Played in vc with a friend spectating, it was very fun!! I can't wait to play the full game, I love them both so much, even the suck shit man.
Took significantly more than half an hour, because it kept reminding us both of our own similar experiences and going on tangents. It makes for a very pleasant and melancholy experience, latter of which I bet is even more so if you play alone. I'll definitely be coming back to do both good and bad runs (its been a mix because my friend was a devil on my shoulder) and I look forward to the full release :D
Already said something to this effect as a rating (idk how itch.io works i don't use it much) but I loved this demo so much. I'm excited to see where the full game goes. Both Neal and Jack are really interesting characters, and I'd love to see how they interact with each other/react to whatever's going on with the school if/when the full game is finished.
Choosing the evil dialogues in games have never felt more painful and excruciating than being mean to Jack in this game. I've been replaying this every once in a while since it first came out and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the full game.
Really like how the visuals and music feel so authentic to old rpgmaker games while also definitely being of 2023. Like a seamless next step in evolution. Only played through being nice, so I'll probably come back at some point to be mean lol
this was pretty good lol. i honestly really liked how muched the final scene (for now at least) changed. for example i was really nice to jack in the first run and in the second i was just doing the opposite options and it took the mc alot more convincing to stay in the second run than the first. thought that was really neat.
I absolutely love the art style, characterization, and music in this! All of the sprite animations are so fun, and I love all the profiles. The little details for each character are amazing. I look forward to the full game!
Really love the painterly backgrounds, really made the place feel homey (especially the gym, its really cute). And the development of Neil and Jack was really well done, you get a real good taste of their personalities! I also thought Jack was really well done, being picky about textures for the costumes, and getting overwhelmed in the car, as implied autistic traits. I thought he was really well-written, and I found myself relating to him.
i really love the spritework mixed with the painterly backgrounds! goes to show that good ol rpg maker 2003(?) is still just as capable of making good simple games as ever if you put in the effort
oHHH! i played it! i found out about it from Tumblr and i love it so so much! the dialogues tell about the story and the characters so much and feel so real. love jack very very much AND OH YES! the pixel art and animations!! beautiful!
THIS GAME FUCKS. i found a post about it randomly on tumblr but i fucking love it, it was such a good decision to lean heavily in writing character dialogue between the two. dialogue is my favourite part of any story, and the way the two of them bounce off eachother and feel real and human and want to have fun and joke with eachother is so perfect. its very obviously that their reconnecting, and the flaws in their relationship through the dialogue is wonderfully articulated and everything. their relationship makes me so fucking happy, i especially love how when jack says he enjoyed doing the project with neal. neal is surprised that jack genuniely fucking likes hanging out with him. and i KNOW that feeling and it was so fucking cute to see that protrayed.
and neal talking big shit but you seeing him get taken care of by jack, both by jack going inside the room first and then later when you learn jack literally stared down the school and put himself between neal and an embarrassing moment.
it felt nice and real and im so compelled and interested in these characters who actually really like hanging out with eachother. it felt really good and their relationship is so neurodivergent solidarity. please keep protraying these two having superfluous fun. i love them. so so so fucking much. i am going to become obsessed with this until the actual game comes out. theyre so sweet and awkward and i want this game pumped into my bloodstream. im never going to shut up about this now.
- guy who made an itch.io account specifically to post this comment
Me and my 3 friends just played this on call and we all fell in love with Neal and Jack, they feel like extremely organic characters. I love how hamfistedly autistic Jack is(as an autist myself, i promise this is a compliment) and how anxiety ridden and adhd-like Neal is. My reading of Neal might be completely incorrect but since I myself also have ADHD I will reflect onto any character I like with wild abandon. Their relationship and chemistry is so sweet and somehow fumbling, like they used to be best friends but have grown apart, and it's awkward to adjust the way you speak to someone who you used to be so close to. It feels kind of viscerally human and realistic the way theres communication mishaps in the music room when Jack doesn't understand Neal's non-jokes, once again, awkward. And the way Jack immediately tries to take responsibility for some of those moments. I recognize that in myself very strongly. You really caught something real and genuine with the vibe of this demo that makes it clear you have a lot personal experience and manage to channel that into characters that are so seamlessly flawed and naturally prone to friction while so clearly caring about each other. As you can see I'm having completely normal feelings about all this. I'm looking forward to the full game and if my friends aren't as hyped to play it I will still force them to. :) It's nonnegotiable. Can't wait to see what's coming up next, the buildup is so potent so far!!
