hello... a fan of your games and was worried about the visa censorship... i'm from PH but when i search "Cruel Serenade" the game doesn't come up... maybe i'm doing something wrong with the search but just wanted you to know....
p.s.
when i search 'bitshiftgames' what appears is 'Barshiftgames'
i used the itch.io search bar... dunno what shows if i search on google.
Cruel Serenade 1 is indeed still showing in search, though you have to actually do the search, it won't be an auto-suggestion. Be sure that "Show content marked as adult in search & browse" is turned on in your account settings under "Content."
It's also worth mentioning that the games have been around long enough now that they all come up easily in Google. If you even need to pull them up quickly, just search there and bypass whatever Itch may be doing completely.
Ah, that makes sense then. And to be clear, the censorship has certainly effected me, and many other creators in a variety of ways. It's still not clear what the long-term situation will be with being able to BUY these games on Itch. But for now, they are indeed at least somewhat viewable and purchasable. And thanks, glad you like games!
Allegedly Collective Shout only demanded the takedown of a handful of games. They could be lying of course, but if that's actually the case, it seems likely someone at Itch freaked, blanket de-listed, and they are now picking through them, possibly with a lawyer or some cc rep or god knows what, and whenever they manage to finish things will be listed again. Until the next wacko Karen comes along and this happens all over again. But we'll see.
Heard Mouthwashing got nailed. Unclear if hard ban or just delisted though, haven't looked. Seems like that'll mint a lot more new pissed off people, that game seemed to be fairly successful streamerbait.
It's been all day, almost every day for five days now. Hanging in there though. Hoping to slowly roll back a little now and return to actually making games.
Hey so, I found out about this game, downloaded and holy shit I can’t stop thinking about it, it’s been like half a month omg I love it, I’ve got a friend that’s gotten like five earfuls just of this game.
It’s genuinely nice to see something actually well made that doesn’t just scratch an itch, it’s practically pulling on it, the setting is great, the gameplay is alright, the scenes are GODLY. Plus I’m seeing scenes from a second act and news about a third, seems like it’s the perfect time to dive in? Really my only complaint is the ingame menus, title screen and gallery are alright, but inventory and fights… It’s like going to a 5 star buffet and being given plastic utensils, like sure it’s still fantastic food but that detail is a lil cheap. Also some backstory would be nice, specially around the lil guy Mezz, I wub him but there’s just not a lot about him :/
I’m getting that second act sooner rather than later, hopefully that infamous Gutter everybody’s mentioning so much is just as Ruthless and unforgiving as the boars here!
Ps. if you want help expanding the game to Spanish, hmu!
Something you may not know: The way Itch works, all comments get slopped together in one feed. If you have multiple games published on an account, this means you may not realize what game is being commented on until you glance up at the header. I was really hyped as I started to read your comment...and then I realized it wasn't even on GT, just the first game. If you like the FIRST game this much...I'm definitely looking forward to your thoughts on the second. This first game is just the breadsticks, GT is a...pretty sizable meal.
More seriously though, thanks for taking the time to write out your thoughts in more detail. I am somewhat unusual, in that I genuinely need a bit of backstory to enjoy my porn. Even with generic pics I find, I end up putting together a whole setting for them. Just the way my brain works for better and for worse. But when making a game like this, it means I actually try to give it some meat, some kind of identity besides the bare minimum. And hopefully it's a "works on multiple levels" thing: those that just want some sex scenes, there they are. People that want a little characterization and setting, that's there too. People that want DEEP LORE: let me put it this way, there's a computer in GT that's nothing but lore dump. Optional, but the details are there for those who care.
