This was SO GOOD! I love that there's a Platonic option, the dialogue was hilarious but not overwritten, and the setting and characters are exactly the sort of thing I prefer in fiction overall. Thank you for making this!!
Super cute, the romance route was simple but adorable, only downside is i didnt get to see more cute interactions between the two <3 Also! love that operator got a name!! Also loved the NB representation, was a really sweet thing to see!
I've officially played all your VNs now! It's amazing to see how far your art has progressed!
This one might be my least favorite though. I was far more invested in the characters in Fetch Quest and Red-Handed Robin. Dex feels really bland compared to the characters from the other two VNs.
I'm surprised that I actually preferred the platonic ending to this one. Probably because I wasn't invested enough in Dex's character to really ship them, and also because I didn't buy that they'd develop feelings that quickly. As opposed to the other two VNs where the pairings had already known each other before the story even started which made the romance more natural.
I am happy to see that the trend of the protagonist being the cutest character in the story still continues!
Hello! I really really REALLY want to play this, it looks so incredibly good and cute and I want to play it really badly, but for some reason I can't get the game to run for me? I mean, it starts up fine but the text is all glitched out everywhere and if I try to put the game into fullscreen, it crashes immediately. Please help, I really want to play this game!!
Hmm, I really don't know what would be causing this! The only thing I can think to do to try and fix it would be to delete the files and try a fresh download.
Have you tried pressing any of the buttons? If you press the top button and start the game, does the in-game text still look like that?
The issue occurs when using the GL2 rendering, but not the Angle rendering, however when I try to force it to use the Angle one, it gives me this when I go to open up the game
It worked, thank you so much!! I realized the issue was with my graphics card at some point last night and was really disappointed because there's absolutely no way I could afford to get a better one right now. Thank you very much!! <3 <3 <3
First things first, I absolutely ADORED this game – not only is it sweet, funny and clever, but I can’t believe how polished and immersive it is for a 1 month solo-dev project???
The characters are well-written and super appealing, and I just wanted to squash their faces with delight every other line (though I doubt many of them would appreciate it) 😭
The artwork is also lovely – the expressions and animations make the characters feel very real, and the pacing of how the dialogue works with the animations is super impressive.
The plot is really intriguing, I felt drawn into the story right away and also enjoyed replaying to get the different endings. Just a heads up for future players though, the scope of the project means you can’t expect to get ALL the answers from this universe, so remember to manage your expectations a little.
I give this game 10 out of 10 Wildly Mispronounced Cocktails🍹
Full disclosure, though- Only part of the game (up until where the first bad end can occur) was released for the jam. I wrote and coded the rest of the story afterwards. All total, the game took ~2.5 months to complete.
I go in mostly blind when playing itch.io games, and I was surprised that we were playing as Seren and not Dex! Dex has such protagonist energy haha; it was super cool to have it switched around.
I really enjoy the amount of expressions and care put into making them relevant with the dialogue. The comedic beats were perfect. I love the small under-the-breath text too.
Super cute romance route. Thank you for the neat NB representation, even though it is a struggle to get people to use the right pronouns sometimes. :P
The graphics, the ingenious usage of comms portraits to convey the virtuality of the setting, the sound effects and portraits shifting to convey the emotions - I love it <3 The story is short and sweet, the attention to detail is amazing :)
Thank you and looking forward to your next works (^-^)
In my humble opinion, this game is not as good as the other commenters make it out to be. Anyone reading the comments would get a false sense of the game before playing it.
I didn't get attached to any of the characters. The story and game was short and fast, I didn't get a sense for the timescale and the game didn't show it. One moment Dex goes off the ship and the next He and Seren are on a mission. Didn't get to see what else Dex and the Operator do in their lives when they aren't in the ship and talking with Seren. I didn't get to know any of the characters or relate to them. If they are in trouble or something bad happens to them I just don't feel sad for their fates.
As for the bad endings, I checked out every single one of them and it was kinda "meh". Didn't get to see or know anything about Seren or that stranger who claims to have created Seren. Everything is so vague and leaves me with a bored and dissatisfied feeling when I get the romantic good ending with Seren and Dex.
