Nuts: A Dark Romance Game
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Latest version 1.1 now available!
On a day like any other, a shift occurred! Woodland forest inhabitants have become sentient, and the traditional circle of life has been thrown off balance. Woodland animals (like owls and squirrels) and even nuts (hazelnuts, chestnuts, etc.) can think, walk, and talk! The government created a network of biospheres to observe these new sentient, intelligent lifeforms and better understand this phenomenon.
The story follows Hazel (re-nameable), a humble hazelnut. She’s a farmer who enjoys all things nature, but especially loves bird watching, gardening, fishing, and organic local produce. As the main contestant on the Woodland Forest Dating Show, she can choose from 4 available, nutty suitors!
Isn't this all just… nuts?!
- Word Count: 30,000
- Romance Options: 4 Love Interests and 2 Secret Love Interests? 👀
- Endings: 15 Unique Endings - Friendship, Romance, Solo, Bad
- Voice Acting: All Characters Partially Voiced in English
- Illustrations: 7 Unlockable CGs!
- Music: A Mix of Original and Creative Commons Tracks
- Nuts Endings guide
Trigger Warnings / Sensitive Content:
Light sexual content (SFW), hazing (physical body harm), death, implied cannibalism, hunter and hunted dynamic, Mild references of cruelty to animals.
This game would not be possible without an amazing team of creatives.
Director
Producers
Project Management & Marketing
Writers
Editors
Programmers
Art Direction (Special Thanks)
- Shy Den (Itch, Twitter, Instagram)
- Recommended the color palette for overall Art unification.
- Art vision was instrumental and influenced all Art assets (GUI, BGs, Title Screen Art, all Character Design, etc.)
- Shy Den and Kristin / Terra-Essence Dreams (Itch, Twitter, Instagram)
- Instrumental in optimising all Character Design.
- Shiroishi (Website, Twitter)
- Instrumental in overall Character Art unification by giving Sprites and CGs a light overpainting.
- Crying (Twitter)
- Instrumental in overall Character Art unification by managing Sprite Height.
- Gemmy System (Itch, Twitter) & Midge (Itch)
- Instrumental in bringing Lila's creative vision to life through coding.
- Offered suggestions for script/choice optimization.
Character Design and Sprite Artists
Artist | Sketch | Lineart | Color | Shading / Rendering | Light Overpaint |
Shiro | Red Ester Owl Ackerman Coco | Red Ester Owl Ackerman | Red Ester Owl Ackerman | Red Ester Owl Ackerman | Red Ester Owl Ackerman Hazel Peter Coco |
Roka | Hazel Peter Don | Hazel Peter | Hazel Peter | Hazel Peter | |
Crying | Coco | Coco | Coco | Coco | |
Kyle | Don | Don | Don | ||
Kkey | Hazel Coco |
Computer Graphic (CG) Artists
- Crying (Twitter)
- Miana (Twitter)
- Centibel - (Instagram)
- Roka
- Syrae / J.Claudee (Itch)
- Sarah (Instagram)
- Shiroishi (Website, Twitter)
Artist | Sketch | Lineart | Color | Shading / Rendering | Light Overpaint |
Crying | Red Ester Coco | Red Ester Coco | Coco | Coco | |
Miana | Ackerman | Ackerman | Ackerman Ester Red | Ackerman Ester Red | |
Centibel | Owl | Owl | Owl | Owl | |
Roka | Peter | Peter | Peter | Peter | |
Syrae | Don | Don | Don | Don | |
Sarah | Ester | Ester | |||
Shiro | Don |
Background (BG) Artist
- Cara (Website, TikTok) - Main set, Intimate rooms (customised for each character), artistic filter over Adobe stock for Kitchen and Thinking Clouds
- Fox Bread - Adobe Stock images - Kitchen
- tanantornanutra - Adobe Stock images - Light end of tunnel
- Vera NewSib - Adobe Stock images - Thinking clouds
Title Screen Art
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Design
Logo / Marketing Media Design
Voice Actors (VAs)
- Edward Lutz (Website, Twitter, Linktree)
- Voiced Ackerman the Acorn
- Shaun Mendum (Website, Twitter, Instagram)
- Voiced Coco the Coconut
- Mauricio Ortiz-Segura (Twitter, Instagram)
- Voiced Don the Doughnut
- Aife (Website, Twitter)
- Voiced Ester the Chestnut
- Tyanni Mah (Website, Twitter)
- Voiced Hazel the Hazelnut
- Jason Hall (Website, Twitter)
- Voiced O the Owl
- Lily Yasuda (Website, Twitter)
- Voiced Peter the peanut
- Max Herzfeld (Itch, Twitter)
- Voiced Red the Squirrel
Audio Engineer (Composition, SFX, Audio Design)
Composers
- Wander (Bandcamp, Itch)
- Track 1 - Dating show
- Track 4 - Intimate one on one
- Jake Robertson - Track 2 Ester - percussion solo vibraphone melody
- Blair Devereaux - Track 3 Red - Your Bobbin Is In Backwards (Bandcamp, Twitter)
- Eric Matyas - soundimage.org - Track 9 - The Hidden Forest (Owl intro)
- Eric Matyas - soundimage.org - Track 10 - Cranky Monster (Bad end)
