As We Know It

I am still playing through it, so not ready to review it just yet, but I am really enjoying the pacing so far! Question: Is there any way to access that little relationship progress matrix that pops up at the end of a game day? It disappears far too quickly for me to make any sense of it!

Also, PSA for Mac users: Ren’Py games don’t seem to let you save if you launch from the Itch app. If you launch directly from the Itch folder instead, you should be fine!

Quick question before I make any decision about whether to download/play: Is this game aro/ace friendly? I really like the concept of visual novels, but I can almost never play them because they all require you to be romantic and/or sexual with other characters and it just makes me really uncomfortable. Can I get through this whole game with only platonic relationships?

I've really enjoyed this game! Any chance for people who own the Itchio version to get access to Steam as well? I try to have all my games on there to make it easier for my friends to discover great titles like this. I also can't seem to leave a review on there unless it's part of my library. Either way, great game! <3

Ok I really like this game and also I need something to list what all the parody book titles are parodies of, because they are really funny when I do get the joke.

Getting some problem where the game goes non-responsive as soon as it launches. Got the PC/Linux version, unzipped, unzipped the pc version, launched the application file, and got an empty white window that goes gets a stop's responding flag if i click on it. any advice?

i was HOOKED the entire time i played this. i'm not one to play through a game multiple times to get different endings, so i'm quite happy with just the 2 endings i got of Jude. i promise you, i kept thinking about how much i just wanted to get back to playing this game every time i needed to get some work done instead lol.

this is written like a novel, and all the dialogue flows well. i think the only negative i have for this vn is more character personalisation? every time i play a different route, i make my character look contrastingly different from the other routes so i can remember the choices easier, but i couldn't do much in this game except make my names entirely phonetically different from each other.

other than that, i love, love, love this game. all its characters are done so well and they all have a depth to them i rarely see in other visual novels. well done! i will definitely be checking out any future games made by the dev ^ ~ ^

This was a great visual novel! I loved all the character depth and backstory you get to learn as you do different playthroughs. And because of the way you go through each day, I was able to get a real sense of time passing, so relationship and story progression felt realistic, never rushed. I could feel the romances and friendships developing. I also enjoyed seeing how differently each character reacted to the storyline, it changed the experience. The endings are not exactly HEAs and are very open-ended, so do be ready for that. There's also lots of diversity among characters (POC, LGBT+, body types). Overall, I really enjoyed this story and getting to know the characters!

My favorite romance was Jude, and my favorite friendship was Trevor. Both were kinda prickly on the outside but soft on the inside <3

Note: This game is fully accessible to blind and visually impaired players! (Pointing this out because games are sometimes listed as such but then are not actually accessible.) Just press V once the game window has opened. Text will be read aloud, including menus and stats (which are based on a 50-point system), and you can play and navigate using the keyboard.

(Vague spoilers ahead)

I like this games characters and more challenging subject matter. It handles a heavy topic well and balances it with everyday life and comedy. A lot of the personal background details of the side characters, LIs, and the MC are creative and really well done. The art is very nice and the music a little repetitive but overall well chosen. I got it on sale, as I think it is priced too high (no cutscenes, no extra art with LIs, able to reuse backgrounds and music... no idea why it is 15$).

 I do wish it had art for cute scenes it describes (holding hands, movies, heart to heart convos, etc)...but never shows anything but sprites and a background. 

Types of romance by character:

Micah: sweet and calm

Jude: sweet, funny, dealing with heavy thoughts

Eva: bubbly, cute/clumsy, sweet

Gloria: (comes in pretty late and she seems like a psycho) aggressive but nice?

