About the Demo

The Messy Hearts Demo contains Volume 1 of the Visual Novel. The volume is made up of 9 chapters, and it takes about an hour to play through.

About the Game

In this retro-inspired, pixel art visual novel, a workplace friendship begins to unravel.            

Follow two coworkers as their connection deepens, blurs, and ultimately breaks. Set during a painful chapter of life, Messy Hearts explores mental health, trauma, blurry boundaries, and the complicated ways people can hurt each other.

Florence and Their Messy Life

You play as Florence, a game dev, parent, and lonely person trying to stay afloat in a life already full of stress and vulnerability.

When a married coworker starts offering unexpected friendship, Florence finds comfort in their growing connection. Their friendship slowly twists into something painful and disorienting, and a slow-motion collision unfolds that they both pretend not to see coming.

This is an all-too-common story, told through fictional characters, and inspired by painful relationships.

How to Play

Messy Hearts is a single-player narrative with some choices that take the form of journal entries on mental health.

Told in a comic book-style format with pixel art, the game invites players to click through Florence’s memories like pages of a journal, a text thread, or a conversation snippet.

Characters along the way can be collected, along with a log of our choices and why they matter.