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I agree with your points: though we didn't want to change the text on consequent loops (as the character only has a hint that it happens again) we've overlooked the experience of replaying a loop after loop for the player that wouldn't want to miss anything new. Definitely something to improve after the jam if we'll get to it.

In terms of "how long you're allowed to" - it's a bit differs from ending to ending. The one that, I think, you went for - indeed, required Loop 3(4?) to be able to pull it off, as it's not a conventional one, and the narrative was relying on it as well. While two other endings can be achieved on the first actual restart of the loop, as long as you know what to do - and that's some tricky nuance, haha. 
But yup, that's something we just didn't have time to nail down, and where the player's feedback would be so crucial as well.

Thanks for playing and the good words!

You described the feeling we wanted to get very well: chaotic enough at first with seemingly many options, but with some exploration painting the way you can choose to follow.

Sorry to hear you didn't get an ending you wanted! Hope you'll give it one more try at some point to confirm your theory how to get it. Though I'm very curious: did you get frustrated because expected something different?

And about the hangar - yeah, I thought it'd be obvious as it's closed the same as visited locations, but probably we shouldn't have kept it on the map at all.

Thanks a lot for the comment!

That felt pretty magical, I quite enjoyed the calm vibes that fit the narrative as well - so esoteric that it does make sense when it doesn't. I enjoyed crafting the glass and my applauds to the little poem generation, that's very crafty. 

Loved all peculiar characters but hoped they would open up more: and maybe they do but I haven't figured out if there's any connection to the gifts I gave or not. One would think that tags for the dreams matter, but the game never confirmed that suspicion, as characters would just take the gift anyway, having the same reaction. But maybe I've missed something. 

I also wondered if I maybe got something broken, as the constant reminder about the weather hinted at having other weather but it didn't happen in several weeks - but could be just something that wasn't developed in time for a jam end.

Even this is pretty impressive, I just really missed something to look forward to: at some point the loop doesn't amuse as much as in the start, and I end up playing without a clue if I could unlock something in the game but just didn't reach that point.

~ But what happens next?? ~

Pretty, smooth presentation helped me to immerse in the story, and I liked being "in control" - having small, flavour actions is something that enhances the experience of reading through interactive fiction in my opinion, so I was glad to interact more.

(On the replay a smooth presentation gave away the downside - I would want to click faster but couldn't but that a minor detail)

Still, though I liked the short story, I did expect having a bit more variety from endings - especially when a tension was hinted on (what did attack us? is it coming for me?). Maybe I haven't explored more, but my second attempt wasn't too different from the first one.

Thanks for the work!

Despite the game not being finished I enjoyed the "world" you have created here. It's charming, suitably childish and gave me many reasons to smile throughout.

And having many choices while bringing the time pressure fitted nicely here. Though I would say that from the player perspective sometimes it felt too much to go through: when you have 10 choices, and half of them you don't even need to - e.g. as they are about going to other rooms when you came to explore a certain one - it feels a bit overwhelming.

Still, I hope you'll have time to finish it after the game jam, would be curious to see how this will all end!

I really liked the presentation here: just fiddling with Light and seeing the hidden messages brought joy to me! It's neatly implemented - though, to be fair, ends up being more of a story gimmick than a curious mechanic as it ends up being straightforward.

Not sure if I missed something, but I really wanted some resolution in the end. The game gave me choices, but then the story abruptly ends, giving me just the satisfaction of the choices I've made - in this context I would expect some form of ending, maybe even a small puzzle element where you need to "keep one course of action within all choices" and get rewarded for that.

This was a very cute story, nicely written, thank you! 

I would wish it had a bit more things to have fun around with, but that says more about my expectations from interactive fiction rather than I see a necessity here.

I enjoyed the delivery of the story: I think creating the "feel" was a really important part here, added a lot to the experience, and made me return after the two endings to get a third one (a secret would stay the secret, at least for now). 

Liked how you approached the worldbuilding: small details here and there, allowing to fill the gaps, it worked quite beautifully. (And reading about the neighbour countries indeed gave me that vibe of Suzerain - a fellow enjoyer here).

I would add that I don't think I always have a good understanding how to swing the "audience" one or another direction - relying more on trial and error. Sometimes it could be self-obvious (hey, that had a Star in it, get it?), but sometimes it would rely on more nuanced tags that are not that easy to recipher. Same goes for a puzzle, where even after getting a Scissor ending I don't quite know if I got the logic right.

Thanks for your work!

A game where I can spend the whole day playing video games - that's what I'm talking about!

I found it entertaining to figure out the exact way to collide two characters together: it's an interesting concept of having to control two characters, but you can't do both at the same time: so it's not only about "what" but "when", and is more about figuring out what are these characters doing by default.
Though that does sometimes create expectations "well, this character definitely should do this, they are free to do this, right?" but they don't. 

