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Giving this one a 5/5 creativity rating on account of the sword cock.

This one was just a fun, kinky time - it knows what it is, and it certainly doesn't take itself very seriously. I'd say it's definitely worth reading to anyone who enjoys these kinks (or who wants to see what I mean by 'the sword cock'), but doesn't have too much outside of it - which I think is a totally fine thing for it to be. 

I also wanted to shout out the way the creative sprite manipulations used to represent the transformation scenes - it was a neat little detail that made great use of the medium to convey the transformations, in my opinion.

In this house, we support dadfucking. 

The Games We play is a lighthearted romp following a jilted man on a mission - to fuck his ex's dad. It's a worthwhile mission, albeit not a particularly noble one, on account of said dad being absurdly hot.  

I think the story is at its best when it focuses on the comedy inherent to this concept - from Harvey's seemingly oblivious nature as he makes advances on Ezra, to Ezra's musings about totally not being gay or anything like that, the plot is thoroughly enjoyable when it focuses on the central relationship. I do think that the surroundings characters, however, are somewhat weaker - they feel distinct from each other, but they ultimately weren't all that compelling to me on account of not really feeling like proper friends of the MC. 

For all the screentime they had within the DND and LARP sections, they felt more like plot devices meant to advance the story rather than a group of actual friends. I think this is in part because of how these sections are presented - the characters mostly banter and make snide jabs at each other, and they don't even seem to particularly enjoy each other's company - so it felt hard for me to grasp why it is that these characters even play TTRPGs together and what it is that they enjoy in it.

Of course, it's not uncommon for these types of friendships to be hard to grasp, or to seem "adversarial" to outsiders - especially within the context of TTRPG groups that have existed for a long time, with their own rules and inside jokes and whatnot - but at the end of the day I feel as though the story could have done a better job of getting the nuances of these relationships across.

Despite that, like I said - when this game focuses on the central relationship, it's a damn good game about dadfucking. I think the more serious plot surrounding the relationship and the motivations behind it winds up getting bogged down a bit by the presence of the friend group, but I do like what's presented here - and by the time I reached the ending scenes, I was practically hooting and hollering when the pair finally got together. RysaEa deserves all the praise he's gotten for the final CG, and the writing of the accompanying sex scene was fantastic as well - it's all top tier stuff.

A Werewolf in Charleston feels... dense. It's about many things at once - self actualization, religious zealotry, gay love, the inefficacy of peaceful protests in the face of authoritarian rule, and the fact that it would probably be really fucked up if you had a wolf inside your body which desperately wanted out.

Unfortunately, I'd say it does too much at once - and certainly far too much to fit within the jam's 25k word count. The topics covered here are incredibly sensitive, and by the story's own admission, it's not subtle at all about depicting them - by the point you've finished the story, you've seen werewolves undergo a downright staggering amount of hate crimes, with very little breathing room in-between. At best, it manages to portray just how awful these things are, but at worst, it feels like it's using them for shock value more so than to make an actual point. It serves as a constant reminder of just how grim things are for the werewolves - but with every additional dead background character that is glossed over for the sake of moving on to the next shocking scene, every werewolf added to the pile of dead bodies, it feels as though the story cares less and less about just how horrifying it all is, and more about moving on to the next action scene. 

It's not as though the story doesn't address this at all - but what matters is the scale of it all. A scene or two of Oliver grieving the dead and regretting the mistakes that led them there simply does not feel like enough when the scale of these deaths is so large - over the course of the story, Oliver witnesses dozens of werewolves dying in tragedies that are meant to reflect very real events that occurred in America - from both far in the past, and in very recent times, with direct allusions to events such as the Pulse shooting - and when dealing with topics such as this, it is imperative to treat them with the respect they deserve rather than as just minor setpieces in a story. Ironically enough, this winds up making the characters feel downright inhuman - those who survive come off as incredibly callous to what they've seen over the course of the story, and those who die wind up being nothing more than a statistic - just more anonymous werewolves murdered in cold blood by the bigots of the city, rather than people with rich inner lives that deserve to be mourned. 

