Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

• A very cute little game! I can see from the pitch on the page what it was meant to be like and how it connects with the theme. The premise of the game is actually very sweet, and I'd be very interested in seeing it develop more. I always like a pun in the title (Paws & Reflect). I can tell from playing it that there was a clear disconnect between what the dialogue told me I could do and what the game was capable of. I can assume that is because the full list of features didn't quite get implemented (no phone, the commands were vague, and no ending). But that is fine! The aim was to make something playable, and this is a pretty good start for what could be a full game. The art style is delightful, honestly. I love the dogs very much and the backgrounds and such work so well. I even like the main character's simple design. A little bit of chill music could have elevated the look and feel of the game if it was added. I ran into a few issues with the game while playing that made me have to restart. For example, I'd trigger the interaction with the dog next to the person who talked about the phone, but if I spoke to them instead of the dog, it would close the dog trigger, and then not trigger again (couldn't get more 'hearts'). Also, if I got one wrong, it was essentially a failed task. In terms of what you could do next to make the game more complete, the first thing would be to explain the commands mechanic. I saw R for pulling away, and Q for stopping, but the symbols used when interacting with a dog didn't seem right, and needed to be labelled with words. In general, a static image with controls would help. After that, some of the ending mechanics. Even just giving an ending with the 3 hearts would make this feel far more complete, even before adding additional features like the phone. I really would be excited to see this made into a full game. The concept is there, and I think it has some potential to be a chill, sweet visual-novel+ game akin to Butterfly Soup. With enough dialogue planning and editing, of course.