A lot could change in a month.

But nothing changed between the two of them.

For best experience, play with the game in full fullscreen and wear headphones.

Bat and Bear: College Days is a queer furry visual novel that I've been solo devving since (I think) late 2021 / early 2022 with a heavy emphasis on perspective, trauma, and healing.
It follows the lives of the titular characters, Bat and Bear, before the two of them fell in love, back when they were nothing more than two college students sharing a dorm room. Bat; a nihilistic, dysphoric, and cynical fashion major with a sour attitude, and Bear; an anxious perfectionist of a music major with a need to prove himself. It shows them as they navigate their lives - survive their own traumas and learn how to keep on going even when it feels hopeless.

I've been working on BB:CD on and off for well over a year; I do pretty much everything asides from composing the music and making the sound effects, both of which I source from free-to-use public audio sites. I designed and illustrated everything, from the GUI, to the backgrounds, to the font, to the characters, I animated all of the individual parts for the characters' layeredimage sprites. I write everything myself. It's truly a passion project of mine. As of writing this (March 24th, 2023) it is not finished - but I am making slow and steady progress on it when I can.

BB:CD is a prequel to my first ever public visual novel Bat and Bear, and unlike its predecessor, its very heavy and pretty explicitly discusses alcoholism, mental health, trauma, abuse, and queerphobia and makes it hard to ignore. It's a hard read. But, it's also a love letter to Bat and Bear as well as to those suffering. It's hard because it takes from the shittiest parts of reality - some of legitimate traumas that haunt real people - that haunt me, but it softens itself as also takes from those small moments that makes me cherish humanity and encourages me to love and hopefully would do the same for others.

It's something I am insanely proud of! I'm proud of myself for making it this far with it! I'm proud of myself for learning how to make something like it! I'm proud of being a queer voice - I'm proud of taking up space!