With all that said, however, I do think that there's a ton to like in this visual novel - the presentation is downright incredible, with the various sound cues and animated visuals that are presented elevating many of the more dramatic scenes by a ton - it's something that's incredibly rare to see in the medium, and which I'll dearly miss when moving on to other works, because it really does make for some incredible scenes.

On the story level, I also think there's a lot of good stuff. Where the story is at its strongest is when it covers the body horror inherent to being a werewolf - the initial scenes of the MC trying to hide his condition under wrap come to mind, with the direction of the visuals and audio coming together to make for something that is truly horrifying - but incredibly engrossing to watch as they unfold (not going to mention the specifics, because I do think it's worth reading the story just to experience these scenes). Growth and change, while positive, are not always clean or pretty - and this story makes it very clear. Lycanthropy is portrayed as a fundamental part of one's being - and one that, if mishandled and not properly accepted, will fester until it explodes into displays of gratuitous violence and body horror, brought forth by one's own inner demons breaking free. It's a metaphor that works very well to display the dangers of bottling up parts of yourself and hiding your true self from the real world, and I also really liked the repeating metaphor of the "mercy-killing" throughout the work and what that eventually culminated in.

Ultimately, I think the problem here is mostly one of scope relative to the jam's constraints - there's the bones for a bunch of very intriguing and compelling stories here, but combining them all into such a short runtime means that the breakneck pacing of it all and the sheer amount of dramatic scenes winds up negatively affecting the writing and storytelling in ways which I don't assume were intentional. Regardless, I do think that there's a lot to enjoy here, and it still manages to be quite the entertaining read all throughout.

This is an incredibly promising game, that falters somewhat under the weight of its own ambition - from the voice acting to the choice structure, I can definitely see where inspiration was taken from Slay The Princess, but it does leave me wondering if such a project was fit for a game jam like May Wolf - because of the time limits imposed by the jam, we only really have one route out of seemingly many, with some variation near the end - and quite a few dead ends to tease us. 

These dead ends are the main problem I have with the story - while the sheer variety of choices in Slay The Princess helped make the game feel vast and unending, the amount of dead ends here makes the game feel quite constricting - to the point where I wonder if we needed to be told just how much we were "missing", because as is it feels as though it casts a shadow over what we do already have for this story (especially when the only route we currently have feels like the "bad" route in so many ways).

And, in spite of what I said, what we have is fantastic! The characters are well-defined and interesting, the writing is gripping, and the voice actors elevate the script even further! Libulan especially stands out as a character, with his beautiful sprites, his actor's fantastic performances, and just by being really interesting to follow in general - just like how the princess is the centerpiece of STP, he makes for a fantastic centerpiece to this work - and one which leaves me incredibly curious as to what the rest of the routes will look like. 

There's some small issues with the presentation, such as the voices not all being at the same volume (with the MC's voice especially being quite a bit more quiet than that of the rest of the cast) and it feeling as though there aren't enough backgrounds for me to really properly grasp the world here (I especially would have liked for there to be a background of the MC's house, but I understand that it would be really hard to get it right given the usage of stock photos), but at the end of the day this preview left me thoroughly impressed, and I'll certainly follow to see what comes next - whether it's in visual novel form, or as any other form of interactive fiction.

I think this VN does a near-perfect job - the story is tight and perfectly conveys the MC's declining mental state, the horror and anxiety of being lost at sea while slowly losing yourself is incredibly gripping, and the CG-only style is kept fresh by the large variety of them and the charming line boil effect. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time while reading this, and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for something spooky to read! 

The one "complaint" I do have is a very subjective one, and also one that is more related to the context of the jam than to the VN itself - while I understand that the characters are in the Bermuda Triangle, I still think the folklore theming is quite weak here. At the end of the day, I don't think the story (and the supernatural shenanigans within it) would lose anything from being set elsewhere - at which point it just starts to feel more like set dressing. 

