Written in the Stars
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
- Two love interests to choose from
- Three endings per love interest: Abandoned end, Fairy tale end and The End
- Full-length stories for both Azreal and Angelo influenced by your choices
- Entire visual novel, all characters, story, setting and plot were determined by a series of polls by people like you! In January, strangers from the internet came together and determined every aspect of it.
- Voice acting for major scenes.
- Animated talk sprites have moving mouths and blink among other small animations
- Several CGs in each route
- A very personal story about internal struggle with creativity told through a romance
Written in the Stars is a small otome visual novel with two love interests and three possible endings per boy. The format is heavy on reading, but does have choices to make throughout.
This VN was originally a seven day challenge from January but I ended up expanding the story to be longer and it took over nine months (An actual baby's worth). WitS is a story about burnout and falling out of love with your own work as an artist, so it really was something I needed to write about as a creator myself. This VN is one that's very personal to me, so its an honour to be able to share it with all of you!
Voice acting:
Azreal Yang: Jordan Bonn
Angelo D'Angelas: HangmanVA
Mei Taimi: Ruka Samuels
Audio:
Kevin MacLeod
Alex Beroza ft cdk & Darryl J
Twin Musicom
SF Textures
NotificationSounds.com
Wikimedia
Photography: (Backgrounds)
Public Domain pictures
Pixabay
Max Pixel
Wikimedia Commons
Patrick Gillespie
Special Thanks:
Amelia Flare
Emily Yamato
Whiona
GrassStrand
AngryDragonVA
Ruka Samuels
All of the voters
All of my DA friends (listed in the credits + Tsuku-yomii <3 <3)
- There are general writing mistakes.
- If you choose to try to comfort Angelo in his route instead of writing in your spellbook, the game will crash later on. Click ignore to keep going! (It'll be fixed soon.)
- There are some audio errors and level issues.
- There is missing audio in places
- The selection screen between Azreal and Angelo is really finicky
- There are some graphical issues and placeholders.
This visual novel has themes. dialogue and instances that may not be comfortable for all readers. Please be advised that this story contains:
- Crude humour
- Implied sexual themes
- There are instances of the story that may be uncomfortable for those who are sensitive to certain topics. Please feel free to contact me if you're concerned about subject matter.
- This game is a personal project. I released it publicly for others to enjoy but ultimately this game was made for myself alone. Please take it for what it is: a small indie passion project made by one girl about her own mental health.
Download
Install instructions
Questions that no one asked but I'm sure will be problems so I included anyway. QTNOABISWBPSIIA For short.
"The music is too loud in comparison to the VAing!"
The audio maxes when you download the game usually. When you're in-game, click "options" at the bottom of the screen to adjust sound levels! The sound levels are rather off for VAing, something I have to spend a month or so fixing and re-mixing.
"How do I know what ending I got?"
Make sure you don't skip the credits. If you see an ending listed, you received that ending. If you get an epilogue, you got the true end.
Abandoned ending = Bad Ending
"Where do I click 'New Game?'"
Hover over the left-most cluster of stars on the title screen. Continue is the right-most cluster.
"Why can't I go back? In Paper Roses I could press 'back' to re-play segments!"
The back button was removed in WitS because of the nature of the VN. I didn't want everyone to easily get the best ending by going back and re-playing whereas the best ending in Paper Roses was the one definitive canon ending, which is the one I wanted to share most.
"Who is the 'canon' love interest of WitS?"
Unlike Paper Roses, both love interests hold the same level of validity to the story canon. There is no 'real' choice. They're both equally as canon.
"Why can't I re-name Seraphina?"
I got this question and it's a great one <3 I just wanted to post my response here in case anyone has the same question.
1. Seraphina's name is a very important part of the subtle lore of the game. Her name is constantly controlled and changed by the three characters around her and has significance to the important scenes of the game.
2. Angelo, Azreal and Seraphina's names all have angelic name origins.
3. I was very careful to make sure Seraphina isn't a blank slate. She's very much a defined character, as much as Azreal and Angelo.
"Did you make this by yourself?"
Yes! A lot of the resources were in the public domain but I did do the physical artwork, writing and coding myself. Voice acting was done by the talented individuals above <3
"Is there any content beyond the games?"
Azreal, Angelo and Seraphina have active presences over Toyhou.se and deviantart. If you're interested to know more about them or see some of the amazing fanart / fanfics of them (One of them inspired a scene in WitS), you can check them out using the links above. Warning, there are spoilers in Azzie's profile.