As for the characters being basic, keep in mind this was basically a proof of concept. But they are filled out MUCH more in GT. In terms of the combat, I will never claim I have super complex amazing systems or anything. But there's a number of things to say there:
One, please understand, this was my first ever time working with RPGMaker. I learned as I went, but there are a lot of rough edges, and I was mostly just trying to make sure the combat wasn't AWFUL. Second, I'm somewhat constrained because every new enemy is a new art asset I have to create, AND a new battlesex mechanic I have to consider, and possibly MORE art assets because of that etc. You'll see more of what I'm talking about in GT. So as a result, I mostly stick to one enemy type per game, with some variations for gameplay, differentiated by pallet swaps. The variations were extremely basic in the first game, there's a LITTLE more there in GT, but not a ton. Also TECHNICALLY there are two fully different mob enemies in GT in addition to variations, but you don't really FIGHT one of them. You'll see when you play it.
Third, as I just said, the battles in my games aren't just about normal mechanics, they also have to have a battlesex layer on top of that, which adds to complexity. And you start increasing that complexity in a...non-linear? way as you add things.
But fourth, I don't really prioritize super amazing combat highly anyway. I want it to be somewhat fun, and at the very least not get in the way, but the core thing in the games is to be HOT. Not just to have hot things in them but to BE hot, to manage the experience so players are getting dragged along juuuust right. I don't mean to rag on Grove, but in contrast their combat is SUPER intricate and sophisticated, or at least it was when I tried it a year or two ago...and it kind of put me off the game. I don't want to make my games DUMB per say, but I'm always careful to never make people think TOO hard. It gets in the way of the flow.
All that said though, combat DID improve at least a little in GT; I'd be interested in hearing how much that improvement helped for you once you've finished it.
As for translations, by all means. Just know it's quite a lot to translate. But essentially the rule is anyone can make one, just be clear it's unofficial. Then I'll try to take a look, make sure it's at least fairly solid and complete, and make it semi-official with a notification/news post here. And eventually, hopefully, actually fully test it and make it FULLY official. That can take a while though: the chinese translation has been languishing a while because I don't have time for full testing atm. But long story short, you want to give it a try, knock yourself out! It's always fun seeing how people handle slang and jokes.
Ouch, didn’t know about that notification detail, sorry about that accidental low blow hah.
That said, I didn’t need any more reasons to be excited for Gutter trash but here you are you just providing them!!! I agree this original one is a bit rough around some edges but you just saw me gush about it so color me excited to save some change for what seems like an infinitely better version. I’ve no joke been reopening the game constantly, specially for the final bad end and slut mode scenes which Mmmmmmmm, just hit the right buttons man.
Cruel Serenade is clearly a party I’m late to, but one I’ m really happy is still going, I am going to be following it very closely from now on, well y’know after catching up with GT which seems like a great fuckin’ time. Expect a skyscraper of text in the coming weeks about my experience with that!
Lemme research too about making that unnoficial translation, I’ve dabbled with locales in the past but not ones from RPGmaker, nor really getting anything remotely officialized, though it’s effort I’m willing to put in to help get the game more known because right now this is a criminally, illegally, insultingly overlooked game.
Oh no worries, that's exactly the kind of low blow I enjoy. And on the translation front, one thing I will recommend is Translator++ (https://dreamsavior.net/translator-plusplus/). It has some auto-translate/machine translation stuff, but you can ignore that: the real advantage is that it's built to slot right into RPGMaker's file system, and helps you keep track of everything that needs to be translated in a neat grid system, so you don't have to constantly fiddle with text files or worry about accidentally deleting a formatting character. Not required, just may help a lot.
I have always wanted to translate a game because I thought it was a greatly effective but easy way to contribute to a project I really liked, and today after all that’s happened, I can say I was wrong about the easy part lol
I downloaded the tool you recommended and got to work, completely forgetting that RPG games have a buttload of text. But honestly, I learned so much about Spanish, and it’s supposed to be my native language! It truly was an experience to get every grammar rule right on top of keeping the dialogues contextually correct BUT ALSO making them sound natural. I even had to consider what rhythm and breaks the reader would be taking, and writing around that!
I didn’t think it’d be that tough until Google Translate struggled to give me one straight answer for Slut, that’s when I knew this was gonna be a soulful. But, I can say that I’ve finished the translation, I was pretty thorough testing so I think everything’s in order, here’s a link!
