“Devilishly dark voice acting, rich lore, tasteful music, multiple endings, and innovative gameplay”

Hmm … I think you might want to ease off on the advertising just a touch. The same words that might make one hyped to play an AAA game do not seem quite as trustworthy when applied to something made in a month. But this is a good game, especially given the time limit!

The voice acting is charming, with the Narrator of course taking the medal for his often delightfully dramatic delivery. Granted, the quality is a touch inconsistant at times, and I have no idea if it is devilishly dark. But it was so wonderful to hear some human voices for a change, instead of just AI. For a free game made in a month, this is awesome; thank you, voice actors.

The story isn’t outstanding, relying on several tropes, but it’s enjoyable enough! Besides, a simple but complete story is much better than a complex one you could only offer a glimpse into. The rich lore might not quite be there yet, but you’ve piqued my interest in learning it if you ever expand this. Beyond the awful fact of the existence of rich people and monkey-killing potion makers, what kind of suffering is this world facing? Are the Keepers actually what the Narrator says they are, or are they something completely different – and if so, what and how and why? What would happen if you put this Narrator and the one from Slay the Princess in a room together – alright, that last one’s a joke, but the resulting argument would certainly amuse me! Perhaps there really are answers I’ve yet to find, as I have not yet discovered these multiple endings mentioned, but I still hunger for more.

The gameplay works well! Navigation is simple to figure out, sounds and ambiences are used to great effect, and walking isn’t needlessly slow, which I love. As has already been mentioned, making events easier to find would be nice; just like the cello makes a sound you can hear from a couple tiles away, perhaps the NPCs could make a noise or speak as well? I only encountered one bug: the Narrator mocked me for using one instrument twice after I’d only played one thing.

If this is your first accessible game, it is a great start, and I for one look forward to what you might make in the future.

A great game, especially for only 1 month of development time! Bravo! I think you will place in the top 5 for sure.
Great use of audio cues such as different footsteps and ambiences for the 4 regions, wall bump sounds, and attenuation to represent reaching the edge of the map [something I've never actually seen done quite like that in audio games].

Voice acting was a big plus [the person sitting on the rock was my favorite], sound design was excellent [that jail cell unlocking was particularly 💋] and the writing was pretty funny too 😏 ["some douchebag in a pointy hat"]

The controls were simple and the instructions were comprehensive and easy to understand.

Even though it was a bit frustrating, I really liked that the final puzzle wasn't just handed to you. Also, no mention of blindness, or any associated cliches which gets a big 👍👍 from me...

Because of my hearing impairment, games that rely on extreme panning don't always work well for me. In this game, as there was no fast action and all of the important dialogue happened in the center channel, that wasn't a very big deal, but having the option to reduce maximum panning limits for people like me is always highly appreciated.

I think it would have been nice to have a bit of an indicator that we were actually playing the game after the intro. Maybe that seems silly, but for the first 30 seconds, I thought I was just in a tutorial do to there being no transition.

If the hitboxes for the event triggers were just slightly wider, or there was an approach warning for the adjacent tile as there was with the guide at the end, I feel like there would be less wandering or systematic grid searching. Thankfully, the maps weren't very large, but I think this would definitely become an issue if the game were expanded any.

The game is actually quite quiet. I know that you can turn it up, but until that point, it's a bit hard to hear.

I got the "don't play the same instrument twice" line a couple times when I had actually played two separate instruments.

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To be honest, the evil narrator twist trope has kind of been done to death by now so I wasn't really surprised at all with that, but no big deal for a jam game. I do wish I had the option to take the evil rout and give him the instruments however... But again, I understand the time constraints.

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Really a great showing by your whole team, and I would love to see what you can come up with next year!

Also, if you decide to expand on this project, I'm all for it. 😉

Thank you very much for participating!

The voice acting was amazing, and all the sounds / music was very engrossing. Would have loved an initial description of the map (forest to the bottom right, town to the top-left, etc), but this was super neat and enjoyed hearing and playing!

The writing, voice acting, and audio design are great, they really set the atmosphere and pulled me into the story! The gameplay is not as interesting and well-developed as the other aspects, but I know in a game jam you have to stay simple to finish in time. Hopefully after the jam you can add more variety and complexity to the quests, and more opportunity to use the instruments to solve puzzles or challenge mini-bosses. Overall very well done, and kudos for using real voice actors!

By the way, the gamepad controls mostly worked for me in the browser, using Firefox on Windows with a Logitech F310 gamepad. The only things that didn't work were the LT and RT controls, nothing happened when I pressed them, so I had to use the keyboard to play instruments 3 and 4. (Update: The LT and RT controls worked correctly with the Windows download.) It's not a big deal, I only mention it in case it helps you debug. :)

Cool game! Having voice actors adds a lot to the immersion and audio quality! I like how you specified in the beginning that the movement is grid-based, that helped a lot with navigating the game.

For now clearly my favorite game of the jam!
It's a pleasure to hear the voices of actors. The introduction immediately sets the mood and immediately aroused my curiosity.

It's polished and works well. Again, a pleasure!