It's a difficult.

That is to say, I wish that there was more of the script, just, explaining of how and why everyone got here. The type of conversations, the depression... it seems to be lacking, here. Like it almost does enough. I desperately wished for it as I was reading, and I knew, and I felt the tears coming because it was ending. It was ending and we didn't get to the meat. We got a KFC Drumstick in 2026. The chickens are not as plump as they used to be. No food, is.

Although, the theme was followed very well.

...can I even say, like, the tagline is "A SMALL history of a couple" so I shouldn't - y'know it's fine. Mhm. I liked what was there. I just kept looking past it.

I liked.

Let me start out by saying that there's nothing wrong with stories that are more low stakes and limited in scope - maybe cozy little romantic dramas aren't the flashiest entries, but I think these kinds of plots are just as valuable as anything else, and to be honest, sometimes I look forward to these more than grand epics or suspenseful thrillers. Usually what makes one of these so interesting though is that the lack of a high-stakes A-plot allows for a more detailed inspection of the characters - who they are as people and what they mean to each other. Ultimately, I agree with some of the other recent commenters here in that this feels like a great foundation for a story, but right now it feels like just a foundation and there seem to be some missed opportunities to build on that and make this premise really compelling. 

Implementation of Theme:

We've certainly covered this category here, and in multiple ways, to boot. We have William as an imagining of a wasgo, a figure from Canadian First Nations folklore, and then the holiday/festival Gealach a' Bhruic, which gives some (fictional, I think?) folklore specific to the Scottish badgers. Both are well integrated into the narrative, and I think this does more than enough to meet the ask.

Presentation:

Decent category for this entry, if not particularly mindblowing. We get some of the best presentation right off the bat with the CG of the old wedding video - I love the little blur effect and how that scene builds intrigue for the rest of the VN (even if the wedding theme loop was a little short and repetitive). I didn't notice the music much for the rest of the story though. It kinda felt like the definition of background music, which isn't always the worst thing since, y'know, it is background music, and that's always better than being obtrusive. 

Other images were pretty solid as well, both in the sprites and the couple other CGs we got (I liked the tail wag for William too!). Still a few typos and other mistakes in the text, but this felt much better proofread than your last May Wolf, so that improvement is great to see. 

Story/Writing:

So like I said at the top, we have a good foundation here, but I feel like we're only scratching the surface of what we could do with this premise and these characters. 

I think one way to frame this would be to focus on the "whys" for these people. Like, okay, we have an arranged marriage and our leads feel kinda awkward about it, but is this a normal occurrence in this universe's Scotland (we get that it's normal for wasgo, but not necessarily anyone else)? Whether it is or not generally, how strange would it be for that arranged marriage to be gay (like, with a typical hetero arranged marriage, the calculus is pretty simple - one family gets a baby factory with good genes while the other gets a fat dowry. Does it matter to these people that their arranged marriage can't reproduce)? Is there any judgement from the local community about the gay arranged marriage?

This extends down to more specifics about the characters too - why did William's family conceal that he was male? Why didn't Brock's family ever ask for a photo or anything? How do these people care about being forced into marriage generally? Is their sense of cultural obligation that overpowering? If so, why? Why does Brock feel so lonely about Gealach a' Bhruic (yes he moved out of his parents' house, but he mentions extended family getting together for the holiday, so why couldn't he still do that? It's not like he lives far away)? Why has it taken the leads this long to have a conversation about the arranged marriage, other than William's hockey career ending prematurely (noting again that if William didn't agree to this, there would be much bigger concerns)?

I know that's a big list of questions, but I hope that gets across how much more ground you could be covering with this premise. The story right now is pretty short, and there are so many places where you could expand and really flesh out these characters. This goes for the writing style as well - there's some simple sentence structure and telling-not-showing here, and there are some real opportunities to stretch your legs with the style and really set the scene. 

One other structural comment here - there's a brief perspective switch from Brock to William, and I'm not sure what we get from this. This isn't something that ever happens again, if I recall correctly, and we effectively learn the same things twice from both perspectives -  the marriage was arranged to bring good luck to Brock's family at the cost of William's hockey career. The only thing we get that's different is that William doesn't resent Brock for it, which would probably be better to reveal during their interactions together anyway.

Creativity:

There's definitely some creativity here with the types of folklore that were adapted and integrated into the narrative, and the concept of a gay international catfish arranged marriage could be really interesting, but I think this really just needs a bit more of a push to really flourish. Keep sticking with it - this is still good progress from your last entry and I think you're on the cusp of bringing your talents together to create something really special.

