#actala-news

[chattercap]

Actala Demo News and Current Roadmap

Hello hello, it's Chattercap! 

If you've been keeping up with me, you'll know I was creating a new Actala demo for Otome Jam. Initially I was going to redo the ENTIRE thing (Chapters 1-6), adding on every love interest's versions of Chapter 4 and 5 (adding on an additional ~40k words of content to bring the entire demo up to 100k words LOL) - but, well, that turned out like this:

In terms of what I got done, I did 12 backgrounds, 10 sprites, and 16 CGs (so...38, not quite 60, but not bad!). Not a bad amount of work for 2 months! You can see some of the ones I posted on socials below + some extras.

 I did finish most of what was needed through Chapter 3 (~2-3 hours of playtime), but I decided that if I pushed through, I wouldn't be able to get the game out in the state that I would want. I ended up redoing a LOT more than what I initially intended; I kept basically none of the original art and most of the original BGM too, and I also updated the script. This basically left no time to polish the coding, fine tune the animations, or to do the "extra CGs" that I wanted. 

Since it's a big project, I don't want to rush it, and I could tell I was getting PRETTY stressed out about getting something out on time (and I also had quite a bit going on in my personal life, as well). In the end I decided to postpone so that I would have time to polish it to the level that I would want. 

Okay, so when are you actually going to update this thing?

Thanks for your interest! I want to take my time with it, so I'll be working on it steadily, at my own pace. I don't have set release dates it for the moment. I'm hoping to release an updated demo that covers through Chapter 4 sometime soon, with an extended demo that covers through Chapter 6/the end of Act 1 after that (where the original demo left off). 

Current Roadmap

Currently, I'll be working on polishing the Actala artwork while I also finish up the Hanasu script. I'll also be working off-and-on on The Perfect Woman, which is a short Pygmalion and Galatea themed project that I'm making for Mythology VN Jam. I've teased a couple of the excerpts already on my Patreon, and I've done a mockup of the main UI as well, which you can see below!

Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who's interested in what I'm up to!

Chattercap

[chattercap]

WOO I got a new Actala logo! (Credit to MikaLogo, they did a fantastic job!)

It's a bit strange "announcing" Actala considering it was my first project, but honestly, besides the script, it's practically a new project at this point, haha (and also I don't think a lot of people know that I'm working on it?) My current project is a complete revamp of the Actala demo, porting it over to Godot with all new art/GUI and a significantly revised script.

For anyone who's not familiar, Actala is a dark fantasy/mystery/romance (otome) visual novel with five male love interests. The story delves a lot into corruption and conspiracy in a magical kingdom rife with political and social turmoil. Details below!

The basic synopsis is:

SYNOPSIS

Shizuka Mitsumori has spent years trying to protect her childhood friend, the Hero, from the perils that assailed him at every turn. At long last, his quest is over. Even during the celebrations, however, new dangers emerge. Dangers more treacherous than monsters. Dangers that threaten the life of the kingdom’s strongest man.

Can the side character save the Hero?

Can you find the happily ever after?

FOR THE TL;DR

"Girl works ass off to save boyfailure childhood friend Hero from all of the things that want to stab him, may or may not kiss other cute guys while trying to save the kingdom from burning"

FEATURES

In terms of features, the game will have 5 love interests, 6 routes, and over 300k words (if I'm being real it's probably going to be 500k at the rate I'm going). Most of the love interests are plays on traditional "fantasy" tropes - you can romance the "Hero," the "Demon Lord," the conniving politician, the court magician, and the pampered nobleman...but, of course, none of them are as simple as they first appear!

There will be romantic/platonic variations for all of the routes, and the true route will have slight variations for each love interest!

CHANGES FROM THE ORIGINAL DEMO

The demo is currently 60k words long and contains the scenes for one love interest, Liam! However, in the revamped demo I plan to include scenes from all of the love interests - it'll probably be over 100k words total? (I'm sorry in advance.)

If you've played the original demo, you'll know that I did it in a "storybook" format, where there were basically no reused images (similar to what I did for Karamu and Kanau). However, that was...unfortunately not sustainable, haha! I changed up my artstyle quite a bit since releasing it, and the new art, while higher quality, takes significantly more time to produce. As a result, I'll be going to a format similar to what I did for TDW and MMM for the Actala demo revamp so that I can actually...get it done...

You can still expect a good amount of unique art in the revamp, though (at least 15 CGs in the demo alone, if I'm counting correctly)! Just not the ungodly amount that I included originally.

CURRENT PLANS

I currently hope to develop the revamped demo for Otome Jam, with a release date of June 30th! However, considering the scope of the project, I'll be evaluating and adjusting the schedule as needed during the process.

