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happy birthday to my worstie. i hate her 10/10

THE ONLY THING I WAS MISSING WHILE PLAYING WAS A TRAY WITH TEA AND COOKIES TBH that would have been the only thing to possibly make that experience better.

Thank YOU for hosting ads for indie projects, I am seriously thankful and appreciative for what you're doing for the indie scene. I am always glad to find someone else who blacks out when they see paper textured artwork. And VERY looking forward to your next project!!!!

I'm going to edit or reply to this review when I finish but I am already sold from 

- the style
- the character designs
- the presentation
- and the "I didn't know you were a switch" joke.

[EDIT - 4 hours later I have binged the whole thing.]

That was honestly phenomenal. I cried at the end. All of the smaller-scoped vignettes felt so personal and human and some of them had really strong personal impact just due to the timing of reading this, and because of how grounded the storytelling is. What a lovely and impactful story. I am going to be sitting with this one for a while. Thank you for sharing it.

I already knew from the first couple games I played from you that I loved your stuff, but it was when you posted that devlog on the music in Snow White Ashes that I was like "oh, THAT'S why literally everything they make fuckin HITS" because. 🤝🤝🤝

[Checks calendar] how did this come out a full month ago and it took me this long to actually play it. Time is fake.

This was a PHENOMENAL hook. I think you really successfully evoke the denial of grief and make the player feel just as strongly that no, there must be a way to see him again.

Things I particularly loved:

• The UI design. I thought it was so clever to have the UI evoke a phone screen since looking through the phone is such a core part of the narrative. That kind of cohesion just feels so satisfying. (I also am super impressed by the parallax effect.)
• Similarly.... having the OST be guitar-based felt SO RIGHT given that HusbandoKun ((sorry. you let me name him)) is a guitar player. And I LOVED the moment where we got an *electric* guitar for the wedding, it felt so climactic and dramatic.
• All of the art is so gorgeous. So soft and gentle. The descriptions paired with the art gave everything such a powerful warmth, I really felt that love and yearning come through.
• I was personally attacked by the subject matter, as someone who went to a science school to study science and was doing well and then still changed majors to music halfway through.

Super excellent work, this was a really powerful time loop hook and oh boy I am stoked to see what's in store for the rest! Amazing job!!!

Not to bump a 2-year-old comment BUT I have actually released the full game now! It took a long time but we got there...

ah, on re-reading, sorry if that came off as a bit "compare-y" I really just wanna emphasize that I think if you keep doing what you're doing it's going to pay off--and already has. But thank you too and enjoy the holidays!

I somehow missed this update completely when you posted it.

Fully on board with you taking the world's most needed break, and I'm really excited to play Winter Knight whenever it's ready!! Every new update makes it sound even more ambitious, detailed, and frankly mind-boggling that you've managed this entire project yourself, and however long it takes to release it will be so worth it. It's so clear from just the demo that you are making something truly special.

It's also really interesting to hear your perspective on what it's been like to divide your focus between different projects. I really think that's the smart and healthy way to do it. I've just been single-mindedly focusing on my Big Magnum Opus, and it's actually left me feeling like I've really missed out on chances to make other smaller-scoped games and improve on my skills/celebrate wins along the way. To me, what you've accomplished with your other projects (every single one of which is compelling, polished, unique, and just GOOD) is a huge feat, one I greatly admire. And the fact you have also been making consistent work on the One Big Thing is insane!

I will continue to look forward to everything you put out.

This is genuinely such a good post. I kinda knew from the start that I was sacrificing a lot of accessibility options by building my own jank system from scratch, but even just the reminder to make it clear in the store page what is and is not included/possible is something I should implement better, as well as a kind of checklist of things to consider for future releases. It's awesome how much Ren'Py has built in to make VN's accessible out of the box. What a good game engine.

I was thinking about how much time I spent making my stupid point-and-click system be 100% playable regardless of how fucked up my wrists are feeling on a particular day, which just really drives home your point that NO post on game accessibility will ever be exhaustive. Thank you for the resources. You are a champ

Oh my goodness, I wrote down the info for this game a year ago at MAGWest and didn't find it again until now. I think I played this (as part of a multiplayer setup?) and I remember it being super fun, and playing again has confirmed it is indeed. Definitely glad I found this again and will be checking out your other projects!

Oh man, I played this at MAGWest last year and wrote down the info to find it again before I promptly lost it until now. I'm so glad I found it again, this is such a cool project.

