Is it okay if I tell you to call this a scientific analysis? Because "review" doesn't sound right to me.
Although the game was just 3 stages of the same thing, I appreciate the easy medal points, so thanks for that.
Reviews for "Social Dysphoria The Game"
Hi! I thought this game was pretty effective! There's a bunch of super nit-picky stuff I could say about it as a game qua game but like, that's so not the point. It successfully communicated the feeling of being misgendered to a degree, and I really appreciate that. Well done! (I think this is the first time I've commented on one of your games so I would just like to quickly say that Personal Trip to the Moon is spectacular. Like, a great.)
I feel like maybe it would have been nice to put a warning for some of the language? Like, I get that the point of the game is to convey a message about a negative thing but, as a trans woman, knowing the game included the t-slur would have saved me a nasty shock. Also perhaps a way of removing the more hurtful stuff so you can just play a misgender simulator? I dunno.
(also, the music is pretty great, yeah.)
But yeah, great game, well done!
I signed up for an account just to leave a review. This game is really well-done. The faux-retro aesthetic is cleverly implemented, and it's fun and cute to play.
The only problem I really have is that the words you have to dodge and collect are universally referred to as "pronouns". Pronouns are words like he/she/they, words that replace nouns in speech. Woman, man, homo, lesbian, tomboy, etc. are all nouns.
There's an awful lot of cisplaining going on in these reviews. Personally, I think calling the antagonist Cisbot was to the point. I also appreciated including the unlockable genderqueer character, although it took me a little while to get enough points. Of course for such a small game, the rhetoric is simplified, but personally as a cisguy I thought it wasn't bad. The music was great, too, and the mechanic, though not *too* different from any other shoot-em-up, is executed well. My main complaint is that while the controls were very smooth, every so often they would freak out for a second and the character would keep moving right into a pronoun-bullet.
Also, on the victory screen, it says "conglaturations" instead of "congratulations"--might want to fix that :P
VOEC responds:
That last one is deliberate. Search for "Gostbusters Nes" ;)
SUCH GOOD MUSIC!!!