To be honest, I had already backed the kickstarter when it first opened and only played the demo yesterday. It was so good and I am really looking forward to the game. So many choices already that have different impacts and the selections you're able to make to influence how the MC interacts with the world and what they feel for Cove is impressive. I especially like the partial VA with having a selection of pre determined names, a really nice touch!
Thank you so much for the support <3! I'm happy you enjoyed the demo. We'll be adding even more alterations and choices in the future. I hope you'll enjoy them.
Thanks for reporting! When did you download the demo? Or how old is that save file? That's an error that's fixed in the most up-to-date version c:. If you delete what you currently have, download it again, and start a fresh file it'll be fine.
This game made me cry, to be honest. Cove is so sweet, and every character feels immersive. When I finished playing the first time through I immediately restarted to try and do a different route. Sadly if this game ends up being pay to play I probably won't be able to purchase it, but I hope it gets the attention and support it deserves!! The way you change your environment is great, and the art is really pretty. I have so much more to say but tldr; This was fantastic. I can't wait for the full game :)
Aw, thank you very much <3! It's wonderful to hear the game was so enjoyable for you.
There will be a free version of the game that's available for everyone, so you won't be left with just a demo. Though to get all the content there is players will have to purchase optional DLCs.
This is so nostalgic! Like, suddenly childhood summer memories came to my mind. I felt like my child version like awakened inside my heart.
I played it how my old self would act, and it was so much fun. This game is my dream game! No.Joke. And I know what is a joke is. Thank you again for these new old memories! I can't wait until I can play the full game!
I loved playing the demo so much! To be honest, this is basically my dream game (not an exaggeration). I want to back it so badly, but I'm currently an unemployed part-time student with no money (I had some cash saved up, but it was stolen). If I manage to get a job while this is still in development, I'll definitely give what I can; however, for now, all I can give is this comment. Sorry! Hopefully things work out and I can give this game much more in the future!
Thanks very much! It's so nice to hear the idea resonates with you ^^. And that's okay. We wouldn't want to take funding from people who can't afford to give. We're just glad you took the time to give it a try.
Hello, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before but whenever I try to play the Android demo I can't get through the character creation because the keyboard keeps popping up and won't let me scroll up to finish any customization. I'm not sure if this is because of my phone or it's the app but any help is appreciated.
I'm sorry for that! That's not a problem we've heard anywhere else about the build, so unfortunately it's could be something going on with the type of phone you have. We'll find a way to fix that issue at some point before the full release. But don't have an easy solution today. If you can, it might be best to just try getting off the page and playing the demo without customizing the character.
Mine did that! The way around it is to back space a little and type in a name. What it is is the game wanting you to put your cheracter name in. Once you press the check mark on the far bottom right where the submit button usuallyis on the phone it will take the board off so you can mess with the creator. You can go back and edit the names by taping on the name space again.
I'm sorry about the trouble. What system do you have/what version of the demo are you using? Have you tried downloading it again at a different time? Occasionally there's some issue that happens when downloading from Itch making the file not work, then when it's downloaded later it ends up being fine.
Do you have an antivirus software? Sometimes that automatically prevents a new file from opening because it mistakenly thinks they're suspicious. Turning that off for just a couple minutes to launch the game might work out. And perhaps it didn't unzip properly. Maybe using a different unzipper than you did originally could help. I'd also recommend deleting everything, giving Itch even more time, and then trying to redownload again. Sometimes it takes a while to get past that.
Unfortunately, there aren't many other possibilities we might be able to help with. The demo has been openable for the general public when the download goes correctly. Sometimes there are other errors, but it should at least open. So if there are no issues downloading it from Itch, it was extracted from the zip without issues happening there, and it's the PC version of the demo for your Windows system, that'd mean the only part left to consider is the computer it's on. If the problem isn't the antivirus it's could be else, but we can only guess at what might be going on with the PC for it not start the file. At this point, asking in a Windows forum about what might prevent files from opening could be more helpful than we are. I'm sorry.
I really love the game, and I'd like to pledge on Kickstarter! But I don't have a credit card yet, and getting one will take too long for me to be in time before the campaign ends. Is there any other way I'd be able to make a pledge?
I'm so glad you love it! Unfortunately, Kickstarter has payment options and there isn't really another method. We can try to open Paypal donations at a later time, if you can support the project that.
OMG OK SO I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING Shiloh from this game has lots of freckles and is always seen with a hat. Shiloh from XOXO droplets looks a lot like the Shiloh from this game and also likes hats a lot. Is Shiloh from this game basically younger Shiloh from XOXO droplets?
This is already my favorite game, the execution of everything and the art is amazingg. I freaked out when I saw Shiloh and Jeremy as children!! I'm mostly broke so I don't usually spend money on games, but for this i'm definitely getting the dlc when it comes out. Playing the demo made my day, thank you for all the work you guys are putting into it \(^0^)/
...I can't believe I didn't realize that Jeremy = Jer-bear! He's just so different! I mean, I wanted to punch him in this game, but I absolutely adore him in Droplets...
Hello! I just finished playing the demo multiple times over the last two hours and I must say, I really love the game so far and cannot wait to snap up the full thing and the dlc when released. Thanks for your hard work!
I have a little problem while playing it (after updating it) and got to the part where Derek, the little boy, came along and there was a little error on the screen after the characters were talking.
I'm sorry for the trouble! I need more details before, if you can. What does the error say? What system are you using? Did you reload an old save from before you updated it?
Hi! Love your game, i fell in love so fast <3!!!! There is a slight typo on Section 2! I selected Very Tall, and let Ma pat my head happily, and when Ma says thanks for coming down, Ma is in lowercase. Hope I could help!
Ma'am/Sir I'm having problems in installing the game to my phone, I've tried everything like turning off the play protect, turning on the installing unkown apps on my settings and so on.. Still no luck.. It always says "App not installed".. What should I do? I really wanted to try this game so badly.. By the way my phone is vivo y91i incase the problem is with my phones you know.. Please Help! Thank you! 😊
I'm sorry for the trouble! I'm afraid I don't know much about that type of phone. All I can suggest is that maybe downloading the file from Itch isn't going right and that trying again later could fix things. And it might be helpful to look up if there are certain types of apks your phone won't work with. I hope it gets resolved!