I played through all the routes at least once so I could leave an honest review of the romance because it seemed lacking in Micah and Jude's routes. And having romanceable characters is kinda a big part of the game. Overall, the romance was just ok. The transition from friends who flirt awkwardly to ... what partners I guess?  happens weirdly. I think it could be way smoother if the characters just had a conversation earlier on. Instead of the part where the MC tells herself she's super into someone, just talk about the relationship with the person you're pursuing. "Hey can we talk" "I really like you" and then players can have more agency with how fast they want romantic things to move maybe. (Although the amount of "romantic" things that happen after you I guess "get together" with the person is super small oddly enough). I don't recall asking or being asked out by any of them. Just more than friendly touching, blushing, then later "hanging out" that turns into ya know more than that pretty suddenly, and then you're just together after that and the story is over pretty soon after that. Interactions with LIs seem pretty short too. I feel like I connected more with Sam and Tabitha than some of the LIs.

"more than friendly touching" meaning like who touches someone's cheek because they seem distressed? or who puts their forehead against someone elses while they have their hands on the back of their neck if they aren't together yet??

The single moment you sleep with one of the guys is so fast I laughed both times. Like: blushing, "you wanna stay the night"?, "you kiss", "you get on the bed together"....and  you wake up the next morning...?? Oh and they are not in bed with you when you wake up and then they leave. That is the first and last time there is a direct (kinda) explanation of getting intimate with the guys. I totally missed if there was a "sleep together moment" with Eva? And Gloria's "moment" was even faster than the guys with like two sentences and then you go home. 

There is a warning for "mild sexual content" but I didn't really see any? Like "He put his hand under my shirt", "she pushed me back against the wall and we laughed" and "we got to 'know each other'" is all I have seen. You could honestly take out the like 5 lines of dialogue that are vaguely referencing the "sexual content" and one thing Sam says and it would be PG13.

 It is marketed as having romance but seems really light on that front which is why I am critiquing it so much I guess. I did like a lot of it except the follow through with anything romantic that was more than having a teenage-like crush on them.

I just finished it! I see you made huge improvements in comparison to demo version and I mean more than just the artstyle. 

The plot was great. I chose Eva as the romance route and I got The New Beggenings End. 

Great game, I really enjoyed it.

I absolutely loved this! My fave romancable character has the same name as I do (Eva!), which I didn't know going in- good thing I didn't name my character Eva, too, lol. This game was SO fun, and I really hope to see more games like this from Jaime Scribbles in the future :)

Like a bunch of people I got this through the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality and I found it a couple days ago scrolling through the list.  I love it so far and when I'm done with it I can't wait to check out more from you!

Hi don't know if you'll see this but I was playing the game just now and I had gotten to week 2 day 1 and when I try to go to the next line it comes up with this error:

I'm sorry, but an uncaught exception occurred.

While running game code:
ScriptError: could not find label '_first_day'.

-- Full Traceback ------------------------------------------------------------

Full traceback:
  File "script.rpyc", line 72, in script call
  File "time_manager.rpyc", line 89, in script call
  File "time_manager.rpyc", line 255, in script call
  File "C:\Users\Zoe\Videos\Games\As_We_Know_It-1.021-pc\As_We_Know_It-1.021-pc\renpy\ast.py", line 1422, in execute
    rv = renpy.game.context().call(label, return_site=self.next.name)
  File "script.rpyc", line 72, in script call
  File "time_manager.rpyc", line 89, in script call
  File "time_manager.rpyc", line 255, in script call
  File "C:\Users\Zoe\Videos\Games\As_We_Know_It-1.021-pc\As_We_Know_It-1.021-pc\renpy\script.py", line 886, in lookup
    raise ScriptError("could not find label '%s'." % str(original))
ScriptError: could not find label '_first_day'.

Windows-8-6.2.9200
Ren'Py 7.2.2.491
As We Know It 1.021
Fri Aug 21 03:43:43 2020

I was wondering if you could help me out with this cause I have no idea what this means other than somethings missing. 

Thanks! :)

This game had such a fascinating story! Let me preface this with: thank you so much for making this game part of the Racial Equality bundle (and for sharing it with such a wide audience). After going through several routes (thank you also for the guide - i would've never gotten some of them on my own), I can tell this world was carefully built with consideration for those from all walks of life. 

