Hey everyone! Here is the LONG-AWAITED devlog for The Dragon Princess! I’m sorry it took so much time! But at least, now, I have more insight regarding the game and my thoughts about it and NaNoRenO!

But first of all, I’d like to preface all this by deeply thanking ALL THE FRIENDS AND VAs WHO WORKED ON THIS GAME TO MAKE IT A BEAUTIFUL REALITY, but also, in general, all the people who were kind enough to give it a try, rate it and share their impressions! They mean the world to me!!

A NaNoRenO game

At this point, this is my fourth participation to NaNoRenO, so let’s say I’m a veteran loool, and every year, I say “aim small if you solo dev a game, one month passes by fast”, and I only respected this for my first participation in 2022, so let’s say I can go screw myself or something at this point looool

Because, well, for reminder, last year, I released for NaNoRenO Rendez-Doug, a 30k words-long dating sim with both an otome and a BL route, all of it with an ace flavour considering the love interest, the eponymous Doug, is indeed asexual. So two routes, six endings… I couldn’t make it worse, right?

Well, The Dragon Princess is under 15k words. So not half as long as Rendez-Doug. It was a kinetic novel, so only one route. It had to be easy. I did my best to make sure it wouldn’t be as meaty a project as Rendez-Doug.

VAINES PRÉCAUTIONS ! CRUELLE DESTINÉE !

… Erm, of course I have to quote some Jean Racine’s Phaedra. And in French because I have a level 10 Ohio rizz like that.

For some reason, I decided Amaia’s sprite would have three different outfits; Caleb and Azaiah two; that the backgrounds would be hand-painted; that I would have the GUI change colour the way I did in High School Lolita in 2023… THAT THE LAST ACT OF THE GAME WOULD HAVE EIGHT CGS. NOT INCLUDING VARIATIONS. THERE ARE TEN INCLUDING VARIATIONS.

AND TO TOP IT ALL, VOICE ACTING

WHY AM I LIKE THIS

AM I DUMB

STUPID

KAWAII-CHANESQUE

Well, the answer is yes. But also, you can tell I was very passionate about this game, but we’ll talk about this later. For now, let’s focus on NaNoRenO.

So, TIME WAS SO MUCH OF THE ESSENCE, oh my God, and honestly, I couldn’t have finished the game without the TUTELARY help of Chattercap, who, in addition to her usual beta-testing and editing, also AUDIO ENGINEERED THE VOICE LINES IN THIS GAME. ALL OF THEM. SHE IS MY HERO.

So GO PLAY HER GAMES!!!!! AND ESPECIALLY MY HUSBAND IS A STRANGER WHO HAS RECENTLY BEEN RELEASED FOR OTOME JAM OR ELSE 

Anyway, let’s get back to NaNoRenO uwu

So basically, I was quite anxious at the idea of participating in NaNoRenO because of one little detail…

Let’s say that last year NaNoRenO was rather… DRAMATIC LMAOOO, I’m sorry, but between players patronising devs, low-rating bombing of top entries, and that ONE game my dev fellows and I all have in mind, no, for real, it was exhausting rumpus good lord 💀💀💀💀💀

So, I wasn’t sure I wanted to participate to NaNoRenO this year, because really, it was crazy last year, and not the good king of crazy dfvfdfgf So, let’s say this NaNoRenO was my last chance: if everything went smoothly, I would still consider participating in 2026; if not, I would bow out.

And well…

…

……….

……………

THIS JAM WENT NORMALLY OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH

So yeah, overall, NaNoRenO 2025, despite the stress and the crunching, was a VERY positive experience, as fun as it was in 2023!! So hurray!

So, unless something tragic happens (like me not having time…. yeah, not a very phaedra-esque definition of tragedy), I will participate next year! NaNoRenO is a jam I really hold dear, so I would have been sad to give up on it, but I mean, if making games for it is not fun, then it’s not worth it…

The Dragon Princess: Origin Story

Now, let’s focus on the actual game, The Dragon Princess. What made me want to make it?

Well, last fall, I saw a comic in which a princess trapped in a tower, if I remember correctly, used a bow and arrows to shoot at the knights trying to save her. A spark shed light on the borders of the void that is my brain: “what if I made a story about a princess who doesn’t want to be saved by a knight and would rather stay locked in the tower? why though?”