Final score of 12 vintage Vancouver Canucks sweaters out of 8 copies of Jack London's "The Sea-Wolf".

This one’s interesting - I think it’s got a lot of potential, and dabbles in some very interesting ideas, but I can’t help but feel as though it could have gone further. I’m not going to say that I think the story ought to have been different - I think there’s room for stories that are more “low-key”, and I think this is a good example of a story just like that which manages to be interesting in spite of it, but at the same time, I feel like there’s an underlying ‘darkness’ to the story which would have also been very interesting to explore further.

This specifically pertains to William’s character - he’s the highlight of this story for me, and I left the story hungry to see more of him. He starts out seeming like a somewhat ‘normal’ husband, only for you to effectively realize that he’s been more or less sold off by his family for the sake of a folklore about bringing luck to whoever marries him. The folklore, the fact that his family didn’t even bother to clarify that he’s a man, and even the fact that it doesn’t seem as though he’s ever believed he’d be able to achieve the dreams which Brock fears he stole from him… all of that is ultimately left as background noise to a far more mundane tale about tradition bringing the newly married couple together. Honestly, rather than feeling like the couple were going to be happy from here on out, I mostly came out of this story thinking that William really ought to get some therapy because it sure does seem like it could help him out.

There’s also the possibility that I’m off with this interpretation - at the end of the day, the story keeps most of this quite vague and up to interpretation, but it does tie back to a sort of disconnect that’s present here - the implied darkness of William’s background is quite a far cry from how casual the story otherwise is about it.

Then again, I do think that it ultimately is a strength - while I might be left wanting for more at times, it provides a lot of interest and texture to what is otherwise a simple story. The situation the two characters find themselves in is undoubtedly wrong, and neither seems entirely happy with it, but there’s something uplifting about how they manage to make the most of it regardless.

I didn't really like this one to be entirely honest. It seemed merely fine to me, not good or bad. The character drama of the arranged marriage doesn't really get the time to breathe. It may have worked better if it escalated to real conflict instead of the small amount of sniping about the holiday. There's not much here to hold attention and the pace is a little too fast. It would have been better if it lingers a little more in each individual scene. I'm giving it 3/5 stars on the categories because it's relatively well-executed and certainly not bad but in my opinion it isn't particularly compelling either. 

I like the opening. There’s a sense of foreboding and mystery as we see this strange wedding tape play out and this person watching the wedding tape. We see Brock’s hesitation and unhappiness and William’s calming presence. There’s a lot in the audiovisuals, and the descriptive text is evocative. Not too long after, however, there’s a lot of explaining in the text. There’s a lot to explain about this marriage set up, so I think there is room to explain, but it ends up being repetitive between the explanation of Brock’s thoughts and feelings in his POV, then the explanation of William’s thoughts and feelings in his POV, and then the explanation of Brock’s thoughts and feelings to William in the emotional climax. There’s not a lot of change that goes on. It’s not a revelation to the readers or the characters in the scene that Brock feels this way about their marriage. I’m not saying that you have to hide information to maintain tension, necessarily, or that Brock’s not moving their relationship forward by having that conversation by the fire, but there was a bit of repetition I didn’t like.

I like the visual transition to them in bed with the pillow between them before the pillow is even addressed in the text.

A few others have commented on this already, so I won’t go too deep into it, but it’s a very drama-laden premise. William is essentially getting pimped out by his family to a stranger on another continent, but his emotional response to this is something more like you’d see out of someone who moved because of their job. The surprise same-sex marriage thing comes up, but their sexuality isn’t something that’s really explored or talked about past the opening. There’s a mismatch between this complicated scenario that’s set up at the beginning and the road the story ultimately goes down, which has more to do with cultural differences and Brock being hesitant about their relationship because of guilt. Not that the guilt is mismatched topically, but the kind of guilt he has and the kind of conversation he has with William about it don’t match the intensity of this particular arranged marriage scenario.

There were some moments of conflict between them that I liked: William making a comment early on about Brock not wearing his wedding ring and Brock shutting William out with his insistence that the Badger Moon is “a badger thing”. (I like the inclusion of folklore as a component of conflict between spouses who have different cultural backgrounds.) However, William immediately apologises about his comment, and Brock lets William participate anyway without much of a fuss, so the conflict doesn’t feel that important.

The more I write, the more I think that my problems are more with execution than with idea. It’s a well-scoped project focusing on an inflection point in a relationship—it takes place over a short period of time, it only has two characters who appear on-screen.

