Good Lord! Everyone at the Reunion For My Religious All-Girls School Is a Trans Man... And They're Hot?!
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
It's been 10 years since you graduated from a private Christian all-girls high school, and you decided to head to the unofficial reunion hosted by your old bestie. It's a weekend retreat at a fancy vineyard you photograph happy couples at all the time, but when you get there...
You're the only cis woman who was invited?!
And everyone you went to school with is a hot guy now??
~~~
Good Lord! Everyone at the Reunion For My Religious All-Girls School Is a Trans Man... And They're Hot?! (or Trans Masc Reunion for short) is a romantic comedy otome game featuring a cast of all trans masculine love interests. Catch up with your old graduating class and maybe learn a thing or two about yourself in a hilarious weekend romp at a posh vineyard. What could possibly go wrong?
Features
- 3 Trans Masc Love Interests
- All Happy Endings!
- Original OST
- Original Character Art
- Playable Wordcount: 30k+
- Goose.
Your Love Interests
Elias delos Santos the Party Host
Pronouns: he/him
Ethnicity: Filipino American
Occupation: Wedding & Events Coordinator
Your high school bestie, a social media hound, and just about the only person you kept in touch with from high school all these years. He came out to you 9 years ago and has been the singular queer person you personally know (or at least, that's what you thought). You're not sure if you've ever met anyone as simultaneously chill and stressed out as Elias is, but hopefully he can relax this weekend.
Angel Devin the Withdrawn Metalhead
Pronouns: xe/xem/xir, he/him
Ethnicity: African American
Occupation: Farming Co-Op Organizer
Voted "Most Likely To Be Possessed By Demons" by the class, Angel used to be the weird outcast whose metal music you could hear from xir earbuds while passing by. Xe has a tendency to wander away from large crowds, but you attribute that to xem being more shy than misanthropic. Honestly, what concerns you more is the fact that no one seems bothered by Angel going off by xir lonesome.
Liam Goodwin aka LuciferSatan69420
Pronouns: he/him
Ethnicity: Caucasian American
Occupation: Social Media Influencer
A former Christian cheerleader who preached and practiced "Modest is Hottest." In the last two years however he’s made a full 180° to “All Skin, All Sin.” He takes immense pride in the video series that turned him into a star, “ASMR I’m Your Mean Boyfriend.” Will you finally have the chance to get some revenge on Liam this weekend?
~~~
Originally developed for Otome Jam 2024 and Trans Rep Jam 2024.
Programmed in Godot.
Team
Writer (Elias Route) - Avior (he/him)
Writer (Angel Route) - BáiYù (he/they)
Writer (Liam Route) - Shamus Kelley (he/him)
Editor - Spookybot (he/him)
Art - Stem (they/them)
Composer - Kris Kirk (he/him)
Logo Designer - Kyla Aiko (she/they)
Tools Programmer - Pawlik (any)
Lead Programmer - Runa Liore (she/her)
Sensitivity Consultant - Els White (he/him)
Sensitivity Consultant - laceyspaceycasey (she/they)
Director and Producer - WhatNames (all)
~~~
Good Lord! Is currently in version 1.03. Here are some of the known bugs and features we're working on right now, and check back soon for more updates!
- All routes are now available!
- All features, including auto-read, skipping, saving & loading, and Additional Goose Immersive Technology (improved honks) implemented
- Work through the baggage of your religious upbringing! Question your gender and sexuality! Learn about local flora and fauna! And snap a ton of high quality photos!
Please consider leaving a 5-star review to boost visibility~
There are a small number of known bugs in the current version and we're actively working on fixing them. If you spot a bug that isn't on the list below, let us know and we'll address it as soon as we can!
Known Bugs in v 1.04:
- Loading your game from within the Vineyard Montage sequence (prior to the tasting event) may cause the textbox and some UI elements to disappear. Reloading your game again will fix this issue.
Thank you for playing!
Download
Development log
- Elias is out, proud, and celebrating our Full Release!Aug 09, 2024
- Angel Route is OUT!Jul 31, 2024
- This One's About The ArtJul 30, 2024
- Biblically Accurate Love Interests Who Are Shaped Like A FriendJul 21, 2024
- Kickflip My Heart! How Writing For a Visual Novel Let My Creativity Soar to New...Jul 15, 2024
- Anatomy of a Game Jam Dating SimJul 08, 2024
- Demo Bugfixes, More Liam, and more Updates!Jul 01, 2024
Comments
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loved it!!! this game is everything....do you plan to add more languages? i'm a Spanish localiser and it would be a pleasure to translate it!
