The Rewrite Journal
A downloadable game for Windows and Linux
About
"The Prince's lie could only last until the twelfth hour."
On an island in the sky, five friends live out near idyllic lives. But one of them is distanced from the others; separated by time. To get back into their lives, he makes a wish. Except even the most simple of wishes can backfire when their story excludes yours...
Features
- 10k words
- Four love interests
- Time management gameplay
- Ending cutscene
Warnings
Murder, swearing, reality deterioration, illness, cannibalism jokes, injury, blood, gender expectations, gender dysphoria
Credit
Specter of You - sole developer
squishdearly/squisheebug - commissioned icon artist (https://www.tumblr.com/squisheebugdoodles)
Zelan - proofreader (https://zelan.itch.io/)
Sam Lรถvstad - proofreader (https://samlovstad.itch.io)
Menu theme 'wander' by Retro Aesthetic Boy (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, Linux |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (7 total ratings) |
Author | Specter of You |
Genre | Visual Novel, Interactive Fiction |
Made with | Clip Studio Paint, Ren'Py |
Tags | Dating Sim, Fantasy, Gay, Horror, LGBT, Psychological Horror, Queer, Sci-fi, Transgender |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- "YA LIKE JOURNALS?" Over 200 downloads on The Rewrite Journal!Apr 22, 2024
- Small UpdateOct 02, 2023
Comments
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Thoroughly enjoyed this! Loved all the characters (especially Mint!) and the story telling was excellent.
Thank you so much for checking it out! I haven't made it very far into the video yet, but it's really cool seeing someone else playing the game. I'm glad you enjoyed it ๐
wowow this was REALLY cool!! i played through several times to try and get as much dialogue as possible and i found it thoroughly enjoyable <3 very cute, very spooky, super interesting + i loved all of the characters! thanks for letting me live in this world for a little while!
Aw thank you!!! Glad you enjoyed it ๐ there's more to come out of this story and characters so there's that to look forward to :) thank you for leaving such a nice message!
you did a good job
Thank you ๐ I'm glad you enjoyed it!
This was a fun experience! The characters are all likeable (and they have really nice designs) and the glitchy effects were pretty cool!
The chats were really fun too; I love how distinct the characters' speaking patterns are, and their fun usernames/profile pics haha
I also appreciated how the main character was very much A Character, and how they sassed the others so much haha
I'm not a big fan of self-insert MCs, so it was nice to read an MC with so much personality, who's kind of snarky haha
I think Mint might be my fav; I luv a cute bnuny... They are precious, also very fluffy.
Thank you for making this; I had fun going through it a couple of times!
Aww thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And yesss, Mint is the fluffiest little guy ๐ thank you again for the kind words and for playing!
I absolutely adore the character design. All four of them are so cute! Such an interesting mood!
Thank you for making this game!
Awww thank you so much ๐ I'm glad you liked them all!!! It's my pleasure to be able to share this story with everyone ๐
I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY??????
First off, the sheer overall vibe and ambience of this game is unreal?? Maybe it's the whole combination of the dream-like artwork mixed with the surreal music mixed with the glitches and the slowly building feeling of claustrophobia being in that room, but I have to say that I've never played a game that's given me this type of feeling before, and only now that it's been a few minutes that I finished going through it 4 or 5 times is it starting to unclench itself from my heart lakdjfasd IT'S QUITE IMMERSIVE???
I'm in love with all four of the characters HELP. I wasn't quite sure how to best approach the dates and the messages at first, so my first strategy was to try and like, get the most out of a single char in a single playthrough, so I went for Justice's scenes first (trying to get all of Justice's dates and messages whenever possible). I LOVE JUSTICE SO MUCH????? JUSTICE IS SUCH A CUTIE CUTE HYPER LITTLE BEE (WITH DEEP HIDDEN EMOTIONS)????? Then on my next playthrough I decided to be a bit more mix-and-match but focused on Mint where I could. I ALSO LOVE THEM SO MUCH ALKFDJALSKDFA WHY IS HE SO SOFT AND CUTE AND SHY AND I WANT TO HUG THEMMMMM.
After that I kept playing, this time really trying to as many interactions from all of them that I could. Rei's dialogue made me laugh out loud multiple times from them not getting the jokes or just being so hilariously frank. And then I about melted from all the adorable knight stuff with Akira (I-I-I may have a bit of a ... soft spot............ for this metaphor....... LKDSJFALSKDFJA) By the end I just literally was in love with all of them though. I love how delightfully different they are from each other. So full of personality in their own ways. I kept going from laughter to sighing blissfully to sobbing on and on LOL
The messages were hilarious????? I swear I got at least a small chuckle out of every single message interaction. They felt so real. Like the exact type of silly random texts a group of friends would be sending to each other. And they were another great way to see how each of their different personalities played out in a different format.
The music was lovely??? I loved how every char had a different theme. Also how every char had a different sound effect while talking. It added to the whole previous mentioned ~ vibe ~ that really made it feel like stepping into a sort of surreal half-world. Some of the music tracks were literally so good though ESPECIALLY THE ONE FROM THE ENDING CUTSCENE I GOT SUCH SHIVERS WATCHING AND LISTENING TO IT THE FIRST TIME.
The art of course!! Absolutely gorgeous, from the sprites, to the BGs, to the side images. I love how between all the different character images we were able to see so many of their different emotions. I just loved how full of personality all of the side images had??? JUSTICE'S ESPECIALLY WERE LITERALLY SO CUTE. Especially Justice's pouty-faced one alkdfjas LIterally though the painterly style is just so gorgeous and really set the tone for the entire game, adding so much so that dream-like quality. And ofc I don't even have to mention how lovely the character designs themselves are.
GUH WHAT EVEN ELSE DO I TALK ABOUT. I enjoyed going back through it multiple times to get all the different interactions. It made it feel as though I were shifting through all these different separate clues and interactions. The glitch moments were so wonderfully creepy. It took me a few times to start realizing what was going on, which made the feeling go from "what the heck is going on this is creepy" to "omg this is what's going on that's creepy" ldskjfads And I mentioned this earlier but the final cutscene is just so epic and every time I played through it it never lost the feeling of guttural dread it instilled in me, especially when that music began playing.
Overall just a really well-made game with an absolutely unique vibe, characters you'll fall in love with, a surreal dream-like story that keeps getting creepier and more ominous up to the end, and a whole experience that will sit with you long after you've finished playing it. Even more fantastic considering it was made in one month for Spooktober!
AAAAAAAA Thank you so much Carrot!!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it this much ;v; I really gave it my all with this game and it means a lot that it came across. I'm so glad you liked all of them too-- I worry a lot about making sure people like each of the little guys.
And I am really glad the glitch moments worked the way I wanted to too-- I had a lot more planned, but I implemented them down to the deadline so when some of them just refused to work the way I wanted them to I had to toss 'em out.
And thank you especially about the end cutscene; I went through like??? seven different tracks??? before landing on the one I ultimately did. It required a lot of adjusting the timing of the scene and moving things around but it's the culmination of everything so I had to make sure it was tip-top. I originally had alternate endings planned after the cutscene depending on who you spent time with (or chose if you spent time with multiple) but just didn't have time nearing the end. There *is* a version of the main menu I drew up that has all the drawings after reaching an ending (Mint's ending represented by a doll, Akira's by a butterfly, Rei's by a written apology and Justice's by the bee's reflection in the TV) which is all that's really left of the original plans.
Anyways yeah!!! thank you so so much for your kind words โจ