A downloadable game for Windows and macOS

Tomorrow Will Be Dying

A relaxing, story-driven visual novel about finding yourself through your connections with other people.

Story

Unlike her childhood, B found herself often surrounded by people in her teenage years. Being the ace of Mokuzai High school's track team and having a prince-like demeanor, her classmates were drawn to her aura. She was practically the opposite of what others thought her to be: a reserved and old-fashioned individual that spent her days collecting and raising bugs. She soon found safety in the Occult club alongside others similar to her who all had strange interests of their own — A, the uncontrollable troublemaker, C, her neighbour that always had a tendency to daydream, and N, the mysterious leader of the club. However, by the end of their senior year, both A and N disappeared without a trace.


As the many seasons in B's life had passed, she had become accustomed to people disappearing from her life and succumbed to the whims of the moving world around her. Now, these parts that make up B's past and identity are washed clean, and she attempts to start anew and overcome the walls she has built around herself by her own hands.

In the present, B is a nineteen year-old entomology student pursuing her passions at Mokuzai University. She and C have gotten used to their daily life-styles with only each other as company, but their paths only truly start to set in motion when A and N unexpectedly crash back into their lives.

Follow along B's story as she reconnects with old friends, makes new ones, and overcomes the traumas of her past.



Prologue Features

*Available for PC and Mac (with some caveats)!

  • Around 10,000 words — Thirty minutes to an hour of reading depending on reading speed
  • While not required for the full game,  the prologue gives a better picture into the high school life the Occult Club shared (and a few easter eggs may reveal themselves once you play the full story...)
  • A small showcase of our new approach to narrative, as well as the new direction we've taken the characters in
  • The new UI - not only aesthetic-wise, but proper saving, loading, settings, auto mode, skipping — the basic mechanics are now much more stream-lined and clean in comparison to the original demo.
  • The sprites, backgrounds and CGs all have a visual style unique to the prologue.


Full Game Features

  • A story about loss and connection - A rich character-driven narrative with approximately 200,000 words, containing one main (and true) route, two sub-routes and 4 endings total.
  • Day to day life - Manage B's stats — forge relationships, shop, cook — there's an array of mini-games sprinkled throughout. The route you take may be affected by what you do during free time events in-between story scenes...
  • Art with an emphasis on atmosphere - Line-boiled sprites for each character, CGs that range from partial animation to fully animated sequences, and detailed backgrounds with variations for different parts of the day.



Follow development!

Full release - Coming soon

    

⚠ 9/1/2021 Warning! The full release will be extremely different from the legacy demo with several plotlines dropped.  ⚠ 

See the 2023 Dev Log for more info!


StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows, macOS
Rating
Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars
(300 total ratings)
AuthorTeam Robo
GenreVisual Novel, Interactive Fiction
TagsAnime, Atmospheric, Comedy, Relaxing, Slice Of Life, Story Rich
LinksSteam

Download

Download
TWBD — Prologue (PC) 258 MB
Download
TWBD — Prologue (MacOS 11.0+) 263 MB
Download
TWBD — Prologue (MacOS 10.0) 262 MB
Download
TWBD -- Legacy Demo (PC) 294 MB
Download
TWBD -- Legacy Demo (Mac) 296 MB

Install instructions


*Mac 11.0+ (Prologue Only): Shouldn't need the quarantine process below. Should be able to simply open the DMG, drag the contents to any folder and then play. This is rather new for us, so please let us know if it doesn't work!

New: If it still doesn't work, try this, courtesy of sunny on our Discord: right clicked on the app, went to get info, and ticked the box next to "override malware protection -

*Mac (Original Version) : There is an issue where the app will be treated by the Quarantine service as a potential security threat. Follow the instructions here to bypass this: https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/216753558-Mac-app-damaged-when-downloaded-from-the-internet

It seems there's no other way to get around this at the moment. Please inform us of any other issues you may have!

Development log

Comments

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(1 edit) (+1)

I've been following this game for the longest time, I believe during the kick-starter event. Even though I wasn't able to put money in at the time, I've been following the progress and have been looking forward to the game updates every month. It looks like a very nice game, with wonderful art style and game elements yet to come. I'm really looking forward to for a release date and will wait many more years if it so pleases. Artistry and masterpieces takes time.  

