Seraphim Slum
A downloadable visual novel for Windows, macOS, and Linux
SERAPHIM SLUM
"The slums are rotting. You are spilling out."
Ezekiel has moved into the slums. She finds herself enamored with its inhabitants: three girls, in particular.
Befriend a girl, fall in love, and break them by awakening them. Teach them to go against their mental constraints, to fight back against their oppressors. Push them over the edge.
It's not a matter of if they fall... but how they fall.
You play as Ezekiel as you explore the slum…
- Helping Macy, Salxire, and Oriel fight against their inner constraints and give in to their desires.
- Delving into the unsettling nature of life and death the deeper you go.
- Finding out what it truly means to have free will… at the price of corruption.
GAME OVERVIEW
- Ren’py engine (1920x1080)
- 2D visual novel, with 3D backgrounds.
- 3 female love interests: Macy, Salxire and Oriel.
- Choice-based branching with 4 unique endings.
- 6 scene illustrations.
- Fully voice acted dialogue.
- Custom-made OST.
- A playtime of 4-5 hours for a full run.
PLAY SERAPHIM SLUM: DEFINITIVE VERSION ON STEAM NOW!
CONTENT WARNINGS
This game isn't suitable for those who are easily disturbed. Please play at your own discretion.
epilepsy warning, depictions of mental illness, unhealthy relationships, body horror, distressing sound effects, deranged sapphics
SOCIALS & WIKI
GET TO KNOW THE CHARACTERS
Our protagonist, Ezekiel:
Love interest #1, Macy:
Love interest #2, Salxire:
Love interest #3, Oriel:
CAST & CREW
rosesrot | Director, Story Writer, General Programmer, Voice Director | Twitter Carrd |
Josh Carlat | Lead Developer | |
NOIR | General Programmer, Technical & Background Artist | |
juicydev | Functional and Linguistic Quality Assurance, "Free Roam" Editor | |
Kevin Bomer | Cinematography & VFX | Twitter (1, 2) |
Eli Orcutt | Sound Designer, Dialogue Editor, Composer, Voice Implementation Assistance | Instagram Carrd |
Lorraine Wong | Composer | Instagram Carrd |
Anonymous | CG Artist | |
SAN | UI Programmer | |
FlareForTheDramatics | Marketing & Social Media | |
HagGirlSummer | Marketing & Social Media | Twitter Carrd |
Shahar Hod | VFX Animator, Steam Icon Artist | Twitter Wix |
Ethan (Crowlee) Encinas | Sprite Artist | Instagram LinkTree |
James Molloy | Composer, Trailer Producer | Twitter YouTube |
sfilmak | GUI Artist | Site |
miencha | Illustrator | Cargo |
Faust | Editor | Carrd |
Emilie Brewer | Assistant Programmer | Twitter Site |
Lauren Kong | Voice of Ezekiel | Twitter Carrd |
Meg TheLovableDork | Voice of Macy | Twitter Casting Call Club |
Brooke Johnson | Voice of Salxire | Twitter Site |
Elene Pak | Voice of Oriel | Twitter Site |
SPECIAL THANKS
Additional sound effects from Zapsplat
Voice Implementation Assistance by NotHack Europa
Want to unravel the slum's secrets?
A Seraphim's Guide To The Slum will act as a companion book to your journey in the game Seraphim Slum. This book contains a detailed walkthrough to the four endings of Seraphim Slum and bonus content exclusive to this book: a comprehensive director's commentary from rosesrot about the thesis and themes of Seraphim Slum, a character and story breakdown, the process of creating Seraphim Slum, and more!
Everything you wanted to know about the story, its inspirations, its logic, and — as Ezekiel is so obsessive over — its secrets... is right here.
Will you open it up?
By getting this book, you'll be supporting my ability to continue writing stories and making games for you to enjoy. Thank you so much! c:
Get the book here!
NOW WITH A DERANGED SEQUEL...
"Eden is in love with her Ezekiel."
Play the demo "Edenfall" now!
