itch.io

Thank you! 

It's been brought to our attention that some Windows 11 players are having issues with the game crashing on open. 

If you are one of those players; we sincerely apologise. We're trying to replicate the bug on our machines as we speak. We'll reply to this thread when we have updates to share.

Thank YOU for playing! <3

OMG! What a nice surprise and THANK YOU for playing our game!! T^T
Next year's GGJ dates are Jan 24~26th 2025...so if you are interested, I'd love to have y'all at our site.

Thank you thank you! It’s on the queue—haven’t found the time to update it recently but will soon!!

Mutual followback! :)

YES - thank you for the recommendations; I'll add them to my queue of games!

自分も、来年のゲームジャム（GGJ)のために、Godotを勉強しようかな、、と思っています。使いやすくて、チュートリアルもあるのは安心してきました。

I just played this game, and wow. Lots of feelings. I related a lot to Lynette. I made a cohost post about the game, if you'd like to see! 

And also, I added your game to the Interface Drama Master List. If there's anything you'd like me to edit about the entry (description or tags) please let me know.

Thank you! <3

Hi there! I'm CJ—I'm working on a master list of interface drama and would like to include your game as an interface drama, which is a game that tells stories through the use of interface (UI).

I'm reaching out to devs of games in the list to confirm that I have accurate tags of your game.

Right now, the tags on Blooming Panic are:
- relationship driven
- lgbtqia+

If there's any other tags on the list, or ones you'd like to add, please let me know. Thank you for your time.

Hi there! I'm CJ—I'm working on a master list of interface drama and would like to include your game as an interface drama, which is a game that tells stories through the use of interface (UI).

I'm reaching out to devs of games in the list to confirm that I have accurate tags of your game.

Right now, the tags on A Normal Lost Phone are:  
- lgbtqia+
- mystery
- puzzle

If there's any other tags on the list, or ones you'd like to add, please let me know. Thank you for your time.

Hi there! I'm CJ—I'm working on a master list of interface drama and would like to include your game as an interface drama. I really loved playing through this game. It was recommended as a companion piece to our game Terranova and I agree; it gave me a lot of queer feels. ;;

I'm reaching out to devs like you to confirm that I have accurate tags of your game.

Right now, the tags on Secret Little Haven are:  
- lgbtqia+
- nostalgia
- relationship driven

If there's any other tags on the list, or ones you'd like to add, please let me know.

Thank you for your time!

Thank you for your response. Your game is really unique. I had only explored the Omnipedia and the board aspect, but upon closer inspection, I see the feature where people can upload their boards.

Great tag idea. I'll add in-browser and community-driven to the entry.

Hi there! I'm CJ—I'm working on a master list of interface drama and would like to include your game as an interface drama. I've been reaching out to devs of the game to confirm that I have accurate tagging.

Right now, the tags on Neurocracy are:

- mystery

I was thinking of perhaps adding "in-browser" as a tag, though the game is half in-browser, half-downloadable. 

What do you think?

Thank you so much!

Hi there! I played this on Steam and liked this game a lot.

I put out a list of games where interfaces and UI feature as the main gameplay element, and I'm including Cibele as one of these games. 

I'm calling the list "The Interface Drama Master List."

I wanted to reach out to you to 1) make sure it's ok that I'm using the game in the list and 2) make sure my tagging is correct for the game. The tags I'm currently using are:

• fmv
• nostalgia
• relationship-driven

If there's any edits to the tags or the entry you'd like me to make, please let me know.

Hi Jay and folks,

My name is illuminesce—I'm an indie developer. I love Hypnospace Outlaw! I played it a year or so ago and it still sticks with me.

I put out a list of games where interfaces and UI feature as the main gameplay element, and I'm including Hypnospace Outlaw as one of these games. 

I'm calling the list "The Interface Drama Master List."

Interface dramas are a genre that's existed for a while that I've been wanting to give a better name to. They're games that tell an immersive story through software and app interfaces. They are commonly called "desktop simulators" or "UI games" but I've found these labels to be either too prescriptive or too general to describe this emergent genre. And so, I'm making a list of interface dramas here for people to play and hopefully build support for this unique type of game.

I wanted to reach out to you to 1) make sure it's ok that I'm using the game in the list and 2) make sure my tagging is correct for the game. The tag I'm currently using is:

• nostalgia

If there's any edits to the tags or the entry you'd like me to make, please let me know.

(P.S. if you dig this new genre name, please consider tagging your game on Steam and itch.io "Interface Drama" so it can catch on!)

Kind Regards,
illuminesce

There's quite a few games that inspired us along the way:

• Secret Little Haven
• Hypnospace Outlaw
• Cibele
• SIMULACRA
• Emily is Away

Some of these were ones we knew of prior to making the game and others were ones we discovered afterwards and said, "hey, that looks familiar."

mabbees and I have tentatively been calling them "interface dramas" because they all use UI to tell personal stories.

