itch.io

Frankenstein for the age of individualism! Love it.

a must-read for anyone whose life has at any point been tested by pushing themselves against the water, especially for those whose bodies have been politicized. swimming is a very weird sport; suspended in a medium foreign to what our bodies are designed for, pushing ourselves individually against it until either we break or we grow over it. the glory is personal, as are the sacrifices and means we fashion ourselves into swimmers. yet, this mode of liberating oneself from definitions on what their body does and looks like are also deeply interwoven with institutions that put sex, gender and sexuality as imposing monoliths on how our body can exist in these competitive spaces. I relate a lot to Miley. competitive swimming is the reason I didn't come out until after high school, and swimming is a part of myself I had to completely break off from my interests and expressions as soon as I did. after five years of dreams, that warped the water into this mystical, primordial nest, one part of myself from back then I desperately wanted (it's motions, outside of those of love, were the strongest, most able, most at home I've ever felt). yet, it's blanketed in a cruelty, subsumed from the outside by the pressure of hate. yesterday, I swam for the first time in years. a distance swammer no longer able to do more than a 200. I may not be as strong as I was, find the same elegance in myself as I did breaking down before it, but it was nice. the sport, as art and as politic, subjugation and freedom, in isolation, returned to art once more. thanks for creating something that very competently tackled both the mythicality of water and this contention towards reclaiming it I've felt for years. thank you for articulating something I've needed to hear for years in such a well-researched way <3

beautiful write-up, Ginger! it's really lovely you can paint my story so beautifully and intelligently. (not my role to say whether or not you use this to fashion yourself into Denver!)

you've made such a surreal and philosophical exploration of love! absolutely enamoured! i'm always scared things like this'll end up being too pretentious or self-indulgent, but u deliver the narrative w a lot of intrigue for finding and trying to answer to the shape of love between the two characters. one story about the terror of being a unified body-without-organs abandoning all disparity to bypass the end of the world paired with another about one such person excluded from the rhizomatic soul that they betrayed themselves hoping to join with. we're all just chips off the zeitgeist 1) pretending we're special and isolate and deserving of care and attention while 2) desperately bleeding into each other and making sacrifices because we don't want to hurt anymore. yet both these conditions are doomed to fail because of the existence of the other. feels so universal, yet it's a contradiction one can only draw out so palpably through fiction and destruction. idk, i'm talking out my ass, but it's a very cool premise. deleuze would be proud. probably, idk the guy. art and music are some of the most fantastic in any jam entry, though that goes without saying. soothes the mycotic soul... and thank you guys for infecting me (us) with your spores! 🍄

kudos for how committed u were to weaving sadistic love with medical content. was a thread i was too meek to pursue this indulgently. pardon that narrowness of my praise, but I'm obsessed with the texture of both the BGs and CGs. I'm not sure what filters Astra used to transform assumedly stock photos into stills straight out of my dreams, but I love it. Also adore your art on how (correct me if I'm wrong) it seems to be a fusion of physical and digital art techniques? Are they edited scans, and if not, how did you get such fantastic digital brushes?

one of those pieces of writing that's so sincere and vulnerable that it guts me and brings me to my tender-hearted knees. at first i was a little skeptical with how long-winded and scatter-brained Celestine is, felt like the important details would slip past me in how much she thinks, but as time goes on, the amount of space and time you're able to give each scene is so goddamn magical at building at atmosphere that is VISCERALLY real. i was really blown away by the first moth scene, but then you nail every flashback scene, driving home harder and harder how human it is to become absolutely broken by life and the choices you make for yourself. everything after the unconditional care of the diner scene raked me with so much fear and identification and stake that when it all ended, I... I don't know. I feel like I remember what care and hope are from seeing it arise from the absolute shitstorm you built. everything about these characters is so unremarkable and normal, and yet through that they become conduits for one of the most human endings to anything I've ever read (and I've read A LOT). I was drawn in by how many structural similarity and a sense of kinship between our two games, and have finished feeling blown out of the water by how bitter I let my version conclude. I've been a rough spot recently and sometimes one piece of writing tells you exactly what you needed to hear, so apologies if this is super emotional and overbearing. Feel like I need more time before I can articulate this formally, so all I can say, Evie, is that you have created art. And I... I need to go for a walk. Thank you though. I really needed this.

Also I guess the sex scenes were pretty hot too.

(also first time I've seen each scene have it's own soundscape. very ambient and immersive (i.e. will be stealing)

what a cool vibe. you write with a very confident voice and i have no idea how you make images/collages that crazy looking. adore it. the melding of corporate and sexual power in a cyberpunk world is a pretty thought-provoking dynamic. also, holy shit, fantastic track choices. makes me want to hit a bar alone sometime soon. gargoyle style.

inevitably becoming the very thing you set out to create... oh ellie. the narrative layering was a very unique choice for giving the characters history outside of what they share with each other. also, see what you did there by giving ellie an asuka figurine.

