A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Journey through an introspective, fantasy-filled land and unlock the secret encrypted on your phone before the world crumbles around you in this narrative adventure about closeness and distance.

This free demo contains the first hour of gameplay. If you enjoy it, please consider wishlisting the full game on Steam!

✨ Chat up the local Tanuki, learn how to translate Slimespeak, and explore every corner of your quaint home town until you've found all 60 collectibles. The game features non-linear, collectathon-style exploration mixed with RPG-style story quests.

✨ Dodge bullets! With 4+ bullet hell boss battles and a handful of challenge rooms, you'll have to learn how to platform in a whole new way.

✨ Experience a heartfelt story with a 100,000+ word count. Comedy! Drama! Social anxiety! Philosophy? We dropped the "silent protagonist" trope to create a heroine with her own personality and feelings — and she's always one step ahead of you.

✨ Work through old-school puzzles that will make you want to use the in-game hints. We aim to create a sense of wonder and adventure inspired by FezMajora's MaskLa Mulana, and much more.

Clara wakes up to a phone that isn't hers.

On it, she finds a perplexing message left by a hacker named the Gòd o͏f̴ B̴in͠a̸r̨y̧, who states that her time left in this world is short. Her only clue is a series of encrypted messages locked on the device — and a mysterious new friend who woke up to a phone that wasn't his.

What does this enigmatic hacker want? Why is he talking about the end of the world? And what does any of this have to do with Clara's quaint and peaceful life in Haven Heights?

All we know for sure is that if she doesn't embark on this quest... her friends will drag her into it anyway.

Are you ready to solve the mystery of the Ġ̸̱ŏ̵̲d̶̺̔ ̴̺́o̵̮̚f̴̹̆ ̷͍͝B̵̦̐i̶̤̾n̷̳̿a̵̘̓r̷͎͐y̴̛̜ and uncover the truth of this strange but comfy world?

Well... it doesn't really matter, does it?

There's no running from the truth — whether you're ready or not.

Follow us!

Love the game? Or hate it? Feel free to leave a comment — all feedback is helpful!

If you'd like to keep an eye on the game's development and/or receive a ping when it's finally launched, please give us a follow!

🎮 Discord: discord.gg/n6GQhXy
⭐ Steam: steam.pm/app/1164460/
⏯ YouTube: youtube.com/@scarlet_string
📧 Email: mailchi.mp/2edf102a8670/monospaced-lovers

Credits

Code and Story: eternal (@_eternal)
Art: sphenops (@sphenop_s)
Music: Michi (@ChillMichi)
Sound: effoharkay (@effoharkay)
VFX Animation: Xenophoss (@Xenophoss)


Minimum Specs

OS: Windows 7 or higher
Processor: 2GHz CPU
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Dedicated GPU
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 3 GB available space 

Recommended Specs

Memory: 6 GB RAM 
Graphics: >2GB VRAM 
Additional Notes: Game can run up to 2160p 145 FPS.

Download

Download
monospaced-lovers-demo-win.zip 1.4 GB
Version 2.9.6.0 83 days ago
Download
monospaced-lovers-demo-mac.zip 1.4 GB
Version 2.9.6.0 83 days ago
Download
monospaced-lovers-demo-linux.zip 1.4 GB
Version 2.9.6.0 83 days ago

Development log

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Comments

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(+1)

Any plans to release the full game on Itch.io?

(+1)

Yeah, I suppose so! The old project page is still available here: https://scarletstring.itch.io/monospaced-lovers

There are no public builds right now, but I might as well ship the full game to itch alongside other storefronts.

Great! Looking forward to release.

i play on mac and when i download this it does not let me open it how do i fix that

It might be related to this problem: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/408752/the-message-you-do-not-have-per...

By default, I think there's a security setting on macOS that prevents you from running programs downloaded from the internet, and you have to do a workaround like the one described in the link above.

That said, I think the warning won't show up on the Steam version, because it's distributed through Steam rather than as a standalone zip file. You can try that and see if it works.

HI there, would you like me to translate your game into Esperanto for free? I'm just looking to help the Esperanto community out by getting some more games into the language.

(+1)

Hey,

Sure, I wouldn't mind. The full game is pretty long (around 100,000 words), and the demo is also pretty long, so it might take a while. The translation files aren't 100% ready yet, but you can join our Discord and DM me (eternal) if you want to talk.

