A cute story about friendship and a li’l ghost. And it has some fun point-and-click (and drag-and-drop) gameplay.

I downloaded it, but since the Windows build didn’t seem to run on Linux (sometimes Windows builds of Unity games do run on Linux, and sometimes they don’t, and sometimes they do but 2D graphics get weird, this one kept trying to start without starting), I had to play it in-browser instead.

Story

It seemed kinda spooky, especially until the ghost appeared. And I liked that the player character didn’t say anything other than through choices and point-and-click.

I think the humour was good, and you did well with the character personalities too.

And I like reading about friendship. Cute ghost stories about friendship are usually fun to read.

Audio

I think one of the things that got me to play this entry was seeing it mentioned as having the best voice actor in the jam. And yeah, the voice acting worked really well in this entry. It really showed the personalities of the characters and the relationship between them.

The music was nice too, although I found myself turning down the SFX volume to more properly listen to the music, and some tracks felt a bit short (e.g. there was one where it seems like it’s slowing down, and instead of changing into something slower paced for at least a couple of bars it just jumps back to the start, feeling like the piece was meant to be longer but that you ran out of time and left it shorter). You did manage to keep the music both spooky and cute.

The sounds that the ghost made were nice (also kinda needed), while the thunder was loud enough that I turned it down. I almost feel like it could make sense to have separate volume sliders for them.

Art

Both cute, painterly and spooky. The li’l ghost is adorable, and made some nice drawings too. The expressions are so expressive… I mean they complement the text and voice acting really well, and they give off a cartoon vibe that’s really cute. And I loved the animations too: the little ghost (was that his name?) didn’t need a voice actor with those animations, right? (I’m sorta guessing Li’l Ghost nods when I ask this question.)

UI and Accessibility

The UI looks good, and I like the point-and-click mechanics. But I also think the accessibility features could be better, especially the following:

• While the point-and-click mechanics probably make these harder to implement, it would be nice if there was rollback and/or history. Even just a short-term history (being able to re-read the last five lines of dialogue or so) would help if a player accidentally ends a line of dialogue before reading the whole line. (I didn’t have much trouble, since I was waiting for each voice line to finish before advancing the text… and I avoided enabling auto forward because I felt like that would force me to keep reading at a pace dictated by the game while not being able to re-read text if I missed something; if there was a way to re-read a few lines back in time I probably would have enabled auto-forward on my first playthrough.) Also, on later playthroughs where I was trying to get through some parts quickly, getting too far and having to start over was kinda annoying.
• I was able to read the moving text (when the individual characters in a word are moving up and down or shaking) but an option to disable those effects might be useful for people who don’t see as well as I do. But at least you don’t seem to have those effects in those bits of text (choices and location names) that aren’t voiced. Seeing as you mention in a devlog that you plan on releasing the text in more languages but leave the audio in English, I think an option to keep the text steady (and perhaps even options to change the font or font size) would be nice.

Marketing

The capsule image (thumbnail, but why not use a fancy word for it?) shows the artstyle, hints at the type of story, and the font makes me think it’ll probably be a fun story. It is.

The ~~logoline~~ logline, seems interesting and spooky. And it says “little ghost”, not just ghost, so I guess it also hints at the cuteness without mentioning it directly.

The game page is pretty but readable. – Actually, it’s pretty and readable. Or at least I wouldn’t consider it “pretty” if the text was hard to read. – Anyway, it gives me the impression that this is a cute ghost story.

Other

The drag-and-drop minigame took me a little while to get through because I kept clicking on things without getting them to move until I realised I had to hold the mouse button while dragging them.

What I liked most? Probably a lot of stuff, but if I had to pick just one thing I might pick the voice acting because that’s something this entry did really well and many entries didn’t even bother having VA. (And just because the Writing and Art sections above are a bit short doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the writing and art. I might just be better at putting into words what I think about audio and UI.)

And what I liked least? Probably the lack of rollback/history making it tricky to re-read stuff I missed.

Wonderful! Loved the art, especially lil' ghost! Hope to see more.

Love love LOVED this one!! I actually played it on stream and the chat and I enjoyed their character interactions so much. If you'd like to watch the VOD, you can see it here! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1960479877

Overall I thought it was extremely charming, the voice acting was great, the environment and backgrounds were beautifully artistically rendered, the only thing that I would have liked is more variety in the music. There were moments of silence or scenes that seemed a little awkward considering the emotion/focus in the scene. There were also moments when the voices got a little too hard to hear, hiding behind the music that was present-or the voices were a /bit/ too loud. But overall, very lovely and can't wait to see more!

Amazing! Need MOREEEEE!

