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Very cool! 😊

I liked upgrading the little robot and making choices about how to use the limited power. The lore was also quite immersive for me. Would definitely like to explore more of the lab, the world, and the ... network. 👀

 As others have mentioned, an ending node would be good to have. At the moment, the music did kinda hint that the game is over. I liked the visual style of the game as well. Good sci-fi font and color choices. Nice work! 🤖🙌

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback and for enjoying our game! ❤️😊

My teammate worked on the audio design, and I came up with the colors. 🙌
You are right that the time jump can be a bit confusing. We probably should have put the date right on the cutscene or somewhere more prominent than just typing it in text before the chapter title (and, ofc, it's visible later in the report view). Thank you for noticing the scene selection. It was easy to do, and we hoped it would allow people to replay the scenes, yes. It also helped with testing a lot. 😊

The wedding rings... I'm quite certain they are always red. 😁 We wanted to show all the characters somehow (mentally, morally) break, except Carl (who was resilient ..?). So, Jessie was looting the dead, Anton couldn't handle seeing the pigs eating the corpses, and Bob, well, had power go to his head and lost his sense of reality. 🤯

Thanks for playing! I'm still astonished that we were voted #1 in the Gameplay category and #5 Overall by the jammers. That really is the win for us that so many of you enjoyed our small game so much. ❤️

Nooo.. Tibor! 😢

This reminded me of games like The Stanley Parable and Slay the Princess. Except that instead of a disembodied narrator, we have a disembodied AI narrating. Nice modern take and a uniquely new approach to it as well. I'm very curious where the story would lead. Good job! 👍

Also, I instantly regretted messing with the sound controls. 😅

This is 🌵 land. 

Oh, wow. I love sci-fi like this! Very cool work. Especially immersive was the sound design. It felt really on the spot. I loved the industrial, varying, and creepy but engaging nature of it. The different sounds suited well together, and the melody felt catchy. 🎶

The writing was also cool. I got really invested in the plot. Furthermore, the second part of the game also felt really exciting. Oftentimes, when there are choices to be made by the player, it can get quite boring (one just clicks through all the text to see when something new happens). However, here the writing was so good that it really kept me excited about what happens next. Not to mention that the initial gameplay part was also very engagingly written – the progression each time was interesting to read. Nice job! ✍️🙌

Thank you! Happy you liked the game and that the mood came across! ❤️😊

We're so happy you enjoyed our game! Thank you! ❤️

Glad that the isolation and tension of the story came across. When designing the game, we wondered how remote the base should seem to the player. My teammate said that realistically, four people would not be able to hold too large an area just by themselves. So there would have to be many more bunkers nearby. But from the narrative experience perspective, the feeling of isolation was definitely something we wanted to convey. So, Bob taking Anton's radio and kinda limiting the contact with other bunkers seemed like a good choice. It is only in the fourth and final scene that the player learns the characters are not as isolated as they seemed. 😊

I completely agree that the middle part is a little rough, though. Good to hear that you still had a blast despite it! 🙌

🐦‍🔥👤⚱️🩸

Very cool! 😊
I liked how the progression was paced with pretty much every day activities and happenings. It really felt like I was living this character – brewing some potions and helping the neighbour. I did get a bit confused about Ember. As was commented before, many things seemed more like metaphors, and perhaps Ember was one of them. 🤔

Regardless, good game, and I also like the art as well. The shadow was graphically so dynamic, and the colors were all so pretty on the visuals. Every picture really conveyed the mood and emotion it was meant to illustrate. Nice job! 🙌

Btw, I think there could also be a fifth ending. Maybe you had it planned, but perhaps ran out of time. It is: 

But, yep, nice work!

Looks like it might be some time until I go on any hike. ⛰️🌫️

Very nice game. I loved the atmosphere. There is something inherently interesting about a cabin in the woods. 🙂
The abundance of endings and finding the correct path was also cool. Perhaps what would be useful in such a game is some sort of checkpoint right after the character exits the cabin. So, when a bad ending hits, the player could start the exploration puzzle again right away (instead of having to click through the intro). But, yep, pretty cool game with interesting sound design as well. 👍

Thank you so much for playing and enjoying our game! ❤️

Yep, The Case of the Golden Idol was one of our main inspirations for it. 😊
Last Arcjam, some years ago, I saw another entry that also had animations. So I wanted to try making a few this time myself. I'm very glad they enhanced your experience. My teammate is also happy that you enjoyed the design and atmosphere he created. Thank you again! 🙌

