It's been over a month since Starlit Regrets released, so I thought I'd write a small postmortem for the game and provide a mostly spoiler-free guide to the endings.

endings

There are 5 endings in total in Starlit Regrets. This is a mostly spoiler-free guide for getting them.

ending 1/5

Choice 1: any
Choice 2: any
Choice 3: any
Choice 4: any
Choice 5: any
Choice 6: any
Choice 7: "Thank you, I'll stay out of your way."
Choice 8: "He doesn't make it easy to trust him."

ending 2/5

Choice 1: any
Choice 2: any
Choice 3: "He's someone with regrets."
Choice 4: any
Choice 5: any
Choice 6: "Comfort"
Choice 7: "I'll help you change them."
Choice 8: any

ending 3/5

Choice 1: any
Choice 2: any
Choice 3: "He's someone who's all talk."
Choice 4: any
Choice 5: any
Choice 6: "Unease"
Choice 7: "I'll help you change them."
Choice 8: "He doesn't make it easy to trust him."

ending 4/5

Choice 1: any
Choice 2: any
Choice 3: "He's someone with regrets."
Choice 4: any
Choice 5: any
Choice 6: "Comfort"
Choice 7: "Thank you, I'll stay out of your way."
Choice 8: "He really is the scholarly type."

ending 5/5

Choice 1: any
Choice 2: any
Choice 3: "He's someone who's all talk."
Choice 4: any
Choice 5: any
Choice 6: "Unease"
Choice 7: "Thank you, I'll stay out of your way."
Choice 8: "He really is the scholarly type."

postmortem

note: there are spoilers past this point!

Starlit Regrets was made solo in 10 days for Velox Fabula 2, a Ludum Dare-style game jam for visual novels. The original idea was a melancholic boys love story told mostly through flashbacks while waiting on your partner to heal. When the theme of "you shouldn't be here" was revealed for the jam, I knew exactly how to make it work.

The original idea was for it to be played straight, where the character of Orion was someone who was a brother-figure to the partner, but to make it fit with the theme I changed it to...someone much shadier.

For the concept of "Orion", I wanted someone who looked like a mature, smart older brother-type figure. Someone who clearly had some years of experience behind his belt but was still approachable enough to confide in. Someone that the main character (and player) could believe was a vagabond's friend.

The long hair and glasses give him the mature look, while the rolled up sleeves make him appear not too formal.

The Man has a blue color scheme to further make him look mature. In contrast, Leo's color scheme is reds and golds. He's got an electric personality and pushed by his fiery passion.

For The Man I had a hard time deciding on his hair style, and for Leo I had a hard time deciding on his outfit. I knew for the present day scenes he'd be in a loose button up, but it took a few sketches to figure out what he'd be wearing in the flashbacks. I didn't want to give him a vest at first, as it came off as "too fancy" given his roaming vigilante status, but it ended up fitting.

When I set out to write the game, I knew it'd be somewhat long and hard to tackle in 10 days. I knew my goal was not only for a slow-paced story but for a variety of endings. Most of my visual novels are linear or basically linear, so I wanted this visual novel to have multiple completely different but still satisfying endings. Despite the time constraints, I managed to write over 15k words for it. I had a few other scenes and variations I wanted to add that I had to cut out, such as a dance scene towards the end between the main character and Leo. As it is, the story still feels pretty complete to me. It's a short look into 3 men's lives with a variety of outcomes for it can play out.

If you want to see a little more into the endings, here's the guide I wrote for myself when programming the endings.

This game was also my first time using speech bubbles in Ren'Py (and ever)! They're a fun feature and not too hard to figure out. I like the variety it adds to presentation - I'm a bit tired of using just ADV and some NVL (I will always love you pure NVL).

I went a bit more loose with the writing for this story, as it's somewhat historical and meant to be a slow-paced melancholic story. Still, I hope it's an enjoyable experience!