This was a nice story! I liked all of the characters and the twist at the end. Although I do have to wonder, where was Desmond after he confronted Faolan? He obviously thought that you were being poisoned and once he thought he got rid of Faolan, he just vanished? And then the only other gripes I have were some grammar mistakes and that we didn't get a CG for that final scene XD (Not needed though, you described it well enough for my imagination to make a good scene.)

Well done!

This is quite the charming tale, very evocative of ancient myth. The romance between Angus and Faolan is lovely, and the twist at the end is satisfying. The presentation is basic but works well with the assets provided. The only issue is a bunch of grammatical mistakes, but that can be fixed in an update.

That was neat! I would have loved to see a bit more of what happens to Des, he who after all cared about Angus so much. I liked the idea behind the story and I think it was executed thoughtly. I wasn't sure what I was getting into at first (before starting the VN) but my expectations were exceeded ^^ Thanks for showing this story to the world!

This was an interesting story, and a fun take on Famine/Pestilence.  I surmised pretty early on who the MC truly was, given the timeline of when he disappeared, the prominence of the statue in the story and the fact that the town they resided in had not yet been affected by famine, though I noticed the realization hit at different points for others during the course of the story, so I feel it was foreshadowed well without being overtly obvious from the beginning.  There were a few grammatical errors, but the story is quite solid, and I felt the pacing was great.  

This was a pretty neat story

Pretty good, I would say! Even if there are notable weaknesses, like the barebones presentation and plenty of typos (such as the name of the game being misspelled in the title screen), the premise is good, and the writing manages to balance between fun magical realism and tangible stakes. Also, no spoilers, but the twist works on multiple levels – it's satisfying on its own, but also reconfigures the prior story in a way that makes some aspects of pacing and characterization feel more natural.

I think there are a lot of interesting things going on in the story, but they don’t all fit together in the way that I’d like them to. Faolan checks a lot of boxes for a “rich man comes to ailing village to offer Faustian deal” story, and Desmond calls him out for essentially exploiting and killing Angus (Faolan even implies that he cheated Angus when he brings up that he needs more power to sustain a larger town), but what comes after that is much more concerned with Iomhar’s disappearance and Faolan’s sadness/helplessness. Desmond is never shown again, and Angus/Iomhar doesn’t think about him. Iomhar’s disappearance and relationship with Faolan are mentioned early in the story, but don’t set up enough for the ending where Iomhar essentially takes over as the main character. Angus and Iomhar are sort of the same person or merged in some way, but the ending sex scene feels much more like Iomhar than Angus, and much of what we know about Iomhar comes only at the very end.

Making a deal with a famine god to bring prosperity has some interest to it since you wouldn’t think that prosperity-giving is really in the purview of the famine god. And then when Faolan says that he was at odds with Iomhar in ideals since he wanted people to enjoy themselves and not work all the time, it gives the impression that maybe the famine god has some good points against the harvest god. There’s some yin-yang balance thing going on here, but then famine seems to just use the “people should enjoy their lives” ideal to isolate Angus from his friends.

I think that Faolan’s characterisation in his introduction is strong, but the rest of his story with his abandoning Angus and feeling sad about being abandoned by Iomhar comes too quickly.

I do like the CG and animation at the end with Faolan and Iomhar. It helps to show Faolan as a sympathetic figure after being condescending and guarded for much of the VN. And the scene where Angus gets Iomhar powers has a lot of drama to it in a good way, with the tree sprouting in the field and all the description of Angus’s feelings and struggles in the moment. I agree with some other commenters here that you did well with the provided jam sprites. Desmond’s character lines up well with his sprite and expressions, and the text acknowledges Faolan’s suit and brooch, and they figure into the story as people view him in a certain way because of it. Plus the whole famine thing.

This was really good! Honestly better than I was expecting going into it (the store page could use a bit of love).

Working through each criterion, spoilers from this point forward.

Implementation of Theme:

I think there's a couple different ways to look at this here. In one sense, we have the darkness of the famine itself, from which Angus' actions provide a light for the people, causing the town to boom and all of its residents to, y'know, not die and all. I think what you were primarily going for though was Faolan's inner turmoil of both losing Iomhar and his subsequent inability to keep the world from falling to shit as his "darkness", and the reemergence of Iomhar reincarnated (?) in Angus to be the "light" to pull him out of that spiral. There were long stretches early on in the VN where I wasn't sure where exactly we were going with this, but I think it works well enough.

Story:

Really well-done for the most part (with a couple things to flag that I'll get to in a second). Both of our main characters felt like actual people rather than one-note caricatures, and even Desmond came across as well-written in all of his scenes despite being much more of a secondary participant. I think this VN particularly excelled in humanizing Faolan through the shifts from his confidence and superiority upon first introduction to him dodging emotional confrontation just like a normal person who's in over their head later. 

I'm not sure the romance itself particularly works for me up until the Iomhar reveal though. This twist does soften some of the previous interactions, but it felt very Stockholm Syndrome-y to have Angus fall in love with Faolan while Faolan was essentially holding his soul hostage to save the rest of the town. Desmond's objection contributes to this as well - Faolan was destroying Angus, and I'm not sure Angus really fully contemplated the full scope of how manipulative their relationship came off. Seems like others didn't have as much of a problem here though, so maybe just me.

