Hi there!
I'm one of the 6 judges for this RPG Maker Game Jam 2025. I was one of the 2 judges assigned to your game, and we have been assigned to rate your games according to each metric highlighted on the game's main jam page, and submit these ratings to the organisers, who will then appropriate what happens with that. Please contact them in the Q&A if you have any further questions about the judging process. The judges will work on different time schedules, so even if I may have finished playing your game, the entire process might not be finished as of yet. Many of these reviews I am posting while still judging.
All that aside, I'd like to share my VOD of me playing your game, which contains up to an hour of gameplay, and some final thoughts at the end! Depending on whether I stopped the VOD early or not, it will also contain many of the thoughts that I say to you below, which may cause repetition. So just be aware of that.
I will also attach a review below this VOD. I will not disclose my ratings for each category as of yet, but those will be revealed in due time. Not all judges are required to post a review or VOD to each game, but many will do so even if it's optional, including myself.
Here's the VOD:
Well, it's safe to say that this game is a banger. I really do think there's so many ideas present here that are innovative, interesting and full of character. Certainly, the idea of using an OS and a blogosphere and a revival project and a instant messaging client and a graphical image editor and a files/folders simulation to sort of cobble together this collage of videos, images, posts, messages and a central game is an idea worthy of the many elements that comprise it. They weave together their details, their mysteries, their gameplay solutions, into a mystery that is worth pursuing, and I personally found some resonant messaging and feeling towards.
There's pangs here of internet celebrity culture, culpability of actions in friendship, leaving messages in early internet era via obscure media, and the investigative unravelling of a legacy that perhaps should have been kept hidden all along? I'll leave the player to judge that one.
It's difficult to make a game within a month that has resonance beyond just "oh, fun game". And this game definitely succeeds in that... well, I was going to say "mission", but perhaps the developer just wanted to tell a cool story? I think there's some staying power here, regardless.
Because this is one of the few entries in this jam (and there have been a few, I'll give that credit) that stuck with me in the weeks following my playthrough. And that's what a TRULY great game does.
The ways it bucks expectations are obvious. There's fourth wall breaking WITHIN the fourth wall breaking, and there's layers of rooms and operating systems and games. Well - three layers, I guess. :P These contribute to this multi-layered discovery of a person both directly through conversation and then secondarily through their art.
Assuming also that a "series of blog posts" qualifies also as art. What drew the crowd to be so obsessed with Kana? I'm not so sure. But the thoughts of its target may not be so simple. And yet Kana themself feels very, achingly human in their desperate attempt to connect with humanity.
I dunno, it seems hard to discuss this game purely in terms of technical merit, but there's great graphics here, great sound design, some really innovative gameplay mechanics - namely, scrolling through messages and finding clues and using story to create solutions within the game itself - and it's just a series of massive "Eureka!" moments that you discover one after the other.
Also, I'm kinda silly... I only found one ending, but I realised later that there were at least two, because I watched someone else play. Either way, my time with kana.exe was an immense one. I enjoyed it very much, and I thought about it for days to weeks after, now and again.
What a marvellous horror mystery game you've created. Keep making incredible games. You're awesome.