I immediately thought of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Without getting into detail, it is a major book in the history of feminism, and Woolf’s thesis is, long story short: “Women need to have a room of their own to become authors, so that they can focus on their writing.” Of course, this thesis can be extended: overall, allowing women to have time for themselves, out of the manacles of patriarchy and the roles unfairly assigned to them, allows them to grow as individuals, and not only as “wives” or “mothers.”

So, that was my idea: the princess just had to need time for herself, to grow in some sense as an individual. So then I committed to the spoilery details of the plot, but that was my basic idea: Princess Amaia is engaged with a man she hates, because he wants to possess her. Amaia, in a moment of vulnerability, would whisper a wish to escape from his grasp: that’s when a dragon would kidnap her and give her a tower of her own, to help Amaia leave the shackles of this toxic relationship.

So that’s how I came to have the idea for The Dragon Princess! Now, I’d like to share my thoughts about the game to you, but please, take note of the following: this will be spoilery, so if you haven’t played the game yet………. maybe you should please

The Dragon Princess: my thoughts

I won’t even pretend to be mysterious about that: The Dragon Princess is one of my favourite games of mine, I genuinely ADORE it so much; perhaps even my second favourite, after High School Lolita?? Like, it opened my eyes to what I truly want to do as a dev, but we’ll talk about this later.

Obviously, a reason I love this game is because so many talented people contributed to it: it was the first time I worked with so many different voice actors on the same project, and it was so fun!! And the result is so good, because, gosh, they are all so talented, and they all nailed their part!!

Now, regarding the game itself, I am very happy with Amaia’s character arc… especially considering that, at first, the game had a very different ending. Basically, the climax was quite similar: Caleb and Azaiah get to the tower, Caleb kills Happho, tries to comfort Amaia, learns the truth about her fear of Azaiah, decides to protect her, but is eventually slain by Azaiah; Amaia, categorically refusing to go back to this monster, throws herself out the window… and then she DIED

Just like that

In my mind, the reason was simple: basically, Amaia’s character arc consisted in having her grow enough to be strict with her decisions and to not wilter or give in. Therefore, her “suicide” was a way for her to impose her refusal to Azaiah, who was in love with her in previous versions of the story (to be honest, he was still in love with her when I posted the casting call for the game, only later did I realise Azaiah would be more interesting if he weren’t).

In reality, this had one problem: a tragic ending would not fit the game. If you guys know my work, you know I am a SUCKER for tragedies, like, my favourite media of all time is a French tragedy from the 17th century. But that doesn’t mean every story has to be one (yeah i know crazy stuff)

What the game narrates is how Amaia, thanks to support, a space of her own, and time, manages to overcome the traumatism Vasserelli’s murder has caused her, and to find the strength to tell Azaiah off. She knows the relationship she’s in is toxic, but she doesn’t have the strength to oppose and get out, because the only time she did confront Azaiah, it led to the death of someone she held dearly. So, the natural culmination of her story would be to have her leave Azaiah and be on her own, not just to flee him. And so, that’s the moment I thought of murder as a solution to all of Amaia’s problems

Naturally, the death of Azaiah, if anything, is symbolic: it portrays Amaia breaking free from her toxic relationship with the newfound strength she managed to find under Happho’s protection.

Another thing I wanted to tackle was of course TOXIC MASCULINITY.

*alexa play alpha male music with ai voiceover on some random alphatruththathurts tiktok account or something idk i’d certainly be an omega in an mpreg universe anyway*

The most obvious representation of this is good old Azaiah, who literally and explicitly wants to own Amaia, as if she was a property he could use to his own glory, rather than an individual. He’s the extreme embodiment of toxic masculinity, the one that is actively dangerous.

Azaiah also has a lot of qualities a virile man should have: he’s strong, brave and ambitious, a born leader wanting to improve the country he is meant to reign over. He holds himself to very high standards when it comes to being a paragon of masculinity, and he needs one thing to be a complete man: to be married and to have an heir.

As you guys must have noticed, Azaiah’s interest for Amaia or marriage isn’t genuine. It used to be though. In the casting call I did for the game, one of Azaiah’s lines was: “I love her. So she belongs to me. Is it clear, Caleb?”, so, very different from the character I ultimately put in the game, able to tell Amaia that he doesn’t love her, doesn’t expect her to love him, but still expects… her submission. And I think you guys can see what justified the shift from a yandere-ish villain to what Azaiah eventually became. I didn’t want the game to focus on a twisted romance, but to tackle themes regarding oppression and control in relationships between men and women. Truth be told, and I’m sorry for my own community, Azaiah is certainly asexual.

