Straight!?

heya, thanks so much for playing and letting me know you enjoyed it. actually my original idea when i finished was to unlock a braden route then drop you back at the beginning to play it all through from his perspective but i ended up scrapping that. i felt like zack's headspace was more my style of writing and i wasn't sure how I'd juggle braden narrating and try to keep my overly dramatic writing style under control (braden struggles with school stuff so i couldn't really see him writing lengthy dramatic sentences and i honestly enjoy that nonsense). the other aspect of braden-- and i wont go into detail here because of spoilers-- but braden's arc and how he feels was very different to a lot of people and i thought that was awesome. people were able to mold braden to fit both him and their own vision of his feelings and the more i thought about it, me writing his route would take that from them so i scrapped it. braden's character imo was way more powerful with the mystery and ambiguous narrative that i thought i could ever write him. 

but yeah, thank so much for playing and just taking time to leave a comment and stuff here. i really appreciate the interest and i'm just happy you enjoyed it :)

awww, well thank you so much for reading. i get a lot of my energy from the community so hopefully we make that world beautiful together :)

wow, thank you so much. you're very kind and i really appreciate you taking the time to post about your experience. i'm grateful you found value in it and saw it as therapeutic. i tried hard to weave that into the story and have something that felt realistic and genuine. sorry about all the feels-- apparently, i like emotional stories and i didn't know. but genius? haha... nah, i'm just some internet dude tinkering around. 

From the slow burn to the plot twist, I can confidently say that this is one of the best visual novels I've ever read.

hey thanks a lot and your screen name made me laugh. no plans for a sequel right now but i'm open to it if i think i can do better than the first time. i just reawlly wanna be careful with these characters and not run the story into the ground but we'll see

aww. thank you so much. i sincerely appreciate this. thanks for taking the time to recommend it and thanks for reading <3

Thank you so much for leaving feedback and I'm really glad you enjoyed the project. I really wanted to do something new here and put a different spin on the genre. I think the NSFW stuff means so much more when there's a build-up or an investment in the characters. Also, you're not alone in jumping over to the v021 to finish the story after starting the Remake. Plenty more work to be done on it. Thanks so much for playing <3

hey, thanks so much for playing and glad you enjoyed the story. the original was definitely a work-in-progress but the Revamp is looking pretty. hope you enjoy it when i finally get it done. Also, sorry i almost made you cry with my smutty game :p  <3

heya:) thanks so much for stopping by and trying out the project. I'm glad you're enjoying it. So over on the Patreon page I've dropped 2 sets of teasers for the next update. v15 is a ton of image work and i've already broken the Revamp record for images and I still have 3 scenes left to do. Basically there's new environments that needed reworked before i even started doing the images. that being said, there's minimal writing work to do so it's mostly just pics. No ETA right now but i promise I'm working on it. gonna be at least another month I'm guessing. If you wanna see some of the teasers, you can check out my Bluesky account. there's some free ones as well as a small snapshot of the newest teasers I dropped. 

https://bsky.app/profile/aarynstr8.bsky.social

heya :)

So right now, the revamp only goes up to a portion of chapter 7. The entire story is 10 chapters and the chapters pretty much get longer as the story goes. So right now, I'd say the revamp is probably somewhere around halfway through. so that includes all versions of the revamp, PC, MAC, and android. 

the original is still all 10 chapters on all platforms. if you didn't want to wait, a lot of people have been starting the revamp and playing until it stops then jumping over to pick up the end of the story on the original but there is a massive quality drop. massive. 

otherwise, it's still gonna be awhile. i'm going as fast as i can but i also want quality stuff to the best of my current ability

Hey, thank you so much. glad it ran you through all the feels. i really wanted something that pulled people in and made the characters feel real. i think you need that for the emotional scenes to work. i know it's a very niche story but thanks so much for giving it a shot. if you haven't checked out the Revamped version, though, I definitely recommend it. It's pretty established now and is waaaaaay better. (also, your screen name cracked me up :p). all the best and stay safe out there <3

Heya. thank you so much. i'm glad you like the project and are enjoying it. thanks for playing <3

glad it hooked ya. i really appreciate you giving it a chance :)

Heya, thank you for the well written note and I'm stoked that it impacted you in such a way as to give you a new perspective and renew some love for your bf. Also, congratulations on 14 years. that's a pretty long time and should be respected and i hope it continues to grow for you both. 

in terms of your suggestions: yes, i plan on translations eventually but i think it will be difficult just because i apparently write with sooooo much slang. i never really expected non-english speakers to even get through it originally so it's been incredibly rewarding to hear that people are motivated enough by the project to wade through this thing, lol. I do plan on trying to work with people on the discord to get it as accurate as possible but we'll see. languages are complex and inconsistent obviously so who knows how that translation will turn out. 

