itch.io

Damn, I’m honestly a bit embarrassed by so much praise! And, honestly, having two people say they were reminded of Gundam makes me really happy, because I truly love Gundam! ✮⋆˙ Thank you so much — not just for your words, but for sharing your experience.

I had a lot of fun during this battle, and knowing that others could feel that makes me really happy as an artist, because my goal was truly to deliver a journey. And I believe I succeeded, even with all the density that had to be overcome. 

One of the bugs, for example, is with the achievements display. Due to an export error, when you click on the achievements, the asset is loaded (so the unlocks do happen), but they don’t display correctly on the layer where I placed them. 

I’m deeply thankful that you took the time and shared your thoughts on Obedience! ᯓ★

Hello!  .𖥔 ݁ ˖๋ ࣭ ⭑

I couldn’t fully integrate much of the build in time in the beginning, so the path stretches long before the game actually starts — but I’m betting that anyone drawn to the premise will gladly take that road, just as you did. Just as Habeas Corpus plays with the idea of civilization, here I explore monism as an all-encompassing organic system, personified in Hex Behemoth.

Thank you so much for taking the time to experience OBEDIENCE. I hope that Star Paladin Ruby Rodrigo’s journey against Kan’vera — with all its absurdities — was as fun for you to experience as it was for me to write: the powers, the dynamics of the battle, and the Solar Stallion’s summons to contain the Obliviscor.

P.S. Your mention of Gundam was a delightful and flattering surprise — thank you for the courtesy. I imagine you chose the Machinaut route, where the plant’s growth and Ganymede’s transformation are bio-synthetic. The Saphammer versus Excommunication clash was the most satisfying energy shock I got to compose.

I sincerely hope my comment didn’t come across as discouraging — or as if I were asking for more than what you’d already given — because what you created is, without a doubt, a fully realized cycle.

In my own case, my game had two major crashes that I only managed to fix at the very last minute (which is why I submitted it within the final thirty minutes). On top of that, entire sections were left broken, compromising a huge part of the early game — including the hub where players were supposed to train. And sometimes, there’s just nothing you can do about it. You accept it for what it is: the best you could manage at the time.

One thing I deeply respect about the NDA is its decision to skip ratings, stars, or any of that superficial stuff. Game jams are meant to test us. They’re like practical exams in technical fields. And subjective things — like scores or personal reactions — will never fully reflect the time, energy, and care that go into a project.

Let me say it again: what you made was filled with passion and detail. That’s why I left my comment — not to narrow the scope, but to help expand it.

My mother once told me that you don’t really know a rose by its color, scent, or shape — but by the thorns it grows to protect itself. And because I’ve always had a soft spot for thornless roses, I’ve learned to let time take care of the thorns — let them fall off naturally. That way, the rose can rediscover itself as a flower… and I can rediscover it as a rose.

I say all this — and I want to be absolutely clear — because even if I experienced your game like someone might touch a rose with thorns, I saw beauty and structure in it. And I truly hope no one ever takes that from you.

A Plant Named Patience is your rose with thorns — just like OBEDIENCE is mine.

Carapace has a structure of thought as unassuming as it is peculiar, because through the analogy of roots, it builds an existential allegory about the radical risk of touching what lies outside the norm. In a way, the tree — up to the moment it reaches the surface, both symbolically and as a trauma of confinement, manifested through the sap — is the fossilization of a will that loses itself in its own reason why. The proposed journey is a fracture that stretches across the time it takes to endure the discomfort of wandering without purpose, pre-programmed, as if it were a fate.

The root is not simply a clue or a natural resource: it is an interruption that escapes the mineral logic of the underground — which, by the way, is a beautiful representation of the world as pure function; asymmetrical tunnels and insectoid that work, but do not live, for what they extract. There is a figure of return that constantly balances rupture, that openly carries pain. However, Carapace treats that pain as constitutive — not as a misstep — because it marks the purpose of the subjectivity of the goal that takes shape through the passage toward the surface; a navigation without destination, without a map, built in the unknown, to the extent that the threat comes close enough to become intimate — and in that intimacy, detaches from expectation, because it does not want to teach, nor deny a defined comfort. Instead of guiding, it lets itself be guided by those who do not know where they are going, and in that, creates function for what has no function. After all, before being explicitly useful — are we still human because we are alive in movement, or are we just wandering, looking for answers to questions that were never asked?

A very curious experience. Honestly, I can’t say whether it connects to the Plant Grown theme — at first glance, my impression is that it doesn’t — but I found the experience very fluid, with pleasant reading and a well-crafted atmosphere.

I absolutely loved what was done here, and I can’t even imagine the surreal amount of work it must have taken to make everything function so coherently. I would recommend enabling a click-to-fullscreen option on the web version, because it felt uncomfortable to play in a restricted window — especially for those who either can’t or don’t want to download the game.  ִֶ.☘︎ ݁˖

Our Herman, as strange as he is delightful (at least for me, since I ended up as Detective + Arcane), is alive like the star that shines in his dark, starry eyes. The way you developed the story, introduced concepts (like Awakening, to define the in-lore presence of anthropomorphic beings; Juristocracy, to expand the judiciary until it merges with the legislative; and the Bowl, to portray the dynamics of ethnic groups orbiting the system), the choices, and especially the overall presentation of this universe — honestly, it’s something I wish I had done! Hahaha.

 It was so fun, so vibrant. The background music had me bobbing my head excitedly, and the writing is so flavorful — full of life, full of passion, full of a will to exist, as it introduces everything so organically! As someone who’s worked closely with both national and international legal systems, I have to say the bureaucracy and legal mumbo jumbo are dangerously magnetic hahaha.

Someone once introduced me to a design concept that suggests players should be confronted with a meaningful, impactful choice every roughly 7,000 characters. This allows even an illusion of branching choices to feel cumulatively rewarding, even if the consequences aren't objectively substantial — it’s a matter of conditioning. And to me, you applied this very well here. And if we’re only talking about visual novels, I genuinely believe this game would get far more attention if it were positioned that way. I hope you try submitting it to visual novel-oriented jams in the future, because I do get that there might be a conceptual mismatch here — not unlike what I’ve faced myself, to be honest, it's a bet I made too. The application of plant grown works from a symbolic standpoint (and symbolism demands engagement — which, for an average audience not used to textual production, can feel counterintuitive), but the game tackles this theme repeatedly through metaphor.

The notion of a legal-citizen, within the proposition of germination, presents codified normative rites that ascend into an existence where the pursuit of growth is also the pursuit of justice. So, just as a seed breaks through the earth to embrace the light, the creatures here germinate to assume a dynamic already established in the transition from sentience to consciousness, through the manifestation of rites (here interpreted as magic), where light becomes the consolidation of social relations within a legal perspective.

