itch.io

Thanks for the offer! I decided to just download the source and run it in Unity.

I like the audio and camera direction, definitely conjures up a mood. I also like the absurd backstory and also how the audio kinda gives it actual weight—it reminds me of Twin Peaks in a way. I wish "mood" or "story" were a rate-able category.

I had a fair bit of trouble with the gameplay, though. I started out unsure where to go, and the mix of identical graphics, unexpected collision, and long-ish walk to reach the destination complicated things a bit. When a conversation started I tried to click to close the text but ended up throwing a rock and walking away instead (this amused me). After exiting the first area, I didn't notice the path down and dead-ended in the "busy area" for a while. Eventually I found the grampa and threw a rock by accident again before remembering the space bar and slowly wading through his dialog (it would be nice if there were less banter text here with gramps rebuking lyra, and a way to speed all the text up). When I finally got to the first two birds, I was surprised to see the rock ricochet off the bird, then find myself without any stones (does the original one vanish after bouncing three times?) and unable to sneak past. I took a break for a bit then skipped to a later level. Eventually I realized that the regular birds are basically large-ish circle colliders moving in a simple pattern and will never damage you unless you bump into them, so the strategy seems to basically be to wait until they're close-ish on either side of you, then chuck the rock and move out of the way. Armed with this knowledge, I reached the end and mourned for the future of Lyra-world.