#yancygame

My new game, Yancy At The End Of The World! is available to play as part of this year's Interactive Fiction Competition!

Yancy is an aroace person who thinks they don't have a creative bone in their body.  But then the zombie apocalypse begins, and they realize they never pursued their dream of becoming a photographer.  So they pick up a camera as the world starts crumbling around them.

Go around Yancy's neighborhood, chat with friends at night, and try to hold it together as everything changes.  Who knows?  It might not turn out the way you think.

Featuring:

Daily photo ops & bonding experiences in the community

A high school reunion with plenty of ups & downs

A queerplatonic tsundere

Too many neurodivergent & queer people to count

Aroace & agender rep by an aroace & agender person

Hidden creative secrets to be found (a true ending, a song, and a tarot reading, to name a few of them)

A depiction of how the zombie apocalypse would really go in our current society

A skip function for easy replayability

Play the game in the competition (and check out the other games while you're there!): https://ifcomp.org/ballot/#entry-2964

Or download it on itch.io: https://norbez.itch.io/yancy-at-the-end-of-the-world

Everyone involved in this game worked so hard on it, and I couldn't be more proud with the result.  Thank you to every person who was a part of this project!  Y'all are awesome.

Happy Ace Week, everyone! I'm asexual and on the aromantic spectrum, and I made a game exploring that just a few months ago! You can check it out at the link above.

About the game:

Yancy is an aroace person who thinks they don't have a creative bone in their body.  But then the zombie apocalypse begins, and they realize they never pursued their dream of becoming a photographer.  So they pick up a camera as the world starts crumbling around them.

Go around Yancy's neighborhood, chat with friends at night, and try to hold it together as everything changes.  Who knows?  It might not turn out the way you think.

Featuring:

Daily photo ops & bonding experiences in the community

A high school reunion with plenty of ups & downs

A queerplatonic tsundere

Too many neurodivergent & queer people to count

Aroace & agender rep by an aroace & agender person

Hidden creative secrets to be found (a true ending, a song, and a tarot reading, to name a few of them)

A depiction of how the zombie apocalypse would really go in our current society

A skip function for easy replayability

Yancy At The End Of The World: Who Is Nekoni?

Hey y’all!  In our last post about Yancy At The End Of The World! , we talked about Yancy’s mom.  Today, we’re discussing Yancy’s high school BFF, Nekoni!

Nekoni was Yancy’s best friend for years, from the time they were little kids up until they graduated high school.  Yancy drifted away from her in college, intentionally not contacting her because his mother didn’t approve of his friendship with her.  But when the zombie apocalypse starts, chance gives him the opportunity to reconnect with her again, and he takes it.

Nekoni was designed by critterboxd and is voiced by Aurora Ave-Lallemant, who has worked with me on several games before: xe’s Zenobos in Romance The Backrooms, and was the main character Juniper in Cthulhu’s Son Is A Scene Kid?!  I asked xem to play Nekoni very early in the game’s life, because I wanted to keep working with xem and xe is very talented.  Xe said yes, and I couldn’t be happier!

Aurora is also doing the music for this project, and everything xe’s produced so far has been amazing.  I’m hyped for y’all to hear the soundtrack!

Announcing My Upcoming IF Comp Game: Yancy At The End Of The World!

Hello everyone!  Today’s the day!  I’m here to reveal more information on the game I’ll be releasing for the Interactive Fiction Competition!

Check out the thread above for all of the details!  I’ll put a copy of it below for those of y’all who don’t have Twitter:

Yancy At The End Of The World: Who Is Mack?

Look, another post about my upcoming aroace zombie game!  Last time we talked about Yancy At The End Of The World!, we went over Caleb.  Today, let’s talk about Mack!

Mack is a snail guy who can be found drawing in the woods.  He’s not a fan of people and usually shuts others out.  But Yancy can worm his way into Mack’s life, depending on your choices!

Mack was designed by buggie-pup and is voiced by Caio Blackwood!  Like Eri, he had an understated take on Yancy, and I think it was the casual, “So, hey,” he added to the 3rd audition line that convinced me he’d be perfect to voice Mack.  Ad-libs really win me over, what can I say?