And I would admit - I ended up spending most of my loops on red herring - that I felt must be one of the events that should happen, and then got to the ending accidentally as it didn't even came up to my mind (but that's me, I think the solution is pretty clear, if I wouldn't just hung up on a red herring).

Text-wise it felt a bit dry and mundane for my taste, and after a first loop I don't think there was too much to read - but didn't stop me from enjoying the puzzle!

Thanks for playing and a comment! Glad you've enjoyed it!
Yup, I wanted to add dragging the cards day one, but it went into a "nice to have" list and never went out of it - there was always something higher in priority.

> which I don't think I solved completely
That's what was very curious to see - how easy would people find it (as in our minds it was very straightforward). But yeah, you're on the final track, when you get a certain shiny card, that leads to the main ending(s).

Thanks!
I love Disco Elysium, but frankly, the idea that there is something similar with all this amnesia and alcohol stuff didn't occur to me at a time of developing. And that's weird!

Thanks!

Well, I'm looking forward to it as well :D 

That was an original take – didn't expect to find a story about botanists, but with a "twist". I liked the narration and story really hooked me.

A bit that I didn't like – some options don't really tell what will happen. Like, the clear example is with "Call/Text", where first will get to an ending where you're going to tell everyone about the experiment and the other – leads to "Ignore" ending. I think, choices can show a clearer intention so it wouldn't surprise player with an outcome.

Anyway, that's a really nice work, thanks!

This is a very nice story with really sweet art and it's about a powerful magical cat, what else do you need :3
I liked it!

Btw, I've noticed that little Yawhg reference but funny that a good ending doesn't really require stats – you need knowledge.

And I'm glad that you enjoyed it! 

Oh, sorry to hear about your episodes! I don't have any experiences like that myself but it happened in the family – and it was frightening even to hear about that. One thing is fainting, and another – when body/brain *does* something without your knowledge, and you can't predict when, and no one around can notice that something's off.

That was pretty dreamy, beautiful description, light air-like atmosphere – you’ve catched the essence very well.

Was a bit afraid that I won’t find any endings, but just circling around I found new paths, and got Escaped ending in the end. 

Thanks and nice work!

I kinda hoped that this is what this story about and I wasn’t disappointed.

That was a nice collection of melancholic,  bittersweet stories from the end of it all, I liked reading through them. Completed the game twice just to get more (and tried hard to remember what calls I’ve accepted on a previous playthrough :D)

Very good work, thank you a lot!

That was a blast! (Or not, if you didn’t press that button)

I adore this ironic atmosphere – I just love deciding on people’s destinies in a totally not serious narrative, so was hooked immediately and laughed a lot!

Very nice work, thanks, Leader bless you!

Thank you a lot for your kind words! :) That's really great to here and I'm glad that "blackout" mechanic worked towards tension in your playthrough (as because of its randomness I can't be sure if it will hit or miss with a player).

I'm very glad you liked it!

And by "blocked" you mean you stuck in the game? Then it's sad to hear, at some point I've really started thinking that a miracle happened and there are no game-stopping bugs there :(

It's really written well, it was a pleasure to read and it was fun. 

But, I'd probably like more interactivity for this – after all, you have a genie here and fourth wall is broken, just get loose!

Finally, I was always thinking in "what if time loop will suddenly stop working" direction, like how do you know, it's magic, you can't predict the magic rules! 

I liked how it's brief, simple and gets to the point very quickly – I think, that's the best recipe for jams where people should play into a bunch of games. 

A little thing I would wish for is that a good ending could use more "knowledge"... though, if you didn't want to make much of a puzzle from it intentionally, then it's probably okay, because there's a really small chance that any player will get this in 2 runs because he'll obviously try all these different options.

So thanks for this game, it entertained me a lot in such a small time!

P.S. And yeah, this year "time loop" theme is really booming.

Thanks! I was a bit afraid to have a long introduction, but I've really wanted to change pacing several times in order to at least somehow hide where everything goes. 
And I'd really wish to have a bit more time to have more suspects, so red herring part would be less obvious.

> Most games, I would take it, because it's there, but I had just burnt some documents because I had a lighter
Thanks for that, as it's really what I've wanted to achieve – create a little paranoia, where you start to not only think of a solution to a "puzzle" but also about "how not to ruin everything". (Still, once again, I would've done better with my current knowledge of how to deal with these blackouts)

About a list of choices – totally agree with you, and even thought to divide rooms by some sort of regions, but I was afraid that it would just make movement around the station more difficult. What I've also could do – make some notes about what to do, so player would have at least some thoughts about "why the hell do I need to go there". 

Thanks a lot for your feedback, it was really insightful!