Updated | 26 days ago |
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Rating | Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars (34 total ratings) |
Authors | rosesrot, Vermillion REX, Summer |
Genre | Visual Novel |
Made with | Ren'Py |
Tags | Atmospheric, Dark, Dating Sim, Horror, Indie, Narrative, Romance, Story Rich, yandere, Yuri |
Average session | A few hours |
Languages | English |
Links | Steam, Twitter/X |
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- ₊˚。❅⋆ 𖠰 Welcome To A Very Rotten Winter! (Fanart and Writing Event!)...26 days ago
- Seraphim Slum: Definitive Edition is live on Itch!57 days ago
- Wishlist Edenfall on Steam!Aug 31, 2024
- A Seraphim's Guide To The Slum: Out Now!Jul 05, 2024
- Seraphim Slum: Definitive Edition is live on Steam!Jul 03, 2024
- Wishlist... A Seraphim's Guide To The Slum!Jun 03, 2024
- Edenfall Update!May 17, 2024
- Welcome To Edenfall!Mar 19, 2024
Comments
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This is one of the newest games from itch.io that has me more hyped in years. I can't wait to play it, it looks simply amazing.
This seems cool any plans on releasing on android in the future?
Are these ancient greek alt lesbians???? I wanna play this so bad.
Played this half a week ago and it left such a strong impression on me. I think of it every day.
The most impressive thing to me is the vibe. Like, sometimes there are games that you know will hit hard the moment you open them, purely from the way they feel. This is that kind of game.
All the characters are just so interesting and unique. It’s almost surprising how well we get to know them in such a short time. Probably because of our task being to break them with love. Also so many choices, where often both right and wrong give you a piece of the character. The fact that retrying after failure gives you only the correct path and extra information is so cool. It really feels like Ezekiel is getting desperate, that she needs them.
Writing is phenomenal and it blends very well with its presentation. Replaying there were multiple scenes that I simply couldn’t skip over. Mostly when Ezekiel gets to be her syrupy cruel self. And voice acting, holy shit! Everyone sounds so perfect. And looks so perfect too! The characters look like I can imagine them moving. Ezekiel is so smooth and whispery, like a snake getting closer to pray. Taunting, promising, loving, cruel. Macy is so anxious and meek, unsure of everything, but also so soft. Salxire is so powerful and demanding, but so full of yearning and anger. She sees things for what they are, but still demands answers. Oriel is friendly and kind, protective and nurturing, but also clearly done. And they all feel so desperate, so abused. God is barely in the game, but he feels like such a life-ruining ex to all but Ezikiel. They all loved him, worshiped him, and he left them broken, took all their sacrifices for granted and put them into the most mind numbing place in existence.
The slums feel oppressive and liminal, like nothing is supposed to stay there. So seeing how they twist each character, how they all blame themselves so much. It hurts. But it’s then impressive that watching them fall is so painful too. It doesn’t feel like doing them a favor, but introducing them to new pain, at least less boring and repetitive kind.
Music is extremely effective. I love how it always feels appropriate even when using bells and static. The few times images are used they feel so evocative.
The only actual problem I have is that if you don’t get the true ending first playthrough it is not so obvious what you have to do. I eventually figured it out and it is pretty well hinted, but it is very unintuitive.
So in short I love, love, love, love, love this game.
PS. For note, I played the Linux version and downloaded it about half a month ago. I see there are ore of them and don't know if there are any differences.
Hi! Oh my gosh, thank you so much for your incredible comment. You made my whole day— your comment was such a delight to read and it means so much that Seraphim Slum resonated with you deeply.
I’m so happy that you liked Seraphim Slum’s game design! I really wanted to cultivate that feeling of Ezekiel’s desperation which leaps out in her all-consuming attempt to become exactly what each girl wants of her. Thank you for your compliments of my writing style too: Seraphim Slum wasn’t an easy game to write with its prose style, but it was a joy figure out! I’m glad that you loved the characters, too, and am glad that the way we get to know them feels natural; it really is a little different, getting to know them so deeply, so quickly. Partly it’s because of their state in the slum— stagnating at their rock-bottom, and Ezekiel is the one to pull them out of their listlessness.
“God is barely in the game, but he feels like such a life-ruining ex to all” is a beyond apt (and hilarious) description of what God did to the angels— I couldn’t have put it better myself! And the way you describe the angels’ falls are so lovely. It’s true that it isn’t really “doing them a favor”; but it is giving them a finality, as you’ve so beautifully described.