When Melvin clashes with Trent, it’s above all a natural competition between the doctrine of human indefinite expansion and the cyclical reuse of nature — of natural beings and nutrients within a defined space, which defines them at birth: whether they are plant, stone, frog, fruit, or vegetable... man branches out and thus “germinates” by adapting the law. And that’s how this diversity is renewed, in a bloom that culminates in the partification of what theoretically shouldn’t participate: the collective conquest of the desired space as a collective limiter of innovation.

Nature in Harbeas Cropus is not a thing. It’s the structural manifestation of the paradigm of life. And the loss of senescence leads them to reject decay — not as an involuntary process — of organic matter decomposing to regenerate the soil for new forms of life. This deactivates norms and dissolves cyclical paradigms so that laws can represent the process of rebirth (which, from a civilizational belief, comes through social convention; whereas in nature, it’s dictated by continuous adaptation: birth, growth, death, and renewal). Within a legal system, this is undesirable, because laws pave paths based on promises considered plausible and not subject to contextual reinterpretation.

Personally, I think the debates presented here might fly a bit above the clouds. Because even if the text — with its quizzes and interactive challenges — sparks discussion, the symbolic way this happens, through the application of norms that should translate not only cultural but environmental values and traditions, might seem like too far a stretch, even if the analogies and disruptions are not objectively unreachable.

I really loved the game. Honestly, I wish there were an expansion with more cases, more species, more dilemmas, and more reflections on the duality between permanence and change from Herman’s perspective. And I hope everyone gives themselves the chance to engage with the doctrines explored here, because for me, that’s what creating is: making impossible connections and contextualizing them in possible ways, within human architecture.

Thank you so much for the experience. I’m truly glad I played this game. ✮⋆˙

To me, this is the best game of the Jam under the Plant Growth proposal; it fits the PG theme perfectly, it’s fluid, intuitive in giving the player freedom to interact, and the navigation is incredibly pleasant thanks to those responsive hands (kudos for that!). The objectives are visually clear, and the gameplay is really fun, without tiring the player out with a dull or overly repetitive loop—each day feels distinct and structured (having to tune the radio was a real time warp! Hahaha), offering a wide range of possibilities within a reasonable session length! :D It felt like playing one of those games like Criminal Case, in the way it sparkles, plays with the senses, and tries to give a vibrant feedback loop.

I can see how The Flower Atlas on Day Two might be problematic, though—it breaks the game’s rhythm very abruptly because it dives into technicalities too early. And since I believe that could hurt the game's chances of actually winning the NDA 2025, I’m including a screenshot below with the solution because I genuinely don’t want a softlock to be the reason someone quits. There’s a beautiful message here, and a layered structure to uncover that deserves to be seen. To me, it was the only part that really felt underplanned, mostly because it was too specific for its place in the narrative.

From top left to bottom right, for those who want to jot it down:

• Blue Flag

• Armstrong's Freesia

• Peruvian Lily

• Asparagus Fern

• Butcher's Broom

• Hoary Stock

On the flip side, it offers a kind of contemplative experience around the idea of knowing. By coloring familiar plants (Blue Flag, Armstrong's Freesia, Peruvian Lily, Asparagus Fern, Butcher’s Broom, and Hoary Stock) with their technical names—Iris Versicolor, Freesia Refracta, Alstroemeria Aurea, Plumosa Asparagus, Ruscus Aculeatus, and Matthiola Incana—it becomes a fun little exercise, especially if you happen to know other languages. You pick up small linguistic curiosities, like realizing the Peruvian Lily is the same as what I call Astromélia! :) The illustrations on the cards are gorgeous—they feel like they came straight out of a nature-themed card game, like a botanic Top Trumps.

As for the narrative, it has some really compelling elements. The role of the mother—shown through small but meaningful details like the nail color, the watch, and the decor—gives you a full sense of where she came from and where she’s going. The interactions with Agatha and Daniel not only show what kind of parent she is, but also what kind of children she raised them to be.

The riddle in the Assembly Flowers section is much more straightforward, but just in case someone gets stuck (especially if they didn’t realize you're supposed to place the flower inside the number) and is thinking about quitting because of it, here's the solution:

It was the last one I played from this jam, and honestly, it’s my favorite. I’m rooting for it to win. 

Beautiful work—I’ll be following your artistic journey closely.

Thank you so much for sharing your game.  ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Hellou! .𖥔 ݁ ˖๋ ࣭ ⭑

During my specific gameplay, I had no audio. So I played while listening to Leo Rojas, because of the way the grandmother is such a central part of the presentation. 

The animation is very fluid, the gameplay is engaging, and the activity hub has a very pleasant composition with the rain and clouds (with their adorable little smiles! I like the one with both arms raised like this '- .__. -' — it catches my eye every time! :D) giving a whole illusion of movement that matches the rain and the curtain gently swaying, leaving a strong and beautiful first impression :)

On the second day, being greeted by the cat and the teacup of coffee, along with the contrast of daytime, was also very nice. (+Curiously, when I clicked on the cat — and only on the cat — it played a meow sfx!) The only issue was a dead white pixel (I'll send a screenshot below; I only noticed it on day 9).

I got that particularly sharp message from Rin at the end, because I followed the calendar faithfully.

The visual narrative says a lot about who the protagonist is, how they're doing, and what they're feeling — subjectively enough to be relatable, which I found quite smart. The email partition, the idea of being trapped in the loop of social media with a list of relatable obligations works both as a handy reminder for the player and, in-lore, as a way for the protagonist to stabilize amidst change.

The skip intro option have a layer bug, print bellow.

It took me a while to understand that the proposed gameplay loop is: 1) Check the calendar activities, 2) Cultivation or social media minigame, 3) Next Day. I particularly missed getting more emails to expand the protagonist’s perspective, but I get the idea that they’re in a stable state at key moments.

In the grow plant minigame screen, my biggest gripe was the lack of clear feedback — like an echo, a screen flash, something that would signal the command was properly registered. The fact that you can repeat the same action several times didn’t make it clear if it was just a loop or if the last action was the one that got recorded for the day. It felt like an imprecise response, and having to click on 'next day' to move forward didn’t feel intuitive to me.

I get that the best approach might be to have a global token that processes the days in an independent routine to control the loop transitions — bringing the player back to the starting position after an implicit, linear confirmation of the integrated minigames — to build a more block-based narrative, creating more substance in that moment of opening the present at the beginning.

Even though I understand the narrative impact of choosing one or the other as days go by — since dealing with the calendar is part of the challenge — I didn’t find it fun. The musical minigame takes a lot of time, and the fact that there are no keyboard shortcuts — which I understand was designed for mobile — but for those not on mobile, ideally it should go left to right: a-s-d-spacebar-j-k-l. That way, both sides align on the spacebar and three fingers can respond in sync. If you go with c-d-e-f-g-a-b, there’s no organic way to handle that. 

