itch.io

That's a brilliant point about the nature of games and how we basically just do what it says to get a score vs having a beautiful garden left, I hadn't even considered that! That's super inspirational, actually 🤔 

- ✨Beth

Oh terrific, thank you! I'll share this with my discord server too then (other tabletop creator folx) 🧡 

I apologize if I missed the answer: are analog/tabletop games allowed, or must the game be playable digitally? 

This same message is on both of our entries and they're identical so you can just read one lol

We'd love to be part of the bundle if you're making one :D You can reach us at bethandangelmakegames@gmail.com if either of our entries qualify for the approval link or whatever 🥳 

Also, both of our entries are free for two weeks after this jam ends so everyone can check em out :D

- ✨Beth and Angel (who make games and zines and stuff)

This same message is on both of our entries and they're identical so you can just read one lol

We'd love to be part of the bundle if you're making one :D You can reach us at bethandangelmakegames@gmail.com if either of our entries qualify for the approval link or whatever 🥳 

Also, both of our entries are free for two weeks after this jam ends so everyone can check em out :D

- ✨Beth and Angel (who make games and zines and stuff)

Whooooooo I'm proud of the 2,450 I scored on that last play! This is so cute and whimsical but also dark and the way the flowers frown in the end is soul-crushing, omg 😭😭😭😭😭 

Great game, and it still blows me away with what you're able to do in an hour! Especially with that hand-drawn art style!

- ✨Beth

I'm so proud of you for getting this done! It's a super cool concept with a good amount of customizing your dragon and space, and the way you use the card or zine itself to measure is brilliant! 

- ✨Beth

LOL I thought I did super well with my 14,500 but I got my BUTT kicked by the others 🤣🤣🤣 

This is equal parts adorable and disturbing, I love it!

- ✨Beth

WOW, this is huge and fantastic! Goodness, I remember you talking about it, but it turned out to be magnificent. Well done! I'd been looking forward to this for a while and I'm definitely not disappointed 🙌 

- ✨Beth

Oh wow, I learned about the uncanny valley way before cognitive dissonance (I used to be super into making video games so I learned about it with 3d art, not that I ever made anything 3d anyway), but I never considered that they're one in the same. 

I love that so much too, about seeing typical-gendered stuff as another form of uncanny valley, and thereby being able to power through it. I 100% agree btw that realizing the signals are happening and that it's in our power for how we want to receive those signals is hugely important and necessary for growth... in all kinds of stuff, not just the weird things society teaches us.

- ✨Beth

OMFG LOL that sounds like a hilarious, amazing time bouncing around in frilly skirts. It's funny, too, when I first transitioned I was like "dang goth girls are so cool... wait, I can BE a goth girl!" and yet you've dressed like one more than I have after 2 years of transitioning 🤣🤣🤣 I need to rectify that, thank you for the reminder!

And yes, Spanish was the language where I learned about gendering language too! Like uhhhhhhhhh why is a computer a girl? And a calculator? And a fridge is a dude?

- ✨Beth

I've made some bookmark games in the past too so I can definitely say these are super clever and adorable! And I LOVE the tops of the bookmarks being something cute to see over the side of the book 🧡

One of my goals for 2025 is reading a book a month, and these seem like a fun way to mix things up!

- ✨Beth

Oh nice, I love this! It's such a unique way to prompt writing, and made me immediately stop and think about what I would write to encourage it the best I can.

- ✨Beth

"It" is often an insult in English, too. In fact, a friend of mine uses "it/its" pronouns and says it has a hard time getting people to accept that because they don't want to insult it. But... those are its pronouns! It's a cyclical disagreement lol

And goodness... I love grammar, and this is a lot of really awesome data grammatically! So if I'm hearing this right, if say a hand is given a masculine reference, then even if you say "her hand" it would be masculine. That sounds a lot like how, for a long time, the person who delivered mail was "the mailman" regardless of their gender. The same for like "garbage man" and some others that I can't think of now, since they've mostly been rephrased (although a lot of people still use the old, gendered terms). 

I also LOVE the idea of part of the euphoria over a pronoun is because it's NOT EVEN POSSIBLE in other genders. That makes it even more of an act of rebellion, even more special. 

