MindMindMind

ugh I LOVED THIS!!! I feel like I could sense the amount of care and attention put into this VN, the UI was wonderful to use, the backgrounds and character designs fun to look at, the animated sprites, the voice acting... all of it!! Especially for a game jam, this is so well put together and super fun (and lowkey personal but we don't talk about that...) to play through! Thank you so much for the game, I loved it! <33

Geist sure is taking gaslight gatekeep guyboss to a new level lmao
His poisonous remarks weren't very fun to read (though I suppose that is the point haha), but I do like his VA a lot. I love both fo the VAs for this VN, actually; they both did a really great job!

The UI for this VN was impeccable, and I really liked the filtered photo BGs. I'm a big fan of them: they help root the story in the 'real world' so it feels even more immersive. The animated sprites/CGs look gorgeous too; it's clear a lot of work went into this.

For a free VN, it's very polished! You did a great job putting it together in a month!

Oh, and Kalei is such a sweetheart. I'm glad my MC ended up with him in my playthrough; it was really nice seeing Kalei get the MC to open to him by being so patient and understanding. It was very charming!

This game is amazing, although I don't know very well English I found it quite entertaining, I loved it!!

I realllyyyy loveeeddd thisss. I like the art style , voice acting and everything.. It is kinda relatable too. In one of my school event I collapsed and i panicked so much.. I enjoyed thiss  gamee so muchh.

I LOVE THISSS!!! I had a whole bunch of fun playing this :D

The animated CGs, the way their facial expressions change, the story, the voice acting, everything, it really pieces the game together.

And oml this perfectly captured my thoughts whenever I have to be social. I am a HUUUGEEE overthinker and this MC is exactly how I would think in those situations. 😭

Bravo for accuracy. Loved this game!

Wow, this game makes you think so much, and also appreciate the VA and the beauty of the characters lol But really, the metaphor of Geist being that toxic voice in our anxious mind, always putting us down, and then trying to justify the act, accepting that we're fine alone and away from everything and everyone, always in our little bubble... It couldn't have been done better, it really is a toxic relationship, but with ourselves - at least that's what I think of the whole game. 

Kalei is the famous extrovert who adopts an introvert, I feel like that with my best friend lmao Him helping the mc is a really cute thing, although at the same time he talks in such a light and relaxed way about the panic attack that it irritates me, and at other times I agreed with things Geist said. It's simply a game that makes you think a lot, and when some details fit with you irl, it cuts deep but damn, I don't regret it. Simply fucking awesome!

WEEP CHATTER, THIS WAS WONDERFUL AHHHHHHH 😭💕

(SOME VAGUE SPOILERS THO I TRY TO AVOID SAYING ANYTHING TOO DIRECTLY BUT JUST A WARNING)

This one hit so close to home... As someone who also struggles in conversations and is constantly worried about either saying too much or not saying enough or zoning out when talking to people or that I'm being a bother, etc., this was... extremely hard-hitting for me. And I found myself at first kinda agreeing instinctively with the things Geist was saying, but as the game progressed, I started to realize what was going on, and I began feeling more confident in pushing back and being able to tell the difference between his mangled false version of reality he kept whispering and what was actually happening. It made me feel both happy in that, like, I was pushing back against so many of my own inner thoughts I've struggled with for a long time, while also a bit sad, because even though I could get myself to do so in the game, I knew that I wouldn't always be so successful in my own version of Geist... 💦

I really really loved how seamlessly the story handled that slow revelation of who Geist really is without even actually saying it??? Like it was brilliantly done. You set everything up, with the build-up, and the structure, and then the lead-in to that final main confrontation with him, so well that like... before you even knew it, you realized what was going on. It was just so fantastic lkdjfads And honestly that made it even more powerful because, like, in reality, we can't always tell the difference between truth and our own minds trying to sabotage us, and there never will be a grand reveal showing us that our thoughts were never true. We always will still have that voice nagging at us, trying to pull us back down, and the only thing we can do is attempt to get better at fighting it off (and perhaps seeking out support in others, as well).

