It is very impressive you made this in Renpy. I found my sister died to the two wolves and dies in the fight with my sister. I would have played more of the game but, it is too dark. I can't see half the time. I didn't know I could crawl when I had to it was frustrating. There is a lot of information and most of it is meaningless. Maybe it would be useful on a second playthrough but it just made me wonder if I was playing right. I like the writing, but again I didn't play long. I can see what you are going for and I like the vision, but I don't think you stuck the landing. If it was easier to see, more clear what to do and fewer seemingly pointless numbers I would have been willing to give the game more of a chance, but as is it failed to hook me in. I am sure it is a great game. I can tell a lot of effort went into it. I fully expect the rest of the comments will be a lot nicer. I can be critical and I hope it helps.
hey, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate you taking the time to write all that. I want to ask a few things so I can better understand what you experienced.
when you mention your sister dying to the two wolves, do you mean the encounter just before Luna shows up? if so, that’s actually a fail-forward fight, so losing there is intended and the game continues. you can win it as well, but it isn’t required.
for “dying in the fight with my sister,” I’m assuming you mean the tutorial fight with Luna. that fight is designed to be nearly impossible to lose and should reset if you somehow lose, so I’d need to understand what happened on your end there, because that shouldn’t fully stop progression.
about the game being too dark, that one is harder for me to evaluate since it appears visually clear on my side. it might be a brightness or display issue, so I’ll look into adding adjustments if that’s affecting readability.
on the point about there being a lot of information and it feeling meaningless, I get where that feeling comes from, but I do want to clarify that everything there has a purpose. in combat, all the stats and systems interact with each other, so none of it is filler. with story and lore, I’m aiming for a world where details connect and build meaning over time, so early on it can feel dense without immediate payoff. that said, I understand that first impressions matter, so that’s something I can look at pacing-wise.
for the crawling, I intentionally removed the explicit tutorial prompt. the controls are listed on screen, including crawl, and the idea is for players to experiment and figure things out. the game leans into an older design philosophy where discovery is part of the experience rather than everything being directly told to you.
in terms of clarity on what to do, the main objective at the start is to ascend the mountain, so progression is mostly about moving forward and exploring. the space is fairly small and linear, even if it doesn’t present itself that way, and everything in that area is meant to contribute to the overall experience rather than act as separate “side content.”
I understand if that approach didn’t hook you. the game expects a bit more observation, reading, and experimentation from the player than most modern games, and that won’t click with everyone. still, your feedback is useful, especially around visibility and onboarding, so I’ll take that into account moving forward.