Yeah, at first we’ve wanted to make a transition from a detective to a horror slasher, but time was really running out!

Thanks for a feedback, I hope you’ll manage to get that ending :) (sadly, it requires to do one specific action and not only that, should’ve had more approaches)

Ooh, I liked that and tried out different endings. 
It's pretty original and I've managed to immerse myself, to get that tension a bit.
Thanks for your work!

That's a really nice game, I very liked the descriptions of streets and alleys of Berlin, very authentic, I felt the atmosphere. 
Can't even guess what's happening in all endings – I've managed to escape from the first time (don't know what I would do if didn't take that ID card, I hope you can escape with other approaches).
Great work!

Hm, I think that shouldn't be the whole story?

That was a sweet one with very-very cute pictures. 
I liked the lightheartedness of the story: it made me smile and laugh a couple times for sure.
Nice work! (And sad it's only in Russian and not everyone can enjoy it)

That was sweet!
I liked the format with a bunch of little stories with totally different characters (reminded me a bit of Monster Prom for that reason?).
A bit sad, though, that if you got to a "wrong" person, you won't get a good score – I think, it would be great to have a chance to get out of any situation with a right approach.

Anyway, great job!

Played it on the first day (first game on the jam – that was intriguing).
I liked the story – beautifully formatted, pleasant to read and a nice, unusual "twist" in the end.
Though, really would like to see more interactivity and game reactions on your choices.
Nice work!

That's what you get when you start from the mechanic idea and only then think of a setting to go with it :)

Thanks a lot for a feedback!

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

Nice work with two languages! I've figured out too late that itch.io doesn't allow you to play 2 HTML files on one page and fitting RU to the build wasn't feasible in a short time. Hence, two pages for one game. 

Yep, that's a really great idea (I've wanted to publish files anyway).

Here's our files for The Blackout:
https://gist.github.com/Fahrengeit/1e55cfe4ff0e7997eb251251513599cf

This stuff could be prettier sometimes, but time wasn't in my favour, really.
Somehow to excuse part of the mess and constant checks in the game:
Main goal was to create random blackouts that happen throughout the game – after a blackout something should happen and game shouldn't show even a line of text –  that's why every time after time passes in the game it should have a check on action that character should do in a Offline state.  And that's why there are two knowledge states that needed to be managed – things character know he did and everything that happened. (Though, frankly, system is there but there's no real need for it – I quickly made blackouts into a gimmick as it wasn't enough time for me to figure out something grander)

Hi!
Phew, that was a long ago, so maybe I'm missing something here... but mostly Church in the game is all about "sacrifices". So if you send people to jail or execute them, they would be satisfied. If you found a "bad" one, they will be satisfied even more. 
From my memory, pleasing People is a more difficult task, as they want justice. That's why it's not reasonable to execute everyone but think of other means too, depending on people's sins (even if they sound stupid).

Hope that could help. And thanks for playing, by the way!

Thanks! I'm glad that you liked it.

Well, Ending 2 is the easiest one, and you can even reach it three different ways... but it's nothing important, just another silly ending. 
But you can find it if you'll look for an exit in the bedroom ;)

Yep, we miss such adventures in daily life :D

Well, the idea I had in my head that even if everyone will totally believe him... there is no way someone will find a cure so fast. The only thing I could really do — let the player avoid a bite and see how it goes from there. 

Thank you for your feedback!

Oh my gosh! I couldn't expect that anyone will react on that small story at all (being pessimistic and stuff) but making a one-hour long walkthrough? That was very cool and I couldn't resist to watch it whole.

Mostly, I've seen the parts that were not clear or just annoying and tiresome (and some of this I thought I've fixed, but probably there was something with my last build uploading).

And I'm very sorry for this question mark on "Good ending". I know I would do the same as you and will look for GOOD ending, but the initial idea was that this story can't have a good ending because you can't scream "hey, I'm a zombie" and expect everyone will believe you. So yeah, technically Ending 5 is a good one because... you save the world from yourself! But there is no chance to save and yourself too and that is why it's not so good as you can expect. 

But... I will update this story with other branches at some point, because I've wanted to explore different ways for this to develop, and who knows where it will lead. But video of Danny should be a key asset at this point :D

Thanks for this video and for your time! It was fun to watch and to see player's thinking in action (especially when it leads to making right choices), and also to notice examples of my probably far from perfect English!

Hi! Thanks!
Yeah, it was one of ideas to show the absurdity of situation. That's why it's not even about real "crimes" and more like  finding a reason to count it as a crime.

Sandbox is a good idea that is totally doable and would be an option in the future (that will come, I hope). 

New cities is a nice feature, but we need to explain it story-wise (not a big deal) but differentiate them gameplay-wise. But who knows. 

Thanks again for feedback!