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[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Script progress + Updates💙

Hello and welcome new followers, long time no see! I was very busy most of this month, but I am back and ready to continue from where I left off on the game! This game development post might be a bit long but I tried to condense everything! :]

"How are things going so far?":

It's going slow and steady! I haven't been able to do too much these past few weeks, however, I wrote a few parts out before I got too busy and couldn't do anything else.

I want to be very careful when it comes to spoilers but, based on your choices, some of these areas will give off immersive cozy/homelike vibes that really express Noah and the player(Y/N)'s view towards each other. In the old 2023 script I was very new to writing so the small semi-hints of romance weren't the entire focus compared to the horror aspect but there's a better balance between both genres now and I'm still aiming for a meaningful slow burn versus it just being all over the place. :] I liked writing them a whole bunch which lead to a lot of these taking place in the mid/end of Day 4+, they just need to be placed in specific areas that call for it. With that being said, it felt really comfy adding key details about Noah and creating meaningful sections in the game. I was even going to draw out some of the unseen script/scenes but I believe the best thing to do is give deeper lore from the [Extended Demo] first. Even though my writing style has improved I still have to fix the multiple pacing issues I wrote last year.

"Playtester's advice":

I wanted to continue working through Noah's backstory but I kept having moments where I'd get sidetracked into wanting to fix up the start of the game again. Eventually, I talked to my play testers about it and they gave me a few encouraging pointers.

To help keep my process at ease, I will fix the beginning of the game when I take breaks from writing up Noah's backstory. :]

I talked about this during early 2024 but the start of the game that leads up to the cabin is still getting reworked. I was able to get some of it fixed for the [Extended Demo] but I wasn't done. Things are still up in the air but, I will say that I have a better view of everything than I did before. :] Another priority that needs fixing are the backgrounds! I've improved a lot on drawing and they need to be optimized. When you first start up the game, you wake up in a holed out tree in the swamp with the choice to leave this area and possibly end up in the forest. I was going for a very immersive form of symbolism that only a few noticed but, I believe I can do a better job about this. Unfortunately I don't have any new backgrounds to show right now but maybe next week I'll have some finished up! :]

"Art process/Noah's sprite sheets":

As far as Noah sprite sheet goes, it's still in sketch mode.

I didn't draw anything since I was gone so I need to do a few warm ups before I get to them. There are some old drawing prompts I wrote down and old sketches that I never got a chance to doodle so hopefully I can get to them at some point with some attached lore. :,]

My Q&A / Ask box has been reset!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks in the past, unfortunately they all disappeared except for 1 while I was gone. I have no idea what happened but I can only guess it just got reset.

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask or resend them in here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

This is all I have to share so far, Thank you to everyone for the continued support and patience while I was gone! I was ready to accept the interest for this game to fade out and coming back to see that it didn't happen makes me happy, I really appreciate it. :,]

[zombeebunnie]

Game development Trembling Essence progress:

Hello and welcome new followers! It'll be some time before there's another update for the '[Extended Demo]' so it will no longer be in the title of game development posts to avoid confusion. Also the next couple of game development posts for April might be a bit short and/or spread out. :]

Behind the scenes:

So far a lot of what's been going on has been brainstorming/going over the script with breaks in between!

I had a very long talk with one of my play testers and it was very fun! One hour ended up turning into several and it really helped me get a better idea of what I want to do for some of the routing/paths and the overall story in general. I believe that this entire month+(?) will just be overlooking the script and brainstorming more ideas/quality of life changes for the game!

My writing style has developed significantly and I'm trying my best to fix all of the multiple pacing issues in the story in a certain order. Noah's backstory is one of the focal points being thoroughly worked on since he expresses sections of his past throughout the game depending on your choices. I can't really share too much else because a lot of it has spoilers and happens later on in the game so right now I'm just writing everything down. So far, I'm still in the early writing stages and I would consider it about 20%(?) done.

I was browsing through some files and happened to across something interesting! This is from when I initially redid all of the old backgrounds in the game for the March 2023 demo and just for fun, I wanted to show some of the different Day/Night settings from this CG. This will be something I'll talk about later when I get to this part! :]

I'm still in the process of creating Noah's reference sheets too but I think I'll end up ditching some of the sketches since angled faces/poses are still difficult for me to draw. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is still open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks! I'll try to get to them when I can. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

Right now this is all I have to share so far, thank you to everyone for the continued support while I continue working on the game. :,]

[zombeebunnie]

Hello again!!!! I've been thinking about this lately and I was just wondering if Noah had an ethnicity? Or is it up to interpretation?