I get that it’s meant for visual confusion as part of the difficulty, but I didn’t find it efficient. Moving the mouse from left to right quickly highlights the correct key in orange, trivializing comparison and any attempt at scrambling. On average, I was hitting 47/47 like that — screenshot below. 

So, interaction only through mouse is inconvenient, and I think it takes too long. It’d work better as a shorter minigame to be played in small doses or have a defined number of inputs per session, scaling in multiples of 5 per stage, for an organic difficulty progression, using time as a modifier instead of just a session indicator. I understood what was attempted here, but I’m not sure if some small adjustments wouldn’t lead to something less modular but with a more defined linear transition.

Overall, I felt this was a very passionate project with the details, the mechanics and the proposal. 

To be honest, I didn't enjoy it, but your passion for detail was strong enough to respect the experience you proposed from your message; making something live through the seed that an ancestor left in you. Something I found very beautiful and wanted to see how far it would take me.

This is actually the third game I played from this jam, but the first one I’m commenting on because of that. 

I found it very conceptual, and I’ll be keeping a close eye on your progress.  Thank you very much for sharing.

I'm very glad to witness your second game here on the platform! I really enjoyed the experience of Lazarrien, and Lysander (I notice a particular fondness for the letter L) brought another layer to Radiance Inviolate, one for which I congratulate you.

It's a gentle, pleasant story that once again portrays love as the desire to give what you don't have to someone who doesn't understand the value of what you're offering.

Tragically beautiful — a great story. 

Thank you very much for the experience!

P.S; René scenes reminded me of this clip here specifically.

Thank you so much for taking the time to play Forgive—I really hope it was worth it! :) I put a lot of energy into this project, and seeing it recognized means a lot to me.

As for the glossary: it actually already exists. Whenever new key information is added—either as a summary or a conceptual expansion (like Atlasia notification in the example below)—you can find it there.

You can access it by pressing the M key (Menu) or simply clicking the menu button below.

This opens an interface with various types of information. Under the Items category, you’ll find everything related to weapons and intel.

Clicking on an entry shows you an expanded description.

Whenever terms come up—especially those tied to military or civil service jargon—they become part of the game's intertextual framework. The player's intuition plays a big role in how these elements are absorbed and understood, in the absence of references.

I know Menu isn't the most elegant name, but I’m still learning how to handle the more fundamental aspects of the Narrat engine. There's a lot I’m still figuring out, and part of that learning process is releasing games using the engine.

I totally understand the fast reading—Forgive is a slow-burn, hard military sci-fi, which makes it a niche within a niche. But that’s exactly what made it such a fun project: it plays with structures that would be unforgivable in other genres, yet here, they’re essential to the experience.

Thanks again for playing. I really hope you’ll come back and check out the full game once the development cycle is complete. ⋆｡°✩"

Thank you very much for trying Forgive and I hope it was a enjoyable experience. There is a planned development cycle of approximately 8 months at the moment, I hope you give it another try when I have something more complete to show.

About the glitches, very strange. I couldn't really replicate this in any of the tests I did. Skip has some shortcuts like the S button, which may have been activated and remained active after loading. What I think may have happened is that the save_prompt was at the end of the label (where the game has the auto save at the checkpoint) and, when loading, this ended up breaking the variable that controls the language. Just in case, I repositioned them all and added some redundancy so that this doesn't happen again. I hope this is enough.  Thank you very much for the Bug Report! ✩࿐࿔.

Bet I have some recommendations. Gameplay wise Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road is very RPG-Like, you can find a truly and fully experience of World of Darkness in choice-script. Even though it's not very lore-wise, you can have a lot of fun and, in my opinion, that's what has gotten the most out of the tool so far. Breach The Archangel Job have alot of customization  not necessarily impactful, but at the time, it was (and personaly still is for me) very addictive because the reading kidnaps you and takes you very smoothly through the proposal of a D20 system. Life of a Mercenary It has its own mechanics, including territory management, which is very interesting! It has an unlockable system, and a very pleasant post-game. The more you dig into this universe, you'll find things that are more linear and focused on telling a story to really giant things, like this Orc Life Simulator. When I finished reading and thought about the possibilities, I was able to fit exactly in my mind how your game would be in choice script. :)

In response to your P.S:

I usually comment within the jam pages because I rarely have anything to say outside of them, but your premise reminded me of an old (and nowadays a bit outdated, considering how games are made now) title: MetaHuman INC, which plays a lot with the elements you’ve brought up here—though it adds a more superheroic layer.

If you’ll allow me a small suggestion, I’d recommend doing a full 180 and taking a look at the ChoiceScript tool to explore the possibility of crafting a narrative. With just a few tweaks, you could get this game running in a more enclosed setting, because mechanically, I found everything really organic. And starting the player off already at the top gives the game a verticality that, on a tabletop, would require some auxiliary mechanic like a deck or dice—but inside a storytelling engine, you can go much further with what you’ve already built.

Just a suggestion. 

Congrats on the material, and I’ll be following your work.

On the 25th, I played a session with some friends on Firecast, and then played a few things with my goddaughters who came over to my place. I decided to test this system but added some house rules, based on how I understood the system could also work remotely, since they also play via Firecast. 

As I made some relevant modifications, I decided to comment on how the gameplay experience could be expanded—even from a cooperative perspective, beyond solo play without the need for arbitration.

The first change is in the starting resources. In my rules, you begin with the following:

-Joy: 6 points (serves as your reserve of emotional energy, patience, and physical stability). The maximum limit is 12 and it can’t be increased with XP initially.

-Experience (EXP): 10 points, used to develop your initial attributes.

-Tribute: Starts at 0. Earned when you successfully complete a ticket. Represents institutional recognition.

-Responsibility Level (RL): Starts at 0. This is your trust level within the department.

Attributes: All start at 0.

-Magic Aptitude: Technical capacity to deal with arcane failures. Determines the damage you deal.

-Customer Service: Skill to handle interpersonal issues, ambiguity, and bureaucratic obstacles. Reduces the damage you receive.

-Speed: Defines who acts first and determines control over action opportunities.

Attribute Distribution

You distribute your 10 EXP points among the three attributes above (Joy can only be increased with Tribute). Each point invested costs the current value +1. For example:

-Going from 0 to 1 costs 1 EXP

-Going from 1 to 2 costs 2 EXP

-Going from 2 to 3 costs 3 EXP

-Going from 3 to 4 costs 4 EXP

-Going from 5 to 6 costs 5 EXP

And so on. Each attribute has a maximum value of 10. Only Joy can reach 12.

