The sequel is out now:New Year's Eve, 2019
Your name is Qiuyi (Karen?) Zhao, and you’ve just been signed up by your parents for a beauty pageant. You’re not ready, not even close, but you don’t have a choice. But perhaps you can make the best of it. Maybe it’s the one opportunity to create a “hook” for your college application. Maybe you can reinvent yourself, get rid your anxiety and become someone new. Or maybe you can find true love (or some approximation thereof).
Features:
The story is complete, with about 79k words, but might still receive updates. An average playthrough will be around 25-30k words.
Source code link:https://github.com/aucchen/pageant
Cover image source:https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-sjpjl/ (public domain)
Cover font: "Parisienne" by Astigmatic -https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Parisienne
Feedback form:https://forms.gle/9QpFnEzftGXHckaY6
Status | Released |
Platforms | HTML5,Windows,macOS,Linux,Android |
Release date | Nov 24, 2020 |
Rating | Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars (81 total ratings) |
Author | Autumn Chen |
Genre | Interactive Fiction |
Tags | asian-american,Dating Sim,Female Protagonist,Lesbian,LGBT,Narrative,Romance,Slice Of Life,Text based,Yuri |
Code license | MIT License |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Mouse |
Links | play online (standalone),IFDB,Source code |
Click download now to get access to the following files:
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this was wonderful. I mostly focused on Emily, since I had a feeling she would be like me and well, I was right! it makes me happy to be able to relate so much to her, even though so much of what happens is so hard.
I was honestly uncomfortable with how Qiyui thought about Emily at first, most notably with how she notices something about her voice. it made me anxious about what Emily's portrayal might be like. but that tension went away as the story progressed. and it helped to realize that Emily was being viewed from the perspective of a teenager who didn't understand yet, but had a non-judgemental attitude. I remember being a confused teenager who didn't understand ourselves or others like us, but being accepting with an open mind, like Qiyui. despite my initial anxiety, it feels good to reflect on our past like this.
I'm looking forward to playing the sequel next :)
As someone who is also like Emily, and who has plenty of anxieties around voice, I also worried a lot about how she should be portrayed here. I went back and forth on this, but ultimately I was aiming for something like realism. I’m glad it seemed to turn out alright in the end.
Thank you for the comment! I hope you’ll enjoy New Year’s Eve 2019.
ahh so much to say about this one... felt painfully relatable in some areas, which means you're doing something right
honestly the best written representation of closeted asian queer kid struggles, and i felt a lot of parallels to the south asian experience
looking forward to a sequel if you plan on making one :)
Thanks, and I’m really glad this felt relatable!
There’s already a sequel! It’sNew Year’s Eve, 2019.
Bee (the Dendry port, at least) was one of my favorite game experiences, and this absolutely felt like a worthy successor. The theme and mechanics worked together very well – Ifelt the protagonist’s stress staring at the list of options for the week and knowing that I had only three choices. (I also tried to do everything and so only did mediocrely at each thread, which maybe wasn’t a win but was a satisfying narrative ending). I’m excited for the sequel!
(I’m also excited that you’ve revived and extended the Dendry framework. I’m hoping more people will use it now too!)