#under your skin vn

[teyvatairconditioningco]

Y'all I played this last night and I haven't emotionally recovered sweet jesus

*slaps the button because he gets big mad about it*

[hig4nb4na-2]

New video on YouTube ✨

I like the author of this game has included Sebastian from Stardew Valley ♥️✨

[rain-again]

played another visual novel recently that has had me in a grip. here is my MC :3

His name is Roxas and he's definitely not morally grey.

[zoeylectric]

of the devil is one of the best and most exciting mystery VNs i've ever played

with some of the most nuanced, cutting, and consistently charming characterization i've read in !!! anything! sometimes you realize a scene is a character thesis and then it clicks and you realize that *every scene before that* has been that same fucking thesis in disguise and it does it a hundred times, just building building building on itself until you learn the secret language to analyze every line a hundred times over

(and then pushes you into the deep end where you realize your assumptions are so much messier than you realized and you have to start all over, which is also exactly what all of the characters are doing to each other constantly. a game about people reading people, trying to get you to struggle and focus to do the same, and rewards you when you get it right.)

incredibly fascinating cyberpunk worldbuilding that draws you in, with really fucking pointed themes of dehumanization, learning how to be a person (and the alienation that comes from "needing" to), societal trends and politics in the digital age, surveillance states, commercialization of bodies, commercialization of *androids*, corporate vs state power... and casual queerness that doesn't brush under the rug how that queerness intersects with this setting's politics

it's insightful and energizing and funny!!! i laughed out loud multiple times and it kind of got hazy sometimes whether it was out of amusement or excitement or nervousness or the elation of an epiphany

and it made me cry, and made my skin crawl, and made me pace around the room thinking about how this murder could have happened while also rotating the politics of bodies, how all of these characters view power in a world of individual powerlessness, and the intersecting ways they try so hard to connect with people/defend themselves from the responsibility of needing to.

(also there's slowburn cat-and-mouse toxic lesbians who are technically coworkers. the defense attorney and the prosecutor. i could write an entire fucking post on them alone holy shit)

the fact that it's being released episodically is absolutely a good idea as far as funding it and releasing it and works really well as an *episodic* mystery game and also is making me fucking insane there's only two cases, only one of which is a full chapter.

legitimately my only wish point is i *wish* chapter 1 was longer, not because it was too short (good length for what it is imo! especially with how concentratedly *good* it is), but because it's so compelling i could've been locked in for an entire day more and i seriously doubt it could've overstayed its welcome

love love love love it. i'm. i knew it would kind of consume me and i was right. absolutely cannot wait for chapter 2, but since chapter 1 just came out, i guess i'll have to manage, hehehe

[gacha-incels]

regarding character design in gacha games- if you haven’t played many, I will show examples from some popular ones here. This is for reference regarding confusion as to why incels often play these games. This isn’t to cover everything in these games either, there are games with much more absurd designs and I’m not even going to get into the “sexy little girl” designs a lot of them have. In the future I plan to research more and intend to make a concise post regarding the incel relationship with these games. These character designs and tropes exist across societies and are enforced through many types of media - it’s not just gacha games alone perpetuating them. I think they are however hypervisual in this specific genre mostly due to the huge amounts of money being spent by players in “purchasing” them. again this is just for reference, if you already are familiar with female character gacha design feel free to skip this. I’ll put it under a cut.

gacha games are infamous for typically having extremely sexualized female characters who will usually flatter the assumed male player. Again there are some that designers and writers will dress more chaste or have them give the player shit, but by “winning” these characters they are now “yours” anyway, they are not real women and therefore can’t walk away. I believe a big part of this appeal is due to incel men wanting to control a woman designed for an audience of people like him. The hypersexualization serves both to flatter his idea of a woman’s true place (his consumption) and to create a very rigid and obvious differentiation between men and women during a time when women are fighting tooth and nail for their dignity and equal rights.

Nostalgia and rigid character design dichotomy can be seen in the extremely popular gacha game Fate/Grand Order, I believe a good piece of its success can be attributed to this. There are thousands of Japanese gacha games that take already popular anime franchises and create a money pit gacha with them, it’s been happening for over a decade now. These games usually make bank taking already popular characters and giving them hypersexualized alts and costumes. FGO is an interesting phenomenon to me because it seems like for a lot of fans, the Fate franchise’s cultural touchstone is now this actual gacha game. The game adds popular existing Fate characters of course, so you can see how different the gacha character designs are from the VN/animes:

When you can only watch them/read their stories, the characters are dressed like the above examples. When they are added to the game and you can buy and own them, they look like the bottom examples.

The (rare) depiction of darker skinned female characters in these gacha games is pretty uniform across the board- they are somehow, consistently, sexualized even more than the other female characters, they are often exoticized and sometimes have a “wild” or rebellious looking aspect incorporated. I would consider this something the intended audience expects to see, regardless of the truth, and the gacha game reflects this back to their customers, therefore enshrining this damaging stereotype to its audience. These examples don’t account for everything of course.

As to not offend the delicate male viewer, these games also typically design furry/animal characters by having the female retain the most human-like features (like a small and delicate face) while the male is allowed to actually look like the animal. When a female character has armor that conceals her sex, there is of course a version of her you can “upgrade” where she takes off her armor to reveal a very delicate girl in revealing clothing.

