I think its a nice start for a game and there are many things that can be built on.
Feedback:
Tilly and us
- The main char is some kind of delivery person and at the end we get to know that we are visibly there in this world with Tilly when the old frog askes about us. Tilly knows some things about the village and was there before, she also likes it there and knows why the doors will be shut etc.
For me it would have been nice to be involved into the world from the beginning. By calling me Player, Tilly made it clear to me, that she knows that I am a player in a game with her. I was somehow surprised as the older frog asked about me because that felt a bit contradictory to this first impression. She tells the frog that I am the new one helping her with the deliveries. So what am I now? Am I the player, that plays her or am I an assistant, that resides inside of the game world? You could solve that in many ways. One way would be to tell the old frog, that I am her Player that guides her through the land and helps her with everything. This would have been more consistent and the fact, that the frog wouldn't have been surprised would have been an interesting experience like: Oh, okay. It's absolutely normal here that people are controlled by players. Wow. What a world. Another way would have been to add the player as a separate character that needs to follow Tilly. That way, we would really be her assistant. This also gives the opportunity to let tilly rest somewhere and give us the task to solve the door puzzle since she might already know the answer. That's also a small contradiction: If she was there before, shouldn't she know the answer to the puzzle? And if not - why is that? Do they change the combination frequently? If so, tell this to the player. It sells the whole thing better when Tilly would say something in that direction.
The World:
- It is clearly winter, someone has built a lot of snowmen (but also lanterns into the woods?). In this world there are frogs that hibernate and need resources, that we can deliver to them. The frogs live in a village that is secured behind doors. The frogs of the village think that predators cannot solve their puzzle. Also: There is a company in this world that delivers goods and we are part of it.
First of all: That is a good base to tell a story on. Then: The world can use more small hints and lore everywhere. Let the player interact with the snowmen, the graves in the village, the hole in the ground before the village etc. Use all of this to tell little stories that make the world more believable. Have these frogs built the snowmen? Probably not since they are hibernating so who did it? What are these glowing orbs and how does Tilly activate them? Who built them? How do they work? Is it magic? Or ist it physics? Plant small pieces of information everywhere to make the world richer.
Another thing: The green orb. South of it there are no trees but in a scene before that you have shown the player, that he can leave the map by walking to the edge of the map where there are no trees. At this green orb, and on other points on the maps, this rule is broken. Stay consistent there with the game mechanics. Plant more trees there to prevent the map to be open at those spots. Also give the player something valuable at any spot. Like the spot south west of the gate where you can go into the woods but there is nothing more than the sprites of a tree trunk that is not interactable. Or the chest and barrel before the gates. Make them somehow interactable or remove them since they make the player curious and look like one could interact with it.
Finally the menu suggests, that there are Items and all the full power JRPG waiting in the game so it is a bit disappointing in the end when there is none of this in the game. The menu was not necessary IMHO because the game is a short game - what is absolutely okay. But as such it does not need a save or load system or character stats. (I know this all was probably part of the whole asset. I'm sure one can deactivate parts of it).
So, all in all: The game has a lot of potential. If it should be a JRPG style game one could add some predators in the woods to fight or use the item system to let the player pickup some items, that are needed to solve the puzzle. Also one or two more NPCs and a bit more interaction with the world would have been nice.
But: You can play the game, you have a clear task, you have to solve a puzzle, you have dialogues and you can finish the game. That is more than others are able to make for game jams. Especially if they work on it part time while being a student at university. So please take all of the above as my personal tips for you and I would love to see you working more on this game and building some more features into it.
Keep up the good work!