this is something I really needed to play, right now. I love the affirmation in identifying with the monstrous. talking to Lucy and Maggie was my favourite part. Lucy especially speaks to what I think I've been grappling with, I love what she says about changing her outside to match her inside. That's exactly what I need, too. Thank you for making this beautiful game.

is it possible to reach challenges in "softcapped at 1"? I can't tell if prestiging again and again will accomplish anything. and is it possible to reach 1e10 prestige energy? it seems like it's meant to be impossible...

anyways, this was fun! I found pushing the reset time to be an exciting challenge, although it also got anxiously difficult trying to push it under the 8 second mark. I'm also not sure why that milestone lights up green early- that really confused me. I really appreciate your comment explaining how to proceed through and past that point, there were some fine details I had missed :)

oh wow, I've heard about the cartoons but I didn't realize they had original characters just for it. well, I guess they would have had to come up with new characters considering how limited the source material is for drawing an entire cartoon out of it!

and yes things are going well over at GT, thank you for your positive thoughts :)

I love this, the voice acting is fun and the story is amusingly grim. the sound design also feels perfectly discomforting for what a bizarre situation we find ourselves in. it's a bit more crass than I expected, but there's nothing wrong with that, the humour is still well played imo.
I found the Zezmeron ending the easiest to get, even when trying for a different fail state- maybe there's an interaction or two I missed that would have made it easier to manage that meter, I dunno! but regardless, it was funny enough for me to keep retrying even with how unpredictable and frustrating progress can be. also, I'm curious where the name "Zezmeron" comes from?

I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, thank you for commenting!

I really like the spatial mechanics here, getting around - and avoiding getting stuck - is a fun puzzle. I mostly avoided combat until the last part of the game, but I like the trade-offs the dice give in how you can choose to use them. spawning enemies with coloured dice seems like a good way to get more of that die type, though you better be ready for dealing with all of those enemies... also, good music and great art!

lovely art and palette choices. it's delightful to watch this queer story unfold

I've learned a lot about elfenkind in this wonderful and entertaining journey !

absolutely beautiful. I relate so much to the protagonist and this was a wonderful journey to go along <3 the ending chapter made me so happy I almost cried. and the art is simply adorable :)

a very sweet and cozy game :)

this was wonderful. I mostly focused on Emily, since I had a feeling she would be like me and well, I was right! it makes me happy to be able to relate so much to her, even though so much of what happens is so hard.

I was honestly uncomfortable with how Qiyui thought about Emily at first, most notably with how she notices something about her voice. it made me anxious about what Emily's portrayal might be like. but that tension went away as the story progressed. and it helped to realize that Emily was being viewed from the perspective of a teenager who didn't understand yet, but had a non-judgemental attitude. I remember being a confused teenager who didn't understand ourselves or others like us, but being accepting with an open mind, like Qiyui. despite my initial anxiety, it feels good to reflect on our past like this.

I'm looking forward to playing the sequel next :)

I appreciate how this game handles Amira being too hard on herself, and especially how Kenta is able to help. I've been in states like Amira ends up in, getting caught in a loop of self-negativity that spirals worse and worse. In some ways it's hard seeing such experiences reflected back at me, but more than that it feels good to be understood. Even more than that, it makes me happy seeing Kenta support Amira, which reminds me of the people in my life who support me. Thank you for handling something so personal and difficult so well.

this was great! there's a lot of good moments of working problems out with partners, and direct commentary on social problems. Val's route was my favourite, I really enjoyed learning more about these characters and the difficult world they're in

absolutely wonderful seeing a take on the visual and mechanical style of Antichamber, but in a setting I can relate to :) the visual metaphors are strong, and lovely to reflect on!

really fun puzzle game :) sometimes it's hard to see where the levers are, which is unfortunate, but a bit of experimentation with moving around helps reveal where everything is. when I got to the second cutscene I thought it was going to be the end of the game, and oh gosh the last level is a doozy to figure out!

this was wonderfully expressive. I love the addition and removal of layers to the music. I didn't run into more than one glitchy memory, and I wish I had seen more of it because I am fascinated by how playfully vague the platforming and means of moving forwards is, which, of course, ties in very strongly with the narrative themes! the ending especially caught me by surprise.

