Thanks for the kind words, philbe. Glad I live up to Lucy in your eyes, haha.
That polish took a long time but I'm glad to see it was worth it!
While I do understand your concerns about gamefying it, just know that I hold myself to pretty damn high standards so I wouldn't release something that I didn't think worked or was fun to play. It's why it took so long just to release this first act! I ran a fine-toothed comb over it six ways to Sunday and kept changing things when I realized they weren't working from a narrative perspective or an artwork one.
I think gamefying it would help with one thing pretty heavily and that's wordbuilding/context. Giving the player the option to go to different parts of the town of their own volition and letting them interact with characters within and outside of the main cast would, I think, help establish the town and the folk who dwell in it a little bit better. Plus, I have a rather lengthy and fleshed out story bible already drafted for this game that I've been consistently changing and adding to over the last year which means that anything added isn't going to be an ass pull, but a device that I used to convey something about a character, lore, or the town that already had been expressly written elsewhere, but would be too hamfisted to insert into a cutscene.
Once again, thanks for the kind words and warm wishes.
-DD