I want shorter games
Celebrating short games and recommending the Queer Halloween Stories bundle.
I do also want people to be paid more and to do less, but I honestly think shorter games enable the other two parts of Sonic's mantra. But also in a purely selfish way, I'd like to finish more things and be left wanting more instead of petering out of an enjoyable experience that gave me a taste of something but didn't need to sit with me quite so long.
One of my games is a horror visual novel that I wrote in one afternoon, fueled by my frustration with having a body that I cannot control. It took just a month to develop and 5 minutes to play. But at the end of it I was satisfied, and so are some of the people who've played it. I was seizing on the feeling of a moment where frustration with my body was present and palpable. I cancelled a laser hair removal appointment, because it wasn't working to fully eradicate the facial hair I don't want. The obvious, healthy thing to do was to make peace with my body and find a way of working with it.
But I wanted to stew in the feeling instead, the frustration and the powerlessness. So I wrote a script, that became It Started With Hairs. I felt satisfied with the end result because it felt very honest to the source. And I was thrilled to get responses from people who clearly felt it touched something for them too.
this game made my nerves stand on end.
This game made me feel sick. 5 stars
I live for these comments.
If you're in the market for more short games that come from a very personal space, I'd definitely suggest checking out the Queer Hallowe'en Stories Bundle, $60 for a big bundle of games (and there's a $10+ option too). Some games I can recommend from it that can easily be played in one sitting:
- Inquiry a poetic interrogation.
- Neotrogla a twine game about bugs and urban decay.
- Paper-Girl-Chain a visual novel orbiting a messy relationship.
(also the first 2 of those are playable in browser!)
I want to check out more of the bundle, so if you have any recommendations (or a game of yours I should check out) toss them my way. Also thanks for the com__et questions received so far, there's still time for more questions, just reply to this mail with what you want to know.
Play com__et!
If you already did, review it on Steam!
If you already did that, thank you.🥺