Yearning: A Gay Story, or YAGS, is a realistic coming-out-focused character-driven slice-of-life visual novel where you play as a gay man starting his freshman year of college at a generic university somewhere in the midwestern United States. The game features dating sim elements, but is not focused on them.

You will interact with a cast of characters, each with their own personality and stories, as you navigate college life, develop friendships, play board games, and come out. With luck, you might even find a boyfriend.

You can download YAGS from itch.io or other storefronts now! It's free!

Also see the FAQ for more information, or read the development blog. Or follow YAGS on twitter or lemmasoft.

You may also be interested in YAGS: Booty Call, a series of click-and-drag minigames set in the YAGS universe, or Zen: A Gay Sequel (or ZAGS), the sequel to YAGS currently in development.

YAGS Features

• A world where you can befriend people and see events from different perspectives, depending on your decisions
• 4 dateable guys* with their own distinct stories, with good and bad endings for each guy (9 in all*)
• 230,000+ words and meaningful choices
• Collectibles system to track and reward your decisions
• Achievements, for completionists
• Unlockable in-game character profiles

YAGS is not meant to be a short game, but I hope that its length is justified in the end. Please allot several hours for each playthrough, and make liberal use of the save functionality.

* Or are there?