Cool didn’t expect this now I wanna re read the first one best wishes to u author
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@AnneWest Ohh I see! And I agree with you; M doesn’t always think before they act and can definitely act arrogant in a sense while thinking they’re in the right because they’re convinced that their intentions are good. And I think the clinginess/puppy-ness can get on a lot of people’s nerves haha. At least (chapter 2 spoilers) they’re not present in chapter 2. Thanks a lot for sharing!
@Kanaya Hi Kana, thank you so much and happy birthday! 
I hope you have a great day!
@Lyse Aww, that’s so sweet 
thank you, I hope you’ll enjoy the remake!
@Shoku Thank you so much, Shoku! I’ll do my best. I’d love to know your thought about the original compared to this one if you ever feel like sharing 
Thank you to the rest of you, too!
And yes, once this version is complete, the already published game will be updated and those who purchased it will automatically have the new version.
I also want to add that I’ve squished a few more bugs. I did a lot of bugtesting before releasing the demo but there are always some crawling around it seems; hopefully that’s all of them. I’m going to spend the coming days completing the profile/character descriptions and potentially edit certain sections of the demo before moving on to writing chapter 3 next week.
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Hello @Carawen
Genuely suprised and happy. I love the original one. I wil love the remake as wel. Welcome back.
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Thank you so much @LeannaMandragoran
A small update, copy pasted from my Tumblr:
Hello everyone!
The demo for the remake has been out for about a day now, and I’ve almost completed the profile section which will probably be added this Sunday. I’m also working on a content update for the demo - chapter 1 specifically - which is going to add a little bit more content regarding a certain someone from the MC’s past.
I was hesitant to include it at first because I don’t want chapter 1 to drag on too long, but I think it’s better that I add it there rather than wait until a future chapter.
I’ll also be doing a little bit of editing and adding more reactivity from characters and the narrative depending on your choices and dialogue options. The latter is something I really wanted to include for TSS book 2 and is something I’m going to include a lot more of in the remake overall.
So the FULL demo (for now) will most likely release around the date that it was originally going to (19th - 20th of April). If you haven’t read the demo yet and you’re not someone who likes reading through stories twice, I’d suggest waiting until then 
Thank you all for all the love and kind comments
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Thanks for returning @Carawen
Waiting for book two for along time but remake all so make me happy. And now in the remake we can decide Verian’s aka shadowman’s gender wow. My favorite characters are İce Queen Azuridia, Verian and Quella. I don’t think remake wil change it. PS are you planning to preserve piano scene with Azuridia?
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I’m so happy about this!!!
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Hmm, I’m not sure. It’s very likely that I keep it, but I don’t want to make any promises. Until now I have been writing new content and been going through the original to see what I’d like to keep and what I think needs to be reworked or changed completely. I haven’t gotten to that particular scene yet, so I can’t say what I’d do with it at this point. But if I remember correctly that’s one of the old scenes I quite like, so I think it’ll likely remain and just be edited and polished more. Or I might write a new version of it
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Hello @Carawen
Thanks for answering. That scene is very beautiful. We wil see then.
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So happy you are back, I enjoyed the original so much and really love the remake so far! Can’t wait to see more!
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I can’t wait for the content update!!!
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@FabulousBlasphemer Thank you so much, I’m really happy you like the remake so far!
@Creampuff Thank you Creampuff Although I should probably add that the full content regarding the MC’s past has been cut down due to pacing issues. I’ll include the full version of it sometime in a future chapter where appropriate or release it as a sort of stand-alone short, but it just resulted in too many flashbacks for one chapter I felt like 
for now a shorter version is included in chapter 1, but I’m also adding more reactivity and continuity content in chapter 1 and 2 for the update that’s going to release later this week.
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Didn’t realize this was back, neat! 
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THE QUEEN IS BACK?! 
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@LeannaMandragoran So I read the piano scene again just to remind myself what it’s like annnnd yeah, it definitely needs to be updated, edited and partly rewritten, but I still really like it as a whole and certain branches of it (the romance one in particular), so I’ll do what I can do fit it into the new version!