Overall this was such a brilliant game, Chatter ahhHHHHHHHH. Why do your games always do this to me LKDJFASDFA I love so much how playing your games feels even more like being immersed into a novel than any other games I've played. Perhaps because of how you set everything up, with the animations and how you handle your CGs and art, to especially the GUI and how naturally it makes the narration and dialogue flow across the screen in-sync with the images. I swear it always makes the game feel so much faster than it actually is because I end up just getting so immersed in it that it makes the time fly kjdfad In this game in particular I loved the switching between the different types of framing, from the sprites and sprite expression cut-aways, to the BG narration, to the CGs, to the NVL parts that usually were either a flashback or other detail-oriented part. Every choice on when to switch to a different type of screen composition felt so natural, always carrying me to the next line, to the next scene, keeping the story constantly moving forward in a way that felt like I was watching a movie at times.

The art and animations were fantastic as always. That's such a key element of a Chatter VN at this point, and it never disappoints. Kalei was absolutely adorable and I loved him immediately, and the little animations and expressions and like the excited and sweatdrops animations and all of those just made him even more irresistible he's just so sweet???? 😭💕And he was so caring ahhhHHHHHHH I want a friend like Kalei SOB. I loved how there wasn't a single interaction with him that felt awkward or uncomfortable -- AT LEAST FROM HIS SIDE. Because of course we have Geist in there telling us things are going wrong even though they aren't, and instead Kalei is just there being a big dorky sweetie the whole time. It really made my heart squish jfldkajfdsf

And ofc Geist himself. WHAT A LOOK FOR THE PERSONFICATION OF OUR INNER SELF-SABOTAGING VOICE LMAO. As smooth and persuasive as you might expect from someone who's able to so easily convince us of our own ineptitude. I loved just the sheer presence that he has. Always there. Just watching. Making snide comments about every little thing we do. The way he truly feels like a "geist" that's just constantly haunting us and our thoughts. However still somehow "charming" in the way that he can still twist our mind into seeing things his way no matter how we may want to resist. Just a stellar design choice there for not only his look and voice but also just how every scene frames him and how even when he's not mentioned you can still somehow feel his presence tingling on the back of your neck.

I found the MC's feeling of embarrassment over their interests to be incredibly relatable. Even though my interests have never been an animated detective dog (LOL) I've had my own fair share of interests that I've felt weird bringing up to people all throughout my life. And though I used to be a lot more open with them when I was younger, unable to stop talking about them or referencing them, over the years as people would find them weird or my obsessions annoying, I became more and more afraid to ever bring them up, which only ever made me feel more embarrassed when talking to people. I still can barely bring up my game dev stuff to anyone in RL because I feel like they would all think it's "silly" or "weird." But if someone were to show genuine interest like Kalei maybe I would actually be able to open up and ramble on about my hobbies like I actually want to deep inside without feeling like I'm being annoying and monopolizing the conversation. Sob. Once again proving that Kalei is too sweet and wonderful for this world LKDJALDFAD 😭💕

God there were just so many relatable parts to this entire thing and I feel like it's going to be sitting with me for a while now HHHHHH. CHATTER YOUR GAMES TRULY NEVER DISAPPOINT. And yet they're all so vastly different! Despite the consistent look and feel in the way you do your art and UI, each game has such a different vibe and tackles such different themes and subjects that I still never know what I'm getting myself into whenever I start up another one. Yet I always know that by the end I'm just gonna be sitting there in my chair like AHHHHHHHHHHHH because of its brilliance. AND THE FACT THAT YOU MADE THIS IN ONLY ONE MONTH?? LITERALLY RIGHT AFTER PUTTING OUT KANAU??? WHICH WAS ALSO RIGHT AFTER PUTTING OUT THE DEEPWATCH WITCH DEMO???? CHATTER ARE YOU OK???? ARE YOU RESTING???? HOW DO YOU KEEP CHURNING OUT ALL THESE ABSOLUTE BANGERS??????

