Stars In Your Eyes presents a cute story with a pertinent message that gets harmed in the execution.
Being a story focused on two disabled characters, the developer has chosen to add and take away certain features between two POVs. While the idea and the overall audiovisual execution of these aspects own their own, the fact that the POV shifts so often makes for a tiring, jarring experience. At the start, there are substantial developments between these shifts, but as the game progresses, these changes happen very close of each other giving the reader the disorientation of being jerked between two experiences while muddling them. That last point is especially true towards the end when these experiences are more intentionally melded.
Writing also leaves something to be desired. Most statements are composed of too many lines making it a wordy, though not necessarily meandering experience. That applies to dialogue as well, making for a very unnatural mode of speech and truncated flow of conversation. Also, the emotional payoff of a pivotal scene is curbed by how one of the characters cannot stop joking about it and gets no pushback for it.
Still, as aforementioned, the audiovisual depictions of these disabilities were well-thought out and make for an interesting idiosyncrasy on their own. The message too is straightforward and characters are understandable and relatable so it is rarely a dull project.
This project has a good message, but fumbles its delivery just a bit too much. Gets a sure recommendation for its qualities, but not a higher rating for the uneven execution.
I like it! The amount of polish in what is not a short piece is impressive in the context of the game jam, and it's nice to read something where you can just focus on the story instead of mentally nitpicking presentation issues or wonky sentence structure. Every aspect works together, and the writing has a fun welfare state decadence vibe to it.
A lot of the game's appeal is in the fun formal gimmick that is, despite a couple of weaker points I will get to later on, an effective way to use the medium. It does mean that there's a lot of pressure on the assets to work, since the reader is looking at them not as something obligated to be there but as the centerpiece of how the subjectivity of the characters is conveyed, and I'd say Stars In Your Eyes largely pulls it off. The backgrounds are quite moody and the spritework is nice, although the rabbit's ears feel slightly off in a way I can't quite place. There's a lot of attention to detail in the sound design, but it does feel like a lot of the subtler sound effects are mixed pretty low; given the subject matter, I think there would have been a case for emphasizing them a little more. Also, the accessibility features represent a respectable amount of effort put into something often ignored by VNs.
I think my big criticisms boil down to two points. First of all, the tone feels somewhat uneven throughout the game, especially when it comes to dialogue. The character voices are quite stylized – these guys are willing to have some pretty abstract philosophical conversations on the spot – which, while not a bad thing by itself, kind of clashes with some of the rawer parts, especially the caps lock yelling. For that reason, I think some of the most emotionally heightened scenes could afford to be dialed down just a little.
It may also just be that the plot is thick with melodrama in a way that threatens to overshadow the generally enjoyable mellower sections (like, uh, the panettone jokes) and the ending. Some of the things the characters have recently gone through just feel so overwhelming that it's hard to focus on their relationship and what it means for them to have met each other now.
Second, how the POV switches are used feels a little haphazard and disorienting sometimes. There's enough to read that the game could be more deliberate with the device while still having time to showcase both characters, and it doesn't really feel like there's a rhythm to when the perspective changes. Also, this kind of character drama derives a lot of its tension from the friction resulting from both the POV character and the reader not being able to tell what the other person is thinking, and I think some of that is lost due to how generous the VN is with cluing you in on their thoughts. It feels like we're giving up one source of interpersonal conflict and not necessarily replacing it with anything as compelling. All in all, the idea is really good, but the execution comes off as too careless to do it full justice.
I'd still call Stars In Your Eyes a very good time, and in particular likely one of the most polished audiovisual packages in the jam. The reviewer's cameo is not nearly tacky enough, though, as nobody even mentioned How it goes or told the main characters to read New World Symphony...
I must premise this by saying this is very impressive as a jam entry made by a one-person team. The art is plentiful and lovely, the lighting and the use of color used for the backgrounds to highlight the most dramatic moments is especially striking.
Above all, I love the experimentation of having different section focused on visual and auditory experiences. It's a very interesting idea and I like how the story does a lot with that concept in general, of the characters being able to perceive different things. The highlight for me was the scene in the bar, where the inability to see or hear is used a lot to hide some information from one character or the other.
