High Score Hyrax
The web version might be slower to run and choppier than the downloadable version - as such, it isn't the ideal way to experience the story.
-------
Thanks to a little bit of skill, and whole lot of dumb luck, Saul has found himself in the middle of the biggest online shitstorm of the century.
Well, that's an exaggeration - but it's certainly how he feels about it. After only a month of speedrunning an old game by the name of Bomber Bros. 3, he's already managed to secure a spot near the top of the game's leaderboards thanks to an absurdly lucky run - and has quickly gone from a nobody, to one of the most widely discussed figures in the game's community.
But as rumors swirl, and the game's top runners chat and gossip amongst themselves wondering if his run was cheated or not, Saul attempts to remain headstrong, and ignore all the noise...
Because Saul has a date - and with quite the handsome deer at that!
And, for once in his life, he's determined not to fuck it up - no matter how many times he'll have to go back in time to retry.
...wait, did I forget to mention that he has time travel powers?
------
High Score Hyrax is a gay visual novel made for the Novembuck 2025 Game Jam. It contains 12,700 words, with a focus on player choice - at any given moment, Saul can go back in time to his previous choices, allowing for him to fix his mistakes, and to open up new choices based on information learned in the future.
As such, the length of playthroughs can vary quite a bit - from roughly 15 minutes up to about an hour. Currently, the game has three endings, many branching dialogue trees, and one (very) eligible deer bachelor.
All visual assets and writing are made by Chmron, who you can find on Bluesky.
The base used for the phone is Nighten's fantastic Yet Another Phone project!
Download
Development log
- It's Done!Nov 29, 2025
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
i looooooove speedrunning (as a spectator), so this grabbed my attention immediately. the choices/coin part was really cool, what a nice technical achievement. i enjoyed the dialogue/story a bit too, i love dates !! of course i was yelling at saul to just be up front with everything, so i'm happy i got to have those choices... and the ones i wouldn't have picked, i was cringing at (at the content, not the writing itself). loved the casual conversational tone of this. need a coin to play this again for the first time.
Choices in VNs usually stress me out, but this game...I'll make an exception. The dialogue was so smooth and genuine, I honestly don't believe that the MC was awkward at all. It was cute, the pixel art and low bit music, to the characters themselves. Then the plot with the cool UI and "gameplay". I honestly kinda enjoyed it, making the choices to test my own social skills. The plot twist was surprising and done really well to add more depth to the story/characters. Also enjoyed how cute the ending was. What a great game!
I was really impressed with this novel!
First and foremost, you delivered on the aesthetics. The sleek pixel art and UI. The retro styled music. They were made with obvious care and attention to detail, and really made the experience that much more immersive.
But I have to give the most praise to the story you've told, and how you built the reset function into the narrative. By initially framing the date as a series of decisions that need to be done 'right', the same way many people playing VNs would see it, you also reveal the dysfunction in that mindset. And the narrtative builds on that! The structure breaks, reality is messy and uncomfortable. But it can still work out!
Beyond the technical detail, the characters feel authentic as well. Having been in the speedrunning/competitive game world myself, I would say you've done a great job capturing both the mindset and attitudes of that space. The petty drama is on point too 😆
All in all, Faultless. Thanks for all the time you put in!
This was great fun! Implementing “going back to previous choices to change them” in the story made for really nice storytelling opportunities. And when Alan stops you, or tries to go back himself… As for the date itself, it’s quite representative of awkward first dates, isn’t it?^^ Lots of fun jokes and simple drama, it was really nice.
The visual presentation is great. It works perfectly to recreate a 16-bit aesthetic. All the visual elements go very well with each other and the final product is awesome. The music and sound effects enhance the whole as well (love the score changing jingles).
Overall, this VN has some fun ideas and perfect execution. A standout for sure. (Also, it has a gorilla (probably) who, presumably, loves retro games, just like another VN I know…^^)
It's short but fun. I love the art style and the novel designs
I'm glad you enjoyed it! About the length though, the game actually turned out far bigger (word count-wise) than I expected it to be - I suppose that's how it is with there being many branching paths, though...
This was a really charming game! The art style is awesome, the music is great- the whole retro game aesthetic is lovely, and of course it works great with the story. The time travel mechanic was a lot of fun, and the twists and turns kept me entertained the whole time. A definite recommend!
Thank you! The artstyle and mechanics were one of my main focuses going into this jam, so I'm glad to hear that they stood out!
This one felt good. I liked the concept a lot once we got into the groove of it and everything was laid out. It felt a bit strange that choice "docked" you points even if they were benign choices (The food selection one being of them). It was hard to understand which ones would lead to not great outcomes at times. I guess I never got the handle on Saul being exceptionally bad at socializing, and just picked safer options instead of using my own lived experience as guidelines. A constraint when you are making choices as a wholly different person from yourself. I did end up refusing to use the coin, and only once did it to test out the mechanic. Glad the narrative vindicated my refusal in the end. A lot of solid choices that all blend well together. I am going to enjoy digging into the guts of this game for ideas and just exactly how you pulled this off.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! My reasoning behind the seemingly arbitrary point changes was that the score boiled down to Saul's own opinion of himself, rather than to any actual success with Alan (in fact, to pull the curtain back a little, whether Alan enjoys the date or not is actually an entirely different score value - the only thing Saul's perceived score affects is some small dialogue here and there, one split in the middle of the game, and whether the Game Over screen is triggered or not).
I definitely understand how it can be confusing, though - at the end of the day managing to convey all that via the game is quite tricky, and with the power of hindsight I can definitely see places where I could have made it clearer. I suppose that's how it is with game jams, though.
That makes more sense. My first run through I assumed the score was how the "date" was going and not Saul's internal perception.
So... You tell me, my life is an arcade? I can spend coins to rewind time AND STILL NOT GET THE BOY I WANT?
Arcades can be crueller than life itself.
Well, you can always try again! Who knows, maybe this time it'll work out...
this was a really neat game. The integration of the time-winding coin mechanic was fun to play with. Plus the dramaaaaaa
Thank you! I definitely had a lot of fun playing around with the rewind (and writing the drama) while making this one!
"omg Saul, you cant just ask people why they're white"
It's quite a rude thing to do, really.