VIOLET

Visit our website! http://violetstudiogames.com/

[violetstudiogames]

“Where the heck have y’all been?”

HI GUYS!

It’s been forever, huh? How are all of you? Keeping well in these times? 

So... where have we been? Well... we’re still here. AO has been busy with both work and school, and I have been in graduate school. The workload has meant that I haven’t had much time to work on writing, and I have my day job on top of that. Without going into too much detail, basically, we’ve been swamped, and the pandemic has only increased that stress. In April, my mother was diagnosed with cancer, so I have been taking care of her as well.

But you’re curious about the games, right?

We are still working on Candied Carols. My ideas for the game have changed a little bit, but I’m planning on returning to the game when I have time (at the latest, when I finish with school, which will be Spring or Summer of 2022). The basic conflicts in the game are the same, but I wanted to add a school element to the plot, so I have been adjusting my ideas accordingly. Clara will be attending a magic school/college with our favorite characters, including Dietrich, who will be thrust into the chaos of the cast -- a few of whom will be teachers. We also have the plan to add a couple new minor characters to the cast in order to fill out the world. I’ll try to share information as it is planned out. 

In my spare moments, I’ve been working on the worldbuilding over on World Anvil. If you’d like to follow writing progress and learn more about the characters, check out this link: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/candied-carols-chirusse

Many of the pages are private, but as I write, I’ll make more information available. I’m still getting used to the format, but I’ll try to make use of the community tools over there so you guys can communicate more if you have any questions.

As always, thank you for your patience and support! Even when I am not writing, I think of these stories and feel grateful that so many people have resonated with our characters. 

[violetstudiogames]

Really great stuff on Dead Wishes, I recently go into it (last night actually) and love it and think it deserves more attention❤️ (sorry not very good at writing reviews/questions). I was wondering if I could do some fan fiction, AU stuff with it. It probably won’t be any good but there wasn’t any fanfic when I searched and didn’t know if it was allowed. Anyway thank for listening to this anon❤️

Of course!! We love fan content!!

[lust-lizard]

best duo on my mind

[violetstudiogames]

they are indeed best duo.

[emi0829]

[violetstudiogames]

hello!! i recently finished deadwishes (loved it :]) and was wondering what memories does each character to keep and which memories are fake and put in by anise? for example nanako and eira dont remeber each other but serigo remembers being attacked for coming out if i remember correctly. thank you for making a cool game :]

Hm... to keep this answer short, basically, they remember generalities about their previous lives, but not specifics -- over time, they forget things or events fade away from their memory. They may forget the face or name of someone they used to know, but they may remember generalities of events that happened to them long ago.

IE: Sergio remembers being attacked, but not the names or faces of the men who attacked them.

Nananko may remember having a close relationship with someone, but not that that person was actually Eira.

Anise is kind of a troll like that.

[violetstudiogames]

i was wondering, would it be okay to use the sprites or cgs from Dead Wishes as icons or headers on tumblr, with credit and a link to the itchio page? i totally understand if not! ^^ i searched through the blog but i couldn't find anything about icons / headers specifically, so i figured i'd ask. thank you either way! :D

Sure, we don't mind, as long as it isn't for commercial use. :)

[violetstudiogames]

I have to ask does Lucien truly love Dante? After playing Sergio's route it truly does just feel like Lucien will throw them away the second he gets bored with them. What makes Dante special?

That is the question, isn't it?

Although this isn't a satisfying answer for you, this is a conclusion I would like you to think about on your own. Lucien is a damaged man, but I'd like players to determine for themselves if he is irreparably so.

[violetstudiogames]

Hello! I recently finished playing Dead Wishes (every route & every ending) and there's something that I didn't quite understand that I can't stop thinking about. [SPOILERS AHEAD] What did Kazue do that Mateo considered such a betrayal?? He even called her a "judas b*tch" at some point. For all I know, he liked her and took her to Anise, who let her see her husband(?) and made her go crazy. But how did that affect Kazue and Mateo's relationship? The game was great btw! Thank you so much :)

Thank you for the kind words!

Spoilers

Mateo and Kazue were close, but when Kazue came to the compound and met MC/learned how close Mateo and MC were, she grew very jealous and wanted both of them out of the way. Mateo was dead to Kazue once she realized that he loved someone (besides her). 

