I absolutely loved this game! Every part of it - the visuals, the storytelling, the story itself, the characters. It all felt so vivid, so real. Nothing felt forced or out of place or dramatized to no end. It really was a great experience.
Zack is honestly adorable. I loved his humor and I really felt like he was so relatable, both in queer and plain human terms (although I am a girl, not a boy, so certain things were wildly different for obvious reasons, lol).
Also, I actually scanned the code on the purple poster and I have to say it was really a nice detail to add!
I'll be waiting for more content from you, Aaryn. Keep doing whatever you're doing, it's working! :)
Yay! I love getting girl fans of the game! It's been awhile since I've heard from one and I just got excited again :p
Glad you liked the story and felt like everything clicked. While i do like drama, I wanted all the drama to matter or to really illustrate something that could pop up in a relationship and really explore how to talk about that or sort through it. Also, glad you cause the scanning code on the Pool poster in the revamp version. It was a fun detail that Jordyn added and it's a fun easter egg for those that find it and take the extra step to see if it actually works or not. there's a lot of easter eggs in the story that people still haven't found :)
Thank you for stopping by and thanks for playing. I'm super happy you enjoyed it and stay tuned. the next one update is coming up before too long
Yeah, drama is fine as long as it makes sense and it is not sensationalized. A story where absolutely nothing ever happens would be boring, after all. But I love how you handled it - these guys just straight (or not :D) up TALK when things go wrong and I really appreciate that. No mindless, useless dragging of it all for the sake of it. Just people actually communicating. Absolutely loved that.
Not gonna lie, at first I only wanted to play this because it was not heterosexual stuff, lol - I am bi and quite tired of the general narrative focusing on straight relationships/stories. But then I got hooked on the characters and the storytelling. It's so refreshing to see such a honest, raw take on certain aspects of life. The NSFW content is good (Zack is DAMN FINE!) but the fact you actually made these characters feel real and like people rather than just mindless figures doing hot things, makes it 10000x times better.
As for the two versions: not gonna lie, the original looks great. Yes, the revamped is even better, but I would have been happy even with just the first one. It's gorgeous. However, I do prefer the narrative of the revamped version of a mile. It reads more easily and gives more glimpses of what actually goes on in the characters' minds.
And now I'm on the hunt for more easter eggs, lol
the communication was a big thing to me, especially because i'm using an online environment to distribute this. the online environment just seems to foster snap judgements and angry people attacking others. people seem so quick to either attack or defend and sometimes there's important context that's left out. we assume things about other people that probably aren't true and that makes the world look like an ugly place.
I wanted to show some fucked up situations between two people that are really good together but sometimes things get messy. I wanted to explore that and show a way to actually communicate and work together. to put some time into trying to hear the other person out, even if you dont agree with them. sure, the solutions from the game wont apply to everyone but i wanted to show one way where two people actually sit down and collaborate on life. i just felt like i was starved for that in media today. you never see someone take the simple role of "you fucking like the guy so hear him out!" anymore.
These guys aren't perfect, in fact their a hot mess sometimes and they're trying to figure themselves out and we get to watch in real-time while that happens--even if it's slow. and hopefully some of the questions they ponder are applicable to the reader-- they were to me. i did a ton of soul searching in this story and sorta went on that same journey with the characters.
the original game is what it is. it's its own journey. you can see the progress from the beginning of it to the end. i think super fans enjoy that because they get to see the improvements in the world as the characters improve. that makes the entire thing almost metaphorical and that's fun. i think, to me, the revamp is an open love story to the characters and the fans. it's my attempt to say that you stuck with me through the rough patches while i learned how to do this and you were open to my soul-searching storytelling, so here, i'll redo it all and show you what i can do now with that energy behind me. i've been lucky enough to have an amazing community of fans behind this thing and i'm finally at a point where i can show you what i saw in my heart the first time i wrote this :)
You 100% delivered all of this and MORE. You gave depth to all of the characters, which alone is an incredible feat, and told a beautiful story that's really vivid.
