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LMAO EXACTLY THO

thank you very much!! ;v;

Everyone lauding the art of this game is absolutely right, you did amazing work. I think in particular I want to praise the way you work different kinds of textures into the visual aesthetic. The sound design in the doctor's visit parts is really well done too, I remember the bits where the background noise from a medical institution gets replaced by a low drone - that was particularly striking. I liked the menu theme a lot too, I've mentioned this before but it really does remind me of Yume Nikki or early RPGMaker Horror games in the best way possible.

The one small criticism I have is I wish the text didn't auto-skip on occasional one-liners, rollback seemed to have some issues when I tried to rewind to read the skipped line properly.

A wonderful (?) portrayal of the tightrope walk between resting and rotting.
Thank you for this!

played this at boshi's playtesting thing in nyc, cute little cosmic horror narrative game that made me curious about its worldbuilding more

lovely little intro to smth ive always been curious about but never did any actual research on.. thank you!

One of my favorite entries so far. Definitely made me think a lot about the world around me and how I engage with it.

It might seem juvenile in comparison but reading Annie's experiences navigating the arbitrary window of socially "acceptable" artistic expression Sunny set up, I was reminded of the process of migrating to the US and applying for a green card that I went through last year. Then, I was legally advised to scrub my socials completely clean of things that could potentially set off someone from border security or the Department of Homeland Security.

I had to softblock a friend that happened to be a hacktivist, delete pro-Palestine posts off Bsky and Insta, and delete any allusions of me being transgender - never entirely knowing what was "acceptable" and what wasn't. It's easy to see how online fandom policing and migration regimes on a macro-level really are just two sides of the same authoritarian coin, especially so in an internet with eroding anonymity ran by Thiel, Musk, and Zuckerberg.

Of course, I was aware of this on some level but as someone who has only ever been on the peripheries of fandom this VN did a really good job emphasizing that.

Another thing I thought about while playing is that while I was never someone to police others in fandom spaces like this, I've definitely impulsively cut off friends out of nowhere for giving me the "ick" in even a more benign way or out of fear that their preferences would reflect negatively on me. So while the terror that Annie experiences isn't relatable to me per se, I did feel guilt for cutting off people in my life out of the blue. 

Some other things I enjoyed about the VN were its art style and curation of sound effects. I do think it felt a little contrived that Annie wouldn't just return to her house in walking distance. Also, Sunny having bad breath/not brushing her teeth might've detracted a bit from her scariness tbh - I think she would've been even more terrifying if she was completely presentable to her workplace and just acted insane at home/online.

No notes otherwise, this was great.

YES!!! it was super important to me to depict the strain external pressure like this can create or add to queer relationships, especially in the current-day sociopolitical climate. thank you!

thanks a ton!!

this is still so cool to see!! our first bit of fanart ;o; thank youuu

thank you kai!! really wish i had some more time, it might be a setting i would like to revisit in the future..

thank YOU for playing!!

Thank you!!

I have in the meantime looked at the script again and found it's actually 1.8k words rather than 1k, hah 😭 But thank you very much!! And I'm glad I could convey the atmosphere well. 

thank you, bitekiosk!!

thank you very much, boss!! you GET it ;v;

can you post that gif of yui being crushed by a hydraulic press again

bruhhhhh lmao

spoilers below

holy shit lmao i want to stress i mean this positively: this is like watching a murder mystery and getting to the end of the episode only for the detective to unveil the villains plan: a comically convoluted rube-goldberg-machine that takes 10 mins of explanation but you CANNOT take your eyes off it because of how crazy and entertaining it is 

truly insane, that was so so fun to read. i do also wanna say the prose within the prose and the lil animations were wonderful

yeah, this was really fucking phenomenal. i had high expectations for you three and this still blew me away. 

prose and audio-visual aesthetics come together so incredibly well - i cant really talk about say the fascinating academic writing in the intro without mentioning the pictures you curated alongside it, for instance. it's all masterfully interwoven. love the worldbuilding here too, at that.

the prose is beautiful as it is challenging, the latter fact being a big draw for me. i cant remember the last time i needed to use an english dictionary while reading a vn, if ever lol and it was a blast to look terms up as i read (or try to piece them together from my year of latin in freshman year of college lol). the art complements the writing incredibly well and conveys emotions such as humor, fear, or Wow Katurian Sure Is Hot with not just style but also great use of perspective and paneling.

banger.

this was very fun!

i studied indian studies in college and in our department, there were quite a few of those like.. lk obnoxious new age hippie types, lol so when silvia showed up, my immediate reaction was like "ugh here we go" haha. 

the vn does a good job portraying the swaying power of cults and charismatic personalities and different ways in which ana is very very miserable and accordingly susceptible. i also enjoyed your art style with these really thick, bold lines. i do wanna criticize that in the initial bits of the VN, theres some phrasings which are a lil reduntant - i remember things such as "blushing red" or ana going "it's so mind-numbing! i'm bored out of my mind!" at some point. the prose has definitely gotten better towards the end (i imagine when you got into the groove of things more) though. it also leaned a bit more atmospheric towards the end which is more to my taste! 

spoilers:

also, the ending aka ana getting drowned actually caught me by surprise, i totally expected her to just enter some sort of cult and the game to leave it at that, haha

Thank you goblincat!!

