Tiny Bytes Issue #3
Fall in love with your housemates in Doki Doki House, coming soon to Steam!
Otome game fans are certainly feasting this year. Not only are major titles like Lover Pretend and Amnesia: Later x Crowd being released in English, but there are plenty of indie titles being released. One game that's snuck up on Steam is Doki Doki House. In this game, you play a young heroine who becomes a temporary owner of a guest house. As always with otome games, the guests staying at the house are incredibly attractive and even have a past connection to her. What kind of hijinks will our cast get into? Who will the main character fall in love with? That's for you to decide!
The game is marked as "Coming Soon" on Steam. It'll have an English translation as well as German, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese language options. You can wishlist the game now.
Travel back to the regency period with this drama-filled story, The Widow's Boutique, now on Kickstarter!
In this historical drama, you play as widow Sem, a woman who lost her husband two years ago. Aside from his debts, he's also left you a boutique. Determined to make it as a businesswoman, you need to manage your business, wealth, status, and relationships. Will you re-marry and forfeit your boutique? Or will you decide to venture out into the world as a businesswoman?
Those who might be skeptical about the historical accuracy of The Widow's Boutique don't need to worry. The game's writer, Ragnhild Hutchison, is an 18th-century historian, so the events, people, and more will be accurate to the time. Not only that, but the game's artist, Maria Eliassen, has studied the era very closely to make sure the clothing the characters wear is historically accurate.
If you would like to back the project yourself, you can visit the game's Kickstarter here. There's also a short demo out right now, available on itch.io as a web build and on Steam as a download.
Will you date Bingus or Big Floppa in Bingus: My Beloved?
If you love games like Hatoful Boyfriend, then you'll love Bingus: My Beloved. In this weird but funny high school romance game, you're a new student who enters a high school whose student population are, evidently, all cats. The romantic interests are Bingus and Big Floppa, but there are a ton of other cats you can befriend while you spend your time at this strange school. The game features minigames, like a rhythm game, for example.
You can buy Bingus: My Beloved on Steam for US $4.99, with a demo available if you aren't too sure about buying it.
Will Ekaterina become the rightful successor to her House in The Winter Tower?
Ekaterina is supposed to ascend to the throne after her father tragically passed away. However, her stepmother and stepbrother have other plans, with them wanting to take away her right to succeed. To prove herself worthy of becoming leader of the House, Ekaterina decides to perform her coming-of-age rite at the Winter Tower, a year-long process that puts her life in danger. During the ceremony, she meets a young man whose hair is as white as snow. Who is this mysterious man? Will the two fall in love? More importantly, will Ekaterina be able to complete the rite and become the leader of the House?
You can get The Winter Tower for free on Steam. There's also additional content for the game; titled the "Fan Pack," this DLC contains a story that takes place after the true ending, full-length editions of the opening and ending songs, a digital artbook, and voiceover bloopers. This DLC costs US $14.99.
Brew tea on a floating island in The Archipelago
How will you act in a world that's falling part around you? In The Archipelago, you play as a tea brewer who is trying to brighten the days of those who need it the most. The Archipelago's gameplay revolves around you making your customer's orders and talking to them, so those who've played Coffee Talk or VA-11 Hall-A will feel a sense of nostalgia as they play through this title. The Archipelago, much like those games, is very relaxing and is perfect for those looking to de-stress from a long work week.
You can download The Archipelago on Steam or Google Play for free or play it in-browser on itch.io.
Journey through your family's past as the family cat in Cats and the Other Lives
In Cats and the Other Lives, you play as Aspen, a cat of the Mason household. You and the other remaining Mason family members return to their childhood home after the passing of a family member. When you get there, you are able to relive decades of memories that have transpired in that estate. Of course, you can also cause mischief along the way. You are a pet, after all!
If this 2D pixel-art game sounds intriguing to you, you can purchase it now on Steam for US $19.99. A portion of the game's profits will go to medical operations for street cats.