For a story that has so many layers and deep meanings to things, it feels like we're left with somewhat of a surface level interpretation of the folklore theme - and I think it's a shame, because I do think there's stuff to focus on here - Colin's condition of having no reflection is rife for creative interpretations of existing folklore (and in fact, we do see a bit of that, as far as the "vampire" comparisons go), and I think honing in a bit more on those elements, making them clearer to readers, and connecting them more to the central themes of the work could have done it some good in this regard. 

Despite me saying all that - the jam theme is basically optional, and I think the VN does an absolutely fantastic job as far as everything else goes - so my recommendation for others to play it stands!

This is a perfect example of what an FVN can look like when everyone involved is at the top of their game - from the fantastic story, to the beautifully painterly sprites and CGs, the incredibly unique and polished ui, and even just how animated it all is (both in the backgrounds literally being animated and in the various ways the sprites are manipulated and moved about in order to make them pop), in spite of the relative (yet very understandable) lack of sprite variety - I think this is a fantastic example of just how far these individual elements of visual novel creation can be pushed, and how they can all combine together to make for a great experience.

Thank you for the wonderful review!

I definitely agree with the critique here - this was my most ambitious jam project (in spite of the small scale, the amount of characters / cgs / backgrounds is far beyond what I've done before, and the watercolor style was also quite tricky to work with) so it definitely suffered slightly in terms of sprite variety as a result, and your points about the writing feeling flat at times / things being a bit unclear in the beginning are definitely something I need to work on.

Regardless, I'm very glad you enjoyed the story! This was (among other things) me trying to break down and further explore the idea of transformation / the appeal it has to me, and I'm glad those aspects were interesting to others as well (even if they are presumably more normal about the subject matter than I am).

This was a great entry! I adored the creativity of the story and of the various locales displayed within it, and the sheer variety of the sprites and backgrounds that came as a result of it. Some of the initial conversations were a tad slow in my eyes, but once the story got going, I was at the edge of my seat until the very end. 

Also, El is adorable and is the best boy.

This was an incredible experience - it felt as though I was reading a macabre fairytale come to life, with so many little idiosyncrasies and unique, lively characters that pulled me incredibly deeply into the world. Though I'm not familiar with much of the folklore that this story was based upon, this is, in my eyes, undoubtedly one of the best implementations of the theme I've seen. 

The art is beautiful, the characters are compelling, and the mystery and dread that comes as a result of the everpresent sun makes the world of this story incredibly fascinating, left me constantly curious about what the next setpiece I'd see was while I was reading it.

Fantastic job all around!

An incredibly unique and compelling read that's absolutely worth checking out, even if just for its presentation style alone - with (to the best of my knowledge) nothing else in the FVN space really feeling like it. Which isn't to say that the story is bad - Tula is a compelling main character, with a vibrant inner world only matched by their dry and antisocial behavior - it's the kind of story where you slowly watch as someone makes all the wrong choices over and over again, and you don't really agree with any of it - but you certainly understand where they're coming from, given their life leading up to here.

I do think it's worth pointing out the odd anti-romani sentiment within the story, both in the usage of slurs to refer to a certain character and in some of what occurs in the finale. I certainly don't think the story encourages it or treats it as good in any way (like I said, Tula did not feel particularly likeable to me), but it's an odd detail that remains mostly unaddressed, effectively turning said character into nothing but a tropey plot device. 

That said, I do hope that this could potentially be altered or fleshed out further once the jam rating period ends, because I think it's an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise really good story.

This was a fun ride! The art here is incredibly expressive and fun- with me actively looking forwards to seeing the new sprites and CGs as they came along! They feel so animated and expressive in a way that very few jam games manage to do.  For the story, the growing relationship between the two leads feels compelling to follow, with Lilah's internal monologue making for some very relatable angst.

