Very nice that everything was made completely from scratch, super impressive and applaud you all for that in such a short amount of time. I appreciated that there was variety in posing and expressions when meeting NPCs, this added to the lived-in feel of the game. I can see a lot of writing and branching was done as well, which takes a lot of effort so, props to you! That said, I'd like to give some feedback on some points that raised some flags for me. I work as a narrative designer, so I'll mainly focus on that angle, with a couple of other things to mention. Spoilers ahead!
- This story deals with substance abuse, mental health, anxiety it seems, stress, peer pressure, overdosing, demise. I feel like it would benefit (and might need) a content warning in the beginning as a lot of those types of games have.
- I think changing the sound effect that is used when clicking through text would be beneficial to the vibe of the game, as it got a little repetitive over the course of a playthrough.
- Overall, I think it's super cool this topic was chosen as we don't talk about it enough; at the same time, I was concerned about the message it was transmitting. No matter how much I tried to be good, I felt forced to do drugs, and it seemed like drugs were the only way of 1) completing my school task 2) getting friends 3) receiving praise from my teacher. If a person doesn't play through till the end, it almost sends the message that this is the way to go. Luckily I think the title kind of nods at the fact that it's leading you down the wrong path.
- Speaking of trying to be good; coming into it, I think the player can obviously tell that the bold and interesting choice is to try new things and follow the counter-culture (aka do drugs, go to the crackhouse), but for the sake of experimentation, I went with the 'good guy' route. It's a strong principle in narrative design that you offer branching dialogues in order to accomplish something 1) supplementary information 2) alternative outcome 3) player agency, and so on. I felt that I was almost always railroaded in the same direction and had no player agency. I chose to not take drugs, but then I was forced to take drugs. I chose to not go to the crackhouse but to call Jackie, but I'm still forced to go to the crackhouse. I refuse drugs at the crackhouse, but I give in anyway. I try to stop Jackie from overdosing, but it has no effect. That's not to say that narrative options can't sometimes lead down the same path or railroad, but here it felt visible to the player and gave me a sense that my choices didn't matter.
Overall, it's a very cool concept, but I think value would be added if you 1) warn the player about the nature of the game on screen as well 2) consider the message of the game and how to convey it delicately in the time you have 3) consider player agency and meaningful choices when you build a narrative :D
Some tools I recommend (in case it's useful) for building these narratives and checking their outcomes: Twine, Inklewriter, Articy, MURAL diagrams, Lucidcharts, etc. Hope this honest comment is well received, I just love games like this and want to see them prosper.