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Hey, thanks for the library / education copy! I'm currently working on a student-run publication project with a theme that closely aligns with the Librarian's Apprentice. Having the actual files makes it much easier to explain and convince my team members to include it. The editorial team has precisely 0 budget to spend on licensing content (our material is mostly original) but I strongly believe in including a solo RPG, so having this great game be under Creative Commons is really helpful. Although, I do sincerely apologize if I claimed the wrong kind of copy... If that is indeed the case, I hope it's not a big issue. If it is, let me know how to resolve it.

Thank you for the reply! I loved Masquerade and am looking forward to the main VN!

Considering the burnout issues you had a while ago I won't ask when you think the game will be done. However, if possible, I would like to know 2 things. Is the game still in active development? And which parts of the game are finished, and which are still to be worked on?

Fascinating game. Downright a fascinating game. I highly recommend you give it a shot! And I said that while still on my first playthrough. There is even an easy way of tracking which endings you get

Good visual novel with a twist I did not see coming in that first route... That final scene tho, while I totally understand why you added it, it wasn't great for closure and peace of mind ^^'

Just... How bad of an idea was it to not have reread the store page after little under a year since downloading it, and doing both options while I have yet to read DUFE? ^^' How much have I spoiled/ruined Ace-related things for myself for when I get around to the main game?

Don't be worried. The trailers my look like it may be too graphically intense for lower-end stuff, but CrossCode is a good example of strong art design and code optimization. I play this on a machine that has little going for it when it comes to gaming (Asus VivoBook Flip 14), but CrossCode runs without my laptop audibly working any harder than when writing emails. The devs did a really good job, so if you're looking for great games you can play on non-gaming hardware, CrossCode should be right at the top of your list!

TLDR: great game, but your mileage may very depending on how you play games and if the gameplay is enough to hook you. For me, even if it's a relatively short game, the balance between gameplay and plot is off since the gameplay isn't interesting enough to fill the gaps between the narrator bits. Even so, don't worry about trying it out, it has great qualities.

Edit: having now read a summary of the story, I can say it's powerful and very emotional.

Now on my second session, and I can definitely see how this game is meant to be played in 1 sitting: it's very hard to keep track of and absorb the story if you don't. The problem is that while the voice acting is excellent, the sound and visuals give off an amazing vibe, and the plot is cool, the gameplay just isn't engaging enough for me to want to sit down for 3-5 hours. That's already not how I like to play games tho, so it's not completely fair of me, but still. If the story was kept as is but the game made shorter I think I would've liked it more. The story is interesting and I think only works the way it's written now and told in the narrator-style the game does it in, so keeping the game as is but changing the plot/the way it's told wouldn't work. That being said, to reiterate: the voice acting, sound, visuals, and story (isolated from game length) are very well done.

Izzy is the best NPC. 10 outta 10, would fly Air Baer again.

Please play this game! It's really, really fun.

You're making a new game? Awesome!

The soundtrack and visuals are great, but it can make you feel like a real idiot when you can't figure out such a simple game. I solved it in a lot more time than it should take but I did in the end, be it quite frustrated. Definitely played better with others so they can tell you when you're overlooking something.

Amazing single-room puzzle platformer of perfect length, tho the difficulty of the final four levels was too much for me.

Wish I had read this a month ago when it would've been seasonally appropriate. Still glad I read it tho! Maybe I'll have a romance of my own in a few years at age 28/29...

Edit: Also, Zoey is a sweet little girl who absolutely must be protected. Sequels are tricky things, but I really would not mind more stuff about Zoey, Noel, and their family.

Ooooh that sounds doable! You can reach me on Discord at Saragraph#8507.

Depending on deadline, yes.

Sure am still looking for people who'd like their project receive a Dutch localisation!

Hey there everyone! I am a freelance localiser of videogames, but my typical projects are both very infrequent and often not incredibly inspiring, consisting mostly of storepages, mobile games, and the like. I love VNs, so a jam like this one sounds like a great opportunity for me to practice the craft while also having fun with the process. Should you happen to appreciate your Winter VN Jam submission to be localised in Dutch (for free of course, this is a jam after all), send me a message!

For me, I think I'd like to see the fairies again. Some other characters returning would be wonderful too of course, like Robin and Sparrow for example, but I cannot help but feel you could expand on the fairies' characters. Looking forward to it!

