As a system myself, this game makes me really happy. There is so little representation of plurality, especially realistic and non-offensive rep. It's so nice to see a game about a system, especially one that is so accurate and respectful. Remy is so cute! And he shares my interest in psychology.
I got the unified ending first, and it was so cute. I honestly had a hard time bringing myself to go for the other endings. I typically have no problem with making mean choices in games but considering how personal the subject matter is, it was hard giving Remy the most hurtful possible response I could imagine someone giving me in the same situation, which I myself have experienced. And that's good! It's good writing, it shows you get it. But I powered through because I'm starving for respectful plural rep so I'll take what I can get!
That being said... I'm going to be honest, I really do not like the torture ending. It was genuinely offensive. I have no problem with seeing a plural character act in an unflattering light, both the good and bad parts of the disorder deserve to be shown, but considering the already terrible state of our representation in media, with most plural characters being murderous psychopaths, it's got to be respectful. And having a character suddenly start bleeding from their eyes and monologue about how they love terrorizing Remy is not respectful. I seriously don't know what you're trying to achieve here. Is this supposed to be scary? Is it supposed to be a parody? Yes, some alters are mean, self-destructive, even violent, I even have experience with an alter who used to call himself 'evil' (though he never really did anything), but it's a minority that is typically misunderstood as is. And we sure as hell don't physically transform. Up to that point the setting seemed entirely grounded, aside from Remy being a dog. yes his eyes change slightly when Mungo fronts but I assume that was a minor stylistic choice since the protagonist doesn't comment on it. Horror twists are fun and all but considering the highly sensitive subject matter it hardly seems the place for it. Especially when the rest of the game seems so respectful and researched. If you're going to explore that, you could at least take the time out to flesh Jack out and explore his place in the system, and make it clear that not all plural people have a secret dangerous psychopath side. Again, this might not be so bad if we were in a better place, but considering this is one of the only plural characters I can think of, and almost every other character I can think of has the same hurtful stereotype, it really hurts. I already have to worry every time I tell someone I'm a system that they might become scared of me since most people's only understanding of plurality comes from characters with evil alter egos.
If this game had a larger scope, it would be cool to see Jack get fleshed out, see other alter's views on him and help him become a more healthy version of himself, but considering how short the game is, I think it would be better to just scrap Jack and instead have Rhona come out in his place and chew the player out for their rude choices, maybe take the chance to educate the player on how what they did is wrong (even if someone probably won't get this route by accident).
All in all... despite that most of my review was complaining, I do actually really like the game. It's bogged down by an extremely offensive ending that most have to go out of their way to find anyway, but the rest of the game is great. I felt it was important to talk about, personally, but don't let it get you down. I still have a very positive opinion of the rest of the game. Remy is adorable and I would love to meet the rest of the system if you ever expand this character.
I appreciate your feedback, both the positive and negative of it! I did the best I could with what I knew, so I appreciate an outside perspective on the matter.
Jack's personality was grounded in a type of alter I studied, but I do acknowledge it can seem like it's feeding into that harmful stereotype (which I also hate very much) when it's dramatized as it was. I understand your point, and I wish I had more time during development to properly express Jack's character in a way that didn't feel like he's only for being scary.
I wish none of the endings were upsetting, but I'm glad you found the game enjoyable, regardless! I made this game because I also consider it something very important to talk about. And if you consider it a good game, even though some of this input was hard to hear, I'm happy I could make something you found valuable!
It did seem like there was more to them in the bonus stuff log, so it is unfortunate how the ending came off. As I mentioned, I don't have a problem with that kind of alter, they are real and deserve to be represented too, I think the portrayal was mainly hurt by the smaller scale of the game. With an alter that only appears briefly, the player only gets to see the character at face value. Even the mentioned scene isn't necessarily unrealistic, mainly just the dramatization combined with existing stereotypes that hurt it. If one or the other wasn't there, it probably would have felt better. If the game continued after that event I am curious where it would have gone and if my opinion would change, but of course that is beyond the scope of the project.
I do think it was overall quite well researched, I appreciate the game and it had me smiling the whole way through. In fact, if you ever write another plural character or do more with this one and would like a second opinion, I would be open to helping out. Thanks for the reply!