We have something very cool in the works on this exact line! I really really appreciate you reaching out <3 (and will let you know if we need more hands...)
Hi, I'm so curious to play this, but after downloading and opening the game, it just gives a black screen with bird sounds...anyone else have this issue?
very strange! i don't remember seeing any reports of this before. what system are you playing on?
I'm on a PC (x64-based), and here's some copypaste system info:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz, 2712 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Hope that helps? Maybe if others aren't experiencing this, I just need to clear the cache or something...
Hi kittyrancher! I'm looking into this now and it looks like there's an issue preventing the opening animation that reveals the main menu from playing. The game is still running, but for some reason the screen never gets revealed so you never see the main menu. If uninstalling and reinstalling the game + rebooting your computer doesn't help, this may need a small patch to resolve - I'm still hunting down the exact bug that could be causing this and just wanted to let you know that we're still working to get this resolved!
Please let us know if you have any luck and we'll let you know as soon as we get a quickfix patch ready!
playing to get liam's route, with my first impression of him i was like "he ain't one of the creatures god made" and full on despised him but as i got to that part of his route i am positively losing it. him and irene's dynamic and backstory is insane upon closer look--- shamus kelley it appears i owe you an apology i wasn't familiar with your game
(This review contains spoilers!)
Had a ton of fun with this, as an ex-Christian who turned out to be a transgender of sorts, myself!!
I found myself relating a LOT to Angel, and I joked with my friends multiple times that it's because xir autistic like I am. So, of course, I lost my MIND with the reveal that xe actually is, lol. Not just that, but demiromantic, just like me!! We share the exact same thoughts on dating in general -- "how can you like me? we just met?? you people are so weird???" I've even pulled the "weaponizing my airheadedness to pretend I didn't understand what someone meant when they said they 'liked' me" move, lmao. These traits of mine, when shown in a character in a dating sim, are usually relegated to the non-datable NPC who's there for comic relief; the freakshow whose purpose is to be laughed at. To have them instead portrayed honestly, and as something that could even be desirable, made my heart grow three sizes this night~!
I also saw my younger self a LOT in Liam. Kudos to the writers -- you truly captured the Complete And Utter Behaviors only present in a repressed good-girl Christian turned alt trans queer. His final monologue in the honeymoon suite also very much got me In My Religious Trauma Feelings... Mourning that you used to be everything that your family and community wanted you to be, but you can't be that anymore if you want to be happy. So, seeking that validation in other places instead (ESPECIALLY online)... Woof
And, of course, Elias' plight of feeling like he has to prove he's still just as good at his job, and becoming a workaholic because of it, was ALSO a topic that hit home. Ough. I also really appreciated the representation for bigger boys!! Plus-size romance options are still shockingly rare in the dating sim space, so I do love to see it. Plus, the reveal in this route that Irene is, herself, potentially an egg had me HOLLERING. "Gender is confusing, and also I just wanna dress up in nice clothing, and men's fashion is so SAD" Girl. I fucking get it.
I generally appreciate Irene's internal monologues. The "religious girl who is Doing Her Best while in a crowd of queers" vibe are sooo palpable.
It feels like the topics covered in this game are things that are very close to the hearts of the team! From religion to queerness to the issue each character faces to even photography -- there were a few lines from Irene about her cameras that made me perk up, because it was something I'd never heard of before. Thank you for making this game! I had a blast.
thank you so much for this deeply kind review! i am glad to hear it resonated with you on so many different levels <3 <3
Why does Liam looks like the kid from Iron Giant?
this is the funniest roast omg
this silly game better heal me (joking but maybe not. all this to say I'm excited to give this game a shot! I already have my eyes set on Liam and Angel)
Hi! Neither Windows or Linux have worked for me, what can I do?
Oh no! Can you describe what's happening? We haven't had reports of this before so whatever details you can provide will help us troubleshoot.
Goose, a peak character design, such masterpiece, deserve everything in the best
What a twist knowing your girl friends turn to boy friends
I haven't downloaded this game yet but I fully intend to! I just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you for making this at all. It's so hard to find trans masculine representation in dating sims, much less an entire game focused on them like this. I think this is the first game of it's kind that I've seen. It makes me so happy and I hope that this can start a trend of more trans masc representation in games. I actually teared up when I saw this game recommended to me.
