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I admittedly haven't gotten to reading the rules for this yet, but these look like a whole host of solid changes. I'll have to read through what's listed here and try and get a group together to try it for myself!

Happy to provide

Oh yeah, this game is partially the result of lots of time developing a number of text based games. I wanted to see how far I could push text based interactivity, albeit without changing the original game too much.

I hadn't even considered this from the perspective of an anthropologist! That's a cool way to think about it! Thank you for the kind words.

It's my opinion that a big part of storytelling is presentation, and you hit that presentation right out of the park. The slow reveal of details that get more disconcerting as you play is paced wonderfully. The grain of the voice effects makes the more harsh sentences cut even deeper. The game's many "crashes" leading to stranger and stranger changes is a clever way to keep things from getting stale. 

Everything about this game and the way it's executed is my jam. 

You've outdone yourself, man. 

I like the little bits of worldbuilding this game has. Stuff like the new cardio plan, the description of the manure routine, and Mark's connection with the buggy help add character that make the game memorable. I like it! It's simple, well written, and even had me just on the edge of my seat toward the end. The things happening at  the end had me wondering about the true nature of what was going on. Solid work overall!

Thank you for the kind words! 

That makes sense! Depressing is something that, like a lot of elements of a work, should be applied responsibly. I do think that keeping some element pertaining to the protag's passing would have made some sense, though; he was watching a tape of his entire life, or at least that's what I thought based on your inspiration. 

From the angle of him finding reason to keep on trucking in form of the bear, I suppose that bear showing up in real life but not the tape is him trying to go against the downer fate set before him and instead make improvements in his life... much like how you decided to make a less downer ending and instead go for something less excessively upsetting. 

I think it was just a thing with my computer and the default zoom level. Seeing that the others got it after only two playthroughs, that was probably just an issue on my side. 

You are welcome! 

It's admittedly partially on me; the depression storyline went completely over my head, as narratives like that sometimes do. Your actual intention for it makes a lot of sense, though. You pull off the symbolism pretty well, especially with how noticeable the bear is without being pushed in your face. It's just that I did a me and made a weird explanation in my head. 

I think you're spot on with the nature of the jam having caused a lot of different interpretations. The vague style of information that resulted from so many creators who use text for narrative so strongly having to rely so much less on it. I don't think there was a single game submitted where there's a true consensus on what's being presented. It is honestly super interesting. 

You are welcome! 

Nifty! I honestly love media where you're not entirely meant to understand what is happening. 

Wah oh! That was me; I said that thing about only telling grim stories. Or at least I was one of the people who did. Apologies if that made you uncomfortable with whatever ending you had in mind before! 

That was an interesting little game. I found the inventory thing kind of clunky at first, but it grew on me pretty quickly. It ends up feeling quite tactile, how you have a little interaction with everything you use, even with almost no feedback to tell you what said things should feel like. The anagnorisis was very simple, but it was effective and  did a good job shifting my perspective on the game as a whole. I also quite like the story at play here; stories about lonely robots are very up my alley. 

I admittedly don't have much to say on this one. Still, it's very well put together, with some engaging puzzles that were mostly pretty clear. That vault one was a tad esoteric, but it made for a dang fine "Ah hah!" moment when I figured it out. Good work!

So, surface level compliments come first for me. The polish on this is wonderful for something made in so little time. Every little room has so much detail packed in and feels like a proper place. The VHS filter does a great job of making everything feel more vague and unsettling. And the animation... *mwah.* Just beautiful. I love how much life is in this guy's walk.
You also did a great job of creating atmosphere. The music choices are good, and some of those journeys of walking right got much more intense than I expected.

As for the storytelling, it does a great job grabbing you and pulling you in. The idea of moving through this guy's life is very clear, as well as that impending sense of doom towards the end becoming more and more menacing as the environment decays more and more. Then you get to the end, and you see... that the end is the end as predicted, but with someone who wasn't quite accounted for! I initially thought the implication was that the guy was dreaming of his own death right before it was about to happen and that teddy bear from the dream was going to be the one to kill him, but reading the others' responses and about your inspiration for this game made me realize that I may be coming up with an... unintended narrative here. Regardless, you evoke the emotions of the narrative really darn well. Good work overall!