first entry to make me tear up! refreshing to read something that feels a lot more sober and easy-flowing than the more experimental entries I've gone thru. you've got a great texture to your language and apply toxicity very discreetly, which lulled me into a sense of security that almost let me forget what the story was actually leading towards. like how the writing and art feel filtered through the styles of a shoujo anime, but after the characters have already lived thru the most dramatic points in their life and are just normal people now. it's a good wat of showing yui is kinda filtering the situation thru a lens of distance and innocence. polaroid scene gave me a stomachache and the scenes between that and the ending were like being hit by a car. felt very empathetic for both parties. thanks for this.

would also love to know the filter you used on your character drawings to give them that hand-drawn, old crt look for my own art.

god, i love your art style so much.the texturing you do with the characters plus the multi-medianess is always awesome. really inspiring on that front alone, as with things like the UI and atmosphere. enjoy how the writing style kinda blends sci-fi anime storytelling with more classy, flowery language. really cool across the board. great work!

first one of these I've seen made in rpgmaker. really love the art style and enjoy how many separate routes you were able to finish (even if each one is pretty short). saying it has "five endings" doesn't really capture how much you guys had to do for this. reminded me structurally of slay the princess. the gore scenes before ending d really irked me and i felt incredibly bad for how weak-willed Rorrie was.

will say there was no sound at all coming from the game, so I unfortunately can't say much about bonestalion's work. fixing that, maybe adding a free-save function or pause before choices would be some cool additions if u wanted to polish it! 

yuck! very grounded and disturbing prose and felt reflective of real passions (music and photography) and (perhaps) experiences. good work, Heather!

wow, it only really hit me in retrospect how well you convey sunny's subtle manipulation of anita, how she worms a conversation to get thanked for solving the problems she causes. anita just kinda lets all her edge and idiosyncrasy get castrated to become a hollow imitation of her own past. reminded me a lot of the movie Adaption for some reason where the movie is about a self-abusive dialogue about making the movie one is actively making. i don't have the experience of being in a fandom or being groomed, so sorry that's my only point of reference. also shoutout harlan ellison!

really lovely across the board! 

know you didn't make the music, but one of the songs having the same progression as a persona song distracted me a lil lol.

wow! i feel gutted! beautifully realistic and bodily. such a fantastic and tight encapsulation of how multifaceted the experience of transness intersects with the social and romantic. ending reminded me a lot of perfect blue.

also, was freaked out bc i was gonna name my angel protagonist Aria, but laterdecided on Calliope. glad i didn't lol!

probably my favourite entry played yet! super impressed with how intimate, fantastical, cozy and, well, really hot both the writing and art are. they work in tandem incredibly well! I feel so much kinship with Daizy that made it so easy to sink into (she also has an uncannily similar behaviour and appearance to a friend of mine who i shared this with). also this is such a fantastic encapsulation of the theme, with Daizy's body being the seat of everything with the intersection of her weight, gender, genetics and psychosis. everything about this is just so personal and tactile, and you two very much deserve the praise and attention! im such a fan!

really liked this! the relationship arising from how tunnel-visioned Yejin is on her labour that Arrah becomes her only means of feeling and finding love, even in this artificial and transitory form is an interesting premise for a toxic relationship. really cool how the state of Arrah's body becomes more "pure" and human as Yejin comes to see her as such!

wow! thank you so much! my first piece of feedback!

My main protag is trans and is in sexy situations! https://bloopus.itch.io/edifice-angels

Will update comment with more as I play through, but does it have to have sex scenes specifically or do u just want trans rep?

Update:

https://imcoffeecats.itch.io/magical-girl-suicide-pact

https://air-gong.itch.io/an-angel-without-her-wings

https://gayvie.itch.io/because-you-are-alive

https://kiakitty.itch.io/tachycardia-lovergirl-00b-heat-finite-demodisc

extremely beautiful for something so extremely ugly and sepulchral. hope you're okay, snek... cool seeing how much blood's art has improved over the last year. also what a fantastic, memorable score! how do you even get digital music to sound like some of these?

cool as fuck and you two make an awesome team.  beautifully scored, written and illustrated. felt so familiar and yet so foreign. feeling very inspired to keep writing and keep creating, and i'd love to read more/know your influences. you all deserve flowers.

such an immense amount of talent on display across the board. how did you guys make this in a month? love how classy and self-indulgently imagistic the writing is to match it being about photography, love the strong sense of space and history the photos give, and i just about lost my mind every time the game tagged in a new cinematic technique/homage. so thematically cogent. great work.

super cozy and enjoy the contrast of a green and pastoral ambiance with chronically-online characters. playing this with a fan blowing on my face felt like the intended experience.

Wow! Glad you enjoyed it so much!

hi! my discord is boopleone if you'd like to send me any findings. it's very possible they are intentional, given the game is styled around a computer terminal, but i'll check em out

I don't say this lightly: one of the most beautiful, touching and relatable games I've ever played. Thank you so much, Dogmasque.

Did a write-up here: https://backloggd.com/u/boopus/review/2903473/

"The envious one has poisoned your body, your mind, your devotion" is the hardest thing I've heard this month. Thanks! This is awesome as always!

really charming! reminded me a lot of Heisei Pistol Show! ran into a little bug where it said Phone.ogg was missing in the final area, but otherwise smooth!

what a terrific interactive essay! woohoo! love spinning! let's reclaim the electric milk through our art!

winning game