I'm impressed and inspired by the improvement made from the years as well as the transparency from the monthly updates from the devs. 

Wow, that is a long time! We really appreciate your patience and hope that it's all worth it in the end. Thank you so much for these super kind words, we are honoured! TT

(+1)

so i've been keeping up with the development of the game for a while and i'm always checking in for updates and i just wanted to say i'm so excited for the full game to release! i fell in love with the demo and prologue and have been excitedly awaiting more content ever since. of course there's no rush at all and its important to take your time, just thought i'd show my support. will definitely be one of the first to play when the full game releases!

(+1)

Sleepi, thank you so much for the lovely comment and support, it really goes a long way! We really hope this all ends up worth the long wait for you! 🥰💗

Deleted 12 days ago

Sorry to say, but there are no dating sim elements in the game 😔 We are flattered that he holds that power over you though sjdfk

(1 edit) (+1)

Hello, what's the difference between the prologue and the demo, do i download both? 

edit: one more thing, is b a boy or girl? if thats ok

(+1)

No problem, B's a girl! 

The demo is 4 years old and left up just for legacy's sake. It doesn't represent our current vision and is not at all canon anymore, but some people certainly find it more enjoyable than the prologue due to its emphasis on interactivity and visuals.

The prologue is usually recommended as it's canon and a lot more similar to the full game in style, making it a much better indicator of whether or not you'll enjoy the final product. 

That said, the full game will be sort of like a mixture of both.

(+1)

Tysm!! The art is great, and I love all the characters 🩷

(+2)

Oh my gosh i played the demo for this game forever ago and I JUST checked back in. The art looks so amazing, even just for this little info screen! I'm so excited to finally see the game finished and get to play it. Keep working hard devs!! 

Thank you!! 💕

(+2)

aaaaaaaaaaa when

(+2)

😭thank you for your patieeence! we're aiming for March now, but you know us...

(+1)(-1)

i just downloaded a bunch of games randomly including this one and didnt read anything before playing them and thought B was a boy through like half the playthrough 

😅 Understandable...

(+1)

lol 😭 this as a really cute game though, must’ve taken forever especially it’s all the details and cute little animations

Keep up the good work

(+1)

It certainly feels like it's taken forever 😂 Glad you liked it, thank you!

(+11)

which one will release first GTA VI or Tomorrow Will Be Dying. place your bets yall.

(+1)

🤣

when opening it on mac, instead of giving the regular warning saying it might be dangerous, it says it definitely WILL damage my computer. is this what everyone else sees?

Hello!!

Which version are you having trouble with, the demo or the prologue?

Searching it up, it seems that specific error message can be fixed by overriding malware protection, as in the install instructions above. We haven't heard anything about the game actually damaging any computers!

Hope this helps!

(+3)

i cant wait for the full release.. i love this game, story, art, n characters so muchh !! 

(+1)

Thank you, we hope you end up liking it!

Hi! I played the old version as well as the new version and if ur not looking for feedback you don't have to read this. But I thought I would share just in case :D
Take this with a grain of salt though, I have no idea what your vision for this project is

First off I love and adore the art style and the whole concept of the game, I really enjoy the aesthetic and will like probably pay for it when it comes out fully!!! I do like the calmer pastel palette better the old version, but the new version is like just as good :D

The new version is quite a bit of reading. There's a lot of text that isn't dialogue that feels like it could be accomplished with just a sprite/expression change. And it goes into so much detail, I feel like I am being bombarded with paragraphs first thing. Having the name on top of the dialog box and also saying "Eri said" seems redundant., I just feel a lot of potential comes from sprite/expression changes, conveying things through art but it feels criminally underused. The new version feels like I'm reading a book, while the old version felt like I was actively being B. :D

The prologue is not bad, but I hope the actual game will be more interactive like the demo. Also idk if the UI is just like this in the prologue, but it feels very boxy and stoic, and overall the game feels more harsh than the old version but again I'm don't know what your vision is :D

I mean these words in the kindest way possible!!! theres like smaller very tiny issues too but i'll save you the reading -_-. Good luck on the game! Might donate to the kickstarter if my boss ever decides to pay me >:P...    But yeah amazing game so far!!!!!! I hope this did not come across as unwarranted or rude.