People are so creative. Sure, there's a few typos and grammar mistakes, low brightness, music that's a little too soft, and dialogue options you can't select with your arrow keys (you have to click on them), but that doesn't matter a whole lot. They're gripes, but minor ones. It's the art style, the writing, the character names (yes, names), and cozy care + vibe the Lonely People Potion shop oozes (both the game and the location in-game) that make this a very easy sell.

I'll give it to you that I wasn't being the best human being ever when I wrote that last part and that maybe I should just have kept it to myself. Rereading it know, and it was way too strongly worded. My god... I really don't want to be an a-hole, and if I upset anyone with what I said I wholeheartedly apologize. Again, I really don't like being a knob, so I'm sorry if I was.

That being said, there is loads more you can do with any premise than what a particular dev, writer, film maker, you name it, ended up doing with it. Taking basic concepts from other media and interpreting it in their own way is one of the basic ways in which creators make more things. Of course, if it's basically the same thing the whole way through but either condensed into a summary or fleshed out with more detail and conversations, that's a form of plagiarism, that's bad, and no one should do that. However, a new story doesn't have to follow the same beats as what came before. It's totally possible for a creator to come along, be inspired by something (either in a positive or negative way), and make it their own. They can execute a premise in such a different way that, yes it may be clear the fruit of their labour has the same basic idea behind it as its source, but be a wholly different creation in nearly every aspect. Every high fantasy story written after The Lord of the Rings came out or every space opera following Dune can be described with "that, but different". Of course, the more specific a premise is formulated the higher the risk of plagiarism, so maybe I shouldn't have been as precise as I was. But what I was suggesting was not to take the story of Hexed, add bits to it, and turn (for example) the walks into a written paragraph. Neither was I suggesting to take the first x minutes, not change it at all, and then go from there. I agree that would be quite rude. If it turns out we actually agree but it was a terrible misunderstanding due to poor communication on my part, I apologize for that too.

As for the game's length, that's entirely subjective. Different people have different amounts of free time and a different number of things they would like to do or explore with that free time. I for one have a neverending backlog of games I want to play all the way through because I know I'll like them, or at least try out because I think I might enjoy them (and that's not even saying anything about the books I want to read). Therefore I always ask myself the question: "Is what I'm doing right now fun? Is it worth the time investment when there are so many other things that I could be doing instead that will or could be more satisfying?" The shorter something is, the less time I have to start feeling bothered. For me, something is too long if those questions have popped up with a certain frequency and the answer is a definite no. 4-5 hours may be short in the grand scheme of things, I'm not arguing against that, but for someone with my tastes Hexed was still too long. That is all I was saying.

(Also, while you can assign the menu to the i key, you can't go straight to the items screen. You have to press enter first. It's a minor thing, but still.)

Edit: I had an attitude problem when I first wrote this. Rewrote the final paragraph to be more nuanced and less rude, merged it with the good, edited the verdict to sound less negative, added a TLDR, and added two lines to the introduction.

TLDR: this game was not for me and that feeling was strong enough I dropped it partway through, but hopefully it will be for you. It has its flaws, but there's enough good in here that if your tastes differ from mine, it just might.

First the bad, then the good, and then the verdict. Since I didn't finish it, so please do not take this as a careful assessment of everything Hexed has to offer. However, it does sum up my thoughts and impressions of my time with it, limited though it may have been.

The bad: this game may be short, but it's still too long for for me personally. It is very short for RPG standards, but it couldn't keep me hooked for long enough, I can say that for me it was too long. The combat wasn't complex enough to keep me interested (I dropped it midway through) and the story doesn't do a whole lot of interesting things either. The battle art is inconsistent, there are no resolution options, and you can't access the item screen by pressing the i key (instead having to navigate to it through the main esc key menu).

The good: even if what follows is far from its quality, the title screen and music are wonderfully done. It's really impressive stuff! Especially because I assume it was done with royaly free material. Actually, while the rest of the music isn't as good as the title screen's, it's all decent at the very least. And while the battle art is inconsistent, there are some amazing sprites and backgrounds in there. The first battle against that swordswoman in the forest cabin comes to mind as a good example of that. And finally, while the rest of the story is nothing special, the premise is fantastic. It was my favourite part of the game. "Traveller gets turned into a spectre and, being the terrifying monster they are now, shunned by the world they were once a (presumably appreciated) part of, must find a way to live and cope" is a great setup for an emotional tale, be it purely tragic, uplifting, or both. The way it was executed here was not my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean the basic ideas were bad. I'll remember Hexed for it and who knows, maybe one day I'll find something similar yet different enough to set itself apart in a unique way that aligns more with what I'm looking for in a game or book.

