My Municipality
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Content note: this visual novel includes suggestive language and images
In 2006, the city of Helsinki sought to expand its area by annexing parts of surrounding municipalities – in particular the rural Sipoo, located east – to address increasing demand for low-density housing.
This is that story.
- Relive the horrors of Frutiger Aero with a period-appropriate user interface containing what is frankly a tasteless amount of gradients
- Learn fascinating lore about an intricately constructed world (real life)
- Available to play in Finnish and English
From the twisted mind of purkka (THE OTHER ISLAND) comes an animal tale of local politics that finally dares to ask: what if love was stronger than the Municipal Regions Act... and what if it was not?
A submission to MAY WOLF 2024, a game jam organized by WagleUnagi with sprites drawn by Ron, Choky, and Sikyu. Estimated reading time: about 30 minutes.
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Development log
- Initial release17 days ago
Comments
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Ok I have just finished reading this visual novel. Here are my thoughts.
First of all, this is one of the most creative applications of the theme, which doesn't mean it's difficult to get at all. In fact, the game makes itself very clear about what they were doing with the expansion topic.
I can't deny how this feels like a countryhumans story, but turned into a furry visual novel. Each character represent a city and the relationship between municipalities is depicted in the relationships of the municipality-person characters. This makes an otherwise perhaps hard topic to understand into very learner-friendly content, a truly educational furry visual novel (one of the only ones I have read, if not the only one).
About presentation, I must admit that everything fits well with the story. The frutiger aero aesthetics make a lot of sense considering the fact the events of the vn happened in 2006. Music harmonizes well with the visuals, creating a Wii start screen-like atmosphere.
All in all, I'd say this is one of the highest quality entries this jam has to offer.
Edit: How could not mention the references! All the references to Finnish culture. Even Salkkarit is referenced in the game!
Firstly, I wanted to say that the production values are absolutely through the roof. The backgrounds, animations, GUI, music selections, and citations are all masterfully done. The narrative voice is unique, with countless clever lines coming out of nowhere. You obviously follow the theme of expansion in a dedicated and creative way, and the Hetalia-style personification was very cool. This is an extremely well-polished VN, and I understand you put a tremendous amount of work into this project.
However, I must say that it is a very hard read. As an ignorant American, I was immediately put off by the influx of territories, dates, quotes, and people. It's difficult to follow the historical events, and I ended up getting lost in the sea of information to the point where I could only focus on the cast of the 'irl' scenes of the main three.
Of course, their banter and complicated relationships across the various 'dates' were really fun prose, and I found myself laughing at the absurdity of it all multiple times. Perhaps the target audience is meant to be people from Finland, but I was glad to be educated on an important historical event that I previously knew nothing about in such a clever way.
hey, thanks for reading & leaving feedback!
i'm not particularly surprised to hear the game reads as difficult to follow. besides not really contextualizing everything related to the depicted historical events to a satisfactory degree, there are lot of one-off cultural jokes that could be explained explicitly – although, imo, "here's why this is funny" rarely produces good comedy. ultimately, i decided to prioritize keeping the piece as short and fast-paced as possible while not skipping over what i felt like were the most important bits related to what it had to say.
there's also an argument for the density of information as a literary effect – that something like this is ultimately more about the cumulative weight of the reader being assaulted with so many names, concepts, and voices. this aspect is ofc way more pronounced if you're reading the translation, but i think the original-language reading experience also flirts with it in places.
anyway, i wouldn't resist calling the game niche in its subject matter and dense in the execution to a reader-hostile degree. i really just thought of the jam as an opportunity to make something aggressively specific and "uncommercial", and am happy to see readers get whatever they can out of it!
Interesting premise.