The Thistle and the Flower - Chapter One
Chapter two of The Thistle and the Flower has been released!
Hi everyone,
I'm just making a quick post to let you all know that I've released a second chapter of my spicy BL visual novel, The Thistle and the Flower! You can find the DLC on Itchio here, with instructions on how to install it on the top of the page. Do note you need to have purchased The Thistle and the Flower or the DLC will be useless lol (apart from the apk, that will work just fine on its own).
(Oh, and if you buy the DLC on Itchio, you can redeem a Steam key for the DLC and you can play it on Steam too, provided you own the base game.)
I actually wrote three chapters of this story (I might have mentioned that in my author's notes of the base game), but I only adapted the first chapter into a VN. I was doubtful it would sell well, and I wasn't sure if I could justify spending more time and money on an unpopular story while working on so many other things... (glances into the horizon)
Well, I was right, and The Thistle and the Flower sold very poorly. It probably won't recoup its initial production costs, which is often the way of indie VN dev, but!!! I enjoyed working on it, and I really liked the second chapter, and I wanted to turn it into a real VN I could share with other people...
And so I did haha, surprise. Maybe you can see this as an early Christmas present?
I had initially planned to release the second chapter for free, but in the last couple of months Steam put out a statement saying devs of r18 games are not allowed to update their games to include more adult content which hasn't been through a proper content review: devs need to submit any additional r18 scenes as DLC so they can be checked to determine if they are 'appropriate' for Steam.
Because of this, I had to release the second chapter of this VN as DLC on Steam so it could be reviewed but even then Valve only reviewed the store page of the DLC, not the actual build, so I'm a bit ??? about this policy which meant setting up the second chapter was more of a pain than anticipated. I won't go into any details but setting up DLC on Steam takes a while, and I had to spend more time troubleshooting this release than I do my usual VNs. It was a bit of a headache, so I figured I would charge for this after all haha
I'm sorry if this is disappointing! The DLC is almost as long as the base game, however, and it has a lot of pretty art, so I hope you will consider it worthwhile! I think the second chapter of this story turned out very cute and I'm happy with it. I hope the handful of Yuel/Tavi likers out there will appreciate it! Thank you so much for your support!
- ebi x
Comments
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I'm playing the first one now, and will give full impressions when I'm finished, however I wanted to mention that there's a few words used in some contexts I'm unsure of. Like, they work but make me question if a better synonym could be used (Example: Eva using the word "constant" when the context makes me think "consistent" would work better). Could be a UK vs USA English difference, I suppose.
Also, there's this...
Just FYI, cause that's not Zeke lol.
.... And this:
May I offer to proofread future games? You don't have to pay me for it or anything, I just wanna make sure these games are the best they can be.
In the scene Eva uses the word 'constant' it makes sense. She's telling Tavi not to be faithful to Yuel, and 'constant' is a synonym for 'faithful', 'devoted', 'loyal', etc etc
The other two are errors and I will fix them later, thank you for pointing them out.
I already have a proofreader and they catch a lot of typos and errors, but some small things will always slip though the cracks, it's inevitable.
Yep, I know you have a proofreader already. I was just offering. Didn't know constant was a synonym for faithful though, I've never heard it used that way before.
Anyway, the writing is always good on these stories. You already know I love their dynamic so any time I see a Tavi/Yuel game, I grab it (assuming I know it is one). You weren't kidding about this one being erotica lol. Certainly nothing wrong with that, and I liked seeing a game from Tavi's perspective. I'd love to see more like that, and it makes me wonder what's going through his head in previous games with them you've made.
Honestly the only thing that I wind up considering when I play these is whether I like the art or not.
So far, my favorite artist you use is the one who worked on Unluckily in Love (I especially like how dark Tavi's complexion is in that case and I LOVE his pouting face).
The art for this one is okay, but a few of the sprites just look kinda strange to me. Mostly when Tavi is smirking, his lips look a little odd, like half his mouth is sewn shut. The CGs aren't terrible though. I wish it wasn't so censored, but I know itch has been cracking down on such things (for some reason) so I don't hold it against anyone.
If you want to point out any typos you can join my discord server here, I have a dedicated channel for typos where people can point out anything odd. It's also easier for me to have all the reported typos for my VNs in one place.
Yuel and Tavi have a very fun dynamic, they're a lot of fun to write... My most beloved boys 🙏
The censorship in this VN has nothing to do with Itchio's policies. The artist for this VN is Japanese, and it's illegal for Japanese artists to draw genitals. It goes against the Obscenity Act, and Japanese artists can literally be sent to prison for drawing uncensored sex scenes. This is also why all Japanese r18 games, manga, etc are censored in a similar way.
Ahhh okay, I gotcha. I just figured it was cause of itch, but it's all good!