every single comment has meant so much to me, but i'll admit, i keep coming back to this one just because of how much thought and care you put into it. this is incredibly sweet of you to say, and i really appreciate that you not only took the time to play the game, but also to let me know what you thought of it!
thank you so, so much ;; this was really lovely to hear, especially from a fellow visual novel fan!
thank you so much for playing HIKEBACK!! i'm really happy that you enjoyed it, and even spent the time getting all the endings! :D
as for your questions, i wanted to leave some things up to interpretation, so i recommend drawing your own conclusions. ^^ it seems like you're on the right track, though!
this is an incredibly sweet and well-thought-out comment ;; thank you so much for playing, as well as for taking the time to share your thoughts. i'm so glad that you enjoyed HIKEBACK !! ^^
thank you so much!! :D and a big thanks to your friend for thinking to recommend this game haha ;; that's super sweet of them to do! i'm so glad that you're enjoying it, and i hope you have fun with the rest of the endings!
if you mean the sounds themselves, they were created by Sam Tudor, who made all of the music and sfx for HIKEBACK!
if you're asking how i made them play while dialogue showed, i'd recommend going through the Ren'Py cookbook to try out some of the programming techniques there to help answer your question. i used this page as reference, although it's now out of date, so you'd have to adjust it to modern ren'py haha
thank you so much for commenting! there are definitely the "true" endings you seek; if you're stuck, i recommend trying to see what happens when the clock on the main menu passes 12
thank you so much for your kind words! you'll know when you've gotten a true ending once you've seen the credits. if you're feeling stuck, try to see what happens when the clock on the main menu passes 12 ^^ i can also post a guide to all the endings within the next few days!
something about your writing style just sucked me in immediately. i love how you took the theme of "threshold" and reflected it in practically every single word. there's something to be said about how the only options in this game are to watch your "resources" dwindle away, out of your control, as you either wait without purpose for an eternity or accept an inevitable ending. 6/4 worms would get eaten again.
i am absolutely biased in reviewing this, because this is EXACTLY the kind of horror writing that i adore. the surreality, the slow realization of what was actually going on... it's fantastic how you were able to create such a chilling and unsettling experience in such a short time! not to mention how well you tied the assets that you created in with the theme and central plot. i really enjoyed this piece and i can't wait to see more from you!!
also side note, but i felt really bad for AnGel the whole time. : ( she was just doing her job... i hope she found some form of comfort in the end like i did, if it's possible for her to.
this game has such an amazingly cool concept!! i love what you did with the idea of reincarnation, and how you were able to communicate to the player what they needed to do to solve certain puzzles and progress without an overload of textual information. (such as the placement of "karma checkpoints" like the dog and the prisoner nearby where different forms would be necessary.) not to mention how well this fits in with the theme!
there were definitely technical limitations, as some other people already pointed out. (i.e. the buggy stairs slowing me down while the timer was going, and a few instances where pressing E to interact with an object crashed my game completely.) additionally, i found the text and the UI fairly difficult to read, and if you were ever interested in patching this game at a later point, i'd recommend making the both the dialogue and the karma bar in the upper right a little bigger to make it more accessible.
that being said, it's awesome how much you were able to accomplish given the jam's timeframe, and i really enjoyed playing through this game! i'd love to see these concepts explored more in future projects and i can't wait to see more from you! ^^
this comment almost brought me to tears haha ;; thank you so much for taking the time to play it, and for leaving such a sweet message too! i'm really glad that you enjoyed it ^^