Hello hello again! :]

Noah is Native American with mixed race ancestry. :]

[zombeebunnie]

This was originally going to be for something else but I decided to just turn it into a practicing perspective with Noah. :]

I'll add some game lore here some other time. :]

[zombeebunnie]

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:💙What happens now?💙

Hello and welcome new followers!

Firstly, I just want to thank everyone that have been playing the updated [Extended Demo] with the Endings Gallery and Day 3 notifier! From this I was able to get a good amount of responses to help me with quality of life ideas going forward. :]

The game page has also been fixed to include the Windows and Mac logo downloads as I had no idea they weren't there until I was told. :,,]

Again, please let me know if you run into any bugs, glitches, misspellings, etc or if the Endings gallery doesn't show up for you correctly.

"So what happens now?"

As far as the [Extended Demo] goes, I do have plans on updating it with certain paths/routes HOWEVER, it will be some time before that happens. There's a lot of stuff that I need to rework and look over before I can add anything. Here's a peek from some of the old game development posts.

[Please remember that this is still a DEMO and anything is subject to change.]

The sections missing from the [Extended Demo] were from routes/paths I wrote during the late spring-summer of 2023. In the fall my writing style developed significantly which lead me to discover multiple pacing issues in the story that went unnoticed. Out of everything I wrote, the two full routes you get while playing were the only sections that were good enough for me to polish up and didn't contain spoilers. As for when the new routes/paths will be added to the [Extended Demo], I don't have an answer for this.

Right now I've been giving myself a break and mainly focusing on brainstorming things out.

In other news, I'm still in the process of creating Noah's reference sheets! There will be a total of three(?) which will have specific details for each one! It's taking some time to create since I'm still learning how to do angled faces/poses, here's the w.i.p sketch version below:

Q&A / Ask box is still open:

Thank you to those who have sent in asks! I'll try to get to them when I can. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

This is all I have to share so far, Thank you to everyone for the continued support and encouraging words while I continue working on the game, I really appreciate it. :,]

[zombeebunnie]

I meant to upload this here for a while but I kept getting side tracked up until now. This is from my TikTok! :]

Lore time:

Even though Noah can come off stern and serious at times, he will make attempts at trying to get a smile/laugh out of the player (Y/N). There are even moments where he can be light-hearted and appreciate a silly joke/situation in the game.

Noah has a neat sense of humor and secretly likes the player's goofy attempts at comedy. (For example: Choosing "cookies" as something to eat after you've been lost in the swamp for almost 3 days.)

[zombeebunnie]

Heyyyy ya !

It’s been now 11 months that I follow you.

And I love the new extend demo it’s more exciting than the first 🤩(the first is good too Don’t worry)

But I have this question since I follow this game.

If Noah's feeling gauge reaches the maximum, what will happen?

Free to you to answer this question 🙋

Keep it up I will support your Idea anytime ☺️

Hello hello and thank you so much for your continued support, It's good knowing you like both demos and stuck around, I appreciate it! :,]

So for Noah's closeness/feelings gauge, I don't have an answer as to what happens when it reaches max as of right now. I've given it some thought here and there but nothing solid as of right now since I'm still going over the script and something like this would probably happen way past Day 3 and I haven't gotten to that section yet. :S

Here is a very old screenshot from a game development post but it's outdated and no longer in the game. This was when I was still developing my art/writing style during early spring of 2023. Around late august, I eventually redrew this CG since Noah's appearance didn't match the rest of the art in the game. I didn't really like the second version so I'll fix it up in the future maybe but I think that was the only thing I ever did and never wrote anything else for this part.

