a visual novel label based in AUS! ♡
we make games that are queer, romantic, funny, cosy, and have just a sprinkle of magic ✨
we just released:
DemiDato: Monster Dating Show
The monster world's premiere dating show is on the air! Take your places, everybody! 🎬🔴
DemiDato: Monster Dating Show just released TODAY! Pick it up while it's still on launch day sale!
ICYMI, DemiDato is a comedy romance visual novel inspired by real-life dating shows with a tongue-in-cheek monster twist! 😈 There are TWELVE monster folks for you to date! (Yes! 12!), each with intertwining bite-size routes - the perfect length for streaming or playing over voice chat.
You can pick up the game RIGHT NOW on itchio at a launch day discount of 20% OFF!
sad-ghost-studios.itch.io/demidato
STATE OF PLAY 12/23: a little news and updates roundup!
Howdy all! Squeaking in just before the new year, I thought now's as good a time as ever for a little roundup of anything you might have missed, and what we're currently working on! Aiming to do these quarterly from now on 🫡✨
If you wanna keep up with posts like this from us without relying on social media, you can also sub to our newsletter! Promise not to annoy you. Good emails only.
Recap and news under the cut!
2023 Roundup
DemiDato
We had two releases this year, but DemiDato was the big one! For those that don't know, this game spent a long 5+ years in and out of development hell, so it was a big relief to finally put everyone's hard work out into the world back in March.
We were also lucky enough to feature DD in the Queer Games & Queer Halloween bundles this year, so even if you haven't had a chance to grab the game outright, check your itch library - you might already own it!
As for the future of our monsters, a 1.1 update is still on the cards! The bulk of it is already complete - there's some script tidying and quality of life improvements already in the WIP build, as well as a fancy schmancy CG Gallery (which you can see a little preview of in the devlog I wrote).
1.1 development has admittedly stalled a little, as I really want to implement some animated video transitions plus an animated intro and trailer into its final build, but it's been hard to find the time to teach myself a whole new skillset while also being in preproduction for our new title (more on that in a bit!). In my head for all the years of development, the game has always had a really cheesy reality show intro with horribl(y good) graphics, just like the real life shows that inspired it. So even if the feature didn't make it to 1.0, I still really want it to happen eventually.
(Plus, when we do eventually rerelease on Steam, a trailer is very important for the store page! That means it counts as futureproofing, right...?)
If you want to hear some more about what the release was like, my dear friend Kaiju of Digital Diversity interviewed me right after the game came out! You can read the interview on Digital Diversity over here.
GrandNya
Our second game of the year was a short little nugget written for 2023's Josei Jam, and devved almost solo by timepatches (hi! that's me!)
It'd been a long time since I managed to get anything off the ground in a jam setting, and I still find it a little intimidating (it's really difficult for me to get new ideas & iterate on them fast enough to meet the start deadline and recruit others), so solo dev it was! My art is hardly intricate but it gets the story across, and I'm proud of the VN as a whole - whatever you think of 'wholesome games' as a movement, it's hard to deny that we all need a cosy space now and then, and that’s the kind of story I like to tell most. And it's not like GrandNya is all sunshine, either, which you'll know if you got to the end!
I also managed to apply to Hand-Eye Society's Super FESTival with GrandNya, and was somehow accepted, which I'm still pinching myself about! What a stellar lineup of games to share a page with.
Fest aside, it was a pretty quiet release all things considered, so don't worry if you missed it! Your grandmas are still there on our itch page anytime, to give you a lil’ pocket of safe queer story to live in whenever you need it.
Intoxicated
Now for something completely different!! Despite some prior medical commitments around the jam date (which then got moved, typical), I was VERY stoked to be able to hop on the team for Kristi HusbandoGoddess' Yuri Jam game, Intoxicated!
It was an absolute blast. Turtles were drawn in the group chat for reasons I can no longer remember. It singlehandedly made me decide that I want to do more jam work on others' teams, because I forgot how fun it can be working toward a common goal in a more relaxed environment!
And the game turned out incredible. Check it out if you support women's wrongs! ♡
Plans for 2024
[Codename BAT 🦇]
(the big otome/amare game)
Oh yeah. It's big.
I won't spill too much just yet, but just know that I've had this idea as a vague plot bunny in the back of my mind for years. Then, as my dear friend Charlie and I were on VC beta testing a late DemiDato build, it came up and they were so excited about the idea that I couldn't help but start seriously thinking about how to make it.
Well. That was in March. After I took a break and worked on GrandNya, I've been working ever since on building out the world (it's set in the same universe as the rest of our library, but deals a bit more with the actual ramifications of it all, so I had to set some things in stone I haven't before). More recently I've been building out the most coherent, easy-to-follow outline I can (not my strong point, and bless my beta readers for their support while I complain about it).
Very soon I should be able to start writing! Terrifying! I can't wait. Once I'm a fair way into the script writing you'll get to hear about exactly what I'm cooking, and I think... you'll like where we're going.
[Other Redacted Thing]
Not my project so I won't spoil exactly what it is, but I get to do some UI work for an upcoming jam project and I am SO excited! I get to work with some very familiar faces again! You'll know what it is as soon as I'm allowed to tell you 👀
What I will say is that it shares a coincidental similarity with my long project...
That's it!! ✨
Thank you for reading all my waffle (being long winded is my special talent), and for sticking with us through the inevitable periods of radio silence! We're still just little fish in a very big pond, but every time someone plays something I made and feels some type of way, I remember what the point of all this is.
