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!
If you want to see more of Burn the Midnight Oil, please consider supporting our Kickstarter campaign (59% funded and 10 days left!!)
Report bugs/typos/other issues
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 campaign (so we can get the game funded and make more!)
Follow our socials for frequent updates!
If you liked the demo, don't forget to leave us a rating! You can also support the development by checking 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
- Halfway Funded (15 days to go)‼️8 days ago
- 43% funded + 21 days to go on Kickstarter!13 days ago
- KS DEMO + KICKSTARTER IS LIVE! 🦇❤️🔥22 days ago
- Burn the Midnight Oil is coming to Kickstarter on March 23rd43 days ago
Comments
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got all excited to romance abraxas as dante just to find out the routes are character locked. Egg on my face!
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🎴
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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. :)
Will this be available on Android sometime? This looks really cool and something I'm into so I really want to play
We're trying to get the base game funded first! After that's finished, we'll consider ports and dlcs and all those things later :)
Ahh, thank you! Right now I'm saving for a missions trip, but after that I will find a way I can donate. I really do hope y'all are able to come out with an Android version!
Great demo! Absolutely love the character designs and aesthetics, Circe's personality is so good I can't wait to play her full route :D
I searched but couldn't find if the game is available in Brazilian Portuguese. Well, if it isn't, here's my request to the creator to translate the game. The game's concept and plot seem promising.
We’ve received a lot of asks about translation, but as the base game is not yet funded, we are not able to consider translation yet— especially not considering the game’s massive word count. We’ll definitely keep Brazilian Portuguese in mind for future games (with a less hefty word count), however, as it’s been a popular request!
I absolutely love this game!! I (hopefully) will be able to donate on my next payday~~
This is just an idea, but if you don't get to the goal but you do get close, could you try to split the game into two? One for Circe and one for Dante? And then make the second game with funds from the first. But I've never tried to make a game before so I could be totally off about how funding works lol
Thank you! <3 Due to the set up of the game, that’d be very difficult at this point. But if the Kickstarter doesn’t work out, we plan to relaunch the campaign with a smaller goal either by reconsidering the release format and/or cutting a decent chunk of content. We can’t confirm any exact plans yet— besides, we’ve still got fingers crossed we might be able to meet our goal! 🤞
I knew I would be all about Raoul just from one look but the big guard dog protective energy Dante has over him... Plus I get some sub dante vibes from them which is fun dynamic since he's the more physically powerful of them. :P
love it. hopefully this gets funded. will be donating to Kickstarter.
Thank you for your support <3 We hope we’ll get funded too, fingers crossed!!
Wonderful game! I apologise if this has been answered, is the full game with a price? If so, is there an estimate how much it would be? I apologise again if this has been answered!
Hi! The full game, if funded on Kickstarter, will cost either the same as our KS price (approx $25 USD) or sliiightly more.
If our campaign gets funded, we plan to drop the first chapter of everyone’s route in a free extended demo, but the remaining 4 chapters and endings will be in the full paid game. You can read more about this under the ”TIMELINE” on our kickstarter page.
i want Circe she is so beautiful
Wish I wasn't playing as some fuck ass OC
TF is wrong with you, if you are gonna be negative don't say anything, and if you want a self insert vn then play something else
they r all ocs idiot
It's the best part about it honestly. We're not playing as a cookie cutter self-insert with generic personality and background, or an overly special power fantasy insert.
HI;UGFDTSFYGUHGYFLDKSXCVBNJM this looks so fun?? i wanna romance
daddyIridis O_o would pledge if my wallet wasn't dry but </3 pledging in spiritAlso all the characters are so AA!! so cute and squishy <3 normally i dont play female MCs but i gotta play Circe's route
yuri and yaoi 🔥🔥🔥
i approve
i cant wait for the full game :D
Esta super lindo! espero saquen mas del juego pronto
THIS IS PEAKK DUDEEE! I LOVE THE DESIGNS SMMM RAHAAHAAHAHAHAHA THEYRE ALL SO FINE
I have a question, will the charms or stickers I saw on the kickstarter be available as merch for purchase at some point?
For now, we have no plans to release any of the physical merch on Kickstarter outside the Kickstarter. If we have leftover stock of the merch then maybe yes, but if you really want to make sure you get the charms, for example, I’d grab them now on Kickstarter as we can’t promise they’ll be available in the future.
Love the two MCs aren't just the same character genderbent... GOOD WRITING FOR EACH CHARACTER LETS GO. I knew as soon as I saw him, Raoul was the one for Dante no doubts. For Circe, I wanted her with Nocturne because it's just perfect as all things should be.
Thanks for playing and for the support! Your playthroughs were super fun haha
this is so perfect, i love how the protagonists have a real personnality. it was peak i cant wait for more
actual peak fiction thank you for feeding me i was so thirsty i NEEDED a game like killer chat
THANK YOU FOR THIS DEMO, OMG THE ART AND EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL!1!1!!!
i love zeno this is peak
Yoooo! I'm so happy Circe has an option with Nocturne! I'm definitely playing this!!! ♥
how come Circe has so many more romance options? lwk thought i could romance iridus or abraxas as dante :broken heart emoji:
I think you’ve got it a bit mixed up. As our main page states, Dante and Circe have the same amount of romance options. Abraxas is exclusive to Circe, while Iridis can only be romanced by Dante.
As this is oniy a Kickstarter demo and about 1/3 of the length of the final demo we will release, Iridis does not have a lot of screentime yet.
Been here since the kickstarter and will def be playing soon, I’m so excited !!!!