Oh my God. I absolutely adore this game. I can't express how giddy I got at some scenes, and I can't help but want to play it again and again just to experience it all another time.
While I understand the full game won't be out for some time, I'd really like to get my "Our Life" fix for the time being, are you alright with fans writing fanfiction for your work or is that better left private?
Aw, thank you so much <3. That's really nice to hear. We'd love have fanfiction done of the game! If you do write some, I'd be happy if you shared it with us :D.
Cool! Thank you. No matter what, we're glad you enjoyed the game enough to want to write about it ^^. And want to keep making progress but we'll try to take it easy sometimes too, haha.
Hey, I just read some of the comments here and I want to know that if I become a Patreon what the beta builds entail? Like, is it full-on added gameplay per month or just things like added voices and such?
Also I am absolutely in love with this game! My boyfriends sorta hates that I am lol in my opinion it's even more investing when you use an oc of some kind instead of yourself. I've created an innocent, cheerful, outgoing character to interact with Cove (I used one of the voiced names, Bonnie. Which actually gave me the idea to make her that way since I feel like Bonnie is a sweet-sounding name) and I feel like that dynamic interacting with Cove was so cute in comparison to when I tried other things! (Just my personal opinion, ofc!) I hope I can continue making her innocent and even a bit naive during her teen/adult years, but I understand if not, obviously because it makes sense for the MC to mature over the course of the story, too.
So far we've added one new Moment per month, along with things like older events being expanded/improved. If you joined in October you'd have access to all the stuff in the demo plus these additional Moments: Library, Long Day, and Sleepover. And by next year, once we've had time to really make some progress with the funding from Kickstarter, two or more new Moments will be added per month :).
Haha, well I'm glad you like it despite that. And it's great you're having fun coming up with a character for the game. We hadn't assumed people would want to go to the effort of creating a whole characters to play the game, which is why we sort of assumed people would play with their own preferences in mind. That's neat that you came up with an OC for Our Life! We'll do what we can do include those kinds of choices.
Also, I just played the demo for the first time since the initial release, and I would just like to say...I'd VERY much like an option to punch that Jeremy kid for insulting my Cove. Even if Cove and Derek stop me from actually doing it, I'm super-protective of my 'baby boyfriend', so having an angry option beyond demanding an apology would be cool.
Also, I seem to have found a bug, which may have already been reported, but when choosing my appearance, I can't go back to 'None' for the back hairstyle after looking at other options. If I even look at something else, 'None' seems to vanish from the list of options.
Yeah, I have a feeling he's going to continue annoying my poor little circle of friends. My characters are already hoping they never have to see him again, but odds are, they won't be that lucky! xD
I'm playing on Windows, though I just tested it again, and now it seems to be working. Weird. When I was playing earlier, once I started looking through the options, it stopped giving me None as a choice, but now it's showing up just fine. So, never mind! If I have it happen again, I'll try to narrow down what I did differently and let you know!
Hello! I'm having an error in the part where Cove, Shiloh and the MC are on the way to the park. I'm playing the Android version and if you could direct me to the proper channel to send the error report. That would be helpful!
Thank you for the report! Sharing that here is just fine. We uploaded a new file just now that should fix the problem. You may have to start a new save if the error is persisting when you reload the file. I hope that helps!
This game is amzing! I've never seen anything like it and it's so refeshing, exciting and heartwarming!! I have a question, though. Does the demo receive monthly updates? I've heard from various sources that it does and doesn't and this is my first time playing this demo so I'm not sure and I would love to be on the lookout for any updates!!
Thank you very much :D! We will keep updating the demo to improve it and add more content here and there, but it won't be on a monthly schedule. I'd say an estimate would be every two months. Though possibly longer, depending on how busy we are with getting the game done. Making demo builds requires changing quite a few things so we can't do it all the time, sadly.
Our Patreon beta gets monthly updates, so that may be where some of the confusion comes from. Those builds are easier to do, since they don't need any special changes to make them right. It's just a beta version of whatever is done at the time, haha.
Thanks so much for responding! And yeah, that makes sense! I want to become a Patron but I'd probably only be able to maintain it for that one month. I'm probably still going to, though, hahahahaha.
Oh! Also do you think it would be better to become a supporter on KickStarter or Patron. Of course, I probably won't be able to be a consistent on but I still want to be able to pitch in anywhere I can!!
Thank you for wanting to support us <3! Kickstarter is a one-time donation and Patreon is subscription that repeats every month until cancelled. Kickstarter backers will get KS-exclusive updates with their one donation for the whole development period. Patreon-backers have to renew each month to keep getting the Patreon-only updates. But Patreon has updates for more than Our Life and has a big backlog of private posts already available to go through. Beta-Testing is more expensive on Kickstarter since you're paying for multiple builds at once, you can pay a smaller price to beta-test just one build in one month through Patreon. Both have good qualities and both help us out a lot, so it's really up on what sounds most interesting!
Thank you for informing me!! Right now I have a bit of money, I just need to put it on a card. I think I might be leaning toward KS though, since it's only a one-time payment and I probably won't be able to do monthly payment on a consistent basis. Either way, I really want to help and see how the game progresses!!
We'll see about setting up Paypal as an option to preoder the game :). I'm not sure we can add more tier, though. There are quite a few already, aha. But we will try to sell the artbook separately when the game comes out, for those who don't want to get those other rewards!
I'm absolutely obsessed with Our Life and after playing the extended demo I'm even more in love. Still, I have some concerns. It's obvious that romance is an important part of this game. And I think that there's not enough descriptions of how Cove makes the main character feel.
