This was such a wonderful experience. Its hard to find a balance in relationships between being exhausting for others and being true to yourself. if we are ourselves fully there may be some aspects that are gross or hard to accept and that makes finding someone who will see you wholly without looking away so very precious. I sincerely hope to experience more of your work. this game has so much to say and I was completely captivated all the way through. thank you so much!
This game has continued to stick around in my mind after playing.
SPOILERS(?)
no specific events but I discuss themes in detail and it would be better for someone who hasn't played to play this themselves before reading.
The entire dynamic between the two primary characters (not including the angel) is itself so deeply resonate with me and some of the fears I have in my own relationships. I've been both fearful (and knowing) that my loved ones have grown tired of me, and guilty and dissociated from growing overwhelmed and feeling "tired" of those I love. I think this game sticks with me as much as it does because it comes back to the message, no matter what your ultimate choice is at the end, that the doubts and overwhelm we feel is ultimately inconsequential to the importance of the deeper connections and affections we have for each other. We live in a world that feeds off of us for the name of profit, progress, false resource scarcity, "justice." It's unfortunately common for people to grow irritated with and hurt by one another because these are the things we can control - our relationships - even when they arent the source of the problem. We sometimes turn to hurting each other - or turn away from each other - when we don't have the option to turn away from the suffering that is unavoidable.
"You will never be enough" struck me. I stared at that panel for a long time. It's exactly what I'm afraid of, what a lot of us are afraid of, and it's true. In a lot of ways it's true. No matter how badly we desire we cannot bend the world to our whims. No love is great enough to heal the planet or lifelong, continuous trauma. I think that's something humans have been trying to cope with for a long time. We've got thousands upon thousands of stories based around the idea that our emotions themselves can be the source of tangible, physical power, change, and healing. It's part of why people practice witchcraft. But our care can only do so much.
I can't love her so much that her body heals. I can't grieve the world enough to clean our oceans or our skies. I can't anger enough to bring back thousands of species driven extinct by habitat loss and poaching, or enough to prevent further damage. I can only do what I can. I can be with her. I can participate in protests, when my body allows ever so infrequently. I can sign petitions and help others to care. I know it's not enough. I know the world is dying and that we are killing it. I know I'm not enough.
It could've been any of those thousands upon thousands of stories I've read/heard/watched that inspired this moment for me, but it wasn't. it was MEAT GIRL. And MEAT GIRL says that in spite of it all, we still choose to love one another, and care for each other anyway we can. I will spend my life picking up her trash and i will get tired of it over and over again but it doesnt matter. I love her and I chose her and we are sticking together through this horrific mess until mortality tears us apart and death reunites us again.
apologies it took me sooo long to respond to this. i am so soo honored to hear your in depth thoughts and shared them with my friends and other devs because i was just so happy to reach someone so so deeply. i don't get a lot of Long thoughts on my work, so this really is special to me.. it is printed out and glued in my journal!
ultimately i have had people grow tired of me in the past and as a result, some friendships have ended, but i realized that those relationships weren't made to last anyways because i am mentally ill and its just inevitable that not everyone can handle being around me. i always thought it was my fault or i was a terrible person, but now i'm connecting with others again and i know that connection is possible even for people like me.
nowadays i have lots of friends and a partner who can/may/do grow tired of me but they still love me! so its important for me to depict that people who may be exhausting (like me) due to our struggles are still loved! even if we've been hurt or left behind in the past! even if some people can't handle us! there's still people who can and will stick with us because they cherish us! even if i'm in agony and the love from them doesn't feel like "enough" at the moment, i still love being with them despite it all! apologies if this is scrambled!
No worries at all! I honestly didn't expect or anticipate a reply, but I adore that you took the time to! It's very heartwarming to know you have the revelations I typed out thanks to your game in your journal. I'm happy that sharing my experience was so meaningful! I do try to share my longform thoughts and takeaways from games and books and other media when I can. I'm happy to meet you at this intersection of our experiences, and to be able to discuss them and impact one another in such meaningful ways. It's always lovely to come to embrace stigmatized or shamed aspects of our natures and emotions in the company of others. And don't fret about being scrambled, it's how I live most of the time. It's like mashed potatoes up here. It took me 45 minutes to write this paragraph.
I look forward to exploring more of your work in the future :)
Ohhhh this was such an incredible game! Living meat and mycellium networks is just another way people want to find the perfect divine cure for the space that exists between people and their thoughts, and this was really well portrayed here. The atmosphere was really creepy at times, and I loved the angel's nonchalance the whole time while Vivian was walking around.