(1 edit)

Hello nico! I recognize you from your really supportive comments a long time ago, so it's nice to hear from you again! Thank you for playing and sharing your feedback, it's always welcome!

Actually, we've always wanted to properly address this. We've touched on it in a few places (Kickstarter and somewhat in Itch Dev Logs), but it's hard to reach our entire player base with this very important message. So, we're super glad you asked!

As the years have passed since our first demo, our vision has changed slowly but significantly. These changes came with changes in our own selves and tastes, and we know that with that, there will be a shift to parts of our original target audience inevitably.

We started this project not truly understanding what makes a visual novel a visual novel, and had the vaguest idea of our vision and story. We trusted in our mechanics and aesthetic over the story, not really being too versed in writing (we still aren't). I (alwayspolite) personally and naively believed we could surpass the entire medium of visual novels by relying on the freedom our game engine afforded us, and by making it as anime-like or comic-like as possible, using tons of little low-effort CGs (as if there weren't already games doing that!). Our initial mindset dunked on narration. And for a while, we stuck with it.

After several script drafts, we realized the story just wasn't working. So, we tried delving fully into the world of visual novels, consuming all sorts and genres — classic masterpieces, Japanese, English, indies with shoestring budgets, etc. and have come to understand what truly matters is, yep, the story aspect. Not only has doing that helped us with developing a proper story (as in, not just random events strung together), it made us, yeeees, come to love, and thus adopt that style of writing that more resembles a novel over a screenplay (sorry!) 

The dialogue tags are a side effect of my love for actual novels, so I also apologize for the redundancy that will spawn. I hope people can get used to it, but I understand the issue, for sure. Your comment is a good reminder to hold back on them when I can, so again, thank you! (they'll never be completely gone, though >:D)

So far, this probably sounds like a lot of negatives. Showing is a lot more popular than telling, which has negative connotations, and we get it — we've always loved shows and games that can tell their stories, character developments and the like through subtle quirks of expression and action. But, I've also come to appreciate the depths of emotion one can reach by having that window into a character's thoughts, the core of their being, without having only their actions to go by. There's no telling if we'll be effective at this; only time will tell...

All that said, we went in fully knowing the prologue would be completely different from the first demo, but also knowing that the full game would be sort of like a combination of both. Yes, it will be less about being B and more about learning about her, and the story structure has changed a lot, focusing more on the dark struggles and humanity of the characters and less on just relaxing with them (though we've tried to retain some of that). Rest assured, there are still remnants from the legacy demo, e.g., underlying stat mechanics, items, mini-games, etc, BUT they are far less center stage.

It's always been a concern that we're alienating players (especially any who weren't expecting to be doing so much reading!), and for that we'll always be sorry, but we can only hope that, while some are disappointed they aren't getting a straight extension of the legacy demo, that they will try and play through the game regardless. If not we can only try to be prepared for the backlash and take it with as much open-mindedness as possible.

Of course, we also want potential players to be fully aware of what they're getting into before they buy, which is why the first demo is now labeled Legacy. That might still be confusing, so I'll likely link to this explanation or paste it on the game's main pages... somehow.

Thank you again! We personally still feel we're making something unique, but just unique in a different way. Our vision has now solidified, which is good considering we're trying to release as soon as possible...! We completely understand if you end up opting out if the above sounds off-putting to you, but if you do give it a shot, I can only hope our vision will end up jiving with you to any extent after all!

edit: oof I could talk about this all day. if there are still any concerns to address, let us know! 

Also, so there's no confusion, the kickstarter has ended, so there's no need to worry about donating to it. But thank you so much for the kind thought 🥰

(+1)

tomor   torw wil be dyinf

Hello, there seems to be a problem when I download the game. It says that the compressed zip folder is invalid. Tried downloading the prologue and the demo and still can play :( What do i do? I really want to play this :(

Hello! That's strange... First, which software are you using to open the zip folder? Something along the lines of WinRAR or 7-Zip usually work.

