I played Without Within, a freeware visual novel from Australia-based independent developer InvertMouse, earlier today. It's only 20~30 minutes long, but I absolutely loved the sweet story of an unsuccessful calligrapher's dreams to make it big. The illustrations are adorable too. It can be enjoyed in English or Chinese (both traditional and simplified).
The story is essentially linear, although there are a number of binary choices in which one option will result in a short bad ending. The 'correct' choice is fairly obvious in each case, however, so a walkthrough is unnecessary.
There is a Kickstarter project for an "upgraded edition" of the game, as well as a variety of physical rewards.
The publisher hopes to release the visual novel on Steam. It is up for voting on the service's Greenlight programme. But why wait for a Steam release when you can download Without Within today!
I should check out some of InvertMouse's other games…