If I were to lodge one small complaint is that it did feel a tad short - specifically, the characters could benefit from being fleshed out a bit more, mostly with regards to their (slowly crumbling) friendship - it feels as though we have to take Lilah's words for granted that they were friends before it all started, rather than being able to see it ourselves through the characters' actions during the moments where they aren't recording for the channel. 

This one was one hell of an experience. I hesitate to say much more than that, because I think it's best to go in blindly, but it managed to both keep me incredibly invested and intrigued throughout the runtime, and to thoroughly surprise me with its twists and turns. A fantastic job, and a great example of a really compelling short story!

I've just finished the visual novel, and wow - what a ride! 

The story was really intriguing, and the unique presentation style and beautiful traditional art made for a very compelling read, but something that struck me as odd was the treatment of the Fortune Teller character within the story - with the closest thing to a name that she has being an anti-romani slur. Furthermore, past the symbolic meaning, the climax of the story effectively amounts to our main character burning down her (thankfully) empty caravan in what is effectively a hate crime - and one that echoes very real hate crimes committed against the Romani people all across Europe, even within recent times.

Now, I certainly don't think that glorifying this was the intention of the authors - Tula is far from a good person, and I think I understand the symbolic meaning of burning the caravan down at the end (with the title's referral to it as Tula's 'Zozobra', presumably in reference to the effigy), but at the end of the day, we aren't granted any insight into who the Fortune Teller is, only to her effect on others within the story - which winds up coming off as an odd decision. 

The Fortune Teller remains a mysterious figure until the end - far more a 'concept' than an actual character, but that abstraction of her only serves to make the discriminatory way the story treats her worse - we aren't really given the chance to view her beyond said discrimination, only as a mysterious and magical being that exists within Tula's mind as some sort of nebulous "other" which people turn to - which also winds up echoing various other problematic tropes regarding the Romani.

Sorry for the ramble - at the end of the day, like I said, I really did enjoy reading the story, and I think you did a great job putting the visual novel together - I just wanted to ask about this detail to try and understand the intentions behind it better, since it did come off as an unfortunate way to treat this character archetype - whether intentional or not.

Holy shit there's a sword cock in this one

peak

Thank you for the review! And personally, I quite enjoy reading long reviews, so this was really nice to see, and there's some great points of feedback for me to keep in mind for future projects here! 

I think you hit the nail on some spots that I could have done better - at the end of the day, the development of the concept for the game was quite off the cuff, and started with the rewind mechanic before continuing from there, which I think contributed to how "contrived" the setup to the story can feel at times - I ended up deciding to leave it as something that players would have to sort of just accept as it is, but I definitely understand that can be a tough ask. 

Likewise, there was definitely more room to cover the "internet" side of things better - at the end of the day I didn't intend for Alan's online presence to actually be as bad as Saul paints it, just for him to be one person (with an admittedly larger following than most) participating in a broader online backlash - but with the limited time, I ended up not properly fleshing that out, and focusing more on Saul's inner conflict / fears than on making the reality of the situation clear to the reader.

I suppose that's how it is with Game Jams - this story was a particular challenge to write for due to the focus on gameplay and on providing the players with choices (which also shows in the Ludonarrative Dissonance you brought up), but I do feel satisfied with the story I wound up managing to write - though admittedly I might go back to polish it up a bit more after the submission period is over, because I definitely think there's room for improvement.

That aside, I'm glad you enjoyed the presentation! Honestly, my main goals for the jam were to make some sort of interesting gameplay mechanic, and to play with pixel art for the presentation somehow - so seeing it be received well is a great feeling! (also, on a slight note - while the beach scene does still have the pixel art, I actually made the conscious decision to have it be the only scene with a soundtrack that isn't chiptune, in order to represent a similar idea to what you mentioned of leaving behind Saul's perception of things as a 'game'.)

I'm glad you enjoyed it! About the length though, the game actually turned out far bigger (word count-wise) than I expected it to be - I suppose that's how it is with there being many branching paths, though...