I appreciate that offer! I'll remember it for future reference. And I really appreciate the time you took to play my game and give your genuine thoughts on it, too ❤️
I stumbled upon this somehow completely randomly while browsing this site for literally the first time, and I am just going to say that this was amazing!
I throughly enjoyed every single detail. It’s perfect, and I mean it! From the way the OST fits the vibe of the plot as a whole damn perfectly, and each individual scene or mood change is accompanied with the perfect track to go along with it, to everything else; I love it! 10/10—no—100/10 on the OST (and the game as a whole)! In other words, you made a perfect soundtrack for the game :3
Another little thing I love about this is that it feels real close to home, and not like some big writer is looking for a quick buck. I love the effort put into this, and I’ll just say that you’ve got another fan now lol
a comment on the art; your artstyle is incredibly cute, rather unique, and I absolutely love it! Not to mention that Remy has a very cute and unique design himself, too. It fits him and his character perfectly! A lot of VNs fail to capture emotions in the sprites of characters nowadays; not the case at all here. The way Remy is drawn captures his emotions perfectly. Also, I do enjoy how his design (like how he tugs on his scarf in tense situations) is incorporated into his emotions and actions!
All around, this game is perfect and I love it!! I’ll be sure to tell ppl about ya, and I’ll be sure to check out your other stuff too! (Ps, I wish I could have gave you a little something for it, but I’m not exactly in the best position rn, so that’s why I’m writing all of this. I can’t just leave, and not even leave a heartfelt note to you! this is the absolute least I can do to show my appreciation for you, for your efforts, and for this masterpiece of yours :3. Now, that said, I wish the best day—night, evening, or whatever time it may be as you are reading this—that you can possibly have to you!)
I'm SO incredibly happy to know you think these things about my game! Your feedback is so overwhelmingly positive and heartfelt, I don't think I have the words to properly express my appreciation!!
I'm very glad the OST conveyed the feelings I wanted it to! I'm still figuring out how to do music stuff, so hearing that you enjoyed it so much does wonders for my motivation and self-confidence ❤️
Definitely, I started this project because I wanted to put better representation out into the world, not for some kind of monetary gain. I'm glad it feels that way, too!
I'm also glad you like Remy's design! I tried some things I don't usually do for my illustrations, and I think this is a pretty good motivator to do those things again!!
I appreciate your detailed comment very much! Really, thank you! Stuff like this is very uplifting and reminds me why I love making games for people ❤️
Honestly, a comment like this means more than any donation could, because a donation is just money. These are super heartfelt words that make me so so so happy!
I'm very glad to have left a good impression on you! I appreciate the time you took to write this, and I wish you the best day/night/evening possible as well ❤️💖💕
A very sweet game as always, with an adorably kind character! The soundtrack for the game perfectly fits the theme of coming to understand a person. It creates a sort of rising tension/mystery feeling, at least for me personally. The art style really is unique to your games, along with the music. The ending themes are very nice cherry on top to leave you with a contented feeling (depends on the ending). I played through most of the 4/5 endings, but couldn't bring myself to get the last one, knowing it took being the meanest :')
Can't wait for the next one! Thank you for putting in so much effort into your stories/games. <3
Ahhhh, I'm glad you liked it so much! Hearing that the OST was impactful like that makes me so happy 💖
That one ending does require being really mean, unfortunately... But I'm still flattered by your feedback! It's always been my promise to put in love and effort forever!!
main song while talking to remy, was great. I found myself just letting it run without advancing dialogue to just listen to it.
its cool how in the corner little msgs will pop up to tell you things that have changed while your playing. I don't remember if you had that in previous titles.
I got a pretty good ending (friendship) but so far haven't been able to bring myself to try to get a bad one lol. Its harder, emotionally for me to try that this time.
Friendship! :) I should potentially stop taking games so seriously. (I was wondering if this update was an april fools joke but this is no joke! love ur stuff Lil'man!)
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As a system myself, this game makes me really happy. There is so little representation of plurality, especially realistic and non-offensive rep. It's so nice to see a game about a system, especially one that is so accurate and respectful. Remy is so cute! And he shares my interest in psychology.
