thank you so much bez! you have so much more experience and have been doing this for way longer so i always really enjoy seeing what you have to say, and i’m glad the parts that did work out were successful :(
and sorry again about the walk speed! we will definitely make it more clear post launch that pressing shift will allow you to run. thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to play and rate!
so right now is actually a very dark time in my life (if you know anyone hiring a postbac for a clinical psych crc position next year CONTACT ME) (or if you know anyone recruiting a grad student for a clinical psych phd CONTACT ME) but when the chance arose to collaborate not only with my longtime collaborator and irl friend lemonink BUT ALSO pamdrabbles of velox fame, i put aside grad school apps and got right to work 💪
also … also … !! not to sound too desperate, though i am very desperate, it would mean so much if fellow velox participators could rate our game 🥹🥹 across timezones and sleep schedules we worked very hard and i would hate to see the effort that lemon and pam put in to go to waste. and since i rated everyone’s entry 👉👈 …
but let’s put aside the begging. since i’ve only done the 4 day and 36 hour jams prior, having a full 10 days was interesting for me. but i know if i were on my own, i couldn’t have done much. a 2d sidescroller? minigames? having someone carry the other half of the 37k words? this was a group effort in the best way possible, and i’m happy with the way it turned out. i don’t know what people think of it, but i hope that for those who do play — they enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.
i also really enjoyed going through everyone else’s entries as usual! i always love how different games made for the same theme can be. heartsync, of course, with that beautifully designed and intimate city… miseri’s cult-y, come to life subway racing past tracks and fueling the central conversation… bez’s heart and also the world of spirits and music (no fair, you dropped two fascinating games?!)… naarel’s yandere city digging into the psyche of such a traumatized city (and when psych comes into the picture, let’s just say i’m invested 🤓)… and of course, the way skyshard weaves memory and recollection with the present, living maze… let’s all continue to submit to velox jams forever and ever, okay? i want to see more!
and if your job is hiring… reach out to me!!!
oh my gosh, thank you so much!!! yes haha the tags really do jump out at you don’t they… well, anyways! you and i are the same kind of person because i love tsunderes too and the fact that we both did tsunderes called emrys… emrys is a really hot and cold prickly name i’m not surprised we both went for the same thing. i absolutely have to see your tsundere emrys now and i’m looking forward to it!!
i’m such a sucker for games going meta, which i still think hasn’t been explored quite enough yet. i’m glad that it was able to work for you! when thinking of a plot for a sentient setting, i just KNEW a meta angle would really capture that sentience. what can get more real than a chunk of code gaining sentience? hope that you enjoy future replays – we inserted tons of foreshadowing so hopefully a second playthrough will yield many of those “ohhhh wait” moments haha. and thank you so much for playing and rating our game, it means a lot to us :D
wow, the scope of this one was crazy! where aliferous had a touch of fantasy, HMB (i hope you don’t mind me abbreviating it without permission!) went full on surreal-dreamy-fantastical and i honestly do love it. the cuts between our protagonist + her lovely tagalong and the announcer are well timed and paced out, which is a skill i feel like few truly master. of course, everyone’s already talked about the visuals, but they really do lend to that fever-dream quality. also does the announcer remind anyone of their goal to crack tenna? cuz i’m cracking the announcer.
i just love how MUCH you were able to do in 10 days, while battling food poisoning at first, and with 11k words. i’ve never seen 11k words convey so much! the winding plot, the twists and turns of it all, the subtle worldbuilding, and even three endings. also how FIRE is the idea of riding into the heart of the city? i just feel like the concept as a whole was a beautiful thing and you truly brought it to life. i still need to go back and decode your secret language once i get the time, but the fact that you have one in the first place is so cool. this game is the full package!
also, i just want thank you so much for rating our entry 🙇♀️ and sorry it took me until now to get to yours! knowing it was 11k words, i wanted to set aside the proper amount of time to play. happy to see you again!!
such a lovely experience! def seconding miseri in that i was reminded of arrietty, and i loved the touch of magic in this one. there’s such a wide range of worldbuilding in this piece that i wish we had more time to explore around – i wanted to know more about these giant spirits and what exactly happened that led to their disappearance. so mysterious…
as usual, your va work never disappoints. i feel like you have a real talent for finding the best fit for your games! hoping to see more future installments in this world so we can really dig into the lore!
thank you so much!! i used to love those dating sim flash games haha they made up a big part of my childhood, esp pacthesis games (if you know of her). i feel like this prompt was just perfect for playing around with the fourth wall, so i’m glad you enjoyed it! i’m usually a fan of the surly, tsundere-y love interests but i totally agree, pam wrote harper in such an endearing way that i found myself quickly loving them as well hehe.