I also appreciated how details about the world were nudged out, bit by bit, from various friendships - and how you learned just enough from one person to understand how another's life would be impacted (and vice-versa). 

That said, I do have to echo other sentiments re: "the big choice" being way less obvious. On my first run, I had no idea it would lead to the love interest being on the opposite side (and how it automatically locked me into bad ends). It was clear in hindsight, with multiple playthroughs, but definitely threw me for a loop my first time around. 

* also, i don't know how feasible this would be for a future game, but when you're given such an impactful choice - the ability to change either the player's or the LI's POV would be so neat! I was half-expecting a discussion about all the shades of grey involved. Maybe I've yet to unlock those endings? But to be clearer: the ending hinging on one choice was only shocking because i believe it comes way sooner than who you romance - and depending on who you pick, the bad ends were much easier to obtain in my gaming experience.

Overall, this game was an unexpected delight, and the world felt so rich, inclusive, and diverse without once feeling preachy or heavy-handed in those themes (I'm especially thinking of the non-romanceable NPCs; I would regularly re-play Trevor's and Sam's 'routes' because they were both such compelling characters, and I really wish we'd gotten the chance to befriend Iris in the same way! Homegirl deserves some love, and not just forever pining after Vince!!). Your team has a great voice re: writing narratives, and I look forward to future games. Any critique offered here is to hopefully help re: future installments, and to explain what I personally would've loved to see!

I love this game so much! Admittedly I haven't finished it yet, but so far it's my favorite visual novel-type game I've ever played. I really like getting to develop friendships with all the different characters instead of just the one you decide to romance. Thank you so much for making this part of the Racial Equality Bundle!

I really liked the game, and did 2 playthroughs already the last few days but had a bit of an issue with the 3rd today.

I had to leave suddenly so I pressed quick save and quit the app, but now I can't seem to start this save file anymore? Maybe I did something wrong though, I'm known to make mistakes quite a lot with quick save and quick load :-)

I got the there for you ending, I was really sad about sam but loved all the different characters, thanks for making this great game! <3

really well written, i got the bloody hands ending though and felt like i never really got a chance to meaningfully interact with the way the story was turning out, even though it was pretty obvious from very early on. the characterization was all fine and i don't have an issue with how it ended, but i felt like i had no agency in choosing where the story goes, which isn't always a bad thing but in this case, with these stakes, it felt unsatisfying.

i'd like to go through and see more of eva's endings but i'm not sure i'll do it, i've never liked replaying VNs since it makes everything feel super mechanical instead of like a developing story, the way it is the first time, y'know? really good game though, thanks for making it part of the racial justice bundle!

edit: this came out harsher than i wanted, i do wanna emphasize how great the characters are here, i can't remember the last time i saw a story with this many unique, three dimensional characters. there's not a single character left undeveloped, you even get a strong sense of some of the background characters which i can't remember ever seeing in a VN. great stuff despite my criticisms.

What exactly do the cheats do? I enabled them but haven't seen anything different anywhere.

Firstly, I thank you for adding As We Know It to the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.

I have completed one route (got the "Gone" ending) and would like to provide feedback (just in case, it is absolutely subjective). Spoilers.

The stats. All of them become visible only after completing the game. I'd prefer if the stats, stat checks and events (like the flowchart in the guide, but with dates) were visible from the start. 
The main choice. I appreciate the opportunity to change it.
The story. The MC did not seem to affect the outcome anyhow, just hanging around and doing nothing. While getting laid is a worthy goal, for the MC it was the only goal. Which brings the second point..
The "routes". The MC's profession affects the ending less than the chosen "romance option" and it seemed impossible to not romance anyone. I have not checked, if the RO always ends up on the opposite side of the main choice, but it was impossible to ditch them, if they do.
In general, the MC does not actively support the mayor or the rebels and it somehow defeats the point of being the main character. If I may compare it to another VN, in Arcade Spirits the MC can set their goal to bring prosperity and fame to their arcade and exact bloodless vengeance upon their rival and romance is completely optional, if not discouraged. Same for Coming Out On Top (the main goal being graduation).

