“hey what exactly is sfm anyways?”
this is a question i’ve gotten a lot since i’ve spontaneously became a sfm blog. first of all, when i’m talking about sfm, i’m not talking about source film maker, i’m talking about smile for me!
“okay so what is smile for me. is it like a tv show? a youtube series? a dating game?”
smile for me is an indie point and click puzzle game with horror elements! using the unique mechanic of nodding and shaking your head to interact with npcs, you navigate a unique and heartwarming story that focuses on making people happy!
“so wait. heartwarming story and horror elements?”
not to compare smile for me to a game that literally everyone likes, but smile for me’s horror is on a pretty similar level as undertale’s. there are absolutely no jumpscares, but if you miss curfew at night a video plays that hints at there being a jumpscare that never comes. also i’ve been told that the talking bed can be surprising if you aren’t expecting it. a full trigger list will be included at the end, but in general smile for me’s horror elements are fairly mild and do not interfere with many of the fun and cute interactions you have with all of the characters.
“who is dr. habit please i’ve seen him everywhere.”
dr. habit is smile for me’s very own villain. if you’re worried about how obsessed the fandom is over the villain, please don’t be! he doesn’t do anything truly horrible and irredeemable and the good ending includes a very sincere and believable redemption arc. he’s really the best written character in the game and without giving out too many spoilers i promise that if you play through the game you will like him at least. you will probably love him.
gay people are very real in this game! it is not gaybait i promise! romance isn’t a very huge theme in the game, especially since you can only talk to one character at a time and they don’t really have conversations amongst themselves, but even going through the game without paying much attention to tiny details, you will find that many if the characters are Not Straight. there is also a canon nonbinary character! (not including the player character because unlike frisk undertale they are completely up to interpretation.) the one thing that you might’ve been told is canon but isn’t really is habit being trans, unfortunately. during one of the art streams after the game was released there was a lot of talk about it, but later on they clarified that it wasn’t hard canon, fans were just allowed to interpret the characters how they wanted in that sense. disappointing, but considering j.k. rowling exists i don’t really blame them.
“should i actually get into this?”
i am extremely biased, so yes! please please please look at this trigger list beforehand though. along with that, there are a lot of instances of flashing and eyestrain so please stay safe!
to get more of a taste of what the game is like, watch the official trailer here.
“alright you’ve convinced me! how do i get into this?”
it’s always good to support indie creators so i would highly discourage you from pirating the game, but if you’re low on money (i mean who isn’t), penny “snapcube” parker (the gal behind that sonic dub) has a wonderful playthrough here that goes through to the good ending, and there’s a commentary free playthrough here that goes through all three endings in the last episode.
please enjoy! this game means a lot to me and i really want to spread it to other people.