i see what you're saying with dialogue and maybe that's something i could add. there's a few spots in the later parts of the game where i did that. i just very much see all the random stuff that seems less important as still being character development or giving you background that may come into play later. when i sit down and read books, i usually like massive ones with a ton of details. but i also think that conversation is how relationships naturally evolve so i really focused on a lot of dialogue that spans everything from serious to existential to anger to teasing the crap out of each other. I definitely think it's a lot for a non-native English speaker to struggle with 'cause i get really wordy sometimes :p

things like that may come after the revamp project is completely finished where i may be able to go back and just do some touch-up updates and stuff :)

heya, well thank you for reaching out first off. and yes it's absolutely fine to post here. i'm not sure why you were unable to post on patreon. that should have been a free public post where anyone could reply so sorry you had that experience but here is certainly fine :)

but thank you so much for running through stuff and testing it. it seriously does help me out and save me time while i'm working on all the future stuff. all of those new image updates will be including in the next update too. It's coming soon. i promise. little more work than i expected but i'm on it

appreciate you and appreciate the support and follow <3

heya, thanks for checking in and thank you for the multiple reads. i've said this before but when i started working on this thing i never expected it to go global-- sure, it's on the internet and everything is technically global, i guess-- but i never expected it to hold up in so many different places, cultures, lifestyles, etc. And because of that, i never grow tired of hearing the experiences of others. I truly value posts like this and I thank you for sharing it. 

I think there's power in hearing from the experience of others: hearing or reading something that you've experienced yourself, and realizing that you're not crazy and you're not alone. With all the division in the world, it's nice to feel  connections with others so i'm glad this small part of the story resonated with you. It's also fun to just hear all the parts that resonate with different people because the world is a diverse place. 

You spoke about this vulnerability and I think the next update that I'm working on now, returns to that again briefly, but it can be scary. If you've had past experiences that have taught you to protect yourself, it becomes advantageous to defend yourself and be very leery of outsiders. Giving them too much information could hurt you. But the flip side to that is that is the connection that comes from shared vulnerability. when you find people that you can be yourself around-- drop that filter. it can be terrifying but that's what gives it its power: when you're vulnerable with them and they, in turn, do the same to you; and neither of you uses that vulnerability for harm. obviously, you need to be safe and calculated with that and much of that is based on our past experiences.

i think for me: i've made bad decisions in the past. some of those have allowed people to hurt me just as much as my own stupidity has hurt others. at some point, i have to decide which of those experiences needs to become a lesson i learned the hard way and which of those are the painful shackles that are preventing me from moving forward to learn new lessons. It's like any other investment-- there can be profound gains or painful losses-- but i think the currency of meaningful relationships is vulnerability. But that's just how i found acceptance in my own head.

i truly wish you the best and i hope you find acceptance and peace in your own way. stay safe and may all of your future relationships be rewarding. thank you for reading :)

Heya. This project does not contain any femboys, sissy, or crossdressing content. In fact: it's almost the exact opposite. Character interactions and personalities could be described as cis and are probably more "bro" and sarcastic with an existential twist than anything else. While I openly support any of those identities, lifestyles, and any similar content, I tend to be pretty masculine and I've always heard to "write what you know." 

There's plenty of LGBTQ+ talent out there with far more insight into those lifestyles than I have and the world would be better served to hear their voices over mine. They would do them more justice than I ever could. 

heya, greetings from the US and thanks for reading. i'm glad you're enjoying the revamped version and since you're finished the story, you already know the revamp is just now getting to the good parts. In terms of a sequel, it's been a common question but no plans right now. i don't multitask well so i only work on one project at a time. right now, i'm finishing the revamp (to conclude this game). as i near the end of the revamp, the workload should reduce a bit and i may start looking towards the future then. without stating spoilers here, i worked hard on the ending for this to check a lot of boxes for people so i'm going to be very careful if i ever choose to continue things. i dont want to just run a story into the ground like a lot of movies do

thank you so much. i'm glad you enjoyed it. thank you so much for reading. if you're still interested in the characters, the revamp is a great way to scratch that itch for wanting more. 