Comments
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Adorable little game, Azreal lover, avid Mei hater B) (her design is cute n all but yk...)
(BIG SPOILER ALERT)
This is sooo good! My goodness. I can't tell you how much i hated mei FROM when she said "want to date?" and then literally said she left her last boyfriend to die. Absolutley despised her from that point. And don't even get me started when she asked for the key or when she didn't let him leave- excuse me?!
Literally gave everyone a name, bestie = azreal, bestie bestie = Angelo, mc bestie = seraphina.
Bro this gave me an emotional rollercoaster. I was shocked but also not shocked when Mei actually turned out to be evil, though the thing that bothered me most is that she killed herself before i killed her. I hate you to this day Mei. Anyways, great game! <3
Oh my goodness ;;; I'm so sorry for the late reply but I'm so happy you enjoyed the game <3 That means the world to me!!
I love the nicknames you gave them I approve LOL I appreciate the feedback so much! I've been away from making VNs for a while but this has motivated me to pick them up again ^^ Thank you so much for your comment it made my day!
NP! You are really talented!!
I can't even express how good this is in words...
it makes my heart burst, someone help me.
AHHHHH This absolutely made my month ;; Thank you so much for the sweet comment ahh I'm so glad you enjoyed the game <3 Thank you so much for playing!
Id rate this 5 stars if I could, the concept and theme of this visual novel was super uniqe. The art had a dreamy feel to it which went lovely with the story. I was surprised that this had both voice acting and animation, both of which were equally amazing. Ive never really took the time to write a story, i always get too pessimistic to continue because of how much of a perfectionist I am. I can relate to the MC slightly, and I really admire that since of relatability. The struggles and internal conflict that Seraphina faces was nice insight to the troubles that a writer faces sometimes. I never knew that some story writers had this problem and its amazing how you wove this theme into a beautiful story. The love interests have adorable quirks and lovable personality traits that made me feel emotionally attached to them and to see that their love goes beyond the story was really sweet. There is a lot of other nice things that I could say but id probably end up repeating myself, so if you haven't read this story yet I recommend you do. You wont regret it! And if you're the creator, thank you for sharing this personal story with us :)
This absolutely made my week. Thank you so, so much for this lovely comment. I'm so glad I could reach you as an artist and I hope someday you'll find that spark that gets you to write <3
Thank you so much for playing and the kind words <3 They mean the world to me!
As someone seeking creative inspiration particularly for visual novels, and struggling to embrace writing and art after a fair lengthy dry spell, I was immediately drawn in by the protagonist's frustrations. This was really well done and quite sweet. :) The voice actors were perfect for their characters and I found myself quite enamoured with Azreal, hehe. His cheekiness made him endearing and perplexing - I was never sure of his motives.
The lore you added regarding demons and angels, the horoscope tattoos, pacts, etc. was quite unique also. I'm sure there's a lot of symbolism you've hidden in there. Religious/mythological themes are universal, a fantastic realm to experiment in, and I think you did a great job. I could feel that it was something deeply personal to you.
I've really enjoyed what I explored so far. ^_^ I still need to undergo the Angelo route! You have me most curious.
I'm looking forward to checking out your other efforts!
P.S. Your art style is really cute and distinct. :3
D-Did I just-- not respond to this?! I'm SO SO SORRY OMG!
This mean the world to me oh my goodness. I'm so glad it helped you! It was such a challenge to write about because it was so personal but I'm glad everybody really connected with it and could draw some reliability from it too <3 I'm so glad you liked Azreal!
I appreciate that you liked the lore haha there was a lot of symbolism in there, but there was a bit of research involved and I spent some time fleshing out the lore of the universe before I began.
Thank you so much <3 I'm so glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate taking the time to comment! And ahhh thank you ;; that means so much to me! Have an amazing day!
beautifully made! the music and voice acting added a lot to the game. the art and colors were just amazing~ the story line was pretty inspiring and well built. the emotions and actions had seemed so realistic, which is also probably the reason for this game to be so fun. i really did get attached to Azreal's character, so thank you so much for putting your solo effort into this game. i was afraid that Mei or the MC was gonna be a mary sue, but fortunately that was not the case. keep up the work, and thank you very much for sharing the game publicly.
Ahhhh oh my gosh this is the sweetest ;;;; thank you so much! You made my day. I'm always so stressed out about my art so it means a lot to me that you liked it! Azreal is my special boy so I'm so glad everyone seems to have clicked with him so much!