[zombeebunnie]

wow hey hello i’ve been playing the extended demo and trying out different routes and i am flabbergasted!! i’ve been hyperfixated on this type of horror/dating sim VNs for some time now and i’ve never played anything like your game before!

to be frank i have no idea what the fuck is going on but i love it, i’m in such a suspense to learn more about the lore and am shaking in my socksies for the full game!! wanted to ask if you’re okay with NoahxMCOC fanart? i’d love to draw something tehee~ sending u much love and soooo much appreciation for the game! the writing and character building is just immaculate

Hello there! I appreciate knowing you enjoyed what the [Extended Demo] has to offer so far and the time you took out to play through everything! Your encouraging kind words mean a lot! :,]

I do want to expand on the lore that goes into the game but I'm still brainstorming/going over routes and other things that didn't make it into the [Extended Demo]. I'm trying REALLY hard to not accidently show spoilers and I did a lot of that during the game development unfortunately. :,,,]

Since the [Extended Demo] has been out for a while I don't mind sharing a couple of little things though since I'm more comfortable with it!

Lore time! :]

One of Noah's signs of affection is carrying you bridal style! :]

This is hinted and shown a couple of times within the game/art but it's part of his love language towards the player(Y/N). It depends on the situation but there's a few reasons for this. To explain JUST one of them, it's because he finds comfort being close to you. This expression of affection will be something that'll be approached again in the full game since he does this a few times! :,]

Here's a sketch doodle I never got the chance to finish. :,]

I don't mind MCOC (( Main Character Original Character(?) My play tester said that's what this means but do let me know if this isn't. :[] ))

I enjoy seeing fan art a whole bunch and I try to save the ones I come across when I do! All I ask is that it's nothing Explicit/NSFW since that's not what I'm going for in my works! Again, thank you so much for your support! :]

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:💙Update out now!💙

Hello and welcome new followers! Just letting it be known that the [Extended Demo] has been updated and now includes a Endings Gallery and a Day 3 notifier when you enter the cabin with Noah! :]

Please let me know if you run into any bugs, glitches, misspellings, etc or if the Endings gallery shows up for you.

When you load up the game you just have to click on each tab to see your progress. If it's greyed out that means you haven't earned it yet and if you do, it'll have color and a "+" added to it! :]

This notification is meant to show what day it is in the game to resolve confusion. Once you enter the cabin with Noah it starts Day 3. In the future, this notification will pop up every time there's a new Day! :]

Q&A / Ask box is still open:

Thank you to those who have sent in asks! I'll try to get to them when I can. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

Thank you to everyone for the continued support and patience, I really appreciate it. :,]

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:💙Quality of life progress finished💙

Hello and welcome new followers! I've been focused on the quality of life changes I discussed in my last two update posts. :]

Happy one month of the [Extended Demo] being released! Yay! Thank you to everyone that has been patient and supported this! :,]

Quality of life progress:

*Please note that these changes aren't in the [Extended Demo] yet! I'm in the process of updating which I'll announce in a future post! :]

Here's the finished endings collection gallery! I enjoyed the process and learned a lot from this. I can't wait to implement what I've learned in other places within the game! :,]

When you load up the game you just have to click on each tab to see your progress. If it's greyed out that means you haven't earned it yet and if you do, it'll have color and a "+" added to it! I also changed the hue's compared to how it looked last week. :]

I also discovered there's actually 12* Bad Endings and not 13. At some point during development a Bad Ending was turned into a Neutral Ending and I accidently forgot to change that. :S

The game page will be adjusted to indicate this now:

12 Bad endings 6 Neutral endings 6 endings that continue the rest of the Day 3

For those that are new or have been here for some time, entering the cabin with Noah starts Day 3 due to the player(Y/N) being lost in the terrain for 2 and a half days which Noah mentions. Sometimes this can get confusing since some consider it Day 1 while the game considers it Day 3.

I added a notification tab in the upper left corner and moved it slightly to the right so it wouldn't overlap the player(Y/N)'s HP bar. This is meant to show what day it is in the game to resolve confusion. Once you enter the cabin with Noah it starts Day 3. :]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I really wanted some of the lore to be found through playing so I'm comfortable with doing this now that the [Extended Demo] has been out for a good while now!

If you've already sent in a ask, I did see it I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

Outside of a couple of spelling errors I fixed, I can't think of anything else that needs to be added right now so that's all I have to share! Thank you for the continued support, I appreciate it. :,]

[zombeebunnie]

This was done just for fun based on the image below. :P

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:💙Quality of life progress💙

Hi hi and welcome new followers! This week mainly focused on the quality of life changes I discussed in my last update post. :]

Quality of life progress:

*Please note that these changes aren't in the [Extended Demo] yet! I'm still working on this and I'll let it be known in a update post!