Expect to see a lot more updates for this project soon!

[chattercap]

What happens after the "happily ever after?"

The fairy tale is over. The Hero won. But the story is just beginning. Explore the web of intrigue in this emotional, suspenseful visual novel, depicted with hundreds of unique, animated illustrations. Who is the hero, and who is the villain? Who lives, and who dies? Your choices will decide.

Actala: The Hero's Shadow is a fully-animated, mystery/fantasy romance visual novel/otome game/dating sim.

You play as the Hero's childhood friend, who has spent years trying to protect him from the perils that assailed him at every turn. At long last, his quest is over. Even during the celebrations, however, new dangers emerge. Dangers more treacherous than monsters. Dangers that threaten the life of the kingdom’s strongest man.

Can the side character save the Hero?

Can you find the happily ever after?

Anything good about it?

The story is entirely depicted with unique, Live2D-style animated illustrations. Instead of the traditional sprite format, each scene has unique illustrations and comic-book style panels. (The demo has over 140 illustrations, including 45 CGs!)

Five love interests with dramatically different storylines, each with its own twists and turns.

Play as a sassy, older MC! The protagonist is older than most of the LIs, and you're given ample opportunities to tease them and make them blush. (I don't use affection gauges, so choose the fun dialogue options to your heart's content!)

Fragments of the Past: As you play, you get to unlock special scenes that explore the characters' pasts prior to the events of the main story.

Route map: Easily navigate through the story using the route map feature. No need to replay hours of dialogue/obsess over your saves!

A variety of options to make the reading experience easier, including different fonts, font sizes, text speeds, and customizable shortcuts.

Act 1 (Chapters 1-6) contains over 60,000 words (~4 hours of playtime). The full game will be 350,000+ words (20+ hours of playtime).

Where can you play it?

Act 1 is available for Windows now on Steam and itch.io! Mac, iOS, and Android are planned later in development.

I want some more info!

Drop me an ask! Or check out my website.

Also *psst* I'm pretty active over on Twitter. I post little dev tidbits there daily!

[chattercap]

Future Plans for Actala

Sorry for the kind of sporadic updates, I do need to be better about posting here! I post devlogs on my itch page monthly, and I've decided to crosspost the latest one here since it has some important info about Actala's future development! A copy of my latest itch devlog is under the cut!

Hello, happy June!

It's been another month (time really does fly)! 

No Actala updates this time, as I ended up increasing the scope a bit on my Otome Jam project so I had to divert my attention to that (please look forward to some EXCELLENT voice acting)! Karamu will release sometime in the next couple of weeks!

But although I don't have any updates for Actala, I do have a bit of an announcement. As you might know if you played through the demo, I originally planned to illustrate the story 100% with CGs and mini-CGs. This was...unrealistic (as basically anyone with half a brain could have told you, I imagine). 

This was something that became EXTREMELY apparent as I worked on Karamu. I thought I scoped very realistically (a simple scene with 2 characters and only 10k words), and I hoped to finish the game within a month. However, while I finished the script in a week, I've spent almost 2 months on the illustrations. (If I extrapolate that out for Actala, where the current script is 250,000 words...I won't finish the thing for another 4-5 years...)

Part of that is that I've been experimenting with more complex/highly rendered CGs, and taking more care with the color and compositions (you can see a sample below). For Actala, I adopted a more simple coloring style because of the high volume of illustrations, but I was never really happy with them. Rather than putting out a ton of illustrations that I'm not happy with, I'd prefer to put out a smaller number that I'm more satisfied with.

If I'm being honest, I didn't adopt the "CG only" strategy for any deep reason in particular. It was mainly a snap decision based on insecurities with my own art, as I felt like my art couldn't really stand on par with other VNs (so I decided to create value with quantity over quality). However, ultimately I think it's detrimental to the project. The amount of work required for the art just dwarfs everything else, to the point where I put off the other tasks to make a SMALL dent in the art (for instance, I really want to improve the GUI, which looks a bit clunky and not super elegant...) 

So from now on, I will most likely adopt the sprite format for Actala, instead of utilizing exclusively CGs. Those sprites may or may not be animated; I'll try it out and see how I feel about them. You can still expect a lot of CGs from me, but not exclusive! Interestingly, I actually planned to do sprites in the early stages of development, and I finished almost all of them. These are over a year old at this point, so they will be completely redone, though! 

