The #FallinLoveFestival starts today, featuring lots of romance-focused visual novels! A number of my own games will be on sale during the festival period, so be sure to check it out! Reconnect with Misaki in Eldritch University, and shape how the relationship develops!

The #FallinLoveFestival starts tomorrow, featuring lots of romance-focused visual novels! A number of my own games will be on sale during the festival period, so be sure to check it out! Meet Cho in Eldritch Academy, or check out Life as Designed to see Yue all grown up!

The #FallinLoveFestival is coming up soon, featuring lots of romance-focused visual novels! A number of my own games will be on sale during the festival period, so be sure to check it out! Meet Kagami in Eldritch Academy, or see what she's like all grown up in Life as Designed!

The #FallinLoveFestival is coming up soon, featuring lots of romance-focused visual novels! A number of my own games will be on sale during the festival period, so be sure to check it out! Meet Akomi in Eldritch Academy, or see what she's like all grown up in Life as Designed!

Started posting a nearly-finished fanfic I've been writing, and I feel like I accidentally discovered the final boss of AO3. Every icon in the warning label is red.

I'm told that Ghost Recon Wildlands is way better than Breakpoint, but I'm a huge fan of Breakpoint when it comes to being able to open the game on Windows 11. I find games more fun when they don't grab half of my RAM and then just idle indefinitely.

Trying to think of tags for a fanfic to make sure it can be found by those interested in it, while also serving as content warnings for the uncomfortable stuff. Ended up deciding to include "Attempted Genocide". ...Makes it sound like a more intense story than it is.

I find it morbidly interesting that the one way to get people to pay attention to my least-viewed game was to have it be under threat of removal from the itch store... but that wasn't enough to drive any new sales. Too horny to be "SFW", too tame to be popular?

If you want to help out indie game devs & creators aside from buying their work, there's 2 great ways to help: 1. Leave reviews for their work on store fronts (Steam, itchio, Amazon, etc) as reviews really help 2. Recommend their works to your friends as word of mouth is super important!

I cm'd KushiroJin to illustrate a scene featuring Yue from Life as Designed, and I love how it turned out! I like this scene, where we see that Yue is much more patient with children than her peers or seniors. While she's usually harsh on people, she doesn't hold anything against kids.

Steam and Itch taking down games they host is a problem for game preservation - and of course, I'm not a fan of people trying to censor what creators can express. This is one of the many reasons Ren'Py is free, and why its license means I can't censor what is made with it. 1/2

In the process of going through those old files, I found some of the early details for the story that became Eldritch Academy. The idea originated in late 2013, but so far most of what I can find is from summer of 2014. It's interesting which things are the same versus what changed...

Decided to collect as much of my unpublished fanfic as I could find into my current writing program. 86k words just for Nightshade characters alone. If only I could reach that output in stories that were more marketable...

I caved and tried to make a book trailer for one of my stories, even though I find the idea of a book trailer a bit odd and I don't want to learn Instagram. Video that I spent 2+ hours on immediately flagged and removed, claiming it's not my content. The art is custom cm'd and the music is CC4.

Posted fanfic publicly for the first time in years. Bit of an odd feeling... not sure what to think.

After over ten years of on-and-off usage of social media, I still don't know how to make use of it properly. I always worry I'm oversharing or undersharing... (I was thinking of sharing some old art I cm'd of Blooming Nightshade characters, but the context/commentary felt... off.)

All three of my commercial yuri VNs are on historic discounts during the Steam Summer Sale. If you've not had the chance to check them out before, now is the time! 🪻 store.steampowered.com/developer/Ni...

After a foolish decision to get involved in a stupid internet argument today, I never again want to hear someone say "where is the English equivalent to Higurashi?" unless they're being facetious.

Let's play "spot the differences". (Artist switch doesn't count.)

Every time someone complains that a 4K remaster of a 10+ year old game takes up more file space, I lose a year of my life. ART IS BIG

My new ebook, "The Last Respite", is now available!* In this fantasy romance, two societal outcasts forge a life together at an inn in the shadow of a haunted forest, where adventurers journey in search of treasure and glory. #fantasyromance #fantasy #ebook #novel #release

Started the process for getting the ebook version of The Last Respite out there. Some places are having issues, but others might be ready soon. Once I'm sure the book is available, I'll do a proper announcement.

Finally got around to doing the main mission in Starfield. No one told me it was basically a cultivation story in space, with space magic and everything. If it wasn't for the spaceships and guns, I'd have thought I accidentally started up a xianxia game like Tale of Immortal.

Almost finished with revisions for The Last Respite. If things continue to go well, might be able to release as soon as this month. Getting close!

Over 70 hours clocked into Starfield, and I just learned another feature it shares from Daggerfall: social skills work like Daggerfall's language skills, but with player input. Especially Diplomacy, which is almost the exact same effect.

