As someone somewhere on the a-spectrum who places a HUGE amount of value on friendship, I sometimes get a little tired of how often every meaningful relationship gets filtered through a romantic lens or so. And I don't even mean this as criticism of romance, queerplatonic relationships, or any of the countless ways people can care about each other. I genuinely adore and respect that too and love these stories too.

I just wish people remembered that friendship is also a profound, beautiful, and important kind of connection.

Same goes for the fact that half the tags are fully on Grace’s side with support and encouragements. Is beautiful!!!

"CONTROL, I AM NOT COMING BACK"

"is a short and emotional narrative game about a lost astronaut searching for a reason to keep going forward while facing the emptiness of space. Inspired by the Hopecore aesthetic, it’s a story about positivism, friendship and our human connection with Voyager 1".

I just finished this tiny free game on Steam. It took me less than an hour to get through, and somehow still left me sitting in front of my screen in tears.

The thing is, I can't even properly explain what got to me. It's all very familiar stuff and fairly simple ideas. Almost "basic life lesson" territory. And yet somehow it landed exactly where it needed to.

Maybe sometimes you just need to hear simple things. Maybe sometimes a game tells you that you can use WASD to move, but in the end you only ever move forward.

The whole thing left me with this lovely bittersweet feeling. A kind of gentle melancholy, but a warm one. I caught a few PHM vibes and a little bit of Outer Wilds, too. Maybe something else as well, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It felt a lot like the emotion I had while watching the Artemis II launch broadcast. And it had that elusive something that eventually just makes you go, "yeah, this is hopecore."

Absolutely wonderful.