WHITE MONDAY
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
[Visual Novel | Drama | Rated R]
Content Warnings: Contains explicit depictions of drug (ab)use, nudity, and suicidal ideation. Contains coarse language and references to self-harm as well as sexual topics. Graphic visuals can be turned off in the settings of the game.
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STORY
You know those days when you should have just stayed in bed? Those days that end up being a total shitshow? “But Heiko,“ you say, “your whole life‘s a shitshow.“ Well, you‘re not wrong. However, I can confidently say that what you‘re gonna witness this time is really gonna take the cake.
The whole thing already starts off grand - I have to find out that my girlfriend has only been pretending to pay our bills, lately. The reason? We‘re broke. Literally and totally broke. Which may be my fault. Now you‘re probably expecting me to say, “I go ahead and try to fix this, but of course make it worse.“ Almost true. Except that I manage to make it worse even without any serious fixing attempts. And as if that wasn‘t bad enough, there‘s also that creepy VHS tape I got in the mail ...
Just a word of warning: My story isn‘t for the faint of heart. There‘s some upsetting shit happening. You have to expect stuff like existential dread and sexy moments, and last but not least, lots of cocaine. Basically, if you‘re the type of person who can‘t look away when they see a giant train wreck, you‘re (probably) gonna love this.
FEATURES
- ca. 16,000 words
- ca. 50 minutes playtime
- 60+ background images and illustrations
- 50+ sprites
- A few choices that matter
- Three endings
- English and German language options
- Image Gallery
- Voiced dialogue
- Custom soundtrack
CHANGELOG
- 1.0: Release
- 1.1: Fixed some weirdness with the message window and timing, fixed a sound effect
- 1.2: Improved German translation, changed some sprites, added new background
- 1.2.1: Fixed some typos in the German version
- 1.3: Added extras gallery. For now it holds images.
- 1.4: Added completely new, independent neutral ending with new CGs and music. Fixed issue with credits not displaying properly.
- 1.5: Voice acting, new CG, fixes in the German translation, minor code changes
- 1.6: Added custom soundtrack, released Mac version of the game, fixed voice volume
Download
Install instructions
Once you've downloaded the archive file, unpack its content into a folder in a location of your choosing. Inside the unpacked folder, there's an exe file. That's the game.
UPDATING
To update the game with a new version, simply delete the old game folder and unpack the new one in the same location.
ATTENTION WINDOWS USERS
When I tried to download the game myself to see if everything works, my virus scanner was so "kind" to automatically remove the .exe file as "ransomware". I have no idea why this happens. It might not happen with every virus scanner, either. In any case that's a false positive. So if it happens to you, please don't panic and just restore the .exe file.
ATTENTION MAC USERS
Since I don't make money with this game and cannot justify paying for an expensive dev subscription over at the Apple notarization thing, if you are running the latest Mac OS you might run into difficulty executing the game app. This is because of the Gatekeeper feature that blocks apps from "unidentified developers". Here's a guide how to work around that.
Development log
- 1.6 RELEASE! MAC VERSION AND NEW OSTJun 21, 2020
- (NO LONGER) LOOKING FOR MAC USERSFeb 11, 2020
- UPDATE 1.5 - RECORDSNov 18, 2019
- 1.4 IS NEATJul 02, 2019
- IT NEVER ENDS!Jul 01, 2019
- 1.3 IS ONLINE!May 07, 2019
- MINOR FIXESFeb 15, 2019
- SOME TIME PASSED...Jan 24, 2019
Comments
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I've had a passing fascination with object heads for a long while, and have been meaning to give this game a whirl ever since you gave me a follow (shortly after I submitted Pinkmatch for MFGJ 2019).
I'm happy to report it was worth the download! The protagonist has a very strong narrative voice written in a stream of consciousness style. Even when he was making VERY BAD DECISIONS, I never got too frustrated enough to outright dislike the experience. I enjoyed how he sometimes talked to the player and complained about this or that, and each of his thoughts naturally, logically flow from one to the next.
I appreciated how there was some lore of how tank heads came to be, without using blatant walls of exposition.
The on-screen visuals were quite good and helped set the game's tone, particularly the reasons #1 and reasons #2 text images.
It did feel grippingly sad once you hit the halfway point, even though I ultimately got (I think) a good ending.
I often felt like Rain -- wanting to reach out to Heiko, wanting to help, but ultimately helpless. Heiko doesn't listen, and I don't have the voice to speak after a while.
So I was pleasantly surprised to have the mailman in my ending though, and ended up with strangely hopeful feelings.
Which meant, of course, I would jump right back in and made Heiko run into traffic for my very next playthrough lmfao.
Thank you for sharing this game. I'm looking forward to your next one, although I sort of distrust Roswell as a protagonist after I've spent this whole game viewing him through Heiko's non-existent eyes. :)
Thank you so much for playing and for the feedback! I'm very glad you enjoyed this game.
Even after the long time that I've finished White Monday, it's still very important to me. I'm always excited to hear what people's experiences with it are!
There's definitely reason to be wary of Ros, I'm looking forward to sending folks on that next journey as soon as possible. :D
It's brief, it's sad, and it gets to the point.
It's like watching a jenga tower fall down after one wrong move.
It's like the culmination of all your mistakes happening all at once.
For this guy, it was Monday.
Relatable characters, simple visuals, and the right music at the right time makes White Monday stick with you, long after you've turned off the computer screen.
Kudos to arty!!!
Thank you so much for your kind comment!