I ALMOST CRIED AT THE END. Love how that's how I start my review out. All jokes aside, the characters, the story, I. Loved. It. All. I LOVE DEX WITH ALL MY HEART (now that's not a joke) Nah, I need more. I also audibly yelled when it said "The End". I got so sucked into it, I want more of the game-
God, I need to stop getting attached to characters that don't exist-
As you can see, I loved it all. It was one of those shorter games that pulls everything together so well! It was amazing :)
(I also want the full game so bad, you don't even know)
I really like this game. It is a real gem. I miss more pixelated graphics, a ship maybe, some action and animations, but even without that it is excellent. I still haven't finished it, but I like it very much.
We just finished the game. I played and read it all to my 8 yo (we are not native speakers, so it was a nice practice). We god The End-ing. :-)
I must say I am pretty happy about it, but my kid is pissed off there was no further info what the Seren was or what was her purpose.... My personal idea is that she was a hyper-powerful militarised AI, that got sentient and disabled herself and that she was culprit of much of the forgotten war that resulted in that garbage heap stations...
I got the Good and Neutral ending on 2 runs and Im mentally preparing for the bad ends cuz my heart can not take those after the Good end omg- (I chose Romantic) so now I cant bear the thought of them separated ToT I love them and Owen too much and the Cap too!! I love everything!! Thank you for making such a cool game!!!
Thanks for the game! I've really enjoyed playing it. The characters are so cute, and the story is engaging. (I've ended up getting all the bad ends just to stay with the characters a bit longer ^^')
Thanks for the information i played reached every ending and i really love that you learn something by some endings especially by the neutral ending (;
It was an honor :D I saw in the comments that you are working on something else now and i'm excited to see what it is about so consider yourself a new Subscriber
This is a great game! I really liked the story, and the characters especially were so loveable. Though this was a short game, the relationships between the 3 main characters felt super real. Also I love your artstyle!
Fantastic game! I love your art style and was particularly impressed by the facial expressions. And the characters? Big thumbs up. Thank you so much for sharing!
Basically, my feelings the same with previous comments! I absolutely adore the game, everything from art, UI and the story and characters!! My favorite part will always be Flamingo =)))) , the final battle and the ugly sobbing. My only complain will probably about how a certain sound effect sounds too goofy in a serious story part. Other than that, a hands down 5 out of 5. Depspite it being so short, the story feels so fulfilling, the relationship between Seren and Dex is adorable.
The visual novel was very short, but that is to be expected from a jam entry.
The idea behind the game is brilliant and reminds me of the movie 'Her'. I hope you decide to expand upon the game further, as i would love to see a full-fledged visual novel from this. It would be great to have content to fill between the jumps in time, so you start caring more about the characters, and i would love to see the impact of Seren being an AI and how that would affect their relationship. In the movie 'Her', they start communicating on the go (i consistently had a feeling of being left behind in the visual novel) and eventually become upset over the fact that they can't touch each other. I'd love to see 'Owen' as a love interest as well! I'd even back it if you ever decide to make it a full game!
I'm happy you want to see more of these characters, but I view this story as 'complete' already. It's possible I'll come back to this world in a future game, though.
Hey this turned out really cool! I love AI and robots (and also space) so I was excited about your story concept.
I liked a lot of the scifi visual elements, those glitch effects look great! The sprites were nice and polished too, I liked the expressions and the blinking/talking animations. The slight moving of the sprite boxes was a fun touch, I especially liked when Dex's box slid down when he was feeling embarrassed/awkward haha.
My favorite character ended up being Dex, he just felt sincere and like he was trying his best even though he's pretty incompetent at some things. And it was cute how proud he was of his crappy ship (lol sorry Patsy). I liked Seren a lot too, I was happy to see a nonbinary character! I think they had a good balance of robot elements--things like calling people by their DNA signature number--and feeling pretty human. I'm curious about their backstory, the part where they mentioned being a simulated personality based on another person really intrigued me. I'm hoping we find out more about that in the full game, along with seeing what's going on with the whole mystery of Seren's origins.