I got the unified ending first, and it was so cute. I honestly had a hard time bringing myself to go for the other endings. I typically have no problem with making mean choices in games but considering how personal the subject matter is, it was hard giving Remy the most hurtful possible response I could imagine someone giving me in the same situation, which I myself have experienced. And that's good! It's good writing, it shows you get it. But I powered through because I'm starving for respectful plural rep so I'll take what I can get!
That being said... I'm going to be honest, I really do not like the torture ending. It was genuinely offensive. I have no problem with seeing a plural character act in an unflattering light, both the good and bad parts of the disorder deserve to be shown, but considering the already terrible state of our representation in media, with most plural characters being murderous psychopaths, it's got to be respectful. And having a character suddenly start bleeding from their eyes and monologue about how they love terrorizing Remy is not respectful. I seriously don't know what you're trying to achieve here. Is this supposed to be scary? Is it supposed to be a parody? Yes, some alters are mean, self-destructive, even violent, I even have experience with an alter who used to call himself 'evil' (though he never really did anything), but it's a minority that is typically misunderstood as is. And we sure as hell don't physically transform. Up to that point the setting seemed entirely grounded, aside from Remy being a dog. yes his eyes change slightly when Mungo fronts but I assume that was a minor stylistic choice since the protagonist doesn't comment on it. Horror twists are fun and all but considering the highly sensitive subject matter it hardly seems the place for it. Especially when the rest of the game seems so respectful and researched. If you're going to explore that, you could at least take the time out to flesh Jack out and explore his place in the system, and make it clear that not all plural people have a secret dangerous psychopath side. Again, this might not be so bad if we were in a better place, but considering this is one of the only plural characters I can think of, and almost every other character I can think of has the same hurtful stereotype, it really hurts. I already have to worry every time I tell someone I'm a system that they might become scared of me since most people's only understanding of plurality comes from characters with evil alter egos.
If this game had a larger scope, it would be cool to see Jack get fleshed out, see other alter's views on him and help him become a more healthy version of himself, but considering how short the game is, I think it would be better to just scrap Jack and instead have Rhona come out in his place and chew the player out for their rude choices, maybe take the chance to educate the player on how what they did is wrong (even if someone probably won't get this route by accident).
All in all... despite that most of my review was complaining, I do actually really like the game. It's bogged down by an extremely offensive ending that most have to go out of their way to find anyway, but the rest of the game is great. I felt it was important to talk about, personally, but don't let it get you down. I still have a very positive opinion of the rest of the game. Remy is adorable and I would love to meet the rest of the system if you ever expand this character.
Spoilers here, too!!
I appreciate your feedback, both the positive and negative of it! I did the best I could with what I knew, so I appreciate an outside perspective on the matter.
Jack's personality was grounded in a type of alter I studied, but I do acknowledge it can seem like it's feeding into that harmful stereotype (which I also hate very much) when it's dramatized as it was. I understand your point, and I wish I had more time during development to properly express Jack's character in a way that didn't feel like he's only for being scary.
I wish none of the endings were upsetting, but I'm glad you found the game enjoyable, regardless! I made this game because I also consider it something very important to talk about. And if you consider it a good game, even though some of this input was hard to hear, I'm happy I could make something you found valuable!
It did seem like there was more to them in the bonus stuff log, so it is unfortunate how the ending came off. As I mentioned, I don't have a problem with that kind of alter, they are real and deserve to be represented too, I think the portrayal was mainly hurt by the smaller scale of the game. With an alter that only appears briefly, the player only gets to see the character at face value. Even the mentioned scene isn't necessarily unrealistic, mainly just the dramatization combined with existing stereotypes that hurt it. If one or the other wasn't there, it probably would have felt better. If the game continued after that event I am curious where it would have gone and if my opinion would change, but of course that is beyond the scope of the project.
I do think it was overall quite well researched, I appreciate the game and it had me smiling the whole way through. In fact, if you ever write another plural character or do more with this one and would like a second opinion, I would be open to helping out. Thanks for the reply!
I appreciate that offer! I'll remember it for future reference. And I really appreciate the time you took to play my game and give your genuine thoughts on it, too ❤️
boy, this is gonna take a smokin’ hot minute lol—
I stumbled upon this somehow completely randomly while browsing this site for literally the first time, and I am just going to say that this was amazing!