Making the translation made me appreciate the world you crafted even more, SO ANSWER ME WHO IS THIS “WEIRD GUY” THAT TAMPERED WITH MY BOI MEZZ BEFORE HE GOT INTO THE ISLAND AND HOW DID HE DO IT, I WILL FIND HIM I WILL PUNT HIM… I… I suppose it’ll be answered in GT, which I’ve yet to play but I’m still really excited about it. Maybe I’ll be playing along with the new people that I hope are now able to enjoy it thanks to my translation!
But yeah, phew, that was a pretty nice use of my vacation break, I dunno if I can use such dark and twisted game as reference of newly-developed translation skills in my resume, but I’m happy with the result, and I hope you are too!
Oh hey, glad to hear from ya again! Ha, and I warned you! But I'm glad you followed through. I think people who haven't done this sort of thing underestimate in two ways: the actual practical realities of making a GOOD translation, even if you're fluent in both languages, and the reality of translating EVERYTHING. Every dialog. Every item name and description. Every route. When the lazy goddamn game designer decided to copypaste an event with dialog in it four times so YOU have to copypaste the translation four times (I try to cut down on this as much as possible, but a few sneak through :P.) But I am glad you started with the smaller game at least. GT would have been a LOT to take on as a first project.
It's interesting that you mention learning more about Spanish despite it being native: I was just watching a video by one of those people that are language geniuses and pick up new ones just for fun, and one of the things he said about learning a new language is that actually talking to people was vital, but to NOT try to learn grammar rules from native speakers (of anything) because they often don't know or are completely wrong :P. Which makes sense: you grow up with a language, you just learn what you need, not every little technical aspect of it. Until it comes up in something like this.
But thank you so much for putting the effort into this. I'll slot it in and take a look before long; I look forward to seeing what you did with my dumb joke lines. And as for the mystery man, there IS more info in GT, if you know where to look. I look forward to hearing your thoughts once you finish that one.
Hey, I'm new to the game. First off, I love it. But I'm a bit confused. After Mezz is 'broken in', can't we fight? Every time Mezz is fought, he just gets to hit once (with very little damage) then he's on his knees. Is this permanent?
Thanks! And yes, once you lose three times, there's no going back (in this game). You had three chances! After he's thoroughly broken, it becomes a game about fucking your way through rather than fighting. Prior to the third loss you can also disable the hypno stuff in battle entirely if you want by taking off the ear clips. but after 3 it doesn't matter.
If your joiplay has the rpgmaker add on itll work but the game is not optimized for it I tried doing the joiplay thing to see if it'd work it does but not well enough to enjoy this game I don't think
Nope, no mobile support. You're certainly free to try, but issues will arise, as various plugins used assume they're on a desktop environment (ie a normal computer).
Oh, you mean the scenes. Forgot I called them "cases" in the gallery. There are actually 5, as counted by the gallery, yes. Refer to this to check if you've seen everything. Note that that's more than 5, since it's listing smaller things that aren't full scenes in the gallery. But if there's something there that doesn't sound familiar, that's probably the missing bit.
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hello... a fan of your games and was worried about the visa censorship... i'm from PH but when i search "Cruel Serenade" the game doesn't come up... maybe i'm doing something wrong with the search but just wanted you to know....
p.s.
when i search 'bitshiftgames' what appears is 'Barshiftgames'
i used the itch.io search bar... dunno what shows if i search on google.
god bless dude.
Cruel Serenade 1 is indeed still showing in search, though you have to actually do the search, it won't be an auto-suggestion. Be sure that "Show content marked as adult in search & browse" is turned on in your account settings under "Content."
It's also worth mentioning that the games have been around long enough now that they all come up easily in Google. If you even need to pull them up quickly, just search there and bypass whatever Itch may be doing completely.