Thank you for the note on the Autonomous/Ideal Ending too! I’m glad that you worked it out in the end, and you’re right that it’s not quite intuitive. I just released “A Seraphim’s Guide To The Slum” which explains that Ending and the others with regards to its design.
Also! I don’t know if you’ve seen, but Seraphim Slum: Definitive Edition is out for free on Steam :D This version of the game has a CG gallery, an extended Free Roam route, extra tracks, and more; I think you’d like playing it, seeing how much you’ve enjoyed this version of Seraphim Slum ❤️
If you want to chat more about the game, I have a Discord server and I’d love to talk more there! If that’s not so much your thing, I have a mailing list too if you’d like to keep up with my works! c: Thank you so much for your incredible comment, I’ll be thinking about it for days!
I was honest to god blown away by this game, from the moment I saw the cover, and then the art and then downloading and playing it... it's clear as day that so much amazing talent came together to make this, with a lot of very cool visions culminating in something that scratched the itch that games like Wktd and pretty much everything by kittyhorrorshow left behind. From the music to the amazing art to the writing... hats off, really.
And it also gave me the urge that very few games do, that being of replaying it and going off to see other people's playthroughs of it, so I can re-interpret the stuff I didn't get during my first playthrough, including other endings.
Kudos, I absolutely loved this game and I wanna congratulate everyone who contributed to it.
Thank you so much for your kind words! It means so much that you loved Seraphim Slum and that it lives up to WKTD and KittyHorrorShow’s games… that’s the highest compliment we could have. I’m so glad that everything came together as it did and that the vision worked for you!
I hope you enjoy the replays and/or watching the playthroughs! I’ve forwarded your comment on to the team and we all couldn’t be more grateful that you took the time to let us know how much you enjoyed it c:
Hiii. I'm MsBubblezz from Twitch -> https://www.twitch.tv/MsBubblezz. Tysm to Summer from the development team for recommending me to try it out.
I just want to say that I had a chance to play it on stream. The game was lagging a bit for my Twitch, but I did keep pushing through it. I do want to continue playing it on stream btw and I'm highly looking forward to that!
This EXCEEDED my expectations bc this game is RIDICULOUSLY GOOD! I haven't gotten a chance to complete it yet, but as far as what I played, I loved the art, I loved the characters (btw the voice actors did an EXCELLENT job!!), and I love how this story takes a unique turn with that mystic, horror, and spooky vibe. I played it until the game shut off on me then after a few minutes, turned right back on lol.
The only issues that I had was with the UI because I had trouble with navigating it and the lag on the game itself, which delayed the overall gameplay for myself and viewers that watched the stream.
Even though these were only two issues I had, I still would love to continue to play your game. I still see a lot of potential for this and I hope to see you down the line again. Thank you again sm for this opportunity! Take care ꨄ
Hi there! Thank you so much for playing and streaming (!) Seraphim Slum, I’m so happy that you had a good time! Your kind comments mean the world to me and the team - it’s so sweet of you to say and we’re so delighted by your appreciation of the art, characters, VA’s, and story!
We’re going to see what we can do to reduce lag on the game. Can’t wait for the rest of your streams about the game :) Take care too!
This is an artful, poetic, and mindbending experience delving into the philosophy of why different angels fall and end up in the slums.
Ezekiel’s voice is soft, whispery, and haunting, taunting every Angel she claims she loves.
Not as much a story as it is art, poetry, music and snippets of philosophy pieced together into a fascinating and sometimes confusing mind trip.
There is a strong use of religious language throughout, later used to goad residents and unravel their idiosyncratic truths. Make the right dialogue choices and twist them into jarring displays of rapidly changing emotion. Ezekial’s words are hypnotic, questioning the depths of the soul, and then suddenly dialing back to the kind of music they like.
This piece is a category on its own and cannot be judged by typical conventions, since this jarring experience feels like it was designed to pull the player in different directions so they are just as unravelled as the angels Ezekiel speaks to.
Look forward to the final update with end screens instead of the intentionally placed crashes that shut down the whole game after following wrong choices (might be my own mortal limits at comprehending the artistry behind this design).
Beautifully warped soundtrack and effects on the voices.
We are so charmed at this response. It really feels like what we wanted to get across - we did. Thank you so much for your support and the almost artful response you had to the game.
