#aurelim

[aurelim]

Master Post

As I have a lot of posts and am likely to add more, I figured I should create a master post for the entire blog.

Last updated: 5/16/25

DEMO 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 INTRO POST 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 FAQ 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 RO INFO

As the Ocean Lures is a 16+ interactive novel about being a Merfolk. Currently, the demo has the entirety of the prologue, chapter one, and chapter two, as well as a sneak peek into chapter three!

You can find discussions of the game in general under the following tags: #As the Ocean Lures, #atol, #atol ros, #atol ro info, #atol faq and #atol prompts

DEMO ★ INTRO POST ★ FAQ ★ CHARACTER INFO

ST4RDOM is a 17+ game about going on your first world tour with your k-pop group ST4RDOM. MC is genderlocked female. Currently, the demo has the entire prologue out.

DEMO ➤ INTRO POST ➤ FAQ ➤ TRAILER

Swapped is a 15+ game about swapping identities with a famous actor. Currently the outline is written, with the first and second episode already published as of 5/16/25!

You can find discussions of the game in general under the following tags: #swapped-if and #qna

GAME 🕸️ INTRO POST

Among the Haunted is a game created for Halloween 2023! A collaboration between Aurelia Lim and Alby Writes Fiction, the game is centered on you, a single parent, raising two kids while celebrating the spooky day your own way. The game is currently released, but may go through updates once the jams are finished!

Interactive fiction games you can expect to see in the future:

A Greek mythology IF about being a deity who has fallen out of grace with the gods. The only way they can redeem themselves is by collecting twelve items throughout Greece to prove themself worthy. Also, they have to do it all as a mortal. More updates coming soon.

A slice-of-life summer break about going to the seaside and discovering one's self. There will be six characters who will appear recurrently in the sleepy town of Seaside Point, all of whom the main character will have to leave once vacation is over. More updates soon.

A dark academia-inspired murder mystery about attending a boarding school with its secrets. There will be murder (of course) and three classmates who will assist the main character in solving the crimes. More updates soon.

A slice-of-life about letting go of a loved one when it hurts. It follows the main character and their significant other as they take one final journey across the country. Their loved one is dying and there is no cure. Experience heartache along the way, cherish the sweet moments, and perhaps learn to let go. More updates soon.

A mystery IF about discovering a message in a bottle leading to a time capsule from the Roaring '20s. With the assistance of friends, finding it will never be easier. More updates coming soon.

About Me

Asks: Feel free to ask me any questions about the games! Or if you just want to rant about the characters, that’s fine as well :)

Prompts: You can send prompts for any characters! My only rule is that there is no kinks or NSFW...for now. Speaking of...

NSFW: I hesitate on adding NSFW as I am unsure whether or not there will be explicit content. I just don’t know how to write it properly. If I have a change of heart I will update the warnings and announce it. But for now, I will keep it off-limits.

Submits: You can submit a post to this blog. If you do, I ask that it is not inappropriate!

Messages: You can submit a message to me if you think there should be x content in the game or ways to improve. Please no toxicity, however—I am a real human being after all. Please know that I will not be afraid to block and report you if it is inappropriate.

[aurelim]

Blog’s Anniversary!

I created this account late at night on September 6th and made the ATOL post on the same day, but I didn’t announce it on itch.io until the next day. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have an Tumblr account for updates since I barely go on social media anyway, but here I am a year later.

I want to do something special for this occasion, but I haven’t quite decided yet. I didn’t even post on August 30th, the day As the Ocean Lures was released 😅 life has made me too tired to even write some days…

I need more time to think of what to do as a celebratory gift, but thank you all so much for following this blog. Most people likely began to follow because of ATOL and are staying for it, but there are more because of Swapped and ST4RDOM.

This blog has even reached almost 950 followers, so we’re on the road for 1,000 already! I really have to come up with something once that happens.

Perhaps an update for ATOL will come sooner than you think? 👀

Anyways, thank you all so much for everything, and I will be eternally grateful for your support!

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Among the Haunted by aurelim and Alby

IFDB - Game

Summary: What will you do on the day of Halloween? Decorate your house? Play some pranks on poor trick-o-treaters with help from the ghosts within your walls? Attend to your children to make sure they do not tell anyone that your house is haunted? The choice is yours!

This was a collaboration project between two authors of different styles, where a cosy slice-of-life and horror mash up was attempted.

There are indeed some horror elements to this game, especially at the start and towards the end of the story, but I found them being muddled through the rest of the text, its gripping effect drowned in lengthy passages and passive interaction, diluting the tension and fast pace. By the end, the horror aspect resembled more a list of references weaved through the quirky slice-of-life concept.

Granted, mixing up genres, especially when they are so different, is pretty difficult. But I can't help but wonder how it would have looked like if the writing focused more on the slice-of-life or more on the horror rather than make both genre work on the same level. The concept of a single mom with two kids trying to survive Halloween is already a neat concept, adding the cookie haunted house they live in adds to the charm, but I fail to see how the murder clown would fit in there. On the other hand, if the horror aspect was taken further, the single mom having to deal with a haunted house on Halloween was already a solid plot!

I think more interactivity and player agency would have greatly helped the game in general. There are many instances in the game where you go through multiple lengthy passages, with only a click-to-continue link, pulling the reader through the story, rather than making it an active participant*. It is a bit of a shame, especially as the blurb sets expectations of choices with decorating the house, or going trick-or-treating, or pulling a prank... While you have some small choices, the bigger aspects happen without requiring the player. I would have loved to be able to** place particular decorations in specific places (which could affect the prank later on), or choosing a different costume to go trick-or-treating (rather than that one or nothing), or responding to passers-by/candy-givers during the trick-or-treat phase. The added agency for the player would have helped with the pace of the story (and potentially added to the horror aspect - oh, but what if I had chosen another path...) *even if the PC is supposed to have a set personality, many of the choices made for you could have been interactive. **most of those don't require more than an extra line or two of variation in the text.

One final gripe with the accessibility of the game itself: when the passage has an image for the background, the text is often very hard to read, even when a dark-ish overlay has been added. Either the dark overlay needs to be darker/less opaque, or the image should be less bright (a combination of both would be best).

One thing that I noticed however, was how the prose and style stayed consistent throughout the writing, even with the switch in tone and genre. This is pretty impressive considering the writers have quite different styles. This speaks volume about the synergy during the creating process.

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Philia by aurelim

An Anti-Romance Jam entry.

Entry - IFDB - More by aurelim Note: the author mentioned the characters would be part of an upcoming IF piece. This was also their first game.

Love is the hurt we gave each other along the way Told from the perspective of Terri, a love-inexperienced student, this kinetic entry tells the story of two dormmate hitting off after meeting, moving into a relationship, before breaking things off when unsaid truths were kept silent. And learned lessons along the way. This entry is what you'd expect from a slice-of-life story, considering the theme of the jam. It is sweet and at times a bit corny (in a good way). Kind of heartbreaking, leaving a bittersweet after taste, overall. That said, the prose didn't do much for me. While it had some heart, I found it a bit too meandering to keep me focused, dragging some scenes longer than it should, while glossing over beats that maybe should have been a bit more expanded (like the whole avoiding your partner, or going further into Terri's struggle with their identity). There is potential here, it just needs a little more TLC to get there.

I wasn't particularly fond of Terri's passivity either. I think it made sense in the context of the story, but I wanted to shake them so they'd face the issues they created rather than letting Trinity to all the work for the both of them. Maybe some choices (even fake ones) could have helped?