I'm barely into this game, but thank you for making Them/They pronouns an option. I only know of two other games that allow that (Hustle Cat and The Arcana, for anyone interested). As a nonbinary person, it makes me feel happy to be inclulded in things like a visual novel. Thank you!
[Edit]
So I just finished two playthroughs of this game and I can't wait for the next part! Honestly I was confused at the romantic and sexual preference, forgot about it, then played a second time, choosing the opposite of what I did the first time, and it made some sense. I do like how you incorporated the choices into the game. I look forward to the second part!
It's great to hear that you felt included! Seeing how many people appreciate it, adding gender neutral pronouns turned out to be one of our better decisions and we're really glad we included it!
We thought about clearer ways to frame the romantic and sexual preferences but this was the best we could think of without completely breaking the fourth wall :'D
We're happy you look forward to Part 2! And thanks for playing (multiple times even <3)
Just finished part one and I made an account specifically to comment!
I loved this game. Loved loved loved it. The concept, characters, the art, the writing - I loved all of it. All of the characters are incredibly likable, the dialogue is believable, and while the story is simple, everything else surrounding it keeps your interest and attention, so you never feel bored with it.
The art was honestly what caught my eye first, but then I read the description. I'm such a sucker for AI, androids, robots, etc, and so when I saw Joyce mentioned, I was immediately interested! Then I read further and I noticed players would be able to pick gender-neutral pronouns and their romantic & sexual preferences and as a nonbinary person I said to myself, "I have to give this game a try." I am so, so glad I did.
[SPOILERS]
I was incredibly sad to see Joyce go, but seeing comments that he's (he was the male version in my playthrough) going to return in part two depending on what choices you make relieved the heck out of me! I also just love the name 'Joyce'. What a perfect name for such a splendid AI.
I could gush more about this game but then my comment would end up being far too long, so I'll leave things as they are here. Absolutely great job on this game, and I can tell a lot of hard work was put into it!
Thank you for all the kind words <3 We're really happy that you like our game so much!
We'd love to see more games add gender neutral pronouns to their character choices. Especially because just from a writing perspective it's not much more work than having binary options.
We're happy we stuck with Joyce as a name, too! There were a few other names we came up with during conception but we decided on this one pretty quickly :'D
Looking back there really was quite a bit of work and effort that went into this so we'll continue to do our best to make Part 2 good!
Finished part 1, and I have to say that I ADORE the game.
Things I loved: The art is so retro and pastel and vivid, and the music is also fitting. The option to choose gender and sexual orientation was awesome too. I really like the MC; I found that I could really relate to her artistic struggles and identity crisis. There were so many pleasant things about the game mechanics and the way you guys executed a simple concept. I loved interacted with different customers at the store, how sweet our boss is, and grabbing food with Phoenix, of course. One of my favorite parts was when Joyce directly addressed our escapism/solitude and though it made me pretty sad, he decided to leave.
Something I wasn't crazy about: There was a lot of clicking through the text, to the point where I became pretty restless. Granted, heavy text is a given with a visual novel, but it often felt like most of the lines didn't contribute anything. For instance, in the last argument we have with Joyce, it seemed like we were just talking in circles for a few minutes. The same applied when everyday MC would ponder over what to do--I felt that the lines could have been condensed! Just a personal opinion.
Overall, I find the MC refreshing and relatable, and the game beautifully designed. There's something very peaceful and relaxing about the game. I'm currently in the midst of applications and AP testing, and finding this gem was really made my morning. I cannot wait for Part 2, and I wish you guys the best of luck!
(Also I'm now in love with Phoenix and his fashion and his beautiful character design oooops)
Thank you so much! We're really happy you like the game :D It's always great to hear that people can relate to the story and the characters (maybe save for the unpleasant aspects that might come from it :'D) and we're happy you found so many moments of the game enjoyable!
Also thanks for the feedback! You do make a valid point with the heavy text. Since this was originally made for a game jam we didn't get nearly as much time for editing as we would have liked so while we are working on part 2 we are also trying to refine part 1 some more.
Thanks for the good luck and we're looking forward to finishing part 2 as well!
I've finished part one RIGHT NOW, and I feel the need to comment on the spot!
So, first of all, the general aspect - I love it! The art style is very pleasing. It's not too saturated with details, but remains very polished and fits the story and characters perfectly. Music is also pretty nice!
I really like how you can choose the main character's gender (up to non-binary!) and the sexual preferences. It may be a bit surprising, but the ability to choose the prefereces (and the fact that the other characters adapt to that) is something I see far less frequently than the ability to choose the MC's gender. And it was a really pleasant surprise!
