itch.io

https://swanchime.bandcamp.com/track/saturn here it is!

oh, it's a piece I played on a harpsicle a while back, I should release it to bandcamp!!

yeah that's really true, I hope at least for more spaces opening up that criticize and question what a woman "should" be and reflect more of the breadth of humanity that women actually are. I think sharing your manifesto is a good way to get people to start thinking about it. most people can't understand the idea that "women can hate women even though they are women" and you explain it really well. 

I really loved this! the paper collage effect is gorgeous and old school, and you're so right that making games like thumbprints is the way to go: relishing the unique individuality of every human experience 

I think u did a helluva job and it was a good rant and is just dead on true. women are raised to see each other as competitors for the same piece of meat (guy) and are told from very young that women only exist to give men something nice to look at. women, trans or otherwise, that look or act like men are "ugly, BAD, and vulgar" and my honest aversion to most popular (natively Japanese or Chinese but also western) yuri is that the women aren't allowed to be "manly, thuggish, or ugly," and they aren't allowed to be vicious, dirty, and violent. 

the idea that women must be clean, prim, proper, and pretty, putting on lipstick even after killing in some "high class criminal" yuri fantasies makes me really uncomfortable, but not all lesbian art has to be defined by the (sexist) genre constraints of the shoujo girlie origins of mainland asian GL/yuri. 

but this restrictive image of women isn't only held by men, but enforced by other women, and everyone of every gender. everyone is complicit in a globally heterosexist patriarchal regime. 

(I read BL with my transgender goggles on, treating them like stories about transgender lesbians, which is my weird cope to deal with my discomfort at the way fictional women aren't allowed to be ugly, thuggish, aggressive, vicious, or dirty. if there was more lesbian art that WASN'T about "beautiful women" and in fact had "NO BEAUTIFUL GIRLS," and there was no pressure on them to be "pretty" either, I wouldn't have such an aversion.) 

at the end of the day I think there should be more lesbian art that reflects the breadth of womanhood for trans, queer, nonbinary, or just plain ugly, weird, and vicious women instead of defying one standard to reinforce another ("all fictional women must be beautiful, or women loving women is about loving something beautiful, and being a woman is about being beautiful") 

I think ppl should use lesbian art to raise the standard of humanity for women, not diminish it. a big part of why my swanchime stuff gets rejected from yuri things is (I'm guessing) probably bc at least one trans lesbian (he/him trans woman zhouyu) has a weird and complex womangender that most people just dismiss him as "a man," instead of "something closer to a butchy les" and I think this sucks that it's the case. 

I think you're right and it's a lot to think about. 

thanks!!!!

FELT. I was in a major vn dev server once and saw so many people bragging about their hatred for the medium and like. woah. wait. just had an idea. the idea that if you Fucking Despise making games unto the point it feels like walking on the hot coals of hell, then why are you? if you hate it so much, and it only makes you despair, then what's the fucking point of doing it? to brag about how stoic you are for undergoing such torment in the hopes of achieving imagined glory? 

the glory is ALSO absolutely imaginary in my experience; I have been ubiquitous yet invisible as a dev for years. everyone seems to have seen me, simply by volume of what I make, but very few acknowledge or interact.

the hardest most brutal part of writing a novel (this is also my background) isn't writing the novel. it's getting anyone to read it. same with making games. the gratification isn't instant, and it's uncomfortable to reach out beyond the world of popular media mass-production. 

anyway, hard Felt about being some kind of freak for not HATING making art. 

I really enjoy all the thought and complications brought into crop development and the way these things can be game-ified while enriching rather than denying the real life struggles of farm labor and the stakes. and I think the idea of a game where you let people starve is really good. without stakes, where is the satisfaction of winning against the odds? if there is no chance of failure, what is the fulfillment of success? 

cozy (farming) games let players idle in the imagination of purpose, but the genre has so much room for more friction and strategic complications and environmental disaster and truth behind specialized hard labor that could open people's hearts to historical and current issues regarding farming in rural areas across the world. 

you presented some excellent points! 

thanks for reading!

THANKS SO MUCH!! I'm glad it really resonated w u, I've been thinking about it and simmering every time I hear someone go UGHHH, TRANSMIGRATION IS OVERDONE I think they just don't get that inherent to this genre is the humanization of fictional characters, ergo calling them paper people instead of "characters" that make you think of "figments of imagination" or "actor roles, narrative plot instruments" but instead as forms of people. 

THANKS

thank you so much!!

weh

thank you so so much!!!

great work on the killer aesthetic design!!

thanks so much!!

I loved seeing the very familiar condiments (I know the exact brands! they're in my kitchen) and the horse chopsticks! it really has a mixture of nostalgia and also a glimpse into the present and future of keeping culinary traditions alive

weepo