itch.io

thank you thank you thank you. reading your comment was really touching. thank you for sharing. i’m really glad my little reflection connected with you. i’m also glad you continued breathing ;3

Thank you for sharing this.

[edit]: I know it wasn’t the point of the essay. But, could relate to the eye-liner issue as well, as I always had baggy eyes (not sure this is the right English word for it >.<). So, no cool-girl eyeliner for me either. Not saying this to diminish your experience. I heard the eye lid surgery is a topic many Asian girls living in western countries consider. And even when they go through with it, the othering consists. It’s infuriating.

I like using Godot by now, even though coding is still a very time-consuming trial and error process for me. I found the font support fantastic and I guess that motivated me to stick with it. I also like that you can change the interface of the engine. Sometimes these small things keep me motivated to stick with a program. Glad you picked it up again and again.

Thank you Skye for playing. It’s very cool to hear, that there is something universal in these thoughts and wants. It’s also very cool that the music lined up so well for you, even without any dynamic queues on my end ^.^

This was really good. I’m not sure I actually finished the game. I made it into the void, but I guess the void is just void. It was very lonely with out my bratty little companion and the music it played.

I loved your selection of songs and having music of a friend of mine in there that I listen to on my phone was such a nice surprise. You two really did make a large game. And the story was really intriguing. Kind of a bit darksouls-esque, being late to the party in a world that has already gone to shit. I really liked the little meta-narrative about player verbs.

That little hint on the cheater’s map had my just sitting there with my mouth agape: I can simply do what??

You made my font look so cool in all the situations you used it in.

Really cool experience. I’m glad you made it :3

Oh wow. You really fulfilled the assignment of a noise jam entry in every possible aspect O .o

You were relentless with every aspect, and it got overwhelming and claustrophobic pretty quick. I liked how you managed to make me feel the normal day to day life activities getting soured and over-written by intrusive thoughts. Coffee pour-overs rule though ^_^

Also the text that would move away from the mouse was such a cool effect.

This was so incredibly awesome. The writing feels so relatable, and is full of an eerie suspense. The graphic design is such a treat. The shader on the pictures is so riso-esque. And the music is just so well produced (isyourguy’s guitar sounds are so delicious).

I loved playing it. There is so much in the style that I find inspiring and aligning with my own creative direction. Thank you for sharing that game. It was very inspiring indeed.

I loved all the details you put into the newspaper presentation. The small articles you hide there. How the dialog also uses the justified text similar to the paper. How you wove together history and fiction in such a believable way. That Ghost has an appearance!!

The illustrations with the paper backgrounds were so lovely. The photos used during the transitions and in the newspapers added a lot of context.

I loved how you hinted at Ida’s trans-ness, and how a supply shortage would increase dysphoria. It’s so much fun to read the Austrian and German text injections. The various characters, their affiliations, and dialogs felt very relatable. Ida and Ghost feel similar in their some way to me, even though Ida was a lot more depressed. They both feel very earnest and sweet. Spending this time with her was simply pleasant in a different way.

Also: Delicious Egg mentioned!

Thank you for playing and commenting. It makes me very happy to hear it resonated with you.

Thank you frog for playing! It really took a lot longer than I thought to finish, and the thought-cloud was something that I had rough idea what I wanted it to do, but I didn’t expect it to escalate the way it did. But, I’m really happy with the result.

Also: Dithering is so cool. I feel I can’t make games without it anymore >.<

I’m sorry for my late reply, Sometimes I oversee some of my notifications.

Thank you for playing and commenting ^_^ It always makes me happy to read that others can feel the emotions I wanted to convey.

This was such an incredibly beautiful game.

I’m amazed by what Denhop was able to achieve on a technical level within Ren’py’s limitations. The 3D art was stunning. There was such a wide range of visual styles used within the game: 3D stills, 3D videos, 2D scribbles, irl videos … And it all felt cohesive. The sheer amount of assets created for this game, and the numerous scenes are astounding. The animations were so well crafted and believable. The light was so perfectly used to create the various moods. The recurring motif of the swaying leaves in various media was so calming (most of the time). Denhop’s use of scenes and pictures was simply lavish – no corners cut, just an insane amount of details to create atmosphere. The glitchy music (as well as the silence) did such a fantastic job to back the story.

As a typography-lover this game had me smitten. The whole framing left space for the text to appear, and there are endless amounts of screens in the game that could just be printed like that. But also the examples in the later part of the game, were the text became unreadable were very effective. There is a scene were the two trade a secret, and the secret is printed on screen, but the camera zoomed out so far that it wasn’t readable anymore. It drove me nuts, because I wanted to know, but at the same time it was such a clever way to keep the secret between the two girls. I’m not sure how it was achieved on a technical level, but at least in a few scenes the text is part of the image. And the one that I liked most was were the text in game was the shadow of a 3D text or text texture projecting on a wall <3<3<3

The writing was gorgeous. The switching between narration, thoughts and “audible” dialog worked so well. It felt profound, but also fittingly angsty/angry for two late-teenagers. And the sheer amount of conversations that had this level of depth, made it feel surprisingly real. It was just a very well balanced mix of mundane and reflective. I loved how the characters were able to voice their feelings in such profound ways, but that they had trouble sometimes feeling those convictions themselves. They were at times brutally honest, but their love was a framework in which this was possible without hurting each other.

