Vampire Therapist – Demo Impressions

Centuries of experience brings centuries of baggage.

Vampire Therapist

Developer: Little Bat Games

Release Date: 18 July 2024

Guide vampires through centuries of emotional baggage, decades of delusions and the odd bout of self-loathing with real cognitive behavioral therapy concepts and become a Vampire Therapist! Even vampires need a shoulder to cry on when a neck to bite just won’t do.

Vampire Therapist caused my brain such conflicting opinions that despite the game not feeling entirely for me, I had to write up some impressions. Generally, if I don’t completely vibe with a game then I don’t do a write up as indies need all the help they can get, deserve all of the love, and if a game is not for me that is ok, it is probably for someone else. This demo, just like life, had its peaks and valleys, and once I got to the summit I just wanted to shout about it, despite the trudging I felt I had to do to get there.

The complication with writing about my valley is that it is all about the tone of the game, which of course is entirely subjective. Horniness around vampires feels like a well established trope at this point, and while I believe it is supposed to contrast with any more serious tones occurring, I just personally didn’t find it endearing at all. If anything, it was a little off-putting. However, once I reached the meat of the game, it felt worth it.

Vampire Therapist is a visual novel where we play as Sam, a vampire with a mission to help other vampires. Over his centuries alive he has met a few people and learned some things. He is now ready to pay it forward under the mentorship of an already established therapist. While part of me expected a meme game, it didn’t take long from this point to provide me with legitimate profound moments, suddenly making me want to take it a whole lot more seriously.

As Sam is chatting to his new mentor about himself, you are taught about certain thought patterns that can occur – generally unhelpful but sometimes involuntary habits that you may not even recognise that you are doing. The aim of the game is to recognise when your client is expressing these behaviours, identifying which it is and calling them out on it. In the demo I spoke to two clients, and since then I have also caught myself doing almost every one of these same behaviours in real life. That is what flipped my opinion of the game and made me want to play more despite not enjoying the rest of the style very much.

Anyone who has ever had therapy before knows that therapists can’t solve your problems. What they can do is give you a safe space to address things, and share tools, growing your own toolbox so that you are better equipped to deal with the challenges that face you. I feel like, so far, the game represents that really well.

Overall.. I could be bitter, deciding not to play or recommend the game as the tone is not catered to me. OR, I could take the parts that resonate, let go of my control fallacy enjoy the game for what it is, which for me is a thought provoking environment to practice healthy habits through entertaining stories.

Demo Length – 1 hour
At a glance
+ Could help teach habits of checking and identifying your own thought patterns.
+ Very forgiving, these is no failing.
+ Centuries old characters have so much opportunity to have interesting stories.
+ Fully voice acted.
+ Recurring characters.
+ Treats therapy respectfully.
+/- The tone.

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Blue Prince – Demo Impressions

Schrödinger’s Mansion.

Blue Prince

Developer: Dogubomb

Release Date: To be announced

Welcome to Mt. Holly, where every dawn unveils a new mystery. Navigate through shifting corridors and ever-changing chambers in this genre-defying strategy puzzle adventure. But will your unpredictable path lead you to the rumored Room 46?

Blue Prince is a first person, exploration puzzle game where you will be using RNG and resource management to make your way through an ever changing mansion. Almost all of what you find is temporary, but some lessons will stay with you as you reset each day, making another attempt at traversing this bemusing abode.

The gameplay is very decision focused. The house you are exploring is made up of Schrödinger’s rooms – every room simultaneously existing and not until you open the door. What I mean by that is, every door that you open will grant you a choice. Three different types of rooms are presented to you and you can pick which one you want to walk into, adding it into the bluprint map that you carry around with you. Layout, benefits and resources within all need to be carefully considered as you attempt to make your way towards the north of the house. 

I am going to make a potentially strange comparison so bare with me here, but I can’t help but feel a lot of very similar feelings that I get when I play The Binding of Isaac. Blue Prince doesn’t have combat and is an entirely different tone, but RNG and resource management are two stand out mechanics of Isaac, ensuring every run is entirely different and causing difficult decisions. Where Isaac has it’s keys, bombs, coins and health, Blue Prince has keys, gems, coins and steps. You are going to want them all but whether you get them is another question. Movement itself being a currency adds another complication, as your keys aren’t worth anything if you pass out as you open the door.

