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Blue Moon Lament's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Candy!! | #36 | 3.653 | 3.875 |
Monsterous! | #56 | 3.889 | 4.125 |
Fun | #70 | 4.007 | 4.250 |
Scariness... | #77 | 3.300 | 3.500 |
Overall | #78 | 3.606 | 3.825 |
Halloweeny? | #116 | 3.182 | 3.375 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Log Line
A magical boy in denial of reality is forced to confront the harsh truth when his best friend disappears just like the rest.
Content Warnings
Body Horror, Psychological horror, visual (and auditory) jumpscares, mentions of death (by supernatural forces) and murder, graphic descriptions regarding bodily transformation, cursing, and violence.
Team Members
Luea (@Alaluea) as a Solo Developer
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Comments
This is an interesting world here; the inanimate objects that follow them around, for example, are just such an odd and intriguing thing. Your monster design is top-notch--gorgeous and yet creepy. And there's a good sense of building tension as the friends begin disappearing one by one. My issue (and, for what it's worth, this is a very common criticism that I make of a lot of narrative games) is quite simply the huge quantity of text. You could genuinely reduce the word count by 50% and not lose any of the content or emotional depth. It's a nice story; tightening it up would make it even nicer.
Heya! Glad you enjoyed the world and monsters! “Odd and intriguing” and “gorgeous yet creepy” are high praises to hear as someone who enjoys world building and monster creation! This little project was I wanted to try and at least make a decent world for (and leave a little mystery for in what those relics are/why they exist) so I’m happy to hear I achieved it to some degree <3
as for the word count critique, I’ll definitely keep that in mind! Though, if I may inquire, is the lengthy word count an issue because this is an ADV novel written in a NVL style? I know the two styles aren’t typically meshed together so I’m wondering if that figures into it? I can see how that’s in issue in, say, the dialogue where it’s matched with character actions (I.e. something like [“I’m sorry,” Rean says, grimacing as he rubs at the back of his neck]). Or how maybe the paragraphs themselves feel too big for the space they’re in because that’s definitely an issue I realize hurts the mixing of VN styles OTL
And if not that, by tightening it do you mean I need to cut down on descriptions in total? I can see where some things might go awry - the second scene and the river scene coming to mind in terms of potential meandering (especially since I had to speed run the introduction of an alternate with none of the proper pacing) - but I’d appreciate knowing in more detail what could be tightened up if don’t mind me asking ^w^
I feel like there's a lot of inspiration from Madoka Magica and I'm definitely not against that! Nice use of metaphors and the soundtrack SLAPS. The battling music especially. Good work!
The ending was predictable from the beginning news broadcast but the writing was really good which made it fun to read. All about the journey, not the destination. uwu
Only critique really is the thickness of the font - it feels kinda chunky, especially when more than two sentences fill the dialogue box.
Oh!! It's funny you say the main inspiration is from Madoka Magica because ironically my thought process for inspiration was based more on card game anime while making this (namely, shows like YGO Arc-V and Future Card Buddyfight tied into a magical girl/boy package because I love magical girls and I love card game monsters so I figured, why not get the best of both!). I see where the Madoka Magica vibe comes from though, and in hindsight that wasn't my intention but I get why it feels that way!!
Happy to hear you like the music! I didn't have a lot of time to add it in (nor the experience, tbh) so this makes me :Dc to hear that I did a decent job constructing it together
And yeah I wondered how predictable the twist would be so that answers that~ I usually like to be a lot more subtle about my plot twists but for this project I don't think I tried as hard haha. Nonetheless, you're completely right!! It's all about the journey not the destination indeed ^0^
and oof,, I wondered about that but for whatever reason my game won't allow me to see the font whenever I change it on my end. I thought it would work well in Cairo font and I had someone say it worked fine but on hearing this I might return it to the default Renpy font. Thanks for letting me know (and thanks for the comment too, glad to hear your thoughts on this little project ^0^!!!)