A few notes on presentation: The music is nice and well-suited to the scenes it comes up in. The names are hard to read over the text box. They’re not very bright and the letters are thin. I appreciate that it has a custom toolbar icon, and that it’s legible at small sizes. Brock’s eyes being a bright colour against his black-and-white fur and neutral-coloured outfit is a nice touch.

This one's a pretty wholesome and sweet story. It kinda starts out a little slow, but as it went on I became invested in the characters. Their relationship is pretty sweet, because on the surface, it looks cold and distant, but they actually do care about each other. The folklore is actually pretty interesting, what with the implications of the Wasgo being married off to other families to bring good luck and fortune. It's heartbreaking, but it's also sweet how William still loves Brock despite it all. I thought it was going to end up in a sad direction, but that wasn't the case. The ending was pretty sweet and even has a neat little book end. Overall a sweet and short story, and pretty solid all around. Very few complaints from me other than me wanting more.

A nice little piece about a married couple. It's a bit surprising that their marriage was arranged despite being male/male, but it presented an interesting dynamic nonetheless. The folklore theme was also used nicely here. Nothing odd or surprising, just a badger honoring his family's tradition and his husband wanting to join in. The wasgo is also an interesting rare species that came from folklore. Truthfully, even though I enjoyed the quiet solemnity of this story, I think I would have liked to see a bit more drama. This story ends pretty quickly with the predictable "we should have talked about this before" conclusion where they then live happily ever after as if the problem never existed. It's sweet and good for the heart, but I think it also lacks a bit of spice to make it exciting or stand out. The folklore theme is also played very straight, and I don't think it necessarily applied specifically to Brock's life. Like, replace it with any other tradition and the story would be the same. So, nothing special, but still a decent story.

Short and sweet story, I felt bad and sorry for the couple, even stressed out it won’t end well, but I’m glad the badger’s tradition helped them to fix their issues, that’s really smart!

You also have the most original design for the wolf among all the other entries in my opinion!

Cute story of traditions, gives a lesson on good communication between partners. Showing how a different side to how one feels to the other. Keeping unsaid things bottled up only makes it worse. It's always good to express your feelings to your partner, they did choose you so it's good to keep them in the know of how you feel. I think a little more could have been added into the story on their lives before, agreement, decision for and what the family business is.  All in all is a very beautifully done with arts n sprites. 

Putting the "sweet" in short and sweet! I think the Badger's Moon has a really interesting set up and premise... and comes with a lot of "givens" the reader has to accept that may be a barrier to some. Like arranged marriage... arranged gay marriage, specifically, as well as the benefits/reasoning that the wasgo have for marrying off. I believe William makes a passive mention about helping the family business, but it's a bit lacking overall. Still I think it was a really interesting way to include the folklore theme, not only pulling on two really different sources, but building the story around them. The prose itself is a little lacking, just very plain, but it's made up for how cute the couple is. I also think two months is a good time frame to have them settle in with each other, without being too long that it feels weird that they haven't already talked things out. And I love that they talk things out! It takes a little bit of a push, but they're upfront about their feelings, and this helps  clear up their misunderstandings and pave the way for the rest of their marriage. An enjoyable little read that understood the assignment and didn't overstay its welcome. Great work!

This was a sweet little story, with an interesting albeit absolutely unhinged premise. I'm sorry but I have to get that out of my system first.

I thought how this entire set up is really interesting and wondered why isn't it done more. We've seen an opposite sex arranged marriage a million times, and stories about queer people being forced into one have been done too. But an arranged same sex marriage? Kinda cooking, but at what cost.

I read this in a group and the spiciest take one person had is that this story would be a lot more interesting if one or both characters were actually straight. That would be a drastic departure from the author's vision and it got me worried that it could easily go some unintentionally dark place, so I'm not on board. It does leave me wondering, and we ended up with some question about Brock specifically. The reveal that his partner is another man was a shock to everyone in the game, and it was also a shock that he agreed to the marriage. I kept asking myself if his family knew he was gay back then. I wonder if he himself realised he's gay before that? We don't get many answers, but we get some little unhinged details about this entire setup that only lead to more questions.