(+1)

Hello! sorry for the late reply ... I can finally play it !! I downloaded WinRAR. Thank you so much!

Great to hear!

(+1)

So should I play the prologue first or the Demo?

Sorry for the late response!

You can generally play them in any order, but just know that the prologue is more accurate (writing wise) to the actual game ^^ 

The demo isn't necessary, but if you do want to try it you'll have to keep in mind that at this point it's not really connected to the full game in terms of story, and is extremely old art wise.

Thanks!

(+1)

ahh i had this game buried in my bookmarks for a while until i checked up on it and realized the prologue was out just now 😭 can i just say that the game looks absolutely amazing so far?? the art and storytelling is done so well and every click through the dialogue had me pausing just to stare at the art every three seconds. i'm so excited for the full release,, keep up the good work devs!! ❤❤ 

Wow, thank you so much for the extremely kind words! 🥰 We hope you end up enjoying the full game as well!

(+1)

Will this game be sold on Steam?
One more thing, quickly release the full version。
Ahhhhhh!

It will be! We'll do our best! ❤️

when is the releaseee?😞

This isn't at all official, and take it with a grain of salt, but we're aiming for November...! 😭

(+1)

I'm willing to wait! 😣

(+3)

team robo fr giving us the cyber punk release treatment

😭We're sorrryyyy😭

(If you haven't already, feel free to join our Discord for updates on progress!!)

oh bet

chop chop indie dev team

(+1)

Im late but this update is cool and neat and brought a smile on my face. Since school is stressing me out nowadays, i need a break and your game restored me back to full HP. Keep up the good work, devs!!!

Thank you so much! 💕

Hello, this must have probably already been asked, but I wanted to know if there will be translations into other languages such as French? 😣

Hello! We absolutely plan for translations into other languages, but which ones (French for sure!) and how long they'll take after the English release is unknown. Thank you!

Yeah! I really enjoyed playing the demo, and I'm happy to know that a French translation is planned. Thank you for that!

how much will the game be

Planning to sell it at approximately $8 US!

(+1)

Holy!! i can't believe its been three years since my last comment and look at how far we've come!! coming from the legacy demo and seeing the improvements on, well, everything, including some of the CGs (the sunflower field one to be incredibly specific), in the new trailer filled me with so much joy.

the prologue was absolutely stunning- from the UI, to the music, to the art!! i really enjoyed the shift in perspective especially. getting a sort of third party view of B and her crew before we delve deeper into their dynamics and the reasoning for the groups falling out in the full release. i think it was a good way to give us a little taste without revealing too much and leaving the mystery for us to discover later. with the added bonus of adding a new lovable character (that i already wish to see more of :3) to your already stacked cast. ahh,, it makes me all the more excited for the game to finally be in my grabby little hands. i am certain the wait will be worth it!

hope you all at TeamRobo are doing well and taking care of yourselves always <33 take all the time you need,, we'll be waiting patiently to play the game that you all are proud of.

(+1)

Ahhh, thank you very much inelegance!! It really makes us happy to hear that we were able to hit those notes we were aiming for ♪ We will do our very best!

why is the proloug so different from the legacy  demo

(+1)

Our vision for the game has changed quite a bit since the legacy demo, more embracing traditional visual novel styles. The prologue reflects our current writing better but is intentionally limited in scope and art to quickly tell a short little story. Our screencaps and gameplay trailer show what the full game will look like — basically, a mix of the prologue and the legacy.

(+1)

understandable have a nice day

(+1)

full game when

 😭 Oh how we wish we knew... Aiming for September, but won't make any promises for now!

(+2)

aw, i remember playing the demo back in 2020! it looked so different back then. this new change is nice, though. can't wait for the full release! 🐔

(+1)

i have to say, this game will always be in my heart, i'm really excited about the full release and i cant wait to play it !! you guys are amazing. 

(+1)

Such a pretty art style and writing. I cant wait for the full release!

(+1)

I'm so excited for its release!! But i want to ask something, Would there be any romance? like, Can we choice to romance one of the characters?

Thank you so much~! There aren't any romantic options, as the game is focused on friendship!

(+1)

what ancient sorcery did y'all use to create something as perfect as the character of Sakai Ei???

