as if through glass
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Lamentable me, to live a peaceful life such as this.
A young person's fantasy, stripped of its magic,
sublimates to “please understand me,”
and “please apologize”
Unknowing that wishes lose their power when granted
If I’d had you with me, would things have been different?
because when I learned to pray, kindness saw me
frozen in time, as if through glass, and said:
what’s the point? we were rotten since the beginning,
just don’t drag anyone else down with you.
High school freshman Anise enters her spring semester during an unseasonable, unceasing rain. Girls’* relationships float through the waves of time as it passes with or without them.
Included:
- Relationships on the border of love, hate, and friendship
- Tumblr READMOREs
- The looming threat of Silicon Valley technocracy, of little relevance to a child
- The Trolley Problem
- Chinese immigrant parents
- “Coming of age”
20k words (1-2 hours).
This game is intended for audiences 18+. If you can’t stand it please spit吐 it out.
Click to expand content warnings, which contain spoilers.
- OCD
- Murder
- Suicide
- Homophobia
- Violence
- Implied sexual content
This game is by ebicon, a circle of friends, but in this specific world:
Everything else: ALTERLNX
Sound: C.DLX
Design Assistance: marinakazam
Sprite Assistance: evillittlebug
Reading: saturn, Terrier, marinakazam, C.DLX, evillittlebug
Other: Text shaders
This story is purely fiction.
To all my hometowns, thank you, and goodbye.
Download
Development log
- New Download: as if through glass OSTMar 26, 2026
- "as if through glass" postmortemMar 15, 2026
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Shit just kept hitting the fan, man. I loved how you built up all those short moments and interactions, especially with Jeanne and Charis. I really liked the characters. Thank you for this wonderful work!
I'm just starting the game but I'm loving the soundtrack omg. Is it available on spotify?
Hi! Sorry for the long overdue message.We don't plan to use Spotify at the moment but we do have a Bandcamp now: https://fragiliquid.bandcamp.com/, where you can stream the tracks. If you download the files I've seen (have not tested myself) some ways to sync with Spotify via local files
i liked the game *sobbing*
A game that will definitely haunt me for a while. The characters a very strong. I see ghosts of my past and people who I knew in them and it's an intense feeling. I had a to pause a lot while playing just to let everything settle in.
Really loved the visuals as well.
thanks for sharing this!
this is what i needed today
Charis :((((((((( MY HEART..!!
the tumblr posts made me wince (in a good way)... its so hard... being a teenager........................ its such a beautiful heartbreak. i wanted to give them all a hug :(
really good
whenever people use the term 'slice of life' i always hope they are of similar understanding as i, where works like this are pinnacle because it really goes above and beyond demonstrating the gothic beauty of the mundane and grotesque society, this story truly felt like it was 'lived in' i.e. dread and apathy and guilt and grief or i guess in this case 'grey foam' that cannot be expressed in words alone and manifest during awkward moments instead (also living with boomer parents and going to public school)
also, i remember seeing you saying that you have a complicated relationship with drawing at some point on bluesky (sorry if im misinterpreting/misremembering.) this work and its thoughtful relationship with 'visuals' art stood out to me the most and honestly struck me, so i hope you do appreciate your process beyond it being a means to an end because i really appriecated the wisdom this game demonstrated. i havent played butterfly aeffect yet but i will be sure to soon as well as anticipate future works from this circle. also im sorry i dont have any meaningful concrit in this review but i hope you know it touched me especially the ending portion.
hi kolulu ^^ thank you for your thoughtful and kind words, I'm really moved by everything you've commented. there's so much I want to say in response but it's hard to formulate, which I suppose is why I'm writing stories instead. "I understand what you're saying and I feel that you understood me as well"--experiencing this feeling is truly beyond anything I expected when publishing this.
I often had these "oh, I understand" moments when reading eventide. the slice of life scenes where years get distilled into a few words exchanged back and forth, again and again, where you as the reader are guessing which words bite down more than others... yeah. haha. It goes without saying that I'm looking forward to reading/rereading more from you as well
oh, and absolutely don't apologize, the concrit disclaimer is just an attempt to encourage any comment! including those who may not have enjoyed their time or had it not resonate with them...well...I've only gotten a bit of feedback like that, but I also value it and the time it takes to produce it. I'm always curious about what "I don't understand" means to people if they're willing to get into it...so anyway, just know that if you have the thought of whether it's "this didn't make sense", or "it would have been interesting if x happened instead of y",it's always welcome
Really an incredible work. I think the finely tuned honesty really shines through. I realized I don’t think I’ve ever seen portables mentioned in any medium really, and had sort of forgotten the word since school. But it gives it all such a fine grained texture without getting bogged down in the contemporary details. I also really adored the [read more]’s, as someone who once posted some and read very many. The GUI was also so fun and freewheeling, and the SFX so charming--a magic bow tying the whole experience together.
(Going to say “you” from here on, but with the understanding that this is an ebicon joint with a number of cool people contributing, with ALTER was steering the ship.)
You write relationships between girls in a really specific and wonderful way (I felt this about BAE too, but it REALLY jumps out here for me). You can feel all the bumps and ridges and pockets when you see them interact with each other or process an event. And it all feels so honest. Sort of unexpectedly, after finishing I suddenly thought to myself I was really excited for a new friend to come visit my messy apartment after having spent the weekend cleaning for the upcoming visit, and weirdly regretted cleaning it so much (although not really, since most of it was for myself anyways). But suddenly I felt really content and eager in this almost happily childish sort of way to show how shitty my closet organization is to a new friend that’s wormed their way into my heart already. And I think that just sort of sprung out of being moved to love these girls so much, and seeing how complicated and messy but genuine their feelings were for each other. And the shape of them being something I really relate to, but rarely am able to connect to in other writing. Then with the ending, it was just a feeling that everything would be okay, and that me and Anise and everyone else would all continue, even if loved ones disappeared and no one knew how to behave. What a CRAAAZYYYY thing to pull off!!! This is the same trick that has me owning like five hardcopies of Banana Yoshimoto books.
Anyways, a great work that really touched me. Thanks for making and sharing, really looking forward to the next ebicon work.
this was a beautiful and deeply relatable story. thank you for making something true to yourself. ebicon forevaaaa