GIVE/TAKE: An 18+ Otome Game Kickstarter Is Live + Dee Odd Games Interview!

a visual novel full of thirsty vampire boys

Dee Odd Games, the dev of Bunny Bond, has launched a Kickstarter for their new Otome game, GIVE/TAKE!

Table of Contents:

About the Kickstarter

Get ready to sink your teeth into a steamy tale of mystery and romance!

GIVE/TAKE is an upcoming otome game that aims to titillate your brain and tantalize your heart. With 5 main love interests, 4 main routes, an estimated wordcount of at least 80k, and a menagerie of desires catered to, GIVE/TAKE promises a wickedly good time!

PLEASE NOTE: Designs, assets, and story are not final and are subject to change. The demo contains fictional depictions of blood, injury, and drugging. The full game will contain similar dark, heavy, and adult themes. It is intended for +18 audiences only.

The Kickstarter runs until: Wed, July 29 2026 12:16 PM EDT and has a goal of $9,000 (USD) with stretch goals!

Kickstarter

About the Game

Vera’s quaint life is shattered in an instant when she’s selected as a marriage candidate for the king. Wait, and evidently vampires are real too? And who’s the weird floating dream dog? What the hell is going on here!?

Follow Vera as she’s forced to spend 12 days aboard a ship with a group of thirsty vampires. Will she give nobility training a try or take the chance to escape? Is it safe to give into the whims of a needy vampire, or should she take the reins instead? Explore the different choices to see all the different endings!

Demo is available for play! Runtime is about less than an hour

itch.io demo

Release & Features

Release Date: between mid 2027 and early 2028
5 love interests, 4 routes (one route includes a poly relationship)
80k words
a menagerie of desires catered to
a wickedly good time!

The Love Interests

Screenshots

Interview

Please note that the interview does talk a little bit about the game and what is available in the demo.

JeminiJess

Hi Dee, thank you for joining us in the interview today. My name is JeminiJess and I’m joined by Foxxelle, Abubis, and Celtic7Guardian. We are members of the Otome Lovers Curation team.
Would you like to start off with introducing yourself for us and the readers?

Dee Odd Games

Hey, I’m Dee! I’m an indie game maker.
I’ve officially made two games so far: the chat-based erotic otome, ‘BUNNY BOND’, and the monster girl eroge, ‘Part of My Heart’.

Celtic7Guardian

Two full games! That’s impressive! How long have you been working on VNs?

Dee

I technically got started in 2018, when I directed a visual novel fangame just for fun. Then during Covid, my job moved to a remote capacity, which gave me more time to focus on creating, especially original stories. I’ve always been active in fandom spaces, but had never tried releasing something solely my own. I began work on BUNNY BOND in 2021, and haven’t stopped since.

Abubis

I’m curious to know, what was the hardest thing about getting started with VN creation?

Dee

The promotion, for sure. For me, writing is second nature. I was making Goosebumps fanfiction before I even hit double digits. I love planning and organizing things too– I’ve run over a dozen fan projects over the years. But maintaining social media accounts is my kryptonite. I’m bad at it.

Foxxelle

This sounds like you have a well structured method for creating a game. Could you tell us how you go about developing a game to completion from the initial seed of an idea?

Dee

Usually, the ideas come to me and I begin structuring from there. There’s a lot of time where it just brews in my head; the characters, the narrative beats. Then, once I have a solid draft of the idea, I start putting my feelers out for artists that align with my vision. From there, it’s a lot of scheduling, meeting, and organizing.
I’m having to try a different sort of structure with my current game, though. The idea for an erotic vampire game has been sitting in my head for a few years now, but I only started really fleshing out the story last month.

Abubis

Are there any hurdles you have encountered with aspects of the given development itself?
And if so, how did you tackle the issues to make the work flow easier?

Dee

Each game presents different challenges. For BUNNY BOND, I was able to secure funding, but time was my enemy. My work/life balance was completely out of whack for a year. Part of My Heart was the opposite; it was a light-hearted game so it was far less time-intensive, but funding was unsuccessful so I had to pay for everything out of pocket.
Money and time being the big struggles, a tale as old as, well, time LOL

Celtic7Guardian

And one that’s sure to continue!
Let’s talk a bit about your new game. How many people are working on it? Do you have a full team for different tasks, or a few people working on many things?

