Ballads at Midnight

Release date (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Steam) English: April 1st, 2022

"When a sarcastic bard is arrested and exiled to an abandoned castle, she expected to be at the mercy of a hungry, blood-thirsty vampire. She soon discovers that the vampire, Lucius, is not starving: he is gravely bored. She may just survive on borrowed time, one ballad each midnight."

This is a free game by Synstoria! You can download it from itch.io here, or from Steam here.

Ballads at midnight, final version is live!!!!

▶️Always more sassiness

▶️The last secrets are unveiled

❤️ A new ending full of love and hope

It's still free and you can use the feature "skip unread text" to reach the already read text if you played it before and didn't keep any saves! Enjoy everyone and thank you for your support!

Got called harlot twice within 5 minutes :'(

I played the first chapter. I don’t know much about the story yet, other than the fact that MC seems to be a bard who has been arrested for some reason and is being taken to what I think is a vampire’s manor in the middle of a lake in the forest.

I only have two thoughts right now: 1) She’s incredibly pretty! 😍 I’m in awe by her design look at her! 2) She’s super sassy, I love that.

(same girl, same...)

It also seems that you can choose whether to be more flirty or more aggressive, so I’m curious to see how this is going to apply throughout the story.

Devlog #71

Hi-ho, Wudge here! First off, I’d like to thank everyone for your continued patience; since I started more actively prioritizing my health, I’ve gotten to accomplish more overall, compared when I pushed myself to the brink of a breakdown (as I’ve been known to do in the past...). It’s still slow-going, but steadier than ever.

Last Monday I timed myself with pomodoro, so I’m able to give out concrete numbers for once (just for fun):  I wrote about 850 words in the span of 2-3 hours - depending on if you count the 1 hour break!)

I did more writing than that throughout the week, but I thought it was cool that I got close to 1,000 that time. :D

On a Herotome front... well, I didn’t make any new progress on the Clammy Lady, but I did promise a picture. So here!

Original on the left, redo on the right. The most notable change will be her hips - better flow, better proportions. I also shaved down some shoulders and elbow edges, and will be flattening her hair to give it a wetter look.

I also worked on some hairstyle concept art for our super secret love interest... I can’t show it just yet though, for obvious reasons. :^)

I made a new label in the code (which made me feel a LOT better and more accomplished) because the scene I was working on had exceeded 700 lines... and apparently my original standard was 300 lines per label. :’) So yeah!! I more than deserved to move onto a new label lol.

I also made a more overview-focused trello board for Herotome: 

...because I had to sit down and prioritize what needs to be done for release (...writing), and what I’ve been pecking at just for fun (...drawing random sprites). So my categories are: Pivotal, Polish, and Plus.

“Pivotal” items means the next installment cannot be released without it (eg, the writing lol. lololol).

“Polish“ means it’d be nice to have for the next installment, but can be excluded.

“Plus“ is just me being extra - like drawing sprites that have no business even appearing in the next installment.

So... yeah, getting steadily more organized on top of making progress, ahaha.

On a BaM front; I’ve relocated to writing in a fresh document and divided this final part of the secret ending into 6 bite-sized subsections. It took me a long time to get into the right mindset to properly organize and find the “soul” of this last bit, but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! And Abigail and Lucius are bantering again, halleluiah! I can’t thank everyone enough for all the kind words and excitement about this little story, your support keeps me going even when outside factors bring me down.

Honestly last week was a bit rough, but I got through it and I’m okay!

I hope you’re all staying safe and keeping warm.

Much love,

Wudge.

Ballads at Midnight Indie Otome Game Review

Ballads at Midnight Indie Otome Game Review

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Ballads At Midnight: A beautiful, endearing and precious visual novel that deserves more attention!

Developed by @synstoria​ this is the following synopsis:

When a sarcastic bard is arrested and exiled to an abandoned castle, she expected to be at the mercy of a hungry, blood-thirsty vampire. She soon discovers that the vampire, Lucius, is not starving: he is gravely bored. She may just survive on borrowed time, one ballad each midnight.

If you want to play this game, it is available FOR FREE on Steam and Itch.io!

