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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
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!
This game brings back so many feelings from childhood! The fact that everything is drawn like a children's drawing is so beautiful. The white outlines sometimes made me feel like I was placing stickers on a page. Very satisfying. Great work!!
Yay! Stickers were what I was going for! Thanks for playing~
You've made a great work. Unique gameplay, great narrative, interesting minigames and visuals. Did you really did all of these during one month? Great
Yup! We did everything over the course of the gamejam!! We had some very tired mornings 😆
Thanks for playing! This game was our life for the past month, all three of us put our hearts into it!
This game is so great! I loved it! So cozy and delightful! It really reminded me of my childhood and all the wonderful things in it! I really wish the game were longer and not so time-restricted because I wanted to talk to everyone and become friends with them all! :D
Thanks for playing! Each item you see started from a real conversation I had with friends and family about what they cherished in their childhood bedrooms. That question lead to unexpectedly meaningful and nostalgic conversations, I am glad this resonated with you! (ps I loved your game too! <3)
Awesome interpretation of the theme. Cozy art style. Very well executed. The artbook at the end is a cool touch.
Thanks for looking through the art book!! We're glad you noticed that small detail 🩷 We really wanted to highlight our artists incredible work.
Thanks for playing! We had SO much fun making this!
I really want to learn how you did that flip animation for the pages. Great job on your submission, it has one of the best presentations - the note flipping, the music, the kid drawing aesthetic, the scene changes and transition, all look so cool.
Isn't it smooth?? Sam packed in many different mechanics and KC created the perfect soundtrack all in such a small window of time. Thanks for the kind words and for playing our game!
Thanks so much for playing!
For the paper flipping:
We "turn a page" by treating each sheet as two flat UI images (front + back) parented under a clipping plane. As you drag, a bit of trigonometry keeps the page’s corner locked to a circular arc between the spine and the outer edge. That moving corner dictates the clipping plane’s pivot/rotation, instantly hiding one image, revealing the other, and shifting drop shadows so the sheet appears to bend. When the mouse is released a short tween snaps the corner to the next stop, updates the page order, and the book is ready for the next flip. All with simple transforms, no real mesh deformation, it's done in Canvas in Unity. We studied a few Unity assets to get it working the way we wanted :)
that's awesome. Nice work and it shows! And thanks so much for sharing the info.
Great game! Arts and audio are perfect to create the cozy theme. One suggestion: the countdown makes the pace a little bit too fast, I would prefer to slow down and enjoy all conversations. Nice work!
PS - I would love to have you reviewing my game, thanks!
Thanks for playing and for the feedback! We definitely plan to update the game to make it slower paced 🩷 Played your game and I loved it!
Story - This game is too cute for words. Briana and I became besties and now we roll deep, even though she's got family stuff going on, I'm super determined to be there for her and to make her some hamburger helper whenever she's feeling down.
Mechanics - For such an unassuming game, there are a SHOCKING amount of different mechanics in here! So many little minigames and things to do, in addition to building lasting friendships with characters. It's so really impressive that you guys were able to add so many unique little tidbits to the game.
Theme - On point, being generous with my time and receiving generosity from others was very clearly the motivating theme of this game.
Audio/Visual - Super adorable hand-drawn art mixed with a cute soundtrack and little audio bits made for a really home-made feeling game, yet there was a distinct level of polish that brought it all together really nicely.
Overall - Such a great little game! I played through a few runs just so I could befriend everyone and learn all of their stories! Amazing job - you all rocked it!
PS - I'm never forgiving my parents for leaving my dog behind.
Thank you so much for playing so thoroughly! We had a lot of fun writing the dialogs and developing the personalities for each character 🥰 It means so much you took the time to get to know them all!
There is sooooo much stuff. And it all looks great. My only comment is that time passes way too quickly. I didn’t even have time to read the dialogs. Maybe pause time while text is being written?
So great! I can't believe you made so many parts
nailed the children’s book aesthetics! very cute. if I have to nitpick – I find the transitions a bit long sometimes.
I loved this game!!! I love that the art was done with crayons, I loved using crayons in my figure drawing classes and it is always cool to see another game done with traditional artwork not just digital assets. Weird question, how did you get the white outline around the characters and other objects??
I think the timer goes by a bit too fast sometimes making it hard to talk to more than just one person. Especially when they have a lot to say about plays...I think pausing the timer or allowing players to speed up the typing of the dialogue would help to let players speak with more characters.
Thanks for playing! For the outlines I'm the programmer so let me ask the artist exactly how it was done and I'll get back to you :)
Thank you so much! I became a crayon bender for this project haha, I'm happy to see someone appreciates all the work we put in! I made the outlines for all the items and characters in GIMP with the border select tool.
We definitely agree on the pacing of the game and are already planning updates for after! Andrew yaps a lot but he's a good kid 🩷
This was so cute! Really well done :)
Hey! Really nice game. The art is charming, though I wish you used a greater range of values to show more contrast. I also understand the rationale behind having a timer/limited actions, but I think it clashes too heavily from the intended direction of the game where you'd want the player to take their time and explore everything this game has to offer. The timer makes me feel very rushed, and the limited actions makes me feel unsatisfied at the end.
Super cute game though, really nice job by everyone
Thank you! I totally agree and if we had a little more time we could have pushed the updated assets with higher contrast and balance and slowed down the pace. Great feedback that we will definitely use for the update, thanks!
LOVE THE ART! I'm such a fan of hand drawn games and this one is really cute and I can tell that so much care and effort went into it. Good job!!
Thank you! That means a lot coming from the creators of casserole, your game's art style is like nothing I have seen. In the world of AI it felt good going back to basics: a box of crayons from 2012.
This is one game I would definitely recommend someone. INCREDIBLE WORK AND EFFORT.
especially with the time frame we had, that's some genius work
Thanks for playing, Madoos!