I love this! The characters are really loveable and the art style is so good! Really good writing too and awesome time mechanic system! :D

Very cool game, I'm particularly impressed by the time mechanic. Here's a first impression if you want more comments: https://youtu.be/J1bVm9xyxJo?t=1566

Ever, In Time

by codapill

Hey there codapill, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I'm Drifty and I was asked to judge your game in round one of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.

Some of the sound effects are significantly louder than others, the same with the BGM. Some of it is quiet and some of it is loud.

I found myself adjusting the volume up and then down and then up again. Be sure to try your best with normalizing the audio.

While I'm a fan of ATB combat systems, I think that the charge rate here feels a bit slow.

The game has a familiar Pokemon art style that I'm sure many people will be comfortable with.

There are tons of interactable events in this game which rewards exploration.

Very practical idea of using a water cooler as the save and restore point.

The tutorials work well if you play with a keyboard, but if you're using a controller it becomes a more confusing experience.

It's difficult at times to understand what is happening in the story thus figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. I guess it's pretty obvious when being chased that you need to run away and escape somehow, but I have a ton of questions.

I found the first puzzle to be underexplained and confusing, but I like the fact that you allowed a 'fast pass' option once failing it.

The last boss fight was pretty challenging and I had to use all the consumables that I had found over the playthrough. I would say that the combat system is pretty balanced but I didn't understand why my party members had no skills until the very end.

Good job presenting a project for the 2022 IGMC, I look forward to see what you come up with next.

-Drifty

I streamed this with the dev present so this is just my notes:

• +Overall it was nicely polished and the presentation was clean. I had no big complaints in any particular department, which is a big win already.
• -I know the game is just the prolog chapter, but that was SO short I don't have much to say about it. What was shown was okay, but it did not have the hook I would have expected. Maybe the hook would have been in the next chapter, but since that is not available I was left feeling just ok.
• The rest I have are just minor niggles: 
• *The execution of the time travel is a bit weird as is. I feel like a context-sensitive option would have been more useful and clean, but I have no idea of how it works internally.
• *It feels like there's a little too many encounters when there are so few things you can really do. 
• The In medias res used at the start falls a bit flat for me, because it gives so little context. Again, this would probably be expanded in a longer game, but as it is it just feels too short to make an impression.

Overall, it was too short and lacking a good hook for me. it was perfectly average and executed okay, but lacking any sort of critical "oh that's really cool/cute/funny/interesting" moment to get me onboard.