itch.io

This game was a fever dream and I was impressed with the point and click and movement. And then the fish child pops out!!! Like what?! I loved this. This is one of my favorite entries for the jam. Good job!

This was so Canadian. Mentioning Timbits made me take a drive to Tim Hortons. I love the mauve purple colors of the opening backgrounds. It felt so Halloween-y and I need this color in my wardrobe. The comic-book art style made the VN feel like it could have been an episode in that 90s Canadian show, Freaky Stories!

I need this as an animated show. The storyboards at the beginning were so cool - you probably ran out of time to color and fix lines, but this worked out so well as like a prologue section of the VN! You're clearly very talented with animation. This game felt like  Night in the Woods. If you have any intentions to continue developing, please publish this to Steam! 

I like the cutesy bubble stylization of the choices, quick menu, and sprites. Everything felt so cohesive! Good job!

This was cinematic! 🤩 I love the inventory, the GUI, the sprites (Grace is my bae), and the absolute mindf**k of the story. This is one of my top 3 favorite jam submissions!

I liked the art style, especially of Liam during some of the scarier moments where his facial features disappeared and the imagery of the family portrait with the parents faces blurred out with the scene lighting. Good job!

The game's atmosphere was nice and spooky! I liked your choice to do black and white and your shading was on point so everything felt like it had depth. The phone texts were a bit too quick to read even with changing text speed. If possible, it would be great if the player has to click to advance to the next text message.  And consider customizing the choice menu UI so it's not center screen covering your cute sprites. Good job!

The web build worked! I really liked the story.  It felt suspenseful and anxious. And it had all the elements of good prose. The one music track that seemed to play during the conversation with Red and Blue about Jack's rabbit felt like it went too long, which distracted from the initial build up.

The story left me guessing. Did something happen to Red's sister? Why was Green in this street gang? Good job!

<3 The quality of this game deserves many comments and compliments!

Good true horror tale about streaming and being an online personality. I find the best horror is rooted in reality. In some ways it felt like a Black Mirror episode. Good job <3

I love your GUI and tbe stylization of your world! This reminds me of 80s/90s anime. And oddly sailer moon.

This felt like watching a soap opera and I didn't want to leave until I knew what happened next. The dialogue was snappy like a ping pong match and I couldn't stop clicking next.

I loved the story, art, and writing! How you used fading in/out of sprites and sprite movement was so well done. This stole my attention from the lore building at the start of the game. I love the workplace/female-against-female culture subplot woven in the story. I played through two endings!

How has no one left a comment yet? I feel so special being the first here. <3

This VN is fabulous! This felt like watching a soap opera and I didn't want to leave until I knew what happened next. The dialogue was snappy like a ping pong match and I couldn't stop clicking next.

I loved the story, art, and writing! How you used fading in/out of sprites and sprite movement was so well done. This stole my attention from the lore building at the start of the game. I love the workplace/female-against-female culture subplot woven in the story. I played through two endings!

Ooooooo I can see how her name being missing for internal dialogue makes sense now. Your cool UI for the box makes it seem like the name should always be present. Maybe consider denoting internal dialogue with like parentheses around the text?

This was a cute take on a TV-style game! Good job! Your audio files need to be normalized, especially voice files. The sound design has potential! 

This felt like a game made with love for other Ren'py programmers. Thank you <3

This felt like an episode of "Ed, Edd, n Eddy" live streamed on a Y2k car TV. This was immaculate.  Good job!

Such an interesting story! I can't wait to hear the music and SFX when you add it in a later build.  Does our MC have a name? I think it's Caligo, but I wasn't clear. Is it intentional that it's missing from the dialogue box?

Some things to consider: 
- make the mothers different names when the game starts because it was hard to distinguish between which sprite was speaking with just font color differences and a faint border color around the sprite. 
- add like "gothic" as a game tag for users to find and play.  
- add a few sentences before the game giving a preference to this universe/world. It seems like people turning into demons is common, so bring that up. 

