Justice Bundle Reviews #8: The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith

Creators Digital Poppy have over time built up an oeuvre called the Bluehills County Stories, with three noteworthy features: furry characters, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and unapologetic queerness. Prior to the arrival of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, I had played the pay-what-you-want point-and-click adventure Parsnip, in which those latter two elements were rather understated. But in the second major title in the series, The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith, both the Lovecraft and queer themes can't be missed. Testimony knows what it's about, making it a stronger title than its predecessor.

"The queerest town in the country." It's literally impossible to meet a cishet person in this game, and that's a good thing!

 
Which is not to say I wouldn't recommend playing Parsnip first if you can spare its hour or two play time. A respectable chunk of Testimony's fun comes from all the callbacks and references to the prior game, though there will be some continuity errors, so to speak. (I managed to get a notable character killed in Parsnip, then spent half of Testimony hanging out with her.) And I'm already eyeing the third game, Three Lesbians in a Barrow, whose protagonist appeared only in text message conversations in Testimony. Getting to know these characters over months and playthroughs of different games has proven quite endearing!

As for the Lovecraftian subject matter, it's interesting to see such an inclusive story take up that torch. Lovecraft was not, shall we say, especially well known for his tolerance and open-mindedness. The game text nods to this fact with a throwaway mention of in-universe author "P.H. Lovelace" being "speciesist", but perhaps more than that isn't needed. A queer furry adventure nabbing The King in Yellow and owning it is a thumb bitten in the direction of that unfortunate legacy already.

I'm pretty sure I'll work my way through the entire corpus of "Bluehills County Stories" before long, and The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith was the piece that assured me it'd be worth my while. It's $6 on Itch, check it out!