this game has astonished me with quality and I'm not even halfway through it. so no spoilers. I don't normally play Light novels but when you are wanting to scratch a particular itch there isn't many options. the game started out rough. Really rough. to the point where I almost dropped the game. but I'm glad I didn't. the first part of the game where you go threw the day in the life of normal Zach. and it just dumps so much info on you. and at the start of any story there is supposed to have a hook. sure the description of the game got me threw the doors. but my mental basket can only hold onto so much when I have so little investment in the game. it was grueling and I unfortunately skipped most of it over dropping the game. Giving it a second chance.
now I have no right to tell anyone how to develop their FREE game. but I can say as a player or reader. I wish there was something in the beginning to more quickly draw me in. when you boot up the game your probably horny lets be real. and the tone that it sets threw the lecture grinds me down and forces me to think. Because I almost missed out on enjoying the parts that followed. the amazing attention to detail that the dev put into taking you threw the experience of a sudden body swap. and I loved every moment of it. the mental gymnastics and the coming to terms was so well done. and I save scum a lot to peak into all of the routes and I ended up going with the "trans" route. (According to the save) and it was honestly shocking how well the writing moved me. there was no talking down to. there was no political messages. just harsh reality you and how you feel. I started getting emotional. (god dam you. this is a horny game! how dare you make me feel things!) especially because the game has awaken something in me that I needed to beat back down into the recesses of my mind. (funny because the game goes over something like this) I appreciate that choosing to admit it wasn't turned into a joke. and it wasn't turned into messaging. the music lets up. sure the situation was whacky but the developer i feel like took time and care into writing this. as with the rest of the amazing story. I can't stop thinking about this game. after playtime is over. my ability to not stop thinking about this game is why I'm writing this. I need to say it.
they art is amazing they put so much detail into the facial reactions I find myself looking at the eyes as they shift around. the sound design while was a bit off taste for a bit. i have really warmed up to. and I'm now in love with it. I was skeptical at first when the dev told me the game had good audio. boy do i love to be proven wrong. they blend moments and set the tone so well for the scene ahead. as I played I started to wonder if the dev had majored in psychology. Because I was LOVING exploring these small details. alongside learning about zachs life and his chosen best friend. I needed more of this! and then it hit me. the start of the game that I had skipped over probably had all of that. but NOW I CARE ABOUT IT. I need to go back and reread all of it. Because it will most likely set the tone for this amazing erotic game that explores these things. i feel like the dev explores all of this without ever telling you that they are doing it. and that is a masterclass of writing I wish I had.
TLDR = amazing game. you should absolutely play it. it's a bit rough to start but tough it out. good audio, good sprites, amazing writing. hot as FUCK erotic scenes. 10/10 would get fucked again. I will be turning this game from a free to play into a pay to play as soon as my bank account agrees with me because the dev or dev's deserves it.
Before I throw my own wall of text at you, thank you for writing all of this out. I know more than most typing takes time and effort, and I'll make the effort to match.
I know people have issues with the intro, but re:Dreamer is meant to one day be a long visual novel (at least 40 hours per main route). In that context, an intro of an hour or less (much of which you are given the option to skip!) is not just justified but mandatory.
I very firmly and passionately believe gender bender is a kink of contrasts. I'll skip the pseudo-intellectual lecture about how it's a genre uniquely suited to building around the singular pillar of what is ultimately the only story a person can ever tell when you strip it to its base element (what it means to be a person) and jump ahead to the pith: knowing more of who Zach is as a person before the transformation even happens is necessary for giving the type of contrast I need for the story I want to tell with him.
To that end, I have given Zach an intro that sets the entire tone of the game as most of its topics and themes, such as:
The process of "showing the work" of who Zach is and how they change matters far more than the destination.
The ego Zach has built about their self-styled maverickish intelligence is a crutch and protective wall of isolation that is making them miserable but which they cling to because it's easier to be smart than it is to be wise.
Their toxic relationship with their mother, who acts as a sympathetic antagonist where it's up for the reader to decide if she's redeemable and someone Zach or Zoey can trust again, a dramatic foil across generations who herself is a victim of an abusive mother, a black hole who has shaped and warped Zach's views of women (often for the worse), and a larger-than-life figure who casts a suffocating shadow over him or her, both as an impossibly high bar to match and as a control freak.