I am literally a year late here—I played this game at MAGWest last year and misplaced the business card with this URL on it until now. I still think this was a really fantastic concept and I loved the home-built machine it was used to play in person at the convention. If you put out any other projects I'm definitely excited to check them out!

WISHING YOU ALL THE LUCK!!!!!! THANK YOU AGAIN FOR LETTING ME WRITE DERANGED BANGERS FOR YOUR INSANE DETECTIVE TOXIC YURI

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE FINISH I CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY THE FULL 1.0 BUT ALSO WHAT YOU RELEASED SLAPS SOOO HARD

I had an incredibly fun time scamming an old lady. The writing here is great and you do a lot with just a little. I LOVE how you did the text box, it's very simple but it looks so good. And title screen design rules too.

The handpainted assets are great, the expressions on that old lady are peak. Very fun 10/10

This is already SO good even with placeholders to meet the jam deadline, I can't wait to see what the complete 1.0 looks like when it drops.

Textures are delicious. Yuri is toxic. I want to strangle Hal but yes I did kiss her anyway. The presentation is so good ESPECIALLY given the game jam time limit, like wow. This was a pleasure to work on thank you for letting me just go nuts with logic loops <3

This was absolutely gorgeous. It's been a long time since I played the OG demo, so it's not like I'm comparing side-by-side, but I can just feel the strength of the direction the story has now. It's not just that what's here has so much more detail than before. I can also just see that you have done so much more writing of the full story that we haven't seen yet, the characters all feel so much more fleshed out and everything in the story is so grounded. This is really, really incredible work.

That's not to dismiss the original demo for a second, because it was already brilliant. The art, music, sound design, story, it was all phenomenal. You should always take pride in how that came out. But this is just so... refined in basically every aspect. I can FEEL that this story knows exactly where it is going. It's so exciting.

The music is gorgeous; I really loved the slightly more dissonant track that starts when you look into the mirror, and the soft choir layer that faded in during the chapel was gorgeous. The main theme really just makes you want to cry it's so beautiful.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY love the "frost around the screen disappears when you've clicked on everything" mechanic. That is a brilliant way to tell you when you've exhausted all the interactibles and it works great thematically. I remember a few times in the original demo feeling a little confused at some points and this version it felt very clearly communicated just about every step of the way. The tutorials at the start are just enough to tell you everything you need to know.

I love ghosts, and I love how you write ghosts, and I am so excited to play the full game when it's ready. For now though HUGE congratulations on this updated demo, this is outstanding work. And I laughed when mister main character was judging the hell out of the book on the floor in the first room.

you're welcome old gods. 10/10

I have to be so honest. I thought I was so hilarious and clever naming my werewolf character "Amadeus" and yet somebody else with a huge brain had already beaten me to the punch.

This is such a fun and silly concept - I am very bad at it but I thoroughly enjoyed playing. Only ate some of my chickens/10, would recommend to friends

I was looking up games tagged werewolf and came across this, I thought I would just do a runthrough or two but then I ended up playing through it until I'd gotten all of the endings and achievements. This was a lot of fun. All of the character writing is really fun, the "discomfort" counter is a really funny mechanic, and getting thrown out by Morgan for being a terrible liar was my favorite bad ending.

Had a lot of fun playing it, thank you for this!

It seriously was so fun, I also had a blast. Collaborations are the best. If you ever want cello on an OST again you know whose DMs to slide into--

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HAVING ME ON THIS!!!! Playing cello for this was a joy and an honor.

I am so, so glad that I randomly searched VN's on itch like a year ago and found your work. I've always [well, in that year at least] admired your projects specifically because I feel you have strengths that I lack: your works are always beautifully polished, cohesive, focused, and immediately convincing. They are like poetry in VN form. I really loved being a part of this because I got to see how even with a group of different people working together you're able to maintain that consistent vision and direction. I honestly think I learned a lot about composing for VN's by being a part of this project.

But that is not to discount the amazing work of everyone else who worked on this too. The compositions and mixing are gorgeous and I got chills during the kiss scene even though I'd listened to these tracks a million times at this point recording parts. The styling of the sprites and backgrounds is so gorgeous and those CG's are incredible. Everyone who worked on this did a freaking bang-up job. You really assembled the Power Rangers here.

But the way it all comes together, the story and direction and programming and implementation, that is all you, and it is phenomenal.

This is a really special work and I'm really grateful to have been a part of it.

NOW GET SOME SLEEP!!!!!