I have had a hard time moving forwards, in my life, and this has given me space to reflect on that. perhaps the steps needed to go on don't always look like they can be walked on.

as a plural system with trans femme members who are dogs, this made us so so happy to read :) thank you both so much for making this!

simply lovely :) Gemma and Ofelia's interactions are so sweet. the narration is charming to read.  your writing is very earnest about commenting on problems in our daily lives while affirming that we can make happiness for ourselves despite it

https://skirtdingo.itch.io/secret-of-the-wumpus

I'm glad to hear that's been fixed, thank you!

I assumed this would be easy but I actually had a surprisingly hard time! I got 7/15 at the end. sometimes when I got it right, I felt like it was obvious why. other times, a choice I discarded as obviously not by a person was the right one. I dislike a lot of "AI" art and I don't think my performance challenges that, but this does make me think about assumptions (especially the ones I make) that go into examining a piece of art.

this was really nice and gay, I love the world building and the non-binary cast :)

I had a blast playing this! I love the tight constraints of managing health, xp, and consumables. exploring the world to find the points I can push forwards through is so rewarding. I just finished playing through the challenge mode, making great use of the zero-death reward from a normal playthrough :)

playing this reminded me a bit of Desktop Dungeons in terms of how open information is, and the tactic of clearing a screen of enemies by taking as much damage as you can handle, leveling up from the near-death enemies, and then taking care of the rest. it feels good to pull that off!

I have mixed feelings about the spellbook. I love the tactical variety in it and how powerful it can be, because it can open up so many solutions to getting through tough situations, but at the same time it can trivialize the difficulty... however, I think I'd prefer it being overpowered, than underpowered and thus likely frustrating to manage.

one more thing on my mind... when I was first playing the game, I really thought that all the yellow stones throughout the world would turn out to be important, their placements seemed so particular and obscure. I know they (minor spoiler) visually change when the world changes, but that's all... it was fun to speculate on what they could mean, though!

I really liked your use of the game's story to talk about where you're at with developing this engine, what you want to do next, and what you're having a hard time with. it's always refreshing seeing other developers air their thoughts like this, like a public diary. and that it's happening inside of a game engine in-development makes it fascinating, because we get to play with what you talk about as you talk about it.

writing good stories and narrative games can be hard, but very rewarding to keep trying. good luck with your projects in the future, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what you do next!

I like this, thank you for making it. it's short and to the point.

this was wonderful :) thank you for writing and sharing this story!

I found myself fascinated within the first few minutes, and that fascination has kept with me for a couple days now. I've replayed it quite a few times to see what new insights, letters, or surprises a different choice can bring. normally, I would never try to exhaust the permutations each choice can bring, because I don't like to do things that feel wrong or cruel, as a player or as the character. in this game, I feel like refusing to try something different would be the wrong choice. it feels reasonable in this terrifying and deadly situation to be willing to do anything. and it's not like things could get worse...

what especially drives my willingness to experiment is a constantly shifting sense of how I feel about Ilar. one session, I might distrust them utterly, and try to act against them- but in doing so I wound their feelings, and they respond by showing what feels like genuine care. next time, I might try to go along with them eagerly because I want to help them, but a suddenly grim reaction of theirs makes me feel like I made a mistake in trusting them too much. I genuinely don't know what I make of them, and I love navigating that tension.

the art is beautiful, especially the character portraits, and the details of the handwriting. and the soundtrack has such variety! the music is always enveloping, and it was one of the first things that really drew me in. it does a lot to drive the feeling of every scene.

one thing I'd like to see done differently though, is for dialogue lines to be more clear about who said what. the history function identifies every line, which is good, but when I'm reading dialogue for the first time, I found myself getting easily confused when Ilar or the protagonist spoke multiple times in a row.

every aspect of this world you've created makes me want to learn as much as I can about it. I haven't looked at the Fan Pack yet, but I expect to enjoy it for that reason! and I so look forward to exploring Act 2 when it's out, and what else comes in the future!

this is so cute :) I love all of their different personalities!

thank you for making this. we had a similar experience early on to our self-realization of "oh, I "know" that trans women exist but that's obviously not what I am...". it does a lot of good to be able to reflect on what made us feel that way.

wonderfully sweet and gay :)

you're welcome for the comment :) I'm glad it made you happy. and thank you for the link, I'll be sure to check them out!

thank you for making this

this was beautiful :) it was hard to read at times, because of how painfully relatable a lot of it is. but it also helps me consider my own experiences. particularly early on, when Good struggles to identify the oppressive society they live in as the cause of their severe stress, and resultant physical pain. I have been working on realizing just how big of an effect stress has had on my body, and I'm grateful to see those connections drawn so clearly.

there are also so many happy feelings here! seeing Good start to discover themselves with Loud is wonderful. Loud is so caring, and tries so much to be understanding. it makes me so happy to see them together, and makes me feel glad for my own loved ones. I was close to tears of gay joy at some points.