That re:Dreamer is going to be a psychologically-focused story with a very introspective protagonist, as shown through a lecture that also introduces the concept of a personality matrix (as it is a feature in the visual novel) (I don't have a psychology degree, but I have taken a few semesters of it at college and have maintained at least a passing interest in it).
How Zach is stuck and wanting to change but needs a powerful catalyst and someone to react with to make that change happen.
I'll readily admit that there might have been a more condensed way to do that, but all my thinking on the intro over the last few years has only reinforced my view that it has to be there and it's about as lean as I can make it without cutting away the meat of the story to compromise brevity over depth. It acts as a sort of skill gate, because to be honest, if a player stopped after less than an hour, there's not much of a chance they'd like to stick around for more nor care that I think context makes porn way hotter.
I have many thoughts about gender (as you might suspect lol), but I'd like to think I have enough respect for the topic to avoid pandering with easy layups that I know would please certain crowds. Doing so would be a disservice to readers when I know could deliver something better and more meaningful. re:Dreamer isn't really "a transgender game" as some have tried to frame it and I reject that limitation; in fact, one of its design goals is to widen someone's views of identity and present a more nuanced view than "this character was always a girl." It's a weird celebration of the uniqueness of identity meant to be thought about with deliberate ambiguity meant to foster that. I'll sometimes use modern queer terminology when it makes sense and I can't claim I don't find myself rambling on my soapbox every so often, but I'm hardly a gender guru. I'm a weird person with a weird genderfluid identity who doesn't have anything even close all the answers, but I have confidence in my ability to ask good questions.
I love having a lot of attention to detail and like when someone notices the time and effort to put into it. The expression system helps sell the nuance of the story, and I'm shocked that neither my method of separating faces into distinct eyes, eyebrows, and mouths and the exponentially greater range of facial expression I have access to nor focus on sound design is common. I wanna be a quirky bohemian auteur, and I can't understand how people hate making the parts of a visual novel I love to tinker with. It's a multimedia format, and the more I embrace that aspect, the more those parts synchronize to tell a story that punches far above its weight class in impact.
I just learned about your illness after stumbling around this page. and it was heartbreaking to read. one of the worst things that can happen to someone. and one of my greatest fears.
now i feel bad that is distracted you from creating this masterpiece. even if it was for maybe 10 to 20 minutes . don't need to waste your time responding to me but I heavily appreciated the response! and yes I think you have truly tapped a few times into something powerful. between all the jokes and horny scenes. or maybe I'm reading way too much in-between the lines of this story here.
and for clarification I love buildup and context for erotic stuff. I just wasn't prepared for the start. I wasn't prepared to sit threw a lecture and my brain was far too deep into excitement from the premises to pay much attention to the lecture. and because I'm stubborn I didn't skip either with getting on my phone. my main frustration stems from an alternative timeline where I backed out too soon and missed this amazing story. but this isn't a call for change I'm trying not to come off that way. every reader is different. if you don't think anything needs to change then that's that. I'm a writer too so i totally get it. just my unfiltered thoughts about the game from my point of view. and now my greatest fear is not being able to see this game get finished.
so just know I'll be invisibly cheering you on from the sideline. Sexually frustrated and begging for more.
Nope, still here. Just stuck in art revision hell right now, but I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after 2+ months of work with tons of 12+ hour days.
I have to package the APK in a ZIP due to legal reasons of clearly-labeled credits for assets, to say nothing of it including the flowchart and changelog. I have an Android, and you can absolutely use the Files app to extract ZIP files.
this game really hit close to home for me. S9me of the dialogs were nearly identical to the conversations I had with my mom in my first run of college. Several times I had vivid flashbacks of "this protagonist is just like me".
Im going the mom and self routes because those are what I would have done if that happened to me.
So this game is one of the most detailed when it comes to information. So much history, backstory, and lore.
The game works great on PC. Android is iffy, sometimes after a time it slows down making me wait for it to continue. Otherwise near perfect.
The story is engaging, and the artstyle and music are my thing. I kinda want it to keep going even though the story is clearly heading in a certain direction.