Any chance for the OST to be available on Steam?

Hey, I really enjoyed this game! I've played through several of Jude's endings so far and he's such a sweet boy :) I am wondering though if there's any way in the game to learn more about the sandmen, the storms, and the rebellion? The endings I've played so far have felt really rushed, even though the game was quite detailed in the beginning. 

Well done game I enjoyed it a lot. :)

To offer some constructive feedback, there was a lot of times where you just had to click through days and days without anything meaningful happening. 

First playthrough I got the 'Bloody Hands' ending and through the whole ending I felt a bit like I was given a backseat role, with everyone else around me forcing their actions unto me (and my choices mattering very little). Speaking as a trained screenwriter that is not something you generally should go with, unless you can offset that by earlier plot points (which is overwhelmingly difficult to pull off).

I hope you can use the feedback - I will look forward to your next game :)

I enjoyed this game a lot! I thought the concept was interesting, and I liked the subtler ways in which you could bond with people around Camden (and the romance, lol). But I was kind of thrown off by the ending - it seemed like all of the gameplay basically hinged on one choice I made, without me knowing how impactful it'd be later on. I went back and checked out the guide to see what I could have done differently, but based on who I romanced, it seems like it's pretty all or nothing (which does make sense, given their personality). In any case, I had a great time with this game, and I'll defintely be replaying it soon to see what other endings I can get. Thank you! 

Thank you so much for making this, and exploring narrative in gaming (narrative development in gaming is a weird bimodal curve: represented well in indie games and also in AAA blockbusters, who can afford it and recognize the need for it) in such an inclusive and interesting way. There's elements of this that remind me of the Wool series and while I normally don't like post-apocalyptic works, this is worth playing.

Hi there!

I have so much affection for this game. Not only is it inclusive and diverse, but it starts good dialogues. I've played three routes so far and only downloaded it two days ago. Thank you for your hard work in making it. I could not recommend it more highly. I've wanted a game with a lesbian romance not marketed to men solely based on s*x for so long.

I do have a question, because I am an oblivious fool. How do I raise my standing within the community? I know it plays a role in ones' ending, because you wouldn't include it otherwise, but I have thoroughly confused myself. Thank you so much for any time you spend answering this <3

Great game but the fact that the good or bad ending is tied to two little choices made throughout this 2+ hour long game is kind of ridiculous. That's my only complaint. (Really wanted the good end but just because I thought the Mayor made a bad choice my character decided letting sandmen in was a great idea.) 

i stayed up playing till dawn and had a blast! even if i got a bad end with jude lol it was so worth it :)

one of my favorite games in the justice equality bundle <3 I haven't played video games in a long time it feels like this reminds me of middle school playing dating sims on deviant art haha

This game is wonderful! There is just so much to explore and all the characters are amazing!

(posted this in a rating but thought I should share it here too!)

This game is absolutely fantastic and a joy to play! I have spent hours exploring the available options with all of the different characters. It doesn't feel rushed AT ALL which is rare for a game of this genre. The amount of effort and lore you have included really makes this a singular experience and you feel like you're a part of the story! Virtually every character has a detailed personality and backstory, it kept me interested throughout the game. I'm completely charmed, and I look forward to seeing future games from you! 

I was wondering if this was compatible with Microsoft Surface Pro X running Windows 10 with  Microsoft SQ1 ARM chip with SQ1 Adreno 685 GPU Processor. I've had problems with other games if they're 64bit but not ARM compatible. 32 bit programs run fine though. Thanks!

Are you available to contact over instagram? I don't have twitter but I would really love to check out the deluxe version! if you don't have instagram, no worries :)

What an excellent game! I bought the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, downloaded about 50 games from it, opened this one first and played it all day. And I have no regrets - congrats for this beautiful and gripping game!