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Thanks Zombie for your friendly comment. It was great to be able to participate and put a good dose of Christmas spirit into a game. I also hope to see you soon for other RPG Maker community contests. ;-)

Thank you for playing and for your comment. It's thanks to people like you, who take the time to play and make constructive comments, that I can improve... and when I see how far I've come since my first jam in 2021, I can only rejoice.

Thanks for playing and for your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed playing. I wasn't sure that a game like "where is charlie" could be fun. But sometimes going back to the classics can be good.

And congratulations for winning the contest! You deserve it! ^^

It's amazing how you managed to make this cutscene out of a battle scene. Impressive and well executed, with lots of good jokes. Great job!

Nice maps, and beatiful lights atmosphere. And Baba is much cuter than in the stories I've been told. XD

That aside, the texts are indeed sometimes a bit too fast, but I understood the overall context. So this cinematic would be a good trailer for a game, it made me want to know more. Good job!

A really nice cutscene to watch. And that fight over such insignificant things (objectively speaking) was too funny! Good job!

Hi, thanks for watching. That music was so nostalgic, I couldn't see how to end this mini-story with a happy ending. So I left the door open to the viewer's interpretation. ;-)

Thanks for watching and for your kind message. This scene caused me quite a bit of trouble syncing with the music. But I'm glad you liked the result. :-)

What a heavy atmosphere that emanates from this scene, in perfect adequacy with the music. Being a father myself, I was very touched by this little story.

Technically, it's a very good job... the "memory" effect especially! Well thought and mastered, bravo.

Funny and epic! I loved both the first part, which made me laugh a lot (the punchline is really well done), and the second one, which is more narrative based. And the moment when Harold awakens and goes alone to face the enemy, with the music and the tone of your voice rising.... I got chills! ^^

Very good job of timing the events with the SFX and music! It was smooth and well orchestrated. So keep up the good work as well!

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions, much appreciated.

Battle management is something I'm reworking from scratch now for the final game, not only to balance them better, but also to find a reason for them from a storytelling point of view. And good call on the direction input, definitely something to change.

Have a nice day.

Thank you for your feedback. I'm glad you were interested in the story, it encourages me to go through with the development of this game.

As for the doll's name and the optimization of the battles, this is part of the improvements I put on my todo list. The fact that you tried to avoid battles is finally linked to my hesitation to make a survival type game, where the doll has to "survive" to reach her goals... finally, the opposite of a standard RPG where you only progress by doing multiple fights to level up. This is certainly a point I need to clarify, and find a good compromise between necessary and optional fights (traps to avoid).

I find your comment about controls interesting. It's probably related to a setting in a plugin I used that I didn't understand how it worked. ^^ Thanks for mentioning it.

Have a nice day.

In my case, I set two goals for continuing and completing the creation of this game: to at least pass the first round, and to receive feedback from players who would show some interest in the story or the game as a whole. This may also be the reason why I chose to rework my game into a shorter demo before the submission deadline.

Today, I'm really happy with the result. Even though I failed, I think, in the second round, I received constructive feedback from the community that encourages me to pursue this game. However, I still have a lot of work to do to improve and produce a finished, well-balanced game, so no immediate release is planned. For now, I'm only thinking of opening a forum thread to share more with the community about the progress of the work, and to continue to receive that valuable feedback.

But, as a gamer, I'll also be happy to revisit and replay some of the great games I tested during this jam. I can only encourage their creators to continue and, even if the result of the jam is not up to their hopes, not to give up.

Thank you for this comprehensive review of the demo. It's always a pleasure to have an objective and detailed feedback, which allows me to learn from my mistakes. I now have a lot of work to do to improve the final version of the game. And to think that I was afraid to have too much free time! ^^

Have a nice day.

Thank you for taking the time to give me such a thorough review of my submission for the contest. Disappointed that the game experience didn't live up to expectations, but in the end I expected it. My last minute choices to turn the game into a demo (due to lack of time to propose something more or less accomplished) will have finally penalized the game. And having played it again a few days later, I totally agree with the above remarks. ^^

As this was my first demo (game) on RPG Maker that I made publicly available, and moreover for a contest, I was apprehensive about where to place myself among the multitude of talented creators of the community. So I take your comments as gold to be able to improve again and propose a better final version of this game. In any case, it was a great experience and I don't regret having participated.

I found the story original and moving, especially with the (bad) ending. The maps of the rooms were well detailed, and the animations and music were very nice.

I regret, however, that the gameplay was not up to par with the rest. I found it a bit too repetitive, sometimes long (the ability to skip the timer to assign a dream or to leave the room if it's not the right one is sorely lacking) and lacking a bit of challenge. For example, it would have been fun to have different puzzles after each new dream, with stars to collect in a different order. Or to have stars to collect to create different dream levels, with the most beautiful ones corresponding to the most difficult stars to reach. But the choice to combine stars to create a "custom" dream isn't so bad either... although over time I sometimes forgot which stars I had collected to the point of often creating the same dream in the end.

