finally got around to this! i dont think i have anything to add that the other comments havent already and i hope i can put down some coherent thoughts/remember everything well enough given its 2 am lol
i really want to laud the visual presentation of this vn, love love LOVE your art style and character designs for daizy and anisia a lot. the latter has SUCH a cute gothic lolita fit, im a big fan ;o;
the lil glitchy sprite effects that have popped up occasionally i also liked - initially i was wondering if that was a bug but no it became pretty clear they werent, especially given there were more towards the end with mammillaria having more power over daizy with time.
daizy and anisia's relationship in particular was super interesting/sad/dreadful to read, great characterization - i liked that the more sinister nature of anisia's behaviour wasn't all that obvious at first, kind of a frog in a boiling pot situation (or at least for the reader) and an interesting juxtaposition to the mother-daughter dynamic between daizy and her mom
as a bit of criticism from my end, i am missing a bunch of quality of life features in this vn. i wouldve really liked text rollback for instance, even just getting my mouse up to the top left corner to open the menu and click "history" is a TINY bit of extra effort that summed up after a while. i think generally having the menu only accessible through clicking on a button (rather than the standard right click) did the user experience (or Gamer Experience ig lol) a disservice
these are more benign quality-of-life criticisms, i still wanna go on record and say i rly enjoyed this <:
Thank you for reading and your in depth analysis. I really appreciate it!!! Anisia and Daizy were darling to write. I also enjoyed making the compositions and the like using the UI and cgs and backgrounds.
I also understand missing certain QOL features. I do not plan to add rollback to this VN but perhaps I can add shortcut keys my next patch so you don’t have to navigate the dropdown! (Or drag it out of the dropdown entirely and have it exist separately). Thank you
watching mammillaria slowly involve herself more and more with daizy until they're practically inseparable. i think it's awesome how her influence makes itself known early in the story with the CTC indicators... and how we see her thoughts invade daizy's mind well before she makes her physical appearance in the story.
love the twofold toxic yuri approach too. it goes without saying that mammillaria's relationship with daisy is... skin-crawling. as other commenters have said, she's meeting daizy's needs as someone on the schizo-spectrum — but in the most violating way possible. i also wonder if daizy's mom was one of the worshipers of mammillaria, given daizy's final childhood memory in the story... also good choice of flower for mammillaria. nipple cactus. breastfeeding. never escaping the influence of your own mother.
and then there's daizy's relationship with anisia where... if you don't interrogate it too deeply, it seems like a loving and cute relationship. but there are those little moments where i had to step back and go "okay, that was strange" — like anisia fattening daizy up or any of their sex scenes together that really toed the line between "uncomfortable, bad sex" and "straight up rape." and then, of course, the epilogue, where we do see the events of the main story from anisia's POV — and we get the confirmation of her involvement in bringing daizy to mammillaria. and that shooes away any plausable deniability of her innocence in the main story.
also i love the gradual melting of the backgrounds in the game as things get worse for daizy. lovely visual touch. adds to the dread as mammillaria takes over her life.
spoilers
The CTC indicator was really fun! It’s actually one of the most fun aspects of the VN to see people react to.
Anisia was really interesting to write :) I’m happy you had so many notes on her. Her dialogue/grimoire likely had the most alterations during the drafting process.
Daizy is so charming!!! I loved spending time with her, seeing how she thought about everything. Deliciously uncomfortable and sickly sweet, it felt good to be immersed in this. The mundane ways that Daizy and Anisia's relationship is fucked up are just as interesting to me as the fantastical/supernatural way it is fucked up. The blending of Mama and Mammalaria together was just ooooooghhhhh very stomach turning.
I DEEPLY appreciate seeing a character experiencing psychosis who isn't a villian, who isn't aggressive, and has character traits outside of just being "the crazy one". The way Daizy and Anisia talk about it as "tripping" at first was very relatable, I've used similar wording when explaining experiences I've had. It's cool to also see her experience some of the "negative" symptoms of schizo-disorders, which don't get depicted as often. (Like having little interest in being around people, but not *hating* people -- just feeling that humans are tiring and complicated) Just, agghhh, it's so refreshing to see all of this! Thank you!
I read a lot of the VN in a hammock on the porch in the evening, which really fit with the setting -- there's crickets in some of the forest scenes, but I had a constant background of crickets IRL too haha.
Thank you for your lovely notes / drawings and for reading Veil of Mammillaria!
Depicting traits of psychosis and schizo-spec disorders is generally
important to me.. I pushed it to the furthest extent I could here in a way I had not in my other works before. I really appreciate your kind words regarding this!!
loved this! both daizy and anisia so cute. loved their little outfits. loved to see daizy start to thrive in the woods, loved to see anisia love this girl who moved into the woods to be away from her and everyone. loved daizy's inner monologue, so interesting and well written. loved to see everything begin to erode with the presence of the red flowers which shouldn't be there...
(spoilers ahead)
one thing i found interesting was that even after mammi has had some influence on daizy's thoughts, daizy starts off strong trying to set firm boundaries with her. mammi immediately brushes them off but i was surprised and impressed that daizy would even try. like i guess in these stories i just expect the character to go with the flow, pretend everything is normal, with maybe an inner voice objecting "this isn't okay, why are you letting this happen". daizy says out right "you are a stranger. you can't go into my house" and mammi's like "i can and i will because i want and need to you silly little thing". it was great to see daizy stand up for herself. it was terrible to see how ineffective it was. and it was interesting to see that fight slowly get sapped out of her.
girl just wants to be alone in the woods... with no eyes on her...and it's kind of interesting how this desire is at odds with her supposed *fate*, of being mammi's companion, constantly regarded and touched. it is suggested that all of this was inevitable, once daizy came to live here, that she was drawn to the woods *because* of mammi's presence, but would it have happened like that if anisia hadn't decided to take matters into her own hands? that if she couldn't watch over daizy anymore, she should awaken some mysterious entity to do it in her stead? behind daizy's back?
interesting to think about the repulsion and attraction and how it relates to daizy's memory of her mother. i guess a thing about moms is that sometimes you can't get away from them, they do what they want with you. there is inevitability. daizy doesn't get to be an adult, anisia and mammi make sure of that. meanwhile i imagine the happy, solitary life for her that we only got the barest glimpse of. could it have ever come true?
lots of interesting little details to turn over in my mind like the fish lights and daizy's bug issues. what was the deal with daizy's mom? what does anisia have to stop remembering?
this was a great bathroom vn. hygiene is important to daizy and we get to explore her relationship with her trans body via a series of baths. later, we see her agency stripped of her as she submits to being washed by mammi, and her beautiful blue bathroom stained with red that only she can see.
