itch.io

Great concept! I love the art style, and how everything looks like it was drawn by a courtroom sketch artist. It pairs well with the writing style and overall mood of the story.

!!!

https://dreamlogician.itch.io/heartstrings

Great job! I thought the pacing was perfect, with the visuals and text having exactly the right amount of detail. All the elements felt harmonious, and it made the overall experience remarkably cohesive.

One technical note: When I tried to fullscreen the game, it stayed at the same resolution with a large black border to the right and bottom of the game window. I switched back to windowed mode, but because of the resolution the itch.io info bars overlapped the top right of the game window. They actually covered up the heart in the top right of the speech bubble stage. Took me a while to notice, but eventually I figured it out.

The presentation is really impressive! The central mechanic reminded me a bit of Denki Blocks, another puzzle game that I really enjoy. But I think the direction you took with the mechanic is actually more intuitive and more varied.

Great concept, and impressive job all-around on the implementation. I love the aspect of needing to balance conflicting requests from different characters. It reminded me a bit of the old Hidden Agenda game from the '80s, but with a more unique and engaging interface.

This is beautiful and brave. I'm grateful that you had the courage to take on an important and sensitive topic. I thought the writing was excellent, and handled the subject matter with sensitivity and grace. It's rare to find a game that feels deeply personal and yet highly polished at the same time. Great work!

This is such a wonderful, creative, and unique game. The art style and atmosphere you created are phenomenal.

I especially love the unusual layout with the smaller viewing window surrounded by a frame. It reminded me a bit of the old adventure game Dark Seed, which also had a creepy art style and large frame around the game window. There's something alienating about it - but I mean that in a good way. It really enhances the feeling that what you're seeing is something that exists outside the realm of your ordinary experience.

I love this! Easily one of my favorite entries. I especially appreciated the aspect of needing to perform the occasional upkeep actions to sustain the spirit of your existing group of protestors. That was a great detail.

This game is a fun goof and a spoof! Your interpretation of the theme is comedy gold. The cartoony visuals felt reminiscent of ye olde educational games like Number Munchers, in the best possible way.

Nice! The writing, character design, art, and music were all excellent. The entire presentation was quite polished. I enjoyed the process of gradually accumulating more friends as I explored the environment.

Great concept! I'm a big fan of games that convey ideas through abstract iconic visuals and expressive mechanics, and your design is a really interesting application of these techniques. I also enjoyed the buildup of differently colored threads, and the way your view expands as you find more unicorns.

This was hilarious! The writing and art fit together so well, and really helped to complement one another. Loved the roller coaster of emotions during the final eight hours.

Nice work! I really like the central premise of gathering signatures, and I enjoyed talking to the wide variety of different characters. The music is also perfectly suited to the setting.

I really like the art style! The characters are adorable.

I really enjoyed this! Great poem selections. Bitsy feels like a perfect platform to experiment with some of your ideas about walking simulators.

The only thing missing is an underwater section featuring "The Swimmer" by Mary Oliver. Perhaps in the sequel? ;)

Yes, I played through and enjoyed it. I remember you mentioning being a fan of this series, and it's cool that you incorporated it into your first game. Looking forward to playing more of your games in the future. ^_^

@Norbez: Sure, feel free to tweet it.

Playing the game made me feel like I was performing some kind of technology-assisted process to bring Ann's views in line with a set of accepted or "approved" norms (by forcing her to either renounce her views or be killed). So in my mind, the target of HCF is the "heretic" that is being "cleansed"... seemed like an ominous enough term to fit with the tone of the game. ;)

This is genuinely creepy (in a good way). Nice work! I'll go with "Heretic Cleansing Function" as my guess for what HCF means. ;)

I enjoyed these lies. ^_^

It's a game all right. A mighty fine game! But is it ART?

˙sı ʇı 'sǝʎ :ɐ

Nice work!