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Lovely interpretation of Ithaca! I really enjoyed the visuals; the Ancient Greek pattern you added as a frame was the cherry on top. 💙🤍

🌽 this was so silly........... I love it ARRRGGHHH *pops* 🍿

such an effective way to communicate the point of artistic perfection being unattainable! plus the game and its itch page are just gorgeous.

yes, it was bittersweet indeed! I felt a deep nostalgia when playing your game. it reminded me of my hometown, of my grandma's cooking, of sundays spent with the family eating at my grandparents' house. it also reminded me of grief, and of how my life was back then, when that person was still around, so back to nostalgia.

I really like the quote you mentioned. “For some reason, the summer evening wind still felt warm.”... as you said, the world still exists and is still beautiful after tragedy. the sky is still blue. the birds still sing. it reminds me of another quote, this one by Robert Frost: "In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on." 

and definitely consider reading Han Kang. "We Do Not Part" also discusses grief and tragedy, and oddly enough, it also involves someone recovering from an injury at a hospital.

this was beautiful. I have no words for the artwork in the maps; the settings are incredibly well-illustrated and incredibly immersive. you also did an amazing job with the sound effects and with the soundtrack. it's a bittersweet feeling. strange how one can feel nostalgia with someone else's experience, in their own hometown, probably very far away from my own... I also lost someone in a similar way, so I felt quite deeply as I played and cried a little.

YESS, I have been thinking about this! Mystery Dungeon is another good reference, hahaha, I was considering a Tamagotchi-like sequel!

(me sweating thinking about my Irish knowledge... w-w-wait five years for this last option, okay)

what an amazing work with the setting, and what an atmosphere! the soundtrack was incredible too. I also loved the images you used, it was all so immersive. I really did feel transported to 1900s Kerry!

and I felt quite deeply as I played. her hometown had a cosy, comfortable setting, and I can feel how familiar and safe it all felt. at the same time, I did feel there was a strong feeling calling her elsewhere... but I won't spoil it in the comments, haha!

P.S.: loved the default Irish for some of the terms where you had to click to translate, especially since the Irish-English language tension is also shown in the narrative!

cool! that was definitely Code Cat hahaha 🤓👾😺

ahh, cool! 👾

thanks for... answering/playing! I actually randomised their names, so it's a little more unique! do you remember which species it was? 

Ah, this was beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes. Maybe because I name all my plants 🌿

an expansion would be amazing, and funnily enough, I did sense the Doki Doki Literature Club inspiration before reading the game design document — also a great read, by the way! there is a lot of potential here; I personally loved the Irish setting. I keep longing for more games set in or at least inspired by Ireland!

I think you would love the game poems community! we are always creating little poetic games, I'm sure they'd love CFR. I actually sent the game on our Discord just now; feel free to join us there, it'd be great to have you! if you're interested in the concept, here is Jordan Magnuson's book about it (it's free!)

ah, you're joking! I am very happy someone from Tralee has seen this game now, hahaha. 

I took a train there and spent the night before going to a project workshop at the RDI Hub the next morning. it was my first time in Kerry, I enjoyed the town very much, I have to go back!

and yesss, I love Bitsy! I keep designing little things in it and looking for other people's work.

I have no words, this encapsulates my experience with chicken rolls since I moved to Ireland, and at the same time imbues such meaning and emotion that I can't help but look back at every trip to Centra and every chicken roll I've mechanically ordered in an almost-sleepwalk. also the humour is so so good. 

P.S.: are you in the 'game poets' community?

nice! I'll leave some of my favourites here. they're also quite short, so they should be pretty easy to play!