Overall a great demo and congrats on completing another Nanoreno! :] I'm def looking forward to the full game!
Dex's little "sigh" animation is probably my favorite part of the game, so I'm glad you singled it out.
I'm also happy to hear you liked Seren. I was a little worried they would come across as too petulant to be likeable xD Though they have a pretty good reason to act the way they do.
Yeah I just figured Seren was having a rough day :p I'm wondering if we'll see what they're like when they're not right in the middle of a stressful situation haha.
Hm. I thought this might be a memory issue, but I ran the game while watching the task manager, and that doesn't seem to be the case for me at least.
I wonder if this happens for you with other Ren'py games. Have you tried deleting the game and re-downloading it? (your saves should be fine, as they automatically save to the appdata folder.)
I'm amazed by how much was accomplished just with the sprite animation and dialogue pacing! Honestly I love how you always experiment and change up the typical VN formula, Mel. I'm really curious to see how this romance plays out between Seren and Dex since it seems Seren is still trapped in a digital space!
I've only played a few minutes so far, but color me VERY intrigued. :) The art direction here seems very on point, and these characters seem like a fun bunch to spend a few hours with. I look forward to playing the rest, hopefully soon.
(This game actually wound up being one of my top picks for my NaNoRenO 2021 Spotlight. Congrats on completing the game jam--and with such a polished entry, too!)
you never fail to make amazing games, i was so excited to see a new one!! the characters are so loveable and im excited to see where the story goes next <3 the art and overall look is so good, i love the way the dialogue with portraits was done ive never seen that before !
This was such a wonderful story! Despite it not being completed I was easily drawn in by the character personalities as well as the audio and animations.
A wonderful demo that makes me excited to experience the full game! The characters are endearing and expressive (Dex is an adorable puppy who must be protected), and the writing is snappy and fun.
Everyone is written with a strong, distinct voice and the charming character animations give the game a very polished feel.
I also love the beautitful art and designs that feels like it pays homage to the 80s anime futurstic/space aesthetic. Amazing work! Can't wait to see more!
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This was SO GOOD! I love that there's a Platonic option, the dialogue was hilarious but not overwritten, and the setting and characters are exactly the sort of thing I prefer in fiction overall. Thank you for making this!!
Thanks so much! I’m glad you liked it :)
Super cute, the romance route was simple but adorable, only downside is i didnt get to see more cute interactions between the two <3 Also! love that operator got a name!!
Also loved the NB representation, was a really sweet thing to see!
Thanks so much for playing!
THIS IS SO FREAKING CUTE (I love both of them and the world building)!!
I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for playing :)
Really liked this game! <3 Dex and Seren were so cute together.
I'm glad you liked it!
Thanks so much!
I've officially played all your VNs now! It's amazing to see how far your art has progressed!
This one might be my least favorite though. I was far more invested in the characters in Fetch Quest and Red-Handed Robin. Dex feels really bland compared to the characters from the other two VNs.
I'm surprised that I actually preferred the platonic ending to this one. Probably because I wasn't invested enough in Dex's character to really ship them, and also because I didn't buy that they'd develop feelings that quickly. As opposed to the other two VNs where the pairings had already known each other before the story even started which made the romance more natural.
I am happy to see that the trend of the protagonist being the cutest character in the story still continues!
Thanks for playing all my games and letting me know what you think!
Hello! I really really REALLY want to play this, it looks so incredibly good and cute and I want to play it really badly, but for some reason I can't get the game to run for me? I mean, it starts up fine but the text is all glitched out everywhere and if I try to put the game into fullscreen, it crashes immediately. Please help, I really want to play this game!!
What the text looks like btw:
Hmm, I really don't know what would be causing this! The only thing I can think to do to try and fix it would be to delete the files and try a fresh download.
Have you tried pressing any of the buttons? If you press the top button and start the game, does the in-game text still look like that?