OK I'll stop now LKDFJAFSD but seriously. Every single one of your games is so absolutely polished and written SO WELL and just transports me instantly into another world where its characters and stories grab me by the collar and refuse to let me go. SO THANK YOU FOR DOING IT AGAIN AND MAKING ME FALL IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER OF YOUR GAMES 💕

Just all in all wonderful and insightful and beautifully done and cutting STRAIGHT TO THE CORE OF ME AND MY OWN THOUGHTS. I shall attempt to utilize the practice I had with Geist in pushing back against my own intrusive thoughts....... maybe......... we'll see 🤣💦

I absolutely love the voice acting; it adds such depth and immersion to the game. Furthermore, I'm thoroughly impressed by the intricate detail and high level of polish evident throughout every aspect of the game.

Good stuff, I do love 'Be degraded by a British man and befriend the human version of a Golden Retriever' simulator!!

And I also loved how accurate Geist felt if we go by the interpretation that he is just representing anxiety, and it's kind off sad to say that I once relied on a 'Geist' of my own, believing if I never approached that nothing could harm me again.. Really well written!!! Go into my favorite game collection NOW!!!

the more i played the more im convinced geist isnt even real and just the voices in my head that cause my social anxiety

i honestly think that geist is like us, giving ourselves negative comments such as: you cant even do something so easy... and after that you get sp nervous that you give up, so what if geist is just in our mind? telling us things? and also how only we can see him.

oh this was excellent omg.. for some reason i really liked geist HAHA but kalei was such a nice dude!! the artwork in this was stunning and the plot unfolded so nicely;;

I just started (yay it's working on mac on my partner's 2021 M1!) and I'm already hoping we get to see more of Detective Dog XD

GEIST IS A PRICK! And Kalei seems soooo sweet ^^

is it just me or is the game not launching? (i'm on a mac!) it says that the game quit unexpectedly

WOW. Seriously I just played through and followed your advice and I could not wait to tell Geist to take a hike. I adored Kalei soooo much.

This was an amazing game and I can't wait for more of your work!

This is a really good game👍

Geist is enough of a good reason to play this game, I don't care what the haters will say!!

Okay, first and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS for making such a game in less than a month, and still managing to slide in a VERY HIGH-QUALITY artbook everyone should buy!! *points guns at the readers*

More seriously, MindMindMind is an excellent visual novel on the technical aspect: the coding is very smooth and the GUI very intuitive. The writing, and we're used to it with Chattercap, is nothing short of excellent. This is the first time that, in this dev's work, that we get a first-person narration, and the balance between making things sound natural and yet still very elegantly written. The art is CHEF'S KISS and I havea particular fondness for GEIST'S SPRITE and I swear I am not biased in any sort. More seriously, the little additions for Kalei's expressions were adorable, and the CG work was absolutely gorgeous. The backgrounds were for the most part very nice photographs edited beautifully, and the way the backgrounds changed to indicate mood shifts at several instances in the game was great. One of the backgrounds, however, was hand-drawn: the bedroom. It was beautifully rendered.

The voice-acting too was excellent and I cannot highlight it enough. I found both voice actors extremely warm-sounding, and yet, so different: while Kalei sounds friendly and warm, Geist's warmness is meant to lure you into staying with him. The voice actors did a great job, congrats to them!

The story is a very interesting one. The premise of being followed by a ghost is naturally quite alluring, but he manages to be a very interesting and nuanced threat to the protagonist's personal arc. The other love interest, Kalei, was a perfect contrast: if Geist will try everything he can to "lock you up", Kalei, on the other hand, opens the protagonist's perspectives, making them discover a part of the world they could never had otherwise.

Long story short: PLAY THIS GAME AND DATE THIS GHOST. And the pretty classmate too. This game is definitely worh your time.

#### ----- OH MY GOD SPOILERS ----- ####

The main theme of MindMindMind is piñata-crafting... okay, I'm kidding, it is social anxiety, and it is portrayed wonderfully through the character of Geist and his relationship with the protagonist.