I'm also a bit confused on what exactly the relationship between Iomhar and Angus is in the story. Like, yes, they are different and also the same, but is the idea that Angus was actually like a full-on reincarnation of Iomhar? Or was Iomhar's soul like, grafted onto Angus when he "died"? Or did Angus just become a representation of Iomhar once he made his decision to be nice to the locust? The answer here kind of colors what could be going on in Angus' subconscious during his interactions with Faolan, so maybe that could use some clarification.

Sex scene felt a little gratuitous but it didn't overstay its welcome long enough for it to really be a big deal.

Presentation:

Far and away the best use of the stock sprites I've seen so far in the jam. There was some occasional background music here as well which helped set the tone while being quiet and unintrusive (that may not sound like high praise, but I really did think it was a positive). The little CG progression of Faolan looking up into the night sky as Iomhar faded away was a great example of having extremely simple imagery being very effective, and it was nice to see the extra effort.

Creativity:

I'm probably not quite through half the jam entries at this point, but I highly doubt there will be another instance of male red wine lactation. So there's that. Otherwise, as mentioned, great use of the stock sprites to build a character that was very on theme, and also just a solid effort all around to create a supernatural romance that didn't devolve into tired cliches and tropes. This was very solid.

I really like this! The story is really well told: the sense of dread beckoned by the changing world in the first part; everything going better as the ultimate price closes in; the profound sadness as the end approaches, alone; and finally the cathartic rebirth. The relationship of Angus and Faolan evolves nicely, and the writing is simply nice. As for the rest, the visual aspect is pretty barebones, no obvious mistake or weird thing at least. The music does its role just fine as well. I don’t really see the theme there, though. Anyway, good job!

Very cool story, and just what the provided sprite enjoyers are looking for!
It reminded me of the one of the Burrows sub-plots, with beings beyond understanding, mixed with a bit of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. 
While the Light in the Darkness was barely there, the sprites' theme of the Apocalypse was well done here with Famine! I wish I learned about the mentioned pantheon more, as the horsemen of the apocalypse are not usually linked with gods. 
Great job!

'Famine's Disciple' is a surprisingly clever twist on the classic 'gods among men' myth type of story. Biggest props for incorporating the default famine wolf's design directly into the story and making it feel like it was made specifically for this type of story. The presentation of this visual novel is deceptive to it's overall quality of writing and creative use of the apocalypse wolves theme. Even though it felt a bit more like the four horseman acted more as the inspiration of the theme than the 'light in the dark' prompt, but that's just me being nitpicky.

The story is really well put together and just the dynamics between the main character and the wolf god of famine are really interesting. Faolan is such a well developed character, and the way his mystery unfolded was done in such a way, that each reveal always gave me a sense of 'oh yeah, that makes sense'. It's so fun with the idea of gods being powerful but not being omniscient, so as the story goes on, the more you find out how much of his initial demeanor is a facade and he really doesn't know what he's doing, is somewhat powerless himself to control it, and is a bit of a brat bottom. Angus is also great as the way his mystery unfolds is also full of twists and turns, though I wish there was a little bit more foreshadowing early on, but that's just me being nit picky.

I have to commend you also on the smut scenes, really good vivid descriptors, and love the impromptu dom/sub dynamic and the nature style bondage. I feel you could've leveraged a bit more of the sprites different clothing layers to visually enhance those moments (ripping off that fancy suit), but I'm not entirely mad at it going into theater of the mind. Shout out to the titty sucking scene, very kinky.

There's some overarching themes of 'the value of hard work', the 'exploration of nature cycles', and 'the value of self-sacrifice vs self-preservation'. The way I'd take this story is something of the diametrically opposite forces of the 'eternal giver' and the 'eternal taker', as something relating to a dominant and submissive dynamic.  Maybe the lesson is for all the hungry bottoms out there to be like "be mindful of your tops, they need breaks too". Anyway, I had a good time reading this visual novel, and think its a fun entry.

I loved that this VN actually made use of the default wolves' themes. I can definitely understand that other people chose to use their own sprites instead, but I'm happy that the original concepts didn't go to waste, not for this VN at least. That aside, this is actually a really good story. I'll admit that the blank itchio page and the misspelled title (in the VN) didn't fill me with a lot of confidence but it surprised me in many ways. It's a well constructed story, with a pretty unique plot, for VNs anyway. I loved the odd romance at the center of it all, especially the way it all resolved by the end. And if you get to the end you'll know which scene is my favorite :p. Just brilliant, a fun read overall.

This was a very charming submission!  I really, really loved the worldbuilding in this, it was well-handled without beating us over the head with itself.  The interpersonal dynamics were varied and fun and the characters each had their own unique voice.

Theme: I felt like it was an optimistic look at a kind of bleak start that resonated with the Light In The Dark theme.  The whole cycle of rebirth that was present throughout felt good.

Story: An excellent imbalanced romance, with a satisfying conclusion!  You were able to play with some power imbalance clichés without making it feel icky and it was handled well.

Presentation: The drama of some of the scenes could have benefited from some CGs but, since this was a Jam entry, I'm not knocking any points off for that.  (And I do realize the irony of me specifically saying "this could have had more art in it" lol)  Other than that, there were some minor grammatical errors that I found but did not disrupt the story or feel.

Creativity: I really loved this take on Famine and harvest and stuff, I adored the pantheon that was created here and I especially applaud your restraint in not answering all of the possible questions about it!  It felt like a sample of an existing world without feeling like we're missing anything just by consuming this Jam entry.

Really great work, thanks for submitting!!  I really loved this one.