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thank you for playing my game!! i'm glad it could leave you with a strong impression of this year's jam... and that it could make you feel less alone. and no worries about spilling your heart here — this work was me doing the same, so it's only fair.

thank you so much! i'm glad my work could move you, both in presentation and writing. \o/

please make sure to wash yourself afterwards! being dirty is no fun...

thank you for playing my game!

i'm glad you think the dialogue is strong, haha! i find it easier to write than narration... though i'd love to do a narration heavy story in the future. build up those muscles, etc. 

i'm glad you like the way i portrayed anita's dialogue with herself too. i often find internal thoughts contradictory, so i wanted to portray it as a conversation between two anitas. and thank you for enjoying the quotes too, wheeeeee... 

i think the sources are worth a read. would love to create a reading list for the game itself bc there's more where that came from.

fantastic use of UI to convey clarice's internal monologue and her simultaneous conversation  with era. 

the writing is great too — it's scary how the world you've presented feels like a logical next step forward to the job market we have now. and of course, the theme of manufactured consent permeates this visual novel: from the interactions between era and clarice (both professional and sexual), to clarice's relationship with her hellish string of receptionist jobs, to era's own relationship with the company that made her. 

well done!

excellent presentation and great character writing. once i put together the pieces of what was happening with the dumpgirls ARG behind the scenes, i was locked in. loved watching bart talk to alice about going to more extreme ends with her art - just to try and capture people's attention... (the youtubers LOVE it!!!!) and then seeing the ARG fall apart at the scenes, with the obvious forum posts getting less and less attention each time.

special shoutout to the layouts of the ladygosssoft messageboards and the dumpgirls website itself. they really do feel like authentic mid-2000s pages.

good stuff all around!

thank you for playing my game! i'm glad it could leave an impact on you.

thank you for playing my game!! \o/ i'm glad it could impact you

captures isolation and betrayal in a succinct 1,000 words. the setting and the wind blowing in the background adds to that feeling, tenfold. also the overlap between shitty political decisions in europe and shitty political decisions in research/academia, which i don't often see discussed in visual novels. really good stuff all around

good job on making your first vn! \o/ 

you've set up a strong dynamic between lizzie and arlinn, where they both need to rely on each other to have their desires met (arlinn and her masochism, lizzie and her desire for a personal toy.) the end has me curious about how their relationship will evolve over time — when they're more familiar with each other as people.

i like the emphasis on prose/nvl style writing over adv too, it really helps me get into arlinn's head with her (justified) fear of animals and going outside, and how that affects her mentally.

thank you so much for the kind words! 

When you're trying to make a living as an artist online, you have to put yourself out there and grind so much, but you aren't a 'celebrity'. You don't have any of the money, security, and protection that comes with real fame but you still have the parasocial connections, and expectations put upon you.

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The detail about Sunny not brushing her teeth because she hates mint toothpaste was so gross but also such a good little character detail!! Someone who avoids feeling any kind of discomfort (engaging only with children's media, not brushing her teeth) to protect herself only to end up causing harm to herself and others (it was so gross when she spit on Anita I gasped at that part LOL).

thanks once again for playing my game!

thank you for reading!!

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First of all, I gasped at the white-out silhouette shot of Anita where her mantis shape became so visible !!! incredible foreshadowing there and I was kicking myself for not noticing earlier.

ha ha!! im glad you noticed what anita's bug was meant to be. i don't see many people point it out, but yes, she is based off of a european mantis.

Secondly, I feel super seen by this in such a strange way -- like surface matters aside; I think this level of callousness will say enough about me as is -- but I don't think many queers who were young and on the internet haven't been groomed like Anita has. In fact, anecdotally, it's a repeat occurrence for most of us. 

Thing is, for me and my brain chemicals, that ended up manifesting as moral OCD, compounded with still being a teenager during quarantine -- Sunny was the internal monologue instead of another 'me' like Anita. 

yeah... it's not an uncommon experience and it sucks that it even needs to be said. 

