Really fun game! I'm incredibly impressed at how you were able to code something like this. More importantly though, I loved your story! Betty and Audrey's relationship being sustained entirely by them both refusing to acknowledge their problems works really well with how each ending shows a different way of them dealing with that problem.
I originally thought the wrinkle was going to be that Betty was actually the real problem, and she was seeing behavior in Audrey that wasn't there. After seeing all the endings, I don't think that's the case anymore, but I do think that Audrey's manipulation is built off of fear and inability to actually discuss anything with her wife, rather than genuine disdain.
My personal favorite ending was the domineering ending, since I think it's better for everyone this way. I wonder if Betty will be able to overcome her love of covert warfare in order to build a better relationship with Cora.
I'm not great at Texas hold'em, but it doesn't matter when I can just cheat—though, little did I know, when you cheat in the game, you cheat in real life...!
Excellent execution with this VN, especially on the technical front! I can't imagine it was at all easy to program a poker engine into RenPy, yet your implementation here is so clean that it almost feels like it's a stock feature, heheheh~ And to then tie the poker gameplay into the story so seamlessly, complete with the cards spilling across the table when Betty bumps it...! What a delight~
That's saying nothing of the stellar sound design, of course. Having a diegetic source for the music (and adjusting the timbre of the music as such) is always a very nice touch, and it works wonders for immersion here~ And speaking of immersion, everything from the character designs to the music to the dialogue feels accurate to the period!
solidly one of the greatest VNs i've read to date. it's truly incredible to see this tightly, extremely, almost horrifyingly well-designed and just a straight up diabolical story about finding the rules and truths we can bend, habits and tricks to discover about each other; a game that happens to be all about games we play with each other. i geniunely don't see this story being told in a format other than this game, THAT game, THOSE women... it's all perfectly fallen into place.
i had set my eyes on playing ever since the first program logic previews were shared during jamtime - because i still cannot wrap my head around the work needed to get this to work in Renp'y! it only makes it so much more impressive and grand to read into how it plays into building and giving its own context to the plot (gah!!! i haven't even MENTIONED the characters yet!! -and i will not! go play!)
to readers interested, my fears of being a new player to poker were easily dissuaded, so not even that possible barrier can stop you from appreciating this. i cannot reccomend this enough.
sooo fun! but also a bit confusing for someone who has never played poker.. my girl cheated with a whole other deck only to stay losing because i'm pulling cards outta my ass haha. i got the gaslighting ending first. and kept playing just to see what other endings i could get. lots of fun! wonderful concept and art
I absolutely adore this game. Pretty artstyle, a nice selection of classical music, set in the 20's with women in suits, and stellar toxic yuri. I was rooting for them the entire time. Absolutely fantastic. I'm in love with Audrey now.
starting us off with some liszt first thing... now that is a yuri power move.....
i really liked this! smart, limited palette women in suits being passive-aggressive at each other... now that is a treat, hehe. also, those parallax cards were awesome. and- audrey's hair and suit are impeccable! i love that upper-lip-in-complete-shadow aesthetic.
i really appreciate the commitment to the poker tutorial, haha. very thorough! i had completely forgotten how to play, so i needed every bit of it... ๐ and it's nice to have the character dialogue integrated there to break it up a bit. (the other project i've been working on for a few years requires lots of tutorializing, so i empathize- it's really tough to balance this sort of thing! but ultimately a little gameplay like this adds a lot! great work on integrating that)
i got the toxic4toxic ending in my natural playthrough, and i really loved it. not feeling like a "loving" relationship is "enough" (but in a reasonable way)... it's a very romantic sort of love, that illogical magnetism. (also that their bond is explored through more of a shounen-type activity like cheating people at cards was really refreshing!) i played through the other endings as well, and i think this one feels the most right. when audrey picks up the bag at the end, that was just perfect! ๐ compromise...!
at first, i felt like i couldn't really get a grip on betty's place in everything. the opening makes you really wonder why audrey cares about her at all, which i suppose is sort of the point... i think i wished i had known about their past together sooner? about the starting as equals (and knowing that betty has an interest in- Something). but i can definitely understand leaving it as a surprise.
i really liked when betty said early on, "you didn't even notice i was missing" and then audrey says "yes i did, i just didn't find it fit to mention." it's a really nice foreshadowing for cora, and just a great encapsulation of their whole situation.
thank you for sharing! you both did a great job! ๐ handsome women forever...
p.s. i really liked these other things:
-when cora's lip quivered, and betty couldn't help but think she would make a terrible poker player
-when "fold" is the only option/audrey asks you to carry the bag instead
-"Nothing gets past this girl, except for the things I'd like her to pick up on."