thank you so much. i hope you continue to enjoy it. i progressively just got more comfortable doing my own thing rather than try and do the typical VN stuff so hopefully that works for you. lemme know if you end up liking it (not sure if you're playing the original or the revamp) by the end :)

aww, this is amazing. i know i dont know you but i'm so proud of your progress and your ability to find peace and acceptance in who you are. I'm always humbled when people state that this story was involved in any way in their journey or as an impetus for change. that's still one of the best compliments i could ever receive but I think it's always important to kick the majority of that credit back to the reader because you're the one who was willing to listen to yourself and find your own path. thank you so much for reading and thank you for giving the revamp a try. i hope you enjoy it even better than the original-- i've worked really hard to do nothing but improve it. same story. just everything looks, sounds, and feels better. please take care of yourself. i wish you and those important to you nothing but the best. thank you so much <3

heya, first off thanks for playing. from where you are in the original game, you should be able to go to class and that would unlock a TV discussion with Braden and open pool access. 

since you're playing the original, you're stuck in the frustrating part of the game. when i started this thing, you basically had to keep trying different combinations of things to unlock the progress forward. that's how a lot of sandbox games were built then. since then i've learned to hate that method and i promise that goes away after chapter 3. if you want to completely avoid all of that, then just play the Revamp version, it's not the full story but it'll get you through the first 5 1/2 chapters without having to worry about any of that stuff. then if you still like the story you can jump back to the original and pickup the story while you wait on the revamp version to be completed. 

There's also a .txt file in the game folder that has a walkthrough of all the choices and how to get through the first 3 chapters quickly. i promise i got way better. i can't stand the beginning (hence why there's a revamp). hope this helps :)

heya, greetings from the US and I'm humbled to have you onboard. I've tried to make the story pretty deep, especially for the adult genre. it definitely has it's heavy moments but there's a bunch of fun nonsense, too. so in terms of translations, i do have people on the discord who have been interested in translations. i originally got some interest then got busy learning more things for the Revamp and it go put on hold. I do know there is still interest tho and Spanish was one of the most popular requests. a full translation won't be soon but it is something that I'd like to do and would likely include the community to do it. lot of people have wanted to help with this project and that's definitely something i can't do alone. i'm very much against AI so i'd rather have people doing it-- which will likely take longer but it's more rewarding

so the short answer is i'm not sure. The beginning part of the story was going to take a lot longer. there was a lot more work during the early parts of the story and then gradually less work as the story progresses. however, then i've learned more skills in the process so i ended up adding more things like animations and stuff like that. as of right now, i'm probably about halfway through it so maybe another year give or take. 

in terms of plans after that, i'm not sure. i didn't plan a lot of this and sorta let it write itself. however, i dont multitask well so i really only want to focus on one thing at a time. but as a near the end of this, i'm expecting the workload to drop more which will leave time to start looking towards the future. i have a folder with some ideas in it

heya, no worries on waiting on the revamp. I think it's honestly worth it. i was always worried about people starting with the revamp then jumping back to the original because of the quality difference but lately people have reported that it worked for them. in contrast to how long it took to do the original, the revamp is going much quicker because i dont have to really outline or write. updates so far have been about 2 months or so on average. it just really depends what i'm trying to do. 

i'm also glad the story rings true for you. zack is complicated. there's a lot going on for him to unpack and work through and you're definitely not alone. seriously appreciate you reading and i hope you continue to enjoy the story. dont worry about the money stuff. people have been generous. i release it for free for a reason. too many greedy developers out there nowdays. just know that i appreciate you for giving the story a chance and for taking the time out of your day to come say hey and let me know you're enjoying it. that's good enough for me <3

thank you so much. i'm glad you found the genre and thanks for giving this one a try. there's a lot of stories out there so i'm happy you found mine. Yeaaahhh.... Ash is a fan fav for sure. Def the most fun to write out of all of them but they all have a special place in my heart for the time I've spent with them. I'm also happy that it worked jumping from the Revamp to the original. I've come a long ways and while I didn't like the beginning of the original story's quality, the middle and beyond started to pick up. However, after working on the Revamp, I can't believe the difference and I always worry about people jumping back to the original. It's still very popular on the Discord because fans really enjoyed watching the growth of the project and for most, that was how they first experienced it. It was a first for all of us. But the Revamp is on another level and I'm way more proud of it.

Heya :)  so in terms of actual labels in the game, i've never officially confirmed anything. However, the demi-route you're discussing has been widely considered by a lot of readers. I have my own head canon but I never openly confirmed things just because i like to leave it up to the readers. your ability to relate to what you've read so far is a good example of why. if i confirmed something that was opposite to what you gained from it, I'd fear taking that from you and i dont want to take anything away from a readers ability to relate to a character or situation. so i've just decided not to do that. you're definitely allowed to put labels on the characters and there's definitely enough evidence in the story for you to draw that conclusion-- many have. So once again, you're not alone :)