Happy Pride 🏳️🌈 and here's the monthly current status for The Bitter End! A couple more playtests done with feedback addressed, more art delivered, and a big code review done for everything that is relevant for the demo~ I also did a lot of editing polish, and started outlining post-demo scenes!
Hello, and welcome back to another monthly devlog, this one covering what we’ve been up to throughout the month of May. In a month’s time, we’ll already be halfway through the year - kind of crazy to think about, huh? I moved house back at the end of January and it doesn’t feel like I’ve been living here for nearly half a year; it feels more like two or three months at most.
So, let’s address the elephant in the room: the big super special mysterious game which has been mentioned for several months now - hell, since late last year - still hasn’t been announced, despite my hints and promises. The reason is, unfortunately, the same as the reason I gave last month, namely that not all of the assets required are ready yet.
If I can be honest for a moment, this kind of sucks. I want to be able to talk about this game openly, to share ideas from it, and to get people hyped for the demo. I want things to be progressing at a faster pace, and to be seeing visible progress. Some days I feel like making this game might be a mistake, as I haven’t gotten to some of the more exciting parts of it, and so I’m not 100% certain what those will look like, or whether they’ll actually be enjoyable.
I like keeping momentum on projects, and so I feel like I’m a bit of a failure when I recall that when Artificial Nexus was this far into its development, it had less than a year to go until release. If I got all of the pending assets for this project tomorrow, and could release the demo the day afterwards, I doubt that I’d be able to release the full version within a year - the script for the main game hasn’t been written yet beyond plotting it out, and even if I had that, getting it into the game and refining and editing it will be a lot of work. To be frank, there’s still a lot to go on this project, and it feels very daunting.
Nevertheless, I’m trying not to let it get me down. Plenty of developers take multiple years to make games, and that’s just the way that it is. Game development is a complex process, and I need to remind myself sometimes that it’s not a sprint - it’s a marathon. There’s no prize for developing a game quickly, and if this comes out six months, a year, two years, or even later than I initially anticipated, so what? That just means that it got the time and attention that it needed, and that it wasn’t rushed unnecessarily.
In more positive news, just because things aren’t moving at full speed, that doesn’t mean that the game hasn’t had any progress! Some of the things that were done over this month were:
Several backgrounds were completed
Voice lines have almost all been recorded
Character sprites for the demo have been finished
Character designs for the full game have been worked on, with the majority of the remaining cast having their features and designs finalised
A lot of placeholder assets, features, and text in the development build have been updated or replaced
At this stage, I know better than to make any promises that I can’t be certain of, but nevertheless, things are still progressing, and that’s more than enough to be happy with.
Check in with us at the same time next month for whatever that update looks like - whether it’s a single dot point item, a big update, or anything in-between. As always, we’ve got the Discord or contact page for any questions or feedback that you might have, whether it’s about this devlog or something else. Peace!
People keep saying that they like the villain's design (Ziguang) more than the good guy's design (Eva). Why is evil so alluring...?! 😭😈
I guess we're all suckers for bad boys.
Everyone is coming along so cutely though.
PixeledBean is doing the humanoid sprites this time, and everyone is coming out SO GORGEOUS, but very Pokemon inspired (at my request, hehe).
Humanoid sprites implies there will be non-humanoid sprites....
What does that mean?
You'll fine out.... 😼
Beanz is currently *not* available for commission, but you should still follow them on VGen so you can swoop in and grab some art when they open comms up again!!!
Check out PixeledBean's commissions and portfolio! | Creative little bean trying their best.
...
Rai (from Sudachys) IS available to commission!
But they do have Otome Jam plans! So maybe also follow and save for later, unless you want to troll them with money. I guess that's not a bad thing, though... 😆
Check out Rai's commissions and portfolio! | hobbyist artist who loves to draw OCs :D ...
Hope you enjoy our boys when the Demo arrives 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡
As I said everyone's getting new expressions, I thought it'd be appropriate for Marshmallow's to show! 😌
I plan to try and make Marshmallow's a bit unique due to the fact they are, well, a cat, so hopefully I'm succeeding, I just wanted to get a bit done before next week!
One of my favorite things so far has been implementing and writing my own little nod to CRPG (particularly classic BioWare) party banter. Little snippets of dialogue that randomly occur between pairings. It really makes the world feel so much more alive!
Just having fun with expressions! Everyone (including Marshmallow who sadly isn't in these pictures) should have many variants, just to continue my love of having basically any emotion I want in a character. Especially since this game will NEED many expressions due to the types of scenes I have planned out!
