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hi all! yandere jam 2025 is now up! it will run feb 1 - march 2nd, you are allowed to do pre-work (i.e. sketches and draft scripts etc.)
please make sure any projects you want to submit from last year have additional gameplay content!! otherwise i will remove the submission <:( you can join the jam here, on itch.io: https://itch.io/jam/yanjam25
i have changed to put all the info about the jam inside the community tab via a sticky post; there is also a post about how to make your game more accessible (mostly focused on ren'py users) as well as some extra challenges to try and encourage more diverse submissions (both in-terms of content and general intersectionality-wise)
you can also join the discord here if you want to find a team: https://discord.gg/HTwHjJZUhY
i hope we have some more wonderful entries this year :D
a sunday visual novel has released by the name of "Cures Most Fickle"
i hope you can check it out and share your thoughts on my attempt at capturing the transition of the los angeles anime con subculture to something new
◆ Customizable Protagonist (Appearance, Pronoun, Name) ◆ 3 Romantic Love Interests (2M, 1F) ◆ 2 Stats-raising Systems ◆ Time Management & Quest System (60 In-game Weeks) ◆ 8 Endings ◆ … and many deaths! :D
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1749010/Royal_Order/
https://nifty-visuals.itch.io/royal-order
The Sval, pirates of the utmost north, are wreaking havoc all over the continent of Igrith.
Vowing to bring an end to their endless plundering, three kingdoms send forth their royal heirs to the High Council, a powerful and influential faction of magicians, to plead for their help during this time of crisis.
The High Council oblige, creating the Royal Order, and the heirs remain; however, political tensions are high as old grudges resurface between the three kingdoms. And, as the pirates continue to have their way, they are determinedly bound to reach their breaking point.
Play as Aarya, the newest member of the High Council, and help manage the Royal Order.
Can you put an end to the Sval’s pillaging while keeping the kingdoms at peace? Or will you bring nothing but war upon them?
Always happy to see a good grisly mystery! Just played "Disconnected" a fantastic visual novel by Teharra Rose.
You're a 911 dispatcher. You're taking to a woman who wakes up in an ice bath. She doesn't know how she got there. Can you save her life?
Played a great visual novel demo today! Super writing and lore which I'm looking forward to seeing more of.
Also thanks for using Mr Fuffington as the cat!
Once upon a time...
I wrote a story about a powerful spirit trapped in a tree and the bard that helps to break the curse.
It was written for a very special little bard who was just learning to read. Some years have passed and the bard has grown and now we're adapting the story into a visual novel using Ren'Py.
We're working on bringing the fairytale to life for the Once Upon a Time VN Jam, including the magical song.
I'm working on it using a kalimba as it's a great portable little instrument... Perfect for a travelling bard.
Hopefully I can make a song worthy of such a special quest.
The season of scare's dark tendrils are ebbing away to make room for winter's symphony but if you have time for one more supernatural story, give Spirit Driver a go.
This wonderfully cozy Halloween story took the first place winner in the Spooktober Visual Novel game jam and I wished I played it sooner!
The game features a cast of humans and supernatural beings and a cab driver who seems to walk in both worlds. There's heart warming dialogue, subtle and witty jokes and lovely pixel graphic art.
If you're thinking about giving it a go, please do!
🖤❤️💜Thank you to everyone who has supported this and helped us to make it here!💜❤️🖤
We're a two person dev team who make short games for free and for fun so having this many people downloading Lydia's Labyrinth is incredible for us! Genuinely, thank you so much.
If escaping a deadly labyrinth while being chided by a cute yet deranged vampire sounds appealing to you, then check it out below!
https://valhallions.itch.io/lydiaslabyrinth
Thanks for stopping by and allow me to raise a glass to you for being a part of this journey.
Cheers!
Lydia really hates this statue. Why does she have a statue that she hates in her labyrinth?
https://valhallions.itch.io/lydiaslabyrinth
What a wonderful night for a quick throwback! I'd like to introduce you to the game which started my Spooktober journey.
You play as Penelope, who's just about ready to give up on her dream of being a singer, until she finds an audition notice for the opportunity of a lifetime... An audition for a reality TV show on a private island which turns into a fight to survive and may see some dark truths come to light.
