itch.io

what a vn!

(spoilers below)

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a stunning exploration of someone who's been traumatized and landed in this arrested state of being unable to interact with the outside world, only to find the outside world is to some extent likely unable to interact with them as well. i really loved how comprehensive your approach to communicating and exploring this psychological state was—how the people became this dotted lines, having retreated into themselves. the prose and presentation were really, really exceptional, and some of the best i've read this jam. but your articulation of how this retreat can be, to some degree, dangerous and malicious, is so compelling. how suzette is nurturing this deep wound by scooping up pauline and forcibly displacing these two others from their apartment—there is a paranoid abstraction from her shutdown that is then put into relief by the ending with one fell swoop, as people walk by the gagged and bound mira and pamela while the apartment building has entirely vanished. i am a little dissatisfied with my comment here so i might be back to share a little more if i can articulate it, but just the interlocking struggles of mira pauline and suzette against the figure of pamela and how that is reflected in the environment but also the presentation and narration of that environment, spooling that all together to beautifully show how they (fail to) relate to the wider society is... chef's kiss!!! crazy and wonderfully done!!!

edit: the cow program was my favorite part and will stay with me a long long time...

edit edit: not sure if you're a film person, but i would recommend the headless woman if you are!

This is such a finely tuned story that really, really impacted me, down to my core. It’s been such an immense pleasure to watch you two go from great to phenomenal over the course of three visual novels, and it sounds really so so corny but I mean it when I say I feel lucky to be reading your work!

Anyways, to the review part of the review. You’re both very good at breathing life into specific characters, and then viscerally communicating all the friction that is communicated at the point of contact. Alba and Nicole I felt that particularly strongly with, and I am happy to add Ys to the group… what an astoundingly compelling character. Yamos was also lovely but Ys really sucker-punched me, I think in part because she had the privilege of placement—you go ok long distance relationship, ok older woman in an age gap relationship, ok emotionally closed off older woman who refuses to listen to the very understandably emotional college age kid who is going through a lot—I started to tip the scale in Yamos's favor, assigning the driving force of the toxic yuri to the woman who conceivably has the upper hand in the dynamic. And then you get Ys’s side and I just cried a lot. 

At that sort of reversal, a lot of the themes of the novel clicked into place better, and I was also able to better appreciate Yamos's character. It’s such a stunning exploration of traumatized and arrested time from two two people in very different places, shouting past each other. The ending was really perfect with all of this in mind, but the organizing narrative device (? not sure the best way to describe this) of the scorecards is just SOOOOO outrageously perfect and compelling, and pairs really well with AIDS quilts. 

Love your work—thanks as always for making and sharing. 

played for a vn club! really blown away by it and so pleasantly surprised. i think what stood out to me the most was how specifically the narrative is positioned to explore the abject—the horrifying yet arresting gradient between being a subject and being an object, being a person and being a place, how someone might move between those two poles and not entirely at their own will. the vn's not apolitical, nor is it falling into the common trap of proposing a universal figure that is really just a privileged figure (you see this a lot with white male protags, for example), but it's positioned in such a specific and carefully done way to limit the scope. and it works beautifully! it's such a touching exploration of how the presence and absence of love affects your ability to understand yourself and others, particularly along the lines of subject-object and breaking that down, and with that it's so fitting that the sprites are so heavily embedded in the setting. every shot has a sway and a motion, every background is given just as much care to their positioning as the sprites. their emotional journey also splashes out into the colors of the scenes, and SOOOOO beautifully, and the text is positioned and warped carefully as if it's inscribed into the scene. without spoiling, the ending is also perfect for all of these reasons. thanks so much for making + sharing!

Love this write-up, thanks for sharing it. Greatly looking forward to seeing what you make next.

