These are great points. I never intended to say the game is boring, and I do enjoy a good story and writing, and can even get lost in a visual novel from time to time. Apologies if it came across that way.
The story here is quite good, and I did get to the end. I was very amused by it. The "tongs" joke in particular had me chuckling out loud.
I once said to a friend of mine that I used to take for granted when a JRPG would give me a choice between two dialog options, but they essentially meant the same thing, and changed nothing. Nowadays, that small "choice" gives me such a relation to the character that it otherwise wouldn't. It's artificial and (pun intended) "not real," but it's a level of interactivity other mediums can't do. I definitely see the value in "interactive narrative," so I didn't mean to intend that this was lesser in any way. It was just a personal preference thing, and when my mind is in "game jam" mode, with all of the tremendous amounts of games to try, I'm looking for a very quick hook. But that's just me. I also struggled with the theme a bit, too, and with the nature of jams, you win some, you lose some. You make sacrifices and compromises. It's very interesting to see the ways in which people choose different paths to get their game out.
Also, I assumed you used asset packs. I'm still a little shaky about using them for jams in particular because I don't want to accidentally forget to give credit where it's needed, but for larger projects I fully intend to use them liberally. But as someone who doesn't have any experience with rigging, animation, camera work, anything of that nature, I couldn't possibly hope to achieve the level of quality you guys got in the short amount of time that you did it in, no matter how many assets I had. It takes skill to do that, and I commend you.
Either way, I hope you didn't take offense to my original post. This is still an amazing achievement either way. At the end of the day, you guys are the creators, and what you want to make is what you should make. I just feel there might be something to be learned from anyone sharing their perspectives, so I shared mine in hopes people would do the same, even if I might not wholeheartedly agree.
If you do take the time to play my game, I would appreciate it, and don't hold back on your feedback!
Thanks for the insights in your response. Congratulations on a job well done!