Progression:

Successfully completing tickets allows you to climb ranks within the department and grants you rewards. This happens through the briefing phase after each completed ticket, where you can spend your accumulated tribute on improvements:

3A. Preparation Phase (Spending Tribute)

After each ticket is won, you enter the Preparation Phase and may spend your accumulated Tribute on improvements:

-Hitting Goals (1 Tribute): Converts all accumulated tribute into XP.

-Salary Raise (1 Tribute): Recovers 1D6 Joy points.

-Paid Vacation (2 Tributes): Recovers 1D6+1 Joy and grants +1 bonus Joy on your next briefing (maximum +1, cannot be bought twice in a row).

-Promotion (3 Tributes): Recovers 1D6+3 Joy (maximum of 4 uses per game).

-Specialization (3 Tributes): Add 1D6 XP and +1 to your maximum Joy.

3B. Hierarchical Levels

Each promotion increases your RL (Responsibility Level) and unlocks new abilities and bonuses:

Level 1 – Arcane Intern (RL 0)

– No benefits.

Level 2 – Junior Technician (RL 1)

– Once per ticket, you may recover 1 Joy automatically. If unused, recover 2 Joy at briefing or gain +1 XP.

Level 3 – Mid-Level Technician (RL 2)

– Twice per ticket, you may recover 1 Joy automatically. If unused, recover 3 Joy at briefing or gain +2 XP.

– Once per ticket, you may cancel a ticket's attribute roll, forcing it to re-roll.

– After every successful ticket, you gain +1 additional Tribute.

Level 4 – Senior Technician (RL 3)

– Thrice per ticket, you may recover 1 Joy automatically. If unused, recover 3 Joy at briefing or gain +3 XP.

– Once per ticket, you may cancel a ticket's attribute roll, forcing it to re-roll.

– After every successful ticket, you gain +2 additional Tributes.

Level 5 – Magic Supervisor (RL 4)

– All previous benefits.

– Immune to damage from initiative rolls.

– After every successful ticket, you gain +3 additional Tributes.

4. Combat System

After using the table (rolling 2d6) to define the narrative type of the ticket (e.g., Healing spell turns skin blue, nature spell keeps growing vines, etc.), the issue is resolved in rounds. Each ticket has its own attributes, generated after determining the ticket type using the following method:

-Complexity: 1d6 / Alternatively 2d6 for a fixed difficulty > corresponds to the ticket's Magic Aptitude.

-Bureaucracy: 1d6 / Alternatively 2d6 for a fixed difficulty > corresponds to the ticket's Customer Service.

-Urgency: 1d6 / Alternatively 2d6 for a fixed difficulty > corresponds to the ticket's Speed.

-Problem (HP): 2d6 > represents the intensity of the magical failure.

With attributes set, you roll either 1D6 + Speed - Urgency or 1D6 + Speed vs. 1D6 + Urgency (player’s choice the iniciative). If Speed is higher, the player gets an opportunity attack. If it's equal or lower, the player misses their turn and suffers an opportunity attack.

The effect of the opportunity attack is determined Rolling 1D6 and checking the table below:

-1–2 > The attacker takes 1 damage (Joy).

-3–4 > Both take 2 damage.

-5–6 > The ticket takes damage equal to Magic Aptitude - Bureaucracy (-2), minimum 1 damage to the problem.

Each round, roll 1d6 + Magic Aptitude - Bureaucracy to determine the damage dealt to the Ticket’s Problem. The player takes damage equal to 1D6 + Complexity - Customer Service. Repeat until the ticket's HP drops to zero, solving the problem or the player's Joy hits 0—if so, the player is fired and out of the game.

5. Cooperative Mode: Task Force

Players can form cooperative branches to tackle larger tickets together (up to 4 players), keeping their own attributes and selecting one representative to handle each aspect of the ticket. Between briefings, players may switch who will act on behalf of Magic Aptitude, Customer Service, Speed, and Joy. Only the player chosen to represent Joy takes damage; the others are unaffected, because players act as if they were a single character through the task force in battle. Victory grants the same rewards for each player as solo success.

Whoever has the highest RL is the team leader. If players have equal RL, decisions must be voted and approved by a simple majority (e.g., 3 votes out of 4), or by using RL values to weigh votes, requiring 50% of the combined RL total to approve a change or action.

Thank you very much for sharing your game! :) Our entire game was built around Magic Rednecks Rappers with guns shooting flowers with aphrodiasic gas instead of bullets. Guaranteed a good laugh.

Hey! How are you? Hope you're doing well. 😊

As players progress through the game, their focus on the United States becomes more intuitive. However, the mechanics are highly adaptable. I created my own landmark tables for different countries to enhance immersion, shaping elements like infrastructure, cultural sites, and overall travel difficulty. To structure these tables, I developed a scoring system based on the Human Development Index (HDI), defining three key attributes:

1. Health: Influences challenges related to well-being, such as food, drink, comfort, and interactions with nature.

2. Education: Affects engagement with cultural elements and immersive experiences, such as planetariums, scientific knowledge, and in-game communication.

3. Income: Determines the base price of items, souvenirs, and wildcard cards—which allow towing without penalties or a reroll—as well as the difficulty of traversing each country.

This system shapes what each country offers, the cost of souvenirs, and the complexity of navigation.

Players can choose which aspects they value most when defining victory tokens, linking them to landmarks. They can also decide whether the goal is to surpass a country's HDI (achieving a higher value) or simply match it (reaching an equal or lower value). During testing, I set a global difficulty level to maintain the game’s pacing—one of many adjustments made to ensure smooth gameplay within our group's limitations.

The table was structured according to this HDI logic. In Germany, for instance, beyond the traditional tourist spots—such as the Brandenburg Gate, Neuschwanstein Castle, Cologne Cathedral, the Berlin Wall, and Marienplatz—locations like Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Helmholtz Association, and Frankfurt am Main also grant points. These sites act as avatars for the HDI and serve as mandatory checkpoints. While there is some anachronism—such as Helmholtz Association, which had less influence in the '90s than today—the experience was enriching. After all, the goal wasn’t just to traverse the country but to explore it, researching its characteristics and discussing both its tourist attractions and infrastructure from a civilizational perspective. Our group, which enjoys chatting about anything while eating and watching a series in the background, found this particularly engaging. To keep the pace dynamic, each point of interest was described in up to 215 characters and photos, similar to Top Trumps cards, highlighting the essential elements of the visited locations in Cardmaker,  which is for Yu-Gi-Oh cards but we use it for other things.

As for the Tow mechanic, I could explain it as a hitchhiker system, but the problem is—it’s just not fun in my group. And to me, there’s no point in including something that doesn’t bring enjoyment, even if it adds depth or is objectively a necessary evil to the overall experience. After all, my philosophy when hosting a game is to create an engaging experience tailored to the players’ preferences and tastes.