(+2)

Hihihi we're flattered 🤭 We hope you like her in the full game!

(+1)

I saw that on the steam page it said that it won't work on MacOS 10.15 Catalina or above, can I still play it or would I have to find some other way of doing so?

(+1)

Okay so this is just a little bit complicated, but given our current engine, any Mac build on Steam won't accept anything below 11.0 (apparently).

We should still be able to release a build compatible with MacOS 10+ here on Itch, just like the prologue.

We'll let you know if this turns out to be false somehow, or if we find some way around this (admittedly, we haven't looked into it too hard yet) We're sorry for any inconvenience!

Thank you! I look forward to being able to play!

(+1)

I also want to know if the game will be free or you pay for it

(+1)

It will be paid for, with a planned price of around $8 US.

(1 edit)

I forgot to mention that system requirements are OS 11+ and mine is well over that, so is it something on your end or steam's? Sorry if you said it already, I just need more elaboration.

(1 edit) (+1)

No worries! But I think I might have misread your post? If you're on MacOS 11 or above, you should be able to run the game fine.

So, in Gamemaker (our engine), there's a certain method of compiling that's required to make a Steam build. (Specifically: VM vs YYC. VM being the build on here, YYC being the build required for Steam)

Trying to test that build on our 10.15 Mac tells us that 11.0 or later is required to run the application.

We haven't tested it on Steam yet, but we assume it'll be the same as trying to run it from the desktop. Maybe it might be something to do with our settings. We'll be sure to look into it more!

(1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for the clarification! I got worried about Steam telling that i can't play the game, but i do wonder why would steam tell me that it won't run with 10.15 or above even though the specs says I can play it? Usually when this happens, it's because steam thinks that the game runs on 32-bit and not 64-bit, could that be the issue and is there a way to change that?

(1 edit) (+1)

OH, I finally see what's happening. I opened up the Steam page on my Mac 10.15 and I'm seeing that same odd notice about 10.15 or above, etc. This might have something to do with our settings for Mac build, we'll look into it and see if we can have that rectified (it should certainly be 64-bit, and be totally compatible!) 

Thank you so much for drawing our attention to this!

(+2)

So far I love this game already. I can't wait for the full release!

(+1)

Thank you for playing the prologue ❤ We're so glad you enjoyed it!

(+1)

I'm not done all the way but I love this game already! B/Shion's really relatable to me honestly and I love A/Ei so much. I'm excited for the full release! Though, I don't if it's just a me issue or other people have already brought into the attention but game crashes a lot for visual reasons and if no one did, I wanted to tell before the full release so it can be worked on!

Thank you for bringing this to our attention! If you've played it, did this occur at all in the Prologue? It uses quite a different build (the one the full game is being built off of).

We haven't received any reports like this yet as far as I can remember, but either way we'll be certain to look into it!

I wasn't allowed to play the prologue at all unfortunately. My computer prevents and it says it could cause security risk

Thanks for letting us know! Ahhh... that's a whole other issue! Super strange if you can play the demo but not the prologue; not sure what would be causing that difference.  I'm not sure if you're still interested in trying the prologue (it's been a long time, after all) but do you think you could post a screenshot of the security risk error it shows you?

We'll continue to be on the lookout for your crash! And, if any of these errors appear in the full version (hopefully not) please don't be afraid to reach out again and we'll certainly try to sort through it!

Thank you so much!

(1 edit)

I am actually! I love the premise of this game after all. And this is the error it gives and while it's in my mother language it says "microsoft defender smartscreen prevented the start-up of an unknown application. Starting up this application could put the security of your computer at risk." edit: i think i solved it

We're glad to hear you solved it, and, if it ends up working all the way through, we hope you enjoy it!

(+1)

im super excited for this game!! one question though, will there be a steam version for this game?

In fact, we've been preparing the Steam page recently, so be on the look out! Thank you! 🥰

(+1)

AHHHH IM SO EXCITED <3333
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS GAME

(+1)

cant wait for the release!!!!

Hello Team Robo!

I have been following the production of this game for roughly 3 years now, and I am so excited that we are almost to the end! This story has been a source of comfort for me for a while. I am so glad to have been on this journey with you.