Now that it's week three of the [Extended Demo] being released, It's time to go over some changes to help the player out when going through the game!

It was a struggle but I managed to make a endings collection gallery! I'm still working on it and brainstorming how to make it easier for the player to navigate but hopefully it'll be done soon.

I added a 'Endings' button and separated the endings into different categories!

It looks wonky here but trust the process, I'm still fixing it up! :,]

The left section will be all the bad endings you can get which will be marked in RED when you get them!

The middle section will be the neutral endings that you can obtain within the cabin. These will be marked in BLUE. :]

To give a little bit more detail on this one, these are sections that were suppose to continue the story but ended very early since I still need to look over and redo some of these paths/routes.

For example: Choosing the "Go to sleep." choice here will always lead to a neutral ending regardless of how close you are with Noah.

The right section are all the endings you can achieve when you manage to find the two full routes that progress the rest of Day 3. They will be marked in GREEN!

With that out of the way here's another quality of life adjustment!

For those that are new or have been here for some time, entering the cabin with Noah starts Day 3 due to the player(Y/N) being lost in the terrain for 2 and a half days which Noah mentions. Sometimes this can get confusing since some consider it Day 1 while the game considers it Day 3.

I added a little notification tab in the upper left corner of the game to notify the player(Y/N) of what day it is in the game to resolve confusion. Once you enter the cabin with Noah it starts Day 3. I'm still fixing this too. :]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I really wanted some of the lore to be found through playing so I'm more comfortable with doing this now that the [Extended Demo] has been out for a good while now!

If you've already sent in a ask, I did see it I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings and helps me practice. :]

That's all I have to share right now! A very big thank you for the continued interest and support in what I'm working on, I will always appreciate it. :,]

[zombeebunnie]

Took a break from fixing up the [Extended Demo] and started looking through old drawings for a skit and noticed I haven't drawn Noah with his sledgehammer in a while. :[]

I don't show w.i.p. sketches as much as I used to since they can look really messy but I'm trying to do it again this year. I was halfway through the line art before I remembered, enjoy! :D

[zombeebunnie]

Hiiii I just found this game and omg the vibe is immaculate qwq Also I was wondering, are there going to be any nsfw scenes in the game?

Thank you very much It's good to know you enjoyed the vibe I was trying to aim for, I'm glad you had fun playing! :]

There will be no nsfw scenes in the game nor in anything I make in the future! As far as the romantic/dating-sim side of the game, I'm still developing my writing style but I'm aiming for contemporary romance, inspirational romance, ludus, toxic, self-love, fatuous love, and romantic suspense.* These were all from what I found online that kind of gives an idea of what I really want to go for since it's more of a spectrum and dependent on what choices you make throughout the game!*

*Just note that I'm still going over the script, route/paths, and concepts that didn't make it into the [Extended Demo] so everything is still subject to change. :,]

[zombeebunnie]

Congratulations on the extended demo, just one issue I have with the project. How come it isn't listed as 18+?

Thanks and because it's not a 18+ game.

[zombeebunnie]

Noah Q&A

In the illusive Flirt option with Noah, is there any other possible reactions than staring 👀? I know the candy option in pink can be different and was wondering if this one was the same since it’s also in pink. I just want to Rizz this man up

Yay! That afternoon route has been missed so much I'm actually very happy this was found! :,]

The candy pink color choices are Valentine themed Easter Eggs I added into the game just for fun since they have specific requirements to get them. I think I'll keep some of them because I think they're funny and kind of cute. In the future there will be moments where you can flirt/spend time with him I just need time fix up the script since there was a lot of stuff that didn't end up in the [Extended Demo].

I don't count this as a spoiler since it's from the old script and getting reworked but I've always wanted to talk about this scene. I meant to do this maybe... two weeks(?) after I uploaded the March 2023 demo to show what was to come for the game but it just never happened. In day 5(???) from the old script, there was a specific path you could get based on how you played the game where you both spent time walking outside together during the evening. I can no longer find the old screenshot I took of this but I did find the CG that was suppose to be there and I still remember what the text said. At the time I was very new to drawing backgrounds and my play tester showed me how to make backgrounds have more depth. I was super proud how of how it looked and wanted to show it. :,]