Typically, the consumer will see powerful, sturdy looking male designs that attempt to not alienate the straight male viewer first before adding “sexy” elements. In contrast, female characters are almost always very thin (often with exaggerated tits and ass) and her pose is chosen to show off her body first, before her power. This is an Arknights dual banner that displays this design philosophy well:

some of the biggest incel shitfits come from male designs they see as being sexualized and objectified as the typical female design. these are 3 characters Korean incels have lost their minds over:

In their world, the rigid sex dichotomy is breaking down and the hierarchal system of gender where men are on top is being threatened. they don’t feel powerful seeing lithe and skimpily dressed men, and they aren’t the hentai “femboy” fetish these guys seem ok with either. incels see these games as their playground. when designs like these are included, they see it as their job to rectify this. Lyney’s costume and demeanor is too “sexy” and “gay” for Korean incels, they mass dislike his character trailer and write hateful comments across SNS. Sinclair is shirtless and wearing a collar - Korean incels are furious he’s wearing less than the female summer character and see the collar as meaning he’s a “slave” for the female customer. This snowballs into them targeting a female artist on staff, Vellmori, and getting her fired even though it was a male artist who illustrated the cards. I’ve posted Korean incels comments on the Honkai Star Rail character- similar to Lyney, they are angry he looks “slutty” and/or “gay” since he has a boob window and detached sleeves. This is too similar to how the female characters are made “sexy” and it means women have prominent roles creating for these games, something incels of course hate. Regarding the role women should have in creating these games, a Korean incel wrote (after seeing photos that include many female staff members at Mihoyo) that they should just be there working at the cafe to serve coffee to male employees and look pretty for them.

In regards to how some of these games are marketed, we can again look to the article written by a Korean woman who was a victim of feminist ideological verification.

character designs for NIKKE and Destiny Child:

what the gameplay for NIKKE looks like:

[memymay]

Mychael ~ Mushroom Oasis Oneshot

Chronically online reader pt.1

Who also has a worryingly short attention span

Fluff ~ GN Reader ~ No TWs

Reader Insert Master list ⭐️

!!NOTE!! This is not entirely accurate to the VN, usually i refer back to it making sure that i got everything correct, i did not do that for this one. I pulled the details from memory. If something’s wrong please leave a comment.

“Ok, I’ve got my phone, portable charger, and just in case i get lost, a solar charger…” you list off, looking at the many items spread across your bed. “My laptop and a charger, the forest might be a nice place to get work done. Peaceful too. Headphones, earbuds, extra charger…” you pause, thinking for a moment. you shouldn’t be out for too long, at most, you should be back by sunset. But you were hoping that once you found your precious furry little mischievous cat you could sit and get some work done, or maybe watch some anime. It was a rarity that you went outside anymore let alone adventuring through the woods. Why not take advantage of it?

“Oh yeah! Water and stacks, i should grab those too. And maybe some cat treats~” humming to yourself you walked to the kitchen, searching through your cabinets. “Maybe I should bring some soda too…” you muttered, reaching for your drinks. Walking back to your bedroom you start stuffing your backpack, ready for this journey. Stepping outside, the sun hit your face, blinding you. Squinting while your eyes adjusted you looked around. “Curse you evil day star, why do you gotta be so damn bright?” You muttered under your breath as you started walking into the forest. The shade of the trees eased the suns assault on your eyes, but it was still to bright for your liking.

after a while of walking, you came across a small patch of mushrooms. You stopped for a moment to look around. (And to rest a bit, all that stuff you packed is really heavy) there was something laying near the mushroom patch. Gasping as you reached down to pick up a collar “you must be close… just wait a little longer…” you muttered to the collar. As you stood back up, but your foot slipped causing you to crash back down and into the mushrooms. They sprayed you with what you assumed to be a foul smelling pollen. “Nooooo!” You wined, looking at your clothes. “I really liked this hoodie, it’s going to take forever to get all the allergens out. Eugh! And the smell…”

As you sat there, a sense of calm started to seep in. Along with the need to take a nap. Your eyes grew heavy, and your limbs relaxed. Closing your eyes, you decided to go ahead and take a nap. Laying down, you rested your head on your backpack. As you started to drift off, you thought that maybe your cat will back track and find you here. it would be a nice surprise to wake up with them back in your arms, snuggled up all cozy. Yeah, that would be nice.

.

.

.

“Ughhhh” you mentally groaned as you slowly woke up, begrudgingly you opening your eyes and noted that you were in an unfamiliar cabin. You couldn’t move your body causing you to spur into a panic. Where am I? Why can’t I move? Wait what happened? Was I drugged?! I think i was taking a nap, yeah, how long was I out?

“Oh, You’re awake.” A voice called from a corner of the room I couldn’t see.

“Here, medicine.” He said, moving me to sit up as he pressed a cup to my lips. Drinking it helped feeling slowly return to my body. As I wiggles my fingers and toes I watched him whip a stray stream from my chin. He had this weird mossy skin color… Was he a cosplayer? He looked kinda cute. His blonde hair hung over his eyes, and he had a cute mushroom hat on.

“Felling better? Anymore numbness?”

“No, my fingertips are a bit tingly, but that’s it.”

He signed and gave me a warm smile, “Good, I was worried.”

“By the wayyyyy” you dragged out, as you sat up “Where’s my bag?”

“Oh, right over there.” He gestured over to the fireplace where your bag sat next to the wall. “Here.” He said, standing up to hand you the bag.

Struggling, still loopy from whatever the hell paralyzed you, you scramble checking your bag. “Laptop, phone, charger, yep, yes, andddd everything’s still here!” You mumble to yourself. All the expensive electronics are not stolen, but also still in working conditions. Or at least you assume, both your phone and iPad are dead, the laptop is at 1%.

“Did you drop something?” The man asks,

“Thankfully not. A lotta expinsive stuff in here.” You look around, taking in the wooden walls and floors, “where am I anyway?”

“My cabin, I found you passed out while forgoing. Sorry, there was nowhere else nearby” he trails off, looking out the window.

“how far is the nearest town?”