Kinda mixed on the fact that there doesn't seem to be a cross or fusion between character paths, bonding with old friends, reconcile and reconnecting with both B and K. Choosing one over the other kinda hurts.
Great game, good humor, serious plot sort of, I haven't finished it but I'm having fun.
So I read through a bit in the extras and want to ask, are you fairing well? Never good at dealing with seriously painful stuff, but I felt I should ask to understand how things are going with you.
Thank you for the game. I hope things go well for you.
Thank you so much for the feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed the VN! My health is never going to be good, but I'm at least past the hurdle of the back-to-back cat scratch disease + mononucleosis, my new antidepressants are helping a lot, and I'm able to sit in front of a computer and actually expect to get a full day of work done instead of having to play everything by ear because of my bad & inconsistent energy levels.
Thank you for replying and telling me about how things are going. I honestly don't know how to respond to everything I've read in the VN about your problems and what you told me about here.
I just want to admit your doing quite a lot of stuff dispite all the things you have to contend with and it is something I admire. Especially your remarks in the VN about how your putting your all into this even with everything that has happened and what might happen.
So, I guess I just wanted to make it clear your game is truly awesome and it means a lot to me to even play it. The details and lore, the art and music, the sheer effort it shows and tells is amazing and I hope I get to see even more.
Really, thank you for choosing to make this VN and for everything you put into making it.
Game can be a little wordy, but other than that it's fantastic (I only did Britney's route rn)
Art is great, characters are really fun to follow (including the MC, which is rare for this type of game) and the story of the slow MtF transition with each steps of the way is really touching and endearing. The story looks like it barely started, but everyone is allowed to work at there own pace, and there's a lot of different routes so I won't complain much.
The UI is also really refined which is always a big positive for me in VN
wish having max trans stat did more to help Zoey accepting herself, there's still a lot of insisting on he/him pronouns
I don't want to be that shitty person, I've heard about your forced hiatus and your condition and I'm really sorry, but tell me this one thing. I just want to understand, why would you left unfinished scenes and fragments of the game and just continue with the story? Why not complete figurative chapter 1 before moving on to chapter 2? What's the rush? Take Britney's route for instance: you skipped a major slice of the story with supposedly hot scenes in it (i.e. cock-blocked us) and jumped right to day 2, and for what? What's the point of forcing the story forward if it stays incomplete, with plot holes and scene placeholders? Why not doing it consistently, completing the whole day / piece of story per one update, like many others do? This is just beyond my understanding... I think it's better to have an unfinished game with perfectly polished Act 1 than to have a "complete" story with unfinished parts here and there.
Art is the primary reason. I didn't have art for it commissioned yet and I wasn't going to do a second scene in a story day where it's two characters having sex through sprites. The monetary costs of those CGs aren't even too much of a concern, but they take a lot of my time to make the design docs for, it takes an artist a few months to get the scene done, and then I have to edit the files to work within Ren'Py. If I stop work for art, this visual novel will not only never get done, but those scenes with the art aren't going to be nearly as good as they could be if I spent more time writing the characters to have a better idea of who they are and how they work so that when they have sex it is an extension of their dynamic rather than erotic revelry for the sake of erotic revelry. My priority is always going to be developing the story and its characters, and that specific scene is not at all a load-bearing scene to that story. If it's going to exist, it'll be as something that moves the plot forward, and there are just other scenes that take higher priority of the bottlenecks of art and my own limited time on this earth.
The other less important reason is that development is slower than in other similar games because of my attention to detail in development and that I am essentially a solo developer (see this previous comment I made for the specifics). If I limited updates to a full story day each time, this game's updates would come out spaced several months apart even in the best of circumstances because writing is merely a fraction of my job, and I'd rather release the game in chunks more frequently so I can get more immediate feedback on what did or didn't work as that has been instrumental in making me a better developer and more specifically a better writer. If I don't have confidence in an idea, I have the luxury of being able to move ahead in the story and to put off the specifics until I have a better idea of what I want that placeholder scene to be. This not only speeds up development by letting me circumvent a plot idea until I have full confidence in my ability to execute it as well as I can so I can do something I do have a much clearer picture for, but it improves the overall quality of the game by removing the pressure of the bottleneck of having to do the next chronological event. If I have learned any lesson during development, it's that it's not just faster but better for overall quality to make sure I do something right the first time instead of going back to fix it later.