also, a lot of people who have commented on this game have said that at some points in their lives, they were sunny or had an internal sunny-style monologue. you're definitely not alone. in my case, i did have an internal sunny-style monologue at a certain point in my life, and it made me physically and mentally unwell. you need to chase her out of your brain with raid or something LOL

on your talk about using transgressive art as a coping mechanism and stuff... i think whether its helpful/hurtful is dependent on the individual. i'm no psych, so i can only speak from what i know... but some people find a lot of catharsis and strength from sharing that art — because they can connect with others who might've gone through similar. others might find that art violating and dehumanizing because of their own experiences. there's no one-size-fits-all solution, because people's responses to traumatic events vary. ( there's also a conversation to be had about the view that you need to have had a traumatic experience to justify making transgressive art in the first place... but i think that's outside of the scope of this visual novel. )

what i can 100% agree on is that as you said, algorithms have weaponised this discussion, which makes it very hard for people to talk about their experiences and their relationships to this type of art in a constructive way. too many people are obsessed with internet gotchas and reactionary labels. at the very least, i'd like for people on all sides of this discussion to treat each other with empathy, maturity and respect. 

thank you again for playing! i'm glad my game could leave an impact on you.

thank you so much for the kind words! i'm glad you could find catharsis in my game... 

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The direct references to media felt a bit surreal, or rather so real that I felt like I tapped into unreality for a bit.

just as planned. i've mentioned this in other comments but i wanted this situation to feel like something that could feasibly happen in the real world. glad that came across.

your commentary on sunny and anita's faults are really good too. i don't see a lot of people mention this with anita, because she is by far the more sympathetic of the two girls... but i did want to make it clear that her doormat/people-pleasing tendencies made her situation a lot worse. i behave similarly, so i wanted her situation to be a warning for myself.

thank you again for playing. i hope you can be gentle to yourself afterwards, this was not an easy read

thank you so much!

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yeah... it's a terrifying situation to be in and one i freak out about a lot. i do have to wonder if it hits for more offline creators...

thank you so much! i'm glad i could make a work that could impact you. 

thank you for playing the game!!! glad you had a lot of fun

thank you so much!! im glad my game could leave an impact on you. 

it wasnt easy to make this game, but the more i see people’s kind responses to it, the more im glad i didn’t pull my punches.

thank you for the thoughtful comment, i appreciate it!! (also love the thematically appropriate worm barricade LOL)

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 I really love how you weren't afraid to namedrop specific media, specifically ones that are so prevalent in spaces like the ones you're commenting on (like, sunny making anita do a "she-ra marathon" after weeks of coercing her and keeping her in an abusive household is so insanely funny and dark to me)

Not sure if this will make sense, but the entire art/sound direction INSTANTLY feels...musty? Like, you can tell we are in this horrible claustrophobic nightmare living situation in which sunny never brushes her teeth and probably doesnt clean either...

yessss.... i'm glad you noticed that too. i think sound/music can bring a lot to the table for a visual novel, and i'm glad my gut feeling turned out to be correct with my use of it.  sunny's house is definitely old and dusty.

your other compliments were lovely too — thank you! i eagerly await your essay on this game...

thank you so much!! i'm glad my game could leave an impact on you

thank you for playing!! i'm glad it could speak to you.

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glad you liked the buggy beloved excerpt LOL that was fun to write.

and i'm glad you liked the sound design too!

thank you so much! i'm glad this game could leave an impact on you

this game does so much with such a short wordcount. beautiful prose and dialogue, especially with snowy's dialogue. bringing out the killer em dash...

a depressing glimpse into a very real future. especially when the story gets into dani's headspace. it's scary how she interprets perfectly mundane statements in the workplace in the most bad-faith way possible, further isolating herself from genuine human connection in favor of escapism through the same kids cartoons, their gacha spinoffs — and of course, snowy. 

and the ending was tough to go through too. watching dani crash out at snowy and break her — but seeing snowy do nothing but continue to affirm her... ah...

there's more i could say but i feel like a lot of the commenters here have covered those bases more thoroughly than i could. nonetheless, well done. this is a tightly-made little vn.

this game does so much with such a short wordcount. beautiful prose and dialogue, especially with snowy's dialogue. bringing out the killer em dash...

a depressing glimpse into a very real future. especially when the story gets into dani's headspace. it's scary how she interprets perfectly mundane statements in the workplace in the most bad-faith way possible, further isolating herself from genuine human connection in favor of escapism through the same kids cartoons, their gacha spinoffs — and of course, snowy. 

and the ending was tough to go through too. watching dani crash out at snowy and break her — but seeing snowy do nothing but continue to affirm her... ah...

there's more i could say but i feel like a lot of the commenters here have covered those bases more thoroughly than i could. nonetheless, well done. this is a tightly-made little vn.

the art for this vn is gorgeous, especially the cgs and the way the camera movement pans with them. there's also a strong sense of place too, from the way the backgrounds are designed (the small roads, the close-together houses) to the slang emma and béibhinn use. 