[EDIT: Silly me, I almost forgot to acknowledge the fun little cameos of the other participants! I thought I was seeing things at first, but then I realized I wasn't. I'm charmed by the gesture! You did the lil robot man on my Discord pic justice. :> ]

I'm running into difficulties with actually playing your game, unfortunately. When I extract the computer version to play that, I get an error message claiming that there are no files to actually extract. I'd try to play the phone version instead, but my phone is an apple phone that isn't compatible with the file. It's a shame, since I was curious about what this game was about. If you can get this sorted out, I'll happily check back in to provide my thoughts!

I, for one, love it when media does stuff like that. Of course, it would have to be executed at least a little carefully so that it's not too overwhelming.

This one threw me off a bit at first, but after a quick second playthrough where I turned the volume up towards the end, it became much clearer to me. After that, along with reading what others have said, I gotta say, if I have this right, I love the story being told here and how... ironically it's being told. 

The impression I get from this is that Scarlett has issues with hearing... the right things. The end implies that she has trouble hearing, while the dog scene indicates that she does still hear - maybe a bit too much. The fact that this is evoked through scenes where audio is incredibly quiet and where audio is much more noticeable, respectively, is honestly quite interesting.

Seeing that the thing that brings Scarlett back down to Earth is music is a charming little way to cap it off, and a nice, cheeky way to show your appreciation for Rinzai's lovely work on the music. :P 

Maybe I'm just biased since I also have difficulties with my ears deciding to either hear the things I don't actually want to hear in the moment or make it harder to hear & understand the things I'm trying to actually listen to, but I like the story here. It's admittedly not the most efficiently told story out there - I didn't really understand what was happening in that ending on my first run through - but I think this has a fair bit of charm. Neat work, overall!

That was... uh... wow, that... I... um... hold on, I need a moment...

That was an experience and a half. At first I thought this was just a story where a child's dad died and she was too innocent to realize. Then everything after that bit happened, and now I'm... both more knowledgeable on what's going on and more confused. 

I fucking love it. 

The aesthetic of this is maddening. The mix of this 1950's pulpy family time artwork with this strange, surreal... that it's being used to depict is fascinating. The music is bewildering, intoxicating, and even a little unnerving. The reveal around halfway through is a darn informative one that recontextualizes a lot of what's going on... I think. I'm still not sure, honestly. That reveal admittedly felt like it was meant to be a powerful reveal for the player moreso than for the character, since the character is given so little... well, characterization. On one hand, I want to say that such a decision doesn't really count as an anagnorisis from my understanding, but that twist genuinely shocked me and made me rethink what was going on with almost no buildup, so I don't care. 

In the words of someone on Twitter talking about a different developer entirely, "Unlike me, please SquishypuffDave, please miss just fucking once." 
(To clarify on what this someone on Twitter is that I'm referring to so I don't look like a rambling madman: https://twitter.com/Civvie11/status/1444002012459323392 )

Great work, man. You've done it again.

So! I was very confused for my first... uh, maybe five playthroughs, because I had no idea what actual narrative was happening. After zooming my screen out a little, however, I noticed that I was missing a part of the top message for that final bit... and then things made a little more sense. 

There are some pretty interesting ideas in here! I like how so little of the text in the game is explicitly narrative text. There's still text there, but it's not doing as much of the story telling as it would be otherwise since there's so little that it tells you. It feels like a strange twist on the whole "no text/>150 words" restriction, and I dig it. 

As for the plot, though I was super confused at first, it's a really interesting idea. Those ominous headlines having strange and unsettling noise accompany them as the game dev tells you that there's nothing to worry about is a classic case of the 'ol unreliable narrator, and I like me some unreliable narrators. Then it's revealed that said narrator is one of the devs at 1-2-Studio controlling that Roland fellow that those messages were talking about... who may or may not be behind those concerning events alluded to before. Then that teleporting message kicks in at the end and... ooooooooooooohhhhh that's what's going on okay

Yes, I came to understand the story as I wrote this.

I admire how boldly strange and mysterious this game is! Figuring out the story of it is almost like a puzzle, which is super interesting. I dig it.

That reading of the purpose of the amulet is a very clever way to put it. Admittedly, I didn't really do the best job of clarifying what the meaning of that scene was - I actually worry that the anagnorisis was lost in the process - but it's been interesting to see such a varied series of reactions to the narrative at play here. Thank you for the feedback!