- Eric Matyas - soundimage.org - Track 11 - Trouble in the Kingdom (Solo end)
- Eric Matyas - soundimage.org - Track 12 - Sky Game Menu Looping (Credits)
- Zapsplat - Track 5 - A moment forever (Romance ends)
- Zapsplat- Track 8 - Difficult decisions (Hazel conflict)
- Zapsplat- Track 13 - Side Effects (Intro rap song)
Marketing Video Trailer
Voice Direction Support
Voice Casting Director
General Support
- William (Itch, Website)
- Backgrounds
- Joshua (CastingCallClub, Discord)
- Owl’s introduction
- Don (Itch)
- Programming script for custom voiced lines
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Rating | Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars (44 total ratings) |
Authors | Lila, Gemmy, Terra.Essence.Dreams, Midge |
Genre | Visual Novel |
Tags | Dark Fantasy, Dating Sim, Fantasy, Female Protagonist, josei, Meaningful Choices, Multiple Endings, Otome, Romance, Voice Acting |
Download
Install instructions
The app may be flagged as suspicious, but rest assured that it is safe to download on all platforms. For example: Windows > More info (hyperlink) > Run anyway (button). For latest patched version 1.1, choose bottom option Nuts.exe (200.00 KiB), see image.
On Mac, to open the file, please right click/CTRL click on it and open it that way to add the app to your security exceptions, since this build is unsigned. You may need to do this twice.
Development log
- Voiced PronounsAug 06, 2023
- Nuts: How to mute Main Character (MC) Hazel to help self insertersJul 21, 2023
- Updated version of Nuts 1.1 from 19th July 2023Jul 19, 2023
- Who's your favourite portrait & sound effect?Jul 16, 2023
- O the Owl's introducing the premise of the gameJul 02, 2023
- Nuts Endings Guide!Jun 30, 2023
Comments
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hi.
can you pls make the main menu work with self-voicing?
Hi there,
Thank you so much for your feedback.
I apologise that I cannot fulfill your request this time around. Unfortauntely, my project team members have all moved on to other projects, so this game is frozen in time from a development point of view.
I'll take on board your feedback for future games. Because the graphical user interface was all custom made, and we only had 2 months for game development, we only tested the "visual" interaction with the main menu and not the "self voicing" component. For future, I'll ensure all components are appropriately named to enable self voicing to find the text and read it out loud. I'll incorporate self voicing testing to ensure accessibility for my future games.
Would you consider other otome games that may better meet your needs? https://itch.io/jam/otome-jam-2023/entries
Thank you so much for taking the time to feedback.
Wishing you a wonderful day ahead.
Kind regards,
LIla
I loved this game After picking red the first time playing it made me realized that I do indeed have bad taste and always choose the villain essentially. lol I think this game was different in a good way. I loved it so much.
Dear Yourkhaleesi,
Wow! Thanks for your positive feedback. I'm so happy you enjoyed playing Nuts - A Dark Romance game, specifically Red the Squirrel route. Despite him as the bad boy villain, he was a delight to write, his art is just amazing, and the voice actor for this character is incredibly talented.
Sharing some fan art as a token of my appreciation for your time and making my day.
Kind regards
Lila
Hello, I created an account just for this because I'm having touble with the portraits. Specifically Don's and Red's. I downloaded it yesterday and everything in the game works well so far but the portraits aren't displaying well. I was wondering if there was something I could do to fix this.
Thankyou so much for making this game!
Hi Lostsoul07,
Apologies for the delay, work has been crazy busy.
May I please ask a few clarifying questions?
1. Can you confirm which operating system you're using? From the screen shot, looks like Mac?
2. Can you confirm which sections of the game are impacted? Are you seeing this weird three part body split for Red and Don for the whole game, or certain sections?
In the meantime, a couple of suggestions below:
A. Uninstall the game completely.
B. If not already using the app, try using the app: https://itch.io/app.
C. Follow Mac instructions:
On Mac, to open the file, please right click/CTRL click on it and open it that way to add the app to your security exceptions, since this build is unsigned. You may need to do this twice.
D. Failing all the above, review the itch FAQ: https://itch.io/t/305278/help-cant-run-games-on-my-mac#:~:text=A%20lot%20of%20people%20on,system%20is%20just%20blocking%20it.