Also, out of curiosity, what is PH?
oh... PH is the short term for the country i live in. Philippines... lol
oh thank god the game isn't affected by the Visa censorship, i guess i just didn't know that there was a setting needed for it to show...
i've always used the bookmark i have of bitshiftgames on my browser so i never really used the search function on itch...
hope you're doing great... take care man.
love your games and your vision on em.
:)
Ah, that makes sense then. And to be clear, the censorship has certainly effected me, and many other creators in a variety of ways. It's still not clear what the long-term situation will be with being able to BUY these games on Itch. But for now, they are indeed at least somewhat viewable and purchasable. And thanks, glad you like games!
Seems we have both survived the ban waves.
that's a good sign <3, i dont think were in the clear yet.
hopefully this wraps up soon
Ey Miro!
Allegedly Collective Shout only demanded the takedown of a handful of games. They could be lying of course, but if that's actually the case, it seems likely someone at Itch freaked, blanket de-listed, and they are now picking through them, possibly with a lawyer or some cc rep or god knows what, and whenever they manage to finish things will be listed again. Until the next wacko Karen comes along and this happens all over again. But we'll see.
Heard Mouthwashing got nailed. Unclear if hard ban or just delisted though, haven't looked. Seems like that'll mint a lot more new pissed off people, that game seemed to be fairly successful streamerbait.
Mouthwashing apparently got taken down months ago due to it just being a link to steam with no actual itch content.
According to Leafo on the discord atleast.
Pff, wouldn't be surprised. As usual, social media is a morass when trying to get proper info.
how are you holding up with all this stress?
this put a tonne of new work on my game...
It's been all day, almost every day for five days now. Hanging in there though. Hoping to slowly roll back a little now and return to actually making games.
With itchio’s recent decisions, do you maintain an online presence beyond Itchio and FA?
FA:https://www.furaffinity.net/user/bitshift/
And SubscribeStar: https://subscribestar.adult/bitshift
Will try to have more out soon, for whoever still manages to get to these pages.
Gotta love it when itch io decides to hide all the nsfw games lol, such a great decision
Could only see this game due to me following the dev
Hey so, I found out about this game, downloaded and holy shit I can’t stop thinking about it, it’s been like half a month omg I love it, I’ve got a friend that’s gotten like five earfuls just of this game.
It’s genuinely nice to see something actually well made that doesn’t just scratch an itch, it’s practically pulling on it, the setting is great, the gameplay is alright, the scenes are GODLY. Plus I’m seeing scenes from a second act and news about a third, seems like it’s the perfect time to dive in? Really my only complaint is the ingame menus, title screen and gallery are alright, but inventory and fights… It’s like going to a 5 star buffet and being given plastic utensils, like sure it’s still fantastic food but that detail is a lil cheap. Also some backstory would be nice, specially around the lil guy Mezz, I wub him but there’s just not a lot about him :/
I’m getting that second act sooner rather than later, hopefully that infamous Gutter everybody’s mentioning so much is just as Ruthless and unforgiving as the boars here!
Ps. if you want help expanding the game to Spanish, hmu!
Something you may not know: The way Itch works, all comments get slopped together in one feed. If you have multiple games published on an account, this means you may not realize what game is being commented on until you glance up at the header. I was really hyped as I started to read your comment...and then I realized it wasn't even on GT, just the first game. If you like the FIRST game this much...I'm definitely looking forward to your thoughts on the second. This first game is just the breadsticks, GT is a...pretty sizable meal.
More seriously though, thanks for taking the time to write out your thoughts in more detail. I am somewhat unusual, in that I genuinely need a bit of backstory to enjoy my porn. Even with generic pics I find, I end up putting together a whole setting for them. Just the way my brain works for better and for worse. But when making a game like this, it means I actually try to give it some meat, some kind of identity besides the bare minimum. And hopefully it's a "works on multiple levels" thing: those that just want some sex scenes, there they are. People that want a little characterization and setting, that's there too. People that want DEEP LORE: let me put it this way, there's a computer in GT that's nothing but lore dump. Optional, but the details are there for those who care.
