an awesome little visual novel called Pine Point: Insomniac
I recently made an itch.io account, specifically to buy a $10+ bundle of primarily niche/homemade TTRPGS who's proceeds went to No ICE In Minnesota. Sale's up until May, if you're interested. Awesome deal. I haven't actually looked through any of those games yet, because I got very distracted immedately poking around the site for any actual video games that caught my eye.
And one did- the artstyle looked very familiar, so I figured I'd check it out. It turned out to be a small 3-ending visual novel by Zeddyzi, who you might recognize as the creator of hit indie pilot episode Ramshackle.
itch.io Game Summary
You’re Nil.
Fishing at Lost Lake, trashing the popular kids’ cars, and playing in your shitty garage band are all things you’d rather be doing than working a dead-end job that will probably keep you trapped in Pine Point for the rest of your life.
Fortunately, you get to work alongside your best friend, Dimitri. Unfortunately, Dimitri is leaving town at the end of the summer… and you’re not.
👁
Pine Point: Insomniac is a short, surreal slice-of-life visual novel following Nil, a severely sleep-deprived slacker, as he tries to survive the day at work with his best friend, Dimitri.
The game was estimated to take 30 minutes to get all three endings, and it only takes 20 if you're a decently fast reader (source: me). It is 30 well fucking spent. The music choice, the art and unsettling imagery, the questions and NO answers whatsoever but also the intense sense of nostalgia. I have a hard time engaging with video games sometimes. But in 20 minutes I am more invested in these two character's story than I am in the outcome of the 2026 Winter Olympics. Who gives a fuck about an ice skating scandal when there's a shitty garage punk band and even shitter pizza. Kind of terrifying, very introspective, and produces a 1-to-1 feeling of screaming my lungs out to Sober Up by AJR at age 15 when I realized there's no going back.
It's name-your-price, cross platform, and playable in the browser. Go check it out.
