itch.io

The protagonist is allowed to shift, it's an absolutely amazing way to direct the story. I quite liked it, in fact. Quite unfortunately, I have seen way too many stories that, as you said, "pulled the rug" to do a plot twist.

Either way, good luck with the jam. Hope you place in it!

Played the full version. It was good. The atmosphere was definitely thrilling. The deliberate use of color (or lack thereof) was amazing. I think this is a brilliant showcase that even if drawing is not your strong suit, you can remix the graphical assets in interesting ways that make your project unique and strong on its own.

I still wish there was a way for the reader/player to interact with the game more than fast-forwarding through the story for more immersion.

The only things I didn't really like were that

[SPOILERS]

.

.

.

the personality shifts/transformations were too abrupt, which briefly took me out of the immersion, and the main mystery wasn't solved, which made me feel that the title was misleading in a bad way.

.

.

.

[END SPOILERS]

Overall still a great game, though.

It's really good! I am immediately intrigued, and the style you employ in the visuals is amazing. Color-matching the characters' silhouettes with their dialogues are a good call. It helps me easily establish the people and that this is really focused on the personalities moving the story. There's definitely a lot you can do with this format moving forward.

The story was great so far. I'm not sure what you have in mind for it just yet, but admittedly the pacing in the confrontation between Eddy and the suspect was a bit too sudden for me. Then again, it's a demo, so I can forgive it, haha.

I wish I really could do more than be a passive reader. I can't help but want to reach through the screen, immerse myself in Eddy's world, and be more involved.

I got both the 10k Gold (with ~60 reputation and suspicion) and 100 reputation & suspicion endings. 

This is a very charming game. The inciting incident isn't just there to decorate the game; it has lore significance. The game mechanics definitely got me hooked, and I think the lack of actual guides within the game adds to the lore. The apathy in this city is ridiculously distasteful - and almost reminds me of day-to-day interactions in the workplace - and it helped me support the protag's journey. I also liked how you really tried to maximize your use of the custom tilesets.

I didn't know why I keep getting the same news for "Deals". 😅 At some point I was going to the Market everyday and I couldn't find the guy. I gave up on using it. While it's not a deal breaker (hah), I feel like you could give it a bit more polish.

One thing I would've appreciated is to have more interaction with the Mage Guild chores. After I got acquainted with most of the variations, they became tedious to go through, as their repetitive nature means that I can only treat them as text boxes to skip over.

Another thing I would like is if the game displayed the exact number of how much your stats actually increased or decreased; even a simple "+1 Reputation" would do. The word descriptions were great and added to the game's atmosphere, but not being shown the numbers meant I was on the edge of my seat until I was allowed to control the protag open the mirror.

I hope you're still working on the new version of the game. The preview you showed in the Waypoints system looked great.

Thank you for making and sharing this game! I had a wonderful time!