For example, at the end of the demo we have a choice to hug Cove. However, we don't really know how the MC feels about hugging him. It almost seems like this hug doesn't make them feel anything special. It bothers me a little. If the MC has a crush on Cove then it should be shown that they feel nervous/shy/their heart starts beating faster, and so on. Also, it’s a little strange that description of the hug is the same when the MC and Cove have a crush on each other and when they’re only friends. The blush on Cove’s face is the only difference. To give another example, when people tease Cove about liking MC we can see that he’s obviously embarrassed. But the MC doesn’t seem to have any reaction and I think that it would be more realistic if they were blushing too.
I remember that at the beginning of Step 2 the text says that the MC’s heart starts beating faster at the sight of Cove. I like it! This is exactly what I’m talking about! We need more descriptions like that. We need to know that Cove makes the MC’s heart go crazy. It makes the romance feel more real and natural. But I’m aware that it’s only a demo and that a lot of things will be added later. I just wanted to share my suggestions with you ^^
I disagree about the hugging part. At this point in time MC and Cove have known each other for five years. I hate when is stories like these when the MC's always feel nervous even though they have known said Love Interest for so long. Even though the MC usually relives from their nervousness it still makes the atmosphere of the scene feel awkward. I was almost dreading picking the "hug" option because I thought that like most other games the MC would become extremely flustered. I would get her becoming shy if it was the other way around and Cove hugged her instead and then sheh started blushing or her heart quickened.
But I agree on the other things! And I like how Cove's emotions are written. The scenes never feel awkward.
Ah, yes, I agree with you. I wasn't trying to say that the MC should be uncomfortable or stressed in Cove's company. I also like how comfortable they are with each other. I just think that it would be nice if the description of the hug was different depending on relationship between Cove and MC. It would feel like choosing the type of relationship with Cove really makes a difference in gameplay. Also, I think that hugging your friend and your crush feels very different, even if you know your crush for a long time. The heart starts beating faster and there's this funny feeling in your belly. At least in my experience, haha :) Sorry if what I've written before is confusing. English is not my first language.
And I agree there. Maybe MC's reaction (at least in that scene) should depend on the choices you make with her, like if you make her shy then she would be shier when having interactions with Cove, or if you make her more outgoing she would feel more accustomed to interactions like that.
But as someone who has coded choice-heavy stories/novels I'm not even completely sure if that's possible, haha. Since the game is having its full release in the Summer of 2020 I imagine that it'll be enough time for them to improve stuff like that, though!
Thank you for the suggestions and I'm glad you liked the demo! Our Life will have more variations and alterations as we continue developing it :]. But for that hug situation specifically, the MC is comforting someone who's panicking about their family. It'd be a bit out of place for the MC to take that moment to think about how they're attracted to Cove and that touching him makes their heart race, aha. There are other times where it comes up and there will be more in the future.
Thanks for replying! Now I know that I didn't really take the full context into consideration . Thank you for explaining that for me ^^ Good luck with the further development, you're doing really great!
Ah I'm so excited, I've been ! Congrats on the kickstarter! :D
(Just wanted to say, on the Android version of the demo it gives an error whenever you go to the playground, saying there's an error loading the background. ^^)
First, I'd like to join everyone in complimenting your team about the quality of the demo. As was already said many times, the concept of the game is quite original and fresh, which is commendable and very welcome. Most VN authors usually don't dare to take such risks, while they probably should to avoid stagnation of the genre. The game reminds a bit me of an old DOS game, called Alter Ego, and it definitely appeals to me.
Next, and again I think it was already said, your writer really displays talent with designing child characters. They appear as "believable" in their thoughts and actions, at least through the eyes of the adult that I am. The game also always provides us with a satisfying number of sensible options on how to experience "our" childhood, so that's really good (and promising for the rest)!
Maybe some more "innocent" or, let's say, "naive" actions as a child would be great to have too. As an adult, I can see the "motivation" behind most of the alternatives that the game presents to me. They all appear as rational, while most children probably have times where their demeanour appears as quite confusing or even totally irrational instead.
Who, as a child, hasn't burned themselves while touching stuff that they shouldn't have ? Or wasted the linings of our bedrooms with multi-coloured pencils, knowing perfectly well that parents forbid it and would punish us for it ?
I realize that such an addition could make the beginning of the game a bit more "chaotic", and that your intended target IS an adult population, but I thought that it could perhaps also help to further differentiate childhood from other ages. Not *everything* has to absolutely make sense when there is magic about ^.^
Finally, I admit I am a bit apprehensive when I saw that you locked a good number of "sequences" within an age behind DLCs purchases. I do understand where you're coming from and why you are doing it. Good work not only deserves praise, but also (financial) reward and support.
I do hope that you'll manage to keep these balanced, not to spoil the enjoyment of the (base) game, since I can't imagine many players being keen on the concept of purposefully skipping content, even if there is a gameplay motivation behind it (in a sort of "Game+"). Some events are also fairly short, depending on the choices of the player, so that could render the whole experience of the game rather thin. Usually, the more we have to read in a VN, in different, non-empty routes, the better. Maybe this will change when our characters grow up however, I can't say. It's only a demo.
Suffice to say that I wouldn't mind paying extra for, say, a DLC with an additional character, for example (a girl instead of a boy, or whatever).
In any case, I will definitely send a small token of my appreciation your way some time soon, because I think that this project is of high value, that it deserves to be supported and to take off successfully.
All my best wishes to the team, and thank you for creating this game.
Thank you very much for such a detailed feedback! We'll keep it in mind and do what we can. The full version will certainly have more options/alterations/scenes than the demo goes. And there are two DLCs that add new characters to romance, though I'm afraid neither of them are girls. This game just has guy LIs, but our future games will have lady love interests.
Of course I am a bit disappointed about no romanceable girl character DLC in the future, but it's fantastic to hear that such a talented team has more such projects (and perhaps with female LIs!) coming the future.
Please let me congratulate on your successful Kickstarter endeavour, and wish you again all the best. Really looking forward to you going Gold and playing the full game now. It can't come too soon ^.^
The concept really appealed to me. Playing the demo confirmed it. Have to echo another comment that said the way you write children is very realistic - they're not acting like literal toddlers, but they're not mini-preteens or mini-adults, either.