Continuing with the Isaac theme, you are not going to be able to do everything in one go. The items that you draw in TBoI inform how you play your run – for better or worse. A similar thing happens here, except it isn’t only the items that you have found, it is also the rooms that go with them. For example, you may find a room with dig spots but never make it to a shovel. This coulddd be considered annoying and even cruel, but if you are anything like me, it will trigger the synergy hunting and experimentation part of your brain. No run is wasted when you have a goal to try something new, and even if you don’t succeed, you are likely to run into something else.

The last thing that I want to bring up about my first impressions are how I enjoyed the whole concept of the puzzle solving, from the micro to the macro. Every type of room that you draw may or may not contain something relevent to the overarching mystery. This makes it extremely tempting to use new rooms immediatly, even when there is a chance that they will mess up your route or lead to a dead end. In doing this I managed to find some neat things that I will need to write down on paper for the full game. There are also individual puzzle rooms, containing bite sized puzzles that serve their purpose well. They take less than a minute to solve, you get your reward and then are back to the rest of the problems at hand.

I was impressed that by the end of the demo I had found so many loose ends that I had not found the answer to, and sad that I couldn’t continue on. I have never played a puzzle game like this, it is very unorthodox but it is exactly my flavour of dopamine and I really hope the rest of the game lives up to the first couple of hours.

Demo Length – 1-2 hours
At a glance
+ Overarching macro puzzles.
+ Smaller puzzles within.
+ Tough decisions.
+ Short runs.
+ Time to think.
+ So unique.
+/- Doesn’t hold your hand.
+/- Resource scarcity.
+/- RNG – was fun for the demo but has chance to get frustrating.

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Times & Galaxy – Demo Impressions

It is a pleasure to report that this game is stellar.

Times & Galaxy

Developer: Copychaser Games

Release Date: 2024

Embark on an interplanetary adventure as the first robo reporter for the Times & Galaxy, the solar system’s most trusted holopaper. You’re just an intern, but if you can get the scoop, write great stories, and impress your colleagues, maybe you’ll get to keep your job!

I am having a blast with all of the new ideas on display at LudoNarraCon 2024 and Times & Galaxy is no exception. In this demo we are an intern robo reporter, given the opportunity to take on 2 very different cases and explore our central hub.

I am not a stranger to adventure style games, particularly enjoying the detective type. In those games you generally hunt for clues, trying to get to the bottom of a mystery in order to deliver justice. Times & Galaxy takes that general concept but adds its own entirely new spin on it. We do get to inspect scenes, snooping around as we see fit and interviewing witnesses, professionals and suspects alike, but delivering justice isn’t necesserily the end goal, unless you want it to be.

Our actual goal is storytelling. Just because we have figured out the culprit of a crime it doesn’t mean we actually have to tell anyone, especially if it aligns with our own morals or interests (how morally right or wrong that is is a whole other discussion). It is up to us to choose the angle of the story that we present to our readers based on the information that we have collected. Writing about a spaceship crash.. Do we implicate the police, do we play it down due to the fact that it is not an infrequent occurrence in this area, or do we expose a huge scandal that we may or may not have discovered based on how much digging we did. Do we respect a persons wishes for anonymity at the cost of our reputability, or do we break their trust and tell everyone exactly who the are for our gain. We get to shape the identity of our cosmic newspaper one story at a time.

I already applauded the whole twist on the detective genre, but there was a second stroke of genius here – setting the game in space. I would have been happy enough trekking around our world reporting on global events, but the extra terrestrial setting allows for anything to happen. Anything. What a choice this was. You can give me the most mundane scoop to chase and there will be fun in it due to this funky universe we are scrutinizing. Of course, the cases available so far are anything but mundane. When my colleague scoffs at me for being delegated menial cases like the intergalactic cat show, all I can do is scoff back about the things I saw.

