Hello, I'm also someone who has been a part of the JPDE community for a little while now and learned about this project from the JPDE Discord about a week ago and I wanted to give my thoughts.
When I first looked up the game I will admit I was underwhelmed, I've never been part of a project such as this but I could not help but be a bit amused by what I first thought (though I no longer believe this) was poorly made art and a lazily written story and I had actually intended to stop playing all together around 30-45 minutes in but I had nothing else to do and so I continued... and continued and continued starting the game at around 10 pm and not stopping till 3 in the morning. I just now finished the game the day after and, while I think there is certainly room for critique I had realized as I played I had been unfair to your team and had begun to look past the problems I saw and ended up invested in the game and thoroughly enjoying myself all the way to the very end with a feeling of satisfaction and happiness at the game I just played.
I was honestly surprised to have changed my tune to such a large degree from the beginning of this game to its end but there's something very endearing about this project and I can feel the passion in it as I read the lines and look at the characters and it brings a smile to my face. I've begun recommending Summer Rose Court to my friends because the dedication and care put into it is inspiring and heartwarming, especially as someone who was deeply upset by Monty's passing, so I wanted to share this project as a way of thanks for helping to continue his story through your game.
I sincerely hope that you don't feel insulted by my, admittedly, callous opening thoughts because as much as I may critique the game I can say without a second thought that when I look back on my experience I will do so with a great smile.
Thank you very much for creating Summer Rose Court and I wish you all the best of luck in your future work wherever that may be.
Please remember, to always keep moving forward.
P.S. Ser Schnee is best girl
Yeah, a few people have had a similar knee-jerk reaction to our game, which we find unfortunate but understandable. Ultimately though, the support and comments we've been receiving have been overwhelmingly positive. We're all very humbled!
( Amusingly enough, even the loudest detractors actually seem to really enjoy the game when they give it a chance. Maybe we should have a special testimonials section? ;P )
We had a target audience we wanted to reach, and we definitely reached them. More than anything we were inspired by Monty to take a leap and just DO IT. We are very satisfied with the end result because it shows we can commit to finishing a project of this scale. Monty respected hard work. He lived and breathed it, even through failure, because he knew a mistake was just an opportunity to learn something new.
So yes, we are moving forward. Much stronger than before.