DAMN YOU, who's chopping onions while I'm playing...? 😭
For real though, amazing job!! Everything about the game, from the writing, the CG variants, the use of NVL mode, the GUI, the music... it all coalesces together into a beautifully orchestrated symphony of heartbreak. 💔
To convey all of that in only 1000 words, and create it all in just one week?! Hot damn... 👏👏👏
And as usual, you always include awesome accessibility options, even for such a short game jam.
Awesome job! 🎉🎊🥳
This demo is the cat's meow! 😸
Really charming aesthetic, great touch with the voice acting, and solid gameplay so far!
The voice acting sounded a bit on the quiet side, even at max volume w/ the BG music fairly low.
And after leaving the Pub and coming back, I had to redo all of the conversations there — but that was the end of the demo, so that makes sense if it's a bit buggy / doesn't persist properly.
I'm definitely intrigued and looking forward to more.
*paws-e for dramatic effect*
Great job!
Also, that musical poster LOL. Well played. 😂
Short and sweet, so far! Nice job!
In terms of the case room mystery, since I can't remember, I am kinda curious about... (spoilers)
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the location of the bullet. Did it get lodged inside the body? If not, was there some evidence of it elsewhere in the room? I also don't recall if there was any blood on the scene from the gunshot wound.
Because similar to "the voice," this first case room looks relatively simple at first glance. But I can't tell if there's more to it that I haven't yet noticed and/or didn't make it into the demo. 👀
I enjoyed the demo!
As the previous commenter mentioned, the game definitely starts off slow, but once it picks up, it held my attention.
Love the character dynamics, especially with "Massimo," once everyone groups up into teams.
The puzzles were fun, the "meta mystery" has me intrigued, and I'm curious to see what lies inside that location.
Nice job to everyone who worked on this!
Also, holy verbose MC batman lol.
Really cool vibe, super trippy!
The UI and art style reminded me of Paradise Killer.
Still not sure that I entirely understand what's actually going on, but it was an interesting read and playthrough nonetheless.
As far as this build is concerned, I wonder if the final part of DEADMAN could've been a separate unlock (since it seemed like a conclusion / epilogue of sorts), after finishing SUNGLASSES and the first 80% or so of DEADMAN.
Awesome job!
That was really cute! :D
I like how they were able to eventually have a candid conversation about how they were each feeling... after peeling through layers of awkward social conventions and social niceties — the dialogue felt very realistic with how forced and awkward it was, both characters heavily reluctant to openly share their true feelings.
I appreciate how you sprinkled in lore here and there while resisting the urge to explain any of it and break immersion with unnecessary exposition.
I'm rooting for Solaris x Kaizer!
Also, "Kaizo" is a great nickname LOL. I wonder how many frame-perfect conversations Solaris will have to have with him before he starts really warming up. xD
One small critique: The crowd noise at the very start of the game sounded REALLY loud to me, and none of the volume sliders in the menu seemed to affect its volume. The only way I could adjust it was Mute All (which defeated the purpose lol), or by adjusting the volume of my headphones and then balancing the Music/SFX/blips volumes accordingly.
Excellent, another ontological mystery game to look forward to upon the full release!
The artwork is nice, the music seemed fitting (if a bit loud at times), and the voice acting is quite good!
I enjoyed the characters and their dynamics so far (Vivian x April, MAKE IT SO 🌈).
I'm intrigued by the writing, especially with the different endings in the demo and how that'll branch out in the full game.
The puzzles were interesting and decently varied (even though I struggled with one of them, b/c the in-game hints kept telling me things I already figured out on my own :').
And the game has a flowchart! You love to see it. ♥
Maybe I'm blind, but it wasn't clear to me that the different arrows on the flowchart go to separate sections of it, so I wonder if there's a way to make that (more) obvious.
I'm excited to see more!
Wow... a gorgeous and heartbreaking critique of just some of the ugly problems lurking beneath the surface in the game development industry.
