@unbrokenhours / unbrokenhours.com
All Princess of Ruins keys for Itch.io are sent to everyone who bought Princess of Ruin from my old link. If you did not receive a key, check your junk mail. I sent them bit by bit over the last few months. If you still cannot find the email I sent you, contact me.
Send me an email using the same email you used to buy Princess of Ruin so I can identify and send you the key!
Version 1.3 Changes
Bug Fixes: Developer choice shows up when shopping at Double Diva Fixed crash when choosing the Yellevator with Naomi Fixed crash when doing theatre animations
Others:
Fixed awkward French
Note:
Downloading this is not necessary if you hit the ignore button when encountering the crashes.
Updated my website so people can find links more easily, and the layout leaves room for expansion when adding future projects!
My old newsletter doesn’t work anymore so consider signing up for the new newsletter on my site!
Added a Ko-fi, Patreon, and Discord button so everyone can find it!
It’s taking me a while to send Itch.io keys to everyone who previously bought Princess of Ruin from the old link. I’m manually sending emails one by one and underestimated the amount I have to send. Please give me another week to get them to everyone. Sorry if you didn’t receive an email yet.
Hi guys. I made a discord for easier support and updates on my new project! Also it’s a nice place to discuss Princess of Ruin, Frozen Essence, etc.
With the itch.io Princess of Ruin keys, you will be receiving them sometime this week if you bought it through my old link hosted at BMT.
And here is the new project called “I’m not a Shy Succubus”. None of the art is final and will be redone. More details coming soon!
Hey guys. I have finally uploaded my games to http://unbrokenhours.itch.io from the recommendation of you guys. For all Princess of Ruin customers who bought from my old link, I’ll see if there is a way to give you guys keys so you can get it off itch.io I don’t know if they allow me to make this yet so apologies in advance if there is no option.
After finally updating my site, I will make my new project announcement soon, as well as make my discord public. I am trying to get a lot of things done and out of the way so I can concentrate on making the visual novel. Thanks for your patience!
If you have any issues with the projects, please use the contact on the top of the page.
Hi guys. I’m happy to hear and see your replies. I am not sure if replying to them will make me reblog the same post just to reply so I want to thank you here.
I also want to say that I want to come back to making visual novels again.
Information about my disappearance in the past few years can be seen in this post just below or click here
At the moment, I’m navigating what I have missed. Since I’ve been away for four years, I don’t know much about the changes to the visual novel scene (especially the otome side).
If anyone is up to sending me a message through email (through the contacts) about visual novels I should check out that are released in the past four years, groups I should check out, social media platforms that people have moved to or use, any visual novels that you really enjoy, and anything else that you find important. It will be easier for me to get back into making things as I have a few plans in mind but I feel overwhelmed at the moment.
The most I’ve done is redoing and migrating my website in the past few weeks and checking out what art assets I have that I can use in a new project and other technical side of things.
Thanks a ton!
Hi everyone. Sorry for disappearing for a while. I was inactive for a few years ever since life changes. I was taking care of my grandmother almost everyday for half a year when I was working on Shrouded in Haze so once I came back, I was unable to concentrate.
The story, art and everything got a little overwhelming and it’s hard to continue where I left of. Some tasks felt foreign too as though I never touched it before.
I want to also apologize since I didn’t answer some emails but it appears they are resolved by a different administrator from a different site. Again, I am sorry.
Will I continue working on anything? Due to the life changes, it is hard to dedicate that time now as there is a chance the projects don’t put enough food on the table. Because I was gone for a while, I don’t know if enough people are still interested in the projects. The website was hard to maintain on my own as I could not keep up with technology and even Renpys updates (the engine I use). Due to that, it became hard to update my games and maintain it to work on new computers and macs. So when it doesn’t work on someone’s mac, I really don’t know how to get it to work.
If I ever become stable enough, I think the most I’d do is redo art for Frozen Essence, remaster the music and add in the proof-read work. For the Shrouded in Haze project, I am sorry for the work people put in it as it will not be worked on anymore. The most I’d do for that project is reuse the character designs and backgrounds for future work like web comics.
This is what I want to do but have no time to do. So the most I can do is provide email support. Thank you for your time and your support!
Hi everyone. Princess of Ruin is 30% off until February 18th 2017. Happy early Valentine's Day! https://t.co/cRbXO9WQt4
The website for our newest project, Shrouded in Haze is up too!
Our main character is a seer who's respected in the land. But that comes at a price. Demons are also after her.For more info an art, check out the website. https://t.co/KzVolLtKab
(Anonie ask part 2) I loved how tragic FE could be, I loved the music, and yes, I liked the art. Maybe the character art wasn't the best, but I was satisfied with it, and I found some of the backgrounds to be very beautiful. Either way, my main concern was the story (as it always is) and OMG did you make a hell of a story. Honesty, it broke my heart, and I loved it. I am currently looking for another VN to give me the same feeling, but I don't think I'll find it, so I'm considering replaying it
Hi Anonie,
I’m glad you had fun playing Frozen Essence. It always makes my day to know it touched someone.
I’m concentrating on fantasy type otome games now. I hope you check out the newest project when I update it on the website in the near future. ^_^
I’m still working on the art, trying to make it better than all previous projects. So I hope it’s worth the wait for everyone. :D
NaNoRenO is a month-long game jam in which developers are challenged to make a visual novel from start to finish. It was originally inspired by the more famous NaNoWriMo (National Novelist Writer’s Month, which takes place in November). There’s no restrictions on content or genre. See a list of previously released NaNoRenO games here!
