itch.io

Sounds good!
Welcome to the new cast! Nice to see you all aced the auditions, now go knock 'em dead! :P

Really well drawn, and the story is both funny and moving. Great work!

That was nice!
It helps to make it feel a bit more special when the game's featured around a special day, one that only happens every now and then - and it's a day that actually happens in the real world!

This was fun and engaging! I especially love how vibrant and animated it is, with a lot of movement and, well, animation. A lot of effort seems to have been put in to make sure that it wasn't dry and monotonous, but sparky and polished.
I've left a more detailed review on the game jam submissions rating page, though! Well done to the team!

This is very engaging and quite a lot of fun! It shows good promise for the game's full version.
I really like how much movement there was in this visual novel - how many animations there were. It wasn't just a load of backdrops appearing and disappearing, with a bunch of characters sliding around. There was ACTION! Moving objects, visual effects, elaborate set pieces, elaborate, fun transitions... it almost felt like watching an animated show rather than a visual novel, and I really appreciate how much effort was put in to make everything fun, kinetic and vibrant.
I liked the writing. It had the right balance of simplicity and verbosity. Enough elaborate, dramatic language to set a passionate, serious and hearfelt tone, but also enough simplicity to stop it from becoming bloated or pretentious.
I also like how many times I was given a choice in what to do or what to say. That sort of thing is important in a visual novel, to help the player feel involved and immersed in the story, and I feel that I was given a choice not too many times, and not too few times.
The art style is striking and nice to look at. There is a risk that a completely black-and-white pallete could look boring, but not here! Everything can be clearly made out, and all the lavish effects really help make everything look interesting. I like how, a lot of the time, the shading looks deliberately 'drawn' - cross-hatching and spirally, for example. It really helps to give the impression that this is a manga come to life - which is the style that this game was clearly going for!
However, I have to say that this art style led to one of my most serious complaints about this game. Sometimes, it's hard to make out the game options on screen - the 'save', 'history', 'load' and so on. These words are in very similar colours to the rest of the screen, and sometimes a lot of the words get completely obscured by the characters! Admittedly, this wasn't a HUGE problem. I could just about work out where to click even if I couldn't completely see where I was pointing my mouse... but even so, this should NEVER happen. Players should ALWAYS be able to see the options clearly and distinctly. I suggest maybe making the options be in a colour that clearly stands out from everything else on the screen - have them be in red, or something. Although, that could possibly ruin the black-and-white aesthetic of the game... maybe put the options in a black box and have the words be in white, so they can always be clearly seen?
I liked the music, overall. It seemed a bit stark and harsh at times, and sometimes I don't know whether I'd have prefered more naturalistic sounds rather than the more electronic sound that I got, but overall, it was nice. There was a nice variety in sounds, and the different tunes skillfully gave across the tones of each scene they were playing over - which is what you want from music!
Well done to everyone involved in making this! This isn't really the kind of visual novel that I'd usually play, and yet I still had fun and felt drawn into it. That should be a good sign! :) Good luck with all your future efforts.

Congratulations to you all! :)

This is really good for a game made so quickly!
It has a clever and funny main idea, and it's great how it finds ways to make it more and more involved and challenging as it goes along.
Very fun and satisfying sound effects and music, and nice work on the drawings as well.

I can understand your concerns. Capitalism does indeed treat ordinary workers cruelly and callously, only showing interest in them as tools to help make profits for greedy rich people, and not as living, feeling people with needs and dreams. This is an awful, unjust way of doing things.
However, I'm not sure if it's really fair to suggest such treatment in this game. Qmin gets rated by her customer, Chloe, based on what Chloe personally felt about Qmin's service. What you have to remember about Chloe is that she is quite shy and nervous and inexperienced when it comes to sexual matters. So, Qmin has to be careful to put her at ease and make her feel comfortable, otherwise Chloe won't get what she wants out of the session. It's understandable that Qmin talking about sad parts of her life would make Chloe uneasy, because people generally feel bad when people talk to them about bad things that happen in their life. Also, that sort of talk might make Chloe doubt Qmin's professionalism, and make her feel less confident about Qmin's advice.
I don't think this is a case of 'This sex advice worker expressed personal feelings and vulnerabilities! Workers aren't supposed to act like real people, they're only supposed to be mindless, efficient machines to make money!' I think it's more a case of 'This sex advice worker acted too casually and thoughtlessly, and didn't consider her client's feelings enough, and that meant that the client didn't get as much out of the session as she could have.'
When a client is recieving some kind of service, I don't think it's unreasonable for that client to expect some level of professionalism, or some level of cheerfulness, if that's what would make the client feel at ease. Even in a fairer, kinder, non-capitalist system, I expect people recieving this kind of service would still want to be treated like that.
Of course, this could also be because Qmin only serves ONE client in this game. If she served several different clients, with different needs and different personalities, then maybe they woud rate her differently - maybe they would like it if she was more jokey or expressed more of her vulnerabilities.