The game itself is incredibly well polished, let alone for a single month's work during NaNoRenO! 🎉🥳
Thank you for creating and sharing this (not entirely) fictional story with us, and using your creative voices to speak up about these issues! ♥
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Also: ...First! 😉
A thought-provoking story about someone's "current" self VS their "ideal" self. An interesting read, and one that's growing on me the more I think about and reflect on it afterwards (however painful that might be, recognizing aspects of myself in the story 😰).
The scripting and ATL are super well done! 🎉 Really dynamic and expressive! And I appreciated the camera work and the custom screen transition(s) - those were cool.
Really lovely story about friendship and belonging!
The main character designs look cool, and each of the characters felt distinct.
I found the default textbox font size and colour hard to read sometimes, but the Ren'Py accessibility menu (hotkey 'A') provided easy fixes for those! (Larger text, High contrast mode)
The pacing felt rather slow during the beginning portion of the story, but the choices later on, the climax, and the multiple endings really delivered and hit home, more than making up for the flaws with the opening act.
Overall, it was pleasantly illuminating. 💡
HELL YES, let's crush some candy mutha*****s!!
Having been in the pits of gacha before, Candice's situation is such a mood, and is so well represented... 😔 (!@#% the gacha industry, stop ruining games kthx 😡) *ahem*
The character designs are awesome, the music fits so well, the backgrounds are so colourful and exciting, and I like the UI - it blends nicely with everything else without distracting from the action.
Gotta love a good sprinkling of family drama too, for good measure - that extra pinch of spice to make it both sweet and savoury! 🌶
The VAs seem fitting for each character, so nice job casting everyone! But I did feel like some of the voice acting is out of balance volume-wise. e.g. Karamel's voiced lines sound quiet compared to the other characters to me. 🔉
I'm definitely getting more "frenemy" vibes from Lakritz (AKA OP secret boss character), rather than LI. So I totally ship Candice x Peppermint! 🍬
I'm eager to see where the plot goes from here! Also, I was hoping there'd be an option to chew through the prison bars, so ty for delivering on that! (even if I almost made Candice break her teeth and/or jaw in the process 😂)
Love the demo, and very hyped for the full release! 🎉
Positively intox—
Wait for it...
A really interesting story with a fun juxtaposition between the simple-minded, people pleasing, easily flustered MC Kate and the devilish femme fatale mystery woman at the bar.
The dialogue was intriguing, seductive, witty, and flirty, which matches well with the vibe from the game's name and aesthetics. The game delved into surprisingly deep territory for a while, which was a pleasant surprise (even though the subject matter is potentially depressing 😔). Also, I appreciate the nod/reference with the mystery woman's "name". 😉
My only (relatively small) beef is that we don't actually get to see Creampuff, not even a small pic on Kate's phone. 😿 But art costs money, so I understand!
GORGEOUS graphics & UI, really expressive sprites, great use of camera work and ATL, the use sound effects was a nice touch — a cherry on top, if you will. 🍒😎 Presentation-wise, you killed it!!
Overall, amazing job! 🎉
—icating.
For such a short game, it really packs an emotional punch! (and hopefully a physical punch or twelve too 👊 ) I was tearing up by the end... 😢
Love the art style and aesthetic, including the UI design and the cut-ins of the MC! The music and SFX fit reasonably well with the story, especially near the end. Dialogue was on point, and felt like a real conversation between two friends, including both(?) endings. The gameplay portion of presenting evidence was cool as well, especially for a jam game. (TAKE THAT!)
Great job, and thank you for sharing this story! 💖 (cont'd ↓)
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I am slightly disappointed that the "loveliest little girl" didn't seem relevant at any point (I was hoping she could be "presented" near the very end, as an optional thing to cheer Ailu up).
Also: beepboop 📱😂
Overall, I really enjoyed WWCG!
Visually, the game looks awesome! The sprites (including Aspen's side images), the backgrounds (and BG variants!), the CGs, and camera work... *chef's kiss* Also, damn you and all those food pics! xD Made me hungry while playing lol... 🤤 (aside from those mushroom dishes 🤢🍄)
The music and SFX really added to the atmosphere, and the (partial) voice acting is well done and fits the characters.
