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(1 edit)

Hello! Hope you're doing well!

First of all, thank you for taking the time to test the game and write such a detailed and precise review. I know that takes time, and I really respect that—I truly appreciate it.

I'm glad you had a good time, and I totally agree with you—there's definitely room for improvement!

Regarding your points

1ļøāƒ£ Ending System_We simplified the ending for production reasons (we only had a week). Originally, we wanted a system where if the player had a medium number of coins, they could choose their ending, but if they had too many, they would automatically get the bad ending, and if they had very few, they’d get the good ending. We even considered a special ending for collecting zero coins!

2ļøāƒ£ Descriptions & Emotion_I understand your point about the lack of descriptions to deepen the character’s emotions. Since this jam’s audience isn’t used to visual novels, we intentionally kept the text minimal to avoid overwhelming players. But as a VN player myself, I also feel that more descriptions would have made the experience more immersive!

3ļøāƒ£ Choice Clarity_You're right—sometimes, it's obvious which choices will spread despair, and sometimes, it's not. I thought mixing both approaches would create some surprises while still giving the player free will to spread misery or not. But I see what you mean—it can make the system feel inconsistent.

4ļøāƒ£ Lack of Emotional Attachment_I completely agree. The problem with using multiple universes is that players don’t get attached to the characters, making the moral choices feel less impactful. This is a shame because the game is supposed to make players question their morality. I’ll definitely take this into account for future projects!

5ļøāƒ£ Comedy vs. Seriousness_This is an interesting point—it raises the question of whether comedy and serious tones can blend together. I think they can, but in this case, it might be too 50/50 instead of having a dominant tone with subtle elements of the other. (It’s something we often see in theater, where heavy messages are hidden within comedies.)

6ļøāƒ£ Linear vs. Interactive Gameplay_You're absolutely right. I was worried that VN players are rare in a generalist jam, so I feared that if the game was too linear, people would lose interest. That’s why I decided to include more coin-related situations, but it’s true that this came at the cost of quality and emotional impact. Your suggestion is really interesting, and I’ll definitely share it with the team. The idea that suffering can become so extreme that it turns absurd is a great direction to explore. (While still creating a real dilemma of "Might as well finish what we started...")

Thank you also for the bug reports—I’ll make sure to note them down and fix them!

Also, I just noticed the bug that sometimes appears at the end. There shouldn't be any timed choices at the end of the story; they only occur during the zombie event.

You're absolutely right, I need to work more on emotional attachment, whether through the art, design, or writing. In this jam, I limited the word count for my team, fearing that non-VN players would lose interest. But as a result, we probably disappointed the ones who were actually here for the story.

We might actually submit this game to the NaNoRenO jam, since we created it during that period! So, we may make some changes before then.

To wrap this up, I just want to sincerely thank you for your honesty and for taking the time to play and give such in-depth feedback. That’s incredibly valuable, and it's the only way we can improve.

Thanks again, and I hope you’ll enjoy our future games even more!

You only had a week? That makes it even more impressive! Given that time frame it all makes a lot more sense and I can see why you had to make certain choices (and more importantly, needed to stick to them so you wouldn’t lose progress).

Regarding the issue of the different audience, you could be right. I’ve had a look at the jam comments and they all seem positive so you probably made the right call there. Of course you can’t know how they would have responded if it had leaned more into the VN side, but it’s safe to say they enjoyed it the way it is. So if you were to submit it again for NaNoReNo, perhaps it would make sense to have two versions (still on this same page, of course, but with an additional file).

I’ll be sure to have a look again if you do submit it for NaNoReNo because I'm curious what you'll change and what you'll keep. Not sure if I’ll comment since you already have my feedback and I might not be able to say anything new, but I’ll see.

Yes, in the case of Nanoreno, I think we’ll be less afraid to take the time to explain certain elements in more detail while still keeping a dynamic pace!

Yes, it’s a good idea to make two versions, even though I think the Nanoreno version will be the final one, as I prefer having a deeper story—just like you do as well.

Thank you, that’s really kind of you to offer to give feedback again! But please don’t feel obligated at all, what you’ve already done is already incredibly generous.😊