and i’m really happy to hear that the ending worked well for you! it absolutely is like that; i almost see it as a crab bucket situation, but i also felt that it was fitting for the nature of a game anyways. is a game still really a game if no one plays it? if its code remains dormant and untouched? but all that to say i loved your comment and kind words – and i’m especially looking forward to playing your entry!
a yandere city? I LOVE IT. i absolutely adore the yandereification of non-people or atypical characters (unfortunately, a predictable trend in my works) and i feel like this was the perfect realization of that. so on theme! i’m admittedly not very familiar with the history of warsaw, but i like that you alluded to just enough for me to have a good sense of the history of casualty and destruction throughout. in a way, the pictures that were chosen really help lend the feeling of walking through the city, stepping over countless bones and corpses as you tread through a city filled with history. the prose is very tight, switching from pleading to demanding. it’s a very human spin on something so abstract and not sentient at all.
i think calling this a siren lament is very fitting. are we drawn to warsaw because of the countless opportunities within the big city, or are we drawn to this history that repeats, or is it some other quality that leaves warsaw as such a beacon to everything and everyone? i definitely came away really inspired – there are so many cities around the world that has made its mark in history through a history of pain and hurt, and i would love to dive into one from my culture too. i really enjoyed your game not just as an exploration of this, but as something more profound that sparks new ideas. another great entry from long-time jam goat naarel!
i feel like any creative ends up placing themself into their work; but no one more than writers. i know that when i write, i inevitably create protagonists that resemble me in some way just because that’s the person i know best. in that regard, i really related to my heart is a city because it’s not afraid to get emotional and cut into a deeper vein. rather than have the veneer of a guise, it peels back the layers of most games and goes right for the jugular – the desire to be understood, that is. although i’m sure a lot of people resonated with this piece, i also think it’s fine if no one does. the person who needed this game to be created the most (you) has already received it! sorry if that sounds cheesy haha
i’m wishing you the best with future game projects as you step away from these types of deep, introspective ones. but i like to think those games all strike at the same sort of need anyways; the need to be liked, understood. what i do know is that you’ve struck a kindred feeling in the people who have already played this game, me included. looking forward to seeing what you’ll create as you go forward!
i always head into a skyshard game knowing the story and visuals will blow me away, and once again, i have been blessed by this experience. i want to say the introduction scene with the eclipse gave me the chills – so well written, SO compelling, and the almost hypnotic spin of the eclipse in conjunction with the haunting music in the back combines into one of the best introduction scenes to a game i’ve read. shhh… don’t tell anyone else, but i think you have one of the best writing styles of velox! that’s not to say your art isn’t good either, but i always get the sense you’ve put a lot of work into honing and refining your writing, and i eat it up every single time.
admittedlyyy i did get a little lost along the way for the story, but that’s what the post-mortem is for! i always enjoy reading yours because they provide good insight into your thought process and clears it up a little for me, haha. heartsync’s comment about how the game is about how grief affects you is something i’m seconding! there’s an obsessive undercurrent to their relationship, despite how casual it seems to be set up at first. the body horror was unexpected but not unwelcome, and i honestly think it was done very well – i was a bit spooked! for now, i just want to sit with the atmosphere of this for a little longer.
what a clever and delightful read! the crux of this ride is the dialogue, so it was imperative it remain as snappy and witty as possible – and on that front, i’m happy to say you fully delivered. the back and forth of the characters veering from mundane reality to abstract thought was perfect for the real-unreal vibe. the aesthetics were also really well curated and put together, giving the game a really cohesive whole feeling. i think they were images pulled from online, right? but they all came together really well, giving it such a distinct look. also i loved the bits of interactivity throughout in addition to the sound design. it feels much more alive and playful because of that.
i also love the way the theme is addressed and played with. at first it almost feels cult-y, with the subway having gained form from the masses huddled in their multitudes within, the ritualistic ceremony of having to force yourself to get in and head to the same destination. but the tongue-in-cheek vore joke at the end is a cute way to call that into question too. how much of this is real, how much of this is imagined? all that to say, of course, that i really enjoyed my time playing stand clear, doors are closing!
hmmm well on a more serious note
i’ve had creative writing as a hobby for a long time and i really do enjoy it, so i don’t get as tired of writing constantly as some people might … although i still do get burned out sometimes
i don’t have any concrete evidence for this but i think i also tend to be a faster writer, at least compared to my friends. this game is on par for what i normally write in jams; for a month-long jam i wrote 40k, for velox formido i did 11k in 27 hours, and my actual solo project in velox turbo i wrote 15k in four days. ~18.5k in 5 days is very doable for me!
