Even though I had to do the minigames slowly to not softlock, and it still bugged out a bit, and I wasn't sure when it even "ended"... I hope that makes it all the more meaningful to say I loved this and it's an awesome concept. One of the more somber ideas I see touched on less often even with immortality stories is daily life after someone is gone. Writing with Mokou and Keine together usually explores how sad it will be when Keine is gone, and maybe when she dies, but how this portrays the approaching inevitability, and then the monotony and quiet emptiness of a daily routine without the loved one to look forward to through gameplay kinda resonated with me.
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When You Were There's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Use of Theme | #20 | 3.214 | 3.609 |
Story / Writing | #23 | 2.672 | 3.000 |
Visuals | #24 | 3.446 | 3.870 |
Concept | #25 | 3.446 | 3.870 |
Audio / Music | #35 | 2.323 | 2.609 |
Gameplay | #40 | 1.936 | 2.174 |
Overall | #41 | 2.362 | 2.652 |
Challenge | #43 | 1.278 | 1.435 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
ampaulg, stevo946, Festival, CanErick, menecyclo
Streaming Permission
Comments
So I softlocked myself while cooking because I mashed Space.
You can't rush cooking I guess :)
So I restarted, taking care not to press Space too fast, and the game went on as normal.
I played until Mokou had... nothing to say. The game music had stopped too by the time I reached this point- perhaps the looping was not properly implemented, but it still cemented what was going on. When I got to the point where Mokou fell into silence, I went through a dozen more task cycles... And every time I felt a weight, and it grew heavier and heavier.
And a vague feeling of existential dread got to me. The best thing is, I knew what was going to happen. The storytelling here is just very effective.
Was able to avoid softlocking by having screen scale at 100% and starting with laundry then working my way around clockwise on tasks every day. Game still crashed when I switched tabs though. I suppose softlocking is still fitting with the theme, no?
Keine may not help in the tasks themselves, but she's definitely good emotional support. Artstyle and music is neat, with Keine being especially adorable in this game in particular.
Couldn't get far unfortunately because I got softlocked by the coal, but the aesthetic and concept are lovely. Looking forward to seeing where this goes if you choose to continue it.
Couldn't get very far due to the bugs (softlocked by the cauldron) but I feel like there's a lot of soul in what I did see.
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