A downloadable game for Windows

Download NowName your own price

!!This game contains very heavy and sensitive topics, and it is thus only suitable for adults!!

Play as a mysterious trauma cleaner as he faces the end of society as we know it, brought to its knees by a new and unknown phenomenon that has no cure.

Having given up on most things, every day feels to him like the same sluggish chore of waking up, cleaning, going to sleep and repeating.

That is, until he receives a request like none other from a man he barely knows.


- A thrilling story to discover and unravel as you progress

- 5 cleanable locations

- 6 mini-games for cleaning

- A chill, high-quality lo-fi soundtrack

- An exclusive artbook that comes with the game (sold separately)


Playtime: A few hours


Steam keys will also be available for people who purchase the artbook when the Steam cooldown will end! :)


Commands:

Movement- Arrows/WASD

Run - Shift

Interact - Enter/Space

Skip Text- PageDown/PgDn

Save - V


Thank you to everyone for your support, it has been an amazing experience!

We hope you will enjoy the full game! :)

We've released an artbook as well, but only do buy it if you like the game.

No pressure at all, we do understand that times are hard for everyone!


Our Profiles:

https://twitter.com/Spongey_Kitty

https://itch.io/profile/spongey-kitty

Warnings:

-A Graphic Card is needed for some mini-games and to play the videos.


Game made for the Yaoi Game Jam 2022:

https://itch.io/jam/yaoi-jam-game-2022

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

The Cleaner _ 2.0.zip 605 MB
The Cleaner_GameJam_Part1.zip 259 MB
Devbook_The Cleaner.pdf 56 MB
if you pay $1 USD or more

Development log

View all posts

Comments

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 80 · Next page · Last page

I don't think I've been more compelled to write a comment on a game I've completed before.
This game is a masterpiece.
The storytelling was great, and you really get invested in the characters.
The gameplay was simple and kept me engaged, while being much more invested in the story.
Now I just need some fanfiction to soothe my heart cause- ;-;

The ending QAQ

(+1)

I have never cry so much for a game, it was beautiful story.The characters were well written and soundtract amazing I love this game!

(+1)

very well done. sad but interesting story!

is this gay?

(+2)

Goodness gracious I cried so hard several times, But most of the story I was able to theorize beforehand like how he was Jess's brother and how it was impossible for him to not have developed a core due to him having feasible feelings for Daniel. I hope to see a sequel to this! Maybe just a visual novel where they reunite in the next world if it does exist.

(3 edits) (+1)

(FEW SPOILERS ABOUT THE LORE)                                    This was honestly one of my best experiences with visual-novel genre games. The ending was sad, but I felt there was no other fitting conclusion to the story otherwise. As I continued farther into the game and took a liking or sort of got attached to the lore of the game, the main character ending up with the same fate again had me a bit panicked myself worried about HIS future. I'm more than satisfied with the ending.                                    The story itself and the emotions it had me feeling throughout really can't be put into words for me. It was just beautiful and hypothetically speaking if there was an apocalypse nearing the world, then I would possibly expect it to play out like this game has portrayed it (maybe excluding cleaners and the Void, etc...). I believe and would go as far as to say that the concept of the world ending and peoples' reactions and responses towards it are interesting to observe in the game's lore. You have people like the Cleaner who aren't too bothered about it and focus more on their routines or job, they don't have too much people close to them so they just accept the fact it's always going to be just them alone at the end. You have people like Daniel who still have hope or still cling on to the old world, and want things to go back the way they were. These two people share their days with eachother and end up changing themselves as well, while learning about jess too.Anyways, obsessing over the story and spoiling aside, I appreciate the creator of the game. I honestly wonder how devs get ideas for games that are so great, and where in the world this AMAZING lore comes from. Thank you SO SO MUCH for the creating this game!!! I LITERALLY CRIED AT THE END AND WANTED TO WRITE ALL ABOUT WHAT IM FEELING RIGHT NOW. OHMYGOD WHERE WAS THIS GAME BEFORE??? I LOVED IT. I really hope they got the new world.


my game just won't load??? :( i installed it here and then purchased the steam version but both just keep on a black screen

GOOOODDD EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME IS SO GOOD IM NOT EVEN JOKING??? THE STORYLINE AND ALL IT LITERALLY MADE ME CRY... SRSLY... I LOVE THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND TROPE SO MUCH IT HURTS JAWDKADHKJSN THIS GAME NEEDS MORE RECOGNITION ISTG

This game is amazing and I have to admit, I teared up several times while playing, and definitely cried at the end. Absolutely amazing story and I do hope they all got their happy ending.