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the ending where emma beat up béibhinn with the camogie stick and ripped up her passport was pretty shocking too. i could tell (by the time we're introduced to emma in this story) that she really was at the end of her rope with how her family has treated her — as the unfavorite, the one who has to break bad news, as the person who has to take responsibility while her baby sister gets to be as disorganized and immature as she wants... but there's also the anxiety that comes with her leaving for australia and never coming back.

yeah. good stuff!

thank you for playing my game! i'm glad it could make you feel less alone...

thank you so much..... im glad my vn could move you and capture the exhaustion of being around/ performing these behaviors.

i'm happy you like the visuals and the audio work too. i intentionally did not include any music in the vn bc it adds to the discomfort of this work. thank you for playing!

really fun visual novel!

saden is awesome to read the thoughts of.  i love how she views the world she got isekaied into as her evil power fantasy playground until she gets her ass brutally handed to her by vivu. and the evil envy she has towards her in great.
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i love the twin swords too. i think my favorite character in the vn was ingrislia. love her banter with saden and how seriously she takes her role. also whenever she weighs down saden as punishment... moe.  i wonder if she has any saber dna... i can sense the saber-ness from her. also, as soon as you introduced ingrislia i was like "please let there be an r18 scene with her" and lo and behold: you brought one to the table. thank you. 

also raspberry is really cute in the little time that we know her. i dunno if this was your intention with her character, but she comes across as a "two negatives makes a positive" type of character. she's made up of two fully evil characters (saden and vivu), but in that last scene she has with the girl, she evils so hard in her brain that she flips around to doing good. i love characters like that... i would love to see more adventures with that weird girl.

thanks for making this!

thank you for the kind words on everything!! i'm glad my game could speak to you, especially on the audiovisual side of things.

also the UI wrappings were actually about the horsehair worm LOL... the mantis is also there, but not in a place where she should be.

thank you for the kind words, ori! 

yeah, i agree. so many stories about social media are surface-level explorations of addiction from the good ol' "like and subscribe." but they don't delve into... why people seek them in the first place. 

i'm glad the realism of the interactions came across — i wanted them to hit hard for the reader. 

thank you again for playing my game!!

thank you for playing! i'm glad this work could move you...

phenomenal prose and dialogue writing. and the fact that this is your first visual novel? what a debut.

hard-hitting intro aside, reading through each chapter felt like a perfect snapshot into the hell that is 2010s-2020s america. #giveelsaagirlfriend, late-night talks about gendered socialization expectations (that one reminded me of some uncomfortable social encounters i had), how every act of ours is recorded, connected to someone else's suffering. the exhaustion and cynicism that comes with witnessing said suffering on a daily basis.

thank you for making this! 

i love the mundane slice-of-life horror of this game. watching two young women settle into an apartment and treat it like their own while the true tenants are bound, gagged and fed table-scraps on the floor. the fact that stuff like that (and the barricade of chairs) are barely commented upon makes the horror even stronger for me.

my favorite part of this game is when the prose focuses on the living environments, and treats them as characters. what does someone's furniture, carpet, wallpaper, belongings say about them as a person? if the walls could talk, what would they say? 

...

also i saw the tesco and knew immediately that this story was set in the uk. awesome

thank you for playing my game, and the thoughtful comment. i appreciate it!

 a lot of people have told me that they've been both a sunny and an anita throughout their lives. i've also been both, and i'm not proud of the things i did as either of them. i punished myself for that.

but at a certain point, i realized that punishing myself for my past behavior didn't help me move forward and improve as a person. rather, what helped was figuring out what set off the anxious, controlling feelings, and finding ways to express them in ways that didn't hurt or push away. it can be anything from writing a diary (which i do every night to track my mood) to creating a tiny discord server with like-minded people to chat (and yell) about shared interests in a confined space. (and those like-minded people can end up being your friends!) 

what happens after the ending of ckofntac... i'll leave for you to think about. maybe anita will find a way to love herself and her art again. maybe, in another universe, sunny will look into herself and approach subjects from a place of curiosity and understanding versus fear. 

also. i'm glad you liked the sound design and the visuals! \o/ thanks for enjoying them. and thank you for enjoying my TTCC fanwork too! that was a blast to write.

thank you so much! i'm glad my game could leave an impact on you... take it easy afterwards, okay?

thank you for playing! YOWIE!! (yaoi?!!) indeed, and i'm glad you like the presentation! \o/ 

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i was going to start this comment with ‘anita i think we gotta kill this guy’ but uhhh situation Handled. 

i'll leave you to chew on the ending of the work! for ckofntac, i encourage people to interpet anita's statement as they please. 

once again, thanks for playing!

thank you so much!!! mentioned this on bsky too but im a massive fan of your storytelling so to receive this is an honor for me.