On the writing side, Aspen's mannerisms and quirks are so freaking cute, and I really enjoyed their dialogue, banter, and chemistry with Crowe! I definitely appreciated the suspense and mystery elements of the story — those kept me intrigued. And the pacing felt reasonable, regardless of route.
Great job! 🥳🎉
This game is the (sphinx) cat's meow!
The art direction is absolutely stunning! The sprites, the backgrounds, the CGs all look super stylish. Even aspects like the little repeating circles pattern over the artwork are really cool (I'm no artist, so I have no idea what this is called lol).
The attention to detail and polish is awesome. I love the parallax background on the title screen and how the two sprites are overlaid, the custom cursor accentuates the clean simple futuristic-looking UI, and the use of ATL as well as the 3D stage + camera bring the world (and spaceship) to life.
Even the "smaller" aspects were done with care and precision, including the diary entries being "written" on lined paper, the multiple parallel dialogue boxes later in the story during the "fade to black" moments with Cassie on screen, and — as mado mentioned — that portion of the game when control is wrested away from the player during what I assume to be the "pact formation" with Cassie, which was a fun twist!
While I mostly enjoyed the added flourishes of the kinetic text effects, I found that particular darker red(?) text colour used for some of the kinetic text tags hard to read against the dark background of the textbox and choice buttons.
The image glitching effects and back-and-forth flashing/alternating images are quite cool and play well with the type of story being told, but as someone who can be a bit more sensitive to and bothered by effects like these, I wish there were settings to toggle each of these off, since at times I found it hard to look at and it interfered with my reading (mostly when The Grand's alternating forms were on screen).
The music is really well done (futuristic yet haunting), and combined with the sound effects and animations, really adds to the immersive atmosphere and ambience of the game.
Story-wise, I wasn't really sure what to expect going in, but I was pleasantly surprised. Quite the cosmic horror story (in more ways than one, heh), and I like the use of Cassie's history of delusions to paint her as an unreliable narrator, further blurring the lines between fiction and reality in an already mind-twisting scenario!
What's real? Who or what can I trust? I can't tell... which is great. >:3 Even Virgil might not be trustworthy, despite how he comes across. For all I know, the witch coven ritual Virgil is pushing for might herald the end of times, not just for the BUB, but all of humanity...
Shout out for creating a diverse cast of characters with a female protagonist. Virgil certainly steals the halibut show, but I found Cassie to be an intriguing and compelling MC, and Lucky, Katarine, and Eddie have more depth to them than first meets the eye.
And while I'm not too familiar with devils and demons lore nor classic literature, even I noticed and appreciate the references/allusions to Beelzebub and Faust in this story about a satanic eldritch being. ;)
I'm very intrigued to see how this tale ends!
P.S. Great job on the itch.io store page for the game! It looks great, and I love the integration of Faust Industries background lore (along with the disclaimer*** at the bottom).
P.P.S. How did you get this much done within one month with such a small team?! Super impressive!
A fun (albeit slightly easy) underwater mystery story, with an interesting twist!
Good use of visual effects and SFX, sprite expressions with blinking, character voice blips, some CGs, and an original soundtrack.
I enjoyed the gameplay aspect, with a mix of progressively unlocked discussion topics and choices the MC makes deciding which of 5(!) different endings you receive.
One minor quip is that the audio volume sliders are all too loud initially — max volume on launch is not a good thing. I want to say 70% of max volume might be a decent starting point?
Very well done for a 2.5 week game jam! Congrats on the win! 🎉
A cute, charming Halloween story with phantasmic fantastic voice acting! Davon and Meagan both did a phenomenal job, so congrats on the Best Voice Acting win! 🎉
I really enjoyed the character dynamics, the humour was on point ("how's it hanging?" xD), the sprites are really expressive (king of the castle Milo and mischievous Avery >:D), the music was lovely and added to the game's atmosphere and ambience, the background art looks great — especially with all those fancy lightning flashes. ⚡
The point n' click sections made me feel like I was the one exploring this house, and also rewarded me with funny optional dialogue, so that was a nice gameplay addition.