Dee

I started production on this game pretty abruptly last month, so the team’s pretty small right now. The head character artist, musician, and background artist have been secured. I’ve also got an amazing all-rounder friend who has been helping with background sketches and Kickstarter merch, and who will also be helping with writing (shoutout to Taya!)
I’ve also been working on learning Ren’Py with the hopes of programming most of the game myself this time. It’s a little daunting, but exciting.

Abubis

Do you have any direct inspiration from other Otome games, or even other media? If so, which ones, and what would you say those inspirations have influenced in your games?

Dee

I’m constantly inspired by other stories and creators. BUNNY BOND’s chat concept was inspired by the daily text feature in ‘Obey Me!’, for example (not Mystic Messenger, as I’ve seen some people suspect. When that game hit the market, I didn’t have a phone capable of running it, so I missed out on the hype).
This current game is a love letter to vampires in various forms of media. It’s something I’ve always been obsessed with. Each character is based around at least two famous vampires from movies, shows, and books. It made the designs a lot of fun to come up with. I think some of the references are pretty overt. I’m curious if people will be able to pick them all apart.

JeminiJess

Vampires are always a fun choice in all sorts of media. We’re excited to see if we can tell which vampires you got your idea from.
How did you approach designing the game’s story and characters? What emotions or experiences did you want players to feel as they progress through the game?

Dee

I love working with an overarching theme that informs the story. For BUNNY BOND, the theme was loneliness. For Part of My Heart, it was change.
For this game, the theme is grief. A pretty heavy topic for a smut game, I know. Though grief plays a pivotal role in each character’s story, there’s still an overall message of hope and love. I’m a romantic, after all.
But I’m a porn writer, first and foremost. So overall, I just hope to make the players feel horny. If I can get them a little in the feelings while I’m at it, though, that would be cool.

Foxxelle

I think we’ll run with the term “romantic fiction” 😊
Thank you for supplying the team with an early demo of the new game, Give/Take, to view prior to conducting this interview.
Could you tell us how large you expect the project to become, perhaps in terms of expected playing time, or number of chapters?

Dee

The game takes place over 13 days (give or take a few days, depending on your ending). BUNNY BOND had a similar structure: a set amount of time to reach an end. I’m a sucker for that sort of format, and wanted to give it another crack, but with some adjustments. There’s only 4 main routes this time around, and choices that really matter. It’s hard to guess a playtime so early in development, but I can say that each route will definitely be over an hour, at the very least.

Celtic7Guardian

Will the routes be in any order you want, or are some locked by doing other routes first?

Dee

All the routes will be available from the beginning. I’ve toyed with the idea of locking away some endings until certain criteria is met, but I kind of like the more chaotic “Hey, what the hell just happened?!” sort of endings, where you immediately want to jump to the next route to see if you get some answers there.

Celtic7Guardian

I feel there aren’t as many Otome that let you go in any order you want, so I think that’s a fun way to do it!

JeminiJess

I’m curious about the route you ended up taking with the game in terms of the choices players can choose.
The Give/Take choice system stands out from the traditional dialogue and morality systems seen in many games. What was the inspiration behind this design, and what kinds of player experiences were you hoping to create through it?

Dee

I wanted to do something that would be challenging and fun, and I gotta say, I adore a good gimmick. I feel that constraints often make things more interesting, both for the creator and the player. Already, I’ve found myself writing options I normally wouldn’t have, just to make it fit into the “Give” or “Take” format.
There’s a scene in “The Wolf Among Us” where the player has a vague option to “Glass him” and ends up smashing a glass in someone’s face. I think that this format will give way to some “Glass him” moments too, which will be a fun time for all involved.

JeminiJess

It’s always a good time when a game stands out for doing something unique/different from similar games in the same genre.
The next few questions I pop in and ask are going to be more specific towards the demo. I’m not sure what you can answer in regards to them so of course let us know what you can answer or are comfortable sharing. I know a lot of these will be answered in the full game, but I’m super curious now.
Could you explain how Bloodletting works in the game’s lore? I’m curious whether everyone is eligible and why some characters seem to undergo it at different ages or times. What makes someone eligible?

Dee

Bloodletting is a bit like jury duty. Once a human hits 21, they are put into a pool of everyone else who is eligible, and every month a few people are randomly selected to give blood. The more ethical of the vampires harvest blood this way. Essentially, the island of Aiya where the MC, Vera, lives is just a free-range farm.
All citizens give blood periodically through their lives before the age of 21, to make sure they are healthy and to test for traces of divine blood.
The Selection Ceremony is a rarity, only happening every 60 or so years, when the Lord of the Realm needs a new human partner. People between 21-30 are eligible.

