Play game
It Could Be's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation | #20 | 3.951 | 3.951 |
| Story | #21 | 3.585 | 3.585 |
| Implementation of Theme | #28 | 3.049 | 3.049 |
| Creativity | #29 | 3.439 | 3.439 |
Ranked from 41 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What is the name of your wolf/wolfess/wolves?
Lugh, Randall
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
The timeframe hopping was pretty cool, especially with the vibe changing with the colors
Another one that's a little tough to rate because it's rather vague, maybe reminiscent of Lugh's crew's art pieces. The individual moments are great, but as a cohesive project I'm not sure it left the impact that was intended.
Going to roll into the breakdown, spoilers from this point forward. I'd normally handle all the criteria separately, but my thoughts on theme and story are so intertwined on this one that I'll do those at the same time.
Implementation of Theme and Story:
Deepbluefeeling has two likes and a :) whereas these are suspiciously lacking from the other comments here (guys I think that means they got it).
I'm being a bit facetious, but I think this is the right reading, with Dusty tossing coins in the fountain hoping that one day he'll get a Lugh. I have thoughts:
1) It's still unclear to me whether the implication was that Dusty eventually did get his romance or whether it was all in his head. The slightly jarring switch to third-person narration at the end makes sense if you interpret that as Dusty seeing himself as the main character in a romance novel that someone else is writing, and his move to Seattle may have been influenced by his desire to turn those dreams into reality, even if reality turns out to be much more mundane (drinks at Applebee's oof) than he wanted. The other Lugh plot beats work as a fantasy too (e.g., staring at the pictures and looking back nostalgically is how a romance novel would start; Dusty wants the meet-cute; Dusty wants the steamy sex scene; Dusty wants the feeling of nervously accepting holding someone's hand in public [it's the "dream" of a gay kid from the south]) and there's some implications here and there that he wishes Lugh was Randall (tell us how we met -> we meet Randall instead). The part I can't really parse is the office scene though, other than the mundanity. What's the deal with the "celestial bodies"? Do the stars look like the coins in the fountain or something? Not sure whether the implication is supposed to be that Dusty is leaving the office to go run into Lugh for the first time, whether it's supposed to be ambiguous, or whether it's nothing at all. This kind of leads me into the next point-
2) The sort of reality for a more complex narrative like this is if only half the audience gets it, you're probably fine. That means it was too subtle for some but others get to feel really smart when they figure it out. On the other hand, if everyone is missing the point, you probably needed to lay a few more breadcrumbs along the way. I can see what you were trying to do with some of the parallels - Randall asks Dusty what kind of girl he likes, so he fantasizes about meeting a dude; Dusty gets caught with gay porn, so he fantasizes about a time when he is a willing, appreciated participant in gay sex. I think maybe some of the disconnect might have been through the abrupt scene transitions and the different levels of maturity in the individual scenes. It's a bit hard to place the fantasies (if accurate) 1:1 with reality since they don't feel like the thoughts of a teenager. It works once you get the idea, but a little more signposting to get the reader there could go a long way.
3) This all brings us to the theme. After all of the above, I'm still not sure the theme comes through super clearly. The darkness is this sort of ennui Dusty has about being gay and out of place in his home, and the light is... well, I'm not sure. It could be (ha) Lugh, but if he's made up then that feels like less of a light and more something that's keeping him in the darkness by continuing to absorb him in this fantasy rather than letting himself go out and smell the roses, so to speak. Like, if he goes out and meets Lugh after leaving the office, great, but if you're bailing on your coworkers to go dream about your fake boyfriend, maybe just go to Applebee's. Could be a cute waiter there, I don't know.
With all of that said, I thought the individual conversations were really well-done. Everything felt age-appropriate to the characters in the scene and I thoroughly believed every interaction, including the unfortunate "we can still be friends but maybe keep the homo to a low volume" scene.
Presentation and Creativity:
I've been going on for way too long anyway, so I'm just gonna combine these two as well. These were both good - I found the start button all by myself and I thought the art provided for this project was really well done, even if the one stock sprite felt a little bit out of left field. As others have pointed out, the coin-to-fountain set of CGs were particularly impressive. As can be gleaned from the earlier comments, I think there's plenty of creativity here. You clearly tried to do something new and complex with the narrative, so much so that it might have gone right over many readers' heads.
Or maybe it didn't. My intelligence basically only extends to "lol that doggo gay :D" so what do I know.
Official rating is 16 baguettes out of 41 Civ turns.
I'm a they, but thank you for the mention! 💙
Corrected :)
I'm gonna rate this like I'm right and everyone else is insane, even though I might be insane and everyone else is probably right but...
