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Wow, thank you everyone for your kind feedback! I'm so sorry for taking so long to update. Part of it is because I've been quite busy these past few days and haven't gotten an awful lot done, and am a bit embarrassed to make an update for something kind of small.

But I really appreciate everyone's encouragement, and I hope to create a game worthwhile of your support, and I hope you'll continue giving me feedback so that I can. 

So I've primarily been making a physical prototype to get a feel for how this will look and play out. The rough illustration is a representation of what the screen will look like in the 'final' product. I made a card for each of Koyo's possible actions, and if I were to play the prototype, I'd flip the card over on the screen -there are multiple options for each, to indicate it'd be a pop up screen with options to choose from. The grid, which won't be visible to the player (subject to change) shows the position of the beast and Koyo in the field. 

The three choices are:

Move: Move up, down, left, or right on the grid, closer or further from the beast Koyo is studying. Certain things can only be learned if she's close enough to the subject, but each one has it's own range, and may become aware of Koyo, and the monster's actions may change (this is sometimes a good thing, I'll elaborate later)

Study: Behavior or Physiology - Koyo can either watch how it behaves or take notes on the physiology, when she's close enough to get enough information to take notes on. This is how she will gain different pieces of crucial information on each animal she comes across.

Provoke: When bookish meets bold, in order to understand the beast more, Koyo might want to 'encourage' it to behave differently. By throwing a rock near it or by making a loud noise, Koyo may be putting herself at risk of being found, she'll put the animal on alert, and it'll start using a different bank of actions that Koyo can gather information on. (Sometimes moving too close or too much can also serve this purpose, but Koyo might be in a more compromised position if the animal is alerted to her presence by her standing a little too close!)

So here's the rough outline on how the turn-based field study (hope you don't mind me brazenly stealing that term, Krall, because it's perfect!) would be like.

Koyo (rhymes with yo-yo) is a fairy who is unable to use magic, and like many other magic-less fairies, she's turned to science. She feels a bit low about herself regarding this path, until magical beasts, who have mainly kept a distance from the peaceful fairy county, start encroaching and traditional magic hasn't been able to keep them at bay. So Koyo takes it upon herself to see if she can study and understand the mythical monsters enough to find a solution without relying on magic.

As for gameplay, I'd hesitate to say it uses turn based combat, as you're not equipped to fight dragons and unicorns, but the idea of the main mechanics (that I'm admittedly still trying to work out) is that the animal you're studying makes some sort of move, then you, playing as Koyo, have a number of options to learn more about it, and so on until you've gathered enough information. Things can/will get sticky if it notices you, though!

The intentions for the art- characters, monsters, backgrounds, GUI- are going to be rather cute, simple, and 'round', and I'll be using photoshop to create them. The engine I'll be using is Love2D, which is entirely new to me.

This is so dang cute! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this comes along!

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

                Hello, I'm Z-Brooke, and I'm Noise Prince on Discord (though I'm fairly quiet you might not see much of me) I'm 23, and I'm going for a bachelor's in game design and potentially a minor in computer science.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

                    I did not participate, I've been intending on joining since last year's winter jam, but kind of let it slip through my fingers. The timing's not optimal (school starts back up in a few days- but when is it ever really? ) So this time around I'm really looking forward to jumping into it! Also, this year I got into my resolutions (I'm not usually a resolution person) and figured one of my biggest set backs was being afraid of being a beginner and starting stuff  I didn't think I'd like by the end of it. So I'm focusing more on just doing things, learning as I go, so this jam is perfect!

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

               I find a lot that I enjoy in a lot of different games, it's really difficult to choose favorites (usually I just go with whatever I've played recently that I enjoyed a lot!) But Okami is always up there! (The vivid, unique art and the mechanic of 'painting' and vibrant storytelling is something that'll always stick with me.- I won't do this spiel for every game...) Etrian Odyssey: Millennium Girl (flawless blending of the game setting and traditional game mechanics that we typically take for granted but is explained seamlessly here by the world's rules. Okay, last game I do this about.)  Link between Worlds, Undertale, Style Savvy (started playing the third recently and forgot how addictive it can be) I find a lot of things to be really inspiring, and many parts of many games makes me think about "God, that's so clever! How'd they think to do that?! I want to be able to create something like this!"

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

            Minimal, minimal, minimal experience. With Ren'py, with Twine, and a project for class that was always supposed to be a paper prototype and never needed an engine. I've also made a few rough card games.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

           Besides game design? Art and writing, and honestly I'm one of those people who loves learning! -I should have been doing this "just learn on the go" stuff for a while now, honestly. I'm really interested in how creating something can craft an experience for someone else, and how it can mean something to them.

6. What are your goals for this game jam?

     I've barely heard of LUA before now. I've never heard of Love2D until I saw it as an engine in the list of engines for this jam. I thought it was cute, looked it up, and figured I might as well roll with it! So I want to be able to create at least a playable prototype with the Love engine.

I've also recently heard of this narrative structure called "the ring"- in which events mirror others earlier in the story, and I want to try to utilize that.

So my goals are

1. Playable prototype in Love2D
2.  Rough Draft for the story with the ring structure
3. As close as I can get to a finished game by the 20th