Thank you for your kind words and thorough analysis!
spoilers
Daizy was written partially with the thought of a woman who would avoid total submission despite not having the strongest mental dexterity to start off with. It was nice to write her circling and navigation of this .. Perhaps you could say it’s a woman who does not believe in fate who is going against two lesbians playing unfairly to prove the red string cannot be ignored!!
Thank you for thinking about this VN so thoroughly. I really appreciate it <3
I really liked this one! I feel kind of ill equipped in the comment space since a lot of opinions I share have been said, but a little detail I really really enjoyed was the slow deterioration of the backgrounds. It's a small thing but the smudges, variable saturation, and eventual pinwheel warps before the flowers took over really kind of leant themselves to the house feeling more and more like a hazard, even if the idea was just that Daizy was hallucinating (more?).
I also uh, really connected with a lot of Daizy's internal world, thank you for that. The "strong inner narrators" line nearly jumped up and struck me, as well as how naturally the red flower's dialogue fit into the text, I didn't even question it until the third walk, very effective in how its all just kind of rolled in like a yarn ball, I think.
Thank you. The slow deterioration of the backgrounds was fun. A lot was done for the sake of cognitive distortion. I'm really happy you appreciated it, even before I started completely blasting the images haha.
And the last paragraph means a lot to me too. I didn't want the red to be too strong. It was the hardest thing to really gauge since beta readers experienced it slightly differently. It was part of my goal.. for it to be kind of noticeable but also not. Smiles
probably my favourite entry played yet! super impressed with how intimate, fantastical, cozy and, well, really hot both the writing and art are. they work in tandem incredibly well! I feel so much kinship with Daizy that made it so easy to sink into (she also has an uncannily similar behaviour and appearance to a friend of mine who i shared this with). also this is such a fantastic encapsulation of the theme, with Daizy's body being the seat of everything with the intersection of her weight, gender, genetics and psychosis. everything about this is just so personal and tactile, and you two very much deserve the praise and attention! im such a fan!
Thank you for such high praise! It really means a lot! The theme really excited me for the reasons stated! Your words about Daizy reminding you of an IRL friend means a lot to me too!
This felt like it had a sort of gentle feeling to it, that just got more oppressive and smothering as the story kept going... really, really good stuff. Daizy was such a well written character, I felt so drawn into everything with her... this was so wonderful and so tragic <3
really gripping portrayal of trauma and how it affects you. i love how mammas presence is constantly imposed upon even before mammalarias introduction and then feels increasingly dreadful until (SPOILER) reaching the tragic ending where daizys cute white turquoise clothes are torn :( phenomenal experience thank you
Enjoyed this! Really gorgeous art and character designs. No idea what you did to get that pseudo-animated effect, but it looks amazing.
As a heads up, the scene with Anisie and Daizy in the car - the BGM is extremely loud compared to other scenes. Not sure if it's intentional or not. Also, there's this.....screen flickering type effect that happens occasionally when the speaking character changes, often with scenes with Daizy and Anisie, especially at the beginning. Playing on Win11 if that helps.
Thank you. I’m happy you enjoyed ^^ I enjoy using scripts to shake portraits and CGs!
bugs
Regarding the audio, I was able to find that track, and my friend is now fixing it. Thank you for that note <3 I hope to have a patch out shortly.
With the visual errors, I am aware of them and plan to fix them after I finish my move IRL ^^; Thank you for noting as well! I forgot to take note of them!
beautiful and eerie experience. Once again I am pulled into a girl’s inner world and become attached to her just for everything to explode horribly… it hurts good. It was an honor to get to beta read!!
I really enjoyed this! (spoilery thoughts post my first playthrough below)
The character writing in this is so excellent. The beginning scenes establish the uneasiness of Daizy and Anisia's dynamic via tiny details like Daizy putting up with Anisia's radio despite telling herself she'd turn it off if she knew it was making her uncomfortable, immediately setting up the themes of consent, manipulation and control as we question what the truth of their relationship is. There's a backdrop to their intimacy that feels cosy and lived in, but also cloying and isolated even in the scenes where everything seems normal or positive. It makes the gradual transition into scenes that are absolutely wrong feel uncanny, as we see how distorted Daizy's understanding of boundaries and her bodily autonomy has become. Whether they're having unpleasureable sex or eating a picnic, Daizy seems adrift in their relationship and the world at large. It becomes clear over the course of the story that Anisia isn't an anchor holding her steady, but a stone around her neck dragging her deeper and deeper into the red liquid.
The sense of dread is done really well throughout, and established long before anything supernatural happens. While I don't have psychosis I appreciated how the writing style tries to grapple with how to depict Daizy's thoughts, and values conveying her experience over making a frictionless reading experience for the viewer. The narrative fragmenting as Daizy's inner monologue and voices that may or may not be supernatural intrude on her understanding of the world more and more brings us into her perspective and shows the relentlessness of her condition, its constant onslaught against her mind. The way she overanalyses and explains herself away until there's nothing left is really sad. It makes the gradual encroaching of the red flowers genuinely terrifying as Daizy grapples with the possibility that her condition may be about to tear her stable life apart. It's almost a relief when the demon turns out to be real, at least for a little while.