Truly Sublime was created for the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam two years ago and it's nice to look back on it. Back then, this was my second game that I had published so it's got a couple of rough edges but I want to leave it as it is until I get time to make a shiny, better version.
There was so much cut from the game to make it work in the jam's timeframe so it might be a fun one to return to one day and explore the untold stories, especially with the character Lucinda. She had her own story and endings planned too.
Thanks for checking out my nostalgia ramble and I hope you're having a lovely Autumn evening!
Cheers for stopping by and take care!
The nights are growing colder as the barrier between this world and the next weakens. The season of scare is well and truly upon us.
If you're looking for something to stir your cauldron you can check out this years Spooktober Visual Novel Jam where over 270 free and new spooky experiences await your ghoulish delight. If you like any of the horrific offerings please give them your support by rating them for the jam! Time grows short as there's only a week left to rate.
You can see my entry, a choose your own adventure game here.
Thanks for stopping by and take care in the Autumnal air.
It's October 1st, you know what time it is!
Lydia's Labyrinth is out just in time to hit that Spooktober Visual Novel Jam release deadline!
We wanted to mash up the feel of a choose your own adventure book and a mystery story. Then we threw in a hearty helping of a larger than unlife, thirsty vampire who seems to know a lot about you.
Don't keep her waiting darling!
Here's a quick screenshot from The Hate Show - an interlude to the Travel Devil story. Development hit a couple of roadblocks but things are back on track and I'm feeling fiendishly hopeful!
The next devlog will follow soon.
Take care of yourselves... and each other.
Well folks it's been such a week. I've had some extra work on this week but fear not... Travel Devil 2 continues its march through development.
This week I have
Designed some additional menu assets
Worked on a talk show set
Designed some apocalypse assets based in Paris
Learned about the national dish of the Netherlands - Stamppot (critical cultural research and tonight's dinner)
Paris has fallen to the unholy march.
Unfortunately the talk show set is still a work in progress as it's not coming together in a way that I like. Also things are going a bit slower than I’ve expected. Just gotta keep my head up and keep on with it.
I've also got some news about the writing. Robert has been leading the story development and has
Been writing many new scenes
Started a point of view chapter for our new character Chloe (art reveal coming soon!)
Finished a secret scene
Carried out location research about demonic art in Amsterdam
Poster for the play "Lucifer" from 1910 painter by Richard Roland Holst (1868 -1938) - https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:WITS01:109324, Public Domain
I'm glad to say that things are still moving forward. These devlogs help me to recognise that. Next week is going to be hectic as well so I'm going to try and focus on character art. I'm also hoping to make some time to play some visual novels. There's a few I've been meaning to try and I always find it inspiring to see what magical creations other people are making.
If you’d like to see how the infernal story began you can download the original Travel Devil narrative game for free on the Valhallions itch page. You can also see my side projects and asset packs on the DoubleFree itch page.
Take care everyone!
DoubleFree
Good news! Was sick. Got better! It wasn't anything major, just sucked for a while.
Bad news - Game development was pretty loosey goosey, but stuff still happened! Here's what I've been working on:
Storyboard of the prologue is planned.
Started working on a talk show set.
Concept sketches done for a demonic talk show host.
Menu art done.
Worked with the writer on the flow and pacing of the writing.
Many pose sketches done for CGs.
Development is going well, just a bit slowly but that's to be expected. We're still on track for a 2024 release on Travel Devil 2 but if you want some fiery, decision-making action you can check out the original narrative game here - Travel Devil - Episode 1 Paris. We hope you'll join us on our demonic travel vlog across Europe featuring your host Tornacense.
Thanks for stopping by!
Week 2 of development has been going well on Travel Devil 2. We’re setting it straight after the first game so you get to see how the dynamics of Tornacense and Kirby are changing as they get used to being around each other.
Tornacense and Kirby facing an unhinged street preacher in the first game.
It’s great returning to these characters. I’m trying to make their drawings more exciting and dynamic. I’ve got a lot more time to make the character drawings now as I’m not working to game jam timeframes. I’m also going to learn to use the Renpy Action Editor to add more options to the movements in the game.
I’ve been working on many different aspects of the Travel Devil 2 to keep things interesting and motivating. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
Many more concept sketches were drawn. Now I need to get them looking swish on the computer.