And while I promise to stop writing essays in these comments at once, lol, I feel compelled to say I especially loved the ending - like the inner turmoil, the arguments, the feelings, the issues, that too felt incredibly real. No promises of forever and unicorns riding off into the sunset in a perfect world, no flawless people doing things flawlessly and never having an issue, but realistic guys trying their best. Doing what they can with what they have. Being friends and lovers, taking care of each other, trying to be good for each other. And I don't mean just Zack and Braden - Mikhail and Ash too.
Ultimately, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this story! I will absolutely donate what I can next month because none of this deserves to be free and because if I can give something in return I am only happy to, tbh. And I will wait for any new content that might or might not happen to grace your page in the future for sure :)
heh, glad you approved. Yeah, i'm not a big fan of perfection. i like flaws and the individuality of the human experience. i wanted characters that were human and fucked up and stumbled and falling into storybook cliches is not an appropriate way to handle characters like that. too much storybook and i think they lose their relatability. all of the characters are frustrating at some point but then i also believe all of us can be frustrating to others when we're not able to see things clearly and i wanted to capture that. i think you summarized it good: characters just trying to do their best. that's smoothing that gives me comfort and it's easy to relate to.
So: on the donation aspect-- hopefully you see this. lemme run through a couple quick things to help you with that decision. 1) please don't rush to donate or feel compelled to. only do so if you're in a safe position. take care of yourself and those you love first-- seriously. 2) the official platforms are Patreon and Itch.io. the problem with sending a donation here on Itchio is that you dont get anything for it. If you donate on Patreon, you can unlock extra stuff (if you're interested in that). The problem with patreon is that when you donate, it sets up autobill so if you're just looking to make a one time contribution, itch.io is probably easier but if you wanna do a subscription thing then Patreon is the way to go. A third option for a one time donation (and my recommendation) is do Patreon so you unlock stuff, then cancel right after, you'll be good for 30 days and it gives you time to see what you're interested in (if anything) over there. There's videos and extras and behind the scenes stuff as well as picture sets that get a bit steamy and fun. If you do the patreon route and forget to cancel, just DM me. I can always refund (but only 3 months back-- after that, Patreon locks it and i'd likely just donate to a charity on your behalf). I want an honest setup here so if you have questions and stuff, please ask. but just remember the game is free for a reason. you can always recommend the game to others, post about it in places or share it. that helps me just as much :)
Hi!!!
Sorry for the incredibly late reply, I moved to a different Country and things have been horribly busy and complicated for a hot minute, not to mention my laptop decided to end its life out of the blue. Hope you're doing great!
As for the donation, thank you for your concern and transparency :) I can't do much right now but what I can, I do happily and without getting any poorer, promise. It's not any different from me picking up a game at the store, after all, and as a fellow creative content creator (except I am a writer, aka someone quite far from being able to make games, sadly. My stories are just words.) I also want to support others out there trying to make their visions concrete. So it's not a problem AT ALL and I just did it, actually, so now you're stuck with my money. No backsies. Ahah.
I decided to go through itch simply because I don't want to end up forgetting to cancel a subscription, tbh. It happened once with PS Plus and I have lived in fear ever since, lol. But maybe I can support on patreon in the future as well, as a subscription. I'd love to, honestly.
Keep up the great work and take care of Zack and the others, they deserve the world.
Lots of love from Italy <3
heya, no worries on the late reply; it sounds like you've been more than busy. I wish you the best on your post-move endeavor and hope things calm down for you sooner rather than later. Thank you for the generous donation to the project. I never take things like that for granted and i appreciate it greatly. Thank you. I also wish you the best with your own writing. I'm still learning on mine but I can honestly say it's been a healthy experience that I wouldn't change for the world. All the game development stuff is just extra and I mostly just googled things and read forums or watched videos-- the rest has just been trial and error. As for taking care of Zack and Braden, I will always do my best. Even with the Revamp, I've been very careful about things and really put thought into any of the changes made. I wish you the best and thank you again for the donation and for supporting this project <3