This brings me to my difficulties with booting up the prologue. I think I managed to bypass the quarantine, but I have a secondary message that states that I do not have the permission necessary to open the application. I looked up various resources, and tried various commands in the terminal to open it up to no avail. This may be a personal issue, given that there are so many documented solutions to this problem, but I just wanted to bring it to your attention!

Best of luck with the game release! I can't wait.

(1 edit)

Hello! We're so sorry to hear about your troubles with this... We know of several issues surrounding newer Macs even past the quarantining issue. We're assuming yours is, at least, relatively new?

We've recently paid for an Apple developer ID and are waiting on them to approve this prologue for their system, which should solve a lot of issues. We'll be sure to let you know when we re-upload that build here. (Hopefully, the launch of the full game will be a lot smoother thanks to that as well!)

Finally, thank you so much for your patience and support all these years! We'll do our best!

Hello! We know it's been a long time, but just wanted to follow up in case you were still interested: we finally got that new version up along with new instructions.

(+1)

Hi Team Robo!!! Thank you so much for getting back to me. I just downloaded the prologue and the application opened! Thank you thank you thank you!! I am so excited to play this game. Can't wait for full release!!!

Ah, I really want to play the prologue, but for some reason, I can't find the game file in the ZIP folder? I have a Mac, and when I open the ZIP folder, I go to: Tomorrow Will Be Dying -> Contents -> Mac OS -> Mac Runner. The Mac Runner is just an empty file and nothing runs when I double click it. My Mac is fairly old, and I've had difficulty updating the software. Could that possibly be the reason I can't run the game? I'm sorry if that was confusing, I still don't know all the right jargon to describe game files.

Oh no, sorry to hear you're having trouble with this Toby!!

On our 2012 Macbooks, we only need to double click the zip file and the ArchiveUtility extracts the application. We're unfamiliar with any other process (and Macs in general), so troubleshooting may be a bit more difficult. 

So, firstly, what year is your Mac and what version is it on? (And no worries about the jargon either!)

(+1)

Ah!! Okay, I made an embarrassing mistake and completely missed the application in the folder I saved it in. The thumbnail completely blended in with the other files in the folder LOL But I played through the entirety of the game and everything worked perfectly! the music and ambient sounds were on point and beautiful, the art was amazing, and I enjoyed the pacing of the story and characters! I also loved the UI design, it was aesthetically pleasing and made everything really easy to follow and understand.

I'm glad that I was able to play the game and I'm even more excited for when it's all done! I hope everything else goes smoothly with you guys and hope you all stay well!

Ahhh gotcha SDFKG We're so glad to hear that it worked and that you enjoyed the prologue! As always, your kind words and support mean the world to us, especially now during the final stretch! Thank you! 💕💕

(1 edit) (+1)

I've been looking forward to this game since the Kickstarter and am very excited to see its progress! I absolutely love the art and direction, and wherever the game is going to go, I’m in. That being said, I have some concerns after playing the Prologue (I didn't play the previous Legacy demo so I will be solely focusing on the Prologue demo):

Firstly, without paragraph indents, spacings, or breaks to ease the eye, the written lines accumulate into an unwieldy chunk of text in each text box, hindering the reading experience. I enjoy story-heavy and text-based games tremendously, but the clumping of long lines makes the words difficult to follow and digest. With each click revealing a line that adds to the preceding bulk of text, the eye feels like it is weighed down without enough space to rest. I can tell the effort that went into the writing to provide immersive descriptions, but the presentation of the text box UI works against it. 

Perhaps each new paragraph can be indented like a regular book format, or blocks of paragraphs can be spaced out more, or more padding can be added to the text box UI, anything that can direct the eye better. Having long lines in a text box is fine, but it is more about creating a certain rhythm and pacing of reading with the form of the text. 