And that demon. Oh boy. I've seen other comments analysing the thematic progression from previous games (the ocu - ophanmikei cinematic universe) and I definitely see what people are saying in the sense that themes established in WIILTT are explored here in a darker direction, particularly themes of caregiving and autonomy (with a dash of Honeydew's plant horror). What stuck out to me personally is how in WIILTT Aiyana's mother feels like this distant darkness in her past that Emma can see the effects of but not ever fully understand, though we occasionally get glimpses of what living under her thumb must have felt like. Here mother-daughter trauma is very much at the forefront and explored in some really intimate and frightening ways that feeds into the themes of flesh and the inability to run from what's in our blood. The gradual reveal of what happened to Daizy's mother (or what I interpret to have happened to her) via Daizy's own degradation into similar circumstances is horrifying yet somehow beautiful, as is the enmeshment that forms between Daizy and the creature. It's like the daughter's life is sacrificed to form an altar for her dead mother, who is ressurrected as a symbol of her abusive control via the figure of Mammillaria.
The line where the demon mocks Daizy and Anisia for having forgotten their roots and with that lost the ability to defend themselves from her is really interesting to me. It suggests a potentially alternative path of events where the characters are able to overcome the rot taking advantage of them by grappling with the traumatic legacies they have inherited rather than running from them. There's a kind of hopeful message in that. These girls who spent so much time believing their pasts were something to be hidden and frightened of could have in fact been saved by facing them head on. Food for thought! And I suspect that my interpretation and feelings will change as I sit with this one.
The artwork, music and presentation is also so slick and well made. Really thoughtful game that is able to cover a lot of emotional and thematic ground <3 Thank you for sharing!
This is very thorough. This analysis makes me extremely happy. A lot of work was put into the story, so I’m glad you are sitting with it. I had a very strong vision I felt from the get-go and being able to collab while also having so many beta readers check/critique my work was really helpful for me this time around.
spoilers/ more thoughts
OCU really made me giggle. It’s good. I avoid directly stating how the structure of my stories work or explaining to others that they are (generally) all in one universe so when I see things like this, it makes me smile.
Anisia was really fun for me to write. I’m happy that the feeling of “wrongness” between the two of them comes through, even from the start. I love to depict imbalance and underlying friction ^^
I know most people will jump to comparing it to Glow of Honeydew because of the flowers, but I really do view it as a reflection of WIILTT. Many times I found myself comparing it to WIILTT’s structure and pacing. I do not think this work could exist narratively without having made WIILTT last year, even though it goes in an entirely different direction, so this analysis means a lot to me. When people notice it, it really feels good too.. People have stuck around somehow ^^;
WIILTT was also a VN where I kind of prioritized an experience with “friction,” in that I felt some people would want to bash their head into a wall reading it, but it is somewhat intentional. I love depicting mental illness in this way, so it’s nice when readers indulge me ^^
Mammillaria, to me, really is an entity that meant a lot to me to write. Her dialogue was changed quite a bit to reflect my thoughts on her. She cannot say a lot in some ways due to the nature of her existence in story, but well, I tried very very hard to make what she said count ^^ Same with Daizy’s mom of course.
I'm so glad you enjoyed my thoughts! It's rlly interesting to hear abt how Mammillaria as a character was developed, I can defiinitely see how she presents a lot of narrative challenges, and I really appreciate how understated the more frightening aspects of her are presented.
Ah, Mama. Your embrace is warm, your love resplendent, but your presence is poison. All that makes me me will wither and die under your gentle touch, and I will die, your doll, eternal.
To the authors: Grhrhrhghrhrhhrhghrhrhbgrhgrhgh ouuughhghghghg that was so good the prose was so evocative and the plot structure was dripping with dread and Mammilarilla was so well written and the way she slowly encroaches on Daizy's life was so so so well done. Thematically, prosaically, structurally, and visually a masterstroke.
I reread them over and over again after I received them. To have our work referred to as a masterpiece really means more than I can articulate. Thank you for your kind personal words.
THIS WAS SO CHILLING YET LOVELY TO READ!!! Another amazing story from you, I’m in awe at how you’re so good at setting eerie atmospheres. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of something “encroaching”, which ends up becoming a physical thing for Daizy when the flowers literally encroach her house and her life.
I adore Daizy as I do all your protags haha. The way her relationship with her Mamma colorizes her relationship with Anisia and Mammillaria is very good, that “seven years” line her Mamma says hit me like a punch and let me piece together what happened to Daizy. It’s all very sad but in an intriguing way that makes you feel for her. Same with Anisia, the way she treats Daizy is obviously not healthy but you still feel for her and try to understand her behavior. The relationship between these three was a very inevitable(??) trainwreck, which made this an amazing read! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
Writing the sequences with Daizy's mother was the most hard for me.. I tried to choose her words very carefully. I had a delight writing Daizy; she's the protagonist I've had the most fun writing so far perhaps. Thank you so much for reading!
WOWOWOW. so haunting so atmospheric this is such a treat to get lost in, i really felt absorbed through the combination of gorgeously rendered visuals / charming and casual narration / use of music (really really good fade in/outs here) and sfx. like this is a whole complete package. i wanted the best for daizy and im so completely heartbroken. everything was almost there but it was all wrong. i enjoyed the pacing as well, it was slow but in a way that let you marinate inside the vn, the woods really felt alive. the way that daizy's routine is set up early on, slowly being disrupted both by mammillaria and anisia's interference (well meaning or not). amazing work what a collaboration!!!!
It always feels like I'm making a heavy ask of the reader when I slow down a narrative in this particular way, so your enjoyment of it makes me smile. I spent a lot of time perfecting the fades as well ^^; They are still imperfect to me, so your enjoyment of them makes me very happy. Thank you!!
the presentation here is so well realized and creates such a sickly sweet, unseelie feeling. it reminds me a lot of "blood tea and red string" but also so clearly has its own distinct vibe. there were a lot of moments that made my heart sink, and i think the post-game notes really help to build on that feeling of dread. daizy wants to have her own self-sustained life, but the rug keeps being swept out from underneath her. this story shows how horrific it can be to be taken care of and to have your needs Technically met against your will.