This is EXACTLY it. When I first transitioned, I LOVED pink stuff. I bought what I considered the girliest stuff I could, including some makeup and stuff. I started shaving my arms and legs.

After a few months, I realized how much of that stuff was just a mask to present more "female." And the whole point of being transgender, to me at least, has always been to be myself. So why the heck should I "be a girl"???

It really is impossible to turn that distinction off, it feels like. Even now, looking at people, my brain immediately decides if they're (probably) male or female. I don't verbally assume, but I sure decide mentally first and then have to shake it off, like "nope that might not be true!"

Oops... So many things in life are gendered: wearing pink or blue, working an office job, exercising, being emotional... No, no, it's not that too many things are gendered, it's that we missed gendering a bunch of stuff!

Gender All the Things! is a look at the absurdity of anything being gendered by gendering anything and everything! Gender your lunch, your favorite YouTuber, the bus you rode to work, and even this game using the handy dandy Genderizer 3000! It randomly intelligently assigns a gender to literally everything you see, do, wear, feel, and experience, including itself because we sure can't trust anything without a gender!

And, to celebrate creating it for the Nonbinary Bundle Jam, it's free through Monday, January 6th at 3 am Eastern! 🥳 

I love that so much! It really felt like the first year, especially the first six months or so, after my transition were a huge fight for being a girl. Changing my name and gender took another several months and were full of anxiety about whether I had messed up any of the documents (luckily I didn't!). 

But after that... gender is just... a thing that exists, you know? Like yeah, I love being referred to as a girl, but in my own head gender doesn't matter, life has so much more going on in it. I never cared I was a dude before my transition, and it took a long time to realize I could be trans and not constantly think about gender lol. I could just be comfortable in who I am.

I LOVE your discovery of being nonbinary AND a girl. That's so perfect! Maybe 2025 will be the year I'm a nonbinary girl too 🧡 

And wow, I knew other languages gendered things (I took a few years of Spanish in high school and they also gender things), but didn't know it changed from language to language! I remember thinking, like... a fridge is female? A computer is female? A school is female? What?!?! Some fits our American gender stereotypes, but a lot doesn't, and even back then it was a cognitive dissonance thing.

And oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh I had no idea about a girl being a neutral gender in German and Dutch! That's really frickin fascinating and awesome! And super fitting of us both right now lol

- ✨Beth

Oh hey, this is great! I love that it tracks habits in such a small, compact way. And yet there's the whole year in a single piece of paper!

It's also a great way to envision how short a year really is by seeing all 365 days in one lil zine.

- ✨Beth

No worries at all! It really is... The sky and especially the stars are so majestic, so calming, so inspiring... Reminders that the universe is so much bigger than we can even imagine, let alone in comparison to our tiny planet.

And the way you captured that in this game is so beautiful. It feels like being a part of that grand space. Of being a part of the solution to our pollution. It's fantastic :D

Note: This says it's $1 but it's free through this weekend (it'll be $1 after Monday, January 6th at 3 am)

Aaawwwwwwwww lol that's fantastic! I love it 🙌 And, since I made each of these one per day (aside from the last two, which I made in one day together) it feels like the poem took more work than this whole collection did 😅 

- ✨Beth

Oh, I like this a lot. Definitely accessible for non-gamer family members coming over for a visit and gift exchange for the holidays. They're lovely little conversation starters that keep the interaction moving and the focus shifting so that no one person is left to carry out all the handing out of the gifts or worrying about lulls in conversation. Very nice!
~Angel

Hi! When you get a moment, if you could approve the bundle, it would be appreciated. https://itch.io/b/2827/start-the-year-right You're the last one in and then we can get the bundle started. 

~Angel

This is such a clever format for a game! I never even considered a game right ON the "ugly sweater" lol, well done! And putting the tree together was so cozy and chill 🧡 

- ✨Beth

Perfect! So everyone can read with style!

