Whoa. This is shockingly good. Your art has gotten much better, and the story was shockingly open ended where having not played Transubstantiation Synthesis I didn't even guess the full context. and having now played it's prequal I wanna replay it with my new open third (drone?) eye. This comment will be broken into 2 parts.
After a replay:
I missed a few things on my first playthrough. and going in with what I know from pass work might have helped me keep and eye out better. Tho I have a lot to say! I think well I'm here tho talking about me: this was a fetish (kink?) I was pretty aware of. tho it was mostly people being turned into sex drones and not real drones. THO I'm unsure if any of the people you play even like the PC from the former game.
All that being said. this game, well short, was very sweet! Talking to people and other drones were- really fun. and a perspective that your in is something I've never see before. Most authors try and give robots more life right out of the box. but this was very interesting. Seeing them doing basic tasks and talking like a robot, but still want a very human thing. approval. before becoming more- human like but still wanting the same thing. It's honestly the first time betting put into the shoes and getting it.
the tone is as you said very different much light hearted. In fact it's so different in a lot of ways that if you really could have gotten away with calling it a new setting outright. very little outside of name sake seems like it would link it to the pass game. However I get a very strong feeling we're not seeing the whole picture. Like stuff was happening well Cafe and A771 were off. You know what? That's a good thing in my eyes. It's good you had faith in what you had said, and knew the perspective we had as the drones. You didn't try to overload us for lack of a better word.
The fact the game kinna made me wanna be a drone... and rethink my view on my all my kinks. I'm unsure if I should give praise to that though. In a way I don't want you the artist to feel like you have to make a prodoct to please everyone. however I also know as an artist that it's still nice to make someone a lot of people can like. And this is something I think most people would enjoy even if they aren't into the kink itself. it's a good stepping off point and intro. I think with most stuff if you try and go in head first you'll have more extrema reactions and risk pushing people away. regardless I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here if you did what your heart said was right.
Sorry for the really long ramble. This was just something that spoke to me. Cafe really spoke to me to be clear. Tho even A771 was- relatable. you made robots who want to just server their humans relatable. Amazing. Wonderful. I pogged. Jokes aside. tl'dr Give this a try! It's not long and is free so you've got nothing to loose.
And to Kayedrgn: you did a good job! X3 for the time you had it came out better than lot of game jams. I'll be looking forward to whatever you do next- oh and please- P L E A S E- give us info on how to make our own Utilikin oc. I uh- need em in my life now.