SUCH an icky, dreadful, nauseating story, wrapped up in a beautiful crispy jittery package. i said "this feels awful" out loud like four times while i was playing this. i loved it.
daizy's comment about people with psychosis having strong internal narratives felt key to her character. there's the literal narration in her head, but also, her mantras about the kind(s) of girl she is, her insistence on explaining herself and her actions to the reader... it felt true to all the mentally ill trans people i know & love.
(spoilers below)
daizy's relationship with anisia made me SICK!!!!!! daizy never even names her sexual abuse, because she loves anisia so much, feels she owes so much, that the thought never occurs to her that she could be exploited. and yet the tenderness and care anisia shows her is genuine. it feels soooo fucking real.
fantastic VN, will be thinking about this a long long time
I wanted to establish the repulsion that comes in these situations as well as not really knowing that what you're feeling is repulsion. I appreciate your kind, honest words, Oscar ^^ I have a lot of thoughts on the relationship between Anisia and Daizy. I'm happy you said this
The first novel that caught my attention at this jam. On the plus side: it’s an atmospheric and sincere work; you quickly grow attached to the characters and empathize with them. However, the narrative style is a bit uneven, and the story itself drags on a bit; there were moments when I wanted to start skipping over Daisy’s repetitive self-reflection. Nevertheless, my overall impression is positive: it’s not perfect, but good and sincere work. Good luck to the authors.
Non-taken. I appreciated your thoughts and am thankful you sticked with it despite its slowness ^^ I am always open to critique, and it's all I can ask for as a writer!
The game feels like it continues what was already explored in Glow of Honeydew: a story about our minds’ relationship to plants, our bodies, and a blurry family history. It turns out that they are not as concrete and transparent as we’d like, that we are vulnerable to the esoteric exploitation from Mother Nature. We believe we know everything because we live ethical, knowledgeable lives. Yet, it is a trap that we have set up by ourselves because we think we understand our adventures.
It’s a compelling game, and I think your best so far. Some great soundtrack and visuals. The ending gave me a chuckle.
Thank you. During development, I described Mammillaria as a combination of all of my works in some ways so there have been comparisons to Honeydew as well as WIILTT from last year. I really do enjoy exploring similar story structures.
Again, thank you so much Kastel. I appreciate you finding it to be the best so far ^^
Another amazing work!! God the art and the story work so well together. The softness turning into jarring and blurry visuals really compliment the script as things get more and more tension-driven. (Those wooded scenes! Absolutely beautifully drawn too, I could look at them all day long, honestly. Also, the designs are so stunning <333 Flowery names to compliment it too is a lovely touch).
The music complimented the experience so well and worked so in-sync with the moments of tension (and the sudden shift of the song at the end left me kind of speechless I was sitting there horrified at the zenith and just like "huh... What!? What!?" in the best way possible)
The build up and reveals work really well together too! The ability to reveal things slowly while still building up that suspense and honestly dread is such an amazing talent and this is a great showcase of it. The bonus part too really added to it in such an uncomfortable feeling of just feeling for Daizy even moreso.
I really like the direction with the changes in the text box area, alongside the parts where it was just the flower and the text.
Talking more about the story too-- god it made me feel all sorts of ways! Happy, sentimental, horrified, and made me cry... The complexity of unpleasant feelings is done in such a lovingly human way, its easy to feel strongly for what Daizy and Anisia experience!!
Great work!! Sorry for writing so much I just had a great time playing and wanted to give my love <33
Thank you. I really do appreciate your long thoughts. In depth words really means lot to me and to receive such high praise is a special feeling. For our work to allow you to experience such a wide variety of emotion means a lot to me too. Thank you for reading
I am really in love with this. Daizy's voice is really charming and well-written and a highlight of the vn in all scenes, and the plot and mystery were so well paced out and had me really engaged.
This was so beautiful I really loved it! Played this right after a camping trip in the woods I did all the cooking for so I felt really connected with how Daizy begins the game. Without spoiling anything I love the conflation of intrusive thoughts, thoughts of her momma, and the red flowers that swims and mixes and grows as it goes on and how you play with the narration and how it interacts with the "flower text"
Thank you :) A lot of my thoughts in this were inspired by hiking/nature walks, so it's nice seeing someone else feel it too. I appreciate you taking note of those things as well
Really lovely playing and reading experience, I liked the environments especially as they got more distorted along the way, this game really tapped into the part of me that loves both floral and marine life stuff.
Daizy is a very compelling character, I really related to her and how she felt/acted especially in relation to her psychosis. Daizy and Anisia were just really sweet to me, also I really liked what you conveyed with Daizy's past/home life with her mom, just something else that really sticks with me.
this was so fun!! i had no idea what to expect but i freaking looooved it... its hard to talk about bc i think its genuinely best experienced blind. anisia you tried tho, girl!! i love these recent nefarious flower games >:3 hehehehe
I really enjoyed my time with this! The visual presentation was stunning. The character designs are all amazing. I enjoyed the slowburn that the narrative was on. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
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finally got around to this! i dont think i have anything to add that the other comments havent already and i hope i can put down some coherent thoughts/remember everything well enough given its 2 am lol
i really want to laud the visual presentation of this vn, love love LOVE your art style and character designs for daizy and anisia a lot. the latter has SUCH a cute gothic lolita fit, im a big fan ;o;
the lil glitchy sprite effects that have popped up occasionally i also liked - initially i was wondering if that was a bug but no it became pretty clear they werent, especially given there were more towards the end with mammillaria having more power over daizy with time.
daizy and anisia's relationship in particular was super interesting/sad/dreadful to read, great characterization - i liked that the more sinister nature of anisia's behaviour wasn't all that obvious at first, kind of a frog in a boiling pot situation (or at least for the reader) and an interesting juxtaposition to the mother-daughter dynamic between daizy and her mom
as a bit of criticism from my end, i am missing a bunch of quality of life features in this vn. i wouldve really liked text rollback for instance, even just getting my mouse up to the top left corner to open the menu and click "history" is a TINY bit of extra effort that summed up after a while. i think generally having the menu only accessible through clicking on a button (rather than the standard right click) did the user experience (or Gamer Experience ig lol) a disservice
these are more benign quality-of-life criticisms, i still wanna go on record and say i rly enjoyed this <:
Thank you for reading and your in depth analysis. I really appreciate it!!! Anisia and Daizy were darling to write. I also enjoyed making the compositions and the like using the UI and cgs and backgrounds.
