about
Hi, I'm Allie.
she / her
I write and code romance visual novels under the name Birdbrain Interactive. A solo indie dev, queer interactive fiction writer, and a long-time Twine devotee.
what i make
Queer romance visual novels.
I make queer romance visual novels: short, character-driven, branching stories where the choices you make about how to love someone (or not) shape the ending. They're closer to interactive fanfiction than to dating sims: more about feelings than stats. I'm drawn to the genre because it's one of the few mediums that lets a reader sit inside another person's heart for a few hours.
how i make it
Mostly in Twine.
I work in Twine. It's a small, elegant tool for hypertext fiction, and after years of trying other engines I keep coming back to it; it gets out of the way and lets the writing lead. I draft prose first, structure later. The pastel-terminal aesthetic of this site is on purpose: my games are software, but they're also love letters, and the design should hold both at once.
about me
Off the keyboard.
By training, I'm a psychologist. By obsession, I'm a passionate developer. Day-to-day you'll find me reading, writing, and starting one too many projects.
I believe love is the most powerful force in the world. I also believe love is never enough on its own. You have to do the work. Every story I write lives somewhere in the space between those two truths.