Thank you! The artstyle and mechanics were one of my main focuses going into this jam, so I'm glad to hear that they stood out! 

I'm glad you enjoyed it! My reasoning behind the seemingly arbitrary point changes was that the score boiled down to Saul's own opinion of himself, rather than to any actual success with Alan (in fact, to pull the curtain back a little, whether Alan enjoys the date or not is actually an entirely different score value - the only thing Saul's perceived score affects is some small dialogue here and there, one split in the middle of the game, and whether the Game Over screen is triggered or not).

I definitely understand how it can be confusing, though - at the end of the day managing to convey all that via the game is quite tricky, and with the power of hindsight I can definitely see places where I could have made it clearer. I suppose that's how it is with game jams, though.

Thank you! I definitely had a lot of fun playing around with the rewind (and writing the drama) while making this one!

Well, you can always try again! Who knows, maybe this time it'll work out...

I'm glad you enjoyed it! My reasoning behind the seemingly arbitrary point changes was that the score boiled down to Saul's own opinion of himself, rather than to any actual success with Alan (in fact, to pull the curtain back a little, whether Alan enjoys the date or not is actually an entirely different score value - the only thing Saul's perceived score affects is some small dialogue here and there, one split in the middle of the game, and whether the Game Over screen is triggered or not). For the food choice, I'd even say that the one that lowers the score is (arguably) the better decision.

I definitely understand how it can be confusing, though - at the end of the day managing to convey all that via the game is quite tricky, and with the power of hindsight I can definitely see places where I could have made it clearer. I suppose that's how it is with game jams, though.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! 

The question of whether to make the date actually 'hard' or not was definitely something I grappled with at first, but I ultimately decided to keep it so that you could reasonably finish it first try - the intention was for the choices / score / rewind ability to represent Saul's own anxiety and constant second-guessing surrounding the date, rather than him actually struggling to get Alan to enjoy his company. 

After all - online drama aside, the two are were meant to be quite compatible.

I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed it! I also spent quite a bit trying to refine the pixel art / retro presentation of it all, so I'm especially glad it landed well!

This one's tricky to judge.

On one hand, I think the central idea is fantastic - it's creative, funny, and all-too-relatable for just about anyone - let alone the people who're most likely to be reading it. I think it's got immense amounts of potential, and the level of polish is unmatched - the art's fantastic, the music perfectly fits the scenes, and it's simply an entertaining story to read on a moment to moment basis, what with the slick UI, fun character interactions, and constant barrage of well-timed jokes (also I LOVE how the characters do a little bounce whenever they start speaking, it's absolutely adorable).

On the other hand, I feel as though the story never really manages to tie everything together into a solid conclusion. As others have mentioned before, the VN just suddenly... ends, without leaving much room for the reader to mull over the experience or come to conclusions about the ideas explored throughout it. All the pieces for something incredible are here, but the story simply chooses to discard the pieces at the finish line. Now, this might very well be intentional - there's something to be said about the unsatisfying experience of the final day matching Swift's own unsatisfying con experience, but while I understand that, it doesn't change the experience - the negative consequences it has for the rest of the story, and for how it feels to read it, are there all the same.

Keep in mind, that I absolutely do not think Swift should have succeeded in his goal of getting laid - I think it's far more interesting for him to end the story "failing", and that it's much better for it. The story would be just as (and much more) unsatisfying if it ended with Swift getting what he wanted and nothing more. However, I do feel like the story has a lot of room to further explore the ideas behind what Swift is trying to do, which isn't properly utilized - at the end of the day, there's a lot to dig into with regards to why exactly Swift wants what he wants - both on a personal level, and on a broader societal level (which, to go on a slight tangent, ties back into his opening monologue with regards to the unspoken rules of being a man, given how much the desire to lose one's virginity / get laid ties into existing patterns of toxic masculinity). 