Speaking of which, everything about William... His parents basically catfished Brock's family, didn't reveal his gender or name (I'd have a crumb more understanding if William had a unisex name and they all expected a woman from being told the name and then were in for a surprise), SHIPPED HIM TO ANOTHER CONTINENT, ALL ALONE, and then didn't even attend  the wedding? 😭😭😭 I'm not sure if this is something that hasn't been given much thought cause of the tight jam deadline, but it's diabolical lmao

Absolutely wild marriage set up shenanigans aside, I did enjoy the story. The initial loveless marriage tension was done well, even if with much used images of the pillow barrier or one partner not wearing the wedding ring. My favourite part was Brock as a character and his inner dilemma. I'm an absolute sucker for characters who deeply care, but are unable to express it due to self loathing, but they still can't stop themselves from showing affection some ways. The fact that he makes a coffee for William every morning ,but never sits down to have it together with him is the perfect example of this.

What I'm less thrilled about was the resolution. The significance of The Badger's Moon was good, but I feel like Brock's inner turmoil was contrived and wouldn't survive for so long. It seems like this is the first serious pushback he received in two months and his insecurities immediately crumble.I do understand what the story was going for, and the way they bond through The Badger's Moon (and its significance of protecting the household from the cold, both literal and in this case marital) was done well, but it felt like this tension deflated too easily. What I expected was something more dramatic or cathartic. We got William pushing Brock out of his comfort zone a bit, but introducing more stress and conflict between them could have lead to a final confrontation where they are finally honest and reveal their insecurities and come out stronger on the other side. Another option would be having an even more sentimental climax. I found it weird how there is a line about Brock crying on the walk to his parents, but he takes what should be the emotional finale pretty stoically. Of course he is in a better place, but it feels like his anguish mostly disappeared instead of being released.

As for the proseitself, I'd say it was an improvement compared to A knight's myosotis. There were some weird times where the tenses got switched up for no reason that threw me off, and many sentences were pretty plain and lacked flourish or anything fun. I feel like  scenes when Brock is alone have this habit of just describing things in a very matter of fact way, especially listing things he does without any flare.

Lastly, I want to say that I enjoyed the art! I think the characters were cute, their sprites expressed who they are (Brock's posture being very stiff is perfect considering he's suffering from having a stick up his ass), and the figurines on the bag in the end are soooo cute (main menu change too!). My fav illustration is probably the opening shot at the wedding though.

All in all, it was a sweet game I enjoyed, with my fav parts being the sweet sentimentality and the protagonist's big mental blockade. Despite harping on it a lot, I do like the insane set up about the marriage... I just wish the game milked the entire thing for more drama or more sweetness.

Short, sweet, and to the point! Not every day you get to read a VN with (borderline) slave trade of anthro wolf-sharks, that's for sure, and more rarely still you get to have something like that used effectively for the narrative. Now, that doesn't mean it didn't trigger my sensors on how the main characters aren't really that... bothered by it, in general, outside of the one of them it affected, but it was presented as a part of the culture and not a main focus of the story anyway.

This is one of the stories that handled the folklore aspect very well, since it does more than slap an existing myth onto a story; instead, it is built around it. My biggest criticism, by a large margin, would be how mechanical the writing felt at times, describing every move of the characters in the form of a list: "Took the cup, opened the microwave door, put the cup in, etc..." That is to say, however, that at the climax of the story I was not really paying attention to that, since I was invested in the relationship of the two main characters.

Ultimately, it's a self-contained story that's fun to read, if not a little cliché.

Very sweet! A bit basic with the whole "arranged marriage where they learn to love each other" but that doesn't mean it's bad. I enjoyed it quite a lot, and it warmed my heart to see the walls slowly erode away between them (both metaphorically and literally with the pillow barrier lol)

All in all I enjoyed it

This story was very nice. Slow paced and simple story with a lot of heart. Enjoyed my time with it a lot.

This VN is overflowing with hope and good vibes. Both characters are just so pure, that you can't help but painfully await their happy ending.

'The Badger's Moon' is a melancholic and serene slice-of-life story about an arranged marriage and the internal conflicts that come with reconciling with such conflicting emotions. It deals with the emotions of love, guilt, vulnerability,  being honest, and having the difficult talks that come with agreeing to be someone's life-partner. It does a really good job of grounding the situation, even if the cultural practice may seem out-of-time, it treats it with respect and from a point of practical realism.