These won't be the only variants though, as I plan some double sprites too, like, sprites of two characters standing with their arms linked and similar stuff like that, so please look forward to that!
Finally got to making Orrin's reference sheet! I'm (hopefully) not going to jump into making his game until I finish up some of my other projects, but I'm going to keep posting little drawings until then.
We are already cooking again, believe it or not...! 💪🍳😻
This one is a stat-raiser Otome where you raise your own Baby Dragon and date a hot Dragon Daddy! 🐉🥚🐣
Of course, shenanigans ensue... you didn't think we'd you let get a sexy tax daddy that easily, did you...?! 👓
The whole game idea originated from Nick and Beanz's idea for a "Tax Daddy" who scolds you and does your taxes, for the O2A2 Jam.
Tax Daddy by Nick (https://vgen.co/NickDS). Also this was drawn by FINGER on Nick's phone. Nick is just that good.
Tax Daddy by PixeledBean (https://vgen.co/PixeledBean). We gotta put this scene in the game.........
Unfortunately, none of us have any expertise in doing taxes.
Wanting to do a stat raiser, I asked if we could make tax daddy a REAL daddy by giving him an egg. 😆💀😆 Which you, as the player, raise, while getting closer to tax daddy...... (there is no mpreg, alas, the egg canonically appears in a flash of light thanks to ✨️magic✨️)
We ended up giving him a much friendlier image than the initial designs... I do think he meshes with our cutesy overall game design better this way. Though maybe slightly intimidating Tax Daddy needs to make a comeback in some scenes... 🥵 (cough dommy daddy, anyone?)
V1 Tax Daddy by PixeledBean
V2 Tax Daddy by PixeledBean
Beanz is seriously so skilled and talented 😍
Wait til you see the divine beasties Rai is cooking, and our smexy villain (also designed by Rai)... 🥵💖😻
Sesame (Arghbulous) is helping with a ton of the worldbuilding and writing! We are super excited to share this adorable and silly story with you. It was supposed to be a smaller game, but of course it ended up spiraling a little bigger...
We are hoping to release it as our first commercial game, though the Demo will of course be free.
If you've read to this point and you've talked to be before, I'm not opposed to giving out a key, when we finally finish and release the game 😆 though it really helps on Steam if you purchase the game yourself and leave a review. Reviews from game keys are actually not counted towards a developer's total reviews, so anytime you buy a Steam native game and leave a review, you're doing a great service to indie devs like us.
Thank you so much, and can't wait to show more of this project to you!
Thank you so so much. With wishlists from all around the world, I'm honoured to have you be a part of this journey.
The Journey so far...
In Ashes first launched it s paged nervously in 2025. As a first-time small dev, it's the first time I've ever launched a page. In fact, 2025 had a lot of firsts. It saw our first discord server, our first X/Twitter account, the first time we ever participated in a Steam festival or had hosted a festival. It was the first time we created an announcement trailer for the game and announced Studio Ephua!
It's strange to think of what it took to get here.
It's been a bit quiet, no?
I know! But that doesn't mean the game isn't moving forward. I handle both the development of the game, and the communications, while working full-time. So often I don't have the time or resources to push out content to social media, but that doesn't mean we have nothing to show for it.
Vui, our background artist, has been expanding the world of the new demo with some brand new areas that are key to the story, while Betto has been using them to work on some incredibly exciting additional CGs!
We also have Zombie assisting us with concept art, and while I can't show most of the cool reveals yet, I can say they're doing an excellent job!
What else?
While it's unlikely In Ashes will feature custom SFX. However, I’m currently working with a very talented duo on producing a custom track for the project. The quality is already mindblowing! All to be revealed in due time!
Listen to In Ashes Intro Tease by Studio Ephua #np on #SoundCloud
That's all for now.
In Ashes is a medieval fantasy adventure where you must balance heroism and survival with rest, burn out, and trust. In this choice-driven v
RTE VN UPDATE: SHINY RED PEN FOR PUBLIC REVIEWS!!!
So the game has had its final major update for functionality and is available in its best light for all to see. And I know a lot of the people out there are super hesitant to deviate from their normal content for certain things like this, even in the dark, club-lit corner of the internet that Tumblr is...
...so I am here to offer you a shiny red pen for the request I am about to make: if you have the time and interest, I humbly ask that if you play, you also publish a review of the Eternal Frenemies: Return to Eternity Visual Novel!
