Thank you for your interest!! That's a really long review and actually we're already working on some of the things you mentioned.

OK, first of all, things that are poorly explained but ultimately not a bug: Everyone gets the same opportunities in attacks, when enemies "approach" it just means they're activating, it's just not visual sadly. But!! We are releasing a "Fancier Better Enemy Turns" patch this week with new graphics, better pauses, indicators for enemy activations / attacks and explanations for their skills that will hopefully solve most issues like this. The other thing is skips are not random, there's 2 of them and they're meant to indicate characters interrupting other characters. If you fast click through dialogue, the interrupted sentences will just be skipped all together, so that's a thing that's hard to fix really... Point is: It's intended. If you lower the text speed and let them play out it'll make sense (I hope).

Balance wise dying in one turn shouldn't be possible as long as you use your potions (which will heal you for 10, so, always to full). The Squire's damage is consistently 4 and they have much lower hit rate than the Bard, so they shouldn't be that much of an issue, mathematically speaking. Still, if more people find them too strong for the first chapter we will definitely consider nerfing or increasing base health. (Quick Side Note: Final version of Chapter 1 will have 2 different Squire enemies, so it will not be as repetitive as it is now!)

Empty space blocks do concern me. If you manage to take a screenshot of that error or can explain the specifics of cases when it happens it would be really helpful, since it hasn't shown up in testing!!

I hope you enjoy the small update and continue to support us through development, again, thank you very much!!

Great game! It has fun dialogues, fun gameplay and fitting music. The bullet hell feels, well, a bit too helish at times? As in "literally no human way except taking some hits" hellish. With a little rebalance I feel like I would have nothing but praise for this game, a job very well done!!!!

The game looks fun but I'm severely stuck in the mech boss fight please send help?

While there are some unfinished things, as you pointed out, I felt the game to be a... Personal and interesting experience? I don't want to seem shallow or maybe overstep too much so I'll just say I definitely liked it, it's well made and good luck with your journey wherever it may take you.

I'll write a longer review after I've had the chance to play the entire game but not explicitely telling the player they can use the WASD keys to move seems like a huge problem. I just stayed there thinking my APM were too low for 4-5 tries before even trying to move.

*Looks at my Top Score, wiping a single tear out of my face* ... Nice.

JOKES ASIDE, this is soooo cute!! It's the kind of jam game you can't help but love: It's cute, it fits the theme perfectly and it lets you get 69 max score with the greatest of ease.

I do have some observations: I think I managed to transmit info from one person to THREE at the same time, which I can't help but think is a bug. Also, the positioning of some information windows can feel like an unfair trap, since transporting info drains energy quite quickly and light bits are hard to come by!

tl;dr: [That one gif from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure saying "69 DUDE"]

I gotta UNPACK my feelings about this game. I like the way you use metaphors, the art is simple and cute and well, the characters are on the nose but still, relatable and effective! The UI took me a bit to get, but it works after a few attempts. I miss music!! But also it might be complicated to put a soundtrack to this theme and gameplay?

I have to say, at least to me, this game is maybe a bit too hard. I thought it might be by design but I see other people can complete it in short time. I just can't seem to balance the mood of Craig/Rodney's Dad and his happiness well enough without getting into one of the game over endings.

tl;dr: Cool, maybe a bit complicated, sad that there's no music

Let me start by saying I've only played once so far (I wanna replay but I gotta get to the other 20 games I haven't checked out yet adfh) but I really liked what I see! The characters are cute and tbh if you decided to just end it as is or just extend the date for a bit I feel like it already tells a sweet and interesting story.

I like how you used the text funcionalities and the background movement, maybe you should also look into transitions a bit more, the start and end do feel really abrupt.

tl;dr: Good work!!

Aaaaaaaaand it's fixed!! I'm uploading a version with minor fixes so you can play without getting destroyed by 10000 damage in a second and enemies won't revive anymore!!

You should be able to defeat the Squires (on the left path to the end) but the armored ones (Knights) are too strong! If you're having trouble with the normal enemies please tell what's happening, maybe there's a bug increasing their damage/health we haven't noticed,, > H <''

Thank you!! I realise I forgot to credit music which is, BAD, but I'll get on it, all tracks are from Kevin MacLeod's royalty free collection. The whole indie game dev industry owes this guy big imo, heh. For the last two days we weren't sure if we were gonna make it but in the end almost all that was planed for the jam got in!! We plan on continuing and finishing the game tho, so I hope you stick around and like it once it's out!!

I've been fixing some bugs and I came across the one that revives sprites of dead enemies (I may have fixed it?) but I never saw anything like that 103 damage attack!! Is that a counter to a ranged attack?? Cause squires ain't even supposed to be able to counter that > A <''

During the rest of this month we're just going to do A TON of quality of lifes updates ((see enemy range / enemy skills when you check their stats, better visual feedback on battle, IN GAME TUTORIAL)) but I'm glad you liked it!! I was honestly surprised to how close we got to just finishing the first chapter lmao

Renpy IS hard to work with but at the end of the day it's not as bad as I thought, you just really gotta know how to deal with it.

It's super cute! I love the designs and the art A Lot. The short conversations are wonderful as well.

I gotta say I wasn't expecting that sudden cut during gameplay but it was honestly kinda funny!! Maybe if it isn't a secret (since I am now reading about limited time on the summary) you should have a move / time counter on screen?

Thank you!! Progress is going quite slowly but I hope to have big news ((and maybe an updated demo)) before the end of the month!!

Heh, Danganronpa and Ace Attorney were a huge inspiration when I designed the discussion segments!! I wanted something that felt slightly action-y (like DR) but still left time to pause and freedom to think (like AA, since DR gives you tailored evidence and such).

