Before I leave my comment I wanted to say im not really a fan of visual novels so Im trying to push those feelings aside while I rate. :)
The art and ui/general design in this was great. I got ending 4. I honestly didnt connect well with the story, especially the ending, but I get how some people would I just dont think I was the audience for that. The music was great, and you have it FULLY voiced which is huge, if you ask me. My attention span is too low to read for long periods of time so the voice-over was great for me.
The author words after it was done was pretty touching. Its nice that you dropped the info in there. It was also cool that the player's choice decides the character/voice you run into later.
Viewing post in Sapphire Snowe: The Bear, The Beast & The Blizzard jam comments
Well, it means a lot that you even decided to check it out if you're not a VN fan :3 I honestly didn't expect anyone to even rate it for the jam, haha. I figured I'd submit it though since it fits with the spirit of the jam + I'm a bit of a jam addict in general x3 It's a really neat jam concept! I'd normally manage to complete my jam projects within the jam timeframe, but this is one of the few projects that I started for a jam last year where I couldn't manage to fully finish by the end of it thanks to the madness of Christmas encroaching and other irl issues.
I wouldn't worry too much about the jam ratings anyhow since from what I've been told during previous jams, the jam ratings don't really count for all that much anyways like regular itch ratings do. (Someone told me that with normal itch/non-jam ratings, anything less than 5* is damaging to a project's visibility on the site which is so silly >.<)
Hehe, yeeeeah, the story in this project definitely won't resonate with everyone or even be that many people's cup of tea, I imagine x3 I'm glad that you can see how it might for some people though even if it wasn't for you :3 Since I initially wrote it as a way to soothe myself during a dark time, I did wonder if it was even wise to put it out there at all! In the end, I figured it can't exactly do any harm, haha.
That's fantastic to hear about the music and voice acting! Having stuff voiced is one of my main motivators for even making games. If I know I can't get a script voiced, my passion kinda fizzles out >.< Plus I'm dyslexic, so it really helps when in the testing phase to have stuff voiced so I don't have to slog through silent text over and over again xD
I really appreciate you taking the time to play through it and leaving feedback as well! Thank you so much and I hope you have a fantastic rest of the year ahead :3
(PS. I need to poke one of my friends and show her your game because she absolutely loves cooking games of all kinds!)
Wow. Definitely couldnt tell you were dyslexic - the text seemed very well put together. Im trying to get use to game jams; I tried for the last 6 years but wasnt able to finish on time for them until after switching to godot in the last year because I put myself in my work and its hard to release something that just...isnt ready yet.
I think its cool that you wrote the story to help with your real-life issues. I think video games are one of the most expressive types of art - it is definitely the most interactive art mediums.
I went ahead and followed you. Im a fan of people who put their passion into their work and id like to see other work you do.
Thanks for poking your friend - Id love to hear her feedback. :)
Weeeell, I also have ASD, and I think that makes me quite strict with myself on sorting out any errors in my spelling and grammar, haha. I usually just type up a draft first however it comes out, but then before I put the text in-game, I always run it through Grammarly to help me catch anything that needs correcting! :3 It doesn’t manage to find everything, but it does help a hell of a lot, haha.
I’ve heard good things about Godot! I’ve never used it myself, but I’m curious about it, especially since it seems like a lot of devs who used Unity switched to Godot after all the crap that went down with Unity x3 I’m kinda stuck with Unity for the time being though because I pretty much only make visual novels, and the software I use is a Unity extension >.<
I feel you on not wanting to release stuff when you know it isn’t ready yet! When you put so much passion and time into a project, you want it to be the best it can possibly be when you release it out into the wild, and if you know yourself that it’s not at that point, it’s kinda painful to release it :( I had that happen a few years ago with a game I was trying to make for a Valentine's-themed game jam >.< I was really busy with other stuff at the time so I didn’t have as long as I normally would to work on a project, and even though I put hours and hours into it, it still felt rushed because of the jam deadline, and I almost just deleted the entire project because I was so ashamed of it x3 In the end, I decided to release it still because I didn’t want it to completely go to waste. But it’s not a project that I’m proud of at all. It just didn’t turn out the way I hoped it might, and it has the most typos and stuff of any of my games, which I find quite irritating even now years later, haha. I will probably try to go back over it at some point and fix what needs fixing, but yeah, sometimes I do wish I just didn’t realise it at all cos it’s not representative of my usual standards >.<
I totally agree about video games being one of the most expressive types of art :D And as you say, definitely the most interactive! They’ve always been a big part of my life. I was depressed and stuff even as a kid from the moment I had to start going to school, haha. Video games were my sanctuary :3 They were the greatest form of escapism I had, and if not for being able to lose myself in those stories and immersive myself in other worlds, I doubt I would have even made it through school at all!
When I started getting into game dev, I found that the escapism was even more powerful when trying to make games than it was when playing them, haha. So I got kind of addicted to trying to make visual novels x3 It really does help me cope with life because it means my passion feels like it has a purpose :3
That’s so sweet of you to say! I’m also intrigued to see what sorts of things you make in the future, so I’ve followed you right back, haha. It’s kind of funny because I once read someone say in a Discord server that devs don’t follow other devs, or that visual novel devs don’t play visual novels, and I just thought… huh? But I follow loooooads of devs of all different sorts of games! x3 And I love playing visual novels as much as I do making them, haha. I don’t give myself enough time to actually play games these days cos my brain always guilt-trips me into thinking I should be working on my own projects every time I try to relax and enjoy others people’s games >.< but still, I’ll never stop being a gamer just because I started trying to make games x3
I’ve let my friend know about your game, but she’s got weird work hours for the rest of the week, so she’s probably not gonna get a chance to check it out until sometime next week >.< but whenever she does, she’ll probably let me know her thoughts right away, haha. If she doesn’t end up leaving a comment or something herself, then I’ll just post whatever she says to your game page I guess :3 Tbh, I don’t actually know if she has an account here on itch yet cos she plays most stuff either through Steam on her laptop or on her Switch!