windchimesgames

[windchimesgames]

Does alridas like sandwiches

Yes, for sure! His favorite is grilled cheese sandwich 🥪

#rs asks #character asks

[windchimesgames]

Round 2 of the love interests re-introduction: meet the second love interest, Lord Kierdan Waven!

As the eldest son of the House of Waven and a high-ranked officer of the Authority, Kierdan is nothing short of intimidating to most people. His commanding presence and stand-offish aura do not help matters either.

But is there more than meets the eye beneath the earl's icy mask?

Full character bio:

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

It's been a long time since we've introduced the characters. So here is a re-introduction for the folks new to my otome visual novel!

Meet Aldrias, the gentle nerdy childhood best friend! He's smart as hell, but maybe a little scatterbrained and naive. Will your lifelong friendship finally blossom into something more romantic after all these years? 👀

Full character bio:

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

After almost 5 years of ups and downs, Reanimation Scheme is nearly ready to meet you all.

The full game will be released in Q3 this year, with limited beta access currently available on Patreon and to Kickstarter backers!

Reanimation Scheme is an otome / romance visual novel about necromancy, love, life and death. Step into the shoes of the necromancer, Raenelle. Meet a colorful cast of characters, fail to summon the spirits of the dead, unravel mysteries, and maybe — just maybe — fall in love.

Featuring:

A gentle nerdy childhood best friend 📚

A bubbly sweet gal pal 💖 (yes, there is a WLW route!)

One icy jerk of an earl ❄️

One playful prankster spirit 👻

A grumpy tsundere cat shapeshifter 🐈

Wishlist the game on Steam so you won't miss its release! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1520740/Reanimation_Scheme/

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

This is it — probably the funniest line I'll ever write in my lifetime as a person who's horrible at being funny on command. I'm probably way too proud of this, but thank you Jori for making me channel the humor in me that I never knew I had.

...Wait, it is funny, right? I'm not just exposing myself on how bad my sense of humor is?

*crickets*

Well uh, I'll just drop my obligatory daily plea for Steam wishlists here: if you haven't wishlisted the game yet, please do so! 🙏 Help out a solo indie dev who's godawful at marketing and at being funny.

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

Join us for the Amare Games Festival 2024! A Game Jam celebrating love and diversity in story-focused games!

Amare Games Festival 2024

Join us in April for the 2024 Amare Games Festival, a game jam celebrating love and diversity in story-focused games!

For this festival we invite you to create or update a game that you believe falls under the Amare Genre tag!

Don't forget to Sign up for the Festival on the Amare Games Festival Itch Page.

What is Amare?

Why a festival?

Jams are an awesome way to get the creative juices flowing and challenge yourself to create a game in a short amount of time. However, there are already a lot of amazing projects in progress, so it's important to celebrate those and give people the opportunity to focus on setting and achieving goals with their existing projects as well.

Examples of Submissions

A new game.

A new demo or Vertical slice.

A new chapter update to an existing game.

Adding new features or content to an existing game.

The festival has fairly relaxed rules, but in general, we would like all participants to keep these in mind:

Rules:

You must Release or Update during the festival period. Work can be commenced before the start of the festival.

Please clearly label demos or first episodes as such. - This is to help us organise the entries

Please clearly state the exact update or new content that was added during the festival.

Submissions can be Free or Commercial.

NSFW must be properly labelled, but is fine as long as it adheres to Itch.io's TOS

No hate speech, (i.e. speech that promotes hatred, violence or discrimination against groups of people based on ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.) or content that is patently offensive or intended to shock or disgust viewers.

Content Warnings are needed (Here is a link to help you with those if you need it!)

We currently do not support AI-generated games or games that make use of generative AI writing and art. Until legislation is put in place to ensure ethical training models that respect artist and creator copyright and regulate transparency on the use of AI in creative content, we will not allow the submission of games that utilise generative AI.

We kindly ask that you tag your game with the 'Amare' tag here on itch.io. This will ensure people who are watching the tag instead of just the jam page will see your game.

Join the discord to find others who are looking for festival partners, and to talk with other Amare Devs!