A few months.

Hopefully the next update will come in a few months or so. Chapter 8 is being developed!

A very charming little game! Quite inventive how you managed to create an adventure and a setting on the scale of insects (like the items in the treasury, for example).
It was quite funny when I was moving around the attic and I was wondering "How am I moving around on all these platforms and levels as though it's all one flat surfac? Am I climbing around?" but then I remembered, "Oh, wait, of course, I'm a moth demon! I'm flying!" :P

Chapter 8 is being developed right now!
There's going to be quite a lot of stuff happening in it, so it might be a few months before it's finished, and it might be released in 2 parts.
The creator's patrons will be getting a test build of part of the chapter soon.

Well done on this! It was a creative idea, and pretty fun to play. There's always something that you've got to watch out for, so you've got to be on your toes and be quick with your controls, but at the same time it never got so intense that it was stressful. It was really nice to look at, and the music makes you feel really happy!

This is a good quality Sailor Moon comic from someone who's been a Sailor Moon fan for decades, and who's been creating great comics for at least a decade and a half! You're guaranteed a good creation and a good time!

Brilliant! Well done!

'Dough'! You know, dough! The universal currency! XD

Of course there are people on your side, fighting for the same things! There are millions of them, all over the world.

Good to see that you made improvements to your games, and that you're pleased with what you created! All the best to you.

I'm using Windows 10 as well, and it worked fine for me. I'm not sure what's going wrong with your setup.

I've just played all the way to the end of this game and I loved it!

The gameplay was addictive - I just never wanted to stop! Keeping track of everything, balancing the different concerns, making difficult choices... it was all so engaging and fun and never seemed to get too overwhelming or unfair.

The characters and stories were interesting, too - nothing mind-blowing, but still adding plenty of interest, fun and variety to the game.

There were plenty of laughs in this game, but it also knew when to get serious. There were lots of weighty topics and themes here, and they were talked about simply, engagingly and seriously.

Well done with this - it's very well-made!

This was very good!
I've already played the previous game, and it was wonderful to see a sequel made. This one expanded the world of the previous game, and also went deeper into the characters and relationships, while still maintaining the previous game's warm, light-hearted, funny tone, so I'd say it was a very good sequel.

It's good to have an added touch of conflict and stakes by having Yuki kidnapped - that makes the story a bit more interesting. Also, the game's light-hearted, goofy tone was established well, so I didn't take it too seriously and it didn't feel strange or jarring when the characters, uh... reacted to the situation the way they did, shall we say!

Very nice pictures and music, as before.

The extras I got after I finished the story were beautiful. Very touching.

Thanks for making this, and best wishes!

This was a very funny idea!
The 'fear meter', or whatever you'd call it, was a well-implemeted mechanic. It went down so fast that every time I was in a dark area I frantically moved to get out of it as quickly as possible. It very accurately simulated the feeling of being scared of the dark!

The music is very good, too. Simple, but fun and atmospheric.

Playing as a thief who's scared of the dark is a funny idea, and also adds an exciting extra edge to a stealth game. It would be good if this idea was expanded and turned into an even bigger game. I once played a stealth game about a thief that had similar pixelated graphics, called 'The Art of Stealth', so that sort of thing has happened!

I've already brought this game on Steam, played it, and written a review for it there.
Congratulations on getting a game onto Steam for the first time!

And the game itself was fun and charming. It was fun to play through the story again and again to find the different storylines and different endings, and the final part was very satisfying - made me feel like the work I'd put in to get there had been all worth it.

So thanks! Hopefully all those years of work put into making this game paid off!

This was a fun and interesting start to the story!