I also have to say that I very much appreciate the option to change pronouns at every step of the game. In fact, the roleplaying that's already in the demo is a fair step better than some other games I've played.
I have to ask out of curiosity, is facial hair a possible customization option for adult Cove (or adult MC)?
Thank you so much for the kind words! It's wonderful to hear that we handled the child portion of the game well so far ^^.
Facial hair will be an option for the MC later in the game. It's not currently a possibility for Cove. That's because facial hair doesn't end up working out the same as adding other types of optional layers. With regular hair, for example, you can just layer it over the head of the base sprite and it’s done. But facial hair has to fit with all of Cove’s different mouth expressions. From tiny frowns to being wide open. We’d need lots of different shaped facial hairs that switched out with Cove’s changing expressions to make sure the mouth was never awkwardly fitting with the facial hair. It’d be a lot of extra work and we aren't able to manage that right now.
I'm sorry. If the game gets enough support we could potentially make it happen, but it's not something I can guarantee.
This demo has convinced me to become a patreon once the new month starts. I will also probably be breaking my no kickstarter rule to help fund with the kickstarter when it goes live. I'm always on the lookout for new visual novels and this concept is unlike anything I have ever played and I'm excited to see how the game turns out when it is finished!
Aw, thank you so much for the support ^^! We're doing our best to make to have the concept live up to its potential and improve what's already there. And we have had a few successful Kickstarted/released projects in the past, so we're pretty confident we'll be able make this one worth the while.
I've stumbled upon this game by complete accident in my never-ending search for gay romance games that aren't just basically porn and I'm so glad I did. It looks absolutely incredible, the art and UI design are so clean it almost makes me cry how long it took me to find this.
The only other game I've found that scratches a similar itch is Straight!? which I've been following for over a year and now I don't need to restlessly wait every month for only one adorable romance! That's great! And Our Life is definitely more up my alley.
I'm hoping that by the time the final release comes we'll know Cove inside and out because he's just so precious I need to explore every possible scenario with him. And I just saw his design for the late teens/young adult portion of the game and holy shit he's going to be hot, can't wait.
Just major props for you guys, you're really about to end the genre's whole career with this.
Thank you so much for all of that! It's really nice of you to say ^^. And yeah, we tried to have Cove grow up to be a real looker, haha. We'll do our best to have he full version live up to expectations
When the complete game come out, will it be completly free? cI am sorry for such a question however the demo had me immersed and I would be very sad if the game costed money that I dont have!! However I really like your game so far so wonderful job so far
There will be a free base version that anyone can enjoy! But it's not 100% non-commercial, there will be optional paid DLC. I'm glad you enjoyed the game ^^.
Hi! I'm not sure what the problem might be. It could kind of be anything, aha. The file could've downloaded incorrectly, if you have a scanner that goes over everything you launch that might have decided not to let you access the file, or something else. What happens when you try to play the game? Does the game not open at all? Or is there an error that says something? Or some other thing?
Thanks, I get it now. Sometimes file scanners just mistake a new file for something bad when it's just a normal file. You'll have to look into the type of firewall/virus protection program you have and learn how to allow the file to go through. I'm afraid there's not really anything we can do to help with that. Good luck, though! I hope it won't be too much trouble to get your protection program to stop doing things like that.
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To be honest, I had already backed the kickstarter when it first opened and only played the demo yesterday. It was so good and I am really looking forward to the game. So many choices already that have different impacts and the selections you're able to make to influence how the MC interacts with the world and what they feel for Cove is impressive. I especially like the partial VA with having a selection of pre determined names, a really nice touch!
Thank you so much for the support <3! I'm happy you enjoyed the demo. We'll be adding even more alterations and choices in the future. I hope you'll enjoy them.
Thanks for reporting! When did you download the demo? Or how old is that save file? That's an error that's fixed in the most up-to-date version c:. If you delete what you currently have, download it again, and start a fresh file it'll be fine.
This game made me cry, to be honest. Cove is so sweet, and every character feels immersive. When I finished playing the first time through I immediately restarted to try and do a different route. Sadly if this game ends up being pay to play I probably won't be able to purchase it, but I hope it gets the attention and support it deserves!!
The way you change your environment is great, and the art is really pretty. I have so much more to say but tldr; This was fantastic. I can't wait for the full game :)
Aw, thank you very much <3! It's wonderful to hear the game was so enjoyable for you.
There will be a free version of the game that's available for everyone, so you won't be left with just a demo. Though to get all the content there is players will have to purchase optional DLCs.
This is the type of immersion I wish I could find in more visual novels. I love the way there are so many choices and I can't wait for more
Thank you! There will be plenty more choices to come :D
My my... i usually don't see visual novels who let you have this much branch of choices on how the story unfold itself.
Also, the music and graphic design is very beautiful too
Like, holy shit... the game isn't even finished and it makes me smile so hard cuz i know that is going to be wonderful indeed when it's finished.
Your work is really unique in its features and if it not obvious by now, I REALLY, REALLY LIKED IT <3
Pd: Sorry for any atrocious grammatical error
Gotta keep learning this language xD!
Thank you so much! We'll try our best to have the full version live up to expectations <3.
And no need to apologize. It was a good comment!
First of all, THANK YOU!
This is so nostalgic! Like, suddenly childhood summer memories came to my mind. I felt like my child version like awakened inside my heart.
I played it how my old self would act, and it was so much fun. This game is my dream game! No.Joke. And I know what is a joke is. Thank you again for these new old memories! I can't wait until I can play the full game!
Aw, that's really wonderful to hear. I'm so glad it ended up feeling nostalgic for you. We'll do our best with the full game too ^^.
It will awesome , I know it! For now sadly all I can do is just cheer for you guys. Thank you for giving me these feelings !