Oh, very intriguing. I loved how the characters and world were written. So immersive and thought-through. 👍☔

By the way, "ema" means mother in my language (Estonian). But it does make for a great sci-fi name as well, and the pronunciation you had in mind is probably different. All the names were pretty cool. 😊

😘🧛‍♂️

I love it! So creative design with the choices and the endings. The music suits perfectly. The ticket clerk is great! 😄

Nice! 😊

I liked the writing and the secret that the main character had. I noticed that the choices did affect certain things. On one playthrough, I even got to fight the monster with some HP stats. Very interesting. Now I'm curious what happens next in the story for our main character here. But, yes, very good job, especially for a solo project! 🧙

I went outside. It was a beautiful day. 😊

Oh man, what an interesting game! I loved the design that it was very unforgiving at first, but when I progressed, while still being afraid of making a mistake, it became a bit easier. Great analogy for guilt and self-reflection. Very nice visuals and creative but accurate characters. Such a tragic story as well. Not to mention the beautiful music. The variable puzzle made me persist. Amazing! 👏

Thank you! We're glad you liked it! ❤️😊

Thank you so much for playing and the high praise! We are very happy that you enjoyed our game! ❤️

We completely agree about the third riddle. But it's good that you still found the experience haunting and horrifying. This is what we went for. 😊

Oh dear. I'm sorry for your loss. 😢

This was packed with so much love and sadness. So well written and conveyed as well. Thank you for sharing! 🙏

Good job, kid! ☺️

I loved the art style and how everyone looked creepy in their own way. I also very much liked the game mechanics. Felt like That's not my Neighbor, but with a different spin. The vampires were a very nice choice, because they can easily look like humans and cannot physically enter without an invitation. Makes both narrative and mechanical sense! 🧛

Thank you! We're glad you liked the narrative and art. 😊

Yes, the current situation in your home country definitely influenced our interpretation of the theme. When we were ideating on what the situations are where resiliency is important, war and trenches were one of our first ideas. We wanted to explore that often, the resilience against the enemy is not the only resilience needed. That mental resilience against the witnessed horrors (like human corpses being consumed by hungry domesticated animals) and amorality (like looting and bullying) can be as important. There can be an intense internal battle as well as the external one. And what happens when people lose that internal battle. That is also why we did not want to show any specific external enemies and tried to make it ambiguous from any real-world references or countries. 💡

Of course, we wish resilience, strength, and camaraderie for your people. Stay strong! 💙💛

You finally did it, made the shrimp game you were dreaming about! Good job! 🦐🥳

Nice game! I very much liked the story. The silhouettes of characters were amazing – so detailed and easily recognizable. Very lovely composition and color palettes as well. 🙂

Good job! 🙌

I also got stuck in my first playthrough and had to throw everything into the pit. But I tried again and got the human ending. 🥳

Very nice game. Relaxing but impactful and thoughtful. Good writing, the illustrations were pretty, and I love what you did with the UI. The cursor change was a great touch! 🤖

Such a touching game on a difficult theme. Nice immersive writing, visuals, and the game mechanic really matches well with the topic. Very good job! 

Thank you so much! We are glad you liked our game. ❤️

Yup, your reference to the Golden Idol games is spot on. I saw the developers at a games convention giving a speech about The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol games a few weeks ago. They are from Latvia, we are from Estonia, and the convention was in Lithuania (these are all three small Baltic countries in Eastern Europe). I was inspired by the game mechanic and wanted to try making something similar in this jam. 😅
If you're curious, they just put the recording up on YouTube.