since lemonink did all the coding, i could devote a lot of time specifically to only writing! she’s carrying all our projects on her back so i can type leisurely like a pampered princess hehe
and finally, it helps A LOT that there’s actually two of us writing! pam and i can cover for each other and build off one another’s ideas. although this was our first time working together, we had really nice chemistry and share a similar style. i definitely felt very inspired by her, and i think it goes both ways!
so i guess i really did mean it when i said power of friendship! it’s a combination of something that i already tend to have a grasp on (writing a lot in a short time) and having reliable teammates who can help carry the burden. hopefully that’s what you were looking for!
pam pam pam…. i’m surprised and yet unsurprised you found this little project of mine. we’re drawn to greek myths like moths to a flame… but thank you so so much!!! i honestly still think this is kinda bad so your comment makes me feel a lot better <3 i love the original myth, don’t get me wrong, but i always felt like i wouldn’t be going through all this for eros unless he were part of the sassy man apocalypse hence his arrival as a disembodied glowing voice. i did not get a grade on this project but i did get an A overall in the class, so i’m happy to say your well-wishes worked!!!
also off topic but we need to talk abt otome games some day i got the impression from your bluesky you play ? right ? let’s chat.
first: thank you all so much for being such lovely jammates, and trust that lemonink and i are more than honored to be taking home first place. yayyy!! it’s also been a long time coming but lemonink and i did a collaborative postmortem in the style of a convo (which we were having as we wrote this) so please do check it out if you’re curious about our thoughts!
as an incentive, we also left brief comments on every single game at the end so click to hear more about your game!!!
my ultimate goal was to have the worst friendship ever for this jam and every time someone comments on how messy the two characters are my heart grows two sizes bigger. in regards to the sprites, i’m as much of a fan and in awe as you are bc lemonink is magic with her ipad! but regardless, thank you so much for the comment!!
WAHHH TELE THANK YOUU! i have an unhealthy love for reverse chronological order and i thought it would be so fun if the flashbacks could pace things out like that – and i just love people that are toxic to each other, and inseparable all the same. and thank you so much for taking the time to play through both endings!!
lemonink was phenomenal with the ui/ux and the animated sprites (like i still don’t know HOW she did it but she did) and i’m really happy she manifested our beautifully toxic manipulative blonde! your comment is much appreciated and loved <3
wow, thank you so so much!! i wanted both endings to be as separate as they were connected, and although i set out to make them equally bad i do think one is less bad than the other – but i won’t say which! it makes me so happy you took the time to play out both endings, and honestly with the AMAZING animations from lemonink i probably would go through just see his mouth flap too haha. thank you again for the lovely comment!
CANNOT believe i didn’t leave a comment on this because the hunter, the poet and the pheasant was phenomenal! i think you saw me mention this about your postmortem, but the way the story unfolded was incredibly realistic and almost intimate even in just the back and forth of dialogue without inner narration. i thought it suited the nature of this game very well – the juxtaposition of the father and son as well as the pheasant and the hunter very clearly comes through. the poetry was very charming (even if you might not have enjoyed writing it) and i really liked seeing how andrew would bend and change its words depending on what his father said. it felt like we were losing all his whimsy and joy to the real world manly ideal his father wanted him to subscribe too. it was hinted at, but i do believe he’s queer? that’s why his father, even saying that he loves him, wants to kill the only real part of him and leave behind the performative shell of his son.
i also wanted to say, briefly, that i thought the dad was really hot….sorry…..i know hes very toxic masculinity but i liked that he was like im protecting my wife……..sorry……….
but anyways i also thought the three endings were so fitting; either you go one way or another and you revel in the misery that brings, or you straddle the line and end up miserable in a different kind of way. i really liked that you had a half-hearted wishy-washy ending because i feel like that’s where i landed and where a lot of people land too–trying too hard to appeal to both sides, killing more of yourself as you do so. but i think you lent so much realism to the father as well; arguably, he DOES love his son in his own way even if it’s the worst way to love your child. it’s because he comes from a place he believes in that elevates this to a universal experience where love and outcome are completely separate.
