First and foremost, really incredible job on the game! In just a month, an absolutely incredible amount was accomplished. The game looks and feels really polished and it really feels like a fully fleshed out game. This may be one of the most well put together games that I have seen entered in this jam. The voice acting and writing overall was really well thought out and executed. The vibes were perfect and felt weird and foreboding, yet strangely comforting. The characters felt alive and vivid. The writing and details were really top notch. Really really fantastic job. I haven't seen many games that achieve THIS level of professionalism. I wanted to include some issues/suggestions as I understand you plan to release this on steam and want to help make sure the final project is as polished as possible! I'll try to steer (no pun intended) clear of what other people have said and try to keep my comments original unless there's something I think really needs to be addressed. I was also streaming this game for a friend and we agreed on the majority of what will be listed here (any disagreements will be specifically addressed.) Quick disclaimer: I didn't notice the instructions and would love for them to be more etched into the game itself (although for the scope of the game jam this is definitely on me). A few of the issues I had were related to the fact I didn't see the instructions so take those suggestions with a grain of salt. I just wanted to include my struggles as somebody who played the game completely blind. I know the voiceover in the beginning talks about goals and purpose but it's quite and information dump in a super short amount of time and with no subtitles, I wasn't able to follow and stopped listening.
-After getting into the game I completely missed the first light tower. I didn't interact with it at all and just continued on with the game. I know the tower wasn't clear due to a bug, and was already addressed in some other comments, but after about an hour of playing, I went back to the start and clicked on the tower. There was a reaction but I didn't know how to continue or what else I was supposed to do and unfortunately gave up before completing the game (even though I interacted with most of, if not, every NPC.)
-The trees also constantly got in the way which contributed to me not noticing the first tower.
-The camera can be zoomed in so close to the water that the powerlines are not visible, which is how I played all of the game, never even noticing them.
-At Dockton, I didn't realize that the boat could be upgraded because it wasn't made clear what giving resources would do. I spent most of the game wishing the boat could move faster before realizing it can, it was just never made super clear.
-at Dockton, it seemed different NPC sprites would be shown at the wrong times for the wrong characters.
-After leaving Dockton, there was an NPC that asked for the expedition logs, and can only be interacted with once. Unfortunately, they were the first NPC I talked to and therefore, didn't have any. I thought I could return with the logs but was unable to and felt punished simply for the direction I chose to go in the beginning.
-On the river, I randomly encountered a bug that made my ship go under the water and barely be able to move. It wasn't game breaking and I eventually struggled free, it was just a little strange.
-The ship is able to slide up some of the rocks which again doesn't really have any game breaking effects but just something I wanted to mention.
-The dialogue, while extremely detailed and vivid, was just too much. If someone is looking for a solely narrative experience then this would be perfect. But if not, there's a lot to read but not a lot of game to be played comparatively, although I think the interactive text options definitely help combat this.
-I understand this may have been an intentional design choice, but I would love to see more detailed NPC sprites. The shadowy figures with glowing eyes is cool, but the silhouettes aren't clear enough to make out the specifics of a character and can make things look a little muddy causing the character less imposing as a result. It also was hard to distinguish between areas and I think all of the NPCs being silhouettes contributed to that. At the very least, some NPCS make more sense to be clear and fully in color such as the scribe of the burning ship
-The backgrounds, specifically the grass could be improved upon. The grass specifically looks a little too rectangular.
-The lost and found NPC has a dialogue option to refuse to interact. In this case, refusing to interact makes the most sense in my opinion, but the following dialogue made it seem as if that wasn't the best choice. From all the other interactions, it seems one constant value is sharing memories and facing them head on even when they hurt (specifically thinking about the willow, the artist, and the quiltmaker.) But this NPC's purpose is to give us the option to rid ourselves of a bad memory which seems to be the opposite of our purpose on the river. If you are determined to keep this in, I think making the consequences of choices clearer would be a big help. Maybe some kind of deal where you can rid of yourself of a bad memory but must also sacrifice a good one.
-The river was really difficult to keep track of. I found myself constantly getting lost and returning to NPCs I had already interacted with. I understand that could be intentional but I think having certain sections that are themed differently, getting rid of the icon to interact with the npc, or even maybe playing around with different colors of water will make sections feel more distinct and improve player experience overall. I also think making the game more visually interesting instead of having everything be black and blue would make the game feel more engaging and help the players want to interact with the characters even more!
-I'm also unsure if this was actually a problem or if I just had more resources than i realized, but I keep choosing to give resources to upgrade my ship but I never got a message saying that I didn't have the necessary resources. It just constantly said my ship was being upgraded but I'm not sure it actually was.
-I think that based on time/resources the music was expertly chosen. It did match the theme and vibe really well. Despite this, without knowing anything specific about the music, I noticed (as somebody who studies music) that it felt a little too much like a western and fed into a lot of those wild western music conventions. The person I was streaming for (somebody who does not study music) said they think it fits for both and that it gave a swampy vibe.
Really really fantastic job with this game. Overall, most of the issues I mentioned did not horribly impact the game. Even though I couldn't quite figure it out, I can very clearly see the incredible potential of this project and think it's already in a quite polished state. The scope of this project was truly insane and it's amazing to see what you were able to accomplish for this jam. I would love to purchase the final game on steam! definitely keep us updated! Amazing work!