I hope that this isn't disappointing to anyone (it probably isn't; I'm just stubborn as an ox when it comes to my impulse decisions...) But from a projection perspective, it's just 100% impossible to get Actala out on any reasonable timeline with the approach that I was taking. This way, I'll be able to get the game out a bit faster (with nicer illustrations, just fewer of them)! And it will give me a little more time to polish other aspects of the game, and perhaps work on a few more side projects ;)

For the rest of this month, I'll be finishing out Karamu. Then at the start of July, I'll take a bit of a game dev break before tackling the sprites! Expect to see some sketches in the next devlog~

If you read this far, thank you! See you next month :)

Chattercap

[chattercap]

Current Project Roadmap (September 2024)

As we enter the last part of the year, I figure that it would be a good time to do a quick rundown of all the projects that I'm currently working on!

First, regarding my previous announcement about removing animations, after receiving some feedback I've decided to go ahead with removing them, to give me a bit more flexibility in terms of asset creation and enable me to release Android builds. However, for the games that I've already released, I'll be retaining versions with the animations (so - Karamu, Kanau, and MindMindMind), except for The Deepwater Witch - since I only released a demo, and it would be awkward if half of it was animated and half of it wasn't LOL

Project: The Perfect Woman Key words: Psychological horror, literally the only thing that I've made that isn't a romance, this project has been stuck at 99% for the past three weeks

Current progress: The game is basically complete, and I just need to finish debugging some of the saving and loading. I basically ended up using this project as a playground for testing some new systems, so it took longer than expected LOL I'm going to take some time to document all of my changes before I focus on polishing it up. Expecting to release on September 13th.

Project: Karamu Trilogy Key words: Romance, horror, emotionally needy ex-boyfriends, blackmail and possessive behavior is okay if you have shared trauma, yandere love interest (who unfortunately becomes a better person, I apologize)

Project details: One love interest (M), established protagonist (F).

Current progress: The script for the final part is 100% complete, at 65k words (over double the length of Karamu and Kanau combined! Haha!) It has been revised and passed along to the voice actors. I'm also collaborating with some very kind translators to release a French translation of Karamu and Kanau and a Russian translation of Karamu.

Project: The Deepwater Witch Key words: Romance, surreal, post-apocalyptic, twisted fairy tale, grumpy practically homeless man x mute sunshine mermaid, Ramil is my BEST pathetic man and I stand by this

Project details: One love interest (F), established protagonist (M).

Current progress: The script is 100% complete, and I have a few CGs left to do.

Project: Actala: The Hero's Shadow Key words: Romance, fantasy, mystery, childhood friend romance with a good dosage of additional Eldritch horror, basically every tag that I could add for this would be a massive spoiler what do I do

Project details: Five love interests (M), established protagonist (F).

Current progress: The updated demo is about 50% complete, and I've been working slowly on the remaining CGs and sprites.

🌹Code Name: You Just Want to Plant Flowers but Your Yandere Knight Traps You in a Tower, Toxic GF Edition❄️

Key words: Romance, twisted fairy tale, hero-to-villain love interest, friends/lovers-to-enemies arc, GF that can either princess carry you or rip your head off, tragedy, yandere love interest

Project details: One love interest (F), customizable protagonist.

Summary: You're the heir to the royal family, but you've been kidnapped and trapped in a tower by one of the kingdom's strongest knights, who used to be your best friend. Although the kingdom sends knights to rescue you, she cuts them all down without mercy. Why is she doing this? How can you escape? And the question is… do you want to?

Current progress: The project is fully outlined, and writing is in progress. The logo is complete!

🔪Code Name: I'm Trapped on an Island With My Husband, Who Is Probably Going to Divorce Me or Stab Me🦑

Key words: Romance, psychological horror, marriage drama, tragedy, yandere love interest

Project details: One love interest (M), customizable protagonist.

Summary: Following a horrible family tragedy, you've retreated to a remote island with your loving husband. However, things aren't going well for your marriage. After a horrible fight, you wake up to find that your husband is… different. Kinder. More understanding. At first, you're happy, but he's also acting a bit strangely. You start to wonder… is this the man that you married?

Current progress: The project is fully outlined, and writing is in progress. The logo has been commissioned.

🌶️Code Name: I Got Isekaied into a Smutty AU Where My Demon Boyfriend Blackmails Me into Marriage!🕸️

Key words: Romance, smut, historical, revenge, murder spouses, blood makes everything sexier apparently, yandere love interest

Project details: This is a NSFW spinoff of one of my previous projects, Karamu, featuring the same characters and similar themes in a historical Japanese setting, with more sex and more murder! One love interest (M), established protagonist (F).

Summary: Every three days, a body appears in the harbor, surrounded by red flowers and covered in golden threads, its heart torn out of its chest. People say that it's the work of a demon. After her best friend is beaten half to death by her husband, Nelli decides to do anything to save her - even if it means making a deal with that very same demon.

Current progress: The project is fully outlined, and writing is in progress. Once I decide on a title, I'll commission a logo!

