itch.io

There are three, all from Google Fonts:

• Arima Madurai
• Modern Antiqua
• Princess Sofia

Having spent some few hours (O_o) on this game I think you should tell even more people :D

OMG the Isopods :D

Thank you! The stacking of the cards/floors was what made the game come together for me. I’d played around with a more 3D block perspective sort of thing, but it was too realistic, too far from the IF part of the game. Making the cards into floors, but still cards, crystallised a lot.

Also made me go back and give significant names to the levels, hence the tarot references.

This is a hard one for me to leave feedback for. I don’t do parser games well at the best of times, so of course a game where the parser is trying to defeat me is even harder, so I can’t tell whether this is a perfect example of a clever parser or more me being dumb :)

Nevertheless, I persevered. The game is so surreal, that it drew me in. However, as a mouse myself, I feel I have to object to the characterisation of mice as cheese-obsessed criminals. It’s totally untrue. There are many criminal schemes that occur to me that aren’t (entirely) cheese-related.

In the end the fortnight was saved, and the train was full of cheese, so it’s not so bad.

This is a hard one for me to leave feedback for. I don’t do parser games well at the best of times, so of course a game where the parser is trying to defeat me is even harder, so I can’t tell whether this is a perfect example of a clever parser or more me being dumb :)

Nevertheless, I persevered. The game is so surreal, that it drew me in. However, as a mouse myself, I feel I have to object to the characterisation of mice as cheese-obsessed criminals. It’s totally untrue. There are many criminal schemes that occur to me that aren’t (entirely) cheese-related.

In the end the fortnight was saved, and the train was full of cheese, so it’s not so bad.

A classic story indeed, though a pretty short one.

Not sure what happened at the end, though.

A classic story indeed, though a pretty short one.

Not sure what happened at the end, though.

Well, I took my shot, and I guess I am stuck with it.

Possibly the only Single Choice jam entry that prevents you from trying another path. I don’t know if I liked it, but I respect it

I’m glad I read @BadParser’s comment first, because I would otherwise have been very confused.

You have made your choice indeed!

I loved the hot dog guy :D

And there I was hoping for a guest appearance from Post Malone to buy my card for 2 million dollars!

I love the amount of work put into this. The card designs look exactly like some of the ones I used to play, and the excitement of opening card packs (and the the disappointment when they didn’t contain what you wanted) never fades.

Small bug. The “Restart Game after finding card” link did nothing.

And there I was hoping for a guest appearance from Post Malone to buy my card for 2 million dollars!

I love the amount of work put into this. The card designs look exactly like some of the ones I used to play, and the excitement of opening card packs (and the the disappointment when they didn’t contain what you wanted) never fades.

Small bug. The “Restart Game after finding card” link did nothing.

Happy to report I died the first time.

I enjoyed exploring the different fates, pretty sure I picked the worst possible one straight away. I also like the bold purple on black colour choice, very Goth Girl (the book series), and the choice of an IM Fell font, I’ve used those too.

Happy to report I died the first time.

I enjoyed exploring the different fates, pretty sure I picked the worst possible one straight away. I also like the bold purple on black colour choice, very Goth Girl (the book series), and the choice of an IM Fell font, I’ve used those too.

I had trouble concentrating on the story from the moment I loaded the game — because Hypercard was the first tool I ever used to program, and this game took me back to those days in all their 1-bit glory.

Thank you for that.

I liked the game too. The feel of the nomadic herders and their society definitely came out strongly, though I didn’t pick up on the twist in the setting till later.

I had trouble concentrating on the story from the moment I loaded the game — because Hypercard was the first tool I ever used to program, and this game took me back to those days in all their 1-bit glory.

Thank you for that.

I liked the game too. The feel of the nomadic herders and their society definitely came out strongly, though I didn’t pick up on the twist in the setting till later.

Doing nothing is still worse … maybe …

I had a couple of technical issues, the most significant of which was that there was no way to restart. Maybe that’s deliberate?

Also some of the screens went by too fast too read.

Doing nothing is still worse … maybe …

I had a couple of technical issues, the most significant of which was that there was no way to restart. Maybe that’s deliberate?

Also some of the screens went by too fast too read.

I was really touched by the choice between gifts. There was no wrong answer, no right answer, in the end it was thinking about the choices that mattered.

I was really touched by the choice between gifts. There was no wrong answer, no right answer, in the end it was thinking about the choices that mattered.

Visceral and emotional, and full of pain. I liked that very much

Like another comment, I had trouble with the shaking text, especially early, when it was the whole screen — I could feel a migraine coming on, but luckily it didn’t last that long, so it’s not a huge issue.

The end left me oddly unfulfilled, but maybe that’s intentional. There wre so many options, bifurcating from the single choice, and yet none of them were any better than the other, just an endless galaxy of bad outcomes.

Visceral and emotional, and full of pain. I liked that very much

Like another comment, I had trouble with the shaking text, especially early, when it was the whole screen — I could feel a migraine coming on, but luckily it didn’t last that long, so it’s not a huge issue.

The end left me oddly unfulfilled, but maybe that’s intentional. There wre so many options, bifurcating from the single choice, and yet none of them were any better than the other, just an endless galaxy of bad outcomes.

