The June Bug Jam is officially over, so I just wanted to thank everyone who joined and took part! It always makes me happy to see bugs get more love, so thank you all for taking the time to make bug themed projects for this jam ^^
I feel like I didn't really promote this jam as much as I could have, but I would really love for this and the Love Bug Jam to be annual things, so I want to take what I've learned from the past two jams to make an even better and more fun jam for next time.
If anyone has any suggestions or ideas on how to make the jam more fun or accessible, please feel free to share your ideas here! Next time I will likely be making a discord specifically for the jams, so that people can more easily contact me or create teams, but if anyone else has ideas, please let me know! And thank you again for joining the jam <3
Leaving one here as well- this was so cute omg!!!! First off, thank you so much for taking part in the June Bug Jam! I love the art and design for this so much! Wasps are my favorite bug, so seeing a wasp girl protagonist made me especially happy ^^ Vespi's design is so cute and fun, and I love the animations for her attacks and flying around! Even if it's only one level so far it's really fun, and I was able to get the hang of it pretty easily (I'm not the best at platformers xD).
Thank you again for taking part in the jam! I'm really excited to see this project continue!
This was so cute omg!!!! First off, thank you so much for taking part in the June Bug Jam! I love the art and design for this so much! Wasps are my favorite bug, so seeing a wasp girl protagonist made me especially happy ^^ Vespi's design is so cute and fun, and I love the animations for her attacks and flying around! Even if it's only one level so far it's really fun, and I was able to get the hang of it pretty easily (I'm not the best at platformers xD).
Thank you again for taking part in the jam! I'm really excited to see this project continue!
Great concept! A huge part of what fascinates me about bugs from a creative standpoint is thinking about how short their lifespans are, especially ones like cicadas that spend such a vast majority of their life sleeping, only to be conscious and 'living' for such a short amount of time. Making a journaling rpg based around that is really cool. And I really love the graphics, this is gorgeous ^^ Thank you so much for taking part in the June Bug Jam!!
Oh yeah, of course! Sorry, I forgot that's how jam comments work, it is a bit weird that they don't also show up on the game page itself. And of course! I'm hoping to turn both the Love Bug Jam and the June Bug Jam into annual things, so if you're ever wanting to make more bug themed projects, keep an eye out ^^/
Great concept! A huge part of what fascinates me about bugs from a creative standpoint is thinking about how short their lifespans are, especially ones like cicadas that spend such a vast majority of their life sleeping, only to be conscious and 'living' for such a short amount of time. Making a journaling rpg based around that is really cool. And I really love the graphics, this is gorgeous ^^ Thank you so much for taking part in the June Bug Jam!!
This is so cool! The visual presentation is great, the prose and writing is great, and the concept is just really cool! I love seeing the different types of solo rpgs that are out there and how people craft them. Thank you so much for taking part in the June Bug Jam! <3
That's fine by me! The point of this jam is largely just to encourage people to make bug themed projects, so supplemental material for other stuff as long as it's focused on bugs is still good in my book ^^ Thank you for checking though!
I realized I never left a comment on this after playing it- I really enjoyed this! I'm fascinated by the introduction to the world here, how so much is left unexplained, but enough is provided to really grab you and make you want to understand more. I love how quiet everything feels? The world feels so empty and lonely, the characters so isolated, and it really highlights the feelings the protagonist is going through. Also, as always, your character designs are great. I'm really intrigued to see where else this story goes if/when you decide to continue it! But I also really liked it as a standalone piece, just a glimpse at a world we don't fully understand the context of... Very good story!
This was soooo so good. I loved the world building, how quickly and efficiently you created this setting with minimal explanation, just dropping us in and bringing us along for the ride. The characters were both great, I loved their dynamic, how desperate Jules is for Gwen. The parallels between Jules and the kaiju- being used for their bodies, just being 'meat'. The concept of the two fucking in the stomach of a dead kaiju is just so. Chef's kiss. The interplay of sex and danger, so well balanced. This was a fantastic read.
This visual novel was so, so good. I really love how you write characters, how in depth and matter of fact you go into discussing their mental illnesses, and how they're never demonized even when they mess up or act in ways that upset/harm others. The humanity that your characters have and are treated with is so comforting to read. Seeing how much Emma loves Aiyana for who she is, mental illness and disorders and all, just made my heart swell... Even when things started to get toxic, everything Emma did still felt like it was coming from a place of genuine love, of just being someone without a lot of experience desperate to protect the one person they love the most...
Your art is gorgeous, and the character designs were so pretty. I loved seeing all the different hair styles and outfits. I also loved all of the little anime and yuri references, and Aiyana being a translator for yuri works, it was just a really great little bit of the story that added to the atmosphere of it in a way that's hard to explain.
I really loved this, though. I had it open in a tab and had been planning to read it, but I missed how long it was and started playing thinking it would be a short read- but I was so gripped that I just read through the whole thing in one go. I'm glad you were able to create this, and I look forward to more works from you!!
1. I think what constitutes as a demo for a visual novel varies from person to person, but what you've described sounds perfectly suitable for a demo!
