My Name is Addiction

I've spent enough time inside live-service loops to appreciate when a game cuts straight to the point with zero filler, and My Name is Addiction does exactly that. This is a psychological horror visual novel from a one-person studio, built in RenPy, tackling pornography addiction as its central subject. It runs about an hour on a first playthrough and branches across seven different endings depending on the choices you make. No raid timer, no season pass, no daily login reward. Just a very uncomfortable story and the occasional decision that actually matters. The structure is pure visual novel: you read, you click, you occasionally choose a response that nudges the narrative. The protagonist, an 18-year-old whose relationship with pornography began at 14, moves through waking life, possible romantic relationships, nightclub sequences, and deeply surreal dream states. The fractured-identity angle, where the main character is referred to by different names across different scenes as his sense of self deteriorates, is the game's sharpest creative idea. It reads less like a gimmick and more like an honest attempt at making interiority playable. The supporting cast is thin, but the internal monologue carries enough weight to fill the space. Visually, the game uses a hand-drawn digital oil-paint style across more than 50 illustrations, with a portion of those locked to specific choice paths. The art swings between something close to delicate and something genuinely unsettling, which suits the subject matter. The soundtrack was reworked for the Steam release after licensing issues forced a full music replacement, and the result is an atmospheric instrumental score that does its job. Reviewers have consistently singled out the audio as a highlight, though the repeated use of the same images across the short runtime is a fair criticism, and typos that were flagged in early coverage still surface in places. The content is worth flagging plainly: there is no explicit material in the game, but the writing does not soften its themes. The game is more interested in the psychological mechanics of addiction, shame, and fractured self-image than in any kind of moral lecture. It does not preach, which is more than most games on difficult subjects manage. Some players will find the religious overtones in certain sequences off-putting. Others will find the linear pacing between choice points frustrating. As interactive experiences go, agency here is limited. Seven endings sounds generous for a one-hour base run, but several feel like variations rather than genuinely distinct conclusions. Where this lands for the Scout Team's audience: if your tolerance for reading-heavy, story-first experiences with minimal mechanical engagement is low, this will feel like a tech demo. But for anyone who has finished something like Actual Sunlight or Doki Doki Literature Club and wanted the emotional weight without the four-hour commitment, this is a legitimate alternative. It is free, it is short, it is built with real intention, and it earns its discomfort. Solo dev, no publisher, no monetization layer, no grind. Sometimes that is enough.

Yuki · Scout Team

MMOs & live service

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