thank you so much for your kind, thoughtful, and altogether delightful comment – i spent a solid 10 seconds with my hand over my mouth, i was so stunned and grateful >_< i really am so happy that you enjoyed my game and took the time to write something so lovely about it, so thank you from the bottom of my heart!
i’m so glad that my time spent trawling the depths of zapsplat was well worth it – i for sure wanted the sound to do exactly as it needed and nothing else, but i was worried it might not be as noticeable without actual music since that’s usually what i pay attention to. and i’m also happy to hear the lack of character sprites didn’t impede the storytelling! i do wish i was able to draw them, but in the absence of my ability to do so i’m so happy that at least the words could still carry through.
i’m also really happy that the sort of restrictive unhappiness was able to be properly conveyed! i think it’s honestly such a hard balance especially in gameplay, because like you mention, sometimes it just comes off as bad writing or the author not really incorporating what players want to see. but that’s the point, right? the player character here is basically shoehorned into everything – and i’m sure we all have had points in life where it feels like we’re just clicking through and nothing we do has any impact. when you’re told “you can make out of life what you want” but there really is no way to do so at the moment. i don’t think i was able to do it the way i wanted to ultimately, but i really wanted players to kind of take away the main issue too, that it’s hard to find that kind of fulfillment and joy in life if you’re not living life for yourself too. i hope everyone, us included, ends up NOT like this mc – i hope we can find ways to make our lives so much more worth living for!
and yay! i was worried the worldbuilding would feel out of left field, so happy to know it made for good interlude/intermissions between the worlds :P and yes, i intentionally wanted players to see the choices being locked out! sort of to add to that same feeling of missing your chance when you see it initially – and then when you go and experience the other endings too, to realize that there really was no difference anyways. omfg that sounds very pessimistic looking back on it now but well i hope the takeaway is a good one!
thank you again for playing my game and leaving a comment :D i really appreciate the time and effort!!