I love how genius the writing is, switching between the theatre and outside the scene. The art is nice too with multiple characters, good job you two!

I very much enjoyed this one, even in its unfinished state; the transition between real life and acting was captivating.  I'd expect nothing less from this team 😊

ABSOLUTE CINEMA, but damn I wish there was more and alas had to be cut due to the deadline.
But my goodness, I liked what there was so far, and a creative take on a wolf as a love interest. The writing, it flows so well, and I never had the experience of school theater, only heard stories, but from what I know, it captures that environment so well. The art (my goodness, I love the art), the painterly strokes and brushes used for the characters and some of the environment, amazing. The presentation presents such good splits between the gorgeous scenery of the theater, juxtaposed with the school scenery. I love that one scene where the Demon and Princess are at a creek, and at the background there was a wall, and I thought at first it was some sort of like "Oh right, this is a stage that's a cool concept of reminding that even in a fictional setting they are at a play." And then some lines later and it reveals about the world, and I was intrigued by the story even more, a double immersion of sorts. I also love the interaction between the MC and the Ram, and their characters, and I love to see what the MC will do with their newfound exploration of personal identity, I will call them they until they figure out themself for now, yes they're gay but like, I don't know if they might be trans after the writing.

But hmm, I actually don't know where "Light in the dark" theme applies here though, maybe due to it not being finished is the reason, maybe the spotlight? Or maybe it's in my face and I don't really see it.

What's there is great so far, but I know it, you know it, everyone else knows it, this one was just a touch too ambitious to wrap up before the deadline.

Rolling into the breakdown, spoilers from this point forward.

Implementation of Theme:

In a literal sense, we have the spotlight on the stage, but I think the focus is (rightly) more on the figurative light of Crni being a beacon of freedom for Bela who is dissatisfied by her current lot, which in turn parallels two "lights" for the arctic fox protagonist, both in the ram for helping him feel comfortable with himself and serving as a possible love interest and in the theater itself for helping him be more open about his sexuality.

Where this hiccups a little for me, and this might be something that gets clarified in the rest of the story if it gets completed, is the consistent designation of Belfort as the hero of the play. Canonically, in the play, is Crni not supposed to be a beacon for Bela? This feeds into the plot as well, but the way the scenes are fed to us, it feels almost impossible that Crni is actually a villain. Are we just seeing the scenes from the arctic fox's distorted perspective that turns Crni into the hero? 

Story:

Definitely ambitious with the attempt at the parallel narratives with the primary "real world" plot and the mirrored story-within-the-story of the play. For the most part, I think this works, with some clever blends of the two, like the arctic fox and ram just becoming "Crni" and "Bela" without giving them other names. Like others though, I also felt that the brothers were a bit underbaked. Lines like "why so sissypants" and "careful bro" certainly didn't help with that, but I also think a lot of the very long exposition scene delivered by Belfort shortly before the end of the demo was probably unnecessary. You could probably just convey this in an action scene between the brothers and Crni. Like, start off with one of them yelling "watch out! Remember he gets stronger the more you damage him" and then at some point in the fight have Belfort yell that Crni's kind cursed the world and are leaving them to die. Might help with some of the pacing. 

Otherwise, yeah, this one's a little tough to evaluate since it practically cuts off mid-sentence. Still an enjoyable ride so far though.

Presentation:

Really knocked it out of the park here, except for the end when things kind of slipped off the rails and everything went Italian for a second. Right up until that point though, very impressive all around, with lots of creative sprites and backgrounds that really sold the scene. The initial introduction between Bela and Crni was a particular standout, as was the reveal of the arctic fox's sprite (he is literally and figuratively now being seen). 

Music was mostly effective across the board for me, though I did notice some variation in volume between tracks and had to turn down the volume for some. The project was well proofread and mostly free of typos and other language errors until close to the end.

Creativity:

Full credit for trying something new and different here. That ambition led to a stumble or two, as discussed, but this was a really interesting take, especially with the effort that went into the accompanying visuals. I hope we get a finished, polished version of this to really dig into the story.

Curtain Call is simply great, liked when I cought some of it on a discord stream and loved it even more reading again on my own.

The way the unreality of the theater play and the mundane slice of the character backstages talk is delightful. I like the idea of having the main wolf being simply a mask with the uncertantly if the on stage romance could blossom into something more. I love the director, he just devour every scene he's in.

