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As an earlier comment said, this submission IS an experience and I am here for it!! I had so much fun playing – I love that you did something a little different for the jam, and using the process of a ‘searching game’ as an additional way of telling the story (instead of only through dialogue/image) was really clever.

The concept and backstory feel rich and intriguing, and you somehow manage to give a very vivid feeling of the setting even though it doesn’t technically appear onscreen.

As for what does appear – I was so delighted once I reached the second level and realised the (literal) breadth of the inner-world you’d created! The colours and images are so dreamy and there are little details to appreciate everywhere. Receiving the small ‘microfictions’ as rewards was very satisfying, and I liked that they were stored on their own screen so you could revisit if you wished.

I didn’t finish the game in all one session, but I liked that I split the experience because it kept it at the back of my mind in between playing. Having the different sessions be part of of structure also made that work so well, because the player can then experience the feeling of ‘returning for a session’ just as the character does.

I rate this ten out of ten meteor-shard telephones!

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Thank you very much for this detailed review that goes into what you liked about the different parts in my game! 

I've always enjoyed playing these hidden object games but was initially put off to create one myself due to the many detailed illustrations I need to draw. I found Through the Cracks super neat how this is all achieved in Ren'Py VN format. As a coding challenge I want to implement a draggable view to give the illusion that the world is quite big (as it does not fit on a single screen), which I believe is quite tricky to do in Ren'Py. So this is also the main reason why it's made in Unity as I already got familiarity with it.

I'm glad you can 'feel' the setting! It was easier to pinpoint after I picked the genre to focus on. At least I can use the excuse that you can't see the characters to be all part of the plan of not being allowed to draw more assets for the O2A2 jam. Truth is, they're kind of faceless abstractions, so besides not having to draw the character designs, I'm happy I don't need to draw a BG either.

You're the first person to comment on the drabbles, and I'm overjoyed about it. I know they are super niche and there's that risk about allotting half of the word count limit to them when I assume that most people care more for the main narrative. At the same time, thanks to the minimalistic nature of this jam, I felt more free to be self-indulgent. When I'm already making a one-off short narrative game, might as well go full on experimental.