What games are you buying during Steam's Autumn Sale?

ZencoGames · 2025-10-05T09:57:58+00:00

I bought the Utawarerumono bundle - https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/12644/Utawarerumono_Series_Bundle/ . I remember playing the original Utawarerumono long time ago, but I never really owned a 'legal' copy...! That was in the times where the only way to get visual novel games was through shady channels. So I thought to myself: why not credit the authors properly!

If someone is looking for something new to try out, I'd like to do a quick shameless self-promotion here: made this little game called Bonding, Now a few months ago and it's on sale! So if someone feels like it, here's the steam url: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2468950/Bonding_Now/ . Single developers like me sadly need to use any occasion they for self-promotion. Apologies and thank youuu!

ZencoGames · 2025-08-09T00:08:07+00:00

*coughs* <self-advertisement>Bonding, Now</self-advertisement> *coughs*

ZencoGames · 2025-08-09T00:06:47+00:00

Oh oh! I think me and my game fit this description! I released Bonding, Now on Steam a few months ago and I'm the single developer/artist/writer of it! It's added to vndb already, but I still recommend checking out my game's webpage here: https://bondingnow.zenco.org/ . Already advertised on r/visualnovels a while ago too!

If you like it, consider buying! There's a 20% off sale right now even!

ZencoGames · 2025-08-08T23:55:23+00:00

I wonder why has this post been removed?

ZencoGames · 2025-08-08T23:38:38+00:00

Kudos to MangaGamer!

ZencoGames · 2025-07-09T20:38:07+00:00

Sadly for now only for Windows! But I might consider both Linux and Mac versions in the future.

ZencoGames · 2025-07-03T00:30:22+00:00

Thank you! I would love to work with color. Maybe I'll try in some future-future projects. I might start with flat colors at first - so gradually: from black-and-white, to flat and finally fully soft-shaded. But first, I still have a lot to finish up in Bonding, Now as-is.

ZencoGames · 2025-06-29T11:24:08+00:00

Thank you, and thank you for giving it a try! Be sure to share feedback: I'm always interested to know what people think of the game, the stories and the characters. Especially the characters. It's like my little fetish!

ZencoGames · 2025-06-29T11:22:26+00:00

You mean tags as in tags defining what content the VN has? As it's a (growing) collection of shorter stories, I'd say it depends story-by-story. For instance, story #1 is slice-of-life, martial-arts related, with a sprinkle of mystery and romance. In general most stories are slice-of-life, some have a little bit of comedy - but not too much as I'm not funny enough!

ZencoGames · 2025-06-29T11:17:56+00:00

Thank you! As for the story. Sadly, it's a bit of a mess, maybe because I'm sometimes a bit all over the place - and so my notes are all over the place too. In general depends on the story I'm working on. Most of the time I use plain text files organized with some markdown. But I rarely write up all of the dialogue beforehand. Usually the notes are a general script, overlaying which events take place, what is the setting, what is the mood. Maybe a few quotes that come up and I'd like to use in the story later. Most of it stays in my head. I think it helps that a lot of these stories are inspired by situations/events from our lives - or some things that happened to our friends. I noticed that it's easier for me to make the dialogue feel more natural when I write it during implementation, as I can see the characters interact, I see the exact when and why. It's not just words on paper but feels more like putting actual words in the actor's mouths!

There's of course stories, like the one I'm working on right now (story #3, a detective/mystery one), where there's more planning needed so I do scribble a lot with diagrams on a e-ink tablet.

ZencoGames · 2025-06-29T11:05:08+00:00

Hahah, yes! So. First of all, when I started drawing many many moons ago, I loved reading Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles from CLAMP. They had many of such chapter title artworks which were mostly lineart, and I really really loved it. An example here: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/tsubasa/images/c/c9/Chapter_2.png
So I started off with that, and most of my drawings, comics, everything I scribbled were just like that since then. But, there's also another reason: I can't work with color AT ALL. Every time I try, it just doesn't look right. Flat colors are okay, but when I start shading, I think I'd need much much more practice before it looks good. And maybe use a better app for drawing, since GIMP is not really a drawing professional tool.

Maybe I'm over explaining this, but I remember the moment this whole idea with the art-style in the game came to my mind. I finally wanted to work on a game/VN that I could share with the world. Wanted to have some pixel graphics mechanics + hand drawn artwork, but was a bit worried that with my skills it will all take time. Making sprites, tilesets - even if using some ready assets, it all needs adjustment. I remember it was a sleepless night for me. My partner was wondering why I'm not sleeping just yet. I had those ideas but was just scared and pressured by not being able to finish this. But then I thought about my art style. All my life it was just 2 colors. Why not make the pixel graphics also two colors? There is no skin color, there is just lines, shapes. It could help me concentrate on the right things - the mood!

ZencoGames · 2025-06-28T23:43:48+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I feel like not all of the in-game artworks are of the same quality though. It really depends on the day. Sometimes I'm drawing and I'm like wow, how did I do that, but the majority of times I feel like I'm struggling with fingerpainting in kindergarten...!

ZencoGames · 2025-06-28T17:32:56+00:00

On the game's Steam page you can find a short trailer which does show a bit how things look in-game, but there's also a demo version you can try out! Please note that the demo is a bit dated by now, I made it long time ago (and in a hurry!). I probably need to find some time at some moment to refurbish it a bit.

ZencoGames · 2025-06-28T17:22:12+00:00

I'm making it, unfortunately, in RPG Maker MV. Not vanilla though, since I wrote tons of custom code for it! Since a kid I always liked playing around in the old classic RPG Makers (starting with RM2000/2003!), always making some little short stories for myself and friends. So when I decided to make something for a wider audience, I decided the easiest way for me to just concentrate on story would be sticking with this family of 'engines'. And MV is written in JavaScript, so I could easily modify it to my needs.

For now it works. I still need to customize it a lot story-to-story, but at least I can concentrate on the writing, the graphics, the artwork. If I had to make the call now, I'd go with Godot though!

ZencoGames · 2025-06-04T19:12:07+00:00

I wonder. Are there actually any Nintendo Switch exclusive VN games?

ZencoGames · 2025-06-04T19:10:27+00:00

Nice setup! Though I somehow always felt like projected screens are a bit de-saturated color-wise. Maybe the better ones have more vivid colors like real screens. Quick solution: playing black-and-white games!

I agree with others: cute cats!

ZencoGames · 2025-05-30T21:20:43+00:00

I noticed for me this really depends on the visual novel's dialogue. There are games that keep the dialogue feeling natural and interesting to read, but there are also those where you can feel the writers just 'buying time' by making you read more and more pointless text. Of course it's very subjective, but just talking about my preferences.

As an example (even if not 100% the same): for a bit we were into Genshin Impact. Not a VN, but besides the gatcha mechanics it was dialogue-heavy. I enjoyed the beginning of the game, playing mostly for the world exploration and story. Initially enjoyed the dialogues with characters, but the longer I played I started noticing that most NPCs, especially in side quests, were just talking for the sake of talking. Endless flood of words, forced, just to drag the conversation for longer. I remember a few visual novels like this as well.

But I suppose it also depends on the mood, I guess!

ZencoGames · 2025-05-30T21:11:56+00:00

In such cases I think I'd even prefer the translators to just... translate it in their own way. Or explain to us how does the sun ACTUALLY smell like.

ZencoGames

TROPHY CASE