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A jam submission

SnapshotView game page

Magic and science, past and future. What of the present?
Submitted by Sᴜɴʀɪsᴇ Oᴀᴛʜ (@SunriseOath) — 21 days, 19 hours before the deadline
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Snapshot's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme Interpretation#44.1954.400
Graphics, Audio, and Polish#74.2914.500
Originality/Creativity#103.9094.100
Overall#143.8524.040
Engagement/Fun#223.4323.600
Magical Girl Concept#273.4323.600

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the Magical Girl Genre?
The protagonist uses magic and is from a world of magicians.

Which theme(s) do you pick?
Uncertainty Principle

How does your game fit the theme(s)?
It uses it as a pseudo-philosophical frame of not being able to simultaneously know where we are and where we're going.

Are all your graphics assets made by yourself during the duration of the jam?

Yes

all of them were made during the jam period

Are all your audio assets made by yourself during the duration of the jam?

No

a good chunk of them were purchased

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Comments

Submitted

Really nice kinect novel adaptation of the original short story. The execution of it was done pretty well as the quality artwork and voice acting enhances the experience. The interactivity with the  single choice is a good step in complementing the experience as well.

Host(+1)

The graphics is NUTS is all I can say. Absolutely fantastic. The amount of effort put here there is even voice acting wow.

Quite unfortunate I do not have all the time in the world to enjoy the VN more properly haha but perhaps when I have more time I will play this again.

Developer

Thanks for running the jam! We're super happy for the great experience.

Submitted(+1)

This is a lovely little visual novel.

There is a good mix of written dialog and emotion expressed in the characters' faces. While the script portrays the emotion and tone clearly enough, having the voice acting helps augment the dialog by making it a little more lifelike and polished. The backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous, definitely the best part of the experience. The music is appropriately moody and ambient; only once did I miss it in one of the scenes.

The idea of having magic alongside science and religion is unique and complicated. I liked the portrayal of the conflict between science and magic. The magical camera was also a cool concept that would be fun to explore in other settings, like a mystery story.

Even though this visual novel is straightforward with no choices or branching paths, I did like the little interactive feature of having to click the buttons to snap pictures. The story itself is well-written; I was never confused about what was going on or what the characters' motivations were. There still is a bit of mystery in to the story (like, what was the scientist studying that was so deadly), but that's not a bad thing.

Well done!

(+1)

I really good literary adaptation VN. I'm really fond of those, as a well-developed kinetic novel can bring more live to an already solid story... And this project did it very well. The visuals felt polished and climatic. The small touches of interactivity were thematic and didn't get in the way. The prose maybe tried a bit too hard to be philosophical at times, but it never crossed the line into being obnoxious. The storyline, as melancholic as it was, had an interesting message and avoided most easy resolutions/cliches that you often find in VNs.

Overall, a very well-put-together experience – not exactly fun, considering the themes, but definitely compelling. Looking forward to your future projects. :)

Submitted(+1)

I like the background and the voice acting for the dialogue.  I haven't played a VN in a long time, and this was a nice refresher.  The dialogue could be a little less wordy, but I love the overall presentation of the idea of a hidden magical world.  I look forward to finishing it.

Submitted

Well, I don't think it was really my thing unfortunately.

I'm not a fan of kinetic novels, so I won't say much about the gameplay or lack thereof. More animation would have been nice, but the pacing was good.

I actually really liked the premise. It's not what I'd think of when I think of magical girls, but it's an interesting secret-magic-world, little bit of urban fantasy setting. The protagonist's journey is an interesting one that carries emotional weight to it.

On the other hand, I really wasn't a fan of the writing style. The big killer was the dialogue and narration. I have never met anyone who talks the way the people do in this VN. It reminds me of the Star Wars prequels in that it's probably supposed to have a mystical aire to it but just comes across as stilted and unnatural. To be fair, it is explained somewhat in the case of the viewpoint character, but it doesn't excuse the other characters (the guy at the beginning is creepy as heck) and I still found it really awkward to read.

The long passages of reflection are simultaneously the best and worst parts. Some of it is interesting, and I do see what she's getting at, but the way it's written just comes across as pretentious prattling.

The art is pretty nice, if a bit sparse. The character art is nice, and it's very consistent, which is always a good thing. I'm not entirely sold on the use of an oil paint filter for photographs, but it works well enough, and again it's applied consistently.

The music was good, but I did have some issues with it cutting out or randomly stopping. This might have been caused by my constant alt-tabbing, though.

(+1)

Everything is so solid here. The main idea is interesting, the presentation is great and the writing kept me going. Can't believe you were able to work in voice acting too. Very cool indeed.

Submitted(+1)

the presentation is top notch, vary highly detailed and voice acted too.

Submitted(+1)

The writing and character art stand out on this one! The story was interesting and the length felt just right. The voice acting was a nice touch, and added to the experience. I see the music is Creative Commons, but it all fits nicely. The story themes worked well, and the science angle was a nice touch!

More of an observation than a critique, but I notice this one goes the more traditional magic route than the "Magical Girl" trope. Of course, that's fine! Well within the jam parameters.

If I have one critique, it would be that I tend to prefer a little more interaction in visual novels when possible. I did appreciate that taking pictures was at least a button click, vs just another dialogue element. However, this is really just my personal preference... and I know your goal was a kinetic novel. With that in mind, it came out excellent!

Great job!

Developer(+1)

(Tim) Hi ShibeyFace! Thanks for your comment.

Yes, as we developed the game we moved away from the original idea of having a magical girl style transformation sequence at the end. We felt that it was more impactful for the last interaction to be somewhat underwhelming. It would have been more within the magical girl aesthetic with the transformation, but it still would have been somewhat subversive so we decided to go all the way with simplicity.

Totally get the critique about the lack of interaction! Our studio plans on having works with more interactivity in the future, but for now we want to keep the scope of our visual novel projects small. Kinetic VNs are at their core fancy picture books or illustrated novels, while a VN with a branching narrative requires (in my own view) quite a lot of planning for each of the routes to properly extend the story and also interact with each other. To be blunt, I do not think we (specifically, I) am skilled enough to pull it off yet.

But when that time comes, I hope that you will enjoy it ^_^ Thank you so much for your feedback!

Host

This message is directed to those who answered "No, some of them were purchased" to any of the last two questionnaires. Due to some complains regarding to the last two questionnaires, I have updated it to compensate for some circumstances in which those two questionnaires can't capture the full picture. I have updated the questionnaire so that it can slightly capture some more nuances (in particular, those who only used one or two outside assets but made the rest themselves). It definitely is still flawed, but because there are a lot of submissions already, for this jam, this is the best I can do.

If you don't mind, please honestly assess whether or not your responses (the answers themselves have changed) still apply; and if not, please click "Edit Your Submission" to refill the questionnaire.

Developer(+1)

Hi Ran, for this project our studio exclusively used music from the Creative Commons with proper attribution :)

Host(+1)

Understood. Thank you very much for the cooperation!