Hey! It's Jordan! I just finished your game (don't know if you want me to use your real name so I will use Grimm) so, I figured, for anyone who wanted a full review, here it is:
Pros:
(Art)
I'll be honest, Grimm, even though you didn't do the designs, it was BlackWren, but it had some great designs (See: Cons (Art)), specifically, I love the design of the Bug (I named him Bugsy because he isn't named like Meiser), it is clear that Bugsy has had a lot of time and effort into his design, along with the (Shadow Man? The guy who attacks if your light is on.) He has a Music Man like design, and it looks pretty good on a mostly dark creature with red eyes!
(Game-play)
Game-play feels like you are in a nightmare, which, partly spoilers, is the what is causing all the "enemies" to appear. The blood system is a cool idea, (See: Cons (Game-Play)). And the Last night's game-play really shuffles up the tone.
(Story)
The story has it's moments, like the Uncle character, I am not sure if you made him, or if it was a group thing, but he gives a very realistic "Middle man between two divorced parents" character, where he is the only one who doesn't just say, "I love you Malcolm" or "Don't worry, it'll all be better soon." And it gives him a more "Show, not tell" personality.
(Other)
It is clear a lot of effort was put into this game.
Cons:
(Art)
Let's be real, the other half of the art isn't looking all to great, Meiser looks mediocre, and the weird unnamed (Stitchy?)creature who watches you and splits his head. The room gets boring and kinda gross in the later bits of the game. And some parts feel unnecessary, like the crack in the wall, or the ton of Bugsys that appear during the day much later. Oh, and that painting has creeped me out for no reason the whole time I played this game.
(Game-Play)
The Game-play feels a little repetitive and clunky at some points, the Stitchy thing's mechanic where you stand still feels forced, and Bugsy starts to hide in some unfair parts, like fair toward the top right part of the screen, and once he hid behind the blood icons.
(Story)
A lot of the letters feel more like filler than really story-telling, like the Love-interest character's whole story just feels like her only purpose is to get Malcolm the gun, but else wise, she is nothing but a walking love note. The Dad and Mom feel like "empty promises the character" and it never truly explains what any of the monsters are or why they are there.
(Other)
The game breaks after the third night and has to be manually stepped forward through %appdata% though even that process feels more like chore.
Total:
All in all, it isn't a bad game, it just should have had more time spent on it, as a lot of it feels like it was rushed toward the end, and the game constantly screams "Baby's first game." But we all have to start somewhere, right? I have no grudges concerning this game, and I wise Grimm the bestest of luck in his future games. We all have our bad games, our great games, and our in the middle games, this, feels more in the middle, but could become a beautiful thing though more work.
Hey! I really loved this game, it is a great interpretation of A Hat In Time's mechanics! Only, I am a little confused, wasn't the goal to help the conductor? The game just ends after finding the legendary relic.
