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First Moves's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Community's Voice | #13 | 4.089 | 4.089 |
Ranked from 45 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Creative Vision / Rationale / How Did You Incorporate the Theme
"First Moves" explores generosity not through grand gestures, but through quiet, personal moments of connection. As the in game clock ticks forward, players must choose to be generous with their time pausing to listen, and to show up for others even when it means stepping away from their own tasks. Each friendship formed and item gifted becomes part of a growing space the player calls home. In learning to let go and open up, players discover that generosity is the first move toward healing, growth, and belonging.
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Comments
Incredibly charming design language and while I know the player is a child themselves, I did get reminded of my days working with some big personalities in daycare, hehe. I'd love to know more about the thought process when coming up with the narrative and how much of yourself you've put into these experiences! :)
A lot of the characters personalities were indeed based on people our team knew in childhood :)
I have to admit, I was immediately impressed by the page turning, lol. But even more impressive was the writing! I gave this game a couple playthroughs once I figured out what I was doing, and I noticed that some of the characters had different dialogue chains upon first interaction, perhaps depending on the day or location, shows a lot of work went into the dialogue. Sometimes the kids' diction seems a little advanced for their age, but the characters are likable and their personality types are easy to pick up on. The quick pace of the timer did rush things along a little, I would have preferred to have some more time to play around. I also wonder what the purpose of the schoolwork is since it seems you should really be ignoring it to talk with your friends. Overall, fantastic artwork and presentation with really cute storytelling that did remind me of my own time in school at points.
I'm so glad you noticed the different dialog options! We did put a lot of work into writing multiple trees/paths for each character. Thanks so much for playing a few times :D
The purpose of school work IS to ignore it haha....based on something our team did in school lol.
This was such a lovely game! The art style perfectly fits your theme, and the story is told so well! I was already so impressed at the start with the page flipping, and everything else that came after kept impressing me, like all the minigames and the phone feature!
This game is so sweet, I love it! It perfectly depicts a little story through the eyes of a child. The artstyle being reminiscent of a kid's drawing works incredibly well, the gameplay is simple yet endearing — I especially had fun drawing with the crayons on the walls. All the characters and interactions were cute, and I like that they all gift you something to decorate your room with. My only complaint is I wish there was more time to interact with others. It would have been nice to give the player more time while also including a skip button if the player just wants to skip over that section. Aside from that, this is one of my favorite entries, phenomenal work! Kudos to your team!
Hey HazGal! So happy to hear you loved the game and the drawing mechanics. We plan to extend the the time and have a bunch more updates after the jam. A lot of shared human experience went into this game, thank you for playing!
That was wonderful! I love the decision to make all the assets with crayon, that was a really charming touch. I didn’t quite get the hang of talking to people in time – I kept thinking that typing, or playing with the marbles, etc. would result in people being friendlier to me but I realize now that of course that’s the whole point of the game! Very true to my real-life experience though; I’m only ever really capable of making friends if there’s a shared activity (and even then only quite slowly).
Really well done on all the art and sounds (getting to draw on the wall was a little messy at my resolution but really impressive!), good simple design with a lovely story, thanks for submitting it.
Thank you Matthew! It's really hard to make the first move and talk to new people, especially when there are fun solo games and distractions. I relate to only making friends through shared activities and really had to push myself as a kid to talk and get to know others.
But when I did talk, I discovered how truly connected we are as humans. Funny how my brain always tries to tell me I'm alone, even when everyone else is living a similar life along side me! I am glad you enjoyed our game, thank you for the thoughtful review 🤟✨
A lovely game reminds similar experience of mine
This game is gorgeous, such a heartfelt and delightful little journey through a child's eyes. The art is flawless running perfectly throughout along with great music. A pure delight to play!
I love my room hehe. If I was remotely as charming as our main character, my childhood would've felt different. First Moves is a touching love letter to the child within all of us <3
thanks for playing and sharing a picture of your room 😁
Love the picture of your room! Looks like you became friends with Callie and Helen, a fan of art and books eh? Thank you for your thoughtful review 🤟✨ ( ps loved your game)
That’s such a unique game! I really liked the small details like dialing the phone and playing a game on the computer. GG 🎉
Hey Miusoft, thanks for playing! Glad you liked the details! 🤟✨
I really enjoyed this! I love that the art is basically what we as a kid draw and it's like we live through our journal! I enjoy the message as well :) Well done! The mechanics you did for the flipping page is outstanding! I am blown away! I wish I had more time for each task, but I get that you wanted to show that time moves forward and when you enjoy yourself sometimes it moves really fast and have to stop at some point. It's only that I wish I had more time to explore. A great game!! Polished as well :)
Love it and my 4 y.o. also loved it!! Such a short and sweet experience! I love the hand drawn art!
Yay! Makes me so happy your 4 y.o. loved it and you liked the art! Playtested by a couple 8 y.o. before submission and it also passed the vibe check 🤟✨Thanks for playing!
I love the artstyle!! reminds me of crayon drawings in childhood!!
The page flipping book was SOOO SATISFYING!! was wondering how you did it :o
I like the interaction between the npcs and how I can try and the hearts up! Although I feel the time could be a little longer, sometimes I didnt had time to read because I wanted to interact with the npc as much as possible before the timer ends.
I love the overall Artstyle, really fits the game! :D
Unity fakes each page turn by sliding the sheet’s corner along a calculated arc, pivoting a clipping plane to swap front/back images and shadows, then tweening the corner to its final spot!
We studied a few assets from the Unity asset store that were very well commented!
This game is so cute & cohesive-- the music, gameplay, UX, & art. Awesome work.
Playtest feedback: my post-game results mentioned that I did not make any friends =(, which seemed to go against my interactions with some of them. However I did not get all stars with any of the characters, so that's probably why. And in the large dialogue boxes, it would be good to distinguish between spokean dialogue, & nonverbal cues, possibly via parantheses '( )' or some other punctuation. Anyways, I enjoyed this game. Keep it up!
THIS IS BEAUTIFUL, I LOVE IT.
It is truly heartwarming for a piece to be drawn by hand. Unfortunately, calling the authorities appears to do nothing.
Haha I can't believe we missed that! Such a great idea, we will add that in the future update. Thanks for playing!
I tried to call 911 too lol
This is awesome.
SOSO CHARMING! So many little details, I loved how every part of it was interactive and engaging. The crayon art-style fits so well and the message was so sweet. This warmed my heart. A little bit goes a long way, especially for kids who are still experiencing the world for the first time. Amazing work from the team :)
I like the hand-drawn crayon art-style, the music, and the variation of game mechanics.
Nice cozy game overall, the art book at the end was a cool addition too!
Thank you for playing, glad to hear you liked the art book!
that was such a refreshing breath of nostalgia - so much depth in the dialogues, so much personality in all of the kids, with their typical honesty; the way the growth in your friendships start reflecting in your cosy little room so organically. i love the focus of quietness and subtlety in the theme of generosity; memorable experience!
We really packed in the nostalgia and wanted it to feel like elementary school in the early 2000s. Makes me happy knowing someone resonated with that, thank you ~
Really touching story and great visuals to accompany it. Great job!
Glad you enjoyed the story, the characters get pretty metaphysical when you really get to know them. Thanks for playing!