I definitely relate a lot to Vivian and her struggles, and was kinda similarly offended on her behalf by the end there. The art and the character designs are really cute too. I loved this!
thank you so much! i love the idea of seeking out "divine cures" so i like to explore them in my work as someone who is always seeking that exact thing out! i thought it was really important to have vivian have some kind of reaction at the end! i'm so happy you like the character designs.. i had a lot of fun making them!
I loved this story so much !! I found their relationship very relatable and I gotta say I currently struggle with the same issues as Vivian and I have learnt a couple of things from here ! Tysm Mala <3 the music and art style are great too !
I love this game. I played it three times in a row. I love them. Sera, Vivian, and Maya. Beautiful girls. I hope the meat mycelium is as beautiful as I will always dream it as...thank you for making this.
I love the way the characters talk to each other in this Ive grown quite fond of all of all three of them in such a short game!Ill definetly be following anything you do in the future
This was extremely beautiful ^^. I would submit my soul to the devil for your art style. Do you want to meet in the mycelium network? I am all alone as well...
ee thank you! i've never had anyone who'd submit their soul for my art style before. so so interesting hehe. let's meet in the network! i'll bring lots of music and come with no one else!
it's incredible how much this game made me think about in such a short period of playtime. im surprised by how relatable it is... i really relate to Vivian (god i hope im not misremembering her name) in some way, I've found I don't feel emotions in the same way as some people do... great work
you got it right! vivian! i'm really happy you thought so much while playing my game. i tried to explore a lot of things i'd been thinking about and experiencing and observing recently despite the short amount of time!
It's absurd that I finished it and immediately after, without any correlation, I played your game! Perhaps that's why I found so many references and connections: the relationship between psyche and flesh, plants and human relationships... I recommend it to you; I think you'd find it stimulating! Kudos again!
ah i'll see! i'll definitely read it. i really enjoy stories about flesh. i'll be traveling lots soon and tend to do a lot of reading then, so i'll start then. thanks so much! i'm happy my game could remind you of something so interesting!
thanks to you for the game <3 And let me know if you read it! It won the nobel prize, so if you don't like it it's not entirely my fault for suggesting it, I have back up! ahahhaha
I'll update you and also add my thoughts to my blog cx Funnily enough, today I was going through my Meat Girl inspiration board and I found an article about the book in there! The world is so tiny!
After talking to the girl a 2nd time she joins me but then the game softlocks because I can't change the area or open menu without getting a now loading message into :
After that I downloaded the windows zip from the website to check files but they were the same. It seems to be working now after renaming the "$theangel.png" file into the needed "%24theangel.png". Actually doing that made the file missing when loading a savefile from the start screen. I copied the angel sprite image now to have both required filenames in the folder.
i talked to some other dev friends, and i believe it might’ve been related to a windows extraction issue, but honestly i’m not completely sure. i’ll keep an eye out! And thank you so sooo much!
This was a beautiful game. It's short but is packed with so many raw (quite literal lol) and complex emotions between all the characters. I can just say how appreciative I am with them just being some "weird", black lesbians just trying to live life. Ugh, I love it!
(I too would side with Maya and be one with the fungus than tough it out with society.)
Oh yeah -- I mean I assume so. I believed Vivian has a fantasy version of vitiligo. Plus, she had the conversation with Angel about how Maya and her used silk pillowcases for their hair, which are commonly used to protect afro-textured hair.
Really cool and cold game, with a variety of emotions evoked while playing the game. Character designs are really cool, and so is the art as always! Really atmospheric as well.
I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while. The art is beautiful and I especially love Sera's design - she looks very innocent and human to a certain extent (especially in the sprites where she's looking off to the side). But she's also just unsettling enough to make it immediately obvious that there's something off about her, even if you ignored any other context. Also love Sera's character in general. They're all well-made and complex characters for being in such a short game, but I especially like Sera.
10/10 definitely going to check out your other games at some point!
Thank you soo soo much! I've had a lot of positive reactions to Sera's design which makes me smile. I've gotten a lot of thoughts on her from players so i love here more! Can't wait to hear what you think of my other games! ^w^ TYSM for wanting to check them out!!
incredible! most of all i adore the visual cohesion and atmosphere you've managed to create, you evoke such a deep and complex relationship in such a short playtime! <3
thank you so much io! i really appreciate this comment. the short playtime was really interesting as I don't think I've tried to establish a dynamic with as short of a playtime / as few words as this before! I'd like to do it again!