He looks off to the side, a guilty look on his face, “I don’t know for certain, but it takes about a day and a half to safely get to the nearest-“

“A DAY AND A HALF!?” You almost shriek, he covers his ear, slightly flinching at the volume. “If you want to avoid the dangerous plants and animals, yes.” He responds, stepping closer and sitting next to you on the edge of the bed. He reached a hand out, wanting to comfort you, but decided against it.

You sat back, closing your eyes and thinking. ‘maybe I could stay here for a day or two? Then I could head back. Yeah, that should be enough time to mentally prepare myself. Then-‘

“Wait why was I even out here?” Instinctively you reached for your phone, wanting to check your notes. But remembering its dead, you pivoted to pretend you were going to clean the nonexistent dirt off the screen.

“WAIT!” Halfway through the action you remember, “My cat!” You wine.

“Have you seen them, they’re this big, and- and- ughhh I need to charge my phone i have pictures.” You rush to grab your charger. “I never thought I’d need this” you say pulling out the solar charger. “I’m glad it wasn’t just wasted money.”

Stumbling past him you set the charger on the nearby window and wait.

A few awkward moments pass by before your phone lights up. You hurriedly type in your passcode and go to your photos, the boy watching curiously over your shoulder.

“See! Aren’t they just the just the cutest! Look here are some kitten pictures!”

Watching you talk so passionately about your cat pulled at Mychael’s heart. He wasn’t going to tell you before, but now he definitely doesn’t want to tell you. You looked so happy, he enjoyed watching the way your eyes light up, and the way you smiled at the memories.

“Oh, I really got off track… but have you seen them?”

“No, I’m sorry, I haven’t.” He frowned.

“Oh…” your face fell, and he really didn’t like seeing you sad.

“Wait, I haven’t even told you my name! Sorry I get distracted a lot.” You said turning to look at him.

“I’m y/n”

“I’m Mychael”

Notes~

This is a lot longer than I expected it to be TvT. Originally I was gonna post tkatb or 14 days with you. However there’s like, barely any Mychael content out there (I read through it all in one sitting…) so I wanted to add a bit more there.

[ourloveiselectrifying]

Hello hello! It's me DFP

I'm wondering where you learned/are you learning to Code? I find the structure of your game quite entertaining and I like to take a little inspiration from it (If I'm allowed)

And I tried to make images that are options but apparently I'm still a long way from leaving the beta of my projects So I wanted to seek advice from you

(Also, if this is not the correct account to ask this I apologize, but if you have some very good advice that can help me please feel free to go to my DMs)

Hello DFP! :3 (I'm not exactly sure what you mean by structure sorry, but probably yes haha) 

I didn't learn coding. In fact, the scariest part of my game is the code itself! I would like to take classes in art and coding someday! It's just not a great time in my country to be spending money atm ahahahaha- (cries in national housing and inflation crisis)

If you're using Renpy to make a VN, smart people would recommend giving the Renpy and Python's offcal guides a good look and watching Renpy tutorials on youtube.

For me, I'm the kinda person that only takes in information by dissecting and breaking things, then learning from the mistakes. I looked at the front page of the Python pdf, and it made my ADHD repossess my body despite being on the max dose of ritalin. I immediately closed it then skimmed through the Renpy quickstart, not really taking in any of the information, jumped right into designing the main menu, minced up the code, caught a bunch of errors, and had to check out fourms for fixes.

Have some random tips that may or may not be helpful since I don't know your skill level and I, am infact, not skilled in Renpy, I have no idea what I'm doing half the time! :3

Make new files for everything, don't just put it all in the script or it's going to get ridiculous.

Scripts get LONG use # and add notes, so you can CTRL + F and find stuff easily.

If you're like me, check out renpy's reddit/lemma soft fourms, if you're not getting good goog search results, it might be the words you're using, I had this issue a lot, try changing up words in your question (options/preferences/choices/decisions)

When you're learning copy and paste the code/answer, once you know the the code and can type it out fast, then starting manually typing it out.

Always check the dates on posts, there's a bunch of old renpy guides/fourms that don't work anymore.

There is more than one way to skin a dingo (sorry kevin), if you've found a fix that seems ridiculous but it's working, keep it!

If you have anger problems prepare to get fuckin' pissed off! Before you start coding have a coffee/bottle of water/energy drink beside you, so you have to walk away to take angry piss breaks and can clear your head.

If you absolutely cannot figure something out, make a copy, put it aside and work on something else until you're a little more skilled.

I have three copies of olie, the one that works, the one that I'm experimenting on, and the one on a USB I copy when I get drunk and forget which is my "fuck around" code and which is my "don't touch it, it works" code and I annihilate my game. Make regular backups to your USB for any emergencies, houses burn down. Limit your drinking while coding.

Compare code to the game base if you're coming up with errors. Goog the exact error that pops up when the game crashes. (renpy expected statement)

Click the blue text and it'll take you to it. Sometimes it's not very accurate and you need to look a little above or below the line the error happened. 70% of the time your error is a missing space or "," or an extra space!

I also recommend checking out all the shortcuts on your code editing software (I'm using visual studio code!) I was manually adding indents to each line, which was wasting an insane amount of time LMAO ;w; 

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by images that are options, but I'm guessing an imagebutton? If you search "renpy imagebutton" there's a few forums and tutorials that will guide you but it's like this.

You need a screen for your buttons, an image, if you're feeling funky add transforms to the button, else just use a different image for idle/hover!

Add the anchor before you do xpos/ypos because it messes around with the positions and you'll have to re-adjust the xpos/ypos again. You need anchor for the transitions to work properly.

If you want the button to make a sound on click add activate_sound or remove it if you don't want one, it's optional.

This is how you make the transform, you can do a TON of different transforms. This is a simple idle/hover transform. ease is the animation type/speed, alpha is transparency, 1.0 is fully visible, 0.0 is transparent, at 0.5 on idle, it has a dimmed effect. the zoom makes it bigger. Make a new file for this one!

