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Aww, that's so amazing! After reading what was available I immediately went to Ko-fi to read chapter 3. It continues to be great. The small hints of hope that the MC can have, but combined with significant setbacks (always going to happen when recovering from trauma) are very well portrayed. And the overarching mystery of what the MCs kidnappers were trying to uncover and what they did to the MCs body to create that reaction to mana continue to intrigue.

I know the project is in its infancy and I try not to get my hopes up about works in progress, given how many fall by the wayside, but know that you have an amazing concept and your writing style is very engaging. I can't wait to see the opportunity available for interaction with the twins. My MC is very distrustful of the adults around him, but I can see him being able to open up more to the twins, Atru especially.

Also, in the start of chapter one in response to nudity I'd love a response more in line with when he is being given stuff later, just a general acceptance of his nudity because he has been kept that way for so long. I really like the responses where the MC considers themselves sub-human because of the way they have been treated. It strikes me as one of the fundamental responses to trauma to take that burden on yourself, that there must have been something wrong with you to "make" people treat you that way.

Jesus Christ, it shouldn't be surprising that children being tortured is so deeply affecting but apparently it's a real trigger for me. The way I fucking sobbed at the reaction to the scissors. I'm talking full on snot coming out I was crying that hard. Extraordinarily well written.

One of my most hated gimmicks in IF is artificially slowing down the text generation. I already read faster than the text can appear, please stop forcing it to appear more slowly.

God I wish there was a better way to do episodic releases. I hate having to go back and read each part individually when the new release comes out. I get the business model of it all, just very inconvenient for the reader.

The premise of the game seems to be whoever finds the phoenix marries them (or uses them in some way to form an alliance with the phoenix kingdom), so being forced to be married and have kids isn't necessarily weird, but it would be nice if the game acknowledged if it was a political marriage if you don't like the LI rather than a marriage of love. 

I really enjoy this game, but the one glaring flaw (if I haven't misunderstood something) is having to replay the ENTIRE game just to see different character endings. To get the true ending with one of the characters they have to be the last one you seduce, so to see every characters true ending you have to replay huge chunks of the game. I wish at the end of your last seduction you just got a choice to say who you wanted to go with forever and then you get whatever ending you'd earned with them.

Really looking forward to John's route. He's been a standout since he first saved Marion in the forest abduction from the river and his actions there really spoke to me in a way none of the other Sherwood characters did.

This isn't the first time I've read Straight!? but I feel like every time I reread I pick up another relatable thing from it. Zack thinking about his highschool experience and how even though he had friends he never really knew if they were actually friends because of how much he hid from them really fucking hit me hard. I'm fucking 38 years old and have been out for decades at this point, but I'm fairly sure I still have issues being vulnerable with people and forming genuine connections with them because of how much I felt I had to hide as a gay kid growing up in the 90s/00s.

Interesting. Is the mention of Espers confirmation that this takes place in the same universe as Gilded Shadows? Or is it just your preferred term for psychic abilities?

It's always a nice surprise when I see Steamberry show up in my Feed. Can't wait to see what new stuff you have for us!

That's super interesting, thanks for the in depth reply!

From an art viewpoint was the skin tone slider difficult to get working and have the result look right? I can imagine different skin tones have different highlights and undertones that need to be changed with the slider as well, did you have to simplify the colour style for the MC to make it work?

"They could either go to the Asphodel Meadows, or the gods might decide that both the MC and Asterion took such heroic actions with the hotel to warrant Elysium. "

I like this thought especially given that there is such emphasis placed on heroic deeds needing witnesses in the trial with Asterion. He only missed out on Elysium in the first place because of this. But now so many have witnessed both his deeds and the MCs. The MC especially, I don't know whether it would traditionally being considered heroic in ancient greek culture but standing up to a god, stopping them from breaching rules of hospitality seems pretty heroic to me.

Wait... you had to google demisexual and panromantic? Why? Cove literally explains what they mean in the conversation you are referencing.

Anyone who actually seriously works out doesn't look at the scene with Chester at the gym doing a one rep max without warm up and think impressive, they think idiot. Throwing your max weight around without warming up on that movement is just dumb.

This is my only problem with this project. It is objectively very good, but I can't help but play it as a supremely bitter MC who hates everyone around him

I will never forgive you for that fakeout with the commander in the baths.

This was a pleasant surprise. I have played OIHS and enjoyed it for what it is (porn) but this is a nice take on a wholesome isekai adventure (though I'm definitely not going to complain if we get some sex scenes as the relationships develop). I like all the love interests, though there is a special place in my  heart for Damir and Rocan. 