The excitement of space shines through the entire style of the game. Colourful, cute and creative, it is almost comic like which makes sense in this world because we are literally making holopapers. This runs through everything from the UI to the environments we are scouring. It is all so bold, smooth, and it just fits. The puzzle isn’t only about finding as much information as possible, but asking the right questions to get responses that fit your narrative.

If you are looking for a new take on the adventure genre where you value being learning about and being within a world as much as the play, then I do recommend checking this one out. It is charming, it is cosy as heck and it gave me a good laugh.

Demo Length – 1 hour 30mins+
At a glance
+ New take on detective genre.
+ Player has a lot of agency.
+ The reward for exploring is getting more data for you to decide how to use.
+ Creative cases.
+ The reveal in Chapter 2 got me good.
+ I really appreciate the commitment to the jokes.
+ Feels it will be easy to pick up and play a story at a time.
+ The bold and colourful aesthetic is energizing.
+ Only being able to ask a limited amount of questions makes you think about which questions are worth asking.
+/- Has a familiar, comfortable structure of hub, story, hub, story.

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Rusty’s Retirement – Demo Impressions

Not so rusty after all.

Rusty’s Retirement

Developer: Mister Morris Games

Release Date: Q2 2024

Plant crops, produce biofuel, and automate! A relaxing idle-farming simulator that sits at the bottom of your screen while you do other things.

Rusty’s Retirement is an innovative idle game that I imagine we will see inspiring other games of its kind in the years to come.

What makes Rusty’s Retirement stand out from the rest is that it is designed to be accessible when you are doing other things on your PC, whether that is watching YouTube or Twitch, working, or even playing another game. This game sits at the bottom of your screen taking up maybe a quarter of your monitor, allowing you to flick your eyes down to check on your little working farm at any time you please.

Farming and automation feel like a perfect fit for the idle genre, I am surprised I haven’t played this mixture before but I am glad that this one was my first. Growing crops in this game is simultaneously faster and slower than in a regular farming sim. Faster in the sense that you don’t have to wait for in-game days to pass, but slower in the sense that all you have to do is wait, at least early on. As you progress though you can turn your attention to other things such as upgrading your machines for better productivity and decorating your little slice of agricultural heaven.

I had the game running in the background for quite a lot of time during the Steam Next Fest. It is very refreshing to have it sat at the bottom of a second monitor, just checking in every now and again to plant new seeds and checking what I needed to produce in order to unlock the next type of vegetable. The progression doesn’t require a lot of focus but I personally found it nice to take a minute whenever there was a halt in my work and be distracted, ready to focus again once I had planted my seeds.

One thing to note – I wouldn’t really recommend Rusty’s Retirement as a first Idle Game, or at least the version of the demo that I played. This is simply due to the lack of tutorial. I have played a couple of idle games and various automation games but I still wasn’t 100% certain what to do at first glance. Of course, some of the fun for some folk may be figuring that out, but I feel previous familiarity would be very beneficial.

Overall, I honestly think Mister Morris Games are onto something here. I would not at all be surprised to see this concept take off with all sorts of other ideas that I can’t even imagine yet. It is a companion game that doesn’t demand your constant attention all of the time, just being there for you when you have a moment. The way that the larger games industry leans more and more towards live service and monetization every passing year, demanding full attention, daily logins or thousands of hours, Rusty’s Retirement feels humble, elegant and for the player. I wish them all of the success.

Demo Length – 8+ hours
At a glance
+ A genius innovative idea.
+ Cozy vibes.
+ ‘Always on top’ option allows me to interact with other windows without hiding or affecting the game.
+/- Only as engaging as it needs to be (allowing you to get back to work between planting sessions)
Could use a small tutorial

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Duck Detective: The Secret Salami – Demo Impressions

A quacking time.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami – Demo Impressions

Developer: Happy Broccoli Games

Release Date: 2024

Solving crime is no walk in the pond. You are a down-on-his-luck detective who also happens to be a duck. Use your powers of de-duck-tion to inspect evidence, fill in the blanks, and bust the case wide open, in a narrative mystery adventure where nothing is quite as it seems.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami leaves an immediate impression. Within the first 30 seconds of the demo I was staring at the screen, slack-jawed, processing what I was experiencing with amused delight.

