Hi, I am sorry about the delay in responding. Your message is wonderful but as soon as I saw twitter mentioned I kind of froze up. I am a kind of nervous person irl and the internet terrifies me. While itch.io feels safe a lot of the internet and especially twitter are/is horrifying.
I've been meaning to register a twitter account for a long time but because of my fear I hadn't. I finally registered one a night or two ago. My twitter is here: https://twitter.com/TaylorMcCue5 I'd really like to be mutuals on twitter if that is okay with you.
Working within gameboy limitations taught me a lot about art and I really liked the results I found within those limitations. Pixel art is a lot harder in many ways but it's easier to make things consistent than line art for me. Most of my nonpixel art feels less polished but I can share it with you sometime if you are still curious about it.
As far as passing goes in a weird way being seen as not cis to me can feel like not passing. One thing that makes me nervous is wondering if I pass when actually people around me know I am trans and are just being kind and accepting and what I am really experiencing isn't passing but the ratio of kind people to crueler people around me.
I tried to not really do any particularly brutal misgendering scenes because I didn't feel like it would do anyone any good for that sort of thing to exist.
Getting the different endings is really difficult and I would have gladly made you a map if you asked for one on who to talk to for each ending. The passing ending is really hard to get and that's intentional. I thought it was important to make a game where you only pass as much as the current person you are talking to rather than having a “true passing” that is an intrinsic part of who you are.
I'm glad you think I did a good job with empathy, my hope with this game is I would feel more comfortable with the reality that I don't always pass and maybe help other people feel better about that too. I tried to give every single ending something kind about them. Passing is always glorified but I wanted there to be value in alternatives to passing as well.
The lack of sounds are understandable given the format but it actually is possible to do sounds. There are trackers that work for it as well and I could provide all of the technical information about how to make music for a gameboy game. My problem is that I don't really know how to compose at this point well enough that it would detract from the experience. If you ever want to try doing gameboy chip tunes let me know though!
I am working on a sequel currently. I have a rough draft of the start of the game done but I am reworking it. It continues the story that was meant to happen within this game. I recently even made my first ever lofi song for it thanks to your program and I am very excited about it. It won't be a gameboy game this time so I can be more flexible with sound.
Anyways, again I am sorry for the delay in responding. I hope we can talk more as you are an awesome person.
Oh also omg I forgot to mention I played Anteholic, it was really good and I liked the worldbuilding in it a lot! Also sorry if any of this message is really confusing, it's late and I really just wanted to reply to you no matter what today.