We really appreciate the support and ecouragement <3
I loved playing the demo so much! To be honest, this is basically my dream game (not an exaggeration). I want to back it so badly, but I'm currently an unemployed part-time student with no money (I had some cash saved up, but it was stolen). If I manage to get a job while this is still in development, I'll definitely give what I can; however, for now, all I can give is this comment. Sorry! Hopefully things work out and I can give this game much more in the future!
Thanks very much! It's so nice to hear the idea resonates with you ^^. And that's okay. We wouldn't want to take funding from people who can't afford to give. We're just glad you took the time to give it a try.
Hello, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before but whenever I try to play the Android demo I can't get through the character creation because the keyboard keeps popping up and won't let me scroll up to finish any customization. I'm not sure if this is because of my phone or it's the app but any help is appreciated.
I'm sorry for that! That's not a problem we've heard anywhere else about the build, so unfortunately it's could be something going on with the type of phone you have. We'll find a way to fix that issue at some point before the full release. But don't have an easy solution today. If you can, it might be best to just try getting off the page and playing the demo without customizing the character.
Mine did that! The way around it is to back space a little and type in a name. What it is is the game wanting you to put your cheracter name in. Once you press the check mark on the far bottom right where the submit button usuallyis on the phone it will take the board off so you can mess with the creator. You can go back and edit the names by taping on the name space again.
Thank you for sharing your advice! I hope it helps the OP.
It wont let me open the game
I'm sorry about the trouble. What system do you have/what version of the demo are you using? Have you tried downloading it again at a different time? Occasionally there's some issue that happens when downloading from Itch making the file not work, then when it's downloaded later it ends up being fine.
I have windows and yes i already tried that
Do you have an antivirus software? Sometimes that automatically prevents a new file from opening because it mistakenly thinks they're suspicious. Turning that off for just a couple minutes to launch the game might work out. And perhaps it didn't unzip properly. Maybe using a different unzipper than you did originally could help. I'd also recommend deleting everything, giving Itch even more time, and then trying to redownload again. Sometimes it takes a while to get past that.
Unfortunately, there aren't many other possibilities we might be able to help with. The demo has been openable for the general public when the download goes correctly. Sometimes there are other errors, but it should at least open. So if there are no issues downloading it from Itch, it was extracted from the zip without issues happening there, and it's the PC version of the demo for your Windows system, that'd mean the only part left to consider is the computer it's on. If the problem isn't the antivirus it's could be else, but we can only guess at what might be going on with the PC for it not start the file. At this point, asking in a Windows forum about what might prevent files from opening could be more helpful than we are. I'm sorry.
I really love the game, and I'd like to pledge on Kickstarter! But I don't have a credit card yet, and getting one will take too long for me to be in time before the campaign ends. Is there any other way I'd be able to make a pledge?
I'm so glad you love it! Unfortunately, Kickstarter has payment options and there isn't really another method. We can try to open Paypal donations at a later time, if you can support the project that.
OMG OK SO I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING
Shiloh from this game has lots of freckles and is always seen with a hat. Shiloh from XOXO droplets looks a lot like the Shiloh from this game and also likes hats a lot. Is Shiloh from this game basically younger Shiloh from XOXO droplets?
Yes. In fact, there's a conversation in XOXO Droplets where he mentions Lizzie, so it's a neat little cameo.
Thanks for answering them ^^!
You and IS04 are right, that is a younger version of the Shiloh from XOXO Droplets! We like to have references/cameos in our projects, haha.
This is already my favorite game, the execution of everything and the art is amazingg. I freaked out when I saw Shiloh and Jeremy as children!! I'm mostly broke so I don't usually spend money on games, but for this i'm definitely getting the dlc when it comes out. Playing the demo made my day, thank you for all the work you guys are putting into it \(^0^)/
Thanks very much :D! I'm happy you enjoyed the cameos, haha. We'll try our best to make the DLCs worth the money ^^.
...I can't believe I didn't realize that Jeremy = Jer-bear! He's just so different! I mean, I wanted to punch him in this game, but I absolutely adore him in Droplets...
Haha, yeah. XOXO Droplets Jeremy has come a long way since his roots as an insufferable brat.
Hello! I just finished playing the demo multiple times over the last two hours and I must say, I really love the game so far and cannot wait to snap up the full thing and the dlc when released. Thanks for your hard work!
Thank you so much! I'm really happy you liked playing and replaying it :D. We'll do our best to have the full version be even better.
when the full version this game release?
Summer 2020 is when the game is coming out! Though, that won't be everything for Our Life.
We're also going to release DLCs in Fall/Winter 2020 to add even more content :)
i love this game so much <3 this game makes me uwu /////
Aw, thank you. I'm really glad c:.
I have a little problem while playing it (after updating it) and got to the part where Derek, the little boy, came along and there was a little error on the screen after the characters were talking.
I'm sorry for the trouble! I need more details before, if you can. What does the error say? What system are you using? Did you reload an old save from before you updated it?
Saves from the previous build won't work with the update. Too much has changed. It'll all work great if you start a new file :).
Okay, thank you for telling me. :)
No problem!
Hi! Love your game, i fell in love so fast <3!!!! There is a slight typo on Section 2! I selected Very Tall, and let Ma pat my head happily, and when Ma says thanks for coming down, Ma is in lowercase. Hope I could help!
Thank you for the report! And I'm so glad you love the game :D
Ma'am/Sir I'm having problems in installing the game to my phone, I've tried everything like turning off the play protect, turning on the installing unkown apps on my settings and so on.. Still no luck.. It always says "App not installed".. What should I do? I really wanted to try this game so badly.. By the way my phone is vivo y91i incase the problem is with my phones you know.. Please Help! Thank you! 😊
I'm sorry for the trouble! I'm afraid I don't know much about that type of phone. All I can suggest is that maybe downloading the file from Itch isn't going right and that trying again later could fix things. And it might be helpful to look up if there are certain types of apks your phone won't work with. I hope it gets resolved!
I've tried reinstalling it this morning and its working fine now! 😊 I'm currently playing it and am so Loving your game! Thank you! More power admin!