So overall an enjoyable and creative game, but one that I think could offer more.

Despite the problems already reported by other players (unfortunately, the scenes with the three friends are buggy), this is an entertaining game. I applaud the willingness to do it with self-drawn characters and maps. It gives a very personal touch to the game that I really appreciate.

As far as the storytelling goes, I think a 20 year ellipsis is a bit much for a comeback. But if we keep it, and even if the image of Louise's face seems to have aged a bit (she's what now... 38-40?), maybe some more physical changes could be good (hair color or style, different makeup, more or less weight...).

So too bad we can't already know the conclusion of the story now. Nevertheless, I can't wait to play it again once the game is optimized and finalized.

Thank you for taking the time to play my game and for your thorough and honest critique. It's good to know where we are and what we can improve.

About the fights, they certainly deserve a better adjustment. Relying on skills, especially spiritual ones (bravery is our friend) is a choice I tried to make the game more tactical and avoid falling into the simple "click to hit". But I'll take your advices, and also think about adding some fight tutorial at the beginning of the game to clarify this.

As for saving, since this was a fairly short demo, I deliberately suspended manual saving. But of course, I will reactivate it in the final game.

Very good composition work despite some small graphic layer bugs (many of which have already been explained by other players). It would have been interesting to add some narrative elements in the many objects placed here and there in the corridors (books, symbols, etc.), to know more about the context of the game and the world (what is this school, where is it, what are the "factions", etc.) But the interactions with the NPCs are numerous and sometimes funny, so it makes up for it in a way. I also find that it lacks a bit of action, because finally everything is concentrated in the same place and all in a row (puzzles, fights). Integrating them gradually could have given another rhythm to the storytelling. But it's only the first chapter, and for me it achieves its goal: to launch the story so that you want more.

In any case, a game to keep an eye on to discover what would be next.

Short, simple, but a wonderful story and such engaging "characters". My daughter loved it, and so did I.

A charming game with a really unique atmosphere and style. The storytelling is particularly well done and fluid, and the interactions with the NPCs as well as with the player (hints) are well thought out. And even if I'm not a big fan of this kind of games, I rather enjoyed it.

A great success, congratulations.

An entertaining game, although sometimes lacking in challenge. What a pity to have been finally defeated by the final boss, that will teach me not to rush in the stairs without stopping to open the chests! ^^

I would definitely come back and play!

An interesting game with nice pixelated graphics (I really like the change of view in the city) and a storytelling worthy of a real TV detective series. The music selection is also well suited to the theme.

However, I find that the game lacks a bit of "life", the NPCs are too static or wander aimlessly... like me after receiving the mission from my boss. Too bad, because the potential is there. Nevertheless, I'll keep this game under my hat to play it again later.

Note: evaluation made on the 20 minutes I give myself to test each game of the contest.

Thank you for this beautiful creation, very poetic and warm atmosphere. Excellent graphic and technical quality, and this narration without text, what a great idea. As for the gameplay, even if I quickly get tired of this kind of game, I had fun to finish it.

The only drawback, if I may say so, is that it consumes a lot of CPU/RAM resources, which often leads to lags and spoils the fun in the long run (especially in some tricky passages).

Nevertheless a very nice achievement, congratulations.

At first sight, a promising game. Great graphics (I'm wowed for the title), but... ultimately I can't be as complimentary as other players.

Besides the fact that there is no autosave (you don't expect to have to save manually only after 5 minutes of play, especially in the context of the first part of the game), the big lack in my opinion is the accompaniment of the player in the hero's quest, at least in the beginning. There are no "signs" to help the player find his way, nor are there any suggestions on what he should do. You find yourself wandering around the map trying to figure out what to do. Moreover, I find the "Game over" a bit too direct/easy (jumping in the void, answering wrong to acquire a certain crystal). It can be fun (the first time), but frustrating in the long run.

Note: evaluation made on 20 minutes of play that I allow myself, including 15 minutes looking for the last 2 crystals before finishing with a Game Over on a wrong answer.

I completely understand the difficulty of going into so much detail in so little time. Your suggestion to choose the sunlight-moonlight atmosphere (a nod to the two heroes) is a good idea. So I look forward to playing the final version of the game.

Good luck with the jam.

The most accomplished game I've played so far since the submission deadline ended. Nice design and gameplay work, rich and varied environments, a nice sound ambiance and a rather interesting story, a game I'll keep aside to finish it until the end (I restrict myself to 20 minutes per game to be able to evaluate as much of them as possible).

On the negative side, I would say: some small collision bugs (for example, you go through a suspended net), not easy to play without controllers (but not impossible), and too dark light at the beginning of the game (it took me at least 10 minutes to find the cave, finally by chance).

But a nice achievement, congratulations.

Wow! It's refreshing! Beautiful work.

Original, precise, awesome! 18 seconds of pure fun, I love it.

Really good work.