Burn the Midnight Oil
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Will you resist — or embrace — the darkness within?
A supernatural neon-noir romance visual novel about monsters, love, and other horrors.
It's the 80s. Supernaturals flock to the neon-soaked streets of North Haven, where they hide in plain sight amongst the ceaseless nightlife.
Playing as the flirtatious vampire detective Circe or the brash hellhound cop Dante, you must solve cases that threaten to unveil dangerous secrets from our protagonists' own pasts. Investigate murders and vampire conspiracies with Circe or hunt down the source of a deadly magic drug with Dante! Perhaps they might even find love, but beware— some of our love interests may be more monstrous than others.
Play the Kickstarter demo now!
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Burn the Midnight Oil features six romanceable characters. Abraxas, Edgar, and Nocturne are exclusive to Circe. Zeno, Raoul, and Iridis are exclusive to Dante.
✦ TWO PROTAGONISTS - PLAY AS CIRCE OR DANTE
Choose between two protagonists (Circe and Dante) at the start of each playthrough and explore different sides of North Haven.
✦ SIX ROMANCE ROUTES
Romance Abraxas, Edgar, and Nocturne as Circe or Iridis, Raoul, and Zeno as Dante. Each route covers over 70,000 words!
✦ MULTIPLE ENDINGS
Each route has three to five main endings, plus additional bad endings which may cut the story short. Happy endings don't come easy in North Haven, so it's up to you and the choices you make whether our protagonists find love or doom waiting for them at the end of the night.
✦ DOZENS OF GLOSSARY TERMS
Unlock important terms, names, and interesting lore tidbits as you play through the game! Can you collect them all?
✦ ORIGINAL CHARACTER ART
Dozens of gorgeous sprites and illustrations to accompany the story! The full game will have a CG Gallery to help you keep track of all the special illustrations.
✦ ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK BY BELL KALENGAR
The full game will feature over 20 original music tracks, bringing the world of Burn the Midnight Oil to life!
Want to stay up to date on Burn the Midnight Oil's development?
Check out our Kickstarter page to late pledge!
Follow our socials for frequent updates!
If you liked the demo, please fill out our demo feedback survey!
Check out our previous visual novel: Trouble Comes Twice
⚠ Content Warning ⚠
We recommend Burn the Midnight Oil for ages 17 and up. Specific warnings for the demo include but are not limited to: depictions of addiction, body horror, violence, strong language, alcohol and drug references, suggestive content, and references to (past) toxic relationship dynamics.
Detailed content warnings for each route will be available in the full game.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Less than 48 hrs left on Kickstarter‼️11 days ago
- It's the Final Countdown (61% funded)16 days ago
- Halfway Funded (15 days to go)‼️25 days ago
- 43% funded + 21 days to go on Kickstarter!30 days ago
- KS DEMO + KICKSTARTER IS LIVE! 🦇❤️🔥39 days ago
- Burn the Midnight Oil is coming to Kickstarter on March 23rd60 days ago
Comments
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Are you guys ever going to make the game available to Android?
when is the full game g0ing t0 c0me 0ut?
The goal is late 2028/early 2029!
alright thank you and good luck! XP
is the full game going to be free? just found out about it today
^^No, sorry! There's way too much in this game (and way too many people who need to be paid) for us to release this for free. 😭 However, the final extended demo is going to have the first chapter (out of 5) of every romance route! So it'll be a looooong demo, at least.
Kk thanks
Another "diverse" amare game with 5 dudes and 1 woman I guess
I’ve only tried Dante’s route so far, but I was a bit surprised by what I saw on the official website. Circe’s route has two male characters and one female character as romance options, while Dante’s route has three male characters. I originally expected the distribution to be a bit more balanced. (No ill intent here, I’m already debating whether to pair Dante with Raoul or Iridis, I’m just curious about the reasoning behind this choice.)
By the way, I really like the art style of this game. Handling this many illustrations without using AI must have taken a lot of effort.
