COMPLETE/ABANDONED: Bugs and Kisses
Jun. 1st, 2019 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kjorteoNot entirely sure how to classify this one. Bugs and Kisses was an in development visual novel that put out a demo, which I went through some time ago. And I loved it, and I would have been on board with playing the full thing, but... alas.
So, I went through the demo one more time just to refresh my memory, then set about writing this to officially lay the game to rest and cross it off my list, I guess.
Anyway, Bugs and Kisses is, or was shaping up to be, a visual novel dating sim type game only with bugs. The art looked fantastic. The cast was charming and endearing. I totally had a the hots for Hazel, the spooky grasshopper/mantis from the Occult Club. The author was "don't get them started"-level into entomology to the point that this demo almost felt like a vehicle for exploring their passion for bug knowledge, the same way Tolkien made books just so he could showcase his conlangs. (I'm sure if they were here, they would respond with a gigantic explanation about the difference between grasshoppers and mantises so I know exactly how to tell which one Hazel was.) All in all, I really liked where this was going! But then it wasn't going, after all. That's too bad.
Without a full game to come, the demo ends up kind of in the same spot as The Raccoon Who Lost Their Shape: "Well, that was a neat free way to be entertained for 20-30 minutes." Knowing that I won't get to lock mandibles with Hazel after all made the experience a little sad in retrospect, but, you know. Enjoy what's there.
(Sara adds: Psst, Celine, you still have options for mantis-smooching.)
... This is an excellent point. Also, Bug Fables is still coming.
So, I went through the demo one more time just to refresh my memory, then set about writing this to officially lay the game to rest and cross it off my list, I guess.
Anyway, Bugs and Kisses is, or was shaping up to be, a visual novel dating sim type game only with bugs. The art looked fantastic. The cast was charming and endearing. I totally had a the hots for Hazel, the spooky grasshopper/mantis from the Occult Club. The author was "don't get them started"-level into entomology to the point that this demo almost felt like a vehicle for exploring their passion for bug knowledge, the same way Tolkien made books just so he could showcase his conlangs. (I'm sure if they were here, they would respond with a gigantic explanation about the difference between grasshoppers and mantises so I know exactly how to tell which one Hazel was.) All in all, I really liked where this was going! But then it wasn't going, after all. That's too bad.
Without a full game to come, the demo ends up kind of in the same spot as The Raccoon Who Lost Their Shape: "Well, that was a neat free way to be entertained for 20-30 minutes." Knowing that I won't get to lock mandibles with Hazel after all made the experience a little sad in retrospect, but, you know. Enjoy what's there.
(Sara adds: Psst, Celine, you still have options for mantis-smooching.)
... This is an excellent point. Also, Bug Fables is still coming.