Again, thank you very much for sharing your game! :D

I absolutely loved what you did here! Not just the humor, but also the aesthetics, the colors, the music, and all the absurdity with pigeons! You're a misunderstood genius of your time. Congratulations, you made my day! This game has become one of my favorites since I joined Itch.io.

I had a lot of fun with this game! :D

However, I made a small adjustment to the landmarks to make them a stronger focus, which, for my three-person group, made the experience more fluid. The idea was to turn the concept into a journey of 90s college students trying to collect souvenirs and take photos on a Eurotrip, driving across five countries. I chose to start in Portugal and then travel through Spain, France, Germany, and finally, Italy.

Each location visited gets a 'Michelin' rating from the players using a D6, and the rounded-down average determines a result based on a compact theme table adapted for each country instead of relying solely on conversation. The character sheet becomes more a memory album.

At the end of the trip, at the airport, the friends gather to compare who had the best experience, considering the following criteria (in order of importance defined by players):

• Infrastructure

• Gastronomy

• Entertainment

• Nightlife

• Environment

I found these five criteria an easy way to structure the game both on paper and digitally without too much hassle. Whoever scores the highest in at least three out of the five categories wins. In case of a tie (as happened in our group's second playthrough, this time in Latin America!), the tiebreaker is a final experience at the airport of the last destination, working as an all-or-nothing moment! :D

The fuel mechanic worked really well, but I added a towing rule using a D6. Sometimes, the game got interesting, and having to push the car felt counterintuitive to the narrative, but simply ignoring the mechanic would break one of the game's core pillars. The tow takes the players to the nearest gas station, but with a penalty applied to the player country's overall score.

I felt this encouraged those who chose to push the car to conserve their action points. Also, I found it better to turn fuel into a fixed attribute and treat it as action points that refresh at gas stations instead of reducing 1 gallon every 20 miles. This change kept the game's pacing more dynamic, especially since my group doesn’t have much time to play.

With three players, this adaptation worked well, but I’m not sure how it would play out in larger groups!  Thank you very much for sharing your game, it was really cool.

I was really impressed by how you managed to capture the entire atmosphere of the early internet, and the idea of pairing the goth with the rainbow girl (a 2000s classic) worked very naturally. Not just because 'Neverm0re' has an enviable fringe to match her melancholic thoughts, but also because Marisol provides another perspective — including on who Alexa is beyond the lens of fascination. A great take, thank you for sharing your game, it was a nice game!

Deadlines are like two dogs barking furiously at a closed gate, only to get confused when it suddenly opens. Interestingly, this route B timing happens to be the exact deadline I have for completing another gamejam, haha.

Just like your father, my exploration has also been guided by authors such as Tom Clancy and Bernard Cornwell. More recently, Conn Iggulden reignited my ever-present interest in Rome, one of my favorite settings! I prefer to learn by example, and these authors broaden the scope enough for me to absorb as much as possible without having to deal with setbacks.

I would absolutely love to have someone to collaborate with! I’m always helping someone out, testing things, and analyzing scripts because I enjoy playing what truly grabs my attention. I’m terrible with social media—I have WhatsApp and Discord, but not much else—but if you send me your Discord name, I’ll ask for help finding you there, and we can talk more about this collaboration, which not only interests me but also seems essential for better time management.

And let me emphasize this: writing is your strong trait, along with mechanics design! :D I think my strong trait is worldbuilding—I have a blast telling stories about places, organizations, myths, and geopolitics in general, setting up pieces on a massive board! Then, I completely fail to manage the colossal scope of what I put on the table. Just to give you an idea, the post-game content of Siege of Amal is three times the size of the actual game because I created so much stuff that I had nowhere to fit it, but I still wanted to make use of it. 🤣I'm gaining more maturity as a creator so I can make more games and less books.

The two upcoming themes I’d love to take part in are:

• RPG Maker Themed Game Jam #9: Farmer's Quest, which starts in 11 days.
• RPG Maker Themed Game Jam #10: Heir to the Throne, happening in 2 months.

If you’re interested in joining either of them, count me in! :)

You're very kind, I’m even a bit embarrassed to be compared to Tom Clancy, who is truly a master. If you look at me with a lot of goodwill, I see myself more as someone curious, haha. Knowing that your father might have liked it brought me genuine joy, thank you so much for that. ✮⋆˙

Just like everyone had issues with scope, I had mine as well. This game has two routes: one that is military and the other that is essentially civil/police. This game covers the entire military route, and the one that is about to release in about two months/one and a half months is more connected to the civil side, with all the mechanics I couldn’t implement here, both due to time and disposition, as well as worldbuilding.

I’m glad that your father, and by extension, you, didn’t join the military in the world we’re living in right now. The military brings many opportunities for integration into a receptive community, valuable lessons in cooperation, and educational and economic benefits, but a truly healthy society has few soldiers, so that everyone can develop a strong moral compass with broad discernment. If your father were in the military, he would surely not want you there, not because they are bad people, but because, as I address in this story, the order through security — whether from the military or the police — is only the end of other things, no matter what that other thing may be.

Usually, when these problems are common, society embraces the forces because they’re solving something within the common sense, an unquestionable evil. When these problems can’t be understood by a common denominator, society doesn’t know what to do with the police or the military because there’s no common sense. Therefore, the evil is questionable, but it will still be treated as unquestionable, regardless of what this other thing reveals as the reason or cause of that evil. That’s why society needs to be quite healthy and educated to keep everything on track, and there should be few soldiers, so that the hierarchy is lighter than social wellbeing. If you remove all the military fluff, Overlords is about a state where there are many soldiers, and the hierarchy is heavier than social wellbeing.

I deeply appreciate you testing a genre you don’t like out of camaraderie for a fellow game jam participant and for sharing your feedback. I wish you a prosperous and very happy weekend! ͙͘͡★

A discovery of the POP system came through repetition: first, I faced the vampire and died to him. Then, I realized that Bread was the game’s "potion," and it replenished the POP. That's when I understood that this was the key inversion. Maybe you could divide it into lethal and non-lethal weapons: the non-lethal would aim at the POP, while the lethal would aim at life. The difference between them would be that the lethal one takes life but doesn’t allow item collection, while the non-lethal, although harder, would let you collect the items. It’s a basic concept, but it would give a lot of verticality to the system.

La Boétie’s book really resonates with these ideas, and I admit that thinking about the relationship between sadism and masochism was a big leap — but your game (and maybe you, as an individual :P) enjoys these leaps. It makes sense when we think that, in the reward mechanism of both, the perception of pain and power acts as a driver for the final satisfaction.

