VN Others Finding Color in the Ashes [Alpha v1.61] [MooncatcherStudios]

[Soulcatch]

Hey I'm really loving the game! One thing thing that would be nice would be like a speed up function for the H-Scenes, I'm using cheat engine to double the speed when I get too it, but it's really nice, if it's tied to like a timer or something maybe you can just change the Engine.time_scale when you clicked a speed up button or something and change it back to normal when the H scenes are done.

Something that I think could be nice is if you over over like condition it'll let give you like a mutiplier of how much money you'll make, of you don't want the feel of the game to be to munchinky, maybe just a the state of the in is [X], customers will [X] about it, to give you a bit of a vibe about it, being told by lucy is nice by I would like a little bit more interaction with the UI to get a double confirmation on it. And I guess I'm also confused if condition is tied to just the price you can charge or also the frequency of inn-comers.

but yeah some little flavor stuff like hovering over lucy's states, trust, interest, desire, the inn reputation and getting a little pop up blurb for how the MC feels those things are going will add a lot of game feel polish for not that much extra effort I think. seem like you have a dedicated panel or something node that holds the text for when you hover over items that gives it the cue to show what text there is, so maybe for the main screen could have an invisible control panel become visible when ever you hover over any of the elements and goes away so it doesn't cover up the inn and lucy when not in use.

Also I some player feedback or something when a ritual ends would be nice, I went 3 weeks after using a ritual wondering why I wasn't getting the benefits lol only to realize that rituals end after the week, year I know that you can tell which ritual is active looking at your inn----reputation bar, but I just honestly didn't notice it so maybe a "Your ritual ended!" thing from the system or lucy might be nice.

But yeah amazing game! I'm really happy to see stuff made in godot, coming to the H game scene, unity always ran like ass. Out of curiosity this project has been around for a while did you stick to godot 3 or did you have to migrate the project to 4?

Hello! H scene will be getting some controls at some point, but it likely won't happen for a while. There's still a bunch to implement on that front (most of them are still missing dialog). I don't know if I'll be implementing a speed control, but the ability to control the pace at which the scene advances will likely show up in some form.

Condition already affects how much you get paid. No plans to have the ability to increase condition beyond its limit. Exact costs / rewards on everything aren't finalized yet though, so still lots of balancing to do.

The chance of inn guests showing is tied to your inn's level (which is a representation of how many repairs you've done. Cellar gets you to level 2, tower to level 3, etc). You get one dice roll per level, and up to 4 successes per evening. Reputation level determines the difficulty of the dice roll.

UI will get a lot of love as development continues, it's on the roadmap. It will likely happen once in beta though, as I still have a lot of core features to implement. I try to fix the most glaring things as I can, but final polish is a ways off still.

Better feedback on ending effects / active effects is a good suggestions, and I agree. This ties back into the UI not being finished. I still appreciate the feedback, and I'll try to make it more obvious when effects are in play. For example, the next version has some frost that creeps in on the edge of the screen as the temperature decreases to make it more obvious when the inn needs to be heated.

Game development started in august and was on godot 3 - I migrated to godot 4 and it was mostly painless. I ended up with a bunch of UI bugs because a handful of my INT vars turned into FLOATS but it didn't break anything which was nice.

 

[prinnydood]

> The chance of inn guests showing is tied to your inn's level (which is a representation of how many repairs you've done. Cellar gets you to level 2, tower to level 3, etc). You get one dice roll per level, and up to 4 successes per evening. Reputation level determines the difficulty of the dice roll.

Nice I feel like this is the thing that might need the most player game feedback on most currently from the beginning of the game i had no idea what was influence guests coming even into fall i had no idea what sorta factors was making them come or not so I would keep trying to raise condition, and feel frustrated when no customers came.

ofc course if that's the kinda feeling you are going for then that's fine but I feel like it would be nice for the player to have some privy to how influences guests to come if they are just failing a roll or something rather than just feeling bad in early game when no customers come for like an enitre week lol

 

[Soulcatch]

> The chance of inn guests showing is tied to your inn's level (which is a representation of how many repairs you've done. Cellar gets you to level 2, tower to level 3, etc). You get one dice roll per level, and up to 4 successes per evening. Reputation level determines the difficulty of the dice roll.