I enjoyed the mixed media visuals like when you were in the toilet answering the phone. It made the phone and text conversations stand out really well.  The story did a good job of encapsulating the anxiety and internal dilemmas surrounding domestic violence, homophobia, and panic attacks/anxiety.

Thank you!!!! <3

Thank you! We were our most unhinged selves creating this game. 

Thank you! I had the most fun asking my group to do the voice lines and we roped one of their kid's in to sing the Looney Lou theme song! 

Such an interesting story! I'm intrigued by the story so far in your prologue and I love the detective gameplay mechanic! It's so unique and on point with the plot for faeology. The hotbox for hover/active state for the detective tools like the blacklight and magnifying glass could be bigger. And the makeup box didn't prompt dialogue until I moved it on top of the encyclopedia and then moved the magnifying glass over it. That felt like a bug.  Good job!

Such an interesting story! I'm intrigued by the story so far in your prologue and I love the detective gameplay mechanic! It's so unique and on point with the plot for faeology. The hotbox for hover/active state for the detective tools like the blacklight and magnifying glass could be bigger. And the makeup box didn't prompt dialogue until I moved it on top of the encyclopedia and then moved the magnifying glass over it. That felt like a bug.  Good job!

I will!!! I'm so excited to play!

Thanks for playing and pointing out the image issue! It was ironic that the data set I based the AI on came from the Philadelphia Art Museum too! This was a data science fellowship project from last year, I probably used too chonk of AI images for the browser build.

The suspense felt like a mix between a Chilla's Art game and a game called "Hollow Cocoon" in all the best ways. The gameplay kept you engaged by mixing up choice menus, the cell phone, and reading notes. The visuals made it feel a little like an interactive movie game. Consider adding creepy music throughout "happy scenes" - it'll be creepier to hear when characters are smiling/plot has no suspensful content - the pop music threw off any built up suspense.

No worries! I'll try again and let you know what happens.

This VN was truly good! Good job! If you stick to the color choices, consider using a bright color font to stand in high contrast against the background colors.

The background art was crisp. This has a lot of potential!

I know it's a jam game and the scope knife is merciless. I wasn't sure if the choice of colors versus all black and white scenes was because of the jam or a curatorial decision. The font and font color was very hard to read, especially the quick menu at the bottom. And same with the voice acting. It felt like lines were missing rather than certain select lines were voiced. Music would go a long way! Consider adding SFX to compliment your camera pan outs and flashes of red. 

The game won't play for me :(

When I try running the .exe file, it says "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

I absolutely love this. I was hooked from the opening animation before you even got to the game menu! Like what?!?! You all put so much effort into the game's presentation that it really paid off when there weren't that many backgrounds or sprite poses to emphasize certain parts of the narrative.  I don't think the game fits the spooky tag because it's more gothic literature or historical fiction.  I suggest adding a gothic/gothic fiction tag to your itchio page and playing into that niche for VNs. Good job!

Following your game build fix! Let me know when the mini game fix is pushed and I'll play.

I'm so excited to play your game! They announced on discord, you can upload fixed builds. Let me know when it's uploaded!!

I had a scaredy cat friend play through the demo and she made the same comment. She was like, "what is with you and skinning and mangled hands?" hahahaha

Thanks! What was the show it reminded you of?

Thank you!! We really wanted the spooky to get under your skin and simmer.

Thanks! I love that you can taste the flesh TV and its hallucinations. We ran out of time to do an immersive tutorial and we were all like, "Will players know what a VCR is and how to work it." Post-jam were thinking of making a real video footage tutorial of working the flesh TV with a physical TV prototype. 

As non-Native speakers, you did phenomenal! I couldn't tell from the writing. <3

The visuals are stunning. I love the box art and game menu. And that menu song...*chef's kiss* I really liked the story. It felt unique and the art complimented the vibes. Consider starting the story with a recap of a past murder on a different holiday. You also had a few typos like "Knowing that the major said we must..." - sounds like it should be mayor. Overall, GOOD JOB. This was a jam game so typos are to be expected, especially since you had such a branching story and your code editors don't spell check.