what's your name?
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
in the summer of 2019, i legally changed my name.
"what's your name?" is a semi-fictional visual novel about my name change process - the paperwork i had to file, the people i had to talk to, the time i had to wait. this game was made for the GEMS class at UCLA, run by professor danny snelson, but it was also made for myself. and now i'd like to share it with you!
~
art, writing, code - sxilin
sound - bbc sound effects & zapsplat
if you enjoyed this game and want to support my work, feel free to buy me a kofi!
you can also follow me on twitter and twitch.
this game has been translated into russian by exgames. their translation can be accessed here: drive | mega
Comments
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What's your name?
Tony!
F*** you, Tony!
What's *your* name?
Ezekiel!
F*** you, Ezekiel!
absolutely beautiful, thank you so much. in love with the way you have to retype your name all throughout the story, to get rid of that “is this really it?” anxiety and stress and doubts and everything of the sort, this is a great concept to use for a short vn, executed really well. as somebody who recently discovered that i feel non-binary and actually have a thought of changing my name later down the road - thank you.
[Be warned there's some SPOILERS for the game here, and also a long winded thank you to the author <3 PLEASE PLAY THE GAME !! 10/10 wonderful experience if this is something you are going through rn. It feels so validating.]
Three years ago, I stumbled on this game. I thought it was very visually striking, and I wanted to bookmark it to I could play it later. I didn't resonate with the concept of wanting to change my name, and was happy with the gender I had been raised to believe I was. But... for some reason, I felt drawn to the title. And I didn't want to lose track of it. I remember thinking to myself in my head, "[deadname]. My name is [deadname]." And I felt confident in those words.
For three years, this game sat on my virtual shelf.
Two years ago, at 3 o'clock in the morning, I was still thinking about a light hearted joke my friend had made a few weeks prior. They made a comment about how I gave off non-binary energy, and wouldn't be surprised if I came out one day. I laughed at the time, but it struck a cord with me. It took me some time to realize it was because they were right.
Two years ago, at 3 o'clock in the morning, was the start of a very slow, and somewhat painful journey of starting to discovering who I was. And as of about 6 months ago, after realizing I was uncomfortable with my birth name, and trying out some new ones, I think I finally found one that resonates with me. (It's not the same one I have as my screen name for privacy reasons.)
For the past few months, I've been considering legally changing my name to my true one if it continues to stick with me. So when I stumbled on this game again, and played through it, I finally understood why I immediately clicked with it three years ago. Finally, I'm healing the wounded, closet child inside of myself.
Thank you so, so so much for sharing this beautiful experience. Writing out my name again, and again, and again made me feel so much more confident in who I was, and yet I was struck with uncertainty every time. But... it was beautiful. It felt real. The conversation with your mother not understanding but being supportive of you changing your legal gender as nonbinary too, just hit me so hard... I had a very similar conversation with my mom in therapy. I cried a lot playing your game, and I'll admit, while writing this comment as well. The artwork is beautiful, and everything was put together so nicely. I'll definitely be sharing this experience with my friends, in the hopes they'll play it too. <3
this is such a sweet and relatable comment; thank you so much for taking the time to write it out! i'm really, really glad that my project could resonate with your experiences, and offer some comfort and affirmation for you. i think that one's understanding of self identity is something that really develops over time and is constantly a work in progress ... thanks for coming on this journey with me, and best wishes for your future experiences as well ♥ i really appreciate hearing your thoughts.
A very beautiful game, thank you for creating this. I'm glad you managed to get your name changed even if it was quite a while ago now!
thank you so much for playing!!
Base on review it sound a good VN but sadly theres no android :( , anyways have a nice day
/*cough* android *cough*/
hi! not sure what review you were looking at, but this vn was based on events in my life, so unfortunately no androids here!
I think they mean the smartphone os
i think you missed the funny
perhaps, but something needed to be said just in case it was not, in fact, a funny. I misunderstand things in the same way all the time lol.
i confess that i actually took their comment literally at first and didn't even think that they might be asking for a smartphone port, lol. nonetheless, this game was made in renpy and i don't really have the technical know-how to make a mobile game, so unfortunately, the android will still be out of reach!
Wonderful ;; hit me really hard when i'm considering my own name change at the moment
so glad you enjoyed it!! best of luck on whatever you decide! ; _;<3
The artstyle is cute, the story is wonderful and I love the peacefulness and story that's modern and relatable to quite a lot of people, absolutely loved this ^^ especially where you need to re-type your name quite a few times, definitely a way of giving the emotions needed
Was expecting different storylines with different choices tho tbh but it's good uwusorry for the extremely belated response!! thank you so much for your feedback, i'm very glad you enjoyed it :)
this was a project i finished in about a month, so it's not too in depth! hopefully in the future i can make things that branch out a bit further! thank you so much for playing nonetheless~~
Wonderful and cute nwn
Thank you so much!
Wonderful game! Gorgeous art and a heartfelt, gentle language. The need to re-type your name over and over is such a clever and simple way of hammering home the anxiety of name changing. I loved it!
DUDE THANK U SO MUCH <333 this has been a really great class with you and hopefully we can make cool things together in the future as well!!!
I just played this!!! The art is lovely and the story really speaks to you! ;; (especially the paypal stuff...)
Everytime it asked for my name i was nervous about what would happen if i typed it wrong LOL. A very nice play through!!! <33333 Thank you for making this game!!!
thank you so much for playing!!! hehe theres no penalty for the names, it can really be anything you'd like it to be (o:
i'm very glad you liked it, thanks for taking the time to let me know <3