Awesome thank you! I would love to when they are ready.

(-2)

celeste but not celeste

Where is the cave? because i've been searching for 10 minutes and still can't find it? or am i maybe just blind

btw game looks really good!

Thanks! The entrance is over to the right on your way to the Bloodthirsty Slime, right after those two tall structures. I might rephrase the hint so that it points you in the correct direction (i.e. right and not left).

(2 edits)

ohh umm excuse me how do u intract with npcs in this game? (i mean what u click on ur keyboard ofc) thanks!!          (。﹏。*)

You can interact by pressing the "up" arrow - same as entering/exiting your house.

(+1)

ohh gotit thanks!!

the mac version seems to have a glitched out background, is that part of the game?

Hm, probably not. Can you upload a screenshot?

(+1)(-1)

Thanks. You're right, something is definitely wrong! I'll see what testing I can do on my end. I don't own a Mac, but I might be able to ask someone to check.

What's the model name/number of your computer? Or how much RAM and VRAM does it have?

its a 2018 macbook air with 8gb of ram with  Intel UHD Graphics 617 1536 MB

(+1)

Got it, thanks. I'll let you know if I figure out what's going on.

Late reply, but I finally got a Macbook to test on. I'm pretty sure the problem you experienced was just due to that particular build being corrupted. It should work correctly now (2.1.2). There were other graphical issues that have been fixed as well.

Keep in mind, the game might run slowly on the Intel UHD Graphics series and/or an i5 CPU. It works for me on a 2014 (?) Macbook Pro with an i7 and Intel Iris series integrated graphics. Either way, you can try it and see how it runs.

(+1)

Incredibly beautiful and lovely. Absolute stellar.

Wish we could claim the demo, it's just a demo on i don't see a reason why we can't. Can't d/l now since I'm on my phone and by the time I'm able to access a pc, I'll most likely have forgotten about this

Sorry, what do you mean by claim? You can hit the follow button to recieve a ping next time we push an update, so that's good for reminders - I think it's on the bottom of the page on mobile.

(+1)

OwO cant wait

Gensokyo?

(+1)

The town is probably as lush as Gensokyo!

(+1)

This game is beautiful!! It was running my laptop pretty hot to play, though. Also had some frame dips during play. Other than that, though, looks like a promising demo!

Thanks for checking it out! The current update (2.0.9) features some performance improvements, so that will help with the frame dips.

Do you have a list with recommended and minimum specs to play?

(+1)

Ayo, so I downloaded your linux version and 1) the framerate drops like a brick and 2) are these supposed to be character talksprites?



Output of lscpu:

Architecture:            x86_64   CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit   Address sizes:         39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual   Byte Order:            Little Endian CPU(s):                  8   On-line CPU(s) list:   0-7 Vendor ID:               GenuineIntel   Model name:            Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8265U CPU @ 1.60GHz     CPU family:          6     Model:               142     Thread(s) per core:  2     Core(s) per socket:  4     Socket(s):           1     Stepping:            12     CPU(s) scaling MHz:  46%     CPU max MHz:         3900.0000     CPU min MHz:         400.0000     BogoMIPS:            3601.00     Flags:               fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc                           art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pci                          d sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb invpcid_single ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp ib                          rs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xs                          avec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp md_clear flush_l1d arch_capabilities Virtualization features:    Virtualization:        VT-x Caches (sum of all):        L1d:                   128 KiB (4 instances)   L1i:                   128 KiB (4 instances)   L2:                    1 MiB (4 instances)   L3:                    6 MiB (1 instance) NUMA:                       NUMA node(s):          1   NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0-7 Vulnerabilities:            Itlb multihit:         KVM: Mitigation: VMX disabled   L1tf:                  Not affected   Mds:                   Not affected   Meltdown:              Not affected   Spec store bypass:     Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp   Spectre v1:            Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization   Spectre v2:            Vulnerable: eIBRS with unprivileged eBPF   Srbds:                 Mitigation; TSX disabled   Tsx async abort:       Not affected

Hey, thanks for the comment. I saw your message on Discord & followed up, so we can troubleshoot there.

There definitely should be talk sprites; I'm surprised the game was able to boot up without the sprites loading fully, so I'll have to look into that.