Hi!
My new game, "Sakura," is out on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4038390/_/
It'll be in Early Access for a while, but I think there won't be many or any bugs :) I'd love to hear your feedback on the game. Even in your own curator's group.
A little history about the game, its creation, and so on. I've been writing stories since I was 12, starting in a regular notebook. In 2024, I met a developer who was working on a Lovecraft-style novella. I helped translate it into Russian. From that moment on, my eyes lit up. I started trying out the Ren'Py engine. That's how the game "And One Day Everything Will Change" was born. It appeared on itch.io, then on VK Play. The game tells a sad story about a girl and a boy, and about the world as a whole.
The main characters have found their place and happiness in a better world. I studied the engine myself, watching various reviews and tutorials on Rutube, YouTube, and VK Video.
Then came the game "Twilight"—a game I made and wrote the story for during a very strange period in my life. It's a story about a guy who didn't treat his girlfriend very well, but what's stopping him from changing? So, the heroine, Leah, solves this problem, albeit in an unearthly way. The game also includes a small bonus—a platformer where you run, shoot zombies with Shift, and survive the nights. The idea behind this platformer was that the protagonist, like the knight, battles obstacles, lives through night after night, and collects items—crystals. But in the end, to unravel the story, you have to lose to the zombies; likewise, the hero finds himself in another world, having lost to the earthly one.
Initially, this platformer was at the very beginning of the game, but was later moved to the main menu, under the "Bonus" section. After a while, I decided to master the Unreal engine. I started making my own walking simulator. That's how "Walk Zero1" came to be. A short story is embedded in the game and can be read by pressing "P." This story doesn't really reveal the main character's plot; it's more like a story about a girl and the Flaticons, which the main character reads while running across a clearing and stepping on the trigger point with the story. The game turned out to be atmospheric; there are no combat sequences or battles, but you can just run around, admire the lake, and explore life after a disaster. While reading news in the development group, I came across the Godot 4.5 engine. I decided to study it. The engine turned out to be rather complex, with its own GDScript language and peculiar documentation.
And after a year of studying and parallel development of the game itself, "Sakura" was released. I wanted to abandon this game several times, delete everything, delete my Steam and VK Play page, because some mechanics weren't working, the code was constantly breaking, and so on. But I did it! The game also features a character—a Canadian Sphynx cat. He's based on a sketch of my cat. People contributed live voice acting, some sprites, and ideas to the game.
A huge thank you to these people; you can find their list in the credits or in the "About the Game" section of the game. While developing Sakura, I was inspired by the idea of another Ren'Py novella, "Sveta: Sky AI." The idea came spontaneously; the story was written quickly, and the coding was easy. The game was completed in three months—quite quickly and easily. This is probably one of my games where I didn't feel particularly exhausted mentally or physically while developing it, as it was made with inspiration. This is a short story in the form of correspondence with an AI assistant, who later became a wonderful partner in my family life.
My work can hardly be called professional, as I do all these projects in my free time. But you will always find something unusual in them, something you won't find in other games. They showcase that same eternal love written about in books; that same friendship that makes you want to create; those same teenage problems and mistakes; that same theme of robotics and neural networks, beloved by everyone (including me). You can support my work by purchasing a set from any official platform where my games are available. In particular: https://onlymarket.gg/games/cherry-blossom--2
Best wishes,
Sveta Sky