The issue occurs when using the GL2 rendering, but not the Angle rendering, however when I try to force it to use the Angle one, it gives me this when I go to open up the game
I looked into it and it seems like this might be a problem with your graphics card. It's possible updating your card's drivers could fix the issue.
I also uploaded new zip files built with the latest version of Ren'Py, so please try running that version of the game instead :)
It worked, thank you so much!! I realized the issue was with my graphics card at some point last night and was really disappointed because there's absolutely no way I could afford to get a better one right now. Thank you very much!! <3 <3 <3
First things first, I absolutely ADORED this game – not only is it sweet, funny and clever, but I can’t believe how polished and immersive it is for a 1 month solo-dev project???
The characters are well-written and super appealing, and I just wanted to squash their faces with delight every other line (though I doubt many of them would appreciate it) 😭
The artwork is also lovely – the expressions and animations make the characters feel very real, and the pacing of how the dialogue works with the animations is super impressive.
The plot is really intriguing, I felt drawn into the story right away and also enjoyed replaying to get the different endings. Just a heads up for future players though, the scope of the project means you can’t expect to get ALL the answers from this universe, so remember to manage your expectations a little.
I give this game 10 out of 10 Wildly Mispronounced Cocktails🍹
Thanks for the kind words!
Full disclosure, though- Only part of the game (up until where the first bad end can occur) was released for the jam. I wrote and coded the rest of the story afterwards. All total, the game took ~2.5 months to complete.
Okay frankly THANK GOD, but is still an amazing achievement! Looking forward to playing the rest of your catalogue!
I go in mostly blind when playing itch.io games, and I was surprised that we were playing as Seren and not Dex! Dex has such protagonist energy haha; it was super cool to have it switched around.
I really enjoy the amount of expressions and care put into making them relevant with the dialogue. The comedic beats were perfect. I love the small under-the-breath text too.
Super cute romance route. Thank you for the neat NB representation, even though it is a struggle to get people to use the right pronouns sometimes. :PTake care!
Seren (and their gender identity) mean a lot to me, so I'm very happy when people accept them for who they are. Thanks so much for playing!
is there a option to change the MC gender if i want him to be a girl or boy?
No, there isn't an option to change their gender, sorry! Seren is nonbinary.
The graphics, the ingenious usage of comms portraits to convey the virtuality of the setting, the sound effects and portraits shifting to convey the emotions - I love it <3 The story is short and sweet, the attention to detail is amazing :)
Thank you and looking forward to your next works (^-^)
Thanks so much!
Well, this game was short but nice.
In my humble opinion, this game is not as good as the other commenters make it out to be. Anyone reading the comments would get a false sense of the game before playing it.
I didn't get attached to any of the characters. The story and game was short and fast, I didn't get a sense for the timescale and the game didn't show it. One moment Dex goes off the ship and the next He and Seren are on a mission. Didn't get to see what else Dex and the Operator do in their lives when they aren't in the ship and talking with Seren. I didn't get to know any of the characters or relate to them. If they are in trouble or something bad happens to them I just don't feel sad for their fates.
As for the bad endings, I checked out every single one of them and it was kinda "meh". Didn't get to see or know anything about Seren or that stranger who claims to have created Seren. Everything is so vague and leaves me with a bored and dissatisfied feeling when I get the romantic good ending with Seren and Dex.
Thanks for the feedback!
I ALMOST CRIED AT THE END. Love how that's how I start my review out. All jokes aside, the characters, the story, I. Loved. It. All. I LOVE DEX WITH ALL MY HEART (now that's not a joke) Nah, I need more. I also audibly yelled when it said "The End". I got so sucked into it, I want more of the game-
God, I need to stop getting attached to characters that don't exist-
As you can see, I loved it all. It was one of those shorter games that pulls everything together so well! It was amazing :)
(I also want the full game so bad, you don't even know)
Ah, thanks so much! Dex is a very good boy, haha.
This is a really nice little visual novel, with likeable characters and an interesting intrigue. I had lots of fun going through it, i recommend it !
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it :)
I really like this game. It is a real gem. I miss more pixelated graphics, a ship maybe, some action and animations, but even without that it is excellent. I still haven't finished it, but I like it very much.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy the rest of the game.