I can't believe this game was available for free, it was so good I wanted to give them money. Where to even begin? The story is enthralling, the art and especially the characters are gorgeous (look how hot they look in the above pic) and the chemistry between the protagonist and her love interest goes through the roof! The bard and the vampire (won't spoil their names for you, especially because you can rename the protagonist) are such likable characters. They are the only characters you see through the game (aside from a couple of guards from the begining), so the only interactions that happen throughout the story are between them, which only makes me love this game even more as the whole time is very well utilized to develop their relationship and the mystery sorrounding their situation. Speaking of their relationship, oh my goodness, it is incredibly endearing. They have great banter, but my favorite moments are when they allow themselves to be vulnerable with each other. Besides that, I absolutely loved the resolution to the mystery, it was very satisfying. I also really liked the voice acting, especially for the vampire! It is a pity only a few parts of the story are dubbed, but I'm glad for what we got. All in all it is a solid 9/10 for me. If they ever made a sequel I would gladly play it, but in the meantime, I can't wait to see the next installments produced by this team!

If you want to play this game, it is available FOR FREE on Steam and Itch.io!

there's always a show of humanity in the arena. the Games were elevated on the basis that humans are vile and will turn to being predatory animals capable of doing anything to defend themselves if cornered and threatened (it's the lesson dr. Gaul gives Coryo when she sends him after Sejeanus).

but, in all Games we've seen so far, there are proves against it. first, Katniss sings to Rue and makes her a bed of flowers, defying the Capitol. she refuses to kill untill she has to and defies the Capitol again by choosing death over killing Peeta. then Reaper tears down the flag and makes a graveyard for the fallen tributes out of it, a blanket to trade for food, a cape to show his defiance of the Capitol. Lucy Gray too decides to flip the finger on dr. gaul's believes. she stays with Jessup, singing to him, closing his eyes, lulling him to the sleep of death. she sings to the Capitol while snakes climb her body, sending a message of rebellion. they can't tame her. they can kill her bldy, but not her spirit. nor Katniss', nor Reaper's.

It’s first day of Podcast Girls Week!

DAY 1: Favourite scene or episode

I didn’t have any creative ideas for today so I decided to simply share some of my favourite moments of podcast girlies (spoilers ahead!):

• Amelia telling a guy who took her grandma’s necklace to jump off the bridge (The Amelia Project)

• Alvina keeping dead guy in his bed while running his company (The Amelia Project)

• Anita punching Nazi (The Amelia Project)

• literally every scene where Leona eats/shows her love for food (Starfall)

• Addison saving little girl from being run over by the car in split second (Unseen)

• Medea coming to save Atalanta and Medusa on chariot with dragon (Khora Podcast)

• Anh and Alestes’ homoerotic sword fighting (Trice Forgotten)

• Alestes loving her potatoes (Trice Forgotten)

• Gloria starting a war against Ted empire (Midnight Burger)

• Gertrude Robinson and her crimes (The Magnus Archives)

• Melanie trying to kill Elias (The Magnus Archives)

• Minkowski and her harpoon (Wolf 359)

• Athena outsmarting everyone (Mission: Rejected)

• McGrath prioritising food over mission stuff (Mission: Rejected)

• Madge getting invested in her fake backstory while getting undercover (Fawx & Stallion)

• Anne and Mary’s homoerotic sword sparring (The Ballad of Anne and Mary)

• Cleopatra and Fulvia sharing their schemes and murders with each other (Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later)

Happy Christmas Eve, here’s a little Christmas gift for @vesteneris 🫶

Tomorrow it’s Valentine Day! Want to spend some romantic time with hot 2D lovers?

Why not play Ballads at Midnight or Autumn Spirit, they are both FREE ~

🍁https://synstoria.itch.io/autumn-spirit

🦇 https://synstoria.itch.io/ballads-at-midnight

Love a vulnerable man

okay everyone put in their tags their ttpd predictions im trying to see what everyone is thinking

Hi-ho, Wudge here. IIII honestly... didn’t get much of anything done last week. :( I was able to do a bit of art at the last minute yesterday, but haven’t been doing super hot otherwise.

I know, I know, it’s okay and totally normal to have an off-week, but it’s still a bit of a bummer. I’m grateful I’m not as cruelly hard on myself as I used to be though - so, some character development on my part there haha.

Hopefully I’ll have better tidings to report next week. <3

I hope you’re all staying safe and keeping warm.

Much love,

Wudge.

Dan and Phil are back. I'm getting a twilight and a hunger games book for christmas. I'm going back into my Percy Jackson phase...literally all that's left for me to turn into a teenager again is severe depression

i keep forgetting to do this but my top 6 albums currently or of all time (tagged by @28reas0ns 🫶)

Tagging @chunghalita @duovxq @theboytatu @neonsbian @muteddaydreams @1-800-wenjunhui and if youve done it already uhh do the next six down the list ?