I throughly enjoyed every single detail. It’s perfect, and I mean it! From the way the OST fits the vibe of the plot as a whole damn perfectly, and each individual scene or mood change is accompanied with the perfect track to go along with it, to everything else; I love it! 10/10—no—100/10 on the OST (and the game as a whole)! In other words, you made a perfect soundtrack for the game :3
Another little thing I love about this is that it feels real close to home, and not like some big writer is looking for a quick buck. I love the effort put into this, and I’ll just say that you’ve got another fan now lol
a comment on the art; your artstyle is incredibly cute, rather unique, and I absolutely love it! Not to mention that Remy has a very cute and unique design himself, too. It fits him and his character perfectly! A lot of VNs fail to capture emotions in the sprites of characters nowadays; not the case at all here. The way Remy is drawn captures his emotions perfectly. Also, I do enjoy how his design (like how he tugs on his scarf in tense situations) is incorporated into his emotions and actions!
All around, this game is perfect and I love it!! I’ll be sure to tell ppl about ya, and I’ll be sure to check out your other stuff too! (Ps, I wish I could have gave you a little something for it, but I’m not exactly in the best position rn, so that’s why I’m writing all of this. I can’t just leave, and not even leave a heartfelt note to you! this is the absolute least I can do to show my appreciation for you, for your efforts, and for this masterpiece of yours :3. Now, that said, I wish the best day—night, evening, or whatever time it may be as you are reading this—that you can possibly have to you!)
(Also, the name is genius too)
I think this comment made my day 💖
I'm SO incredibly happy to know you think these things about my game! Your feedback is so overwhelmingly positive and heartfelt, I don't think I have the words to properly express my appreciation!!
I'm very glad the OST conveyed the feelings I wanted it to! I'm still figuring out how to do music stuff, so hearing that you enjoyed it so much does wonders for my motivation and self-confidence ❤️
Definitely, I started this project because I wanted to put better representation out into the world, not for some kind of monetary gain. I'm glad it feels that way, too!
I'm also glad you like Remy's design! I tried some things I don't usually do for my illustrations, and I think this is a pretty good motivator to do those things again!!
I appreciate your detailed comment very much! Really, thank you! Stuff like this is very uplifting and reminds me why I love making games for people ❤️
Honestly, a comment like this means more than any donation could, because a donation is just money. These are super heartfelt words that make me so so so happy!
I'm very glad to have left a good impression on you! I appreciate the time you took to write this, and I wish you the best day/night/evening possible as well ❤️💖💕
(Glad you appreciate the title too hahaha)
Unified :D
A very sweet game as always, with an adorably kind character! The soundtrack for the game perfectly fits the theme of coming to understand a person. It creates a sort of rising tension/mystery feeling, at least for me personally. The art style really is unique to your games, along with the music. The ending themes are very nice cherry on top to leave you with a contented feeling (depends on the ending). I played through most of the 4/5 endings, but couldn't bring myself to get the last one, knowing it took being the meanest :')
Can't wait for the next one! Thank you for putting in so much effort into your stories/games. <3
Ahhhh, I'm glad you liked it so much! Hearing that the OST was impactful like that makes me so happy 💖
That one ending does require being really mean, unfortunately... But I'm still flattered by your feedback! It's always been my promise to put in love and effort forever!!
Thank you for playing ❤
I really enjoyed it! :)
main song while talking to remy, was great. I found myself just letting it run without advancing dialogue to just listen to it.
its cool how in the corner little msgs will pop up to tell you things that have changed while your playing. I don't remember if you had that in previous titles.
I got a pretty good ending (friendship) but so far haven't been able to bring myself to try to get a bad one lol. Its harder, emotionally for me to try that this time.
Great job with this, well done!
Aww, I'm glad to hear you liked it so much! And hearing that about the OST really boosts my self-confidence ❤
The pop-ups are a feature in Tangled in Development, but this game released before that game, so this one is technically first!
I take your hesitance to bully Remy as a sign that I did good on my part, heheh!
As always, thanks for playing 💖
Friendship! :)
I should potentially stop taking games so seriously.
(I was wondering if this update was an april fools joke but this is no joke! love ur stuff Lil'man!)
Friendship!! :D
No jokes here, just a game about something important to me! Thanks for playing ❤