I couldn't finish before the time limit is out so I'm dropping some ratings based on what I've read because I think it's really sweet and genuine. Partially because the mc feels very... trusting lmao. I do think perhaps Rover's dedication to escape could be treated a little bit more seriously? but I saw that you're hoping to release a bigger fuller game post jam, so I'm excited to (finish this jam version and) see that, and assume when you have more time and more words things like that will get some help and be ironed out. It's a good one, great entry 

This is a cute yet somber VN about the falling out of two lovers. I'm going to start out with what I didn't like about it. The whole situation about the Earth ending because the sun is blocked out is a little confusing. How is it possible to end up in a situation where the Earth becomes uninhabitable, while the Moon is a perfect place for humans to live on? The VN's also inconsistent about whether the Earth is going to die out or if it's salvageable; it's just being abandoned by the government, because if it's the former, then Stoffle's motivations for staying behind are very weak and confusing. I would have much preferred it if it were more about the government moving to the moon for colonization reasons, think the Manifest Destiny mindset IN SPACE, rather than out of necessity. That way, the story would have been more about the conflict between Rover and Stoffel having conflicting goals in mind, rather than one wanting to escape the apparent apocalypse while the other wants to do something about it. Speaking of which, it's annoying to hear Stoffel talk about wanting to do something about the planet when all he does to help is work at a gas station, especially when his boyfriend is building a literal rocket that can fly to the moon, which is housing several people. Maybe if he did things like help set up a new government for the remaining people on the planet, house people who might be struggling, help supply renewable energy to the planet to keep the lights on, help people create sustainable oxygen systems that can go on without the sun, or even providing emotional support towards other people (I might be missing some other issues that'd come from a sunless and these are probably flawed solutions, but I'm just providing examples) then I'd believe him more. But he doesn't, so it ends up sounding empty. Also, if you could just build a rocket to the moon, why doesn't Rover help other people who couldn't go on the big rocket to make their own rocket? Maybe share vital information or help scavenge for materials. Eh, I'm overthinking this WAY too much. I also don't particularly like Stoffel's sprite. I don't know, it just doesn't look like a badger to me, and it's not that appealing to me. One last thing is that the flashbacks aren't properly distinguished from the present, which can cause moments of confusion.

Despite everything I just said, I actually really enjoyed this one. The characters are pretty likable, each of them having their own moments where they're pretty entertaining. I like the cartoony art style and the expressions the characters make. There's a certain charm to VN, with little things such as Sam's ladder moving alongside her and Ozzy's dramatic sprite adding to the experience. The visuals in the ending sequence also look pretty good. The thing I like the most about this story is the vibes. It's incredibly low-key and has a mix of optimism and dread that works quite well. I also like the different branches and how they change up the story, although I ended up preferring Sam's branch by a considerable amount. Overall, a good VN I'd recommend, despite all the issues I mentioned.

Good read all around. The writing is neat, and I loved how there are two different branches that complement each other. The characters are fun, but I’m kinda conflicted since most of the time they act “cartoonish”, their supposedly grounded lines felt a bit flat. The MC is gullible, which is not inherently bad, I feel like we’re not digging deep enough for this kind of genre. My biggest issue I have is that building the escape rocket is supposed to be a VERY big thing, but Rover’s attempt is just kinda brushed off like another backyard project. Otherwise, it’s been a cozy and warm experience. Well done!

A nice read, really liked the vibe of the story. Though, the times when we skipped through time didn't really make sense. Because we get a line where it's describing a scene with the 2 mc's 3 months back, and then another line afterwords saying that the relationship started like a month ago.

But other than some logistical queries, I liked everything about this! I like the character designs, the writing style, and good choices in music. Well done and I'm excited to see what other stories you are planning on telling.

