itch.io

I think the tendril thing must've been a glitch then, because I did use the purple arms/legs. Also had no idea the game would have an ending, that DEFINITELY wasn't what I was expecting. Who's the real monster...

Anyways, don't worry about going "off-brand", creative projects are supposed to be fun, make what you want to make! Especially because changing the style a bit didn't at all knock your writing off its groove. (Still really looking forward to any horror story games you do decide to make, though...)

Really fun concept, with very fun combos. This definitely feels too cute and good-natured to be "horror" in the sense of frightening and upsetting, but I love goofy, cartoony halloween monsters just as much.

There were a few aspects that could use some polish- a monster asked me for tendrils, and I failed their request because apparently, tendrils for legs and tendrils for arms aren't interchangeable here. I also got a request for two legs and a tail, which seems like it isn't an option?

Either way, I'm glad to see you back, and I hope you enjoy making games again. I played all your story games back in the day, and all of them are incredibly creative- Vacant and Upstream are definitely amid my favorite horror stories I've ever seen, and I've seen quite a few.

For a first game, especially one made in just a week, this is rather impressive- although I do admit I might just be too dazzled by the amazing art direction to be a good judge.

The gameplay was simple, but fair and fun, and had plenty of room for expansion if you ever wanted- I kind of expected for there to be some difference in the ending depending on how much stuff you broke/dropped, but it wasn't a bother that there wasn't.

The art was by far the strongest point though. A beautiful color pallete, expressive and fun mix of stylization and detail, cute ghost designs and a distractingly gorgeous human- this guy seems like he should be in a dating sim or something...

I'm curious what's the least amount of destruction it's possible to clear the game with- as far as I can tell, it's impossible to go through without breaking anything...

Overall, a really funny game, the shrug at the end was adorable.

Nice game, the concept was eye-catchingly strange and the gameplay was the perfect mix of simple and complex. I've only got one minor critique:

First, although I get that luck of the draw is part of roguelikes' charm, and that trying too hard to remove frustration can make the game boring, I felt like getting through the first round seemed a bit too random. You could immediately find a powerful item and breeze through, or draw nothing good in the shop and barely get by. Maybe allow the player one free reroll at the start of round one, before they've bought anything?

Either way, looking forward to the full game. Hope there's an ending where you actually escape.

It saddens me to say that I couldn't finish the game. I was having fun, but from the first weird chase sequence onwards the game just gets unpleasant and obnoxious to play:

the part where you have to manually input your movement on the choice menu felt novel when I realized it was what I had to do, but it's exceedingly unforgiving and easy to die in, and every time you do you have to redo the whole chase preciding it, then sit around waiting an increasingly annoying amount of time for the game to even give you the option to do anything...

when I finally got past it, with the monster disappearing and me getting to move normally again, I went through the door at the end of the path... and just got a black screen. No button I pressed did anything. At all. Couldn't even bring up a menu. I waited for like five minutes and nothing happened. I tried holding down up+left+right like the hint all the way back in chapter 1 said, which I kept expecting to come into play but never did. 

Eventually I just gave up, and thought maybe if I closed the game and opened it again something would be different. Nothing was. It just took me back to my last save, before the manual movement input section. I don't have the patience to spend another half hour dragging myself through that just to risk getting stuck on something again.

I feel bad being so negative, because I really liked chapter 1. The "normal game" parts were basic, but also charming and funny, and the devlog seemed pretty earnest and interesting during the debug room- I was interested to see if the plot went into a direction being more of a metaphor for writer's block or life's difficulties or something, instead of just a haunting, but now I just don't get to know.

It felt like I took a whole lot longer than 16:36, but I still had a blast. Starts very simple and ramps up without ever feeling like there was a difficulty spike or lost motivation.

I’d be honored!

Maxed out my loop speed with the "double uncollected coins" skill right before the "collect uncollected coins" skill. Since the coins aren't considered collected until they reach the king's tower, they kept duplicating midair, creating a mass of midair coins that duplicated faster than they were collected, and slowing the game to about one frame every five or ten seconds, said frames being punctuated by the coin collection sound. My laptop started softly whirring. Firefox gave me around twelve notifications to close the tab to improve browser speed. In the time I wrote this review, one in-game second passed.