Whether Geist is mostly metaphorical or not is up to you, but there is no doubt he is a metaphor to some extent: he represents all the anxious thoughts one can have, these paralysing, daunting slabs we throw at ourselves, preventing us from experimenting, experiencing life because... what if we failed? What if we looked ridiculous? What if we bothered others? What if, what if, what if. Geist is the incarnation of what these "what ifs" can be in their most toxic incarnation. The thought is seductive, and it's difficult to keep them away: they are always here, somehow.

Geist is therefore the incarnation of the protagonist's social anxiety. A very good idea from the game is to represent him as warm, coaxingly so, because anxiety is comfortable: after all, what is wrong with not going out if you'd rather stay home? And that's where the game strikes very hard, and that's where the trigger warnings have to be considered fully: Geist is very convincing. I do not suffer from social anxiety myself, although I did at some point in my life: so, although his words couldn't reach me, I still found them convincing to some extent. Geist will tell you there is nothing wrong with you, that you not being sociable is just part of your personality, not necessarily a problem. In reality, the line is thin: there is a difference between choosing to stay in your dormroom because you want to rest, and choosing to do so because you are afraid of seeing others. The writing has enough finesse to exploit this ambiguity and portray Geist as an immense threat to the protagonist's well-being: he is certainly one of the most frightening yandere characters I've ever encountered in fiction, because he is indeed very charming, and manages to convince you of something working against you.

The game, however, wants to be more than the narration of a character giving in to their anxiety: it wants to be an empowering story, showing that these thoughts, if they might not completely disappear, can be defeated. The subversion is interesting: Geist is a threat to the protagonist only because they give in; but refusing to believe his toxic words is enough to overcome him and turn him into a much less threatening antagonist. However, this salutary refusal is complicated, and is progressively built upon during the game, when you choose to spend time with Kalei. Kalei respects the protagonist's boundaries; Kalei tries to introduce them to new things, while still caring for them, which isn't a burden for him. More than that, Kalei mirrors the protagonist slightly. He indeed mentions being told that he talks too much, gets in an argument with his friends, isn't a fan of parties... Despite being an extrovert and not suffering from social anxiety, he still has sometimes a hard time to navigate through everything, which is fine and fairly realistic. Coming from an extrovert: even we have social batteries! I truly appreciated this take.

The two endings of the game are very interesting: Geist is a classical "cage" ending for yandere stories, but the cage is metaphorical and even subverted: it is a place crafted for and by the protagonist, since Geist is just a reflection of their own anxiety. It is therefore natural that they find a sense of comfort. This ending is the triumph of Geist as a villain: he is seen as sweet, soft by the protagonist, he managed to gaslight us into trusting his words and believing he is what we need.

Kalei's ending, however, is very strong: the protagonist has a confrontation with Geist, finally actively fighting their own anxious thoughts, and the game sends a lot of very healthy and positive messages, while remaining very realistic: sometimes, meeting people will indeed go wrong and as predicted by the anxious thoughts. But if it happens, it's okay, life isn't over. And it is worth trying anyway to find the people with whom things will go smoothly. Life is made of experiences, not all of them will be positive, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be explored nonetheless.

It's on this note that the game then has one of the most beautiful scenes I've seen in a visual novel: Geist lets the protagonist go. He accepts their determination, wishing them good luck in a world that goes beyond him and what he can comprehend. Not that he completely leaves: the anxious thoughts don't leave. But he slowly accepts the protagonist's new life, letting them heal. And similarly, and reciprocally, the protagonist acknowledges that Geist will always be there and that... that's okay. I cannot emphasise how gorgeous and emotional it was in game, it almost made me tear up. The maturity with which the topic is tackled is nothing short of impressive: yes, anxiety is difficult and no, it won't magically leave because you start hanging out with a classmate. Sometimes things will be amazing, sometimes they will be horrible. But that's okay. That doesn't mean we're not healing: just that healing isn't a straight line.

Congrats on releasing this game, Chatter, and thanks for having me as a beta-tester, it was an honour! I had a blast playing it and it really was magnificent!