Also: https://itch.io/docs/itch/integrating/troubleshooting-guide.html.
Good luck!
Lila
p.s. Tried to replicate your experience via Windows PC, but all good for both Red and Don. Let me know how you get on with the suggestions above?Hello, thankyou so much for your reply. Don't worry, I understand being busy and I'm patient. Didn't expect your answer so soon, actually.
I'm using windows 8 and I've dowloaded the postjam version of the game. I took these screenshots in the introdutions, the very beginning of the game, I've not tested it further yet. I do not have the itch.io app.
Because of pc complications I'm forced to download the file from the site on my phone, transfer it to my pc and extract the file there. I will try your suggestions and keep you updated. I've played multiple renpy and VN games but this is the first time I'm seeing something like this.
Thankyou once again for taking your time for this. I appreciate it.
UPDATE: Sorry for the delay. After downloading the game and extracting the files on a family member's computer everything worked well after transfered to mine. Guess there was a problem while extracting it on mine, I think. I'm glad I can finally play this wonderful game now. :) Have a good day/night!
Dear Lostsoul07,
Wonderful news! Sorry you had to resort to family member computer and transferring files over to yours. Sounds painful for you, but I do admire your determination and dedication!
I hope you can now enjoy playing the game! I'd love to hear who's your favourite love interest?
Wishing you a wonderful day ahead.
Kind regards
Lila
Nut a surprise given how many talented people worked in this game but it was an absolute joy to play, the main thing I can say about this game is that it is absolutely hilarious, I usually don't laugh with puns but this game had me giggling all the way to the end. It is an endless parade of puns (Tumbleweed FTW!)
A-nut-er thing worth mentioning is the abundant amount of choices and endings, it really has a lot of replayability, 3 hours was barely half the game (Do nut worry, I'll play the rest by myself!) I didn't fancy any of the suitors but that's more of a personal preference, still all of them were great characters worth exploring both emotionally and
physically.The CG's I managed to get where really beautiful, I definitely will come back for the rest; the game has some interludes that feel a little dragged out but, it is when you get to the conversations with the suitors when it really takes off, specially the ones that get a little sad, spicy or mysterious.
Now, as much as I want to highlight the voice actin, music (I recognized some tracks!) and the character and background art, the thing that takes the cake and also eats it is the writing, god it is G O O D, somehow it managed to fit a billion NUT puns, some poetic rhymes, a horror subplot and romance and still be cohesive. I mean it can still use a little polishing here and there but what doesn't right?
I wish I had more time to play and record all of it, I apologize for that but, I will definitely be finishing it by myself!
Also
1- I hate the Squirrel that I kept calling a fox for some reason, is so creepy!
2-Peter and the Squirrel belong together don't @ me
3-GODLY CHISELED OWLY ABS
4-N U T S
Keep up the nut work!
Dear Hikiyami Moriko,
Wow! Thanks for playing Nuts for 3 hours, that's so epic!
You've got such a great memory too! Blair was cool with re-using soundtrack assets for Red the squirrel as antagonist villain track :).
Sorry you didn't like the suitors, but I'm glad you liked Owl and Ester!
Fair point about the interludes, I'll look to improve in my next game and improve with even more polish.
Agree with you, may there be more godly chiselled Owl abs in the world.
And I'm so happy you liked the tumbleweed :)
Rock on!
Lila
Did a little fanart of my favorite characters from NUTS: A Dark Romance Game, hope you don't mind me posting here!
Dear Hikiyami Moriko,
Oh my goodness, this is the cutest fanart ever!
Look at Hazel the hazelnut in the top right with her farmer hat, you even got her overalls design!
O the Owl in bottom left with his monocle!
And Red the Squirrel in bottom right with his cheeky smile!
Oh, this totally makes my day!
Thank you so much, Hikiyami Moriko, you are the best!
Love, Lila xx.
Will this be for android someday? The game looks so amazing but sadly I have an android😭
Dear AlecNightfall,
Thanks for your question about Android. Unfortunately, the game development team is geared for Personal Computer (PC) deployment, so Mac, Windows and Linux only. Sadly, we're not geared for mobile devices or Android deployment.
However, there are other Otome Jam games I can recommend that do have Android as an option.
Here's some games that are popular for Android:
* Horror romance? Try Karamu.
* Comedy fantasy romance? Try Silhouette.
Otherwise, please consider:
* Check out my Twitter post that credits Notafish for their awesome summary of all 73 games in Otome Jam 2023.
Unfortunately, no call out for Android specific, but if you feel motivated enough, I'd consider "borrowing" a loved one's computer for a night or two or three or the whole week, access your itch account and fully "Go Nuts" with downloads and have the time of your life.