I can't believe I missed the release of this one. I loved the demo when I played it ages ago, even though stat raisers are my least favourite style of visual novel. I'm glad I didn't let that dissuade me though. This is amazing. The setting, the romance options, the supporting characters and the MC themselves are all absolutely top notch. I legitimately cried in two places in the story, once relating to the romance and once relating to the MC backstory and for a VN to have such a well rounded and fleshed out story that gives me that sort of feelings is a rarity. Well done.

You have the right to ask people not to call you queer. You don't have the right to tell someone they can't call THEMSELVES queer.

Honestly, I don't normally play dom routes but the Marky date was spectacular.

So, here's the thing. I really enjoy playing the game, but by the time I got to the gym and I was still having my hand held I was just about ready to throw the whole thing in the trash. Seriously, its not that fucking complicated, you don't need to hold the players hand the entire way, and if you do think its that complicated then you should streamline the gameplay, not add more tutorials.

This is actually a surprisingly fun base for a dating/sex game. Unlike the match three style games this actually feels fun to play. Would definitely love more content, and it seems like there is a good structure to add more content, just slot in more promotions (and more guys to hire).

I've just come back and replayed Sileo for the first time in a while. One thing that has always stood out to me as weird is the odds of someone being susceptible to pheromones. 1 in 50? When you are talking population level statistics that's actually a HUGE number of people! Hearing Spencer and Tai talk about it as if it is such a long shot is weird. They talk about it like it's about the same risk as being struck by lightning (1 in 100,000 odds). Hell, if we look at it like a disease, the definition of a rare disease has odds of 1 in 2000 (depending on the country) so 1 in 50 is super common.

I agree that the actual variation you need to put in for a gender variable MC is minimal. Like you said "Personalities aren't gender-specific". But it makes me so excited that you are putting as much thought into it as you are. While I don't need everything catered to me specifically and it can actually be really good to experience a romance from a different point of view, I am very excited to see a MC that is more relatable to myself in one of your worlds.

How have you found writing and doing the art for a gender variable MC? Has it felt like a lot of extra work? Or has it been manageable?

Huge congrats on finally finishing out such a massive project. I'm sure there might be a bug or two that needs an update in the future, but finally seeing all routes completed I'm sure is an amazing feeling.

It's a little bittersweet to finally see Gilded Shadows finished, but it's definitely going to be one that I keep coming back to an replaying different routes just for the pleasure of living in this world for a little bit. 

I'm getting events with the necklace in week 9 even though I chose not to touch it earlier in the run.

Same here. Specifically for me it was in week 7. The first two for that week were correct (Geomancy) but the second two were Calligraphy and it continued on to week 8 as well.
EDIT: Heh, now I'm getting symbology thrown in as well when I didn't choose it.

The fact that you have basically completed a project with over a million words is such a massive accomplishment. You've basically written 10 entire fantasy novels in one game.

Holy hell, I was content to not get any news on When Stars Collide until Gilded Shadows was completely out the door. To get the news that there is already 300,000 words written for it is an amazingly good surprise! I'm really looking forward to exploring the world in this one, and I'm very intrigued by not just the LIs but the MC as well.

Nah, definitely don't think it's a fake out. Everyone (Glitch, Byte and Alex) seems to be on the same page with it actually being Alex's memories. It also adds a good bit of drama between Alex and Loken going forward that will be fertile writing ground. Despite what Alex says in this chapter I highly doubt it's just going to be forgive and forget about what bipeds have done to him previously.

Look, I don't normally go in for horror VN, I'm here for the good hound. But this? This was both intense and amazing. A lot of horror I've seen feels like it's horror for horror's sake. It bogs down the story that I really want to get to. But this was a perfect use of horror driving the story forward. We got so much information about the world and the characters, but presented through a horror lens.

Nah, it was the "Too bad you have a girlfriend". Sounds like you're already aware.

Possible continuity error. I slept with Diego during the threesome but then turned him down at the garage but he still showed up at the house saying we switched underwear at the garage.

Wow, this is a really intriguing story premise with (as expected from Gilded Shadows) some amazing world building in just this first short section. Very excited to see more of this. Also super happy that the MC isn't gender locked in this one.

Real fucking cute. I'm not sure how I feel about the entire game being about these two idiots not realising they both love each other, I feel it might get real frustrating for me after a while, but definitely following to see more.