Post by ichliebeoldmanyaoi in A Place to Grow (Demo) comments

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I played the game and felt like making a review or something.

I was very triggered by the screen shake and offended that there was no warning for it. /j

The narrative was disjointed and the decisions were arbitrary. I guess Joseph being smitten that quickly makes sense since the MC reminds him of a past lover, but the intensity of it seems fairly unrealistic.

The main character suffered from a lack of depth and the "Jody" persona was underdeveloped and didn't have a satisfying arc, at least to me. He feels fairly one dimensional.

I liked the part where Joseph gets all masochistic about punishment A LITTLE BIT, but it still feels illogical for him to act that way. Or maybe he just really is batshit insane.

I only reached one of the endings, in which the MC pummels Joseph to death and doesn't face any repercussions. It felt kind of weird and un-natural in a way I can't explain.

I liked the art style, with the colors and whatnot. I felt that the backgrounds and general art could have gotten more detail, but as an artist myself I understand cutting corners where need be, especially in a whole video game.

I hope that my constructive criticism can help with your future projects, even if just a little bit.

Adoxographist251 days ago(+4)

Hey! Appreciate you taking the time to write a review. Even if you didn't enjoy the experience, you still took the time to make an account just to leave a review, which means something to me.

The game is an unfinished project, so definitely understand it feeling incomplete. I do think by only achieving one ending you might have cut yourself off from some information that would have added some context? But I can't promise even if you did play more endings that you would enjoy yourself, sometimes things just aren't to people's tastes!

Regarding the backgrounds though... I'm not super good at drawing backgrounds to begin with, so them feeling rough is fair, but it's also a bit of a stylistic choice. Since the game takes place in Northern Ontario, they're meant to be a bit reminiscent of The Group Of Seven, a group of landscape artists who painted a lot of Ontario Scenery. Again, I'm a pretty shoddy background artist, so that might not come across, but the visible brown peaking out is meant to mimic the wood that they sometimes painted on and left visible, and the chunky paint strokes are kind of a feature as well!

This isn't meant to change your opinion or anything, just some of the general thinking behind stylistic choices that I thought were interesting to share in general.

itch.io

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