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Genuinely sorry to read about the literally dreadful news. I hope things turn out for the best for you and Morgana, and wish you both all the strength, resilience, and support you may need to arrive safely at the other side of these troubles. May all good things find you both.

Hahahaha. I am so creeped out right now! :-D

Ah, I think I understand now. I was merely offering a possibly entertaining "brain vacation", but if it might make you pressure yourself regarding your own creation, I'd say skip it. As for technique -- including the sexytimes stuff -- I'd say yours serve your story very well, and you have nothing to fret about. For me, the best sexytimes content is actually also character content and relationship content. As in life, people will often reveal details of themselves, and their feelings for the other person, in intimate times that they might feel too self-conscious to speak of in other less "we're both literally and personally naked here together" moments (e.g look at Tammy in "Come Home". Hard as diamond, and very sexual, but she'll say I love you to the MC freely in the quiet, close moments). Because of this, I sometimes wish the Mythos intimate sequences were a bit longer to allow for a bit more obvious rapport and affection, but I *do* realize that you're writing a murder mystery here, so too much honest character revelation works against that. Okay, this post is officially far too long. Shutting up now. Best to you and yours. Be well!

Glad all is at least nominally well where you are. And yes, I'd wager your stepfather will be surprised, if not outright shocked, by how much better he feels once he has his knees attended to ... I have a relative who is effectively allergic to sutures who has a similarly bad knee, and they know (having a medical background) what they could have otherwise in terms of pain relief. The sooner someone can cajole, convince, or (kindly) coerce your step into taking the jump into getting things fixed, the better he can feel, I suspect. But everyone must make their own decisions, I know. Best to you and yours. Be well!

Glad to see you and your game are surviving nicely. Be well!

Wow that's a lot of questions this week, Nine! Some interesting answers too. You mentioned that while you like some VNs, many can feel like "homework" to read. May I suggest "Trouble At Home"? It's very different from your Mythos, so it might seem like a "vacation"? The story starts out a bit shaky, and might seem "standard", but the author quickly finds their tempo and it rapidly becomes more than it initially appears. Just an option. Best to you and M. Be well!

Interesting second survey! Regarding the future of the saga, I chose mostly those options which I felt preserved my sense of choice/agency while moving through the story. No problem with various forms of consensual love and passion being offered to players, so long as what's being offered is offered honestly, with no "surprise! haha!" gotcha-style framing. I like Mythos as a VN, *but* if you need your story to exist in a different format (a novel? a grapic novel?) to serve it best, and be happiest, then do that. You're doing the lion's share of the work here, and we only live once, as far as we know, so plan to make your art what *you* need it to be. Cheers!

There's currently a stomach flu/fever combo going around parts of North America. It's extra-annoying because (for a lot of people, anyway) it's one of those flus that seems to "leave" and then "come back" a couple of days later. The whole cycle tends to last around two weeks (?) for most folks. As always, I am no kind of medical professional, so watch your symptoms and trust your instincts. Seek help if you feel you need it. Be well!

Weird factoids and vocabulary helped me remember how to spell February correctly. The ancient Romans (who assembled the calendar we use) thought that fevers were more common in the month in question, and named it for such. An older word for feverish, or full of fever, is thus "feBRile" (rhymes with "textile", sorta). Febrile helps me remember how February is spelled. May it assist you too! Best.

Doing the voices aloud is a solid technique, recommended for checking the viability of dialogue. Things convey differently when said aloud, and some writers don't realize this. As Harrison Ford famously snarked on the set of the original Star Wars: "You can write this shit, but you can't say it." :-) Cheers!

Becki with an I likes Spillways by Ghost? Now *that* surprises me for a couple of reasons. Cheers!

Hope you are feeling better, Radondy. Take care of yourself first. People get games for *free* on itch, and Patreon is *voluntary*, so don't let anyone pressure you. As the old saying goes "You can't pour water from an empty jug", so take care of you, and the creative stuff will get easier once you start feeling better. I wish you strength, and happier days going forward.

If I remember correctly, developer Drifty only released Leap of Faith on Steam after it was finished. If they do that with this new game, you could be waiting a while. Just so ya know. Be well!

I would expect so. Leap of Faith arrived there.

Ask The Cast Question: "Name up to three songs that you secretly love. New, old, it doesn't matter."

I didn't respond to the survey because I didn't feel qualified (?) to speak definitively on all the layers of detail working through your story and setting. You're the author, you know these things better. I will offer that, as your survey says, I too am experiencing "vampire fatigue" in storytelling; for me, it can't just revel in its own tropes, it has to offer something beyond the usual. Same goes for werewolves (hahaha), or anything else, really, with the weight of an established genre behind it. My take anyway. Be well!

I am reminded of the words of Popeye, BM. This story is a fine "pigment of your imagic-nation" Be well! :-)

Great to hear that you're doing what you love, Matt, even amidst all the mayhem. I'm out here, and curious to see where you take us all. Be well!

Some people might find creative spelling really ... ennoying. :-)

Hey Eris, dunno if you'll see this, but I bought your game even though it's discontinued, because it gave me a hearty laugh when I discovered it elsewhere -- a laugh I didn't know I needed. Thank you. I wish you good things in whatever you do next. Cheers!

Thanks for all your hard work through difficult times! Now, where am I going to store this lump of coal? :-)

Thanks!

We're ready. Hope things are feeling a bit better for you!

You have definitely done what you set out to do! I remember the first time you helped me with something over on the RenPy Discord -- I just could not get my (writer's) head around what I was trying to code. Other well-meaning people tried to reassure me that it was "so easy", but you were the one who took the time to *demonstrate* what I was trying to achieve with ultra-simple examples until I began to see the concepts behind it all. I've had your website bookmarked since. Your ability to teach is so appreciated, and your offerings here are a gift. Thank you!

Your tutorial pages on your website help me so much. Many people have Renpy knowledge, but you have a talent for explaining the basics in a way novices can understand. Thank you!

Thanks for the update, Nine. Hope your health improves soon! No pressure here regarding the game; it'll be ready whenever it's ready. Feel better!

Appreciate the new content, Thundorn! Thanks for all your ongoing work! Be well!

Haha. Still grateful for the work! :)

Thanks. BM! I appreciate that you keep innovating on this!

One of the better bits of counsel I've gotten about playtesting goes like this: "Pay attention when people identify their *problems* with your work, but don't automatically give weight to the *solutions* they suggest. It's your creation; the solutions are likely to fit better if they come from you." Good luck!

Thanks yet again!

This is useful to me. Thanks so much, Fen!

Thanks for the news update. Cheers!

You can try adding this variable to your Renpy script:

define config.allow_underfull_grids = True

Took me a minute to recognize that you have to close the phone via the bottom button before the pre-made tutorial/introduction can continue, but once I grasped the obvious (durrrr), all was well. Thanks for the improved version, BM! Much appreciated!

Thanks, BadMustard! I truly wasn't trying to bust your stones on this, I promise. I have some sense of how life can suddenly get busy without warning.

I really do appreciate the time and effort you put into things. Thank you! Be well!

I just saw this now. Good news, Thundorn! Beyond the fact that I get to play more of the game, I also get the sense that you really enjoy game-making.

Your Ren'Py and rendering tutorials on YouTube have been very helpful to me, but I always felt that making games is where your heart resides. So, go man go! I look forward to seeing what you create!