2. Ultimately, it is your game, and I feel like it would be unfair of me to say what you can or can't do with it after the jam is finished. As long as what you're entering into the jam features bugs, then that's all that matters, and what you decide to do with it after the jam is completely valid!
3. Commercial use just means if you wanted to charge for your game, you can do that and still enter it into the jam! Free games and paid games are both allowed.
Hopefully this answers your questions! If you have any more, or need more clarification, don't hesitate to ask!
It looks like there's a lot of art assets that'll need to be done, so I completely understand only being able to manage roughs for now- but I think it still does a great job of giving an idea of what everything is going to look like! Battles seem really difficult to balance though, I've been hesitant to dip my toes into it properly because of that, so I don't envy you. But again, I think you've gotten a really good start, in terms of forcing the player to be smart and not just brute force their way through! So I'm sure that you'll be able to figure out balancing with trial and error ^^/
I believe in you!! And I look forward to seeing it progress!
Super excited!! I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for it! But that would be lovely! And if you need any playtesters further down the road I'd be happy to help out ^^
Great demo! I love your art, and the puzzles were really well done. Definitely created a good atmosphere, and curious to see where it goes if you expand it more!
For some reason the game would not start, no matter what buttons I pressed. I tried looking through the README to figure out if I was doing something wrong, but it didn't seem to have the solution ^^'
I really love the vibe and atmosphere of this game so far! It's really cool, and I'm really excited to see where it goes and what happens with it.
Bugs I noticed: When you pick up the key you get from the book, no key is actually added to your inventory, meaning you can't unlock the door. There was thankfully already a save file in the downloaded game that allowed me to skip forward, but I feel like I missed some stuff.
I'm not sure if there just isn't anything after this part yet, but in the church I was unable to leave or do anything else after talking to Cent. Not sure if that's where it currently ends, or if the door event just didn't work.
This is really cool so far though, I'm really obsessed with the aesthetic and the atmosphere! I hope you get the chance to work on it more and continue the project!
Such an awesome proof of concept! I already love the setting and the character designs, and I can tell this is going to be absolutely gorgeous once it's finished! The puzzle you mentioned was a bit frustrating, but not as bad as I thought it would be, and didn't take too long to fiddle out. The final battle was tough stuff though! It took me 3 tries to get a good run, where Snow didn't get taken out immediately. I think it did a good job of challenging the player to manage their party and not just rely on brute strength though, which is always more fun than just trying to charge your way through battles. I'm really excited to see how this game progresses and where it all goes!
Not at the moment! If there's enough interest I wouldn't mind making one, but I don't have much experience moderating a discord server, so unless there's a big enough desire for one, I'd prefer to leave it to the community forum for the time being. Hopefully that's okay!
Aaaaaah, thank you so much, this means so much to hear... I'm really happy that my writing could have that sort of impact ;w; I always feel a little sad when I think about how short bugs lives often are, so I wanted to try and channel that into a story at least once. Thank you so much for reading, and taking the time to comment <3 <3
Thank you so much <3 I'm so happy you took the time to play it! I wanted to create a believable story with a protagonist who repeatedly makes bad choices, so I'm glad that Bean's decisions felt believable.
Such a gorgeous zine! The art and writing are all so amazing, and the way everything was formatted is gorgeous too! Always wonderful to see things celebrating bugs <3
Thank you so much! I'm really glad that it was enjoyable to go back to that world ^^ And I'm glad I was able to make you feel that way about Bean! I wanted to try and strike the balance of making him sympathetic while also making it clear that his way of handling things isn't. Good, lol. So I'm glad that that came through ^^ And yeah!! Thank you so much for introducing me to beepbox!!
Aaah thank you so much! I'm glad that you like them :3 If you want to see more of Harmonia especially, this game is technically a prequel/side story for my game Life Cycles, where Harmonia is one of the main characters~ But aaaaah that's so kind of you ;w;
Definitely take a breather if you need to! Working on games is exhausting, especially when you did so much in such a short span of time! But that sounds really exciting, I hope you get the chance to if you have the energy! I'd love to see where this game goes!! ^^
WAAAH this was so pretty!! Your art is absolutely gorgeous, and I love Viv's design! She's so cool and pretty ;w; And I really love the title screen, and how when you move the mouse around the image moves too, like you're looking around! It's such a lovely atmosphere. You did an amazing job for what little time you had to work on this, and I'm super excited to see any updates you're able to make ^^ I'm curious about the other bugs you have planned!!
I'm going to play this soon, I apologize that I haven't gotten to it yet I've been busy unfortunately TvT But I love the look of it from the screenshots, and it's awesome to see a Metamorphosis homage/reference as one of the submissions! Thank you so much for taking part in my first jam ^^
I'm going to play this soon, I've been a bit busy TvT But just looking at this, the art looks so cute, and I love the concept! Thank you so much for taking part in my first jam ^^ <3
Very cute! I'm happy with how many TTRPGs got submitted to this, I've been introduced to a lot of different styles of TTRPG! Thank you for taking part in my first jam!! ^^
