Set in a world of synthetic life, a group of synths, made in the image of humanity, seeks to make unauthorized modifications to themselves—by adding a serial port, to be able to communicate via networks rather than by human means. You play as a CETUS agent, tasked to investigate this group, learn about them, and find their leader, Andromeda.

This is what you’ll find in Subserial Network, a cerebral visual novel, by Aether Interactive.

Enter the Mesh

Mechanically, Subserial Network plays out like a multi-window desktop simulator, similar to the interactivity you’d find in Sam Barlow’s Her Story—but this takes place on your very own desktop, rather than its own fullscreen window.

For the most part, you’re browsing the mesh network, bouncing from page to page, searching for context clues that hint you toward new keywords on the mesh net. As you’re finding new pages, you’ll also discover the email addresses of various synths online. Some will be happy to chat, others will realize who you are, and will be uncomfortable speaking. Certain conversations are two-way—you have the option to pick your replies to emails which change how the characters reply to you. You’ll also pop into IRC-style chat rooms—which the game doesn’t make enough use of—and see several synths interact with each other in real time.

Sitting on the Outside

But really, this is a game about more than all that. You’re an outsider looking in, observing a group of synths fighting for and figuring out a new identity for themselves. This is, after all, a story about change, and the game doesn’t shy away from analogs you’ll see in the trans community. Synths are learning by doing, and relying on the stories of others to get the energy and inspiration forward. You’ll find synths who’ll tell you your name, and then tell you they don’t care about their name—that’s just what they’re called. You’ll find stories of loss and growth. (Delightfully, you’ll also encounter a group of synths just excited about their favorite TV Show. and write fanfics about it.)

In all that, this game successfully captures a feeling of an internet we don’t know today. It reminds me of my days as a kid, bouncing around America Online—not really knowing what I’m looking for, but hunting for something interesting to consume my time. It also reminds me of the early days as a member of Reddit and Twitter communities. The days where everyone proximally knows each other, and you felt like you could strike up a conversation with anyone; before everything grew too large, and sadly, too anonymous and angry.

The game makes excellent use of its retro cyberpunk aesthetic. The classic 90’s style UI is just so lickable. I mean, the title card for the game is typeset in Baskerville—it feels like you’re launching 90s-era Photoshop 2.0 in Classic Mac OS. It totally nails it.

If you’re a fan of Her Story or are looking for a cerebral visual novel which forces you to hunt for clues, Subserial Network is likely a game for you. Subserial Network saves your progress, and my total playthrough took approximately two hours. It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, free as part of the Humble Monthly Trove, or standalone on itch.io for $9.99.

If you could control a kingdom, would you be a benevolent ruler—one that feeds the people and pays for luxuries for your kingdom? Or, would you want to tax a circus, and sponsor a shifty character that steals from your citizens?

Sort the Court is a tinderlike simulation game by Graeme Borland, where you play the role of a king or queen, ruling over a cute and whimsical kingdom, deciding whether to approve or reject the whims of townspeople. But be careful, each decision has a cost—everything you do earns or loses you citizens, happiness, or coins.

Throughout your regime, you meet a delightful array of citizens seeking your assistance. Chester, a wooden chest, is hexed to eat humans repeatedly, and eventually seeks your help to have the hex removed. Miriam and her owl, Albert, are wanderers, and share some stories with you before going on their way. You’ll encounter Yarno, an advisor to the king of the Comfy Kingdom, followed immediately by Button Boy, who tells you that they’ re actually the real advisor to the king. You’ll also get drop-ins from Boots the cat, who always wants to be scratched.

As your kingdom grows, you face new challenges. Following a dragon attack, you have to fund your blacksmith so they can smith a blade—the dragonslayer—to kill a dragon which has stolen from your kingdom. Later your decisions involve intermediating in quibbles between other nearby nations, like a conflict over marshland.

And, hey, I know how hard it can get for a modern ruler sometimes. In order to build a new, ornate town square—undoubtedly the best use of money—I did have to steal some coins from my citizens to make ends meet.

However, some of the game can get repetitive. I was nicknamed “The Creep King” by Lil’ Fang time and time again, while I was waiting for actual story progression decisions. But, there’s enough to the game that you’ll keep with it and pattern match; when you recognize someone frequently returning, you’ll just jab y or n, and send them on their merry way.