+And I gladly accept your hug! :D So much so that I'm going to show you a classic song about sending someone a big hug.

Maybe, within this theme, it's important to be subtle in this way. I can't speak for others, but in my case, it was pure incompetence on my part not to notice this subtlety, because combat brings this notion of an 'eternal war.'

By the way! Seeing the game as a boss rush rather than an endless game actually improved my perception of it a lot. As I mentioned, once we have the resources, organizing the squad to fight is a lot of fun.  

Thank you so much for taking the time to expand on your work for me!  ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

I’m not sure if you should be so critical, because in terms of gameplay time and composition, I think you were the best. It wasn’t my favorite game (since preference has nothing to do with quality), but yours was one of the two that received five stars in every category. Given the time and limitations, it offers a lot: a rich world, well-built mechanics, engaging characters, and an interesting, varied, and even balanced level design, considering the relationship between Lost Souls and progression. The time I spent grinding was because the game gave me good reasons to do so.

Besides that, I liked Crestfallen so much that I was surprised your game wasn’t named after it. I found it more impactful than Lost Soul in terms of lore. Still, Lost Soul makes sense, as anyone searching for Dark Souls-related content will inevitably use 'Souls' as a tag at some point and end up finding your game.

You have something truly great in your hands. Don’t be too bitter about your creation because of certain limitations—you achieved all of this despite them. Having a game with 2 to 3 hours of meaningful content (my save was 2 hours and 42 minutes) and a dynamic exploration system is a major accomplishment, and I’m sure you know that.

You poured a lot of your soul into this, and your game is satisfying in part because you dedicated yourself to invisible details, like the SP mechanics and asymmetric progression. If you keep hammering away at your own creation too much, you might end up forgetting why you loved it in the first place. Don't let that happen. (+ I just received on my feed that Crimson Ribbon is out for download, nothing to do with my comment, but I'm very excited to see your artistic evolution.)

I'm going to take this opportunity to add my 50 cents as a direct response to this comment; The introduction is quite impactful, and since this was the last game I tested and reviewed in this jam, it was interesting to jump straight into combat against the emperor. After that, the execution scene is... complicated. There are many details that haven’t been polished enough, but the intent behind the message is more than clear. 

I also took a little while to process the combat logic, but once I finally understood it (I suppose POP (?) represents the target’s 'consciousness,' while life is... well, life, physical integrity), everything made more sense. Attacks target POP, which explains why enemies like the spider, when Claus is poisoned, affect his life. This makes it interesting that the MP bar represents absolute life while the HP bar represents relative life. It’s not a bad thing, just... unusual. Apparently there is a bug in equipping weapons, because I couldn't equip any while I put on the rest of the equipment without any problems.

 In any case, I realized that you’ve built something quite different and interesting here. The logic of hunting targets during an attempted revolution against a tyrannical government is extremely relevant in the theme! And when Claus is confronted about being in the same position as his executioner, I don’t know if it was intentional, but you touched on ideas that resonate with Étienne de La Boétie’s The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. In essence, La Boétie argues that tyrants only maintain their power because people consent to their own subjugation, often out of habit or illusion. He suggests that domination is not sustained solely by force, but by a system in which people are conditioned to accept and even embrace their servitude, sometimes in exchange for minor privileges. This dynamic echoes in the game’s themes, particularly in the way power structures and cycles of oppression are questioned. It also contrasts with Hobbes' Leviathan, where the monopoly on violence is seen as a necessary trade-off to prevent chaos, whereas La Boétie suggests that true liberation would come from simply refusing to obey.

I truly hope you expand on this concept from "what should I do?"! And as someone who also struggles to adapt their content into English, I send you warm fraternal hugs and a genuine wish for success in your journey! 

Even though this wasn’t the best game of the jam, it was the one I enjoyed the most. :) 

To me, you are the true 'winner' of this edition!

I enjoyed several aspects of the game: enemies initiating combat on the map with visible models (even though the detection is flawed, requiring the player to stand on specific tiles if they don’t trigger attention through a routine), the farming logic, the battle system where equipment determines mechanics (and handicaps), as well as the idea of the basic attack consuming a minimal amount of SP, which gave the Guard option an excellent function in combat. By the way, it would be important for Guard to activate automatically when auto-battle is enabled, because right now, the player simply waits without SP regeneration.

However, the Lioncrest set—which can be obtained right at the start with the key—completely trivializes the initial section. Neither Wretched Hag nor Forlorn can deal damage; only the Tommyknockers and the Backsville enemies after the first boss manage to inflict 1 damage. I’m not sure this was a wise decision, as it discourages early experimentation with weaker enemies. Interestingly, if the player accepts Gwynfey and equips her fully, she still takes damage, unlike Artor, who remains untouchable until the game truly begins in Crestfallen. That said, the build dynamic in Crestfallen, as you bring more people into the base, is quite interesting. I found it a bit difficult to navigate, but the area’s music is excellent and enhances the visual storytelling.

Halvagrim, at the far north of the Swamp of Treason, was completely static on the map, and I was very surprised to realize he was a boss. Despite being the only enemy in the area, he was 100% passive. This contrasts with Daetrhas and Sandigo, who, since they are positioned in an impassable part of the labyrinth, must be defeated for the player to progress. Interestingly, Auberon is also passive. By the way, for me, the desert is one of the worst areas in the game. The map is way too large, has little visual guidance, and honestly, I couldn't progress past a certain point. My guess is that there's a bug, as there should be an access point at the oasis. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the path to the boss with the Holy Grail fragment.

Aside from the fact that Artor is a silent protagonist, I think the game delivers a very complete experience. You implemented multiple mechanics, distributed collectible items well, and created a solid logic for exploration and secrets—a good example being Levitation, which is essential to reach Caerhaix Tower. The boss progression was also very well thought out. Auberon, with his four phases, is one of my favorites. For me, the hardest was the Maimed King; his damage output is massive, making the fight truly challenging. However, the game crashes during this battle. I managed to get him down to half health once, when he transitions into his second form, but the game froze. I leveled up some more, tried again, and it crashed at the same point. I believe this is the limit of my playthrough.

I always try to finish the games I start, but honestly, I’ve done a lot of grinding and invested a good amount of time. Maybe im doing something wrong, maybe its a wrong path. So, for me, this is where I stop. Still, it was a very fun and enjoyable experience. Thank you for sharing your game! I had a great time, and you managed to capture the essence of Dark Souls within RPG Maker remarkably well.

I found it impressive how MOTHERSHIP is so atmospheric, and I was surprised it was made in RPG Maker. This really shows how far the tool can go in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing. The idea of the map as an infinite spatial continuum mesmerized me, and I found the navigation mechanics very clever. The way special elements stand out on the HUD looks both beautiful and natural, and the transition to the planetary map is satisfying. Although I found the crafting system frustrating—the rewards feel too small and scarce for something endless—the combat is charming and makes every moment of squad preparation and building worth it.