At the end of the story, In spite of reading through 16000 words of his perspective, I feel like I still don't *know* Swift. Which is odd, given how much he monologues throughout the story - but most of his internal dialogue feels as though he's lecturing the reader about his experiences, or cracking jokes for the audience's sake, rather than us getting to peek into his head and thoughts (the opening monologue stands out here, with it practically feeling like it was taken from a video essay). 

That said, this might be a skill issue on my part. I don't doubt that a lot of thought was put into how Swift is written, but I just personally feel like it's kind of hard to tell, as a reader. Likewise, I feel as though this same idea applies for the other themes of the story - instead of focusing squarely on Swift trying to get laid, or the experience of being at a furry convention, or on current day political issues, it bounces back and forth, while never really stopping to fully explore any given one of these ideas. The con isn't focused much on because Swift's search takes him outside of it, but the search is interrupted multiple times in order to start exploring current day politics - all three of these things are perfectly valid things to explore in the story, and even just existing as a queer person is political so it especially makes sense to explore the latter, but the way the story jumps between the three always feels somewhat jarring and disorienting to read through.

Day 2 stands out especially here, given the sheer whiplash of the story jumping from Swift looking to buy an Amicus dildo, to discussing the Pulse club shooting in less than 300 words. In general, the way the story discusses political topics feels somewhat one-note - Diesel is obviously a horrendous person, and Hammer is obviously a fantastic person, but they both feel like caricatures of political views rather than real people. This especially goes for Hammer, who the story tries to expand beyond this role, but who just ends up feeling like a dash of wish-fulfillment in an otherwise quite grounded story - the hot, nice, confident punk who singles you out from the group and is super into you. Obviously things don't work out between Swift and him, but it's for a "safe" reason - it's not due to a personal flaw of his, it's because of poor timing, and Swift's own hesitation (but not outright unwillingness) at being with someone who's in an open relationship.

While all of this is happening, there's the matter of Blake. And... I fucking love them, honestly - their scenes are hilarious, and I loved the gag of them commenting on Swift's 'escapades' and how they contrasted with their own - they're simultaneously a very charming and entertaining character, and a fantastic foil to Swift, someone who's having the con experience he's been dreaming of (mainly, sex). That said, they're quite underused in this role - they show up in a very limited amount of scenes, in spite of them being the 'novembuck' of the jam - and they're entirely absent from the climax of the story.

This is a massive shame, given just how much potential their character has - both in the sense that they will undoubtedly have a *ton* to say about what happened with Osgood (whether good or bad), and in the sense that I think that a frank conversation between them and Swift after it all ends could go a long way towards exploring the many ideas that the story touches on, but ultimately doesn't go far with. Their role in the story as the foil to Swift has so much potential, and the fact that the story doesn't properly make use of that potential is probably the biggest part of why I left it feeling so dissatisfied.

And, really, potential is the word I want to focus on here. I've been quite harsh at times, but it's ultimately because I feel as though this story has so much potential - it feels like many of its flaws are just the consequence of having been written on a time crunch for a game jam, while at the same time not having the proper scope for such a project. I feel like, if the story had shifted its focus mostly to just one of the three main 'ideas' I mentioned previously instead of bouncing between them seemingly at random, it could have been fantastic - but as it stands, it feels quite flawed and unsatisfying, in spite of still being a very entertaining experience. 

That said, I'm really looking forwards to seeing if there'll be post-jam updates to the story - I feel like, given more room to breathe, and some additional scenes here and there, all three of these ideas *can* be properly fleshed out and coexist with each other - while still not compromising on the game's vision, and on the desire for the story to still feel somewhat "unsatisfying" by the end.

I'm an absolute sucker for unique aesthetics in visual novels, and this certainly delivers! It's equal parts comedic and disturbing, which comes across in the story itself - the VN striking a great balance between both ends all throughout its runtime!

It's quite a rude thing to do, really.

Glad you enjoyed it!

As for the track, I'm not the one who made it - it's called Morning Coffee, by Lesiakower!

