Replacement for the usual itch comment section
Unfortunately I’m limited by by RPGmaker VX Ace’s export options so a native Linux port is outside my abilities atm. You might be able to find some hacky workarounds to run it though! This person on Reddit was able to run a PC VX Ace game on linux via their Steam library: https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGMaker/comments/s4lhg6/i_found_a_very_easy_way_to_play_rpg_maker_vx_ace/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
Hi dev palmer,
I'm no genius, but I have theories:
Nevertheless cool game!
and also, it's very inspiring to be able to access the assets, especially (to me) the text documents, as those are what i have the most difficulty with when i attempt my own projects!! it's really kind of you to have uploaded the bonus folder and i hope it becomes a more common practice!! idk how to express this but i'm just very thankful to be able to peek inside the assets without any datamining expertise jfdfngjdfng
Nice game! I played it through twice to see the other ending. Only realised I could save my game after I'd already finished it once, but it was just as good the second time around.
Caroline is so funny. I love her happy little poses and her upbeat music and her perpetual smile. And that she keeps using smileys in what is allegedly spoken speech. How could someone as fun-loving as her mean anyone harm?
Thank you so much for the archaeology. I liked seeing all the in-progress bits and pieces, and the parts of the game that I'd missed. Or that weren't there at all? All games should do this, it shows off all the hard work you put into making the game as awesome as it is.
In particular, thanks for the time travel diagrams. I love a good time travel story, but I don't think I would have understood the causality of it all without your notes. Although... doesn't the fact that Linda can die during the chase sequence mean there should be a third ending in there? I suppose that one's not canon.
The gradually spreading corruption was really well done. It must have been a lot of work to make all those slight variations of every object in Linda's lab, but it really came together during the final scene. Gave me the creeps.
And the music was fantastic all the way through!
The tracks I wrote aren’t uploaded to stream anywhere at the moment, but I’ll see what I can do! All the music files are in the “Bonus” folder for you to check out as well.
“Learning New Shapes”, the guest track by Applemaggot, you can listen to and download here: https://applemaggot.bandcamp.com/track/learning-new-shapes
There is nothing to dislike here, the characters, music, art direction and gameplay are on point but I want to bring special attention to the world building, it is very interesting without being too in the face or to dense that it becomes a chore to learn about it, the characters all eel pretty real and natural even in the face of this undefinable horror. And we even get a antagonist that is more than just evil or deranged, this madness indeed has a method, I wonder if it's defined on it's class...
Anyway, amazing job, I hope this game gets the praise it deserves from a lot of people 5/5.
The ending seems to fall really flat? The most dramatic part of the game is probably the line when Caroline says the line about nested boxes, because it feels like she had just been setting the main characters up the whole time (and you seem to understand this, since you quoted it on the itch.io page)
But you don't do anything with it? Nothing happens to Joan? And the bad ending just feels like it's played for comedy, or like, bathos...? It's a huge anticlimax how the MC walks out with a funny looking portrait and Joan just has a single line of dialogue making a telephone call? There's no punch to it. I was expecting a lot more.