Another concern is the use of opacity to differentiate between the dialogue and action lines. I understand using this approach to distinguish between dialogue and action and give them some flavour, but as the opacity of the action lines was too faded, over time my eyes were strained in trying to see them. The shift in opacity between dialogue and action text becomes more jarring and distracting than fluid, I could read the dialogue more clearly simply because they were more opaque than the action lines, and it felt like a test on my eyesight sometimes haha… 

This is also not to say that opacity on text shouldn’t be used, but it should be used for effect. Lower text opacity can, for instance, give the feeling of quiet and distance. It makes sense when there was a “new voice” speaking, such that the translucent text aptly feels like it came from somewhere distant, or when someone is trailing off, and so on. But otherwise, to use it throughout the story in normal situations, the effect feels out of place. When combined with the aforementioned clumping of words in a single text box, reading overall became quite strenuous. Even if the text effect and UI remain as a stylistic choice, perhaps there can be an option to consistently darken all the text for better visual accessibility. 

Another side note would be to have clearer button feedback, such as giving a brighter highlight when hovering over a clickable button in the main menu, or even a sound effect. Such interactions can better inform the player of their input as well as give the game more ‘life’ as it responds to the player. 

On the narrative side, I find the prologue to be an interesting direction in setting up the main story, though I’m left with a bit of mixed feelings. This is mostly because the prologue is a small piece of the whole pie so I can’t judge the whole yet, but then again it’s also the beginning piece that frames the rest of the pie and sets up expectations. I enjoy the use of outsider perspective in stories and it is great to see how Eri develops apart from the main narrative, realistically showcasing how the threads of one person’s life can be both entangled with and stray from another, all while building up the main characters. The ending of the prologue provides intrigue as Eri’s tiny arc ends while the main characters’ concurrent stories are yet to be explored. 

While I enjoy this narrative approach for the prologue, I wished for a little more hinting at the main narrative and characters. When interesting tidbits regarding what happened to the main characters apart from Eri’s narrative were dropped at the end, the narration swept by it and continued to march on towards Eri’s conclusion. For instance, rumours that Sakai threatened Ashikaga with a knife? That sounds both badass and distressing! But for something that holds much emotional weight, the game brushes over it, circling its trajectory back to Eri, seemingly in haste to wrap up Eri’s story. While I like that the prologue didn’t overstay its due, there wasn’t exactly a strong sense of what the main narrative is about, and I left the prologue feeling like I know more about Eri and her small journey than the main characters due to how little we see of them and their conflicts (which are supposed to be the star of the game). Because it is so detached from the main narrative and self-contained, the prologue feels more like a side story than a framing of the larger story that is to come. It’s like seeds of the main narrative, conflict, and characters were planted sparingly, and then the narration pulls our attention away to focus on the growth of a distant plant. Yet again, because this is a demo, maybe the full game will be able to transition to the main characters’ perspectives and tone smoothly, and introducing Eri’s mini-story first will make sense in the overall narrative even if she may or may not appear again or be relevant to the main story. Maybe Eri would wish she had reached out to Ashikaga after all even though they had only shared small moments together, I don’t know, but I hope such opportunities for emotional impact can be expanded upon more, and I hope it works out as I believe in the team’s creative direction.

I raise these concerns because the game has great potential to play with the medium of visual novels and provide a stunning experience. The art is, as always, an extremely beautiful and eye-catching feature. Nevertheless, the ease of reading is a crucial make-or-break, especially for a heavily narrative-driven visual novel. I want to recommend this game to people, but I can also understand if they may be initially put off by the clunky appearance of the text at this point. Moreover, for a game that very much hinges on its storytelling, perhaps beta readers/testers can be used to check and ensure the quality of the narrative experience. I really hope for this game to succeed and be the best version it can be, so thank you for your hard work and all the best! :)

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Ah, thank you so much for the feedback! It's great to receive some tips for the UI; all of your suggestions sound great! Small indents and then spacing between long paragraphs should be simple enough to implement. As for padding the textbox — just to clarify: you meant to add more empty space between the borders of the textbox and text? If so, that sounds good as well!

For the text: we did want to differentiate the dialogue from narration since singular textboxes often combine the two and, with the arrow and name tags, we didn't want to confuse readers as to when the character is actually speaking vs the narration. With that said, we will certainly consider an option to disable the effect, and/or look into other ways to differentiate between narration and dialogue contained in a single box. 