Now, one thing that made me curious was how well the drone logic captured the original concept. The flow of landing, sending out a drone, waiting for the wheel to fill, seeing the little figure appear, and bringing it back to process the collection is efficient, but I didn’t find it fun. Having to pick up drones manually and being stuck within the action triangle felt more like an inconvenience than an engaging mechanic. If the action radius were larger and the collection relied more on strategic commands, it could be more interesting. But in my case, out of the eight available drones, I’d use at most three or four if I was lucky, and I preferred exploring the map to entertain myself while the collection happened because I just didn’t want to stand there waiting. However, I was forced to do so because drones break too quickly, so while crafting weapons to enter the combat module, I spent a lot of time doing nothing—which I can imagine being enough to make someone quit before going further.

I also couldn’t quite grasp how the game connects to the jam's theme. Maybe there’s a deeper reflection on the Machine as a humanitarian element in a hyper-utilitarian setting, but honestly, I didn’t catch that point.

I’d love to see more of this universe! I don’t know if there are plans to expand it, but what’s been done here is incredible and has huge potential. The foundations are solid enough to support truly addictive gameplay loops, no matter which direction it takes.

The first thing that caught my attention was the camera work in the cutscenes—it's very well done, fluid, and natural! On top of that, the two protagonists work really well together, with a very '90s-style humor that reminded me of Magic Knight Rayearth, especially in the way they break the tension.

The camp is interesting and intuitive, with well-defined navigation. Something I really appreciated was the respect for the game's weapon and armor shop—there's none of that classic mechanic where you wander a bit and end up finding a significantly better weapon than what you can buy (though the Mithril Morning Star and Rapier in the cave are a small yet significant detail). The level design is intuitive and enjoyable; I barely needed any time to recognize and orient myself within the base. I think adding signs in key locations could help identify them by their lore-wise names rather than relying solely on mechanical memory. Whispers Hollow, for example, is my "Cave Without a Bridge," while the one to the south is the "One With a Bridge." :P

Moving much further ahead, talking about the game's ending, I really liked the tower, but one zone felt off—the confrontation against Sir James. 

The floating bed with buttons appearing along the way to Leif just didn’t feel as good compared to what came next. The lava tracks, the sky-high paths, and the ghost town with a chest that spawns two monsters were all great moments. But the floating bed… it was odd. It felt like something added later. I understood the concept of creating a space where order is subverted to prepare the player for the portal—and the lack of order there—but I don’t think it was the best way to present it. Maybe ghostly footsteps that teleport the player uncontrollably, following a sequence of invisible walls leading to the buttons before stopping in front of the Save Fairy, would have worked better. But honestly, I’m not sure what I'd do.

The combat is very classic, and I understand that the best approach would be to allow the player to see and engage enemies directly on the map. Random encounters are a relic of the past, and while they’re fun here, a more modern touch would enhance the overall experience. Reducing the cost of the Battle Ward would also be important, as 10,000G is way too high. This ends up unbalancing the game since that amount is frequently found in chests, making the shop logic irrelevant and reducing the penalty for progression. Since this item is a trade-off between comfort and XP (as fighting less also means getting less powerful), its price could be reconsidered.

All the bosses have a good dynamic, but I found the battle against Mathilde (both the first and second encounters) too much of a damage sponge. I get that she’s placed in the latter half of the experience, but she doesn’t use any skills, doesn’t lock any stats… she just attacks normally and deals a lot of damage. The Kobolds/Whisper Weaver on the bridge are more dangerous enemies than Mathilde in the first battle, and Jorge is a much more imposing foe than she is in the second fight. In a way, her pattern feels similar to the Forgotten One in the encounter with Leif—no defined attack pattern, just waiting. In contrast, a good example was the Scarlet Colossus, which, even with my high level (26), alternated well between double attacks and even managed to take Selene down once. Grand Master Jorge, while using skills, is intentionally unbalanced because he's in the final stretch, so Scarlet Colossus felt like a better example of dynamic combat.

Having Emperor Bugle stall and turn the final battle into a magic attack spam got a bit tiresome because he’s such a massive damage sponge with no real variety. I understand that the idea there was to showcase absolute power, reducing opposition to a futile effort, but I’m not sure if the game executes that in the best way to achieve the intended philosophical impact without relying on the player's patience. The wait time until Hell Grasp is long—about eight turns of Grand Cross with Selene and Tornado III with Leif. I think three turns with Bugle dodging and taking 0 damage would be enough to get the point across.

The stat boosts at the end also got me thinking. On one hand, they’re an important buff since HP is low compared to the damage dealt by bosses (like Sir James). On the other, they feel artificially ineffective because Selene starts, continues, and ends as the strongest character. The player has no control over this, which makes sense lore-wise, but it might be worth reflecting on the level of agency you want to provide. After all, Grand Cross already trivializes some parts of the final stretch.

By the way, in the tower and the camp, interactions with locked doors should inform the player whether they will open automatically or remain closed for good. Since everything follows a classic approach, we instinctively expect to find a key. The fact that some doors open on their own can be a double-edged sword: in the camp, for example, south of the path leading to the Mathilde fight, there’s a locked door that never opens. Meanwhile, in the tower, the locked doors need to be opened with enchantments.

Overall, the game is thematically aligned with the jam. I really liked the protagonists, the story has a well-structured logic, it's fun, fast-paced, and the design is solid. There’s a typical grind spike in line with the design philosophy of that era, and I’m not sure how that would be received today. But the humor is light and works well! One of my favorite bits was the sewer paper joke, a fun nod to the Nintendo Power Line.

I’m really excited about what you’ve created here, and I’ll be around when you decide to develop more ideas. Thank you so much for sharing your game! It was a fun, light, and rewarding experience. I wish you luck, happiness, and prosperity! ༺☆༻

Hello, how are you? I hope you're doing well! :D

Thank you very much for your kind comment and time. ✮⋆˙

Some things were left between the lines, I'm very happy if you were able to connect and find it satisfactory. :) 

Right now, I'm working on something derived and that I intend to release in the window of two to a month and a half, containing several mechanics that I wasn't able to implement here. 

Also, the day after tomorrow I'm going to play the games from this jam, Maven Saga is the first, I thought the premise was good.

Thanks a lot for the clarification :)

I know the jam support Renpy and Naninovel, but I want to know if Narrat is also allowed.