That's so great! I'm glad it was just Itch being weird and not an incompatibly thing. And I'm really happy you like it :D.
Oh my God. I absolutely adore this game. I can't express how giddy I got at some scenes, and I can't help but want to play it again and again just to experience it all another time.
While I understand the full game won't be out for some time, I'd really like to get my "Our Life" fix for the time being, are you alright with fans writing fanfiction for your work or is that better left private?
Aw, thank you so much <3. That's really nice to hear. We'd love have fanfiction done of the game! If you do write some, I'd be happy if you shared it with us :D.
Thanks for the quick reply! I don't often share my writing but I'll see in time whether I feel like making this exception.
Please keep up the amazing work. I simply can't wait to see the game develop (but be sure to get plenty of rest, too!)
Cool! Thank you. No matter what, we're glad you enjoyed the game enough to want to write about it ^^. And want to keep making progress but we'll try to take it easy sometimes too, haha.
i dont think ive ever seen something so precious in my whole life. i love it! so cuteeeeee!
Thank you very much <3! I'm so happy you think so.
omg the new demo is so cute, I die
Haha, I'm glad you like it!
Hey, I just read some of the comments here and I want to know that if I become a Patreon what the beta builds entail? Like, is it full-on added gameplay per month or just things like added voices and such?
Also I am absolutely in love with this game! My boyfriends sorta hates that I am lol in my opinion it's even more investing when you use an oc of some kind instead of yourself. I've created an innocent, cheerful, outgoing character to interact with Cove (I used one of the voiced names, Bonnie. Which actually gave me the idea to make her that way since I feel like Bonnie is a sweet-sounding name) and I feel like that dynamic interacting with Cove was so cute in comparison to when I tried other things! (Just my personal opinion, ofc!) I hope I can continue making her innocent and even a bit naive during her teen/adult years, but I understand if not, obviously because it makes sense for the MC to mature over the course of the story, too.
So far we've added one new Moment per month, along with things like older events being expanded/improved. If you joined in October you'd have access to all the stuff in the demo plus these additional Moments: Library, Long Day, and Sleepover. And by next year, once we've had time to really make some progress with the funding from Kickstarter, two or more new Moments will be added per month :).
Haha, well I'm glad you like it despite that. And it's great you're having fun coming up with a character for the game. We hadn't assumed people would want to go to the effort of creating a whole characters to play the game, which is why we sort of assumed people would play with their own preferences in mind. That's neat that you came up with an OC for Our Life! We'll do what we can do include those kinds of choices.
Yay, I'm a backer now! ^_^
Also, I just played the demo for the first time since the initial release, and I would just like to say...I'd VERY much like an option to punch that Jeremy kid for insulting my Cove. Even if Cove and Derek stop me from actually doing it, I'm super-protective of my 'baby boyfriend', so having an angry option beyond demanding an apology would be cool.
Also, I seem to have found a bug, which may have already been reported, but when choosing my appearance, I can't go back to 'None' for the back hairstyle after looking at other options. If I even look at something else, 'None' seems to vanish from the list of options.
Thank you for the support <3! Haha, yeah, he's a pretty awful brat. And we'll work on adding more strong/harsh options throughout the game.
Thanks for pointing that out. Are you on the PC, Mac, or Android build, if you don't mind saying?
Yeah, I have a feeling he's going to continue annoying my poor little circle of friends. My characters are already hoping they never have to see him again, but odds are, they won't be that lucky! xD
I'm playing on Windows, though I just tested it again, and now it seems to be working. Weird. When I was playing earlier, once I started looking through the options, it stopped giving me None as a choice, but now it's showing up just fine. So, never mind! If I have it happen again, I'll try to narrow down what I did differently and let you know!
Haha, yeah, life is never so easy.
Okay, cool. I'm glad it's not causing you problems anymore. We'll look into it still so hopefully it doesn't happen again.
Hello! I'm having an error in the part where Cove, Shiloh and the MC are on the way to the park. I'm playing the Android version and if you could direct me to the proper channel to send the error report. That would be helpful!
Thank you for the report! Sharing that here is just fine. We uploaded a new file just now that should fix the problem. You may have to start a new save if the error is persisting when you reload the file. I hope that helps!
Thank you. The new upload was fixed the issued with the Android version and I was able to finished the demo. Looking forward to the full release!
I'm so glad! Thanks for letting us now :D
Right now the game is only a demo. We're still working on the DLC, so it's not available on Itch yet. But you can preorder them on Kickstarter, if you're interested!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gbpatch/our-life-beginnings-and-always-a-nostalgic-visual-novel
This game is amzing! I've never seen anything like it and it's so refeshing, exciting and heartwarming!! I have a question, though. Does the demo receive monthly updates? I've heard from various sources that it does and doesn't and this is my first time playing this demo so I'm not sure and I would love to be on the lookout for any updates!!
Thank you very much :D! We will keep updating the demo to improve it and add more content here and there, but it won't be on a monthly schedule. I'd say an estimate would be every two months. Though possibly longer, depending on how busy we are with getting the game done. Making demo builds requires changing quite a few things so we can't do it all the time, sadly.
Our Patreon beta gets monthly updates, so that may be where some of the confusion comes from. Those builds are easier to do, since they don't need any special changes to make them right. It's just a beta version of whatever is done at the time, haha.
I hope that makes sense!
Thanks so much for responding! And yeah, that makes sense! I want to become a Patron but I'd probably only be able to maintain it for that one month. I'm probably still going to, though, hahahahaha.
Oh! Also do you think it would be better to become a supporter on KickStarter or Patron. Of course, I probably won't be able to be a consistent on but I still want to be able to pitch in anywhere I can!!
Thank you for wanting to support us <3! Kickstarter is a one-time donation and Patreon is subscription that repeats every month until cancelled. Kickstarter backers will get KS-exclusive updates with their one donation for the whole development period. Patreon-backers have to renew each month to keep getting the Patreon-only updates. But Patreon has updates for more than Our Life and has a big backlog of private posts already available to go through. Beta-Testing is more expensive on Kickstarter since you're paying for multiple builds at once, you can pay a smaller price to beta-test just one build in one month through Patreon. Both have good qualities and both help us out a lot, so it's really up on what sounds most interesting!
