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I struggle with words for darker stories because if I say "what a depressing story" it like... almost sounds like a bad thing, but I don't mean it that way. šŸ˜… But it had an uplifting end to it. I was kinda suspicious of the boyfriend the whole time just because his sprite was obscured, but I'm glad he just ended up being a sweetie.

I wish we could've interacted with the NPCs, or at least the second one. I kinda thought the friend would have something to say, if that was her at the second desk.

I kinda wish mouse controls would let me go between maps; it seemed like they only triggered with arrow keys, and I got confused trying to leave the house in the beginning. šŸ˜† I think this was RPG maker? I think I've seen other games that used RPG maker have  an arrow sprite pop up when you're near an exit tile. Something like that might've made indoor exits more clear.

Overall, I thought you did well. The color palette well-suited the melancholy-ness of the story.

(spoilers)


I got two endings, and out of morbid curiosity, I kept trying to trigger a "worst ending," but either there isn't one or I couldn't figure it out. I don't think this needed a dark ending by any means. But since the map is there, maybe it could've used one last line from Maryanne on that map telling us that there's nothing to do, else I wouldn't have kept checking tiles, wondering why the map was accessible at all. šŸ˜… I think the sprite that spawns if you go there immediately was an interesting change that prompted more exploring, but it may have been a little misleading since there wasn't anything beyond that.

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There are multiple endings depending on who you talk to, when you talk to them, where you go, and when you decide to go somewhere. I’m curious if you got the true ending, which is the only ending that is named. Thus, the endings can range from dark to wholesome depending on the chain of events that happen. 

I’ve never seen arrow keys in the game. It was made in RPG Maker MZ. The ability to walk and generate text was also pre-programmed into the engine itself. Didn’t know how to change it, but it worked fine for me. 

I’ll admit, the game can be considered bare-bones due to the lack of items you can interact with. I was lazy there and only allowed important items or NPCs to be interacted with. And the game can be repetitive with its music and having to start a new game or reload after every ending. Thus, the game can feel long and short at the same time. 

It doesn’t help that there is no indication of what ending you get when you get an ending other than the true ending. I left that ambiguous for the player to encourage exploration and replayability. Also, I was once again lazy and didn’t feel like counting how many endings there were in each place. Besides, I wanted to surprise the player with various cutscenes. 

You can skip dialogue by holding down the spacebar, Z key, or Enter key, and you can speed up the character by holding down the Shift key when moving. 

This game could have been better experienced as a regular visual novel without the walking involved, as it would have made branching paths and triggering moments more clear to the player. Thus, for future narrative walking sims I make through RPG Maker, I’ll make the game more linear in its story and only present two options to the player to make things less confusing and complicated overall. 

However, I’m happy with the game I made and in allowing player agency, which was the goal, as well as bringing the story to life in various ways for replayability. 

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I’ve playtested this game multiple times. You can interact with the NPCs in the two office buildings. Although, the second NPC in the second building can end up saying or doing nothing when triggering enough dialogue moments in the game. Although, if you meant that you wished you could have had further or branching dialogue with them, then that makes sense. Again, instead of the player actively changing the flow of the conversation in real time, it’s changed through where the player decides to walk or who they choose to talk to and when. Thus, it’s a roundabout and annoying way to see different endings for the completionist. Although, if you can’t interact with the second NPC at all, then that’s a problem. Let me know if that’s the case if I’m not mistaken. 

So, I playtested it. Usually, I would use the arrow keys to move the player. By using the mouse, I could walk around the map I’m on, but I couldn’t move from one map to the next. This is because I made it based on arrow key movement and presses to transfer a player between places. Furthermore, I had the triggering moments be on the floor, not on the NPCs or items themselves. If you directly click on a NPC with your mouse, it won’t do anything. If you click on the floor in front of them, it will trigger a dialogue moment with them. Same can be done if you stand there and press the Z key, Enter key, or spacebar. That could explain your issue there, or so I hope. šŸ˜