Wow wow wow wow WOW... the art is ASTOUNDING! The fish are cute but I absolutely loved Alicia and William in their human form. Such a unique art style but it really really works! Also the music was lovely. Very ambient :) The voice acting was really nice too! At first it was a little off putting to me due to the ratio of dialog to action lines, but once the human scene started and other characters were introduced, it really really worked.
Well done, especially with such a short jam time. The story was also really poignant too! Just a couple little things that could make it even better:
!!! Spoilers Ahead !!!
- The fish scenarios seemed a bit on the nose, especially what the humans say about the shark with the "little one growing up to be a killer." ... I feel like, instead... the shark scene could play on William's innocence. Perhaps he is targeted because he's "cute" or "helpless" or "easy" and the scene could touch on a mindset of Alicia thinking like "Why! Why not take me instead?"
- The doctor's conversation had a little too much information that felt expositional, particularly about how he revealed William's age. The conversation was really sad, but didn't reveal much about Alicia's grief aside from the obvious pain about losing a child. Instead, maybe those detials can be revealed in a way that tells more about their life before. For instance... why were they in the car that day? On the way to William's kindergarten graduation, which they were both so excited for? That's a great way to reveal that information while also tapping more into the relationship. Knowing those things would just increase the level of feels even more, making the game's ending hit even harder.
But these are just small things in a SEA of good stuff. Well done with this Jam!
Keep up the good work!
-Sasha