As for the characters being basic, keep in mind this was basically a proof of concept. But they are filled out MUCH more in GT. In terms of the combat, I will never claim I have super complex amazing systems or anything. But there's a number of things to say there:
One, please understand, this was my first ever time working with RPGMaker. I learned as I went, but there are a lot of rough edges, and I was mostly just trying to make sure the combat wasn't AWFUL. Second, I'm somewhat constrained because every new enemy is a new art asset I have to create, AND a new battlesex mechanic I have to consider, and possibly MORE art assets because of that etc. You'll see more of what I'm talking about in GT. So as a result, I mostly stick to one enemy type per game, with some variations for gameplay, differentiated by pallet swaps. The variations were extremely basic in the first game, there's a LITTLE more there in GT, but not a ton. Also TECHNICALLY there are two fully different mob enemies in GT in addition to variations, but you don't really FIGHT one of them. You'll see when you play it.
Third, as I just said, the battles in my games aren't just about normal mechanics, they also have to have a battlesex layer on top of that, which adds to complexity. And you start increasing that complexity in a...non-linear? way as you add things.
But fourth, I don't really prioritize super amazing combat highly anyway. I want it to be somewhat fun, and at the very least not get in the way, but the core thing in the games is to be HOT. Not just to have hot things in them but to BE hot, to manage the experience so players are getting dragged along juuuust right. I don't mean to rag on Grove, but in contrast their combat is SUPER intricate and sophisticated, or at least it was when I tried it a year or two ago...and it kind of put me off the game. I don't want to make my games DUMB per say, but I'm always careful to never make people think TOO hard. It gets in the way of the flow.
All that said though, combat DID improve at least a little in GT; I'd be interested in hearing how much that improvement helped for you once you've finished it.
As for translations, by all means. Just know it's quite a lot to translate. But essentially the rule is anyone can make one, just be clear it's unofficial. Then I'll try to take a look, make sure it's at least fairly solid and complete, and make it semi-official with a notification/news post here. And eventually, hopefully, actually fully test it and make it FULLY official. That can take a while though: the chinese translation has been languishing a while because I don't have time for full testing atm. But long story short, you want to give it a try, knock yourself out! It's always fun seeing how people handle slang and jokes.
Ouch, didn’t know about that notification detail, sorry about that accidental low blow hah.
That said, I didn’t need any more reasons to be excited for Gutter trash but here you are you just providing them!!! I agree this original one is a bit rough around some edges but you just saw me gush about it so color me excited to save some change for what seems like an infinitely better version. I’ve no joke been reopening the game constantly, specially for the final bad end and slut mode scenes which Mmmmmmmm, just hit the right buttons man.
Cruel Serenade is clearly a party I’m late to, but one I’ m really happy is still going, I am going to be following it very closely from now on, well y’know after catching up with GT which seems like a great fuckin’ time. Expect a skyscraper of text in the coming weeks about my experience with that!
Lemme research too about making that unnoficial translation, I’ve dabbled with locales in the past but not ones from RPGmaker, nor really getting anything remotely officialized, though it’s effort I’m willing to put in to help get the game more known because right now this is a criminally, illegally, insultingly overlooked game.
Oh no worries, that's exactly the kind of low blow I enjoy. And on the translation front, one thing I will recommend is Translator++ (https://dreamsavior.net/translator-plusplus/). It has some auto-translate/machine translation stuff, but you can ignore that: the real advantage is that it's built to slot right into RPGMaker's file system, and helps you keep track of everything that needs to be translated in a neat grid system, so you don't have to constantly fiddle with text files or worry about accidentally deleting a formatting character. Not required, just may help a lot.
Hey! It’s me, a fortnight later!
I have always wanted to translate a game because I thought it was a greatly effective but easy way to contribute to a project I really liked, and today after all that’s happened, I can say I was wrong about the easy part lol
I downloaded the tool you recommended and got to work, completely forgetting that RPG games have a buttload of text. But honestly, I learned so much about Spanish, and it’s supposed to be my native language! It truly was an experience to get every grammar rule right on top of keeping the dialogues contextually correct BUT ALSO making them sound natural. I even had to consider what rhythm and breaks the reader would be taking, and writing around that!