Celtic7Guardian

What a cool idea! I’ve thought about having a vampire story with required blood-giving but I never thought of it being like jury duty, that’s neat!

JeminiJess

So those that do the Bloodletting and know that they have the divine blood, then train to be selected in the town process and go on to the royal selection? Silky, the MC’s friend from the village, mentions that they have trained for this moment.

Dee

That’s correct! Silky was born with a small trace of divine blood, so the townspeople of Aiya knew that she might be a candidate, especially because the current lady of the realm was quite old.

JeminiJess

That makes sense! Essentially, one person with the most divine blood is chosen from each town and then goes on to the Royal Selection to compete against each other to become the Lord of the Realm’s significant other? Will the selection process be something like a tournament arc?

Dee

I’ll keep the details of the Royal Selection to myself for now…though making all of the humans do an obstacle course while Jack watches from his throne would kinda be amazing

JeminiJess

Haha, that would be quite the entertainment I’m sure!
My next question is in regards to Hyde. The others call him a virgin, while he likes the term vegetarian. It seems that he is able to eat human food while those that aren’t human, cannot. Is this something that will be talked about more throughout the game? I have some assumptions that I can make based on the info given and knowing vampires are involved, but not sure if I’m thinking in the right direction or not. But Hyde being “scared” of Vera while being a vegetarian is probably some sort of correlation.
That’s the gist I’m getting, anyhow.

Dee

That will be addressed in his route, but your gist is definitely pointed in the right direction!

JeminiJess

It’s mentioned that Hyde is the HCC representative.
What exactly is the HCC, and what role does it play in the world and its society?

Dee

HCC stands for “Human Care Commission”. Essentially, it’s like a union rep for humans. they make sure that the humans in that district are cared for to certain standards. Hyde is the HCC rep for Aiya.

Celtic7Guardian

We’ll know it’s a fantasy game if they actually do their job well.

Abubis

I have to randomly add a comment, I thought Hyde was a Jekyll and Hyde reference, but now with the comment of vampire literature, you have me thinking 🤔

Dee

Jekyll and Hyde, though not vampire media, is definitely part of the reference there for him 🙏

Foxxelle

Referring back to your observation about your writing genre, I’d like to steer the conversation towards your previous game for a female audience, Bunny Bond. Three of the team have played it to date and it was a big hit with each of us. The NSFW animations within were a real surprise and felt like a reward for those players who went deep into the game. Are we going to see any comparable treats within Give/Take, or will the new game be entirely SFW?

Dee

That’s crazy flattering to hear! I remember seeing the curator top picks back in 2023, and being absolutely giddy when BUNNY BOND made a few of your lists. It’s insane to think that I’m here doing an interview with you all, three years later.
As for the content of the new game, it’s definitely nsfw like BUNNY BOND. But unlike BB, this game has a defined main character who is going to physically be in the same location as each of the love interests. While this takes away from the “reader insert” aspect, which I’m a huge fan of, doing it like this means I can really dig into the intensity of sex scenes and show everything. It’s going to be a bit more budget-intense, but that also means that there will be a lot of incredibly explicit and kinky scenes. I’m planning to go balls to the wall– figuratively, and perhaps literally.
In my mind, I would love to do something like NU:Carnival’s animated sex scenes. I tried to do that a bit with the sex scenes with POMH, but it proved to be pretty tricky. It really depends on how the funding goes for this game. Animated sex scenes are a stretch goal!

Abubis

A quick slide-in, how has it been in the NSFW scene for Otome? Do you find your games performing better or worse than expected?
I’m a huge enjoyer of NSFW Otome but the market for it is super limited, so it’s exciting to see a great dev focused on NSFW!

Dee

I remember being super shocked when I first announced BUNNY BOND. I’m not super active in any particular scene, so I didn’t know what the Otome gamer landscape was like. But even with it being my first official game and with no demo, I exceeded my Kickstarter goal somehow. It was clear that the people wanted porn, and I was happy to deliver.
I’m still shocked, but now it’s just about the state of the explicit Otome game scene. It definitely exists, but it’s nowhere near the size of male gaze-centered work.