Thank you! <: 

thank you very much! ;v;

the audio-visuals in this VN were rly strong. i loved the field recording running over the kinderszenen piano pieces (which in turn were running through some sort of phaser or flanger effect?), really brings home that feeling of an uncanny dream sequence. 
the contrast between the b/w objecthead sprites and the very colorful backgrounds with superimposed images works super well too. theres very specific sequences that take place in florida, florence or on the brooklyn bridge and theyre very evocative this way while still grounded in a feeling of uncanniness. my one criticism on this front is that i wish the piano pieces hadn't been as sparse - i understand you were crunching though. 

if youve ever played or seen footage of it, the game actually reminded me somewhat of the serial experiments lain ps1 game, in the sense that you are trying to piece together a story through nonchronological logs (or in this case dream sequences) that make you question what exactly is grounded in reality and what isn't. 

it all happens with this heavy, HEAVY layer of melancholy hovering over everything, with themes such as leaving behind a home you on some level deeply care about and on some level despise, a breakup in which the narrator is clearly at fault, multiple breakups where the narrator is clearly being wronged, etc etc. it really feels like the kind of game youd see at an exhibit of some sort of modern art museum or the museum of moving image. this was genuinely very cool

Nora rules. Spoiler below.

Her just admitting to murdering her parents out of nowhere was so fucking funny, man 😭😭😭

And thank YOU for playing!! ;v;

😤😤😤

pretty hot! liked that bad end, especially hehe

and actually touches on some social issues trans people face in some of the less steamy bits when it goes into the relative financial precarity + lack of parental support amy finds herself in after transitioning

Very interesting worldbuilding regarding the magic system and love how the UI is integrated into the actual storytelling. The lil RPG Sprites are such a fun and cute addition too! 

haha thats so crazy no way these AI companions are gonna mess with peoples psyche like that (:

yeah no this ripped. showcases the very real social and psychological damage AI can cause (or catalyze) with some incredibly thick atmosphere and some p uncomfortable scenes towards the end.

really enjoyed the set dressing, i.e. worldbuilding glimpses into a near future and ficticious gacha/show that the protag is obsessed with too 

Yeah, this was phenomenal!! Loved the visual presentation with its limited color scheme, art style, and layout of the writing across the screen. Not to mention the very, very resonant subject matter itself. Explores very natural but embarrassing/aggravating feelings of bitterness and envy one can have at people closest to one, especially in a t4t context and especially if the other person's AGAB happens to be the one you are transitioning to. And then there's the factor of sexual dysfunction added to it too.

Your VN does so incredibly much with so little.

I enjoyed this. It's currently 1:30 AM where I live and I am jetlagged as hell so the lack of music and very stripped-back nature of the game might've actually worked to its advantage for my very out-of-it state of mind right now. In a 4′33″ kind of way, the noise from the street outside and things like the whirring of my PC fan ended up being the sfx of the game to me. I do wish there had been a bit more presentation, just to take advantage of the medium a tiny bit more.

Very to the point regarding tightrope walks a trans person needs to take, I'll think about this one for a while.

KAWAII

hell yeah!!

very cute!

this ruled!! dont think ive ever seen a super short form VN like this and it definitely made a lasting impression. the atmosphere/visuals were rly strong and showed how much you can do with so little in this medium

read this recently for the nyc vn book club. insanely strong aesthetics, from the UI and font choices to the actual art. a lot of really interesting stuff in there such as lave and monas names and their relationship and bonding throughout the rite(s)

Feeling Silly bc I wanna drop a couple bucks on the game but I can't seem to find an option to pay? This was GOOD I wanna support yall ;o;

That was a very lovely, short meditation on death and grief with some nice poetry. Thank you for this!

i reread this for the nyc vn book club. phenomenal stuff, it has since served as my go-to as a vn rec for people unfamiliar with the genre.

the embroidery and collage elements make for a unique aesthetic and add to the actual narrative rather than just being a fun gimmick. also, it's always great to see work where you can tell the authors have strong ties to the geographical area they describe.

the story itself is incredibly dense and the short runtime makes it almost like an academic text that you keep wanting to revisit because there's yet another thing in there that is just SO interesting. it certainly made for a great 1-2 hours of discussion at the book club. 

ranging from the cyclical nature of life and romantic relationships to the brutal economic reality of capitalism tearing local communities apart, this vn covers a lot of interesting topics in its very tight runtime. i'm a) excited to dive into the buddhist themes described in the devlogs more and b) looking forward to future work by you two. again: this rules.