thank you so much!! careful you don’t accidentally fall into another world… >_<

WAHHH THANK YOUU [crying like a little baby with a propeller hat and comically oversized lollipop] i too am a huge sucker for narratives and tropes, and my obsession w isekai that still hasn’t gone anywhere…. the font changes was a last minute addition i was worried would come off as too cheesy or lame, so it’s a relief to hear that it ended up being such a good part of the experience!!! and i’ll admit, i had a rough time trying to make the endings clearly adhere to my vision, especially in a way that aligned with the theme, so i still think they could be better but…your words are reassuring and give me just a bit of the ego boost i needed. i’m excited to keep making games in the future and i hope our paths will cross then…!! :D

thank you so much!!! the snake is AWESOME and i have lemonink of if:then fame to thank :D the sfx came after hours of scouring zapsplat for the right sound, so yay yay yay im glad you enjoyed! for the peace ending, try selecting the choices that are more hardworking, the sort of choices where someone would sit you down and go you should take a break fr. i hope that helps!!! and thank u again for taking the time to leave a comment >_<

thank you so much the amazing goated superior intellectual savant michael smith for nominating my game as fav implementation of choice and consequence… i always believe visual novels should put enough weight behind their choices because that’s the only gameplay there is, so it makes me happy when it works out for the player! many thanks for the kind words :D

thank u so so much!!! and for what it’s worth i’m glad it was able to hang around in your mind for that long >_< i was worried it wouldn’t be compelling enough, or not interesting enough, so it means a lot to me you’re even considering playing the other two endings! and the final ending screen of “the end” was the first thing i came up with and honestly still my favorite thing in the entire game. glad you liked it too!! :D

thank you so much!! any writer, of course, wants to hear people think their writing is good…me included! i’m really glad that i could get a good baseline just for the writing from you :D and it def was kind of a struggle to write that much over 4 days so i’m happy to hear that it was noticed and appreciated by you! i feel like three endings was necessary to really kind of play with the themes i was tossing around :P which did mean more work for me but hey we’re here now! i hope more people feel up to unlocking the endings and trying diff choices to get the most bang for my buck haha

and i’m glad the ticking worked!! i wanted to give it kind of a liminal, empty feeling – but also to tie back into the last ending when it clicks that you’ve been running out of time this whole time. and thank u so much! i feel like ren’py sucked the soul out of me, so your words really mean a lot to me & the frustration i had to go through to get everything to work as intended >_<

i’m very glad also that aion’s unhappiness and dissatisfaction was really able to get through and cut deep. the endless loop and slog of having everything change but you alone, and wondering what it is you’re doing wrong and what it takes to be happy – so if everyone says it’s this, then i’ll do that, but why am i still not happy? silly aion…happiness is in the eye of the beholder! [badum tsst]

as the author/game dev i control the characters, and so i will split miran and val apart in divorce court and give him to you. he’s yours. [passes him into your hands]

thank you so much for your kind, thoughtful, and altogether delightful comment – i spent a solid 10 seconds with my hand over my mouth, i was so stunned and grateful >_< i really am so happy that you enjoyed my game and took the time to write something so lovely about it, so thank you from the bottom of my heart!

i’m so glad that my time spent trawling the depths of zapsplat was well worth it – i for sure wanted the sound to do exactly as it needed and nothing else, but i was worried it might not be as noticeable without actual music since that’s usually what i pay attention to. and i’m also happy to hear the lack of character sprites didn’t impede the storytelling! i do wish i was able to draw them, but in the absence of my ability to do so i’m so happy that at least the words could still carry through.

i’m also really happy that the sort of restrictive unhappiness was able to be properly conveyed! i think it’s honestly such a hard balance especially in gameplay, because like you mention, sometimes it just comes off as bad writing or the author not really incorporating what players want to see. but that’s the point, right? the player character here is basically shoehorned into everything – and i’m sure we all have had points in life where it feels like we’re just clicking through and nothing we do has any impact. when you’re told “you can make out of life what you want” but there really is no way to do so at the moment. i don’t think i was able to do it the way i wanted to ultimately, but i really wanted players to kind of take away the main issue too, that it’s hard to find that kind of fulfillment and joy in life if you’re not living life for yourself too. i hope everyone, us included, ends up NOT like this mc – i hope we can find ways to make our lives so much more worth living for!

and yay! i was worried the worldbuilding would feel out of left field, so happy to know it made for good interlude/intermissions between the worlds :P and yes, i intentionally wanted players to see the choices being locked out! sort of to add to that same feeling of missing your chance when you see it initially – and then when you go and experience the other endings too, to realize that there really was no difference anyways. omfg that sounds very pessimistic looking back on it now but well i hope the takeaway is a good one!

thank you again for playing my game and leaving a comment :D i really appreciate the time and effort!!

this crazy ass comment i gasped, screamed, shouted, hit the table, got a drink of water, exclaimed, and put my hand over my mouth… and i’m ready to do it all over again. i hardly deserve the praise (AND the fanart but we’ll get to it later) you’ve lavished on me here, but i’m infinitely grateful that something my humble self has made can be reiterated so beautifully in your words. i feel like you were able to articulate so much better than i could my thoughts on making this game!

i’m glad that the variability and fluidity of experiences were able to enhance that kind of personal, individual feeling! how ironic that there is so much you can dictate through your choices, but they fall hollow and meaningless in the end regardless. some call it bad gameplay, but we can call it adherence to the theme here :^)

thank you for making my modest writing sound so beautiful and evocative in your words! the forest has been lost to the trees, one could say. i like that you specifically mention both the failure of the mc to see their inherent worth and the way they’re misunderstood by those around them — blinded by the wishes of others, they’re put in a situation where they can never be happy. this is definitely a bittersweet ending for aion, but hopefully not for us! we’re not trapped in a forever limbo yet, luckily! you and i have many more happy days in the sun at a beach that won’t be evil :D

and, of course, our guide. the hottest faceless voice one could have. i feel like a real bleeding heart doesn’t call themself a bleeding heart, but hey, he still made the effort to help out — even if it ultimately wasn’t a happy ending! i guess we can say that the eye of the beholder ought to be open to even find something to behold :P

coming from a ren’py MASTER such as yourself, i’m glad my shoddy code can still manage to hold up! it wouldn’t look nearly as good without the snake you drew for me too off the worst concept squiggle in existence >_< i suppose with your encouragement i might as well keep on trucking and find a new way to beat ren’py into submission for me. c‎ = ==3 (robobarbie & allie vera please don’t kill me for the obscenity)

[le awesome timeskip brought to you by prussia ^_~]

the fanart is NOT jank. it’s AWESOME. i love the background being the nvl textbox and the colors being from the textbox like i see u. i seeeee you. his little erm actually voice and the way his skinny little waist tapers in like he is so FINE if i were talking to this guy in the afterlife let’s just say i’d choose a world with him in it >_< and also the SNAKE NECKTIE sheeeesh….. i need someone to come get this crazy combo of writer artist and coder like you can do it all. most unmatched itch.io user ever. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!