I haven't seen a character like Angel represented positively/ romantically in media hardly ever. I found myself relating so much to xir personality, feelings, and reactions and it made me a bit emotional to see xir traits and behaviours accepted and valued, as I've gotten to used to them being things that (if i don't mask them enough,) many people view as decreasing my 'value' as a person, and not as things someone could actually appreciate and respect. :') thank u
Hi there, I'm the writer for Angel's route and I'm so happy you connected with xem! This truly makes me feel fulfilled as a game developer and writer. Making sure that Angel came across authentically was one of my key priorities while writing so I made sure to consult with folks with similar/adjacent lived experiences, and I'm glad it was worth it to let you feel seen.
Thank you so much for playing ♡
as a demiboy i can't say i enjoyed this. if you're female and get flustered around a transman, that's not a "gay panic", because it's not gay. idk it made me really uncomfortable and for me personally if i met irene irl i would run the other direction in disgust yk
are there pronoun options for the player?
Hi! There are no pronoun options, as the main character is a specific character rather than a self-insert. I wrote a bit more about that here: https://itch.io/post/10240453 (as well as gave alt recommendations if you'd like to check those out!)
hii I’m back I finished drawing my Liam fanart!! ^^ https://www.instagram.com/p/DAGWpRoRLVr/?igsh=MWZ4bGJkcTJiMHQ5cw==
So cute! So cute! So cute! Look at that lil fool we love himmmm
thank you! I love him too he was fun to draw :D
Liam + Skateboard = Flawless.
Thank you so much for this adorable fanart!
And you know, all fanart of Liam could actually exist in universe as fanart his followers draw of him.
Back again after reading everything so so much and I am still very very in love with Liam, but of course I also love Elias and Angel, I am quite happy and satisfied with all the endings (no spoilers, even if it's not 100% sticking to Otome genre, it's just so natural and well written that I love all endings)
I also drew Liam again, and his beta design as well, he's so handsome <333
I wanted to ask if there are full sprites of the characters anywhere, I would love to use them as ref material (and possibly for memes eheheh), honestly this game gave me a big burst of inspiration!!!!
Thanks so much for all the love!!! Your fanart is an absolute delight, the whole team's been going crazy for it! :D
To answer your question, no I never drew a full-bodied version of any of the boys. There are no canonical shoes 😔
I will second that this art delights everyone on the team SO MUCH. (And we can't wait to see your Angel and Elias!!!)
Since you've been eating up all the info you can about the game, I thought I'd share the playlist I've previously mentioned that helped shape Liam's story. As I messaged to the rest of the team early in the process,
"The first half is all the stuff he listens to now. The second half, starting with "Everything You Want" falls into the "before times" he listened to more before he transitioned. Warning, major Christian Youth Group vibes for some of the second half. "
Whenever I sat down to write for Liam, I'd listen to this playlist over and over. Even now, every time I hear the opening track, I can just FEEL Liam in my head. Plus you get some Oasis, whose main singer, as Stem wrote about previously, was the main visual reference for Liam I provided them with.
Thank you so much again for your amazing support of the game!
Damn, this game was so good. loved all the characters. Irene is sweet and moments where she's confused or going thorough a crisis was really fun to read. All the routes were wonderful. especially loved the dynamic between Elias and Irene. i love him. Loved how angel's route went, though it did feel a bit short idk, i wish i got know xem more i suppose, but the ending was sweet nonetheless. and i didn't expect liam to have a crush on irene from the yee old days of school, that was a pleasant surprise and i really enjoyed his route as well. i really enjoyed the humor of this game as well. someone in the comments described it as perfect for gays with religious trauma and that pretty much sums it up lol
i can definitely see myself replying it more in the future. thank you to everyone who worked on this game! <3
i can see why this story rubbed a lot of transmen the wrong way unfortunately..😣
Ah! Well thank you for checking it out anyway. It won't be for everyone, but I appreciate you taking the time to play it.
What a wonderful game! Speaking as a cishet girl with a trans masc partner, this otome was written spectacularly!
I relate so freaking much to Irene, her dense™ moments threw me back when I was still new and learning about the queer community, she's trying her best, very sweet personality too.
I was immediately drawn to Liam as he is literally my bf/hj, I now want to draw him so much, I wish I could have more of him, his route tugged both my heartstrings and my patience, especially loved the rivalry bits, the ending is absolutely sweet, can't stop thinking about him<3
The following days I'll be playing the other routes <3 now I'll go back gushing about all of them
This game was soo fun!! My sister and I played it together. It was a lot of fun doing voices for all the characters and making fun of them (mostly Liam of course. But also Irene for being generally ridiculous and Elias for being horribly gay millennial coded/pos. Angel is too chill to make fun of.) Liam is definitely my favorite! He was VERY entertaining with all his ridiculous antics but has a surprisingly deep character underneath his confident facade. I ended up getting a bit hyperfixated on him after playing his route lol. On that note, is there anywhere I can show y’all if make fanart of him?