The characters are also very interesting, and I love how you can influence the way they see each other in a very realistic and complex way by including very random choices such as working or not and things like that.
Now, this has it's downsides too, but to be honest the downsides are more about my personal preferences than about it being a bad or a good thing per se. Actually, I think lots of people would like it - I guess I'm the weird one haha! So, what I'm talking about is the very relatable situation Teal is in, and the overall realism of what's happening in their life. The game talks about escapism among other things, and to be honest I often need some of it to be able to overcome troubles, and this game itself is some kind of escapism right now, since I'm basically in the same situation as Teal is right now, except I don't even have a work. It's kind of stressful to play a game trying not to think about the troubles you have for a while on days when you can't do anything about it, and seeing the game shows you the exact same situation XD - but well, as I've said, I think most people would think it's appealing, and besides I guess I stumbled upon this game at a bad time too.
That ending got me so traumatized oh my god nooooo!!! I... had a feeling something like that may happen, but that was still awful! I mostly expected that test with the AI will end, and Joyce would be forced to leave, not something like that. But it also makes me curious... is there a way to actually prevent that from happening, or is it the default ending for part 1 (minus small differences depending on the choices, of course)?
I also like Snow a lot. I wish they were older and also a romance option haha! The part when Teal was so adamant about their theory on the book without knowing Snow was the author was really cute and funny.
Anyway, creators, if you read this - thank you for making such a lovely game! It's always a pleasure to have a game featuring a (hopefully) romanceable AI/robot/other character!
Thank you so much for writing this comment <3 We're really happy you like the game! Being able to choose gender and preferences is something we're always happy to see in a game like this ourselves so including it was one of the first decisions we made. And it's great to hear that it's appreciated!
We're sorry to hear that you are in a difficult situation right now and wish you the best of luck that it will get better soon! Escapism is something probably most people deal with in some way and parts of Teal's and Joyce's views on it definitely come from personal experiences. So it was important to us not to paint it as either entirely bad or good since there are usually more complex issues involved. Even if the game may have failed at serving as a distraction we hope that this aspect wasn't entirely unpleasant for you :'D
The ending of part 1 is always like this. It would be nice if there was a way to change it but since the events of part 2 are affected by it quite a bit, it would have been too big of a branching point for us to handle.
And don't worry, Joyce is romanceable and if you choose to look for them, they'll appear again in part 2 ;)
Yeah, I figured so, about the escapism thing, and don't worry - while I didn't like this specific aspect, everything else was great and Teal is very cute and charming, so it wasn't too hard to overlook either!
And I totally understand about the ending of part 1. It's not like I'd WANT it to be different, since it was a great scene in my opinion. But if it was possible, I'd have tried to do the other ending too, of course XD
OMG the male joyce is cute! He's got that adorable ponytail and those cool threads. He is so lovely and mmmmm.... I hope he comes back to part 2 (I cried at the end so sad)
okay so i made an account for this site specifically to comment on this page........ this game is my new favorite. i finished it in 2 days and i loved it and have been so excited for part 2 ever since, I want to teleport into the game and give Phoenix a hug, please make this an option in part 2.
Thank you so much for saying this! We're happy you like the game and there will definitely be some more opportunities to spend time with Phoenix in part 2! There will also be an option to get closer to Phoenix but any hugs this might entail will probably stay virtual ;)
oh gosh... um, i've never commented before so please forgive me if i get a little rambly..! i really, really liked this game! the art was lovely (i love the way the lines are colored, as well as how it's simple and soft and easy to digest. i also really love the color work on the eyes! phoenix's eyes are very pretty) and the interface is really nice and smooth-- also, um, i'll admit i downloaded this game with some trepidation (i'm so sorry!!) since i've seen games like this before and not particularly grown attached to them in any way, but this completely blew me out of the water!
i also really felt a lot of empathy towards teal with all the art struggles... i'm in much of a similar situation, so... ahaha, it might be a bit self indulgent, but i was really attached to them, and seeing them get a good result (in p1 at least!) made me feel... a lot better, actually.
so thank you very much for all your hard work making this game!! i really, really enjoyed it, and i'm super looking forward to the rest of it!
Thank you so much for writing this comment! We're really happy you like our game :D It was one of our goals that the story and Teal are relatable so it's great to hear that this was the case for you! Parts of Teal's story come from a fairly personal place so we hope you could take something from it and we're happy that that the results of part one made you feel better! Even if we can't say yet when exactly the rest of the game will be finished, we'll do our best to make it good and hope you'll enjoy that as well <3
Thank you! We don't have a specific date yet but we'll try to finish it before summer. We'll announce more when we have a better idea when exactly the second part will be complete
Well, what can we say... :'D We're happy you're looking forward to part 2! And our smol bean may or may not make an appearance again - it's up to you ;) Thanks for playing!