Amy Gerardy produced some excellent art for this game. The characters are delightfully realized, and the evolving backdrop as your kingdom grows is beautiful. The background music, by Bogdan Rybak, is chill and whimsical. It reminds me of the main menu music for Life is Strange—something uplifting that you can listen to on a loop for hours.

If you enjoy a “ruler simulation” game like Reigns (a game like Sort the Court, a close spiritual cousin perhaps), you’ll surely appreciate Sort the Court. It’s available in-browser, or for Windows, Mac, and Linux, on itch.io.

A Hero and a Garden is a visual novel/clicker hybrid game by npckc. You play as a hero, locked in a garden by a witch, in the aftermath of destroying a town while trying (and failing) failing to rescue your princess. You’re tasked by the town doctor to start planting berries to sell to the townspeople.

A lesson in empathy and forgiveness.

As with anyone, you’re not exactly happy to be locked up in this unfamiliar town. This new gardening you’re forced to do, to pay back in reparations for your damage to the town, is difficult. It’s not fun. You’re grumpy.

So you’re irritable, unlikeable, and you just trampled the town—you’re not exactly well-liked. To top it off, you’re human, which makes you the different one in this town of monsters.

And it’s just that. Everyone is different. Your attempts to get to know the townspeople don’t precisely align with the social norms. You’re earnestly trying to get to know people. But sometimes, despite good intentions, you unintentionally ask rude questions. This only makes things worse for yourself.

The Gardening Savant

Alas, you figure out how to do this berry thing. You get to know people. You learn their names and their backstories, and what their needs for the berries are. And you make things better. Providing berries to townspeople and paying for things you broke gives you new opportunities, like meeting new people. You’re reintroduced to your princess, and understand what brought her here in the first place, and why she wants to stay.

And the townspeople grow to love your berries.

Gameplay Tip

If the clicking mechanic grows to be too much for you, be sure to reassign your helper, Sooty, to another plant using the notebook menu on the bottom right. Also, you don’t need to keep harvesting berries if you don’t have any orders for them.

My playtime of A Hero and a Garden clocked in at just under two hours. The story was delightful and worth it, but I’ll admit, the clicking mechanic became monotonous by the end—particularly with the scorchberries. If you find yourself waiting some time to collect some berries, this might be a good time to pop on a podcast and let Sooty do its thing. (While the clicker mechanic mostly works, I’d hope for the dev to add an additional method to harvest berries, perhaps by keyboard shortcuts.)

If you’re a fan of visual novels, A Hero and a Garden’s story is cute, and the characters feel kind and friendly. It may not have complex branching storylines familiar with the genre, but by the end, it feels like you’ve made a positive impact in helping this small community heal.

A Hero and a Garden is available on itch.io for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It’s also available for Android on the Google Play store.

We've also covered npckc's next game, A Tavern for Tea, featuring characters from this game.

Coming Out Simulator is an interactive story by Nicky Case. Semi-autobiographically set in the high-school years of Nicky, you must wrestle with decisions on how best to come out to your homophobic parents in the most careful way possible. As Nicky says, this is a game with no right answers.

This is the game that inspired this website. I have recommended this game to so many people over so many years. This is the game that’s inspired me to daydream, write up a bunch of design documents, and spend weekends building malformed game prototypes. Coming out is a challenging experience, and nobody has it easy. This game, while different from my own story, hits back at these same sensitive feelings, but likewise reminds me of my feelings of success after coming out. Because of how much I relate to this game, it fits to post it here to start this website, even though it’s by no means a small or undercover game these days.

Similar to the mechanics from the seminal games The Walking Dead: Season One and Life is Strange, your choices matter in this game. Your choices manifest as a selection of responses to say to people in your world, such as by text to Nicky’s boyfriend or conversing at the dinner table with Nicky’s mom.

In the end, Nicky’s parents find out, and things change. Despite all this, Nicky still considers that he’s won. 5 years later, I almost think that’s truer than ever. Nicky is an accomplished indie developer, with several games out that tell stories about systems.

Coming Out Simulator 2014 is a web game which takes about twenty minutes to play, and can be played online on itch.io. You will enjoy this game if you enjoy narrative games where choices matter, such as Life is Strange.