[windchimesgames]

Somewhere along the way, I've apparently collected quite a few pretty promotional key art pieces for my upcoming otome game, Reanimation Scheme (Yes, my wallet wept and I ignored it😂)

PS: If you're curious about the game, check it out on Steam and consider wishlisting it while you're at it! 🥺

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

Both of my otome games, Reanimation Scheme and Emberfate, are part of the Steam event, The Storyteller's Festival! I'm so honored to be featured alongside many amazing games from talented developers. 🥰

Check out the Storyteller's Festival on Steam for a lot of cool narrative games, and while you're at it, maybe add Reanimation Scheme to your wishlist too? 👉👈

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

📚🪄The Storyteller's Festival, our celebration of storytelling in video games, is LIVE on Steam!

✨ 250+ games from fantastic developers 💫 New game releases, announcements and demos ✨ Days of dedicated streams

We'll have some cool announcements during the week, so keep an eye out!

[windchimesgames]

Now that the game is getting close to its release, I really should start posting again more frequently so here we go

Reanimation Scheme is an otome visual novel, coming out later this year!

🪄 Play as a necromancer heroine (who actually just wants to go back to bed instead of saving the day because really, that sounds like too much effort) 🪧 Make a lot of bad and dumb decisions (I mean, who doesn't?) 💖 Romance 5 cute love interests (including a tsundere cat shapeshifter 🐈and an undead spirit👻)!

If any of that sounds interesting to you, you can wishlist the game now on Steam so you'll be notified when it releases!

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

End of Year Recap + Plans for 2024

Hey everyone!

Belated Happy New Year to everyone! I know this is a very late end of year recap 😂Unfortunately, the past week ended up much busier for me than expected, so I could only get around to doing this now that things have calmed down a little.

This is a crosspost of a public post I made on Patreon a few days ago, so if you prefer the formatting there, you can read the post at this link:

PS: I do free monthly devlogs / posts there on Patreon, so consider joining the free tier of the Patreon even if you aren't interested in the paid tiers!

For those who'd rather read the post here, I'll leave the extraordinarily long ramble in a Read More cut below!

Let's start with a quick recap of the highlights / achievements accomplished in 2023!

Okay, this one may be slightly cheating. While Emberfate only launched on Steam in Jan 2023 so the 92 positive reviews came in in the year of 2023, it was up on Itch.io since mid 2022, so not all 383 Itch.io ratings came in in 2023.

Still, I'm pretty proud of these stats! Perhaps the numbers are nothing compared to some other amazing games' out there, but it's still something I'm proud of. It makes me happy that my silly experimental nostalgic little game struck a chord in so many players — much more than I expected given how niche the topic was!

Now, unfortunately, I could not get Emberfate's DLC for Potato's route out by end of 2023 like I had hoped. Porting the game to mobile also ended up much more difficult than I expected because of just how much of the UI I'm going to have to redesign — and hence, programming to be redone — if I wanted to make the game fit a small mobile screen. So both plans are going to have to be postponed to 2024.

The other notable highlight of 2023 is that both Lyrissa's and Kierdan's routes for Reanimation Scheme were released for beta access! That put the game at 3/5 routes complete, with a total of 431,786 words for the script.

I recruited a handful of beta testers to test the three completed routes a few months ago, and so far, the feedback has been positive overall. That's been a huge relief and lifted a massive weight off my chest — due to the controversial reception of the demo, I've been extremely anxious that the game would be hated by the players, and I've done so many rounds of editing and honestly perhaps somewhat unnecessary and obsessive rewriting of the script, but none of it felt good enough 😂 So hearing the positive comments has been a huge motivation / morale booster. Perhaps I should have done beta testing sooner… LOL

There are two more achievements unrelated to a specific game project that I'd like to mention:

2023 is the year that I became more interested in and better at Ren'Py programming! Most of it is thanks to my amazing programmer friend and Ren'Py wizard, Feniks (whom you may know as the programmer for Our Life series), who sparked my interest in programming and helped teach me a LOT. While I'm by no means a professional now at coding, I feel much more comfortable navigating around Ren'Py code and setting up what I need to in the backend of the games I'm developing, which opens up new doors for me for future projects in terms of what kind of features (big or small) that I may be able to include! Though the side effect of that is I looked back at the code I did for Reanimation Scheme from previous years and was immediately horrified by how ugly and inefficient it was. 😂I did redo the backend code of the Gallery and Achievements system a bit, but the rest will just have to stay for now.

