I am Dog(s)
[15 minute read]
Imagine one day that you suddenly have a realization that changes how you perceive yourself. That it retroactively contextualizes your past, and makes you utterly change how you see yourself.
That realization is, that you are a dog.
I am Dog(s) is a semi-autobiographical narrative about a freshly cracked trans woman struggling with multiple discoveries she makes about herself one right after another.
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This game was inspired by LOVE, STARGIRL's Ramiel
Development log
- Version 1.1!Sep 10, 2021
Comments
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Thanks sharing your semi-autobio story with us! Hope you're doing fine and still happy walking in parks and talking to open-minded people! Have a nice day :)
I had a very very very similar experience with all the same things...
I am a transguy and *we* are plural!! yes, a system...
we didn't know it then, literally when Will (another constant fronter, like Gold, who protects) saved us (kind of)
I am also a therian (Will is otherkin) we don't date, just good friends and system buddies (though we have a tonnnnn more alters) we found out after seeing a lot of therians and our therian friend explaining it to us and me feeling phantom ears and tail!! We have a few different theriotypes but none of our other alters are therians
we loved this game-- actually got us talking to some other systems about it! :3
(if anyone wants a safe space for therians, otherkin, and systems [this includes people who want to learn or think they are] add sticky_n0te on discord and I'll send you the link [the server is uncompleted and stuff a work in-progress but we want to start a community already!!]
- the abditory system (Felix - host)
this story taught me about plurality and now im questioning if im plural- might look into it more
So uhm i read it and im now having a panic attack, i kinda like fluidly shift but also I weirdly feel plural but don't what the fawk
Fuck i cant figure out how to.turn.the.pages im stupid |edit:nvm lol
This is insanely good and a very interesting story. I'm nonbinary myself and im thinking if i might be plural, thanks for this story!
I logged in itch.io just to write this comment. It's absolutely a great read! I relate to this very as a transmasc who's also sharing a body with my wolf guy husband lol!!
this was beautiful, cannot stress enough how much we loved it
this was devastating in all the right ways, thank you for sharing
T_T So relatable. Was in tears after finishing. Great job Ξ£:3
Damnit, now I'm questioning things about myself again >w<
Considering the last time I had a reaction like this to someone's self discovery story it was a trans one, well uh, check me out in a year or two and I'll have probably figured out why I always found solice in the house's cat when I had to go to group things lol.
Also, fluid form therians are a thing? This whole time I thought you had to like, stick to one thing forever x3
Okay so update, apparently for some reason this identity trip was way easier than the trans one lol. Turns out, yeah, we're plural. Have at least one inhuman member too, she's unsurprisingly a cat. Though, either she's a shifter, or we have another one hiding away from the known group so far, 'cause we've had phantom sensations from petting the antlers on our deer stuffed animal too.
i foud out that i am an mexican wolf :D
This was lovely to read! I knew a tiny bit about therian identities beforehand but I learned a ton from this.
Otherkin are frickin cool :)
Thank you very much for creating this and sharing your journey!
very disrespectful to both trans people and people with a dissociative disorder. not good
usually when people dislike something they stop interacting with it. hope this helps!
luckily im built different
You should probably get that internalized ick worked on.
-a trans system
Not a system (at least to my knowledge), but as a trans person, no, I found this fun even.
Maybe next time don't project your biases onto a whole community <3
you should not be allowed to own animals
I'm a therianthrope and I want you to know how beautiful this was to me. Thank you for making this <3
Love it!
this is so cool!!! and very relatable, even though our only similarities seem to be being trans and otherkin :) thank you for sharing your story!!!!!!
this was…unforgettable and deeply relatable. thank you for making us tear up. thank you for creating and sharing this.
itβs genuinely so beautiful to consume media that mentions otherness. π
we're sobbing at this, wonderful work <3
stunning and brave
This was a good read
And quite a complex Twine, from a technical perspective, so kudos for that
Are these discord convos copied and pasted from actual servers? Because if not, it's written super well, down to details like the plural bot.