there’s a lot of feelings that this left me with, and it’s so hard to put them into words! but i think there’s just a depth of emotion and narrative that makes this work so well in the way it does. you’re not them, in my opinion, refers to how the son could never become the hunter his father wants him to be. he’s the poet and he’s the pheasant and though he can take the gun into his hands, he can’t live with the shot he makes. hunter poet and pheasant is my new soldier poet king now…
this was just utterly visually stunning, and i knew that right from the start when you posted the background wip! the way ren’py has been distilled down to only what is necessary was an amazing touch, but the way it’s set up as one line for the creature and one line for the speaker – perfectly mimicking the slow, steady pace of a conversation where you must stop and listen. aesthetics wise, this game is phenomenal and i love how the writing complements it! i saw it as being about a toxic friend with whom you must now decide how you’ll define the way you see them; of course, i’m drawing very strongly on personal experience, but i love how there’s almost a sense of pity for you from this creature if you get that ending. that’s how bad it is.
i could keep gushing about how well these visuals play along with the interpretive, flowing and faltering dialogue and back and forth, but words can never really do the experience i had playing justice. i consider everything about this perfectly packaged and wrapped up; a wholly polished piece which is incredible for the timeframe it was produced in (hope you’re on the path to recovering as well!)
very clever and cutting, as per usual! i can now see where the summer hikaru died comes to play into the story, and it really does fit the theme so well. the amount of content and cgs you have is always stunning to me, like you drew all of that in less than 2 days?? incredible! this is such an eldritch horror piece to me and i really feel like you shine most in vns that have a horror that creeps up on you. i def had a sense of where the story would go, but it always unfolds so well as you tell the story!
super great to see another entry from you this jam around and excited to see how you tackle more themes in the future!
such a raw but open take on the theme! it’s short but effective in conveying what it wants to say, and i feel like it’s so common to be afraid of becoming your parents and inheriting a sort of heredity cruelty. i hope that through this jam entry, you were able to feel some catharsis about the situation. sincerely wishing you the best!
your game has such a clear artistic vision that it’s hard for me to express anything other than: wow. because it works really well for the vibe and the tone that you’re going for, the music and the colors and the way that the art is drawn so abstractly and yet with a clear intention in mind. there’s a very otherworldly sort of tone and manner to this game and i regret to say my mind is not so good at parsing things when they’re not written out for me. but i really do think this is such a solid experience; it makes me so curious about the world of gentleman jack!
the dream team is back once more! i swear every new jam i see more and more people being joined into this giant conglomerate blob of devs and i’m all for it hehe. a chatsim was long, long overdue for a jam (has one been done before? this is my second so who knows!) and i’m so glad you all were able to fuel your own personal experiences into a deeply personal and yet effectively universal experience. i really related not via game jam teams but via group projects also; in a way, i kind of am a geoff too when an A is at stake, but i think the whole point is to recognize the nuance even the evil people have. like the turnaround from evil ai-using r slur guy was such a moment i was literally cheering for the devil – LOL. good people can be capable of terrible things, and evil people can also recognize bad for bad.
anyways, the collective (what i’m calling you all) always produce such fun and polished works! i did feel like everyone had a bit of a stand-in for themselves, so i just attached myself to JR Costa who in my mind is my goat cdrom and never looked back. everything was just so amazing, from the music to the writing to the ui. a game in the truest sense of the word!
i loved how much of this there was for such a short jam! three different characters, a thoughtful narrative, and honestly that 1.8k felt so much like a full on 10k visual novel to me, maybe because in loving, oblivion had so much to say and offer. the way the world is rendered in black and white only makes the red stand out even further, and i loved getting the chance to get to the bottom of this twisted and convoluted sort-of love triangle.
i def think the best part is, of course, the prose. the art is a great companion to the meaningful and deliberate writing of this vn. the switch between typical narrative style writing within the dialogue boxes and actual vn style dialogue is a really interesting way to blend the written form with the vn form, and i’m really intrigued by how this can be expanded! i typically write in narrative form too, so i always feel like that will speak more to me. great work!
so stunning! decker really has been used to its fullest potential here, and the way everything is staged beautifully through the artwork and the text maximizes each screen. i can’t say i’m a big taylor swift fan but i do feel like you’ve managed to take this quote from her and spin it not only into its own game, but its own full-fledged concept, thought, and philosophy. i also love the detail of the lake being named after the greek twins; what an interesting reflection on (and i sure hope i’m interpreting this right) feeling so disconnected from someone you once were that you form a separate identity – and then, of course, the same commentary on twins being split from the same egg.
of course, i’m by no means an expert on transgender allegory (if that is what this game is about and if i’m reading into this correctly) but i just love how all of the elements of your game piece together in such a perfect way. the art of storytelling has not been lost because you’re carrying the torch!
