Post by champion_gold in ELLA-M - Jam Version comments

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I really loved the game’s core concept and its execution. The creator has excellent writing style, sense of humor, and charisma! Honestly, I hadn’t noticed it before, but it seems I genuinely enjoy text-based games :)

The way the theme of loops was woven into the concept through the timer is quite interesting! Though I was a bit disappointed that the game is quite linear, which I understand is due to the short development time of the jam. The visual messaging engine is also very good! Especially the typewriter effect with pauses and varying speeds. Honestly, this seemingly small detail adds so much atmosphere.

The personality, writing style, and text formatting of the AI character felt very lively and spirited, and I definitely loved that! Verbose characters, a la the narrator from The Stanley Parable, have always been a huge plus for me. And even though English isn’t my native language, I thoroughly enjoyed this game (it even made me want to translate it into my native language, with your permission, of course). Something in this game struck a chord deep inside me, however simple it was and however limited the dialogue options were. Honestly, I would REALLY love to play a full, final version!!

The creator seems to have drawn inspiration from quite splendid works when making this game, and I wish them luck on this path! I eagerly await the project's development! And I promise not to set my expectations too high, so I'll be triple the surprised when it finally comes out ;)

Shoobius143 days ago

This is literally one of my favorite comments I have ever received on anything ever. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that this, right here, is why I make games!! The potential to "strike a chord deep inside". Even if you're the only person that I impact in that way, I'll count it as a success :)

I guess what I'm trying to say is: I am so, so glad that you enjoyed it!! It's really hard for me to evaluate my projects objectively; I'm a perfectionist, so even when I feel confident at first, looking back on it I only notice the imperfections. So to hear such high praise from someone else means the world to me!

I'm also touched that you noticed some of the more subtle details. I thought things such as the varying speed of the text would be something that was "felt" more than it was "observed". I hope you'll be happy to hear that I plan for this to go much further with these subtle details in the final release. There were actually some similar details that I fully implemented but didn't get a chance to include due to time restrictions.

I apologize for the linearity and lack of player agency! I'm similarly disappointed, and I wish I would have focused more time on that during the jam. I made the decision early on to not have repeated dialogue in nearly any circumstance (though I was forced to compromise at the end due to time constraints); I didn't want to do the typical thing where there are several options, but each leads to the same result with a minor word change. For the most part, each dialogue choice leads to completely unique dialogue. However, this had the side effect of 1) being WAY harder to develop and flesh out and 2) making the single route experience feel much more linear than intended. I'm still going to maintain the dialogue uniqueness in the full release, but I'll work hard to ensure that each of the choices and interactions allow for more player choice.

Okay, this comment is getting VERY long (I guess I'm a "verbose character" myself), so I'll try to keep my closing statements brief. Firstly, I'll say that I would be honored if the game impacted you enough that you'd like to help translate it into your native language. Anything you need, I'll provide; full scripts, access to the scripting engine, you name it. Also, your English is extremely good for it not being your first language. English is my only language and it's STILL hard for me to write as eloquently as you did in your comment.

Secondly, because I've had a couple of people in the comments that seem to be interested in the full release, I thought I'd make a Discord server where people could follow the development of the game if they'd like: https://discord.gg/a95JTE4Q. There is absolutely ZERO PRESSURE to join in the slightest; I'm usually wary of clicking internet strangers' links in the first place myself. I will 100% be posting devlogs to itch.io whenever I make a change, and I'll be sure to respond to your comment with a notification for the full release if you decide not to join. If, however, you'd be interested in more informal and frequent update statuses, the Discord is an option :)

Remember when I said I'd keep in brief? Apparently, that was a lie. Anyways, I guess the last thing I'll say is thank you so much for playing my game, and I'm glad that you were able to extract some meaning from it even with this short, linear demo!! I'll make sure the full release is worth the wait!