Abubis

I know there are some developers who aren’t keen on branching into NSFW due to limited exposure on Steam etc, so I’m glad BB went so well for you!

Celtic7Guardian

With how difficult it can be to get into the market, that’s impressive!
In terms of having finished two VNs already, I’m sure you’ve learned many things about game creation. What have those works taught you? Are there certain pitfalls you know to avoid now, or improvements you wish to make based on past experiences?
In the vein of previous issues, Bunny Bond had some players frustrated due to glitching achievements. Have you managed to resolve that for Give/Take, or will the game be without achievements?

Dee

I’m so glad you asked this LOL
I’ve definitely learned some tips and tricks when it comes to hiring for projects, and how to structure deadlines in a way that doesn’t put the entire team in a tizzy when something isn’t done on time. My second game was already much smoother than my first, and I hope that upwards trend continues for this project!
Oh, achievements, the bane of my existence. They definitely won’t be making a return. I know that achievement hunters and completionists will be upset by that, but I’m trying to do as much as I can myself, and the backend of Steam is a messy and confusing beast. I’m kissing my problems this time around (keeping it stupid simple).

Abubis

The no achievements choice is honestly valid! Especially in something like a VN, the game itself should always be the priority. Gives you more time to work on what’s really important!

Celtic7Guardian

It helps that your genre is one that I doubt most achievement hunters will prioritize; usually it seems NSFW stuff only matters to them when they have like hundreds of easy ones, LOL.

JeminiJess

I think we are nearing the end of the interview, with only a few wrap-up questions left.
To start, do you have any advice for developers trying to make a game?

Dee

Shut up and do it. That sounds really harsh, but it’s the truth! So many people have so many great ideas and characters and stories, but they stall out on getting started. Stop waiting for the perfect moment, stop doubting yourself, and just start creating. I’ve met so many people that are like, “Wow, I can’t believe you’re doing that, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do!” and I always tell them to just do it. It’s fucking scary, it’s so unbelievably stressful, but also, it’s so incredibly fun and exciting. You just gotta start.

JeminiJess

That’s some solid advice!
Is there anywhere that someone can reach out to you if they have questions, concerns, or feedback?

Dee

I don’t really do social media, but you can always reach me by email! deeoddgames@gmail.com

JeminiJess

Great!
Finally, is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

Dee

This project contains dark and mature themes, including blood, injury, drugging, abuse, death, and similar subject matter. This reflects the primary themes currently planned, but is not exhaustive or set in stone. Additional themes may be added or adjusted during development, though the overall tone will remain serious and emotionally heavy.
Two of the love interests are explicitly and strictly polyamorous. This is why there are 5 love interests, yet only 4 routes.
Also, please note that the main character is fat, and the game’s sexual content includes explicit appreciation of her body and weight. This aspect of her character is intentional and presented positively throughout the story.
Finally, on a personal note, I lost my job to AI last month, after spending 7 years of my life with that particular company. I have an unprecedented amount of freedom on my hands for the first time in almost a decade, and I’ve decided to use it to really hone GIVE/TAKE into the game I want it to be. I really hope that you enjoy it when the time comes.

JeminiJess

I’m sorry to hear that. We’re really excited and looking forward to seeing the success and completion of GIVE/TAKE.
Thank you for your time today! We appreciate you answering our questions and hope that our readers find it informative about all the work that you are putting into the game. We hope that the Kickstarter and game soars into the sky and becomes a huge success!

Celtic7Guardian

Thank you indeed! Best of wishes for the project and we’ll be around to see/help as able!

Foxxelle

I’d like to add my appreciation for the time and the forthcoming nature of your responses, especially not knowing what questions you might be faced with today.

Abubis

I look forward to your kickstarter and I hope it goes well! I’m also INCREDIBLY excited for Give/Take, you’ll always have me as a fan!

Dee

Thank you all!!! I hope you all have a great rest of your day/night. The Kickstarter is currently live! Please check it out!

About the Dev

Dee is an amateur game maker from Kentucky. They primarily focus on eroticism, emotion, and humor in their work.
They released their first official project, BUNNY BOND in 2023. Since then, they have fully released another title (Part of My Heart), co-wrote another (still in production), and have been working on two other projects in their spare time.
Other than game making, they enjoy writing fanfiction and collecting records.

Images on page provided courtesy of Dee Odd Games Press Kit, Kickstarter, itch.io and GIVE/TAKE demo