10/10, couldn't ask for a more fun experience.

Got the "golden"/freedom ending first try just by snarking at him and wound up rather liking him at first from that, but when I checked the bad ends I really underestimated how crappy he was.

I mean, coming up with a ridiculous lie to try to bribe/bluff you into releasing him? Just makes me feel sorry he thinks the lie is necessary.

Robbing you and running away after you release him? Sad, but I get it- he had no money and being completely dependent on a stranger for everything for the entire foreseeable future is rough.

But going out of his way to chain you up while you're unconscious, at literally no benefit to himself*, fully aware you'll likely die a slow, painful death, even though you just saved him from the exact same thing? In every single scenario where you free him besides the "best" possible ending? That seemed too harsh for a character who's meant to be liked.

I'm aware of the word count limits of the jam, but I still think Chance could feel more fleshed out if we got a few more choices/endings with him- like a middle ground ending where he hits the player, and they wake up penniless but unchained, or the player helping him without showing suspicion/asking for a reward, calling him out on his lie and choosing to help him anyways... or even just choosing to ditch him while telling him you saw the rock, on a replay after the chained end. Petty vengeance always feels nice.

*(I do know you could theoretically chase after him for revenge, but like, c'mon dude be competent. How long was the MC out for, without even knowing his name or what direction he would take on the road afterwards.)

does that work in the free version or only deluxe? I tried checking the web version and I'm not sure if I just didn't get the right word or if it's not there. She has specific text for "cup of gender bending" but it doesn't transform her

Hey dev, what's the difference between words that just don't work and words that make the girl yell at you about being a "freaking PSYCHO"?

Because I can understand having that dialogue if someone tries to input a slur or whatever, but like. The girl freaked out at me over inputting "ice cream". "Semen" produces a transformation, but "cum" gets you screamed at. It seems completely random what causes her to start yelling sometimes, and it really gets annoying when you're trying to experiment. Maybe look into that? 

Really loving the game, by the way, props on giving the male character fanservice too.

RA RA RASPUTIN

RUSSIA'S GREATEST LOVE MACHINE

need a cup of gay to get added for real

Honestly the biggest dissonance between the Chronos and Nik personas isn't even friendly civilian vs murderous terrorist, it's how they act towards Oracle, like. What do you MEAN the sadist asshole going 

"oh, you poor little thing... do you think you can get away from me? It's adorable you think you have a choice, don't forget you're mine" 

is the same stuttering blushy dork going 

"You're so out of my league, I was so nervous you wouldn't like me, thank you so much for giving me a chance!!!"

I hope we get more Nik POV narration, because dear lord do I want to understand that dissonance better. If he was faking the sweet caring side I'm gonna cry tbh

Ok but now you have to give River at least a short proper game. Let me give them a virtual smooch, dammit.

Mourning the fact that this was a "short and simple" game, because I wound up really liking the concept and the designs and wanting to see way more of the game- and while I partly mean this in a "I am simping hard for the Wolf and want to see more of him" way, I also just mean it genuinely.

I really thought there would be more to the Ghost and the Grim Reaper (or at least I think that's what his costume was?) if only because I thought there being five residents meant there'd be one ending for each... and even if finding the two endings with the boss made me feel stupid because of that, I really liked the implication that the knife making you want to kill again could be the reason your boss was a killer as well- it paired really well with the Witch and the Wolf's endings, too. (free my man he (probably) didn't mean to do that). I wound up really wanting to see if the reason all the characters kept flipping between such different behaviors so suddenly, even crying and apologizing when they got violent, was some kinda curse.

I'm all for forgiveness, but man, if I were Buddy, Lee would NOT be touching my game again after that ending. We can still be friends, but he's not borrowing anything that breaks.

Bad jokes aside, this was a very cute game! The the friendship theming made the relatively common mechanic of having a platformer where the protagonist can change the level between two distinct "modes" feel fresh and fun again, especially given the adorable art and the dual soundtrack. 

My only complaint is that the bonus level left me a little bothered- the empty coin slot on the map felt like I wasn't finished. I presume that was just due to the way the map was coded, but adding an easily-collectable coin at the start or end of the level would make things feel much more complete.