YES I KNOW I AM SORRY, I FAILED YOU ACE COMMUNITY!!!!!! But I’m a dev with a lot of ace representation anyway, so you know what!!!!!!!!! I’ll own it!!!!!!! I AM FREE!!!!!!!

The idea was to subject Azaiah to expectations that don’t suit him, but yet, are natural to patriarchy: he has to become a father, raising sons to keep things in order (namely, to perpetuate oppression). And he’s ready to embrace the stereotypical role that is expected of him, without the nuances the other characters display: he wants to raise strong sons and protect his family (that’s actually the reason he wants to save Amaia, as he could marry anyone else, especially since Horacio seems willing to let Azaiah reign over Steinna anyway: Azaiah feels like he failed at protecting Amaia, his bride, and therefore, failed at being a strong enough man). That leads him to have similar expectations towards his wife-to-be: he therefore expects her to be devoted to the hero he’s bound to become, to withdraw herself to let him shine, and to be respectful and submissive. So now, this raises the question: why did Azaiah have Vasserelli murdered?

In his original concept, simple answer: he was another man whose company Amaia enjoyed, and since Azaiah was more yandere-ish, he just got rid of a rival. In the current game, his motivations are different: more than Vasserelli, of whom he doesn’t care about, Azaiah wants to punish Amaia for failing to be an obedient wife, then he, on the other hand, works so hard on being the perfect husband (needless to say, in his twisted perspective). And more than punishing, he wants to get rid of the one thing Amaia has outside him or her responsibilities, the one thing that is hers: her music.

So, overall, he is tragically blinded by the unbearable expectations of a system he yet supports more than anyone, which leads him to become a very dangerous man, and, I thought, a tailored antagonist for this sort of story. And if you want a fun fact, the CG of Azaiah’s death, (his burnt hand) is referenced from the shot of Snow-White’s hand in the eponymous Disney film after she bites the apple. I did like how it contributed to the whole “fairy tale subversion” thing going on in the game.

But of course, toxic masculinity manifests in more various ways than truly evil men, and that’s why the two other main male characters are for.

After all, if Amaia is rushed into a marriage with a strong, that’s because of a very specific someone: her father, who doesn’t let her have a say in her own marriage. Not that he consciously does so: but he has normalised that a woman doesn’t choose her husband and raised Amaia to think similarly, and to keep for herself how frightened she is of Azaiah. Horacio is moreover seduced by the young prince’s masculine qualities, without even realising how little he cares about Amaia. But also, he forces his own trauma onto Amaia: he wants her to marry a “strong” man, so that she can be protected… Indeed, Horacio’s wife and Amaia’s mother died, which led him to think he failed to protect her. So he decided his daughter needed a man who would shake earth and heavens to protect her, a man nobody would dare to defy. Basically, encouraging, at his scale, and in his own way, toxic masculinity. The hypocrisy even runs deeper: he wants Amaia to marry Azaiah so that she is protected; and yet, the moment she gets kidnapped, he refuses to let Azaiah save her, ultimately marking the shift: what Azaiah represents is more important than what he actually is to Amaia.

Caleb was also an interesting character, as he is indeed much less toxic: he is more sensitive, caring, and for once, genuinely cares about Amaia’s well-being. The contrast is speaking: while Azaiah wants to save Amaia because her being kidnapped signifies his failure as a husband, and therefore a man, Caleb wants to save her because he cares deeply about her. He was meant to display a less obvious version of toxic masculinity. After all, Caleb doesn’t even give into any dick fight with Azaiah. As the skibidi-rizzler gen alpha young’uns would say, Caleb is somehow ✨woke.✨ Well, to be honest, not really, considering he doesn’t deeply question the system he’s in. He just happens to be a nice guy… who yet fails to try to understand dynamics, and if he supports Amaia, he doesn’t conceptualise her oppression. The epitome of this is obviously his confession: to him, it’s a sweet moment, he almost gives in to the fairy tale stereotype of the knight saving the princess and therefore getting her love. Amaia, however, calls him out: that’s something that was important to me. To make sure Caleb, if he wasn’t a monster like Azaiah, wasn’t an angel either, as I wanted to show toxic masculinity doesn’t just manifest in horrible men, but in every man. Also, I wanted to highlight that the presence of toxic masculinity doesn’t make a man bad: however, embracing it fully, without questioning it, at the cost of the lives of the women around you (or not), and allowing it to turn you into an abuser like Azaiah: this is what makes you bad.

