I MUST EAT CHILI OIL
I miss her mapo tofu.
436 words. Lumpy and greasy. O2A2 2023 Visual Novel Jam.
Credits:
- Cover Photo: Mx. Granger
- Lao Gan Ma "Sprite": Mx. Granger
- Engine: Super Videotome by Freya Campbell
- Music: 夜吊白芙蓉 by 牡丹蘇
Everything else is unfortunately by me. This game doesn't work on iOS, but people are able to run it on Android at least.
Development log
- PostmortemJul 31, 2023
Comments
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stunning work - thank you for making thi
really wonderful poem - every couple words has such an impact. it's brief but there are so many scenes and characters, details that feel like gifts from you. i also appreciate the postmortem ~ thinking about mapo tofu this morning... thanks for making
Aww I think you really got the stomachache | foodache | heartache across well. Really like the way everything came together, from the font to the sound effects to advance and all the background sounds in the store!
cant take you seriously like this after you said you watched every video by settled and the postmortem is really good- very big fan of creation pathways
i really liked some spicy broth soup one time in daycare and have used xspicy soup before but it can only be a one time thing, . until you pull it out again when everyone least expects it lol
I watched Runescape videos while making this game. Hope this helps.
its 4 am
didn't think of it initially but i remember doing this more as a punishment than a distraction, subversively thats all. glad to have some idea of what i love now so that i can be faithful, away from this shit.. or what ever brain trap you never really leave but yea
holy shit i love this
Thank you, I like Lao Gan Ma :-)
I wanted to say more after reading your postmortem. The reason I liked it so much is because it gets across the experience of missing someone you love really viscerally. I can understand why you feel disappointed, because it wasn't what you wanted to convey originally, and it's maybe not as thematically ambitious, in the sense that there are a lot of stories about love and missing someone. I think what's special about it is how strongly it gets across this feeling in such a short time. Anchoring it in specific personal details made the feelings stronger for me. You could make similar comments about "Sydney", though. Maybe since missing someone you love is such a common experience, this work was more "relatable" to people and got a larger response. It sounds like maybe you want make more games that are difficult to relate to :) I personally really like when I make something super niche and specific and it still connects with people.
You might be right about making games that are more “difficult to relate to”. I remember the feeling I had when I made my first game, Hanna: I just wanted to put something out that is hyper-specific and I don’t really care if people found it “relatable” or whatever because it exists.
I’ve always been interested in reading stories where empathy is a challenge. If one is able to embrace the most unlikable characters and see what connects with them, then it becomes more than Just A Work. Most of my favorite works, especially ones on Itch, are the stuff I’ve never experienced, but I realize that’s a real and visceral event. Finding myself in different shoes is discomforting, yet it’s so familiar at the same time. That’s what I find most exciting in writing a story.
This comment is honestly enlightening. I also share the “if the story is niche and people still connect to it, it’s awesome” feeling. Thanks for writing this as well as explaining what makes the story click for you :-)
Been a few days since I read it, but you packed so so much in that tiny moment, and it was so poignant all the way through… and just so painful.
Thank you so much for making this.
Aaah and I just remembered something else I wanted to add originally:
It’s super fun (and super inspirational too) to see the kind of VN writing you’re putting out after having explored more classical interactive fiction/Twine games!
It’s maybe a bit rarer to see this focus on brevity, raw & character-less writing in VNs than in Twine games, but you brought a lot of the usual VN staging tricks along and… the result is just really good, and inspiring also, so thank you again so much for making this.
I’ve actually considered using “you” as a pronoun, but I ended up ditching it because it’s so strange to see it without the ability to choose or type in text.
Personally, I enjoy writing in the second person…
A very short but very emotional entry! A raw approach of loss and pain! And I didn't know of this engine, it was an interesting discovery! Congrats on releasing the game!
Super Videotome belongs to a host of other engines called Videotome. I quite enjoyed working in them since it’s so minimalist. My only qualm is iOS not working with them, but oh well… that’s an issue with Apple.
Now my eyes are watering just by sympathy! A nice illustration of how food connects us to our relationships.
Thank you :-)
This is so amazing. wow. Holy shit.
Thank you :-)
can’t stop thinking about chugging chili oil
It’s healthy :-)
Wonderful. I am glad to see you returning to visual novels and writing.
It might be a while before I go do visual novels proper, but thank you :-)
Raw as hell, just a perfectly communicated intimate moment
Thank you for the kind words :-)
It's very impressive how dense this story is! You were able to pack a lot of information and communicate a lot of emotions in a very tight amount of words. I'm not really sure how to express how I feel about this story, but it feels very emotionally raw and earnest. This was very impactful: thank you for sharing it!
The use of sound was also very atmospheric, and I enjoy that the single sprite went towards the lao gan ma hahaha; good use of the one sprite rule!
Thank you for the kind words! And yes, I also think it’s funny I ended up using the Lao Gan Ma as a character sprite, haha.
I want to find the right words to explain what this game made me feel but I'm afraid there are no right words. It's giving... "dusted CRT monitor on which you watch someone's memories". A casette you're not meant to find. It left me empty, but in a good way. It was a beautiful experience.
That’s partly how I see my most of my games, yeah! They’re like diary entries by someone you don’t know but still feel strongly about.
I really liked this, so short and yet so meaningful. I think the topic of food and eating (together) is the most powerful way of creating an emotional connection in human stories, and you perfectly captured this!
Thank you, I feel similarly about stories of food. We have so many connections from it and they’re all worth exploring!
so short but incredibly impactful! I'm genuinely so impressed, a perfect O2A2 entry.
Thank you!
This is beautiful
Thank you :-)
The imagery here is incredibly gorgeous and sad; you expressed so much with very little.
Thank you, it means a lot coming from you :-)
Wow. This simultaneously shot me back to when I was young going to the market with my halmoni and haraboji, and also made me feel an incredibly deep feeling of melancholy and sorrow. I love the presentation of it all too, great choices of font, imagery, and sound. All in 436 words too, really good job here.
Yeah, I wanted to capture this detached melancholia of entering an Asian market. I didn’t want to add more words to that scene because I’m not sure if I can describe it as purely alienation – just a slurry of emotions.
This is such an evocative game, the visuals and writing and even the sfx when you advance text fit together into such a smoldering sort of melancholy. Really efficient and effective, and I think it gave me a sympathetic heartburn.
Thank you, I wanted to make a game that was close to my own experiences :-)