That objective correlative comment is super interesting; I hadn't considered the weapon choice acting as determining what kind of character you are... I'm gonna have to experiment with that in a future project, because that is a good idea.

I was strongly considering making the usurper turn yellow in the ending. In the end, I thought the red of the blood coating the ruler and converting him into the usurper would make more sense. That being said, I do like that idea more as I think about it. I'm glad that the ending still landed in the end, though. 
As for that ending, your first thought is right on the money for what I was going for: a self-murdering time loop. The yellow signifying status is also fairly accurate. 

And in regards to the fail state... I briefly considered it, but I was already kind of drained from making all the images and didn't want to put in the work to add a second ending where the anagnorisis didn't happen.

Thank you for the complements on everything! I'm actually quite happy with how the drawings came out, and I'm glad that I'm not the only one who enjoys the bends.

That is actually... very different from the plot I was portraying, and I actually find that super interesting. I hadn't realized that I'd really left much of anything up for interpretation, so this is an odd relief, in a sense! 

I also mentioned this on stream, but thank you for the response! I'm glad to hear that the feedback was received well. I was wondering if the input issues were a GZ-Doom thing. In any case, I'm glad to have been able to drop my input!

...Dropping off my input, I mean. No, as in dropping off my feedback, not as in having my game inputs drop- nevermind. 

Okay, I love this, especially from a conceptual standpoint. The idea of exorcising yokai and malicious monsters from Japanese folklore using a storied style of Japanese wrestling in a Punch-Out-esque setup is a really fun one. I love how much personality all the writing has and all the fun character designs - the BuruBuru and Tengu-Sensei are favorites of mine. 

The playstyle is decently fun overall, with just a few drawbacks. It's cool to be able to push back or be pushed back by the enemy and actually see that progress in the arena itself as well as in the bar on the top. The smaller mechanical intricacies are fun to play around with like attacking right before an enemy's attack comes out to counter it or chaining smacks with special moves to really make some good progress. The sense of impact is great, as well. When you smack a fella, you really feel it. 

However, like I said before, I do have some gripes. For one thing, I find you can get pushed back really far really quickly, which gets discouraging fast. I could bring an opponent close to the edge of the ring with a myriad of perfectly timed dodges and smacks, only to trip up & get hit by a few attacks, and then before I know it, half of the progress I just made is gone. Logically, the health bar feature is meant to mitigate this, but it really just lead to me getting knocked out while still close to the middle of the ring plenty of times. I also felt that the choreographing on some attacks was a little unclear. The Kappa demon's punches and that paper lamp's fucking bullshit fireballs of death are prime examples of this, in my eye. For the former, the actual pose doesn't read super clearly. For the latter, it felt like I had to wait until just a bit after the fireball was out to move out of the way without then moving right back into it; I actually resorted to countering it in order to stop it from happening all-together. Another issue I had - though this may be more on my side - is that controls didn't always feel perfectly responsive. Sometimes I could lay out several slaps in a volley, other times I could barely throw any. This happened a number of times, and while I'm not sure it was an issue that was in your control, it did feel worth mentioning. 

Still, this is a lot of fun, and if you ever get the chance, I'd love to see you further the concept that this is a proof-of-concept for. There's tons of fun potential that has yet to be explored if you decide to pursue the concept further. Even if that isn't the case, I say that the First-Person-Sumo is a successful experiment! :> 

P.S. I know this is like telling a volcano to cool down, but... phrasing, Term. 

Oh, hah, that explains it all! Heh.
Thank you for the elaboration. :>

Regicide is one of those things that doesn't let ya go easy. I mean, I wouldn't know from experience (I think), but I've heard the stories...

I'm glad you enjoyed playing around with the different combos!

I'm glad you liked it! I'd absolutely love to incorporate the system into a larger project for sure. I actually have a myriad of other weapon and armor ideas that I didn't implement because I am only one man with one keyboard who had one week to make one scene. Lots of ones. As for the difficulty, do be wary; not winning is absolutely the intended direction. (Don't tell anyone I told you this, but there actually isn't a win condition..) I'm glad that you felt motivated to try some different builds, as well! 

Thank you for the feedback. 

You fool! In the process of doing that, you'd be overthrowing the hierarchy of the game's code to come out on top, thus putting you in line to be overthrown by... uh... me! Yes! If you overthrow my code, I will come to your house and overthrow you. Whatever that means. 