• Slowly
• A Lake Sketch
• Late Summer Sketch
• The Last Best Western in Ohio

thank you so much for playing it! (✿◠‿◠)

there is no deeper meaning! but I can tell you why I created this game. well, I was going to an event in Kerry, in Ireland. I had to get a train there after work. it was a long trip, and it got dark fast. I was looking forward to seeing the view from the train window, but it was too dark to see anything. I had to change trains at a station in the middle of the trip and had to wait for one hour. then, reflecting about my trip, I challenged myself to write a cinquain (a poetic form created by Adelaide Crapsey). I finished it before the second train arrived at the station!

instead of just writing, I decided to create a short "game poem": this is a concept created by Jordan Magnuson. you can check his book about game poems here! I can also recommend some other game poems if you liked this one.

who's here in 2025? damn this RPG takes me back. I used to play it in my grandma's old PC while eating pizza.

as always, thank you so much for your kind comments! you've hit the nail in the head with them; both were very intentional choices! 

I wanted the map to look like dense digital woods as a metaphor for how online life currently feels; ads, sponsored content, paywalls, low-quality content, AI slop, etc. I wanted to make all of this more obvious, but I didn't have much time available to wrap this up! I found comfort in the fact that making it implicit made the game more "poetic", hahaha.

and regarding the 'feed results', yes, I wanted to show that every interaction had consequences, and that the feed would quickly decide what you liked. but at the same time, I would have liked it to be 'infinite', as the algorithm will perpetually analyse user inputs (see the discussion with yo252yo). I couldn't quite do this in Bitsy, so I settled for suggesting this through Algo's dialogue.

YES, to be honest, I actually exported the game to HTML and then tried to fiddle with it using JavaScript. my plan was to create a JS function to override Bitsy's variable control and have total power over it. of course, my function failed spectacularly...

thank you so much for your comment! I agree, you are absolutely right. I'll be honest, I struggled with variable control in Bitsy. I did originally intend to make this an infinite environment, but ended up turning it into a simpler creation (also due to time constraints). I have now included some extra dialogue to imply the algorithm's ever-changing, ever-data-consuming nature!

so happy you liked it! I worked hard on it trying to make it fun hahaha

thanks! I'm happy you liked it, I thought the ambiance suited the poem quite well.

I was hoping for a sharp transition, yes, but definitely after "So dark." appears completely. thanks for spotting it, I'll take a look and try my hand at fixing it!

what a cosy piece! I loved the little ritual between owner and customer. now I really wish I could just stop in time and own a café (without going bankrupt. money does ruin everything, right...)

I kept wondering whether anyone would stick around for the music! I added the bass at the end to give it a little more groove, the loop was feeling flat without it!

so happy you liked it! I had so much fun drawing the city and trying to make it feel alive. the bus was a bit of a chore to draw, I have to admit...

yess, I'm so happy you liked it! this is exactly the feeling I was aiming for hahaha <3

I love it when everything goes dark.

thank you so much for your detailed comment! I'm really happy to hear that the tileset, map and artwork came together in a soothing, relaxing way; that's exactly what I wanted to achieve! so it seems it ties well with the dialogue.

I hear you with the text box size; I actually got another comment on that yesterday, so that's something to work on.

the final picture is indeed a good idea! I wanted the final sentence ("we just wouldn't") to pack a punch before the game wraps up, but that could be put after the photograph.

thanks again for playing!

this is so creative. I love it!!

I'm so happy you played it! I could definitely build upon Kibble... my original idea had way more interactions; feeding the dog was just one of them. As you know, though, getting the code done is a huge challenge... but yeah, I'd love to create a sequel!

a competição está cada vez mais acirrada 😭

super happy you liked it! 🐶

thank you so much for this comment! 💜

yes, I tried to go a bit retro! and that was the first music I ever composed, so I'm happy I was able to communicate that through the song.

and I'm really glad you enjoyed the sentence you mentioned. I usually think about specific periods of my life that felt like ages back when they happened, but now, I feel like they were over in a flash...

thank you so much!! 🐶

thanks! 🐶

Not only is the art amazing, but I am in love with this concept! I am a bit tired of slaying monsters and demons. Befriending creatures instead of killing them is punk rock.

Thanks! 🍃

I thought that was the perfect way of intertwining nature and magical power.

the design. the idea. the description. the doodles. the... GOBLINS. >:)

Why am I only seeing this now?! I'm gonna join the others and say, what an incredible layout. So creative and thematic! Congrats!

Achei esse desafio por sorte no Substack, achei muito maneiro kkkkk