Shout-Out #2: Nerds the Gathering

All images in this post are under the copyright of Ryu S Stemp.

I've been meaning to do a shout-out for something one of my friends, Ryu S Stemp, has been working on. It's a visual novel call Forever Alone: Nerds the Gathering. In Nerds the Gathering, you experience an engrossing story about high school nerd angst, mostly to due with the fate of the Anime and Gaming Club. The story is told through the eyes of an intelligent, witty, yet socially inept girl named Michelle, or Mike for short. What's wrong with the Anime and Gaming Club? Well, all its members have wandered off, leaving Mike short a social life outside posting on random internet forums. The goal of the game? Rebuild the club!!!


What I love about this game is how easily it could fit into any nerd's high school years. My high school games club never folded, but it's easy to imagine how we might have ended up in a Nerds the Gathering type scenario. Assuming my high school years were not particularly unusual among the general population of nerds, it would seem logical that this is true for a good many of you as well. The characters in the story are amalgamations of various nerd stereotypes, yet the various combinations of characteristics and quirks that make up each character are such that you find yourself wanting to get to know them better. At the same time, you can't help but feel you've known them all along, or at least that you've know the bits and pieces they've been fashioned out of. Overall, I would rate Nerds the Gathering as being most definitely worth the two or so hours it will take you to exhaust the possibilities in the demo version and they will leave you anxiously waiting for the full version.

One thing I would change about Forever Alone: Nerds the Gathering, however, is the name. Forever Alone is it's own brand of humor, quite different from what is found in Nerds the Gathering. There are some common themes, but the point of Nerds the Gathering is that we have hope Mike, and her harem of handsomely drawn male nerds, will not be forever alone. The Forever Alone tag is unnecessary in my view; Nerds the Gathering is strong enough to stand on its own merits.

By the way, Ryu is also the one who drew the image I use for my profile picture.