Backgrounds and video footage of Amsterdam have been sourced to showcase in the vlog parts of the game.
Set up a Bluesky profile – now I just have to learn to use it :S
Spent a lot of time updating software – yay!
Planned some fancy menus for 1st game recap, unlockables and character profiles
Coded some of the game framework in Renpy
Drank a lot of tea (Woo rock and/or roll!)
I've been using the plot outline to build the framework for the game. Robert has been working away on the writing. He's already written the recap of the first game and the opening scene which we’ve been hammering out together.
We’re hoping to get Travel Devil 2 out this year if we can. However if you can’t wait, you can pop on the old humask and check out the (short) first installment here on itch.io.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope March is treating you well!
Hello and welcome to the first DevLog of Travel Devil 2!
Ever wanted to get out of the daily grind and escape to a paradise of travel-vlogging in Europe? Well, so did Tornacense the demon! The Travel Devil series follows Tornacense and the (un)lucky human who summoned him, Kirby.
In Travel Devil 2, Tornacense and Kirby are going to Amsterdam to enjoy all the fabulous delights that this city has to offer! The outline is done and development is beginning! Robert has been writing away and has sent over the summary. Now it’s time for me to get stuck in to the art and the code.
So to keep me on track, I'm making weekly progress lists to help keep me motivated. This week I have:
Practised drawing the characters lots (I haven’t worked with these characters since October so I’m a bit rusty!)
Designed our new character Chloe, reveal coming soon – she’s a peach!
Watched a lot of travel guides for Amsterdam – it’s been years since I’ve been there so I hope I can do this fantastic city justice.
Researched art from famous Dutch artists to give the game an air of culture and sophistication - Amsterdam isn’t all red lights and smoking and we want to showcase all the great aspects of this famous city!
Travel Devil 2 is the sequel to a game that I made for a game jam. It was set in beautiful Paris and showed the first episode of Travel Devil featuring the overnight doomtube sensation, Tornacense. I had so much fun making it that I’m diving back in and we’re heading to the Netherlands on the next step of the Journey.
If you want to check out the first instalment it’s right here waiting for you to come enjoy it!
Thanks for stopping by!
There's less than a week left of judging for the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam and it's been a fantastic experience for us so far! Travel Devil has received such wonderful feedback and critiques. We take on board everything that is written to us so we can make better games every time!
So today I'm going to give a little insight into how and why Travel Devil came to be.
Do you wanna know how Travel Devil came to exist?
Originally we put together a game idea for a spooky pet adoptions agency. The game would take place on Halloween and have six pets (3 unlocked and 3 locked) to play with. Each pet was going to have a unique story and minigame associated with it. It was codenamed "Spoopy Pets" and it was far too much for the me and Robert to take on and complete in the Spooktober VN Jam timeframe. We worked on it for the first two days of the jam before we were flagging problems up, so we changed trajectory. It's not a dead idea though, it's in the list of rainy day ideas.
Speaking of the rainy day ideas list, that's where Travel Devil comes in. We thought this up a while ago but just put it on the back burner as there was no time to work on it. The concept was simple - a demon escapes hell and starts a travel log. Then the servants of hell follow in its wake starting the apocalypse march on humanity. When Spoopy Pets became too big we had a look at what we had to play with and Travel Devil just sort of fell into place. Robert started writing and I started drawing.
Character design went pretty smoothly. I went for a mix of cartoon styles, drawing inspiration from things like Dead End, Gravity Falls, The Simpsons and Garfield.
Traditionally, visual novels use anime and manga style design but truth be told, I'm not very good at that style. It takes me ages to make characters look good when I try to draw like that. Hats off to all the wonderful artists in this jam who made beautiful, scintillating characters. I'm so impressed by their dedication to fantastic character art.
One of the first pitfalls I encountered was background art. I like to use sites like Pixabay to get backgrounds but recently it's been flooded with AI artworks. The game jam expressly forbids AI use in your game so we had to get creative.
Fortunately this game revolves around travel vlog creation in Paris and we found loads of creative commons photos of the famous tourist destination. Seriously there are so many fantastic photographers out there and it was a complete life and time saver for the jam. All I had to do was add a translucent white filter to the top of the photos to make the characters pop out and we had our backgrounds!