To me the game felt very gentle, but also very dreary – like some summerdays can feel exhausing just by how slow they seem to progress. It was a very good experience, and left so much space for those two to get to know and love each other.

thank you ^^

vapour-y glory ftw!!! Thank you for playing. I’m happy to hear that my little game is able to communicate that feeling to others.

It is funny, that with every noise jam entry I reflect on something that happened and feel called out by my own game that I’m always falling back into the same patterns >.< (still not backing up often enough, still wasting a lot of time scrolling and feeling down afterwards).

you’re welcome. thank you for your reply. i wish you the best of luck with the story expansion. it is interesting to me, that it seems i wasn’t the only one uncomfortable with the premise of non-con violence. i’m interested how you develop the story further without that constraint. i really loved how kinetic you made the whole game. well, and as mentioned, you have such an exceptional skill in interface design.

thank you!!! i hope it was a somewhat save environment to engage with that stress <.< it makes me very happy to hear, that the idea i had translated so well to different players. thanks again for all your input on the game. it wouldn’t have become what it is now without your input and ideas ^_^

I really liked the whole visual presentation of the game. The UI was splendid. I loved the font you used, and how it all created a cohesive identity that tied back to the light motif. Bee’s sprites were so expressive. The many small facial changes translated the characters emotions so well. The effects used throughout the game were so visceral and I really liked the transition shader.

The music was very well selected and I felt that the original and the royalty-free songs created a very fitting melange. I also liked the added reverb to the FX-sounds.

The story didn’t get me as much. I felt detached to the characters. Like, I was just observing a couple who’s reasons for sticking together were opaque to me and who’s actions towards each other were inconsequential. I would have liked to learn more about the two’s motivations and see how they reacted to the each other’s behavior. But, I think Uri’s attraction to the halo was a very smart metaphor for the sometimes inexplicable attachment that can keep folks in bad relationships. I think the writing also captured pretty well, how chat-speak and IRL-speech can be wildly different with a person.

reading your comment had me smile from ear to ear!!! thank you!!!

thank you bean. the general idea for the game is based on a morning where i started off in a really good mood and did a little dancey dance, but at some point while drinking coffee i saw read some news on my phone that resulted in a drastic mood switch. i wanted to capture that deterioration, because it was really frustrating how all of that positive energy could evaporate so quickly.

i’m glad that the 3d type worked well. i wanted to use it for some time, but was unsure because 3d type is always troublesome to implement.

btw. the rotatable camera is something that your games inspired me to include ^^

thank you mirai!!!!! i’m happy to hear that you liked it. i guess i’m not alone in this. i try to get better habits with my phone use in the morning, but it is difficult to stay disciplined >.<

thank you!!!! i’m glad that the visualisation of the mood shift doom scrolling can provoke translates well. the shader contains parts of the sps shader. so in part, the puppy shader helped bring together the video and the 3d section ^^ sneki’s fingerprints can be traced are all over this game ;)

thank you for the feedback on the mouse input. i treat mouse controls often as an afterthought, as i’m such a keyboard baby. as a temporary solution the space key can be used to trigger the quit and continue buttons. if i patch the game i try to incorporate these mouse controls ^^

it would not have turned out so nice without you. thank you for joining!!!! your music is so cool!!!!

The game is a few years old by now, and the pandemic years are long past. But, I like to get reminded from time to time. I had hope that society would not just get back to normal, but keep what we learned: Giving space in public, slowing down, not driving all the time, using a video call instead of traveling to a location. I know that the experience each one had during that time differed wildly. I also remember that hearing live music again was magical. And there was a kind of rediscovery of the world. But, I also mourn the things we lost, that especially quite and introverted people benefited from.

Anyway, I love this pixel 3D style and the ambience was really nice.

that is indeed a consolation ^^ thank you bean!! and, thank you for reading.

I finally found time to play the game up to and including the epilog. Yay.

I enjoyed the story and found it quite relatable. There is a certain feeling you evoked in me with the epilog. This snapshot of a possible future that might bring happiness, even though it is not yet realized. And I appreciated how kind you let Violet speak about the small achievements she made each day.

I also thought the Lain-style shadows during the supermarket scenes were really cool.

Awww, this was beautiful. The interface looks gorgeous. The snake that crawls on mouse-movement, the flowers that gently sway in the wind, and the manuscript writing. You made the 3D assets work so well with the 2D elements.

And, yes, I had to laught at the last sentence xD

Font is also really nice and the extreme drop shadow works well with in this context. It kinda is eerie. The chromatic keyboard lines really add to this feeling.

