this was a super creative and incredibly well written interpretation of the jam theme!! :D

(SPOILERS)

the setup is horrifying; a child stuck in a room and slowly starving because her mother told her not to come out is SUPER scary and feels so hopeless, but when she does come out, the house feels terrifyingly empty, like your mother or whatever else could jump at you at any moment. you almost wish there was something so there could be a stealth section or something like that, so you at least knew what you had to be scared of. but nothing comes, and you just try to be sneaky and brace yourself for a scare that doesn't come. then, a sinister figure appears and you find your mother dead on the floor. then, you look through your somehow-changing house for clues to solve the morbid puzzle in your freezer. then, after you solve it, you find an even more wretched figure that chases you. the way the situation escalates is pitch perfect, making you feel more and more hopeless and confused, until the eventual calm when you find someone who can protect you and (at least somewhat) explain what's going on. it's a really great design for a story like this, and when i wasn't overwhelmed with tension i was really intrigued as to what was going on :>

camellia and hedrik were amazing characters, and their banter was adorable haha. i like how they butt heads and don't always understand each other (especially with hedrik trying to explain, pretty poorly, what is actually happening-). if the writing was more generic they'd act like best buddies immediately, but they feel realistic and i really liked that. hedrik being like a kind-of-fed-up older brother was really funny considering he's supposed to be a professional exorcist lol. i loved a lot of little moments, like him being too nauseous to walk among the rotten apples, or telling camellia to go away so she doesn't see how he burns the bush haha. and camellia was a really well written child character; she felt appropiately scared, confused, but also understanding, in a way that's pretty hard to write. it feels like she doesn't fully understand what's happening, but she can kind of get it, which feels realistic. really loved how her feelings for her mom change, from being heartbroken by her death, to confused by her motives, to angry at her (gotta highlight that moment were she screams at her mom for starving her), to eventually understanding. it was a really well written progression.

the plot was super interesting! learning about these "breaks" and how magic works in this world was really intriguing. the concept of helping these abstract creatures with their petitions was super original and appropiately supernatural; i loved how each one has a different personality and way of speaking, they felt like characters you'd find in omori or undertale. their quests and the puzzles in general were pretty well done, they were pretty fair and the only one i had some trouble with (the code one), i managed to beat it after a few minutes and i felt really clever when doing so haha (speaking of the puzzles, i'm sure there was religious symbolism with the things these peeps ask but i’m too dumb to get it lol). the flashback sequence at the end? absolutely heartbreaking. the mother’s story was incredibly compelling, and a really neat & subtle way to let the player know it's okay if camellia doesn't forgive her. what an effective way to demonize and immediately afterwards humanize a character we've come to assume is pure evil. like chevie i was a liiittle worried the message was “the mother was right”, but i think it was pretty well conveyed that camellia forgave her, while not following in her footsteps. like camellia says, i wished she did what she did because of hate, because it'd be easier. but she did it because of love. i'm amazed at how well this complicated topic was managed, well friggin' done (also, the writing & descriptions are super good!! the narration was so effective that i almost gagged at the part were camellia eats lmao-).

lastly, the art was really great too! the use of color was INCREDIBLE, with the blue hues of the house at the start, the red as you get closer to the break, the warm colors in the flashback sequence... the sprites were really good, i like the contrast between how camellia walks moving her arms around, while hedrik’s sprite barely changes. the face pics are super expressive; love the range both mcs have while never looking too off model. the monster chasing you has a super horrifying design, the mother in the flashback being completely white was a great touch that made her feel more ethereal,  the lamb eye image is disgusting and i love it, the cg in the sunset is absolutely beautiful... i'm just listing stuff at this point, it's hard talking about a game's art without sounding like i'm rambling haha. honestly the only thing that could be different is that i wish there were less default assets, just to make the visuals feel even more unique. but with how big the game already is and how limited the jam time is, i can't really call it much of a flaw haha.

overall, this was an amazing and deeply affecting game. speaking from experience, due to the time constraints it's hard to make a jam game that hooks you in with its story, but this one absolutely did and i really hope you guys keep working on stuff. just fantastic, and its win was super deserved!! :D

This was so cute and so original. The designs of the sprites were so good. I loved her walking cycle. it's a small thing but it just looked so mesmerizingly smooth. Her little expressions were so perfect. I felt immediately hooked and invested in her character. 

*Spoilers* 

The idea of being in her situation is so scary, locked somewhere to find out you're that alone. Like, setting the super natural stuff aside, being a little kid alone in a house where your parent has passed away is SO scary and what a sad, tragic and approachable way to tell this kind of story. To get this kind of sad message across. 

I really loved the metaphors of each of the "breaks" or anomalies lol. It felt like they all had meaning and were tied into the build of the story. The puzzles were well crafted! I liked the numbers one, it was straight forward but still fun to work through. 

I thought the chase sequence in the middle out of everything stuck out as a little more frustrating than fun. Just because I wasn't familiar with the hallways and felt tricked a few times. Admittedly I am TERRIBLE at chase sequences so take my gripes with a grain of salt haha. 

I wish I'd taken notes, there were so many little moments that made me laugh and a few that made me tear up. i thought their banter was really well done and never overstayed its welcome. And the ending was such a punch. I was worried, somehow a little that the message was somehow the mom was right. But I think the end of her choosing to eat "the fruit" which (such a good central metaphor of the story, tying in with the color scheme of her sprite and everything SO cool) really showcased that while she could forgive her mother (that lesson her mother never learned) .... she didn't have to make the same choices as her. Really well done. 

It functioned, I only had a few bugs. Coming back out of the fridge with Henndricks? I'm bad at names. But the room where the little lamb was missing a head (wow what a sentence) and he's telling her about the world, I somehow triggered that conversation multiple times. Not sure what's up with that, but heads up. But other than that, no major bugs or issues. Really great!!! I hope to see you in more jams. I really enjoyed that one.