GOD DAMMIT. THIS GAME IS TOO GOOD. God I almost cried, punched me right in the feels, man.

Hey, congrats on the game! I love the concept.

My team and I are currently working on a volunteer project for Pride Month and I think your game would be a great candidate. In short, we want to translate a queer game for free to give visibility to LGBT gaming. Would you be interested? 

Please message me on Twitter @Liar_is_fire, or by email at caroline.tsakanias@gmail.com so I can give you more info! We’re closing applications in a few days so make sure you don’t miss it :) 

I played it a long time ago but couldn't find it again. Now, here I am again, and I've to say what of an awesome game this is. I cried for MINIMUM 30 MINUTES STRAIGHT after ending the game. It's beautiful. 11/10, would play it a hundred times more if I had the time.

Que jogo lindo sério, é um dos melhores e mais emocionante que já joguei.

This game has reignited my love for single-player experiences. showing me how powerful they can be.

(-1)

The character designs in this game are so creative and imaginative. I love seeing what new characters I'll meet next.

Play this game blind, it is worth it, their story is worth it, I only ache that the end is where it was, but this is the most emotionally provoking game. At first I didn't like the characters, there was nothing to them, but as they became more defined, they became more amiable, and by the end of it, I found myself so attached I didn't want to let them go.


I hope the promise was kept, they deserve that much, at the very least.

One of the best story games ive ever played...

(1 edit)

played the game blind. expected disturbing stuff, got my eyes bawling in return. jokes aside, the story and mini-games are so good. I got so attached to the characters, they need to get married in the new world!!!!! (if it exists :3)

the continue isnt working :(

my save got deleted and doing all that dialog and cleaning again isnt happening :/

my honest and "objective" review (spoiler-free):

i had a hard time understanding the "hype" surrounding the game after reading the reviews when i started playing. however, i believe that players looking for a well-written story should definitely stick around. 

i especially liked the game because it's not pretending to be something it's not. the plot was albeit p********le good, the music matched the ambiance, and it's really enjoyable. though i was on edge at times, i have come to appreciate the design choices made since they tie nicely with the lore. the MC was also great, and i relate to him immensely.

rather than fun, this game was a mysterious and unique journey. i was moved by the ending, and i believe the episodes leading to it were brought with finesse.


the biggest critic i would give is that one of the mini-games (the one where you have to press "enter" several times to fil the bar) was actual nightmare-inducing, and my arms now hurt from it.


thank you for this game. though i now have a lot to think about, i am leaving with no regrets.

(+1)

I've never cried so hard over a game before in my life---that was so damn beautiful!! Those two had my heart and smashed it to bits.

(+1)

SO SO SO SO GOOD OH MY GOD. I bawled my eyes out and I feel empty now that I finished it. Such a beautiful story and character development. Thank you for this experience omg.

(+2)

Such a beautiful game and story.

(+2)

i cried for like 30 mins after this, it was an amazing and vivid story with more depth than i could have ever imagined 100000/10

Hello, I received a fail to load error for audio/bgs/aj%201480%20TVStatic1.ogg while they're cleaning the kitchen area for the 1st time and the cleaner is tweakin. I try to Retry but it is constantly popping up and I can't proceed normally anymore.

while im cleaning jess's house, when i dot the last bit of trash in the entrance, it glitches out and says "Uncaught LoadError,chrome-extension://njgcanhfjdabfmnlmpmdedalocpafnhl/movies/Cleaning01.webm,()=>{this._element.load();}"

and i cant continue, what do i do

nvm, idk what that was but i cleaned up in a differnt order and i'm able to continue

This story literally made me cry.  I don't know why I was expecting a happy ending but I guess I just hoped that it would show them all being the new world that was promised to them. I hope that they do get their happy ending.
(+2)

This make me bawled my eyes out, the story is so well written that I wish I could see this story as an animation or a manga. Maybe one of the other commentor is right that it being a cleaning game limit the story in itself but I can't blame you guys since its in a time constraint. I do have to say that you guys did really well with the story, the music, and the art. Good luck on future project! 

bawled my eyes out just bought on steam so I could get the artbook.

beautiful story that I got so attached to.

I kind of want to write a story about it, though I'm not sure I would ever post it anywhere. Is that something you would be okay with?