In Duck Detective we scour environments, taking clues both officially and through context. We chat to friends, strangers and presumably suspects. The goal is to fill in the de-duck-tion sheet, placing the correct clue into the correct place in the story. Only then do we solve the immediate mystery and move onto the next, learning about our main chacter as we go. It is simple but fun as there are multiple solutions that will make sense. It is up to the player to fill in the gaps with the background knowledge that you will find via snooping.

While Duck Detective may feel like a light hearted comedy, there is more to it than that. It has a tragic side as it oozes noir, with the voice over dialogue and soft jazz. The game presents its dad puns openly, but between the lines, dark humour and satire are equally present.

I was overjoyed to discover the game is fully voiced. It is like a multiplier on an already atmospheric and charismatic game, not only making it more streamable for creators like me, but allowing the jokes to land in the way that the writers intended.

Finally, the full demo was short and sweet, showing everything it needed to and nothing more. At a time where demos seem to become increasingly more lengthy, it was a refreshing treat to be able to jump in and be sold within 20 minutes.

Demo Length – 20 mins
At a glance
+ Noir atmosphere.
+ Voice acting.
+ Logic puzzles requiring you to pay attention to context.
+ Funny puns and satire.
+ Attention to detail.
+/- The puzzles were quite simple.

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Paper Trail – Demo Impressions

No ripping or tearing here.

Paper Trail

Developer: Newfangled Games

Release Date: 2024

Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle adventure about leaving home, set in a foldable, paper world.

Paper Trail is an artful, puzzle game. I recommend turning the lights out, having no other distractions and getting absorbed in the atmosphere provided by the stunning colour palettes and understated but beautiful soundtrack.

Played entirely with the mouse, Paper Trail feels silky smooth to control. Every location that you enter is a piece of paper that can be folded from any of its edges. What is on the back of the paper is different to what is on the front, providing new paths for Paige to bypass the obstacles in her way should they be folded correctly.

The game gives you the ability to view what is on the back of the page, and doing so felt like a glimpse into another world. While the function of this is for puzzle solving purposes, I liked to imagine that what we see on the flip side is a view of the same location in times long gone. Seeing where our character stands now through the page, encouraged by the melancholic music evoked feelings of a history lost to time, a sad but inevitable thing that thoroughly captures my imagination.

The closest game that I have played to Paper Trail is Gorogoa, a puzzle game taking place on panels. While they play differently and each have their own unique mechanics, if you like one there is a big chance you will like the other too for the ingenuity, commitment to the idea of their craft and a roundabout exploration of a fantasy world a little different to our own.

Demo Length – 40 mins

At a glance
+ Art direction.
+ Soundtrack.
+ Colour palettes.
+ Checking the back of the papers.
+ Played entirely with mouse.
+ Unique idea implemented perfectly.
+/- Not too difficult (so far). I managed to get through the puzzles through experimentation rather than figuring it out with logic.

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Été – Demo Impressions

Colour me in love.

Été

Developer: Impossible

Release Date: Q1 2024

Été is a relaxing painting game where you freely explore a city in the summer, collecting ideas in your album, creating artworks on canvas, and decorating your studio by selling your art to your neighbours.

The tagline for this post was going to be ‘Colour me impressed’, but some how that is not enough to do my feelings towards Été justice. This game is outstanding.

Été is an art game for both artists and none artists alike. If you love the idea of creating art but the idea of picking up a paintbrush fills you with dread, this game solves that in impressive ways.

Gameplay is split into two main parts. The first part is exploring the city, meeting the folks that inhabit it and seeking out opportunities as you go. The second part is creating your own art.

You are a watercolour artist that has just moved into the area. Everywhere you go starts off as, well, a blank canvas. But this isn’t your canvas, you have an easel for that. This is instead, your inspiration that will expand the more time you spend exploring it. As you take in your environment, colour enters the world, building a catalogue of references that you can use in your own art.

Not only is this effect striking on the eyes, the entire art direction of this game is a visual metaphor about inspiration, perspective and seeing the world in a different way. It encourages you to not only absorb the scene around you, but every little mundane object within, as it could be the subject of your next masterpiece.