I really want to be able to get into Morrowind again, but it's a very slow-paced game that wants you to really enjoy spending 10 real-world minutes walking down empty roads to do one task. It actually made me miss Daggerfall, which in turn led me to reinstall space Daggerfall (Starfield).

I'm regretting not having tried to save a bunch of art I had bookmarked on Twitter years ago. I don't know if X just doesn't let me see anything or if all the people I bookmarked deleted their accounts, but either way I can't find that art again...

I feel like it's been almost a decade since I last attempted a shitpost/meme, but I was inspired to do 80%* of the effort required for one today, on a familiar contentious topic. * (10% is beyond my graphic design skills, and 10% is me citing my sources as "trust me" instead of calling out people.)

Going through some old stuff for Eldritch Academy reminded me that there was going to be a lot more cutin art that I ended up cutting for budget reasons. One of the few remnants of this (aside from the plot-relevant cutins) in the final game is the Haruka-tan poster on Cho's bedroom wall.

2014 Jackkel: It is absolutely necessary for Eldritch Academy to have art and music, cost be damned. 2025 Jackkel: I wonder if people will play a visual novel with no visuals.

(sitting on my throne) you say it is a dating sim.. pitiful fool: yes milord (crossing my legs and grunting) and yet, there are no simulation elements pitiful fool, shivering: there are choices, milord (nodding) i see (beckoning my faithful eunuch advisor, Balroc) kill this guy

I went to check something in Blooming Nightshade and got jumpscared by an update I forgot I had implemented: a backport of the story selection screen updates from an unannounced prototype using the BN/FN code as a base.

New remix of an old classic: "Only a failed novelist puts visual novels on Steam, and this datamined peak player count shows that everyone hates it anyway. Valve should remove all VNs to stop wasting people's time and money." My joy is immeasurable at this quality feedback.

Stayed up late to try to clean up my website a bit, and it's still nowhere near done. (Especially since I don't pay WordPress enough for the cool toys...) Still, managed to make the main page not break on mobile, and the links to my books/games work properly even after the edit. So it's something.

For those who missed the announcement, I've revealed my upcoming fantasy romance book: The Last Respite.

The Last Respite is a fantasy romance about an inn at the edge of a cursed forest, the "witch" who runs it, and the travelers who seek treasure in the woods. Read the full announcement for more! #fantasyromance #fantasy #ebook #novel

I recently finished a revision pass on a story that I've been working on, so it may almost be time for a reveal. I'm really excited to share this story and see what people think. ----- "두렵지 않으세요? 여긴 마녀의 집이야. (Are you not afraid? This is the dwelling of a witch.)"

Still working out some of the details, but The Red-Haired Maiden should now be available in paperback form! books2read.com/u/3nxZ96

Ah yes, my favorite genre of Steam review... "I didn't play/like the game, but it has easy achievements". It must feel exquisite to unlock achievables, to download a "Profile Features Limited" game for the sole purpose of hearing the chime, with not even the opportunity to brag of the feat.

As I mentioned on my website/blog, I've been looking into potentially releasing paperback versions of some of my stories. Just got the proofs for these today, which is really interesting. It's fascinating to have them in physical form after all this time.

Didn't expect the thumbnail for my project update post to be so judgy, but I suppose it sort of fits... That character would indeed think I should be working harder.

Managed to put together an update on what I've been working on for the last few months. Lots of teasers for stuff in the works, if everything continues smoothly. #ebook #vndev #update

Tolkien: Created entire languages, wrote fantasy stories to go along with them. Me: Wrote a fantasy story, trying to name things by mutilating existing languages into "new" words.

One of my games went from "barely 10 Steam reviews" to less than 10 reviews, and right during a sale. Not sure how to feel about that.

The Eldritch Nightmare Duology and Life as Designed will be on sale during the Steam Visual Novel Fest 2025! All three games feature girl on girl romance, while the Eldritch Nightmare games also include supernatural thriller elements. #vnfest2025 #visualnovel #yuri #thriller

I wrote a one-shot based on pulling apart a meme that bothered me, not meant to be a romantic story or anything. Still ended up having an implication of yuri in the resolution. At this point, yuri is like a reflex or addiction for me.

Taking inspiration from another VN dev, I've drafted a fanfic of one of my own stories. We'll see soon if I can find the courage to post it publicly...

I wish it was easier to gush about my projects the way I see other people do on social media... I always feel like it's too early to talk about anything without a release date, and too late to talk about things that have been out for a while.

It's awkward sometimes to like your own characters but not know what to do with them. For example, I want to see more Nishie and Kachi content, but I don't know what I'd write about them and their stories aren't popular enough to attract fanfic writers.