Nice I feel like this is the thing that might need the most player game feedback on most currently from the beginning of the game i had no idea what was influence guests coming even into fall i had no idea what sorta factors was making them come or not so I would keep trying to raise condition, and feel frustrated when no customers came.

ofc course if that's the kinda feeling you are going for then that's fine but I feel like it would be nice for the player to have some privy to how influences guests to come if they are just failing a roll or something rather than just feeling bad in early game when no customers come for like an enitre week lol

Better tool tips aren't out of the question. Some proper tutorials are on the way as well.

 

[snt04]

Some random feedback from my recent playthrough. Thank you for the game, I enjoyed playing it.

1. Rookie adventurers are not granting inn reputation when talked to. Army guests could also probably use some better UI clarity in that they are increasing army reputation, not inn reputation.

2. As a UI suggestion, there are a bunch of choices in the game that don't update the bottom textbox with their own text/descriptions, and simply carry over the text from the last hovered choice (e.g the choice to perform rituals during the weekend). These are potentially confusing, and I feel like they could be better served by blanking out the textbox instead.

3. Ellie's introduction letter has a weird line break in the form of "Deare/st proprietor"

4. The cowgirl scene when visiting Lucy at night doesn't unlock the quickie choices in the evening, despite also being a penetration scene.

5. The transition into a romantic relationship with Lucy feels like it could still be worked on. Currently, the more romantic events with Lucy seem to be gated behind visiting her at night, an action which is also implicitly understood as propositioning her for sex. While both the earlier events and the ones that follow up after were cute and enjoyable, the fact that you only get romantic development with Lucy after asking to sleep with her felt a bit awkward.

6. Gold income balance: Gold feels pretty tight in the early game, which was made worse this playthrough due to running low on the number of guests/monster encounters during the first few weeks. It picks up to a comfortable pace once alchemy is unlocked, but then spikes massively with the unlocking of the Stasis ritual. Stasis feels incredibly powerful at the moment, and the income gain from maintaining high condition was enough that I ended up fully repairing the inn by the end of summer, and was beating off dangerous level enemies during night encounters with Scout. Income drops off to a more moderate level during the fall due to the need to manage army reputation, but the ability to sell tea to army guests at the currently incredible markups still keeps you comfortably earning ~1k gold per week.

7. On the issue of condition, I think it would be good for new players to have a note somewhere that 0 condition is not a fail state. It currently feels easy to be fooled into thinking that way due to the naming of the stat and the way Lucy will give warning messages about it when it grows low.

 

[Soulcatch]

Some random feedback from my recent playthrough. Thank you for the game, I enjoyed playing it.

1. Rookie adventurers are not granting inn reputation when talked to. Army guests could also probably use some better UI clarity in that they are increasing army reputation, not inn reputation.

2. As a UI suggestion, there are a bunch of choices in the game that don't update the bottom textbox with their own text/descriptions, and simply carry over the text from the last hovered choice (e.g the choice to perform rituals during the weekend). These are potentially confusing, and I feel like they could be better served by blanking out the textbox instead.

3. Ellie's introduction letter has a weird line break in the form of "Deare/st proprietor"

4. The cowgirl scene when visiting Lucy at night doesn't unlock the quickie choices in the evening, despite also being a penetration scene.

5. The transition into a romantic relationship with Lucy feels like it could still be worked on. Currently, the more romantic events with Lucy seem to be gated behind visiting her at night, an action which is also implicitly understood as propositioning her for sex. While both the earlier events and the ones that follow up after were cute and enjoyable, the fact that you only get romantic development with Lucy after asking to sleep with her felt a bit awkward.

6. Gold income balance: Gold feels pretty tight in the early game, which was made worse this playthrough due to running low on the number of guests/monster encounters during the first few weeks. It picks up to a comfortable pace once alchemy is unlocked, but then spikes massively with the unlocking of the Stasis ritual. Stasis feels incredibly powerful at the moment, and the income gain from maintaining high condition was enough that I ended up fully repairing the inn by the end of summer, and was beating off dangerous level enemies during night encounters with Scout. Income drops off to a more moderate level during the fall due to the need to manage army reputation, but the ability to sell tea to army guests at the currently incredible markups still keeps you comfortably earning ~1k gold per week.