I also understand missing certain QOL features. I do not plan to add rollback to this VN but perhaps I can add shortcut keys my next patch so you don’t have to navigate the dropdown! (Or drag it out of the dropdown entirely and have it exist separately). Thank you
great use of tension here.
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watching mammillaria slowly involve herself more and more with daizy until they're practically inseparable. i think it's awesome how her influence makes itself known early in the story with the CTC indicators... and how we see her thoughts invade daizy's mind well before she makes her physical appearance in the story.
love the twofold toxic yuri approach too. it goes without saying that mammillaria's relationship with daisy is... skin-crawling. as other commenters have said, she's meeting daizy's needs as someone on the schizo-spectrum — but in the most violating way possible. i also wonder if daizy's mom was one of the worshipers of mammillaria, given daizy's final childhood memory in the story... also good choice of flower for mammillaria. nipple cactus. breastfeeding. never escaping the influence of your own mother.
and then there's daizy's relationship with anisia where... if you don't interrogate it too deeply, it seems like a loving and cute relationship. but there are those little moments where i had to step back and go "okay, that was strange" — like anisia fattening daizy up or any of their sex scenes together that really toed the line between "uncomfortable, bad sex" and "straight up rape." and then, of course, the epilogue, where we do see the events of the main story from anisia's POV — and we get the confirmation of her involvement in bringing daizy to mammillaria. and that shooes away any plausable deniability of her innocence in the main story.
also i love the gradual melting of the backgrounds in the game as things get worse for daizy. lovely visual touch. adds to the dread as mammillaria takes over her life.
great game overall! thanks for making it!!
Thank you so much!!!
spoilers
The CTC indicator was really fun! It’s actually one of the most fun aspects of the VN to see people react to.Anisia was really interesting to write :) I’m happy you had so many notes on her. Her dialogue/grimoire likely had the most alterations during the drafting process.
Thank you again!!
Daizy is so charming!!! I loved spending time with her, seeing how she thought about everything. Deliciously uncomfortable and sickly sweet, it felt good to be immersed in this. The mundane ways that Daizy and Anisia's relationship is fucked up are just as interesting to me as the fantastical/supernatural way it is fucked up. The blending of Mama and Mammalaria together was just ooooooghhhhh very stomach turning.
I DEEPLY appreciate seeing a character experiencing psychosis who isn't a villian, who isn't aggressive, and has character traits outside of just being "the crazy one". The way Daizy and Anisia talk about it as "tripping" at first was very relatable, I've used similar wording when explaining experiences I've had. It's cool to also see her experience some of the "negative" symptoms of schizo-disorders, which don't get depicted as often. (Like having little interest in being around people, but not *hating* people -- just feeling that humans are tiring and complicated) Just, agghhh, it's so refreshing to see all of this! Thank you!
I read a lot of the VN in a hammock on the porch in the evening, which really fit with the setting -- there's crickets in some of the forest scenes, but I had a constant background of crickets IRL too haha.
Thank you for your lovely notes / drawings and for reading Veil of Mammillaria!
Depicting traits of psychosis and schizo-spec disorders is generally important to me.. I pushed it to the furthest extent I could here in a way I had not in my other works before. I really appreciate your kind words regarding this!!
loved this! both daizy and anisia so cute. loved their little outfits. loved to see daizy start to thrive in the woods, loved to see anisia love this girl who moved into the woods to be away from her and everyone. loved daizy's inner monologue, so interesting and well written. loved to see everything begin to erode with the presence of the red flowers which shouldn't be there...
(spoilers ahead)
one thing i found interesting was that even after mammi has had some influence on daizy's thoughts, daizy starts off strong trying to set firm boundaries with her. mammi immediately brushes them off but i was surprised and impressed that daizy would even try. like i guess in these stories i just expect the character to go with the flow, pretend everything is normal, with maybe an inner voice objecting "this isn't okay, why are you letting this happen". daizy says out right "you are a stranger. you can't go into my house" and mammi's like "i can and i will because i want and need to you silly little thing". it was great to see daizy stand up for herself. it was terrible to see how ineffective it was. and it was interesting to see that fight slowly get sapped out of her.
girl just wants to be alone in the woods... with no eyes on her...and it's kind of interesting how this desire is at odds with her supposed *fate*, of being mammi's companion, constantly regarded and touched. it is suggested that all of this was inevitable, once daizy came to live here, that she was drawn to the woods *because* of mammi's presence, but would it have happened like that if anisia hadn't decided to take matters into her own hands? that if she couldn't watch over daizy anymore, she should awaken some mysterious entity to do it in her stead? behind daizy's back?
interesting to think about the repulsion and attraction and how it relates to daizy's memory of her mother. i guess a thing about moms is that sometimes you can't get away from them, they do what they want with you. there is inevitability. daizy doesn't get to be an adult, anisia and mammi make sure of that. meanwhile i imagine the happy, solitary life for her that we only got the barest glimpse of. could it have ever come true?
lots of interesting little details to turn over in my mind like the fish lights and daizy's bug issues. what was the deal with daizy's mom? what does anisia have to stop remembering?
this was a great bathroom vn. hygiene is important to daizy and we get to explore her relationship with her trans body via a series of baths. later, we see her agency stripped of her as she submits to being washed by mammi, and her beautiful blue bathroom stained with red that only she can see.