oh my goodness, love it so much. the visuals are INCREDIBLE. i had no idea it was even possible to get that much fluidity and expressivity out of pixel art. the character moments were adorable. I loved reading the stories and finding out things about the world by clicking on a random object and listening to them go on a tangent. honestly a huge fan of this format. the music is top notch as well. huge range of expression. the sort of uneasy feeling in the gym as it slows down and speeds up is novel and quite interesting. i'm not much of one for classical music but i asked jack to play "something nice" on the piano and i think i'm going to listen to that piece on loop for a while.
and as a bonus -- and this is not something I say lightly -- this game has hands down the best autistic rep i've seen from any piece of media possibly ever. and that includes all the comics i've seen explaining autism to non-autistic people. as someone on the spectrum myself i LOVE to see it. jack has the nerdiness. he has The Word Choice(tm). he has the fierce, undying autistic loyalty, sticking close by his friend through all these years. neal wants to punch the guy who constantly compares him to sheldon. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. independent of being autistic jack is also just a great guy, constantly building his friend up and genuinely enjoying spending time with him even in his wort moments. i love watching them interact and ... man i could gush for hours. 12/10 LOVE THIS when is the full game coming out. shut up and take my money.
Whattttt thank you so much, this is one of the most moving comments ive ever gotten on any of my art and this seriously made my day. I'm very glad you resonated so much with Jack's writing. I feel like it's so difficult to find meaningful portrayals of what being autistic actually, tangibly means in a character's day-to-day life, much less over the course of their entire life and how their experience has changed over the years. I was hoping that speaking to specificity and having a lot of deep cuts / "if you know you know" stuff relevant to particular contexts rather than just stating out loud that Jack is autistic (especially unnecessary since it's a fact Jack and Neal are both already well aware of!) would be as meaningful to other people as it is to me and my own experience. So I'm super super happy you appreciated it :D
just finished the demo, it was really lit! arts are very pretty, and the graphic of the locations is too, the game just looks so lovely and nice! i mean, colors and stuff, it's really pleasant to see. moreover, really liked your characters, they're so... different and individualistic. really appreciate that you can tell that just by their dialogues. the writing, by the way, is nice too! i mean, i don't know how to say this, it's just that you can clearly tell that they sound like real living people. i'm already in love with this hilarious duo of besties (and flirts (i'm sorry if it's not supposed to be this way, i just felt so when i was answering with good things hahaha so i'm saying this with good intentions only)), their jokes to each other. loved this atmosphere of remembering the stuff from school-times, when everything was so lovey-dovey, and now you talk about it with so much different point of view, like it was just another person's life. kinda like this. yeah, it was really atmospheric so far, i'm so much more in love with it, than i thought i'd be in the start! (when i gave the demo a try, i didnt expect anything in particular.) so now i'm really really looking forward for the full version, cs i can't wait to know what these two are going to go ?? through. keep it up and good luck! <3
the animations were super smooth and the overall style was rather lovely. i got a pretty solid grasp of who neal and jack and i'm interested in seeing what the hell they've stumbled into :)
This is really, really awesome. Absolutely in love with the sprite animations and excited to see what bullshit happens next. I think that I am chemically addicted to Neal
THIS IS SICKKK i love these characters and the way you build the atmosphere is just *chef's kiss* also the poster next to the gym changing was a nice creepy touch
MARCOOOO this is sick as hell! The character dynamics are incredibly believable and the atmosphere rules. Absolutely nailed the feeling of there being something more to this and wanting to keep going to know what it is.