Buttons have a TON of actions to choose from, this is a time I actually would checkout renpy's offical guides. This one does the same as a jump at the end of a label or choice.

If you want your game to not pause when your buttons are visible, just use "show screen nameofthescreenhere zorder 20" (zorder is the layers, 20 is like usually the top, you can go higher though)

If you want your game to pause while the screen is up, use call screen instead of show!

I probably won't do too many of these coding/renpy support things on my tumblr but, OLIE'S discord server has a few game dev channels for coding support if you'd want to join there! :3

I wish you well and goodluck on your game!!! 💖🫡🍀

[ukagakadreamteam]

Etc. Jam 2023 has finished up in our Discord server, and here are the results! We had a really great turnout, with 27 entries by 11 participants.

6 of those entries were completed within the first 24 hours of the event, and 6 of our participants took on the variety challenge, where they made at least two submissions of different types (e.g. a balloon and a calendar skin)!

A lot of folks tried out making things they'd never made before, and several of the entries were made specifically for the benefit of other aspiring developers! So if you're interested in becoming a ghost developer, be sure to check out the new offerings!

Without further ado, please check under the cut for the entries from this event! You can also read more about the event on it's page of our wiki.

Balloons

Bob, by FrankT:

[Download]

Pixeloon, by StrangelyKai and Galla:

[Download]

Sky Balloon, by OdieDogXP:

[Download]

Terminal Balloon, by Vita:

[Download]

VN Style, by Idk:

[Download]

Wedges Balloon Pack, by Galla and Zichqec:

[Download]

Shells (for existing ghosts)

Cavatappi, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Conchiglie, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Correctly Drawn Flamingo, for If I Can't Have Shrimp No One Can, by Galla:

[Download]

Farfalle, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Flele Template, for FLELE, by Idk:

[Download]

Macaroni, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Needy, for Needle, by Idk:

[Download]

Penne, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Rotini, for Noodle, by Zichqec:

[Download]

Freeshells

Computer Bug, by Vita:

[Download]

Hammock Buddies (DEMO), by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

kittypunk, by SmokyCinnamonRoll:

(This one is only available for download in our Discord server!)

Strawberry Shortcake, by Aegisghosts:

[Download]

Calendar skins

Catlendar, by Zdzisiu:

[Download]

Eyeball Tracker, by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

Irken Doom English, by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

Irken Doom Irken, by WhatAPhantasia:

[Download]

MLP Calendar, by OdieDogXP:

[Download]

Terminal Calendar, by Vita:

[Download]

Wedges Calendar Skin Pack, by Galla and Zichqec:

[Download]

Guides

Notepad++ tips to improve your ghost dev experience, by Zichqec:

[Read]

[cygnus-art]

Me? making a VN mockup instead of actually working on the story for these characters??? pshh don't pull my leg! [Alt. ID under read-more]

ALT ID:

Three mockup artworks of a visual novel-style main menu.

The first image contains shoulder up images of two characters, Dagavur - a tiefling with grey skin and white hair, wearing a simple off white shirt, who has a neutral expression, and Thialla - an elf with brown skin, gold eyes, a yellow mark on her forehead, purple hair and wearing a white blouse. She is smiling

The text written in front of the two characters says: When Sparks Fly! A Drachenstein visual novel". There is a little heart instead of a dot on the exclamation mark.

The second image is a character selection menu with Dagavur highlighted, and to his left, is a text box that says:

"Dagavur, he/him

A talented mechanic from the realm of Kur, wanting to expand his horizons.

Dagavur is a reserved man, preferring the company of his tinkering projects over people, but he really needs this job.

Minigame mode:

None | Easy | Normal | Hard | Prodigy!

Sexual Content:

None | Implied | Explicit"

The third image is the same character menu, this time with Thialla highlighted, and to her right, is a text box that says:

"Thialla, she/her

Renowned charioteer and the second daughter of the Luthinil family.

Her headstrong attitude has won her plenty of races, but she has little time for incompetence...

Minigame mode:

None | Easy | Normal | Hard | Prodigy!

Sexual Content:

None | Implied | Explicit"

Both the second and third images have the text: "Choose your character! This will determine which perspective you see the story from."

[END ALT ID]

[legitimatesatanspawn]

Being airdropped into a game with zero real info about the party is confusing and kind of funny.

Also game insisted I name the MC but had a character limit so Joker is Morganna Hiiro Kousuke Horiuchi (幸佑 堀内).

Impressions of Party under the cut.

Joker: Soft baby MC. Like damn son your hair is super feathery. You're Bishie and Baby aren't you? As MC he's the Player-Insert character so probably Super Skilled... but as this is a trpg rather than a jrpg he's probably nerfed. (Metaworld Costume: Sick.)

Morgana: Insists he's not a cat. Looks like a cat, wants milk like a cat. ... Pretty sure he's a bus in one of the random pics I've seen of the main game? Sounds like a kid though. Fingers crossed on him not evolving like Teddy. Also only dude who still looks like mainline artwork so that's funny. (Metaworld Self: I want to punt it.)

Ryujii: COMPLETE dipshit. The party's Idiot Best Friend and supremely deep in the closet about MC yet will undoubtedly be the ride or die friend. Kinda looks like a monkey with the way his totally dyed hair is cut. (Metaworld Costume: weirdly edgy, probably into punk/rock, definitely quick to throw hands.)

Futaba: DEFINITELY the gamer girl. DEFINITELY the hacker of the group. Also without doubt the character who constantly drops metajokes about JRPGs, VNs, and in this one TRPGs; I'll probably will get tired of making those cracks fast. Feels like a late-game character. If she doesn't whip out conspiracy theories on people and go ham with Ars Goetia and Lovecraft Mythos references I'll be disappointed. (Metaverse Costume: Skater superhero with bugeyed goggles. Feels like a Control/Ranged character.)