(Just in the effort of debugging, I don't mean to overstate the issue) I've uploaded both godot and ren'py projects that are playable in browser and have had no issue exiting out of them, and just tested again to make sure. Maybe it's because the game is forced into full-screen on start? Not sure—just want people to be able to rate/leave a comment after they play cause it's a good game!

really striking design, the spots of red were nice. i love the start screen and the game icon, and i reeeaaaaally love the title. the premise is also compelling. i like how much you stripped the game down, but i think a click-to-continue icon would've been really helpful. but yay 🦷🦷🦷 thanks for making + sharing!

I enjoyed the setting and context, and loved the slow pan down. The art was great and the font very well chosen, plus the motion from the embers and the slight parallax were also really nice touches. The embers especially gave the impression of visiting the aftermath of a fire, which was a compelling visual set-up that helped drive the overall experience. Thanks for making + sharing!

(As an aside, I would've loved a history/ability to scroll back/etc. I was also unable to exit the window after I finished playing in browser, and had to go back on the page so I could leave a comment! Maybe this is just user error, but wanted to flag in case it's helpful! On Mac + Chrome)

Reaaaaaally nice. Such a fun idea that's well maintained. I loved how it all layered.

Really well done. Fantastic presentation and I loved how the chapters were named (small detail that can go a long way). You have a really good sense for pacing and visual framing that is just, really really impactful. Given me a lot emotionally to roll around... thank you for making + sharing!

Wow ! I had seen a bunch of people say this was specific and wow     ! This is specific! In a way that really gets under your skin. I played it last night and recapped it to my girlfriend and we both just sort of sat there like… ow… (hurting in a good way) I’ve seen a lot of Sunnys, including a few close personal encounters, and seen a lot of Sunny & Anitas. And taking 2 seconds to glance at the comments tells me that’s not a rare experience!

First of all, I really appreciate this work as a way to viscerally concretize and exemplify this common and isolating behavior. I really do hope people play through this and feel less alone, and then see the loads of comments and feel somewhat cared for. 

(Spoilers here on out)

But also, what exacting execution. Sunny’s characterization especially was so horrifyingly precise. I was obsessed with the detail of her not brushing her teeth because mint “gives [her] the ick”—it’s an absurd detail that made me laugh out loud because it was a PERFECTLY fitting bit of satire. The little punctuations of comedy were to perfect in how they broke up the horrifying procession of the plot but in a way that still informed the characterization etc.(I also screamed when Anita just says “It’s been seven years” at Sunny talking about Byleth’s outfit).

With this in mind, I agree with Alter that the vn could’ve used a little more breathing room and a little more of Anita’s POV—the latter especially, because you knocked Sunny’s characterization so out of the park that Anita’s wonderful characterization still felt like it fell a smidge short by comparison. But this almost feels ridiculous to bring up because 1) it’s a genuinely amazing work 2) it is so impressive you got this done in a 6 week jam timeline as a solo work and had time to send for beta testing… like HELLO… Mado the superstar.

But the best part of Anita’s characterization for me, and the part of the vn that will probably stick with me the longest, is how she still undercuts herself in the thread on her priv at the end. I am sort of tearing up even just writing about it lol. How she is still unable to fully see the power Sunny had over her and how Sunny exploited Anita’s vulnerabilities, and how paper thin so many of Anita’s supposed “privileges” over Sunny are/were. That was very real and made for such a powerful ending. 

Thanks for making and sharing such a wonderful vn Mado!!

so fun and creative. thanks for making!

what a gorgeous vn!! all the polishing really shined—i loved the candle light parallax for the start menu, i loved how you slowed the text during the climax, i loved the text jitter and overall presentation on the full-screen moments, and i really loved the art. the ending cg was especially phenomenal. i also appreciated the visual theming of a moth to a flame... overall a really high level of refinement for a jam project—well done!!!

