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This was a fun and insightful read! Thank you!!

It’s always wild for me to read technical musical insights like this, it feels like a sorceress describing how she cast her spells. I will nod along and smile but I lack the knowledge to fully comprehend all of it. Regardless it’s still so interesting to see how you approached some of the problems and get insight into your goals for the tracks. The OST is so cool to listen to and very distinct from the rest of your work but that makes it even more impressive imo. Also if it’s any consolation, I never once minded that a track repeated, and I am a very slow reader lol

I really love the world that’s been crafted here. The way the colors infuse so much of the game from the abilities to the enemy designs, it’s really fun to find more and more connections. The puzzles threw me for a loop but I thought they were fair and interesting. The combat felt very strategic too requiring some patience and consideration (esp UEFI). I loved the character designs throughout the game, the bosses were SO fun to look at and the enemies were so interesting and creative. The Runecasters are both really cool and adorable to me. The way they contract each other in almost every facet, it makes me quite certain that the other is the additive runemixer judging from this pattern of contrasts and how she appears brighter than our girl. The themes in the dungeons was also really fun and creative, and having to walk back out after defeating them is quite uncanny and evocative! The whole game has this really epic feeling to it, with the cast of characters and cutscenes, it’s really compelling. I’m very excited to see the final dungeon and see where the story goes!!

I REALLY enjoyed the visuals and overall vibe of this game, it’s really inspiring!

It took me quite a while to realize that I had to jerk the mouse to the left and right to swim forward though. I also was able to maximize the window and some of the game didn’t seem to scale properly. I’m also only now realizing that one of the screenshots is showing the controls (and it took me an additional second to realize that ><> means like a fish! XD I can be a dum dum sometimes) All of that being said, I think the controls are so cool and feel like a great way to interpret a sort of noise into the game design.

I also got to chat with a creature and the dialogue was also awesome and felt very surreal and dreamlike.

This was really fun! I enjoyed the various rabbit holes of “what even is music or noise?” and the considerations for the truly alien perspective. It’s so fun to try and break down our base human assumptions for what alien life could be. I know it’s not really academic but some of this reminded me of Project Hail Mary (but I won’t go into why for spoiler reasons).

Here is my instrument, I hope to never hear it played lol

Zyrulavo

Listening to the slightly loud, bassy, very abrasive but airy texture often makes the listener feel quite homesick for a time.

To many humans it resembles a porcelain digeridoo and it sounds like a beaver being infected by a vampiric squid.

Fun fact: The Qylo-ians play this instrument to help with thermoregulation (specifically keeping warm during the planet’s century-long “deep eclipses”. There was a period of time when all performances of this instrument were heavily censored and while we thankfully don’t live in those difficult times anymore, many still perform the Zyrulavo in a much mellower fashion nowadays.

Had a lovely time admiring the sights and listening to the music!

Awesome!! Excited to see more stuff from you! ^^

OMG This is so freaking cuute!! I am MELTING!!

When I saw the overall shorts and turtleneck I just had to make my wife!
(btw, if you want to make the items snap closer to the pixels, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! I ended up tweaking the script to do that for my own pixel art dollmaker game)

This is such a sweet game! The design revolving around those units of energy feels very relatable and does a great job of illustrating that hard-to-describe feeling. The art style is absolutely gorgeous, the whole presentation is really pretty and polished. The music was so awesome as well. I thought the epilogue was perfect it felt realistic in a healthy way. I am hopeful for Nadia!!

Thank you! That means a lot! I’ll add Void Stranger to my “games to play” list!

Thank you!! <3

Omg Snek this is so sweet!! I’m really happy that you enjoyed it!! AHH I’m so touched!! T^T

Thank you for playing Sinx!! Glad that you enjoyed <3

Ahhh! Thank you for playing starbage! It also makes me think of plastic toys! I think your interpretation is spot on to my own head cannon! It’s funny because I constantly feel the urge to make larger projects and think that they would probably hit harder emotionally! I suppose the size of the story doesn’t matter in the end. I’m glad that you enjoyed this little toy! <3

Thank you Henniii!!!

My wife laughed so much at that line that I decided to leave it in LOL It was a lot of fun making the UI and I’d like to do more stuff like that in the future for sure! I also learned more about sub-viewports in godot which seems like a cool tool for fun effects!

What a lovely game! There were a few times I thought I knew where the story would go but it ended up surprising me in the best way each time. There are a lot of really fun moments and heartfelt sentiments to be found here. I also really liked the worldbuilding, the setting was full of different factions and forces far outside of the immediate story but the glimpses we get to see really make this place feel alive and dynamic. The presentation with the photo / 3d sprites were so charming too. I wont spoil it here, but the sentiments about dolls is also really really sweet, this is the good stuff yo.

