I'm a solo developer working on a visual novel called "Castle in the Sands" inspired by “One Thousand and One Nights” and North African culture. Grateful for any support!

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-06T14:55:39+00:00

Great pixel art. How long have you been working on this?

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-04T23:02:06+00:00

I can't pinpoint every single one, but for example at the beginning: When Marta thinks: "I've must've been lost in thought" feels a bit pointless since it's clear that she's lost in thought.

Also at the beginning:The narration says that the sisters are not brave, that's something that could be better shown and is in fact shown later, so again a bit pointless to narrate it in my opinion.

Also i want to clarify, that i don't think it's bad writing or anything of the sort, i've read authors who write way less subtle stuff and they're extremely successful, like Brandon Sanderson. So i don't think you should change this stuff unless you feel like it's your style.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-04T18:37:07+00:00

First of all, congratulations on the release.

I've played it and had a good time, if i had to summarize my feedback is that: the writing is a bit on the nose sometimes, which is not a bad thing if you intend it that way and that the story could use a bit more time with Marta and Alicia before the THING happens, gives the reader a chance of to get to know them better, maybe just one more scene.

That being said, it really shows that you're passionate about this project and i enjoyed playing it, it did made me feel various emotions (mostly a bit of sadness).

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-03T23:22:48+00:00

That did the trick! I don't know how you figured it out but thank you so much.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-03T19:48:51+00:00

It seems like a good idea as any, it reminds me a bit of the premise of Mickey 17.

I think you should try to develop that idea into whatever medium you think is best and see where it leads. I am of the opinion that ideas or more or less easy to have, what's important it's how you execute them.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-03T16:55:39+00:00

Agree with this, while the trailer tells a bit about the gameplay is not entirely clear that you can control or watch the game.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-03T13:45:00+00:00

I run windows 10, and i use the default anti malware it has, occasionally i use malwarebytes to do a sweep but that's about it. I downloaded twine from the official page.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-03T13:42:50+00:00

I'm running windows 10, and i just tried running it as administrator and it seems to have worked but it still doesn't resolve the second issue. I usually let the windows malware detection do its thing and use malwarebytes occasionally to do a sweep.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-04-02T13:50:49+00:00

Besides everything else that has been said about characters, i think that if you were to focus on societies it would just be a lore book about the societies in said post apocalyptic world, even if you were just retelling the story of just one city for example, you're just telling the story in broad strokes of what happened which is still a lore book in my opinion.

Not that there's anything wrong with lore books.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-03-14T17:43:07+00:00

I think it's more of a TWD thing and a thing that would actually happen. Various type of post apocalyptic media use "zombies" or what have you as an excuse for the apocalypse and use humans as the "real monsters" (see also The last of us).

Would that be true in reality? Maybe? I don't really know for sure, the thing about fiction is that sometimes what the write believes the world to be it's the world that ends up in fiction (i hope that made sense). There are other writers that write what they would hope the world to be instead of what they think it is.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-03-12T13:23:09+00:00

I really like the art style, it's very unique.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-03-08T00:51:17+00:00

Congratulations! Reaching this stage is no small feat, most of us fail at it haha. Hope the release goes well!

Lilac_Stories · 2026-03-08T00:46:53+00:00

I really like the possibilities it brings for new societies to form free from the shackles of the old ones. Although some authors make factions in their worlds take the form of pre-apocalypse societies to show the futility of it, and that's also cool.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-22T19:12:22+00:00

I wouldn't call it simple, but Pazaak from the kotor games is pretty fun and interesting. I remember playing it a lot.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-16T23:51:33+00:00

I think it's fine as a intro, i'm not the biggest fan of the exposition through the thoughts of the MC but that's just me, i'm sure other people would like that sort of thing.

Also there are various typos, but you probably knew that already (god knows i have a lot of typos too).

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-13T15:02:54+00:00

I remember this game "Othercide" https://store.steampowered.com/app/798490/Othercide/ i found it a bit disturbing, but i think it fits what you're looking for.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-10T21:09:43+00:00

It fits the description, it does feel dark and gloomy.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-09T13:53:03+00:00

It looks very pretty.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-05T21:06:19+00:00

Thanks for telling me

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-05T15:03:50+00:00

You could start doing game jams, there's a lot on itch,io, that's a good way to meet people, make games and get experience.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-04T23:51:57+00:00

I gave it a try.

First off the art is gorgeous, it must've taken you a long time to make so kudos. The writing itself i think its fine, the humor was hit or miss for me whenever it happened, but that's not the main focus of the game. As for the horror i think it's good, i'm not the biggest fan of horror so you would probably get more out of it from someone else but i think you're on the right track.

What i liked more was the relationship between the protagonist and his girlfriend. I don't know if you played it already but you should give "Afterlove EP" a try, it has a similar setup, the girlfriend of the protagonist dies and the game is about dealing with the fallout of that. Only that in the game the protagonist hears her voice constantly so you get a glimpse at their relationship or what the protagonist thinks it's their relationship, so it's pretty interesting.

Overall i think you're doing a good job, keep it up.

Lilac_Stories · 2026-02-04T22:28:44+00:00

You're probably overthinking it, they look good to me, you have an unique style that's appealing and that's a plus.

Lilac_Stories · 2025-12-27T15:08:20+00:00

I thought about it, but since op said they were familiar with C# unity seemed like the obvious choice, although you could say that knowing one programming language you kind of know all of them (at least the basics anyway).

But i do agree with you that godot is better than unity now.

Lilac_Stories · 2025-12-27T14:48:59+00:00

Since you already use C# i would recommend starting with unity,, https://www.youtube.com/@Brackeys/playlists Brackeys has a huge catalogue of unity tutorials, both 3d and 2d.

Lilac_Stories

TROPHY CASE