Veiled Links

I’m in the process of creating a visual novel dating simulator, featuring the disaster trio in a high school setting, where the card game isn’t in the focus and only a handful of canon elements have been used.

The game takes place during one year of high school; the first for Yuusaku and Takeru, and the third for Ryouken. You choose to play as either of the three, with each of them having their own unique route. All three have the option during the story to date each other, as well as one more exclusive character each, but it’s possible to play the game without romance at all (no complete escape from the friendships, though, lol).

There are events that overlap between their routes, but they don’t play out the same necessarily, leaving room for new material to discover on replays. Events don’t always play out in the same order, either.

In case it hasn’t been clear, it’s a game for multi-shippers. I wouldn’t recommend it for the ones who might have one or more of the 6 ships presented as their NOTPs, since the options leading up to the ships aren’t always crystal clear.

Also, this will not be a project for profit, and will be available on PC and Mac (hopefully, also on Android, but no promises on that one). Because of some suggestive as well as darker themes, it’ll have a 16+ rating, but proper content warnings will be present at release.

When’s the release, you might ask? Who knows, I rely a lot on public domain assets, but this is still a one person project, meaning I’m alone with the art, script, design, programming and building. With the magnitude of the game’s estimated size, it’ll take time (especially since I’m far from an expert in coding and English isn’t my first language). But at the very least, I hope to release a small demo in a few months.

I hope you’ll enjoy it when it’s finally done! ♥♥♥

See ya in future updates!

I'm a bit late replying, but hello! Welcome to Tumblr. ♥

Of all the ways my game could've been discovered, I'm impressed. XD With that said, though, thank you so much for your kind words! I'm working hard at finishing it, so stay tuned!

Sadly enough, Atom was discontinued some time ago and Ren'py abandoned it as its preferred script software. Nowadays, I use Visual Studio Code. It has its up and downs, and doesn't always cooperate the same ways Atom did, but it is what it is. It has the advantage of having better colour settings, though, meaning it's easier to separate different commandos from each other with only a quick glance.

Hi, everyone!

2025 was rough for many of us, me included. As cliché as it is, let us hope this year bring us better times, even if it's just the smallest improvement.

I apologise for the lack of updates; progress has been embarrassingly slow for many months now, more so than I've liked. There's been sudden bursts where the stars aligned just right, and I've been blessed with enough time, motivation, confidence and executive functions to do adequate work. Those bursts, sadly, haven't been many or lasted long.

The latest burst, though, gave me such a good push I've managed to take complete control over what I've decided is going to be a demo. And with me feeling better (or good enough), I'm more confident than I've been for a long time.

I don't have anything solid to share at the moment (most of the progress have been script-wise), but the year has only begun.

Yes, this project is still in the works; things are just going slow due to personal reasons (I also have a much smaller thing on the side that I want to finish first). However, there have been some updates here and there, script as well as art-wise. I made a complete overhaul on one of the backgrounds I've used, and now, it looks exactly like I wanted it to!

I present to you: Ai's and Flame's apartments!

These will only appear on the Aiball and Fireball routes, but not necessarily in just romantic moments. Both of them will have four different variations, depending on time of the day.

They're not completely done, though; both of them lack one crucial detail, but I want that to be a surprise when the game is out~. ♥

Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm still excited to finish this and share it with you! ♥

Oh, hello there! Thank you for your kind words. ;w;

Yup, I'm still working on it, the only reason progress is so slow is because real life has kept getting in the way, sadly enough. It's been many frustrations and disappointments these past months. If I'd had it my way, I would've finished a demo last autumn at the very latest.

We'll get there eventually, and I have to stop beating myself over it. I do apologise for the wait, though, and while it's not much, I still want to share what has been done since the last update:

Ryouken's part of the demo is in its final editing stage, so he's so close to being finished!

I found the last audio files I needed, and one of them was something I've searched a long time for, so that was a huge relief.

I've decided on how the cover images will look like and have sketched up one of them and started inking and painting the other.

I've managed to finish another CG, as well as make 3 sketches for Yuusaku's route. He still needs some proper planning with how many more branches he has compared to Takeru and Ryouken, but I'm having so much fun with it.

Future drinking games for players: take a shot every time Ryouken deems something as irrelevant, Yuusaku shrugs, or Takeru says "what".

