date the inner circle!

blog dedicated to an upcoming dating sim for golden kamuy

[datetheinnercircle]

HELLO EVERYONE. I am releasing a form to gauge some interest in a possible 18+ dating sim for Golden Kamuy's 7th Division (Tsurumi's inner circle). If I reach the goal, I will release another form for people who woud like to work on the team. 💜 The characters involved will be Tsurumi, Tsukishima, Koito, Usami, Ogata, and Nikaidou.

Please fill out this form so I know who is and isn't interested. Some details under the read more.

This form, and the game as a whole, is intended for everyone within the fandom. I already have a small team who are willing to work with me if there is interest, but I will also be seeking out other team members if I reach the goal I have in mind. This will be based either in a Modern AU or Yakuza AU setting. Depending on the interest, I will be working on the story from there and brainstorming with the team once I get the appropriate responses.

link to twt post, link to bsky post

[datetheinnercircle]

Writing Rejections & Waitlisted emails for the dating sim have been sent. Outlook is unfortunately limiting how much I send out in a day so rejections for art will be hopefully sent tomorrow.

[datetheinnercircle]

UPDATE: All emails have been sent out. I made sure that every single email sent (none of them should be in your spam folder but check anyways), I even attached a secondary email to make sure that they were being sent and not hidden.

[tansypansydandy]

being a gamedev has changed me

[datetheinnercircle]

game development is going well btw.

[datetheinnercircle]

Writing Rejections & Waitlisted emails for the dating sim have been sent. Outlook is unfortunately limiting how much I send out in a day so rejections for art will be hopefully sent tomorrow.

[datetheinnercircle]

Expect emails about the fangame dating sim this week (both rejections and acceptances). I've been slowly looking through every applicant and I want to send out emails all at once. We look forward to adding more people onto our team and your continued support. 💜

[datetheinnercircle]

Please, please, check your emails if you applied to be a coder (and only as a coder, as we got one or two that weren't actually applying to be a coder). The coding team is wanting to practice with Ren'py and I need to make sure everyone is accounted for so that they can all work together on a tiny project before starting this one.

I'm still working on applicants, but we at least have one writer for each route now. The volunteer form is closed for now, but we'll be opening up again if we need any other artists, coders, or writers. We're currently not looking for BGM, as this is more of a thing we'll need at the end of our project.

[datetheinnercircle]

Hello everyone (again), please check your spam folders, especially if you applied to be a coder as the priority. We're trying to send out emails but things keep being sent to spam. :')

[datetheinnercircle]

Emails have been sent out for the Coders and Nikaidou Team artists. Please check your spam folder! I will try to also send DMs if I don't get a reply by this evening.

[datetheinnercircle]

SMALL ANNOUNCEMENT.

Please unlock your Google Drive if you have given us that. We need to see your art and we cannot do so unless it's unlocked. Please and thank you.

[datetheinnercircle]

HELLO EVERYONE!

The volunteer form is now LIVE! We will be doing these in waves, so when we hit at least 50 responses, we'll close the forms so that the team and I can sift through the responses. Once we finish, we'll reopen the forms. 🙂‍↕️ Please be kind and patient to the team, we are limited at the moment and we want to go through everything before we start.

[datetheinnercircle]

Hello everyone! I'm running behind on the Volunteer Form due to wanting to be as detailed as possible. Expect to see it out by this week! Thank you all for being patient.

[datetheinnercircle]

HELLO AND GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE.

I will be closing the interest check. When I made this, I genuinely thought there would be little to no interest in the dating sim. As of right now, there's a total of 109 responses!! Please be on the look out for the volunteer form soon. 💜

[datetheinnercircle]

Answering Your Questions!

Hello everyone, I will be answering some of the questions that have been asked over on the form. I want to be completely transparent on my expectations, my ideas, and what to expect before I begin working on the volunteer form.

Q: How much would the game cost? / Will this be a free or paid game? A: The game will be free! This is based completely around volunteer work and a set deadline of two years. I want the writers, artists, and coders to have time to work on their designated jobs while also having time for things that are important, such as jobs, family, and possible commissions.

Q: Guess my only question is what platform it'll be dropped to when it's done? A: Our current plans are to host on Itchio.

Q: Can you choose your name and pronouns in this? A: Yes, you can! I have a coder who already knows how to do this, so we'll hopefully be able to work it into the game already.

Q: For the AU that loses the majority vote, what’s gonna happen? Will it ever be touched upon again? A: As of answering this, it seems like a Modern AU setting will be in the works so far. If there is interest, I would not mind making a possible Zine for the Yakuza AU or vice versa! This will be after publishing the fangame however.

Q: Are h-scenes toggle-able or not? Would it be possible to make a toggle for them, in case someone is not interested in the nsfw content? A: We can definitely try to make NSFW scenes toggleable. However, I will not make any sort of promises in terms of coding, as that is extensive work and I only have one or two possible coders for the game right now. I will be taking note of this and asking my team as soon as it is officially established though.

Q: While it's obvious that the LIs are the 7th, will other characters make an appearance as extras (non LIs)? A: As of right now, I will not be promising guest appearances in the game. I am working with artists who are volunteering their time for free and currently want to focus on the characters I already have planned so that we can stay within deadlines. If all goes well and the 6 routes are on path to completion then perhaps other routes will be considered, but the current amount of routes is a big undertaking and we want to make sure that the current outline can be completed.

Q: Will there be a gallery option built in to view any unlocked CGs? A: Heavily depends on the artist. Right now, I have it set up that each artist team can choose whether or not to incorporate CGs / illustrations. I would love to do that but again, I cannot promise stuff like this until I work with the coders.

Q: Why is Ogata included? I though he left the 7th division! Can Tanigaki be included technically? A: Unfortunately, with how many routes there are, I want to focus on those six instead. As said before though, if all goes well and we're on top of the deadlines, then perhaps team members will want to work on routes for new characters. We shall see, as the routes right now are a huge undertaking and I still need to find artists and writers for each one. I want our team to focus on the already promised routes.

Q: My question is how each ending will go and if there will be traditional "bad" endings, or just alternate endings for the routes? A: As of right now, we have a lot of concepts to work on. There is a reason why in the questions I have asked whether people are more interested in a Yakuza AU or Modern AU, as which one is chosen highly dictates where we go from there. Again, this is just a concept at the moment and I will be working with my team to see what is manageable for them.

Not a Q, but there were concerns about themes, research, and the mention of Nikaidou's drug addiction being brought into the game. A: We are going to treat this topic as respectfully as we can, as I do believe that this is a core trait to Nikaidou and should be treated with the utmost respect. There will be no whitewashing, especially in regards to Koito.

...And that's a wrap! I answered mostly questions about the concepts and the game as an idea, because the volunteer form is not yet out and I want to get to work on that before I answer anything else. I hope these are helpful and thank you all for showing such amazing interest in my idea.

[datetheinnercircle]

i was honestly expecting to only get responses in the 10 range but you guys have honestly blown my mind in such a good way!! i will be making the form for those of you who would like to help with the writing, art, and coding as well.

as a reminder, this will be something to be taken seriously. this game won't be done in three months, i am being realistic in my expectations. i will also be answering any important questions that were raised in the responses... thank you all for being amazing. :') <3