I'm Making a Monster

Pros: Music is simple but appropriate, art is very very pretty and at times evocative, and you can tell the devs put love into this game. Cons: INCREDIBLY short. Like, I got all achievements and did 3 runs within 30 minutes short. I don't think there's much more to explore here. I get what they're going for, sure, but it is such a binary choice game - either you [spoiler] say "yes" to friend outings, accept therapy, wake the monster, [/spoiler] or don't. The game reacts as if these choices are all or nothing, not a ton of nuance. Overall, it feels like a demo - a good one with promise!! Don't get me wrong! But please do not expect a fully fledged visual novel. This is not one. It's a short meditation on grief on a very basic level (do you reach out to friends for support or shrink into yourself, nothing groundbreaking). I look forward to seeing what else the devs can do, again, this isn't a bad game by any means, just very simple. Echoing another commenter by wishing there was a neutral option haha.

The art is beautiful, the themes are touching, the idea is interesting... but this is just too short a game to pay what the studio is asking. If this were to be expanded on into a longer experience, maybe it would be worth the asking price. As it is, there is too little game for me to recommend this.

I don’t know how I feel about that game. [spoiler] I get that social life is important, but as someone with ASD and a clear tendency toward introversion, it feels like the game undermines the existence of people like me. You either constantly go out and be social, giving up on the monster, or you fall into a pit of despair and become a complete outcast. There’s no in-between. I think the part that says the most about the game’s manichean view is when someone tells you that you are no longer open to the world. You can be open to the world without being a social butterfly. In fact, you can even be more in touch with the world than a social butterfly in many ways. [/spoiler] In my opinion, the game feels a bit shallow and fails to grasp the depth of human complexity. It feels more like a visual novel, as if someone is imposing their worldview through an absolute and unquestionable lens. As a result, the game ends up being more about the illusion of free will than about grief. It can be emotionnal in a sens: I cried of frustration. That said, I still liked parts of the story.

Another beautiful interactive fiction/visual novel from Zorkie Studios. Like another review mentioned, even knowing it was about grief, it still made me absolutely sob. I will will be thinking about this story for a long time to come. I look forward to exploring the other options that I didn't take the first time, but I'm not quite ready to cry again today. While I was so kindly gifted a key by Zorkie Studios, I have purchased the Wallpaper Pack of my own volition to not only support them, but so I can continue to look at the beautiful artwork for this game.

there is no monopoly on grief. interesting story but the overall message of the game becomes muted with how choices are implemented. the journey of loss and finding oneself should feel more expansive. navigation through grief and support is messy at best but unavoidable for everything is a part of the process. there is no one else that can help you like how you can help you. if you need to make a monster then do so. name it, face it, integrate it. with form comes understanding. like how words are symbols, whats meant to be represented and the different meanings for the individual. my monster is beautiful. i would recommend this game.