The Mary Sue comment made me giggle a bit because Mei is written to be an obnoxious Mary-Sue character
but you probably know the truth by now. I find a lot of the tropes tired and, while some of them are needed for good character building, I've found that it's a lot easier for me to get invested writing characters like Seraphina that are more flawed.Thank you so, so much for playing and for the kind words ;-; they meant the world to me ahh
Thank you so much for making this! The art is beautiful and the interactions between the characters are realistic! I have to say that you're very talented for making this game alone(?) and also very kind for making this a free game (cause I'm still a struggling student and I can't afford commercial games yet XD) All in all, you're very awesome! Thanks again for sharing this game with us!
Ahhhhhhhh you're so sweet <3 Thank you so, so so much fjweoijfweoij This means the world to me ;-; I did make this alone! I just had a few play testers here and there but that was all aside from the voice talent!
That's been my goal: make games for free for those who can't afford them. Thank you so much for your comment <3 Honestly just making people happy with what I do is worth way more than money ever could. You absolutely made my week thank you!! ;;;
Have a fantastic day and I hope to keep making accessible games for everyone <3
If I had to pay for this game I wouldn't mind. This game is so good I can't beleive you decided to make it a free game. I really enjoy the charchters and how you can choose your emotion on some choices. I'm honestly so speechles and I'm glad I didn't doupt this game to the fullest like I do with most other free otome games. I can put this on top for "I'm poor and this is a good otome" list. Thank you and I hope you continue to create such awsome games as this one. I would go on but than I'd probaly repeat myself and make a whole otome game with the amount of text. I wish the developer(s) amazing happeiness :3
I'm so, so sorry for the late reply I'm actually kind of sobbing in my kitchen. I am the solo developer though I had some friends and family playtest a bit for me.
This made my year, you have no idea how much that means to me. It was my pleasure to let it be free! I wanted to have something fun and exciting for otome fans but also not fitting into all of the conventions that even professional games fall into. I'm so, so, SO happy you enjoyed it <3 It means the world to me that it meant something to you. I know I'll keep what you said with me for a long, long time. This means a lot to me-- I'm going to stop before I start rambling too since I have games to write for but thank you for such a sweet comment! I look forward to making a lot of accessible games like WitS in the future. <3 <3
Have an incredible day, sending you good vibes and happiness as well!
I truly loved it! The story was great and touching. I understand your reasons for the character's names and I respect that. This is a great work of art and you should be proud! Its yours so don't change it for anyone else!
I really, really appreciate it <3 That means more to me thank you'll know! This story is close to my heart and it means the world to me that it reached others. The feedback about the names didn't bother me, but I'm glad it's understandable why I made the choices I did <3 Ultimately I made this game for myself and let others in to this wild world that is my mind and I'm so, so glad that it reached everyone well!
Have a wonderful day and thank you so, so much for your lovely comment!
So I just finally got around to playing this game and I absolutely love it. The art is so beautifully done and the story is very addicting and made me want to write again! I love the MC a lot, she's kind of like one of the characters I once made and I can kind of relate to her a bit which is amazing. All in all the story is one of my favorites and I would most likely play it again! Thank you for making this!
Thank you so, so much for this lovely message! You absolutely made my month!
I'm so happy Seraphina resonated with you so much! Honestly if you're anything like her then you're already an awesome person imo. She's based loosely on one of my best friends! I'm so, so glad you enjoyed the story! That means the world to me. If you do happen to write anything and you're willing to share, please don't hesitate to drop me a message with your work! I'll support the heck out of it!
Thank you so much for your kind words! This absolutely made my day!
Probably this is a very, very late time to post this but... the MC name could be changable. Not that I have anything against "Seraphina's" name. It just doesn't connect with me. ^_^'
And probably because I'm used to being able to change the MC name in most games... but, aside from that, it's a very nice game. Good job!
Hey there Lenneth! I appreciate the feedback! I respect your preference, but perhaps I can shed some light on everything? Seraphina's name actually couldn't be changeable, even early into production-- Seraphina's name has a massive role of the game lore. Her name is what it is for a very, very important reason. The entire game was about the power of names, and I felt that by making her name changable I would be undermining my entire message.
I was very careful to make sure Seraphina wasn't a self-insert or blank slate-- she's very much a defined character of mine so I hope that helps understand my decision a bit more! My OCs are very precious to me, so I appreciate you taking the time to play my small passion project!
