thank you ALTER, your comments and critiques are amazing as always! \o/
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yes, i really went hard with the sound design and poses/expressions here... the latter is my strong point, so i wanted to use that to its fullest here, with microexpressions and poses galore. the former, i'm very proud of too. especially the scene where sunny dives into the lake. the smoothness of the sound transitions... it's nice. smiles.
> i smell new england in that lake.
you hit the nail right on the head. all of the places i mentioned are real places in maine.
> every chance I get I say “I want to see writing from people’s niche experiences” and this is one of the hyperspecific drills I’ve been dreaming of. why are so many japanese visual novel greats written with hyper specific locations, weather, net slang, family relations? it doesn’t disturb the game presentation, it adds to it. the designs are just so perfectly a cross between a game design and someone one could meet…more waiter please. or stop here because I feel like I’ve been satisfied (JUST KIDDING!!! WAITER?)
YES exactly!!!! the more hyperspecific a vn gets the better it is... first JVNs that came to mind for me (under these criteria) are higurashi and hollow ataraxia. i also love your comment on my character designs... that was also the intent. sunny and anita are people you could feasibly meet — but they do have a bit of that OTT-ness to their designs as well.
> i also laughed when the concept of “toxic yuri about wholesome yuri” unfolded. direct references to media - awesome. directly pulling from literature- awesome. directly making a media about opinions about media - awesome.
its yuriception baybeeeeee LOL.... the direct references were intentional in this case. i mentioned to another commenter that it was like ikuhara's intentional references in penguindrum, so soon after they happened. "the scars have to stay as scars" etc.
onto the crits! (tldr: i agree with all of them)
if i had more time, i would've loved to go into sunny's and anita's headspaces more... give them 1-2 more scenes each, or something. the dishwasher idea is fantastic... sunny mulling to herself as she does anita's chores. more of sunny's healing exercises but from anita's POV versus sunny's... towards the end of writing i did find myself wanting to play in their heads a little more. also YES i would've loved to make the buildup — the calm before the storm — longer too. presenting sunny as a safe person for anita and them comforting each other before sunny's uglier traits start to surface. they are fun toys for me to play with.
thank you once again for the kind words! i took a rest day today to play some games and chill, and i went out for pizza and ice cream with my twin yesterday :> it was lovely...