itch.io

This one's been hard to get off my mind since I watched my partner play it. Maybe it's just that it pits my personification of inanimate objects (and love for virtual pets!) directly against my deep hatred of AI in such a major way, but this one really did hurt to experience! Haunting, and tremendously current in its subject matter. Such wonderful little bits of characterisation regarding (what I read as) dysphoria too, and the sex scene was also incredibly inspired. Thanks for a great game.

Jesus christ. I'd been looking forward to this one for a bit. Had a vague idea in mind of what to expect and it still manages to be incredibly painful. A couple of lines that really made my stomach turn here. The sheer unfairness of Marisol's precarious circumstances, this nightmarish world where anyone is just a slip away from homelessness. So fucking painful to watch her force herself to acclimatise to Dr Rose's treatment of her - worst of all is that there were so many incentives to try and believe that this one person truly cared, against all the others who didn't. A protagonist so starved of compassion that even its mirage becomes convincing. A game where even the eyecatches hurt. Thanks for making this.

This was really cool! I got two endings, I'm not sure if there's more..? Jinglebug's 3D model is darling, the sprites and music are also top notch - I love her voice SFX too, all of these aspects mesh really well together and feel very evocative of that era of gaming. I completely understand how Max gets lured into Jinglebug's world. With a character you've latched onto since childhood like that, it's certainly easy to imagine how they might know you better than others, how they might accept you in a way that others don't seem to... it's a very seductive kind of concept. All in all a very lovely short and sweet title

(EDIT: A few days late to voice this, but I wonder if it would be worth putting how many endings there are somewhere 👀)

ohh, this one was lots of fun (probably spoilers in following)....

the vibes were uncomfortable from the very beginning, but somehow i was still surprised by the intensity with which thanh dehumanises angela inside her head (positive) (extremely visceral). mouth rot seems incredibly apt for how these characters' sexual interactions seem to work and how dissociative the narration can feel around these acts. the slow (and unhappy) dimming of the protagonist's self, the way it feels as if she has surrendered to being consumed for a long long time - there's something so specifically bleak about a story where even in the opening flashback, the protagonist feels so hopeless. 

her lines about just accepting that relationships become more "subdued" and "practical" are also super interesting since those feel kind of normal observations on paper but absolutely don't seem to reflect the reality of the situation. also, angela's little fetishizing "compliments" that just sort of hang uncomfortably in the air and are only really met with silence or vague hesitation whenever they appear... i'm also really obsessed with how she literally calls herself a yandere like twice. immensely suffocating, thank you so much for the view into domestic hell.

this felt so special. i have more experience with plushies than dolls (though i do own a few), but a lot of the things talked about inside this work definitely resonated, about the nature of play. i loved watching susanna and lucy teach each other how to dream, and the uniqueness of this setting. i loved the dolls as literal building blocks. i thought making the dress-up game diegetic to the characters of the story and then having it available to play from the main menu was also a really interesting creative decision. i can't wait to read more of your works!

This was so screwed up... lovely game :-)

Thank you so much for playing!!

jesus christ. the visual effects are really impressive but more than that its very upsetting and i feel like i just got punched really hard in the chest which owns. crazy good game

Really charming and engaging presentation. The longer sections were also really nicely poetic. Good old lorem ipsum...

Thank you so much for reading and vibing with it! I knew instantly that a little retro swimsuit would be perfect for her... And that part definitely came from a very real place, it can be hard to know how much of our wants genuinely come from within and how much is what seems "right" or "correct" to do. It's all very confusing..!

Thank you so much for playing, I'm also touched that you found it visually impressive!!

Yes, that totally makes sense! I thought a lot about how robots might communicate differently about these things than we do - at least that they may be able to be clearer about what does and doesn't gratify them as they encounter it, with an honesty that I truly envy. Writing the scenes with the jewellery box was when I started to understand why I made this game, I think. Thank you so much for playing!

