DEMO (prologue) | my substack (for free, non-IF writing), KOFI 🎈🎠 Circus : Eyes of God is a horror interactive fiction story with dark fantastical elements. It is written with an 18+ audience in mind due to heavy themes and topics such as body horror, non consensual use of drugs, swearing, violence, sexual content etc.
The Circus doesn’t come in town often. Never, really. Only when it needs to be fed.
On the outskirts of a decaying town, a mysterious circus arrives overnight. It seductively whispers of never-seen-before acts, and ardently promises healing for those that are desperate enough to bind themselves to the Circus as performers.
That sounds right up your alley, doesn’t it? Well, They know what happened to you as a child, why you keep your face hidden from the world. You remember too, don’t you? The darkness, the shadows, a voice as old as time asking you to follow it, and clawing at your face when you refused.
They think that you have kept your sweet face hidden under those veils for long enough. They will heal you, they will heal your scars. They will let you take the veils off. But They won’t do it out of the kindness of Their heart, no. You must give Them something in return. They want to know—what are you willing to sacrifice for it, for taking your veils off? For healing? For beauty?
You just need to whisper it, and They will give it to you. They will know. Because the Eyes of God are always watching.
THE RINGLEADER — Pharo's face is the first one you see as you step inside the Circus, lit by bright and colorful lights. He doesn't need all that, though. His skin dark, his teeth sharp — it's all gleaming on its own, glitching, barely holding Pharo at the seams. He sees all, he knows all. And his smile gets wider and wider with each secret he learns.
THE BURLESQUE DANCER - Odessa's red lips, with a cigarette between them always, ache with demands every time she opens her mouth. Yet no one is able to keep their eyes off of her when she is on stage, moving like water on land and between thin and hanging fabrics. Odessa doesn't seem keen on talking about anything before the Circus, but she will make sure to get you talking about it soon enough.
THE ATTRACTION - Vesper is the newest addition to the Circus, one that has never been seen before. Or you haven't seen anything like it, at least. Vesper is quiet, almost unnervingly so. The tail and gills and twisted arms with sickly green-grey skin are to make a profitable attraction for sure. Just ... don't ever lift up its tank's lid.
Dev Blog #9 is up for Patreon subscribers! In it I show human Meteor's new face, talk a little bit about dialogue tree based cinematics, share some drawings, and show off dromi Meteor.
Summer is here! And so is an update on Pocket Adventure.
May was pretty so-so, spending all of it chapter 6 level design, and there’s still a few rooms left to complete. I'd say I’m around 85% done? The lower area there is new; a sewer segment before Poppin and Jupa enter the factory proper.
I did draw up more enemy designs.
Top row: Launzard, Lizword, Galvanari, Clean Shot
Bottom row: Hoppinstop, Lead Head, Squeedge
And making base sprites for some of them, too.
Something about chapter 6 as a whole is that it limits save points to only a couple. It’s still pretty accessible, but you have to go out of your way for it, to make you weigh the risk of taking on the next segment versus taking time to heal up. It’s the best compromise I can think of while maintaining the convenience of the save point as both a health restore and place to save, but stressing more on keeping track of health.
My thought process is having longer/tougher segments gives value to having more health, which gives value to buying foods, which gives value to money, which gives value to finding chests, which gives value to exploration, which is where all the gameplay happens.
It also helps prep the challenge for the next chapter, which I’ll get into maybe next month.
My main goal for June is to finish off chapter 6 level design. That involves about 4 main rooms and 2 bonus ones. I’m also contemplating other design work for 6, like designing and base spriting out specialized enemies, a mid boss, a minigame, and coding an obstacle/enemy hybrid, “Zombie Rickity”. I kinda want to jump to cutscenes for chapter 6 now too… so it’ll either be that, or planning out chapter 7’s obstacles and finalizing the design plan.
Sorry this month was sparse in fun stuff to look at. It probably won't improve until Fall, when I expect to be done with level design for a bit and can focus on enemies/cutscenes/event scripting.
Here are some more drawings of Zara! Now talking more about the character itself, I can assure you that Zara will be the most disgusting character of all four. I mean, nothing too crazy, but she will put you in VERY repulsive scenarios.
I just like writing about disgusting stuff that in real life would make my stomach hurt and make me pass out from grossness :’)
I still haven’t written her route, as I’m fully focused on the demo right now. But I do have a list of the main ideas and events that I want to make happen in her route >:) And I’m so excited to start writing it.
Maybe in the future I'll show old art about all of them, because these characters are kinda old, originally from another project (that is still happening), but the idea of putting these four in a murder sim is recent, and I liked it so much I decided to do it.
The majority of characters from this other project could definitely fit in murder sims due to the violent nature of most of them. And I’m already thinking and having lots of ideas for this pyromaniac character to have his own murder sim. But that would happen a long time from now.
Also, I’ve been messing a bit with the writing, and I’ve added some more options and rewritten some of the scenes.
Hello everyone! It's now April, which means it's time for another public devblog. There's a bit to cover this time, so let's hop right into it!
Battle Live
First off, let's go over one of the major projects I'm working on: Battle Live! The Idol School Collection.