I made quite a few new connections within the indie VN dev sphere in 2023! I made a shocking discovery that there's enough number of indie VN developers from Hong Kong to fill half a minibus, and I was lucky enough to connect with them and share our experiences and learn from each other! Due to new project commissions I took on for $$$ (real life financial needs suck), as well as a couple of small game jam projects I joined as programmer to buff up my programming portfolio, I also made some new VN dev friends unexpectedly. It's been really nice, because honestly, solo dev can be a really lonely and isolating endeavor sometimes. I'm super grateful for the new connections I found myself making in 2023!

Looking Ahead: 2024

Okay, that was a lot of rambling for the recap. More than I thought I would write. Now let's move forward to what the future will look like for this studio in 2024 and what goals I'm setting for myself this year!

Priority #1: Finishing Reanimation Scheme

Of course it's Reanimation Scheme. As mentioned above, we're currently at 3 out of 5 routes completed (sans partial voice acting). So the biggest goal for 2024 will be to get the game done. and out. Finally.

I won't be giving a concrete release date until we're like, literally in beta phase for all 5 routes, just so I won't have to announce a delay and let people down. But given the current progress and pace of work, I'd say probably around mid-year — maybe Q3 latest.

I'll be keeping up with the episodic updates of Reanimation Scheme's beta build on Patreon (and Kickstarter) from this month onwards, beginning with Jori's route and then followed by Sebastien's.

The remaining Kickstarter rewards may take a little longer — but ideally, all of them (artbook / lorebook / short stories collections, etc.) will be done by end of the year as well.

Priority #2: Potato's Route DLC for Emberfate

Potato, poor Potato. His DLC had to be put on the sidelines until Reanimation Scheme is done.

Half of the art has already been commissioned and completed by the amazing Remnantation — we're just missing his selfie CG & his MMO character sprite! So the next step would be the script and then the voice acting for the calls part. I won't be able to start on the script until mid-2024 earliest, but given the fact that his route won't be that long if it's parallel in length compared to the existing three routes, it probably won't take too long to do. Perhaps 2-3 months for the development process of the DLC?

I'll likely be releasing his DLC early on Patreon, potentially also episodically as it's completed, like I did with Emberfate. So if you're interested, keep an eye out for it when the time comes!

Something Secretly Brewing in the Shadows?

If you're pledged to this Patreon on $10 tier or above, you'll probably already know what I'm alluding to.

I won't be announcing or talking much about this for now, since I don't know when I'll be able to start working on this project properly (i.e. I need to meet my above two goals first). For all I know, it might end up being not a 2024 thing but a 2025 thing. So I'll only tease it slightly for now here.

Bonus Goal: Market, for the Love of God

If you follow Wind Chimes Games on either Twitter or Tumblr, you'll probably have noticed the sorry state of my social media. I… really do not like marketing or posting on social media. I never know what to post or say. I'm too unfunny and uncreative to meme or write humorous captions that get engagement. 😂It kind of feels like I'm shouting into the void, and nobody really cares about what I have to say on my projects when there's so many cooler and more interesting things out there. So I always try for a brief period of time, and then I give up 😭

This year though, I really really need to take marketing more seriously. With two releases planned for 2024, marketing is going to be important if I want the games to sell more than like 20 copies LOL

So I guess, uh, hold me to it and call me out if I don't start posting regularly after all 🥹

Conclusion

If you've made it this far on this post, thank you so much for listening to me ramble. 🥹 2024 is going to be a very busy year, but hopefully, a productive one that will end with me meeting all of the above listed goals.

Thank you so much for joining me on the wild and bumpy journey that was 2023, and I hope you'll stick around for the exciting things to come this year too! Here's to a great year ahead of all of us!

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme #emberfate #announcement

[windchimesgames]

Happy Holidays! I had the good fortune of being assigned your Secret Santa, and I couldn’t be happier! I took the opportunity to familiarize myself with the demo for the fantastic ReAnimation Scheme, and immediately found myself hooked by the absolutely inspired concept of necromancy doubling as a soul-sucking customer service job. I hope that I was able to do Raenelle and Sebastien justice in this min-fanfiction I wrote! 

B.

___________________________________

“By the Ancestors, girl, what do you mean I’m only a Silver Patron? I left those accursed brats enough for Platinum-tier thrice over, and yet you claim--”

The spirit before me swells with inflamed pride, continuing his ranting unabated as I tune him out. I ought to have known he’d be one of those. As soon as I opened the trunk and saw the coin with his name on it, it ought to have been obvious. 

