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Fret Not's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art | #6 | 4.471 | 4.471 |
| Polish | #46 | 3.118 | 3.118 |
| Sound | #57 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #58 | 3.088 | 3.088 |
| Atmosphere | #62 | 3.235 | 3.235 |
| Theme | #78 | 2.647 | 2.647 |
| Gameplay | #113 | 2.059 | 2.059 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Really enjoyed this start to your visual novel! I'll definitely keep an eye out to see where you take it next! I saw a couple typos and found that the sound effects seem to glitch out a little when we were at the alchemist's house. I do like the building sense of dread at the start and excited to see how the theme would be incorporated more as well as the horror elements! Super polished especially considering the time constraints! Great work!
Hello! Apologies for the late response, but we're happy to hear that you liked the start to the story!
Thank you for noting the typos and sound effects. We'll comb through the script since we definitely want to continue the story.
Thank you for playing!
This was a great start to a visual novel, I really like where this is going! The art style is super pleasant and very cozy--I like that everything is quite soft and painterly. The backgrounds are excellent as well--I'm impressed with how many there are! It really set the scene. The lighting in particular is very nice, it feels quite cozy and lived in. The music was really enjoyable as well, almost had a nostalgic fantasy RPG quality to it. There's a nice level of detail and care in everything here, from the different sound effects when each character speaks, to the animations for the character portraits--lot of really nice touches that help it feel pretty polished!
Just some minor tweaks here and there--I only caught a single typo. I'd love a volume slider for the music, since it was a tad loud. The characters also seem to flicker translucent for a brief second when changing expressions--it's not super noticeable, but just distracting enough to notice. Not totally sure how this is related to decay at this stage beyond the mold=creature, but wouldn't be surprised if more of that is planned further in the storyline.
Overall, great job! It's a short snippet, but I'm really curious to see where this goes. I love the idea of something this cozy turning into horror, and I'm a little remiss we didn't get more of that, but I like the eerie bits we do have. The scene with the alchemist in particular was left me uneasy, so great job there. Can't wait to see more! :)
Hello, thank you so much for your comment! Apologies for the delayed response, but we are so grateful for the feedback.
Happy to hear that you like the story so far, as well as the art. I focused up and made as much of the backgrounds as possible in the first two days of the jam (backgrounds and sprites), so that most of what we needed for the story was there. I think I only needed to add the cliffside background while we were in the programming stage. Glad that the soft style worked for you! We really wanted it to contrast with the mystery side of the story, while bringing both together with the music.
Noted on the typo! We'll definitely comb through our script again once we develop it more.
We actually had settings sliders planned, unfortunately there were inconsistent glitches during testing so we had to take it out for the initial push. Rest assured that it's something we plan to have for an update version though!
And yes, in terms of connecting with the theme, while we hinted at it in the intro, we do acknowledge it might not be as obvious. We were happy to take the risk though as to not spoil what we have planned for the story.
Thank you again for your comment, and we hope to get more updates out for this soon
A decent visual novel, I really liked the art, it has so much charm. The story setup is great too, a shame it ended abruptly. The music is nice but a tad bit loud. Overall a well made game and would love to see where it goes, good job!
Thank you! We really wanted to get the contrast of a cozy setting with the cosmic horror + mystery story.
Glad you liked the setup! We would have wanted to write a bit more, but some irl stuff happened. We made sure to hit the most important narrative beats that present all the important elements in the intro since those are what we really aligned with the themes. We’re definitely interested in developing this further after the jam, and are excited at seeing people interested in more!
Thank you for playing, and thank you for hosting the jam! Looking forward to participating in future ones as well.
I liked the rural vibe and your art.
Thank you! We really wanted to get the cozy feeling of a coastal town to contrast with the cosmic horror element of the story.
Thanks for playing!
Good game in general. The art is very cute, really liked it! And the narrative seems to be designed to let you imagine and link the facts presented, one of my favourites type of narrative by the way. Excellent game!!
Thank you! Happy to hear that you like the narrative style, we really wanted to strike the balance of giving the players just enough info to start putting things together without giving things away, but also making sure we give enough info for a shorter jam game.
Thanks for playing!
I liked it, I would have preferred it to be conclusive instead of a "to be continued". I loved the art; if you did it in just a week, I have to say I'm impressed by how good it looks. The blop looked like a dinosaur and I thought it was cute.
Happy to hear you liked it! We would have loved to keep going with the story, but we had to make sure we could complete something within the game jam's time limit. That's why we decided to take the most important narrative pieces to the story and create a demo that introduces the foundation of the story.
Glad you liked the art! Yes, all of it was created within the week and was really fun to do. I made full use of layer effects and styling to get alternate versions of an image. For the sprites, I put the faces on different layers from the body so that I could get the different expressions.
Thanks for playing!
I really like the art, both the backgrounds and the characters. I also loved the narrative direction, it left me wanting to know more. I hope the project continues after the jam ends!
Thanks so much! We really wanted the visuals to give the cozy vibe so that it contrasts with the themes and the mystery in the narrative. We have a lot of notes that we could work with to continue this project, so there's a definite possibility that we continue!
Thanks for playing!
This is really good so far! I hope you continue the story, I'd love to play the full version
Thank you! We definitely have a lot of story beats that we haven’t covered yet to keep everything concise, but we’re happy to hear people like the story so far!
I was imagining Lucky turning into some eldritch beast! Lovely story and art!
Lucky can be too curious for his own good. 😅 It’s why we have Michael carrying him around on his sprite.
Happy to hear you like the story and art, and thanks for playing!
I love the art! And the story looks really interesting. Keep it up!
Thank you so much!
Happy to hear you like the art and story. We wanted to get that balance of cozy unassuming setting with an underlying mystery. Definitely have more plans for the story! Just had to make sure we made a demo that was concise enough for the jam.
The art is phenomenal. The story seems intriguing, I hope you continue it.
Thank you! To keep things concise for this jam, we wanted to create a snippet that hints at the wider story. We definitely have plot points beyond this though, so we might be able to expand it once we have more time!
This demo is intriguing, the plot swings between quiet, boring village and hideous mystery.... I am quite hooked on the story.
Thank you! We were really going for the unassuming village setup since we really wanted to it contrast with the hinted cosmic horror elements. Glad to hear that the main points we kept for the jam were able to capture the mood we wanted.
Thanks again for your comment!
I really liked your art style and the mix of cozy seaside charm and the unknown. Great job.
Thank you! We wanted to create a cozy horror/mystery vibe, so it’s nice to hear that the art was able to contribute to that.