The characters all had distinct and interesting personalities, and the main protagonist is fun to spend time with - she's wonderfully exuburent, highly motivated and good-natured.

The story was well-paced and engaging. The ending was exciting - really makes you want to know what happens next!
I also liked how there were one or two parts where there was a bit of a choice of options to pick - not a lot, but they helped to keep the reading experience fresh and immersive, and maybe there'll be more in the next chapters!

The illustrations are pretty good - not massively detailed, but they're pretty enough, and they have a nice style to them.

The music is also pretty good. The different tunes fit the different moods, and it's generally enjoyable to listen to. However, I thought the music at the start and the end (the creepy music) sounded a bit silly when the singing started - it was too loud and sounded like a weird, goofy child singing. If the singing was quieter and more subtle, it would sound spookier and more serious.
I understand that the music was probably made by someone else and taken from a sound library somewhere, but still!

Also, a little gripe I have is...

(SPOILER WARNING)

...At one point in the story someone pulls out a sword made of thorns, but we never see that illustrated. We just have to imagine it, but a sword made of thorns sounds really awesome, and I'd have liked to have actually seen it drawn!
I know that this is a visual novel, and that you often have to imagine what's happening based on the narration, but even so, that would've been great to see! Surely another illustration of the character could have been included where they're holding the sword? Maybe something to consider for the next chapter?

Anyway, thanks for making this chapter, it was nice and interesting! It'll be good to see what happens in the rest of the story.

Did you extract the files when you downloaded it?
When I downloaded the game, it first appeared as a zipped file, and I had to extract the files from it. Then I opened the extracted files, and I could open and play the game from there.
If that's not the problem, give a bit more information about what's wrong, and I'm sure someone will be able to sort it out.

This was a charming, sweet story, and quite a polished game overall!

The illustration style is lovely - it's cheerful, bright and cute, but also quite neat and slick. It's adorable without being ostentatious or over-embellished.
The backgrounds help with that feeling. They may be quite simplistic, but I don't mind - they're nice enough to look at, and they help to give the overall gentle, simple tone, and they don't draw our attention away from the characters.

The story is quite light (not that there's anything wrong with that!), but it's also very good-natured and easy-going, and I love that. I liked all the funny parts, too, and it's great to see so much gentle and good-natured humour.

Yuki is a great main character to follow. She has a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and she seems to have a kind heart. I liked playing as her. Her reactions to things were often pretty funny, too!
I liked all the other characters, too. Spica was a bit intimidating and overbearing at first, but after a while I warmed up to her.

The music was good. There was a nice variety of different tunes and moods, that helped to communicate the personalities of the different characters. I think my favourite was the music that played during the date with Haruka - it was very beautiful and soothing.

Thanks for making this game! I wish it went on for longer, and maybe had a few more choices, but still, what I got was very enjoyable!

Hey, steady on a bit there...
I don't know anything about the guy you met in high school, so I can't really pass judgement on him, or you, or whatever went on between the two of you. He may well have hurt you or treated you badly, and if he did, then it's completely fine for you to be angry and resentful of him. No-one should mistreat others, and it's understandable for people to be angry about being mistreated.
But even so, I think you might be projecting him onto Periwinkle a bit here.

I don't really think Periwinkle 'is being praised as a tragic character'. The story is told from his point of view, so I suppose it's easy to get that impression - sometimes Peri makes excuses for his behaviour and his feelings, and that could be misinterpreted as the story saying that he's right, and not just making excuses.
I think the story shows that Peri's misery is caused by his own misunderstanding, and his own reluctance to examine his feelings. The scene where he has that long conversation with Astragalus near the end, and the scene with the unnamed angry witch, both seem to show that.
(Plus, the game shows that Peri's misery is just something that he needs to understand and find ways to make better - it's something that is CAUSED by him, but not something that he needs to be BLAMED for or seen at FAULT for, like he's done something wrong, because being miserable isn't really a moral failing!)

I also don't think it's really fair to say that Peri is 'toxic' or a 'creep'. Peri seems very considerate of other people's feelings. For example, he makes sure of Pastille's pronouns when they go on their first date, and when he turns down Cassia he sees to do it very gently and tactfully. Also, when he goes to see Pastille at work for the first time, and Pastille gets upset about it, Peri seems genuiely upset and apologetic about the mistake he made, and he makes sure to be more considerate of Pastille's boundaries in the future.
I suppose you might not like how Periwinkle teases people and makes suggestive comments - I wouldn't really like it if someone spoke to me like that - but I get the impression that Peri only acts like that with people who he already knows wouldn't mind it. He's forthright and outspoken and cheeky, but I don't think he goes out of his way to upset people or make them feel uncomfortable. He may do that sometimes, but only by accident.

