i need to preface by saying first that in many years of playing games on itchio, i have always wanted to leave comments on games i enjoyed, but never got around to making an account
but now i'm creating a throwaway for the first time just to comment here, because i absolutely MUST tell you how much i LOVED LOVED LOVED this game. i was hooked, completed the whole thing in 2-3 hours because i had to keep reading until the end to find out what would happen next
SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVENT PLAYED FINISH
so i just happened to stumble across your game, thought it had a cool title and synopsis and decided to give it a try. at first when the game loaded i just sat there waiting wondering why there's this 3-decade old screen in the game window LOL like i thought "is this some emulator that didn't load properly?" then i tried typing something then ok help and opened the first .txt HAHAHA
(ok but i suggest u delete the "drag from one cell... plan your next move" sentences under instructions, as those are introduced in the game itself and it may spoil plot a bit if read before starting the game?)
anyway first shit your storytelling. just, HOW?? how did you come up with such a beautiful, amazing, convulted, romance/horror/thriller/RTS game combining a top tier short story with actually damn interesting unique and difficult gameplay? i tried to poke holes into Richard's narration and your plot but came up with nothing. was thinking "why not let the girl die" but realised he was probably thinking of getting caught and making Anna feel horrible after knowing, and how the writing digresses regularly to reflect Richard's personality. are you like Shakespeare back from the dead (with some fungi in his head) or something??
and that plot twist at the end holy shit just when i thought "yeah this wild ride of a story is coming to a close" you broke my neck with the whiplash of oh HEY RICH KINDA MURDERED ANNA. and how you weaved in the explanations of destroying evidence and not being able to put the latest variant directly inside Lisa, wow i feel like some high school literature teacher gushing about all this (i swear i am not HAHA). fuck this entire thing felt so disgusting yet intimate and all sorts of emotions really, my only question is what happens to Lisa when fake-Anna dies? but that ending note and him looking forward to see Anna in the afterlife GOSH IM SOBBING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
reading the intro and end of this made me feel like i really am Anna sitting in some old basement with an old box desktop looking through all this. i can really just imagine the scene, some light dust on the floor... also how you narrated the breakdown of their relationship that was honestly so heartbreaking (and it was mostly implied!! your writing is that good??). i love the old computer OS format too, that is so incredibly unique and makes me feel like I'm going through some 200-year-old diary (but in electronic form), it really pairs nicely with the deceased feel. this medium was really so perfect for your storytelling (also perfect), like FF7 meets Cask of Amontillado.
and the gameplay: are the third/fourth/fifth colours meant to represent the powder and white blood cells and so on? i liked how it was abstract but also supported the plot a bit, differing in the map and so on based on what was happening in the story. altho i spent 5 minutes trying to click the first level before realising that you had to grow the vine from the ends of the chain HAHA oops
there's a lot i wanted to say but i think i forgot some so I'll ADD THEM LATER
damn i love you thank you so much for this. i am gonna go let the emotional fallout from playing this mess up my next few days (hopefully no nightmares)! i hope you're doing well, is there some way i can give you some $$ maybe a kofi or something?
... also you know, naughty dog or square enix (or something) are probably hiring scriptwriters