It makes me very happy to be able to share stories with y'all. Here's to more in 2024!
This year I want to celebrate one of the first ace characters I ever made, Koe from DemiDato (the siren on the left!) Her game might have only released this year, but I created her right when I was still figuring everything out (and so is she).
I even had to rewrite some of her section of the game a couple times over the years, as I understood more of myself, and more about her own experience that mirrored my own. 💜
She might not be perfect rep, but who is, and I'm so proud of her. We've both come so far ;w;
And guess what!! You can pick up the game she's in during Ace Week in a special bundle to support a whole bunch of queer creators, including me!! ✨ (It's also spookily good value 🎃)
...or maybe just treat, because guess what, our game DemiDato is featured in the Queer Halloween Stories Bundle this year!🎃
Now's your chance to star in a goofy, cheesy love letter to trash TV 🎬✨It's the perfect season for it - and all 12 of its dateable monsters LOVE this time of year (it sorta comes with the territory)
IT'S TIME TO:
🌙 read a cosy, safe, queer story
🐈 hear what it's like to grow old for two queer demihumans
🍓 make your wife happy with a cooking minigame
Grand-Nya is a short, cosy game about Aysu the moonlight vampire and Hinako her catgirl wife 🐈
Sit in a warm afternoon with them, reminisce about old stories, and help Aysu make the perfect snack that's just what her wife is craving - it's random every time you play! 🍓
She is a moonlight vampire with a laid back exterior, who might be just a little tightly wound and anxious on the inside. While she can't exactly sunbathe anymore, her wife Hina radiates more than enough light for the both of them.
Even though she can't eat anymore, she still does all the cooking.
You can meet her and her wife when Grand-Nya releases on June 30th!
She's feisty, outgoing, and maybe a little contrarian - the sun to her wife Aysu's moon. Hina has many little kittens in her army of grandchildren and is more than happy to add you to the list, if you need a little smothering!
Hinako also loves food, but is banned from the kitchen by everyone who knows her (in case of cat-astrophe).
You can meet her and her wife when Grand-Nya releases on June 30th!
Grand-Nya is the first game I've ever made with my own art!
yes in-lore a kid drew this but also it IS basically my skill level
I'm a self-taught graphic designer, but I've only recently gotten to a stage where I can doodle something sort of resembling a person, so I decided now would be when I tried to solo art for a jam!
It was hard. I don't really have the skills for this 😂 but I still really like how they turned out!!
Here's some progress shots:
pov you stole the cookies from the cookie jar and grandma noticed
and their final sprites in game:
It was really fun to get to design the characters myself, and then theme the entire UI around their colours! but after the jam I will need to nap for 8 years please thank you
Meet them in game on the 30th when the game comes out!!
Other Grand-Nya Posts ✨
🐈 hear stories about what it's like to be an old catgirl and an old vampire
🍓 make your wife happy with a cooking minigame
You're in luck!
Grand-Nya is a short, cosy game about Aysu the moonlight vampire and Hinako her catgirl wife. It's a story about family (blood and found), and what growing old with someone you love is like if you're queer - or a vampire!
Sit in a warm afternoon with them, reminisce about old stories, and help Aysu make the perfect snack that's just what her wife is craving. It's random every time you play!
If you need a pocket of queer safety this Pride month, your grandmas have you covered 💖
Grand-Nya will be releasing June 30th on our itchio!
I love these old ladies so much and I can't WAIT to share them with you🥺✨✨✨✨
This is a fun one because Koe plays a lot of instruments! She's mostly a woodwind guy, flute is her main instrument though she also dabbles in clarinet, ocarina, and pan flute.
But she's tried her hand at pretty much anything, which means she can try and impress by picking up something to play at a party, but is only really proficient at her chosen faves.
Just thinking about the most recent ask about carrots, does Thyme and her family know any of the other high profile rabbits out there? Like Roger Rabbit or Bugs Bunny?
How does she feel about Bugs perpetuating the carrot eating stereotype that is so prevalent now?
Thyme herself has been something of a shutin, at least compared to her parents (she networks the required amount, but doesn't really find the same joy in fancy parties as others might). But I believe her cousin may have mentioned knowing a certain Lola that might be familiar...
She doesn't sound like my kind of bunny... but I'm sure she's lovely.
As far as Bugs is concerned, it's common knowlege among rabbitfolk that his specific kind of vaudeville is outdated, but some consider it a kind of purposeful tongue-in-cheek invocation of the trope that just flies under most peoples' radars, and actually reclaim him as their own.
(Whether that's true as of Word of God, you'd have to ask e Bugs).
...I got to ask. Why does Thyme *not* like carrots? Texture? Taste? An incident with a juicer?
Actually it's because carrots are high in sugar and rabbitfolk have to watch what they eat in case they get sick!
In Thyme's case, though, she's just really sick of the memes...
My DMs are full, and it's all copies of the same joke. it's a disaster.
...as are most high profile rabbitfolk, who get it a lot from other well-meaning demihumans ^^'
Thyme hasn't been on the dating show for long, but it's long enough that she has certainly heard enough of the goofs.
have mako or tomoe ever tried catnip? is that even legal
Good question!
It's illegal and legal in different parts of the world, but in the place DemiDato is filmed, it recently became legal. Mako has tried it and isn't a fan (it makes her anxious), but Tomoe likes to nip on occasion!
He's already a very relaxed kind of kitty, so it actually gives him a little more energy than usual.
It's not my thing, nya, but I don't think it should be illegal, nya.