Additional note: Since this is a NSFW project, I'm not comfortable with making it freely accessible. As a result, I'll be paywalling at least the NSFW portion (depending on how integral the NSFW is to the plot, I'll either release this as free with NSFW DLC or a free demo + paid full game).

I'll be focusing on finishing up The Perfect Woman during the first half of September! After that I plan to release demoes (hopefully) for both the knight gf game and the husband-traps-you-on-an-island game sometime in December.

Other than that, I would be curious if anyone has projects that they're looking forward to! 🤔 I've basically been working on projects as I like, but if there are any projects that you're interested in particular, let me know and I'll try to prioritize accordingly! 🙇 If not I'll try to divide my time so that I make decent progress on all of them, prioritizing my announced projects.

Thank you to everyone who's following along with my work 😊

Chattercap

[chattercap]

Hello! I'm Chattercap!

Hello! I'm Chattercap, a solo female game dev making animated romance visual novels with a twist! All of my games come with at least one plot twist, guaranteed 🫡

⬇️ You can find more info down below! ⬇️

Completed Games

The Perfect Woman is a psychological horror where you play as an AI girlfriend, trapped by your creator, who wants to carve you into his ideal spouse. If you want to survive, you'll have to become "the perfect woman."

The game is complete and takes 30-60 minutes to fully complete. There are three endings, and the game is fully voiced, including the narration!

Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android

MindMindMind is a supernatural/psychological romance about a ghost (with a nice British accent) who has stalked you ever since you were a child. You don't know who...or what he is, but you call him Geist. When you befriend a new boy at college, Geist will do anything to keep you in his grasp.

The game is complete and takes 1.5-2 hours to play. There are two routes, and both love interests are fully voiced. The protagonist has no set appearance and customizable name/pronouns.

Platforms: Windows, MacOS

Karamu is a mystery/horror romance where you have an unexpected encounter with your ex-boyfriend. He really wants to discuss the break-up. He probably won't take no for an answer.

The game is complete and takes about an hour to play. It's fully voiced and animated in a comic book style.

Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Android

Karamu also has a Steam page, if you're interested!

Kanau is a horror/thriller romance that's a direct follow-up and prequel to Karamu. It's about the love interest's childhood and details the start of his obsessions with the main character. (Note: It details heavily with the topic of child abuse.)

The game is complete and takes about an hour to play. It's fully voiced and animated in a comic book style.

Platforms: Windows, MacOS

Games with a Demo

The Deepwater Witch is a post-apocalyptic/supernatural romance retelling The Little Mermaid in a future devastated by climate change, where mermaids have been hunted to near extinction.

The game is currently in development with a 25k word demo (~2-3 hours) released. The full game will be 52k words long and is set to release in April 2024.

Platforms: Windows, MacOS

The Deepwater Witch also has a Steam page, if you're interested!

Actala: The Hero's Shadow is a mystery/fantasy romance where you play as the Hero's childhood friend. His journey is finally over, and the kingdom is at peace. But after the "happily ever after," new dangers emerge: dangers that threaten the life of the kingdom's strongest man.

The full game will have 5 love interests and will be over 300k words. There is no set release date due to the scope of the game, but a revamped demo will probably release in Summer 2024.

Games in Current Production

Hanasu is the third installment of the "Karamu" trilogy, following Karamu and Kanau, and it will describe the events a few months after Karamu. The script is complete at 65k words.

TBA. ~4-5 hours, one love interest (F). You're the heir to the royal family, but you've been kidnapped and trapped in a tower by one of the kingdom's strongest knights, who used to be your best friend. Although the kingdom sends knights to rescue you, she cuts them all down without mercy. Why is she doing this? How can you escape? And the question is... do you want to? Key words: Romance, twisted fairy tale, hero-to-villain love interest, tragedy, yandere love interest, customizable protagonist. Currently scriptwriting.

TBA. ~4-5 hours, one love interest (M). Following a horrible family tragedy, you've retreated to a remote island with your loving husband. However, things aren't going well for your marriage. After a horrible fight, you wake up to find that your husband is... different. Kinder. More understanding. At first, you're happy, but he's also acting a bit strangely. You start to wonder... is this the man that you married? Key words: Romance, psychological horror, marriage drama, tragedy, yandere love interest, customizable protagonist. Currently scriptwriting.

Untitled Karamu spinoff. ~4-5 hours, one love interest (M), established protagonist (F). Every three days, a body appears in the harbor, surrounded by red flowers and covered in golden threads, its heart torn out of its chest. People say that it's the work of a demon. After her best friend is beaten half to death by her husband, Nelli decides to do anything to save her - even if it means making a deal with that very same demon. Key words: Romance, smut, historical, revenge, murder spouses, yandere love interest. Currently scriptwriting. (Caution: NSFW)

Additional Links

Itch.io

Twitter/X

Patreon

Website

All other links

[chattercap]

For fun, here's a comparison of my old DIY Actala logo and the new commissioned one!