Zianna, I get up early for once, and for what? My transfer request denied yet again, and now--

“...are you even listening? Deities, I’d heard you Reanimators are the worst of the bunch, but to think that you’d be so blatant in disregarding your betters--! Call your supervisor at once! For someone of my stature to be allotted a mere half-day of reanimation is highway robbery! Do you even know who I am, Death Mage?”

Pinching the bridge of my nose in an effort to head off an incipient headache, I nod, eyes flicking back to the scroll. Incarnations, why couldn’t the first summoning of the day be a simple one?

“Yes, of course I know who you are. I summoned you after all, Sir Rudiford.”

“Lord! Lord Rudiford!!”

I force a smile that is more a baring of teeth than anything.

“My apologies. Since you have passed, the title is now recorded as belonging to--”

“To no one yet! I know full well my Reanimation Rites never would have been seen to at all, if I’d named an heir while living. If I could take my title and wealth with me, I’d do it! Ancestors take the wretches, not one is worthy of either the name or the coin.”

The spirit before me falls to furious silence, flickering a sulfurous yellow. The portrait depicted on the scroll is not especially pleasant, and I reflect that death has done little to improve upon the (former) Lord Rudiford’s appearance.

“Are you denying your Reanimation Services, then?” I inquire through gritted teeth.

The former lord gives me an excoriating glare in reply. “Of course I am not! I am demanding an extension--half a day is not nearly enough time to wrap up business for a personage such as I! The Silver ranking is clearly in error--I ought to have a full day and a half, at the least!”

My head tips back heavily. Zianna, what did I ever do to deserve this?

Clearing my throat, I meet his eyes again before the spirit becomes apoplectic. “And as I have explained, extensions are not within my power to provide. See?”

I hold the scroll aloft, jabbing a finger at it.

“Silver Patron of the Reanimation Scheme. That comes with a half-day’s reanimation. Your body has been preserved in good condition with that in mind--but any extension without proper authorization, and you’ll be stinking of rot and dropping limbs in the street by day’s end. Hardly in keeping with the dignity of a lord.” I stress the title heavily, trying to suppress a smirk as I do so. The idea of this garbage spirit stinking of literal garbage appeals to me. 

“Your manager, mage! If you are too far down the food chain to be of use to me, surely you have some minder or other that will have authority to act!”

I sigh, eyes flicking to the form shamelessly slumbering on my desk, silver and white fur splayed against the red and brown leather binding of thick volumes I have no intention of reading on my own. 

“Right. You’re right, of course, Mister Rudiford. Let me transfer you--”

“Lord! Lord Rudif--”

With a flare of my magic, the sulfur-yellow shade blinks out of being, and I sigh heavily with relief.

“That isn’t likely to improve your rating, Raenelle.”

I glower at the cat sprawled on my desk. Sebastien has done no more than crack open a single golden eye, but already he is judging me.

“As if you were any help at all. If the Twelve Deities and Ancestors can see just what I have to deal with, I’m sure--”

Sebastien stretches in a boneless ripple of silver fur. “Then they’ll know what I am subjected to with you, and commend me to the heavens while relieving me of my promised duties.” 

Scowling, I give the long, fluffy tail a slight tug, just enough to be annoying without being painful.

“Some familiar you are.”

“And some Reanimator you are. Have you given any thought of what will happen at the morgue, when that cad wakes up?”

I chuckle.

“Sure. They’ll kick Lord Rudiford out to see his family as swiftly as they can, same as me.”

Sebastien shakes his head, obviously unwilling to appreciate the vision that is bringing me so much mirth. 

“And his family?”

I shift my weight with a sigh, annoyed.

“What of them? Will they even care what he thinks, the old skinflint? They carved his name into a single coin, as his reanimation token! I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them killed him,” I observe darkly, scanning his scroll. 

Sebastien appears momentarily taken aback, but soldiers on bravely. 

“You can’t make assumptions--”

I turn a malevolent smile back on him. The headache is building pressure. “Sure, okay. Great. Shall I summon him back and refer him to you, then? As my mentor, I mean. That’s the closest to--”

The golden eyes vanish, thick, brushy tail curling over them almost as a shield. 