The best game I played til yet was from the Spooktober game jam :3 Mostly I'm very fast bored, but you did great with the short dialogs and very nice pacing and spooky atmosphere. The storytelling was very good. The dialogs are well writen and the art style is gorgeous :3 Loved to search and solve the puzzle. Great game <3

What a lovely, beautiful adventure this one is!

I loved all the characters, and it really made me nostalgic over being like, 13, starting highschool, leaving your friends behind, and still trying to maintain the bond! And the dynamic of showing how everyone was too concentrated in their inner bubble, thinking that everyone else is scheming on them, and then having the chance to get them to rethink it all and properly express their feelings was very fulfilling!

The art is Gorgeous, with capital G. Same as the music, that constantly kept the right mood going. And the story is so nice and truthfull, with a big positive essence behind it, my sincere congratulations on that!

I LOVED ghostie. That lil ghost was just so charming lol

I couldn't help it but also remember scooby doo while playing. Solving the puzzle, helping a ghost, heck, I wouldn't mind to play a sequel with them solving more mysteries... with ghostie along lol

Also, so nice to see another Unity made game. Congratulations you all!!!

It was such a heartwarming short story, I love it~ (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

The characters are really relatable with their insecurities about drifting apart (it's part of adulting I guess ...) and how they solve it together is really touching. The art and the animation of the storm is reeeaaally good! And the VAs really brought both Milo and Avery to life! I chuckled at their banter and their jokes (especially with the coco-nut joke www).

Even though it doesn't have save/load system, it's very easy to finish it in one sitting. Great job!

Great art style.

Love the thunder effects, the atmosphere, the UI and the voice acting.

I wish there was an options menu.

Thanks for making this lovely game and have a good one!

just finished playing the game on iPad, and boi was it fun. The character design and background art was so professionally done, with the lighting and colours used, every scene was literally eye candy to me lol. I love the use of mini games as we explored the place, and the story being revealed throughout the exploration. However I do wish the interact-able items can be a little bit more obvious colour-wise. 

The voice acting was like cherry on top, adding to the experience of the story, great job! Only suggestion I would give is would be nice to see how many pages we’ve collected while we explore the place, instead of only showing when we collect the page. But then again, I’m playing on iPad, so maybe some hidden ui would appear on pc. Overall, everything was well put together. Amazing stuff!

This was just lovely! Both the character designs and backgrounds are really well drawn, and the whole thing has a very cute and cozy atmosphere. The voice acting for Avery and Milo was great as well, capturing their personalities perfectly. And I also really wanna comment on how nice of a touch it was to give the ghost sprite some little animations! A cozy game that had me smiling throughout!

Incredibly charming! The story hits a lovely sweet spot between the spooky kid adventure films of the 1980s, and the emotional intelligence of Pixar films. The character designs are appealing and expressive, the backgrounds creepy but still somehow cozy (?!), and it is overall a wonderful Halloween treat! ❤️

What a well rounded game experience. I love the background and character design, especially the ghost. So many excellent ideas here in terms of art and gameplay. Everything fits very well together, including the music (which was lovely) and the voice acting. It looks completely professional ! Great job :)

I said all the positive stuff in the front of your page so I will do the critique here! 

I feel like when the serious and mature parts happened the ability to select the funny comments by touching objects should have accompanied the mood, cause it was a bit jarring going from serious and sad and then bam a funny comment out of nowhere, i noticed that in one part.

Aside from that I don't think I have anything else to say! The game was super enjoyable and professionally executed! 

I could see this easily on a steam page ! 

A complete game experience with some excellent voice acting.

Great game! This really shows the effectiveness of a simple, clear concept and stellar execution.

What a fun and well done game! The story is well written and truly captures the feeling of summer coming to an end. I appreciate the realism in the story of how different people feel and react when friendships begin drifting apart.

The production value of this game is excellent - the music is superb, the art is beautiful (those backgrounds are *chefs kiss!)  and the voice acting really elevates it. I found Milo and Avery to be very fun, relatable characters - plus Avery has a super cute voice. Really enjoyed this game, and it's easy to see that the team had a fun time building it, nice work!

this game has it all, in a succinct package to boot! quick, digestible, personable, beautiful art, and well acted characters, the story evokes reminders of reconnection and childhood, how things were spooky but it would all be okay so long as you were with your buddies :)

A small and poignant tale about friendships and the struggles we face when we see them change. 

The writing is very strong: dialogue is humorous and natural, and the gorgeous character art and voice acting elevates it even further. I adore the backgrounds as well, they're incredibly drawn. 

I'd easily recommend this title to anyone who wants to get into visual novels, but doesn't know where to start! Good job, everyone!