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Loved it sooooo much!!!! Incredible vibe, incredible everything. 1000/10
Creepy and melancholy, but ultimately very touching and sweet. I love your art style, and all the dialogue is so so good!
woah.. it hurt to voice act these 3 endings but, i don't regret it. even tho it wasn't recorded.
This was such a wonderful experience. Its hard to find a balance in relationships between being exhausting for others and being true to yourself. if we are ourselves fully there may be some aspects that are gross or hard to accept and that makes finding someone who will see you wholly without looking away so very precious. I sincerely hope to experience more of your work. this game has so much to say and I was completely captivated all the way through. thank you so much!
This game has continued to stick around in my mind after playing.
SPOILERS(?) no specific events but I discuss themes in detail and it would be better for someone who hasn't played to play this themselves before reading.
The entire dynamic between the two primary characters (not including the angel) is itself so deeply resonate with me and some of the fears I have in my own relationships. I've been both fearful (and knowing) that my loved ones have grown tired of me, and guilty and dissociated from growing overwhelmed and feeling "tired" of those I love. I think this game sticks with me as much as it does because it comes back to the message, no matter what your ultimate choice is at the end, that the doubts and overwhelm we feel is ultimately inconsequential to the importance of the deeper connections and affections we have for each other. We live in a world that feeds off of us for the name of profit, progress, false resource scarcity, "justice." It's unfortunately common for people to grow irritated with and hurt by one another because these are the things we can control - our relationships - even when they arent the source of the problem. We sometimes turn to hurting each other - or turn away from each other - when we don't have the option to turn away from the suffering that is unavoidable.
"You will never be enough" struck me. I stared at that panel for a long time. It's exactly what I'm afraid of, what a lot of us are afraid of, and it's true. In a lot of ways it's true. No matter how badly we desire we cannot bend the world to our whims. No love is great enough to heal the planet or lifelong, continuous trauma. I think that's something humans have been trying to cope with for a long time. We've got thousands upon thousands of stories based around the idea that our emotions themselves can be the source of tangible, physical power, change, and healing. It's part of why people practice witchcraft. But our care can only do so much.
I can't love her so much that her body heals. I can't grieve the world enough to clean our oceans or our skies. I can't anger enough to bring back thousands of species driven extinct by habitat loss and poaching, or enough to prevent further damage. I can only do what I can. I can be with her. I can participate in protests, when my body allows ever so infrequently. I can sign petitions and help others to care. I know it's not enough. I know the world is dying and that we are killing it. I know I'm not enough.
It could've been any of those thousands upon thousands of stories I've read/heard/watched that inspired this moment for me, but it wasn't. it was MEAT GIRL. And MEAT GIRL says that in spite of it all, we still choose to love one another, and care for each other anyway we can. I will spend my life picking up her trash and i will get tired of it over and over again but it doesnt matter. I love her and I chose her and we are sticking together through this horrific mess until mortality tears us apart and death reunites us again.
Thank you for making this game.
apologies it took me sooo long to respond to this. i am so soo honored to hear your in depth thoughts and shared them with my friends and other devs because i was just so happy to reach someone so so deeply. i don't get a lot of Long thoughts on my work, so this really is special to me.. it is printed out and glued in my journal!
ultimately i have had people grow tired of me in the past and as a result, some friendships have ended, but i realized that those relationships weren't made to last anyways because i am mentally ill and its just inevitable that not everyone can handle being around me. i always thought it was my fault or i was a terrible person, but now i'm connecting with others again and i know that connection is possible even for people like me.
nowadays i have lots of friends and a partner who can/may/do grow tired of me but they still love me! so its important for me to depict that people who may be exhausting (like me) due to our struggles are still loved! even if we've been hurt or left behind in the past! even if some people can't handle us! there's still people who can and will stick with us because they cherish us! even if i'm in agony and the love from them doesn't feel like "enough" at the moment, i still love being with them despite it all! apologies if this is scrambled!
No worries at all! I honestly didn't expect or anticipate a reply, but I adore that you took the time to! It's very heartwarming to know you have the revelations I typed out thanks to your game in your journal. I'm happy that sharing my experience was so meaningful! I do try to share my longform thoughts and takeaways from games and books and other media when I can. I'm happy to meet you at this intersection of our experiences, and to be able to discuss them and impact one another in such meaningful ways. It's always lovely to come to embrace stigmatized or shamed aspects of our natures and emotions in the company of others. And don't fret about being scrambled, it's how I live most of the time. It's like mashed potatoes up here. It took me 45 minutes to write this paragraph.