Yes! We’re excited to get that out there — it makes sense it’s a little jarring to be forced out, no matter if it’s fake or not, so will get that out as soon as possible to make this a more seamless experience.
Thank you so much once again. I’ll pass on the compliments to the rest of the team!
Basically, i loved it.
The voices, the music, the art, everything beautifully poisonous and poignant, just... scrumptious.
Aside from not entirely getting the
fourthendings and a few mostly technical nitpicks (in a post below), this was one of the most beautiful things i have read recently.Thank you all, oh and to the writer specifically - i am no God, but you have won my utter adoration~
Honestly, i don't even know where to begin and what to say, so i will mindlessly repeat like a broken angel - i loved loved loved your creation, thank you, even if i would like to imagine all of them happy in
anotherdifferent world... it's the final release that is worth it, i guess.Ahem.
...now enough of my ramblings and all the love to the team <3
y`all deserve it, truly
P.S. Oh and all the little details, from glitches and title change on a certain route - very cool, and music was lovely too!
[hopefully now i remembered everything i loved and thanked anyone who worked on it \^-^'/]
Now for a few things i thought were a tad rough and needed some polish.
<Beware some slight spoilers, all who goes there!>
Would be nice if all the special text and effects would either show in the log, stay a bit longer on screen, or maybe even won't auto play at all (but i understand your choice, even though it's a bit hard for me to keep up and i can't read things that fast/check it out later in the log).
A small bug with audio - some lines do not play at all, while most do (so i presumed that's just a bug and not a partial voicing), and since i loved all the VAs work (seriously, you all did such a cool job! big props to everyone~) it would be nice to get this fixed.
And just a stray'o thought on a structure - this work kinda calls for a... kind of a true ending? I am not entirely sure, but some kind of a resolution after helping all three girls sounded like it just would feel nice in here!
(i could be wrong, for i poked the fourth ending - the laundry one - first, maybe it's different after you go through all the other routes, but iirc it disappeared from available choices for me?.. anyway, this is just my personal feeling, it's safe to ignore. the work you did just felt a little... incomplete?.. is all. but you did so good, even perfectionism - an enemy of mine - cannot stain your efforts in my mind... anyway, you have my thanks for creating this, and i must stop the blabbering once again. bye-bye, fellow hooman bings~)
Thank you for your lovely and sweet comment! All of this is so kind of you to say— it truly made my day. I’m so glad you loved the writing, especially (!) Bringing Ezekiel’s story to life was a joy, and everyone’s contributions made the project come together in such a brilliant way.
Maybe the angels should be happy in a different world… ;-; Mayhaps I should write that…
The laundry machines ending is a neutral ending! There is a true/ideal ending, known as the “Autonomous Ending”, which provides closure for the game and Ezekiel’s story. The question is now a matter of reaching it… c:
(I’m working on a guide to all the endings which I’ll be adding to my Discord server once it launches, will let you know once it’s available! But do let me know if you encounter any issues.)
Thank you for listing out the bugs, too! We’ve noted them all down and will be working on those issues for our next hotfix <3
Thank you for creating this!
It made me think and feel, which is all i ever ask from good fiction/works of art.
And i am glad my feelings came through.
Oh, i guess i have missed the true ending, huh...
A walkthrough (a post/devlog here on itch, if you don't mind) would be very appreciated.
The bugs are rather minor, but making 't flow smoother would benefit the experience a lot - the greater the impact, the less one gets thrown out of the world - the better, imo!
P.S. Oh and i almost forgot another thing that i loved - when you "fail" a choice, or get a "bad" ending the next time you help reader both chose the ones that further the story and you also add new and meaningful bits to the story!
This is truly lovely and makes re-experiencing story not punishing, but rewarding instead (i like it when games do not punish people for failure, but instead do something else or even reward them in some way) - esp in a game with lots of choices - that's p sweet and thoughtful, all things considered!
Ooh--very much enjoyed how atmospheric and uniquely styled this game is! The voice acting is lovely, and the design for the characters is phenomenal; the descriptive wordplay in the writing is especially delicious. Terrific work!
Hi! Thank you so much for your comment, we’re so happy you enjoyed the voice acting, designs, and the story! c: Your kind words have made my day.
(Also, coming from the creator of Burdock, your compliment re: writing, really means a lot! c: Thank you.)
