Thank you for the kind words.
I’m glad you enjoyed the characters and the presentation of the UI.
Making this game on this specific engine was very fun and challenging.
Speaking of the “CH”, that doesn’t stand for “Chapters” but for “Channels”.
They’re there purely for aesthetic purposes, much like the VHS filter.
I thought they worked well together visually, so I chose that design.
The “Channels” are also associated with the backgrounds and their names (e.g., Town - CH1). When a specific background is reused, the corresponding “CH” is also reused.
I would like to clarify some aspects of the story to give you a better idea of what I was aiming for, especially with the antagonist.
Since I was more subtle with the storytelling and created an antagonist with a sneaky gimmick, I anticipated that the story wouldn’t be fully understood after just one playthrough.
But that’s for the SPOILER section below.”
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SPOILER
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Let's talk about your confusion about the reliability of the events.
A funny theme that recurs throughout the story is that “everything was real until it wasn't”.
And you have to thank the antagonist for that.
The antagonist is the anomaly mentioned in the description, and they're also the creep mentioned by Mrs. Red.
Their capacities are mostly hinted at through the narrative, and the same for the motives behind their actions.
But the most explicit hint is what Maria says to Merlo at the end of their conversation.
“What I'm trying to say is to be responsible about your actions.”
“You can't erase them from this reality to get away from your mistakes.”
“This reality won't fix itself around your doings like you were its mama's boy.”
And also some stuff that the anomaly says to Merlo, Mike, and Mrs. Red during their conversations.
ANOMALY with MRS. RED:
“NO, PLEASE.”
“CALL THE THE POLICE AS YOU PLANNED TO.”
“TAKE YOUR TIME.”
This is said after the scene where she's calling the police.
ANOMALY with MIKE:
“HELLO, ASSISTANT MANAGER!”
“I'M GLAD YOU LEFT THE OFFICE OPEN.”
“I GUESS YOU DIDN'T HAVE ANY REASON TO CLOSE IT THIS TIME.”
This is said after the scene where Mike explicitely said that he locked it.
ANOMALY with MERLO:
“OH COME ON, DON'T BE SILLY.”
“JUST OPEN IT ALREADY.”
“YOU'RE GOING TO COME OUT ANYWAY.”
“YOU DON'T WANT TO BE LATE AT WORK, DON'T YOU?”
Despite experiencing this interaction while being in a paranoid mood, Merlo ends up exiting from his apartment with the safety on his service weapon.
As if this interaction never happened, leading him to his death.
Yeah, that “THE END” at the end was the antagonist pulling a gotcha moment in the same way they did with Mike.
What I'm trying to say here is that the anomaly, the serial killer, is a reality eraser.
The narrative would continue to act as if they never existed (including their actions) except for one thing.
A side effect of their capacities is that if they kill someone and reset the reality, the victim will die anyway but for a heart attack instead.
This is the same side effect mentioned in his final monologue with Merlo.
The same that they end up exploiting to create a spectacle of paranoia in the town.
A paranoia that gets built up more directly through Merlo after the funeral section.
That section along with Merlo's character arc was used to build up also the motives of the antagonist by making a parallel to the protagonist.
ANOMALY with MERLO:
“I KNOW THAT SOME RUMORS HAVE BEEN STARTING TO CIRCULATE IN TOWN.”
“I DON'T BLAME YOU FOR BEING PARANOID, TO BE HONEST.”
“PARANOIA CAN BE INTOXICATING FOR SOME...”
“...BUT IT CAN BE QUITE FASCINATING FOR OTHERS.”
“SEEING IT SLOWLY GROW AND ITS EFFECTS IS ENTERTAINING AS HELL.”
“ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE NOT AT THE CENTER OF STORM.”
“KIND OF...”
“EXPLOITING THE DOWN SIDES OF YOUR CAPABILITIES IS ALSO QUITE INTRIGUING.”
“NORMALLY, I WOULDN'T DO THAT, BUT I GOT TIRED OF THIS REALITY.”
“SO I WANT TO HAVE FUN AND DEVIATE FROM ITS STRAIGHT PATH UNTIL THE END.”
“DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT?”
“I HOPE SO.”
If you remember the section post-funeral, Merlo had similar thoughts that were built-up by the character arc he went through until that moment.
You could say that the anomaly is Merlo if, one night, woke up and decided to be a little bit silly from now on.
All of this after going through an experience similar to Merlo's.
The reality tends to be erased also when the “point of the time NOT FOUND” doesn't appear. But that's because it doesn't happen in real-time but during time skips (but also because if I added that screen transition more than three times, I would have impacted the flow of the narrative negatively).
EXAMPLES:
1) Claudio and Merlo arrive at Veri's.
MERLO's narration:
“Veri's store was at the center of the town, so it didn't take us long to get there.”
“The parking lot was almost empty at that moment.”
“The only car outside of ours that was there was an old red one.”
The same old red car that the antagonist used to follow Mrs. Red to her house.
The killer was there to inspect the place in the same way the thieves did during the previous nights.
2) Claudio and Merlo leave after taking the thief into custody.
MERLO's narration:
“And that's what we did.”
“We left the parking lot empty just like how it was when we arrived there.
3) MERLO's narration post-funeral:
“I even tried to go out for a walk to keep my mind occupied.”
“It felt nice for a while but then the thoughts about the recent events decided to come back.”
“Especially the ones related to the rumors.”
“These made me so paranoid that I ended up running while going back to my apartment.”
“A few days ago, I even had the impression that I was being followed while patrolling.”
This is the general idea of what I was going for.
Thank you for reading this far.
PS: I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you on Lantern. Out of all the games in the jam, it was the one with the best presentation and I really enjoyed it.