I look forward to exploring more of your work in the future :)
I loved this, it's cute and disgusting and creepy and adorable all at the same time
thank you!! creepy and adorable things are my favorites!
MEAT! MEAT! MEAT! Such a cute game!!
meat meat! thank you so much!
Ohhhh this was such an incredible game! Living meat and mycellium networks is just another way people want to find the perfect divine cure for the space that exists between people and their thoughts, and this was really well portrayed here. The atmosphere was really creepy at times, and I loved the angel's nonchalance the whole time while Vivian was walking around.
I definitely relate a lot to Vivian and her struggles, and was kinda similarly offended on her behalf by the end there. The art and the character designs are really cute too. I loved this!
thank you so much! i love the idea of seeking out "divine cures" so i like to explore them in my work as someone who is always seeking that exact thing out! i thought it was really important to have vivian have some kind of reaction at the end! i'm so happy you like the character designs.. i had a lot of fun making them!
I loved this story so much !! I found their relationship very relatable and I gotta say I currently struggle with the same issues as Vivian and I have learnt a couple of things from here ! Tysm Mala <3 the music and art style are great too !
aah i'm so happy you learned something.. so wonderful.. i cry.. <3
hm, weird mushroom yuri...
weird mushroom yuri forever (+ meat!)
STARBAGE PLAYTESTED THIS?? THATS HOW IK ITS PEAK
i gotta draw Sera shes so pretty
starbage is my dear friend- he playtests most of my things ^w^ thank you if you do draw her! i am honored by the thought!
I love this game. I played it three times in a row. I love them. Sera, Vivian, and Maya. Beautiful girls. I hope the meat mycelium is as beautiful as I will always dream it as...thank you for making this.
WOW. three times. that makes me so happy- i never imagined someone playing it that many times! i also dream of the meat mycellium. you're welcome!
I love the way the characters talk to each other in this Ive grown quite fond of all of all three of them in such a short game!Ill definetly be following anything you do in the future
ah this makes me so happy! i hope you enjoy my future works. i am honored!
I got up to use the bathroom when the radio played and didn't expect to come back to a Tom Lehrer song lmfao
I can already tell this game is gonna be good just by the music choice and art style
yay! a fellow tom lehrer fan. i hope you enjoyed!
I wonder if the girls from Flesh, blood & concrete and them could be friends in a fleshy world. Cute game <3
This was extremely beautiful ^^. I would submit my soul to the devil for your art style. Do you want to meet in the mycelium network? I am all alone as well...
ee thank you! i've never had anyone who'd submit their soul for my art style before. so so interesting hehe. let's meet in the network! i'll bring lots of music and come with no one else!
it's incredible how much this game made me think about in such a short period of playtime. im surprised by how relatable it is... i really relate to Vivian (god i hope im not misremembering her name) in some way, I've found I don't feel emotions in the same way as some people do... great work
oh how i love the internet when it allows people to share their meaningful visions and stories that connect with others in meaningful ways
you got it right! vivian! i'm really happy you thought so much while playing my game. i tried to explore a lot of things i'd been thinking about and experiencing and observing recently despite the short amount of time!
the character designs are so cute and i love the dialogue between the girls! also im a huge tom lehrer fan and i almost collapsed hearing the radio
ee thank you! and another tom lehrer fan <3 he is the only mathematician i love!
this touched my heart…
that makes me so happy. thank you for opening your heart to meat girl
Great game. Did you, by any chance, read The Vegetarian from Han Kang?
I haven't! This is my first time hearing of this book :o Why do you ask?
It's absurd that I finished it and immediately after, without any correlation, I played your game! Perhaps that's why I found so many references and connections: the relationship between psyche and flesh, plants and human relationships... I recommend it to you; I think you'd find it stimulating! Kudos again!
ah i'll see! i'll definitely read it. i really enjoy stories about flesh. i'll be traveling lots soon and tend to do a lot of reading then, so i'll start then. thanks so much! i'm happy my game could remind you of something so interesting!
thanks to you for the game <3 And let me know if you read it! It won the nobel prize, so if you don't like it it's not entirely my fault for suggesting it, I have back up! ahahhaha
I'll update you and also add my thoughts to my blog cx Funnily enough, today I was going through my Meat Girl inspiration board and I found an article about the book in there! The world is so tiny!
ahhhh... loved this, i really love the character portraits and, well, i want to join the mycelium network!
thank you so so much! i’d also like to! they’re always listening to music and they never get headaches!