Hello, how are you? I hope you're doing well! :D

Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm really happy that you enjoyed the story! ✮⋆˙

I managed to buy RPG Maker MZ on the 12th and spent the five days gathering assets, tweaking plugins and exploring the differences compared to MV, which always felt problematic to me. Honestly, I wasn't even planning on going back to using RPG Maker, but in the end, I only had about a week of actual development time. Initially, I was creating the story and game in Narrat, intending to release it exclusively on the Discord server. However, since MZ turned out to be a great tool (especially for beginners like me), I decided to make use of the text and narrative to officially enter the game jam.

Unfortunately, aside from the pacing challenges, there were also formatting issues that became more apparent toward the end. This happened because, during the last four days of the game jam, I had to be somewhere without internet access and without the ability to work on the project due to family matters. Because of that, I made the decision to turn the game into a kinetic visual novel. As a result, all the time I had invested in the tabletop RPG-inspired mechanic ended up not being used in the final version. If I had structured the project as a kineti visual novel from the start, the result might have been more solid and these problems potentially smoothed out.

However, all those mechanics are still present in the game I'm developing in Narrat, which is expected to launch in approximately 45~60 days. In this version, those rpg features will be included, and the player will experience the "Side A" of the story, with Maximilian as the protagonist, whereas this game represents "Side B." In the Narrat project, before players had to choose one of two routes, and the story branches out based on those choice. This made development much more challenging, especially since English isn't my native language—handling two routes didn't just mean double the work, but four times the effort, as I had to adapt everything into English. Now that I've split the project into two parts, my production cycle in Narrat is much smoother, which has had a positive impact on my workflow.

Trying to fix the removal of mechanics in "Side B," I decided to fill that narrative gap with the emails Maximilian receives between the prison and the start of his mission. This solution helped provide more context and, in the end, wrapped up the story cycle. I know this approach not have worked for you, but knowing that, overall, the experience was enjoyable for you makes me really happy.

I truly appreciate your time and your comment! Wishing you a prosperous and happy week! ᯓ★

Hello, how are you? I hope you are well! :D Thank you very much for taking the time to leave such a kind comment. I tried to do the best I could with what I had at hand, and if you liked it, that makes me happy. Having two languages complicates everything, but when I finished, I was pleased with the final result :)

Absolutely fantastic! You single-handedly encouraged me to work on a remake an old Northern Saga project, which had frustrated me greatly because I couldn't find a good Viking boat tile. Would it be possible to convince you to make two colors variants? More specifically, a green and a blue one?  Thank you very much for sharing this asset, it was very welcome!

Thank you very much for answering! :DI found the interface to be quite modular. If you ever want to explore the idea, I think that making a model of what you did here for incremental IDLE games would be quite innovative. I had the impression the whole time that it was an engine, that's why I asked.Thank you very much for the experience, I'm following along to play the next updates! +I deleted the previous comment because there was a bug and a legion of symbols appeared out of nowhere, sorry!

Since there is already a topic created, I am also passing by to say thanks for the creator. I found it very useful, especially because I have a lot of drafts to manage. 

Absolutely loved the game, very addictive, has that "just one more turn..." element :) In fact, it was so good, I wanted to ask you what engine you used to create this game? I really want to know more about it.

The navigation, character design, map layouts, and storytelling are all very competent! Kori has a very pleasant and cute silhouette, and I found the color palette excellent. The premise is engaging enough to make me curious about the next steps. The inclusion of a glossary in the form of the Notes of Creation is a brilliant addition; being part of a shared universe allows for a deeper exploration of the elements surrounding Kori. Endeavor, in particular, caught my attention, and I played it today—it was quite enjoyable, and the dynamics were very fun!

The issue, specifically with Beacon, is that I don't see how the game fits within the theme of Northern Saga. I think it's the most detailed, robust, and complete game in this jam, which unfortunately had few participants, likely because the theme is difficult to execute.

Beacon lacks the mythological aspect, there's no Viking setting, and there's no epic story (which, by the way, I don't think it needs—Beacon works precisely because it builds from emotional ties to the mundane!). I don’t find any connection to sagas that traditionally require sacrifice, bravery, and honor to be typically Nordic (even when drawing on human conventions, as in Skáldskaparmál and the parts about the war against Eadgils). The music also didn’t feel connected. However, aesthetically, the way you captured the essence of the fjords and worked with the concept of immensity pleased me a lot. Even in the absence of runes, there are very powerful light symbolisms in your delicate art. Yet, the feeling I have is that the goal was to capture the idea of being a frozen point, coincidentally contextualized, precisely because of the lack of Nordic characteristics.

My interpretation is that the affection, and especially the solitude of abandonment, manifests in the contrasts. A perception that was reinforced for me at the end.  However, there is one big issue.  I have a high level of myopia due to age, and it strained my eyes—I had to play your game during the day, where my free time is reserved for rest and meals. At night, which is usually the time I can sit down to play, it was genuinely uncomfortable. I don't know if this is the case for others, but because the tones of white and blue are very close, I sometimes couldn’t tell them apart. However, I think that might just be me. What I did was ajust  the screen brightness  with keyboard shortcuts (in my case F5 and F6), activate the blue light filter, and use my work glasses, which are adaptive but not made for reading, which ended up giving me a headache at end. But with those adjustments, I could play without issues. Since the game is short, it was fine, but it could be problematic in longer sessions.

Thank you so much for sharing your game—it was very enjoyable! :D

There are many classic JRPG elements and the idea of having the battle in a deck was really interesting! :D The game gets straight to the point and the navigation is quite intuitive, I hope you can eventually do the necessary polishing. I particularly thought the music was really good!

I personally think it would be a very addictive and fun mobile game, because it has the "just one more turn" element.

Although this is an old post, I really liked what was done here and I hope things keep moving forward.

I saved your game for the end of the game night for a special reason: there are many elements involved, and it deserves special attention.

I’m not sure about the current voting results, but in my view, this would be the winning game of the jam when considering art, mechanics, story, theme, and music.

I’ll say upfront that, personally, it’s not my favorite game of the jam — which, for me, is Polar Seven — nor the one I found the most fun, which would be Rack and Run. However, when I think about the combination of gameplay, presentation, theme, graphics, music, well-executed interface, polished sprites, and detailed maps, this game stands out as the most complete! Besides yours, only Frozen Forward and A Mimicry of Life gave me the sense of being truly complete. Of course, there’s always room to add something here or there, but the core is solid; the game is ready.

I can’t even imagine the amount of work required to make all this come together. If, for some reason, you don’t win the “best game” award, I hope that has minimal impact and that all use this experience to gain even more momentum for the next project, whether in another jam or on a larger scale. This is a very well-polished game that could easily serve as a prototype for something commercial. The care and dedication to every detail are evident. Every sprite reacts to the player’s actions, everything has weight, and Gerda and Kai were represented with honor.

Congratulations!