I didn’t think it’d be that tough until Google Translate struggled to give me one straight answer for Slut, that’s when I knew this was gonna be a soulful. But, I can say that I’ve finished the translation, I was pretty thorough testing so I think everything’s in order, here’s a link!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K0S-Lq6gPLDo1APl4adnJo3DUPRKXbD7?usp=sharing
Making the translation made me appreciate the world you crafted even more, SO ANSWER ME WHO IS THIS “WEIRD GUY” THAT TAMPERED WITH MY BOI MEZZ BEFORE HE GOT INTO THE ISLAND AND HOW DID HE DO IT, I WILL FIND HIM I WILL PUNT HIM… I… I suppose it’ll be answered in GT, which I’ve yet to play but I’m still really excited about it. Maybe I’ll be playing along with the new people that I hope are now able to enjoy it thanks to my translation!
But yeah, phew, that was a pretty nice use of my vacation break, I dunno if I can use such dark and twisted game as reference of newly-developed translation skills in my resume, but I’m happy with the result, and I hope you are too!
Oh hey, glad to hear from ya again! Ha, and I warned you! But I'm glad you followed through. I think people who haven't done this sort of thing underestimate in two ways: the actual practical realities of making a GOOD translation, even if you're fluent in both languages, and the reality of translating EVERYTHING. Every dialog. Every item name and description. Every route. When the lazy goddamn game designer decided to copypaste an event with dialog in it four times so YOU have to copypaste the translation four times (I try to cut down on this as much as possible, but a few sneak through :P.) But I am glad you started with the smaller game at least. GT would have been a LOT to take on as a first project.
It's interesting that you mention learning more about Spanish despite it being native: I was just watching a video by one of those people that are language geniuses and pick up new ones just for fun, and one of the things he said about learning a new language is that actually talking to people was vital, but to NOT try to learn grammar rules from native speakers (of anything) because they often don't know or are completely wrong :P. Which makes sense: you grow up with a language, you just learn what you need, not every little technical aspect of it. Until it comes up in something like this.
But thank you so much for putting the effort into this. I'll slot it in and take a look before long; I look forward to seeing what you did with my dumb joke lines. And as for the mystery man, there IS more info in GT, if you know where to look. I look forward to hearing your thoughts once you finish that one.
Hey, I'm new to the game. First off, I love it. But I'm a bit confused. After Mezz is 'broken in', can't we fight? Every time Mezz is fought, he just gets to hit once (with very little damage) then he's on his knees. Is this permanent?
Thanks! And yes, once you lose three times, there's no going back (in this game). You had three chances! After he's thoroughly broken, it becomes a game about fucking your way through rather than fighting. Prior to the third loss you can also disable the hypno stuff in battle entirely if you want by taking off the ear clips. but after 3 it doesn't matter.
Can this game run on JoiPlay?
I'm an Android user with limited resources, but the game's design really appeals to me.
Regards💕
If your joiplay has the rpgmaker add on itll work but the game is not optimized for it I tried doing the joiplay thing to see if it'd work it does but not well enough to enjoy this game I don't think
Nope, no mobile support. You're certainly free to try, but issues will arise, as various plugins used assume they're on a desktop environment (ie a normal computer).
I have no idea where to get the case 5,or is there a case 5?
Would you mind clarifying? I'm drawing a blank on what you mean by "case 5".
I mean how many cases are there? Is it only 4 cases in the game?
Oh, you mean the scenes. Forgot I called them "cases" in the gallery. There are actually 5, as counted by the gallery, yes. Refer to this to check if you've seen everything. Note that that's more than 5, since it's listing smaller things that aren't full scenes in the gallery. But if there's something there that doesn't sound familiar, that's probably the missing bit.