Omg i LOVE this game! It's just scratching my brain in all the right places (design, animation, dialogs, characters). Oh, and the way Mark and Neil's behavior changes from different dialogue choices is so interesting to watch :Р
I hope this project gets the attention it deserves.
Great game so far! I'm invested in the characters and where they'll go next. My one criticism - the writing is strong, sharp, natural, etc, but is also a bit too long. When I inspect an item, I generally expect like 1-4 lines of dialogue, not 5-10, or however long it felt in my head. This goes for the opening, too - it took a long time before I could even move my character around.
this is fucking awesome. the atmosphere and art are great and the interactions between jack and neal are so real. i personally related to jack a lot. really excited to see where this goes. this feels very unique and fresh to me
Great game!!! I know I'm not exactly a deciding factor in the matter, but I wouldn't delete Neal if I were you, everyone in the comments won't stop talking about the character dynamic between Jack and Neal!!! Plus, since I can't really relate to Jack he is certainly my favorite character of the pair.
(Although I am interested to see who you replace him with, if anyone.)
I'm sure it'll turn out great either way, thanks for listening (or rather reading).
Super enjoyed the game so far as it is, the dialogue and dynamic between Neal and Jack is superb. I found myself not wanting to pick the mean options after the first one or two choices because I liked both so much and wanted to see the best case scenario sort of conversation (though there being choices adds a little replayability to the demo, I wanna go back and try being MEAN even though I feel like it'll be a little painful to read through especially with how relatable it was). I really wonder if the choices stack up towards the end or not, like if there are consequences... even if they don't (to be honest a lot of people put too much weight on choices in games having tangible "consequences"), I really appreciate them!!! I thought there was a great deal of empathy in the writing while also having a great deal of restraint, as in the control of information and pacing in which it is doled out was quite natural. That's surprisingly rare. I'm incredibly curious to see how that continues in the next patch. The setting is plenty nostalgic despite me not being from the US, so I got swept by the sentimentality the characters were feeling a lot despite it truly being a half hour demo. Feels like I've only scratched the surface. Instantly hungry for more of this game.
The spritework and animation is very delightful to witness as well, there's a great deal of individuality present in the body language between the two characters. The style of the backgrounds was quite pleasing and the icon set with the expressions were great at expressing (lol) the subtle emotions presented during the various conversations. Crazy about the visual flourishes in the game in general. The music created an appropriate atmosphere, I'd love to hear more in the upcoming patches.
You made note of it in the description but I'll still mention it, the game locked a few times. First two times it was right when I got control so that was unfortunate. If anyone gets stuck and has to reload their save, if you hold Z it'll skip the dialogue at a reasonable speed (not all RPGmaker games control like that, some don't respond to a button being held at all, so I had to try it). I'm not sure what causes it, but I'd caution against erratic movement since that's what I noticed. Saving takes like two seconds so it's not really an issue to just save after each thing I examined.
everyone needs to see this demo. you really are so much more tasteful and smart with your writing than most and i feel like rpgmaker really brings out the atmosphere of that
I LOVE the characters so much! they feel so realistic <3
a quick bug report though: sometimes, while I'm going through text, the entire game freezes up. sound effects still play, so it's like the game is still running, just not visually.
I don't think I've played any other rpg maker games on this computer, so I'm not sure if it's a problem specific to this game or if it's a problem on my end.
I'm playing the downloaded version on Windows 10 in fullscreen mode with message speed 9 (the default)
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Played in vc with a friend spectating, it was very fun!! I can't wait to play the full game, I love them both so much, even the suck shit man.
Took significantly more than half an hour, because it kept reminding us both of our own similar experiences and going on tangents. It makes for a very pleasant and melancholy experience, latter of which I bet is even more so if you play alone. I'll definitely be coming back to do both good and bad runs (its been a mix because my friend was a devil on my shoulder) and I look forward to the full release :D
Already said something to this effect as a rating (idk how itch.io works i don't use it much) but I loved this demo so much. I'm excited to see where the full game goes. Both Neal and Jack are really interesting characters, and I'd love to see how they interact with each other/react to whatever's going on with the school if/when the full game is finished.