In the second part of the gameplay, it is your turn to create some art. Using colours that you have unlocked and the objects from the world around you, it is time to add them to your canvas and create some magic. You can move them, scale them, re-order them, re-colour them and for live subjects, choose exactly which frame of their animation you would like to use. Commisions will give you a brief to fulfil, or you can make whatever your heart desires to fill the walls of your own apartment.

Through these modes of gameplay you are free to use your time as you see fit with no pressure other than the end of the day, and all that does is refreshes your energy, readying you for more collection and creating. The world is your oyster and the possibilities are endless.

The first time I saw the trailer I was reminded of The Unfinished Swan but after playing, they are barely comparable at all. Using colour to reveal the environment is the only similarity. Été is way more akin to Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist, but of course with its own look, feel and mechanics. I was completely blown away by this demo, this is a must play for me and I urge anyone to give it a go.

Demo Length – The demo lasts for 7 in-game days. I played for over 2 hours which was 5 in-game days. Progress will not transfer to the full game.

At a glance
+ The game is completely stunning.
+ You do not need to be good at art (particularly drawing or painting) to express yourself or get a lot out of this game.
+ Freedom to focus on commisions or take as much time as you like exploring, discovering new things, collecting subjects and decorating your apartment.
+ Optional collectathon.
+ The purpose of exploration may make you see the world differently.
+ Exploration is rewarded by expanding your creative options.
+ I didn’t encounter a single bug.
+ Never once felt limited by my options on the canvas (in fact kept being blown away).
+ It is fun to see your art fill the world as you hand in commisions.

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Nom Nom Cozy Forest Café – Demo Impressions

I’ve never been cozier.

Nom Nom Cozy Forest Cafe

Developer: Anaïs Salla

Release Date: Coming Soon

Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Café is a cozy and relaxing decoration and rhythm game where you manage a café and befriend cute animals.

The demo for Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Café is short but sweet. I like cute things, but I have a blurry, undefined line where too much cute has the opposite effect and pushes me away. Where it begins and ends is a mystery, but I just wanted to be clear that cute on its own generally doesn’t do it for me. Nom Nom stays on exactly the right side of the line while somehow making me feel the need to squeal with delight with everything I do.

I don’t know exactly how the core gameplay loop is going to go just from playing the demo, but meeting characters, creating designs for products such as cookies, drinks and t-shirts, and decorating your café are certainly a large part of it. Something else that I know for certain is that I want to meet every one of the characters that were teased so that I can marvel at their impossibly adorable character design.

This game is actually providing a service that I have wanted for a long time. Every so often I get the urge to decorate food. Cakes, cookies, either works. The only thing is, it never turns out great and I end up ‘decorating’ the entire kitchen in the process. I don’t know how I do it, but it happens often enough that I know better than to divulge in these urges, lest I be cleaning chocolate from the walls and my hair. Then, I end up with a tonne of sweet treats that I WILL eat in two days because splitting them between two days is the best my self control can do.

I know I am not the only one out there like this, and I am honestly excited at the prospect of this game taking those urges away by making some digital delights instead. These, as well as taking place in an aesthetically pleasing, well polished, user friendly environment that is clearly made by someone very passionate and talented at what they do, is why I wanted to highlight this game!

Demo Length – It depends how much time you want to spend designing cookies. The demo only contains one design slot. I played for 30 mins.

At a glance
+ Difficulty options for the rhythm game so you can customise your experience.
+ Soo many options for decorating the cookies, I wanted to make so many different types.
+ Love the pixel drawing, it is simple enough while also being precise.
+ Character designs are ADORABLE.
+ Furniture is stylish and customisable.
+ Full game features listed at the end of the demo sound fun.
+ Everything works so smoothly
+ It’s just so cute.
+/- Since this demo felt like a teaser, I am unsure on what the gameplay loop of the full game is going to be.

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Jusant – Demo Impressions

Where did the tide go?