“My role is to counsel you, not appease the spirits you upset.”

I sigh, shaking my head.

“Coward.”

I look at the mirror that dominates the room, reflecting both light and darkness in equal measure. I never wanted this to be my job. I never wanted to be a guide for anyone, let alone spirits. 

The glass is cold where I rest my brow against it.

“Raenelle? Are you asleep?”

I let out a mighty sigh, cheeks puffing outwards and breath fogging the glass.

On to the next. Let’s see…

I scan my mental list of the day.

Jori. Jori Halwin.

Here’s hoping he’s easier than the last.

OH MY GOSH!!!!! I'm so happy you're my secret santa, and 🥰is this two gifts in one?!?!! Adorable Sebastien fanart AND a hilarious and beautifully written fanfic!!!! I love these, thank you so so so much! Happy Holidays to you too @brightoakgame!!

(And thank you to @crescencestudio for hosting the lovely event!!)

#reanimation scheme fanart #VNSS2023

[windchimesgames]

She is BEAUTIFUL I love her omg 🥰Super looking forward to the painted version!!

Your local Guild leader

Played Emberfate by @windchimesgames and fell in love with it, felt too much like my actual mmo experiences

My Mc ft Mac ( her ferret, sibling to cheese)

Hoping to try and replicate the actual game style and paint it

#emberfate fanart

[windchimesgames]

Well, well, this change of attire must have inspired our lovely earl to be bolder, huh? 👀I wonder what exactly he wants to do?

You can find out now in the early beta build of Kierdan's route, currently available on Patreon!

Today is the FINAL DAY to grab access to the early beta build containing Lyrissa's and Kierdan's full routes! If you don't want to wait until full game release next year, be sure to grab the $15 tier now before November ends!

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

holds your face so fucking gently please leave reviews for indie games. please. every single review legit counts, especially if the game is small enough, and you don't even gotta say much if that's the problem!!

like, anything from a long ramble to a simple 'it was good' matters, because steam (and probably also the Other Ones) uses an algorithm. so the more reviews, the more exposure, the more money the dev team gets. like, please. please. leave a review. throw your small indie dev team a bone

#this is my not so subtle pleading for more steam reviews #please let Emberfate reach 100 reviews 🙏

[windchimesgames]

The latest update to the beta build of Reanimation Scheme comes with the finale of Kierdan's story!

If you are a Kickstarter backer who pledged for beta access or a Patreon supporter of $15 tier or above, you’ll now be able to butt heads with an icy earl, get into all sorts of dangers together and fall in love with Kierdan! 💖

November is the last month that Kierdan's and Lyrissa's routes will be available in the Patreon beta build, so be sure to pledge before the end of the month if you want to play their routes early and not wait for the full release!

With this update, it means that the original 3 routes of Reanimation Scheme are complete, totaling at 430k words at the moment. All that's left for those routes is a couple of item art pieces and the partial voice acting lines, which are currently in progress. 

My next focus will be on finishing the 2 stretch goal routes — Jori and Sebastien. First up will likely be Jori's route. As with before, I'll be updating the Patreon beta build with chapters of Jori's route as they are finalized on a monthly basis.

Follow to stay tuned for more updates!

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme

[windchimesgames]

Recruiting: Beta Testers for Reanimation Scheme

With Reanimation Scheme nearing completion, I'm now looking for a couple more beta testers to iron out any remaining issues of the game!

Beta testers will be expected to provide feedback and do at least a couple playthroughs of the game to test for bugs and issues.

Note: This is a volunteer position, but testers will have my undying gratitude and a free copy of the game upon release as a small thank you 🥺

More details covered in the application form below ⬇️ https://tally.so/r/nWr84P

—

Wishlist & Try Demo on Steam | Discord Community | Patreon

Reanimation Scheme is a romance visual novel with necromancy, love, life and death as its central themes.

Step into the shoes of the necromancer, Raenelle, whose wish for a break from work was granted in the most unexpected way possible — the sudden disappearance of the spirits of the deceased. Meet a colorful cast of characters, fail to summon the spirits of the dead, unravel mysteries, and maybe — just maybe — fall in love.

#otome #visual novel #interactive fiction #dating sim #otome game #otoge #if #vn #english otome #english otome game #indie otome #renpy #lgbtq #english visual novel #amare #reanimation scheme