Val-11 Hall-A

VAL-11 HALL-A is a cyberpunk bartender simulator. (Ignore the url, there are no waifus.)

This game was originally developed in Ren’Py, but they ended up having to switch over to GameMaker. Having played it, I can see why. IIRC at the time the programmer cited performance issues but I can also see how the game’s old school Adventure/Detective-game inspired design runs counter to some of the elements that are baked into VN engines.

It’s a unique and interesting game that is ranked Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam in spite of being incredibly niche. The POV character Jill works at a bar and mixes drinks for patrons. Sometimes they ask for drinks outright and sometimes they say, give me something sweet and icy, and you look up the recipe and make the drink for them. The player is tasked with remembering what people like or being able to intuit what they’d like to try next.

Apparently the plot branches depending on what you serve people and how much alcohol you provide. This is a non-game example, but if someone is nervous for a meeting and asks for a drink to calm their nerves, if you got them really drunk that would presumably negatively affect that character.

You can save your game during breaks and at home. At home, you can do little things to keep Jill happy so she won’t be distracted at work (like buy stuff), decorate her flat, and surf the internet and read blogs to get additional backstory. (I really love in-game internet elements.)

Basically, Valhalla is a cyberpunk slice-of-life simulator with world building and character development told through vignettes, meant as a way for players to unwind at the end of the day. In other words, a cyberpunk cozy.

And this segues into something completely different. I’ve been trying to get back into reading so I’m working on the Hugo list. I picked up Becky Chambers’ A Closed and Common Orbit because it was listed as a space opera about an AI. ACCO is more accurately described as space opera cozy. The AI bits are extraordinarily mundane. “Comfort fiction has its place” blah blah blah, but I don’t read science fiction to feel cozy, so I was a little put off by this. But if I can enjoy a cyberpunk cozy then I will try to give ACCO another chance.