Disqualified - Game stopping bug in storeroom, can't reach book even after pushing chair, also can't leave room.

While the game isn't perfect it definitely made me feel something and it wasn't boredom.  And I'm sure, it's not just me who thinks so. So congratulations, you delivered your message!

Overall,  the game is well-made, but in my opinion there is things that can be improved:
- Probably it's a good idea to add background music and sounds. Game feels empty soundwise. Also It'll help to set the mood.
- Some SE sounds strange, for example, kitchen sink.
- As already mentioned, it's really easy to skip large part of the game.

Overall I liked the consistent tonality in which it dealt with the mundane, as well as the artwork that went with it.

Thankfully the comments section indicated those first floor events that I indeed missed initially like many other players, so I replayed to check those out.

What is funny is that I actually had just a couple of days ago a similar experience while food shopping (minus the anxiety).

When we were left without knowing how to access our "pocket" (the menu), was that intended to induce a feeling of anxiety of not being able to find the keys?

This is really well done! It's like a completely new game, not something made using rpgmaker. The story is great! Especially the one in convenient store. I can really relate to that.

The details on each events made us really immersed to the story.

After reading the comments, I realized I missed some contents.. I'll come back to that.

Congratulations on your game. It looks nice, the scenarios are well worked, the story is good and it's informative, too! And yes, you did a good work on transmitting emotions; when I was on the street under the rain, I could clearly perceive Yuu's desperation.

I'd like to provide you with some feedback on things I think can be improved:

• There are 2 mistakes in the question about the square root of 64. One: I think it said "square route". Two: I think it asked for the square root of "√64". That's redundant; you should use "square root of 64" or simply ask for "√64".
• In the bathroom scene, is a bit unclear who says what because every message box looks the same and they are too close.
• The menu key... you should keep Esc working, too. The tip/explanation that appears when talking with the vending machine guy should be shown in the rain scene, too, or at the beginning of the game; you shouldn't rely on an optional event for providing the player with critical information (to me, this is critical because it wasn't obvious what the menu key was; using Esc is intuitive as most games open a menu with that, so you could not explain that one).
• I see that several people (including myself the first time I played) went directly to the storeroom and missed a lot of the content. I think that's because people may think that the content is unveiled along with the story, so they don't "waste time" going off the road if they already know what they must do. Perhaps you may move the storeroom to another location so the player actually sees the first floor before finding it?

That's it. Other than that, good work!

Hiya! I enjoyed my time with this quite a lot. The assets were all quite solid and added to the expiriance without being the focus of it, and the writing was done quite well. I had a lot of difficulty finding the menu to access my keys (I basically just rolled my head over my keyboard 'till it worked) and I also found the minor passability issue mentioned by another person, but it didn't detract from my time with the game. I in particular would like to commend your use of screen flashes and various fonts being displayed across the screen - it really helped communicate tone in a way I hope I can learn from. Also, the animations in the bust images were a great touch I wish I could have implemented in my own game.

I look forward to what you do next,

Lucas Harvey, one half of the team behind The Rosewood Masquerade.

PS: Cats make me feel better too.

I just played this and it was really something! For your first game (public at any rate), you did a great job, especially with the time constraints in place. 30 days is not a lot of time! 

Anyways, some spoilers ahead for people who wish to avoid them...

I really enjoyed the custom art work. Upon first glance it seems fairly simplistic, but I sort of feel like that somehow makes the game a bit better and more relatable since having super detailed characters would not really allow the player to project themselves onto the main character of the story. The sprite graphics and colors were interesting and the mild hues seem to play into the overall theme of the game. The music didn't stand out, but I feel like it wasn't supposed to - it blended in well with the scene in which it was present and augmented the atmosphere in a subtle way.

I did not get a chance to find the girl's friendship bracelet unfortunately, as I ended up finding the storeroom first before really exploring. I feel like there is the potential to accidentally halt progress in the game if you get the chair stuck in the corner since it doesn't reset its position if you leave and come back - so if someone messed up, it is basically game over. The only real issues I had with the gameplay itself is that I had no idea how to open my inventory to find my keys. I hit the escape key to try and bring up the menu to no avail, and then I ran around and discovered a passability error (I assume it is anyway) that let me run around in the darkness near the street lamps and it was difficult to find my way back lol (perhaps an unintentional metaphor there...), eventually I just pressed random buttons on my keyboard until I found the right one. A little heads up about how to open that menu would have been cool, though I suppose not knowing how to open the menu could also greatly play into the overall theme of the game - or perhaps I am reading too much into it! :)

On a more personal note, when I was younger I had anxiety, especially about meeting strangers or going to places I was unfamiliar with. As I grew older that went away over time and in spite of being overall an introvert, I have no problems with meeting new people. I wish it happened as fast as it did for Yuu taking his first step with meeting his mother's new boyfriend, as it is a journey that takes far more time, but I understand that the game needed to be wrapped up. You captured the general essence of anxiety induced by social situations fairly well I thought (if maybe a bit more dramatic than I experienced). It feels like this game is a rather personal story for you, so thank you for sharing it. These feelings of anxiety do get better with time until they are nothing more than a bad memory.

Good job and keep up the great work!

Very nice game, it has a nice gameplay at the same time that it is about an important matter such as anxiety, I would not expect a theme like this from RPG maker game, it surprised me very much with the atmosphere and the characters interaction!