Ann: Private School Girl who is definitely a delinquent who skips class to hang out at the mall. Hair has Anime American vibes so probably half-American and maybe bullied about it. (Metaworld Costume: RED-SKINNED DC CATWOMAN. Sexy cat thief!)

Haru: Sweet Girl Next Door vibes. Hair has kinda vaguely princess vibes so might be rich? If she has the giant bfs weapons I'm gonna laugh myself sick and then cry. (Metaverse Costume: Three Musketeers / Shotgun toting Fencer. Honey, why are you wearing a cowboy/musketeers outfit? At least you're having fun.)

Yusuke: Catholic School sheltered af smort boy with a SHOCKINGLY deep voice. Sounds a little pretentious. Dude looks like a twink and... uh... I'm pretty sure he designed a thong as a bathing suit from one of his lines in the opening scene? Probably deeper in the closet than Ryu. (Metaworld Costume: Kabuki Fox... Ninja? Dude's a trickster ain't he? Or maybe religious; bet he likes inarizushi.)

Makoto: Pretty, smart... quiet though. Like actually quiet compared to the rest of the party in the opening sequence. Probably just happy to be there with people. Might have no friends. (Metaworld Costume: Reminds me of Justimon and Beelzebumon so might be intended as a Kamen Rider type of Hero costume rather than an outright Thief-type? Okay so that's two people with a not-thief outfit.)

[dreamtydraw]

Hi!

Where do you get ideas for your vn and characters?

What is your favorite and least favorite part of working on a vn?

Well that a complex questions simply because I don't have one specific example. Clem used to be an old mc for the game black tarot who got canceled ( same for Aurore that I used both as a black tarot AND roadkill mc ). It's just that Sometimes I like my mc so much I develop them a lot and they end up having enough contents to have their own focused story.

Why did Clem and Aurore got a game out of all the other characters is due to the fact that currently all my games revolve around one main story ( the paranormal club ) and Clem was a liked side character.

This is a bit similar to Achik who is a main character of the Paranormal club story. It just happens that I saw that there would be a queer vampire jam soon and I was like "Hey queer vampire, I could use that as an excuse to give Achik a little focus".

Before being visual novel characters they are my oc but that not the case with the apple bag trio or Alioth ( who's game is coming out soon ).

Tulipe and 21 questions are an adaptation of an oc story in the form of a visual novel. Sleeping under spells and apple bags are Visual novels from the start, I created this stories for visual novels and everything is created with the optic of the stories being made for a public. The characters are made for you the player, not me the creator.

Now on how I create those characters, I start with design and general ideas of what I want to happens to them + their personality. The first character I created in Apple bag was Aissata and her design + story is a result of hearing from fem black player / creators of romance about the lack of romanceable black girls in general but also the fact that dark skinned poc are facing an issue of always being seen as more masculine just because of their skin color.

Second created was Rowan and I had to rework small design choices on her that meant a lot for the narrative ( without spoiling why, the designs change was about her eyes and hair ). Character wise I wanted her to be the opposite of Aissata to offer two very diferent options of love interest since the two of them are the more involved in the mystery part of the storie + are fem presenting.

Leila ? Their design is currently being reworked simply because they lack of character in my opinion, their character design is a bit too bland and I'm changing that. First intention was to offer an afab non binary love interest since I have seen very little of those on all the majority of games I played and by doing so decided to offer a portrayal of non binary that leads in being comfortable in neutrality.

Alioth ? Literally doodled him one night and went "hey I like his design It would be cool to make a game about him" and then boom decided to make a game about him.... That it.

NOW-

This asks is getting long sorry about that but about my favorite and least favorite part of making visual novels :

-Designing and drawing the characters. If you open the files of my games you'll see that for one outfit change the character usualy have like... 60 expressions ? That because I really like having a lot of nuanced expressions and since i'm the artist suffering for it I can allow it to happens.

-Adding cats in my code... If it's a game of mine you'll find cats in the code.

Writting... You would say that kind of unfortunate since that one of the main point of a visual NOVEL- Thing is, I'm not a good writer and I struggle heavily in putting words in what I want to express which I find extremely infuriating. You guys needs to give more credit to the editors as they are the ones who are the reason the text don't sound like dog shit. I have ( not confirmed medically but heavily suggested by professionals ) dyslexia which also results in a LOT of typos in my text and i'll admit I try my best when I write text but I always feel very shameful when typos are found, even worse when I repeat them a lot.

coding Ui.... or coding anything complex. I have a very basic understanding of Renpy and anytime I have to work on something complex I usually end up struggling for a long time and crying on discord to more competent devs ( aka my amazing friends Naarel and Miyuly )

Thank you for the ask and for reading all of that, Hope you'll have a good day.

[rimeiii]

Came back on WHB Tumblr to see the entire fandom up in flames and atp I can't say I'm surprised. The choices PB made always seemed to me as money-hungry. The fact that there wasn't any form of soft pity on launch, then the introduction of Solomon's Seals, paywalling L-grade units under a battlepass that is insanely expensive, now this...

One thing I will ask is how big is the size of WHB now? It was ~ 1.8 GB on launch iirc and that seemed fairly reasonable to me. Arknights on launch was around that size (if not more) and the gameplay is similar and, dare I say, much more nuanced and engaging. Tower defense with chibis, 2D art, a large variety of maps and stage mechanics, some L2D animations (and even then on launch it was just Closure, the shopkeep), longer and more varied voicelines, and a complex story detailed in VN cutscene segments that rival novels in length.

(More below cut because dear god I rambled way too much, sorry OP-)

No, seriously. This is Arknights's gameplay within the roguelike modes alone.