Okay but with the ending and Jack being weird...I feel Jack may be a ghost
Oh I loved this so much!! Please tell me the full game is still in the works! I can't wait to play more, I love Jack with my whole heart!
excited for more of this :)
Ok but hands down one of the greatest demos I've experienced god im so so SO excited to see what there will be in the final version
Choosing the evil dialogues in games have never felt more painful and excruciating than being mean to Jack in this game. I've been replaying this every once in a while since it first came out and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the full game.
Really like how the visuals and music feel so authentic to old rpgmaker games while also definitely being of 2023. Like a seamless next step in evolution. Only played through being nice, so I'll probably come back at some point to be mean lol
amazing... 9/10
this was pretty good lol. i honestly really liked how muched the final scene (for now at least) changed. for example i was really nice to jack in the first run and in the second i was just doing the opposite options and it took the mc alot more convincing to stay in the second run than the first. thought that was really neat.
This was really good, very curious to see where things will go. 👍
This is so nice!!! The atmosphere and characters are so charming, and I can just FEEL that there's something deeper going on...
i love them
THEY SHOULD GAY KISS
absolutely in love, breezed through all too quickly. while clearly unintended, i think neal should be left in as a feature!
I absolutely love the art style, characterization, and music in this! All of the sprite animations are so fun, and I love all the profiles. The little details for each character are amazing. I look forward to the full game!
Really love the painterly backgrounds, really made the place feel homey (especially the gym, its really cute). And the development of Neil and Jack was really well done, you get a real good taste of their personalities! I also thought Jack was really well done, being picky about textures for the costumes, and getting overwhelmed in the car, as implied autistic traits. I thought he was really well-written, and I found myself relating to him.
i really love the spritework mixed with the painterly backgrounds! goes to show that good ol rpg maker 2003(?) is still just as capable of making good simple games as ever if you put in the effort
oHHH! i played it! i found out about it from Tumblr and i love it so so much! the dialogues tell about the story and the characters so much and feel so real. love jack very very much
AND OH YES! the pixel art and animations!! beautiful!
THIS GAME FUCKS. i found a post about it randomly on tumblr but i fucking love it, it was such a good decision to lean heavily in writing character dialogue between the two. dialogue is my favourite part of any story, and the way the two of them bounce off eachother and feel real and human and want to have fun and joke with eachother is so perfect. its very obviously that their reconnecting, and the flaws in their relationship through the dialogue is wonderfully articulated and everything. their relationship makes me so fucking happy, i especially love how when jack says he enjoyed doing the project with neal. neal is surprised that jack genuniely fucking likes hanging out with him. and i KNOW that feeling and it was so fucking cute to see that protrayed.
and neal talking big shit but you seeing him get taken care of by jack, both by jack going inside the room first and then later when you learn jack literally stared down the school and put himself between neal and an embarrassing moment.
it felt nice and real and im so compelled and interested in these characters who actually really like hanging out with eachother. it felt really good and their relationship is so neurodivergent solidarity. please keep protraying these two having superfluous fun. i love them. so so so fucking much. i am going to become obsessed with this until the actual game comes out. theyre so sweet and awkward and i want this game pumped into my bloodstream. im never going to shut up about this now.
- guy who made an itch.io account specifically to post this comment
Me and my 3 friends just played this on call and we all fell in love with Neal and Jack, they feel like extremely organic characters. I love how hamfistedly autistic Jack is(as an autist myself, i promise this is a compliment) and how anxiety ridden and adhd-like Neal is. My reading of Neal might be completely incorrect but since I myself also have ADHD I will reflect onto any character I like with wild abandon. Their relationship and chemistry is so sweet and somehow fumbling, like they used to be best friends but have grown apart, and it's awkward to adjust the way you speak to someone who you used to be so close to. It feels kind of viscerally human and realistic the way theres communication mishaps in the music room when Jack doesn't understand Neal's non-jokes, once again, awkward. And the way Jack immediately tries to take responsibility for some of those moments. I recognize that in myself very strongly. You really caught something real and genuine with the vibe of this demo that makes it clear you have a lot personal experience and manage to channel that into characters that are so seamlessly flawed and naturally prone to friction while so clearly caring about each other. As you can see I'm having completely normal feelings about all this. I'm looking forward to the full game and if my friends aren't as hyped to play it I will still force them to. :) It's nonnegotiable. Can't wait to see what's coming up next, the buildup is so potent so far!!
