dev diary: what if i just make starry flowers 2 right now

over the weekend i started putting starry flowers: book 2 together… i wrote the outline back in 2021 after the first game came out. like, these docs i found were dated may and it came out in february, that’s how soon i was like “AND THEN ALL THIS HAPPENS…”

this is a sidenote but another thing i found interesting was that peri’s story in astra’s garden came from these notes too!!! it was funny to look back on cuz the core idea is there, just missing the details haha.

anyway, i am no longer holding back… the problem with the concept for this game is that there’s an aspect to the ending that is better if you know certain huge spoilers from syrup 2. these spoilers are already in the wip build released to patrons (not the demo, the more recent one!), so there are actually a few of you who can probably guess what part i’m talking about!!! (it’s the pastille-related stuff of course).

so way back in 2021, once i finished the outline for starry flowers 2 i was like, damn, ok, first game just came out, i should probably take a break from it before i make a sequel. it’ll be better if people in general play syrup 2 first. like, in the future when both games are out there’s no guarantee that people will play them in the “correct” order, or even play both at all. but this is the order i want the true fans to experience the story in. that’s why i’ve been pretty married to the idea that like, i need to release syrup 2 first (and finish lonely wolf treat before that).

but here we are in 2025 and both syrup 2 and lwt feel far from being finished. like, i often cannot get myself to make progress on them because when i try to, i feel like i can’t think. i have to wait until developing them comes naturally to me, i’m stuck in limbo until my brain works and in the meantime i’m doing my best to create the conditions for it to work properly. i wish i was not like this, but i simply am, and i am forced to deal with it haha.

so, sitting here in my restlessness of wanting to make a thing but feeling too tired to work on my existing projects (sex advice succubus included…), i thought, WELL WHAT IF I JUST MAKE THE GAME I HAVE BEEN DYING TO MAKE FOR YEARS NOW???

that’s why i’m doing this… and actually… it’s a pretty long game too, so what will most likely happen is i will release a WIP build with rough art and everything, THEN finish treat and syrup 2, THEN finish all the new starry flowers art at once. and then it’d be like i released 3 giant games back to back. wouldn’t that be amazing??? i doubt i can pull it off but it would be really cool if i’m able to do that.

let me tell you about starry flowers (book 2)

beyond this point is (mild) spoilers, so don’t read it if you want to go into the sequel completely blind.

the premise for the game is that pastille wants to open up to periwinkle more, like share more of his past with him. he’s never really done this before (his bestie being syrup who he tells almost nothing to), so he takes what is probably an overly-serious approach: he shows up to peri’s house one night with a crystal ball that can project your memories around you.

what’s fun about memories is that it’s not a literal recording of what happened in his past, it’s however he remembers them. so the further into his past you go, the more vague and shapeless things become. until you get to his childhood, and it’s basically all vibes in there.

so it’s a game where you see a ton of pastille’s backstory play out, in reverse order, until you feel like you can really understand how he became the way he is…. and also peri is there to support him through the whole thing and learn about him with you and he’s so sweet to him because of course he is and OHHHH THEY’RE SO IN LOVE

it’s very meaningful because pastille has a hard time sharing things with people but he wants peri to know everything about him because he feels safe knowing peri will accept him completely….. i-it’s so good….. it’s gonna be so good……..

I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT ALL THIS

FOR 4 YEARS

AND HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO TALK TO ANYONE ABOUT IT UNTIL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway in the opening scene peri is making omelets for him

(he is not a good cook... but he's trying... FOR HIS BOYFWEND.........)

actually the other reason i started working on this…

when i was restless the other day, before i started just finally making starry flowers 2, i was thinking i wanted to start another webcomic… i mentioned this before (probably when answering asks???) but since pastille is currently gone from another piece of candy, i thought it’d be fun for him to start his own comic in the meantime. when i thought about what it’d actually be ABOUT, i realized i could write about his past, from when he first met syrup. that way it could become a cute story about where their friendship started and where they are now, how they get in silly fights sometimes but ultimately care about each other… that kind of thing.

so that was my plan! to wait until i felt like starting something (like now) and then figure out the details and make it real. to do that, i needed to reread my notes from how they first met and became friends.

the… starry flowers 2 notes… because i’m pretty sure that even if i maybe started jotting down some of those ideas before starry flowers, they developed into something very specific for starry flowers 2 that i was worried was going to make that section of the story overly long and too syrup-focused. so making that part into a webcomic instead would solve that problem.

but then of course i had to read the beginning of the starry flowers 2 notes to even get to that point!!!!!! so really, i played myself!!!!!!!!! i thought i could look at these notes without being tempted into action but i was weak!!!!!!!! i’m starving for those boys and my hunger must be sated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…in any case, i do actually want to plan that webcomic once i get some of this out of my system, because now is really the time to make it and i think it’d be really good. i’ll get to play with formatting… deciding if i want to post one panel at a time like in what happens next or just regular vertical pages… i could even do webtoon style layouts but i’m not a fan of webtoon type stuff so probably just regular pages… i’ve been reading a lot of manga lately so i just wanna draw COMICS!!!!!!!!

anyway… i think that’s all i had to say for tonight, thank you for enduring (enjoying?) this text dump. surely there will be more to come.