(😭 I SWEAR I'M NEVER MAKING ANOTHER LOGO AGAIN IN MY LIFE, I'll leave it to the pros...)

[chattercap]

So with a new Actala demo comes all new art! Everything is being redrawn 😭 (pls feel my suffering)

I started off with this one since it was my favorite background originally, and I didn't see having to change it much, but it ended up so different 😭💦 (you can see the old version below)

[chattercap]

Monthly Update (April 2024)

Hello everyone, it's Chattercap!

I apologize for the slightly late April devlog, but I was in a bit of a daze after the MindMindMind release! Wow, March went by in a flash for me! Let's get down to it!

I released not one, but TWO games this month! (If you missed them, you can find the links in my pinned!)

Kanau

I spent the first part of the month programming and ironing out the Kanau release. I added mini CGs to my VN framework and also added the ability to rename your save files. After that, it was full steam ahead with actually implementing everything - all of the art, BGM, SFX, VA, and GUI, including updating the gallery. I also set up the itch page and put together some social media announcements. Since the content warnings were pretty stark with this one, I also added a trigger warning screen. After that, I had the game beta tested, and it was released by the 8th!

After that I…took a few days break, haha! (I should have gotten straight to work on MMM, but alas, I always enter some kind of trance right after a game release!)

MindMindMind

For the first part of the month, I was mainly scripting as I needed to get the script done for the VAs as quickly as possible. MMM was my QUICKEST script to date, as I finished 20k words in less than 10 days, wow! (I think that the relatively simplistic prose, with a heavy emphasis on dialogue, helped a lot.) During that time I also reviewed the MMM voice acting auditions and made my selections; in addition, I made the promo artwork and reached out to someone for background photos.

After I was out of my post Kanau-release trance, I immediately started work on the sprites! Kalei's sprite was easy to finish, although Geist's sprite took a bit of time (I kept messing up his face…). I also finished all of the backgrounds and then started work on the CGs; I managed to finish one CG per day! While I was doing that, I also cleaned and adjusted the VA samples. On the final week of the month, I animated all of the art and then basically did the same things for MMM that I did for Kanau - adding all of the art, sound, and GUI, making the itch page, updating the gallery. I also put together a walkthrough and implemented name and pronoun selection. I managed to get MMM ready for beta-testing by the 25th, and I spent the rest of the time prepping VA announcements and putting together the artbook! MMM was released on the 29th!

Other

With new game releases comes a myriad of little tasks! I submitted both Kanau and MMM to IMDB and updated my carrd, Tumblr, Twitter, and patreon. I also added MMM to Steam! (It's here! You can wishlist it if you want; I'll probably upload it there fairly soon.)

And then…after MindMindMind I entered my post-game release coma again. I think I did a few things (started sketching the Hanasu cover art and an updated art for Actala, started a commission for an updated Actala logo, and continued writing the Hanasu script, but I'll be honest I've been in a bit of a daze…)

I'm really blown away with the reception that MMM has received, and I'm happy that so many people have played and enjoyed it; I'll upload a postmortem sometime soon, haha!

What's on the docket for next month?

Amare Jam is going on this month, and I hope to finish The Deepwater Witch for it! There are only a few CGs (and some optional mini CGs) to do, so I think I can! In addition, I want to finish the Hanasu script this month. After TDW is finished, I'll be working on Actala - doing updated backgrounds, sprites, and CGs. I want to work on both a Hanasu release and an updated Actala demo for a summer-ish timeframe (whether I can get both done for Otome Jam remains to be seen…)

If you want to hear from me more often, I also post frequently on my Patreon with sketches, writing snippets, sneak peeks, high resolution art, and weekly devlogs.

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read; your support means the world to me! I'll see you next month!

Chattercap

[chattercap]

Monthly Update (September 2024)

Hello everyone, happy September!

What did I do this month?

This month, I primarily focused on coding The Perfect Woman. TPW is fairly different from my other games so I had to refactor my code quite a bit for it (including basic systems such as saving and loading). I also tried to polish it quite a bit, so hopefully it feels good to play! I won't go into too much detail, since I don't want to spoil any of the experience, but I incorporated a few fun effects that are hopefully interesting to experience!

Near the end of the month, I considered eliminating the Live2D style animations from my projects. You can read more about my decision here, but essentially I've heard that such animations are polarizing and some people find them uncanny/distracting. Eliminating the animations would also allow me to simplify my art workflow. After receiving some feedback (thank you to everyone who answered my query!) I decided to go ahead with nixing animations from my future projects, but I'll keep them for my past projects. On a positive note, this means that I'll be able to release Android builds for my games again (and possibly Web builds, if Godot ever decides to make C# HTML compatible!)