I'm sorry if this game and its characters brought up bad memories for you, and I'm sorry if I did that as well, or stepped over any lines with this comment.
I just thought that your comment was a bit unfair and unfounded, that's all.

Hear, hear!

What you get out of a world depends on what you put into it. We have to be careful how we treat the world we live in.

By the way, this video put me in mind of a grimmer version of 'The Sims'!
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

I like the revamp.
The huge fish has a better design - they look more like a real fish, more detailed, and less goofy and less robotic-looking.
Also, the fish's actions look faster, stronger, and more forceful, which makes them seem more threatening. Hopefully that should help add more tension to the prologue!
Having the player character get eaten and then spat out is, of course, a good touch - it adds more excitement, and, like the post said, it should help set the tone of a place which is dangerous but also kinda quirky.

Everything else is just generally more detailed and nicer to look at - the backgrounds, the effects, the character's little thought-bubble, and so on.

It's also good that the player character stands still as the title appears. First, that makes it look like the character is so shocked by what they've just been through that, for a minute, they can only stand there. That helps to express the feel of this sequence. Secondly, since the character is standing still, they're less likely to distract the player's attention from the title appearing on the screen.
(Of course, the character could just have been standing still because the player wasn't moving them at the time... well, either way, it works!)

Oh. Okay!

This is a Visual Novel about Periwinkle, isn't it?

Congratulations! Good to see money being given to people who will put it to good use.

"Pastille, are you thinking about cute witch boys again? I'm not paying you to stand around and pine!" 

Nice picture! Pretty good use of shadows and shading.

Good on you for giving this warning. People need to see it.

I burst out laughing when he was introduced! (I mean, I just find the word 'himbo' kinda funny all by itself, anyway)

I don't know if it's really fair to call Nami's protagonists "too perfect". I don't think characters have to be nasty or selfish to be realistic - not everyone is like that.

I understand that conflict is what causes drama in stories and makes the stories interesting, and having flaws in charcters can help create conflict. However, a character can still be flawed without being selfish or nasty. For example, quite a bit of conflict is caused in 'Starry Flowers' by Periwinkle being confused by new feelings and experiences that he doesn't know how to deal with - his inexperience, and his inability to recognise his feelings and face up to them, are flaws in his character. And this depth is given to him without needing to give him negative qualities. Plus, as another example, we have Pastille unsure of what to do because of how others perceive him. This depth and conflict to his character, and his story, comes about from outside forces, and not from making him nastier or stupider or anything like that - because Nami doesn't need to do that!

I personally like to read about charcters who are decent, good people, but who nevertheless have interesting lives, and get into interesting conflicts and have to find ways to overcome them. I think a character can have depth and be a decent person at the same time.

Nami, you've done it again!
This game was a joy to play through.

Periwinkle is a very fun main character to follow - he's confident and exuburent without being arrogant or insensitive, so I was never annoyed by him, and really wanted to keep reading about him and to find out what happened to him.
Plus, it's always wonderful to see characters like him who fearlessly and proudly live in a way that makes them happy, rejecting oppressive gender roles.

It was also wonderful to see Pastille again. After reading about him in your game 'Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet', it felt really rewarding to go much deeper into his personality, to see sides of him we hadn't seen before, and to develop him much more.

All the other characters were very engaging and fun, too - so many varied personalities, but all interesting and all helping to make the game's story and world feel richer and more interesting.

I kept playing this game all the way through to the end in one sitting, because I was so entranced by the story. It's a fairly simple romance story, when you think about it, but you wrote it so well, with so much emotion, so much humour, so many skillful changes in mood, and with such a beautiful, heart-warming tone.
I felt like I had just got out of a warm, refreshing bath after finishing this story!

Plus, it's nice to see you getting bolder in the writing of sexual scenes! Your games have often had a sexy, suggestive edge to them, but this one got downright steamy at parts! It was very enjoyable.