Oh you are so sweet!! Feel free to post to your social media of choice (or here even??) and link it to us, and I promise we will all start yelling about it in our dev discord <3 <3
Alright!! I will probably post it to Instagram and link it then :)
Hello! I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for this wonderful comment. As the main writer of the Liam route AND someone who also gets hyper fixated on parts of media I love, this made my day.
If you want more info about our kickflipper, or any of the characters, I highly recommend checking out the various devlogs shared by members of the team (you should be able to find them above the comment section on the game page.) In particular the one titled "This One's About the Art" has the original concept drawing for Liam by our artist, Stem. As a fellow artist I'm sure what they have to share will be of interest!
Thank you again for playing and enjoying the game, it means the world.
I read those the other day! It was really cool seeing all the behind the scenes stuff! Thank you for telling me anyway though haha. Again, I really enjoyed Liam’s route so thank you for writing it! ^^
Is there/will there ever be a way to access this through Chromebook?
I honestly don't know what that would entail! Do Chromebook games need to come from Google's app store? We're investigating bringing this game to the play store, so that may work for you. We will look into it and report back if we can make it happen!
Also, your whole email is in your username! I wanted to flag that for privacy's sake, just in case you weren't aware ^^
Oh yeah. I didn't notice, but honestly i don't have much to hide.
Looking forward to seeing the game in the play store!
You can play this on chromebook through linux! The itch.io app comes with a linux file that you can download through your terminal that's how I play :)
That is SUPER useful to know, thank you!
Thank you!
i haven't finished my play through yet but irene is suuuch a funny character, love the dynamic btwn her and liam so far. this is a really funny and cute game!
edit: liam is hilarious but such an ass i ended up going for angel's route first lmaoo
edit 2: finished angel's route! i liked it :) it was very sweet. and elias' route, very much friends to lovers(?) silliness/cuteness. next up is liam's route!
edit 3: liam's route was really silly at first but the plot twist in the wedding suite!! omg
overall i had a lot of fun playing this game! :)
The game is so cute^.^ I got to the rain and my desktop turned off. I was freaking out so bad lol but then I see it's just a bug. anyways loving all the Love Interests^.^ I've been wanting to play more trans games.
Yay factors:
All hot LIs that I loved. Angel beloved <333333 and Liam's such a public menace I love it, as well as his route. The sprite dancing was a plus too LOL.
I learned some stuff about religious trauma and queerness, which is interesting since for me religion and queerness never really intersected when I was raised christian. I also don't really understand the deal with geese being portrayed as devilish, rabid animals Not to be Fucked with, lol.
Backgrounds were pretty
Cute little story
Nay factors:
MC has me with the 2nd hand embarrassment and how overly modest/christian she acts
I have the ick when it comes to egg culture, specifically when it's at pre-trans and cis ppl.
The rose petals on the textbox had me thinking Liam either had a TON of leg hickeys or just bad Leg Acne since the rise petals on the textbox sort of looked like it was part of his legs.
little disappointed the MC didnt actually sass Liam back at least in the start of his route. Are allo people... mentally affected by their sexual attraction too much to spew out some punch-back prose to roast someone with or is it just a MC in a Dating Sim thing?
Overall it was a nice thing, and I liked it. A chill game with a colourful cast of characters, 7/10. Not much immediate replayability but I quite liked it.
ououououo im certainly interested, and i wanna play the game but i have no time to play recently. bit sad there arent any transmasc options and i have a feeling i'll end up just writing fanfics abt it lol (cant stand she/her no offense, just bad dysphoria).
Genuine question here from someone who hasn't played yet (I might!), is there a genuine option to be a male (transmasc) in this? Or use he/him pronouns at any point? I'm a transmasculine, and I also have bad dysphoria when it comes to visual novels that exclusively use she/her for the player character. Especially the romance ones, since I am an mlm person who exclusively uses he/him (or they/them on occasion.) I will absolutely still play the game since I know you CAN question your identity, but I'm curious as to if/when you can choose to use he/him pronouns. And if you can, at what point? Early game? Mid-game? Near the end? I understand a point in this is discovery and such from reading comments, so I understand if it's more of a late game thing, I'd just like to know if you can at any point.
Hi hi! The main character does not end up having the option to use pronouns other than she/hers in the duration of the game. She questions her gender in one route, but doesn't reach a conclusion where she changes her pronouns. I'm also linking this comment from earlier for a more detailed answer: https://itch.io/post/10240453
Thanks for checking out the game! Even if you don't end up playing it, I'm glad you're here.
