This game kicks ass, great job making something authentic and fun, I sat down and played for an hour straight. I ended up giving up on one of the octopus dog walking days, so frustrating how they seem to dodge bullets lol.The art style is awesome, it does whatever it wants whenever it wants while still maintaining a cohesive and consistent style that gives the world a life-like feel. The writing is legitimately very funny and the plot surprisingly poignant for the silly skin the game wears. The minigames are a fun change of pace and help to flesh out the game's content without overstaying their welcome. There are so many little details of care that make this game special, such as the shop owner creeping over to your window every morning to peep inside before scampering away, or the dog you walk every morning actually being a wooden horse strapped to a skateboard. My biggest critique is that the UI is pretty awful; having the minigame instructions be white text on a bright pink background, all of which is set under the massive block of (white and rainbow) quest text, made it very difficult to read. Large text blocks after employment shifts get scrunched and somewhat illegible too. Another minor critique is that while the writing was very funny, I found the meme-y sound effects to be kind of corny and lessened the humor of the situation, but that could just be a me thing. Overall, this was a fantastic game that I really enjoyed playing. The art and atmosphere are excellent, the characters are memorable and worth interacting with, the plot and writing are witty and personable, and the gameplay loop is solid. Great entry!
Viewing post in The Secret Scoffer of Saffron Walden jam comments
Thanks for the detailed reaction! Really glad you're into the game. Understand the octopus can get quite full on, if you manage to get the Wildgun you should be ok with them...but might take a good sushi or chilli run (with upgraded underpants) to save for it. As for the UI, yeah, I suck at UI, really wanted it to be better for this jam but it's still indeed a bit naff. And some Canvasses should be scaled in a different way. I decided to leave it at the 'that will do' stage a couple of days before the end of the jam. The sounds, and the balance of what to use and how frequently, was also something I wrestled with. It came out like this but I understand that some of the sound might grate a little.
Thanks again for reviewing the game! You can continue now from the main screen if you want. There's an end to the game and everything, but understand you've invested an hour and there's a lot of games to play in this jam!
Cheers