Tiny Bytes with Alfy Issue #1
News and Announcements
Aksys Reveals Multiple Special Editions for the Upcoming Visual Novel Jack Jeanne
Fans who are looking forward to Jack Jeanne, the visual novel created by Tokyo Ghoul author Sui Ishida, will be excited to know that Aksys is releasing three special editions of the game alongside the standard copy of the game. The special editions, Bronze, Silver, and Golden, are priced at US $99.99, $119.99, and $139.99 respectively. Each one comes with different items.
- The Bronze Edition comes with an artbook, a scarf with the class insignias, five enamel pins, and a 3-layer diorama.
- The Silver Edition comes with all of that and an exclusive black pouch with the Jack Jeanne logo.
- Lastly, the Gold Edition comes with everything in the Bronze and Silver editions in addition to an exclusive unisex shirt featuring the main character, Kisa, and the Jack Jeanne logo.
You can pre-order any of the special editions or the standard edition (US $49.99) of Jack Jeanne right now on the Aksys Store.
Top New Indie VNs
Fall in love with the handsome wizard Aslan in Great Gretuski’s newest game, Love Spell: Aslan’s Story!
Funded through Patreon, Great Gretuski Studios released Love Spell: Aslan’s Story on November 2nd as a standalone expansion for their game Love Spell: Written in the Stars. In this game, Luna ends up chasing the pink-haired wizard through a portal into a parallel world. The two will travel this strange yet familiar world together, getting closer as they do. You are able to purchase and play Aslan’s Story by itself, but we strongly recommend that you play Love Spell: Written in the Stars before you do, so you can fully appreciate what this game has to offer!
Love Spell: Written in the Stars Aslan’s Story can be purchased for US $5.99 on Steam and itch.io.
Will you be able to reveal the identity of the Rainy Night Butcher or will you die trying in Rainy Butcher?
If you’re in the mood for a thrilling mystery that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat, Rainy Butcher will scratch that itch for you. Released fittingly on October 31st on Steam, Rainy Butcher takes place in Hong Kong, where you play as a journalist who is looking into the case of the Rainy Butcher, a serial killer who has claimed the lives of many. She hopes that figuring out who is behind these killings will get her that promotion she’s been dying to get, but will she just end up being another victim? That’s for you to decide.
Rainy Butcher can be purchased for US $5.99 on Steam. It has an English translation as well as Simplified and Traditional Chinese language options.
An Everyday Love reminds us that love is still possible
I think many of us know the struggle of trying to find love, especially in today’s world—lack of confidence, work, money, and more. In An Everyday Love, you’re a 24-year-old marketing assistant who wants more in life. She wishes to work on her novel and pursue a relationship but is unable to. That is, until she's able to work on an assignment with one of her co-workers, Ezra or Logan. This new project opens up the chance for our protagonist to finally pursue romance with someone, whether that's with one of her two co-workers or a personal trainer at the gym, Adrian. However, being young and full of worry, problems from the past and present begin to arise. Still, even with all of that going on, in An Everyday Love, love can still be possible for our protagonist. What will your story be in An Everyday Love?
An Everyday Love is available for free on itch.io.
Other New Games You Might Like
Travel the kingdom as a jester and sock puppet in Once Upon a Jester!
If you liked the game Wandersong, might we suggest something as goofy and heartfelt like Once Upon a Jester? In this story-rich adventure title, you play Jester, who is traveling the kingdom with his best friend Sok to try and steal the Royal Diamond. Of course, they can’t just go and steal it. To get their hands on the diamond, they decided to perform theater shows in hopes that the king will hear about them and invite them to his kingdom to perform. The game was featured in Nintendo’s Indie World on November 9, and during the stream, fans got a look at the wacky tale and characters that developer Bonte Avond has in store for players.
Once Upon a Jester can be purchased on Steam or the Nintendo Switch eShop for US $14.99.
Help your grandma regain her confidence in A Walk with Yiayia
Have you ever watched a trailer for a game or movie that you know will make you cry? A Walk with Yiayia is one of those games. In A Walk with Yiayia, you take a walk with your grandmother who’s just experienced a terrible fall. As you two go on your walk together, you talk about life and the environment around you as you complete little quests, all in the hopes of helping your grandmother feel confident again.
A Walk with Yiayia can be purchased on Steam for US $12.99.
Alfy’s Jam-Dar
If you’re looking to participate in any jams in the near future, we have some good news for you! Right now, there are two jams that currently have the attention of a lot of members of the visual novel community. Those are:
Winter VN Jam 2022
Jam Description:
This jam’s theme is: Winter. You can interpret this theme how you like. No matter if your story is about cozy times in front of a fireplace, spending time with loved ones over winter holidays, or adapting winter-themed tales, all are welcome here.
Twitter Hashtag: #WinterVNJam
Jam Period: December 1st to December 31st
Allows: Demos, WIPs, projects that started before the jam began
Rules: Has to be a visual novel or a story-focused game, has to fit in the jam’s theme of winter, no sex or gore, and no entries that are hateful or bigoted
Discord Server: The server that’s hosting Winter VN Jam 2022 is DevTalk, the biggest server for visual novel developers. If you wish to share your project’s progress and talk with other participants, we recommend joining DevTalk!
Black Visual Novel Jam
Jam Description:
Hosted by @TabethaMcNealVA The Black Visual Novel Game Jam is all about working with creative professional developers that work in visual novels to bring more Black stories to life. We want to create a space where Black creators can show their unique storytelling through visual novels. From December 20th to February 28th you or your new team member will create a visual novel!
Twitter Hashtag: #BVNJam
Jam Period: December 20th to February 28th
Rules: Must be a Black creator, submissions must be tagged appropriately with content warnings, no explicit sexual content, must be a new project
Discord Server: There will be meet and greets held for Black Visual Novel Jam in the jam’s Discord server! This is an excellent way to find others to join your project or to collaborate with someone else on theirs.
Developer Interviews
Every other week, we'll interview one of the many talented developers in the visual novel community. We've interviewed many devs in the past, such as Maxi (SandraMJDev), Vimi, Carrot Patch, Grettel from Great Gretuski, and John, one of the founders of Yangyang Mobile. We've also interviewed multiple teams, such as the team behind Elevator Hitch and Honey Bunny, who've made multiple otome titles! So please look forward to our fun and insightful interviews every two weeks!
Insightful Developer Content
Game development isn’t easy. The market is constantly changing, people are moving from social media platforms, etc. It can be hard to keep up with it all, especially if all you’re trying to do is make a game for people to enjoy! To make your life a little easier, we’ve decided to round up a couple of helpful resources that could be of use to you.
itch.io is a fantastic platform, and it’s a lot easier to figure out than Steam. But we would be lying if getting out there is any easier, especially when there are many other games being released on the site every day. You really need to put in the work to make your game stand out among the rest if you really want to catch people's eyes. Thankfully, Arimia did a fantastic and informative post about how to do this!
Mastodon is a platform some game developers are jumping ship to after the recent Twitter news. If you’re confused about how Mastodon works, check out this thread by Vintually!
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