At the very least they aren't dead - but what exactly happens to them beyond that after the ending is ultimately left up to the interpretation of the reader.

Oh man, how do I even begin talking about this one?

For one, the art is absolutely incredible. I already knew to expect fantastic stuff from the art given what I've seen of the author's previous work, but it still managed to blow me away - the sprites are wonderfully dynamic and expressive (especially Wolf! I was consistently blown away by just how expressive his sprites are!), and in general it feels like this visual novel has a really solid and consistent visual style - it's a perfect blend of detail and abstraction that really helped pull me into the story.

As for the story... I'm definitely gonna have to give this a reread once the full version is out - both to see the other ending, and to try and better understand what goes on, because damn this story can get confusing at times. This isn't necessarily bad, though - there's a fantastic matter-of-factness to many of the details in the story that helps solidify a sense of place, in spite of how fantastical the VN's setting is. 

In addition that, I don't think the confusion kept me from seeing and engaging with the main themes of the work (or, what I saw as the main themes of the work) - while the specifics of what happens in the story get murky at times, the feelings of the characters are very much felt, and this story was absolutely a rollercoaster in that department. 

I'm waiting on the full version of the VN to be released before I feel like a reread is definitely going to clear some things up, but there's already so many interesting ideas explored here - in particular, the comparison of indulging in the sand with 'perversion' (in particular of the furry kind), and how it shows itself in all the characters. It's interesting that the 'My Wolf' of the game is the most perverted of the bunch, and the one who engages the most heavily with fetishistic ideas (and in musk, no less - a fetish which is particularly prevalent in furry spaces.). On the opposite end of things, you have the owl, who uses the sand (via the artistic medium of the torch) in order to present as her preferred gender, and as her only means of properly communicating with others - it really goes to show both how it can both be used for ill and for good.

Fantastic job! I can't wait for the full version to come out!

Sorry for doing bad stuff to your comfort character (but also not sorry because there is no greater joy as an author than to elicit emotions in one's readership, whether they be good or bad).

In spite of that, I'm glad you enjoyed the story!

Thank you!!! Given the (sort of) slice of life nature of the story, I really wanted to make sure the characters resonated with people, so I'm glad that you liked them!

Thank you so much!!! This is the type of review that makes working on these stories worth it!

Thank you for the feedback! I definitely agree that some of the exposition near the start could have been improved - it definitely comes off as a bit blunt at times, and balancing the desire for ambiguity and for people to know what the hell is going on is a tricky task that I've got room to improve in. 

Still, I'm glad you enjoyed the story in spite of that! I'm especially glad the details and stylization of the art stood out, since that was something I put a lot of effort into! 

Thank you! I really enjoyed getting to take risks with the presentation and style of the art for this jam, and I'm glad it resonated with you! Honestly the paper outline was a choice I was also not too sure about, but I ultimately decided to keep it in because I liked the idea of having the paper deteriorate over the course of the story. 

Thank you!!! I'm glad you enjoyed the story!!!

(Yeah, the exposed nipples are very, very important. I'd even say they're the real light in the dark, tbh.)

Thank you for the review - I'm glad you enjoyed it!

As for the allegory, I'd say my goal here was ultimately to present the importance of routine and a sense of normalcy in the face of looming disaster - climate change is certainly something I had in mind while working on this, but in reality, there's no shortage of things looming in the future to be scared of these days...

Something I also tried to convey was that, in spite of it all, life does go on, in one way or another - the infected are still 'conscious' in one way or another, and though even I don't know what's in store for the characters after the ending, what's for sure is that they're going to face it together.

It's easy to give up in the face of these looming threats and decide that there's no point in going on, that the looming disaster is far more than you could ever take - Birch and Judah both face those exact feelings in the story - but ultimately I wanted the story to show that there's value in going on, and that even when the worst does happen, it isn't necessarily the end - life goes on, after all.