In case you missed it, the Steam page for the game went public at the beginning of March! You can check out the page and wishlist it here:
Welcome to Pride Park! Experience six main stories and several bonus stories centered around the staff and students of this eclectic idol sc
So far the game has over 100 wishlists, and I'm hoping we can get a decent handful more before it releases. If you know anyone that would enjoy my idol kids, then be sure to share it with them.
In terms of dev-related news, as of this blog post I only have the CGs left to finish for the game before I can officially call it complete! I'll also be working on the trailer for the game to prep for the eventual release, so we're in the final lap of development.
As for when exactly the game will release, I'll be taking some time after I finish CGs to look at how the game is doing in terms of wishlists and go from there (I've also been debating making a "demo build" of Episode 1 so Battle Live can join one of the upcoming Steam Next Fests, but I can't guarantee that). I'll be looking to see how many wishlists I want pre-release before I commit to a release date (especially since this is a free game).
Deep Waters
I've also been working on my other, longer project on the side: Deep Waters!
(Still in ugly alpha lmao)
For March's patron blog, I released an in-depth look at the game, what I'd done so far, and what I want to accomplish for it this year. If you're interested in learning more about my modern fantasy, boy's love game, then you can throw me a pledge for even just a month and read it (and all of my other patron blogs).
As for what I've gotten done, I can say that I managed to get a decent first pass of the UI done, and I am one scene away from finishing the first route of the first POV of the game! My goal for the year is to get one POV entirely written, so I'm on track for that.
I admittedly didn't get a ton done for it the past month because of...
Secret Project
Yeah I'm workin' on something secret (unless you're a Patron, in which case you know what it is).
As of this blog post, this secret project's Steam page and build have been approved, and the additional content I'm creating for it is at 10k words for my first pass of the script! I'll be working my butt off to get out of my ugly alpha phase so I can throw it at my editor, and hopefully by the end of April/middle of May I'll be able to announce publicly what this project is!
I am planning on making a patron blog for May that goes into this secret project in more detail, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. (Although it might not be at the beginning of the month since I ideally would like it to be after I announce it publicly haha.)
Misc Topic roundup
Let's finish up this blog with all of the short miscellaneous topics that also happened these past two months.
On February 20th I released a blog post for Forget Me Not, that goes into what the first year of my first commercial game was like! If you haven't read it yet, you can do so here: https://solsdevblog.tumblr.com/post/809100175583920128
Another anniversary to talk about is the 1st anniversary of my NaNoRenO game: Madame Ro's Curiosity Quiz. To celebrate not only the anniversary, but also the fact that it hit 1k downloads on itchio, I created a mini artbook full of concepts, doodles, and my ramblings about what went into making the game.
On your usual walk you meet a strange woman who wishes to learn more about you...
Speaking of jams, at the beginning of February I collabed with OTOJANG to create the Strawberry Jam GUI Pack for the Make Visual Novel Assets Jam! I drew the food illustrations, made the quick menu, and set up the controller support (using Fen's pack of course). Be sure to check it, and the other fantastic resources that were released this year, over on itchio!
Strawberry Jam themed UI for Ren'Py.
What's Coming Next
As I mentioned earlier, I'll be spending the time finishing Battle Live's CGs to decide when exactly I want to release it. At the absolute latest I'll be aiming for August (in line with Battle Live's original anniversary), but I'll make a separate announcement post when I figure out when the release date will be.
I'll also be working my butt off on the secret project I mentioned earlier! I believe, so long as nothing major interrupts me, I should be able to get it to a finished beta state by the end of the month. Once that's set I'll be in a good position to publicly announce it (and start collection wishlists for it on Steam as well).
Otherwise that's everything going on with me! My next public dev blog will be in June, so I'll see you all then. Take care~!
– The core story design of The Dark Queen of Mortholme –
A game about being the end boss of a game. A hero comes in to challenge you, and even after you mercilessly destroy them, they return. That's because they're the player character, and each time they become stronger as they figure out your mechanics, upgrade their armour, find health potions, etc.
That's what it says in my old design notes, and although the idea's gone a lot further than that, it's still pretty much on point. The game starts with the final boss fight with the slight adjustment that you're playing as the boss. The so-called hero you're facing dies in one hit, unceremoniously. A pathetic attempt against your vastly superior power.
But you've barely made your way back to your throne when they're at the door challenging you again. They might be immortal, but also clearly an idiot. Except this time, they dodge out of the way of your massive weapon. No matter, you crush them on the next swing.
They come back and prickle you with their sad toothpick of a sword. First it was funny, now it's getting annoying.
They keep coming back. It feels too ludicrous to admit, but you're getting a little nervous.
---
It's a story about someone who's been given no room to grow and no ability to learn from mistakes trying to understand someone who has nothing but that. It's the stubborn force of change versus the might of the status quo. The unstoppable force against the immovable object, except the immovable object starts to notice she's crumbling.
If you were a boss facing down your inevitable death after a long dance with your ever-improving opponent, would you begrudge the them for dealing it to you? Would you be proud?