I loved this demo, Jack and Neal are so real, they're like the two sides of my brain. Can wait to see more
oh my goodness, love it so much. the visuals are INCREDIBLE. i had no idea it was even possible to get that much fluidity and expressivity out of pixel art. the character moments were adorable. I loved reading the stories and finding out things about the world by clicking on a random object and listening to them go on a tangent. honestly a huge fan of this format. the music is top notch as well. huge range of expression. the sort of uneasy feeling in the gym as it slows down and speeds up is novel and quite interesting. i'm not much of one for classical music but i asked jack to play "something nice" on the piano and i think i'm going to listen to that piece on loop for a while.
and as a bonus -- and this is not something I say lightly -- this game has hands down the best autistic rep i've seen from any piece of media possibly ever. and that includes all the comics i've seen explaining autism to non-autistic people. as someone on the spectrum myself i LOVE to see it. jack has the nerdiness. he has The Word Choice(tm). he has the fierce, undying autistic loyalty, sticking close by his friend through all these years. neal wants to punch the guy who constantly compares him to sheldon. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH.
independent of being autistic jack is also just a great guy, constantly building his friend up and genuinely enjoying spending time with him even in his wort moments. i love watching them interact and ... man i could gush for hours. 12/10 LOVE THIS when is the full game coming out. shut up and take my money.
Whattttt thank you so much, this is one of the most moving comments ive ever gotten on any of my art and this seriously made my day. I'm very glad you resonated so much with Jack's writing. I feel like it's so difficult to find meaningful portrayals of what being autistic actually, tangibly means in a character's day-to-day life, much less over the course of their entire life and how their experience has changed over the years. I was hoping that speaking to specificity and having a lot of deep cuts / "if you know you know" stuff relevant to particular contexts rather than just stating out loud that Jack is autistic (especially unnecessary since it's a fact Jack and Neal are both already well aware of!) would be as meaningful to other people as it is to me and my own experience. So I'm super super happy you appreciated it :D
just finished the demo, it was really lit! arts are very pretty, and the graphic of the locations is too, the game just looks so lovely and nice! i mean, colors and stuff, it's really pleasant to see.
moreover, really liked your characters, they're so... different and individualistic. really appreciate that you can tell that just by their dialogues. the writing, by the way, is nice too! i mean, i don't know how to say this, it's just that you can clearly tell that they sound like real living people.
i'm already in love with this hilarious duo of besties (and flirts (i'm sorry if it's not supposed to be this way, i just felt so when i was answering with good things hahaha so i'm saying this with good intentions only)), their jokes to each other. loved this atmosphere of remembering the stuff from school-times, when everything was so lovey-dovey, and now you talk about it with so much different point of view, like it was just another person's life. kinda like this.
yeah, it was really atmospheric so far, i'm so much more in love with it, than i thought i'd be in the start! (when i gave the demo a try, i didnt expect anything in particular.) so now i'm really really looking forward for the full version, cs i can't wait to know what these two are going to go ?? through. keep it up and good luck! <3
the animations were super smooth and the overall style was rather lovely. i got a pretty solid grasp of who neal and jack and i'm interested in seeing what the hell they've stumbled into :)
This is really, really awesome. Absolutely in love with the sprite animations and excited to see what bullshit happens next. I think that I am chemically addicted to Neal
THIS IS SICKKK i love these characters and the way you build the atmosphere is just *chef's kiss* also the poster next to the gym changing was a nice creepy touch
I love the paintery and scribbly art style and the animations are really charming! I really enjoyed Neal and Jack as characters.
[spoilers]
I really love the foreshadowing that something is by seeing the poster next to the gym change.