Development went well once we got on the right track. Travel Devil was made using Ren'py which is a joy to develop with. We did have to wind back our ideas at one point as both Robert and I got sick with a nasty bug but we made it. We stripped back some choices and streamlined the game to make sure we could get finished. Originally, we wanted the player to be able to unlock multiple hidden scenes in one playthrough. As the deadline loomed we simplified it so that the player would only see one of three potential side stories that were growing due to the activities of our main character Tornacense per playthrough. We included 7 unlockable scenes and also 6 unlockable images in our gallery.
There's also a nifty guide to finding all the unlockables right here if you want a more relaxing time while playing.
If you've had a chance to play Travel Devil you may have noticed that we planted some seeds in our side stories that will be big plot points as we go forward. Travel Devil is going to be a series of five games travelling around Europe making video journals and outrunning the underworld.
Tornacense and Kirby will grow, we'll meet lots of new strange and devastating people and love could be just around the corner! Who knows? That choice will be yours.
If you want to check out the first installment of Travel Devil you can nab a pentagram portal and find it right here.
Travel Devil was made for the 5th Annual Spooktober Visual Novel Jam in under 30 days. The next one will be made with a lot more time dedicated to it!
Thanks for stopping by!
DoubleFree - Artist and coder for Travel Devil
Continuing the showcase of the 5th Annual Spooktober Visual Novel Jam, I'm delighted to show you Jackalope by SmallBunny.
This visual novel is something truly special. I highly recommend it.
From the eerie, slightly abstract visuals to the heart touching story which hit me far too close to home, this is exactly the kind of game that gets me excited for Spooktober!
It's frightening (but not terrifying), cute, sweet, sad and hopeful all in one delicate, beautiful package.
There are certain games I come back to on a regular bases. This is one of them now. I will play this game again. When the time is right.
From a technical point of view it was built in Ren'py and has some lovely features such as an inventory system and the choice based exploration of a building. Also I would recommend checking out the ??? button on the main menu. It made me smile.
It's partially voice acted and the performances are soft and sweet. Perfect!
All in all it's delightful. If you have an hour check it out and give these lovely people a rating for the jam! Voting ends on the 28th October.
Thanks for stopping by!
DoubleFree
For the past couple of days I've been trying to make a web build in ren'py of my visual novel for the jam but my efforts have proved less than stellar. The sound cues are slightly wrong and as Travel Devil relies on sound effects and music to play a part in the humour and narrative it's looking like a bust for now.
Ah well... At least I know how to do a web build now so that's good.
And it leads nicely into a game I tried recently that's web build worked great.
Canines, Costumes & Canines?!? is a visual novel made in ren'py for the Spooktober 23 game jam and it's a cozy Hallowe'en narrative game. It features adorable costumes (seriously the sausage dog costume is delightful) and well designed cartoon style characters.
The story is about a canine costume contest and follows a mystery of how one of the contestants got poisoned. It has a nice twist and good ending.
The game has slight flickering on the character sprites in the browser version but that is far from a deal breaker. It's definitely charming and it's easy to get past that.
I'm really enjoying cute games this year so naturally I had to check out Eldritch Idol.
The presentation here is strong.
Eldritch Idol is another ren'py devloped visual novel with a whopping 28 endings! The GUI and menus are really well designed and just feel so polished.
There's a couple of nice character choices for you as the producer to Kuku the cute, if terrifying, idol.
The story features plenty of reminders that this world is full of unspeakable abominations but Kuku presents it all in a perky and adorable way.
The gameplay follows managing Kuku's stats by doing daily activities to improve her abilities all in the hopes of creating the ultimate idol. There's sweet costumes and romance options too.
Eldritch Idol is a great, well made visual novel with an irrestable charm.
I'm not sure what I'll be playing next as I'm still going to battle with my own entry in the jam to try and get that web browser build done! I have a couple of ideas on how to make though, so fingers crossed!
Thanks for stopping by!
DoubleFree
Welcome to the second installment of the Pikmin 4 Dating Sim development blog! A weekly "news letter" where I will discuss my progress on the dating simulator.
I asked, you voted! The official name of the project will become Dandori Downpour! Thank you to all who voted!
