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Wonderful and fabulous job!

I really liked this game!!

This game has a very high replay value from utilizing the features in Arcweave to keep players engaged and wanting to see different outcomes. The dialogue is extremely funny and the topics are even more extremely relatable. As someone who is job searching, a lot of these questions and answers (even the sarcastic ones) touched my soul and sometimes I wanna say these exact things to recruiters. Cuz like... why else am I applying to your damn company?

BUT I DIGRESS!

This is a fantastic little game. I really want to see more options in the dialogue and more funny banter at the interview. I know we had little time to work on the game, so I'm really REALLY hoping you expand on it with a lot more choices in the mix. It's got a SUPER SOLID setup. On top of that, the theme of resilience pops up a LOT without it being super obvious or blatantly stated. Very nice job with the theme here!! :)

This had a very good story buildup. The language is beautifully written with only a few minor grammatical errors here and there. I liked the varying choices between the siblings, which could risk wasting time and causing the rot to spread even further. The characters were all beautifully described, and I think the themes of what each character represented fits exceptionally well with the theme of the game jam.

I also appreciate your little message at the end of the game. I could really see this as some sort of small animation of sorts or even a book series. And, if given more time for art and sound effects, the game could have an even bigger impact from the visuals. But I understand that the primary focus of this jam was the writing part lol. And I think you succeeded with that very well.

My only suggestion is putting parts of your story, especially the introduction, into smaller, more digestible pieces for the player to read. Sometimes, if there's too much text, a player could be disinterested and try to skim a bit to try and get to the game portion of your story. Which I think would suck because your story writing is really neat and very original. The song fit as well and it didn't feel overwhelming or unwelcoming at all. Very VERY nice job on this one!

I really like this! <3

This game is a pretty powerful start to something long-term and extremely fun!

First thing I gotta say are I really really love the visuals. 10/10. Idk what kinda world this is, but it doesn't matter. I liked the buildup you had with both the setting and the fantasy characters in a normal-slash-not-so-normal world. And each characters' designs were super unique and very well detailed, especially given such a short turnaround for the game jam!

The second thing I like a lot are the music and voice acting. 20/10! It always adds new life to a game's story when we can actually HEAR what the characters sound like. Their worries, their frustrations, etc. Bena Benefica's my favorite from this game!

With these strong points in the game, I'd also like to take the time to offer some feedback to help fine tune this game, especially if you aim to continue it in the future, which I honestly think you should!

For one thing, I noticed very early that there's a bit of an audio balancing issue with the music and voice acting. Sometimes, the volume for the music overpowers the lovely voice actors you have in this game and it can be just a tad hard to focus. I'd strongly recommend lowering it and play testing it a bit more to find that sweet spot and you'll be good to go!

Second, the text is a bit too dense on each element! You have a VERY interesting story and a VERY unique premise, but sometimes, that story can get a bit overwhelming in some places simply because there's too much text to digest. I think a way to best help readers and gamers alike is to break it up into smaller chunks. 
For example, when the last caller goes on and on about this coworker he likes, there was a section where Bena interrupts to add her two cents in (not talking about the branching choices). I think it would be more impactful if he had that whole element to himself and THEN we carry on to a new element where Benefica responds and such. 

I'd also recommend shorter sentences in certain dialogue pieces overall. There is a LOT that these characters have to say, and not all of these pieces are voice acted, which can be slightly off-putting when reading (cuz I was expecting the dialogue to continue in certain places or their lines were said AFTER Bena said something). With shorter sentences, we can still tell a lively story and add a bit more personality to the characters as well, depending on their speech patterns :)

This was a really fun visual novel-esque experience. I'd love to see you expand upon this in the future once the jam is up! Nice job!

This game was so fun to play! I love the puzzle games where you have to explore your surroundings to figure out the story. And it pushed Arcweave's uses to its limits and used a gameplay style that I honestly did not expect to be possible via a narrative game software! I've been a huge fan of the Rise of the Golden Idol for a while, so when I saw this game's presence for the first time, I IMMEDIATELY locked tf in! Nice use of an original animation video in the beginning as well!

My one criticism is perhaps more lore of the pigs is needed (SPOILER ALERT). For one of the puzzles that said the medic was threatened by the Sarge with the pig, it wasn't TOO clear to me as I had assumed it was the knife. I'm sure it was supposed to be a red herring and I'm big dumb when it comes to figuring out puzzles, but it might have been a bit too confusing to figure out due to the lack of information related to pigs outside of them eating the bodies outside.

Anyways, fantastic job with this game! Would love to see another puzzle game made by you in this format UwU

Adorable little shrimp game

THANKS SO MUCH! I'm really happy that you find it adorable. The dog is insanely cute. TheLightsmen did a fantastic job with the art for our little hero Valor! ^_^

TYSM for saying that. It was super fun to develop and implement narrative design for the first time, so I'm super excited to hear that it succeeded in being fun to play! <3

Thank you so much! I was inspired a little bit by the old point-and-click adventure games where you explore around and interact with things until something works for you LOL. Maybe in the future, I could make something like that.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm super happy to hear that you had enjoyed it!

Regarding the bad endings, I absolutely wanted to have visuals for it but we ran out of time. We most likely will add something like that after the jam finishes. But I think it is a nice "mechanic," so to speak, that the visuals turn off once you reach one of the bad endings. 

Thanks again! :3

I REALLY, really liked this little DND narrative adventure! I also liked the trial-and-error approach with funny outcomes . It was a nice use of Arcweave to implement a "Game Over. Try again?" mechanic.

And as a dungeon master myself, I can appreciate the varying outcomes for spells and attacks used in battle. It was tricky, but I managed to make it to the end. It'd be cool if you made a second one with Arcweave where it's all about outsmarting the elf guy! Could be a fun sequel lol

I know for a fact I'll be the perfect evil wizard there ever was heheheh

Yours was one of the first I played while the jam was still going on. It had a really cute ending for me, and I'm glad I was able to have your protagonist be RESILIENT enough to persevere through things they were uncomfortable with. It felt like a very personal story about stepping out of one's shell. And I think that's something we can all relate to when we're in environments that aren't so comfortable. Very nice job!

I liked this story! Looking at my reflection provided a great feeling of unease as more idols were visited. And I also liked how there were negative emotions that you had to power through with your OWN positive memories to deal with the overgrown roots problem at these stations. Nice job!

This was a very sweet and heartfelt game. The cryptic rhymes for each ingredient were fun to look over and ponder before making a decision. I think I aced the first one but the second and third gave me a bit of trouble haha! Wasn't able to fix Hylas' fertility issue but at least he won't be green anymore >:D

I also really liked your message at the end, letting the player know that whatever the choice is that we make, we have to own it and be confident in said choice. It speaks to me personally as well in my choice to want to navigate game writing instead of technical writing. Nicely done! :)

I had a great time playing this one. It's very cute! Maybe next time, I'll save the Earth from being destroyed!

HOW DID YOU DO THIS?! TEACH ME O GREAT ONE!

Nice job!

Pretty great for the minijam! Nice job!