"Annie. Hang up. We need to work on Blueberry's route." is now a permanent addition to my lexicon.

it's "lock in" for all of the worst reasons!!!

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i see a lot of my younger self in sunny, especially the way she talks about cartoons, so focused on whether or not something is "good rep", needing to make sure everyone in the room knows her morals and that she is a GOOD PERSON! it feels so completely shameful to admit that. it was almost a relief to see how terrible she became, that i could no longer see my reflection in her.

yeah, i've noticed quite a few people have related to sunny, esp earlier on in the story. so you're not alone. i was also very similar when i was younger... it's an anxious, unsustainable and exhausting existence, trying to prove to the world over and over that you're good, you're safe, etc.  

i loved how much anita's inner dialogue differed from how she actually expresses herself (up until the end). i could feel her fear of articulating any kind of dissent. i felt the panic and dread of someone not liking you, being mad at you, saying things about you where you can't see them. 

"you're so gay" and "looking respectfully" were other specific turns of phrase that felt just so. fucking perfect in how they're deployed. my skin was crawling. it was like being in the 2010s again in the absolute most nightmare hell way possible. for most of the game it feels like anita is still stuck there, unable to escape.

"it was too easy for someone like me to become one."

god. we are all too afraid of ourselves. phenomenal work. 

we really are. i was terrified, writing this work, but the response towards it has been so, incredibly kind. i hope it can, at the very least, encourage people to be a little more thoughtful with the way they treat others. the world is tough enough as-is.

the rest of your commentary was lovely too. thank you again for playing, i really appreciate it...

thank you so much! \o/ i'm glad you could play my game...

and i'm glad this game could provide a space for discussion on the pressure-cooker feeling in current fandom/adjacent spaces. i hope this game made you feel less alone.

glad you liked the layout/design too! it was really fun to come up with... i think it turned out well. 

thank you for the recommendation!!!

thank you for playing!!!! \o/ everyone here did a fantastic job, and im glad you had a great time!

thank you for playing anyway! i'm glad you had fun

thank you ALTER, your comments and critiques are amazing as always! \o/ 

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yes, i really went hard with the sound design and poses/expressions here... the latter is my strong point, so i wanted to use that to its fullest here, with microexpressions and poses galore. the former, i'm very proud of too. especially the scene where sunny dives into the lake. the smoothness of the sound transitions... it's nice. smiles.

> i smell new england in that lake.

you hit the nail right on the head. all of the places i mentioned are real places in maine.

> every chance I get I say “I want to see writing from people’s niche experiences” and this is one of the hyperspecific drills I’ve been dreaming of. why are so many japanese visual novel greats written with hyper specific locations, weather, net slang, family relations? it doesn’t disturb the game presentation, it adds to it. the designs are just so perfectly a cross between a game design and someone one could meet…more waiter please. or stop here because I feel like I’ve been satisfied (JUST KIDDING!!! WAITER?) 

YES exactly!!!! the more hyperspecific a vn gets the better it is... first JVNs that came to mind for me (under these criteria) are higurashi and hollow ataraxia. i also love your comment on my character designs... that was also the intent. sunny and anita are people you could feasibly meet — but they do have a bit of that OTT-ness to their designs as well.

>  i also laughed when the concept of “toxic yuri about wholesome yuri” unfolded. direct references to media - awesome. directly pulling from literature- awesome. directly making a media about opinions about media - awesome.

its yuriception baybeeeeee LOL.... the direct references were intentional in this case. i mentioned to another commenter that it was like ikuhara's intentional references in penguindrum, so soon after they happened. "the scars have to stay as scars" etc. 

onto the crits! (tldr: i agree with all of them)

if i had more time, i would've loved to go into sunny's and anita's headspaces more... give them 1-2 more scenes each, or something. the dishwasher idea is fantastic... sunny mulling to herself as she does anita's chores. more of sunny's healing exercises but from anita's POV versus sunny's... towards the end of writing i did find myself wanting to play in their heads a little more.  also YES i would've loved to make the buildup — the calm before the storm — longer too. presenting sunny as a safe person for anita and them comforting each other before sunny's uglier traits start to surface. they are fun toys for me to play with. 

thank you once again for the kind words! i took a rest day today to play some games and chill, and i went out for pizza and ice cream with my twin yesterday :> it was lovely...