7. On the issue of condition, I think it would be good for new players to have a note somewhere that 0 condition is not a fail state. It currently feels easy to be fooled into thinking that way due to the naming of the stat and the way Lucy will give warning messages about it when it grows low.

Thanks! Some of that is a biproduct of the game being in early development, but the bug spots are appreciated. Balance is definitely work in progress, and will get more attention once more of the core systems are in place. Tutorials / better UI are on the way.

 

[PantsuHelm]

Pretty good so far. This game manages to avoid the common trappings of these types of games by not making the female character a moody, needy, whiny bitch.

The problem I'm experiencing is that it's quite difficult to juggle all of the maintenance required and it really prevents me from experimenting and figuring out how to do other aspects of the game. I'm about an hour in and Lucy's desire is still a big fat zero, while the reputation I built also just collapsed to zero from lack of maintenance because I just went through a week and a half without a traveler visiting (yes, I lowered monster presence), and it decided to rain. I'll revisit later, but that kinda sucked enough for me to stop playing for now.

 

[Soulcatch]

Pretty good so far. This game manages to avoid the common trappings of these types of games by not making the female character a moody, needy, whiny bitch.

The problem I'm experiencing is that it's quite difficult to juggle all of the maintenance required and it really prevents me from experimenting and figuring out how to do other aspects of the game. I'm about an hour in and Lucy's desire is still a big fat zero, while the reputation I built also just collapsed to zero from lack of maintenance because I just went through a week and a half without a traveler visiting (yes, I lowered monster presence), and it decided to rain. I'll revisit later, but that kinda sucked enough for me to stop playing for now.

Hey no worries. But just so you know, reputation won't ever fall once it raises. You just don't have a very high chance of visitors until you start upgrading the inn. Lucy's desire won't raise until you at least get her alchemy bench unlocked as well. Once you get these two things out of the way, the rest is fairly smooth.

 

[PantsuHelm]

Hey no worries. But just so you know, reputation won't ever fall once it raises. You just don't have a very high chance of visitors until you start upgrading the inn. Lucy's desire won't raise until you at least get her alchemy bench unlocked as well. Once you get these two things out of the way, the rest is fairly smooth.

Hmm, maybe it was a bug. Wish I kept it around. The instant I saw 0 rep I just X'd out the game. That part where I just needed those two things is what made it feel rather frustrating. I have no idea that's what I was supposed to be doing and spent what little money I had on materials because that seemed like the right choice over upgrades that'd put me in at 0 condition for who knows how long with how sparsely people showed up.

 

[Soulcatch]

Hmm, maybe it was a bug. Wish I kept it around. The instant I saw 0 rep I just X'd out the game. That part where I just needed those two things is what made it feel rather frustrating. I have no idea that's what I was supposed to be doing and spent what little money I had on materials because that seemed like the right choice over upgrades that'd put me in at 0 condition for who knows how long with how sparsely people showed up.

When you level up your reputation the exp bar restarts, but the reputation title increases. It's not your fault for misreading the UI - there are essentially no tutorials and the UI is very busy without all the needed tooltips. Better UI / Tutorials are a priority and will find their way in as I get closer to release.

Just for clarity: In this pic, the inn is level 4 (cellar + tower + greenhouse restored), the reputation is Well known, and the reputation exp bar is 13/250 to reach the next level of reputation.



You get 1 guest roll each night for every level of the inn (in this case, 4 rolls) but the difficulty of the roll is effected by the reputation. So at a low reputation I think you have like a ~12% chance of people showing up each night per roll, and if you are level 1, you only get 1 roll. There is one exception, Scout will show up on mondays regardless. The opening will get a little less rough as I balance it, but also I need to signpost better not to stress too much because there aren't fail states and it's normal for the opening to to be a touch rough. Once you get rolling though the game gets much easier.

Thanks for the feedback - I'll try to make these things more obvious.

 

[PantsuHelm]

When you level up your reputation the exp bar restarts, but the reputation title increases. It's not your fault for misreading the UI - there are essentially no tutorials and the UI is very busy without all the needed tooltips. Better UI / Tutorials are a priority and will find their way in as I get closer to release.

Just for clarity: In this pic, the inn is level 4 (cellar + tower + greenhouse restored), the reputation is Well known, and the reputation exp bar is 13/250 to reach the next level of reputation.

