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Written in the Stars (Halcyon Summer Jam 2023 Submission)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Please provide some feedback! Be kind. | #8 | 3.803 | 4.500 |
| Mechanics & gameplay loop? | #8 | 3.127 | 3.700 |
| Environment, aesthetics, mood? | #8 | 3.972 | 4.700 |
| Adherence to the theme? | #9 | 3.888 | 4.600 |
| Accessibility? | #9 | 3.719 | 4.400 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
jHomps
Sailing Ocelot
Generative AI
No
Source Code
https://github.com/jHompsDev/HSJ2023
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Comments
This was an absolutely gorgeous story and I'm amazed that you were able to really capture the personalities of all the characters and made it a very real story with very sensitive topics spread between everyone. It was really cool to learn about everyone and their relationships with each other, and it all culminating in Granny's story and Adia's reveal was super sweet and a lovely conclusion to this story. I loved how this wasn't just a visual novel for the entire game- it was broken up with an interesting game mechanic!!! It was a little frustrating the further it went when I was missing one or two connections and thought that everything had to be connected to each other, but I do appreciate the abstractness in the constellations. Overall, it was a very impactful and meaningful story that I think was paced perfectly for the length of the game, I love it!!
I really enjoyed the narrative and thematic elements at the heart of this game, which follows the story of a family coming together to heal. Adia, the teenage protagonist, listens to her family as they come together to work through their fears and regrets. She can choose to listen to the reality of the situation, or to imagine the events are taking place on a lonely planet in space.
Either way, this game is threaded with a thematic depth and meaning beyond just what is on the surface. The narrative provides a small and vibrant window into the lives of Adia and her family as they come together to bond and heal. You get a real sense that when the game is over, the lives of the characters continue.
With very minimal mechanics and low stakes choices, this game delivers a relaxing and peaceful experience that can be played in around twenty minutes. The minigames, which involve creating constellations that tie into the themes of the story, are quick to play, relaxing and satisfying.
I'd highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys interesting character moments and wants to entertain themselves for half an hour for a really unique and memorable experience. I'm really glad I was able to play this!
From the moment I saw this submission, I was excited to play it due to how drawn I was to your thumbnail art. XD With the game's name and star drawing mechanic, I was expecting a puzzle game, but the visual novel aspect was lovely. I enjoyed the games aesthetics quite a bit, and I really liked the character portrait art.
I felt that each character had a distinct personality, and I appreciated the journey of this family learning confront and overcome their differences. The ending was really beautiful, and it left me feeling a little teary even!
Out of all the other games submitted during this jam, this one felt the most "complete"... in terms of length, but also by having a contained story that reaches a satisfying conclusion.
I had a little bit of trouble figuring out how to draw the constellations, and this ended up being trial and error for me. Also, as TelinArtho said below, I had trouble differentiating between the monikers "Granny" and "Grandma", and the story made much more sense once the story explained the relationship between the two.
Thank you for your submission to the HF 2023 Game Jam!
Thank you so much, Woahhjess!
I caught up on your stream this morning and truly appreciate you taking the time to play through the whole game and summarising your points so nicely and clearly, and then taking the time to make this comment too!
We focused on using the MOSCoW method to prioritise what we thought definitely needed to be in the game, to ensure that we had a complete project. I thoroughly enjoyed crafting the story and am delighted you found the ending to be beautiful! Drawing is not my strong suit, so I'm very happy you like the characters! I love jHomps' choice of colours in the game and I do feel he guided our art direction very well.
Your feedback is also very helpful for us if we choose to go back to this project. I have a few ideas on how I can improve the differentiation between Granny and Grandma in the writing, and I am sure we can polish up the constellations too :)
Thanks again! This has been my first attempt at a game jam, and I have absolutely loved it.
I'll be keeping an eye on HF 2024!
This was a very interesting story, and I enjoyed playing it. Being dropped into the story in medias res was a little confusing at first, particularly due to the size of this extended family, but I did figure it out in time, so I wasn't too bothered by that. The stars minigame was interesting, albeit a little frustrating. I assume the messages at the start were hints (at least one seemed correlated to the constellation), but they disappeared kinda quickly, and there was no way to see them again, which meant I was working blind on a lot of them, having to just randomly click until I stumbled upon the one line segment I was missing. I also found it kinda buggy, where it would re-select the last star I selected instead of the one I was clicking on. I did get through it, but I feel like that's something that could have been refined a little more. Also, the dialog choices were a neat addition, but I didn't notice any appreciable impact on the dialog (I'm not even talking differences in the overall story, I'm just saying different text), which made them feel kinda weak.
Also, just some minor corrections if you want to update the game after the jam: "It brought us altogether, didn't it?" -> "It brought us all together, didn't it?" and "But in the end, she chose her self." -> "But in the end, she chose herself."
Thank you for playing our game and for your comment, LRFLEW!
We did some playtesting with the stars minigame and found that it was too difficult to guess what the constellations might be, hence we added the hints in response! I guess we needed to either keep them up for longer, or give the player the ability to display them again haha. I think the colliders for the stars should have been bigger in retrospect, and expect that's the reason behind the bug you've described.
We had considered branching dialogue paths as a larger aspect of gameplay, but found that ultimately we needed to restrict them in order to finish the game over the time period. If we develop this further, I expect that branching narrative will be something we get to give more attention to!
An excellent character piece. I was invested in the story of each person in the game, and loved the positive and progressive ethos behind it. The presentation was fantastic too, with music and visuals doing a lot to heighten the emotional angle of it. The constellation minigames were a fun little insertion, though I did think that the last one was a bit too tricky, and took me out of the narrative. Overall though, it was great. I am glad I experienced it.
Thank you for playing our game and for your comment, Zedxclon! We're glad you enjoyed it!
We'll have to look at making the difficulty curve better for the player if and when we develop this project further. While we had some playtesting and created the hints in response, we used the same constellation patterns and remembering what was meant to be drawn may have led us to believe they were easier than they actually were, whoops haha.
In terms of length, this was definitely one of the longest games I played (or the game that I played the longest). The game was easy to understand and enjoyable. I haven't played any other visual novel games before - but I was put off slightly by the speaking tones when the character was just saying one word (and more so when there were multiple short responses in a row).
I did have a hard time differentiating between Granny and Grandma - because they are interchangeable terms in my experience - but once I realized they were different people, the story made sense.
Thank you for the comment, Telin! I'm glad the game was enjoyable for you.
I hope you'll play some more visual novels soon, its an excellent medium for storytelling. Perhaps if jHomps and I go back to the game again after the jam, we can make a toggle option to turn off the speaking noises if players wish to do so. I'll also see if there's more of a way to distinguish between Grandma and Granny, I have a few ideas ^^
Enjoyable little story!
Thank you very much, Ben :)!