Hi y'all! 👋 Say hello here.

Thanks for stopping by! Please report any bugs you find in the game here, and we will respond back as soon as we are able. We're a two-person team who work on the game part-time, so please have patience with us if we take a while to respond.

We have a Discord (18+ only) that we are active on. If you've contacted us here and you haven't heard from us in several days, please ping us on Discord.

If you find a bug in the game, please use this template for reporting:

What is your environment?
- Are you using Windows, Mac or Linux?
- What is your operating system version?
How do we reproduce the issue?
- Describe what was happening when you experienced the bug
What went wrong?
- Describe the bug you encountered  
- Did it prevent you from making progress in the game?
What was the expected behavior?
- What should have happened if things went right?

Thank you for playing!

Your friendly neighborhood devs,
CJ & mabbees

Thanks!

I laughed out loud during some of the parts. This is...too real

Thank you! <3

Hey y'all! I made a game that is a replica of my actual home. I initially built it for friends and family to come "visit" us digitally because my family lives across the world from where I am. I thought other folks might have fun playing it, too.

It's a little adventure/puzzler that's an overall relaxing time.

https://illuminesce.itch.io/our-home

Hi everyone! I'm CJ, and I've been messing around in bitsy since I saw some cool games on Anna Anthropy's itch.io. I made a couple of "gift" games for friends in bitsy before I published my first little game. It's a great engine!

I was hitting my head against this very problem for the past hour and this fixed it!

Thanks to you, I can still make games while waiting for the fix to be approved. Thank you!

Thank you so much!! 

Hello there! I hope you're doing well. I was wondering...would you be okay with us using your review on our flyer and website to promote Terranova? I keep coming back to your review and smiling; I thought it would make other folks smile, too.

I loved this game. The concept is so unique, and as a trans person, the idea of swappable android parts is *such* a power fantasy. Yes please, I'd love a shop like this in real life.

The writing is well-done, especially around kink; safety and consent are mentioned in every route. The characters and illustrations were also really cute. I'm a fan of Dr. Keene's design... >3 

Thank you for putting this game into the world.

Just finished my first playthrough. This is SUCH a great concept and so well executed. The writing was adorable and the pixel art really gives it the 90's charm.

Great job, y'all!

This reminded me of me and my mother's relationship. She would definitely send me off with bandages (even if I didn't need any). It made me smile.

Thanks for making this cute game!

I found this game through an interview the dev did on her heartwrenching experience releasing it.

Taylor, I am so, so glad you went through with releasing this game. It must have been hard. It must have sucked to have backlash from all sides, especially from within the queer community--which is supposed to be a community that uplifts, but oftentimes fails and ostracizes. My heart goes out to you.

Thank you for telling this story. It gave me a lens to look at my own shit. It made me feel a little less alone. It's messy, it's full of nuance, and it's human. I love that. Thank you.

Good question! Spiritually, I think our game is close to Victoria Dominowski's game Secret Little Haven. There are several parts in that game that I screenshotted because I thought, "oh my god...it's me." The characters were so relatable and I loved the aesthetic.

By the way, I think I've reread your review at least three times now. Most especially, I'm moved by how connected you are to the characters...because they're me—and my friends—and people I love and care about. If you are a Discord person, we have a sleepy Discord where we have other folks hang out, do roleplay, and OC swaps. :)

Thank you so, so much. Not only for the time you spent playing our game, but also the time you spent writing and editing this comment. Players like you are exactly the reason why @mabbees and I continue to make games.

You made our day. <3 I hope you enjoy our next games, too!

YOU DID IT!!!!!!! 😊 Congratulations!

I follow you and respect you as a dev, and I also follow Blerdy Otome, who made the original post about Ferdinand’s route. 

After this post, she made a four-hour Twitch stream where she goes into more detail about the context and circumstances around the tweet—and she mentions an important piece of context—that she received this game for free as a review copy.

If what she says is true, then what you’re saying about dogpiling, cancel culture and toxic social media is not. It’s based on your response to a black reviewer’s honest reaction and critique of your game which happened to blow up on social media.

Social media sucks. People comment on stuff they have no business commenting on sucks. I’m not denying that fact. Having your inbox flooded with negative comments is awful. I’m sorry it happened to you.

But this isn’t cancellation. You asked someone what they thought of your game knowing they would post about it on social media. They did. Being called racist isn’t the end of a conversation. It’s the start of a dialogue to do better. A call to action.

I genuinely hope that this is a learning experience. Not to “be more careful” or to “silence yourself” but to lean more into your mistakes with curiosity. You said yourself on Twitter that having an American POC review your games before release would be good. That’s a good step.

Take care.

Hahaha ;)

Thank you! 💚

Yes! I would love to see!