Looking forward to the full release :)
The proportion of male LIs compared to female LIs definitely feels like a choice
Hi! There's several reasons but ultimately, we just like trying different combinations and this is sort of just what we ended up with for this game (though we understand if that's not a satisfying answer for everyone).
BTMO was originally a side project that ended up becoming our main project after we put our other visual novel on temporary hiatus. Our other VN would have had more evenly distributed LI genders (including multiple yuri routes potentially if we did our side romances the way we initially had planned) and only a single MxM route, which is part of the reason why we did BL-only for Dante's routes in BTMO, thinking we were going to be working on these two VNs at the same time.
Our previous visual novel TCT had 2 fem LIs and 2 male LIs (equal) and one of our other vn ideas we've been brainstorming is also likely going to have an equal amount. We have other amare game ideas with more nonbinary romances, and we even have yuri game ideas! BTMO is just a single game we're working on, and we're not fitting every idea or romantic pairing that we enjoy into it. However, we don't want people to think we haven't heard the feedback and we're going to take this stuff into consideration when planning future games.
If we ever do end up adding more romance options to BTMO (it's not financially feasible for us right now without cutting content from the current LIs), I personally would love to do a free update with another fem romance option for Circe. (In fact, I can think of at least two characters I'd pair her with, though their routes would require some work to fit the main story.) We've only just started working on BTMO's base game now though, so we've got to finish that before we think abt DLCs or anything else.
Im so glad it got the funding it deserves!!!
Congrats on reaching the kickstarter goal!!
i need dante and raoul to smooch each other on the lips rn
hi hi ! i came across this vn while perusing through the channels in the andromeda six discord server and immediantly fell in love w dante's design + the game as a whole, so i hopped on the demo and its so good that i ended up yoinking the digital game tier + 2 add-ons, im fr crossing my fingers that y'all hit the goal and this absolutely banger game gets the moolah it deservesss rahhh
Hii I just pledged, and I truly hope you reach the goal!!
Maybe this is a dumb question but for the kickstarter is each shipping cost stacked on top of eachother if i keep adding more charms? Like i would assume it would stay 10-17 but everytime i add another charm the price goes up.
Not a dumb question! We made a mistake when setting up shipping costs, so please ignore whatever estimate Kickstarter gives you and use the estimate we put on our main page as your reference. Based on that, unless your package somehow exceeds 1kg, the maximum anyone should pay for shipping would be 20 euros.
Haven't even played the Circe route yet but I backed and I really need this game to be made. The 80s neon vibe is so good. I want to play this alongside my partner! She's mostly sapphic, i'm mostly achillean (we make it work lol), we love playing different romantic routes in games in the same room. :)
this is the best thing ever. the amount of differences depending on which protagonist you choose, the details of their personalities, the routes, the art, the ambiance, EVERYTHING about this is right up my alley. i NEED to see this full game one day!!! def will be donating. oh my god.
thank you for your support :) We're so glad you enjoyed the demo!!!
I haven't been this interested in a game in years. I cannot tell you how happy I am to play asa black FMC, and a vampire at that! I adore Circe, and her LIs are so interesting - we have very similar tastes and I looove Edgar already. The intrigue is fascinating and the mystery well-written, and the art is GORGEOUS. This has the potential of becoming the next Red Embrace Hollywood, if not better. Great, great work guys, really rooting for you!!
thank you, this comment is really really kind 💖
RAAAHHH I WANNA PLAY AS THE GIRL BUT DANTE IS SO FINE HHHHHHHHHH GONNADOWNLOADTHISNOWOKAYBYEEEE
This game is absolutely phenomenal, I pray it gets the funding it needs to come into fruition. I love all the characters and became incredibly hyperfixated to it. Everything was given in perfect palatable chunks and the art style is beautiful.
This is my first ever review/comment on itch.io so I aplogise if it is too much. I am in awe of this game and wish to see more.