Yay thanks for saying so! I made this Picrew foreverrrrrrrrrrrr ago, in the very early days of my transition. I guess the idea is that you can use the different Picrew avatar makers to kinda embody how you wish you would look, and I aimed for a balance of realistic (if I had hair and wore makeup lol) and pretty. And when that one had an option for cards as an accessory, I was like YES, this is it! 

- ✨Beth

Oh my freaking goodness lol, I had never seen that before and Angel saw the comment before I did and showed me the video. That's fantastic!

- ✨Beth

LOL this is fantastic and super clever. Easily my favorite We Are But Worms-adjacent title. And the most useful one, including the original! 

One of my goals for 2025 is to read a book a month, so this will come in handly :D

- ✨Beth

Thank you so much for your lovely words, we greatly appreciate hearing our games are played and people found them helpful. This made our day!
~Angel

Oh yeah LOL I guess that's how that works, huh? 🤦‍♀️ Which means I'm only 2 years older! 

I love this poem so much, it's so fantastic! And until I saw the years, I had no idea he was born the same year my sister was.

This poem is a masterclass in saying so much with so little, and really hammering emotions home.

- ✨Beth

Oh my goodness, this is so lovely! It's so magical and charming and the prompts flow so well with one another. I love the idea of the hope and love of togetherness, the excitement for a fresh year, being powerful enough to bring the "real" world and the spiritual world together as well. 

Super lovely game, and I'm beyond honored to have had a hand in inspiring it. 🧡 

- ✨Beth

Way to get your zine done and in the Jam! Pre-resolution accomplished. 
~Angel

Note: this says it's $1 but it's free through the end of 2024. When it's no longer free, I'm adding 75 community copies; if we run out of community copies, I'm happy to add more for people :D 

- ✨Beth

I know this very loosely fits into the world of "TTRPG" (Angel and I typically exist on the edges of "TTRPG" definitions used in some jams) so I totally understand if it's removed. But it was created because I HATE buying, wrapping, and giving gifts. So even if it seems genuine in theory, it's a snarky activity that will hopefully rarely, if ever, truly be used to wrap, buy, and give gifts. Or at least that a lot of the snarkier prompts are never used lol

So I guess it's more of a lyrical game than anything... 🤷‍♀️ 

- ✨Beth

Reflections is a follow-up to both The Familiar Files and Regard with Esteem Zine. It's all about who you see in the mirror and how to come to love and encourage that person. You're an awesome person, and we sooooooooo hope that you realize it! 🧡 

The zine is 100% free to read the digital PDF, or you can buy the printable zine for $2. You can also have a physical version mailed to you (within the US) for $4! And there are 75 community (free) copies of the printable zine thanks to our Mail Club patrons. 🙌 

Or you can join our Patreon with our Gamer membership trial to get it and TWENTY other games and zines for free if you join before 2025! The membership auto-renews after a week, but you can just go in and turn that off right away, it won't hurt our feelings :D We do hope you stick around, though, as Gamers get all of our games and zines as they are released on Itch while they're members, plus they get to vote in exclusive polls, and there's a Gamer role on our Discord server too! 🥳 And it helps us have more time to create stuff, of course.

We hope the rest of 2024 is incredible for you, and if you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or anything else, we hope you have a lovely time. 💜

- ✨Beth and Angel (who make games and zines and stuff)

Oh wow, really??? That's so incredible, I love it so much! Yes, please toss it into this jam, I'd love to have it as part of it 🧡 I'm so honored, thank you for letting me know it helped you out!

And yeah, I'm 100% with Angel, that made far more than my day 🥳🙌 

- ✨Beth

I beat Beth to seeing your comment but that is one of our favoritist things to hear. That something we made helped someone. That made our... I was going to say day, but it feels bigger than that. Anyway, thanks so much for sharing that.

Would that suit the theme of this jam, absolutely. 

~Angel

Hey everyone, please be wary if you check this out: we have been unable to test it ourselves.

With that said, this is NOT an entry into the bundle so there's no concern there :D

- ✨Beth

I don't draw well, but the silly nature of combining "ad lib" prompts really makes this game fun and is good practice for me to continue attempting to draw better. This is well explained, quick to pick up, and the inclusion of an example drawing was a really nice touch.

~Angel