Found the font a bit hard to read, but nice game. I included it in part 2 of my Public Domain Jam 2 compilation video series, if you would like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/Zm3F461UAZo

@stephen.gurnett Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad you felt the design and narrative decisions articulated the mental state of the narrator. I had been thinking of having the police accuse the narrator of murder, and including a choice to deny it numerous times whilst the heartbeat grew louder, but just didn't manage to get it done. Better planning next time!

@Norbez Thanks for the feedback. I'll admit I'm not the best artist, which is partly why I chose to only draw a couple of scenes. I also just wanted to focus on a few things I thought were key to the story, and also reflective of the narrator's actions and mental state. It's also the reason why those choices always lead back to the same outcome, although I didn't get to address the psychology of the narrator as much as I'd initially hoped to. But I understand how thinking you have a choice to do something else when you inevitably don't could be frustrating.

I had been planning on having the heart beat present throughout the entire game, changing tempo at the appropriate moments, but I didn't manage to have that sorted in time. Changed my game engine a few days before the end of the jam which threw things up in the air a bit, but it has definitely taught me to work on planning and design more thoroughly in future!

(con't)

The art of the corpse was a bit weak, and turned the serious story into a cartoon for a moment. XD I'm sure that's the opposite effect of what you wanted, though.:(

Honestly, after completing this, I thought it was alright. Your sound effects are all great and well placed, but the art is too few and not detailed enough, and some music at least would have increased the tension. For a first Renpy game, this wasn't bad. I look forward to what else you create.

(btw, also in this jam, with my game HummingBird Haunting? Check it out? I'm eager for feedback: norbez.itch.io/hummingbird-haunting)

Font is a little hard to read. I think a dissolve/fade effect into the text would have helped the game a lot, rather than making the words seem curt in its transition. Is the art chalk/made with a digital chalk brush? It's quite good, and fits, but interesting choice. I felt key scenes that needed illustration were lacking (such as at the door, when he describes the eye as a sickly blue). And without much art to guide me, it was sometimes hard to tell what was actually going on.

Some music would really help the atmosphere, and maybe voice-acting, too. That scream startled me. :( Great work with the sound effects.

The choices left me quite displeased. Every time I clicked "reconsider", it would go back on the path to "do it" in a few lines, right? I would have liked to see some creative variations on Poe's story. Perhaps when reconsidering the murder (2nd choice) the narrator stabs out the eye and not the man? Things like that.

Thanks to everyone who let me know about that font issue. I should have added it in with the build. I'll add a font file as an additional download for the moment. Sorry for the inconvenience!

I tried to play but it's crashing right after the second screen :( I pasted the crash log here: https://gist.github.com/stepheng/4707ec647fd3a71dd...

I changed the font (edited style.default.font = "Zapfino.ttf", in game/options.rpy) to point at a font on my system and I didn't encounter any other issues.

I like the art choice, picking single elements, rather than depicting the whole scene fits well with the narrator's obsession. I also like that the choices lead back to the same point which, again, fits with his madness and lends a pleasing sense of inevitability to the affair. If anything, it would have been nice to see it used more heavily to drag out the ending.