Gorgeous! Felt like pulling a short, old romance novel off the shelf and curling up for the evening. I am always impressed at how Goblincat's projects have very strong and coherent art direction, and this was no exception—every visual piece was so neatly tied into the other without ever getting too busy. The triptych was especially fun in that it heightened this sense of theatricality with it all—the (genius) gummy overworld view in the center as these little puppets, with the players on either side. This made the moments where the Queen would pop out all the more effective, I literally gasped out loud the first time it happened! The prose was also so nice, and I loved the banter between the brothers. I also appreciated how Louisa was boxed in by these two women who are powerful in very similar but very inverted ways, which in turn foils how the powerful men in her life have boxed her in. Poor Louisa is the prey no matter how you cut it... (sexy)

LOVE!!! Thanks so much for making and sharing!!!

Edit: I FORGOT TO SAY!! I LOVED THE MAGIC!! So fun and inventive!!

I really appreciate all the layers to this and how tightly woven they are—the rhythm of each scene and how it fed into the next one was such important glue to keep a pretty dense work altogether. On a personal level I have been really interested in what happens to the personhood of celebrities and public figures for a long time, so I nearly jumped for joy when I realized what this was about haha. I would really recommend Stanley Kwan’s movie Center Stage (if you’re not already familiar), I think there’s a lot there you’d enjoy. 

Anyways, this is one of the best visual novels I have played… it was such a treat from beginning to end, and really really inspiring. I loved how you used every part of the form in a rigorous and thoughtful way while keeping an eye for overall coherence. Something about the emotion I’d be sitting with when the scene changed was particularly effective, you really know how to build on a narrative/emotional beat and cut it at just the right moment. The most memorable example of that for me was the build towards the pub bathroom scene, the execution of it, and then the transition out of it. That image of Queen Elizabeth was darkly hilarious, and a perfect synecdoche (is that the right word? ack) for this girl, the perfect manifestation of what is chasing the protag down. The depossession of self that happens with celebrities but also hyper-visible + “normal” individuals… you have explored it beautifully! Thanks so much for making and sharing, will be keeping this experience with me for a long time.

I love a mecha romance... Claret's design in particular was SO cute. I laughed out loud at Sylvia saying she could be a mother to Claret... oh baby. Always interesting to explore the lives of those carrying out such violence, who still have their own personal lives to contend with, and I felt like you all gave us a nice mecha story with some light noir moments that leaves you with plenty to chew on. Thanks for making + sharing!

On a replay what really stood out to me is the steady process of humanization for Nikko, and the development of the self that happens. Gin is (nearly) introduced with the line “Doesn’t feel like I’m looking at a person. You really might’ve pushed it too far this time” while him and Lev go back and forth on Lev’s newest purchase, immediately introducing this theme of external appraisal that exists fully segmented out from Nikko’s own thoughts, or those of the player. What follows is the sort of behavior you’d expect of any newborn, but in the case of her mechanical body also serves as evidence to dehumanize her. At the end of the story, one of the central pieces of evidence for Lev’s argument for Nikko’s humanity turns out to be a half-truth—the human brain Nikko supposedly has is really just three grams of lab-grown tissue to regulate her endocrine system. But we have seen her grow and change, seen her thoughts and reactions, and at this point likely have our own sense of Nikko’s humanity, even if the key piece in getting us on board with that possibility is now substantially altered. But does it change our understanding of Nikko’s future possibilities, and our hopes for her? If so, how? 

This was such an interesting execution of a classic robot premise that was really well combined with the tension + release of the other narrative threads. Like I said I think the first time I still adore the sprites + bgs, and you all did a killer job picking the music, it fit so well I first thought it was made for the vn. Thanks again for making + sharing!!