Try to keep your video game development afloat in GOODBYE WORLD
In this short adventure game, you follow two game developers—Kanii (programmer) and Kumade (artist), who have been making games together since graduating college. However, their games haven't selling well, so they've been working to make cash. While you follow the two protagonists, you play through platforming stages through thirteen chapters. In these chapters, you get to see how the lack of sales is affecting both Kanii and Kumade. Will they both try to keep their dream alive, or will the harsh reality that's being presented before them cause them to lose their passion for good?
You can buy GOODBYE WORLD for US $11.99 on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
Find romance and discover secrets in Noblesse Oblige!
Back in August of this year, Choice of Games released Noblesse Oblige, set in the same setting as Crème de la Crème but playable on its own. In this 130,000+ word text-based story, you're hired as a conversation partner for an aristocrat who lives on an island. Given how few and far-between opportunities come your way, especially ones that pay as handsomely as this one does, you decide to take the job. However, as always, working with the rich also means that secrets are aplenty, and there's more to your employers, as well as your environment, than meets the eye.
What I love about Choice of Games and their titles is that there's a lot to explore within their stories. Not only that, but the player is able to play as who they want, allowing them to play as themselves or an original character they completely make up. In this particular story, you can be a male, female, or nonbinary character. In terms of your orientation, you can be heterosexual, gay, bisexual, asexual, and/or aromantic. You can also be monogamous or polyamorous.
You can purchase Noblesse Oblige on Steam or the Choice of Games app on Android/iOS for US $4.99. You can also play through the game once for free on the Choice of Games website.
Smooch a fellow kaiju in Kaichu - The Kaiju Dating Sim!
In this game, you play Gigachu, a kaiju who just simply wants to find love. At the beginning of the game, you pick one of the six love interests and go on dates with them. In order to see if they're the one for Gigachu, you'll have to complete a compatibility quiz where you answer a series of questions while also destroying landmarks in the process. How you answer these questions will determine if the relationship blossoms or is a total fail.
You can buy Kaichu - The Kaiju Dating Sim on Steam and Nintendo Switch for US $9.99.
Black Visual Novel Jam
In our first issue, we briefly talked about Black Visual Novel Jam. On December 20th, the jam will officially begin! If you're a Black creator and you would like to bring your story to life, then we encourage you to take part in this 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.
Interview with NoBreadStudio coming next week!
Love mystery? Well, then you'll love next week's issue, because we'll be interviewing NoBreadStudio, the developer behind SoulSet, Blankspace, and the upcoming horror mystery game The Elevator Game with Catgirls. So be sure to stay tuned for next week's newsletter to read our exciting and fun interview with the team!
With at least one game jam to join every month, there's always an opportunity for first-time developers to have a try at developing their first visual novel. However, despite what some may say, developing a game, even a visual novel, is no easy task. While participating in a game jam can be fun, there are some things you need to know before entering one. If you're looking to enter into a game jam, like Black VN Jam, be sure to read our article so you can have a successful project!
Visual novels heavily rely on writing. If you don't have a strong, compelling narrative, you're going to lose your readers. Knowing this can be stressful, and there's a lot to consider when making a VN, such as story branches, what story arc your game is going to take, etc. If you find yourself lost on what to do or you're a newcomer to writing visual novels, the YouTube video "How to Write Visual Novels" by Vimi/Visual Novel Design, is a fantastic video for those who need help.
Vimi, a VN developer who has created amazing and unique works like L.S.D.s, Fantomas, and Romancing Flesh, has a YouTube channel dedicated to posting advice and tutorials for visual novel developers. He also has an abundance of other videos for the Ren'Py engine. So if you like what you see in this video, we strongly recommend subscribing to Visual Novel Design and checking out the rest of Vimi's content!
Gabmag, also known as Gabby, is one of the members of Two and a Half Studios, a small Australian-based studio. They're responsible for the hit game The Divine Speaker and have also released a few other, much smaller games, like Amelie and start;again. Their blog consists of helpful tips and tricks for Ren'Py users (e.g., recoloring your sprite to match the time of day) and answering questions from users. The linked post above covers burnout, a very serious but not often talked-about topic in the community. Gabby also touches on whether a developer should start with a small project or maybe go with something bigger. Lastly, she talks about using free assets and the importance of checking the licenses for the assets you're using if you decide to go that route! Her blog posts are very informative, so we recommend checking this one out as well as the others.
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