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Embers of Us (Prologue)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story | #16 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Music | #201 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
| Overall | #209 | 3.525 | 3.525 |
| Sound | #252 | 3.075 | 3.075 |
| Aesthetics | #296 | 3.475 | 3.475 |
| Fun | #418 | 2.875 | 2.875 |
| Theme | #454 | 2.850 | 2.850 |
| Mechanics | #508 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Ranked from 40 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
all assets used were images of myself and my wife put through an AI to turn into an anime art style. backgrounds were also photo inspired
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Comments
Really solid game. There were a few places where Lauren popped up on top of herself, but it was a great story. I liked you could explore all the branches in one play. Nice interpretation of the theme as well. I didn't even think about using AI to make art, as that's technically free too. I do agree with other comments on the ethics of AI art, but it wasn't against the rules so I didn't penalize you for it.
Hmm, I didn't notice that for her, I did it on Purpose when I clicked the wrong bubble, as it was a way to snap the player out of the immersion as the "penalty", I'll have to double check!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Appreciate the invite, but I don't do Discord. I think this is a great idea though and I wish you well with it.
what a great story i just played, i just didn't like the artstyle that much? but it was fine as long as i was enjoying the story, well done!
Hmm, out of curiosity, what would you have picked as the art style?? i picked "anime" due to thats what most visual novels are i thought
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
I’m totally fine with AI-generated art, but a human eye is still essential for this kind of stuff. The character designs look good, though they feel a little inconsistent from location to location. If you’re going to use AI anyway, I’d suggest having ChatGPT (or whatever tool you’re using) generate multiple versions until you get a more consistent look throughout the game.
When it comes to making games, maybe the question isn’t “should AI be used?” but rather “how can we use AI in the smartest, most creative way?”
In that spirit, I ask chatgpt to write me a comment based on the comments below XD “Fantastic first visual novel — heartfelt, personal, and beautifully told. The AI-generated art fit the mood well, though I share some mixed feelings about the Ghibli-style use. Loved the little details like the main menu and save/load options, and the twist caught me by surprise in the best way. A few typos and the shoulder bite swap aside, it’s an impressive, emotional piece for a 3-day solo project. Would love to see this expanded someday!” ChatGPT
I agree, i didn't have time sadly, only 3 days to learn a new engine, get the art assets needed, find some tracks that i was allowed to use and push it tegother with code language i hadnt used before haha so yeah 100T% if i had more time the art style and incopnsistancy was the first this i would have fixed!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Great visual novel and unique take on the theme. Good job on your first submission!
Thank you! i was up to 6 am one night, and 4 am the next to get it done on time haha i also happend to delete my enitre project and have to start over with everything BUT i was able to save the code, and once i got the hang of coding in this engine i was able to run with it!!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Nice visual novel! Especially knowing that you managed to do it in 3 days by yourself! Congratulations for your first finished project!
Thank you!!! i hope to expand the story into its own FULL visual novel to be put on Steam someday!
I will be keeping an eye on it, then! Hope to hear more about your development soon
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Sure! Will be joining you guys soon
I really liked your take on the theme and bravery of telling such a personal story. not as in "full of personal details" but rather making a relationship and their personal memories the focus of a story.
I feel very conflicted about the AI generated art though. on the one hand it fits the vibe of the story very well and I think it is fair to say that you couldn't have drawn all these images even if you were a professional artist in time, so I totally get it. I mean I used generated art to create an ad campaign for my own game, so I get it.
But using that studio ghibli style when it is commonly known that its creator furiously hates the use of his lifes work for image generation.. it's tough. this shouldn't come across as a judgement, like I said: I get it from a developer's point of view. it's just something that I as a player have always in the back of my mind when I am playing and that prevents me from really diving into the story.
No, I totally get it, while I never asked for it to resemble any art style other then "Anime", anime can have a very wide range from things like SAO or Fairy Tail to art styles of Attack on Titan or even Studio Ghibli! you hit it on the mark when it came to how i feel about using AI for art, i use it for characters in my dnd campaigns but again i never ask for another artists art style, and thats just for me and my freiends, if this was a full game i would try to find an artist before i went to AI for it, but thats just me, i feel like its great for those of us starting out, but the stigma behind it is so vast that its really hit or miss how the comunity will react, im glad everyone here is so nice about it but i still will do my best to keep myself for overusing it!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Nice entry a solid visual novel. You can check this entry it also has a good story you didn't saw it already https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-jam-2025/rate/3590121
I did! I left a comment pretty early on, haha, but it was a good one too, I was glad to see someone else do a full visual novel as well!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Great idea to start with a visual novel. You're working alone and it's a lot you have to learn to create even the simplest of things. I also use AI for consulting on avaiable tools I can use when coding. I try to code everything on my own, but instead of consulting on documentation, which usually takes a while and I may miss something, AI will be spot on at what I need and I learn a lot from it. Still, sometimes AI fails hard, then I go to the documentation or ask online if it's really a dead end.