Previous Development Blog Character Creator Showcase
Dandori Downpour was my first choice too but I thought the alliteration was stupid (okay it kind of is but this is all in good fun, right?)
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What has been done this week?
Two backgrounds
More Shepherd Sprites
Started Collin's Rough Draft
Not as much as I'd like to have done this week but backgrounds are a lot of meat and potatoes! Work is also picking up and I'll be out on a trip next weekend too so there may not be a development update next Sunday!
You may be wondering how exactly I plan on releasing this? And to answer that, I'm not entirely sure yet!
It'd be cool if this could work exclusively on itch.io with no download but I'm unsure how that all works! Rest assured, a download will always be available for it.
Unfortunately, this game will not have mobile support. I'm sorry!
Another thing about releasing, it is highly likely that I will release the routes in waves, starting with Shepherd, Collin, and Russ in the first wave. After them, I will release Dingo, Yonny, and Bernard either all together in a second wave or one at a time.
The good news is that Dingo, Yonny, and Bernard's development time will be significantly shorter as a majority of their sprites and backgrounds will be drawn by the time the first three routes are out. Predicted Release?
This is not set in stone but I am hoping for the first three routes to release around the end of August.
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And if you'd like, comment below as to why! I'd LOVE to know!
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Anywho, thanks for reading this weeks newsletter! Stay curious!~
andrabeets / Cherie <333
Welcome to the first installment of the Pikmin 4 Dating Sim development blog! A weekly "news letter" where I will discuss my progress on the dating simulator. I thought instead of doing a discord server, this would probably be the best course of action. If we get more buzz around the project, perhaps a discord server still can be made.
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What is the Pikmin 4 dating simulator? The Pikmin 4 dating simulator (working title) is a dating simulator where you create a character and go on a little narrative story path with members of the Rescue Corps!
It takes place late into your mission on PNF-404, a multiple day storm forces the Rescue Corps to halt rescue efforts and take shelter in the S.S. Shepherd.
During this time, you decide to get to know your crew members, each having their own arch and story!
Planned routes:
Captain Erma Shepherd
Collin
Russ
Dingo
Yonny
Bernard
All around, it will be a light-hearted playable dating sim made in Ren'Py!
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What has been done this week? (Well, a bit over a week)
Shepherd's rough draft
Russ' rough draft
2 backgrounds
Most of Russ' sprites
Started Shepherd's Sprites
Started writing Introduction
UI text box shift when custom character is on screen
-------------- Please keep in mind, I am one person <3 I'm working as fast as I can while also working a job! Feel free to DM me anything <3 either on here or @andrabeets on discord --------------
So, obviously, the official name won't be "Pikmin 4 dating sim" or "Rescue Corps dating sim" I have a few ideas for a name but I thought I'd let you guys vote!
The winner doesn't guarantee the name of the project. I just know I'd like it to be something to do with dandori.
-------------- Thank you for reading! Hope to have more updates for you next week! Stay curious~
andrabeets / Cherie <333
Okidoki! It’s finally time for my first tumblr post! ^o^
Thanks to everyone who followed me, even though there was nothing to see here yet xD
I gotta say tumblr is very confusing and overwhelming for someone who has never used it before. I don’t understand half of what you can do here, lol. I was about to ask Blastic how to make a post here, but I think I figured it out?
But enough rambling!
Let me reveal to you the design of my OC “Shadowman” which you’ll see in future chapters. Isn’t he neat? ^_^
The first image is the basic design that I drew and then gave to @inkly-heart to improve it a bit, since I totally suck at designing xD
She did a wonderful job ^^b and we hope you like him just as much as we do!
If any adult happens to stumble across this blog and get curious - here’s the link to the free demo of our horror erotica VN Br0ken Colors: https://holyschnitzel.itch.io/broken-colors
Happy Simping 💗
So, I finally redrew Klowdy's sprites! There were 6 sprites in total, but I couldn't resist and decided to post 3/6 of the sprites!!!
Klowdy is a character from my visual novel "Gray Path"!
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Итак, наконец-то я перерисовала спрайты Клоуди! Всего получилось 6 спрайтов, но я не удержалась и решила выложить 3/6 спрайта!!!