Ryona + Yuri + Mechabare is such a peak combo and you “pulled it off” masterfully!!! (pun intended)

I found Valerie to be surprisingly relatable in many ways, especially the self-sacrificing tendencies she carried with her. I also thought it was so funny how bratty she was about being low-spec earlier in the story.

All of the characters feel so interesting and multifaceted it was fun to learn more about each of them.

The art is so good, the character expressions, the poses, the fluids, it was all so visceral, tantalizing and painful to watch but I could not look away. I also think the backgrounds were also amazing with lots of fun details to spot. The CG’s are just amazing and many of them will stick in my head for a while I think, I spent a while pouring over the details in the gallery.

Lolratz’s soundtrack is such a treat to listen to as always.

The story left me feeling a mixture of emotions, there is a lot of nuance and complexity to these characters and their motivations. There are no easy answers. You’ve made something really wild and special.

Ohh you are so sweet!! Consider me a fan of your work as well! The style of the characters, how you did their clothes and the pixel-art textures were all so stylish and charming. I also really liked the materials and lighting of the different scenes.

The work you all put into this is (thankfully) very apparent, it’s such a cool game!

An art book would be so awesome to check out but no pressure!

(Also Henni mentioned that I missed an ending so I have been searching for it, I will update my comment when I find it.)

This is SO AWESOME! The style and presentation is so well crafted and imaginative, and it worked effortlessly to place me into this alt-history USSR aesthetic. The world itself feels so rich with history and detail all of which is really compelling and feels frustratingly realistic to how these governments actually think and act. The psychic twist to the world-building is just the coolest thing and the details regarding the mechanics of those abilities, how they train to use them with that game, and the effects these abilities have had on the world and the story is so awesome. I would for sure read more stories in this world.

The two characters we really get to see are wonderfully written and nuanced and it really did feel like banter from a spy thriller. I love their full names! (dolphinpussy is a peak name too) The pov of Angie is filled with stimulating concrete details many of which were quite uncomfortable and visceral, and when you add on her wild ideologies and monologs, she becomes a fascinating lens for the story.

I got all of the endings and each one was wild, I highly recommend players try them all out, each route is completely unique. I think there are really interesting details about the world and the situation in each one, that almost help paint a fuller picture for the other endings too. My favorite of the endings was the “clot” one but after learning about the “5 o-clock” one, it almost makes it even more tragic AHH!!

I adored the various mix of art styles this game uses, the intro with that graphic look felts like an old history movie or mission debrief. The blindfolded segment was beautiful, the scenes from the past and the pivotal cgs being hand drawn felt to intimate and emotional and the compositions for those were so lovely. The user-interface is so clever and fits so perfectly with the tone and theme. And the pre-rendered scenes in the interrogation room were so awesome and stylish, keeping the perspective to a wall mounted camera makes a lot of sense but I almost wish we got to see more of them like we did with some of the ending shots, the 3d art is so awesome!

The music is so freaking awesome too! I was a fan of Henni’s music before this project but it’s such a departure from her normal style but she hits the mark perfectly, if I was told these tracks were from a big budget spy thriller movie I would have believed it with no questions. The font is so awesome as well!!

It’s so impressive to me that you all made this in the time frame, I seriously wonder if any of you actually slept lol. Y’all should be proud this game it is so freaking cool.

What a wonderful game, I found it incredibly compelling. The style of the prose, the interface and the art itself had this mesmerizing quality that really did make me feel like what Uri felt firsthand. Cas is such an incredible character, flaws and all. She’s so sympathetic and alluring and… magnetic to look at.. am.. am I just Uri? lol

Uri is also quite compelling for how little she speaks with her voice. Her introspection and vivid (almost surreal) sensory descriptions were just amazing to be enveloped in.

Side note: The whole description of light and how it makes its way into the conscious mind is also hauntingly beautiful.

The interlude sections were really well done, at first I wasn’t sure of when those scenes were taking place but when it becomes clear it really hits.

I feel myself torn between heart-warmed and heart-broken by the story, it will stick with me for a while.

I seriously just can’t get over how good this game looks, from the menus, the fonts, the transitions, the visual effects and the art (the backgrounds, characters and cgs) were all so compelling and had this sort of electric quality to them. I can see myself easily returning to play it again in the future just to look at it more.

Utterly amazing work, I think it will stick in my head for a long long time forming a sooty mold and attracting unwanted pests.

This is just so well executed on every level, like others have said there are just so many beautiful little details that really show just an insane amount of polish and consideration for the project. You can literally flick the phone screen with your mouse and it will slide realistically like what in the actual fuck (positive)

The art is SO gorgeous the character designs and expressions the color palette and mixed media UI, the quality just speaks for itself. (shout-out to that special blinking animation for [redacted] so friggin adorable)

The sfx were so delicious and the music tracks were all bangers lulling me into a type of hypnotic frenzy that matched the tone perfectly.