That's honestly an interesting comparison. I'm not aware of what a Kobyashi Maru is; I'll have to look into this. 

I don't know what on Earth this Cicero guy was saying to turn away those rebels so quickly, but man, he must be persuasive. It seems that he is quite the good, likable leader! An absolutely inspirational figure and definitely a very good role model!
(I don't know enough about Roman History to know for sure if this joke actually works...)

I must say that the visuals at the start did a very good job of making the objective more clear. I must also say that I'm surprised that there's no glossarium this time. I think that would have been a solid inclusion, though I was able to figure out the meanings of some of the words myself, this time! That being said, the actual Latin writing is far less prevalent this time, I feel. The command to "invito" or "repello" just shows up at the bottom and is difficult to read, and there isn't much in the way of dialogue in this one to test my Latin skills. It seems that this comes more into play with the words above the different folks, helping to indicate who's hostile (dictator, cloddium, etc) and who isn't, which is a neat touch! 

I personally think Insularum Raider was the stronger one in terms of actual learning experience, but hey, this is still a solid release! Good work overall. 

Well, uh... that sure was a concerning series of events! 

Man, you're good at writing cosmic horror. This barraged every one of my senses that it could with a deep sense that something - or maybe everything - was very wrong. The weird, freaky audio, the strange visual shifts, the sudden rambling about radio waves flying into the abyss... it all hits very hard. 

Admittedly, the interactive side of things isn't strong; it's just clicking through 'til the end - but the presentation and writing are strong enough that it didn't even really cross my mind until the credits rolled. 

Good work! 

This is an intriguing one! I like how smoothly the tutorial is worked into the conversation, down to the prose being preserved, while still keeping brevity. It really felt like Porker being told to consult his inventory was a genuine part of the conversation while still being a very overt game mechanic reference. Characterization is on point as well. Porker really feels like a pig who's lived a long life, but not a full life, if that makes sense. Hamilton, on the other hand, feels like he's lived a fairly eventful life by comparison. 

Presentation is also great, which is to be expected when you're involved, but it's especially the case here! I love the artwork, the music, and the animation. The environments are all so surreal yet still familiar. 

I quite liked this one. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled on this project as it continues. 

I was a little thrown off by this project being labeled as a book, but my confusion was rectified pretty quickly. 

Now this is interesting! Despite how little is really explained, I love the world building. The setting feels like a familiar one while also feeling like something I haven't really seen before. I also really like all the little implications and textures in the writing. Things like the protagonist having an "adventurous past," thanking his dog for being with him, the letter in the book... it all paints a vague yet vivid picture that really fascinated me. 

And the format... well, I thought the formatting was super interesting. Getting to look at a myriad of things in the room and having them add their own little details to the bigger picture, as well as having them fizzle away as you finish reading the passages, is quite an interesting mechanical crutch. I also love how that whole fizzling thing and some of the details you learn smoothly tie into the lil' twist at the end. 

I like it! Nice work. 

This oddly reminds me of more existential, cosmic horror; as I learned more and more about the situation, I started to dread the end of that countdown more and more. You did a great job making me really want to examine everything in the room and making me pay close attention to details as I started to make connections. The whole narrative largely comes together in one's head, and I think that's really cool. 

The timer is a super cool feature that also pushed this sense of dread and anxiety... but I have to be honest and say that the constant ticking was very distracting. It's good as a reminder that I am on a time limit, though. Of course, the timer is also a really interesting application of the theme! 

Good work. This one's an easy favorite for me. 

Yeah, it can be easy to worry that not everyone will get the core idea you're trying to convey with your project. 

And, of course, I wouldn't call the layout sloppy at all! It was absolutely worthy of submission. 

This is quite good! It gave me enough info to get an idea of what's happening while leaving me with many, many questions. What exactly is this tragedy that's keeping Naomi up? Who was that woman, and what's she talking about? Why is Naomi so gosh darn hungry? 

It's tonally really well constructed. The rain in the background, the little moments of self reflection, some of the vague and ominous later dialogue... it all really comes together. That heart beat sound really sent me for a loop in particular; I didn't even realize that was just a sound in the game at first. The shift in how the optional interactions are written before and after the power goes out is also a nice touch. 

