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Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 8! My name's Hythrain, a co-host and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!

So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.

This was... okay, so this is going to be kind of rough to write but I want to be honest with you because you were so honest with me and everyone who happens to play this. So before I get into this, I want you to know that nothing I'm about to say is meant to devalue your experiences or to speak negatively to what you shared. As someone who was also bullied in school (though not to the same level as you), who has had similar thoughts regarding self worth, who has dealt with depression and has also has suicidal thoughts, you are being very brave to share this all. A lot of people don't understand how difficult this can be. I know because for so long, I struggled with talking about my own experiences. I'm now capable of doing so, but even then it requires the right people to be listening. So please do not take anything I say as a negative to your story.

That said... I honestly cannot say that this is a game. It's more like a documentary that attempts to use the game medium, but which misses all the hallmarks of a game. While it's listed as a visual novel, one thing about visual novels is that they create choices for the player that impact the story being told. As a personal story about what you went through, this simply doesn't have the ability to do that because the story is set in stone. This also isn't to say that you can't use a game to tell your experiences. I just don't think this is the right sort of game to use for it.

In order to give feedback on this, I'd like to recommend the type of game you should make to tell this story: an RPG Maker game that only makes use of the top down movement, like RPG Maker horror games often do. This would give you a game world to tell the story in, to let the player share in your experience as they witness it happen first hand to their own character. They would have choice in being able to move around and interact with things. They will have moments where they know what's coming and try to avoid it but simply can't. This would create the interaction that's lacking from what you have now and players would be the ones who put together what's going on.

Once again, none of this is to speak negatively to your story. I'm actually very proud of you for sharing it. I just firmly believe that there's a better game medium to share this than visual novel as the one thing that gives visual novels interaction is effectively moot here.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you luck and know that you have my support. <3

(1 edit) (+1)

Hey! Thank you so much for you're reply on the demo of the game. It's true this game doesn't have the typical things yet for a visual novel. But I am happy to let you know that the game is currently being switched to a complete different engine and is actually being made with Godot and actually now have choices that do impact the story in many matters. So you're feedback has been extremely useful for that and also a reflection for me of how much more work I have to do. The genre for the game has slightly switched to from a VN-Point Click with a more emphasis on Point Click for several different mini games and explorable area's. 

In the end this game isn't becoming a typical game, but a resource mainly for teachers, as a teacher myself, to give them a viewpoint of how it is to go through this and what dangers as well as pain it causes. 

But thank you so much for playing this small super quick demo. I really appreciate it! Hope in the future i can show you the actual game - knowing now the reason for what it's being made for!
- JustSimy

Edit: The Demo you played was rushed done in 3 days. Since our actual engine wasn't exporting at all so we had to rush it sadly. But it is a good starting point  for the devs. 

When it's done, please let me know. Both my sister and brother-in-law are teachers and I'd be happy to share it with them.

Will do! And I watched your stream back on Twitch! And when you shared your story! That was the exact thing I want people to start doing with the game, to share your story like I share mine.  While it's not a traditional game, game. ( it's hard even for professionals in the field to define the category it fits in, and I work a lot with them ) the idea for it is to be a help resource for teachers / students and such. Cause in my line of work, I noticed, teachers don't understand us, they don't understand someone who's been going through bullying. And that's why this project was born. Try and fill a gap.. 

Thanks again, I truly appreciate it! And again for sharing your story on stream!