it’s so rare to see a visual novel that is SO adept with its visuals, especially in a 36 hour game jam with such a huge time constraint… but it really is just so incredible how it came together so well! the way the characters are framed and how these frames move play such a vital role not just in the storytelling but as a way to keep me visually engaged too. i’m not a huge fan of the wild west unless you count the wild west island from poptropica, but this setting really comes together to give a well fleshed out snapshot – and again, for such a short jam it really is incredible!
i just loved the framing of the last choice too, the decision to either shoot or not is just as tense as it ought to be. this entry really puts the visual in visual novel and the novel in visual novel! on one hand, i feel like these characters had very fleshed out narratives just from this glimpse, but on the other hand i’d love to see more about them too! eager to see where this goes :D
what a FASCINATING guy. i just caught up on your explanation behind him and now it’s all clicking together and coming together and honestly i love that so much! both of these people are kind of perfect for each other actually and i mean that in the best way possible. (spoilers!) the fact that “silas” is fully taking advantage of the situation and continuously tests the waters to see what he can get away with, and the way he’s not even being that cautious either… whenever he slips up he just easily plays it off, but he’s not avoiding slipping up in the first place. and the fact that the protagonist is also just as equally selfish and shallow in their intentions (inviting this dude over right away but like this is your first day seeing him irl!) really drives it home. they’re so situationship coded…
also i loved the use of kinetic text towards the end to really help the situation pop! and actually in hindsight this guy is kind of really funny? he was like yeah whatever i’m going along with it and stuck it out for as long as he could. am i curious what could have happened in the ending where you call him out? absolutely. am i still very tickled pink by these two people who are made for one another? absolutely. this was such a fun game to play!
i realize i probably should make more use of spoiler tags when i write my comments so i will say SPOILERS if you haven’t played the game.
okay so personally i thought the reveal was soooo well done. there’s just enough moments of ? something’s wrong without leaning into it too much so that the player is always on guard but never sees anything wrong. the whole time i was trying to guess what exactly was going on but i def did not get it right and i’m so glad i didn’t because it was so jaw-dropping getting to that part! the groupchat scenes are a perfect bit of levity to keep the player suspended in that state of will-they won’t-they (but also very much homestuck-esque i must say) which makes that plot twist all the more relevant. this would fit perfectly into a dystopian world too, and i feel like this game poses so many questions that linger even after the game (which, you could say, is the point of a psychological horror in the first place)
i’m splitting the paragraph here because too-big paragraphs hurt my eyes, but to proceed with the prev train of thought… the horror of being trapped as someone you’re not with no choice but to continue onwards for the sake of you and everyone else… and yet it feels so bleak and horrific all the same that everyone else is in on it and they’ve chosen to sacrifice you for that purpose. those who walk away from omelas anyone? but regardless, if this is what you’re doing for a jam, i can’t begin to fathom what you might come up with given more time! would love to see more psych horror from you :D
heartsync productions….!! we’ll be twitter mutuals one day oomf of an oomf….!! anyways let’s get right to your game. i have to say omg what a CONCEPT. wings representing potential was already getting me good but there’s just something so delicious about juniper’s internal conflict about being able to see these wings but not having her own – the part about prosperum being talent leeches sticks in my mind the most. it kind of reminds me of the toreador in vtmb, a clan of vampires who love art but can’t produce their own. but, as i think you alluded to towards the end, is it really that they can’t – or that they’ve grown complacent in merely seeing potential and talent and don’t work on their own? juniper’s realization that she’s holding herself is timed perfectly with what i think is the reader’s own realization of this. as a psych major, might i add the theory of stereotype threat? [pushes up glasses]
i feel like a lot of people will resonate with the themes and ideas here (i know everyone in the comments so far do) and i’m no different! creativity is so fluid and unforgiving sometimes, and i can’t even count how many times i’ve lost passion for something. but that’s why i love the way aliferous ended because the competition is not what really matters; it’s that they found a way to revive their own interest in the subject. in psychology btw not that it matters but you could say they made art their primary reinforcer instead of their secondary. but it’s nice that at the very end, having made the decision to pursue what they love, juniper sees her own wings. it’s such a hopeful message – what a great game!
OMGGGG TY <3 super happy to hear the variations in narrative are being appreciated hehe i always love choices that carry enough weight behind them so that you feel like you’re playing a visual novel, not a kinetic novel. lemonink completely carried the visuals as i’ve never touched an art app in my life, and i was honestly so stunned she figured out how to animate the sprites and make him talk…witchcraft….
and so glad the theme incorporation came across! the 9 hours late thing scared me so bad i thought we’d totally crash and burn on that front LOL. and the ending sequences were my fav to write – even more happy they came across the way they did!
