A downloadable TUNING OUT.
As far as presentation goes, I liked this one a lot! The sprites are lovely and I do like how they have different poses instead of relying entirely on facial expressions. The music feels like something I've probably heard in other VNs before, but it was used very appropriately (although, considering music plays a small role in the story, I would have liked some diegetic music). I think my only two points of criticism are the complete lack of transitions and the textbox.
The lack of transitions feels purposeful and I'd say it mostly works, being so consistent throughout the game. However, I think scene transitions in particular suffer a bit from it. As for the textbox, while I appreciate the custom design, I didn't like how its color is constantly changing. It was a bit too intrusive, without really helping me to tell who was speaking because I always ended up forgetting who is associated with which color (as an aside, there are a lot of mistakes where the wrong nametag is used, but that's just to be expected considering it's a game jam project).
As far as the story goes, I did like it in concept and I appreciate the ambition, however I must say I came out feeling very differently about the two routes. While on paper Felix was the most classic and least interesting of the two (being pretty much a straightforward romance story "he meets him"), I think the execution was pretty effective.
Roy's route, on the other hand, while on paper it drew me more (yes, delicious drama, gimme), felt a bit rougher to read through. The characters go through such a roller coaster of emotions in such a short amount of time that it left me disoriented. During my playthrough, the protagonist's inner narration was very inconsistent about describing Roy, in a way that did not feel intentional or natural. I am guessing this might be in part due to having the story shaped by the player's choices. And Roy, while not unbelievable as a person on paper, ended up feeling a bit cartoonish in such a fast paced story. Finally, some of the dialogues felt a bit dizzying to follow, with the constant change of topic.
Overall, I liked it, but I kind of wish I could see an implementation that allowed for a bit more breathing room!
NOTE: This review was written for the jam, some of the technical issues mentioned above might have been addressed in the latest version.
