qkayoostudio

[qkayoostudio]

Welcome, adventurer.

You’ve found the tumblr of QKAYOO STUDIO! I’m a queer artist and solo indie dev, and make games focusing on romance and fantasy/scifi ♡

I’m also available for character commissions, sprite work, CGs, and promo art, including concept art or commercial work. Find my commission info here!

🌠Play my games here!

🌠Patreon

🌠Carrd (commission info + editing work)

🌠Art Tumblr

🌠Bluesky

✦ The Summit Library is a multi-chapter romance/fantasy VN. Find your way in a Library that’s falling apart, an Empire on the brink of war, and a dangerous magical mystery you’ve been tasked to solve. Discover secrets, unravel mysteries, and find love in a magical Library.

✦ A Tavern at Night is a short and sweet game where you find shelter from the rain and strike up conversation with a somewhat terrifying mercenary.

✦ A Tavern at Night: Firelight continues your adventure with Azram — except it’s almost time to go your separate ways. To commemorate your final night together you suggest reading him his fortune, but neither of you are particularly looking forward to saying goodbye…

✦  Travellers Road is a DND-inspired game where you can romance either of your squabbling party members during a quiet job transporting a cart with goods.

[qkayoostudio]

devlog 1? 47?

Hi dear friends,

I hope you've been having a wonderful start of 2025 so far!

I'm. Not sure what to number this devlog as. Devlog 47, B-side...? I'll be taking a good long break from TSL, so this really isn't a followup to previous devlogs... Something to think about!

Anyway--it's time to get back into the swing of things. I've been working on sprite expressions/blinks for Resonance in Orbit and made a list of all the backgrounds I'll need for the demo. I've also been going through the writing I've done so far.

A variety of Ciphers in a bad mood.

Unlike The Summit Library RiO will be a linear story, so no "routes"! though you do of course get to choose who you pursue ♡.

instead there will be lots of variables that depend on your choices. These show up pretty much from the very beginning, so I've been working out the demo's three big scene variations.

Wolf just has to be a freak at any given opportunity🙄

I'm also in the process of getting The Summit Library's full demo on steam! I expect to have it up by next month :)

much love,

qk

[qkayoostudio]

Binnorie is out!

The ballad goes:

There were two sisters sat in a bower;

Binnorie, O Binnorie

There came a knight to be their wooer.

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie   

He courted the eldest with glove and ring,

Binnorie, O Binnorie

But he loved the youngest above all things.

The eldest she was vexed sore,

Binnorie, O Binnorie…

But if it were sung again, would this tale of the psyche and betrayed love end the same? Play this dark ballad's retelling and find out HERE

[qkayoostudio]

the new master of Ramazith has been spending an awful lot of time in his tower lately...

[qkayoostudio]

Hi! For getting your Kickstarter out there, have you considered contacting some of the bigger otome game sites and blogs? Like English Otome Games, Blerdy Otome, or Otome Kitten? Or even posting on the otome game subreddit? I'm not sure what the gender proportion of the love interests in the game are, but those places will definitely all be able to give your Kickstarter a big visibility boost!

Definitely, and thank you for pointing out more of the places I can go! We'll need all the help we can get. Hopefully we'll have more bites than the last reach out. \o/

[qkayoostudio]

Dev Diaries

February 2nd, 2025

Wait...who's that familiar looking boy??

If you're reading this, GO PLAY THE NEW HSD:JY 2 UPDATE!!!

Do it!!! Dooo ittttt!!!

(and then come back in a few weeks for my team's Black VN game jam entry Oh, Boy)

[qkayoostudio]

due to popular demand, Trans Joy Jam 2025 will now run from February 1st-22nd, so for 3 entire weeks!

this is a beginner-friendly jam and we accept any trans & genderqueer games, stories, fiction, etc. they you can submit on itchio 💕 game dev resources linked here in community tab!

sign up:

[qkayoostudio]

stolen moment

[qkayoostudio]

my favorite genre of fictional character is like "i am terrifying to almost everyone, i'm very good at killing, i can endure anything, i've become exceptionally good at playing into my reputation, and if you try to give me positive social interaction i will react with confusion and cower in a corner like an abused animal. and i may try to shoot you. but there is also a chance i may imprint on you like a feral dog receiving its first loving touch! good luck."

[qkayoostudio]

Sooo can you refresh my memory a little? It's been a bit and tbh I can't remember what Mia does or what her role in this story is supposed to be? Is she the MC stand in?

TY~~~~

MC stand-in...?!