Hi :) The game is very nice, the best thing probably that the story is very relatable :D Though I doubt anyone has motivating AI... (It would be nice though :D) I love your art and I'll be waiting for the second half! (Cliffhangers kill me T_T)
P.S. I believe there is something not right with sprites of AI and MC not showing near the end of the game. (Maybe it's meant to be this way, I'm sorry to bother you >_<)
Thank you! We're glad you like it <3 The last scene was unfortunately unfinished up until now but with the latest update the sprites should display correctly! We're still working on updating some other things but the bulk of Part One is pretty much final now (And it's no bother at all, don't worry :D)
There's nothing I have got to say about this besides the fact that I am extremely hyped for part two! Only thing is, I made a huge mistake and didn't save after the cliffhanger and I'm going to have to replay it haha rip. But ye, hype train chuga chuga choo choo!!
Thank you! But also oh no... maybe we should make it clearer that you go back to the main menu after the cliffhanger. On the bright side by the time you replay it we probably also got around to polish everything some more :'D But we're really happy you liked it and look forward to part two!
Hey!! I must say that I really enjoyed playing the first part! I love the fact that you can choose your gender and prefernce you can really see that you care that the player has a full body experience. Also the art style and the designs for the characters are amazing. The genderbends of the characters are perfect!! The story is also super interesting !! I can't wait for the next part. Thank you so much for creating and sharing this game with us !
Thank you so much! Being able to choose gender and preferences was important to us from the beginning. So we're happy you like it :D We'll do our best to finish the rest of the game as soon as possible but we can't say when exactly it will be done yet
Hello! The game is really great so far! <3 I've got a question tho, who exactly are the romance options? Is Phoenix included, or just the AI's? Thanks for your hard work!<3
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I'm barely into this game, but thank you for making Them/They pronouns an option. I only know of two other games that allow that (Hustle Cat and The Arcana, for anyone interested). As a nonbinary person, it makes me feel happy to be inclulded in things like a visual novel. Thank you!
[Edit]
So I just finished two playthroughs of this game and I can't wait for the next part! Honestly I was confused at the romantic and sexual preference, forgot about it, then played a second time, choosing the opposite of what I did the first time, and it made some sense. I do like how you incorporated the choices into the game. I look forward to the second part!
It's great to hear that you felt included! Seeing how many people appreciate it, adding gender neutral pronouns turned out to be one of our better decisions and we're really glad we included it!
We thought about clearer ways to frame the romantic and sexual preferences but this was the best we could think of without completely breaking the fourth wall :'D
We're happy you look forward to Part 2! And thanks for playing (multiple times even <3)
Just finished part one and I made an account specifically to comment!
I loved this game. Loved loved loved it. The concept, characters, the art, the writing - I loved all of it. All of the characters are incredibly likable, the dialogue is believable, and while the story is simple, everything else surrounding it keeps your interest and attention, so you never feel bored with it.
The art was honestly what caught my eye first, but then I read the description. I'm such a sucker for AI, androids, robots, etc, and so when I saw Joyce mentioned, I was immediately interested! Then I read further and I noticed players would be able to pick gender-neutral pronouns and their romantic & sexual preferences and as a nonbinary person I said to myself, "I have to give this game a try." I am so, so glad I did.
[SPOILERS]
I was incredibly sad to see Joyce go, but seeing comments that he's (he was the male version in my playthrough) going to return in part two depending on what choices you make relieved the heck out of me! I also just love the name 'Joyce'. What a perfect name for such a splendid AI.
I could gush more about this game but then my comment would end up being far too long, so I'll leave things as they are here. Absolutely great job on this game, and I can tell a lot of hard work was put into it!
Can't wait for part two!
Thank you for all the kind words <3 We're really happy that you like our game so much!
We'd love to see more games add gender neutral pronouns to their character choices. Especially because just from a writing perspective it's not much more work than having binary options.
We're happy we stuck with Joyce as a name, too! There were a few other names we came up with during conception but we decided on this one pretty quickly :'D
Looking back there really was quite a bit of work and effort that went into this so we'll continue to do our best to make Part 2 good!
Thanks for playing (and commenting) <3
Finished part 1, and I have to say that I ADORE the game.
Things I loved: The art is so retro and pastel and vivid, and the music is also fitting. The option to choose gender and sexual orientation was awesome too. I really like the MC; I found that I could really relate to her artistic struggles and identity crisis. There were so many pleasant things about the game mechanics and the way you guys executed a simple concept. I loved interacted with different customers at the store, how sweet our boss is, and grabbing food with Phoenix, of course. One of my favorite parts was when Joyce directly addressed our escapism/solitude and though it made me pretty sad, he decided to leave.