View attachment 4847949

You get 1 guest roll each night for every level of the inn (in this case, 4 rolls) but the difficulty of the roll is effected by the reputation. So at a low reputation I think you have like a ~12% chance of people showing up each night per roll, and if you are level 1, you only get 1 roll. There is one exception, Scout will show up on mondays regardless. The opening will get a little less rough as I balance it, but also I need to signpost better not to stress too much because there aren't fail states and it's normal for the opening to to be a touch rough. Once you get rolling though the game gets much easier.

Thanks for the feedback - I'll try to make these things more obvious.

Ahh, I see. No, this ones on me. I should've known playing as many RPGs as I have that that'd literally be like an EXP bar for reputation. I think a popup saying it leveled could've alleviated this for my dumb ass.
I worded my complaint like my issue was that the visitor spawn rate was too low, but it's more like not knowing where I needed to allocate resources at the start. I didn't know know 0 condition wasn't a failstate, like the post earlier said. If I knew all of these things I would have saved appropriately and it would have saved me a lot of frustration. I believe you when you say the game gets smoother later on, but having a, what seems like brutal early game sort of sets a precedent that the rest of the game will be just as brutal.

Either way, I know this is still early, which is why I made a post instead of rating the game. All of my issues are easily fixable and I can't wait to see what it turns in to. Keep up the good work!

 

[TieFoon]

I can confirm after having gone in blind into the game not knowing anything and just experimenting, it's defo much rougher at the start but if you just keep at it then eventually the dough (Money) starts rolling in and you can even start buying more food, alcohol and materials etc from the weekend vendors so you can spend less time during the day foraging for food etc. I think what worried me the most at the start was the condition of the inn as it was so low and i couldn't get enough materials to keep fixing it but even letting it stay relatively low didn't seem to affect me -too- much.

Honestly taking from my own experience? I'd recommend just going into the game, experiment for a while and once you feel you have a bit more understanding of things you could start a new game to have at least a somewhat smoother start.


Also to whoever that is making this game, keep up the good work! I defo like the concept of the game and the art with the black and white is a big plus to me (Thanks to LivingWith Sister: Monochrome Fantasy which made me love such in the first place). I wish i could write better but i struggle to make reviews and such >.>
A even bigger plus to me though is the fact that there's several women you can interact with more and more, it gets a bit stale just being with the same one over and over.
Also i love that we get to take care of the inn, upgrade it and see it grow, see more visitors of different sorts and types, even selling visitors potions sometimes that you've made for some extra money, nice little detail which makes things feel even more immersive.
Not sure what else to say at this time but yea, the game looks great imo and i shall wait patiently to see more!

(I am not the most active on this site but i will try to poke about possible bugs and stuff if i donotice something that might feel off)

 

[Soulcatch]

I can confirm after having gone in blind into the game not knowing anything and just experimenting, it's defo much rougher at the start but if you just keep at it then eventually the dough (Money) starts rolling in and you can even start buying more food, alcohol and materials etc from the weekend vendors so you can spend less time during the day foraging for food etc. I think what worried me the most at the start was the condition of the inn as it was so low and i couldn't get enough materials to keep fixing it but even letting it stay relatively low didn't seem to affect me -too- much.

Honestly taking from my own experience? I'd recommend just going into the game, experiment for a while and once you feel you have a bit more understanding of things you could start a new game to have at least a somewhat smoother start.


Also to whoever that is making this game, keep up the good work! I defo like the concept of the game and the art with the black and white is a big plus to me (Thanks to LivingWith Sister: Monochrome Fantasy which made me love such in the first place). I wish i could write better but i struggle to make reviews and such >.>
A even bigger plus to me though is the fact that there's several women you can interact with more and more, it gets a bit stale just being with the same one over and over.
Also i love that we get to take care of the inn, upgrade it and see it grow, see more visitors of different sorts and types, even selling visitors potions sometimes that you've made for some extra money, nice little detail which makes things feel even more immersive.
Not sure what else to say at this time but yea, the game looks great imo and i shall wait patiently to see more!

