Hey! Finally, after a lot of tries, I played your game. Some of my impressions:

• I liked a lot the old school visuals here. It´s like playing those games of 2000´s with the charm and nostalgia of the past. Also contributes to make some scenaries like oniric and enigmatic.
• The sound effects and, especially, the music, are fantastic, and ehance the dreamlike feel of the game. Some sound effects in loop are a bit annoying, because of lack of continuity, but is a minor issue.
• I´m also impressed that you were capable of making the scenaries… I have no experience in visuals, but I see the effort here.
• No bugs (at first I though that the second round were a bug, but no, hehe), the story is simple and charming, the gameplay is also simple (becuase the point is in the travel, in the journey itself). Simple, but the puzzle at the house on the moon took me a while XDD.
• Last, but no less important… I read that you went through a lot of pains to finish the game, and it’s an idea from a couple of decades ago. It makes this little project something to be very proud of. Congratulations!! It´s a very creative and fun game.

It's just shows it's never to late! it's great to see the planets all align and a game gets finished (I've got a few!)
I enjoyed the game and the old school charm
congrats and well done

I wanted to play this game twice before I write my review. In addition I have also watched it on the stream of TigerJ. I wished I could play the 2nd version that is in prepare, but on the other hand I prefer to focus on writing about the actual Jam experience. As usual this review is very personal. I tried to write it (like the others) detached from the friendship I can have with the different creators, in order to comment as objectively as possible the game for what it is.

The Traveler is a unique project. Not only it's the first and maybe last game of Josh (who knows?) which makes it even more unique, but it is also a game that has been developed over 20 years, and in addition it was made with Adventure Maker, a game engine that makes me very nostalgic because I created my own first game (ASA) with it. So all in all, The Traveler has everything to seduce me. Let's see how it goes when clicking New Game. 

You awaken in a mysterious empty room with blue walls. The 3d is neat, visually refined, with little details but still it's clean and goes to the essential. The art is quite old-school, clearly made with techniques/softwares from the late 1990s, with prerendered 3d, simple modeling and texturing, etc. And this feeling is accentuated by the use of the adventure engine and the low resolution. But it works like a charm and in fact I like it a lot: that kind of graphic style speaks to me and I don't need more in a game if the content is rich enough. I still feel today that games have become too complex and focus too much on showing spectacular visuals and action, but they might lack of a more serious and quiet setting. I like it that there are still games with more simple graphics (simple but good), and that they focus on doing things differently in the gameplay and storytelling. However The Traveler remains VERY simple in its construction, and the addition of a few videos to make transitions would have been great.

So you're in your blue room and don't know why, and you come up with very few possibilites: looking at a shelf with drawers and a flower on it, going through a door, or enjoying a painting that is just in front of you, hanging on the main wall. Of course you quickly guess that you'll have to travel through the painting, as it has been the fad of many artists to invite the viewer to immerse themselves in their work and escape into a delirious world. Personally I haven't been surprised that we can go into the painting, as it is something I also did in past works, but I still think the concept is interesting and can let some players completely mind blown. I love it when art becomes a door to another world.

So after a few adventures with the lighting in the room, you're finally taken into your journey. You are alone, you don't know why you're undergo the current situation, and you find a few scrolls left to your attention, but they don't leave you with a lot of answers. So you have no choice but to continue to progress, and damn what a varied and mysterious world! You'll travel from a peaceful island to a world of ice, then different environments with luxury plants, and even to some kind of alien planet and their moon where you end up in prison. You'll definitely go through many places and feel taken in a real adventure. 

The gameplay itself is very basic: you read comments, interact with the world and try to use the few items that are available here and there. There is nothing very difficult, yet it's enjoyable because interesting situations/places are unlocked when you find what to do, thus the player is regularly reward with the possibility to progress further in the journey (hence the title, The Traveler). However I feel that despite the many different places, there is still very little to do. The number of possible interactions is limited, every scene in the game goes strictly to the essential, thus you never get lost and never have to think much out of the box, which makes the experience quite easy. I mean, it's cool, I have no problem with that and it makes of it a game that everyone can play, yet I feel it could have been a little more intricate, each world could have been detailed a little more (through text?) and a few more events could have happened (more challenge?). It's not a complain, just a note, to say that one shouldn't expect something as rich as the Myst series for example, despite obvious similarities here and there, and knowing that the creator of The Traveler is a fan. I would personally have enjoyed it if there had been a real puzzle to solve, with some buttons to press or I don't know what else, and a global puzzle in the end that would require to use the different informations you have collected during the journey (particularly because you can visit all of the places again and again).

Quickly you have visited all of the different worlds that the painting had to offer. The traveller reaches the end of the journey and comes back to the first room, to realise that he's stuck in a loop. How to break the loop? You have 2 different ways to do so, and the choice is up to you. I found it nice that there are 2 possible endings. 

Well, to conclude, 20 years is such a long time to create a game that I can't know what the dev went through during all that time. I can imagine how the game was ignited with a lot of joy, then abandoned for some time, then restarted, stopped again, etc. With plenty of life events that are not told in the game, and that were good reasons for the project to not be released earlier. I'm glad it finally happened and that we could play it, and see all the efforts and ideas put into this world. The game has been made with love and it's the most important. It could be more polished, more rich, more this or that, but it's definitely a work of dedication and passion (like all the games created during this jam actually), and that in itself is more than enough to conclude on a positive note!

The atmosphere and old-school vibes of your game are fantastic. It was great to see that you were able to revive your old game and finish it/make it playable for this jam. I can imagine how dear this project must be to you, and it is awesome that you are able to share it, so everyone can easily play it so many years after you started it.

In a way, installing your game actually felt like part of this old-school experience in a positive way.

I am really happe to see such an old-school entry in this jam! The low resolution didn't hurt at all, somehow it even supported the atmosphere at least for me.

I had a glitch with the text display of the notes, but it wasn't really dramatic and didn't hinder me from playing it through.

This is a beautiful exploration game, no hard puzzles, but inviting the player to just try and find out what to do to move on.

The sound effects and music are fine as well.

The first thing I have to say is that nostalgia has come to me... I myself started making games with Adventure Maker, so what can I say?

It's been amazing to play an old school game again, in the purest Myst style. Here the graphics are the least important thing, for me the important thing is the unique style of these games, their mechanics, the way you move...

Also, it's a game that was started to be developed 20 years ago! It's amazing that you've finished it now, congratulations!

Thanks for sharing this timeless gem, it's been a pleasure to play it!