I AM RATING THESE ALL THESE JAM SUBMISSIONS RELATIVE TO ONE ANOTHER. THERE ARE HIGH HIGHS AND LOW LOWS BUT PLEASE DON’T TAKE THIS TOO PERSONALLY, AFTERALL, WE ALL ONLY HAD A MONTH.

Story (3):

I wasn’t expecting to have a story about self-worth with a title and thumbnail like that.

But something something don’t judge a book by its cover something something.

My main gripe is still that the story ends too soon. Like there is a climax but no falling action.

Presentation (3):

You tried your hardest to do a few tricks with Ren’Py and I think it really paid off in the end.

The custom clothes was a nice touch that most people would’ve taken the easy way out and just have them go shirtless. The bulgy was extra wulgy.

Also making your own expressions is something I wish I was brave enough to attempt.

Creativity (2):

Not too much earth-shattering ground made here but that’s not what this jam is all about. It’s a homey with good-feels ending.

I will never forget how this is the first FVN that I played where someone chokes on dick and not in the sexy way.

Total (8):

The fact that you were one of the few new Developers that successfully used Layered/Composite Images is still something you should wear as a badge. There are lot of big-name FVN’s still being talked about that have never crossed that bridge.

I look forward to the CG’s that you said you might commission.

All-in-all, I think this was a great VN to welcome the summer with. (I say this will typing in a freezing basement in Wisconsin.)

Awesome story. Loved the characters

I've got to be honest: when I picked up this entry my expectations were pretty low. At best, I expected a cute/funny story that I wouldn't really be able to connect with all that much. Instead, this turned out to be one of my favorite entries in the whole jam.

I really loved the writing in this one. While there was plenty of silliness and the romantic plot felt a bit contrived, the charming cast of characters, the good pacing, and, most of all, the competent way the writing focused on the MC's inner world was what really sold this experience for me. On a side note, this entry might have the best written sex scene I can remember out of all the FVNs I've read so far.

In terms of presentation, I appreciated the way you added new expressions of your own making to Cody's sprites. They were really expressive and complemented the side characters' lovely quirkiness very well.

While most of the individual pieces of this story are great, I guess the main "flaw" is that this ends up being a "feel-good" Cindarella kind of story, while it could have been much more. The MC barely experiences any journey or growing, because amazing unlikely things just keep falling into his lap without any real agency or effort on his part. This story of self-doubt and inadequacy ends with the MC receiving just external validation.

A cute romp. It doesn't quite tread new ground, but not every story has to. Characters often sounded believable, although we don't have perhaps enough time for our wolf here to avoid walking in the territory of suspicious (as someone aptly said on stream, kind of like 50 Shades). 

It's a matter of time, really. Somewhat of a reflection of the nature of the game jam-- you wrote a scope that required more time than you had (perhaps achievable with a refocusing of your work) but what you had (mostly) contributed to moving the plot forwards. 

Your scenes were purposeful, so there wasn't much fat to trim, but that meant the ending we careened into didn't have enough time, and that the motivations of Derick felt insincere given a little scrutiny. He came off as having ulterior motives in his perfection.

But well done nonetheless! Enjoyable. Well written all around, even if there were moments of language that felt... anachronistic? from a prior era of meme culture? I don't know, but that vibe, I suppose.

this was very cute. nice speedo. my wolf is literally an angel, which is both to the credit of the story and one of its biggest drawbacks.

I'm a sucker for a hot man in a speedo, so I was definitely drawn to this u.u

This is definitely a fantastic first-effort. For a new dev, you definitely picked up RenPy quickly, that's something to be proud of!

The character dialogue felt organic and I really got a sense of the character's personalities through their speech quirks. Great job with that!

The story structure could have used some work (feel free to DM me if you want specific details, I'll be happy to share my thoughts).  I also felt like the story ended a bit abruptly (I wanted to know what happened on the date 😭). That said, it's understandable since the scope of the game jam only gave us a month to make these stories.

All-in-all, I'd love to see what kind of work you put out in the future since I know we'll only see improvement from here :3.

It was inevitable we'd get our beach episode