You are totally correct in your criticism. The third scene/puzzle is not that well executed. We thought that might be the case, but ran out of time to test it and improve it. 🥲

Would love to try creating more puzzles in this format. I hope there will be more Arcjams in the future to further experiment with it. 😊

Oh, thank you so much! I feel honored that our game reminded you of such a beloved puzzle game series as Rusty Lake! 🫠

Thank you also for the feedback. The puzzle mechanic turned out to be surprisingly complicated for us to design puzzles for. Like how much and in what ways the information should be conveyed. If all the chars just say what they did, then it becomes too obvious. But then, how much should be implied by chains of secondary events... Probably, the red scalpel on the ground is simple enough. But Jessie sharing a watch with Bob, because Anton refused, because he was rattled, because they saw the pig the day before. And then Bob rattling Jessie with the same pig on the next watch and later with the poster, due to Jessie stealing.... All that turned out to be too much. 😅

We also did not manage to playtest it during the jam with other people. And this was quite eye-opening for us: That even with adventure-puzzle games, playtesting is really important. 😊

Thank you again for describing how the puzzles seemed to you, and thank you also for your comment on the art style and writing! ❤️

Very nice! I liked how a technological dystopian world was combined with magical fantasy visitors. :) 

I liked the happy ending. And that there were also multiple endings. I was kinda expecting the fairies to turn out to be evil and kill Connor. :D I mean.. the skeletons on their front porch were kinda ominous. But, overall, yes, I liked that even in this dark world, Connor found some purpose and hope. Good job! 🙌

Thank you! 😊

SO CUTE! 🐶🐱

Everything here is so well-made and works perfectly together! The text, options, visuals, music, sfx, atmosphere, characters, gameplay, exploration, narrative, story... Amazing job! 🎉

The only nitpick I have is that the bad ending is missing the visuals. But maybe that is even deliberately so.

Nice writing and story design. So creepy and captivating! 🚢

I liked how the sequences were designed so that you could easily try again if you failed. Like if it's a dream, you could return to sleep, experience the same dream, and try a different choice. Very nice. 👍

The background drawings were also great! Wonderful perspective compositions! And good job of re-using the same pictures but inverting the colors or just changing a few elements to make for a completely different scene (e.g, aristocrats' party vs the kid's birthday party). Good job! 🖼️

Oh. My. God. The writing is sooo good! 💚

The world is so immersive, the characters are told so wonderfully, the action and references back-and-forth – Amazing! I found myself reading and reading... the very pretty, minimalistic art on the side (to give more room for reading) was also great! 👏

My fav game so far! 😊

 (and I'm not saying this just because I also made a game about soldiers in a trench, honestly!)

Nothing compares to testing one's resilience than Hell itself. Correction. Job interviews in Hell do! 😈

Loved the writing and the comedy relayed through it, the art, and gameplay. Very-very cool! 🙌

Loved it! Especially how expressive it was regarding the emotional journey of the main character!

I was really thinking about what would be going on in their head. They're broke, but ordering food and paying for MovieFlex. It is not just about being broke; it is about being in a bad mental state.

It also got me thinking about... how good an idea it is to invite Darren. Yes, if he's a good guy, then, of course. Even if these are their last moments, at least they are with someone. However, he could very well not be a good guy, especially when the world is ending. Still, maybe they will match even then. Who knows. So many possibilities. So tragic either way. Lovely writing! 👏

A wonderful story! I loved how each plant required proof of a good emotion from the main character's memory. The visuals, music, and gameplay all matched wonderfully. I also loved what you did with the UI! :) 

I got two endings (a new home, and arrived intact but altered). I wonder if there were more endings. I did not understand specifically how (if at all) eating, drinking, listening to the festival vs the swamp affected the progression. I also tried different options with the plants, but I did not notice if some did not result in the plants overtaking the character.

Good work! 🙌

Good job! I love the mystery/detective aspect here. It's interesting how the characters are all from different folk tales and stories, trying to live and, well, scheme together. I also like the UI design. :) 

But it got a bit tedious going through the different characters and places while trying to find the next clue. It did not grasp me as well as I had hoped. Also, I got stuck when I asked Baba Yaga about the spell page - no more options appeared.

Still, a very creative game!

Nice! I loved the temporal spell idea. It matched very well with the snappy gameplay! :) 

I also loved playing as a dark wizard, trying to best a band of adventurers. The writing was great, very immersive. Good job!

Such wonderful and touching writing! :) 

Love your names of the websites! Gotta update that headline on JobLinked. 🥹

PS. Your content warning piqued my interest. 😅

Thank you! 🙏

Thank you! 🩶

Arcweave is pretty interesting like that. One of the goals we had in our team was to see if we could technically make this particular puzzle mechanic. :) 

I also drew a bit, yes. 😳

Love the game and Mr Stan! :) 

What a touching story! 🤍

Gotta lay off those mind-altering substances. 😅

So captivating writing and story! 😯👍