Thank you for sharing such a great game! (and thank you too for the very kind addendum! 💚)
A pretty game! The aesthetics of this game are very strong, and I think you guys did a good job tying the 2D and 3D aesthetics together. In particular, something about the laundry room's cg is especially striking - seeing that screenshot is actually what convinced me to download the game!
The one critique I have of this game is that some of the UI is a little hard to navigate. Sometimes I'd press escape or try to click a button and it simply wouldn't pop up.
That being said, overall it was a really pleasant experience. I read in the devlog that WKTD was an influence on the game, and as someone who has WKTD as one of their favorite games of all time, I can certainly see it! Good job, and excited to see what you come up with in the future!
Hi mokadevs! Thank you so much for playing Seraphim Slum. We’re so glad you liked the art of the game: our 2D and 3D artists worked hard in tying the aesthetics together and I’m happy that it worked out for you.
Thanks for letting us know about the bugs! We’ll work on improving the UI in our next hot-fix.
Always so neat to see another WKTD fan in the wild! Thanks again for your comment, I hope you enjoy what we make in the future too.
I feel like I don't actually have the right words to properly explain how I feel about this one, so forgive me if my comment is kinda disjointed and clumsy x3 Overall, I really love how unique and so incredibly stylish the whole thing is :3 The art is gorgeous, the story is original and keeps drawing you in more and more as you play, and Ezekiel is a wonderfully intriguing MC to step into!
The atmosphere is almost suffocating but in a really decadent and beautiful way, if that makes any sort of sense, haha.
And just the way the narrative is delivered in general is a delight. It's like taking a dive into a deep, dark lake only to be caught by some beast that tries to drip, drip, drip despair into your soul until you drown x3 Very much my cup of tea, haha.
I should say that I haven't exhausted all of the possibilities yet! Initially, I refused to interact with anyone and was amused by the outcome, but then I decided to pick Macy to play with :3 From what I've heard so far though, the entire cast did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life!
All of the character designs are incredible, and I think Salxire's is probably my favourite, so whenever I return to this, I know who I'll be tormenting next :P
Hi Marionette! Thank you so much for your comment. I’m so glad that you’re enjoying Seraphim Slum and enjoying Ezekiel as an MC: she was such a fascinating one to get into the head of, and I can only hope this game is a fun (fun, being a tenuous word hehe) reflection of her psyche overall!
Your description of the beast of despair is too good! ;-; I’m happy you liked the decadent suffocation: that’s what I was trying to go for so I’m beyond glad that it came through + that you’re enjoying this game, because I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the characters if you choose to romance them ;D Salxire personally is my favourite! I hope you enjoy(?) tormenting her when you come back to this game, hehe :3
Thank you again for your thought-out, gorgeous comment! c:
Lovely game with great art, music and voice acting.
Thank you so much! We’re so glad you enjoyed Seraphim Slum.
I admire so many aspects of this visual novel: the unconventional style of the sprites; the lovely CGs; the voice acting; the enigmatic story that reveals its secrets in careful increments; the poetic, lyrical writing style that evokes such strong imagery and engages all the senses; the UI, especially for the choices; and the creative ways that persistent data is used across successive playthroughs.
I played the three routes and a bit of the afterword (?), and my favorite romantic interest has to be Salxire. Her more reserved, sometimes distrustful personality makes the most sense to me. The card games in her route stood out and entertained me the most, as somebody who appreciates these sorts of minigames in visual novels.
Sometimes, the red text was barely readable against the backgrounds. I recognize that this may have been the developer's intention, though. And the swift speed of the text at times does suggest to me that portions of the writing may be deliberately inaccessible by design.
Overall, this was a thought-provoking, literary, and ambitious project that I very much enjoyed experiencing. Congrats to the team for a job well done!
(Note: Copy-pasting this comment from the Spooktober VN Jam 2023 page.)
Hi ilyilaice! Thank you so much for your kind comment. We’re so happy that you appreciated the entirety of this VN; we worked really hard to make it all come together.
Personally, I’m so happy you liked Salxire’s route! She’s also my favourite in terms of her characterisation (and her relationship with Ezekiel) and I’m glad you found her route entertaining.