She knew that Nanako hated Mateo and would attack him on sight, so Kazue lied to Mateo in order to draw him and MC to the house. Mateo believed her initially, but then realized that she had betrayed him and wanted him dead when Nanako greeted them with hostility.

[violetstudiogames]

Hi! I was also inspired by dead wishes to make my own dating sim, and I was curious how you went about doing the backgrounds? Drawing them really isn’t my skill set and I was wondering if you had any tips on that

Hi there! First of all, I’m so sorry for the late reply! I took a bit of time off because of the quarantine and sort of forgot to write updates on this tumblr... 

Anyway, it is so exciting that you want to make your own dating sim! Drawing backgrounds can be a daunting task, especially because they are so vital to your game!

Here is how I go about making BGs!

Depending on the BG, I have a couple different ways of going about painting them. I use CLIP Studio for all of the BGs/art in general because you have access to so many custom brushes, and you don’t have to worry about paying all those weird Photoshop/Adobe fees. 

INDOOR/HEAVY PERSPECTIVE:

For indoor BGs, I first make a sketch of roughly what I want the BG to look like. CLIP has a built-in perspective ruler, so I use that to draw lineart over my sketch, and all of the lines are snapped to the appropriate perspective. The ruler is a lifesaver, which is why I recommend CLIP for BG art.

After that, I pick out a color palette for the BG. What I find easiest is to find an image or photograph with a color palette that you like/similar to what you are picturing, and color pick from that. You aren’t copying the image you’re borrowing from, just looking at the overall palette. (IE: In my process video, I color-pick from a dress.)

From there, I block out the main colors used in the BG - walls, ceiling, floor, etc. These are the main colors, so I try to keep them balanced.  

From there, I use free/creative commons textures for tiles, wood, concrete, etc. I keep a folder on my computer with these textures. Do NOT use textures from google images or Deviantart - look for sites that specifically host textures that are not copyrighted/use creative commons.

I then add shading, small items, and light to the BG to give it life. 

Here is a process video for painting indoor BGs.

OUTDOOR/SCENIC:

The outdoor BGs in CC are nature-based, so I don’t use perspective lines as heavily. DW did require a lot of perspective because it is based in a city, which has a lot of lines and defined shapes.

My process for the outdoor BGs is less specific. I start out with a blobby painting that blocks out the shapes/composition of the BG.

For example, here is the starting painting for Pepper and Mint’s village.

Yeah, it’s kind of ugly lol. The idea is just to block out the composition of the image. For scenic images like this, the main rule I remember is further away = less contrast, closer = more contrast.

From there, I just start with the furthest parts of the painting and work forward combining painted shapes and layers of textures. 

Eventually, I arrive at something like this...

Make no mistake, this is hundreds of layers of painting, textures, more painting. It’s a slow process. 

I don’t have a video of my own to show you, but I highly recommend watching speedpaints by concept artists on youtube. Jordan Grimmer does some beautiful work, and I learned a lot from watching his videos.

Overall, just keep practicing!! The first BGs I ever made for DW were pretty bad, but I kept working at it!

This is so long, and I apologize again for the late reply! I hope this was helpful! 

[violetstudiogames]

Marz and Azra have a son, and he is a cactus named Jussieu 

that’s it that’s the post

[song-of-windblume-deactivated20]

so I just played through the demo of candied carols and it was absolutely wholesome and adorable, Jack is such a cinnamon roll- If you have some time to spend (which you probably do because of the quarantine/lock down thing) then I definitely recommend you play Candied Carols! (even though it’s not in the Christmas mood anymore aha)

[violetstudiogames]

Christmas mood is just the mood we need in these trying times.  ❤︎

[emi0829]

[emi0829]

[violetstudiogames]

How does Dietrich feel about being the fan favourite of Candied Carols? (I would die for him btw)

Hi there! I’m so sorry for the late answer!

In his words, he’s pleased that finally Jack and Fae are getting what’s coming to them. Who wouldn’t love him? Heh.

[violetstudiogames]

I don't know if you answered it before, can you make fanarts of your characters? ^^

I’m so sorry for the late answer!

Of course! We LOOOVE fan art!

[violetstudiogames]

I promise that we haven’t abandoned this blog! Here is a peek at a new BG in CC - Pepper and Mint’s village. The houses are built inside of mushrooms, and a herd of unicorns roams nearby. 

[violetstudiogames]

Hello~ Is it okay to post screenshot of gameplay?

Sure!