I'm not sure how interesting the coding process can be, but I did some editing to the randomise function and now, it works splendidly while looking neater!

I promise coding is fun and not as complicated as it might look like!

Hellu, guys! I hope the year, with all of its ups and downs, has treated you well despite passing by in such a rush.

I got stuck in overtime hell at my workplace these past few months, so my productivity has been down to zero on pretty much everything, including VL. I'm sad and disappointed, since I'd wished to have something more concrete by now, like the demo or at least a release date for the demo, but I don't even have that. I sincerely apologise for the lack of updates; next year seems brighter (pepper pepper knock on wood).

However, that doesn't mean nothing has happened; there has been some work here and there wherever and whenever I've had time or energy to squeeze something in!

Ryouken's part of the demo is so, so, sooo close to be finished! Just a bit more, and it's editing and proofreading time!

I've also done a tiny overhaul on Yuusaku's route, mostly for the sake of keeping track on his route progressions without pulling my hair. And I've finally added Roboppi as a sprite, too! And with that, all the planned sprites are finished! Wohoo!

Takeru's demo parts are practically done (still need to finish the last CG for him), so I've just typed a bit here and there on his later parts/ship routes whenever inspiration's struck me. We're getting there, even if it's slow.

I've also done some belated GUI work and gotten those last things exactly how I want them, but that's not very interesting, I believe. ^^;;;

That's about it for now, unless I start throwing around more spoiler-y screenshots.

Hello, everyone, I hope the warm/cold weather have treated all of you well! ^^

I worked two jobs this summer, sadly enough, which resulted in too little sleep and too little energy to do anything. So I have to admit I haven't worked much on VL these months. Fear not, there has been some development, so it didn't stand completely still, even if it wasn't as much as I'd wanted to.

Writing continues to go forward, both on the stuff for the relevant parts, as well as scenes coming later, but being all too fun to write variations of.

The art department has just recently been picked up again; I've barely had time to draw all summer, sadly enough. We're getting close to finishing all the assets needed for the demo!

Updates will come more regularly now when autumn has come. Stay tuned for more!

It's been 6 years now since VRAINS aired its first episode! Gawd, time really flies, doesn't it? And here we are, years later, still loving this show and its characters! ♥♥♥

So, to commemorate the anniversary, I've got something special to share with all of you: a small clip featuring sneak-peeks of the boys' routes!

DISCLAIMER: The content is still a work in progress and won't necessarily match the final game.

April was busy with real life (family being family, finding a job, and celebrating a lot of birthdays, including my own), and other fandom projects, but also more progress done on VL. ^w^

Another third of the demo has been drafted and will be edited before proof-reading can be done. We're getting there!

While we're on the subject of the demo, I can also say that the CGs in it are almost done as well, with one of them being one I've struggled with ever since the project started, but now looks exactly like I wanted. I hope you'll like them. :3c

I've also made slight editing to sprites that have buggered me for months yet haven't fixed because focus being elsewhere. I'm using Ryouken as an example, but a few more got similar edits (his blinking is much smoother now):

4. I solved a few coding issues that has caused me a lot of headaches, but now, work like they're supposed to. I swear, the ren'py community is wonderfully supportive and helpful. ;w;

5. A few more animations have also been added. Because why making it simple when we can make it complicated? OTL

6. Speaking of animations and sprites, I finished adding them to the proof-read sections. A fun, but oh so time-consuming, task.

Spring is still far away here, and the constant change in temperatures resulted in me catching a cold twice. So annoying...

Work has been going steady, though, and I thought it could be fun to share some of the progress I've done this month!

Almost all the variables have been coded for two character routes! The third needs more work, but there's been steady progress there as well.

While I use a lot of free assets for my backgrounds, I sometimes have to either buy assets or just make them myself. One of them was close to being bought, but I decided against it and made it myself instead. It still needs polishing, real life got in the way, but we'll get there!

A little preview, wonder what this can be and where you find it. :3c

3. What will be a third of the future demo is almost completely proofread and coded. The other two thirds are drafted and will soon be edited.

