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Thank you for playing! We're glad you enjoyed it!

That'd be so sweet! 🥺

It may not be the same, but consider keeping an eye out for our next release! We're tackling the idea of monster acceptance all over again, but this time with messy relationships mixed in. It'll be from the perspective of a human, but both of his love interests are monsters and we made it a goal to keep them that way. We're considering it the next game of the series, so it takes place in the same universe and will be yet another queer retelling of a fairytale, of course! 😄

Hello out there! We're a game dev team looking for a CG Artist to join our crew!

We're currently making Beauty's Plaything, a queer retelling of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast in a visual novel format, for the Once Upon A Time VN Jam. It's a Dark Romcom where "beauty" and the "beast" are both monsters and love interests, while the main character is a human attempting to appease them both and get them all out of their messy situation intact.

What we need is an illustrator who can make a three-character art piece for the Main Menu in time for our submission to this jam in January. After the game's initial release, we'd also like to include five ending CGs in a post-jam update.

If this position sounds like something you're up for, you can email us at sparklinghorizonstudios@gmail.com or shoot us a message @thehorizons on Discord!

We hope to hear from you! 😄

Hey there! We're a game dev team looking for a CG Artist to join our crew!

We're currently making Beauty's Plaything, a queer retelling of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast. It's a Dark Romcom where "beauty" and the "beast" are both monsters and love interests, while the main character is a human attempting to appease them both and get them all out of their messy situation intact.

What we need is an illustrator who can make a three-character art piece for the Main Menu in time for our submission to this jam. After the game's initial release, we'd also like to include five ending CGs in a post-jam update.

If this position sounds like something you're up for, you can email us at sparklinghorizonstudios@gmail.com or shoot us a message @thehorizons on Discord!

We hope to hear from you! 😄

Thanks for playing our game! 

It's great to hear that all of our carefully-planned narrative design shone through in the script! We went into this project with the initial idea of telling a story about being accepted, and with a monster as the main character, this brought out all sorts of themes in the writing. Friendship prevailing was an unintentional message we happened to fall into, but our writer was delighted by it and we're honestly happy with how it worked out, too!

That's awesome! We're thrilled you enjoyed our game so much! We put a lot of love into it, and it means the world to hear that all our attention to detail didn't go unnoticed. We'll totally be sending your compliments to the rest of the team. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!

Hello out there!

Last year, we had such a great time participating in the Monstrous Desires VN Jam that we've decided to put what we've learned to use and do it all over again!

Beauty's Plaything is a queer retelling of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast. It's a Dark Romcom where the MC is in a situationship with a "beauty" and antics leave them both trapped with a "beast" until they can all sort their problems out. Both "beauty" and "beast" are love interests for a potential polycule, and of course, are monsters themselves. It has morbid humor and the same angsty undertones as our previous release, To The Wayside.

We are still looking to fill these roles:

• Writer
• Background Artist
• Ren'py Programmer

The game will be structured as a main route that branches into 5 endings. It solely focuses on the three characters mentioned in our synopsis, all of which stay within the beast's mansion and its grounds during the course of the plotline. Potential writers should be comfortable with writing for this genre and unhealthy relationship dynamics. If you do not have experience writing for visual novels, that isn't an issue! We are open to teaching the ropes. Potential background artists should be prepared for both interior and exterior locations. Potential programmers should expect to code in the GUI, including the main character's sprite on top of the textbox, and help with any issues that may arise when we handle the scene direction.

The team communicates through the studio's Discord server, shares files through Google Drive, and keeps track of code through Github. Given that the jam's rules allow it, development has already begun and your work will start in the near future. If we are unable to make Monstrous Desire's October deadline, our backup plan is to switch this project to the Once Upon A Time VN Jam and/or PolyJamorous, depending on whether they are returning this year and what their time frames will be.

Those interested may DM us @thehorizons on Discord or email us at sparklinghorizonstudios@gmail.com. We'd appreciate if you would send samples of your work or past projects you've been a part of when you reach out. You're welcome to ask us any questions you have about the project, too!

Thank you all for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

The script got you too, huh? By the end of it, even our team was getting emotional!

Our co-lead likes to think a certain ending is open enough for Elm to have plenty of experiences from then on. What you believe happens after it is entirely up to you. 😉

Wow! Thank you for your kind words!

The deadline for this project really pushed many of us to the limit, so hearing that it was all worth it is incredibly reassuring. We all appreciate you taking the time to write to us (and anyone else reading this!), because even with the analytics we've seen, nothing tops direct feedback!

We're so glad you enjoyed playing our game and we hope you'll stick around to see whatever comes next! 😄

This was an absolute joy to listen to. All the sounds mixed together wonderfully, and don't even get me started on all the variety within a single track! This piece had lots of love and care put into it and it shows!

The writing here was so incredibly moving. The way the two different endings coincided with the narrative really pushed the message home, and the music absolutely heightened the overall experience.