Another important character of this story is obviously Happho: an older figure, she is obviously meant to be a guide to Amaia. In particular, she is meant to teach her something important, and that was a topic I wanted to tackle: some fights require to fight… OKAY I SOUND STUPID PHRASING IT THAT WAY BUT I SWEAR IT’S MORE CLEVER IN GAME-

Basically, I read some people claim that some feminists were “doing their cause a disservice” for frustrating the ego of some men; that somehow, it was okay to fight for women’s rights, but that you had to do it in a way that wouldn’t vex men; or that feminism used to be valid in the past, but nowadays, the causes and the methods are too extreme. Words often pronounced by men who don’t seem to know the suffragettes had a bombing and arson campaign.

So, Happho is also an answer to that: when oppression tries to bring you down, to prevent you from fighting for your rights, you have to fight back, without caring about having a “clean fight”, because any sort of rebellion will never be “clean” to an oppressor. Instead, this whole concept is a tool used by them to keep their oppression.

Happho also embodies something important: the transmission of fights. The idea, with her paving the path to Amaia’s freedom, was to illustrate how feminist fights are a legacy, once more trying to contradict the argument of “back in the days, feminism was fine, but nowadays, it’s too much.”

This leads us to the conclusion of the game, and I won’t lie, I truly ADORE the climax, certainly my favourite out of all my games by far. If High School Lolita overall is my favourite visual novel of mine, I don’t think its climax holds a candle to The Dragon Princess’s, and I do love the climax of HSL (especially in the more “independent” ending of HSL). To be honest, The Dragon Princess is my longest kinetic novel, so it makes sense that the climax builds better on the rest of the game, since the story only needs to prepare one ending.

I guess something quite significant in the climax is Amaia’s transformation into a dragon who, just like Happho, has a mission to follow. However, not the same: if anything, her mission is closer to the one Vasserelli, her piano instructor, had: to allow young girls to make dreams come true. It allowed Amaia to carry Happho’s legacy in a more personal way, instead of just becoming a “copy” of Happho: the dragon didn’t turn the princess into her, but into her true self.

Finally, this game was meant to be a nod to my previous NanoRenO entries: The Life I Lost, High School Lolita et Rendez-Doug.

Just like The Life I Lost, The Dragon Princess is a kinetic novel narrating how a character processes grief. Ultimately, I won’t detail too much not to spoil The Life I Lost, but if you played the game, I think pointing that out makes it obvious haha.

Amaia’s character arc is somehow similar to Sandra, admittedly, in a darker way: both feel estranged from their art (Sandra, due to her burning out and impostor syndrome; for Amaia, due to the association of piano to Vasserelli’s murder); and somehow, the solution is to spend time away from everything, and just have simple moments to reconnect with yourself: to some extent, I guess Happho is Amaia’s Doug????? But more charismatic????? And not romantic???????????

But I think this game is a more obvious tribute to the place of High School Lolita: not only do they share a lot of themes or moments (toxic relationship in which the heroine is trapped, subversion of genre (for HSL, teacher/student romance; for The Dragon Princess, obviously fairy tales), dramatic death of the abuser…), but HSL has inspired the GUI of The Dragon Princess, as you can tell with the change in colours and the crayon texture that was brought out. For those who never played it, basically, in HSL, the GUI can change depending on how dramatic or dark the moment is, which serves as a narration tool. This idea was reused in The Dragon Princess!

(standard HSL GUI)

(edgy version of the GUI)

Which must remind you of the three GUIs of The Dragon Princess:

(standard TDP GUI)

(dark GUI)

(simp GUI)

Overall, I’m glad I could reuse this idea in an appropriate way, and with better execution!

And that’s it for this LONG-awaited devlog, I’m sorry it took 3 months looool, but I’ve been busy. I hope however that it was still an interesting read!

See you later for very near devlogs (one Chim Issue, and finally, A WOTF DEVLOG because OH BOY DO I HAVE THINGS TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT LMAOOOO)