I also have a little story regarding Mack’s character design: I originally obtained it sometime last year, when I was looking for character adopts of rarer animal species.  I ended up trading him to someone else, but kind of regretted it.  So when I stumbled across his design up for offer, I was able to get him back!  Hooray, happy ending!

Yancy At The End Of The World: Who Is Beck?

It’s another character intro for my now-released aroace zombie game—you can play it here or here!  Last time we talked about Yancy At The End Of The World!, we went over Laz, and today, we’re introducing Beck!

Beck was the popular kid in high school, on the top of the food chain and shoving those xe deemed unworthy back down the ladder.  Nowadays, xe has been humbled majorly, and is trying to be a better person as an adult than xe was as a kid.  Xe does papercraft art as a way to destress, and also helped create the art server Nekoni hosts.

Beck was designed by octopubbi/geckoz and is voiced by Lunar Star Sam, who has a very lovely voice that instantly captivated me when I heard their audition.  Beck’s art is also done by Crow Caller—oh yeah, I suppose I haven’t been talking about that in these posts, huh?  Let me make up for that.

Mack’s art is done by Shade_Reverie.  Mack is a skilled traditional artist, and Shade had the skills to bring his art to life. I'm very happy with the final results, and that Shade agreed to come on board!

Artemis's art is done by DollhouseIRL. I worked with her on her first VN, Purple Prose For Purple Hearts, drawing sprites for the character Lucia and offering support behind-the-scenes. When I saw DollhouseIRL's art, I knew it would be perfect for Artemis, and I asked her if she would draw for the character. I'm delighted she said yes!

Beck’s art is done by Crow Caller.  Crow makes these papercraft creatures that are in a very unique style—I know about them because I watch his YouTube channel, where she primarily does book reviews but also shares his “paper children”.  When I figured out that Beck did papercraft, I immediately knew who to reach out to, and I was delighted when Crow agreed to join the team!

Yancy At The End Of The World: Who Is Rainer?

Here with a post about my upcoming aroace zombie game!  Last time we talked about Yancy At The End Of The World!, we discussed Artemis, and today we’re talking about Rainer!

Rainer is a rabbit who makes a podcast with their boyfriend, Steven.  Things with their podcast get interesting when a supernatural investigator takes a fictional premise seriously.  Where will this go?

Rainer was designed by jayjellyfish and is voiced by LunarLegacyVA!  I really enjoyed their audition for Yancy—there was great emotional expression and nice ad-libs too, it was great!  Because of this, I asked them to voice a small role in my game Romance The Backrooms: the character Doug, who shows up in the beginning.  And when it came time to casting people for Yancy! , I knew I wanted to work with them again.  I’m so glad to have them on board!

Steven, Rainer's boyfriend, was designed by RavenSky006 and is voiced by Tuxedo August!  August’s audition had an consistent optimism to it that I very much enjoyed, so I new I had to cast him somewhere.  I’m delighted to be working with him!

Yancy At The End Of The World: Who Is Artemis?

Another post about my upcoming aroace zombie game! In my last write-up on Yancy At The End Of The World! we discussed the character of Banjo, and today’s we’re discussing Artemis!  This also marks the start of the characters who Yancy knew in high school.

Artemis is a bat-girl humanoid who does digital art.  She’s currently dating a woman named Leah, and this is her first time in a sapphic relationship.  She has a lot of regrets about how she handled things in high school.  Can she & Yancy reconcile?

Artemis was designed by r4c3rr and is voiced by The Oppai Princess!  I really enjoyed her audition, and there were a lot of little touches I liked, such as a frustrated, “RRRGH!” before the 1st audition line.  Those things really won me over, and I’m so happy to have her voicing Artemis!

Leah was designed by scattershit and is voiced by Mia Cruddas, aka Miabyte!  Her unique voice really made her audition stand out, and she had a very relaxed cadence.  So I decided to offer her the part of Leah, and I’m very glad she accepted!