Thank you for your kind words and thorough analysis!
spoilers
Daizy was written partially with the thought of a woman who would avoid total submission despite not having the strongest mental dexterity to start off with. It was nice to write her circling and navigation of this .. Perhaps you could say it’s a woman who does not believe in fate who is going against two lesbians playing unfairly to prove the red string cannot be ignored!!Thank you for thinking about this VN so thoroughly. I really appreciate it <3
I really liked this one! I feel kind of ill equipped in the comment space since a lot of opinions I share have been said, but a little detail I really really enjoyed was the slow deterioration of the backgrounds. It's a small thing but the smudges, variable saturation, and eventual pinwheel warps before the flowers took over really kind of leant themselves to the house feeling more and more like a hazard, even if the idea was just that Daizy was hallucinating (more?).
I also uh, really connected with a lot of Daizy's internal world, thank you for that. The "strong inner narrators" line nearly jumped up and struck me, as well as how naturally the red flower's dialogue fit into the text, I didn't even question it until the third walk, very effective in how its all just kind of rolled in like a yarn ball, I think.
Thank you. The slow deterioration of the backgrounds was fun. A lot was done for the sake of cognitive distortion. I'm really happy you appreciated it, even before I started completely blasting the images haha.
And the last paragraph means a lot to me too. I didn't want the red to be too strong. It was the hardest thing to really gauge since beta readers experienced it slightly differently. It was part of my goal.. for it to be kind of noticeable but also not. Smiles
probably my favourite entry played yet! super impressed with how intimate, fantastical, cozy and, well, really hot both the writing and art are. they work in tandem incredibly well! I feel so much kinship with Daizy that made it so easy to sink into (she also has an uncannily similar behaviour and appearance to a friend of mine who i shared this with). also this is such a fantastic encapsulation of the theme, with Daizy's body being the seat of everything with the intersection of her weight, gender, genetics and psychosis. everything about this is just so personal and tactile, and you two very much deserve the praise and attention! im such a fan!
Thank you for such high praise! It really means a lot! The theme really excited me for the reasons stated! Your words about Daizy reminding you of an IRL friend means a lot to me too!
This felt like it had a sort of gentle feeling to it, that just got more oppressive and smothering as the story kept going... really, really good stuff. Daizy was such a well written character, I felt so drawn into everything with her... this was so wonderful and so tragic <3
Thank you! I'm happy the smothering came across!
really gripping portrayal of trauma and how it affects you. i love how mammas presence is constantly imposed upon even before mammalarias introduction and then feels increasingly dreadful until (SPOILER) reaching the tragic ending where daizys cute white turquoise clothes are torn :( phenomenal experience thank you
Thank you for reading!
Enjoyed this! Really gorgeous art and character designs. No idea what you did to get that pseudo-animated effect, but it looks amazing.
As a heads up, the scene with Anisie and Daizy in the car - the BGM is extremely loud compared to other scenes. Not sure if it's intentional or not. Also, there's this.....screen flickering type effect that happens occasionally when the speaking character changes, often with scenes with Daizy and Anisie, especially at the beginning. Playing on Win11 if that helps.
Thank you. I’m happy you enjoyed ^^ I enjoy using scripts to shake portraits and CGs!
bugs
Regarding the audio, I was able to find that track, and my friend is now fixing it. Thank you for that note <3 I hope to have a patch out shortly.With the visual errors, I am aware of them and plan to fix them after I finish my move IRL ^^; Thank you for noting as well! I forgot to take note of them!
Awesome! Wishing you the best of luck in the jam.
beautiful and eerie experience. Once again I am pulled into a girl’s inner world and become attached to her just for everything to explode horribly… it hurts good. It was an honor to get to beta read!!
Thank you so much for beta-reading Kail!! Your thoughts really shaped what the final experience became!
I really enjoyed this! (spoilery thoughts post my first playthrough below)
The character writing in this is so excellent. The beginning scenes establish the uneasiness of Daizy and Anisia's dynamic via tiny details like Daizy putting up with Anisia's radio despite telling herself she'd turn it off if she knew it was making her uncomfortable, immediately setting up the themes of consent, manipulation and control as we question what the truth of their relationship is. There's a backdrop to their intimacy that feels cosy and lived in, but also cloying and isolated even in the scenes where everything seems normal or positive. It makes the gradual transition into scenes that are absolutely wrong feel uncanny, as we see how distorted Daizy's understanding of boundaries and her bodily autonomy has become. Whether they're having unpleasureable sex or eating a picnic, Daizy seems adrift in their relationship and the world at large. It becomes clear over the course of the story that Anisia isn't an anchor holding her steady, but a stone around her neck dragging her deeper and deeper into the red liquid.
The sense of dread is done really well throughout, and established long before anything supernatural happens. While I don't have psychosis I appreciated how the writing style tries to grapple with how to depict Daizy's thoughts, and values conveying her experience over making a frictionless reading experience for the viewer. The narrative fragmenting as Daizy's inner monologue and voices that may or may not be supernatural intrude on her understanding of the world more and more brings us into her perspective and shows the relentlessness of her condition, its constant onslaught against her mind. The way she overanalyses and explains herself away until there's nothing left is really sad. It makes the gradual encroaching of the red flowers genuinely terrifying as Daizy grapples with the possibility that her condition may be about to tear her stable life apart. It's almost a relief when the demon turns out to be real, at least for a little while.
