#pirated code

[hollowmend]

✨Pirated Code: Admin Edition is participating in Steam's Visual Novel Fest !✨

For less than $3, you can buy my queer sci-fi/comedy where you play as an enby AI space pirate 🚀 The event runs from March 3rd to March 10th!

[enidtendo64]

More Stowaway AU

Pacifica dynamics with each Grunkle. Happy late Father’s Day and birthday to the grunks!

[skeletoninthemelonland]

i might post btc sketches in the main blog as well

[lyricalpiece]

[mistyjessart]

i need y’all to see the vision

update: added the blue wizards’ names!!

[zallanimana]

One night on the moby dick

Marco : and there just a note that says 'NQZVENY BEQRE, ZRRG HC NG OENAPU T acd '

Ace : Admiral order, meet up at branch G-134. it seem like they have planned something

Marco :

Marco : wait how did you know what it means

Ace : uuumm... maybe you just have some skill issue

Marco : Ace I'm serious about this, how did you know

Deuce *out of nowhere : He just can, just give up if you think of make him say anything about it. I try it already, trust me man it for your own sanity

[st-pop]

Salior Song ~Gigi Perez

Won’t you kiss me on the mouth

And love me like a salior

And when you get a taste

Will you tell me whats my flavour

I don’t believe in god

But I believe that you’re my saviour

I know what you’re worried

But you’re dripping in my favour

And when we’re getting dirty

I forget all that is wrong

I wait so I can see you

But I hate to wait so long

I wait so I can see you

But I hate to wait so long

[heartbreakincident]

an incomplete list of indie romance visual novel recommendations

‣ these are all indie titles, many of them made by a single person or a small team, and several were put out there for free (or quite cheap). if you choose to play them, do so with an open mind and consider supporting indie devs financially whenever possible.

‣ most of these feature gender neutral or gender selectable player characters, and predominantly male or nonbinary romantic options. i've specified per game for convenience.

Blooming Panic by robobarbie free* 4 routes, gender selectable PC, male & nb ROs fave route: nakedtoaster, but xyx gets an honourable mention

the GOAT, honestly. i think most people who play games in this niche (especially in the chatsim subgenre) have come across bloomic at some point, and it's loved enough that other games reference it pretty frequently. what i love about bloomic is that it doesn't shy away from telling interesting and emotional stories while also delivering on the cutie romance aspects. i return to bloomic often as a comfort game, and it gets me in my feelings as a creator.

Rewritten by Weird Little Beasties free (pay what you want) 5 routes, gender neutral PC, male ROs fave route: nightshade

inkheart if it was a really cute dating sim. the art and music are super nice, the routes are all short and sweet, and there's a little bit of something for everyone. ironically, it really did feel like sinking into a cozy book. this is one i got a little unwell about (positive), so i have to recommend it.

(more below!)

A Date With Death by Two and a Half Studios free, with purchasable expansions 1 route, gender selectable PC, male RO

legally required to rec this one because 1) it basically introduced me to chatsims, and 2) i own merch for it (say hi to azrael for me when you see him). it's just really good and fun. grim is so lame (complimentary) and i love a kind of loser boyfriend in games like this, so he delivers for sure. plus the CGs are just stupid good. i haven't played the expansion (yet), but i still recommend it for the base game content alone.

Ace in Space by Cadaver Carnival Studios CDN $7.99 5 routes, nb PC, male and nb ROs fave route: forge is my favourite, but zipper is the best route

this one's a little different on this list for reasons that are difficult to get into without turning this into a novel. it's structured like a dating sim so it makes the list, but the story is more about the player character, and you can choose to pursue romantic or platonic relationships as part of their journey. this one made me cry a few times, but that's sort of inevitable when the main themes so heavily involve grief and illness. proceed with caution, but i do urge you to proceed. if it helps sweeten the pot, most of the ROs are robots, and i'd like it a lot if you supported this game because it's from a somewhat local-to-me dev duo.

Fledgling Manor by In Secret Places CDN $15.18 3 routes, male PC, male/nb/female ROs fave route: stefan (but eight i love you please call me back)

y'all didn't think you were getting out of this list without an FM mention, did you? i'm obsessed with this game. i'm going to shill this game until the day i die. reality tv + sexy vampires? how could i resist. i was waiting for this game waaay before it came out and i was not disappointed. plus, usually predetermined protags are a turn off for me in these games but rocky is my ride or die (and my profile picture). i went over this game with a fine-tooth comb and i'm still hungry for more. play fledgling manor.