Hi!! Sorry for the delay, itch hid a ton of comments and we didn't realize til now orz but you get this dress by picking both the heart lolipop and the scrap of lace! <3

Really well done. I loved how thoughtful the integration of all the parts were, especially how the music reflected the atmosphere. There is a trend towards iterations of solipsism and the abject in queer works (especially in trans works), and I think this is a pretty interesting (if quick) foray into that arena, and sympathetic rebuttal of those ideals. But again above all I appreciate how content you two were to take a big swing in such a short and tidy way, that leverages many parts of the form to tell the story. You can tell this is a story made to be a visual novel specifically, with great interest in the form! Also, very cute characters lol, and I loved the howl to the music.

awesome & true

what a fun and creative mode of presentation--i like that you all clearly sized up your toolbox of digital tools and picked out what spoke to you for communicating this idea specifically. and how effective it was... !!!

i love this reframing of legibility/making sense, and am a sucker for the biological jumping off point... it's nice to think that our only option for breaking away from dominant modes of thinking isn't a dissolved state of illegibility (although that option remains for those who are attracted to it), but instead we can build towards a new mode of making sense. yay 🎉 thanks for writing + sharing, krow erutuf yuor drawrof kool i dna! (there is something deeply poetic about and reversed being dna.......)

this is amazing... really creative approach to CGs, and as a mecha fan i adore it all the more.  i loved going through the artbook to see a blow-by-blow explanation, but the well-thought-out attention to detail was extremely felt in-game. i loved the use of layering in the edits, and i loved the jazz and how it was tailored to the different parts. using gunpla for very precise model photography is such a great idea, but it also builds on this notion of past-present-future knowing these are from previous series (vs somehow originally made), paired with jazz which most listeners are likely to have slightly dated associations with—all of this remixed into a very new and present experience. very well done, and very inspiring!!

A really beautiful melding of ero and horror, and ritual and humanity. I loved how you two balanced their identity as individuals and their symbolic participation in the ritual. It was really interesting to me how they had personal tensions and emotions that was at odds with their participation, but they were never ultimately resentful towards the god. And just beautifully paced, a wonderful experience that feels so much like a greek tragedy, specifically with how the two were balanced against the rest of the world. The CGs echoed this nicely too, with the only one that had a background being [spoiler]. Beautiful work!!!!

On a replay, what stood out to me so much was how beautifully stitched together the subjective account was, and how much it’s set up to make that legible, and invite the reader to consider its construction and rearrange as they wish. I also thought a LOT about Alba and Nicole this time around, and how they represent their own sort of pattern and circularity. WONDERFUL WORK!!!

bugs

Really an incredible work. I think the finely tuned honesty really shines through. I realized I don’t think I’ve ever seen portables mentioned in any medium really, and had sort of forgotten the word since school. But it gives it all such a fine grained texture without getting bogged down in the contemporary details. I also really adored the [read more]’s, as someone who once posted some and read very many. The GUI was also so fun and freewheeling, and the SFX so charming--a magic bow tying the whole experience together.

(Going to say “you” from here on, but with the understanding that this is an ebicon joint with a number of cool people contributing, with ALTER was steering the ship.)

You write relationships between girls in a really specific and wonderful way (I felt this about BAE too, but it REALLY jumps out here for me). You can feel all the bumps and ridges and pockets when you see them interact with each other or process an event. And it all feels so honest. Sort of unexpectedly, after finishing I suddenly thought to myself I was really excited for a new friend to come visit my messy apartment after having spent the weekend cleaning for the upcoming visit, and weirdly regretted cleaning it so much (although not really, since most of it was for myself anyways). But suddenly I felt really content and eager in this almost happily childish sort of way to show how shitty my closet organization is to a new friend that’s wormed their way into my heart already. And I think that just sort of sprung out of being moved to love these girls so much, and seeing how complicated and messy but genuine their feelings were for each other. And the shape of them being something I really relate to, but rarely am able to connect to in other writing. Then with the ending, it was just a feeling that everything would be okay, and that me and Anise and everyone else would all continue, even if loved ones disappeared and no one knew how to behave. What a CRAAAZYYYY thing to pull off!!! This is the same trick that has me owning like five hardcopies of Banana Yoshimoto books.

Anyways, a great work that really touched me. Thanks for making and sharing, really looking forward to the next ebicon work.