After making the decision, I spent some time redoing The Perfect Woman's assets (since they were already all animated, haha!) and used it to test out programming my games without animations. I learned how to use spritesheets for facial expression changes to reduce draw calls, and I also learned how to do frame-by-frame animations as well (for blinks and such).

In addition, I completed a few Actala CGs and BGs.

I also started outlining and writing scripts for two new projects! They've yet to be announced (I'll probably announce them once the scripts are complete), but you can find details about them here! I wrote ~30k words across my current writing WIPs, primarily these two projects. I decided on a title for one of them, started sketching concepts, and commissioned a logo.

Plans for next month!

I made a summary of the projects that I currently have in progress, as well as my plans for the rest of the year. You can find it here!

For September, I plan to focus on finishing The Perfect Woman to start with. I plan to release it on September 13th. After that, I've gotta get started working on art assets 😂 so I'll be doing a lot of backgrounds 👍 I'll be traveling during the latter half of the month, so I'll try to do some sketches that I can work on on the road! (And hopefully I'll be able to take some good reference photos!)

Thank you to everyone who's following along, and see you next month!

Chattercap

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Patreon Announcement

Hello, hello! It’s Chattercap!

I’d like to talk about my socials! In the past, I’ve mainly used Twitter (or X, as it is now called) to talk about my projects! However, X is in a bit of rough spot at the moment, and I’ve been looking for alternatives. I would like to start using Tumblr more, so from now on I will also be making my regular announcements on both X and Tumblr!

After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided to…open a Patreon! I thought that Patreon would be a good place to talk about my WIPs while also giving anyone who’s interested an opportunity to support me. Any proceeds will go towards supporting my projects (commissioning artists, hiring VAs, buying sound assets, etc.) As a solo, self-funded dev, any support is greatly appreciated! If you like what I do and want to look at what’s going on under the hood, I’ll be posting a lot of content on Patreon that I won’t share anywhere else: sketches, writing snippets, high-resolution artwork, etc. I already have a lot of content about my new projects queued up (including Actala, the post-apocalyptic Little Mermaid retelling, and the Karamu follow-up projects)!

If you’d like to follow my game dev journey, I’d be very happy to have you aboard!

[chattercap]

June 2024 Monthly Devlog

Hello everyone,

Phew, we're already entering June, and it's getting HOT! I hope some of you have relaxing(?) summer plans!

WHAT DID I DO?

Overall I worked on a variety(?) of things this month! On the art side, I've been steadily working on Actala. I've finished setting up the base for most of the backgrounds and done around 1/3 of the renders, and I've also done a little over half of the CGs for the demo release I'm planning for the end of June. I also did some brainstorming for my fall/winter projects.

On the coding side, I've made several updates to MMM, Kanau, and TDW, including: -Added a click VFX. -Fixed bug if you clicked "Continue" before ever starting the game. -Implemented text box animation and typewriter effect toggles. -Implemented fix where the VA stops if you progress to the next line. -Minor script fixes.

For TDW, I also implemented some fixes for bugs that I addressed in Kanau. I also added a content warning screen and a custom end screen.

I also worked on porting Karamu to Godot! While I would have liked to keep it in the old engine, I would be porting it anyway to create the trilogy release for Steam, and unfortunately it's unrealistic for me to continue working in multiple game engines. Along with the Karamu port, I implemented support for multiple languages! This month I was working on a French language translation for both Karamu and Kanau. I've received the files, and they've been proofread as well (by my very kind friend chimeriquement)! I implemented the GUI and script language toggles so all I need to do is create new translated versions of the script files. I won't promise the French TL anytime soon since I'm focusing on Actala and the MMM and TDW Steam releases, but I'll get it out sometime this summer!

On the writing side, I worked a bit on Hanasu, as well as one of my secret projects. I fully outlined one of the projects that I plan to work on in the fall, and I also did brainstorming for the other project (GAH I really want to announce them already so I can stop referring to them in such vague terms…)

WHAT'S NEXT FOR JUNE?

For June, well…I'll be releasing the Actala demo, so whatever needs to get done for that…will get done! Unfortunately it won't be nearly as long as the original demo, but it's…well…understandable. The original demo was over a year's worth of work, and six months on assets alone, so it probably makes sense that I won't be able to get it all remade in 2 months, haha! (Especially since the current assets are much higher quality, and, as a result, take longer to produce.) Still, the demo will be very chunky (at least 2 hours) and will introduce all of the love interests.