A charming little read, funny despite the shitty situation of the world dying and all that. The sprites are all very expressive (maybe a bit too much so?) and I especially love Sam. Antsonas are extremely rare, and this VN makes the most out of it, so that was fun to see. Love whenever she walks away, still on the stepladder. Anyways, this was an excellent depiction of how the apocalypse can be kinda mundane actually. This VN had a cozy pace, though I think there were some jumps around in time? I'm not too sure actually, the connection between scenes was a bit loose at times. Anyways, there were some emotional moments and it hit those beats accurately. I liked the multiple routes as well. Just a solid entry all around. Well done!

'For All There Exists the Inevitable' is a tragedy of a romance through the lens of a Saturday morning cartoon. It's aesthetics give off the vibes of some of the more popular narrative focused cartoons. The characters are vibrant and expressive though cliche anime emoji expressions, and really carry the experience through their charm and fun designs. A manager bird guy who gets completely overwhelmed and the ant gal who carries a jpeg step stool everywhere to be at the same eye level, are really cute and creative choices. I think the plot of 'building a rocket to go to the moon cause the sun's not shining' is an over-the-top but fun plot device, but, functionality its lack of stakes feels like it undermines the emotions that it's trying to evoke from the romance.

The story frames the 'not-so-end-of-the-world' though a humorous satire of cartoon logic, where asteroid mining causes a cloud of debris to block out the sun, commercial space travel is now a thing for the citizens of the area they live in, and also building a rocket is possible out of materials from a junk yard. The nonchalant-ness of everyone who is not going on a rocket up to the moon is also dissonant with the severity of the stakes that the story presents it as. The story can't decide how important the 'no-sun' detail is. Thus, the time limit imposed on the characters for when they have to launch, also feels arbitrary. I can't tell how serious this story wants to treat it's premise.

Additionally, it's like the characterization for the main couple is only surface deep. It's hard for me to understand how a romance developed between the two, or how they show that love other than just by the story telling us they are. For one, they nearly immediately realize that they both have different goals, and aside from 'he's a nice guy', there's not much chemistry between the two. Stoffel says that he wants to stay on Earth to 'help people', but it's such a generalized and nondescript way, like, he has literally no plan other than to keep working at the convenience store. Rover wants to build a rocket to go to the moon, but as explained before, staying on earth isn't a death sentence, so why is it so urgent to go up there? Why is he the only one making bootleg rockets?  Why is the moon colony the solution and not getting rid of the cloud? Also, neither side wants to fight for this relationship or put effort into it, so it's like, 'if they don't care about it, why should I?' They say they do, but it's never shown through actions, making time for each other (that isn't building the rocket), or wanting to change for the other person. It comes across as melodramatic for the sake of having a 'lovers part ways based on differing ideals', but they weren't even really lovers. Ironically, I think it's a self-described 'failure-to-launch' type of relationship. 

Thematically, I think the story was trying to go for a 'carpe diem' type of message, live in the moment, don't worry about the future, but also wanting to also care about the future by striving to work towards a nondescript good future. Just, really kind of all over the place. Even the theme of 'light in the dark', I think, is supposed to be the rocket in the night sky literally, but figuratively, it would be a stretch to consider either character an 'emotional light', since they both end up hurting each other in the end though their lack of effort in the relationship, and not really changing either character's outlook. I think if you were going for that lighthearted approach with a tinge of drama that's reminiscent of more modern day cartoon shows, the world and the characters need to be solid and follow their own intrinsic logic, in order for all the charm and humor that's there to shine through.

Excellent work, all around absorbing and just the right amount of emotionally complicated.

Despite tackling some arguably pretty stale topics (such as the tension between pop culture depictions of collapse & apocalypse and how subdued decline can be in practice), I'd say the game manages to carve out a pretty unique niche for itself with its haunting mood and idiosyncratic worldbuilding. I love how the setting is loose and stylized enough that a guy can build a rocket in his backyard, but there are still some fairly grounded attempts to put the catastrophe in scientific terms; the deadpan silliness just really works with the layered tone of the story. And though the itch page presenting this version as a prototype made me expect something more unfinished, I think the pacing is sharp and most of the absences end up coming off as purposeful.