(+1)

Hello! :D

We're glad you've enjoyed the game! :)

Absolutely, feel free to write anything you want! It would be our honor, whether it is made public or not.

If you have any question related to the story/lore/anything else feel free to contact us :)

Best of luck to you and your creative endeavors!

(+1)

WOW I was so invested in the story! It was so beautiful and tragic, and though I wish we could've seen a little epilogue to know what happens to them both after the ending it was still great. 

(+2)

Thank you so very much! :)

It will be in a long while because we have other games planned before that, but there is a much longer sequel fully written, so we hope we'll be able to bring it to you someday! :)

In the meantime, do imagine any future you want for them ;)

(+1)

i wish the game would become a bit more ... idk how to say just clean 6 things nd reading all time isnt much a game for me was more like one of this manga sites where u need to watch an add for few sec to read again.. thats why i don't really got into that story- really missed more endings here or choices than just klicking randomly to the end.

That is a totally fair take! We wanted to add a lot more, but since it was a game jam game and we only add a month to make a playable demo, a lot of things had to be sacrificed. For the next game there won't be any time constraints so we'll try adding a lot more stuff :)

Hopefully we'll still see you there!

(+1)

IM NOT CRYING YOU ARE

Maybe we both are ;)

Amazing, beautiful! I wish I could find the words to describe how this game made me feel. Crying my eyes out, I just pray they made it safely to the new world!

Hello, srry to bother about it, how does it work to purchase the artbook please? The story was so beautiful I would love to support and have a piece of it to keep <3

(+1)

Hello! :)

Thank you very much for the support!

You have two choices:
1.When you press the download button here on itchio, there should be an option to donate, and if you do the artbook should be downloadable as well.

2.You can buy the steam version and it will contain the artbook, the price is around the same (0.99 vs 1.00 dollar) but no pressure of course :)


If you do one of these two options but there is any kind of problem, feel free to contact us and we'll help you out as best as we can!

kittyspongey@gmail.com if you would rather contact us by email


Have a wonderful day! :D

Thank u for ur answer, it worked perfectly <3

After reading the artbook, I would like to ask if u plan on puttin some sketches n all about the process n the visuals ideas u had before the polished steps? It would be so cool! N I also would like to ask if u plan on doin virtuals posters or wallpaper? Thanks again <3

(+1)

Sorry for the delay, it has been a busy couple of weeks!

Unfortunately I'm only one person making the games so while I'd love to bring you more goodies it might be tough :(

Any time I spend on extra stuff is time I don't spend on making the next game, and I also have a full-time job :'(

But hopefully one day I'll learn to draw much faster! :)


In the good news, the next games should have more material since they won't be game jam games, so I have more time to plan things out :)


Thank you so very much for your amazing comments, I wish you a wonderful day!

And I'll give a thought about more freebies :)

Awww okay no worries! U need to take care of urself first <3

Thank u for ur answer, hope it works out well for u <3 (:

(+2)

I'm crying, this was an amazing journey,I hope they get the ending they deserve. I'm gonna get the artbook now, everyone seems to say its amazing, after this experience I surely want to see the next. Thank you for this amazing game

(+2)

I'm writing sobbing, can't even see my keyboard and why didn't you give us a last ending with them together this was so beautiful but my heart is shattered I can't stop. Crying you don't understand I need a GIF THAT CONTAINS ALL MY ANGUISH and there is none. This can't be... possible I don't have any words just this game was a piece of art and I want to buy the art book and whatever you have, take my money ;;

(+1)

I just got the artbook so at least I'll cry but reading about the characters NO DANY BOY we also saw the red. FLowers. they were so beautiful. I'm so sad bro.

(+2)

Thank you for sharing this. I stuck with the story for a whole 3 hour sitting and it really resonated with me. Thank you again! <3

(2 edits)

i want someone to make a theory about this so much- but i will say, i will become a hopeful idiot and say that- in the future the red tulips will be real.

edit: i just bought the artbook and read page 62 so i believe in her.
i can sleep peacefully now

Im sorry, but, may i ask where do you buy the artbook? im kinda lost

i actually bought the game on steam- and the artbook was in the document file :D

Thnk you :D !!

ohohohoho the artbook is so good guys. the whole thing is good, but the last two pages... let's just say they give you more to think about in regards to the lore


I cant wait to see where this concept goes in the future! I'd love to know more about the Void and the Goddess!

Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 80 · Next page · Last page