Клоуди - персонаж моей визуальной новеллы "Gray Path"!
So, I finally finished developing the demo version, now you can download it on itch.io! / Итак, я наконец завершила разработку демоверсии, так что вы можете скачать её на itch.io!
(link at the end of the post/ссылка в конце поста)
Gray Path is a visual novel I'm developing in the genres: horror, mystic, comedy, adventure.
The main character is deeply in debt, as a result of which he ends up abandoned on an unfamiliar street in the middle of the forest. Will you be able to solve all the mysteries that await you in this place and return home?
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Gray Path - разрабатываемая мной визуальная новелла в жанрах: хоррор, мистика, комедия, приключения.
Главный герой по уши погряз в долгах, в результате чего оказывается брошенным на незнакомой улице посреди леса. Сможете ли вы разгадать все тайны, поджидающие вас в этом месте и вернуться домой?
If you're interested, you can read more on the game's itch.io page and download the demo! / Если вы заинтересованы, вы можете прочитать подробнее на странице игры на itch.io и загрузить демо-версию!
↓↓↓↓↓
~some screenshot from the game (2)/какой-то скрин из игры (2)~
👻Happy Halloween to everyone!👻
I didn't have time to draw the art with congratulations (but I'll finish it later), but today I'll write to you about the process of developing the demo version of my game!
Finally, the working demo version is ready, so I gave it to my friend for testing. All I have to do is make the translation and maybe fix some errors that may be found during testing.
So, very soon my visual novel will be ready!
In the meantime, I'll go finish drawing the art for Halloween:)
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👻Всех с Хэллоуином! 👻
Я не успела нарисовать арт с поздравлением (но я доделаю его позже), зато сегодня я напишу вам о процессе разработки демоверсии своей игры!
Наконец рабочая демоверсия уже готова, так что я передала её на тестирование своему другу. Мне осталось только сделать перевод и возможно исправить какие-то ошибки, которые могут обнаружиться на тестировании.
Так что, уже совсем скоро моя визуальная новелла будет готова!
А пока что, пойду дорисовывать арт для Хэллоуина:)
~some screenshot from the game/какой-то скрин из игры~
So, today I'm writing a short report on the progress of the "Gray Path" demo development:
~Text: 90% ready (actually, it's already completely written, but some minor edits are needed)
~Sprites: 100% ready
~Backgrounds: ~60% ready (10/16 but changes are possible)
~Sound: ~70% ready (I use free sounds so I just need to find them)
I will also need to do the translation at the end, test everything, and possibly make some other changes.
Bottom line: I think I'll have a demo out in about 2-3 weeks!
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Итак, сегодня я пишу небольшой отчёт о ходе разработки демоверсии "Gray Path":
~Текст: 90% готовности (на самом деле, он уже написан, но требуются небольшие правки)
~Спрайты: 100% готовности
~Фоны: ~60% готовности (10/16, но возможны изменения)
~Звук: ~70% готовности (я использую бесплатные звуки, так что надо будет только найти их)
Также в конце нужно будет сделать перевод, всё протестировать и возможно внести ещё какие-то изменения.
Итог: я думаю, что примерно через 2-3 недели я выпущу демо-версию!
~main menu~
Yesterday I made the main menu for the game.
I thought about the design, and decided to stick to the standard renpay's design; in my opinion, it fits well with the atmosphere of the game.
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~главное меню~
Вчера сделала главное меню для игры.
Я подумала над оформлением, и решила всё-таки придерживаться стандартного оформления ренпай; как по мне, оно хорошо вписывается в атмосферу игры.
~a small screenshot from my game~
Recently I started making backgrounds. To speed up the process I decided to use photobash (and because I'm not very good at drawing backgrounds xD)
What do you think about these backgrounds, not drawn?
I think they give off a bit of a "weird and wrong" vibe (which actually suits the overall vibe of the game)
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~небольшой скриншот из моей игры~
Недавно начала делать фоны. Для ускорения процесса я решила использовать фотобаш (ну и потому что я не очень хорошо рисую фоны хд)
Что вы думаете насчёт таких фонов, не рисованных?
Мне кажется, они излучают немного "странную и неправильную" атмосферу (что, в целом, подходит общей атмосфере игры)