I’m working on the project properly again.

But yeah, I’m hoping to include a loooot of choices :3 Some where they have an instant impact, and some where you won’t see the result of them until much later on.

Testing everything is gonna be a nightmare I think, haha. One thing’s for certain is that there will be plenty more dead ends cos I’m a total sucker for bad endings xD

Thanks again for checking it out <3

Aww, man, thank you so much for your kind words :3 That really means a lot, and I’m so glad you enjoyed the game!

I still need to get around to writing Blue’s route at some point, but other projects have taken priority >.< The overall full story is technically complete with Orange though :3 Blue’s route is just intended to reveal more about their side of things, the role they play, and be more kinda fluff with a touch of harmless spicy stuff than add much more to the actual story x3

A million thank yous for taking the time to check it out <3

Ahh, well, thank you so much for playing ^-^ And also thank you for sending that beautiful fan art!! It’s adorable beyond words <3 <3 <3 Made my day just seeing it cos it’s so incredibly cute :D Makes me wanna just reach into the screen and pet him x3 hehe.

I should probably have put text subtitles for that bit at the end of the credits >.< At the time I made the game, I didn’t think about the fact that someone might play it with a translator because I just didn’t think anyone would really play it in general >.< 

I do hope to remake it someday though since it was the first game I made and it’s a bit dated now x3 So whenever I eventually get around to that, I will have to remember to make sure that those voice lines have subtitles :3

Thank YOU again for playing <3

<3 Thank you so much! Not that I can take all the credit personally there since we made it as a team, but still, I’m sure if any of the others see your comment they will be stoked too :3

And just thank you in general for checking out this particular game! Hardly anyone plays it, but I still consider it to be probably the most fun thing I’ve made x3 I always wish it had a bit more love, so whenever someone does actually play it and takes the time to comment, it really means a lot ^-^

Aww, I’m so glad you ended up liking both of them! I have more of a soft spot for Castor (sorry Castoria T_T) but I try to treat them both equally, haha. Sadly, the VA is probably going to be different once the full game is eventually released because there have been some issues that will mean I need to recast >.< but I’m sure the new VAs will do an awesome job too :3

Thanks so much for checking out the demo <3

Aheh, sorry about that x3 I hope it was at least a fun mindf*ck xD Regardless, thank you for playing :3

Hey! Thanks so much for playing :3 I’m glad you ended up having fun with it :D 

Yeeeeah, I find I mainly just want to slap all of the characters for being so outrageous xD

I’m not sure when I will be working on the next volume because I’m trying to finish a different project at the moment (this one x3), but I’ll hopefully get around to completing more volumes someday :3

Thanks again for checking it out <3

Thanks so much for checking it out ^-^ So glad you had fun with the story! Some of those gory moments were so fun to make xD I got waaaay too invested in finding and making the right sorts of gory sound effects for those scenes, haha.

You’ll be fiiiiine x3 At least I hope so, haha. It’s just a goofy game really :3 Definitely not something to take too seriously anyways. And also definitely not everyone’s cup of tea xD

Yeah, it sucks >.< haha. I think you can claw the money back from them if your game manages to make X amount of sales, but that doesn’t help devs who are releasing stuff for free because they will never make anything x3

Thank you again <3

That is really strange >.< I’ve never actually downloaded the itch app, so I don’t really know how it works. I just know that it’s usually what’s recommended for playing itch games easier >.< 

I was pretty snowed under in the run-up to Christmas, but it’s not anything you need to apologise for :3 I just wish I was actually able to help cos it sucks if there are issues that I don’t know how to help fix :( 

Did you get any joy from the forum post you made? I hope that someone was at least able to shed some light on things! :3

Hehe x3 Weeeell, I'm just glad that you like my games enough to want to binge them :D

I don't know if I'm necessarily good at making games cos there's still a lot of stuff I don't understand or don't know how to do, but I try my best x3 I feel like you can never stop learning though cos there are always new challenges to overcome and things to figure out!

I'm sure your ideas aren't all crap >.< Even if you think they might be, there will always be someone out there who loves it :3 When I started making my first game, I was pretty sure no one would ever play it, haha. To be honest, my self-confidence is so low that I still think that even nowadays when I release new ones x3 But I have learned that there will always be at least 1 person out there who thinks you have cool ideas and appreciates what you make :D

It does take a hell of a lot of time to make games, unfortunately >.< But you can always start with something super small just to test an idea and learn as you go :3

If you don't know or don't want to learn how to code, but would still like to try making a visual novel, I would highly recommend Tyrannobuilder!

I don't use it anymore, but it's what I started out with, and it really does allow you to make games without any previous knowledge or experience cos it's all done with drag and drop :3

I will definitely be back working on this in the new year anyhow :D It's my priority project for the year.

You have nothing to apologise for anyhow :3

Ahh, I remember you saying that about Apartment No.9! I hope it's not still haunting you x3 But I'm glad you decided to check out the demo for this project too :3

Development of this game is behind what was originally planned because of a few different reasons, mainly personal and life stuff >.< But we hope to have it finished and released sometime next year :D It's awesome that you're excited for more!

Hope you have a merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and a happy New Year too! ^-^

I'm glad you ended up liking the twist in the extra ending :3 I had always wanted to include that ending, but because of the limit on word count from the jam, it just didn't fit >.< haha. So I figured I'd make the director's cut version with that and a few extras :D

I think the voice acting really made the game what it is, so I'm glad you enjoyed it! Without the voice acting, it just wouldn't be the same.

Thanks so much for playing <3 Hope you have some happy holidays and also a happy new year!

Aww, man, I'm so glad you like what's there so far ^-^

If the finished version did end up becoming your favourite dating sim, that would be pretty epic!! I don't know if it will manage to live up to that though, haha.

It means a heck of a lot that you like it so much though! And to call it a masterpiece puts a big smile on my face :3

Development has fallen behind for a few different reasons, but we're hoping to finish and release it next year :D

Thanks so much for checking out the demo and taking the time to write something so sweet on the page <3

Happy holidays, and an even happier new year! :3

I will try x3 I think I need a stress shield, haha. You’re right though, rushing isn’t exactly a good idea >.<

I think spending some time away from my PC has started to help me put things in perspective better :3 And I’ve pushed myself these past couple of weeks to go to some places that I was scared to go, and see some friends along the way. That in itself has been a big help!

So I feel like I have a little bit of hope for the end of the year :3

Thank you for being so supportive as always <3 You’re amazing!

Hope you get to have some happy holidays and a super duper happy new year :3

Thank you <3 and I’m glad you like the game so far :3

I hope you get to have some happy holidays and an even happier new year ^-^

No problem at all :3 I can be quite slow to reply sometimes cos I get easily overwhelmed by pretty much everything in life >.< haha. But I always try to when I can.

Hope you have some happy holidays and a super duper new year ^-^

Thanks for checking it out :3 I hope to eventually have all my games on Steam someday, but that $100 fee per game is a real killer >.< That's why itch is so helpful, cos they don't charge devs to upload their games here :D

I'm glad you like the look of the demo anyhow ^-^

That’s awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed the little demo :3 Thanks so much for checking it out <3