Great work, and I’m looking forward to see more of these 3D frames, if you so incline ^^

thank you bean. i was looking forward to hear your thoughts on the game and am over the roof that you liked it so much.

i would be interested in how ophelia and audrey continue another story in this setting. i find no.7 and typhoon compellingly believable and the political setting so frustratingly well analysed.

it was this fascinating watching harm.less and mirai create this art on such a consistent level and love how well they work together.

the cynic ending is my favourite too ^^ but it wouldn’t hit as well without otrr. otrr made me feel very powerless and shocked.

thank you for the compliment //^_^//

i too think the story is unsettlingly evocative of possible political scenarios.

It is not really an ending but an additional scene in between.

fuck yeah! thank you <3

She really is!! ^_^

That was enthralling. I had no clue what kind of mystery would evolve here, and I was torn between moments of sadness, disgust, and anxiety.

I didn’t expect to find myself in Tels the way I did. But, her obsessive clawing for knowledge is a pattern that I recognized with myself to a degree.

Bean’s art was beautiful and it’s wonderful to see her artistic skill grow at such an incredible rate. The switch of artstyles in between was really starteling and unnerving. It matched the scene and how unnatural Kit behaved and how scared Tels felt.

The music was fitting the moods very well. The sound had a very particular feel to it, that mixed well with the visuals. And, I liked the small details like the switching colors of the frames, and the fancy “fl” ligature.

This was awesome. It felt to me like a zine coming to life. There are so many techniques in this that are inspiring, the way you moved the screen to were the text would happen, the long build-up of the scrolling animation, the turning of the screen, the dynamic music that changed on transition. And i love the font and how you made it work in such an endearing way for this poem.

I already read your zine “looking on writing black characters,” and I really appreciate the insights you gave there. This zine was no different. I like how nuanced you write. At the end of my read I was pretty angry with the way itch treats a selection of creators with plausible deniability – leaving them hanging and in precarious situations.

My games are still very much in the SFW category, and I learn about new games mostly through my feed and jam entries. That’s why it completely went past me, that the de-indexing was still an ongoing issue (I wasn’t even aware friends of mine were affected >.<).

I learn about new games through recommendations, but when I first started looking for trans rep games a year ago, what i found through itch’s search was very limited. I have to assume this has only become worse over time. This added barrier is especially dire considering how scarce media portraying people from minorities in a fair light is already.

To me the trans fem dev space I found here feels like a trading ring for zines: Very personal, at times transgressive, showing a wide variety of skills, and breaking with aesthetic norms. I’m glad I found this space. It becoming less and less discoverable is really dark.

Thank you for sharing your experience and shedding a light on the issue.

That was pretty scary to me. I scaled the game window to a minuscule size during the ending, because I’m a scaredy cat.

I loved the mix of media, the choice of fonts – especially the one instance where you change it.

You managed to translate these very oppressive feelings and anxieties really palpable.

more fonts are more gooder!!!!

the aspect of a release being absolute i feel as well. but, it’s also a chance to try something that you noticed during development could be interesting, but wouldn’t fit the current project.

That looping text is so good. This “Submission to a jam that only I partake in” seems to become a thing ^^

I liked the first line indent in the history (I know a really trivial detail, but I enjoyed it).

Game dev really is a complicated thing: Drawing you in, leaving you stranded if you are not working on a game, and then it’s over. And the thing you worked and aimed for is over. To me I start to feel detached from my games as soon as I publish them. They have a life of their own now, and I hope they will do well. But I can’t bring myself to going back …

Your artwork is sooooo good. Damn.

I was a bit scared what would happen during the night. That was a tense switch from the day light fun.

That was indeed very sweet. I love how the apostrophes fit so neatly in between u’s and n’s. Thank you for sharing that journey with us.

Your guitar playing on this was rad. Unbelievable considering how new you are to this instrument!

That was intense!

Not sure I can form a complex analysis of what I liked and felt. I liked the backgrounds to start with. Though they were heavily dithered you could still see all the details that went into modelling them. I liked the small facial animations that I could only see through side glances while reading. They made those characters a lot more likeable. I found Nikko’s heavy feelings of having disappointed someone very relatable. We left the story at a point where now I want to know what happens in the aftermath of these events >.< You fiend—leaving us in the dark!!

^__^ It makes me happy that this game started all these comments. The crash of this particular hard drive happend years ago. So, it doesn’t pain me. I was able to recover a lot of the images. Just some of the RAW files were lost—which isn’t too bad, considering I do have the JPGs of most of them.

But the shock back then was pretty big. There are also quite a lot of files that I was able to recover, but would need to edit. And that task was too much at some point, so some images are still not fixed. Having photography as a hobby you accumulate so many pictures. If someone wanted to go through them all it would take so much time. I only do it from time to time, and only certain time frames (mostly to look for a specific motive), and that is really nostalgic and neat. So, I guess I’m still glad I have so many of them. But, I do feel like a hoarder a bit >.<

Whenever I come back to this game to read comments, I’m reminded that I should make a backup. The gaps between them are still pretty large <.<