(Sorry this got so long x3 I wrote it up in a doc and now that I've pasted it, I see that it's a giant wall of text xD)
Thank you so much <3 That means a lot! Definitely wouldn't have been possible without all the incredible artists on the team because I can't draw to save my life x3
It's funny you should mention the cursor because I was a little concerned about the shape, haha. I've used custom cursors in Unity before once or twice, but they've always been arrow-shaped still. This was the first time I attempted to try one and use the feature to change the hotspot on it. Cos when I dropped it in there, it didn't work well at all on the default settings! I feel like it's still not 100% accurate >.< but it was the best I could get it to go. Also, the team that made Red String Theory totally have me beat in the beautiful butterfly cursor department :P Theirs is just so darn pretty :3
I'm glad the food close-ups had an impact :D They're from a background pack, but when I first saw them, I thought, these are interesting! Cos you don't tend to get stuff like that very often in asset packs. Weirdly, everything came in bmp file format and the wrong size for the way I wanted to make the game, but I spent ages editing almost all of the backgrounds, haha. I was trying to get a kinda slightly ominous and old-timey feel for everything inside the mansion, and then a more soft and dreamy feel for the flashback stuff.
And that makes me unbelievably happy to hear your comments on the story! My mental health has never been great, so I spend a lot of time doubting and second-guessing myself on pretty much everything I do >.< It makes it extremely difficult to know whether I've managed to write something half-decent or just splurge out some nonsense, haha. In terms of horror factor as well, I struggle to know what other people might actually find scary/spooky/creepy/disturbing because I consume so much of the genre that nothing really shocks me anymore xD I'm well and truly desensitised. I've become the sort of person who goes to scare attractions in October, and while everyone else is walking through leaping and screaming at every jump scare, I'm generally gasping in awe at the set design and grinning like an idiot when actors deliver lines perfectly into my ear, just admiring the whole performance, loving every second, but not being even remotely scared x3
So yeah, it's nice to know that it actually works as a horror piece! Because if no one told me that, I would be forever wondering if it even hit the mark, haha.
It means a hell of a lot everything you've said, so thank you so much for taking the time to play through it and leave such lovely feedback ^-^
I'm excited to check out your project when I get a chance to play more of the jam games! As soon as I saw the screenshots on the jam page, I thought, oh man, this reminds me of my love affair with choose your own adventure books <3 I read so many of those when I was younger, and naturally, when I discovered VNs were a thing, that was a very happy moment of my life, haha.
I'm trying my best to play everyone's games throughout the month, but because there are so many and it's difficult to actually choose, I've largely been leaving it down to itch to decide my play order cos I've been using the 'random' filter x3 I might have to be cheeky and abandon it for a bit though because I did also make a separate (huge) list of all the ones that excited me upon first looks, and The Wolf of Derevnya is on there!