itch.io

This was a good Sonic game.

I envy the approach taken in this game. Its grammar is of film, most prominently seen in the shot reverse shot interactions between the two characters. The shaders playing with opacity remind me of how silent films intersperse characters and background to create a visual that is more than the sum of its parts. And the way the game “documents” the corridors, the passages, the open spaces, the closed spaces, and the architecture the two protagonists traverse reminds me of the visual novel “documentary” I’d like to make: just two characters walking to the humming of the city.

Looking forward to the game’s completion.

This was impressive. The different writing voices meld together so well that I got a good overview of the different dynamics. And I like how the diaspora elements affect the premise of the story too.

Highly recommended.

The usage of Decker complements the poetry here. It’s like a snapshot into a genuinely harrowing relationship, but we are only left with just enough to imagine everything else. Wonderful work.

Beautiful exploration on disability. The screening test is a really nice feature and it made me look into this more since I’m double-jointed.

This was unbelievable. I was hooked from the beginning with the light adventure game mechanics and the way the story unfolded was fascinating. I also liked the themes a lot: the obligation to live a “good life” whatever that is and how much of that is actually a burden.

I also love the color palette too. This is just a beautifully designed game. Thanks for making it!

I think this game understands what it means to be into baseball, both the good and the bad. The final passages about what baseball is are reminders of what the sport is all about: voyeuristic anticipation. We’re waiting for something to happen, but it might never come. That’s toxic yuri in a weird way.

Thanks for making it!

I’m not sure what to even say except the infantilizing dynamic is so fascinating, the way the game introduces itself through a collage of materials on fairy is clever, and the chess variant(?) is an interesting way to tell the story. Great art and writing. I really loved it.

Despite the length of the scenario, I was quite surprised how quickly I went through the game. Each line has a purpose, conveying action and characterization without wasting time. I got pretty invested in the main characters and the setting because they’re so developed and well thought out. Plus, the art is just gorgeous – so many unique CGs.

Thank you for making this game. It’s pretty awesome.

This was cute. Wears a lot of influences I like on its sleeves: Kamiina Botan, Liz and the Blue Bird, some good movie picks too. The epistolary format is also close to my heart since it’s IMO an underrated approach to visual novels. The ending was also just poignant.

That said, the text is too small and I kinda wish there was a backlog.

Thanks for making the game!

Woah, the writing is incredible. The angst that your school memories are at an end taken to the extreme. The art is so gorgeous too. I’m genuinely impressed!

Thank you for the insightful response. I think framing your experiences is a good way to explain the game and why I like it a lot. Again, thank you for making the game!

This was a technical marvel. It kinda captures the “dungeon crawling” and post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Tarkovsky’s Stalker. The setting is also kinda fascinating.

That said, I find the last section quite unintuitive. It seems to be bad at registering inputs? I wish there was a way where I can tell the game is actually acknowledging the input besides the movement. I actually went out of the final section because I thought the game wasn’t inputting and turned left – I thought going straight was the wrong way – so I had to reload from an autosave.

Still, what a cool title. Goes to show there’s still more things we can do with Ren’Py.

I’ve been thinking about how the toxic yuri stories that stuck with me are the ones that depict reality as it is: toxic, racist, and fascist. Ever since I read Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism, I’m more and more convinced that this “mode” of fiction – showing Reality as Weird – is the way to go.

And your work is one of the best examples of that. It reveals the idealistic ironies of the lives we live in today. It’s also heartwarming to see another Southeast Asian game like my title and Full Fathom 500 talk about similar subject matter.

Thank you for making the game.

This was fun in a J.G. Ballard’s Crash way. The way it escalates is amusing.

Woah, that was upsetting (great). Each chapter having its own distinctive form and visual style adds to the emotional depth of this game. Now, I want to make a Decker game for real.

It was nice to see a Samuel Delany quote since I knew I was in good writerly hands. The ending reminded me of certain new wave science fiction books like The Stars My Destination… but what if yuri. This was a fun, short read!

It’s hard to get into specifics, but let’s just say that I think this visual novel captures what it feels like to write a game. Thank you for making it.

The abrupt ending was great! I love me a bleak story, and the detailed sex scenes are quite fun to go through.

I would’ve liked a way to distinguish the dialog and narration. I don’t mind a lack of speaker tags or even quotation marks, but the writing voices sound too similar to each other for me to smoothly follow along.

Still, a good work!

Not at all I expected in a good way. I was impressed by the presentation, and the “Chapter 1”s are such a neat touch since they let the story unfold in a unique way. The power dynamics keep reversing on each other too.