I understand. Thanks! I still might check the game out, because it seems super interesting and the LI's all seem great ^_^!
This game is so awesome. I'm a trans man, and I absolutely adore when there's good (or even mid) transmasc rep in anything, and this is good rep. Angel is so me, I love xem so much. I felt real emotions playing this game. 10/10 would recommend.
this game is a little hard to follow narratively, but its cute and i enjoyed it! :) as a nonbinary any pronouns are good person, it was nice to see some neo-pronouns! Angel is a sweetheart and I really gravitated to xem. :)
well im not a fan of how the mc keeps having "gay panic" when she is a woman and the love interests are men. but other than that i liked it. that part leaves a sour taste in my mouth though lol
Thank you for submitting this as an entry to the Trans Representation 2024 Game Jam! I appreciate every entry we get, even though I don’t usually have time to play all of them to 100% completion due to just life happening, nor do I usually comment since Hatoge is the main host and I just do the other tasks like server maintenance/community stuff. But I wanted to leave my own comment on this one.
I can tell a lot of work went into this game as a whole, and it is always great to see respectful exploration of different trans experiences. I also love to see trans games being made by trans people.
Growing up transgender in general is very messy, especially if you are not raised in an environment that is aware of trans people being an actual thing, add to that any kind of religious influence and it can take a lot of time to figure out who you actually are, and if it’s really okay to take up space as someone who happens to be trans. I know some of the depictions in this game might not be comfortable for some people, but the different stories and sides of being trans are pretty realistic to some actual experiences by real-life trans people. I think it’s important to remember (for other players, and people in general) that no singular trans person is a monolith for an entire community, and nor should they be, and that’s okay because the human experience is a diverse spectrum.
I hope to see more cool games made by trans people, if only for the reason that a young trans person sees it and realises that it’s okay to be themselves and that people like them do actually exist and can lead a long, happy and fulfilling life. I think if more games with trans characters/rep existed it wouldn’t have taken me so long to get on with my own life too (lol.)
Once again, thank you for the beautiful entry and I hope to see more wonderful games from everyone on the team :]
I love Angel actually
what pictures were we taking of liam 💀
I appreciate this game. My friend calls it humor perfect for “gays with religious trauma”, but even as someone who isn’t quite exactly that, I still really loved it as an admittedly former cis homophobic girl (the way i snorted when I heard that line bc goddamn the callout) and who has been learning to be more tolerant :insert heart made with hands emote: I will say tho, lmao, there’s a level of self-awareness needed to enjoy this game in its full glory and unfortunately a lot of people lack that :p
stopp the unapologetic transphobia in this was so bad ! all of my ftm friends said that they hate when straight girls say 'u make me question my sexuality' bcs its as if they don't see them as 'real' men, and in the Liam route lit half of the dialogue is Irene calling herself gay for liking him. Like, no. YOU ARE A WOMEN, HE IS A MAN. You liking him does not make you gay!!! Please stop pretending this is inclusive at all...
I don't know why this comment is so heavily downvoted. The misgendering feels very out of place in an otherwise trans-positive visual novel.
I'm not sure of the author's intents, but to me I thought Irene was meant to be taken as the stereotypical 'well meaning ally' type character that thought she was a great ally but still had a lot to learn and unlearn, and I saw it as poking fun at that.
just finished all 3 routes and it was awesome!! as a transmasc t4t this was very affirming to play, and I loved the asian and autistic rep :D the 3 routes had a nice variety too, so there's something for everyone! a great blend of platonic moments, heart-warming romantic moments, and super hot n steamy moments (Liam was def my fave route for that reason lol) will be thinking about this visual novel for a while <3
gay
feeling invigorated after just reading the title
looking forward to playing the game
hallelujah, i love men
omg i love men actually holy shit
Okay rushing from my run-through of the update to say that I literally GASPED at Elias’ updated design: Like I’ve never actually (?) gasped before as a reaction before so like that’s a new one... Oh my god (or Lord, I guess?). The swagger!!!! The style!! As a fellow transmasc Asian dude: You really nailed this. I’m like really impressed, damn!! Keep up the amazing work, for real!
ahh there's nothing better for transmasc rep than being in dorky but cute lil dating sims - beautiful <3
This was such a sweet and heartfelt game. As many of the other commenters said, it was really nice to have trans masc/NB representation that was sweet and affirming.
Love it. Looking forward to more. Y'all did great work!