I've been listening to the ending music on loop while I write this. I'm hesitant to just turn it off because it feels so strongly associated with the comfort and love shown in the ending I got. I want to keep these warm feelings with me.

I think my favourite part was when autopilot took me to -10,000 meters and I couldn't figure out how to get out of the void

(some spoilers below)

I had a blast playing this! I love the freeform nature of the puzzles, both in how generous (as opposed to having very exact requirements) the solutions are, and that I never needed to push through ones I found unenjoyably difficult. and even then, when I felt like I didn't know where to start with any given puzzle, I loved thinking about ways to break out of the wall boundaries to find secrets.

and oh my gosh, the secrets! the secret rooms are so fun to figure out, even when there's no "point" to the empty rooms. the little visual and title gags each one has is its own reward! the extra puzzles in some of the level hubs, leading to the secret warps, were especially fun. after I realized I could go back to the second main hub to use the new skull power, it was interesting to imagine what the later "previews" for the televisions and amoebas suggested about their upcoming powers.

the visual design throughout is wonderful, both of your art styles combine in great ways! everybody in this game is so full of character, in their designs and speaking personalities. there's a lot of charm in seeing how open and comfortable a lot of these folk are, especially in how they navigate sex, as well their readiness to admit faults and face it. the magical boyfriends and Yippie are my favourites. and the way the point of the game is to help cure The Grmmble feels good! evoking what Yippie says in the ending, this wasn't a quest to save the world, but to take care of people in this queer community, and that's lovely. all that said, one character that stands out to me in a negative way was the shitty uncle. his dialogue was unpleasant in a way that, for me, broke the tone of the rest of the game. but his prescence is ultimately minimal, so he didn't hamper my experience further than that one meeting with him.

I think my favourite single area was Pumpkinland, because the design has such a funny sense of approach, like it's subverting the sensibilities of the rest of the game. Moonfog was kind of my least favourite area, since I had such a hard time with all of the puzzles there- so far I've only been able to complete two of them. however, I know I tend to struggle with puzzles where I need to visualize future states, I typically can only work with what I can currently see. so it's hard for me to say if there's a significant difficulty spike there, or if it's just that the skulls mechanic is the toughest for me personally to work with.

also, the soundtrack freaking rocks all the way through!!

thank you both so much for making such a wonderful game! it makes me happy to see what y'all are working on these days. I look forward to whatever comes next!

bit of a bug report: I'm playing on linux, and The Violet Cathedral area isn't working properly. every item appears as the bag of cashews, and I can't collect any of them so far- I've reached the end of The Grand East Maze N, and Trigger Happy.

I have been playing the game on my Linux (Debian) system and I haven't noticed any issues!

I have been having such a wonderful time playing through this game! your senses of humour really shine through in a lot of the details. there's so many wonderful moments to experience, and the plot threads throughout tie it all together so well, especially with the memories in the mushroom zones. I think my favourite parts are the museum thief (such a clever "here you go, have fun breaking the game with this!" mechanic), and the cat songs available on the music player.

something I want to focus on is how glad I am to see the "playful" settings in the options menu, some of which I consider to be accessibility features. I found the bouncy platforming to be too frustrating to control early on, but setting the jump power to high made it a lot more manageable for me. at first I felt worried that I was playing the game "wrong", and I kept thinking about whether or not I was 'supposed' to get to certain areas so easily. but I realized that I wasn't being fair to myself. I found the game more fun and relaxed by changing the settings- and what could be so "wrong" about playing the game the way I enjoyed best?

following that, I have two suggestions for additional settings: independent volume controls for music and sound effects, and a text speed scale (including instant speed). I don't know how much work that would be to add to Clockwork Calamity retroactively, but I'd appreciate such options being considered in future games!

this was a delight to play! the new rules each area adds were fun to puzzle over. I'd love to see what you do with the setting in the future!

this was delightful! the last moments made me want to cry, it's so heartfelt and sweet. the conversations and video calls with polly chan's mom remind me a lot of learning to cook from my own mom- stressful at times, but rewarding to accomplish.