Overall, a really fun and heartwarming experience.
Great job!
Congratulations on taking home the Spooktober win!! 🏆
A harrowing look into a distinctly possible future where AI and hyper-capitalism with no regard for morality and human life reign supreme.
Gonna hide the rest due to spoilers:
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Having done multiple playthroughs to see different endings, I appreciate how even most of the "choices" players do actually get the opportunity to make don't change the outcome or even the subsequent dialogue at all, really hammering home how powerless the MC is (starting from the very beginning, where mods and a massive medical bill were foisted upon them without permission or consultation).
I love the amount of care and detail that went into the UI, including the way the UI itself is a story element, further feeding into a sense of hopelessness and external locus of control.
The characters are well-written and multi-faceted, which was a pleasant surprise from their first impressions. Penny is definitely a stand out, and almost feels like the epitome of a twisted corrupt VTuber whose sole goal is to extort and exploit their followers, despite (initially) coming off as cute, innocent, "helpful," and flirty, so it was fun seeing to what lengths she would go to maintain this façade, as well as how drastically her answers shifted when answering "Honestly".
The story was also excellently crafted. As soon as I found out that Sharpe already had 2 strikes, I knew where the story was heading long-term, which didn't make being railroaded (heh) into it any less horrifying... although I'm glad that Riley survived! She's one of my favourite characters, so that was a pleasant surprise.
(Also, how the hell did you manage to make this game while also writing for protoViolence within the same month?!?1?one)
The (animated) backgrounds, animations, CGs, cinematography, music and SFX are all really well done and super polished, and collectively amount to a really immersive experience, so amazing job! It also really highlights some of the advantages of using NaniNovel and Unity over other engines, such as RenPy.
I did run into that bug where the game freezes the first time running it, although amusingly, it let me open the Save window, but then froze when trying to save, lol. Fortunately, I didn't even have to restart my computer to get it working — closing and relaunching the game did the trick.
Re: the itch.io page design, the top portion looks awesome! But as soon as I scroll down below the page fold and the background gears animation is gone, I'm "greeted" by super bright yellow on either side of the centre column, making my eyes bleed. >_<;
One minor game-related UX issue: in terms of (pure) keyboard accessibility, I was able to use the ↑ arrow key to navigate to the choices in the center, but for whatever reason, using the ← and → arrow keys didn't let me switch choices, so if I had been exclusively using KB to play, I'd be forced into only picking the leftmost choice (and I don't recall how that worked in instances where the leftmost choice was forcibly disabled). I don't recall which version number I played, but it was an earlier version. So disregard this if it's since been fixed.
In terms of optimization, 1 GB is absolutely massive for a jam game, so I'm curious what could be done with file type conversions and file compression (lossless or even partially lossy) to shrink that down a bit with minimal to no noticeable drop in quality.
As an aside, holy hell, it seems impossible to find YouTube videos of this game outside of the itch.io comments, because of the game name. Sadge... :')
Fantastic job to everyone on the team, and again, massive congrats on the big win!!
Fun creepy lofi horror game. I really like the pixel art, and especially the animations (YEET)! Great job!
And the worm was a cute surprise!
How many endings are there? I believe I got 4 of them, but I'm curious if I missed any:
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Oh nice, more updates! 💪
Re: the story, "definitely something" is a positive thing! :D I thought I'd been more clear that the first line of my initial message covered that... whoops ^^;;
This was surprisingly enjoyable, and incredibly over-the-top absurd and ridiculous — great job!
And in terms of the GUI, you definitely had your hands full between creating a puzzle mini-game, adding voice acting, and all of the animations and scripting, among other things, so totally fair! lol
This was surprisingly enjoyable, and incredibly over-the-top absurd and ridiculous — great job!
I really liked the artwork and the character designs, and the animations were well done!
Plus, the dialogue was fun and flirty~. ;)
By the looks of it, there's a newer version of the game with typo fixes, but unfortunately, the version I played was haunted by the ghost of typos... ^^;;
I almost got scared off by the stock Ren'Py GUI (is that what was on the original VHS tape...? 😱), but I'm glad I gave the game a shot.
