mixed habitat & densely vegetated hiding places

Continuing my month of games by trans and nonbinary developers, I played Secret Little Haven by Victoria Dominowski of Hummingwarp Interactive.



This visual novel centers on Alex, a trans girl who hasn't yet realized she's trans. Taking place over a few days in 1999, the game is presented entirely through Alex's computer, where you can chat with friends, browse web forums, read and add to Alex's fanfiction, and play games-within-the-game. (I've heard "interface drama" proposed as a subgenre name for this style of VN.)



The chat program is the core of the gameplay; through interweaving conversations, you learn about Alex and the people in her life, all of whom are compelling characters with struggles of their own. Most of Alex's friends are people she knows only through fandom, and the game masterfully evokes the experience of getting to know people online, especially when you're young—finding people who are kindred spirits in some ways, but may have real life circumstances that are very different from yours.

Alex isn't just figuring out her gender, she's also expanding her knowledge of the world beyond her family, her school, her hometown, her assumptions... You can see how these new perspectives are shaping the kind of person she is maturing into—solidifying not only who she is, but who she wants to be and how she wants to show up for other people.



The writing and design perfectly capture the vibe and culture of the 1999 internet, especially the forum for the magical girl anime Alex is a fan of. It had me fully immersed and absolutely believing these posts were from real people. I was so invested that I even cared about the fandom drama! (When one character threatened to quit fandom, I literally gasped.)

By default, the visuals are adjusted to suggest a CRT monitor screen, but I found that mode hard on my eyes. Fortunately there's an option to turn it off.



There are also some segments that break out of strict realism, especially when Alex interacts with her emotionally abusive father. When he messages her, the chat client seems to glitch, graying out all other options and forcibly editing Alex's words into what her father thinks he hears. This is very effective at putting you in Alex's shoes, feeling her helplessness as he berates her. So, content warning for that!



Though you can choose Alex's approach to her interactions and influence how they play out to some extent, the story is mostly on rails and there's just one ending. There's only one real puzzle in the game where it might not be obvious how to proceed. But I think the sandboxy nature of the UI makes things feel a little more open and interactive, since you decide when to respond to messages, how thoroughly you check the forums, how much time to spend on the minigames, etc. I loved the conclusion, which ties together the plot threads with compassion and insight, and builds to a wonderful catharsis. I cried!

As a trans person who was 17 and in fandom in 1999, I am pretty much exactly the target audience for this game, but I think it would still work even if the nostalgia is lost on you. This is a game that understands that online friendships and communities really matter, especially for people who are misfits in real life, and that's just as true today as it was then.

Secret Little Haven is available on Steam for $4.99 USD. It's an immersive and thoughtful coming-of-age story that I highly recommend. It's short (I completed it in less than four hours) and well worth your time.