Thanks for your interest in Nuts!
Kindest regards,
Lila
Ohhhhhh lordy.
I do not know where to begin. What a ride that was, truly a unique and wild experience from start to finish.
I could not look away from your gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous characters (O, my beloved - I love your abs! Please don't ever talk about wearing a suit again, what blasphemy!) paired so well with the hilariously punny writing. The poetical opening / character introduction was also such a clever way to introduce the overall gameshow premise - definitely one of the most memorable openings to a VN I've read!
Every aspect is so dynamic from the sprites leaning in from the edges of the screen to the writing to the ENDINGS?? I love how character reactions change at the credits - such a great touch! The VA cast also gave an amazing performance as well, breathing so much life and spirit into the characters with their performance.
There's so much heart and polish put into Nuts - thank you for sharing it! <3
Hi Notafish,
Wow, thank you so much!
Our sprite artists will be thrilled to hear your feedback about gorgeous (x3) characters. I agree with you wholeheartedly - O, the Owl is quite the fine specimen. Originally, I had him as a fluffy, cuddly, but older, wiser owl. It was fun to move away from that direction entirely, and only keep the wings, animal ears, talons and feathers for the "owl". So basically a buff warden man with abs, and wings :).
Our writers and editors did amazing with the puns. I'm delighted you enjoyed the poem opening and character intro. That really warms my heart that it left such a good impression on you.
Props to programmers for the dynamic sprites transitions. And the voice talent did amazing bringing the characters to life!
Wow, your feedback means so much to me and the whole team!
O, the Owl thanks you:
Kind regards,
Lila & the Nuts game development team
Haha I thought owl's rhyming at the beginning was as the wise, six-pack narrator, turns out all the characters like to riff those rhymes.
Children's book-esque rhymes was an interesting choice, found it a bit absurd how everyone just rhymes with each other's words.
LMAO at the owl apologizing for not wearing a suit and love Doughnut's tie. And funny how noooobody is suspicious of the squirrel just waltzing around.
Had trouble figuring out why certain nuts look the way they do esp Ester the chestnut with the leather jacket and pink hair (I think she looks awesome and badass, just trouble associating with the character nut).
I kind of thought I could just choose a path with one character, but I had to meet every nut even the ones I'm not interested in. Everyone is so formal shaking hands! (Some are styled so awesome and peanut looks like a janitor lol) Think the warnings should come optionally in the beginning since it spoils each route and what it would have!
Also admit I cringed a bit at the "this is nuts" "literally" part for being so on the nose XD and soooo many puns on the word nut but all in good fun! The UI of the acorns and leaf having characters' names are such a nice touch.
Hey LittleMissLeeStories,
Thanks for playing Nuts! I'm so happy you enjoyed Owl's introduction about his "attire" and that you noticed Don's tie! The user interface with acorns and leaves was masterfully done by Julian. The writing and editing team had a hoot and a half with the nut puns and jokes, possibly too much fun.
I'm looking into "general" triggers to avoid spoilers. Thanks for highlighting this. Next time I'll optimise the choices better so player preference comes first.
Ester the chestnut's design evolved significantly. Her "spikes", i.e. spiky hair, ear and snake bite piercings, shoulders, jewellery (necklace and ring) are the outer spikes of a chestnut.
Thanks so much for playing!
Lila
Ohh, that's cool to know! I never knew chestnuts had outer spikes haha, would be neat for little fun facts that inspired their designs <3
Haha glad you folks had fun, and oh yeah I totally was hoping owl could be a contestant XD
Greetings, Little Miss Lee Stories,
Ahem, I hear from Lila you were hoping I could be a contestant?
May I share with you a little secret squirrel cheat?
Type your name as "Owlette" and you'll access my route.
Please do let me know if you require any assistance? I'll do my best to swoop in and help you.
Warmest regards,
O the Owl.
🦉👀👀👀👀‼️ omg!!!
Hi there,
Thanks to you, the Trigger warning screen is now much better with "general" triggers upfront, with player option to seek out the specifics per character should they need to. Thanks for highlighting this! All updated in latest patched version 1.1.
Have a good day!
The art is pretty, the premise is fun. It was too dark for me, I was very sad for the other contestants and it soured my happy ending with Ackerman. Good luck~
Hi Phoray, I'm glad you like the art and premise. I'll pass along your feedback to artists, writers and editors! I'm glad you got the happy end with Ackerman. I tried to label "dark romance" in the game title to help manage expectations. Sorry to hear that soured your happy end with Ackerman. Hopefully this endings guide may help lift your spirits? I highly recommend Owl's route to cheer you up! It's a hoot! Thanks for playing!
https://lilalove.itch.io/nuts/devlog/553038/nuts-endings-guide
Kind regards,
Lila.