After talking to the girl a 2nd time she joins me but then the game softlocks because I can't change the area or open menu without getting a now loading message into :
"Loading Error
Failed to load: img/characters/%24theangel.png"
What are you playing on (browser and operating system)
Windows10 64bit via the itchio client.
After that I downloaded the windows zip from the website to check files but they were the same. It seems to be working now after renaming the "$theangel.png" file into the needed "%24theangel.png". Actually doing that made the file missing when loading a savefile from the start screen. I copied the angel sprite image now to have both required filenames in the folder.
I let you know if I meet any more issues.
OK had the exact same error and solution (one $maya.png file and one %24mayapng file) after selecting to use the knife.
Game was great despite the little hickup. Lovely girls and art.
i talked to some other dev friends, and i believe it might’ve been related to a windows extraction issue, but honestly i’m not completely sure. i’ll keep an eye out! And thank you so sooo much!
you're probably playing without wifi
what do you do after getting her to follow you tho?
some items you have to interact with multiple times
you have to upload the title song on youtube or smth, it's too vibey
love between girls sweep
love between girls!
this is amazing and i might be a bit stupid but is this tied to the game flesh blood and concrete at all? if it is that's insanely cool hehe
it's not but it did take some inspiration from it as well as various other stories about meat! io is a dear friend and she inspires me a lot!
thats so cool this is a beautiful game and its touching in an uncanny way but I think that's what makes it special [happy]
thank you so much! i am honored!
I realy liked this game, it made me have many emotions, strange ones :), really enjoyed the atmosphere. Looking forward for your next projects!
thank you so much! i'm happy to inspire emotion in you!
I absolutely loved this. Amazing writing, lovely art, in a short digestible experience. Bravo!
thank you so much dear! i appreciate this comment! making something short was nervewracking but it ended up being a wonderful experience!
And thank you for it ^^
Beautiful! Cool music and sounds too. Btw I think you mean conscience in the description.
Thank you so much!!! And aahh.. I did in fact misspell it.. Fixed I appreciate you!
This was a beautiful game. It's short but is packed with so many raw (quite literal lol) and complex emotions between all the characters. I can just say how appreciative I am with them just being some "weird", black lesbians just trying to live life. Ugh, I love it!
(I too would side with Maya and be one with the fungus than tough it out with society.)
Thank you so sooo much!!! I appreciate your earnest thoughts! I'm happy the characters' emotions come across!
Were they both black? I don't know what was going on with Vivan. What was that stuff on her face?
Oh yeah -- I mean I assume so. I believed Vivian has a fantasy version of vitiligo. Plus, she had the conversation with Angel about how Maya and her used silk pillowcases for their hair, which are commonly used to protect afro-textured hair.
You are correct! Ding ding ding! :-) !
haha whoo!
Really cool and cold game, with a variety of emotions evoked while playing the game. Character designs are really cool, and so is the art as always! Really atmospheric as well.
Thank you so much for recording a playthrough! I really appreciate it! And thank you for your kind comments!
AAAAAGH KILL IT WITH FIRE
This game is fire too
I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while. The art is beautiful and I especially love Sera's design - she looks very innocent and human to a certain extent (especially in the sprites where she's looking off to the side). But she's also just unsettling enough to make it immediately obvious that there's something off about her, even if you ignored any other context.
Also love Sera's character in general. They're all well-made and complex characters for being in such a short game, but I especially like Sera.
10/10 definitely going to check out your other games at some point!
Thank you soo soo much! I've had a lot of positive reactions to Sera's design which makes me smile. I've gotten a lot of thoughts on her from players so i love here more! Can't wait to hear what you think of my other games! ^w^ TYSM for wanting to check them out!!
incredible! most of all i adore the visual cohesion and atmosphere you've managed to create, you evoke such a deep and complex relationship in such a short playtime! <3
thank you so much io! i really appreciate this comment. the short playtime was really interesting as I don't think I've tried to establish a dynamic with as short of a playtime / as few words as this before! I'd like to do it again!
IS interesting game to play but not very fun in neither way
thank you for your feedback ^w^ i understand that line of thinking and appreciate hearing your thoughts!
making a fun game is easy, making an interesting game is hard (and interesting games stick with you for longer)
If you like meat, girls, and atmospheric dreamscapes laden with symbolism, then this is the game for you!
thank you so much kyou ^w^
Lovely art and I care a lot about the characters, awesome game!!
thank you so much! i appreciate you!