Ouch! That second choice! (You know which one I mean, there’s surely one right choice, and one wrong.)

I love the mix of science and emotion, that reflects so clearly the way everyone’s mind was trying to work during the lockdowns — trying to rationalise your way into or out of your desperate emotional needs.

Ouch! That second choice! (You know which one I mean, there’s surely one right choice, and one wrong.)

I love the mix of science and emotion, that reflects so clearly the way everyone’s mind was trying to work during the lockdowns — trying to rationalise your way into or out of your desperate emotional needs.

Continuing a new tradition of different comments here from the game’s page — I am not sure this game technically meets the jam requirements.

Yes, you play through a span of time 4 times, but this is one linear story, and there are choices presented 4 times. Is it the same choice? Can you present the same choice again, only it’s a different version of the choice?

I don’t know.

It doesn’t diminish the game, to be clear, and I’m not sure I haven’t done the same thing in Zenith, effectively, even though the game restarts. But it’s interesting to muse on how to meet the jam’s challenge, especially when that challenge kept mutating as the jam progressed :D

Much time was spent on this, both your writing (I can tell) and on the reading. In fact if I have any criticism, it’s that there are a lot of words here.

That’s not a problem in and of itself, but it did make it hard to tell if anything had changed on Round 2. In fact, I thought at first that I’d just gone back to the start. Yes, the choice of drink changed, but it had been so long since I’d read the first choice that I couldn’t tell that the second was different … hope that makes sense! :)

Anyway, onto the story itself. It’s not my usual sort of thing, and yet I liked it. The switch to the yellow for the memories was a nice touch, and I can see there’s an intention to have those be something you can explore more in a later version of the game. Maddie is a mess and the lack of choice actually expresses that perfectly. You can see the choices she should make, right there, and the game won’t let you make them, because she’s so messed up. It’s an effective tactic.

Small technical note: You can use a [[]] style link inside a <<button>>. e.g.

<<button [[Go somewhere|Round 2.0]]>><</button>>

And also a way of sneaking in references to the Tarot, as another form of a “stack of random cards from which your fortune can be determined” which is why there’s a bunch of Major Arcana as floor names …

The biggest influences were probably Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, and the movie Mirrormask. Neither of them feature a tower, but they are definitely explorations through endless or confusing spaces.

Thank you! You wouldn’t believe how much time I spent on the animation for the inventory — which was 100% unnecessary :) I just had this idea of it spreading out, and was determined to make it happen!

Thank you! The stacked cards was the design element that made the game crystallize in my mind, actually. Did you notice the names for each level that appear when you hover over the cards?

Cool! Look forward to it

I totally get the restrictions. My own game would be much better if I could have re-presented the choice at different points, for example (as others have done, maybe I should have done it that way after all). I did appreciate the “Found You” :D

Ahh!

I thought “typewriter effect” was related to speed of the text appearing character by character, but I see it was to do with the accompanying sound effect. So I actually needed to turn off the effect and put the speed to maximum. Makes sense

I’m so happy the third ending had that hope for a reconciliation of some sort, or at least for an understanding between them, no matter how strained it might be. The second ending was the one that hit me the hardest, not because the narrator was cutting themselves off from the past, but because they were doing the same to their mother.

Also, very well written.

I’m so happy the third ending had that hope for a reconciliation of some sort, or at least for an understanding between them, no matter how strained it might be. The second ending was the one that hit me the hardest, not because the narrator was cutting themselves off from the past, but because they were doing the same to their mother.

Also, very well written.

But how does she know that it would be better the other way? There’s an endless bifurcation of paths, and even with her overview, she hasn’t seen them all. Sure he didn’t live the life he would have done otherwise … and so?

She paints it as selfish to choose her own happiness, but fate drew them together, and she’s both ignoring that it was also his fate, and not asking him what he wants. Is the career she imagines him having without her really better for him than their love?

I like to imagine that the result of “leaving” is to end up back here again, but wiser. (Secret ending notwithstanding)

Up until this point, I have always left the same comment on the game’s submission page (here) and the game itself, but I’m going to break the rule here.

I like the game, as a short emotional piece of VN-work, but as an entry the jam I am less satisfied, because the “one choice” is actually, “play again from the start” or “stop playing” — nothing changes, the choice does not affect the story in any way.

Now, of course, that’s part of the point of the game (There’s a time loop) and the game was also written first for other jams, where the “one choice” aspect wasn’t the focus, but even so, I didn’t feel comfortable not pointing that out.

This is not a criticism of the game itself, to be clear, but just of how it fits in the jam.

I expected the twist … and then there was another twist, well done!

I really liked the use of the text effects, they oozed with emotion, especially the ones on the black screens (though occasionally I accidentally clicked before they had finished, and didn’t actually see what they said).

Only one bug. Turning off the typing animation didn’t stop the typing animation …

I expected the twist … and then there was another twist, well done!

I really liked the use of the text effects, they oozed with emotion, especially the ones on the black screens (though occasionally I accidentally clicked before they had finished, and didn’t actually see what they said).

Only one bug. Turning off the typing animation didn’t stop the typing animation …