And that demon. Oh boy. I've seen other comments analysing the thematic progression from previous games (the ocu - ophanmikei cinematic universe) and I definitely see what people are saying in the sense that themes established in WIILTT are explored here in a darker direction, particularly themes of caregiving and autonomy (with a dash of Honeydew's plant horror). What stuck out to me personally is how in WIILTT Aiyana's mother feels like this distant darkness in her past that Emma can see the effects of but not ever fully understand, though we occasionally get glimpses of what living under her thumb must have felt like. Here mother-daughter trauma is very much at the forefront and explored in some really intimate and frightening ways that feeds into the themes of flesh and the inability to run from what's in our blood. The gradual reveal of what happened to Daizy's mother (or what I interpret to have happened to her) via Daizy's own degradation into similar circumstances is horrifying yet somehow beautiful, as is the enmeshment that forms between Daizy and the creature. It's like the daughter's life is sacrificed to form an altar for her dead mother, who is ressurrected as a symbol of her abusive control via the figure of Mammillaria.
The line where the demon mocks Daizy and Anisia for having forgotten their roots and with that lost the ability to defend themselves from her is really interesting to me. It suggests a potentially alternative path of events where the characters are able to overcome the rot taking advantage of them by grappling with the traumatic legacies they have inherited rather than running from them. There's a kind of hopeful message in that. These girls who spent so much time believing their pasts were something to be hidden and frightened of could have in fact been saved by facing them head on. Food for thought! And I suspect that my interpretation and feelings will change as I sit with this one.
The artwork, music and presentation is also so slick and well made. Really thoughtful game that is able to cover a lot of emotional and thematic ground <3 Thank you for sharing!
This is very thorough. This analysis makes me extremely happy. A lot of work was put into the story, so I’m glad you are sitting with it. I had a very strong vision I felt from the get-go and being able to collab while also having so many beta readers check/critique my work was really helpful for me this time around.
spoilers/ more thoughts
OCU really made me giggle. It’s good. I avoid directly stating how the structure of my stories work or explaining to others that they are (generally) all in one universe so when I see things like this, it makes me smile.
Anisia was really fun for me to write. I’m happy that the feeling of “wrongness” between the two of them comes through, even from the start. I love to depict imbalance and underlying friction ^^
I know most people will jump to comparing it to Glow of Honeydew because of the flowers, but I really do view it as a reflection of WIILTT. Many times I found myself comparing it to WIILTT’s structure and pacing. I do not think this work could exist narratively without having made WIILTT last year, even though it goes in an entirely different direction, so this analysis means a lot to me. When people notice it, it really feels good too.. People have stuck around somehow ^^;
WIILTT was also a VN where I kind of prioritized an experience with “friction,” in that I felt some people would want to bash their head into a wall reading it, but it is somewhat intentional. I love depicting mental illness in this way, so it’s nice when readers indulge me ^^
Mammillaria, to me, really is an entity that meant a lot to me to write. Her dialogue was changed quite a bit to reflect my thoughts on her. She cannot say a lot in some ways due to the nature of her existence in story, but well, I tried very very hard to make what she said count ^^ Same with Daizy’s mom of course.
Thank you again. This made me smile.
I'm so glad you enjoyed my thoughts! It's rlly interesting to hear abt how Mammillaria as a character was developed, I can defiinitely see how she presents a lot of narrative challenges, and I really appreciate how understated the more frightening aspects of her are presented.
Ah, Mama. Your embrace is warm, your love resplendent, but your presence is poison. All that makes me me will wither and die under your gentle touch, and I will die, your doll, eternal.
I love you.
To the authors: Grhrhrhghrhrhhrhghrhrhbgrhgrhgh ouuughhghghghg that was so good the prose was so evocative and the plot structure was dripping with dread and Mammilarilla was so well written and the way she slowly encroaches on Daizy's life was so so so well done. Thematically, prosaically, structurally, and visually a masterstroke.
I reread them over and over again after I received them. To have our work referred to as a masterpiece really means more than I can articulate. Thank you for your kind personal words.
THIS WAS SO CHILLING YET LOVELY TO READ!!! Another amazing story from you, I’m in awe at how you’re so good at setting eerie atmospheres. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of something “encroaching”, which ends up becoming a physical thing for Daizy when the flowers literally encroach her house and her life.
I adore Daizy as I do all your protags haha. The way her relationship with her Mamma colorizes her relationship with Anisia and Mammillaria is very good, that “seven years” line her Mamma says hit me like a punch and let me piece together what happened to Daizy. It’s all very sad but in an intriguing way that makes you feel for her. Same with Anisia, the way she treats Daizy is obviously not healthy but you still feel for her and try to understand her behavior. The relationship between these three was a very inevitable(??) trainwreck, which made this an amazing read! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!
Writing the sequences with Daizy's mother was the most hard for me.. I tried to choose her words very carefully. I had a delight writing Daizy; she's the protagonist I've had the most fun writing so far perhaps. Thank you so much for reading!
WOWOWOW. so haunting so atmospheric this is such a treat to get lost in, i really felt absorbed through the combination of gorgeously rendered visuals / charming and casual narration / use of music (really really good fade in/outs here) and sfx. like this is a whole complete package. i wanted the best for daizy and im so completely heartbroken. everything was almost there but it was all wrong. i enjoyed the pacing as well, it was slow but in a way that let you marinate inside the vn, the woods really felt alive. the way that daizy's routine is set up early on, slowly being disrupted both by mammillaria and anisia's interference (well meaning or not). amazing work what a collaboration!!!!
It always feels like I'm making a heavy ask of the reader when I slow down a narrative in this particular way, so your enjoyment of it makes me smile. I spent a lot of time perfecting the fades as well ^^; They are still imperfect to me, so your enjoyment of them makes me very happy. Thank you!!
the presentation here is so well realized and creates such a sickly sweet, unseelie feeling. it reminds me a lot of "blood tea and red string" but also so clearly has its own distinct vibe. there were a lot of moments that made my heart sink, and i think the post-game notes really help to build on that feeling of dread. daizy wants to have her own self-sustained life, but the rug keeps being swept out from underneath her. this story shows how horrific it can be to be taken care of and to have your needs Technically met against your will.
