Introduction & General Description:
I'll start out by saying that I suffer from social anxiety, and I'm not very good at promoting things xD I also tend to ramble on a lot when it comes to things that I'm passionate about. So please keep that in mind as you read this :3 (If you want to skip the wall of text and look at art stuff then please just scroll down to the bottom xD)
Solipsism Reigns is a dark fantasy love story with a nameable protagonist. You must travel across various dimensions with your yandere spirit companion, Kuro, in order to seek the truth about yourself and the worlds around you. Become a Student, Mage, Clan Leader, Detective, or Gamer as you discover more about your true destiny. You may name your character and can choose from either male or female as your gender. Kuro's gender may also be chosen, allowing for GxB, BxG, BxB, and GxG romance options. It will be completely free to download upon release, and I will endeavour to publish on as many platforms as possible. It contains roughly 175000 words. Estimated playtime when viewing all content and listening to all voice lines is around 22 hours.
The GxB/otome version is complete and has now been released for Windows & Mac :3 Download here:
https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/solipsism-reigns
Kuro:
Kuro appears as a spirit-like creature who only you can see and communicate with. The two of you have been inexplicably tied together for as long as you can remember. Despite being your loyal guardian, certain things tend to press Kuro's buttons, causing him/her to lose control. Please know that Kuro is not a complete monster, he/she has valid reasons for acting that way, and you will gradually discover them as the story unfolds. While it may seem awfully dark at times, it genuinely is a love story, haha.
Inevitably, there are many bad endings in this visual novel, but rather than them being game over for you, you actually need to collect many of the bad endings if you want to unlock all of the secrets of the story.
The Routes:
In the Student route, you must navigate the perils of beginning college. In an environment where you hope to make new friends, you should tread extra carefully so as not to upset Kuro.
https://imgur.com/ocLpkMQ
In the Mage route, you are the latest addition to a guild of qualified magic users. Sworn to use your abilities for good, you must end up facing a threat that could wipe out all life as you know it.
https://imgur.com/99SelIz
In the Clan Leader route, you are tasked with navigating various political dilemmas in order to lead your clan to victory and peace.
https://imgur.com/xIlONFr
In the Detective route, a supernatural serial killer from your past returns to walk the land of the living, intent on finishing what he started when you were a child.
https://imgur.com/2uwzo5D
In the Gamer route, you will need to decide what is more important between the digital world and the real world as both dimensions begin to merge with one another.
https://imgur.com/hSvq3wn
An unlockable Hidden route will become available to play through once certain conditions within the other routes have been met.
https://imgur.com/5CmS2el
Background Information:
I've been working on the project for around 3 years now. The idea began as a short story I started to post on Quotev, but when I acquired TyranoBuilder, I decided that rather than continue it in text format, I would turn it into a visual novel.
I previously released a basic demo containing two of the game's routes as part of an old TyranoJam, but have since removed it as I feel like it's far too old to represent the current state of the game. I wouldn't want people to play that old demo and get a false impression of what the final release will be like. As the first version is close to release, I won't be making a new demo now. I also removed most screenshots because of all the changes I've made to character art and UI over the years.
I will get around to posting some updated screenshots soon!
Voice Acting & CGs:
The game is fully voiced in English. I've also worked with someone who has created CG art specifically for the GxB version of the game, so it now has a gallery feature to unlock CGs. (The other versions will not currently feature CGs unless I can find artists are interested in helping out with those versions.)
Progress & Further Information:
EDIT: The GxB version has been released for Windows & Mac. I will be working on possibly making an Android version too. The next version to release will be the BxG version :3
I have been informed that this is a good place to post things to promote them, and to get feedback, which is why I've decided to do this :3 Initially it all started out as a small hobby project, and it has grown immensely into a full-scale visual novel, haha. Since I've spent so much time on it, I feel like I should probably attempt to make people aware of its existence now xD I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but even if only a few people other than myself manage to extract some form of enjoyment from it then I'll be immensely happy :3
Questions:
1) Which gender pairing version are you most interested in?
2) Would you prefer to be able to see the protagonist on-screen (as a small bust portrait) or not?
3) Which world route interests you the most?
4) What are your feelings on yandere romance options in general?
Feel free to ask me anything, and I'll try my best to answer :3 Thank you very much for taking the time to look, and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Character Art:
The below images are Kuro's artwork for all versions of the game.
(Sorry that they're a little rough, they're images that I threw together in a hurry to post to the itch.io page.)
Male Kuro's For GxB and BxB:
Female Kuro's For BxG and GxG: