#Candy scabs

[ashley-kins]

After having played all 6 of Nemlei's games, I have come to see the themes of all the games. (Or at least, my interpretation of them) So, let's go down the list.

Jack in a Castle. To me, this game is about what we do in relationships. How do we build a relationship with our manager, new friends, crushes, coworkers, etc. I actually really loved this game.

Candy Scabs. To me, this game is about how we judge others physically. When we slowly reveal ourselves, we can either get a reaction of "thank you for showing me your true self" or "you're scary, therefore I hate you." We all hope we get the first reaction, but sometimes, we might need to kill (metaphorically speaking) the person who hates what we look like.

Divilethion. To me, this game is about what religious trauma can do to us. We can either break free when we notice or we can go with the flow and continue the cycle of trauma.

Better Half. To me, this game is about learning to love yourself and take care of yourself. How depression can really hurt us, but with care, comfort, and love from ourselves, we can get through it, we survived everything up to now.

No Good Noelle. To me, this game is about accepting that you might not be good at something. There's no shame in it. It's just not your thing.

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. To me, this game (although still in development) is about family and/or shared trauma. We survived together, we will continue surviving together, or we'll hate each other because we remind each other of our trauma.

Anyway, that're just my interpretations. I'd love to hear y'all's if you have other interpretations. And remember, there's no wrong way to interpret a story narrative, everyone does not know what the original intent was for the creator(s) of their stories.

[stuffedgamer]

Because Nemlei’s itch .io page is gone here’s a archive of all their games, they’re all outstanding go play them

[coffin-ramblings]

A new mod crossing over Candy Scabs and TCOAAL has been released! Come check it out! I also highly encourage you all to play Candy Scabs as well, all you need to do is download Renpy, get a game file of Candy Scabs, and put it in Renpy's file.

[nando161mando]

[bipanicoverthegravessiblings]

Alright! Because I wanted to do something special to celebrate how many followers this dumb little blog has obtained, drawing requests!

Of these two charts, you can give me a TCOAAL or other Nemlei-verse character to draw in one of these outfits

Would prefer requests to be in the replies of this post, as to keep these requests and the x reader ones separate. Cool? Cool!

[eschar-uncanon]

NEMLEI HAS MORE GAMES!!

Hey TCOAALL fans!! Did you know Nemlei actually has other games?? I bet you didn't, because no one ever talks about them because THEY don't know they exist!!

They're all pretty great, so if you like Nemlei's writing, check out the other games! The order below is most recent to least recent

-No Good Noelle

-Candy Scabs

-Better Half

-Divilethion

-Jack-In-A-Castle

[seabshop]

Collection of indie game characters ive drawn so far for inktober

[xxthefairywitchxx]

Baby. Babyman. My son. I love he.

[corrupted-tale]

Just watched ManlyBadassHero's video about the game Candy Scabs and I love it. Super cute artstyle, adored the three main characters, and the happy ending brought so much joy!!

Unfortunately I can barely find anything fandom wise about it. But it's cute and I love it. I love thinking about the shenanigans the trio get up to after the happy end

[ofchaosandlight]

Candy Scabs

I played it recently and personally loved it! It was cute, and it might be simple, but it was fun, and the characters were memorable!

[pageofheartdj]

Awww Candy Scabs were amazing!! Kinda wish for a sequel with those three dorks' adventures <3

[peridee]

Mae plays Candy Scabs

Hi,

I’m sure you know the drill by now, I’m playing through NemLei’s games, I’ve played most of em, I only have three left, two including Coffin and Better Half, But I recently played through Candy Scabs, its another fun and cute NemLei game with a dark edge. It’s Halloween themed and set, and I suspect maybe made for another Jam, like Divilethion was, but I can't be sure because Nemlei nuked her account and everything to do with it, but anyways.

In Candy Scabs, you play Slough, a nightmare birthed by the void. It’s the void’s birthday, and she, it, they demand candy and presents, and if you don't attend their party with these gifts they will “Roast you and eat you and spit you out because you taste bad”. So, you and your friend/ brother Eschar open a portal into the human world to go find candy. Unfortunately, all the other nightmares are also using the portals, so you arrive in the human world. You wander around into town trying to find Eschar and hide from the humans, who hunt n kill nightmares. Luckily you meet Valerie, a tooth fairy, and together you collect candy and look for Eschar.  It’s lucky though because its obviously Halloween and Valerie thinks you are a human in costume and not a freaky nightmare from the void.

The game has three endings, Good, Bad Worst. In the good ending, You, Valerie and Eschar become friends and she doesn't mind even if you are a nightmare monster, also you go to the void’s birthday party and are they don't Roast you and eat you and spit you out because you taste bad.

In the bad ending, you and Eschar take Valerie’s teeth as a gift for the void, she survives and you are sorta ok, but the game makes you feel bad about what you did to Valerie,

in the worst ending, you and Eschar dump Valerie’s body in the woods and flee into the void. The void doesn’t hate your present, but is upset by your crying and kills you. Valerie is dead, you are dead and only Eschar is left. The narration informs us this is the worst ending.

It’s relatively easy to get either the good or bad ending, clicking on the sweets on the main menu reveals that red stars are bad choices, and flowers are good choices. So you just click either the stars or the flowers, to get the worst ending, I think you just have an equal number of both? I'm not certain, I clicked around pretty randomly, picking stuff that upset both Valerie and Eschar. It’s a pretty short game, even shorter skipping repeated dialogue, so it's worth going through and getting all the endings. There's no bonus for getting all the endings like in Jack in a Castle, it's just nice.

Again, I’d say the major strength of this game is in the art. Nemlei continues with her paperlike, bold, vibrant style and the backgrounds are nice, but the best part is the character designs, Slough and Eschar are equal parts cute n creepy, Slough even more so without their hood. But still very cute, very bold and very unique. 

It’s interesting to compare it with the rest of NemLei’s games, It's pretty comparable to Divilethion, both are games made for Jams, and both are relatively short and fast paced. I think Candy Scabs is the more accomplished game though, The character writing and plot is more fleshed out and even in such a short game manages to tell and deliver a satisfying story whereas Divilethion is cute and good, but the characters and plot are a little scant, and neither ending is that satisfying.

That’s all I have to say on Candy Scabs for now, and I’ll be playing Better Half next. I don't really know anything about it, and I haven't really for any of these, so I’m excited to see what it’s like. I think I have a reasonable idea of what a NemLei game is like now, but I could be mistaken. After Better Half I’ll be done with all the NemLei game’s I’m aware of. I mentioned it was The Coffin of Andy and Leyley and the reaction to it that lead me to explore NemLei’s work, and so I’ll probably blog about that too. It’s an ongoing work though so it might not be fair or good to do so. I’m not gonna play through the game again in its current state, but I will probably blog a little about it.

I don't really know what the end-goal of this little blog series is, am I gonna compare all the games, analyze them, and determine my favourite? I might, I might not, it's not the most interesting thing to do. Am I gonna attempt to defend NemLei, to argue that her games are good and interesting and she didn't deserve to be hassled off the internet forever, I might. I might not do any of that. The goal was to play 'em all, and I have, so maybe that's enough.

I played em, I liked em, I blogged about it, 

(The annoying thing about her having left the internet, is that her itch.io page no longer works, so it's harder to find and play the games, and I don't know when all the games came out. If anyone knows the release order please tell me.

Ps: Im posting this after I've already finished playing Better Half I really liked it, and I think there's a lot to talk about, keep an eye out for that soon!

[coffin-ramblings]

The Coffin of Candy Scabs: A Treat with Delightful Tricks

I finally got to play The Coffin of Candy Scabs and I really liked it a lot! It hit all the right spots for me and not only was it fun, but I can tell the writers cared a lot about capturing everyone’s characterizations and the Nemlei multiverse. I'll keep some things a surprise but will talk about the endings in detail, so be warned before you read this before playing or watching the mod.

You can play the mod here.

We start off Eschar deciding to use a portal to get to Valerie’s grandpa’s house to get the tooth necklace for the Void. Which as we soon see, that was definitely a bad idea.

Then we cut to Andrew watching TV, which is a really nice CG.

Faeces Chocolate is really funny, and so is Ashley jumpscaring Andrew and biting on his neck. Though I would like that we get a CG of her actually biting him with the bite on his neck, it’s still a very funny and oddly sweet scene. 

I really do like Ashley being so excited for Halloween even despite quarantine, and how Andrew quickly and willingly agrees to dress up for Ashley and she gets so happy. It’s a very sweet and touching moment that shows how fond Andrew is of her. 

Also their costumed and overworld sprites are so cool, I need to post a pic here. 

I was a bit thrown off that Andrew is way darker than in the original game, but it’s not a big deal. I also like the small little details on their designs, which I only fully realized at a second rewatch. I like Andrew’s green buttons, bunny ears on his cravat, and the two bunnies on his shirt that look like him and Ashley. The cravat also kinda looks like his sweater tag too, still maintaining some form of his iconic accessory. Ashley has stars in her collar, lace, and necklace, and the petal patterning on her bodice, which are motifs strongly associated with her. She also still keeps something around her neck, though the ending says it’s not her usual choker, which makes the part of me that headcanons she always wears it because Andrew gave it to her sad. But it’s not a big deal.

Though unfortunately, the happy mood does get deflated by them not being able to eat because they don’t know if more food will come, with Andrew immediately justifying to not do that because it’s a “stupid holiday”. However, given Ashley doesn’t put up too much of a fight, it shows how bad their justified paranoia has gotten and how she really wants Andrew to participate in the festivities with her. 

We then cut to them watching a horror movie and being kinda bored, when suddenly, Valerie and Slough appear out of nowhere! And they’re very cute too.

I do like how Andrew and Ashley subvert the expectations placed on the menu screen where we assume Andrew doesn’t care but Ashley is pissed, where Andrew is the one being grumpy and calling the two freaks, while Ashley is happy to celebrate Halloween with them. Ashley also wouldn’t mind Slough that much since she’s more of a fan of the macabre than Andrew is. Her jumping to introducing herself as Andy and Leyley was a very nice touch, as it shows she’s getting in touch with her childish side. Andrew being grumpy seems to be both his insistence that he’s “mature”, and that the CS duo seemed to promise them a way out but failed on it. However, Ashley doesn’t mind because hey, at least they have some food and she can have fun with Andrew. 

Also Valerie assuming that Ashley is married is fucking hilarious, even though she introduced Andrew as her brother. Valerie, you have to call any woman’s marital status you don’t know ‘Ms’. 

I really do like how quickly Ashley and Valerie get along and she joins in her game, both for festivities and also because Ashley acts quite child-like. I’m not sure if Valerie referring to how it’s like “Halloween and Easter in one” is intentional with the bunny motifs the siblings have, but it’s still adorable.

The interactions with the two are very funny, I won’t spoil the puzzle other than Valerie giving up the hints quickly is one of the best moments of the mod. I also do like that moment of conflict with Valerie not realizing just how dire the situation the siblings are in, with both of them getting mad at that. However, Ashley recovers from that remarkably fast. Though I expected there would be unique dialogue if you get to that realization at the end of the puzzle.

Though if you enter their bedroom, it's odd they mention this, because I can't remember anything special about that shelf, and I have checked it.

Slough liking the demon summoning music was cool, and Eschar thinking it’s a signal so he could save them was a very nice touch. Also Eschar looks awesome kicking down the door, and so does his sprite.

Him being easily able to break down the cultist’s door really shows there was a psychological aspect to the siblings’ entrapment. Even though they knew either Valerie or Slough has magic, Slough not being able to teleport any of them out seems to further prove they’re trapped. Andrew pointing out the door is barred on both sides also convinces the CS duo easily as they’re impressionable, and Slough doesn’t feel confident in his own abilities. Though it was weird that Andrew got confused when Slough mentioned Eschar can teleport.

But anyway, the connection of the Nightmares to TCOAAL demons is such a great detail, as it isn’t really covered by the fandom because the path to the demon realm doesn’t have anything to it.

Slough eventually realizing Ashley’s tar soul was also very cool, as it goes with the theory that it’s a marker of her being close to becoming a demon (or whatever’s close to it). Ashley getting mad at him calling her an older woman was very hilarious. 

Eschar then tells them the portal is at the elevator and the siblings walk outta there. You get some easter eggs going into the cultist’s room, which I won’t say. But I will say that I like the new intro dialogue to getting money from the cultist’s pockets.

My main gripe is that Andrew is much more aggressive when Ashley refuses to give him the money, because he wasn’t that aggressive in the original game.

Also, it doesn’t make sense the mod remarks he may steal the money from her when he didn’t make that threat.

Given that you can still interact with Ashley’s desk, and suddenly, both of them are out of costume talking about the “ANDY AND LEYLEY AND THE VERY VERY QUIET” drawing, it was weird they didn’t keep the rest of the main game dialogue. Though the ability to interact with the drawing seems to be removed in a later patch.

After exploring the cultist’s apartment, they then leave through the portal. I love Ashley going “This is a new adventure! This episode will be called Andy and Leyley in the Mysterious New Lands!” and Andrew goes along with it with a fond look on his face. Also Andrew biting down on Ashley’s necklace as payback is so funny and clearly him unable to hold back being close to her. I do wish it was a CG though.

And then, they decide to celebrate by eating candy Valerie gave them, with them actually sitting in the background. I like that a lot.

You then get three different choices with the candy that parallels the three main routes of the main game, which is a very brilliant touch. 

If Ashley chooses to be selfish and eat it all herself, then Andrew gets upset, they talk about the harsh realities of their new situation, Andrew worries about Julia, and Ashley gets mad and tries to come up with a way to make Andrew prove his loyalty to her. This parallels how Ashley can choose to not give Andrew her trust during the Episode 2 ritual in the selfish belief that he betrayed her in Episode 1. While it’s not that dark here compared to Decay where Andrew feels like suicide is the best solution to their hopeless situation, the two talking about how they’re probably in a new country homeless and are kinda stressed also parallels that. I chose it first because I knew it was gonna be the bad option and wanted to see the better ones later, so I thought it was weird Andrew bringing up Julia was weird here when he doesn’t care about her. When I chose the other choices and saw she’s not brought up at all, I realized he only did that as a way to shame Ashley for being selfish which is a very smart move, so props to the writers for that.

Though that ending isn’t all gloomy, my favorite part of that is Andrew directly acknowledging how dystopian their hometown is, it’s really funny and it fits him.

If Ashley chooses to give her candy to Andrew, she says that she doesn’t mind as long as she gets to be with Andrew and glad that they “escaped from their apartment and sins”. Andrew says he’s “The luckiest man alive”, and they end the game being happy. This parallels Burial Sane, where Ashley can choose to give up her own desire to have a romantic and sexual relationship with him because she thinks that he doesn’t return her feelings and doesn't want to drive him away with them. She doesn’t really care if she’s Andrew’s sister or lover, she just wants to be with him, and while Andrew would rather be her lover, is happy with being her brother too. There is still that focus of needing to escape from the consequences of their actions, with Ashley saying “escaped from our sins” here paralleling to her joking “Death row here we come!” in the main game’s route. However, the two are still overjoyed they're free together, with no discussion of how they're homeless in a possibly different country now.

If Ashley chooses to share her candy with Andrew, she puts it in her mouth and offers it to Andrew, where we get a CG where they almost kiss. That caught me by surprise to say the least.

Andrew gets the candy and Ashley cheerfully mourns she lost it. Andrew taunts “Better luck next time”, to which Ashley teases him that he seems excited to almost kiss her again. Ashley then says, “We’re lucky that we escaped our apartment and our past”, with Andrew saying, “I’m the luckiest man alive”, same as the give candy choice. I like that this is an implied love confession between them, as it makes sense with their anxiety on what it means to commit to such a relationship when they’re also siblings, but they are open to having that together under a new identity. It parallels to Questionable where Ashley shows she is willing to share her true feelings to Andrew at the great risk he may reject them, and she sees that they are returned. The two are at their happiest with no mention of their harsh realities in that route and this choice, like a new couple whose only care is each other.

The nicer choices are such a great way to end the mod, and I really am glad I chose to do that. I love it dearly, but of course, I do have some criticisms. I wish that the spelling didn’t have text slang, the misspelled words got corrected, and that the grammar and punctuation is cleaned up more. There are also the oversights where the cultist's apartment door isn't actually destroyed despite that it should be barred on the other side as well, and while in-story, they can pass by the cultist's apartment and see him dead on the floor, they don't remark about it until they reach elevator. It'd be nice to have them suddenly stop when they pass by the doorless entrance with Andrew going "Wait, why is he on the floor unconscious!?" and Ashley going, "Whatever, let's get out of here!". The dialogue at the elevator would then change if you interacted with the cultist's body or not, with either Andrew going "It's better to get out of here before we get in trouble for breaking quarantine rules and assaulting that guy." if they didn't, and the "Let's get out of here because we'll be accused of killing him" if they did.

The art definitely needed more polish and like I said, more CGs would be appreciated, but given the time crunch the team was in, I understand that. I also have to note that the almost kiss CG shouldn’t have Andrew have fangs, he didn’t wear any throughout the mod. 

There was also the glitch where if you reload the save to happen before the two enter the portal, you’re stuck in the CG background even though they’re still in the apartment and can interact with the environment. You can just move them up and find the elevator or enter or leave a room though.

But all in all, I really love this mod! It has a lot of heart and thought put into it, carving its own delightful identity from this crossover. It is definitely the best AU mod we have so far, and I look forward to any future projects by the dev group.

[nando161mando]

Maynard Dixon, “Scab” (1934)

[bipanicoverthegravessiblings]

I wanna dub more Nemlei games soooo-

[eschar-uncanon]

All I want is a plushie of one of them <3