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this game has astonished me with quality and I'm not even halfway through it. so no spoilers. I don't normally play Light novels but when you are wanting to scratch a particular itch there isn't many options. the game started out rough. Really rough. to the point where I almost dropped the game. but I'm glad I didn't. the first part of the game where you go threw the day in the life of normal Zach. and it just dumps so much info on you. and at the start of any story there is supposed to have a hook. sure the description of the game got me threw the doors. but my mental basket can only hold onto so much when I have so little investment in the game. it was grueling and I unfortunately skipped most of it over dropping the game. Giving it a second chance.
now I have no right to tell anyone how to develop their FREE game. but I can say as a player or reader. I wish there was something in the beginning to more quickly draw me in. when you boot up the game your probably horny lets be real. and the tone that it sets threw the lecture grinds me down and forces me to think. Because I almost missed out on enjoying the parts that followed. the amazing attention to detail that the dev put into taking you threw the experience of a sudden body swap. and I loved every moment of it. the mental gymnastics and the coming to terms was so well done. and I save scum a lot to peak into all of the routes and I ended up going with the "trans" route. (According to the save) and it was honestly shocking how well the writing moved me. there was no talking down to. there was no political messages. just harsh reality you and how you feel. I started getting emotional. (god dam you. this is a horny game! how dare you make me feel things!) especially because the game has awaken something in me that I needed to beat back down into the recesses of my mind. (funny because the game goes over something like this) I appreciate that choosing to admit it wasn't turned into a joke. and it wasn't turned into messaging. the music lets up. sure the situation was whacky but the developer i feel like took time and care into writing this. as with the rest of the amazing story. I can't stop thinking about this game. after playtime is over. my ability to not stop thinking about this game is why I'm writing this. I need to say it.
they art is amazing they put so much detail into the facial reactions I find myself looking at the eyes as they shift around. the sound design while was a bit off taste for a bit. i have really warmed up to. and I'm now in love with it. I was skeptical at first when the dev told me the game had good audio. boy do i love to be proven wrong. they blend moments and set the tone so well for the scene ahead. as I played I started to wonder if the dev had majored in psychology. Because I was LOVING exploring these small details. alongside learning about zachs life and his chosen best friend. I needed more of this! and then it hit me. the start of the game that I had skipped over probably had all of that. but NOW I CARE ABOUT IT. I need to go back and reread all of it. Because it will most likely set the tone for this amazing erotic game that explores these things. i feel like the dev explores all of this without ever telling you that they are doing it. and that is a masterclass of writing I wish I had.
TLDR = amazing game. you should absolutely play it. it's a bit rough to start but tough it out. good audio, good sprites, amazing writing. hot as FUCK erotic scenes. 10/10 would get fucked again. I will be turning this game from a free to play into a pay to play as soon as my bank account agrees with me because the dev or dev's deserves it.
Before I throw my own wall of text at you, thank you for writing all of this out. I know more than most typing takes time and effort, and I'll make the effort to match.
I know people have issues with the intro, but re:Dreamer is meant to one day be a long visual novel (at least 40 hours per main route). In that context, an intro of an hour or less (much of which you are given the option to skip!) is not just justified but mandatory.
I very firmly and passionately believe gender bender is a kink of contrasts. I'll skip the pseudo-intellectual lecture about how it's a genre uniquely suited to building around the singular pillar of what is ultimately the only story a person can ever tell when you strip it to its base element (what it means to be a person) and jump ahead to the pith: knowing more of who Zach is as a person before the transformation even happens is necessary for giving the type of contrast I need for the story I want to tell with him.
To that end, I have given Zach an intro that sets the entire tone of the game as most of its topics and themes, such as:
I'll readily admit that there might have been a more condensed way to do that, but all my thinking on the intro over the last few years has only reinforced my view that it has to be there and it's about as lean as I can make it without cutting away the meat of the story to compromise brevity over depth. It acts as a sort of skill gate, because to be honest, if a player stopped after less than an hour, there's not much of a chance they'd like to stick around for more nor care that I think context makes porn way hotter.