I like the visuals, they hold strong even when you notice what compromises were made to get a build out. I'm not going to hold against it in the rating because I think being able to reconize the issue, steer on the fly and still deliver a solid product with a coherent art direction and aestetic is a skill worth prasing. The audio also is solid.

The weak link of the chain would be the three brothers, to be fair, their role got cut short by the jam deadline so you have a bunch of setup that hasn't play off yet...  but sometimes their on stage scenes feels more like 3 guys that made their tabletop character in the car ride before going to the first session.

Overall, this is fantastic a personal favorite from the jam.

A really lovely piece. It's multi-layered, but I could actually see some of the parallels between the characters and who they're playing. A bit of subversion with the My Wolf character as well (being a ram/a fiction within a fiction). I think the theme's implementation was really abstract, but it probably had to do with the inherent goodness in the demon. Well, and the spotlight bit, that one was a bit obvious. I found myself enraptured by both the story of Bela and Crni, and the story of the fox and the ram. They're two different romances, but they complement each other really well. The three brothers... not so much? Brutus just comes off as a stereotype and they annoyed me a bit as a whole, but it's also pretty common in plays to have an annoying ragtag antagonist crew to break up the main plot. Still, I'd have liked a bit more character depth there I guess. Though it's still a gorgeous VN overall and I'm really eager to see it continued.

This is very Loudo and Kerche, and that's a good thing. I like the ambitious premise you aim for, though unfortunately, time is not in your favor. The visual direction is quite strong, albeit you can tell things fall apart as you're dying to make it to the finish line, but that's understandable. But the very little scenes there is, they are made very strong impression. Should've kept the textbox floating to give stronger artsy aesthetic.

My biggest issues are two: 1) While the idea of clashing the world of play pretend and the real world is bold, it doesn't sit right with me when most of the "plays" are narrated instead of, you know, acted. I guess that's why it's very amusing when the director breaks the barrier between the worlds, which feels like an actual thing in a stage-play. 2) I understand you set up an ambitious goal of creating a story within the story, but there is some disparity that I can't really put my finger on. The Crni & Bella scenes - back and forth with the off-stage scenes - were smooth. But the three brothers... I guess one of the factors is that we never really get to interact with them as men, not the actors. As a consequence, you had to establish their in-play characters well, but it did not quite land at the right spot, especially with Basil "the Smart". There is more of the narration and "less of the three brothers".

Nevertheless, I can't wait to see the whole picture you want to paint. So chop, chop, get that kitten back to the dungeon!

'Curtain's Call' is what I would call enrapturing bold visual experience with an unorthodox aesthetic. While I feel this style of art may not be to everyone's liking, it's really stands out when it mixes photos with hand painted imagery, and then mix with the wide shots of silhouettes and what would affectionately be called, blobs and shapes. The interesting choice for me was how the illustrations and music gave a tone that felt both very enchanting and tense. Striking visuals like the wolf eyes in the roses or the director in the shadow give this one an identity that really helps it stick out. The interwoven story of the actors performing the play and the play itself is a creative idea, but I feel like there's still an odd disconnect between the two 'worlds' that are being presented.

The play itself is a fascinating sort of myth tale, with baked in magic and lore, while the theater troupe is a fairly mundane college group. I would imagine that there is supposed to be some kind of connection between the actors and the characters they play, especially for the main fox guy. But it's established that aside from visual similarities, they don't actually have a lot in common. Since they're not so similar and the lack of focus on the actors, it comes out feeling under-developed. That's the risk of a demo version, I suppose. There might be some kind of connecting revelation at the climax of the story, but up to this point, there's a lack of cohesion between the two plot lines.

I can see the vision for the implementation of the theme "light in the dark", there's the literal spotlight on a stage, and what I interpret as the demon wolf coming to rescue the princess from an arranged marriage. Maybe a bit of Crni providing Bela with inspiration to live authentically, but it felt a bit inconsistent with Bela's backstory of his apathy towards the schooling system (except for theater) and there wasn't so much personal struggle except for the implied uncomfortableness with telling Crni's he's gay.

It's also a very intense read, everything feels dire or precarious due to the music. It might help to give the reader a break with some more chill and relaxed moments, especially during the smoke breaks or the scenes outside the theater stage. Aside from that, it's a very entrancing story, with very evocative illustrations. I look forward to seeing how this story looks in it's completed form and if the story lines converge in a thematic way

I like the premise of a story split between a play and its actors, but I’m having some problems with the execution.

