Lone Wolf Nano
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Welcome to the end of the world, and the story of one lost wolf. Our protagonist, codenamed Nano, is but one among many 'gifted' individuals wandering through what once was a city full of people. But something happened... something unexplainable... And what followed... may be even worse...
Can you really trust people you've just met? Should you even try to evade the danger if it's only a matter of time?
This is my project for the 2022 NaNoRen0 Game Jam, and bit of an excuse to take a little break from my other ongoing project, Love Company.
That one hits a bit close to home... but I guess you could say the same about this one, with some extrapolation.
This game contains partial nudity (nothing explicit) and dark themes.
Story, programming and art: Shibakita
Proofreading and playtesting: Sean W
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Post Mortem---my failures, some backstoryDec 13, 2022
Comments
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I regret to not reading this sooner. Not only the art is stunning, but the writing is good as well, this is one of the most atmospheric VN I ever read.
This should be way more popular in my opinion.
Overall I really enjoyed it, an easy 5 stars.
Wow... I was so invested that when "THE END for now" faded in it was a sad moment. Because there's much potential to be found and I enjoyed my time immensely, I've already put Lone Wolf Nano in all my collections.
The way you're just thrown into this post-apokalyptic world with almost zero explanation conveys a lot of dread and starts of with a huge mystery. Honestly, it would work really well if the intro didn't happen, so it starts with Nano wandering around questioning his life. On the other hand the intro could serve a purpose we don't know. I'm not sure how you yourself see your artistic skills, but personally I really enjoy reading the text and seeing these dark, ominous, and bland panels at the same time. Abstract visuals are simply great in works like these.
Another concept that further elevates the feeling of dread are those creatures. They could be anything: beings from another world, the souls of the dead, to monsters from hell. Because saying these four-legged "Eye of Horus cats" or "Iluminati cats" are beings from "the other side" tells us nothing. They could really be anything, too, not just the "Mirrored Twins" and the "Living Tribunal Angel Harpy", for lack of a better term/name.
Minos is already one of my favorite love interests or companions to a protagonist. Perhaps Nano is too easily trustful of him, yet I would argue in his stead others wouldn't behave differently, after all he's already thinking his life is worthless. Here comes a fantastic anime to mind that will get a second season early next year. In "The Ancient Magus' Bride" the protagonist allows herself to be sold in a slave auction, because she doesn't care what happens in her life any longer.
For some reason I fee like this VN, which feels refreshing compared to FVN, would turn out quite a bit different from pretty much all of them.
In case you show interest, similarly themed FVN are on my profile. Maybe you might want to experience what kind of ideas the other creators went for?
Of course I'll try your other game next, however I would love it if you continue this game one day. Now I'm not as eloquent as the previous commenter, but I can at least say I second their opinions.
Stay positive and don't lose hope!
Your games art style is amazing and the depth of worldbuilding is genuinely impressive. I would say that perhaps the reason the game did not receive a large immediate following is due to the fact that visual novels that are LGBT+ tend to get very little traction, and get even less traction if they do not feature sex or are short. It's a shame but there is very little that you could have done to help as this is merely a matter of Itch as a platform and visual novels as a medium being finicky and featuring audiences that are hard to capture at best and impossibly shallow at their worst. I mean all of this to say that you have done something truly impeccable with this title and I am personally ashamed to have not played it sooner nor discovered you and your work before a few days ago. I ask-with all the humility that I can muster-for you to continue working on whatever project you fancy, and to do so without straining your mental and physical health wherever possible. And-if i may-please remember that you are loved and appreciated in more ways than you can fathom.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart💖 To be honest, I did have a feeling it could be because of a lack of NSFW in my games😵 I've been debating bringing that stuff more into my projects, but I was afraid it could scare away some potential future employers.... I was trying to play it more on the safer side.
Don't worry. Overwatch has an artist that does porn and he's doing fine. Keep a separate art profile for SFW and NSFW (if you want) and you'll be fine.