We intend to fix the red text and speed problem in our upcoming hotfix, so stay tuned for that (among other fixes, like adding cards to the card game segments)! ^^
Thanks again for playing! Rose c:
A VERY intriguing story with a cast of characters that make you want to learn more about them. I wasn't able to completely finish all the routes on stream, but I went back off stream to go through everything. I'm writing this after completing the routes off stream. This is a complex VN and so I'm giving you a complex critique.
First of all I must commend you on all the features and style added to the game. I think you achieved the effects and vibe you were hoping for. The writing and descriptions are detailed and beautiful. Ezekial feels like a unique protagonist/pov that I haven't experienced in a VN before. Ezekial was the character I enjoyed the most, but I did also like Macy's route and story. Honestly this really didn't feel like a dating sim to me, as each of the girls aren't really my type, but that's 100% okay and more of a personal thing. I viewed it more like watching someone take apart a bunch of clocks and open them up to see how they tick. I enjoy how the choices appear after you've already chosen the 'wrong' choice. There's so much care and work that went into this and it shows.
My two biggest issues stem from accessibility. While I understand that certain on screen text is made to be read quickly, they do not stay on screen long enough to read out loud. I understand that the text maybe wasn't supposed to draw on too long, but it had me going ??? what did that say??? Most of the time. In addition there was a few ear splitting sound effects. These sound effects were well placed and did lend to the story, but one of them had no ties to the volume slider in the options. Meaning if I wanted to stop the ear ringing noise, I had to mute the game entirely. Going through another route, same with the bubbling sound effect. It's so loud that it makes hearing the voice acting a little difficult despite having Voice Volume maxed out.
Also during my on stream playthrough I did encounter an instance where a door closing sound effect was looping instead of closing once.
(Writing as vague as I can) The cards are a fun addition but the update of our current cards feels like it breaks up the dialogue too much if there's no visual. I like when the cards are shown in a specific route and wish that they would show up for the others as well.
The intentional crashing of the game. I get it. I understand the effect that it's suppose to create. Though from a streamer's perspective, it was slightly annoying having to adjust my program to capture the game every single time it 'crashes'. There are other games that do a similar effect and crash the game, but because of the nature of VNs and how many possible 'wrong' answers that can be chosen, the crashing happened very frequently. Not sure what can be done as replacement, but have the same effect. Maybe have an option that doesn't 'crash' the game exactly but just returns the player to the main menu idk? With the many times the game goes back to the main menu, this also makes the 'ending' of the game a little anti-climatic or unclear whether it was the end or not. The only way I could tell was that the 'continue.' no longer allowed me to play.
All in all this is a very promising visual novel with a lot of to give. If you ever consider updating it I would maybe try to mostly look into the sound effect control that I mentioned.
Hi Elly! Thank you so much for your comprehensive review (and your fantastic stream and fanart!), we really appreciate the thought and care you’ve put behind our game.
We’re so happy to hear that you loved the style and features and the writing of the game! Our programmers were hard at work with the different choice results and they really appreciate what you had to say.
As for the critique, apologies about what you had to deal with re: the SFX! We’re working on fixing the sound for the next build.
We’ll absolutely take what you said about the crash mechanics into consideration! Crashing only to the menus is a good idea and we’ll see if we can make that more widespread throughout the build (which would also heighten emphasis on the times the game does crash for real). We also plan to add ending screens, which will hopefully make the endings feel less anticlimactic or confusing, as well as cards for Salxire Part 1.
Thank you once again for your playthrough and your care! We hope you’ve been keeping well :)
This game is awesome and super interactive, there's mini games you can play, the voice acting is amazing, the story is well written and most of all you can make the girls fall. If you want a dark yuri to play this year. I would 100% recommend this. Ezekiel best girl btw.
Hi Maple! Thank you so much for your feedback, we’re so happy to hear that you enjoyed Seraphim Slum! Ezekiel truly is best girl ❤️💔 We all love her in this house!
I don't usually play dating sims as such, but this one caught my attention because of the art direction, and it did not dissapoint! Also really liked how you guys implemented the divine/religious themes, and the overall vibe with the va direction, transitions, etc; creates an overall pretty unique experience, had a pretty good time with this :3
Thank you so much. This is such a compliment in a comment, and we're so pleased you enjoyed yourself with our game!