4. Some of the sprites have gotten a few more facial expressions and outfits, with pleasing results. ^^

5. The probably last sprite got finished! I had a blast with that one and can't wait to show it in the game. ^^

6. I also continue to do stuff in the wrong order and rewrote 4 larger sections, but they turned out much better (lesson for the day, kids, let things take time).

7. A good chunk of CG work has been done, but I don't want to say how much.

8. And of course, drafting and editing has been done, on older scripts as well as new ones.

I'm so happy people like my design, I remember being a nervous wreck when I first made it. ;w;

When I redrew him for VL, I didn't make many changes at all, it was mainly a colour update on his pants and belts, as well as giving him proper boots (I also tend to forget the bracelets he wears around his left wrist, but let's ignore that, they're supposed to be there).

(And speaking of forgetting stuff, I just realised I forgot the highlights in his hair, oops!)

Asdfghhjkl, thank you, anon! That means a lot to me. ;w;

Now to your question. My immediate answer was "I really want to, but it's not going to happen ;_;". The question kept buggering me, though, so I looked it up a bit more, and found a way that could actually work! I wouldn't be able to translate into every possible language (I highly doubt my hardware would agree), but if there would be any requests, I could definitely look into it!

It most definitely is and I'm all here to spread the love. ^w^

Oh, dear, prepare for a long pre-production story:

When I started working on VL back in September 2021 (or that's when I created the ren'py file at least, the concept took much longer to develop), my plan was to make a longer multi-ship game with Yuusaku, Takeru and Ryouken, with the player being able to choose between them and unlock ships through the course of the game. Only having the Disaster dorks and the ships between them wasn't enough for me, though; I had already made a silly game like that just to learn the basics of coding. So, instead, I decided, just for fun, to have another candidate (which was Spectre), PLUS one more unique character for each of the guys.

Fireball was pretty much a given for Takeru. I had still not decided if I wanted Kusanagi to be part of Yuusaku's route (again, a story didn't exist yet), so Hotdog wasn't an obvious option. In the end, it did come down to personal preferences. While I'm terribly weak for platonic Aiball, I do like romantic Aiball more than Hotdog. Plus, it would look a bit weird (to me, at least) to have Fireball and not Aiball.

Which left Ryouken with pretty much no one. Spectre was already a candidate back then, so who really remained?

Well, Kusanagi.

The thought made me snicker first, because I hadn't even thought about them much before. Then, conveniently enough, I stumbled upon fanart of KusaRyou (or Patronshipping as I later used for it) and fell head over heels in love with them.

As I started working on the plot summaries, drawing sprites, finding backgrounds to use, designing the gui and coding the variables, I realized early that having 9 ships would be all too overwhelming to work with. And when it came to deciding which ships would stay and which I had to take away, the sad truth was that taking away the Spectre ships was the easiest choice. It's not one I really liked, but again, it all came down to personal preferences. I prefer Fireball before Wildfire and Patron before Respectful. And while I do prefer Wisteria before Aiball, I still thought it would look weird. If it was possible to add every possible ship combination between the characters I'm using, I would, but I'm only one person.

(Who knows, there could be a Spectre DLC in the future if I don't get tired of this project, but I don't make any promises.)

Hello from one creator to another! I'm always glad to see more people making VNs! Have you published anything by chance?

Now to answer your question, no, those aren't the only expressions. All the sprites are layered images that I can put together to make many more expressions than what I can show in a character sheet. And playing a director and see what expressions look the best for a certain dialogue can be hilarious (and emotional) at times. I highly recommend learning about them, it's definitely not as hard as it can look :D

Since I've already revealed Kusanagi, have a small taste of his image folder:

Hello, hello, hello! Thank you to everyone who participated in the third round of the Guessing Games! It really makes me excited to everyone having fun with it :D Anyway, more people guessed it right this time. Sadly, we can only have one winner, and that's @celepom! Congratulations, Sally :D I'll be sending the prize to you via DMs as soon as this post is up!

For everyone else, here is the reveal: The identity for the third and final exclusive love interest is...Kusanagi-san!!!

Kusanagi-san is the exclusive love interest for Ryouken's route for VL, which I happily dubbed Patronshipping since there so far haven't been a consensus for their shipping name. As I mentioned above, this concludes the series of rounds for the LIs of VL. Once again, thank you everyone who participated. ;w;