Thank you for informing me!! Right now I have a bit of money, I just need to put it on a card. I think I might be leaning toward KS though, since it's only a one-time payment and I probably won't be able to do monthly payment on a consistent basis. Either way, I really want to help and see how the game progresses!!
No problem! I really appreciate that you want to back ^^
Would be nice to be able to preorder the game here with Paypal.
And a deluxe version with Game + Artbook would be awesome ^^
We'll see about setting up Paypal as an option to preoder the game :). I'm not sure we can add more tier, though. There are quite a few already, aha. But we will try to sell the artbook separately when the game comes out, for those who don't want to get those other rewards!
Nice!
Thank you :)
You're welcome <3
I'm absolutely obsessed with Our Life and after playing the extended demo I'm even more in love. Still, I have some concerns. It's obvious that romance is an important part of this game. And I think that there's not enough descriptions of how Cove makes the main character feel.
For example, at the end of the demo we have a choice to hug Cove. However, we don't really know how the MC feels about hugging him. It almost seems like this hug doesn't make them feel anything special. It bothers me a little. If the MC has a crush on Cove then it should be shown that they feel nervous/shy/their heart starts beating faster, and so on. Also, it’s a little strange that description of the hug is the same when the MC and Cove have a crush on each other and when they’re only friends. The blush on Cove’s face is the only difference. To give another example, when people tease Cove about liking MC we can see that he’s obviously embarrassed. But the MC doesn’t seem to have any reaction and I think that it would be more realistic if they were blushing too.
I remember that at the beginning of Step 2 the text says that the MC’s heart starts beating faster at the sight of Cove. I like it! This is exactly what I’m talking about! We need more descriptions like that. We need to know that Cove makes the MC’s heart go crazy. It makes the romance feel more real and natural. But I’m aware that it’s only a demo and that a lot of things will be added later. I just wanted to share my suggestions with you ^^
I disagree about the hugging part. At this point in time MC and Cove have known each other for five years. I hate when is stories like these when the MC's always feel nervous even though they have known said Love Interest for so long. Even though the MC usually relives from their nervousness it still makes the atmosphere of the scene feel awkward.
I was almost dreading picking the "hug" option because I thought that like most other games the MC would become extremely flustered. I would get her becoming shy if it was the other way around and Cove hugged her instead and then sheh started blushing or her heart quickened.
But I agree on the other things! And I like how Cove's emotions are written. The scenes never feel awkward.
Ah, yes, I agree with you. I wasn't trying to say that the MC should be uncomfortable or stressed in Cove's company. I also like how comfortable they are with each other. I just think that it would be nice if the description of the hug was different depending on relationship between Cove and MC. It would feel like choosing the type of relationship with Cove really makes a difference in gameplay. Also, I think that hugging your friend and your crush feels very different, even if you know your crush for a long time. The heart starts beating faster and there's this funny feeling in your belly. At least in my experience, haha :) Sorry if what I've written before is confusing. English is not my first language.
You're English is great!
And I agree there. Maybe MC's reaction (at least in that scene) should depend on the choices you make with her, like if you make her shy then she would be shier when having interactions with Cove, or if you make her more outgoing she would feel more accustomed to interactions like that.
But as someone who has coded choice-heavy stories/novels I'm not even completely sure if that's possible, haha. Since the game is having its full release in the Summer of 2020 I imagine that it'll be enough time for them to improve stuff like that, though!
Thank you for the suggestions and I'm glad you liked the demo! Our Life will have more variations and alterations as we continue developing it :]. But for that hug situation specifically, the MC is comforting someone who's panicking about their family. It'd be a bit out of place for the MC to take that moment to think about how they're attracted to Cove and that touching him makes their heart race, aha. There are other times where it comes up and there will be more in the future.
Thanks for replying! Now I know that I didn't really take the full context into consideration . Thank you for explaining that for me ^^ Good luck with the further development, you're doing really great!
Thank you for understanding and for the kind words :D! We'll do our best with the coming content.
This game already looks so good!! I'm really excited for the full game to come! Cheering for you, creatiors! ❤️
Thanks so much for the encouragement <3
Ah I'm so excited, I've been ! Congrats on the kickstarter! :D
(Just wanted to say, on the Android version of the demo it gives an error whenever you go to the playground, saying there's an error loading the background. ^^)
Thank you so much ^^. And we'll fix that error in the Android version soon!
That error should be fixed now if you download the new file here on Itch!
First, I'd like to join everyone in complimenting your team about the quality of the demo. As was already said many times, the concept of the game is quite original and fresh, which is commendable and very welcome. Most VN authors usually don't dare to take such risks, while they probably should to avoid stagnation of the genre. The game reminds a bit me of an old DOS game, called Alter Ego, and it definitely appeals to me.
Next, and again I think it was already said, your writer really displays talent with designing child characters. They appear as "believable" in their thoughts and actions, at least through the eyes of the adult that I am. The game also always provides us with a satisfying number of sensible options on how to experience "our" childhood, so that's really good (and promising for the rest)!
Maybe some more "innocent" or, let's say, "naive" actions as a child would be great to have too. As an adult, I can see the "motivation" behind most of the alternatives that the game presents to me. They all appear as rational, while most children probably have times where their demeanour appears as quite confusing or even totally irrational instead.
Who, as a child, hasn't burned themselves while touching stuff that they shouldn't have ? Or wasted the linings of our bedrooms with multi-coloured pencils, knowing perfectly well that parents forbid it and would punish us for it ?
I realize that such an addition could make the beginning of the game a bit more "chaotic", and that your intended target IS an adult population, but I thought that it could perhaps also help to further differentiate childhood from other ages. Not *everything* has to absolutely make sense when there is magic about ^.^
Finally, I admit I am a bit apprehensive when I saw that you locked a good number of "sequences" within an age behind DLCs purchases. I do understand where you're coming from and why you are doing it. Good work not only deserves praise, but also (financial) reward and support.