Extremely impressive. The visual style is satisfyingly consistent. The hold em sections tie into the story. The writing is stellar in that it situates itself into the time period effortlessly. Delightfully snide nipping between the characters. Thank you for sharing.
So glad to finally play this. Like many others, I was anticipating something interesting as we watched you build the poker simulation. And that itself is an incredible achievement. But the period setting was a welcome surprise. It felt lived in, and each of the characters brought life into it. Audrey was a great mystery. I had a great time working through the endings and am very much looking forward to your next ambitious project!
The writing and art stood out right away. I fell in love with Audrey immediately! I love how much of a cocky manipulator she is with all her accolades to back it up, and how Betty rolls over like a dog in the face of it.
i was really intrigued watching you post this in the discord server and im so impressed with how polished it came out! yay for these awful women together hooray. offsuit pair/balatro crossover When
i really love that this can work with and without the tangible poker games, but it absolutely is a delight to see this finalized product with so many endings to end up with..!! this is wonderfully executed, and almost made me forget just how bad i am at playing poker ^_^
love your game!! i think the writing is so interesting and lets the audience know just enough about the characters to get a sense of who they are without the narrative needing to over explain their relationship. i think this works so well with the premise of poker games and being trapped on a train ride. it kept me entertained in my playthrough. also the sound design/art were soooo cool but the ui had me going crazy..... like making a whole card minigame in the span of a few weeks is nuts but its so fun here!!
I totally agree with this! I especially think the writing works because Audrey is the type of woman to flaunt her pride, identity, and status unabashedly, to the extent she demeans and buries Betty in shame.
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Really fun game! I'm incredibly impressed at how you were able to code something like this. More importantly though, I loved your story! Betty and Audrey's relationship being sustained entirely by them both refusing to acknowledge their problems works really well with how each ending shows a different way of them dealing with that problem.
I originally thought the wrinkle was going to be that Betty was actually the real problem, and she was seeing behavior in Audrey that wasn't there. After seeing all the endings, I don't think that's the case anymore, but I do think that Audrey's manipulation is built off of fear and inability to actually discuss anything with her wife, rather than genuine disdain.
My personal favorite ending was the domineering ending, since I think it's better for everyone this way. I wonder if Betty will be able to overcome her love of covert warfare in order to build a better relationship with Cora.
I'm not great at Texas hold'em, but it doesn't matter when I can just cheat—though, little did I know, when you cheat in the game, you cheat in real life...!
Excellent execution with this VN, especially on the technical front! I can't imagine it was at all easy to program a poker engine into RenPy, yet your implementation here is so clean that it almost feels like it's a stock feature, heheheh~ And to then tie the poker gameplay into the story so seamlessly, complete with the cards spilling across the table when Betty bumps it...! What a delight~
That's saying nothing of the stellar sound design, of course. Having a diegetic source for the music (and adjusting the timbre of the music as such) is always a very nice touch, and it works wonders for immersion here~ And speaking of immersion, everything from the character designs to the music to the dialogue feels accurate to the period!
Fantastic work across the board~
solidly one of the greatest VNs i've read to date. it's truly incredible to see this tightly, extremely, almost horrifyingly well-designed and just a straight up diabolical story about finding the rules and truths we can bend, habits and tricks to discover about each other; a game that happens to be all about games we play with each other. i geniunely don't see this story being told in a format other than this game, THAT game, THOSE women... it's all perfectly fallen into place.
i had set my eyes on playing ever since the first program logic previews were shared during jamtime - because i still cannot wrap my head around the work needed to get this to work in Renp'y! it only makes it so much more impressive and grand to read into how it plays into building and giving its own context to the plot (gah!!! i haven't even MENTIONED the characters yet!! -and i will not! go play!)
