Oh, yo! Been meaning to look into Butterflies for a while, and this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
After a few minutes of trying this demo out it plays pretty well so far! Nat and company have a good feeling of momentum to them, and skate pumps feel satisfying to do between grinds and tricks. The grinding itself seems a little on the slippery side without having entered it at a high speed but the gratuitous auto-snapping to a surface makes up for it.
It took a moment to get the hang of there being a dedicated turn button, but after learning how it handled it compliments the trick system well. Shifting between forward- and back-facing tricks is very fluid when grinding, though with the way the turn animation is played while on the ground it can feel a little jaunty trying to pull off turns in quick succession. (This also applies to turning in the air, it doesn't seem like the Stalefish or Method 360 tricks occur if you're not at top speed but since this is an in-dev build bits of jank are totally forgivable)
The menus and UI look really stylish, the fonts used are unique while still being readable. I do wanna suggest maybe like, making the blocky text for each 10km/h interval in the speedometer a different color so you can still tell just how fast you're going when that corner of the screen's in your peripheral vision? Though little QoL features like that can be handled in a ton of different ways so anything that fits the vision for the project best is still totally welcome.
I love the presentation this game's got, the sketchy lineart with subdued colors used for most textures really helps the player feel like it's their job to give life to an otherwise drab urban area. Very interested in seeing how those security drones fit into everything too 👀
I hope the impromptu breakdown of everything doesn't come off as in bad taste, clicked the reply box and before I knew it this comment became the lengthiest thing I've written on this site so far lmao. JSR-inspired projects are always incredibly cool to see, and Butterflies is no exception while still keeping a style of its own. Best wishes, and hope development goes smoothly from here on out!