I do hope that you'll manage to keep these balanced, not to spoil the enjoyment of the (base) game, since I can't imagine many players being keen on the concept of purposefully skipping content, even if there is a gameplay motivation behind it (in a sort of "Game+"). Some events are also fairly short, depending on the choices of the player, so that could render the whole experience of the game rather thin. Usually, the more we have to read in a VN, in different, non-empty routes, the better. Maybe this will change when our characters grow up however, I can't say. It's only a demo.
Suffice to say that I wouldn't mind paying extra for, say, a DLC with an additional character, for example (a girl instead of a boy, or whatever).
In any case, I will definitely send a small token of my appreciation your way some time soon, because I think that this project is of high value, that it deserves to be supported and to take off successfully.
All my best wishes to the team, and thank you for creating this game.
Thank you very much for such a detailed feedback! We'll keep it in mind and do what we can. The full version will certainly have more options/alterations/scenes than the demo goes. And there are two DLCs that add new characters to romance, though I'm afraid neither of them are girls. This game just has guy LIs, but our future games will have lady love interests.
Your reply is very much appreciated.
Of course I am a bit disappointed about no romanceable girl character DLC in the future, but it's fantastic to hear that such a talented team has more such projects (and perhaps with female LIs!) coming the future.
Please let me congratulate on your successful Kickstarter endeavour, and wish you again all the best. Really looking forward to you going Gold and playing the full game now. It can't come too soon ^.^
Thank you again :D! We'll do our best to get OL done and get started on more stuff.
This is one of my favorite games by you (The others include XOXO Droplets and XOXO Blood Droplets) I'm hella excited for when this comes out.
Thank you ^^! I'm happy you like our games and are looking forward to our next project.
Love this game everything about so amazing game.
Thank you so much <3!
The concept really appealed to me. Playing the demo confirmed it. Have to echo another comment that said the way you write children is very realistic - they're not acting like literal toddlers, but they're not mini-preteens or mini-adults, either.
I also have to say that I very much appreciate the option to change pronouns at every step of the game. In fact, the roleplaying that's already in the demo is a fair step better than some other games I've played.
I have to ask out of curiosity, is facial hair a possible customization option for adult Cove (or adult MC)?
Thank you so much for the kind words! It's wonderful to hear that we handled the child portion of the game well so far ^^.
Facial hair will be an option for the MC later in the game. It's not currently a possibility for Cove. That's because facial hair doesn't end up working out the same as adding other types of optional layers. With regular hair, for example, you can just layer it over the head of the base sprite and it’s done. But facial hair has to fit with all of Cove’s different mouth expressions. From tiny frowns to being wide open. We’d need lots of different shaped facial hairs that switched out with Cove’s changing expressions to make sure the mouth was never awkwardly fitting with the facial hair. It’d be a lot of extra work and we aren't able to manage that right now.
I'm sorry. If the game gets enough support we could potentially make it happen, but it's not something I can guarantee.
That's alright, just asking!
Thanks for understanding :D
This demo has convinced me to become a patreon once the new month starts. I will also probably be breaking my no kickstarter rule to help fund with the kickstarter when it goes live. I'm always on the lookout for new visual novels and this concept is unlike anything I have ever played and I'm excited to see how the game turns out when it is finished!
Aw, thank you so much for the support ^^! We're doing our best to make to have the concept live up to its potential and improve what's already there. And we have had a few successful Kickstarted/released projects in the past, so we're pretty confident we'll be able make this one worth the while.
Hi! I'm loving it and can't wait for the full game <3 I haven't been this excited about a VN coming out since forever!
There's a bug in the Fireflies event. Shiloh calls Mom 'Mrs. Last' when I had chosen a different surname.
Thank you so much :D!
And whoops, haha. We'll have that error fixed when we update the demo next month.
I've stumbled upon this game by complete accident in my never-ending search for gay romance games that aren't just basically porn and I'm so glad I did. It looks absolutely incredible, the art and UI design are so clean it almost makes me cry how long it took me to find this.
The only other game I've found that scratches a similar itch is Straight!? which I've been following for over a year and now I don't need to restlessly wait every month for only one adorable romance! That's great! And Our Life is definitely more up my alley.
I'm hoping that by the time the final release comes we'll know Cove inside and out because he's just so precious I need to explore every possible scenario with him. And I just saw his design for the late teens/young adult portion of the game and holy shit he's going to be hot, can't wait.
Just major props for you guys, you're really about to end the genre's whole career with this.
Thank you so much for all of that! It's really nice of you to say ^^. And yeah, we tried to have Cove grow up to be a real looker, haha. We'll do our best to have he full version live up to expectations
When the complete game come out, will it be completly free? cI am sorry for such a question however the demo had me immersed and I would be very sad if the game costed money that I dont have!! However I really like your game so far so wonderful job so far
There will be a free base version that anyone can enjoy! But it's not 100% non-commercial, there will be optional paid DLC. I'm glad you enjoyed the game ^^.
Thank you :)
I love this demo and I'm very excited for the type of gameplay I saw. Good luck with the Kickstarter!
Thank you so much ^^! We'll try our best to get the game funded.
hello I've tried playing the demo for PC twice now and it doesn't work do you have any advice? thank you
Hi! I'm not sure what the problem might be. It could kind of be anything, aha. The file could've downloaded incorrectly, if you have a scanner that goes over everything you launch that might have decided not to let you access the file, or something else. What happens when you try to play the game? Does the game not open at all? Or is there an error that says something? Or some other thing?
it won't let me play it it says the file could be harmful thank you for your reply
Thanks, I get it now. Sometimes file scanners just mistake a new file for something bad when it's just a normal file. You'll have to look into the type of firewall/virus protection program you have and learn how to allow the file to go through. I'm afraid there's not really anything we can do to help with that. Good luck, though! I hope it won't be too much trouble to get your protection program to stop doing things like that.
thank you