Living With Ghosts
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
Blossom is well-acquainted to saying Goodbye. She is at peace with her rather solitary life on her family's farm – until one Hallow's Eve, when she receives a visit from someone she never got to properly say Goodbye to, and the walls that she has built around her heart are torn open.
This game was created for the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam 2023. It's part of the same setting as my first game Lovewood, but you don't need pre-knowledge to understand and enjoy the story of Living With Ghosts.
♥ A playthrough takes around 10-20 minutes. ♥
Content Warnings
The game is safe for work and safe to stream.
Included topics:
- Death and grief
- Mention of death through illness
- Mention of physical abuse from a parent
This is a story about loss. If I did my job right, it will make you at least a little bit sad.
Accessibility
- Measures were taken to make this game accessible to blind players. You can toggle automatic self-voicing at any point by pressing V, or toggle it in the Options menu.
- Audio captions for relevant sounds can be activated in the Options.
- Particles are enabled by default, but can be turned off in the Options menu.
- A German translation can be activated in the Options. [Eine deutsche Übersetzung kann im Optionenmenü aktiviert werden.]
- Living With Ghosts is optimized as a PC game, but an Android build is available, recommended for tablets or large phones.
Credits
This game was created as a solo entry by LadyIcepaw (art, writing, coding, translation).
Third party assets used:
Sound effects by Kenney.nl and Zapsplat.com.
Kinetic Text Tags by Wattson.
Voice snippet by Alexandra Drotz Ruhn.
Please view the game's About menu or credits.txt for full music credits!
Created with the Renpy engine (PC build: version 7.3.5 // Android build: version 8.0.3)
Thank you so much for playing. ♥
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Thank you for 100+ downloads!Oct 17, 2023
- Release!Sep 25, 2023
Comments
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Oh, this is a lovely story! The graphics are very clean and pretty, and there's so much nice art to look at! It's impressive you were able to draw so much during the short time frame for the jam!
There's some variants to the CGs and some nice effects on them too; it really brings the story to life!
I also like the UI a lot. It might be using the default Ren'py layout, but it was customised a lot to give it some character.
The music picked out is perfect, and the story manages to be emotional and heartfelt while being a quick, breezy read.
This is a really nice little VN; thank you so much for creating it!
Thank you so much for those kind words! I'm really happy to hear that it feels like a cohesive experience TuT <3
(Copied from my Spooktober Game Jam Review to help this game with Itch.io's algorithm!)
A sweet and sad little story about grief and loss. Beautiful visuals too: I especially love the colors you used for the sprites and CGs.
Thank you for making this!
Thank you so much! <3
love the music
Thank you! <3
This game is so touching, to the point where it actually made me cry. It captures the themes of grief and loneliness so well. Not to mention the art and music are so so well done as well. Especially the music giving it a somber yet hopeful vibe to the gameplay experience.
The only thing I can really suggest is trying to see how you can implement different endings but other than that, wonderful job!
Thank you so much for the thoughtful comment! I'm glad that the story hit its mark. ^^
No Gamepad support? Will you put on steam?
The engine should support gamepad controls by default, but I haven't tested it, since I don't own one myself. Let me know if you give it a shot! I'm afraid the game won't be on Steam though.
This was so touching! You were able to really tug at my heartstrings in such a short span of time.
I also have to mention how great your UI looks! It's really impressive.
Aaaah thanks! I'm really glad to hear that.
UI design is always something I struggle with a bit, so it's a relief that it feels fitting! <3
Very nicely done! This is such a sweet story! <3
I was not expecting that. This story made me cry. I can't remember the last time I read a VN that made me cry.
The atmosphere created by the inviting UI, the 3rd person narration (I love, love love this), color palette and the dynamic CGs all come together to support such a beautiful longing atmosphere. The one where Blossom is looking out the window particularly stands out, with the unforgettable melody of the lullaby. The first moment meeting the ghost is so poignant.
What a lovely, sweet and beautiful VN.
Thank you so much for playing! Glad to hear that it resonated <3
Hey! I am a Spanish translator and I am interested in translating your lovely work so it could reach a larger audience ^^ It would be awesome to make Living with Ghosts and also Lovewood available in Spanish (of course it would be free translation, made by a fan!). Thank you <3
That's a really lovely offer, thank you so much! Do you use Discord? Then we could talk over some details :>
I'm [l...w] on there. Otherwise I could give you some other way to get in touch!
Sounds perfect to me! My user is KuroLivi, I have just sent you a friend request on there!
It's really good!
You are very good at showing the emotions of your characters :)
Thank you so much! :>