Mia is a love interest! She's designed to be a rival trainee.

You can read a summary of the LIs here (though the information may be slightly outdated comparative to the Super Demo) and see anything she's tagged in under ro: mia and ro: everyone.

[qkayoostudio]

Devlog #161

It's been a while huh?! Hi-ho, Wudge here.

Flu season was rough, but I'm finally on the mend.

At long last, here's a GIF of the most recent scene I coded. Our new NPC Nurse Jordan needs to be scaled down a bit, and Mia is supposed to have a helmet to hide ("hide" lmao) her identity... but I'm proud of the elevator animation!!

While I was away from the internet, I did a lot of smaller tasks I'd been putting off:

I downloaded and coded in 8 sound effects - and made some minor custom alterations to a couple of them, such as cutting down the length or adding a bit of bass.

I had the epiphany of using GOOGLE EARTH(/,...street view) to get background references!!! The stock photos were seriously not doing it for me; my latest stand-in bg photos now feel a lot more "real" and closer to what I want Rhineway to look like.

I started coding in at least 5 expressions per day, everyday.

-> Considering the way I was averaging 0 expressions per day, this is a marked improvement! As much as I try to make forward progress on the latest scenes, I do want to split some of my attention to the huge undertaking of coding expressions for all my previous Super Demo scenes.

-> Normally I force myself to take weekends completely off work to avoid burnout, but 5 expressions can be done in like... less than 20 minutes. It feels manageable!

That's about it for now...!

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[qkayoostudio]

sundrop ☀️

[qkayoostudio]

the newest member of the Dekarios clan 💘

[qkayoostudio]

2024 in Review (Indie Games)

2023 | 2022 | 2021

Helloooo gamer friends!!!

I'm so tired.

Lol.

Anyhoo, y'all don't care about that!!! Y'all are here to see what games I played and what the heck I have to say about them! Reminders: I don't bash games I didn't like, and I try to post more in-depth thoughts and reviews and general yapping to Gem's Game Gems.

DEMOS

When Stars Collide - I am by no means a sci-fi girlie. I need a HEAPING dose of fantasy or fantasy elements to help me out. That said, y'all might remember how I went feral for Gilded Shadows, so I am locked in for this journey with WSC. It's just as mysterious and lore intense as GS, but also just as intriguing and engaging!

Love Me, Love Me Not - I looooove when a game charms me to pieces??? Our MC Addie, the introduced LIs, the story, the art??? Where do I begin?? Anyway, please check this one out y'all! I'm impatient for the full game (shocker, I know).

Threads of You: Beyond the Bay - So my thoughts and reactions for this one are on the side blog, but I really enjoyed the demo and I have eyes for Chris, Vince, and Alex hehehe.

Lost in Limbo - While I'd been keeping tabs on this game for what seems forever because of the character art that originally caught my attention, I almost didn't finish the demo because it was lowkey disturbing (I'm a wimp and not all horror is made equal). But!!! BUT!!!! I push through to the end, had a good time, noted that I need to play the full game in the daylight with the music turned down low. And I absolutely adore Ara and Xal so, so much.

A Simple Twist of Fae - Absolutely no one cares, but I read a lot of manga this year. Like, a lot-a lot. Like, ~180 books and 1/3 of that was manga. Anyhoo, When JMB announced she was cooking up this game, I was impatient to get my grubby hands on it. AND THEN I PLAYED IT AND IT WAS THE SHOJO INSPIRED GAME OF MY DREAMS?!?! Like.....I wish I could both have it on my computer and also on my bookshelf. Final build dropping when??? (Also the UI design is utterly delightful, I cry.)

The Summit Library (FULL DEMO) - The last time I reviewed this game, we got chapter 1 as a taste, and I was. Locked! In!! The full demo gives us the first 2 chapters as well as the previews for all the romance routes and while giving everyone a whirl I'm *still* undecided on who to go for in the future, I must mention this: TSL is so aspec friendly???? I do love a game with smut, don't get me wrong looks at College Craze but sometimes I have my moments of being overwhelmed/sliiiiiiightly repulsed and the variety of options you have to choose how you react and interact with the various LIs in this game is amazing. (I have more thoughts on this, so I'll try to remember to post to the sideblog, but please understand that this game is totally worth your attention and time imo!!!)

