Link to VOD:
(live at 9pm EST tonight)As it stands now, I feel very neutral on this game. Some of that, I think, comes from not really feeling sure if this is a horror game... or just a story game? I found it in the horror genre, but what little I could experience in the demo didn't lead me to feel like this was a scary game. Perhaps that comes later as the story develops, but that genre didn't come across much in the demo.
I like the pixel art style for it, but I will say the buildings feel rather flat compared to the trees and such. Some of the objects too, like the soccer ball, feel a bit out-of-place design wise. It's oddly more detailed, somehow? If I were you, I might also change where I place the bottoms of walls as far as the walking grid system goes, so that the character doesn't appear to climb them.
The music is beautiful, I love where you're going with that.
Story could use a few clarifications and consistency to it. I think it's a really nice touch that our main character has two moms, but I was confused for a bit because of the way it was brought up in the story by saying "your mommy" instead of just "mommy". I'm also confused on the age of the character we're playing, because sometimes the character seems to be speaking with muddled consonants like a toddler, and sometimes not. And me personally, I'm not entirely sure how comfortable I feel about playing a horror game as a possibly toddler character, that feels a little morally weird.
Finally, we definitely need more guidance on what controls handle which action when, at least to start. I did a lot of guessing to get certain prompts. And with items that have a specific use, like the keys, having part of the description be something like "seems to go to a small lock, perhaps on a drawer?" would be helpful. If you aren't controlling how or when folks make certain discoveries (I certainly discovered the well before I discovered the lighter and thus the bedroom), then you'll want to give them an idea of what the item might be used for so they don't make an assumption and possibly get stuck/frustrated thinking the game broke.
Oh, and one nit-picky thing. The fourth-wall breakage where we seem to "speak" to the character we're controlling, not sure how I feel about that. Is that supposed to be us? Some sort of guiding voice? It just felt really odd, and almost out of place to me, but that might be an entirely me thing.
Wishing you all the best with this game, depending on where you take it I would consider trying it again in a completed state.