Something I wasn't crazy about: There was a lot of clicking through the text, to the point where I became pretty restless. Granted, heavy text is a given with a visual novel, but it often felt like most of the lines didn't contribute anything. For instance, in the last argument we have with Joyce, it seemed like we were just talking in circles for a few minutes. The same applied when everyday MC would ponder over what to do--I felt that the lines could have been condensed! Just a personal opinion.
Overall, I find the MC refreshing and relatable, and the game beautifully designed. There's something very peaceful and relaxing about the game. I'm currently in the midst of applications and AP testing, and finding this gem was really made my morning. I cannot wait for Part 2, and I wish you guys the best of luck!
(Also I'm now in love with Phoenix and his fashion and his beautiful character design oooops)
Thank you so much! We're really happy you like the game :D
It's always great to hear that people can relate to the story and the characters (maybe save for the unpleasant aspects that might come from it :'D) and we're happy you found so many moments of the game enjoyable!
Also thanks for the feedback! You do make a valid point with the heavy text. Since this was originally made for a game jam we didn't get nearly as much time for editing as we would have liked so while we are working on part 2 we are also trying to refine part 1 some more.
Thanks for the good luck and we're looking forward to finishing part 2 as well!
I've finished part one RIGHT NOW, and I feel the need to comment on the spot!
So, first of all, the general aspect - I love it! The art style is very pleasing. It's not too saturated with details, but remains very polished and fits the story and characters perfectly. Music is also pretty nice!
I really like how you can choose the main character's gender (up to non-binary!) and the sexual preferences. It may be a bit surprising, but the ability to choose the prefereces (and the fact that the other characters adapt to that) is something I see far less frequently than the ability to choose the MC's gender. And it was a really pleasant surprise!
The characters are also very interesting, and I love how you can influence the way they see each other in a very realistic and complex way by including very random choices such as working or not and things like that.
Now, this has it's downsides too, but to be honest the downsides are more about my personal preferences than about it being a bad or a good thing per se. Actually, I think lots of people would like it - I guess I'm the weird one haha! So, what I'm talking about is the very relatable situation Teal is in, and the overall realism of what's happening in their life. The game talks about escapism among other things, and to be honest I often need some of it to be able to overcome troubles, and this game itself is some kind of escapism right now, since I'm basically in the same situation as Teal is right now, except I don't even have a work. It's kind of stressful to play a game trying not to think about the troubles you have for a while on days when you can't do anything about it, and seeing the game shows you the exact same situation XD - but well, as I've said, I think most people would think it's appealing, and besides I guess I stumbled upon this game at a bad time too.
Now, depressing things aside...
------------------SPOILER WARNING!!!--------------------
That ending got me so traumatized oh my god nooooo!!! I... had a feeling something like that may happen, but that was still awful! I mostly expected that test with the AI will end, and Joyce would be forced to leave, not something like that. But it also makes me curious... is there a way to actually prevent that from happening, or is it the default ending for part 1 (minus small differences depending on the choices, of course)?
I also like Snow a lot. I wish they were older and also a romance option haha! The part when Teal was so adamant about their theory on the book without knowing Snow was the author was really cute and funny.
Anyway, creators, if you read this - thank you for making such a lovely game! It's always a pleasure to have a game featuring a (hopefully) romanceable AI/robot/other character!
Thank you so much for writing this comment <3 We're really happy you like the game!
Being able to choose gender and preferences is something we're always happy to see in a game like this ourselves so including it was one of the first decisions we made. And it's great to hear that it's appreciated!
We're sorry to hear that you are in a difficult situation right now and wish you the best of luck that it will get better soon!
Escapism is something probably most people deal with in some way and parts of Teal's and Joyce's views on it definitely come from personal experiences. So it was important to us not to paint it as either entirely bad or good since there are usually more complex issues involved.
Even if the game may have failed at serving as a distraction we hope that this aspect wasn't entirely unpleasant for you :'D
The ending of part 1 is always like this. It would be nice if there was a way to change it but since the events of part 2 are affected by it quite a bit, it would have been too big of a branching point for us to handle.
And don't worry, Joyce is romanceable and if you choose to look for them, they'll appear again in part 2 ;)
Yeah, I figured so, about the escapism thing, and don't worry - while I didn't like this specific aspect, everything else was great and Teal is very cute and charming, so it wasn't too hard to overlook either!
