The Namida Cinematic Universe is expanding!

Hi everyone! So basically ten days after my previous game, I release another one! A tour de force, uh?

Okay, I'll be serious. I actually wrote this game weeks - not to say months - ago, right before I decided to officially announce Peony and the Mask of Emerald wouldn't be my yaoi jam project since I thought it would require more time and wanted to play some otome jam entries. And what a pleasure to finalyl submit something to yaoi jam!

You see, yaoi jam is the first game jam I participated in, back in 2020, but not as an indie solo dev: I was lead writer on a game produced by the Abyss Team entitled La Vie en Rose. I know people appreciated this story and I am very grateful! I remember having had an amazing experience with a team full of talented people and so yaoi jam always kept a special place in my heart. So, in 2021, I wanted to release... the actual Namida full-game for yaoi jam, and got even pretty far into assets production and writing! The only thing that made me step back is that Namida is actually a very important project of mine, one of my most three important, alongside Margarêve and Annelise (Namida is certainly less important than Margarêve to me, but more than Annelise). So, I didn't want to rush it during a game jam especially since, at the time, the yaoi jam rules prevented devs to start producing assets or writing the game before the start of the jam (which has changed this year!).
And guess who wanted to participate to yaoi jam in 2022? You're right, that's me! So, I had a funny project with a genre shift named Gay Chicken, about two jocks best friends realising they are in love with each other and trying to work through it. But I felt very depressed last year and couldn't find the energy to work on it: writing the script was a chore and everything felt unnatural. Therefore, I gave up. After weeks of emptiness, I managed to code the demo of The Stories of the Boys I Loved (which was already written, since SuNoFes allowed players to start working on their games before the start of the jam). It could have been a yaoi jam submission, but the rules were the rules: I started working on it before the start of yaoi jam and was not authorised to submit it. I highly welcome the change of rule that occurred this year, as crunching isn't a mindset or a flow of work we should promote as game devs, especially on a months-long span (while it is more tolerable for shorter game jams like O2A2). So I'm happy to see yaoi jam finally harmonise with SuNoFes and Yuri Jam in that regard!

So, now, this year, I finally managed to submit a game to yaoi jam, hurray! It's been long overdue! And cherry on top, a Namida side-game, to honour my aborted 2021 yaoi jam project, and about two best friends with confused feelings with each other to honour the 2022 one! And my first NSFW project moreover!

Now, let's be honest: this project was a nightmare to write and to ILLUSTRATE, and I'm understating it. For, you see, the project involves porn and I am asexual. I'm not going to lie, I was very worried that my approach was very shallow and unauthentic, but I could fortunately count on Joy and Snakk's help and their enthusiasm for the script really comforted me in pushing myself to produce it! So I hope you guys are going to enjoy this game as much as them!

Now, some Namida lore: Adam is the middle child of the Namida family, being five years younger than Katekyo and five years older than Haru. And yet, Adam is certainly the most problematic of them: he is a gang leader (a former one in Namida) who left the house when he was 16 because of his gangster activities. He is also a very attractive boy, with some natural sensuality to him, and that's what this game focuses on with making Alex the protagonist rather than Adam (so unlike what I did with Katekyo's First Date, in which Katekyo was indeed the protagonist). In the game, Alex occupies more or less the role of a love interest (admittedly, Namida isn't a dating sim so it might not make sense to talk about love interests, but there definitely is romance in Haru and Adam's routes; and something more aro going on in Katekyo's). So, I was quite happy with exploring a bit this character, who's quite important in Adam's route (although Adam's actual girlfriend, Violetta, occupies a more meaningful role), and to portray Adam's toxicity: he's harming those around him without even realising it, and that's an important part of his character in Namida, but... spoilers!

For now, I hope you guys will enjoy this game! I don't know if it's worth much, but it's made with heart and enthusiasm (and all-nighters). So that's what matters!