I have many thoughts about gender (as you might suspect lol), but I'd like to think I have enough respect for the topic to avoid pandering with easy layups that I know would please certain crowds. Doing so would be a disservice to readers when I know could deliver something better and more meaningful. re:Dreamer isn't really "a transgender game" as some have tried to frame it and I reject that limitation; in fact, one of its design goals is to widen someone's views of identity and present a more nuanced view than "this character was always a girl." It's a weird celebration of the uniqueness of identity meant to be thought about with deliberate ambiguity meant to foster that. I'll sometimes use modern queer terminology when it makes sense and I can't claim I don't find myself rambling on my soapbox every so often, but I'm hardly a gender guru. I'm a weird person with a weird genderfluid identity who doesn't have anything even close all the answers, but I have confidence in my ability to ask good questions.
I love having a lot of attention to detail and like when someone notices the time and effort to put into it. The expression system helps sell the nuance of the story, and I'm shocked that neither my method of separating faces into distinct eyes, eyebrows, and mouths and the exponentially greater range of facial expression I have access to nor focus on sound design is common. I wanna be a quirky bohemian auteur, and I can't understand how people hate making the parts of a visual novel I love to tinker with. It's a multimedia format, and the more I embrace that aspect, the more those parts synchronize to tell a story that punches far above its weight class in impact.
I just learned about your illness after stumbling around this page. and it was heartbreaking to read. one of the worst things that can happen to someone. and one of my greatest fears.
now i feel bad that is distracted you from creating this masterpiece. even if it was for maybe 10 to 20 minutes . don't need to waste your time responding to me but I heavily appreciated the response! and yes I think you have truly tapped a few times into something powerful. between all the jokes and horny scenes. or maybe I'm reading way too much in-between the lines of this story here.
and for clarification I love buildup and context for erotic stuff. I just wasn't prepared for the start. I wasn't prepared to sit threw a lecture and my brain was far too deep into excitement from the premises to pay much attention to the lecture. and because I'm stubborn I didn't skip either with getting on my phone. my main frustration stems from an alternative timeline where I backed out too soon and missed this amazing story. but this isn't a call for change I'm trying not to come off that way. every reader is different. if you don't think anything needs to change then that's that. I'm a writer too so i totally get it. just my unfiltered thoughts about the game from my point of view. and now my greatest fear is not being able to see this game get finished.
so just know I'll be invisibly cheering you on from the sideline. Sexually frustrated and begging for more.
Are the scenes animated
No lol, but I tried anyways on some
I loved the chill type Vinland saga edit music after the masturbation. What it's name?
After the "Kinda?" route
Either "One Dream" by Uyama Hiroto from A Son of the Sun or "Aruarian Dance" by Nujabes from Samurai Champloo Music Record 1 - Departure
hello, is there the second sex scene with britney in the patreon version ?
Not yet, sadly.
Damn, might as well prepare headstone for the dev now (RIP)
Nope, still here. Just stuck in art revision hell right now, but I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after 2+ months of work with tons of 12+ hour days.
Could you maybe please make the Android Version an apk File?
this was so peak, britney route is so peak omg i LOVE this
this game really hit close to home for me. S9me of the dialogs were nearly identical to the conversations I had with my mom in my first run of college. Several times I had vivid flashbacks of "this protagonist is just like me".
Im going the mom and self routes because those are what I would have done if that happened to me.
The calculus quiz at the start is actually correct, great game just for the attention to detail
So this game is one of the most detailed when it comes to information. So much history, backstory, and lore.
The game works great on PC. Android is iffy, sometimes after a time it slows down making me wait for it to continue. Otherwise near perfect.
The story is engaging, and the artstyle and music are my thing. I kinda want it to keep going even though the story is clearly heading in a certain direction.
Kinda mixed on the fact that there doesn't seem to be a cross or fusion between character paths, bonding with old friends, reconcile and reconnecting with both B and K. Choosing one over the other kinda hurts.
Great game, good humor, serious plot sort of, I haven't finished it but I'm having fun.
So I read through a bit in the extras and want to ask, are you fairing well? Never good at dealing with seriously painful stuff, but I felt I should ask to understand how things are going with you.