@Determined_defeatist and @6un Thank you for stopping by, hope you enjoy the rewrite
I’ll release the small update tomorrow and let you know what changes/additions have been made!
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Small Update Released
Since I’m pretty much done with it and won’t have much time tomorrow, I’ve released the planned small update for the TSS rewrite now. This update focuses on completing some missing parts of the demo such as the profile page, certain continuity etc. that I felt should be present.
Chapter 3 (which from now on is going to be referred to as chapter 2; more info on that at the end of this post) is still in its early stages, but I’ve been working on it alongside this update.
Things added/changed:
- More customization options, ex. whether the MC wears glasses/contact lenses or not and clothing style. I tried to add a height option but couldn’t find a place where that fit and decided to save that choice for the next chapter instead.
- Updated R, A and G’s descriptions.
- Added continuity and reactivity to certain choices depending on how you approach M.
- Edited some of the wording and text.
- Added a profile for the MC that shows your base personality depending on your choices early on in the game as well as your appearance once all appearance choices have been set. The personality can change as the story continues depending on your choices.
- Added in-game profiles for all of the main cast.
- Added past relationship for MC (former best friend or ex-girlfriend/boyfriend).
Though I had planned to include a whole flashback sequence including Jaelyn, I realized as I was writing it that it slowed the pacing of chapter 1 which is a chapter already dedicated to setting up the beginning, customization and flashbacks, so it was cut short.
I also decided to make chapter 1 and 2 one longer chapter 1 instead, since I’m pretty sure the next chapter and future ones are going to be longer. Plus I feel like the story flows better with longer chapters.
Thank you for your support, as always I might edit and polish things further as I go (will definitely do so if any misspellings/errors are found or I get some good feedback on how to improve certain things), but for now this is probably what the demo’s going to look like until the next chapter releases
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Hello @Carawen
Thanks for informing. I’am very happy. Definidly rereaded version all so be greate. My only RO is Azuridia of course.
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I’m getting this error right at the end of Chapter 2, where you get the “Your father never forgot; you shouldn’t either. Know that we are at your disposal” line. I’m not sure if this is where the demo ends or if there should be more after. But refreshing and starting from scratch didn’t seem to work.
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That’s where the demo ends, yeah! Before there was a message telling you that the demo ends there, but I removed it in order to playtest the next chapter and then forgot to add it back as I updated the public game with some fixes. I’ll make sure to add it back again!
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I just answered an ask about this on my Tumblr, but I think it would make sense to post it here as well.
I’m going to explain some key changes in this post. There are no big spoilers, but if you DON’T want to go into things with any prior knowledge about the game or don’t want to know what happens in the original version for whatever reason, please don’t read the rest of this post! I’ll blur parts of it too, just to be on the safe side.
I began the old rewrite because of my personal dissatifaction with the story. I didn’t have a clear picture of what exactly I wanted; I just knew I wanted it to be different. But the new, current rewrite is being created because of ideas that have developed in my mind regarding the setting and overall story. I’d say that the “shadow world” is a bit more dangerous, uncertain and that the threats that hide there are not immediately easy to determine, if that makes any sense at all. The original has you going from point A to point B and have everything explained to you, which leaves the MC with little to do and decreased agency. One of my aims is to let you explore the world in more dynamic ways than through exposition dumps and also giving you more choices and include more branching due to those choices, both big and small.
I was pondering what it might be like to enter a world like this and I think it would be a strange mixture of terror, surrealism, loneliness + a need to either depend on whoever you can, even if you don’t trust them. Or alternatively, pretend like you depend on others while only really depending on yourself. That’s not to say that TSS is a horror game now haha, I don’t even know how to write horror 
but my hope is that it feels like a more personal and intriguing experience rather than purely an “isekai” kind of story.
The MC
I didn’t get far with the old rewrite, but I focused more on fleshing out the MC’s hometown and M’s background. While the new rewrite has a bit more added to chapter 1, I’ve kept some things that I previously tried to present more thoroughly purposefully vague for a reason this time around.
