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I'm glad you think so! ‧₊˚✩彡 It’s clear that everyone was deeply invested in making their projects functional. Referring directly to my three favorites from this jam as points of comparison—though I didn’t play all the entries, I believe I played around 40.

Lost Signal by Alex and Iris is absolutely fantastic. It was my personal favorite of the jam, and I’d be thrilled if it “won (have the highest score among the games in the jam),”  even if it’s not the most conventional game in terms of gameplay. For me, though, it stands out because I see beyond its intent to deliver a complete experience. It feels much more like an interactive short film than a game. It resonates deeply with elements i like. The biomes, Max’s movement, the way the animation flows as if everything is alive—it’s seriously impressive.

Dream Walker is highly immersive. Madeline’s music nails the emotional tone, and with its fast-paced gameplay—wall-jumping, sliding, mouse mechanics as a meta feature, and a dreamy storyline with hints of Impressionism in the transitions—it pulls you into this shadowy flow where you’re unsure of the story's direction. That background sound is haunting, like something creeping along the walls, but you can’t quite place it. Man, it’s awesome. If Lost Signal doesn’t "win", I’d love to see Dream Walker "win".

Depthwish is well-rounded in its design as a video game. It’s got action, collectibles, an immersive atmosphere, smooth navigation, a monster, and an upgrade system. Imagine if OzMaister and JeyhJeyh leaned into a screen transition script with a vibe like Moby Dick or The Lighthouse; it would really bring the monster’s presence into the concept, kind of like Return of the Obra Dinn. For a traditional horror game, that’s what I envision. As for 2D horror, The Spherizoa by Geomont offers variety and a level of detail that couldn’t be thrown together at the last minute. They Watch a visual novel that nails everything it sets out to achieve with a very convincing premise, and The Dollhouse, which brings a heavy, oppressive atmosphere in a cryptic enough way so as not to be completely abstract. Requiem is a great throwback for anyone nostalgic about the PS1 era (think Parasite Eve, Silent Hill, Overblood, Galerians) and that block-style exploration, which was a technical limitation back then but has a fascinating charm in retrospect. 

I sat in my rocking chair to eat my homemade blackberry ice cream, put on B.B. King on the TV to listen to and started thinking about games i played in the jam. It was really cool. If you consider that these people are going to go back and write rather than expressing it in an explicitly graphic way, it would be as big as what I proposed, if not bigger, because the presentation of those that I played and understood can expand to multiple places, which you can't do in a game, but in a book it would be the natural course. Many I didn't understand or couldn't play, like Arcana which simply doesn't work either by downloading or in the web version. 

I had several ideas for gameplay of what I could have done but order to deliver it, and I delivered it at the last minute at the final 50 second mark like a very low budget and low poly 007 copycat, I gave up many mechanics, so much so that I ended up with "Too much book" and not enough game from my interactive book, but I'm glad that you believe it's deep, make me genuinely happy. 

Thank you very much for playing, I hope Siham's journey was interesting for you! -͟͟͞☆