I don't think there's much more than could have been accomplished within the constraints of the game jam, but I would like to see the presentation pushed even further. One thing that I felt that was missing is that the "blind sections" ended up feeling a bit too silent for me, in terms of diegetic sounds. I know it's asking a lot, but having some voice-acting for those sections would really highlight the difference. As it is right now, the dialogue in particular ends up feeling very same-y regardless of whose perspective we are in. (This isn't helped by the magic technology introduced in the story. While I understand the need to have something to facilitate the two characters interacting, I think something a bit more grounded than what essentially amounts to telepathy would have fit the story better.)
The story explores a lot both narratively and with its presentation and was in general a joy to read. I must admit though I had a big issue with the story itself: I found its overreliance on melodrama and tragedy a bit tiring. There is too much going on, which hurts the pacing and doesn't allow us enough time to process each sad backstory element because we got to move on to the next one. The whole story seems to be build so that we can experience a sense of catharsis by the final scene, but that didn't really happen for me. In fact, by the final scene, instead of trying to sublimate what we have accumulated so far (which is a lot) the characters introduce even more sad backstory elements! For a short story such as this, I think we would have needed more streamlining.
One final element that I would have liked to see explored and developed a bit more is what exactly kicked off this relationship in the first place. On one hand, we have the deaf guy stumbling into a complete stranger on his way to his girlfriend's funeral and deciding to invite him to a gay date even though he has zero clue about his sexuality... Which is pretty wild already on its face, but again, funerals are usually held within a few days after someone dies, and the way the protagonist acts doesn't seem like the way someone would act when your significant other's corpse is barely even cold.
On the other hand, the blind guy is stripped of much of his agency in the romance because his personal circumstances (he has no friends, no jobs, no perspectives...), so the answer to why he's attracted to the otter seems to be he's receptive to someone finally paying attention to him. Not a problem per se, but the story seemingly equates this character's personal circumstances with him being blind. As someone who has dated a blind guy, I would have enjoyed the relationship being a bit more driven equally by both characters.
Having said all that, I reiterate this was a very enjoyable and interesting read, and a very impressive entry.
Comments
Stars In Your Eyes presents a cute story with a pertinent message that gets harmed in the execution.
Being a story focused on two disabled characters, the developer has chosen to add and take away certain features between two POVs. While the idea and the overall audiovisual execution of these aspects own their own, the fact that the POV shifts so often makes for a tiring, jarring experience. At the start, there are substantial developments between these shifts, but as the game progresses, these changes happen very close of each other giving the reader the disorientation of being jerked between two experiences while muddling them. That last point is especially true towards the end when these experiences are more intentionally melded.
Writing also leaves something to be desired. Most statements are composed of too many lines making it a wordy, though not necessarily meandering experience. That applies to dialogue as well, making for a very unnatural mode of speech and truncated flow of conversation. Also, the emotional payoff of a pivotal scene is curbed by how one of the characters cannot stop joking about it and gets no pushback for it.
Still, as aforementioned, the audiovisual depictions of these disabilities were well-thought out and make for an interesting idiosyncrasy on their own. The message too is straightforward and characters are understandable and relatable so it is rarely a dull project.
This project has a good message, but fumbles its delivery just a bit too much. Gets a sure recommendation for its qualities, but not a higher rating for the uneven execution.
I like it! The amount of polish in what is not a short piece is impressive in the context of the game jam, and it's nice to read something where you can just focus on the story instead of mentally nitpicking presentation issues or wonky sentence structure. Every aspect works together, and the writing has a fun welfare state decadence vibe to it.
A lot of the game's appeal is in the fun formal gimmick that is, despite a couple of weaker points I will get to later on, an effective way to use the medium. It does mean that there's a lot of pressure on the assets to work, since the reader is looking at them not as something obligated to be there but as the centerpiece of how the subjectivity of the characters is conveyed, and I'd say Stars In Your Eyes largely pulls it off. The backgrounds are quite moody and the spritework is nice, although the rabbit's ears feel slightly off in a way I can't quite place. There's a lot of attention to detail in the sound design, but it does feel like a lot of the subtler sound effects are mixed pretty low; given the subject matter, I think there would have been a case for emphasizing them a little more. Also, the accessibility features represent a respectable amount of effort put into something often ignored by VNs.
