A really thoughtful and interesting concept - I love how the tree marks the passage of time, and the ending is poignant and manages to say a lot without words. I saw some comments about not being able to talk to the characters in the end, but the final scene works really well for me the way it is now, not diluted by extra dialogue. I have to admit I wasn't that invested in the gameplay aspects of it (probably because I don't normally play farming sims :)), but the format definitely has a lot of potential in terms of pressuring the player into difficult ethical choices. Great experience overall!

Love the framing device for the story, really nicely done!

What a bittersweet story ;-;

I wish we were able to talk to everyone at the end. See the follow up to their stories after the final act began. The gameplay was pretty repetitive but honestly the repetitiveness of it all kind of added to the ideas of "hope, loss, and resilience."

While the game mechanics are simple, the story is anything but.  What started out as a peaceful farming sim turned into a visual novel that kept me on edge about what was going to happen next.  Having a father who fought in a war (Desert Storm or Shield) and had never written to us, it was an odd feeling to read the letters from the character's dad.

I would love to see the game expanded on: different reactions from the villagers depending on what you bartered with, alternate endings, maybe even some extra scenes from the other villagers' perspective.  All in all a nice, light game with a heavy subject that I can easily see doing well on Steam in the future for a nominal fee.

Beautiful music, great visuals and gameplay! The game is definitely worth playing.  

Very nice art and relaxing music, I like it.

Really nice - a touching theme for a well-designed game where the background story is (sad and) solid and the mechanics you chose for the game are a good match. I liked the character graphics (and the cut scenes)

Absolutely amazing game! I will say it was a bit hard to select the farm tile you wanted, besides that and the bugs at the bottom of this comment, I don't have any complaints or anything I would improve. The game works wonderfully. Nice story, characters, and setting!

here is a bug I saw (It happened again with Indah at the start of act 3): *Picture wasn't allowed :(*

I don't have a picture, but act 4 let me open the shop on day 1 at least and I don't think I was supposed to since it was kinda buggy. I also at the end glitched into the water tree screen, I could go back and still end the game though.

This was a very good looking game, the sounds were spot on and the story was interesting! Great job!

Apart from the repetitive chores I liked this one a lot. It's a theme that will stay relevant. You did well to show the hardships as well as short but important highlights in tough times. The character art was cute. A great entry.

PS: I guess I could have slacked off my farming at the end, but the Min-Maxing instinct took its toll :D.

Well done. I like the way you told the story and I like the daily routine of tasks, really nice art and the music fitted the gameplay well.

Very interesting world and story, very touching. Neat graphics, I felt at some point that I was in a Harvest Moon game, but with a serious story. Planting and growing trees is so important, particulary to get fruit and eat, and to save life on the planet and fight global warming. I plant seeds and trees every Autumn in my garden and I find it great to talk about it to as many people as possible through a video game. And the whole context/story of Arbor is clear about the challenges of being resilient/self-sufficient, in addition in a context of war and bombings.... Overall this is very emotional and you narrated it in a great way. Thanks for making this game! I wish there could be more like that.

Wow. Just wow. This is, truly, a beautiful game. The mechanic of planting and tending to a farm just meshes so appropriately with the narrative presented. The music was a strong hook, and caught my attention from the very beginning. The characters were developed with care and grace, given the heavy subject matter on which the plot was centered.

Also an example of why representation is so important. I'm not Indonesian myself, but as a Filipino, it felt like so many of the themes presented were so relevant to the Southeast Asian experience. A history of war and conflict, yes, but also resilience, generosity, making sure those around you are fed, longing... two threads in particular resonated with me: (1) the frustration of being away from family (as someone living abroad), and (2) Mawar's whole deal (as someone with the intense capability for love that only Asian dramas can foster). 

P.S. The choice to introduce a bartering mechanic, given the particular story--amazing.

The game feels so polished and premium. It's incredible how you managed to do so much work in a limited time. Great arts, sounds, story and mechanics. This game deserve a lot of credit. Great job!

Wonderful game with lots of heart.  The music fit the story well, and the use of the bird messenger added to the atmosphere of the game.

What a beautiful and emotional game. It is impresive all the work it has in the narrative, all the dialogs and cards, really impresive. Planting and harvesting was not to clear for me, but I guess I did it well because I made it to the end of the game. The changes in the town and its inhabitants helped a lot on setting the atmosphere of each act. It was sad to see what happened to the tree... and the uncertainty left by the bird returning again and again without a letter. Liked the music and how it changes for each act.

This was incredibly successful on an emotional and narrative level. Its clear just how much care was put into the crafting of this story and its characters. Plus, each story beat was hit with the right gravity to really drive home the theme and point of the game. Really great stuff. 

There were a few interactions that seemed slightly buggy to me, but nothing out of the norm for a jam project and nothing game breaking as far as I could tell. My one point of critique for this project on a gameplay level is that I wish all the interactions would either be key presses or mouse clicks. 

I find that when key presses and mouse clicks are mixed for the same action (i.e. mouse click to water the tree, E press for watering everything else) it can get clunky. It was hard to aim precisely when watering crops as well, which may have been solved by utilizing more of a point-and-click format. 

Those are just minor notes though for what was a really lovely, memorable, and engaging jam entry. Great work and big congrats to this team!

Nice pixel art.

The game's art is very good.

A sweet and sensitive experience with surprising depth to the characters and their relationships, conveyed through the fascinating medium of a trade window. Using the different items and barter options to affect the characters' stories is a cool and intriguing choice, and during Act 2, I found myself wanting to decline to trade solely so I could give the characters items from my abundance, but being able to give their items back later was worth it. I never did encounter a trade that seemed better to decline than to accept, but perhaps I simply chose incorrectly!

I really appreciated how the characters and environment changed over time, and how even Satya was a reasonable figure trying to do his best for the people around him, as Agung was. The music was similarly interesting and attention-grabbing.

The game controlled fine and the various little animations for watering plants and their different growth sprites were pleasing, but selecting a plot on the ground frequently caused me to accidentally plant the wrong seeds, with no way to correct my mistake. I similarly wasn't always sure what I was planting, or what was already planted, so that I could plan my next day's sowing. Luckily, neither of these issues prevented me from making any deals I wanted to make.

Unfortunately, the ending seemed to glitch out. The first day, I watered the main tree and then glitched out collision by checking the empty shop. After going to bed, I couldn't talk to anyone on the final screen, and was delivered to the credits after finishing watering. That said, I noticed one extra character, which told me something important about how one storyline ended, so I think I can imagine the intent and what they might have said.

Some of the items didn't seem to have a purpose (like the medkit), but it's possible my choices (or the ending glitch) simply prevented me from using them. If not, I would have liked to see them appear elsewhere, such as a screen from inside the house where items like the rug and blankets would appear, or a shelf for the ring and bracelet, that sort of thing.

Overall, the ups and downs of the story, including even the bird's little arc, were well-written, if sparse, and surprisingly affective. Thank you for this.

Nice graphics, sounds and overall atmosphere. Personally I felt there was too much reading and busy work early on before I was really invested enough to want to push through that. But I do tend to have a short attention span for games and need something early on to hook me in and keep me playing