Thank you for the game. I hope things go well for you.
Thank you so much for the feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed the VN! My health is never going to be good, but I'm at least past the hurdle of the back-to-back cat scratch disease + mononucleosis, my new antidepressants are helping a lot, and I'm able to sit in front of a computer and actually expect to get a full day of work done instead of having to play everything by ear because of my bad & inconsistent energy levels.
Thank you for replying and telling me about how things are going. I honestly don't know how to respond to everything I've read in the VN about your problems and what you told me about here.
I just want to admit your doing quite a lot of stuff dispite all the things you have to contend with and it is something I admire. Especially your remarks in the VN about how your putting your all into this even with everything that has happened and what might happen.
So, I guess I just wanted to make it clear your game is truly awesome and it means a lot to me to even play it. The details and lore, the art and music, the sheer effort it shows and tells is amazing and I hope I get to see even more.
Really, thank you for choosing to make this VN and for everything you put into making it.
Keisuike my beloved... Loving my oblivious mc, he's so silly billy. the writing is very endearing and i wish you luck!
Game can be a little wordy, but other than that it's fantastic (I only did Britney's route rn)
Art is great, characters are really fun to follow (including the MC, which is rare for this type of game) and the story of the slow MtF transition with each steps of the way is really touching and endearing. The story looks like it barely started, but everyone is allowed to work at there own pace, and there's a lot of different routes so I won't complain much.
The UI is also really refined which is always a big positive for me in VN
wish having max trans stat did more to help Zoey accepting herself, there's still a lot of insisting on he/him pronouns
I don't want to be that shitty person, I've heard about your forced hiatus and your condition and I'm really sorry, but tell me this one thing. I just want to understand, why would you left unfinished scenes and fragments of the game and just continue with the story? Why not complete figurative chapter 1 before moving on to chapter 2? What's the rush? Take Britney's route for instance: you skipped a major slice of the story with supposedly hot scenes in it (i.e. cock-blocked us) and jumped right to day 2, and for what? What's the point of forcing the story forward if it stays incomplete, with plot holes and scene placeholders? Why not doing it consistently, completing the whole day / piece of story per one update, like many others do? This is just beyond my understanding... I think it's better to have an unfinished game with perfectly polished Act 1 than to have a "complete" story with unfinished parts here and there.
Art is the primary reason. I didn't have art for it commissioned yet and I wasn't going to do a second scene in a story day where it's two characters having sex through sprites. The monetary costs of those CGs aren't even too much of a concern, but they take a lot of my time to make the design docs for, it takes an artist a few months to get the scene done, and then I have to edit the files to work within Ren'Py. If I stop work for art, this visual novel will not only never get done, but those scenes with the art aren't going to be nearly as good as they could be if I spent more time writing the characters to have a better idea of who they are and how they work so that when they have sex it is an extension of their dynamic rather than erotic revelry for the sake of erotic revelry. My priority is always going to be developing the story and its characters, and that specific scene is not at all a load-bearing scene to that story. If it's going to exist, it'll be as something that moves the plot forward, and there are just other scenes that take higher priority of the bottlenecks of art and my own limited time on this earth.
The other less important reason is that development is slower than in other similar games because of my attention to detail in development and that I am essentially a solo developer (see this previous comment I made for the specifics). If I limited updates to a full story day each time, this game's updates would come out spaced several months apart even in the best of circumstances because writing is merely a fraction of my job, and I'd rather release the game in chunks more frequently so I can get more immediate feedback on what did or didn't work as that has been instrumental in making me a better developer and more specifically a better writer. If I don't have confidence in an idea, I have the luxury of being able to move ahead in the story and to put off the specifics until I have a better idea of what I want that placeholder scene to be. This not only speeds up development by letting me circumvent a plot idea until I have full confidence in my ability to execute it as well as I can so I can do something I do have a much clearer picture for, but it improves the overall quality of the game by removing the pressure of the bottleneck of having to do the next chronological event. If I have learned any lesson during development, it's that it's not just faster but better for overall quality to make sure I do something right the first time instead of going back to fix it later.
I don't think I need to say this, but don't click those suspicious links in the comments left by botted accounts.