I just finished this game right now and OH MY GOD IT'S SO GOOD.
(Maybe some spoilers ahead? Idk... There shouldn't be.)
The story, the lore, the games, the characters (Waterbottle deserves the W in his name), the designs, the art, it's all SO FREAKING GOOD. I'm also a big fan of robots, so that's definitely a bonus. This game took so long to complete, and it was a freaking EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER. I'm delighted to have discovered this game. I could see the amount of thought put into this game, and it seriously pays off.
I really rarely see games with such heavy queer representation! (Neopronouns, aplatonicism, aromanticism, asexuality, QPRs, lovelessness, familial attraction, etc...) And it's so GOOD. There are also characters with disabilities.
I love (no pun intended) how this game represents being aplatonic (I actually realized I might be aplatonic myself from this game! Though nothing confirmed yet. I know so far I'm demiplatonic, but that's a whole entire other conversation). I'm generally on the aspec spectrum (and I'm neurodivergent), and this game made me feel so seen. This is a one-of-a-kind media. I'd recommend this to anyone.
The only annoying part was how long the hallways were (and the character moves so slow-) and there were confusing layouts of some areas (I wish I had gotten to see all the extra lore and stuff) :( And sometimes you had barely any direction on where to go.
I would also say one pet peeve would be how being aplatonic is handled as "corruption" or "being made wrong", so it's as if something is inherently wrong about being aspec. This feels like it was never addressed, though I could have missed something.
(Though no hate, just saying so others know.)
But otherwise, this game is probably one of my favorites that I have ever played, and it has been so influential on me. I wish to create a game like this someday, and I'm thinking of getting into a bit of game development because of this game. I absolutely loved everything about it. I'll definitely be recommending this to others!
Thanks a lot!! Happy you liked it so much and you saw yourself in it! Always happy to see my game could help people understand themselves better
(WB uses they/them prounous, remember!)
(also, 'familial attraction' im guessing this comment means the game discusses being afamilial, as in, not feeling familial love or wanting familial bonds, NOT inc*st. Sorry i just worry about weird people believing this game includes inc*st or something -it does NOT- because unfortunetely i have seen people misinterpret what being afamilial means before. Weird people go away.)
Oh, yeah, I agree about the long hallways hahah. This was a test game after all, so I really did not understand that a room looks smaller when I'm making it than when I play it hahah. This is a mistake I hope to have fixed in my future games, the rooms are defintely smaller in the ones I'm currently making. And yeah, direction is confusing sometimes. Criticism is welcomed so thanks for sharing!
(Spoiler talk) Oh, no, the corruption has nothing to do with the aspec identity! FP was aplatonic before being corrupted, corruption has more to do with bad mental health, that's the metaphor. Corruption is not really a bad thing at all either, it just gets demonized. FP changing colors is about their mental health improving, but having bad mental health is okay, Knife is corrupted too (and xe is also not aplatonic for example) and xe remains corrupted even post game. FP wasn't "made wrong", they were just borned this way, like if a human was aplatonic, the old organisms are the ones that FRAME it as "being built wrong". This is an insecurity FP has throughout the whole journey, that maybe this is just something built wrong that someone could fix, that they were not "built for this world", but of course that's not the truth. It's not something you can "fix" or "reboot", it's just who they are. It's robot metaphors meant to reflect real human experiences, some that I have personally gone through. Sorry if this wasn't made super clear! I trusted the story made it clear enough but of course it can be possible to misinterpret it, so, sorry about that! This was never the intention of the story at all. Either way, no worries, thanks for sharing your worries about the themes, I'm glad to clear it up in case anyone else ends up misinterpreting this part
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it and good luck with your own projects!
Thank you for responding!!
(Oh nooo I'm so sorry WB!! I didn't realize they used they/them pronouns! D: I should have checked beforehand.)
Yes, I meant as in being afamilial, the term familial attraction is kinda weird-sounding. Yeah, there are negative numbers of inc*st in this game.
Thank you so much for the clarification! I'm glad that wasn't the intention (and I thought it wasn't/shouldn't be that way). What threw me off was "Who cares you're corrupted?" because I know people say "Even if you're aspec, we still care about you". And I know some people use "corruption" in robot metaphors to refer to being aspec even in the best intentions. I probably just didn't get that what the others said wasn't supposed to be true/literal/whatnot, though at least this is for others who also didn't get it, lmao. Thank you for clearing this up!
Raaagh omg thank you! Good luck with your projects as well! I'll try to check out the next games you're making (if I can)! :)
(I'm so sorry for being so awkward, I truly meant the best intentions for everything I said!)