Asphodelium News

[p]The first ever Fall in Love Visual Novel Festival has started! It's a new festival focused on celebrating romance visual novels with over 200 visual novels from 100+ developers—including us![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Our romance visual novels are on sale, including Asphodelium (+ its DLC) and our other boys love visual novel Canvas Menagerie![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]We also have demos available for our other romance visual novels that are upcoming~[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p]Today the extended version of Asphodelium is now playable 💜 [/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p] Asphodelium is a melancholic slice-of-life boys love visual novel about your past confronting you.[/p][p]Hazel is an ex-adventurer who's settled down with some of his previous guildmates after the adventure of a lifetime—taking down a doomsday cult that tried to end the world, but at the cost of killing their former guild leader who turned against them. Despite their adventure still haunting him months later, he's tried to move on. —That is, until a man with the same face as their guild leader approaches him.[/p][p]You killed him before. Will you keep him on the right path away from his cult, or will you make the same mistakes again?[/p]

[p][/p][p]Asphodelium was previously released last year for Winter Jam, following a musician named Hazel as he is forced to help the doppelganger of the man he killed months prior. Now, the game has been extended to include...[/p]

• [p]a brand new story path to go down[/p]
• [p]a variety of endings depending on how you view the love interest Aster[/p]
• [p]extra CGs for certain events[/p]
• [p]an art gallery in game[/p]
• [p]new focus on audio and sound effects[/p]

[p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]There's an artbook available and a physical copy you can get as well![/p][p][/p][h2][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]follow us on...[/h2][p]Bsky - Discord - Newsletter[/p]

[p]Asphodelium releases on June 18th at 12PM CDT! This release will be the extended version of the game with...[/p]

• [p]65k words[/p]
• [p]2 main storylines with multiple ending variations for each[/p]
• [p]Steam achievements for some of the endings[/p]
• [p]1 obsessive clingy love interest[/p]

[p]But first, we're in Steam Next Fest![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]If you haven't already, give the updated demo a try! It contains the first few chapters of the story as well as updated GUI, additional CGs and audio, and more~[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]Asphodelium has several content warnings to be aware of listed on the store page. Please read these before playing.[/p][p][/p][h3]follow us on....[/h3][p]Bsky Newsletter YouTube[/p]

It’s the last day of April, so let’s spend a bit of today to look at some of the progress for Asphodelium!

With the full game slated to come out towards the end of June, I had to finish up some of the CGs in game. The extended cut adds several new cut scene artworks, such as this dance CG.



Towards the end of the new storyline, Hazel and Aster take some time to enjoy the festival and dance amidst the crowd. It’s rather romantic to dance underneath the moonlight, isn’t it?

You can see the art timelapse (art process) for this scene on YouTube!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This scene is a culmination of the new storyline, resulting in several different endings from this point onward depending on your choices. With this extended cut, new choices have been added that will greatly affect your relationship with Aster, including brand new bad endings.

In order to get it ready for the full release, I’ve also been scripting the new scenes into the engine. You can see the new CG up above already in engine, so almost all of the game is fully scripted.



The majority of the work left is making sure the new scenes fit in seamlessly into the existing programmed parts and other additional touches.

If you haven’t already, wishlist it on Steam! Every wishlist helps out in the algorithm.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3139260/Asphodelium/

— Arimia

[h2]follow us on...[/h2]
Discord - Bluesky - Newsletter

Hi everyone, it’s the end of March! We’ve already been over some of the progress for Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon, so today we’re going to be looking at the progress for Asphodelium.

A major component of Asphodelium is self realization and discovering yourself, which wasn’t something I was able to dive deep into in the original release. The main character Hazel is a trans man who has lived as a man the past 2 years, but has hit a rut in his life because of his adventures. Depression and a lack of aspirations have taken a hold of him, preventing him from focusing on his future.

Similarly, the love interest Aster has to tackle his own identity problems, believing that he’s the doppelganger of the man you killed. While Hazel’s depression will be a point in the new scenes, today I want to look at Aster’s identity and how that relates to the player.

The upcoming extended edition will include a new storyline with new endings, but will also include new scenes for the existing storyline. One of these scenes will focus on how Hazel—how you—perceive Aster. Aster believes he’s a doppelganger, but what do you believe? Even if you believe that’s not the truth, does it matter to you? I want to allow players to consider who Aster is and whether that matters or not. These choices will impact the ending, which can have slight variations or entirely different endings. Will you help Aster in his own self realization and come to terms with your new future, or will you both fail to understand each other?



Names, personality, ambitions – they’re all important aspects to our personal identities, but those identities vary on how you perceive a person. There’s the identity that we each have, and the perceived identity that others see & interpret from us. I hope these concepts will make sense in the full game!

That being said, I was able to script several more scenes in the new storyline this month. The screenshot about is from one of those scenes, where I added a few more romantic moments in the later half of the game.



The full extended cut will be releasing in June, with almost double the word count, lots of new endings, and brand new CGs. Wishlist it to support the development!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3139260/Asphodelium/

— Arimia

[h2]follow us on...[/h2]
Discord - Bluesky - Newsletter