The verdict: The flaws (like the fights or the game's length) were bad enough to make me drop it. That said, it's more than affordable, was originally made to show some maps to a friend (which to me makes parts of the game's design more understandable), and it has its share of redeeming qualities. Therefore, if the fantastic premise intrigues you I would encourage you to pick it up and play it, but put the difficulty on story mode. If you're like me and the combat doesn't really click with you, maybe that'll make it easier to see the whole story through and possibly discover some pearls that will remain hidden for me.

I have many thoughts about this visual novel, more than I care to write down anyway. So, I'll stick to the short and positive version.

My first impression wasn't good at all. But then I kept reading, and when I reached my first ending I was like: "Alright game, I want to see what making different choices near the end does to that ending." And then something clicked. I didn't just make some minor adjustments close to that ending I got, I went back to the start and went through it all multiple times because I wanted to see and learn more of these characters (thank god for the (quick) save and load buttons, and the skip text key). It's a flawed game, but I promise that if you stick around and make an effort, this short and sweet VN will handsomely reward you. I am so glad I read this. Consider me a fan!

Not much to say about playing this game other than that it is a fun puzzler. On the technical side tho... Everytime when I boot it up I have to go into the options menu, click fullscreen and apply, wait until it's reset, click fullscreen and apply again, and wait until it's reset before it's actually in windowed mode. Gets annoying real fast.

I am not a teacher nor an expert in Japanese, so I can't really judge the game's effectiveness at teaching the player some kanji. However, what I can say is that if you go into this with absolutely no expectations or knowledge what this game's like you'll have a fantastic time. It kept throwing curveballs at me and I loved it for it. Now, I didn't do much beyond the opening and the first two lessons because I have a lot of games to play and I am already somewhat familiar with these kanji, but I think I can safely recommend this game: it's fun, and you'll definitely know more kanji after playing it than before. And who knows, maybe it'll be a good tool for me to refresh my Japanese some time later.

A fun lighthearted VN that even I, someone who doesn't typically read LGBTQ+ stuff, enjoyed. Give it a shot! I will say tho that unlocking that 1 missing CG and ending 6, was difficult enough for me (couldn't do it with my best efforts) that I'd say to not spend too much time one 100% this game. There's no full guide, so just have the fun with it you want to have and move on without fretting over perfecting everything.

Fun VN about a VR world that features a scientist who definitely isn't Steins;Gate's Okabe Rintaro. Don't expect too much from it in terms of things it has to say and be prepared for a shifts partway through from a story you'd expect to be about Lilya's personal development to one focussed on scifi fantasy lore, and you'll have a good time. Art's nice, OST's enjoyable, and the lore is unique. Oh, but while the UI looks great it isn't the most functional. For example, it doesn't tell you how to turn on auto text or start the text history from the most recent lines. But these are ultimately minor things, there is still fun to be had.

Was initially very confused and looked at the comments for answers, but then decided to play it again. Am very glad I did, what a short and well-crafted little game! Will definitely have a look at your other stuff once I'm done with the current backlog of stuff from the Ukraine bundle.

Read this as one of the first games I got on itch, and it was really good. Liked the art, liked the music, liked the characters, but I think most of all I liked the set-up and third-person narrative. The lighthouse and island being what they are (don't wanna spoil in the comments) and the characters being referred to as "The Guest" or "The Keeper" were both brilliant ideas. I was so surprised by how much I actually ended up being engrossed in this VN that I was almost inspired to try and write and code a VN of my own! Almost, since I'm dreadfully uncreative. Still though, that I even got the idea should say something.

Fantastic little game. Nice visuals, atmospheric music, and you can really feel that it's a firsthand account of Antarctic life. It's short enough to play in one sitting, and for that single play session you're somewhere totally else. Be sure to save tho after signing off if you want to see all the unique dialogue at the end. I didn't save and as much as I like the game, it is more of a one time experience. Still highly recommend it tho! (Not sure how reviews work on itch.io, so I'm gonna leave mine as comments just in case.)

Edit: I kept thinking that one piano track was gonna be Satie's Gymnopédie No. 2, but no. It's an original piece. A+