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So, I'll preface with the fact that I'm a big fan of text-heavy games, so I'm a bit biased here. I really enjoyed this one!

Though, I was a bit confused by how easily I got the good ending? I would love for the game to be a tad bit longer, and to engage a bit more! Awkwardly, the worst non-nuclear ending was the hardest one for me to achieve. Also, personally, I would love more encyclopedic options - as a non-native speaker, I was not aware what a "petty officer" is... I thought it was just an officer… who is petty. :D

Just a few more thoughts for improvement:

  1. I saw something resembling a scroll bar on the right side? But I didn't seem to be able to actually scroll back up.
  2. I would appreciate it if, for example after the [THINK] options, you could just pick another option immediately without pressing Enter (since you can usually still see all the available options just fine).
  3. Because I use a smaller keyboard, the options starting at 0, 1, 2, … are a bit awkward to me, since the number row on my keyboard goes 1, 2, 3... 9, 0. This could be solved by starting the options from 1, or, what I think is cooler, using the Up and Down arrows for choosing options and Enter for confirmation (which I think forces the player to engage with the text more instead of just mashing numbers).

I really like what you did with the sound, though. I must say it was overall very inspiring for what is possible with a seemingly simple text-based game... it might be the direction I'll take my next game jam game. :D

(1 edit) (+1)

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback!
I plan to take everything onboard for a post-jam update (eventually...).
:)

To be honest, I have no idea how you (and a couple others) got the good ending so easily.
Some people got it first try, while others failed 4 times and gave up.
I *suspect* the people who got the good endings read all the [THINK] text, and the others didn't, but I don't have proof.

I originally wanted the game to be longer; but, as I'm sure you understand, the dialogue took a lot longer to write than I thought, and the deadline loomed.
It was originally "10 Decisions to Doomsday", then "6 Decisions to Doomsday", then finally "4 Decisions to Doomsday".
I decided that I would definitely prefer to make a short polished experience rather than a long one that was buggy or incoherent.

0) It hadn't occurred to me to make a [THINK] option about the ranks; but that's easy to do.
1) I noticed the scrollbar was broken about 1 hour before submission, and I hadn't put the music in yet, so I left it - but I do want it back.
2) I saw someone else naturally try to do this in a live playtest, so I agree that I should work on this.
3) Starting from 1 is probably a good idea - starting from 0 is too programmer-biased, and not everyone who likes games is a programmer.
I'll probably do that rather than highlighting the text for the update to this game, mostly because it's easy; but also because I feel like highlight and selecting text doesn't quite work with a terminal that (is SUPPOSED TO) show command history - that seems like more of a visual novel interface.
I am thinking about how I might extend/rewrite this to support visual novel style protraits, so I'll keep it in mind - it's definitely more common than what I did with the numbers.

Also, thank you for your kind words about the sound and inspiration!
My general hope is for people to be pleasantly surprised when they play.
The "I had no idea a text game make me feel that!" feeling is the desired feeling.