In addition, I'll definitely be releasing MMM and TDW on Steam. TDW will also be part of Steam Next Fest on June 10th, if you're interested in checking it out!

I'll also be finishing up the Hanasu script in June so I can get it beta read and in recording by July, hopefully!

am very excited to announce the jam projects, but I'll restrain myself! I post most of my major announcements on here and Twitter! If you want to hear from me more often or see the WIPs, I post frequently on my Patreon with sketches, writing snippets, sneak peeks, high resolution art, and weekly devlogs.

Chattercap

[chattercap]

2024 Roadmap (January Edition!)

As we head into the New Year, here is my to-do list for the first half of the year! Note that if you're interested in the development of Actala, I've included a lengthy writeup regarding that project...and some comments about falling out of love with something that you used to hold dear.

The Deepwater Witch

The script for The Deepwater Witch is 100% complete and finalized, and the only thing left to do is CGs, which have been completely storyboarded. In total I have 10 to do, although I do want to take my time with them.

I won't pinpoint a concrete date for the release as there are a few quality of life features that I would like to include in the full version, such as rollback and save file renaming. However, I expect to release the full version of The Deepwater Witch around February.

And now for the other projects!

Kanau (previously "Tsunagu")

"Kanau" will be the prequel to "Karamu," set 11 years before the events of the previous installment. On his 10th birthday, Rakuo Kumode undergoes his family's initiation ceremony.

Kanau will be a mostly horror game with some romantic elements. Since it is set in the past, it will be kinetic, with switching POV protagonists.

If all goes well, I hope to release it around February/March.

(And, following the release of the prequel, I hope to release the sequel around the summer timeframe. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.)

MINDMINDMIND (previously "The Man Who Follows")

There is a man who watches you. He's been watching you for a long time. He watches, and he whispers.

MINDMINDMIND will be a psychological romance game featuring a creepy, but charming, yandere. There will be two male love interests, optional platonic/romantic endings (for one of them), and a customizable MC. I was tossing around some concept sketches for one of the LIs, Geist, earlier this afternoon.

I hope to release it around the end of March.

And last but not least...

Actala: The Hero's Shadow

This will be a bit long-winded and rambling, so skip to the bottom if you just want to know about the current status of development.

If any of you have been following, Actala was the first game that I released, around February last year. I released the demo for Steam Next Fest. It's my largest project, incorporating 5 different love interests and 6 different routes in an expansive fantasy world.

There are some people who saw Actala, played it, and supported me based on the demo alone, and for that I'm very grateful (your comments live rent-free in my mind). At the time, I was proud of it, and I tried to market it rather aggressively. However, the game didn't gain much traction, and after some bad experiences, I got rather ashamed of looking at it. I thought that it was boring, hideous, and poorly written. "How could I have ever wasted people's time with this trash?" I had once treasured that game preciously, wanting to show it off, and I started wanting to hide it in my closet where it couldn't be seen (I even thought about removing the demo from storefronts).

After that, I started working on other, smaller games. It's easier, working on smaller projects. You don't put as much effort into them, so it doesn't matter as much if they end up not meeting your expectations. (When people tell you to start small, they are correct.) My procrastination ended up being fruitful, at the very least. I think I improved a little bit in every aspect (sprite art, backgrounds, writing, GUI, and coding), and I got faster and more experienced at producing games. At the same time, I mostly put Actala development out of my mind because...I didn't want to think about trying to fix that ugly, broken thing. "I'll fix it when I'm better," I told myself. "I'll come back to it when I'm the best game dev I can be." I told myself that I would go back to it later because that was easier than accepting that I had fallen out of love with something that I had loved so much.

Around the time I was finishing scripting for TDW, I looked through my Actala scripts again to see how different my writing style had become. I was scared. How bad was it? I read it, and I realized something.

I did love it.

I remembered how much time I put into every facet of the characters - their backstories, motivations, goals, dreams, cultural backgrounds, costumes. I remembered how many timelines and lore documents that I made. I remembered how meticulously I planned the themes and messages, incorporating a lot of my own struggles with cultural identity, loss, and self-acceptance into the narrative.

Actala is a project that I care about a lot, and I want it to be perfect, but ultimately it will never be perfect. I just need to try my best with my current skills and hope that they're good enough that people can enjoy the story. So I'm ready to return to Actala's development now. I'm sorry for the delay if anyone has been looking forward to it, and I will do better in the future.

As for the current state of Actala's development, it needs a lot of work. It was originally built in Unity, and it needs to be ported over to Godot. Most of the art from the demo needs to be redrawn, simply because my sprite and background styles are VERY different now. So I'll be working on it in conjunction with my current projects, starting with refining the script, then working on sprites and CGs. I won't guarantee any sort of concrete release date for this simply because of how much work is required, but I hope to release an updated demo (with additional scenes for Rowan, Faye, Hugh, and Sei) in the summer.