As for the narrative itself, we can only hope that the full experience will fully justify this prologue's existence, but that remains to be seen (though, being able to receive this feedback justifies it on the dev side of things, hehe). There isn't a lot of time left, so the possibility of getting beta testers beyond our editors and then implementing their feedback is a little iffy, but, as you say, it's probably a good idea. We'll look into this a bit more and see what we can do!

We really appreciate you letting us in on your overall impressions — we'll be sure to take them into account moving forward. We may or may not be adjusting this release just yet, but the prologue will be featured as optional side content in the main game and should have any of the aforementioned fixes for anyone who misses out on it here. 

Thank you for your support and well-wishes, that means the world to us!

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😊 Haha thanks, it’s nice to know that the team is receptive and takes feedback seriously.

Oh, that was what I meant by padding the textbox, but it was also just off the top of my head, my suggestions are only just that of course, it's up to the team to decide what works best in the end! :)

When you mention that you’d be seeing how to fit dialogue and narration into one text box, I can’t help but wonder, why not give them their own spaces in individual text boxes, rather than trying to cram them both into one most of the time? Not to create an entirely new text box each for dialogue and narration, but that dialogue can be more reserved for the text box with arrows that points to the character speaking along with the name tags, and narration used more in the text box without the arrows. 

The instances where the prologue demo did this (such as Regular Textbox: [Narration only] >> Arrow Textbox: [Name tag] + [Dialogue only]  >> Arrow Textbox: [Name tag] + [Dialogue only] >> Regular Textbox: [Narration only]), even if it’s rather few, were the most immersive moments at least for me because reading flowed well alongside the character expressions. This is in contrast to instances like “Regular Textbox: [Narration about Eri jerking up] >> Arrow Textbox [Saki’s Dialogue] >> [Saki’s Name tag pops up]”. The Arrow textbox merging with the prior Regular Textbox feels incongruent with the starting narration of Eri which now has Saki’s name tag at the top. It may be better for the player to take in the narration of Eri jerking back in its own regular text box, and then encounter Saki’s dialogue next. There are certainly a lot more nuances that go into this, each moment would be different according to what is needed to convey their effect, but the most important bit is discerning the tempo of reading through textboxes and how it affects the player’s experience (which is why beta testers, or anyone really, who can see how all these elements come together might be handy). The game just needs to spread out the dialogue and narration text to prevent clogging up a single text box.

Nevertheless, I also completely understand the limitations of what can be done at this stage given that the release date is drawing near and I definitely don’t wish to add more to the plate. I get the sense that the text seems fine on paper, but when translated into visual novel mode, it becomes tricky to mold it into the game's design. Understandably, the comic-panel style of TWBD doesn’t fit in the ‘traditional’ VN model of standard text box at the bottom for both dialogue and narration so it’s an extra challenge. Indie development is tough, so if there isn’t enough time to fully consider everything, it’s alright if the game’s textual format stays as it is (I only hope for at least the option to have the text be consistently at full opacity as it gets harder to read over time). Thanks for considering my comments, and hang in there!⭐

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Understood and noted!

We went in knowing visual novels don't often have dialogue tags, but did end up throwing them in as fans of regular novels. As a result, we've just made this a just a tiny bit harder than it needed to be for ourselves! At the end of the day, though, it's really no problem — we're still in the process of editing/implementing, so we'll keep it in mind to try to split the dialogue from the narration when we can, especially for moments like the one you described (different subjects, etc). Readability is absolutely key!

Thank you again, we really appreciate it!

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I remember playing the legacy demo a year or 2 ago and crying over the beautiful story telling and art, especially with the concept and vibes it gave me because it resonated with me a lot. I've fallen in love with this game and your team since then! Been keeping up with your monthly updates each time you upload and I'm so proud and excited to play the prologue and the official release! ^^ I'm sure the hard work and love you guys put into this will pay off!! 💖 I also cant wait to join the community that this may garner, and reading back on the comments ik that you said a discord server may not be made since work is busy, but hopefully in the future there will be one hehe GOOD LUCK TEAM ROBO 💖

Hhh thank you so much for the extremely kind comment, we're so lucky to have such patient and understanding readers that are supportive of our ever-changing vision of the game 😭 We truly hope the full game will be worthy of all this love! ♥

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