This was super fun and I got really into it! I love how the progression of gameplay allows you to get the shape of the mystery while still leaving a few details unsolved. In case it's relevant, I played the downloaded version of the game.
Things I really liked:
The most important part of the game, scanning through the archives, is the most fun! The archive entries are very well written to capture all the wildly different tones of the entries (I especially liked the various news articles that complained about tourists just walking off when it's obvious to the reader that something really bad happened to them)
I also feel like the archive request paper (where you have to fill in the answers) also sets up the horror really well before you even read anything. The question 'In what chronological order did the Schutter family cross the wildlife cameras?' made me on edge about their mysterious disappearance in the woods before I even knew who they were!
I had way more fun than I ever thought I would taking wild conspiracy theory notes about everything I thought was going on in Swantal, and there were just enough limited details on the main people involved to get me to emotionally connect with them.
The music was incredibly ominous and really added to the unsettling atmosphere of the game!
Things I think could be improved:
Sometimes when selecting an archive folder there would be a bit of a delay and I'd end up on the folder next to the one I wanted (same with the files within the folders), which disrupted the flow slightly.
I'd like an option to alter the music level.
I'd like to be able to zoom in as far as possible on the desk to read the recovered archive entries.
It'd be great to have some accessibility options in the game (especially for blind players as the game is currently very reliant on sight, screen reading compatibility and audio descriptions etc would make the game available to a lot of potential fans!)
Things I think would be neat:
It'd be cool to have a note taking function within the game for convenience, though I had a lot of fun making my own notes anyway!
It'd be cool if the music changed with each mystery.
In conclusion, I had a lot of fun and got really invested in solving the mystery, and I'm very excited to see any future mysteries! Even if this were the only one, I'd still recommend this game to people as I had such a great experience!
MxDoubleTrouble
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This demo was really fun! I liked the contrast between Julian wanting the player to make their own choices and Cheri wanting to set things up so that they'll keep coming back. I spent the demo playthrough suspicious of both of them, but if there's one person I trust, it's that perfectly innocent vending machine that definitely isn't eating people.
This was a great game to play, I plan to do so in future and I will look out for the final release! My only issue I had during playing was that I would find it harder to come up with the problem to overcome for the first scene in each act compared to the rest of the scenes due to it being more of an environment set up than an obvious conflict (though this forced me to be more creative which led to some fun results).
I loved how the player is not able to choose their character's upbringing as it immediately makes it clear that you aren't the main character in this world, just a child trying to survive in it, and there is plenty of freedom in the choices the player can make regarding how they interpret the challenge cards. I'd absolutely recommend this game to anyone even slightly curious about it, and I cannot wait to play again and ruin another fictional squire's life.