And I totally understand about the ending of part 1. It's not like I'd WANT it to be different, since it was a great scene in my opinion. But if it was possible, I'd have tried to do the other ending too, of course XD
OMG the male joyce is cute! He's got that adorable ponytail and those cool threads. He is so lovely and mmmmm.... I hope he comes back to part 2 (I cried at the end so sad)
We're happy you like him :D And not to spoil anything but if you want to, this won't be the last time you see Joyce ;)
okay so i made an account for this site specifically to comment on this page........ this game is my new favorite. i finished it in 2 days and i loved it and have been so excited for part 2 ever since, I want to teleport into the game and give Phoenix a hug, please make this an option in part 2.
Thank you so much for saying this! We're happy you like the game and there will definitely be some more opportunities to spend time with Phoenix in part 2! There will also be an option to get closer to Phoenix but any hugs this might entail will probably stay virtual ;)
Hello, guys! I wonder - how to contact you by email? :)
Hello! You can contact us via support@boyslaughplus.moe
oh gosh... um, i've never commented before so please forgive me if i get a little rambly..! i really, really liked this game! the art was lovely (i love the way the lines are colored, as well as how it's simple and soft and easy to digest. i also really love the color work on the eyes! phoenix's eyes are very pretty) and the interface is really nice and smooth-- also, um, i'll admit i downloaded this game with some trepidation (i'm so sorry!!) since i've seen games like this before and not particularly grown attached to them in any way, but this completely blew me out of the water!
i also really felt a lot of empathy towards teal with all the art struggles... i'm in much of a similar situation, so... ahaha, it might be a bit self indulgent, but i was really attached to them, and seeing them get a good result (in p1 at least!) made me feel... a lot better, actually.
so thank you very much for all your hard work making this game!! i really, really enjoyed it, and i'm super looking forward to the rest of it!
Thank you so much for writing this comment! We're really happy you like our game :D
It was one of our goals that the story and Teal are relatable so it's great to hear that this was the case for you! Parts of Teal's story come from a fairly personal place so we hope you could take something from it and we're happy that that the results of part one made you feel better! Even if we can't say yet when exactly the rest of the game will be finished, we'll do our best to make it good and hope you'll enjoy that as well <3
really liked your game. when will the 2nd part be released?
Thank you! We don't have a specific date yet but we'll try to finish it before summer. We'll announce more when we have a better idea when exactly the second part will be complete
THE ENDING LEFT ME SAD AS FUCK MY SMOL BEAN LEFT ME MY EYES STARTED TO LEAK IM HYPED AS FUCK FOR PART 2 THO
Well, what can we say... :'D We're happy you're looking forward to part 2! And our smol bean may or may not make an appearance again - it's up to you ;) Thanks for playing!
Hi :) The game is very nice, the best thing probably that the story is very relatable :D Though I doubt anyone has motivating AI... (It would be nice though :D) I love your art and I'll be waiting for the second half! (Cliffhangers kill me T_T)
P.S. I believe there is something not right with sprites of AI and MC not showing near the end of the game. (Maybe it's meant to be this way, I'm sorry to bother you >_<)
Thank you! We're glad you like it <3
The last scene was unfortunately unfinished up until now but with the latest update the sprites should display correctly! We're still working on updating some other things but the bulk of Part One is pretty much final now (And it's no bother at all, don't worry :D)
I'll be looking forward to updates! ^-^
There's nothing I have got to say about this besides the fact that I am extremely hyped for part two! Only thing is, I made a huge mistake and didn't save after the cliffhanger and I'm going to have to replay it haha rip. But ye, hype train chuga chuga choo choo!!
☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆
Thank you! But also oh no... maybe we should make it clearer that you go back to the main menu after the cliffhanger. On the bright side by the time you replay it we probably also got around to polish everything some more :'D But we're really happy you liked it and look forward to part two!
Hey!! I must say that I really enjoyed playing the first part! I love the fact that you can choose your gender and prefernce you can really see that you care that the player has a full body experience. Also the art style and the designs for the characters are amazing. The genderbends of the characters are perfect!! The story is also super interesting !! I can't wait for the next part. Thank you so much for creating and sharing this game with us !
Thank you so much! Being able to choose gender and preferences was important to us from the beginning. So we're happy you like it :D We'll do our best to finish the rest of the game as soon as possible but we can't say when exactly it will be done yet
Hello! The game is really great so far! <3 I've got a question tho, who exactly are the romance options? Is Phoenix included, or just the AI's? Thanks for your hard work!<3
Thank you <3 We're happy to hear that! And yes, Phoenix is a romance option (even though Joyce gets a lot more screen time in the first half :'D)
Oh yeay! Thank you so much, both are absolute cuties. *^* Have a great day!!<33