Anyway thank you so much for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it despite the name choice not being your cup of tea!
I haven't been on itch.io in forever and before I never got to play Written In The Stars I cant wait!
JEWOIJFWOEJJE THIS HONESTLY MADE MY DAY ;-; Thank you so much for the comments <3 I hope my little passion project is somewhat enjoyable <3
Have a wonderful day!! Ahh
Of course it is, your stuff is nice and your art is unique/pretty. :3
You guys-- I'm so, so flattered and so happy. Thank you so much for that Seraiden <3 That honestly means more to me than I could possibly express. ;;;; Thank you for the kind words and support you're the sweetest.
<3
Hi, I got that, and the game stopped. What's the problem?
I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.
While running game code:
File "game/script.rpy", line 3348, in script
if helpedangie:
File "game/script.rpy", line 3348, in <module>
if helpedangie:
NameError: name 'helpedangie' is not defined
-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------
Full traceback:
File "game/script.rpy", line 3348, in script
if helpedangie:
File "C:\Users\Asaratte\Downloads\WitS-1.2-pc\WitS-1.2-pc\renpy\ast.py", line 1656, in execute
if renpy.python.py_eval(condition):
File "C:\Users\Asaratte\Downloads\WitS-1.2-pc\WitS-1.2-pc\renpy\python.py", line 1745, in py_eval
return py_eval_bytecode(code, globals, locals)
File "C:\Users\Asaratte\Downloads\WitS-1.2-pc\WitS-1.2-pc\renpy\python.py", line 1739, in py_eval_bytecode
return eval(bytecode, globals, locals)
File "game/script.rpy", line 3348, in <module>
if helpedangie:
NameError: name 'helpedangie' is not defined
Windows-8-6.2.9200
Ren'Py 6.99.12.3.2123
Written in the Stars 1.2
YIKES I'm so sorry! I have to look into it and fix it up! I'm so sorry you experienced an error!
Basically it's a check if you helped Angelo by using your own abilities to turn the plant to stone earlier on in the game--
but I'm not sure why it's causing an error.You may be able to bypass it by using the skip option on the error screen.I figured out its because I seemingly defined the stupid thing in the wrong place so if you didn't help Angelo and tried to comfort him instead the game doesn't define it. I'm so, so sorry!! I'll add a fix in a bit for it, but you should be able to press 'continue' on the error screen instead.The game started working again only after I pressed "ignore". Nothing else worked.
Fun game btw. I really enjoyed it. I'm going to check out the other romance option now :)
this game is FANTASTIC im not done jet but i love it so much
Oh gosh!! Thank you so, so much! That made my morning! I’m so happy you like it so far. I hope the ending doesn’t disappoint 💕 I appreciate the kind words, it means so much to me!
Enjoy the rest of the game, and thank you so much for playing!
I hope I enjoy your game!!I really hope you do too. Thank you so much for considering 💕 this project means the world to me so I’m so glad I got to share it with everyone.
C: I cant wait!
Heres the end, by the way the end was amazing because i swore i headed down the bad path
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! LOL the bad ending is actually a lot better than the medium ending. I'm not sure if you did see it all the way through to the end because the video was cut off before the final screen.
Thank you so, so much for playing! I had lots of fun watching your lets play and I really am grateful that you enjoyed it <3
i made you a part two, here is more Azreal. I truly do enjoy this game more than I let on beyond the fangirling and dirty minded cringe feasting I show!
i ma be the only person capable of crashing the game but it did happen so i wanted to forewarn you of the error. also i absolutely adore the game even though the sexual parts were kinda cringy for me... here you go enjoy
OH MY THank you so, so much for the video <3 <3 I'm so happy!! I'll watch it through and see how to fix the error and see if I can do some editing
I'm so, so glad you enjoyed it <3 This was great to wake up to.
So far I am finding the game quite enjoyable, though I have to say there are a few things down the only route I have finished so far (Azreal) that I would have prefer not happen. But I did enjoy it.
Now starting the other route, but came confused by another character popping in, Creed. Can I ask who he is?
Thank you so much! I'm glad you found it Enjoyable <3
I understand haha the routes can be pretty problematic to some people, I'm very aware not everyone will agree with where I took the story in some places-- especially in relation to some of the choices I made. I respect that though <3 Thank you for the honesty. You may, perhaps, run into similar issues with Angelo's, but I hope you still like it! I'm so glad you're enjoying it regardless! I hope those things didn't impact your play through too much.
