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The day writers stop rambling is the day the universe implodes : )

Rating is scary! If I had to explain my ratings in a public forum I would opt to melt into a puddle instead. And the only thing scarier than a numbered list is a numbered list with my name on it. 

I personally ranked Theme Incorporation based on, first, how easy it was to determine who the “You” and the “here” is in “you shouldn’t be here” and then estimating how important that You and Here was to the *theme* of the story (since most very obviously pit the plot just fine). It was subjective! But if you’re gonna put it in my hands imma do as I please : )

Oh my goodness, I didn’t realize you faced such adversity smack dab in the middle of the jam! I hope you’re feeling better, and I’m excited to see what a post-jam version looks like!

I didn’t share this in my postmortem but I almost did: Every time I exit RenPy I forget what I learned and loathe opening it back up. It does take time to get used to any engine tbh, even if I don’t need the documentation I always keep it open bc I get spooked very easily. I’m glad you’re getting more comfortable, and that you’re noticing that change!

thank you ❤️ that’s very kind of you to say 

I’m surprised to hear folks said they wouldn’t be able to follow the story, your story has such a clear emotional arc that I don’t even really care personally about the wealth or dearth of context that surrounds it all that much. That’s obviously just my perspective but I like my perspective : ) 

I suppose I oughta link my own postmortem which answers some of these questions (don't read it till after you play my entry plz and thx). That document, plus the comments I left, do a pretty good job highlighting what I really liked in other folks' entries. To answer the rest of the questions posed:

I have no idea how I did! Not even a little bit of a clue. Carcinogen turned out how it was always gonna turn out I reckon, and personally I wouldn't know how to even begin to rate a fever dream. So lmao sorry about that. I'm personally very happy with my own conduct during the jam - I took good care of myself and kept my expectations pretty reasonable, which are both pretty tall asks.

The highest moment for me was sharing the WIPs with friends and just getting responses like "gross" and "jfc michael". It tickled me. 

My personal low was probably struggling to start the script in the first place. For about three days I didn't know how to start, so I worked on art instead. It took leaving home, going to the library, and holding myself accountable to some friends to get me writing. Once I got the ball rolling, it wasn't so bad, but that first leap was surprisingly difficult to take. Thank the stars for friends.

 On the whole I'm amazed at the extent to which each entry either had something very powerful to say or made really bold choices that I'm still turning over in my mind. A very strong showing. Honestly I'm curious how this jam self-selects but it's a talented group of folks any way you slice it. Great work, y'all!

I'm curious to hear what you feel you overcomplicated! Iirc All of us Flames' writing was very sharp and whatever went unaddressed or simply teased left me more curious than confused. 

You're welcome for the crab game >: ) Thank you for the kind words!! Sound design was the most fun I had on this jam, I think. Finding new off-putting crunchy sounds was a lot of fun. 

Thanks for taking the time to play it and for the kind words! Sorry-not-sorry for the lingering feelings : )

I would describe my feelings on the final day of the jam as very much "bushed" : )

If it's any consolation I also had to use the dictionary several times! I'm glad the game's opaqueness gives it some texture at the very least. I had too many talented GUI artists looking over my shoulder to let me keep the default Ren'Py UI, and I'm grateful for it. 

Thank you kindly!

Grateful to hear you made it out in one piece!

Under Your Moon is a visual feast, and very much a personal exemplar for the kinds of brilliant touches I would want to include in my own projects. Obvious examples include relighting scenes with the candles, altering the phase of the moon to indicate the passage of time, the pullover GUI menu, the blinking sprites, and the title cards for each act. All very, very good stuff.

Starlit Regrets burns slowly enough to make the endgame’s twist punch unexpectedly hard — it’s a great way to recontextualize all the choices the player already made with Orion. The pretty boys are, of course, very pretty — the sprite work is strong and just cannot stop staring into Orion’s eyes someone please stop me please. The layered speech bubbles are really nice UX as well, letting me see the recent history of the conversation almost NVL-style.