Copying my comment from the jam page:

I respect the shit out of this game, but it's not really for me, unfortunately (and that's alright!).

The fact that the VN has a functional maze and sliding puzzle system within it in spite of being made in renpy is incredibly cool and a very impressive feat, but I think there's definitely some jank that comes across as a result of how it's made - especially when it comes to the maze minigame. Even after gaining the ability to keep track of rooms I've already been in (which, let me just say - absolutely diabolical move to hide that in the middle of the first maze instead of just handing it out at the start), the mazes were too difficult for me - the rooms are all too similar to each other, especially in the first maze, and the fact that Gabe's perspective is accounted for when you turn back around (meaning that controls are reversed) is definitely cool, but it led to me getting lost significantly more than I would have were it consistent. Because of that, I had to give up on the mazes partway through - even if I gave each of them a try at first.

Unfortunately, this also meant that I missed a lot of the plot, making it feel way more disconnected than I assume it would otherwise be. This fits perfectly with the game's plot, given how Gabe's memories are scrambled and how hard he has to work to gain them, so I'm not complaining - but it is a bit of a bummer, as someone who enjoyed what I saw of the plot but couldn't really do the maze puzzles.

On some level, I wonder if making this game in an engine that's more fit for games with 3d graphics, or adding an optional map or other form of "easy mode" could have made it more approachable and let me enjoy it more, but at the same time I understand that this game just isn't really for me, and that's alright - ultimately game jams are great precisely because they encourage this sort of experimentation, and I think this game is incredibly impressive as a result of its otherwise uncompromising nature and how difficult to approach it is for someone like me with awful spatial awareness.

I respect the shit out of this game, but it's not really for me, unfortunately (and that's alright!).

The fact that the VN has a functional maze and sliding puzzle system within it in spite of being made in renpy is incredibly cool and a very impressive feat, but I think there's definitely some jank that comes across as a result of how it's made - especially when it comes to the maze minigame. Even after gaining the ability to keep track of rooms I've already been in (which, let me just say - absolutely diabolical move to hide that in the middle of the first maze instead of just handing it out at the start), the mazes were too difficult for me - the rooms are all too similar to each other, especially in the first maze, and the fact that Gabe's perspective is accounted for when you turn back around (meaning that controls are reversed) is definitely cool, but it led to me getting lost significantly more than I would have were it consistent. Because of that, I had to give up on the mazes partway through - even if I gave each of them a try at first.

Unfortunately, this also meant that I missed a lot of the plot, making it feel way more disconnected than I assume it would otherwise be. This fits perfectly with the game's plot, given how Gabe's memories are scrambled and how hard he has to work to gain them, so I'm not complaining - but it is a bit of a bummer, as someone who enjoyed what I saw of the plot but couldn't really do the maze puzzles.

On some level, I wonder if making this game in an engine that's more fit for games with 3d graphics, or adding an optional map or other form of "easy mode" could have made it more approachable and let me enjoy it more, but at the same time I understand that this game just isn't really for me, and that's alright - ultimately game jams are great precisely because they encourage this sort of experimentation, and I think this game is incredibly impressive as a result of its otherwise uncompromising nature and how difficult to approach it is for someone like me with awful spatial awareness.

Man this was an incredible experience. Even if these are just 5 short snippets from the past, and they aren't even necessarily sad per se, they give off such a strong nostalgic and melancholic feeling!

The unique aesthetic and form factor of it all really elevated the experience - hell, I even had a ton of fun just browsing the menus and seeing the full extent to which the computer desktop was recreated here!

Great job! This was a really fun and creative read! 

I feel like visual novels frequently treat the presentation as an afterthought - they focus on having aesthetically appealing sprites but have them stay still the whole time,  or they simply focus on writing, but I feel like the presentation here really took things up a notch!  It's rare to see a visual novel feel properly animated, even if (most of) the sprites didn't actually move around - they were just so incredibly expressive and dynamic, which made this a joy to get through!