You ran into an easter egg, Creed is a romantic interest from my first visual novel, so it's just a silly cameo for those who played Paper Roses.how do you keep the characters talking in the game?
Do you mean the talk sprites moving their lips? :O
This was an amazing VN and I can't wait for the next one. This VN was very helpful for me because I am an aspiring author who is struggling with depression. It was also very hilarious and I will never uninstall this game because I LOVE, ADMIRE, OBSESS over this VN so much!
Oh my gosh you absolutely made my day and totally made me cry quite a bit fiewjfwef I'm so, so glad you liked the VN so much <3
I just wanted to let you know that I understand your situation and you absolutely can and will tell those stories you are meant to tell, even if it is in other mediums or other ways that you weren't expecting! When you have some of your work up please feel free to drop me a message and I will be so happy to read and, if you'd like, share your work.
Thank you so much for your comment ;-; It absolutely brightened my day <3
I will be sure to tell you and I am very grateful for your support! <:
OH! and I'm hoping that you could give some tips on drawing. Any style that you like because yours are very beautiful and every time I looked at them they gave me a serene aura.
OH JEEZ I'm so sorry! I wrote a reply and I think I forgot to send it!
I'm just so flattered ahhhhh seriously my work is nothing to admire-- I've been super self-conscious about my style for so long. My biggest tips:
- Use the stablizer if you're drawing digitally with SAI or FireAlpaca. It helps smooth lines~!
- I used to have a 'style file' of images I considered to be the closest to how I wanted to draw. I would do small sample pieces, closely examining techniques they use and trying to emulate them while drawing a totally different character & pose. It was a challenge but after a while I developed my own techniques that I liked and the style kind of diverged from there. (To be clear, I was zooming in on things like the eyes and seeing the proportions, how it was shaped and colouring techniques and tried to do similar stylistic elements on different pieces without referencing it.)
- I literally could not draw six years ago lol I just practiced everyday until I got better. Even now I struggle with certain pieces.
-The BIGGEST most IMPORTANT thing is: create for yourself, not to please others. I made this mistake so many times. I never understood what it was like to have fun drawing. It was always a chore for me. I learned to enjoy what I was drawing and started to create exclusively what made me happy and somehow that did the trick in helping me improve <3
Thank you again! Your comment still brings me so much joy! I can't wait to see what you create!
I seriously stayed up till four playing this game... It's really hard to laugh as silently as possible at all the banter! I love this game! Thank you for creating it! I'm so going to recommend this to my friends. Eek, yet another game I'm fangirling over. *embarrassed* I hope you keep making new content, this is great!
Oh my gosh foweifjoiwejfw Your comment absolutely made my day ;;;; Thank you so, so much I'm fangirling over your sweet comment now thank you so much ahhhhh I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for playing ;-; <3
I played Azreal's route and got "the end". I really enjoyed it! Can you please make a walkthrough? I prefer to follow a guide because I want to achieve every ending, even the bad ones. I'm really curious about the fairy tale and the abandoned ends, but I kinda grow unpatient if I have to try it many times before I get the right answers for the ending.
Btw I just need to say this: I really LOVE your art style!
You actually made me cry a little bit ;;;;;; Thank you so, so much for playing you made my really awful day honestly a whole ton better. I actually have a crude guide already written (Click for link to google doc) <3 It's rough since it was for the playtesters but green highlight = right answer.
You need:
8 or more answers for "The End"
5-7 answers for "Fairytale End"
0-4 answers for "Abandoned End"
I honestly was so worried about my art so that really made my day!<3 Thank you so, so much for playing and for your sweet comment ;-;
I OWE YOU ALL THE FRIES THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!! OMG My computer doesn't record above like... 1FPS so I really appreciate it ;;;
I added it to the page so hopefully you can snag some subscribers ;) Thank you so much again!
YESSSSS FRIESSSSS! No problem thank you so much for creating this amazing game! I know what it's like to struggle with potato computers. I'm sure you will have a lot of people play and, record this spectacular creation. Thank you once again keep on creating!
You're the sweetest ;-; Thank you! You made my day! Thank you so much for playing and recording!
Same with you <3 I hope you get lots of subs and views! Hopefully I'll signal boost you a bit as well!
i'M SO SAD IT WON'T DOWNLOAD ONTO MY LAPTOP
SCREECH
OH NOOO WHAT'S HAPPENING?? ;-; AHH I'M SO SORRY