This was such a precious, heartbreaking little story. The imagery is incredibly vivid, and a couple moments were quite tearjerking to me. I loved the woodcarving scenes, the lonely ambience inside the hospital, and I feel like it ended in the perfect place too. Sofiya's internal conflict over her choices is quite real and goes in the opposite direction to many stories of this type IMO, and Sonya's turmoil over comforting the loved ones of the deceased patients (and whether or not the things she says are things she can truly believe in) got at me too. The game's assertion of mourning as the final symbol of love, something that Sonya *desires* to do for Sofiya one day, was also very powerful. Thank you for making this!

Thank you so much Katherine!! A whole essay down here for me... I'm happy the game is understood. It is quite personal, but I want Pola and Tetra to find freedom as much as I want myself (and others) to find freedom.

Really lovely UI on this one. This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed achieving each ending - you get the feeling that the protagonist really enjoys the cat-and-mouse game itself, more so than winning or losing...

This was fun! Your art style is incredibly beautiful.

I played this one a little while ago after my partner recommended it, I'm happy to see it again in this showcase. Back then I think I had a hunch as to where the story was going, but the ending hasn't left my mind since. It's a really brilliant, hurtful kind of work.

This was very interesting! Your usage of formatting here is very fun - I like your juxtaposition of the hometown as a place that isn't really home, and Twin Peaks as a comforting place home to many familiar faces, that also contains purgatory...

lovely short little game, lovely little weird creature. bug seems to find herself in so many situations. this game felt so lively and had so many great quotes. good stuff

This was crazy. A+. I felt very manipulated. Thank u

Talented, brilliant, amazing, showstopping

i wanna die 👍 thank you good

Some absolutely incredible jokes in this one, thank you... incredibly fleshed out roleplaying... maidgender pretty good... and wow intrusive thoughts sure are like that. 

I'm glad I read the devlog also, your thoughts about pervert art and worries about how you're perceived as an artist resonated too. It's so easy to want to compromise in favour of working on safer projects but what you wrote was very inspiring..!! If I could make a game as indulgent and special as this one is someday, I'd be very happy...

This was really sick, I loved it... Loved the extremely gross foley sounds, loved the rambling sadistic fantasies, loved the weird cuckolding and kind of despicably complicit nature of the protagonist... loved that you placed the credits where you did. What an incredibly fun game

Very cute! Thanks for teaching me how to play Picross!

I can't beat the boss... I have to get good enough at this game to beat the boss...

"Dodge the Ls or you'll take one" game of the year

Really pretty game! I like how trying to move out-of-bounds (the area at the top of the level) damages you instead of just blocking you off full stop, it feels like a pretty natural way to enforce those constraints.

Oh dear, I didn't quite realise how insulting the "Nobody started hitting on you" line could sound when I was adding the text in... Thanks for playing!!

Hahaha, I love the chaos of this game. Like many people below me have said, it definitely fits the theme. It looks like you put a lot of thought into the effects of each item, but I wonder if there's a way to make it clearer at a glance as to which ones are good or bad? I think that's the main part I struggled with when I first played. I hope you do add those future updates, I'm interested in where this game could go!

Cheers! You're completely right, if I had had more time to work things out (or rather managed mine better) I would've loved to include special events depending on where you choose to visit. It gets a little repetitive for sure... Thanks so much for the detailed feedback!

Thank you! Sometimes that's how it goes...

This is a really great game! I was a little daunted at first by the premise, but you've clearly put a lot of thought into designing the levels and they do a great job of walking you through how the central mechanics work. It's awesome stuff!

Short, sweet and entertaining! I guess the way gravity changes is a little jarring (though totally in line with the game jam theme), perhaps some kind of audio/visual cue to indicate it's about to happen could be good? :o

That happened to me too when I played, it seems like pressing the D button triggers the credits? So as long as you don't press that, you can advance in the game, but I'm still not entirely sure how to move :(

Thank you so much, I'm glad you found it fun! :)

Ah yeah, I would've loved to add a bit more strategy to the gameplay, that's the main thing I'm critical of myself! Thank you for appreciating it anyway!!

I'd love to play a longer version of this sometime, I hope you can keep working on it!! :)

I'll be sure to!