Thank you so much for this game! It's beautiful. Is there any chance it will be available in Spanish? How do I support it on Kickstarter? I don't quite understand, so I'd appreciate it if you could explain the process.
Hello! For now, we don't have the budget/resources to consider translating the project.
As for the Kickstarter, it's a type of crowdfunding site, where you create an account and choose one of the available reward tiers (each one lists the cost in EUR + what rewards you get e.g. the game upon release, physical merch, digital artbook etc). You'll only be charged after the Kickstarter ends on April 22nd and only if our funding goal is met.
just donated to the kickstarter! the demo was so fun and engaging, excited to see where this project goes
We just posted an update but here's your reminder (for anyone browsing the comments) that our Kickstarter only has 7 more days to go and still needs 39% to meet our funding goal!
If you had a fun time playing the demo, even just backing the campaign at one of our lowest tiers can make a huge difference for our chances of getting funded.
And even if it doesn't work out, we're no less grateful for the love and the positive reception so far to BTMO. We'll make the game happen one way or another, even if it needs to be delayed/content has to be cut (for now)! 🖤🦇
Guys, please donate to the kickstarter if you can!! There's only a week left for the game to get fully funded :0 plus backers get super cool rewards n stuff the more money they pledge!! Gogogo!!!!
got all excited to romance abraxas as dante just to find out the routes are character locked. Egg on my face!
SO REAL OH MY DAYS ME WITH CIRCE AND ZENO
IM SO SAD ABOUT RAOUL i just want to be a black woman and be able to romance a BIPOC man :(
Hello :3, is there a chance that we can download it on android?
We're trying to get the base game funded and finished first!
After that's out, we'll consider ports and dlcs and all those things later :)
just finished Dante's route and OH MY GOD.
character design, world building, setting, music, art, just this whole thing as a concept is SCRUMPTIOUS, I absolutely love love love and admire how spectacularly well done this is made.
I really did feel like I was inside the story, in this short time i got attached to the characters and i feel like the glossary was an amazing addition.
This is looking so so good, I will be adding it to my wishlist on steam and supporting on kickstarter as soon as i can
Hope you reach your goal, really looking forward to the full release!!! :)
what ive played so far is wonderful!! please support them on kickstarter<3
Love the story, characters, and setting! The art and music are also wonderful! I made sure to support the Kickstarter; looking forward to seeing it fully funded!
Great game, I love the setting and the character designs, Especially Dante 🔥💘. Hope your Kickstarter reaches its goal. :D
I'll set a reminder for later to check in on Kickstarter as I've seen too many good things die close to their goal, I recommend any one else interested in donating do the same so we can push this over. 💗
Hey, love the concept! I'm a PT-BR translator and would love to help bring this to Brazilian players, I can do it for free as I want to expand my portfolio, no pressure. pedroberggg@gmail.com if you want to reach out🎴
Show post...
good
the world building they give you in the demo is just enough to get me sooo invested, loved it!
SPECTACULAR art design! Really looking forward to full release!
This is sooooo good :D Fingers crossed for you to go super big with your game
Yup. You've convinced me! See you in Kickstarter page!
see you!! :D
absolutely amazing demo!! the character art is insane the designs are absolutely full of personality! It's very interesting to see the different sides through Circe and Dante, can't wait to see more :D
AMAZING GAME ! Please be sure to support them on Kickstarter <3
I wanna keep the comments coming to make sure we get this funded! Looking forward to seeing this mystery unfolding and the monster fights I'm sure will be there!
the demo is so so good! I would die for Alice
usually I don't comment cause I just play the games and that's that, and I usually play games that you pick the name or appearance and such of the protagonist. So i'm glad I decided to give this game a try, will definitely donate to the kickstarter as I want this game to have its funding. As for the protags, having one of each gender is amazing, and the fact you need to play both of them for all routes too, I recommend to anyone reading this and debating if they should play or not to play it, its enjoyable. And if you want to play the full game definitely donate to help fund this. Dante and Raoul have my heart already. :)