The MC is somewhat different, too. One thing I’m dissatisfied with in the original is the lack of an established past for the MC. There was your job and your father’s accident, but not much more than that. And yes, there were hints at something more, but you didn’t really get to delve deeply into that during book 1.
In this version of the rewrite, I think the MC is a bit more jaded. You can absolutely play an optimistic and happy kind of MC, but there are pieces of their past that have affected them and are currently affecting them to a lesser or greater degree depending on how you play. Ex. The death of their father is going to play a larger part throughout the story and will be depicted as something that haunts the MC rather than just being something that happened when they were little. The changes that have happened as they grew up - losing most of their old friends and ties as well as being curtly left by their closest friend/ex - has also affected them. The MC has some lingering abandonment issues there but it’s up to you how the MC has developed because of them. There is a point in chapter 1 where it’s mentioned that they currently find it difficult to grow close to people, but I’m going to update that section and offer different options that determines whether you keep an optimistic outlook or not soon.
The supporting cast/main cast
The relationships and characters are still at the center of the story. I want to make the bonds with them feel more organic and less “choose flirt, friendship, or rivalry” every time you interact with them.
In the original, the MC is thrown into this world together with M, and the group is (iirc) being very vague and generally unhelpful. I included romantic and friendship-raising scenes before you even knew anything about them, which is something I’m changing this time around (you still have romantic options during your first meeting with A and G, but they are not full romance scenes as such and only included because it fits the characters in question).
There’s no longer a need to spend time with just 1 character and pick 1 right option. Instead, I want to include a lot of opportunities for you to get to know them, grow closer if you want to and keep your distance if you don’t. I’m still in the process of developing this more, but all in all I want to include different branches for the relationships that aren’t necessarily always as clearcut as friend/lover/rival, at least in the beginning when you don’t know them well. Once the MC and the characters know each other better, I think more established roles like that will show more.
And about the romance, for those of you interested: I hadn’t written much in the way of romance back when I wrote the original TSS. I actually think TSS is the first romance-related story I wrote at all. It was very much an exercise in writing in a lot of ways. Now that I have more experience I feel more confident in writing different kinds of romances, and there’s going to be more romance-related content in the remake for those who choose that route. Those who aren’t into romance have the option to get more platonic scenes, though!
In the original I interrupted scenes and threw in stuff that would delay certain revelations just for the sake of delaying, and the pacing, plot and characterization imo suffered as a result. The remake shows a group that is very much fractured, just like in the original (maybe more so now). They obviously know more than the MC does, but they all have different levels of knowledge and personal motivations that even others in the group don’t know about. A and R know each other from before, as do Q and A. But other than that it’s very much a group that works together out of perceived necessity and their own motivations. Most of them don’t trust one another either. They are also quicker to offer certain information and explain the situation to the MC since THEY also find themselves in a situation they didn’t really predict due to unforeseen changes in their plans.
Basically they are a bit out of their depth at end of chapter 1 and chapter 2, and so they’re on a bit more even ground with the MC in certain ways.
The Shadowman/Shadowlady is introduced a bit differently in chapter 2, and the main cast’s backstories - and to some smaller extent, personalities - have been reworked/updated/changed.
The plot
Though I won’t go into what happens in later chapters for obvious reasons, the narrative/plot is presented a bit differently. For example: in the original you met the group, had a 1 on 1 talk with one of the characters where you could raise friendship, romance or rivalry, then it was announced that you have to leave the house because it’s no longer safe and the rest of the story takes place in the hideout and A and R’s old home. But now that feels like a waste of an interesting story, because so much of the MC’s past and so many secrets exist IN your old childhood home. That’s why most of the book 1 remake will take place inside the house itself.
It may sound less exciting, but it’s not your typical house - while you need to stay in it for now, you’ll soon realize that it sort of has a life of its own and can lead to places it shouldn’t. I think it makes for a more intimate and personal experience as it allows you to explore more of your own character while giving you the option of growing closer to the other characters as well.
This got super long, but I hope all of that makes sense? If you (or anyone) has any questions regarding any of the info I’ve given just let me know!
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Ooh this sounds really interesting. Thank you for the thoughtful post 
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