First off, if nothing else, this is definitely leading for "best Novembuck submission set in the Philippines" so far.
In all seriousness, there are a few things that can be improved on here, and I'll get to those, but this was solid! In terms of presentation, the stock sprites were used effectively and the music never felt out of place or overbearing to me. Very few grammar, syntax, or other proofreading issues, which is always nice to see as well.
In terms of plot (general spoiler warning), this was generally a pleasant and cute exploration of someone beginning their gender transition, and it was nice to see the diverse friend group being so accepting of that decision. I think there's a tendency to make these moments dramatic or confrontational (as it unfortunately is for many people in real life) in media but it's good to have a dose of positivity every once in a while too. I also thought using the parallel of shedding antlers for shedding one gender identity for another was a clever use of the central species conceit of the jam - the protagonist being a deer is much more impactful narratively and thematically here than it is in some of the other submissions I've read.
Things that I think could've been better here:
- As Fuze mentioned, I don't think you needed to switch to NVL (I think that's the term for it? Where you use the whole screen for text) format as often as you did. That should probably be saved for larger cutaways rather than brief segments of narration between dialogue sequences. It seems like text length may have been a reason for the format switches, but many of the text blocks in the NVL segments could have been broken up into two lines in normal format and been fine.
- Some of the dialogue felt a bit clunky and I think you tried to force exposition sometimes where you didn't need to. For example, "I'm pretty sure we're only friends with each other because we got grouped together for a project as kids. You and Jose are both nerds, so there's that, but I'm as jock as can be..." First, this doesn't really flow cleanly from Emile/io/ia's previous line about being glad to be out of school since other kids aren't judging her anymore. Depending on how you want the conversation to go, a response like "Hey, the people that actually mattered never judged you" (supportive) or "Are you kidding? I still look at you weird and judge you." (teasing) would feel more natural. Second, you don't need to force the jock exposition since you can do that much more organically a few lines later when Richard and Alex challenge each other to the basketball game.
- Some of Emile/io/ia's reactions seem a bit over the top for the situation. I understand that she's on edge with coming to terms with her transition and how to explain that to her friends, but there are moments like in the arcade that seem... disproportionate? Like, yeah, Jose getting cheap shots in at the fighting game was a clear dick move, but that doesn't really feel like something to throw a full tantrum over. I know everyone moves on quickly and all, but that (and there's another one at the game store) feel like things that could and should have been resolved more easily.
- Having Jose ask Emile/io/ia out right after she comes out feels a bit rushed and misguided. It turns the focus to Jose and his feelings rather than letting the focus stay on Emile/io/ia's, which are frankly much more important here. I think you could have had the same activities on the Jose route if you didn't explicitly set it up as a date, but rather just them going to the game store while Alex and Richard split off to do their own thing. You could have moved things in a more romantic direction after the two had hung out one-on-one for a while and the initial emotions of the trans reveal settled a bit.
Didn't know where else to put this, but I thought the detail of the motorbike helmet coming with detachable pieces to accommodate antlers was a nice touch. Though I also questioned, given Richard's discussion of other things in the world not being built with antlers in mind, whether antler removal would have become more common in modern society for convenience anyway.
Overall, really solid effort!