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'Night's Requiem' seems to be a prototype of a stealth adventure game with a somewhat avant-garde introduction. Something that I found fascinating was the use of a 3d video game engine to create the scenes, models and framing for a visual novel. I've seen it a few times, and it's always a nice way to really make it feel like watching frames from a film. I really enjoyed that one shot of the thoughts in the main girl's head as these sentences that appear in the space. It got a little goofy when the actions were a little bit stiff and jumpy, but that's just part of the charm I think.

That being said, the story in the intro is pretty tough to follow. The dialog doesn't feel natural (maybe cause this was translated from another language), but even then, the exchange of ideas for using the intro as an exposition of what the setting and the scenario is, was not very well communicated. Then once you get out of the intro, you can explore the area a little bit, and there's a neat camera angle change and a figure in the distance, making it feel like a mystery or objective in this game, but this is but a prototype so, not much else to do after that. The 3d model looks great for something made in the time frame, and the environment really evokes a vibe that follows the theme of 'a light in the dark'. If this continues production, I feel like you'll probably want to present more of a hook in the intro to engage the player in why they feel like they need to go exploring in the dark. Still, it's definitely one of the more unique entries into the game jam, and hopefully you're able to overcome the technical issues that plagued it's development.

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Thanks for taking the time to play. For context, and this is something I need to make more explicit, this is basically just a tech test to see if I can learn how to use Unreal effectively and what tools I may be missing (and there are quite a lot). So the result sits awkwardly between presenting itself as something that's been polished, especially due to the exceptional work by the creative team, but it's really more like the vibes of a story. I'm focusing on checking if I have the technical skills and resources to hit the big beats of a full project.

That's not to say that your feedback isn't valued though! My style of writing is kinda like every other line has been deleted. But this picks up in Act 2 of an old plot outline, and without act one you don't have enough lines to read between! The feedback consistently says when I reboot this project after getting my feet under me with the tech, a re-write is required. I'm not surprised, but it's good to have consistent feedback for that. Act 1 would've made for an awful way to start a game, but Act 2 is an awful way to start a story.

I think there's still a risk after a rewrite that readers may need to hold too much context in their head. For example. if somebody takes a break and comes back 3 months later, they'll probably be completely lost. For the future I'll rollback the ambiguity across the board.

With regards to jerky motion: I think this is something I need to dig into a lot more because this is an implementation detail with the dialogue sequence code. I need to figure out a way to automate smoothing between poses. Fun fact: Right now, every character's jaws open and shut between every frame because Unreal's physics engine applies gravity to their mouths. I tried to hide that fact, but it's deeply funny when I don't because they look like sharks biting each other. I think there's some intersection between the frame rate of the level sequence and the frame rate of the physics code. But that's Unreal for you. An absolute bear of an engine.

Thanks again for taking the time to read. I'm sure the creative team will be happy to hear this feedback!