I've added Blood Tea and Red String to my watchlist. It looks fantastic.I am excited to consume it. Thank you!
SUCH an icky, dreadful, nauseating story, wrapped up in a beautiful crispy jittery package. i said "this feels awful" out loud like four times while i was playing this. i loved it.
daizy's comment about people with psychosis having strong internal narratives felt key to her character. there's the literal narration in her head, but also, her mantras about the kind(s) of girl she is, her insistence on explaining herself and her actions to the reader... it felt true to all the mentally ill trans people i know & love.
(spoilers below)
daizy's relationship with anisia made me SICK!!!!!! daizy never even names her sexual abuse, because she loves anisia so much, feels she owes so much, that the thought never occurs to her that she could be exploited. and yet the tenderness and care anisia shows her is genuine. it feels soooo fucking real.
fantastic VN, will be thinking about this a long long time
I wanted to establish the repulsion that comes in these situations as well as not really knowing that what you're feeling is repulsion. I appreciate your kind, honest words, Oscar ^^ I have a lot of thoughts on the relationship between Anisia and Daizy. I'm happy you said this
The first novel that caught my attention at this jam. On the plus side: it’s an atmospheric and sincere work; you quickly grow attached to the characters and empathize with them. However, the narrative style is a bit uneven, and the story itself drags on a bit; there were moments when I wanted to start skipping over Daisy’s repetitive self-reflection. Nevertheless, my overall impression is positive: it’s not perfect, but good and sincere work. Good luck to the authors.
I apologize if Daizy's thoughts were too repetitive. I appreciate you sticking with it despite this narrative decision. Thank you for your critique.
No offence, I realy like the game!
Non-taken. I appreciated your thoughts and am thankful you sticked with it despite its slowness ^^ I am always open to critique, and it's all I can ask for as a writer!
The game feels like it continues what was already explored in Glow of Honeydew: a story about our minds’ relationship to plants, our bodies, and a blurry family history. It turns out that they are not as concrete and transparent as we’d like, that we are vulnerable to the esoteric exploitation from Mother Nature. We believe we know everything because we live ethical, knowledgeable lives. Yet, it is a trap that we have set up by ourselves because we think we understand our adventures.
It’s a compelling game, and I think your best so far. Some great soundtrack and visuals. The ending gave me a chuckle.
Thank you. During development, I described Mammillaria as a combination of all of my works in some ways so there have been comparisons to Honeydew as well as WIILTT from last year. I really do enjoy exploring similar story structures.
Again, thank you so much Kastel. I appreciate you finding it to be the best so far ^^
Another amazing work!!
God the art and the story work so well together. The softness turning into jarring and blurry visuals really compliment the script as things get more and more tension-driven. (Those wooded scenes! Absolutely beautifully drawn too, I could look at them all day long, honestly. Also, the designs are so stunning <333 Flowery names to compliment it too is a lovely touch).
The music complimented the experience so well and worked so in-sync with the moments of tension (and the sudden shift of the song at the end left me kind of speechless I was sitting there horrified at the zenith and just like "huh... What!? What!?" in the best way possible)
The build up and reveals work really well together too! The ability to reveal things slowly while still building up that suspense and honestly dread is such an amazing talent and this is a great showcase of it. The bonus part too really added to it in such an uncomfortable feeling of just feeling for Daizy even moreso.
I really like the direction with the changes in the text box area, alongside the parts where it was just the flower and the text.
Talking more about the story too-- god it made me feel all sorts of ways! Happy, sentimental, horrified, and made me cry... The complexity of unpleasant feelings is done in such a lovingly human way, its easy to feel strongly for what Daizy and Anisia experience!!
Great work!! Sorry for writing so much I just had a great time playing and wanted to give my love <33
Thank you. I really do appreciate your long thoughts. In depth words really means lot to me and to receive such high praise is a special feeling. For our work to allow you to experience such a wide variety of emotion means a lot to me too. Thank you for reading
im speechless. this is amazing.I hated it so much i loved it 10/10
Thank you for such high praise!
I am really in love with this. Daizy's voice is really charming and well-written and a highlight of the vn in all scenes, and the plot and mystery were so well paced out and had me really engaged.
Also love Daizy's nervous sweatdrop face lol
Thank you. It was nice making an introspective work with a character like Daizy. It was kind of a new way of writing for me. I appreciate it.
I'm so happy you were engaged.. Daizy is so sweaty.
This was so beautiful I really loved it! Played this right after a camping trip in the woods I did all the cooking for so I felt really connected with how Daizy begins the game. Without spoiling anything I love the conflation of intrusive thoughts, thoughts of her momma, and the red flowers that swims and mixes and grows as it goes on and how you play with the narration and how it interacts with the "flower text"
Thank you :) A lot of my thoughts in this were inspired by hiking/nature walks, so it's nice seeing someone else feel it too. I appreciate you taking note of those things as well
Really lovely playing and reading experience, I liked the environments especially as they got more distorted along the way, this game really tapped into the part of me that loves both floral and marine life stuff.
Daizy is a very compelling character, I really related to her and how she felt/acted especially in relation to her psychosis. Daizy and Anisia were just really sweet to me, also I really liked what you conveyed with Daizy's past/home life with her mom, just something else that really sticks with me.
Really awesome game :-]
Thank you so much for playing and having such kind words. I really do appreciate it. Daizy was really a delight to write
will forever think of daizy when i see red flowers on my walks
She would be honored.
this was so fun!! i had no idea what to expect but i freaking looooved it... its hard to talk about bc i think its genuinely best experienced blind. anisia you tried tho, girl!! i love these recent nefarious flower games >:3 hehehehe
I'm really happy you had fun :) More flower games
I really enjoyed my time with this! The visual presentation was stunning. The character designs are all amazing. I enjoyed the slowburn that the narrative was on.
I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
Thank you so much for reading. I hope it leaves you with good thoughts.