Seconding the sentiment "Wheeee!"

wahg sorry I did not see this until now because I'm the best at keeping up with things but thank YOU so much, this means the world. :handshake:

throw some money at an artist making insane quality art and music and storytelling and UI design and implementation DONT MIND IF I DO!! i consistently look forward to your works and i hope you get a billion dollars to continue making them.

I totally missed until I saw this reply that you didn't do the sound this time! You guys make a really great team, the sound and visuals and story and everything were so cohesive. A++++ tier work from both of you.

[handshake emoji] terrible protagonists appreciation

I finally had the time to sit down and play this. I know I always get absorbed in your games so I waited until I'd be able to give it full attention.

Honestly I think the biggest compliment I can possibly give is that I was trying to keep track of all the things I wanted to praise in it but I kept losing track of them because I would just get so absorbed in the story. You are so masterful at combining pieces to make an incredibly cohesive whole.

What I do remember wanting to mention, in particular:

* ohhhhh I am OBSESSED with how the soundtrack faded between a heavily filtered grammophone-y mix into a very full mix in that one scene, that was SO good
* I LOVE that the cursor is designed like a viewfinder! That's so clever. Only minor note is that at least on the WebGL build it seemed like the active part of the cursor was not actually the center of the viewfinder, but once I realized where the active part is it was no problem.
* I really love what you did with the UI in general. Using the photo frames as text boxes... It's so elegant.
* I mean, I just love ghosts, a lot, so it's no surprise I loved this. Every time you depict ghosts it resonates with me. I ALSO love works that explore how ghosts interact with changing times and new emerging technologies, so of course a work about ghosts and the invention of the camera is 10000% my shit.
* I REALLY loved the fucked up horror sound-based tracks for particularly gruesome moments.

Honestly it feels wrong to just talk about the pieces that I loved because what makes it so good is how they all come together and make a really powerful experience. I also love it when the protagonist is awful.

10000/10 a million stars I only got ending 2 so far but want to come back for the others soon

Thank you so much - I really can't overstate how much it means that some people have continued to follow this project, despite how much it's been pushed back while I navigate how much work it is to ship a game. It is COMING!!!

SWAG thank you for the reminder!! Just nabbed it. Good luck with your new game!!!

Thank you so much! I am too. Fingers are very crossed for November, but we'll have to see how the next couple months go.

Ohhhh what an awesome project! I definitely want to pick this up on my next paycheck. I really, really loved the art and design of Karambola so I know I would really enjoy this.

I definitely relate to the added difficulty/complexity of integrating point-and-click into a story. What you did in the demo was fantastic and fantastically effective, but it is indeed a ton of work!

It's really admirable how much you've managed to do between all of these projects and how your work is consistently extremely solid across them. It's been fun to see all of these projects slowly evolve, and I am so excited to see what The Last Winter Knight will be in its finished form. I've loved everything I've played from you, but that one has a special place in my heart. Something about it really really appeals to and resonates with me.

Congratulations on the halfway mark!

Thank you so much, it means a lot. Things do seem to be on the mend healthwise, and I also just got some very good news (announcement coming soonTM) that has really helped offset the disappointment from the feedback discussed in this devlog. Things have already really turned for the better somehow!

Ooooh I loved this! The art choice was so good. I really enjoyed playing through it with the luxury of being able to start over with new information if I didn't like a particular outcome (the joys of visual novels!) - that makes this an interesting medium for looking at a scene like this, unlike real life where you will never know the "what ifs" and will always live with uncertainty and have to just deal with what you chose.

It actually kind of made my first playthrough my favorite one because I had to just go with something when the full picture was unclear. But I definitely went back through to explore other options out of curiosity. Super cool project.

This series was fucking beautiful. It's so effective at doing so much with so little, the music and the art are both very minimal but perfect at establishing the exact mood that lets you focus completely and wholly on the words on the screen. How the prompts actually change and engage here, turning it into a conversation; this was a fantastic conclusion.

Really really excellent art and storytelling.

I loved this! I knew it would be good because the last short poem/game I played from you was good, but the imagery of this one in particular super resonates with me because I just love the ocean. This was so beautiful, amazing job. It's always so clear what you are supposed to interact with [and the directions "when in doubt go right"] so I never had to think about "how" to play I could just focus entirely on the experience. Fantastic work.

OMG, I don't think we had any idea Q/W also work. I don't know if we'll ever update the build [...yknow, game jam game] but this is a great find, thank you for pointing it out! I'll add it to the page description at least.

This glow-up is going to rule so hard I cannot wait

Thanks so much! Thanks for playing!