And while the story segments are unvoiced, they're in a visual novel style, complete with the occasional CG and animated cutscenes (though usually in celebration events and the climax of a main story arc).

The current size of Arknights on a fresh account is ~5 GB (if only downloading JP voices; many Operators also have voice dubbing in EN, KR, CN, and/or traditional CN - which bumps up total size to ~6 GB), and if you don't reinstall to clear unused event data the storage does get more bloated (my Global acc is ~9 GB with all language dubbing for context, and Arknights has been in my current phone for ~2 years). Keep in mind Arknights is 4 years old in EN/JP/KR, 5 in CN.

Back to the main topic, however...

I keep on saying this but it bears repetition: PB's decisions are growing to be very anti-consumer, and unfortunately this is a trend among a lot of KR devs. Devsisters, the people behind Cookie Run Kingdom, have also come under fire recently for basically adding a new rarity. There is only one (1) gacha from KR devs in recent memory that is F2P-friendly, that being Limbus Company - and even then Project Moon initially didn't plan for Limbus Company to be a gacha. And let's face it, the main reason why people WANT to spend on CN games is because the CN games you're likely thinking about are well-crafted experiences, and to be frank, WHB just can't compare. To note:

Love and Deepspace? A genuinely interesting concept as an otome that has action gameplay, paired with really great graphics.

Arknights? Probably one of, if not the best tower defense gacha game in the market atm, with solid gameplay and a complex overarching plot.

Genshin Impact? A stunning open world RPG, with simple yet very polished gameplay - one that serves as many people's first gacha.

Wuthering Waves? Take open world RPG and elements of Punishing: Gray Raven's stylish, fast-paced, dodge-based combat, and you have this gem.

Tears of Themis? An otome with four well-written male leads, an equally compelling MC in Rosa, and an interesting plot.

And please don't confuse "the existence of limited banners" with "being paywalled". There's a key distinction in that you can STILL grab characters in the limited banners of most gachas for free as long as you saved up for them, because you can use your free premium currency to pull on them. I'm an F2P who managed to hard pity Jiyan in Wuthering Waves, but as an F2P I stand no chance in getting the paywalled units in WHB.

If anything, any game that focuses more on gameplay and has playable units locked behind a paywall WILL earn the ire of people. I can't imagine how many people would riot if a strong character like Skadi the Corrupting Heart, Ling, or Ch'en the Holungday is paywalled...

TO BE CLEAR: I don't mind some content being locked behind paywalls like paid battle pass, so long as they don't directly have a large impact in gameplay. These devs need money after all. Reverse 1999 had character skins, Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis had home screen wallpapers, Love and Deepspace had 4* Lunar Memories that you're likely not going to use because you built Lunar Memories from gacha, Pokémon Unite had Trainer customization items as well as Holowear (skins)...

But having playable characters be stuck behind paywalls is where I draw the line. I already wasn't a fan of the Solomon's Seals gacha - and they're not showing any signs of stopping with that, plus the paywalled units. The Pancake shop changes might just be the hay that breaks the camel's back now.

I really love the angels more on this game just because which I didnt get since I deleted the game before christmas and I dont really have solomon seals to get them lmfao, and gabriel is behind paywall.

I came from obey me, my bias if of course mammon so I need to get mammon in whb too but this game, unlike obey me actually made me love the other characters because of how much personality is there in each of them. (sorry to other obey me fans I don't really like Belphie and asmo but its not like I hate them)

I redownload whb after the chrismas event hoping to get gabriel since I didnt know I had to pay for him but after finding out I gave up on his limited event lol

Actually I got bored in this game. Theres so much farming and leveling to do and the energy thing is just not enough for me.

I love the characters of the game so I stayed in the fandom. The reason for my tumblr was to follow fanfic writers about whb but with their new update they're losing players. Listen, I have artist I follow that draw whb on twitter(example was the michael artist I follow) If this update continues then I Probably completely lose interest in game if those artist stops posting or deleted their account about whb.

I deleted the game yesterday before I find out about this update. (glad I deleted it because wtf)Those pancakes are my life. MF I got gamigin, satan, levi and mammon out of those and it was taken away.

To be honest if this was a chinese game then It might survive the gacha being paywall since chinese players most of the time dont care about money for some reason. But no. From what I see the game is mostly active in global, idk what they're doing but usually global is mostly f2p or doesn't spend as much.

The gacha being paywall could work of this is a openworld game like genshin or wuwa but its not, its a dating nsfw game that acts like a visual novel with gacha. Additionally, the game is like quite a lot in terms of storage?? Like??? Bud have NO REASON being that big.

It might because of the voicelines but like most of data also came with the events they do. Can we add deleting finished events data in game?? Cuz I will not be clearing data and reinstalling the game again.

From perspective of anyone with logic, spending A LOT of money for a gacha game that does not reward the player as much is not worth it.

Blud lets be honest here, the characters is only 2D animated art with voiceline. The battle is annoying and repetitive. The farming for tears is annoying for me. The 18+ room doesn't really express me much.

Spending those money in action figure or merch is much more worth it ngl

To those who's gonna email prettybusy, do talk to them nice and polite. I hope that they could see what's wrong and how is it bad for the game but as long as prettybusy don't listen then.. This game might as well bury itself.

[yandere-islandvn]

Welcome to Yandere Island

This game is made for mature audiences. If you are under the age of 18 you are not permitted to interact with this blog or play this game. That is illegal.

Contains: Mature and dark themes, general descriptions of violence, violence, manipulation, general yandere activities, gore

Age either in bio or messaged to me.

I do check as soon as I see a new follower.

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You woke up to the sound of water crashing on a shore and sand uncomfortably stuck to your skin. As you pushed yourself up and blinked open your bleary eyes, all you could see was the vast ocean in front of you.

