#ko_op

[nrxia]

GVH irl

[wolfnanaki]

Goodbye Volcano High is GOTY because it answers the important question of "What memes would dinosaurs make?"

[distantdriller]

Pointless mini rant about some random shit because I'm PISSED off.

Goodbye Volcano High is a queer piece of media that is/was unfairly shat on for various reasons. Regardless of its flaws, I feel as though a lot of the judgement against it and the indie studio who made it is motivated by queerphobia and bad faith criticisms.

Hell, a bunch of 4channers (Cavemanon) even made a bigoted parody of Goodbye Volcano High, known as Snoot Game, and released it before the original game was out. Because they wanted to fuck Fang, the nonbinary protagonist of Goodbye Volcano High, but didn't like how they were nonbinary.

Said bigoted parody has more of a fanbase than Goodbye Volcano High, and that fanbase even bleeds into Goodbye Volcano High's fanbase. I can't count the number of times I've seen Goodbye Volcano High fanart tagged with a Snoot Game tag, its INFURIATING.

Don't even make me rant about Snoot Game itself (I haven't even played it yet, but I can tell how it'll be). One thing that particularly pisses me of is how most mods involving characters from Goodbye Volcano High are specifically for the Snoot Game versions of them.

Anyways, go read the reviews for Goodbye Volcano High on Steam and see how many reviews on it mention or allude to Snoot Game in some form. (If you see anyone referring to a character named "Lucy", just know that's the deadname Cavemanon gave them. their brother is literally named NASER.)

Bonus section: Cavemanon put a character from a random Itch.io game into Snoot Game, and I hear it was without consent of her original creator (@pikopik-blog1), who seemingly hasn't been active on the internet for a while, but that could be wrong.

Cooking with Tracy! by pikopik

Cooking with Tracy! by pikopik

[wormdramafever]

KO_OP, the studio behind Goodbye Volcano High, GNOG, Ridiculous Fishing EX and Depanneur Nocturne, will be announcing their next game on their newsletter soon...

KO_OP Newsletter

The KO_OP newsletter — Updates on our games, announcements, information on working in a co-operative model, and team picks of some of the mo

All we know is that it's been 3 years in the making, being made at the same time as Goodbye Volcano High by "Team Pilgrim" (while GVH was made by "Team Fang"), that it's their most ambitious game so far, and that it has lighting.

Can't wait!!

[shiftyvolcanospiceconfess]

Submit your ShiftyLook, Goodbye Volcano High, and High Guardian Spice related confessions for this likely short test run!

(DM ME IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO ME PERSONALLY, PLEASE.)

(NO CAVEMANON RELATED STUFF ALLOWED!!!)

[cuddles-edits]

Fang from Goodbye Volcano High

Non-binary Pride Icons

In celebration of Pride Month 2024, I will be posting a new icon set of a canon LGBTQ+ character every day. Today's canon LGBTQ+ character is Fang from Goodbye Volcano High, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

Happy Pride Month!

[runningpsychic]

Why Goodbye Volcano High resonates with me as...

...a musician

As a musician, it's hard not to immediately identify with Fang. What musician doesn't want their music to be heard, to play at music festivals, and have music as their career. I can wax poetic about how music is about self expression and it doesn't matter if I have an audience, but in the end, I still want my music to be heard, and enjoyed. And Fang is on track to making this their entire career.

Making music has been a minor hobby for me. Even as a kid, I knew there's almost no chance I can make it as a musician, so I went down the route of being a software engineer instead. It's such a minor part of my life that I don't even bother identifying as a musician, I just fool around with instruments. But something about GVH ignited that passion in me, and during my first playthrough, I wrote six songs inspired by themes in the game. Even if I'll stay an amateur, I want to make the most from life, and not let the fire die. (See last section)

All that said, I felt very bad for Fang throughout the game. I know how tough the life of a full time musician is. The industry is just completely screwed. And unlike me, Fang doesn't have another option other than music. The game also drives it in that Fang's friends all have viable career paths, while Fang doesn't. But then, the meteor throws an interesting wrench into this, as now Fang is the only one who achieved their dreams. I'm not sure what the point of this paragraph is besides fuck capitalism, give musicians a living wage.

...an enby

Fang really made me more comfortable about being non-binary. It's amazing seeing enby representation that doesn't feel shoehorned in, or merely an afterthought. It's actually integral to the story. Both Fang and Sage struggle having their parents take their identities seriously, and that mirrors my own fears of not being taken seriously as an enby myself, which leads me to only come out as non-binary to my closest friends, and just remain a binary trans woman to everyone else.

It's honestly amazing to see everyone in Caldera Bay being accepting of the queer cast, like being queer isn't a big deal at all. And that's how it should be. Everyone just calls Fang by their name and pronouns (except their parents of course), and no one seems to mind that Reed brought Alvin to prom. This really makes me feel more comfortable about my identity, and I feel proud to be queer. We don't owe them normal.

...an immigrant

It's so rare to see stories about the intersection of being trans and being an immigrant, so when I read Rosa's story, I felt it must've been written by someone who also has first hand experience. There's a distinct feel from my family that me being trans is a "western" thing, not something they could ever understand. Or worse, that I'm being corrupted by "the west" in some way by moving there. There's so much extended family I can never see again because I'm now an abomination of the family tree.

I find it really difficult to talk about this as I fear I'd be misread as being racist for suggesting that my home country is more queerphobic or something, but that isn't my point. I just want to tell my story, and my experience of being alienated for both culture and gender, in both my origin and destination countries, is one that most folks can't emphasize with. (Venba also does do a good job with the culture part, so you should check that out too)

There's a separate rant about how this brand of queerphobia was actually planted by Christian missionaries and not at all "traditional culture", but that's for another time.

...someone struggling with mental health

I've been obsessed with the game for months since I played it. I went through what everyone calls "Dino depression", but I think it really helped me, and it was the game I needed to play at this moment in my life. I struggle with depression and burnout. At times it can be hard to know what the point is, or feel that any of this is worth it. The first few weeks after the game, I actually felt more depressed, as I thought about what the point of life is if it all is temporary anyway, and what I would do if a meteor were to hit in 8 months. And I was scared, because I felt like my life wasn't under my control. Over time, I've learned to think about it more positively. If life is temporary, then it's up to me to make the most of it. If life has no meaning, it's up to me to make my own meaning. I have amazing friends around me, and I still have tons of music to make.

[rustybottlecap]

I have a lot of respect and admiration for KO_OP. You know the saying "be the change you want in the world"? They are that saying applied to making videogames. We need more indie cooperatives like them.