No, you do not have to sign up to participate in NaNoRenO, though you will more than likely get more out of the experience by joining the Lemmasoft forums and sharing the journey with the fellow participants there! Here is this year’s general thread for NaNoRenO.
There is no prize or judging in NaNoRenO. The event is a challenge that the developers set for themselves and the prize is the magnificent sense of gratification you get after finishing your game. Completion is its own reward.
Sometimes we need a fire lit under our butts. It’s hard enough to get through making a game from start to finish without a time limit, let alone with just a month to get through everything. Having a deadline will motivate you, help you prioritize your time, let you work on a project you know should be finished by a certain point, and let you explore something outside of what you usually do. It’s the same reason developers participate in game jams: a bit of fun with some time management thrown in. If you’ve had a visual novel idea lurking at the back of your head forever but never had the kick to go explore it—do it now! (mostly taken from this post)
D-don’t worry about it!!
Do you guys think you'll ever release Princess of Ruin on Steam?
Hi. I answered the question here down below. :) If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Hi :D I've played all of your games a lot and I really wanted to thank you for making them. Heartstring Bugs especially is so calming for me. My depression has gone really bad by the end of last year and I just remembered your game a few days ago and it's one of the most relaxing things I have ever done, to just sit and play and learn all of the little stories. It feels so alive and real. And as cliché as it sounds, I really hope I'll find one Lucas for myself one day XD thank you so much!
I’m glad playing it helped you out even if it’s just a little bit. I hope you can get through what you’re going through, and pick yourself up. Thank you very much for sending me this message. :)
Hi, I have two questions :3 First, have you considered about putting your games on steam? Second, will you possibly be doing another Princess of Ruin sale anytime soon?
Hi. When my newest project is ready for Greenlight, I plan to put Princess of Ruin there at the same time (or similar time).
For sales, I’ll see when to do that for next year. I don’t do sales often mostly because it’s only been a year since the release, and I feel it’ll be unfair for those who supported Princess of Ruin early. As a consumer myself, I’d feel pretty bad if I bought a game at full price, and then found that it is 50% off after one month.
I announce sales in my newsletter. You can subscribe to that if it makes things simpler for you. :)
I’m thinking of having more contests or events in the future for those that can’t afford it. If you have any ideas, you can submit them privately and I’ll keep them in my records.
I'm curious, do you have any fun facts or information about the guys. Like their: birthdays, favorite color, pet peeves, etc?
Some of them do and that info didn’t make it in the final product. Since there are over 15 guys, it’ll take a while to remember and list them all. Is there a particular guy you want to know about?
Hello there! I'm just a fan who's finally muster up courage to say hi to you! I love Frozen Essence very much! It's still my number one favourite otome game for me even after I play dozens other otome games. My bias is Zareh. I haven't play Princess of Ruins because I don't have PC or laptop right now (I write this with my company's PC) but as soon as I can, I will! I love your work! Keep up! :)
Hi. I’m happy you had fun with Frozen Essence and it means a lot to hear people tell me they like it, even now. I’m glad you mustered up the courage to say so.
Thanks for stopping by. :)
Ok well, this is not exactly phrased as a question… But I will kindly rephrase
Why don’t you make LongStory free?
Here is the thing. Take a little wander over to the team page. All those lovely people gave their time to this project - I think (I am the executive producer Miriam Verburg, who in case you wondered, does not get paid for working on LongStory because we haven’t become profitable.) that each of those wonderful talented individuals deserve to make a living because they are so good at what they do. So that is one reason we sell the game.
But, maybe that doesn’t get at the second question (which you didn’t ask but I will ask for you): Why don’t you just run ads?
Ok well, this one is tougher to answer, but I think if you are interested in becoming a game designer, or just anyone who works in some form of published media (films, music, writing, video) this is a good one to think about.
1. Advertising is kind of a racket. The more people decide it is ok to bargain their free attention to advertisers in exchange for getting free cool stuff especially games where this problem is the worst. The more they are saying that they would prefer that somebody else take responsibility for paying for their attention. If you used a food analogy it would be like, I am willing to eat whatever crap you put on my plate. Dog poop, snails, a fresh baby hand, just so long as I get two bites of that ice cream sundae I have been craving.
Nobody would do that with their appetite but for some reason we freely give away our attention to people who want to waste our precious time with crap.
2. Not only is advertising a racket but the only way to make money from ads is to sell humungous quantities of games, or force people to watch an ad in exchange for what amounts to a very small amount of gameplay. Again, we think your time & attention is valuable, and we don’t want to sell it so cheap. If we could run only 1 or 2 ads per episode and cover our expenses we might consider it. But right now, to make the game recover it’s cost of development we’d be running a 30 second video spot every minute and thirty seconds. That seems brutal to us and we’d prefer not to do it.
For the reasons above (no baby hands disguised as good food) we have to charge, we feel you get your money’s worth and you don’t have to sacrifice a bunch of your quality time just to enjoy LongStory.
I think people (especially young people or those not involved in the industry) often forget that games, like any product, cost money to make, so “free” usually actually means in-app purchases or ads are paying for development. Either you are donating some small portion of your life to watching an ad (as described above), or you are possibly playing the game for free on the backs of a very small number of people who spend a lot of money in microtransactions.
Like @longstorygame, we hope to sell our games for a flat price or a fee-per-chapter. Players get an unvarnished experience of the game and can use their precious time on things other than watching ads. Few artists/developers want to produce an experience that involves regularly peddling things to players. That’s not fun - and in our case it actually works against the central theme of our game.
Our friends at Axon Interactive added a few more thoughts on why ad-supported isn’t always as easy as it seems. Thanks Axon!