Fully Released & Played (at least 1 playthrough)

Rabbit Trail - This. Game. Is. SO. Cute. *punches the air* 😭🥹(Copy + paste of my review on the itch.io page -> This was so charming, so fluffy, so cozy, just delightful all around??? I've only reached one ending so far, but René is just the cutest protag to play as, and his interactions as he delivers his mail made me cheese so dang hard! (Also, I wanted to fight his parents for not properly appreciating their kid LOL))

Stuck by Design - I checked this game out because I was looking into games that fellow programmers had worked on, and this cozy game stumbled onto my lap. The music was perfect, the UI is beautiful and clean, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the VA for the LI, Yuki.

Wake Me Up If You Need Me - I called this game older!HSDJY MC x Ryan coded and I'm still right. The voice actor MAKES this game, and the interactions the player has with Reed is so flippin' delightful?? All my love and adoration to the game developer. May they make more beautiful games.

CTRL FREAK - The developer team brought us The Faithfulness of the Universe which is a banger in its own right, and CTRL FREAK is the team's commercial, finished project that I also found delightful. The soundtrack and the animations are chef's kiss 💛

Breathless Winds - Ooo, baby, ooo. So. If there is only one game you play from this list and you have some spare cash to spend (at the time of writing, the game is on sale!!!) please, please, check this one out. It left me absolutely spellbound, both the orginal demo, and then the full game. While I didn't get to blog fully about this one, and I only tackled 2 of the 4 routes, this game is absolutely everything. This is my indie game of the year. Poppy and her journey resonated with me, and between the music and the art, everything just came together so perfectly.

Wake Up Magical Girl - Listen TF up, if miseri creates it, I'm gonna play it, idc, idc. That being said...this game had a kick to it that when I finished my first playthrough, I had to stare off into space and gather myself. It takes the concept of magical girls and heroism and gave me a teeny tiny existential crisis, but other than that, I'm fine, it's fine, play this game, thank you.

Sleeping Under Spells - God, I love me a game where I get to argue with a LI. I love it. Bonus points if it's lowkey stupid stuff we're bickering over LOL!!

Our Wonderland - Yeah, uh huh, you thought you'd escape me talking about this game this year, didn't yah???? Too bad. The fifth and final arc dropped this year and I played it and I cried and felt for the briefest moments that life was okay. To say something different than my review of last year, I love that this seems to be the game that helps fellow ace devs find and flock to each other, I'm not kidding 🤣 so thank you Carrot for helping us fellow aspec peeps feel seen and validated and understood!

I Watched a Full Game Playthrough and Highly Recommend

Replay Boys - Okay so technically at the time of posting, there's still one more video I'm waiting to watch (Naja of BlerdyOtome uploaded her stream to YouTube) but my Godddddd. I've had my eye on this game for FOREVER but I was lowkey waiting for it to move to itch.io (I'm still a lowkey Steam hater 🥹) anyhoo, watching this absolutely wild game made me go ahead and buy a copy for myself to replay at a later time, but it's just great. The summary only scratches this surface of what the game entails 🤣

Gemi’s Gushies

(a list within a list of games that have devs trucking along in the background and I want to spotlight for y’all)

Save the Villainess - Life got away with me and unfortunately I never finished my play of the demo BUT what I have played was fun and I hope to return to this in the new year!

Woman of Xal 2 - Plot Twist Studios is on that Sequel Train with the next installment of WoX!!! Which I'm VERY excited for!!! I've unfortunately only completed one playthrough of this game, but the first game is definitely a masterclass in replayability, and I hope next year I'll be able to do a second playthough as I wait for game 2's Kickstarter!

...

And that's 2024! Any shared favorites?

- Gemini 🫶🏾

[qkayoostudio]

end of year devlog

Wishing you all very merry holidays this season! 💝

Even Wolf got you something to unwrap. Isn't he so thoughtful?

Thank you all so much for the lovely response to The Summit Library's full demo so far ❤️ I'm really glad I was able to release it this year (even if it was a little later than intended).

By the way--if you missed MisterShins' playthrough of Chapter 2 you can find it here on youtube! Just like the first time there's a little interview with me at the end as well :).

While my patreon will be up and running as always I'm going to take a little break from devlogs in January. For my holiday break I'll be playing a ton of Baldur's Gate 3 and picking up crochet as a new hobby ☺️ I hope all of your holidays are restful and lovely as well!

stay warm and see you next year!

much love,

qk

[qkayoostudio]

with you, I forget my goddess

[qkayoostudio]

I just finished the demo and I loved it can't wait for the rest of the game and I know we don't see Darin much but I love him so much!

thank you so much sweet anon!! <3 I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed the demo!

And don't worry, you'll get many more opportunities to spend time with Darin going forward ☺️