Yearning: A Gay Story

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!

Shortlisted for the 2020 Melbourne Queer Game FestivalTop 5 LGBTQIA+ Visual Novels by VNGameDen

Also see the FAQ for more information, or read the development blog. Or follow YAGS on twitter or lemmasoft. See the fair use policy for streams/LPs/fanworks.

You may also be interested in Zen: A Gay Sequel (or ZAGS), the full sequel to YAGS, or other games in the YAGS universe.

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?