HeartWare

HeartWare

Sabiá Studios · 2024 · RPG, Choose Your Own Adventure, Visual Novel, Casual, Point & Click

PC
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

About HeartWare

HeartWare is an interactive visual novel that invites players into a captivating story centered around Iris. The game explores her journey as she seeks meaningful connections and a sense of purpose. As the player, you will guide Iris through various scenarios, making choices that shape her experiences and determine the course of her story.

In HeartWare, every decision matters, leading to multiple unique endings that reflect your influence on Iris’s fate. Immerse yourself in a beautifully crafted world and uncover the depth of Iris’s personality as you navigate her journey. With rich storytelling, HeartWare offers an unforgettable experience that will keep you hooked from start to finish.

Are you ready to explore the heart and mind of Iris?

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

✦ AI summary

HeartWare is a short visual novel that attempts to recreate the meta-horror appeal of Doki Doki Literature Club with a technical gimmick involving a Ren'Py crash screen, but most players find it falls short of its inspiration. Common complaints center on poorly written dialogue, an unlikeable protagonist who pushes players away rather than building connection, stilted pacing, and the feeling that it's more of an amateur experiment than a polished game. Some appreciate the technical execution and novel idea, while others suggest the brevity and weak character development make it difficult to re

Recommended Aug 20, 2024
So basically, it's a short novel version of "Doki Doki Literature Club?" Alright, I can work with that. However, if I'm being honest on this, Iris was a lot more forward on wanting to get out of the game, rather than wanting to bond with the player, so making a "connection" between us, didn't feel like connecting. This story kind of feels "Dark,""Unwanted," & "Used/Personal Gained!" Now that I'm thinking twice on this game, I honestly don't think it's right at all about what this game is showing/telling, & I should be giving this game the "Thumbs Down" sign! But I'm willing to give this game the "Thumbs Up," ONLY BECAUSE it's relatable to the pacific game that I just mentioned earlier. So Physically Speaking; feel free to enjoy it, if you wish. But Personally Speaking; I wouldn't do it, that is if you have any metal issues, then I truly suggest you should NEVER play this short game or the DDLC games either.
6 found this helpful
Not recommended Jan 19, 2026
"HeartWare" is not a game, it's an e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game. This short and awful e-book is exactly what it looks like and exactly what so many garbage e-book fan-fictions on Steam are... a high school anime club dropout fan-fiction about the authors imaginary girlfriend, a little anime girl. This one features an underaged girl, so this is equal parts horrible cringe and utter creepiness. It's tough having an imaginary high school girlfriend when you're not allowed within 200m of a school. In this book the author fantasizes about a dating sim style discussion with his imaginary girlfriend and that's about it. There's zero literary value in this creepy cringe. This was slapped together with the godawful …
3 found this helpful
Not recommended Sep 28, 2024
The coding is good (despite the waiting times), and like someone already said, [spoiler]the crash screen got me and I think it's a great idea[/spoiler]. That being said, it's not interesting and the character isn't likeable in the slightest (because, unlike Monika, we get absolutely no time to meet her - also I got genuinely annoyed right at the beginning, when [spoiler]she stops us from meeting the cool-looking other two[/spoiler], which didn't help). All in all, it feels like someone experimenting with renpy more than a real, engaging game/story. I don't hate it but I don't see a reason to really recommend it, aside from like one new idea.
2 found this helpful
Recommended Sep 11, 2024
I dunno fam, this one's a tough one. I get what it was trying to pull off. It even succeeded, in some respects - the Ren'Py crash screen caught me off guard, initially. But the writing felt so stilted and jarring at times that it broke the experience. It's free, so I guess you might as well give it a shot? But it just didn't quite feel right, in the end.
2 found this helpful
Recommended Jul 31, 2024
gameplay https://youtu.be/i6zOcjWCzXQ
1 found this helpful
Recommended Mar 9, 2025
its a interesting game, but a bit short. A longer story would fit this game quite well. I would give it a try.

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