This had my attention grasped very firmly, and for good reason! Nice work. 

The writing in this is on point. Both characters have a well established dynamic and... well, character. The conversation felt organic while also subtly detailing what kind of world this takes place in. It allowed the situation to be very easily understood despite jumping in right in the middle of things. It also gave me a very good sense of what Garth and Sarah's journey has been like and how they get along. 

The mood is also established super well. The ambient music and dark environments really establish a sense of palpable atmosphere. Add on some very solid descriptions of the environment, and you have a very well presented scene! 

My one gripe is how the dialogue choices are handled. Each choice doesn't really lead to much in the way of different dialogue, and it sometimes feels like the conversation is written largely around one of the options. For instance, take the moment where Garth reveals that he's out of tablets. When Sarah asks why he didn't mention it earlier, the "I didn't know either" option fits into the conversation really organically. She responds that she thinks/knows that response is BS and accuses Garth of not trusting her. If you select "I didn't want you to worry," however, we get that exact same exchange, and it just doesn't feel right. 
Another example is the speculation on the hatch marks. Whichever response you go with, be it dead kids or how many people were left, you get the response of "Well, that's morbid" and go on. The first option just has an extra line from Sarah. I feel that these different dialogue options could have led to more interesting individual exchanges with their own pieces of information that could add texture to the world, the characters' relationship, their attitudes, or anything else. It feels like a missed opportunity to me, even if some of the options are quite similar in message. 

Still, this is very good for what it is, and a solid example of what a game that's a scene long can look like! 

I love a good story told with little or no words, and this is a very nice example. I felt like I really went on a whole journey playing through this, from a sense of curiosity to a sense of shock and, surprisingly, dread. 

The actual plot almost feels like it's about the player experience. Either you don't let the sun rise so it doesn't take your loved one away - the lil black blob - or you do let the sun rise so everyone else can live on and life can continue... even if the blob won't be there to see it. Honestly, it's rather sad but super striking. 

And goodness gracious, I forgot to acknowledge the presentation when I initially wrote this! Silly me! The presentation is on-point. The vector artwork is quite well done - the blob in particular is adorable and I want to protect 'em with my life. The music choices are also lovely; they really tie the vibe of the whole thing together. The important visual information is also conveyed super well. There was never a moment where I was unsure of what was happening; it's all made quite clear. 

Good work! 

The feedback is appreciated! 

To be fair, a video game with no video is nothing new. Text adventures are actually honestly one of the oldest forms of video game out there. In addition, the imagination can be a wonderful video player! 

Admittedly, I was planning on implementing visuals in this at first, but time got the better of me and I had to decide not to devote the time to creating the images that I'd need. I may add them in the future. 

In the end, I can understand why you're not fully sold. It's a far more experimental game, and I anticipated it would land as well as my previous projects have. In any case, I am glad to have the input!

Not planning on it! I'd be happy to take a few swings at refining what's here. 

That all is perfectly fair. It can be easy to be attracted by the concept of overthrowing  The Man, only to realize that you become The Man in the process and then become the target of overthrowing. Mutiny is a lot less appealing when you're the target. And, like you mentioned, the real nature of that kind of narrative can vary quite a bit depending on context. T'is why dictators are such popular villains: everyone knows that dictators are most definitely bad people who need to be stopped! As for what we do in their place... we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. 
(It's interesting that you brought up that reading Shakespeare partially alienated you to these sorts of stories; as I mentioned in the description, Macbeth was actually an inspiration for this project, hence the more Shakespearean vernacular at the start.)

As for the exposition angle, I admittedly wanted to keep things vague here. I wasn't certain if I wanted this to be a scene of a corrupt ruler being overthrown by a plucky heroic rebel, or a perfectly adequate ruler being overthrown by a power hungry second in command, or something else entirely. I debated between making it vague or leaning to one or the other, and eventually just went with what sounded best in the moment for the tone. 

And the (lack of) visuals & making the violence less cathartic... I actually initially wanted to incorporate visuals into this, but I just didn't find the time to make the images and incorporate them. Making one for every possible exchange got daunting... quickly. That being said, making the combat less appetizing was partially the goal, so maybe that was for the best. 

In any case, I appreciate the comprehensive feedback! 

P.S. In the case of any possible updates, I'll definitely keep the comment about the Axe in mind.