I had high hopes on account of liking what both team members had made before, and I'd say I got what I expected. The very sudden, hardly narratively appropriate non-ending (hilariously preceded by a scene where the prose gets wildly less polished) is a noticeable blemish; judging purely as a jam entry, I think I would have preferred finding an earlier stopping point, though I'm not sure what would be the best one. But everything you get in this version is so, so good, constantly visually inventive and full of sharp lines and striking character moments.
With the shifts between reality and play, there are a lot of structurally ambitious things going on, but it all more or less works out (maybe apart from one exposition sequence that feels like it comes from mostly from a place of all that information having to be somewhere). Considering that it's working with a relatively large cast and at a brisk pace, I'd also like to commend the game's sharp eye for characterization. Everyone comes off as having such a well-formed personality, which I think is largely thanks to smart choices about how actors and their roles parallel each other and the use of humor as an element of voice. Really good stuff. And in regard to some of the memelord references: I admit it, you got me, the famous Flowers line made me fall out of my chair. I am not at all immune to what you were serving here.
Though some of the visuals do seem emblematic of the hurried production, I'm generally very into the photobash-esque mix of edited photos and art, and the character designs are just amazing. On further reflection, maybe I should take away some praise of the characterization from the writing and give it to the sprites – every expression feels laser-focused to project the precisely right image of who this person is and what they're feeling right now. The interplay of light and shadows is also a functional, if sort of obvious, way to make use of the jam theme, and the opening segment in particular is so moody. Many other scenes feel very thoughtful in their presentation and how they either use or subvert the traditional visual language of the medium, too.
This better not be one of those abandoned game jam submissions that never gets finished; it'd break my heart. Call me if you need a producer of something, I'm dying to see the rest of the story.