The stuff that happens with Lugh, that isn't real right? I mean I've played enough videogames to know that Lugh is the name of a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and I think he represents light and craftmanship? Idk though my knowledge of that kind of stuff is shaky at best, I just know that he's Cu Chulainn's dad. Anyway! Between the title being "It Could Be," the tropey (as even pointed out by Lugh) meeting of Dusty and Lugh, Dusty's love for romance novels, and his frequenting of the park wishing fountain, along with that being the final scene, and perhaps most importantly that the choices you make influence how things go with lugh... but don't really change how things go with Randall at all. The fantasy with Lugh is lit in this pink ethereal dreamlike light, and everything with Randall is grounded in real color. If that's the intent? Peak cinema. That's the read I got, but I see other people's comments everyone thinks it's just a standard love story told out of chronological order, in which case neat, but I feel like you could've done a little bit more with that then. Compare and Contrast Lugh and Randall even more. Tell us how Dusty got out of the south. etc. I get it, it's a Jam, limited words, limited time. I really liked the whole presentation, the light in a dark was a little weak, but on the other hand "Cock in the butthole, Lugh!" is a really charming scene so you still get 5s across the board.
Seriously though please let me know if I'm right or not I feel like I'm going insane.
:)
Spoiler Alert!
I really love the way the story was told, although, aside from the first scene switch, everything else was rather sudden. As a result, when reading (at least for me) the focus was more on placing the scenes on a concrete timeline rather than really resonating with the character and creating a sense of immersion in the story (which is fine, if the intention was for the reader to view the story in a more holistic way).
Some scenes also doesn’t have a satisfying end like the church scene, like it just cuts and that’s pretty jarring (idk if that’s the intention but there isn’t any transition like screen shake into the last one so I assume that the scene just ends there instead of being interrupted).
Perhaps I could surmise that there are similarities between the way the relationship between MC and the 2 wolves develop (namely the Lugh sex scene followed by the Randall scene about the church), though I’m not sure how much of this is correct (since the scenes before this seemed to just be switching between the 2 wolves instead of bearing any deeper meaning.
For presentation, the prose was really good, and the sprites are even better. Oh and I love that fountain CG at the end. The main menu was a bit bright for the buttons (not the start button guide existing on your game page 😭😭). Not to mention the Jam sprite jumpscare lmaoo, you could’ve made them fade in or sth (and if you want it to be an interruption, try accompanying it with an vshake or hshake effect).
For the theme, Lugh seems to be the ‘Light’ here, with the ‘Dark’ being after that scene with Randall. Although what happened to Lugh at the end? Are they in a relationship? Or did he also leave? (Maybe answering that question in the ending with the mention/lack of mention about him might be better than just MC trying to let go of Randall).
P.S I would love it if the MC sprite was utilized more I’m ngl, maybe in those 1 on 1 convos.
Rating: 4444
Edit: Rebalancing of rating to 5444
Solid visual direction and gorgeous art (sprites and CG), both work really well to elevate the simple, fragmented narrative. The writing is enjoyable and delivers just enough story, though if we stick with the jam theme, a touch deeper into Dusky's struggles (like the fountain scene) would be better.
Not sure if you intended the story to just scratch the surface and lean on realism, basically saying, "yeah, this is the short story of one gay dude, could be anyone you wouldn't know". I just feel like you can brew a stronger mix. Regardless, it's a nice read.
Pretty cute story. Bit of a standard gay romance plot, but I really liked how the scenes were not in chronological order. Just fun to piece everything together that way, figure out why there were two My Wolves and what happened to Randall in that case. It's done a good job of compressing an entire life in a collection of short scenes. Decent all around. Gorgeous CGs too. The theme wasn't too strong in this one but I could at least tell that it took a straightforward interpretation of the light in the dark, as meeting Lugh was a moment of joy in a depressing time. (also the hyrax jumpscare sent me tbh)
While this is admittedly a bit unpolished presentation-wise (I hope it's not too mean to say that the itch page having to include a tutorial for where to find the start button in the title screen is pretty funny), the visuals in the story itself are superb. The art rules, and the backgrounds are curated and/or edited to support it with their lovely colors. On the whole, the audiovisuals do a great job at supporting the mood of the story.
Speaking of, the writing is both enjoyable to read in general and well-calibrated for the short scope of the narrative and its fragmentary, modernist structure. Every detail justifies its worth, and no line comes off as wasted. The reverse chronology adds a nice layer of resonance by painting the entire narrative in a retrospective, nostalgic light and letting the reader observe the protagonist from afar, knowing how things will ultimately turn out. A really tight package that achieves more in 3k words than many furry visual novels out there do in 30k.
Don’t worry, I also find it funny that I had to include a tutorial for where to find the start button.