Definitely considering it😅🤔
That's very understandable, employers have extremely impressive algorithms and databases nowadays that allow them to essentially stalk their employees. However from the perspective of avid user of Itch I can say that almost all of the highest rated visual novel contain nsfw, and all but a handful of the Lgbt+ ones contain nsfw. Going by the first two pages of the top rated visual novel section only two are both Lgbt+ and do not contain nsfw. Funnily enough all but five Lgbt+ visual novels by my count are both nsfw and furry. Minotaur Hotel is actually one of the most consistently popular and highest rated visual novels on the platform and even though it's furry I think you'd like as it is rather close to your writing style in both tone and theme. Tangent aside-I think you should write whatever you get inspiration for and write it however horny you think the story calls for. So long as it doesn't get to fetishy I think most employer won't worry to much if they find it, and if you're in the field of either programming or writing it may even be beneficial as this would essentially be self-published work they could judge your skills on. As a final note if you ever want the browse tab has plenty of ways to see what the most popular, highest rated, and newest games in any given tag are; this might be useful if you ever want to see in what ways the platform is trending or get inspiration from other works of the same tag. But whatever you continue to make I certainly am looking forward to it.
Thank you🙂💖 I've been meaning to fully check out Minotaur Hotel for a long time now too, so this gives me one more great reason to do so😅👌And I'll definitely try find what other kind of stuff is trending🤔
Both the shallowness and average attention span of the audience really is an issue nowadays. I'm sure TikTok and social media in general is one of the biggest reasons for this mental change.
Although when it comes to VN, I like to experience romance instead of deep, complicated stories. I'm currently reading several long-running book series at once on and off.
What about you? What are your favorite (F)VN?
While TikTok and social media have had some affect on our overall attention spans, the way I look at it though tends to be that they are merely the symptom not the cause. After all, attention spans were shortening long before even Facebook was created and before dial-up was even common place. In my opinion I see that companies noticed how to take advantage of shorter attention span but were what started to create them. If I were to hazard a guess then I'd say that attention shortening is the natural state of the human race as the entirety of human history has been consistently filled with the concept of creating easier to consume recreation and media. Even religion can be considered to be apart of this instinctual need to focus not focus on anything that pertains to direct survival for a period. I'd also say that the best recorded and most palatable example of this would have to be in the way supermarkets and grocery stores slowly evolved to be constantly psychologically manipulating the customer, if you ever get the chance it is a fascinating subject.
On the note of visual novels I can say while I do love long term story-telling, especially as it pertains to romance, I have a very difficult time if the story is both heavily emotionally investing and incomplete. I've been known to fall into deep bouts of depression whenever I finish all that has been finished. As such while I can personally recommend both Sileo and Minotaur Hotel as being impeccable, I also must admit that I haven't touched either in well over a year now as I've promised myself to let them either finish or die before I go back due to the fact that my poor constitution simply can't handle the emotional whiplash, for this very same reason fanfiction has become a very rare treat for myself. Two others that I have been following and can recommend are The King's Hound and The Bastard of Camelot, two arthurian non-visual visual novels developed in twine and that were released within the same week. While both are similarly incomplete and feature even sparser updates I can say that I can follow the latter more then the first two due to the latter having a bit less emotional depth, thus allowing the cliffhangers and character growth to be less emotionally devastating to me. On a final note I would highly recommend twine game as while most visual novel readers maybe turned off by their little to no visuals, a lot of talented developer have created beautiful games in the program and it is often a shame how easily they are over looked.
(Also please forgive me for any grammar or punctuation faults, I am currently fighting a cold and haven't been finely combing my writing as usual.)
Sorry... but I don't think this many words to describe the shortening of attention spans was entirely necessary~
So basically what you're saying in a nutshell, is all the new inventions mankind makes cater to the requirement of using less brainpower, which results in a shorter attention span from generation to generation? And because a shorter attention span became more and more popular, companies began to take advantage of people in that way. For instance: ads, social media, comics/manga, your supermarket example to name a few. It sounds like an accute observation to me. Again, you're right, this is a fascinating subject to research and discuss. Maybe the natural order is us working toward inevitable decadence as well as complacenty, resulting in lowering our IQ/critical thinking bit by bit. If so, at least we're all in it together.