to readers interested, my fears of being a new player to poker were easily dissuaded, so not even that possible barrier can stop you from appreciating this. i cannot reccomend this enough.
sooo fun! but also a bit confusing for someone who has never played poker.. my girl cheated with a whole other deck only to stay losing because i'm pulling cards outta my ass haha. i got the gaslighting ending first. and kept playing just to see what other endings i could get. lots of fun! wonderful concept and art
I absolutely adore this game. Pretty artstyle, a nice selection of classical music, set in the 20's with women in suits, and stellar toxic yuri. I was rooting for them the entire time. Absolutely fantastic. I'm in love with Audrey now.
starting us off with some liszt first thing... now that is a yuri power move.....
i really liked this! smart, limited palette women in suits being passive-aggressive at each other... now that is a treat, hehe. also, those parallax cards were awesome. and- audrey's hair and suit are impeccable! i love that upper-lip-in-complete-shadow aesthetic.
i really appreciate the commitment to the poker tutorial, haha. very thorough! i had completely forgotten how to play, so i needed every bit of it... ๐ and it's nice to have the character dialogue integrated there to break it up a bit. (the other project i've been working on for a few years requires lots of tutorializing, so i empathize- it's really tough to balance this sort of thing! but ultimately a little gameplay like this adds a lot! great work on integrating that)
i got the toxic4toxic ending in my natural playthrough, and i really loved it. not feeling like a "loving" relationship is "enough" (but in a reasonable way)... it's a very romantic sort of love, that illogical magnetism. (also that their bond is explored through more of a shounen-type activity like cheating people at cards was really refreshing!) i played through the other endings as well, and i think this one feels the most right. when audrey picks up the bag at the end, that was just perfect! ๐ compromise...!
at first, i felt like i couldn't really get a grip on betty's place in everything. the opening makes you really wonder why audrey cares about her at all, which i suppose is sort of the point... i think i wished i had known about their past together sooner? about the starting as equals (and knowing that betty has an interest in- Something). but i can definitely understand leaving it as a surprise.
i really liked when betty said early on, "you didn't even notice i was missing" and then audrey says "yes i did, i just didn't find it fit to mention." it's a really nice foreshadowing for cora, and just a great encapsulation of their whole situation.
thank you for sharing! you both did a great job! ๐ handsome women forever...
p.s. i really liked these other things:
-when cora's lip quivered, and betty couldn't help but think she would make a terrible poker player
-when "fold" is the only option/audrey asks you to carry the bag instead
-"Nothing gets past this girl, except for the things I'd like her to pick up on."
Extremely impressive. The visual style is satisfyingly consistent. The hold em sections tie into the story. The writing is stellar in that it situates itself into the time period effortlessly. Delightfully snide nipping between the characters. Thank you for sharing.
So glad to finally play this. Like many others, I was anticipating something interesting as we watched you build the poker simulation. And that itself is an incredible achievement. But the period setting was a welcome surprise. It felt lived in, and each of the characters brought life into it. Audrey was a great mystery. I had a great time working through the endings and am very much looking forward to your next ambitious project!
The writing and art stood out right away. I fell in love with Audrey immediately! I love how much of a cocky manipulator she is with all her accolades to back it up, and how Betty rolls over like a dog in the face of it.
i love poker and i love butch lesbians. 10/10
i was really intrigued watching you post this in the discord server and im so impressed with how polished it came out! yay for these awful women together hooray. offsuit pair/balatro crossover When
i really love that this can work with and without the tangible poker games, but it absolutely is a delight to see this finalized product with so many endings to end up with..!! this is wonderfully executed, and almost made me forget just how bad i am at playing poker ^_^
love your game!! i think the writing is so interesting and lets the audience know just enough about the characters to get a sense of who they are without the narrative needing to over explain their relationship. i think this works so well with the premise of poker games and being trapped on a train ride. it kept me entertained in my playthrough. also the sound design/art were soooo cool but the ui had me going crazy..... like making a whole card minigame in the span of a few weeks is nuts but its so fun here!!
I totally agree with this! I especially think the writing works because Audrey is the type of woman to flaunt her pride, identity, and status unabashedly, to the extent she demeans and buries Betty in shame.
Nice game!