Parfum Nostalgique is in Indiepocalypse #53!

By Rosario, 6.7.2024

Some exciting news! Parfum Nostalgique has been featured in Indiepocalypse!

For those who don't know, Indiepocalypse is a curated zine by PIZZA PRANKS that showcases lesser known indie games in an effort to highlight the unique and interesting experiences they have to offer. It would be cooler if you could check it out for yourself instead of going off of my explanation, but in short, as it says on Andrew's Twitter page, Indiepocalypse is the "Home for the Unmarketable!"

I found out about Indiepocalypse when a friend recommended I check it out early in the development of Act 1. I was actually working on the demo when I found out about it. I thought, "...Huh. Maybe one day."

When I finished Act 2, that friend asked me if I had thought about submitting it to Indiepocalypse. I wasn't sure if I would get featured, due to Parfum Nostalgique being an unfinished/ongoing series. They told me to submit it anyway, and so I did.

It's a wonderful feeling to be featured. I played a little bit of a long game!

It really has surprised me how unmarketable Parfum Nostalgique has been, though! I thought if I birthed a sexy vampire dom with psychological problems into the world, the masses would fall to his feet! I blame the atrocious nature of social media algorithms for that one, especially considering that this website has been doing decently well at drawing visitors to my work. I don't care if that sounds arrogant of me, Parfum Nostalgique is a beautiful series that I work very hard on. Even if I look back on it in years to come, cringe at my writing, and condemn it as "bad," I will simply be wrong, because anything with this much heart in it has to be good. Plus, my dialogue will never be as terrible as the Netflix Castlevania series.

The games in Indiepocalypse always have a lot of heart as well. What I like about this zine is that, because it's curated by a person who honestly discloses his biases and chooses what he finds interesting rather than what he finds to be marketable, the games featured feel like they all have souls of their own. Of course, every game has some kind of a soul, because humans have to make them, but these games have the type of soul that seems to actively remind me a person was behind it.

My favorites out of the collection were "Someone to Hold Me" and "Britney Spears' Theme Park." A poignant and relatable game about the asexual experience being featured in the same zine as a kinky Britney Spears-themed walking sim... It pleases me. If you play through Parfum Nostalgique but still want more, I guess you should pick one of those depending on what you enjoyed the most. If you liked all the talk of internal struggle, play "Someone to Hold Me." If you liked the BDSM paired with a hot blonde, "Britney Spears' Theme Park" is your game!

Anyway, happy Pride Month, everyone. I wish I had some fun rainbowy drawings or fruity new paper dolls, but I haven't been able to do anything. I've been trying to get a page together to offer my kimono commissions, but it's still lacking pictures, because I've been away from my precious kimono collection for 2 weeks due to traveling hours away to deal with the passing of my father-in-law.

I hope you will accept Indiepocalypse #53 as a Pride Month present from me to you. An opportunity to celebrate queer art through a zine that makes an effort to feature many queer creators is worth so much more than the minimum payment of $15 it takes to buy Indiepocalypse!

Oh, and uh... click here for a wonderful surprise!