Thank you to everyone who looks forward to playing my projects, and thank you again for your patience. I hope to make a lot of games this year!

[chattercap]

If you're uncomfortable with the subject that's fine, ignore this!

If your LIs would begin to start a family with their partner, how would they (the LIs) react to the announcement? (Karamu/Actala)

Thank you for the ask, anon! I'll take this as, "the MC just told the LI that they're expecting a child?"

Sei: As soon as Shizu tells him, Sei's eyes light up. He puts his ear to Shizu's stomach. When he does this, Shizu laughs and says that he wouldn't be able to hear anything yet. At first Sei is disappointed. He seizes Shizu's hands and looks at her with bright eyes and says that he'll protect her and the baby from all harm, and she'll want for nothing as long as he's around. Liam: When he hears the news, Liam jumps up. He picks Shizu up bridal-style and starts spinning around her around until Shizu yells at him to stop because she's getting dizzy. When he lets her down, he kisses her and starts babbling about what they're going to name the baby. Faye: At first, Faye is ecstatic. He wants nothing more than to have a family again. But as he thinks, the anxiety grows. How long would a half elf/half-human baby live? Would there be any health complications? However, he doesn't let it show on his face. He hugs Shizu and holds her hand, and he tells her that he wants to start making preparations. Rowan: When Shizu tells Rowan the news, he looks shocked. Then, after a moment, he looks away and starts chuckling. Shizu is surprised; Rowan NEVER laughs, not like this. She is irked by his reaction, and she demands to know what he finds so funny. He ruffles her hair and kisses the top of her head, still laughing, and he says that he doesn't know. Maybe it's because he's so happy? (Shizu accepts the answer, but she still feels annoyed.) Hugh: Initially, Shizu is a little taken aback by Hugh's lack of enthusiasm. She knows that he isn't one for showing his feelings, and he doesn't seem UN-happy, but she had hoped that he would be a little more excited. However, later that evening, she spies on him in his study, poring over a dozen books on parenting. As he takes notes, he smiles giddily to himself, though when he notices that he's doing it he quickly tries to compose himself.

Raku: When he hears the news, Raku gets very quiet. At first Nelli is uncomfortable; she thought that Raku would be excited to hear the news. After a few minutes he hugs her tightly, and Nelli can hear his heart trembling. Raku is happier, happier than he's ever been in his entire life. But he's also deathly afraid. Afraid that he'll mess up. Afraid that he won't be able to be a good dad. And most of all: he's afraid of what his family will do when they find out.

[chattercap]

(IC if possible <3) How would the Actala boys react to Shizu telling them:

(Ignore the fact that Shizu would probably not say anything so mushy...I'm in a loving mood right now lmao)

‘  i am so exhausted,  but i’d sleep so much better with your arms around me.  ’

and

‘  i’d wait a lifetime to be in your arms.  ’

Sei:

"Do you need a pillow..? We've got a ton…" crafts Shizu a pillow fortress

2. "Huh? Why would you wait so long..?"

Liam:

"Your extremely dashing pillow is at your service!" flops on bed, arms open

2. "Good news! I'm available right now! No waiting required!"

Faye: wouldn't say anything. To either, he would simply put his arms around her and hold her close, stroking her hair.

Rowan:

"Is that so? Well, you know where to find me." sits down, arms open, waiting for Shizu to come to him

2. "Oh? It seems I'm quite expensive, if I'm worth an entire lifetime. I'd be willing to give you a special discount, though."

Hugh:

"Sleep deprivation is detrimental to your health. Are you being overworked?"

2. chuckles "You're quite the poet. I'll have to study hard so that I can respond in kind."

[chattercap]

most likely to get jealous at someone else flirting with MC at a party?

Thank you for the ask, anon!

For Actala, the ranking would be:

Sei >>>>>>>> Liam = Hugh > Rowan > Faye

In terms of how they would actually act -

Sei: Super jealous. Would be the most aggressive, would wear his emotions on his sleeve. Would barge into the conversation and would be the most likely to pull MC away from the other guy.

Liam: The jealous type, but has more social graces. Would barge into the conversation and start dominating it completely until the other guy leaves.

Hugh: Would quietly seethe but wouldn't intervene.

Rowan: Confident so he sees no need to be jealous, but if the other guy irritates him enough he would barge into the conversation and start making poorly disguised threats ("I think you'd look very good bald…want me to help you?")

Faye: Jealousy nowhere in his mind. Can't comprehend the concept. Would join the conversation because he likes making new friends.