That monster is wayyyyy too judgy for a guy who literally eats people. Just eat some cow meat, dumbass.

(I'm joking, sorta. It was an interesting plot, but it was hard to take the monster seriously as a "judge" when at the end of the day Bell was making the same choice he did- kill a bunch of people to preserve the life of one, except Bell was doing it for her sister and the monster was doing it for himself. I suppose that adds a bit to the tragedy, but I wanted pretty badly to at least try fighting back against him instead of just surrendering one of the two people.)

Fascinated by the idea of having so little faith in yourself that, in a hookup app, your opening move to get someone to hook up with you is to offer them $60. Like why.

Really creative idea! I'm impressed how much you managed to say about these characters with just button presses and a few lines of Irene's narration. The parts left open ended make me curious to see if you decide to continue this.

It worked today! Thanks for the response, game was very fun. Would hate puppies again.

I'm very, very impressed! Gorgeous graphics that bring you into the game's world and leave you invested, an engaging, sensitive story, challenging and interesting gameplay that immerses the player in the story's themes, with the novelty of freedoms and the new forms, followed by them becoming routine.... and you said this was made in two weeks? Kudos, my man. 

I couldn't help but wish there were more, even though the game didn't feel like it needed any more time to tell its story- I simply liked it enough to not wish for it to end. The irony was not lost on me, given the fact that this is a game about coming to peace with impermanence, humility, and the suffering that comes from greed.

Honestly, it was pretty strange to see the monk stay a young man no matter how long he waited for whole damn trees to grow.... but it was nowhere near as strange as the rest of the concept already was, so it honestly wasn't a problem. Although the waiting was interesting, its smaller role and simple mechanics helped keep the game focused on where it truly shined.

A creative, funny premise with a hilariously over the top execution, adorably sweet interactions between the main characters, a great aesthetic with the text boxes, colors, and art, and a hot boy to stare at to boot. What's not to love?

(Also, I really like how they come to the conclusion transylvanian bf turned into a vampire right after he mentions his lack of a reflection, but when they're thinking of ways to test the hypothesis they think exclusively about things that physically hurt vampires, instead of "let's stand in front of the same mirror" or something. They're like little kids putting their hand on a burning stove to see what happens.)

I made multiple saves in order to try achieving multiple endings, got the reunion ending on my first try, and wound up fully uninterested in getting any of the others besides devotion; Ais is too sweet for me to intentionally antagonize her. 

It's really sad that, after a first visit of you simply existing near her without causing either of you problems, she proceeds to actively make plans for an outing she thinks would be safe and enjoyable for both of you, protect you if you slip up on self-preservation that should be rather basic, give you advice and even speak to you cordially... and yet, she still considers you the one who offered her unprompted kindness.  I also find it really interesting how measuredly she picks her words, and how that translates into discomfort and even fear when caught off-guard; it's criminal how few stories featuring fae delve into the lack of autonomy, privacy, safety and trust that being unable to lie would cause.

The idea for the game seems very fun, but I couldn't actually play it. It just displayed an error message-

"While running game code: File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 275, in script
python:
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 275, in script
python:
File "renpy/common/00start.rpy", line 1621, in <module>
Exception: Could not set video mode.
The game exited unexpectedly.
More information may be available in the browser console or contained in the log."

If it matters, I'm running the game in-browser, on firefox, on windows 10. 

Downloading the renpy log didn't seem to yield any useful information, and although maybe someone who knows how to read code could see something there, I don't want to make this wall of text bigger than it already is.

Also like. Veering into spoiler territory but for some actual plot/character analysis.

I really like that Angelica's being possessed by her own guardian angel. After falling, her angel likely comes specifically after her, because a human without an angelic protector would logically be a far easier target.

And we don't know how much of what Forcas says is lies- or whether he ever lies at all, he's meant to be testing Angelica's blind obedience faith, not lying to her. But he mentions that he was already assigned to a human in the church, and that he'd be reassigned to Angie if she listened to him... what happens to his initial human then? 

Is this, at least in part, why Forcas wasn't supposed to be helping? He's just trading one human for another, picking favorites instead of following his duty and being a steadfast protector. And yet, his "picking favorites" is based on a sense of morality and empathy: he doesn't want to ignore a helpless innocent while protecting one of the fundamentalist cultists who's hurting them.

