I really liked how it used the whole "deer shed their antlers" as a way to show how losing those antlers would provide a sense of gender euphoria and I liked how it portrayed that whole awkward baby trans phase when you first come out to people you care about and aren't sure how they will react.
A cute story about coming to terms with yourself and telling the world, a literal life-altering event on an otherwise normal day. It's a super stressful decision to make, and this VN does a good job at showing some of the internal/external struggles through a positive lens.
Some (spoiler) nitpicky thoughts below...
In my opinion, I think the plot moved too fast for a lot of the (really good!) points to land. It felt too much like checking off boxes in a list, rather than immersing the reader into what might be could have been one of MC's most traumatic moments in their life. For example, Richard's reaction was way too "HR suggests this is how you should respond if one of your coworkers comes out to you", rather than your deer (heh) friend finally sharing their deepest secret. (Or maybe some ppl do react like this, and it's just me?) But I think these moments can be expanded on and given more time to sink in.
A few of the other plot points felt a bit, awkward? I guess the VSV bit was for the retro theme, but other than revealing a bit of their history, it doesn't add much to the plot. (There's also the big question of why Jose kept the console till now, while MC got in trouble and stuff. Like wtf???) Then Jose suddenly developing a crush for Emilio after seeing them without their horns, felt quite shallow. Like it should be about more than just appearances, right? This also applies to the shopping route at the end. Are clothes and makeup all there is to being a girl?
Overall, it's a solid game and perhaps some of my points would require a much longer story to resolve, that would push it beyond the scope of a Jam. But good job!
An endearing little story about a trans deer taking her first steps towards womanhood. Emili(o/a/e) is an interesting character to follow, and the other three are all well defined. The transition (heh) from Emili(o/a/e) questionning her gender to affirming she’s a woman seems very fast to me, probably an unfortunate consequence of making this a jam game.
Visually, Emili(o/a/e)’s side image worked really well with the various expressions. The other sprites are used well too. The backgrounds make sense as well. The use of nvl mode in some more introspecting scenes was nice but it sometimes hid the sprite in an awkward way. The music underlines the story well, but having one in the first scene would have been nice.
Overall, a nice story with a good premise that maybe “transitioned” too fast. Maybe.^^
This was a lovely story, and one that used the 'deer' theme of the game jam to tell a very interesting story about gender and acceptance. The characters were very endearing! I played the Alex ending and am happy with that ending, but it appears this game has two paths to try out too for those curious!
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That was really sweet
I really liked how it used the whole "deer shed their antlers" as a way to show how losing those antlers would provide a sense of gender euphoria and I liked how it portrayed that whole awkward baby trans phase when you first come out to people you care about and aren't sure how they will react.
A cute story about coming to terms with yourself and telling the world, a literal life-altering event on an otherwise normal day. It's a super stressful decision to make, and this VN does a good job at showing some of the internal/external struggles through a positive lens.
Some (spoiler) nitpicky thoughts below...
In my opinion, I think the plot moved too fast for a lot of the (really good!) points to land. It felt too much like checking off boxes in a list, rather than immersing the reader into what might be could have been one of MC's most traumatic moments in their life. For example, Richard's reaction was way too "HR suggests this is how you should respond if one of your coworkers comes out to you", rather than your deer (heh) friend finally sharing their deepest secret. (Or maybe some ppl do react like this, and it's just me?) But I think these moments can be expanded on and given more time to sink in.
A few of the other plot points felt a bit, awkward? I guess the VSV bit was for the retro theme, but other than revealing a bit of their history, it doesn't add much to the plot. (There's also the big question of why Jose kept the console till now, while MC got in trouble and stuff. Like wtf???) Then Jose suddenly developing a crush for Emilio after seeing them without their horns, felt quite shallow. Like it should be about more than just appearances, right? This also applies to the shopping route at the end. Are clothes and makeup all there is to being a girl?
Overall, it's a solid game and perhaps some of my points would require a much longer story to resolve, that would push it beyond the scope of a Jam. But good job!
Hmm what kind of shedding do I wanna do?
The fun one or painful one?
(Joke comment)
An endearing little story about a trans deer taking her first steps towards womanhood. Emili(o/a/e) is an interesting character to follow, and the other three are all well defined. The transition (heh) from Emili(o/a/e) questionning her gender to affirming she’s a woman seems very fast to me, probably an unfortunate consequence of making this a jam game.
Visually, Emili(o/a/e)’s side image worked really well with the various expressions. The other sprites are used well too. The backgrounds make sense as well. The use of nvl mode in some more introspecting scenes was nice but it sometimes hid the sprite in an awkward way. The music underlines the story well, but having one in the first scene would have been nice.
Overall, a nice story with a good premise that maybe “transitioned” too fast. Maybe.^^
This was a lovely story, and one that used the 'deer' theme of the game jam to tell a very interesting story about gender and acceptance. The characters were very endearing! I played the Alex ending and am happy with that ending, but it appears this game has two paths to try out too for those curious!
cute story!