Thank you so much for playing, and for all the encouragement!! It's a topic I've wanted to explore for quite a while, and I'm glad that this jam finally gave me a chance to do it + get it in front of people for some feedback. Thanks for all the compliments on the writing as well! It was pretty difficult for me to get the feel and pacing semi-decent, both because this is my first time writing for a game, and because I rewrote pretty much everything from 1 AM to 5 AM on the day of submission haha. I'll be interested to see if you expand your game in the future!

Thank you so much for playing, and for all the kind words!! And I'm glad that the exaggeration of LLM tendencies cam across in the final product; I came to a similar realization myself, about how even though I know the technical underpinnings of how these things work, it still feels like you're talking to a real (albeit overly helpful and obedient) person. Thanks for the compliment on the dialogue as well! I'm still trying to work on my writing skills, but comments like this give me hope that I'm starting from a solid foundation :)

Thanks so much for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!! The branching dialogue was a pain on my end as well haha, especially because I tried my best to make each choice have unique dialogue and some choices lead to several routes. I think I wrote twice as much dialogue as anyone would see on a normal playthrough, so you probably dodged a bullet by not heading too far down that road lol.

And thank you so much for the compliment on the writing!! This is my first time writing for a game, and it was a lot harder than I expected to convey both character attributes and themes without being too on the nose (earlier versions of ELLA-M were both more sarcastic and got depressed much earlier/more drastically). I'm gonna keep trying to improve, but I really appreciate the encouragement on my current state!

Thank you so much for playing, and for the compliment! I agree, the pacing does need work; you can definitely tell I wrote most of the experience intended for a longer play session and then slapped on the heavy stuff near the end. I'm glad that it sounds like it was still a satisfying experience in the end, though!

Thanks so much for playing and for the positive feedback!! The most similar popular example that I know is probably "Emily is Away", which I really enjoyed. When I expand upon it, I intend to add more interactive elements to allow the player to be a more active participant in the story, rather than just having you watch everything happen, but I'm glad you at least found it somewhat satisfying in its current state!

Thank you so much for playing, and for all the positive feedback!! I'm so, so glad that you enjoyed it :D

I'm definitely going to continue expanding it in the future, but it's great to hear that even an early version was able to be at least a little bit engaging! And it's interesting to hear that you still enjoyed it despite not usually playing these types of games. I think a big difference is that unlike a lot of other text-based narrative games, you're not clicking through text boxes; ELLA-M speaks and interacts independently of your actions. I was just trying to make it seem more like an actual LLM generating a response, but I think this helps the character to feel more "real" (even in the face of amateurish writing, haha).

Thank you so much for playing my game, and for the kind feedback!!

I’ve gotten a few comments about the game being “sad” or “existential”, and it’s funny because I didn’t even really realize it might be taken that way until after I’d already submitted it. The original plan was for it to be a much more hopeful experience, but without the last 75% of the game, it kinda ends on a depressing note. I’m really glad that the story was able to connect with people, but I hope the final product will produce a lot more positive feelings, haha

Thank you so much for playing my game!! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it :D

The funny thing is that the engine actually does support everything that’s needed for that functionality to work, but because I spent so much time polishing the engine, I didn’t get much of a chance to actually…implement the game. Haha.

And I’m totally planning to keep expanding on this concept. I didn’t expect to get this much positive feedback, so I don’t have anything planned for the immediate future, but I’m definitely moving this project to the top of my (ever-growing) backlog :)

Lol yeah, the end of the “game” is basically just you sitting there while ELLA-M has a trauma dumping session. All of those elements and ideas were supposed to be more well paced and subtle, but the deadline kinda forced me to pick and choose my favorite plot points and Frankenstein them into something semi-coherent, haha

Thank you so much for trying it out, by the way!! I hope that you enjoyed your time with it, unfinished as it may be :)

Thank you so much for playing!! I’m glad you enjoyed it :)

I was trying really hard to lean into that fascination that you would have with common everyday concepts if you’ve only ever heard/read about them before (kinda random but the captain from WALL-E was an inspiration here). And that naturally came across as a kind of “childlike excitement” that lends itself heavily to a lot of cute moments, haha

Thanks so much for playing!! I’m really glad to hear that the concept interested you enough to make you want to consider revisiting it in the future when it’s more polished. I’ll definitely work hard to ensure it’s an experience worth waiting for, haha

I had a chance to play your game as well, and I had a great time with it! If you were able to get that much done in a few days, I’d be very excited to see what you could do with an expanded timeframe. Definitely keep me updated if you decide to keep working on it!

Thank you so much for trying it out!! I didn’t even really intend for the “sentience” aspect to take such a central position; it just kind of flowed naturally from needing some form of conflict for a character that can’t hurt or die. I was worried it would feel too much like a rehashed trope, so I’m relieved to hear that I (hopefully) avoided that for the most part :)

Thanks for the compliment on the writing as well! I haven’t had a chance to try your game yet (it’s at the top of my list), but I can tell from the description alone that you’re a talented writer yourself, so that really means a lot to me. I still have a lot to learn, but it’s really great to hear that my first attempt was able to connect with people on some level.

Thank you so much for playing it!! I’m sorry it made you sad; the original intention was for everything to end on a happier note, but given the deadline I was forced to shove all my strongest ideas into kind of a “demo” version :)

It’s great to hear that you enjoyed the writing as well! This was my first time trying to write dialogue + narrative for a game, and I’m so happy I was able to write something that connected with you (at least a little bit) :D