All in all, I really like how Forcas is constantly compared negatively to the divine, and even takes his name from demonology- and yet, when push comes to shove, he's truly caring and merciful while the heavens are cold and detached, only not rebelling outright because he'd lose his position to help if he did.

Forcas, on his way to try to convince you to trust him while saying "don't start assuming I'm evil just yet", describing himself as a "suspicious angel reeking of old man energy" and occasionally trying to seem menacing in order to scare you into obeying:

Condemning Bok-su's actions not because she shouldn't have ruined Da-jeong's life, or because she shouldn't have been willing to sink to the depths of any crime, risking life in prison or death itself, all in name of a revenge that could never hope to fulfill her-

But because my man Myeong-hoon seemed like a bona fide sweetie pie!!! Go kill someone ELSE Bok-su!!!! You big stupid poopoo head!!!!!

I really like the way you executed the scares. I expected failing situation 1 would have me suddenly jumpscared without warning, but it didn't. Instead you get a text box prompting you to realize what'll happen and not proceeding until you click through- it gave me a chance to ready myself while still being eerie and foreboding.

The twist was also very fun, although I have to say I was also a little disappointed to see the original gameplay loop set in situation 1 change. It was creative and fun, and I would gladly play a puzzle/horror game based on that sort of premise.

I love how saying you have hay fever isn't an option, but eating a rose is. Those things have thorns.... But for a guy this cute, let's be honest, I'd do the same.

I was very positively surprised by how much I loved this game. The baffling premise and lack of initial explaination left me afraid this would only be a loose bag of non-sequiturs, but instead I found a story whose wild premise catches the player's attention to draw them into a world with very human tales, only highlit by the strangeness of the setting and jokes.

The Workie and Stranger draw more obvious and tangible parallels to real life, but the more fantastic and diegetic reasonings of the others are both fun to read and make the world feel more genuine, building nicely into the theme of people from different walks of life meeting by chance. I cracked up at the stranger, at a loss for words, trying to express themself with a meme, only for nobody to know what they were talking about.

It's rare to see a writer so aptly capture such different backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives without flanderizing or demonizing any of them, and even rarer to see it done with a central queer character in a straight crowd. I can't help admitting I'm biased to them, if only because they're who I relate to most.

It feels a bit silly to talk so seriously about the game after that ending, but I loved that part too. It was funny and ironic without being disingenuous about the strange earnestness before, and I found myself laughing at the gambler with a tinge of melancholy for my beloved stranger.

TL;DR- dunno what to say, it's weird and silly and I really liked it.

As someone who doesn't know a single thing about baseball, I now do not want to learn anything unless it's like this for real.

Found myself surprisingly kind of loving this. The premise is refreshing in its refusal to justify being silly and ridiculous, the art is adorable, and the endings are funny. I hope you guys do decide to someday come back to this and add more endings.

Short, but never rushed or poorly fleshed out. Elegant choice mechanics whose juxtaposition creates lifelike nuance; an interesting spin on a common plot, and, lastly, beautiful prose- all resulting in a captivating game.

It's not rare for even monsters and inhuman threats to have some sort of value system and integrity of their own, making them more than a thoughtless obstacle for the protagonist, and I enjoyed the idea of the siren that manipulates and kills, yet only consumes prey that surrenders to her seduction of its own volition, rather than hunting ruthlessly, and is willing to engage in honest discussion and admission of her nature- but my favorite part is probably the love/lust passage upon choosing lust: the genuine smile and freely given parting kiss seem to not make sense unless read as an act of actual goodwill. 

Even with her candidly admitting that parting ways unharmed is the best that can happen, and tangibly witnessing death in the other endings, it can be hard to shake the hope that where mutual goodwill and cordiality can be found, there can be coexistence; having apparent redeeming qualities only makes the monster more dangerously misleading, and it seems ironically rather unintentional by her.

(Of course, it's possible that I'm being a sucker, and she does this on purpose to make victims struggle less and give herself a less frightening reputation- but even then, it's interesting how this is achieved by genuine integrity, especially given that she doesn't seem to at all resent humans or revel in their pain, only feed on them.)