Your boat had been struck by a rogue wave while you had been out sailing with a few friends, tossing you overboard. You were never the strongest swimmer, so you were just glad to survive long enough to make it to land. 

You stood, legs shaking as you brushed yourself off, freezing as you heard a shuffle in the bushes behind you. 

You were not alone.

Yandere Island is an 18+ dating sim, where you, the player, wash up on an island with 7 yandere guys and one of them is going to love you, you don't get a choice.

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Currently Includes:

The opening

Pronoun selection

7 Main Love Interests 

Torrin's Route day 1

Markus' Route day 1

Oliver's Route day 1

Nicolas's day 1

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ASK RULES

please, just be a decent human being, and have your age in your bio.

you can ask questions, interact with the characters, present scenarios, pretty much anything is on the table and encouraged!

the right to refuse to answer a question will be used if the topic includes

noncon

pedo

pregnancy

MORE WILL BE ADDED AS NEEDED

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Frequently Asked Questions

NSFW Alphabet

Heights

Dom/Sub/Switch

Pet names

Kisses

Birthdays

5 minute ship (0ld images)

character sheets

Why are they down so bad?

THE FRUIT

Hygiene

Sick MC

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Tags:

any rendition of #yandere island vn , #yandere island, #yandere island jacob, #yandere island markus, #yandere island oliver, #yandere island torrin, #yandere island michael, #yandere island nicolas, #yandere island icarus, #yandere island nsfw, #yandere island smut, #yandere island fanart, #yandere island drabble, #yandere island asks, #yandere island devchat

MORE WILL BE ADDED

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For more information, please check out the itch.io page~

The 18+ Discord for all Undead Bees games!

[h-worksrambles]

Echo and player choice: Horror through powerlessness

I have so many thoughts about how Echo plays with player agency to subvert the expectations of a visual novel and add to its horror.

  When you start Echo you have little reason to see Chase as anything more than a typical player character. He has a defined personality and established ties to the cast and the town so he’s definitely not a blank slate protagonist. But you still get to make plenty of choices in the prologue. And ultimately, in typical dating-simulator fashion, you choose a character’s route to follow. So far it feels like you’re making choices as Chase that affect the story, and part of those choices is, eventually choosing which cute anthro guy (or girl) you’ll romance, and getting one of various endings.   But as you play through the routes things start to get a bit...weird. This start with the choices beginning to get sinister, or cryptic, often signified by a specific musical cue. And as the routes go on, we get more and more hints as to what’s really going on.    TJ’s route demonstrates how little control we the player have over Chase, our supposed player character, and also doubles as a commentary on the nature of player choice and romance in a dating sim. The game expects that you chose this route partly because you find TJ appealing as a character, so as Chase begins to show attraction to TJ, he and the player are essentially on the same page. But TJ doesn’t really reciprocate in any way other than friendship, and any tells that Chase picks up on are entirely innocent as far as TJ is concerned. Then Chase starts getting jealous (to the point of malicious) when Julian shows up, resulting in a ‘confession’ scene that looks like this.   

  Through this, Echo makes a commentary on how the mindset behind a dating sim is...kinda messed up. You use your player character, Chase, as a conduit for your own choices and wish fulfillment. And pursue the romantic interest of the route with single minded determination in a way that is kind of possessive. And you get to witness that as Chase’s behaviour gets more and more uncomfortable, and you relate to him less and less. This is also seen outside the romance in the overarching mystery of the letters from Sydney. Chase comes to his own conclusions about what’s really going on in the scavenger hunt, and intervenes in ways the player has no control over. Eventually he goes out to find the last clue, and replaces it with a different piece of paper, which we don’t see. Our player character is not just acting without us, but also witholding information from us. This culminates in the route’s ending, where Chase becomes a full fledged villain, murdering Flynn, manipulatively co-ercing TJ into keeping the secret. And this is the only outcome, the player’s choices don’t affect this ending. If you thought Chase was just a blank slate protag for your choices and TJ was the romantic ‘goal’, you are throughly proven wrong. Chase is a character, with a mind and goals of his own, and TJ’s lack of agency, and being objectified as a cute innocent love interest to be protected is the tragedy of the entire route. Here, Echo turns the fundamentals of a dating sim VN on their head to tell a horror story, all without ever explicitly breaking the fourth wall.

  Leo and Jenna’s routes throw another spanner in the works by introducing us to the ghost of Samuel Ayers...our actual player character. Yep, the whole time, you were not playing the character you thought you were. You control the ghost of Sam Ayers, a resident of the town who died years ago, and whose ghost has been possessing Chase ever since the day Sydney died. You control Sam, who is controlling Chase. You make decisions as Sam, and Chase follows Sam’s instruction. This changes the player’s understanfing of their control over the narrative. Because the character we’re actually controlling is someone we don’t really know. And it’s a great way to get under the player’s skin. It also allows for an interesting dynamic between Chase and Sam. Near the end of Leo and especially Jenna’s route, Chase starts to recognise Sam’s presence as a voice in his head. This allows for an effect similar to a fourth wall break in other games, such as Kris becoming aware of the player’s control in Deltarune. In fact, both games frame the act of player control as a spectral possession that supresses the protagonists’s own personality. But it does this without explicitly breaking that fourth wall. Which is good, because while fourth wall breaks can work in a horror game, recklessly shattering it can risk dimantling the atmosphere of the game’s world, making this less scary by being too overtly meta. Chase doesn’t become aware of the player, and thus question his free will, but does become aware of Sam. Still, in some ways, this is more comforting than TJ’s route, because it restores the player’s illusion of control. Sure, we’re not playing as who we thought we were, but we’re still in control, right? We make choices as Sam, who will in turn guide Chase to good or bad endings depeding on our outcome. That’s what happens in Carl, Jenna and Leo’s routes. After all, what is a visual novel without choice? It’s the only substantial gameplay element this genre has. We’re still in the driver’s seat...right?