(I am not the most active on this site but i will try to poke about possible bugs and stuff if i donotice something that might feel off)

Haha thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[lms17]

One of my favourite games that i've found on this site, eagerly awaiting each new update. I enjoy the somewhat slow pace of the progession as you gradually unlock ways to make things more manageable. Personally, i'm hoping for some sfx during lewd scenes so that the progression feels that much more rewarding.

 

[Anon21]

So I played through to the end of the Fall. Restarted once, as I hadn't been using very sensible strategies the first time around.

The one thing that bugs me, which may or not be intentional, is the army guys who take over the place in Fall take ALL the rooms. First play through I had three rooms when they arrived, second play through I managed to get to eight rooms. So you'd think, 3 rooms taken, 5 rooms empty, right? Wrong. They take all eight rooms.

This makes gaining income during Fall really tricky. You can still hand over monster bits for bounty (probably the biggest earner with no paying guests).

I suppose the army guys will pay when they leave? Which is after end of current content. Lol. I think Scout said she would be paying weekly to live in the cellar? I don't think I got any money from her, though. Grr.

 

[Soulcatch]

So I played through to the end of the Fall. Restarted once, as I hadn't been using very sensible strategies the first time around.

The one thing that bugs me, which may or not be intentional, is the army guys who take over the place in Fall take ALL the rooms. First play through I had three rooms when they arrived, second play through I managed to get to eight rooms. So you'd think, 3 rooms taken, 5 rooms empty, right? Wrong. They take all eight rooms.

This makes gaining income during Fall really tricky. You can still hand over monster bits for bounty (probably the biggest earner with no paying guests).

I suppose the army guys will pay when they leave? Which is after end of current content. Lol. I think Scout said she would be paying weekly to live in the cellar? I don't think I got any money from her, though. Grr.

Hey! I've gotten similar feedback, and the newest version (1.5) adjusts the fall economy to make it more forgiving. 1.5 is up on patreon right now, but it'll be up on itchio in another week.

The current balance feels a bit better, but I'll keep adjusting it. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[A Solemn Stranger]

I've never posted on this site before, but felt compelled to tell Soulcatch that Scout is peak vampire waifu aesthetic, and so far the game as a whole is pretty top tier even for being unfinished. From some rando speaking to you, take this as another voice of approval and encouragement. Cozy indeed.

 

[Soulcatch]

I've never posted on this site before, but felt compelled to tell Soulcatch that Scout is peak vampire waifu aesthetic, and so far the game as a whole is pretty top tier even for being unfinished. From some rando speaking to you, take this as another voice of approval and encouragement. Cozy indeed.

Thanks! I've still got more content coming for Scout, happy to hear you're enjoying the game so far.

 

[quitter123]

Worth looking forward to

 

[ExtraMayo]

just tried the demo definitely scratches my monochrome sister itch. I ve only play 2-3 hours but I do enjoy managing the Inn its more fun then the combat my only "compliant" is getting the girl into the bed too easy i would love a more build up to that stage more fun interesting flirting or little sexy tease before hand like her purposely leaving panties around or leaving wearing less cloths when its hot etc. I like her sealing the door with magic and other things when you try to sneak into her room. Maybe a bad route where you sneak into her room or flirt too much and stuff where the bad end she turns into a monster you have to kill or kills you. While you try to properly balance her power and not rely on it or get too sexual all the time you get a good ending.

 

[Soulcatch]

just tried the demo definitely scratches my monochrome sister itch. I ve only play 2-3 hours but I do enjoy managing the Inn its more fun then the combat my only "compliant" is getting the girl into the bed too easy i would love a more build up to that stage more fun interesting flirting or little sexy tease before hand like her purposely leaving panties around or leaving wearing less cloths when its hot etc. I like her sealing the door with magic and other things when you try to sneak into her room. Maybe a bad route where you sneak into her room or flirt too much and stuff where the bad end she turns into a monster you have to kill or kills you. While you try to properly balance her power and not rely on it or get too sexual all the time you get a good ending.

Thanks. Lucy will have a few different routes - an earlier build had the start of the second route, but it was turned off until I can get a little more time to flesh it out. I will say there won't be any route where Lucy becomes a monster or similar, but a more fleshed out flirting phase is on the road map. I know it may disappoint some people, but there really isn't any kind of focus on corruption or similar themes in this game. The closest is maybe the vampire girl, Scout, but even she's pretty tame.