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I don't really have much to say about this submission, but I feel like I should vocalize some of my thoughts about it.

First of all I appreciate the work done for the sprites, the tilesets and the character portrait, they did a good job on making the game feel distinct enough from the usual default assets found in rpg maker!

However, in terms of gameplay, the game part is over as soon as you reach the rehearsal room, which happens less than 10 minutes into the game.
I also found it confusing when the game said to go to "the second floor" when I saw no stairs or elevators at any point.

As for the dialogue, which is a huge part of the game, I found it quite lenghty and felt like it overstayed it's welcome. At first I read everything fine, but soon reached a threshhold where I started tuning out almost everything the characters would say (around the time the main character talks to Dr goya and company) because it started sounding like a lot of overexplaining and talking like the player already knows what the characters are talking about from the get go. The section of the play (where the puppets act on stage) could've easily been cut without losing anything for the story progression, although I can understand keeping it for the sake of showing the puppet sprites which I'm sure took a while to make!

I understand the game is a spin off of another game which I didn't play so I'm assuming all the context for the story needed is there, however I think this game should be self explanatory without the need to play a different game, and so far I couldn't understand anything beyond the basic premise of the actors being turned into puppets.

(3 edits)

Thank you for playing our game!

This is a story based game, categorized as a Visual Novel. It focusing that much on the story, its emotional impact, and the dialogue is intentional. Its original, Engineering Marvels From Hell, had 14k words.

I've read hundreds of horror stories throughout my life, ranging from books, creepypastas, and even movie plots on Wikipedia. I even wrote 3 of my own. My background is more of a writer, someone who wants to deliver a story.

If you haven't played the original then you won't understand a lot of things. Who's William? Who's Harry? Who are the judges! What's The Puppeteer? What's that school mentioned in the game? This is all crucial information. And no matter how much I leave out there are still things that won't be understood, and this wouldn't be a spin-off... It'd just be another standalone game that just references the original.