  And then we get to Flynn’s route.

  And even that guarantee is ripped away from us. 

  Over the course of Flynn’s route, Sam starts exerting control to force Chase to make decisions the player may not want. He forces Chase to condemn Flynn before the group, hiding the truth of Chase’s own past actions. Eventually, he stops possessing Chase entirely, and takes control of Flynn instead. We now follow Flynn as the POV character, for the rest of the route. And here, too, Sam starts restricting the choices you can make as a player, directing Flynn to an outcome you are kept in the dark about. This culminates in the scene in the vision of the Smoke Room where Echo plays its final card.

  So you know, Sam, the ghost of a dead townsperson of Echo who has been our player character this whole time? Yeeeaahh...turns out we weren’t really controlling him either. ‘Sam’ is simply an offshoot of the ghostly entity behind all of Echo’s supernatural happpenings. One that creates simulations, echoes, if you will, of those long dead to coerce, control and torment the townspeople for its own ends. We were playing as the true eldritch villain of the game this entire time. Our capacity for any control over the events of the story was a lie. Any say we had over the story has well and truly gone, and we can only watch as Flynn is destroyed by his single minded search for the truth, transformed horrifyingly into the Socket Monster. Much as TJ’s route punishes the player for thinking of Chase as a mere blank slate for their actions, by presenting him as a person with goals of his own, so too Flynn’s route punishes you for underestimating Sam, by proving he is far more powerful than we ever expected.

  Echo’s subversion of player choice is fascinating because it has so many layers. In TJ’s route you slowly realise you’re not in control of the person who you think is your player character, and that he has goals outside of you. So when his actions get progressively more messed up, you can’t stop him. Jenna’s route had you realise you’re controlling someone completely different, and while you can steer things to a good or bad outcome, you watch Chase grapple with the existential nightmare that someone else is making all his decisions, and we the player don’t really know anything about who we’re actually controlling.  And Flynn’s route, pulls the final rug out from under you, as you you realise you’re not even in control of Sam, because he’s in the service of the very entity you’ve watched hurt these characters over and over again, route after route. And we only realise, too late, that he’s led us, and Flynn to an inescapable tragedy.      

   Echo takes the visual novel, a genre where the only real piece of gameplay is the choices you make and makes you question your ability to even make said choices. It frightens you by making you feel progressively more powerless.   And yet, you come back. You all come back eventually. You try again on another route, and another, hoping maybe this time things’ll be different. ...Because just like this town...

You’re only moving in circles.

[timidloner]

me ascending every time you call me ram <3 (it's like a power up i love it, like joren with mc, you're enabling me to ramble more each time)(sorry in advance for the amount ill send) watch me call you lolo for the loner in your username

it was very clear so we appreciate it!! and exactly omfg you get it, there's nothing wrong with being a conventionally attractive white man but personally it's so underwhelming compared to what i sometimes imagined (one time i played a game where i thought the guy had long black hair brooding and sharp looks like babygirl right? but then i saw the pictures and he had short very bland looks i cried.) tiktok goes crazy with THESE especially with the fancasting people do for books, its always the same kind of dudes its tragic (definitely an interesting topic from a sociological perspective but ill stop too lmaoaoa)

moles are so attractive normally but now with your concept too? brain rot i cant believe... is joren's neck sensitive? please i need to know because just MC touching the moles but instead they watch joren's neck turn red and both end up blushing like fools and THE SCARS WOAHHHH????? MC turning his scars into something joren can love by admiring them (tho the angst would be crazy if the MC was to be disgusted but personally my MC could never cause joren is our big meow meow)(im still not over the fact he can purr like can the MC scratch the back of his ears too? i need MOREEEE MONSTER FACTS)

AWWW, I love it!! Lolo is such a cute nickname!!

And I actually went to booktok to study (laugh at) this phenomenon and you're so right!! There's nothing wrong with these dudes, of course, but when the entirety of your male cast looks the same, it just becomes booooooring. They look like brothers!! Add some spice, please!!

Fortunately, that kind of surprise hasn't happened to me, I either never see the characters' portraits (IF) or that's the first thing I do (VN). But I won't go into detail about my feelings here, gotta stay away from controversies now that I'm a game dev (never gets old), haha!!

And yes! I've always loved moles, on someone's wrist, neck, below their eye, or the edge of their mouth... Doesn't matter, they are great.

I'd say both his neck and wrists are sensitive. And I love that idea, but due to his skin tone, his blush isn't really visible! So instead of turning red, we could say that MC is touching him and suddenly his skin heats up under their palm and he starts to sweat a little bit!

And ugh, now I can't help but imagine MC calling Joren their handsome man while tracing his scars...

Like, he doesn't really care if he's considered good-looking or not, but MC calling him that???? He'd melt. Suddenly, he'd understand why everyone is so concerned about beauty, and how good that kind of validation feels. He'd even start putting more effort into his appearance.

And maybe he could start seeing his scars as proof of how brave he's been throughout his life? He could stop being neutral about it, and become proud of them?

On the other hand, if MC finds him disgusting for his scars, it would make him insecure for the first time in a really long time. He'd try to dress in tunics with long sleeves, and always face MC with the "better" side of his face, so they don't have to look at his scar.

And yes!! Of course MC gets to scratch his ears, I'm pouring all of my impossible dreams of cuddling a big cat in those scenes. I'll think of some monster facts for tomorrow!!

[kayleeheartkins]

Has your doctor ever mentioned something called a VNS? It's like a pacemaker but for the vagus nerve.

No, that looks interesting tho! I’m not sure I could have that on my boob under the skin 😲