What I particularly enjoyed about this story was its length. I know you've said in the past that people have expressed disappointment that some of your games don't go on for long enough, that they want to spend more time in the worlds that you've created. Well, it seems like you've really taken those comments to heart, because this game is a lovely long length! Several chapters long! It really felt like we were going deep into the story, deep into the characters, deep into relationships, and it made the whole experience feel so much more substantial and satisfying!
I understand that it's harder to come up with a nice long story without letting it drag or get boring, especially when you're making your games mostly by yourself, so I am very grateful that you put in the effort to do that here! Thank you.

I also really liked the music. It was gentle, sweet and warm - it really helped set the story's tone. Having it done in that old fashioned, '16-bit' sort of style (or however you'd describe it!) was very nice to me - it helped give a simple, comfy feel, and it reminded me of the music from old games I played as a kid (games like 'Simon the Sorcerer', for example).
You also made skillful use of silence, too. Periods of silence can be a useful tool in helping to set moods in visual novels, and you used them well.
And, of course, how could I forget the ending song? Thank you to Jake Bellissimo, he did a good job! That was something new that I don't think I've ever seen in one of your games before!

The illustrations are very good, too. Your pictures of the characters are adorable, as always - simple, but very expressive and skillfully done - especially in the more detailed scenes that pop up from time to time.
The backgrounds look lovely, too. Some might object that they look too simple and could be more detailed, but I think that the way they are fits the warm tone of this game better. The backgrounds might get distracting, cluttered, and not as warm and friendly, if they were more detailed.

So, again, well done on this game and thank you for making it! I'd never read anything about Periwinkle or his life before this, but you made me care enough about him to make me play through hours of story, all through to the end, in just one sitting!

Good work on this!
This is a nice, gentle, good-natured game, and I like a bit of that. It's nice to see two people opening up to each other, helping each other out and becoming friends - very sweet. This was a nice introduction to Emily and Linnea, and it'll be good to see where the story and their relationship goes.

The music is good, too. Calming and relaxing. It does a good job at helping to tell the story and get across different emotions.

The pictures are a bit too simple for my taste, but to each their own, and maybe that's something you could work on?
I also noticed a couple of typos in the characters' speech. Watch out for those!

Anyway, well done on making this game, I had a nice little time playing it, and keep doing well in your future projects!

This is what I wrote in my rating for this game!

Sorry, I'm new to itch.io and I'm still not sure how everything works, so, I just thought I'd copy my review here to make sure that people see it.

I'm very glad that this game is being continued, because what I've seen so far looks wonderful!

It has so many things in it that I like:

• An excellent, interesting theme - the idea of going back in time to save humanity from destroying itself is fascinating and positive. It really motivates you to play the game, because you're striving towards such a good and important goal.
• An attractive visual style - I like the simple but expressive pixel art.
• A great sci-fi setting - I love sci-fi, and the idea of travelling through a strange void between time is strange and exciting.
• Support for good political ideas - The game is about saving humanity from war and destruction, which shows a good and healthy social conscience and concern. Plus, it shows good, positive support for different gender identities.
• Interesting characters - I've only seen 4 characters so far, but I already want to spend more time with them! They're varied and all interesting in their own ways.
• Humour and lightness - despite the grimness of the setting and the themes, there's still funny parts and the characters still show enthusiasm, determination and a sense of fun. This makes the game a lot more enjoyable, and helps give a sense that the characters are doing something positive, striving towards a worthy goal. (I particularly liked Pawse and their joking around!)
• Simple controls.

I only have a few problems with the game:

• When in the void, the arrows point in diagonal directions - this makes it a bit confusing which button I'm supposed to press. The 'up' arrow points up, but it also points to the right - should I press 'up' or 'right'? The 'down' arrow points down, but it also points to the left - should I press 'down' or 'left'? Maybe the void squares should be tilted around, so that the directions are more clearly up, down, left and right.
• When people are talking, it would be nice if there was a way to speed up the text that appears on the screen, or to just have all the text appear in one go. Still, I understand that this is a game that was published for free, and seems to be more of a taster of a larger game to come, so I understand if not everything convenient could be put in.

All in all, I really hope that this game gets continued. There is so much potential here, and I would gladly pay money to play VO1D D1V3R5 with a much longer, much deeper story, more void to play around in, and more fascinating weighty issues to explore.

Best of luck, and thank you for making this!