I hope you liked how it came out and how it evolves in future games!!

Aww, thank you for all your nice comments!!

The game's endings are relative to how well you did during the investigation, if you make little to no mistakes you get the good ending, if you make a lot of mistakes you get the bad ending and if you land somewhere in-between you get the neutral ending. Still, I've had comments about the bad ending being too easy to get so I might change it at some point!!

thank you lots for playing it!! hope you look forward to what's to come!!!!

I speedrun the development lol

It's a relatively short game I guess!! I tried to make the most of few sprites / backgrounds / code so the only thing that took up my time was writing the script.

Thanks for the interest and (eventually) for playing!! :3c

the first time you examine the body you have to get all 4 pieces of evidence before moving on, I'll try to give more feedback so it's less complicated!! my current plan is to have the mouse pointer light when you're over an interactive spot, but it's taking a while :'3

ahaha, it seems like everyone loves latte!! he might need his own spin off, provided he's not the killer (??)

thanks for complimenting my art, i'm starting to learn and I hope to get good-er as I work on lovestruck

thanks for the comment!! murder mysteries are my passion and I wanted to contribute to diversity in the genre

im just starting to draw good so thanks also forthe compliment ; w ; I hope you like the rest of the story and the mystery's resolution!!!!

This game is the Dark Souls of rhythm games (lol). I still have a bit of trouble keeping a steady score (is there any bug with missing all 4 beats?) but it plays great once you get the hang of it!

I (sorta) followed the devlog on the forums and it turned out preeeeeety cool! Will you keep on working on it?

EDIT: Love the chara designs btw

Investigation progress! Notepad! Detectiving!

Last bit of work that will (maybe) see light before the jam ends in, like, a day and a few hours. The investigation script has taken tons of time out of everything else, as I want to leave as little plot holes and confusing details as I can so that the deduction segment flows easily without having to rely heavily on giving hints to the player. During the investigation (and during discussion / question parts of the deduction) the player will have access to a "note" screen containing all evidence revelant to the case, helpfuly written down by Claire, along with some occasional drawings.

Additionally, CGs for close up investigations and special dialogue have also finally been completed, but I'll leave that for you all to see when the next version is out!

New menu graphics! Final backgrounds (now with 100% more rain)! Screen effects!

Before making any more progress with the investigation segment I wanted to touch up the entire thing. That meant, first of all, finally completing the backgrounds. The left and furthest wall of the café, connected by a curve, are supposed to be transparent and show the street, almost pitch black due to the storm and fog outside. Hopefuly, that's what it looks like! All backgrounds, scenes and CGs have also been updated to that effect.

As on last update I also did some minor corrections and added screen flashes and shakes in the dialogue here and there to make it more lively.

The menu, buttons and additional graphics have also been updated and remade. The basic history page didn't really look good to me, so I tuned it a bit to show a small portrait. In a mystery game, I feel like it's useful to be able to quickly look up to check on what someone said a while ago at times, so this should make that easier!

I'll upload one last introduction only v0.3 demo later today as I finish messing with the menu and fixing other minor problems!!

Extended intro! Investigation UI! Excitement!

Working to complete the investigation segment in time for the submission deadline!!

I've been creating the assets and writing extra conversations this past few days. You can click on interesting stuff to examine it, on characters to talk and also on Claire to think about the investigation (and get hints if you don't know what to check or who to talk to). The investigation will inmediately advance as soon as all relevant evidence and information has been collected, but the player can choose to remain there to find extra conversations (and click on Claire to progress whenever they want).

I also added some new conversation, extended old ones and got a couple new sprites in! I may upload a small update this weekend fixing typos and including the new stuff but most likely I'll hold it back until I have the investigation segment.

The name's Mono(chrome) and this is my first solo real project and I'm really excited to present it! I know I'm gonna have to improve on literally everything so feedback is extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance for checking it out!

Plot

Love⚡Struck is the first game on what I hope will be a short series of novels focusing on the romance and crime solving adventures of a young college couple. For this game, which I'm using as my jam entry, Claire Chase (the protag) gets stuck on a café by a heavy rain while on an assignment. Claire passes time by watching the other people in the café, most notably Laura (the love interest) who arrives a while after her and completely captures her attention for the rest of the morning. The situation quickly shifts after a sudden blackout when one of the customers appears dead after the lights are switched back on! Now working together with Laura, Claire must find out who the killer is, for the safety of the other innocent customers.

Characters

From left to right:

• Claire, 22, criminology student, police assistant and main character!
• Laura, 21, law student and love interest. Naturally drawn to defend others.
• Latte, 45, owner and barista of "Cute Café", the worst reviewed café in the city.

• Edmund, 32, a silent and calm security guard. Works together with Vic.
• Victor, 30, a loud and short tempered security guard. Works together with Ed.
• Sean, 22, extremely annoyed for some reason.

Gameplay

After the body is discovered, the player can interact with the rest of the (living) cast and search the café for clues (clicking on stuff). When all relevant clues have been found and all conversations are done, the discussion/deduction segment starts in which the player must make the correct choices to advance the conversation. Interaction occurs in 3 different ways: choosing the correct answer out of 3 or more statements, point and click on the answer in an image or choosing the relevant piece of evidence (out of the ones collected during the investigation segment.

The game will have 3 different endings. The one you get depends on how well you do on the discussion/deduction part. In future games, mysteries will be alternated with dates between Claire and Laura which will also have gameplay segments and endings will result on a combination of how well you did on the mystery AND on the date.

Development

You can download a demo for the introduction part here: https://monochrome.itch.io/cc-lovestruck

I'm currently working on the investigation segment. Needless to say, as I post developments here there will probs be some spoilers about the mystery part of the novel!!