I hope more people play it.

This taps on how people exploit real insecurities to get people onto “their side”. It’s chilling, but I get why someone might feel like they have found love at last after reading so much of Marisol’s backstory. This was good.

The 3D model of Jinglebug is so cute. I like the story’s direction a lot: a “guy” who has a crush on a video game character and doesn’t know what he really wants out of life. It’s a refreshing horror tale – the art direction makes this game very memorable to me.

Used to be a creative writing tutor back in the day. I’m glad I have never gotten into this kind of relationship during my time. The twists and turns are very fun and tragic since they broached several intriguing ideas about being queer today. Liked it a bunch.

This was sick. The character writing is neat, and I’m fond of how the CGs are used to punctuate the pacing of the game. And the triptych format was somehow not the most ingenious visual design in the game – it’s this TTRPG-like visualization of the characters’ locations and the stage in the center screen. That’s so clever!

Really liked this work. The way it ties the magical girl themes to that feeling you’re not part of a group is neat. Very confident writing and direction. And I’m a huge fan of the CGs too.

It’s awesome seeing how much you have improved from your debut work!

The game feels like it continues what was already explored in Glow of Honeydew: a story about our minds’ relationship to plants, our bodies, and a blurry family history. It turns out that they are not as concrete and transparent as we’d like, that we are vulnerable to the esoteric exploitation from Mother Nature. We believe we know everything because we live ethical, knowledgeable lives. Yet, it is a trap that we have set up by ourselves because we think we understand our adventures.

It’s a compelling game, and I think your best so far. Some great soundtrack and visuals. The ending gave me a chuckle.

Great stuff. The diaspora element is pretty subtle, but is a rather important factor in how the story moves in time and place.

It is validating to see a game connect gender dysphoria to that aimless diasporic alienation living in another country. This is a hopeless situation: Thanh’s family may have “escaped the war”, but they remain restless merchants seeking a home. But the salvation that they are promised is either death or co-dependency, a kind of Aquarium Dream where wounds can only be licked.

I just resonate with this game a lot – I am hungry for queer diaspora stories like this. It was awesome reading an earlier version of the script and then seeing how much it had improved too. This is certainly a game that people need to play.

Loved seeing a Decker game on the jam. The concept is really clever.

Excellent interface drama. The story being a brief glimpse into the past is a neat touch.

The atmosphere is stellar. Really good usage of photographic backgrounds and synths. And while I think a lot of LLM stories are overplayed, the usage of virtual(?) pets refreshes the sycophantic dependency on these kinds of narratives.

Really fantastic stuff!

Those are some precious <500 words. An incisive game that uses its short length to make a point: holes of any kinds are fucking annoying.

Great game!

It’s always nice to see a fellow SEAsian discuss what makes their city great. This reminds me of Los Angeles Plays Itself, an essay film reflecting on the ways the city is depicted in Hollywood and ends up championing not the mainstream but the independent artists who understand what it means to live in and a love a multi-ethnic city. Thanks for making it.

A manifesto I can get behind.

Yes, we need to horse around.

It does what it speaks. This was awesome.

Despite already agreeing with the thesis, I found this challenging to read in a good way. I’m on the same “people should take inspiration from my heritage” camp, though this is me being Chinese. But when it comes to Arabic cultures, I find myself writing away from this domain.

And I think it’s a psychological thing. The pop culture impact of Edward Said’s Orientalism and the opticste of appropriation have made me wary of writing about cultures that I’m not a member of.

But it does mean that we’re letting the losers make it without challenge. As you said, we removed the “poison bread” but the baker is still around. And I can’t say I am happy contributing to the cultural homogenization of white people whenever I write a new game scenario and go “I don’t really know how to write anyone who isn’t Chinese or white, so I guess I’ll do these two ethnicities again”.

Reading this manifesto made me rethink my priorities. I’m still admittedly unsure how far I will extend myself, but it is clear that this is becoming a systemic problem for my own writing. Thanks for writing it!

I forgot that the book won awards.

But yeah, I was thinking of spaces like the fanfic communities as I wrote the latter half of the manifesto. I want to remind people that such curators do exist and we should encourage other communities to adopt them.

I sometimes wonder if there should be a Megabundle Review, the same way Public Domain Review has a newsletter where people write about articles about objects from the public domain.

That’s where I got my cover images from!

This is still a sick website. Thanks for linking. I’m always looking for more resources to find new and interesting things.