This one didn’t quite land, for me. I want to begin with applauding Brian for the work he’s put into learning art, as of late- it’s been very rewarding to watch his progress after tons of cumulative, consistent work- and I’ve been very happy to occasionally chip in by offering constructive criticism, or more general thoughts/suggestions as an artist. To that end, the art in this is probably the highlight of it.
I had a vague feeling of where the game was going to go, based off of the first few passages- the hyper-detailed character selection screens for things that don’t particularly matter with respect to in game consequences/text variation, pop up notifications of relationship increases, story lines that are heavily geared towards romance- and after a quick skim of authorial comments, Brian did make mention of one of the heavyweights in that particular realm of Twine games* I was reminded of that people often poke fun at.
(*As in it is commonly used as a reference point/discussed there.)
Satire certainly has its place, and even fans of that genre of game can find it tedious to go through character selection out the wazoo, or find that the pacing of relationships is too quick, or that these games tend to become dominated by romance and worldbuilding or external plots can fall by the wayside. And, of course, there is a difference in highlighting a particularly well liked and successful game, as compared to grabbing a much smaller production in the same genre.
I think that this felt a little too mean spirited for me to particularly enjoy. Genre conventions help me personally to decide if I want to investigate a particular work further- and to that effect, romance is often a self indulgent experience: a chance to, yes, a bit silly in a text based game where it may not become super relevant, fine tune the character to better reflect either my self insert, or my original characters- particularly when that sort of representation can be difficult to find.
Yes- it may feel superfluous, or bloated if you’re used to by default, not having to think about that because it doesn’t register as something personally impacting you- but it does genuinely make me happy to see the option to more closely reflect aspects of myself in games that are tailored towards indulging that fantasy, and that encourage underrepresented populations to daydream and feel included, when they don’t often get that opportunity. Hair texture in particular is a very sensitive subject, and while descriptors like ‘limp’ or ‘layered’ are harmless enough to poke fun at, mentions of curly hair in the same vein don’t quite sit right with me.
Similarly, with the pronoun selection screen- as someone who is nonbinary, and uses they/them pronouns: that in particular left a nasty taste in my mouth. That they were established as the ones that another character chose to mock/make fun of the protagonist with, when they are typically used in order to not break immersion for marginalized individuals in games that focus on intimacy and romance- that felt a bit cruel. People deriding you for how you choose to be referred to is nothing new for trans and nonbinary people. It is a part of why I went back into the closet for many years.
These aren’t condemnations of Brian, or assumptions of his personal views- I have known him to be a very kind, compassionate man. I am indebted to him for the kindness he showed Dan in a very difficult time. But it is because of that, of knowing his character and that this is likely not coming from a place of bigotry, that I felt compelled to mention this in a write-up at all. I likely would not have bothered and kept it moving if I didn’t feel as if he may be open to the idea of at least reflecting on how this may have inadvertently landed poorly.
I will most likely refrain from voting on this particular entry for Ectocomp.