Some work I did for the visual novel Out of Sync for Paper Star Studios, published by Sparkler Monthly!
Out of Sync – A #YaoiJam game by Paper Star Studios!
Taisei, a vocalist in the boy band 4LiGHT, is known for his poppy, electric stage persona–a mask he wears over an angry insecurity. He only started singing to keep up with his childhood friend Shou, who’s now a professional vocalist in a different boy band. Suffocated by the restrictive life of a pop idol he never truly wanted, Taisei tries to reconnect with Shou…only to find that Shou has also changed under the glitz and lights of the stage. Taisei isn’t sure what to think of the new Shou–at least, until Shou kisses him.
Created for the 2016 Yaoi Game Jam and published by Sparkler Monthly, Paper Star Studios is proud to present Out of Sync!
Both a FREE version of the game is available (without the sex) and for $5, you can buy the smutty, 17+ (fucking, but no dicks) edition of the game! We have cute keychains too!
Get it!
Sparkler Monthly Downloads | Itch.IO (Free version only)
Hello, Sparkler Fans!
Thanks to all your reblogs, sharing, and support, we’re primed and ready for a killer Year 4 of Sparkler Monthly! We’re off to a late start this month, but that’s because it took a little extra time to get all this awesomeness together. ;-)
On the docket for Year 4 we’ve got video games, new audio dramas, new series, more of the great content you’ve come to expect from us…and…we’re opening submissions again! The biggest debut of Year 4 could be YOU!
To celebrate the success of our Year 4 Kickstarter, we’re thrilled to announce that this first issue of the year…is ABSOLUTELY FREE TO DOWNLOAD! Free readers, lurkers, newbies, friends you’ve been pushing to try Sparkler – everyone can get their copy without paying a dime to see the sort of monthly delights we offer our members. And what an issue it is…
Issue #037 includes our very first video game with dev team Paper Star Studios! Out of Sync is a BL visual novel about two J-pop idols (in separate boy bands) who reconnect after being separated by the industry, and boy, does it get hot (you have to purchase the Cherry Bomb version of the game to get beyond the “fade to black” scenes, though! ;-) ).
Also in this issue: the series finale of Tokyo Demons after 5+ years of serialization (get the tissues…), a scream-worthy new chapter of Windrose with more shocking romantic developments, and a heartfelt chapter of Orange Junk that reveals something…that a lot of you have been hoping for more of in the pages of Sparkler. :D And our podcast of the month is with Eurika Yusin Gho, the hilarious creator of Magical How? who sits with her Sparkler editors and discusses boys in skirts and the future of the series!
Enjoy!
XOXO,
The Sparkler Team
Hey everyone! We did a thing!
Enjoy our game! It’s free over at Sparkler and itch, and $5 for the smut patch (Sparkler only).
Hey guys! this is what I’ve been helping to work on for the last few months and you can enjoy it for FREE (or pay to get some PRIME NSFW CONTENT). please do and then tell me what you think ok?? we’re really proud of it.
Happy New Year!!
I don’t know if I’m the right person to be doing this. Honestly, this comes more out of a feeling of obligation than desire. To say that I’ve not connected with LGBTQ games would be an understatement. That isn’t to say that I don’t identify strongly with LGTBQ character in games but games focused on the LGBTQ experience have never resonated with me. There’s a missing piece to the puzzle there. An unquantifiable something which I cannot parse.
I’d be lying if I said that I was all for the idea of JamforLeelah. I have a natural discomfort with the deifying or semiotic iconification of individuals post-mortem. We need our icons, certainly. They provide focal points for us. Point towards truths we cannot express otherwise. Commonalities that we can empathize with together. Names we can remember and honor as those fallen in the struggle. But that’s what *we* need. That’s what *we* get from icons. What do the fallen get? To be remembered more as an idea than a person? It’s a tough question and one that bothers me immensely regardless of the political or social cause. I fear it engendered in me as certain skepticism of these games prima facie that I did not overcome.
This is important to note: we must engage with games as their own works but we cannot ignore their political nature. All art is political, all games making statements. Did these games make a strong enough one, collectively? I can’t decided. All I know is that I struggled with them and that I worry I failed to overcome the disconnect I feel between myself and the larger trans community.
I will not lie then. Some of these reviews are no flattering. I’m not here to pour a coat of sugar on something. I’m here to be honest and I hope that my honest expression will be taken on its own terms for whatever edifying value there might be. The purpose of writing, of any creative endeavor, is to improve both the writer and the reader. I specifically pray that I accomplish that here. But I’m not going to tiptoe around things here.
All games can be found here. Reviews of the games are below the cut.
What is my general conclusion? The existence of these games is great. We need games about these issues. Did the jam meet the arbitrary expectations of my mind? Not at all. There’s a few nice experiments in there but there has to be a way to express the emotions and fears trans people face beyond reductive narratives and simple metaphor. We need to reassess LGBTQ games and figure out what we can do to really create games that will resound in the ether. Existence is important but empathy is more important. I’m unsure if these games facilitate the empathy the subject deserves.
Which is a shame.
This is super late, but thank you for playing and reviewing NAOMI! We’re glad you enjoyed it!
Hi everyone! We’ll get some stuff up here ASAP!
Thanks for your patience!