All the visual elements in My Escape to Hell (BGs, GUI, sprites) cohere extraordinarily well, and of course special mention must go to the sprite work. I was expecting to be able to follow a path with Vee or the Cosmodeus, but Dokuro’s banter is sharp enough that I didn’t miss the others once his path got rolling. Light and morbid is always a good combination, and My Escape to Hell very much delivers on that front. 

Flight of the Cuckoo unwaveringly commits to the feel of its world in both its prose and its dialogue, to its great advantage. Character voices are strong but also blend well together in conversation. I especially think the water’s edge scenes are the strongest of the bunch in almost every department: The soft GUI and pastel BG complement each other well, and we get a whole host of characters who run the emotional gamut  (including the PC, even). Good work!

A lot of Iron Star’s charm comes from its sprite work and the VO for those characters — that’s to say its two leads are a very strong core around which Iron Star revolves. The CG and then the epilogue provide such immense payoff, too. It’s good feelings all the way down.

And in case you were wondering, my alien was named Columbo.

Our Haunt is I think an exemplar of confident and deliberate scoping. It’s a tight story with just enough choices to keep things fresh, its tight cast of characters is complemented by excellent sprite work for each, and the original music is such a wonderful way to cap off the game. They all contribute the game's excellent sense of momentum.

My pleasure! : )

red eye understands how to use chatsim speak to coax out deeper feelings without disrupting the pace or legibility of the story. It uses the format of text-based platforms like MMO chat or Discord to obfuscate characters’ more insidious motivations or feelings under the chatspeak, which directly serves how Raid Leader eases her way into your life at first innocuously and then later aggressively. It is a story that demands the use of and takes full advantage of the chatsim format. The interface is intricate and, although a bit buggy, comprehensive in a way that makes red eye’s scope feel appropriately grand.

Every single detail in In this life is designed and implemented specifically to get you to want Michael and August to be together, and it’s brilliant. The dialogue is so charming, the sepia tone BGs imply all the nostalgia Michael has for the place, and I can only describe the GUI as “so fuckin’ cozy.” The game’s extremely focused art direction is such a powerful strength. I just wanna sit in it forever.

I also like that I didn’t even have to prompt the game to call me Michael : )

Tears welled when I found the note : ) you got me. I love how much the choices Than makes throughout the scene paints such a picture of their and the MC’s relationship. Than’s emotional arc as a whole is so robust — the way their attitude shifts in bits and spurts is so evocative. Also, every dev should slip bonus content in their files — both the note and the dev folder are great examples of how to use the whole Ren’Py animal to tell a story outside of the game proper.

I am personally such a sucker for good sapphic codependence (see: Burn Pygmalion), and this hits just right. All of us Flames does such a great job giving a snapshot of a larger world and made me wonder what’s on the periphery of the story being told. The choices add a lot of good flavor without disrupting the piece’s really strong arc. I particularly like that Kaja’s self-loathing persists through the end of the story, rather than getting solved by the protagonist in the arc of the conversation. It contributes to All of us Flames’ really strong sense of thematic and emotional weight.

I admire deeply the care put into handling such a genuinely serious and prescient political question about the lives of trans folk. The quirky time-travel premise presents an invitation to engage with that question in a way that is softer and kinder than a more blunt discussion of trans rights in 2024 can reasonably be. Even when RIaTTN is very frank about 2024’s bleak material realities, the main cast balms it with love, understanding, and forgiveness for each other. It is this specific complement between its despair and its hope that gives RIaTTN its texture. I am grateful for the forgiveness communicated in all three post-choice paths as well — whether to leave or to fight is an intensely painful question to grapple with in the first place. RIaTTN is a game that treats its players, its subject, and its choice with love and understanding, and it warms my heart.

My pleasure! : )

The choices in your god is a stranger do a great job allowing the player to express their perspective on the narrative. The responses to these choices range from subtle to an outright branch — it’s a really nice variety of reactivity that gives the story a lot of good texture. It’s an excellent first step into VN dev, great work!

literally my pleasure : )

under the lighthouse leans decisively into its strengths — that clarity of intent lends a lot of weight to the piece. The strength of its almost-ultraviolet, thoroughly electronic aesthetic, and the uncompromising commitment to demanding the player learn about the world exclusively through the filter of Liv’s perspective are both exemplars of this game’s tight focus. I also want to note that, in thematic tandem with the game, the itch page has links to the sites referenced in the story. It’s an absolutely brilliant touch that demands I dwell on it outside of my time playing it.