I usually don't review games, but this game ALMOST hits a lot of good notes. I just feel like it's themes fall a bit flat- either be a doormat whose passions are abandoned, or be entirely alone. As a minor note, I, for some reason, did not get achievements my first time playing. Strange, but doesn't really impact my review. Even then, for a game called "I'm Making a Monster," so little attention is given to the literal monster. I'd hoped that, after my "rational approach" of making time for loved ones without abandoning my passion project, my next playthrough in which I neglected everyone to focus on the monster, would have depth within that isolation- something to make me *feel* like I was alone and angry and miserable, rather than feeling like I was skipping content. Then, I follow up with a doormat playthrough where I neglect the work whenever possible, and there's genuinely no consequences! The monster is still finished on schedule, there's no reason to focus on it. If there's no narrative benefit to ignoring others, even if the benefit is flawed and morose, there is no depth to your motives- it is self-destructive without even the flawed logic that makes isolation seem worth it to those suffering from it. Without that critical "but what about-" mindset, I CANNOT connect to the story because it is inconsistent with the constant promise of making the deal of The Monster versus Friendship, but in reality, you get the Monster regardless- it is just whether you give up your friends for no gain! I'd expect the monster to dilapidate with lack of progress as you go with friends more, or to maybe come out wrong through lack of love, or be damaged through your unhealthy mind when you're isolated, something! But it always comes out perfect, and always at the exact same time. And even if you do decide to connect to them and make all the time in the world for your friends, it doesn't matter if you decide to finish what you care about bringing into the world, because that's our "bad ending." And I do mean ending, singular, because your relation with others defines *nothing* about your relation with the monster, as far as I can tell. The rest of the endings in which you abandon the monster are subtly distinct, but its *very* subtle, to the point it feels lackluster. The themes are decent if you play the game once, but that makes for a good short story- not a visual novel intended to be replayed with new choices. As soon as you play again, you start to see how little your choices impact the end result, and overall story. Maybe there's something to a metaphorical monster of the self through self-isolation that was meant to be given more gravitas than the literal monster, but there's almost no depth to that side of the novel, made even worse via the fact that the ending is basically the same regardless of your choices. Additionally, regarding the setting, it seems to be very uncertain in whether it is a fantastical world or a mundane one with subtle supernatural elements that you are delving into- dedication to either or a better understanding of where it lies between would make the theme of what 'making a monster' means in this context a lot clearer. If this were a free game, I'd see it more as more of a creative exercise, the studio sharing a more personal expression of the feelings at least some of the team had gone through. Given that it isn't, I see it more as a literary project with a fairly weak theme, setting, and weak character development, not to mention that, to me, it fails on the initial hook of the fantasy of "building a monster." Would love to see the game expanded on or redone with a bit more solid planning before hand. As is, it feels very insubstantial in its content I won't complain about the amount of content, though. It's short and sweet, which is perfectly fine if the content is meaningful and well-thought out. If you have similar complaints, I'd suggest Choice of Robots. Text-based choose-your-own-adventure about creating a robot and trying to figure out your relation with it, while going much more in depth in how and why you're making it, with many of the themes you'd hope for in regards to what it means to have passion (or obsession) in a project, though it doesn't go into the topics of grief and isolation this game does. If that's what you're looking for, I sadly don't have a suggestion. I look forwards to see what the studio does next, hopefully with a more solid foundation for their next game, because this game, sadly, would have done wonders with such.

I played the prologue for this some months ago, and I couldn't be happier with the full game!! The art is immaculate and the writing is delightful! I felt the emotions in this game very deeply. Between the art and the writing, the vibes could not have been conveyed better. The friends are so fun and caring! I loved learning about them. I can see myself coming back to this when I need a cry or something comforting. Highly recommend!!!

As others have said, it's very pretty. But as visual novels go, this is terrible. The moral of the story seems to be that the only way to be happy, recover, or enjoy life is to say yes to everything others want you to do and process grief in the way they expect you to do it. Anything else is unsatisfactory and will lead to a guilt trip or lifelong suffering. Ultimately, this left me feeling revolted, and the "monster" had nothing to do with it.

It is an EXTREMELEY short game. Completed in 29 minutes. There is a certain degree of replayability, different narrative to explore. I cried while experiencing this. I'm not entirely sure it actually helped me get over the death of a loved one, since the game have allowed me to cope with the most unhealthy way possible. I'm not sure what the take away is, or if there's a lesson at all. But I felt slightly better after finishing my run. I didn't mind spending $9 CAD on this for only half an hour, it was an experience.

If I could leave a neutral review, I would. It's a nice game, but kinda short for what it is. In many ways Making a Monster has a Missed Messages-like vibe, but that game held a bit more intrigue through how it delivered information to the player. Missed Messages worked as a short story explicitly because of its twist. Because this game doesn't pack a snappy message into its relatively limited playtime, it probably would've worked better as a longer, more exploratory story to improve the justification of its thesis statement. This isn't to say its a *bad* VN, but its messaging doesn't really represent its format to the highest level. Even this in itself isn't necessarily something I'd expect or want for every visual novel, but the subject matter it broaches (grief and loss) can be a trap in its own right, because of how it (understandably) raises expectations.