We just finished the game. I played and read it all to my 8 yo (we are not native speakers, so it was a nice practice). We god The End-ing. :-)
I must say I am pretty happy about it, but my kid is pissed off there was no further info what the Seren was or what was her purpose.... My personal idea is that she was a hyper-powerful militarised AI, that got sentient and disabled herself and that she was culprit of much of the forgotten war that resulted in that garbage heap stations...
This is an amazing lil visual novel, and the best thing I like about it is how similar the art style is to CrossCode, just not pixel art.
10/10, still trying to find all the endings. I know there's another, I see it in the scripts ;D
(And no, I don't want a walkthrough yet, I enjoy finding the combinations myself, once I know there's actually a reason to try them.)
I'm glad you liked the game! Thanks for playing :)
Wow, this was incredible!
Thanks for playing!
I got the Good and Neutral ending on 2 runs and Im mentally preparing for the bad ends cuz my heart can not take those after the Good end omg- (I chose Romantic) so now I cant bear the thought of them separated ToT
I love them and Owen too much and the Cap too!! I love everything!! Thank you for making such a cool game!!!
thanks so much for playing! I’m glad you liked all the characters. Good luck with the bad ends! XD
Such a cute, stylish game!
thank you!
stupid little gay space dumbasses. will be drawing fanart because i am now emotionally attached. I will post the link when I'm done.
XD I'm looking forward to it! Thanks for playing.
This was very fun and cute!
Thank you!
wow! i was so charmed by this game and it's world! i didn't learn where Seren comes from, but maybe on my next playthrough! thank you author!
oooh, can i talk about the polish on this game?? the music, sfx, and the way potraits moved to emote!! this game was just a delight to play!
Ah, thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it.
(And thanks for the nice review on Red-Handed Robin as well!)
Np! :D
Thanks for the game! I've really enjoyed playing it. The characters are so cute, and the story is engaging. (I've ended up getting all the bad ends just to stay with the characters a bit longer ^^')
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it.
Does the operator has a name?
Not at first, but if you unlock the secret after credits scene, he does eventually settle on one. His name is Owen :)
Thanks for the information i played reached every ending and i really love that you learn something by some endings especially by the neutral ending (;
I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for playing.
It was an honor :D I saw in the comments that you are working on something else now and i'm excited to see what it is about so consider yourself a new Subscriber
See ya :D
I 👏 need 👏 more 👏
It's funny you say that, because I'm working on something veeeery interesting atm...
gasp :0 I’m intrigued
This game was sooo cute! I'm gonna miss these characters
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it.
This is a great game! I really liked the story, and the characters especially were so loveable. Though this was a short game, the relationships between the 3 main characters felt super real. Also I love your artstyle!
I'm glad you liked the game! Thanks so much for playing :)
Fantastic game! I love your art style and was particularly impressed by the facial expressions. And the characters? Big thumbs up. Thank you so much for sharing!
Ah, thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
Basically, my feelings the same with previous comments! I absolutely adore the game, everything from art, UI and the story and characters!! My favorite part will always be Flamingo =)))) , the final battle and the ugly sobbing. My only complain will probably about how a certain sound effect sounds too goofy in a serious story part. Other than that, a hands down 5 out of 5. Depspite it being so short, the story feels so fulfilling, the relationship between Seren and Dex is adorable.
I really look forward to your future projects!
Ah, thank you so much! I'm glad you liked the game.
Thank you for your lovely work!
The visual novel was very short, but that is to be expected from a jam entry.
The idea behind the game is brilliant and reminds me of the movie 'Her'. I hope you decide to expand upon the game further, as i would love to see a full-fledged visual novel from this. It would be great to have content to fill between the jumps in time, so you start caring more about the characters, and i would love to see the impact of Seren being an AI and how that would affect their relationship. In the movie 'Her', they start communicating on the go (i consistently had a feeling of being left behind in the visual novel) and eventually become upset over the fact that they can't touch each other. I'd love to see 'Owen' as a love interest as well! I'd even back it if you ever decide to make it a full game!
Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you liked it!
I'm happy you want to see more of these characters, but I view this story as 'complete' already. It's possible I'll come back to this world in a future game, though.
Hey this turned out really cool! I love AI and robots (and also space) so I was excited about your story concept.
I liked a lot of the scifi visual elements, those glitch effects look great! The sprites were nice and polished too, I liked the expressions and the blinking/talking animations. The slight moving of the sprite boxes was a fun touch, I especially liked when Dex's box slid down when he was feeling embarrassed/awkward haha.
My favorite character ended up being Dex, he just felt sincere and like he was trying his best even though he's pretty incompetent at some things. And it was cute how proud he was of his crappy ship (lol sorry Patsy). I liked Seren a lot too, I was happy to see a nonbinary character! I think they had a good balance of robot elements--things like calling people by their DNA signature number--and feeling pretty human. I'm curious about their backstory, the part where they mentioned being a simulated personality based on another person really intrigued me. I'm hoping we find out more about that in the full game, along with seeing what's going on with the whole mystery of Seren's origins.
Overall a great demo and congrats on completing another Nanoreno! :] I'm def looking forward to the full game!
Dex's little "sigh" animation is probably my favorite part of the game, so I'm glad you singled it out.
I'm also happy to hear you liked Seren. I was a little worried they would come across as too petulant to be likeable xD Though they have a pretty good reason to act the way they do.
Thanks so much for such a nice comment!
Yeah I just figured Seren was having a rough day :p I'm wondering if we'll see what they're like when they're not right in the middle of a stressful situation haha.
Oh no! Sorry to hear about the crashes. Did you get any particular error?
Hm. I thought this might be a memory issue, but I ran the game while watching the task manager, and that doesn't seem to be the case for me at least.
I wonder if this happens for you with other Ren'py games. Have you tried deleting the game and re-downloading it? (your saves should be fine, as they automatically save to the appdata folder.)
That's really strange. I'll keep looking around for what it might be. Hopefully it's something I can fix for the full release!
Amazing game! Can't wait to see more, not only of the game but also from you as an artist and game developer!
Thank you! I appreciate it :)
I'm amazed by how much was accomplished just with the sprite animation and dialogue pacing! Honestly I love how you always experiment and change up the typical VN formula, Mel. I'm really curious to see how this romance plays out between Seren and Dex since it seems Seren is still trapped in a digital space!
Thanks, Amy! I really wanted to focus on making the dialogue feel 'animated', so I'm happy it came across.
This was such a fun demo! I'm excited to see where it goes. You really got me with the mystery!
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it :)
I've only played a few minutes so far, but color me VERY intrigued. :) The art direction here seems very on point, and these characters seem like a fun bunch to spend a few hours with. I look forward to playing the rest, hopefully soon.
(This game actually wound up being one of my top picks for my NaNoRenO 2021 Spotlight. Congrats on completing the game jam--and with such a polished entry, too!)
Thanks so much for the feature! I’m happy my writing was able to get some laughs.
you never fail to make amazing games, i was so excited to see a new one!! the characters are so loveable and im excited to see where the story goes next <3 the art and overall look is so good, i love the way the dialogue with portraits was done ive never seen that before !
Ah, thank you! I’m really proud of how the dialogue works, so I’m glad you liked it :)
This was such a wonderful story! Despite it not being completed I was easily drawn in by the character personalities as well as the audio and animations.
Thanks for making it!
Thanks so much for playing!
Very well put together, with a good narrative hook. I was impressed with how much you were able to do with just portraits and dynamic UI/audio ^^
Thanks for playing!
A wonderful demo that makes me excited to experience the full game! The characters are endearing and expressive (Dex is an adorable puppy who must be protected), and the writing is snappy and fun.
Everyone is written with a strong, distinct voice and the charming character animations give the game a very polished feel.
I also love the beautitful art and designs that feels like it pays homage to the 80s anime futurstic/space aesthetic. Amazing work! Can't wait to see more!
This comment is so nice T-T
Thanks so much, Brii!