This is a really sweet story. The contrast between the bittersweet past and the warm present was an interesting approach that doesn't usually get used often. You nailed the tones for both the past and present. I think I have a good understanding of what's going on, which is pretty hard to do with a non-linear storytelling approach, so good job on that. The characters are pretty likable and relatable. Was the light in the darkness the stars? Or was it the coin in the water fountain? That wasn't clear to me. Looking forward to seeing more of this!
It was nice to see something a bit more complete than your NovemBEAR entry, though even that was quite impressive... you had an excellent team, and were able to deliver a lovely selection of stories from past and present to help us weave together a portrait of the MC. I am aware that eventually you plan to replace the hyrax jam sprite with another, but it didn't personally remove me from the story at all. That's just part of the jam experience: figuring out where you can make cuts or making things good enough to hit the deadline. We all have to make those compromises sometimes.🙃 The writing was quite nice, though I do wish we could have known a bit more about how the relationship with Randall eventually ended up all those years later in the current timeline. The artwork and spritework are also quite lovely, as to be expected!
'It Could Be' feels like a non-linear autobiography, mixed with memories of an 'how did we get here' of a gay romance story. The non-linear aspect is the most intriguing part of this narrative, since we start at the end of the story when the main character is happily married to his husband, and then jumping around at different mile-stones in his life, when he made his first friend who ended up being his first crush, getting outed in the religious south, starting a new life in the north, and meeting his then husband. The dialog feels grounded and the scenarios are extremely relatable, almost as if this could've been someone's actual life story.
The art is really well done, and the color grading is done so well to give a vibe to this story, is almost dream like. Something that I think could be improved was the use of menus to present dialog choices. I imagine they were put there to feel more immersed by choosing how to proceed in a conversation, but they lead the reader to think that there might be some kind of route structure or a way to shape how the main character acts. I feel like this VN either didn't need them, or they should've had more impact on what information was presented to the reader.
The organization of the scenes also leaves me wondering what was the goal of starting the story at the highest point of this character's life, and ending at what could be considered one of his lowest. Perhaps another way to structure the scenes would be to show a personality quirk or flaw in one scene, and then the next scene would show where it originated from. Something like, the scene where he's hesitant to hold the wolf's hand, followed by the scene where he's shunned by his friend for being gay, thus he learns to not express it. As a result, I feel there's missing scenes between that one where the main character has his falling out with his friend and when he finally moves to Seattle.
While the story is personal and intimate, it doesn't really seem to fit the theme of "light in the dark". I could stretch it to mean that meeting the second wolf when the main character was at his lowest is the theme, but the story doesn't focus on that so much. The theme that seems to be, that despite all the events that the main character goes through, he's always been the same person. He's always been someone to stick his neck out for others, and that's the quality that he should be valued for, not which gender he's attracted to. In that sense, it's a very pleasant experience and a lovely story.
Very cute and I enjoyed reading about Dusty and Randall's friendship. The sprite from the jam is a little jarring but everything else fits together really nicely.
The intertwined vignettes of how Dusty met Lugh and of his old friendship with Randall. They were both intersting but I didn’t see much interplay between them. The story feels unfinished. I also don’t get why the last scene was in third person all of a sudden but whatever. The sprites are good and represent the respective characters well. the backgrounds and CGs also work for the story. The one community sprite that show up was maybe not the best one to choose given he’s cut on the bottom. Overall, a nice read that ends a bit abruptly.
I cropped that sprite myself! …I ran out of time.
It’s useful feedback to hear that it feels unfinished. I think I’m getting a better idea of what parts need more to them for when I put out a more finished version.
I really like the art with the view from the fountain. Nicely done! So much that I will increase my rating on Presentation by a star for it! :)
A very fun nonchronological narrative to piece together. Each scene conveys a lot very concisely, and it's easy to get invested very quickly. It's very unfortunate that the story seems to be incomplete, and we'll be denied that satisfaction for a while yet.
The theme felt a little insubstantial but I loved the sprite art and enjoyed the overall vibe.
A short, nonlinear narrative about Dusty, a gay armadillo, told in even shorter vignettes. There are also two wolves... and that's the gist of it. It's short, sweet, and a little bitter. There wasn't much of a plot, but there was a whole lot of feeling. This novel wasn't meant to tell anything riveting, but rather just something nice to read. Now I'm here wishing there was more of it so I can piece out the rest of Dusty's mind, and maybe fall asleep to the ambience.
The theme was not very clearly presented. In a more subtle light, I could say the "lighter" vignettes are interspersed with the problematic vignettes to represent "The Light in the Dark".
The sprite work was great, and the backgrounds, despite looking image-traced, fit very well with the overall style of the vn. I was even slightly disappointed when my own CG came up with a distinct art-style compared to the rest of the novel lol, but that's probably just me. The use of one of the pre-made sprites was particularly jarring, however. I wonder why it was used in the first place when some scenes went by lacking sprites completely, and still came out fine.