Some rough edges remain – the character art is a little uneven (very unusually for furry art, I feel like the wolf's face is the messiest in terms of anatomy), and though the dithered backgrounds are nice to look at, the art direction is sort of all over the place on the whole. The sound mixing also seems to be severely off, with the ambience tracks being so quiet compared to the music that I couldn't really tell they were there while playing.

But on the other hand, the nonlinear structure is a roaring success. The two routes complement each other perfectly, filling in important information and character perspectives in a way that really makes it feel like the story was conceived for this medium; I literally thought "it's weird they didn't talk more about X" during my first playthrough only to have that very question addressed in the other choices. In this sense, it's a strong showing for developers who are apparently new to making visual novels.

Even with some flaws present and some of the visuals being kind of an acquired taste, this was a pleasant surprise on the whole, definitely the kind of thing that makes going through all the jam entries worth it.

∀∃ The Inevitable was a good read. Enjoying the last days before the end of the world/your relationship seems to be a classic tale in this May Wolf, but it still works. The writing is good and the worldbuilding works well (not convinced you could really block the sun out like that but it still makes sense) The sprites are fun and expressive, can’t help but laugh at Sam bringing her (step-)ladder everywhere. The backgrounds are really nice! And the music works just fine. Overall, I had a good time. (And a Stargate reference, let’s gooooo!)

Ooof, man, what a gut punch. A good gut punch! But a gut punch.

Spoilers ahead for anyone who has not completed the game.

Implementation of Theme:

There's a few different ways to take it, I think. You have Rover being a figurative "light" that inspires both Stoffel and the passengers on his rocket in their own respective ways, and then that morphs into a literal light in the darkness once the rocket takes off. Any or all of those interpretations work for me.

Story:

This one walks a really fine line between the absurd and the grounded, with the absurd both coming in the form of some of the over-the-top characterizations (Ozzy was a bit too much of the overly serious store manager type for me though) and the general concept of a university student building a real, functioning spaceship out of a school bus and junkyard parts like he's Jimmy Neutron or something. 

All of this serves as a very nice foil for the dynamic between Stoffel and Rover, which feels much more "real". Some of the interactions are still exaggerated, but I think the ending especially hit home because of how grounded that felt. Someone who cares deeply about someone else doing something kind of shitty because they don't want to face the hardship of never seeing them again feels very realistic. 

Two issues I have with the writing here are:

1) I never really bought Stoffel's reason for staying behind. I wonder if having a more concrete extrinsic reason why he couldn't go with Rover, like a family he needed to support or something, would have been more effective in showing that he wanted to leave but there was nothing he could do.

2) There were a few lines that felt just a bit too on-the-nose and kinda took me out of the narrative. For example, "Well we madly care for each other, but we've got two conflicting destinies." This feels more like telling-not-showing than natural conversation to me and I don't think you really need this line because literally every other part of the VN already hammers this point home.

Presentation:

Not a lot of complaints for me here. Sprites are very homemade, but I think they're effective at conveying the characters' emotions, especially on the jam time crunch. The visual of Sam magically scooting away on her ladder is priceless.

Music was a bit rougher though. I'm not sure what was going on with that one track with the really loud recorder (?) but I had to turn the volume way down because I really couldn't stand it. Maybe it was because of how much I had lowered the volume, but I didn't notice any issues after that though.

Creativity:

Okay, so while this isn't technically the only jam submission that involves a time-limited gay romance that tries to be somewhat positive about an apocalyptic scenario, I still give this one plenty of points for creativity, especially in both the balance of tone and the very... scientific? approach to the setting. I thought the injection of political commentary into the narrative wasn't overly burdensome or intrusive either, and it's easy to fall into that trap.

I kinda low-key expected Rover's ship to blow up after launch the whole way through, but I'm glad you left it open-ended. This was a really good submission!

I know that the ending would be sad, but i didn't know that it will be just like that, I hate it but I love it 😭 screw you. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️