MARCOOOO this is sick as hell! The character dynamics are incredibly believable and the atmosphere rules. Absolutely nailed the feeling of there being something more to this and wanting to keep going to know what it is.
extremely charming animation and art style!
Omg i LOVE this game! It's just scratching my brain in all the right places (design, animation, dialogs, characters). Oh, and the way Mark and Neil's behavior changes from different dialogue choices is so interesting to watch :Р
I hope this project gets the attention it deserves.
ps. i really need to write in english more
Great game so far! I'm invested in the characters and where they'll go next. My one criticism - the writing is strong, sharp, natural, etc, but is also a bit too long. When I inspect an item, I generally expect like 1-4 lines of dialogue, not 5-10, or however long it felt in my head. This goes for the opening, too - it took a long time before I could even move my character around.
Ending conversation was perfect, however.
this is fucking awesome. the atmosphere and art are great and the interactions between jack and neal are so real. i personally related to jack a lot. really excited to see where this goes. this feels very unique and fresh to me
Great game!!! I know I'm not exactly a deciding factor in the matter, but I wouldn't delete Neal if I were you, everyone in the comments won't stop talking about the character dynamic between Jack and Neal!!! Plus, since I can't really relate to Jack he is certainly my favorite character of the pair.
(Although I am interested to see who you replace him with, if anyone.)
I'm sure it'll turn out great either way, thanks for listening (or rather reading).
Ok I pomise you i am not gonna take Neal out of the gamee Im just kidding/trolling Im so so sorry. Thank you for playing
Super enjoyed the game so far as it is, the dialogue and dynamic between Neal and Jack is superb. I found myself not wanting to pick the mean options after the first one or two choices because I liked both so much and wanted to see the best case scenario sort of conversation (though there being choices adds a little replayability to the demo, I wanna go back and try being MEAN even though I feel like it'll be a little painful to read through especially with how relatable it was). I really wonder if the choices stack up towards the end or not, like if there are consequences... even if they don't (to be honest a lot of people put too much weight on choices in games having tangible "consequences"), I really appreciate them!!! I thought there was a great deal of empathy in the writing while also having a great deal of restraint, as in the control of information and pacing in which it is doled out was quite natural. That's surprisingly rare. I'm incredibly curious to see how that continues in the next patch. The setting is plenty nostalgic despite me not being from the US, so I got swept by the sentimentality the characters were feeling a lot despite it truly being a half hour demo. Feels like I've only scratched the surface. Instantly hungry for more of this game.
The spritework and animation is very delightful to witness as well, there's a great deal of individuality present in the body language between the two characters. The style of the backgrounds was quite pleasing and the icon set with the expressions were great at expressing (lol) the subtle emotions presented during the various conversations. Crazy about the visual flourishes in the game in general. The music created an appropriate atmosphere, I'd love to hear more in the upcoming patches.
You made note of it in the description but I'll still mention it, the game locked a few times. First two times it was right when I got control so that was unfortunate. If anyone gets stuck and has to reload their save, if you hold Z it'll skip the dialogue at a reasonable speed (not all RPGmaker games control like that, some don't respond to a button being held at all, so I had to try it). I'm not sure what causes it, but I'd caution against erratic movement since that's what I noticed. Saving takes like two seconds so it's not really an issue to just save after each thing I examined.
Looking forward to future updates for reals.
everyone needs to see this demo. you really are so much more tasteful and smart with your writing than most and i feel like rpgmaker really brings out the atmosphere of that
i was hooked from start to finish! can't wait to see what these two jackanapes get up to in the full release :]
I LOVE the characters so much! they feel so realistic <3
a quick bug report though: sometimes, while I'm going through text, the entire game freezes up. sound effects still play, so it's like the game is still running, just not visually.
I don't think I've played any other rpg maker games on this computer, so I'm not sure if it's a problem specific to this game or if it's a problem on my end.
I'm playing the downloaded version on Windows 10 in fullscreen mode with message speed 9 (the default)
amazing character dynamic YUMMMMM
i really appreciate the chemistry between the characters n i enjoyed the demo!! looking forward to the full release tbh