Where the Sea Foam Fades does an excellent job at teasing its revelation and escalating the tension of not knowing very well. I don’t think I’ve ever complimented a game for its name before, or at least for the way Where the Sea Foam Fades introduces new meaning at the end. It’s really clever and evocative!

<3 i love you random commenter

Yesterday I had to save and quit the game before I could finish it, and I spent the evening thinking about A House of Endless Windows. I did ultimately finish it. This is a visual novel that knows exactly what it wants and how to get it, and from the get-go it convinced me I needed to see it through. It’s a powerful cast of characters all well-realized, and all the dialogue is so tantalizingly platitudinous — the tension between what is being said and what is known or feared is palpable in every single scene. Also worth mentioning this is almost exclusively a solo effort with original art and music. And as a result, everything complements everything. I am thoroughly captivated by all of it.

I am so deeply inspired by the types of choices A Peaceful Wedding asks you to make. Choice architecture is so often overlooked, and A Peaceful Wedding lets its flashbacks frame the choices presented in such interesting ways — totally novel not just to this jam but to my experience with interactive fiction. It has strong character voices and some absolute top-notch banter. Moments like asking Gabriel to take off his sunglasses in the church made me laugh out loud.

It’s My Party refuses to let its opportunities for branching narrative obstruct the tone and theme of the piece, and that confidence elevates it. Each of the endings is an important and essential component of the whole, and the consistency and casualness of the reactivity within a given path is so striking. The extent to which it understood and responded to my stubborn QA-like tendency to pick the same choice every time it’s presented exhibits the thoughtfulness of It’s My Party’s production. It is so impressively cohesive, which branching narrative otherwise historically struggles with.

Cohabitation is such a deeply vulnerable piece, not just in its prose but in the construction of key moments. The choice of where to hide the makeup, then undermined by the eyeliner pencil that the player and the player character forgot, is so effective at evoking dread and panic. This game does so much with just its eyes: The father’s restoration at the end — revealing that his daughter has his blue eyes — is so, so powerful. There is so much meaning in that particular moment, and I keep coming back to it in awe. It's really great work.

Memento Mori’s greatest strength is in its specificity, both in the prose and in the production. The protagonist and James both have such a strong voice as they dwell on a very specific feeling. Its script is extremely tight, and that tightness imparts a confidence that absolutely carries Memento Mori. The setup and payoff with grief sapping the color out of the scene is so well executed. It sneaks up on me every time. It’s also worth mentioning that having strong voice acting in a 10-day jam game is a testament to both the tightness of the script and the diligence of Memento Mori’s production. Great work <3

Oh maybe I should have commented all my loving doting praise in this comment section rather than the O2A2 submission page but - alas. There, I linked it. Read it there.

It's got wit, it's got style, and it's got just the hottest cupid I have ever seen oh my god i want to make him cry. 

Play this, friends!

O2A2 is ostensibly about efficiency, but that never really bears out in most projects. Cupid's Kiss is very, very tight and still offers some player choice that feels reactive, AND its tempo matches the ebb and flow of the story being told — something you'd be hard-pressed to pull off in 1,000 words. O2A2 devs, pick this apart if you want to actually wrap your head around what brilliance O2A2's restrictions can bear. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to play our game and for taking the time to write to us — I am so grateful! I'll let you know this reply singlehandedly evaporated all the exhaustion I had accumulated by the end of the jam, so thank ya for the kind words! They warm my heart.

It scared me, you got me.

Hi there! Our team has had a really strong start, but we could really use a UI designer I'll link you the pitch doc for our project, let me know if it interests you! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XhzhqsRLtYSrfHqB_B7zlNRxyjyw737o9u8MoUfYIx4/edit?usp=sharing

You can reach out to me on Discord: scriptfinch#8746

Thanks so much for your time!