The three brothers feel like they’re supposed to be important characters (the ram has things to say about their actors), but I have trouble thinking about them as individual characters except that one of them is strong and stupid and another one is the main one. The one who is supposed to be smart doesn’t really show that much smarts. There’s a lot of direct exposition with them talking about their motivations and plans and the lore of the world compared to the scenes between the demon and the princess/the ram and the fox. When the princess asks the demon about what it means to be a demon, it’s an interaction on a personal level in addition to being a vehicle for delivery of factual information to the reader. There is a layer of familial relationships over the scene where the brothers talk about the layout of the tower, but it isn’t nearly as interesting and doesn’t carry the same plot weight. It tells us something about their relationship, but it doesn’t progress that relationship or tell us much of importance.

The quality of presentation was uneven. The scene with the princess meeting the demon was done nicely with the camera motion and blood and CG of the eyes in the bush, and there are some neat transitions between the play and the actors (both in the writing and the visuals), but there are also some transitions and animations that are missing, with sprites appearing very suddenly on the screen.

We get the contrast between the stage lights and the director in the darkness (in a good way), and the scene outside behind the building is cool (it’s a much more intimate space than the stage), but the background for the scene where the princess drinks the water is strangely bare, and the princess sprite doesn’t have enough contrast with the similarly-coloured gravel behind it. Hopefully these things will be able to be tidied up now that the jam deadline is no longer looming over us.

I like the parallel going between the fox/princess and ram/demon. How both the ram and the demon are helping the fox and princess to live their lives boldly and authentically, and how the transition to the CG where the demon is picking up the limping princess could almost be about the ram picking up the fox. The ram makes an offhand comment about the ending of the play early on, and I’m curious to see what it’s setting up.

IT'S PEAK MILORD. Genuinely though I appreciate the tone and the mix between reality and fantasy. I don't think the lines blur really in a way that's confusing, but it does remind me a little of perfect blue. and of course beastars, but just that I care about the story in the play as much as the overarching story between the cast. The art mixes well with the narrative, and as a thespian (for the most part) I approve of what's been written. Loudo if you don't finish this one I swear to god I will hunt you for sport. Can't wait for the next part!

I had high hopes on account of liking what both team members had made before, and I'd say I got what I expected. The very sudden, hardly narratively appropriate non-ending (hilariously preceded by a scene where the prose gets wildly less polished) is a noticeable blemish; judging purely as a jam entry, I think I would have preferred finding an earlier stopping point, though I'm not sure what would be the best one. But everything you get in this version is so, so good, constantly visually inventive and full of sharp lines and striking character moments.

With the shifts between reality and play, there are a lot of structurally ambitious things going on, but it all more or less works out (maybe apart from one exposition sequence that feels like it comes from mostly from a place of all that information having to be somewhere). Considering that it's working with a relatively large cast and at a brisk pace, I'd also like to commend the game's sharp eye for characterization. Everyone comes off as having such a well-formed personality, which I think is largely thanks to smart choices about how actors and their roles parallel each other and the use of humor as an element of voice. Really good stuff. And in regard to some of the memelord references: I admit it, you got me, the famous Flowers line made me fall out of my chair. I am not at all immune to what you were serving here.

Though some of the visuals do seem emblematic of the hurried production, I'm generally very into the photobash-esque mix of edited photos and art, and the character designs are just amazing. On further reflection, maybe I should take away some praise of the characterization from the writing and give it to the sprites – every expression feels laser-focused to project the precisely right image of who this person is and what they're feeling right now. The interplay of light and shadows is also a functional, if sort of obvious, way to make use of the jam theme, and the opening segment in particular is so moody. Many other scenes feel very thoughtful in their presentation and how they either use or subvert the traditional visual language of the medium, too.

This better not be one of those abandoned game jam submissions that never gets finished; it'd break my heart. Call me if you need a producer of something, I'm dying to see the rest of the story.

I loved this. Entertwining the play and the life of the actors is really well done, the interruptions of the director are always fun for example. The play has that fairy-tale vibe to it that’s really good (except for that expository scene of the brothers around the fire, I felt that one didn’t work) The art is really good and enhances those fairy-tale vibes, the music is also used really well. It’s a bit weird that the actors use the characters’ names in the scene outside the play, though. The leftover italian line makes the immolating scene funnier than it should have, but oh well, that happens.^^ Awaiting the complete version eagerly. (But maybe don’t call an unfinished version 1.0 next time.^^)