The story was... definitely something lol (EDIT: in a good way :p), and by the end, I was laughing and grinning like an idiot. :D
Thank you for sharing this wild wonky confection with us!
Really enjoyed pV! Awesome job to you and the team, for the second time! 🎉
So different from mV in many ways, yet so much to love (and despise you for T_T) this time around~:
- Major kudos on the UI, the UI design, the various accessibility features (img descr, audio titles, self-voicing NOT buried in the Controls section, font size+color+line spacing <3), the pop-out quick menu, the CRT lines and screen curving effect, even the menu and initial splash screen login prompt all resembling a computer terminal — it presents brilliantly, while also tying in thematically to the game itself as a STOP employee, and with the computer being used to access the interviews, the most important (interactive) parts of the experience.
My only beef here, and it's quite minor: I wish there were a custom keybind for toggling Auto-Forward, considering RenPy doesn't provide one by default. Leaving the QM open got in the way in certain scenes, so it was a bit annoying opening it to turn on Auto, only to turn it off to enjoy a CG or re-read some lines, then re-open the QM to enable Auto again, etc.
- Love the sprite work, and especially how expressive and emotive Pavel is (espec when you twist the knife later on away from happy expressions :') ).
- The cinematography, animation, use of the 3D camera are phenomenal and really made the experience feel immersive, especially combined with...
- The voice acting, which was really high-quality and well-balanced. The "sound bites" were used tastefully, and with the most impactful lines being voiced, those scenes stood out even more (tugging further at my heartstrings </3).
- Ditto regarding the use and sound balancing of the SFX and music tracks, all of which had great ambience and atmosphere. The music was almost too relaxed and easy-going (intentional choices, I assume >:3 ), which further added to my sense of dissonance and discomfort leading up to the story's climax (especially having played mV, so I knew more or less *what* was coming, just not *how*).
- The point n' click desk sections were a nice touch, along with the phone texting UI and SFX. Great use of alternating between ADV and NVL modes. Also, props on leveraging RenPy's speech bubbles system, considering that's a relatively new feature in 8.x IIRC.
- Regarding the story, I really enjoyed (being hurt by) it! <3 I definitely felt the connection between Deidre and Pavel grow over time, their bond solidifying as she gained his trust, and he her devotion and conviction. It was also excellently painful seeing Pavel, a square peg being jammed by YTDI into their round hole without any thought for flexibility or individuality, not fitting in by mere virtue of being himself — a scenario and challenge I can relate to — with Angie being the embodiment of this rigid adherence to rules and "results" above all else. So those aspects resonated with me, especially seeing Pavel being processed (punished) despite not doing anything severe enough to merit it, and how the cruelty and inhumanity of this becomes the fuel which incites Deidre into action. It logically flows and hits in the feels, which is great!
I do wish y'all had another maybe 2 weeks to spend on the project, because as much as I enjoyed the story, I would have wanted to see more "intermediate" visits with Deidre and Pavel between his first processing and his Nth, e.g. with just the prosthetic legs, then with the legs + brain chip, then those + the arm(s?) and eye, to further build that sense of horror, unease, and dread re: YTDI's lack of moral boundaries (rather than jumping from "Look ma, no legs!" straight to "All the cybernetics1!".
Similarly, I would have liked for Deidre and Angie's final confrontation to have been a bit more fleshed out, although I'm having a harder time pinpointing exactly how or in what way, or what feels lacking or rushed here IMO.
30 days is NOT a lot of time, so I completely understand and appreciate picking and choosing your battles on what to focus on wrt the writing.
The beginning, the climax, and the ending were fantastic, and absolutely delivered though! "Blue..." Who's chopping onions nearby?! T.T
Also, the little throwbacks to mV like the grape-scented stickers and the apartment photo... <3
Again, phenomenal job this time around! (and on finding a much more accessible form of pain and suffering: emotional trauma, instead of puzzles lol)
