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Flight of the Cuckoo's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals | #8 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Narrative | #8 | 4.056 | 4.056 |
| Theme Incorporation | #9 | 3.889 | 3.889 |
| Overall | #11 | 3.778 | 3.778 |
| Sound | #13 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
This made me realize I’m not really familiar with the actual swan lake story (just the music), but I’m really happy this was my first time experiencing it! Very nicely written, nice character designs (why is Roth so pretty but so evil??) and really pretty UI!
Woah, I'm honored! Honestly I went back to do a re-deepdive into its history when I was working on the game and there's so many variations that basically culminate in swan+princess=yikes. I even took a little smidgen from little mermaid's blueprints to add to the stakes >:)).
And thank you!! Toxic pretty boys compose my body while tormented morally questionable ladies are my blood.
Love the take on a classic story!!! Nothing hits as well as seeing something retold a number of times in such a beautiful way! Hauntingly beautiful.
Thank you! :D And you're absolutely right, if I am a fly then retellings are my honey trap. You can bench the girl from her villainess projects but you can't shake the villainess from the girl it seems...
Quite the stellar entry. Great job on taking a familiar story and making it your own. Several of the lines resonated with me personally.
Omg tysmmmm!! I always feel a bit insecure about my style but it's really heartwarming to know that my writing was able to leave any sort of impression (and a good one no less!) :,D
I’ve always been such a sucker for Swan Lake, and I really liked your take on it! The cuckoo metaphor was such a great idea, and I loved the prose during the Swandive ending. Awesome job!
[laughs in a very normal and respectable way] Thank you!! LMAO If a day ever passes without some obscure (either really good or entirely off base) metaphor being made, then that means I am DEAD.
SHOOT FOR THE STARS BABY!!! I live for that stuff. If we don’t try it, who will? :)
You're absolutely right... o7
Oh I knew I'm in for an incredible ride when I started reading this and saw the cuckoo metaphor. Absolutely stunned by the way the theme unfolded in this one. I need some time now. Beautiful, no notes.
Omg no now I need to sit down after hearing this... Tsym, I'm so glad to have found a kindred spirit who enjoyed the metaphor and I hope that any fixes/expansions I make to the game will only continue to hammer that vibe down!! :'0
I am OBSESSED with the use of the theme in this one! It was so cleverly done. I really enjoyed the exposition around the cuckoo and how that then translated to our changeling character. The UI was also particularly beautiful, although a few of the lines were too long for the text box. I loved the soundtrack selected, it set the vibe so well. Overall I really enjoyed the game, I feel like it was so cleverly done and a very effectie narrative done in a concise story, which is so hard to do. There's a lot of world building and understanding of how things worked packed in, and it doesn't bog the story down. WELL DONE!
I did get just a few errors, all of which I think were already mentioned, and then in the black swan ending I got (SUPER cool btw!) there was no sprites for a while, which I'm unsure if that was intentional or not, but nothing game breaking!
Thank you for letting me know, I've got a textbox spillage and sprite update brewing for post jam! Honestly I made that last scene--endings included--30 minutes before submission time (I am a planner of epic proportions, obviously) so I had to offer Friedrich and the rest of the sprites to the pyre in order to submit it before the deadline LMAO. Heheheh, it was only a matter of time until my love of MLP's version of changelings bled its way into my writing, and I can only hope to expand this game to go even harder on its themes post-jam!
there is such a natural feeling to the writing and an elegant but haunting air that surrounds the plot that i couldn't help but dust off my swan lake knowledge in order to help immerse myself in this plot. what a delightful little treat! the strong bird imagery and being constantly reminded of the consequences of odile's situation helped bring this honestly beautiful vn to life, and it was chilling to read the different endings :0 gorgeous work!
Omg after having played your own entry, it's such an honor getting praise on atmosphere and writing from you!! ...It seems that this game's humble beginnings in my admiration of Odile from Barbie Swan Lake have had unintended, but extremely gratifying outcomes in people having a little looksie at the original story!
AMAZING inspo. the pieces are coming together. i can't wait to see what you put out next!!!!!!!!!
I adored the atmosphere in this! It was such an interesting retelling of Swan Lake and I liked being inside Odile's mind! This is also a random note, but I really enjoyed how the main menu screen was set up as well, the way the image moved and the simple colors just made it really nice. There was one error message I got during the conversation with Odette and sometimes text didn't fit in the textbox, but other than that, it was a really nice game!
Thank you! Learning video implementation in renpy was painful but well worth it! I've been fixing those mistypings and overflows so hopefully I can upload a (slightly more) fixed version after voting ends >:3
Flight of the Cuckoo unwaveringly commits to the feel of its world in both its prose and its dialogue, to its great advantage. Character voices are strong but also blend well together in conversation. I especially think the water’s edge scenes are the strongest of the bunch in almost every department: The soft GUI and pastel BG complement each other well, and we get a whole host of characters who run the emotional gamut (including the PC, even). Good work!
Thank you so, so much!! Your reviews never fail to dazzle, and I hope I can continue to expand on this game post-jam so it can live up to that hype! :,D
I love the aesthetics chosen for this game, especially the GUI. The writing was truly something, and had a certain flair that I could never replicate; was extremely fitting for a game and story like this I feel like. I loved the amount of choices given! I did notice one other extremely small bug within the game during scene 3 I believe, where in the top left it says that one of the sprite images were missing in red text, just so you know if you do update the game after the jam is over!
Ahhhh ty so much! Second sweep with variables connected to those choices are going to go crazy post-jam! >:D
And yeah, I realized I got tripped up by the O names when I was spamming sprites right before submissions closed LMAO. Luckily I have a fixed version with no run off textbox text, smoother scene transitions, properly capitalized {i}'s, and correctly called sprites prepped and primed for after the voting period heheheh >:)
That was a great take on this ballet! Especially as you did it alone in a short a time..
2 ideas for after jam:
Ahhh thank you! It's definitely a rough around the edges rush job but I'm glad I managed to get something in for my first solo jam and learn more about renpy. >:3
I totally agree with you btw! My hope is that after jam I can go in to make a more proper experience with some code fixes, writing/art add ons, and more ambiance tracks to fit the moods and not subject people to 15 minutes of the same music box loop lol. Excited to play your game!