Jusant

Developer: DON’T NOD

Release Date: 31 October 2023

Jusant(n.): a French nautical term for a receding tide

Enjoy meditative vibes in Jusant, an action-puzzle climbing game. Scale an immeasurably tall tower and ascend to new heights alongside your watery companion. Master your climbing tools, find your way up through diverse biomes, and piece together the tower’s past

Jusant opens with an understated screen. It reads ‘Jusant(n.): a French nautical term for a receding tide’. This is followed by a wordless cutscene, setting the scene of a sprawling wasteland, a mass grave littered with the remains of sea vessels as far as the eye can see. Not a word was spoken, and it didn’t need to be.

Our protagonist appears over the horizon, seemingly not of our world, carrying what can only be presumed to be precious cargo. They approach a towering cliff, a grand spectacle so tall that it fades into the clouds above, and thus begins Jusant.

There is no shortage of wildlife, contrasting the eerie stillness of the abandoned cliff village with the bustle of nature, bringing the environment to life. But a question remains, where are the people? and that is just one question of many that I have from playing this stunning demo.

Was the receding tide expected in this clearly nautical nation, did it used to be stable, where did it go and who are we? These are things that I hope that we will find out along the way. All that we know about the world are the items surrounding us left behind by the former inhabitents, and the letters that we find along the way offering a window into a past life.

It may be clear that the world enraptured me so much that the gameplay felt secondary to me. So far it is simple and forgiving, and while that might not be up everyone’s alley, I personally find it complements the pensive tone by giving us the ability to keep pressing forward on our journey for answers.

I dont know whether the full game will deliver on the Journey or Brothers: Tale of Two Sons-esque feelings that I am getting, whether the difficulty will ramp up or whether all of my questions will be answered. But one thing that is for sure is that I am really looking forward to finding out.

Demo Length – 1 hour.

At a glance
+ Fascinating world.
+ Unique setting.
+ Stunning vistas.
+ Gets the imagination going.
+ The creatures in this world.
+ I was feeling emotions without being told to feel emotions.
+/- It isn’t difficult.
+/- I looked for secrets but I didn’t really find any. May be a dissapointing thing but it is good to know early how thoroughly you have to look into every nook and cranny.
A little buggy.

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A Noob’s [Mini] Review – Return of the Obra Dinn

A grim, old timey, maritime delight.

Do you enjoy logic puzzles? Have you ever solved the clues, filled in the grid then sat back and smiled as satisfaction washed over you? If so, then Return of the Obra Dinn could be the game for you.

Not for the faint of heart, Return of the Obra Dinn is a sprawling interactive logic puzzle, set on the ill-fated ship – the Obra Dinn – in the early 1800’s.

In this game you play as an insurance inspector, tasked with deducing what exactly happened on what is now a ghost ship that has recently drifted back to Falmouth. As you explore the grisly scenes that took place onboard and the tragedy unfolds before you, it is up to you to piece together who is who and what fate befell each of them. Armed with a crew roster, portrait, and a mystical stop watch, you will enter scenes of time past. Using your observational skills and wit, you will gather the clues available to identify all 60 souls.

This game is a triumph of not only detective work, but atmosphere. The old timey maritime aesthetic is complimented by nostalgic graphics – a subtly fantastic design choice simultaneously shielding players from the finer details of brutal scenes while also allowing the player to fill in the gaps of the horrors they are witnessing. The phenomenal sound design paired with the fitting sound track will haunt you in the best possible way, bringing the still scenes that you are inspecting to life. Every scene is filled to the brim with detail, things you may not notice at first but can lead to eureka moments down the line. Finally, the none linear nature of the game structure allows for fantastic storytelling, remaining full of surprises all of the way through.

If this has piqued your interest then I recommend that you don’t read any more about this game and instead jump straight in, knowing that you have a harrowing yet fascinating journey ahead. Also, when you bear in mind that this game was developed by the genius mind that is solo developer Lucas Pope, you may feel as much disbelief as I did that such a feat can be achieved by one individual.

Developer: Lucas Pope
Publisher: 3909
Release date: 18th October 2018
Average play time: 6 hours
Available on: PC, PlayStation (4, 5), Xbox (One, Series X/S) and Nintendo Switch

If you would like to see my live playthrough, here it is!

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