SeekL by robobarbie free* 1 route, gender neutral PC, nb RO

another chatsim, and so, so good. odxyny is a really interesting RO that i think resonates with a lot of people, and the other server members are super fun to hang out with. also, the gameplay of the coding as part of the story is so fun and innovative while never being an obstacle. really makes it stand out, and it's another one that hits emotionally.

Hustle Cat by Date Nighto CDN $22.79 6 routes, gender selectable PC, male & female ROs

fave route: graves bc i can't resist an older goth 😔

this one's cute. cats and coffee and magic, with a villain and everything. each of the routes resolves more or less the same story with different twists along the way, and you learn a little more every time. i could talk a lot about this game, but this isn't meant to be a review. why don't you play it and tell me what you think?

Pirated Code: Admin Edition by Hollowmend CDN $14.99 (a version with less content is available as pay-what-you-want here) 1 route (lots of endings!), nb PC, male RO

i like this one a lot (enough to painstakingly 100% it myself). It's not as heavy on the relationship (which can be romantic or platonic) as some of the other entries on this list, but it's definitely there and extremely cute, and the story happening around it is really good too. it definitely sucked me in and got me really invested in finding answers to the mystery of your PC's past, and dex, the RO, is an absolute sweetheart.

*robobarbie has requested that those who wish to financially support their games donate to charity, instead.

[bxnnie-bxwl]

captain foxy concept design for glitch in the code!

[jul1an-t00ns]

What art program do you use? And can we have brush codes?

I use ibis paint x! :D

(sorry for the delayed response @celestial-sprouts-art xP)

[purplesaline]

Piracy is preservation, and authors would rather have their books in front of people who can't access many books for free instead of looking those people in the eye and saying "fork over your month's earnings"

Shut up

To be clear, I'm not against Piracy in general. In fact I'm not only an advocate, I'm a prolific pirate myself.

I'm sure you can find a handful of authors who feel that way, but those I know personally (one indie author and one traditionally published) as well as those I've seen comment on the issue are adamant that piracy has caused them significant personal harm.

They'd far rather people who can't afford their books use libraries to access them or, if the libraries they have access too don't carry the book(d), they'd rather people reach out to them personally to arrange for a copy within their budget (sometimes including for free).

Pirating books is not the same as pirating movies. It's the difference between attacking a Spanish galleon and a fishing sloop.

Bigger names like Brandon Sanderson, Steven King, Diana Gabaldon, etc have a entire fleet of sloops and are unlikely to miss a couple going missing, but the less famous (and thus less highly paid) authors can have their entire career ruined by their book being pirated. It can even prevent them from getting offered another book deal, meaning there won't be any more books by that author for you to read.

We aren't entitled to the intellectual property of others. Full stop.

If the author wanted their book to be free, they'd have made it freely available (as some do!). Maybe if everyone had a universal basic income that covered the cost of living we'd see more art available at no cost, but as it stands artists need to make a living too and that means they need to earn a profit to survive. If they can't do that with their art they have to find another way to do it which means less time and energy to make art.

Not to mention the advance an author gets is usual peanuts, and unlike actors who get paid by the time the movie is out, an advance isn't a wage and if the author doesn't sell enough books they have to give back whatever amount of the advance the sale of their books didn't cover. If they get a $5000 advance and only sell $3000 worth of books they owe the publisher $2000.

Again, I'm not against piracy. I am against harming individual artists to the point where it significantly impacts their career. I want more art in this world.

I'm also not telling people they can't, or shouldn't pirate books. I'm against it but I'm not trying to for e others to believe the same as me. I'm providing information so people can make a more informed decision and better understand the consequences of their choices.

So do what you will with the info I've provided. Just be willing to acknowledge the harm you cause with those choices. Even the piracy I take part in causes harm on a smaller scale.

I have no argument against "I don't care, I'm doing it anyway" and I won't bother trying to argue it.

[hollowmend]

Happy Trans Day of Visibility! I'm Milo, a trans game dev making queer visual novels.

Here are some of my trans kids! In order:

Dan (he/him), transmasc DM from Fetch Quest

Corbin (he/him), transmasc witch from The Scarecrow Knight

Seren (they/them), agender AI from Pirated Code

Be nice to them, they're all at various levels of Going Through It.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

KLSADJFKA;FSJASKLFJAKLFD; I'm choking kfljsadfja;lf Tagaka's face TT0TT

"Ok, well, damn. Calm the fuck down. "

[jackfuckingtwist]

— Oh, yeah, by the way, folks, I can teleport. Did I not mention? bonus:

[ashipikaur]

ZUKKYUUUUUUUUUUUN <3

[tinycowboyart]

Keyrin the man you are