I think my big criticisms boil down to two points. First of all, the tone feels somewhat uneven throughout the game, especially when it comes to dialogue. The character voices are quite stylized – these guys are willing to have some pretty abstract philosophical conversations on the spot – which, while not a bad thing by itself, kind of clashes with some of the rawer parts, especially the caps lock yelling. For that reason, I think some of the most emotionally heightened scenes could afford to be dialed down just a little.
It may also just be that the plot is thick with melodrama in a way that threatens to overshadow the generally enjoyable mellower sections (like, uh, the panettone jokes) and the ending. Some of the things the characters have recently gone through just feel so overwhelming that it's hard to focus on their relationship and what it means for them to have met each other now.
Second, how the POV switches are used feels a little haphazard and disorienting sometimes. There's enough to read that the game could be more deliberate with the device while still having time to showcase both characters, and it doesn't really feel like there's a rhythm to when the perspective changes. Also, this kind of character drama derives a lot of its tension from the friction resulting from both the POV character and the reader not being able to tell what the other person is thinking, and I think some of that is lost due to how generous the VN is with cluing you in on their thoughts. It feels like we're giving up one source of interpersonal conflict and not necessarily replacing it with anything as compelling. All in all, the idea is really good, but the execution comes off as too careless to do it full justice.
I'd still call Stars In Your Eyes a very good time, and in particular likely one of the most polished audiovisual packages in the jam. The reviewer's cameo is not nearly tacky enough, though, as nobody even mentioned How it goes or told the main characters to read New World Symphony...
I must premise this by saying this is very impressive as a jam entry made by a one-person team. The art is plentiful and lovely, the lighting and the use of color used for the backgrounds to highlight the most dramatic moments is especially striking.
Above all, I love the experimentation of having different section focused on visual and auditory experiences. It's a very interesting idea and I like how the story does a lot with that concept in general, of the characters being able to perceive different things. The highlight for me was the scene in the bar, where the inability to see or hear is used a lot to hide some information from one character or the other.
I don't think there's much more than could have been accomplished within the constraints of the game jam, but I would like to see the presentation pushed even further. One thing that I felt that was missing is that the "blind sections" ended up feeling a bit too silent for me, in terms of diegetic sounds. I know it's asking a lot, but having some voice-acting for those sections would really highlight the difference. As it is right now, the dialogue in particular ends up feeling very same-y regardless of whose perspective we are in. (This isn't helped by the magic technology introduced in the story. While I understand the need to have something to facilitate the two characters interacting, I think something a bit more grounded than what essentially amounts to telepathy would have fit the story better.)
The story explores a lot both narratively and with its presentation and was in general a joy to read. I must admit though I had a big issue with the story itself: I found its overreliance on melodrama and tragedy a bit tiring. There is too much going on, which hurts the pacing and doesn't allow us enough time to process each sad backstory element because we got to move on to the next one. The whole story seems to be build so that we can experience a sense of catharsis by the final scene, but that didn't really happen for me. In fact, by the final scene, instead of trying to sublimate what we have accumulated so far (which is a lot) the characters introduce even more sad backstory elements! For a short story such as this, I think we would have needed more streamlining.
One final element that I would have liked to see explored and developed a bit more is what exactly kicked off this relationship in the first place. On one hand, we have the deaf guy stumbling into a complete stranger on his way to his girlfriend's funeral and deciding to invite him to a gay date even though he has zero clue about his sexuality... Which is pretty wild already on its face, but again, funerals are usually held within a few days after someone dies, and the way the protagonist acts doesn't seem like the way someone would act when your significant other's corpse is barely even cold.
On the other hand, the blind guy is stripped of much of his agency in the romance because his personal circumstances (he has no friends, no jobs, no perspectives...), so the answer to why he's attracted to the otter seems to be he's receptive to someone finally paying attention to him. Not a problem per se, but the story seemingly equates this character's personal circumstances with him being blind. As someone who has dated a blind guy, I would have enjoyed the relationship being a bit more driven equally by both characters.
Having said all that, I reiterate this was a very enjoyable and interesting read, and a very impressive entry.