'The Games We Play' is an erotic romantic farce where a guy goes from getting cheated on by his ex to sleeping with her dad. It shines in both it's premise not being entirely porn-plot where stuff happens because it would be hot, but the narrative is spun in a way where I can believe where what started out as a revenge plot turned into an exploration of a man's sexuality. The erotica is also really well done as well, with some great moments of teasing and foreplay before getting into the big climax.
The story is cleverly constructed, especially on the character arc that Ezra goes on. He goes from straight guy trying to hurt his girlfriend who hurt him, to forging a friendship with her father, to questioning his sexuality and attraction to her father, to fully committing to his bisexuality. I'm familiar with a lot of older man/younger man dynamics in comic and art forms, so it's nice to see it also have a very nice visual novel representation. Framing the story and characters as a bunch of nerdy guys that are into DnD and LARPing also is a clever way to incorporate the pre-rendered sprite's costumes. All the characters feel like they are their own flavor of socially awkward nerd, which helps establish the bit plot misunderstandings and mishaps. The group encouraging Ezra to make it look like he's dating his ex's father, and then following it up with taking the picture because they don't know Ezra's started to be genuine is classic rom-com 'shoe-dropping'. All the story beats were good, though I feel like the LARPing section was the weakest, at least in terms of it being used as a filter for Ezra and Harvey to flirt and make their 'roleplay confessions'. Perhaps it was the self-deprecating nature of the roleplay, or the lack of a structure to it, where events just happened in order to happen. Even after the lowest point where Ezra goes back to the roleplay area, Harvey also just shows up as well, while a bit too plot convenient, I think there might've been a stronger choice somewhere in how to get the two of them back together. That being said, once the two of them are together is some really hot scenes which are the highlights of the story. You get a little bit of everything, from the solo jerk session, to the casual nudity, to the full on sex scene with a bit of dirty talk in there. Part of me wants feels like Harvey's role and personal motivation in the story does get a bit muddy, especially with how eager he is to spend time with Ezra in the beginning watching movies, fully putting on a revealing armor costume and then sharing a shower with Ezra, to so easily talking sexual advice, makes me assume that Harvey was also very much flirting and trying to get with his daughter's ex boyfriend, though never fully having him come out to say it. Then again, maybe that's just the subtext that I'm reading into much and intentional.
The presentation is serviceable, with the classic pre-rendered sprites on stock backgrounds and some really good usage of sprite movements and zooming into the right spots for immersive point of views. Audio work was also adequate, never feeling like it distracted and helped enhance the reading experience. The character voices really shined through the writing prose, with Ezra being that angsty hot-head and Harvey being the wizened and self-assured old man. As mentioned before, I think the LARPing section is the place where I felt the writing struggling to find a way for Harvey to find out about the revenge plot while also deepening the attraction that Ezra had for Harvey. The erotic scenes through? Great. I have no notes for how those played out, I thoroughly enjoyed them. That being said, I do think you could've played around more creatively with the sex scenes. While I don't hate a straight-forward erotic scene of two men exploring each other's bodies, there was so many opportunities for some creative use of costumers in the sex scenes, or maybe some more sexually charged mishaps like the "can you help me unbuckle my cod-piece" moment. Let the nerds have some nerdy sex.
As for the folklore element, I think that might've been where you were trying to incorporate the folklore into the LARPing portion and didn't come off as strong as it could have. Trying to fit a folklore element into plot of what is a rom-com involving sleeping with a dad is a tall order, but I do admire the effort. Overall, this is a solid entry amongst the other game jam entries you've done in the past, and I'm glad to see that it indulges an erotic dynamic that isn't seen as much as others. Great use of the pre-rendered sprites as usual, though I could see the difficulties of trying to write a plot that captures all the themes and ideas into one visual novel. I'd say keep on indulging in your kinks and interests when making these visual novels, the passion shows and it'll attract the right collaborators into wanting to bring your ideas to the next level.