LOVED THIS... VERY MUCH!!! what a really nice tapestry... i think the sort of maximalist design fits the game's atmosphere super well, as we sink into callie's world. and it was so finely tuned holy cow! i loved all the little details like being able to scroll in the phone, the sort of hover parallax effect with the bg, the loads of perfect and delicious expressions, callie tightening that yarn around her finger during the text convo w aila early on, the cursor changes... dude like i could go on forever. the cursor change was particularly ero in how it in a really small but effective way involved the player. i was also so gagged at the ending, so well timed... but all in a super compelling snapshot of a very cute girl stumbling very hard as she connects some dots. LOVE! also the playlist is genius (kai please put this on bandcamp...)

This was really incredible. First off—absolutely crazy work on every level here. The care to sprite placement + scripting, sound design, GUI, the beautiful sprites themselves, all of it was so breathtaking while pointing right back towards the emotional beats of the story. And what a story!! I’m really struck by how much care and love is here, for these two characters. Deirdre especially is so painfully specific, and through her you’ve evoked such a specific and rotten feeling. A wonderful experience that I’ll be thinking about for a while, thank you two for making + sharing!

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Every part of this is so perfect, there were a few moment I nearly cried because of how well it all fit together and what a powerful sum it was building towards. I took a million screenshots as to be able to more easily re-read my favorite segments. Echoing Amet here and saying you two come up with such beautiful new ways to tell stories. I was so moved by how tender and real every life felt, how it was held in the palm of their hands, and how the feeling moved through the girls in the privacy of their cabin. It felt like such an intimate and precious communion. Every detail so neatly served the central story—for example, the girls themselves felt on equal footing with the Merrymeeting dolls they played with in their humanity as pilot’s portraits render them so sweetly and doll-like, while neatly tucked inside the gorgeous embroidery. I genuinely started crying when I saw the reverend and how cutely Lucy held him to her chest, and I think part of that was because I was so surprised how wide the net was cast for who was “fit” for this sort of narrative device. The truly enlightened soul knows anyone can play with dolls and any story can be told through them…

I will be thinking about this visual novel for a long, long time and could probably write a very long essay on it. Going to go cry some more about it but will be sure to share more thoughts later on my inevitable replays. Thank you two for making and sharing!

thaank yoou!! amet really did an amazing job with the maze designs + art, they look so stunning and are also so relaxing to move through... happy you enjoyed!

pilot T_T thank you for organizing such a wonderful jam!!! it's been so fun to make something for it, and i'm happy you felt so touched by what we all put together <3 and i love  your doll, this is one of my favorite heads... 

thank you!! and yes we're all over the moon so many people are sharing their dolls, we really love seeing them (and with that finding out which items spoke the most to people)... <33

thank you so much for such kind and lovely words :,)  adding in the music really felt like the special glue to tie together the game, jemi did a wonderful job

thanks for playing!! we are in very very good company in this jam, pilot's really organized something incredible. i hope you enjoy the other entries :)

minaaa thanks for the wonderful thoughts :,) coquina is also a very cool type of sedimentary rock, built up of little clamshells that retain their shape to a really interesting degree. it's what you see in the start screen bg! amet did a beeeaautiful job with the maze designs, i'm happy you enjoyed them. thank you for playing <3

really so, so happy to hear this... thank you so much for playing and for leaving such a kind comment <3

wowww i adore this look!! and thank you for the lovely comment!

thank you so much for playing, so happy you enjoyed!!

your doll turned out so lovely... !! and thank you so much from the kind words, it means a lot coming from you :,) let's all go make dolls

WOOOWWWWWW......... this was incredible!! First, the visuals--all the sprites were so cute and I loved all their expressions, and I really adored the overall glitched out visual effects, from the sprite jitters to the filters on the background. It gave it such a nice digital texture that was 1) pretty to look at and 2) more comprehensively communicated Nikko's POV in a really nice way. The narrative was also really incredible. I loved how you all threaded the needle with organic and mechanical functions, and how Nikko and Lev's complicated dynamic took shape. My favorite line was "Wow, I was thinking it'd be more like the wiper fluid in my truck." Thanks for making + sharing!!