Your game is well written, you got a good grasp on dialog. It's an enjoyable chill out story, I'd say, with an interesting plot twist at the end. But the character shows the left shoulder when he was bit on the right, that could be worked around by flipping the image.
I liked that you implemented a main menu with options and a toggle for fullscreen. I didn't mess with the buttons at the bottom of the screen, but it seems they allowed for saving and loading and some more stuff, which is interesting for a first game.
All in all, you did great for a first entry, especially working solo. Just keep it up, it's a long road, but if we keep the pace we eventually get where we want to.
Ahh, i know! i didn't have time to get it to give me the right arm, im surprised no one else caught that, to be honest! Ren'Py as a game engine had so much "already done for you" programmed in, and that's why I went the route I did to get this done. Thank you for your feedback! it means a lot to me, and I learn from it to better my projects going forward!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
What AI did you use for the art?
it was just ChatGPT, but my own IRL pictures were used as the base in order to still make them my own as much as I could in the time I had!
That's why I was asking, I saw you mentioned that and I thought it was a good idea with a decent result since AI seems to struggle with making the same character in different settings. Thanks for answering, didn't know ChatGPT could do that! Hope it didn't sound like I was just criticizing the use of AI 😅
Ah! No worries! i honestly expected to get torn up for using AI, but id didnt want to be dishonest either lol so i was just gonna take the punches but everyone has been so nice!!
yeah its not perfect, and id never ask it to create someones specific art style for personal gain, but a simple "turn this photo into an anime art style" is all i needed, then jsut asked fopr transparent cut outs for a visual novel and ran with it!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Wow, great job! The art is great, and so is the story. 👍 Keep up the good work!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Congrats on completing your game for the jam! I really enjoyed this. The story was kept me going and the visuals look great. I would love to see this expanded into a full-length release like coffee talk or some type of follow up. Do they find their families? I need to know!
Thank you! with the feedback i have been getting, it def has bumped up the list of games I want to do haha I do intend to make a fully fleshed out one proper!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Visual novels aren't the type of game I usually play but I enjoyed this one. Good visuals and story.
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Really beautiful graphics!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Very good game! I really liked it, especially the visuals—great job on that!
Thank you! i feel i can do better on the visuals when I make a fully fleshed out one!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Fantastic visual novel, really well done I dig the art style, it's great that you included your wife in it, got me thinking about mine <3
Great submission.
haha thanks! Yeah! She is my biggest inspiration. I have another idea I KNOW will do well, but I am forcing myself to wait on it until I get the skills to do it justice
I like the sound of that!
Wow! Great first visual novel. I LOVED the art style and images -- I loved the fact that the characters change throughout their love story was a great touch and the end shocked me! I felt connected to the characters right away as I have a wonderful husband as well who inspires and keeps me going also (i saw your dedication to your wife and that was so lovely!) Renpy is such an awesome engine. Thank you for writing this. I loved it. Very touching. <3
thank you so much!! i just tried to stay true to our story haha!
They say the best stories come from what you know. You did a great job! I'm personally getting a new job soon hence my story lol I write what I know too!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
Sure I would love to join! :-)
I was so happy to go to this page and see it was a visual novel as I really enjoy them. This was beautiful - I love the look and feel of it and it was a beautiful story. It was a real rollercoaster of emotions here. I hope you carry on making visual novels as I'd definitely buy a full one from you one day. Great work!
Aww thank you so much! id love to have you as a play tester some time, i do think i will make this a bigger game (its why i added "Prologue" to the title lol i have never don't one before and it was just the quickest thing i could think of! I'm really glad you enjoyed it!!
I LOVE how you made a game about your wife, that's so sweet! I was totally not expecting the zombies lol, made me laugh out loud! Great job! :-)
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
I really liked how you added real life events, makes the game something you can look back at fondly in the future.
Nice job, I hope you make a Part 2.
Thank you! the next one i do will def be more "Playable" haha and 100% spot on with the looking back, my wife loved it ! thank you for playing!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX
A sweet story, and also a tear jerker in my opinion. Some miss spelling here and there but a great experience! Awesome job
oh shoot! i should have checked for errors in the spelling! sorry about that!
Hey! I wanted to send a "thank you" of sorts to everyone who left a comment and feedback! If you're interested, I’d love to invite you to my "Reunited Games" Discord! I’m building a small community of players, devs, and playtesters for future projects, and I hope to see you join! But if it's not your thing, it's fine! Still, thank you!! https://discord.gg/PRkXhNgX