Brilliant set of prompt questions to encourage reflection and exploration of diverse potential ways of being yourself. The follow-up questions for queering the originals are what really make this game shine. Whether you're at the beginning of your self-discovery journey or at a comfortable rest point, there's something for you here. 5/5 stars - outstanding.
Although it's intended as absurd humour to cope with dysphoria, some of the imagery came much too close to self-injury for my personal comfort (e.g. the serrated knife, the long nail). I could imagine this being a dealbreaker for other people too. However, if that doesn't bother you, there's some genuine charm and whimsy here. 3/5 stars - enjoyable.
Short narrative-focused game with a transmasculine non-binary protagonist. Chapters 1 and 2 take about five minutes to play through. It's trans-affirming content, but quite rough around the edges at present. Should be interesting to see how it turns out! 2/5 stars - serviceable.
The art is very good and the anti-transphobia content is solid, but at present the bigotry portrayed feels a bit distanced from the protagonist's personal life since all the microaggressions are stemming from people they don't really know (e.g. medical staff, social media, TV, random strangers). It's doubtless tricky to strike a balance between them as a stand-in for everyone with the same labels versus them as an individual character - I'll be interested to see how later chapters might handle/avoid this.
I really liked the mix-and-match options for changing the avatar's outfit. Both designs present in the current version were cute and fun to try out! It felt like a charming and playful exploration of gender presentation in a very intuitive video game format.
The 2.5D shooter-style mechanic for throwing speech bubbles feels like a logical design choice, but the gameplay itself isn't very compelling at present. Perhaps the dev will refine it as they gain skills and confidence over time. This also applies for minor hiccups such as occasional typos and the lack of any animation for the player avatar.
Short and sweet scene where a queer woman talks with the female sex worker she's hired. It's a very respectful and compassionate dialogue on both sides. Made in bitsy, takes about 5 minutes to read. CW for the client experiencing anxiety and discussing queerphobia, though the sex worker supportively addresses both issues. 4/5 stars - excellent.
I usually try to write fairly detached and short reviews, but that just feels so wrong to do in this case. This game is a painfully authentic recollection of its creator's traumatic experiences of sex work. The aesthetic elements complement the narrative extremely well and the writing is outstanding - at least to the best of my understanding as someone without any personal experience of sex work.
While this story is in the specific context of the pre-Affordable Care Act USA, I've definitely known people with similar socio-economic situations and trauma in the UK too.This game helped me to better imagine the kinds of things that some of my friends (specifically, transfeminine people who have been sex workers) could have experienced, and how that might affect the rest of their lives.
I certainly will never think about gifts or money the same way ever again after playing this, and I'm grateful that I can now take a more trauma-informed approach to these topics in future.
The narrator takes care to distinguish the specific experiences under discussion as one individual's story, not something to be weaponised against sex work or sex workers in general. It felt like a very carefully considered piece of work all round, but especially in this regard.
There are no visually graphic sexual elements, though there are a few pixel-art representations of a character's upper body changes due to HRT which I suppose counts as mild nudity.
There is, of course, a lot of text covering the core theme of sex work. A substantial share is sexually explicit, but in a way that reinforces the key ideas of the narrative and/or relates the facts of a situation, not in a way intended to sensationalise or titillate.
For example, the inbox full of explicit messages from potential clients and timewasters is optional, but certainly gives those who choose to read it a powerful example of many gratingly dehumanising attitudes toward sex workers. I can attest that when I forced myself to read all of them (in an attempt to mirror the protagonist's experience of having to sift through them all) I could actually feel myself becoming slightly desensitised to the horror of it by the sheer volume of the messages. The fact that I technically could stop reading them, but the protagonist was compelled to by circumstance, made the removal of their agency hit even harder. This was an extremely effective design choice.
Similarly, the portrayal of the protagonist's first meetings with a client was written clearly enough to convey the facts of the situation, with details where they were necessary, but the writing focused mainly on the dissociation needed to get through it and the lingering psychological impact it had. This, in combination with the shifting visual design of the protagonist, did an incredible job of conveying the most relevant elements of the experiences under discussion.
The anguish of never being able to talk with people about these topics (due to the criminalisation of sex work and/or the need to suit a client's desired behaviours) was palpable in various dialogue sections. It made me feel furious about the laws and social attitudes that put the protagonist in such an awful position for their mental health.
I am really grateful that the creator made the decision to develop this game, as I can only try to imagine the number of people in similar situations who might see themselves reflected in it, and the number of poorly-informed people like me out there who can learn so much from it. Whoever you are, if you are capable of playing this game without it causing you harm then I strongly recommend that you do so.
Five-minute linear sapphic date made in Bitsy. One of the characters (Ophelia) mentions voice dysphoria, so is presumably trans. Brief mentions of anxiety, but it's otherwise just a wholesome little wish-fulfilment scene of a first date going really well. 3/5 stars - enjoyable.
Light-hearted, short visual novel about trying to catch an office lunch thief. Ungendered protagonist, masc thief/date? The writing style and 7 endings are all fun, as is drafting some grouchy notes to the thief. 15-20 min playtime, c.4,000 words. 5/5 stars.
Content warnings: screen shakes, voice blips, theft of personal items, office drama, hunger, jail (one bad ending), company mistreatment of employees.