The story is so wild and fun and surprising and titillating and disgusting I loved it.

Such a heartwarming, heart-FILLING tale! Whenever I think of Gerry and Oberhau I just want to squeal with joy!! (AAHH I AM SQUEALING!) Each character is so well written and well realized and while there are many cute moments the story doesn’t shy away from painting a harsh world often contrasting those two tones beautifully. The art is magnificent and expressive, the character designs and the environments are full of texture and detail. UGH I just love these cuties so much!

Incredible work, Deirdre’s introspection is so well written I found myself utterly enraptured in her world. Everyone has such an incredibly distinct voice they all felt so real even the parade of etceteras throughout had such a sense of reality to them. The art was also so fantastic, the expressions were so compelling and lovingly rendered and the whole presentation of it is just soo damn good. There is so much I could gush about it’s all so expertly made and considered I am inspired. One subtle detail that I especially loved was whenever Deirde was in kigu her sprite is fully saturated all of the time which I assume is because the those words are not actually being spoken but I think (along with the super saturated color of the text) that it also really highlights how it must feel to inhabit that role.

What an achievement.

This is so beautiful. I loved how you represented gender dysphoria, it is so creative and thematic. The art, music and writing were all so lovely and delicate. I also really liked how the fascination with dolls is something more complicated than them just being pretty, very relatable. Just a wonderful gem of a game!!

Oh this is so sweet to read, thank you for playing and writing this! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it.

Yay!! I was hoping to subvert some expectations with some of the classic fighting arena story tropes. Thank you for playing!

Oh this is so nice to read!! I’m glad that the repetition didn’t get too annoying and that you enjoyed the fights (I wasn’t sure how those would land). Thank you for playing!

oh thank you for your kind words! That’s one of my favorite lines too lol I love how nonchalant Lev was during that scene XDD

Thank you! It was a lot of fun to work on and Mala’s art brought so much life to the game and the story! I’m happy that you enjoyed it ^^

I’m so happy that you enjoyed it!

Fuck yeah!! Thank you for playing/sharing! I love where you put the drippies! hehehe

Oh gosh!! It makes me feel really warm and fuzzy to know that something I made inspired you!! Thank you for playing and sharing your kind thoughts!

Oh wow thank you so much for such kind words!! I’m so touched that the world and characters were engaging for you!

I absolutely adored this! It’s just so freaking charming, I am charmed! Utterly Charmed!! The physical puppets were so cute and I loved the style of humor, the corner of the map gag and giving the mushroom those legs, it’s just good vibes all around. Loved it. Awesome job!

I really enjoyed reading this and there were a number of really cool and surprising details!

The extra hint of worldbuilding you mentioned I found to be really interesting, and the fact that you were at times considering 5 (or even six?) pilots is wild!! (I had a personal theory that the pilot colors were related to Tetris block colors but I suppose this disproves that theory lol)

Reading your insights into the characters was also really illuminating, I think I must’ve missed some of the subtext but your notes about Green in particular hit hard, I see a lot of myself in him, well a bit in all of them really; I imagine that’s just what good writing does.

Seeing Red rendered in the administrative style… I can see why you were considering that because the art alone is impactful.

Reading Fisher’s interpretation regarding the pilot ids was legitimately horrifying so in a way I’m glad it was more intended to be a (very cute) easter egg lol

It’s always so nice to see your drawings and sketches, I love that you included all of the fun memes and alt universe stuff too, it is all so lovely!

Congrats!! I’m so happy to know that heavensent has been re-indexed too! The embroidery, charm and fan art are SO cute and adorable HJSHSDJSHD this community is the best. <3

You captured that complicated post-dev feeling so acutely INSIDE of the game itself, I have no idea where one’s thoughts linger after making something like this.

The visuals and effects are gorgeous, and the way you structured that narrative is fascinating. Leaving it to the player to break the narrative by quitting, it feels like a development in the narrative itself.

WOW!! This was so beautiful! Amazing work!! The way the last panel echoes that previous one is sooo good! I also really like the colors you chose and how you rendered the shadowed areas, it’s all so pretty!!!

Oh thank you so much for playing and for your kind words BibiXP!! It means a lot. I’m glad that the story didn’t feel too dark for you, I think it ended up being more ambiguous in the end, but my own head cannon is that it ends on a more hopeful note. (though I believe anyone’s interpretation is just as valid)

<3333

AHH thank you so much for writing this up! It was so nice to see your thoughts! I also really enjoyed that about Nikko, she might be naively optimistic or innocent but she holds firmly onto her ideal of love and I just love that for her lol I also agree Mala’s design for Nikko is awesome, her colors are so bright they feel like a beacon or lighthouse compared to the world she lives in, I love it. XD