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I really enjoyed playing this. It makes me really happy when games include polyamory in a healthy way. Having characters acknowledge, and approve, of you dating others was wonderful to see. I also liked that the other characters clearly had relationships with each other outside of their relationship with you, even if the focus was on yours. I loved the different personalities of the characters and how real each of them felt. I really connected with the Modder. I read them as neurodivergent as well as trans. It felt really good being able to just sit quietly with them, and have that be treated like a healthy and positive interaction. The conversation where they talked about the police not caring about legal vs. illegal cybernetics brought to mind how immigrants in the USA are being treated right now. In your devlog, you mentioned wanting to talk more about immigration. While that conversation is not directly about immigration, and could easily be seen as solely talking about trans rights, it did feel like an acknowledgment about what is happening in that regard.

On things from the devlog, you mentioned having an easy mode for those who didn't want to worry as much about Suspicion and Hope meters, though decided not to do a harder mode. Were there two different modes, easy and normal, in this version? I didn't see anything to indicate the difficulty setting, but might have missed it. In general, I don't know how much Suspicion or Hope played into my playthroughs. While there were several fun random events, nothing really stood out to me as playing into increasing suspicion or decreasing hope. That I didn't acknowledge any outward signs that those meters were changing may have also been part of it. I still really enjoyed the game without acknowledging those feature, but they need more work if you want them to be a core part of the gameplay.

I did enjoy that certain random events were different based on your relationship status with the characters. I played through the game twice and appreciated that the general feel of some events and the choices I could make changed to match how close I was with any given character. It allowed things to feel more dynamic and encouraged me to continue playing when I started my second run. (I had started the second run to double check a couple of things, and seeing the differences was delightful.) The story has a lot of heart in it, and was a much needed reminder that you don't have to save the world to make a positive change in it.

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This comment makes me really happy, because basically everything you mentioned is what I was going for! I'm glad it seemed to come across.

As for the suspicion/hope mechanics and the easy mode, you were right not to notice them; the version uploaded right now is still the old version from last year's NaNoRenO. The devlogs reflect the work I've put into it this month, but I haven't tested that new version yet and it still has a few placeholder events (so some days would just be like, "a thing happens, what do you do, cool it has this effect, bye" lol). So you played it as it was before I did the work this month. Maybe I should make clear that I haven't uploaded the new version in those devlogs.

But yeah, I definitely wrote the Modder as neurodivergent and non-binary, and intended the commentary on both that and immigration through the crackdown on people with cybernetics. And I put a lot of work into including little details in many scenes that acknowledge your relationships with the characters if they come up when you've established something with them, so I'm really glad that effort came through and made the scenes feel a bit different for you! And I really like your summary of the themes at play, that you don't have to save the world to make a positive change. I wanted something that felt hopeful in the small ways despite all the hopelessness going on around you, you know? I'm glad that came through.

So yeah, the devlog changes aren't reflected in the version you played, but I'm really happy that my intent with the writing came through so well nonetheless! Thanks for the comment!