'The Badger's Moon' is a melancholic and serene slice-of-life story about an arranged marriage and the internal conflicts that come with reconciling with such conflicting emotions. It deals with the emotions of love, guilt, vulnerability, being honest, and having the difficult talks that come with agreeing to be someone's life-partner. It does a really good job of grounding the situation, even if the cultural practice may seem out-of-time, it treats it with respect and from a point of practical realism.
The story of Brock and William is presented as the 'working through it' phase of an arranged marriage. Brock being the stoic and emotionally distant badger who accepted the marriage because he wanted a partner and was offered one through an arrangement, but now is feeling guilt ridden because the marriage was arranged and he can't bring himself to believe that William is fully happy with the arrangement. William on the other hand, agreed to be a part of the arrangement though a sense of cultural tradition, since as a wasgo (i think that's hybrid whale/wolf), his culture is one where wasgos are just married off like that because it brings the receiving family good luck and fortune. Though, as a result of the situation, William had to leave his home country to go live with Brock, away from his family and his then-lively hood as a hockey player. What then proceeds in the story is the slice of life moments where the two try to communicate with each other, bonding over mundane daily activities, and preparing to do a badger family cultural tradition that William wants to be apart of. When they finally start doing the tradition together, does Brock finally open up to have the difficult conversation of his inner-conflict of wanting a partner, but knowing that it may have taken Brock away from his path in life. Of course, William is an understanding guy and offers that he wants to make the marriage work in spite of that, and that they would need to work at it to make it work. The story is really serene and heartwarming as the two men are able to overcome their own inner turmoil to be able to commit towards making this marriage work.
The presentation is simple yet effective. The custom character sprites are cute and I love the extra detail you put into it by even having the wasgo have his tail wag. The custom cgs are great focal points, and the music choices are restrained enough to give just the right amount of ambiance to the scenes. The writing style is good. It does shift perspectives a few times, which I don't hate getting to be in the headspace of both characters, but I feel like if you were going to have the two different POVs, to maybe give a bit more time to William, since this story does seem to be primarily about Brock. I also feel like it took a little bit of narrative work to justify why these two got married in the first place, with it seeming like it was their parents ideas, but also Brock feeling partially responsible for it, while William is all for it yet. I feel like there could be a stronger narrative reason for the two men to be 'stuck' as the story would put it. It's mentioned that wasgo's are married into families as good luck, but for what business purpose did it serve? I can speculate that it might be Brock's work/company, or maybe there's a family business that needed the boost in luck? It seems a little weak as a justification. I get that Brock wants to be a reluctant participant, but there should be a narrative plot motivation that outweighs his initial concerns just barely. There's also the surprise twist that it ended up a same-sex marriage, which muddies that motivations even more. I feel like while you really wanted to focus on this spouse dynamic, a little more work put into the set up/situation would've helped it feel more believable, especially since it is rather random that a badger guy in Scotland and a hockey player wasgo from Canada end up in an arranged marriage. Like for this story, it feels like Brock and William only adhering to tradition blindly without thinking about the consequences or what that would entail. Yet, during the story they never question this blind adherence to tradition even though it's both making them feel guilt ridden about it.
That being said, it is a unique scenario that I would never have seen coming, so that's pretty creative. The folklore aspect is also really sweet, as framing the Gealach a' Bhruic as a bonding experience and the way for the two to share a cultural tradition is heartwarming (plus badger guy with the badger's moon tradition, that's cute). I remember how last year's game jam you did 'A Knight's Myosotis', and I remember that one being a bit longer and wordy, while this one you've really done a good job of distilling the story down to it's emotional essentials, which is the important bits. It's definitely a great improvement in the presentation and writing chops, and so now it's more of seeing what other fun ways to can enhance the reading experience. I'd suggest one thing to keep in mind is making sure that you know what your character's backstory is, as you don't always need to give a monologue about it, but know what about their past influences the way the make choices and the way they act in the present. Try to keep an idea of what your thematic throughline is, and what the message of your story might be saying. You're making steady improvements, and you're branching out to different genres, keep doin' that.