During my first run of Yearning I thought, that's the mirror image of Coming out on top, so I was proud with myself to read afterwards that it was the main inspiration for the game :D They are indeed very complementary, with COOT steering more towards comedy and wacky college movie (while at the same time keeping the various characters fun and sympathetic, not an easy task) and Yearning more rooted in reality. And I definitely appreciated the intertwining of the cast of characters till the end, it was bugging me that everyone basically disappears bar your love interest once you make the choice in COOT.

So I definitely enjoy Yearning, I did all four main paths (I can't bring myself to play it badly on purpose to get the bad endings, it sounds so sad!) and I don't know which one I'm favouring the most, maybe James's. But I admit I like how "free" is Dan's storyline, it's quite refreshing that you can play an open relationship (such games are usually "true love or nothing") -incidentally, I noticed that Dan's story is clearly way more explicitly written than the others (and not just for the content), that was a nice touch.

If I have to criticise something, I'd say the eyes of most characters, I think they're too small and too separate, giving most characters a slightly creepy look :D

I have questions, mostly for curiosity:

1) in one of the paths (I don't remember which one) there's a scene where you find Elliot in your room together with Adam and Carlos (with something strange going on between Elliot and Carlos?). What's the context of that scene? I don't seem to get it in other storylines...

2) I suppose the answer's no, but is there a way to "go Nate" in the Jake storyline, in the sense of agreeing to have a sex life separate from Jake while being together? 

3) How many threesome scenes can you get? :D I think I got Nate and Elliot (plus Dan obviously), plus the foursome. Anything else?

Thanks for the nice game! Is there margin for hope for a sequel?

I'm glad you enjoyed the game! The sequel (Zen: A Gay Sequel, or ZAGS) is under development now, but has no expected completion date at this time.

I tend to agree about the art... the sprites took a bit longer than expected, and the breaks between them made some of their eye sizes mismatch. But the guys are intended to have more "normal" looking eyes, as opposed to more cartoony eyes, so maybe we tended to much in the other direction.

1) In playthroughs where you don't go to the frat house as much, and therefore don't interact with Elliot as much, you'll get that scene to help establish that Carlos and Elliot are good friends (and that there's maybe a hope of something more, on Carlos' part). It's intended to make the eventual Elliot scene and Carlos' confession seem less abrupt.

2) Nope. Jake is more willing to deal with Nate being Nate because he feels he made a stupid spur-of-the-moment decision and doesn't want to break up without giving things at least a chance. If he agrees to date you, it's more because you've grown close as friends and have gotten there more organically. (There's some more background about him and Nate in one of the companion fics.)

3) I think that's it. ZAGS will have more.

Thanks for the comments and thoughts!

thanks for the answers! 1) and 2) make sense in fact, even though I would have enjoyed a "mid-way ending" in the Jake story for playing a character that likes Jake but feels restricted by his extreme shyness of physical things ;)

Looking forward to ZAGS!