I'm currently working on revising the collections on my profile, meaning sorting all 500+ FVN & games into categories. One of my new main categories is COMPLETED FVN & FURRY GAMES. If what you say is true, incomplete and emotionally demanding FVN give you depression, perhaps you will make good use of that collection. Just know it's not exactly big (for now) or all that great, because my profile is like a hub for as many gay furry projects as possible, so not only FVN.
Sileo is one of the FVN I couldn't get into. None of the characters or love interests seem written in a compelling or rather unique way. Pass. I would like to know what dating the dragon would be like. You can't.
I've seen a lot about Minotaur Hotel, however, I'm not a fan of the protagonist being a bull (or minotaur?) I'm guessing I'll be trying Minotaur Hotel out at some point, until then there's many others to play. Have you tried Soulcreek, yet? Of course being new it's incomplete, but the story is pretty thrilling. Genre = post apocalyptic
In case you want to know which ones I enjoy, I've also made a list for them called "For those holding a special place in my heart". Once you open this collection, you will see an assortment of very different FVN, that's because sometimes only aspects of certain FVN are the reason why they made the list. Example: Password → Tyson
Thank you for recommending The King's Hound & The Bastard of Camelot. Will be looking into them! I'm an avid (actual) novel reader. No visuals doesn't turn me off. I could recommend you gay novels better written than any FVN on this website, if you are okay with emotionally devastating stories that already came to an end. One of them, a trilogy, has thousands of great reviews on Amazon.
You're perfectly fine, really. Your choice of words is much more eloquent than what I could ever come up with. Are you from an English speaking country? If not, I applaud to you, since to me you come across as a native. Furthermore, the way you carefully choose your words makes me think of a smart individual. (Although: than ≠ then ;)
Get better soon, @HenderHibiscus!
I enjoyed the game.
Thanks, I... really needed this right now🙇♂️ I've been ruminating on a lot of negative thoughts recently😔
I know many people say this and many others will think it might not be true, but it will get better with time. Be strong and believe in yourself. Negative thoughts are powerful, but you more powerful.
You're the powerful one... and I deeply appreciate all these messages. It shows what kind of person you are--- a really good one💖 I've been feeling guilty about my words... I don't want to spread negativity or make people feel a certain way, but.... it's been difficult trying to put up a positive front😔....
I love the art in this game. I would buy some of those stills if they were prints for sale. 100/10 on that.
I wish the story was more fleshed out so I understood why Nano's moments of doom were important moments (i.e. with the kid). The plot kind of left me wanting more answers. Where did the enemies come from? Why is the world ending? Why is our main character a part of that group of people, and who are they? Who is the leader and why is their relationship the way it is?
I also wished there was some backstory or a flashback of a specific time for why Nano is so full of doubt. If it's not a case or plot point of amnesia, knowing his past would have helped me understand why he is how he is. I think that Nano having a flashback to a time he failed to help someone and having that connect back to the present would have made me feel more empathy for him in that moment. If you were still interested in this project (I know this was a side gig) and made an update with backstories I would definitely pick it up.
First of all, thank you so much... for playing this game, commenting, and for the critique/suggestions (as well as the compliments🤗). I really appreciate all of it. If I continue the story (and I'm planning to, hopefully), I'll definitely address all of this there as well.🙇♂️
I wanted to leave things partially open, but also imply that there may have been a terrorist attack of sorts, one testing out some new kind of experimental weapon that had some unexpected results. A kind of gateway was opened up at ground zero, leading to a different world or dimension with with new kinds of lifeforms. Lifeforms that are desperate to hijack the living things of our world in order to continue to thrive.
You're also right with the stuff concerning Nano, and I'll definitely add more in an update (after I finish Love Company😅). The fallout affected some people in a way similar to Nano, Minos and Mockingbird, giving them certain traits and a resistance to the creatures pouring out from the other world. The wolf pack early on are a separate group from Nano, one that has been trying to take advantage of the situation they've all been put in. Nano may have also tried teaming up with some others in the past, but whether because of distrust, insecurities, or a general weakness.... things never really ended well for either party.😔