Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

While the writing is pretty polished for a game jam project, the programming work is rough – dialog tags errors are so frequent it doesn't feel like anyone read through the finished product before hitting Publish on itch. There's no title screen (just using one of the pre-existing backgrounds or CGs would have worked in a pinch) or music, either.

Going for full custom assets is respectable, but the backgrounds feel too sparse, with a couple even lingering long after the characters have left the places they depict. I wouldn't have minded a stock photo or two to fill the gaps. Sprites lacking expressions, meanwhile, leaves the whole thing feeling pretty visually static. (Also, is it just me or have some of them, the protagonist's in particular, been stretched horizontally? What's up with that?)

As mentioned, the prose is readable, and the sex scene has a pretty good flow to it. I think my biggest doubt about the story is its tendency to go for what feel like extreme tonal shifts – the game starts on quite non-horny note, and then the protagonist is suddenly admiring a guy's ass, which is both described at length and portrayed with an illustration. The same could be said about the near-instant jump to plot and action; even with some mild foreshadowing, it feels like it comes so fast there hasn't been enough time for character work to put weight into the emotional stakes. I do like the double meaning of the title, though.

Finally, Pursuit doesn't have the most elegant ending in the jam, with a "to be continued" that feels lacking both as a conclusion as setup – not a lot has happened so far, and the idea of what will happen next remains somewhat vague. I get what it's going for, but the execution could be smoother in a lot of ways.