Yep, you heard me: PUBLISH - post, link, tags, the works!
Read more below for clarification on the shiny red pen you get to do this with:
Alright, so you clicked, let's get into it:
I am well aware of the ten-percent rule (which is at its worst for small creators like myself), so statistically I can't expect more than a few people to ever take this seriously without some additional influence. I would hope that there are aspects of the game that people would praise, but it's more realistic to expect a good amount of players to care more about critiquing the game than the game itself due to its niche nature and intentional imperfections, so I am now here to offer you a chance to do JUST THAT- no holds barred, brutally honest and as cutting as you wanna be for whatever reason.
I just have one request: PUBLICIZE IT, leave my DMs alone.
You can spend the whole time picking it apart to a science, trashing everything, highlighting all the parts that are "wrong", "not good enough", "missing", blah blah blah - I no longer care, whatever makes it fun for you. As harsh as it may be, I trust you will have good reason to your criticisms, from studying if not participating in the professional capacity yourself.
And as harsh as it may be, any acknowledgement for my work spoken aloud for all to see is better than trying to keep it under wraps - I greatly appreciate the respect this carries in certain contexts (some creators are justified in asking to keep criticism private for whatever reason), but it has always been quite the slap in the face for me, and I would like to put a stop to it by asking for review in this way. I would rather you hate my stuff out loud than like it secretly.
I will also admit that because of the ten-percent rule, this is basically a necessary measure in order to extend the reach of my game to the eyes and ears around the world who might enjoy it. I am an advocate against unprompted criticism - that is, in response to works shared as expression instead of explicitly looking for feedback - but criticism is a necessary tool (and this is prompted as a MF). It helps artists get to where they want to be, and further entices discussion of learning more as a whole.
I am an artist that is finally satisfied with my art style and storytelling after about a decade of refining, so I am not explicitly aiming to get any closer to a professional level. Because of their unprofessional nature, I do not expect anyone to have anything positive to say. I expect people, if given the chance, to only highlight problems and improvements from a professional standpoint "just in case I change my mind and want to sell" or as if the game has no good points. Doing this DOES NOT make you a bad person, just one that pays attention, and attention is this game's best ally right now.
And I am not strong, so negative remarks can and do hurt for a while, but I take that risk and just share my work anyway because positive feedback and just....people making it know that they like what I create makes me feel that good. So I am not afraid. If all you have are critiques and you can't find anything good, that is valid and fine, mark it ALLLLLL the way up - everyone has a different opinion, and I wanna see all of the ones geared toward my work (publicly, of course)!
That being said, I feel that critiques carry more weight as research is done not only around the the tools used to make it but also around the game's available and unlockable content...so, ALL SPOILERS ARE ALLOWED, feel free to show any screenshot of anything you find worth noting! I look forward to reading every last review, so be sure to tag me!
We recently released our demo for our new indie game: Coalescence! It is a visual novel with some point and click elements. It follows the story of monster hunter, Andrea Bracken.
Due to a recent near death experience, she's found herself indebted to a being known as Burn: rage and vengeance made manifest. In exchange for her life, it demands Andrea kill in its name. Lost, frightened, and sorely out of options, Andrea and her adrenaline fueled wreck of a partner Vera Lavoie go on the run to hide her steadily growing body count and find a way to break Burn's hold over her.
The demo is around ~30min long and can be played on browser or download. Please play the demo and give us your honest feedback!
In the next coming days/weeks, we hope to share some of the in-progress art, screenshots, etc. Hope you enjoy!
Content Warning for Gore and Graphic Depictions of Violence
https://diminutivethief.itch.io/coalescence-demo
A bite-sized zombie apocalypse omegaverse yuri visual novel
My short zombie apocalypse omegaverse yuri visual novel for Omegaverse Yuri Jam - “My Affection that Dies” - is out now!
Check it out @ https://4noki.itch.io/my-affection-that-dies
My girlfriend committed suicide, but I couldn't bring myself to touch her dead body. Then the world collapsed, and she revived as a zombie.
This story is a tragedy. Therefore, there is no happy ending.
—A zombie x omegaverse yuri kinetic novel.
Content warnings:
Please be advised that this game contains sensitive content such as: suicide, death, alcohol, zombies, cannibalism, omegaverse typical sexism
Features:
2.3k words
A story told in CG/cut-in sketches
[omegaverse x zombie x yuri] We dreamed for the end of this world.
Please do check it out if this game sounds up your alley!
shino
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