The conversations were all original words! The closest to being copied were that some characters were inspired by friends, though mashed together and remixed until they were new characters. ^-^
Our journey into plurality is very new and very frightening. We really, really enjoyed reading this. It felt like our thoughts were finally put to words, and the feeling of elation from reading your experience was palpable. It's been so scary being plural and trans and queer in a world that so badly wants to be exclusionary for the sake of it...
Thank you for this. Thank you so, so much. π
I know this ain't the usual comment you will see here but is there a link to a discord server similar to the one presented in the game?
After playing it something struck a cord and after a tiny mental breakdown and then some thinking, I think I might be in a similar predicament to the player character. By that I mean the whole gender/Identity crisis thing and worried that I'm not the only person in my head, but definitely not the whole "Am I a dog?" thing.
Other than that, it was an excellent game and I very much enjoyed it.
hi yes! I know of a few actually! You can either DM us on twitter @SoftAnnaLee or SoftAnnaLee#2112 on Discord and weβll grab some links! π
Sent a discord friend request. Hopefully we can talk soon
hi! Iβm also interested in learning more about plurality. Itβs kind of a new concept to me, but I want to understand it better. I sent you a friend request as well, I hope thatβs ok!
The story is very interesting, but the twine keeps crashing when I try to select words partway through.
as a plural system with trans femme members who are dogs, this made us so so happy to read :) thank you both so much for making this!
really lovely story, and like a previous comment mentioned- the advancement mechanics & various ways to interact with the game are super cool! also as a greenland dog therian who's part of a system, i gotta say- bark bark bark bark! yip yip :)
One of the best-crafted Twine games I've ever played. You've done some terrific things with the program here. The visuals are great, the advancement mechanics themselves - like a text button changing when you click it to show the narrator's uncertainty about something - are clever and actively add to the story, and in general it's just really visually dynamic and enjoyable to navigate. The Discord sections were the stand-outs to me: I didn't even know you could do that in Twine! I'm not super familiar with the topic of therianism(sp?) beyond vague internet osmosis so I can't speak to that, but it was an engaging and unique narrative even as a layperson.
lovely and relatable story, I really liked all the small little details. thank you!
We needed this in our lives. Many thanks
i (we) don't usually comment on itchio stuff but
this was amazing and beautiful and made us hella cry :)))
great work puppy comrade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I loved this story thank you so much for posting it I literally made happy noises at times while reading it and by the end I cried a few happy tears π I am not a therian but I felt some phantom things in the past, so I may be otherkin tough, not really sure... I am really happy that I could read this tough and I loved the game!
Just keep on doing what you guys want to in your life and enjoy your freedom :D
Have a nice day ^^
Always love a good self-discovery story
hi, a friend linked us here and I was wondering how you made such a good interactive story? we think it'd be really cool to make one ourself but idk how to~
Hi! We used Twine to build and write this story! Specifically the Harlowe story format, which made it pretty easy to do most of the effects we used!
We also did some tweaking of visual elements with CSS (e.g. Discord conversation styling, background images, font changes) but you can make a good interactive story with Twine and Harlow very easily!
oh thank you then!
Hi guys, my blind friends really want to read this but say they can't find the choices to click for the next page after the first. Do you have a screen-reader accessible version for them? They'd love this!
Hey there, fellow blind person here! Tell your friends to just press enter on the last visible line to get new ones. The scrolling is a little slow sometimes (just one sentence at a time), but it does work with a little patience! At least over here, with NVDA and both Firefox and Brave.
An excellent exploration of several topics, one of which I've never heard of before but now has me wondering if I'm a therian.
Oh gosh! Well of you need somebody to talk to my twitter is listed in my profile! π
I'd love to, I'm just nervous about typing public comments. I worry about saying something wrong, like not phrasing it right and accidentally upsetting someone. Especially since I don't fully understand what being a therian means, but I really identified with those phantom feelings.
Phantom feelings were the big thing we noticed that made us wonder if we were nonhuman! I feel like it's a cool experience to be in touch with them - none of us have felt that much lately
I hope you can figure stuff out and work from there!