The story of Brock and William is presented as the 'working through it' phase of an arranged marriage. Brock being the stoic and emotionally distant badger who accepted the marriage because he wanted a partner and was offered one through an arrangement, but now is feeling guilt ridden because the marriage was arranged and he can't bring himself to believe that William is fully happy with the arrangement. William on the other hand, agreed to be a part of the arrangement though a sense of cultural tradition, since as a wasgo (i think that's hybrid whale/wolf), his culture is one where wasgos are just married off like that because it brings the receiving family good luck and fortune. Though, as a result of the situation, William had to leave his home country to go live with Brock, away from his family and his then-lively hood as a hockey player. What then proceeds in the story is the slice of life moments where the two try to communicate with each other, bonding over mundane daily activities, and preparing to do a badger family cultural tradition that William wants to be apart of. When they finally start doing the tradition together, does Brock finally open up to have the difficult conversation of his inner-conflict of wanting a partner, but knowing that it may have taken Brock away from his path in life. Of course, William is an understanding guy and offers that he wants to make the marriage work in spite of that, and that they would need to work at it to make it work. The story is really serene and heartwarming as the two men are able to overcome their own inner turmoil to be able to commit towards making this marriage work.

The presentation is simple yet effective. The custom character sprites are cute and I love the extra detail you put into it by even having the wasgo have his tail wag. The custom cgs are great focal points, and the music choices are restrained enough to give just the right amount of ambiance to the scenes. The writing style is good. It does shift perspectives a few times, which I don't hate getting to be in the headspace of both characters, but I feel like if you were going to have the two different POVs, to maybe give a bit more time to William, since this story does seem to be primarily about Brock. I also feel like it took a little bit of narrative work to justify why these two got married in the first place, with it seeming like it was their parents ideas, but also Brock feeling partially responsible for it, while William is all for it yet. I feel like there could be a stronger narrative reason for the two men to be 'stuck' as the story would put it. It's mentioned that wasgo's are married into families as good luck, but for what business purpose did it serve? I can speculate that it might be Brock's work/company, or maybe there's a family business that needed the boost in luck? It seems a little weak as a justification. I get that Brock wants to be a reluctant participant, but there should be a narrative plot motivation that outweighs his initial concerns just barely. There's also the surprise twist that it ended up a same-sex marriage, which muddies that motivations even more. I feel like while you really wanted to focus on this spouse dynamic, a little more work put into the set up/situation would've helped it feel more believable, especially since it is rather random that a badger guy in Scotland and a hockey player wasgo from Canada end up in an arranged marriage. Like for this story, it feels like Brock and William only adhering to tradition blindly without thinking about the consequences or what that would entail. Yet, during the story they never question this blind adherence to tradition even though it's both making them feel guilt ridden about it.

That being said, it is a unique scenario that I would never have seen coming, so that's pretty creative. The folklore aspect is also really sweet, as framing the Gealach a' Bhruic as a bonding experience and the way for the two to share a cultural tradition is heartwarming (plus badger guy with the badger's moon tradition, that's cute). I remember how last year's game jam you did 'A Knight's Myosotis', and I remember that one being a bit longer and wordy, while this one you've really done a good job of distilling the story down to it's emotional essentials, which is the important bits. It's definitely a great improvement in the presentation and writing chops, and so now it's more of seeing what other fun ways to can enhance the reading experience. I'd suggest one thing to keep in mind is making sure that you know what your character's backstory is, as you don't always need to give a monologue about it, but know what about their past influences the way the make choices and the way they act in the present. Try to keep an idea of what your thematic throughline is, and what the message of your story might be saying. You're making steady improvements, and you're branching out to different genres, keep doin' that.

A gay arranged marriage, you don’t see that everyday.^^

This VN is like a vignette about what can happen due to such a marriage: the malaise, the guilt, but more importantly, the falling in love we sometimes hear about when they’re lucky.^^ It was pretty nice and wholesome. I like both the characters here and their relation, their dialogue seems pretty natural. The resolution feels a bit rushed, mostly because we’re dropped near the end of the “arc”. But that’s pretty hard to avoid in a jam environment.

The sprites are pretty cute, however I didn’t really like the effects applied to the background, they look very grainy. The music mostly fits the mood, but one of them stays playing for too long, I think.

The folklore is approached from two sides here. Firstly, the wolf himself is a mythological creature (a wasgo) who has a reputation of bringing good fortune to the families they marry into. Secondly, the story takes place just before and during the titular yearly tradition. This weaves the theme pretty tightly into the story in a nice way, however, I can’t help but feel a bit confused by the world it paints.^^

Overall, it’s a nice read, good job!

⭐⭐⭐

For me, the most intriguing element about this one is the set-up. Being a story about an arranged marriage between people who know so little about each other that, prior to the engagement, one party didn't even know the other's gender, there's plenty of room for the exploration of a myriad themes. Sadly, The Badger's Moon doesn't offer much beyond the bare minimum. While structure, worldbuilding, and characterisation are present, they all come too compressed by the project's scope. As I see it, the game lacks the space to present its narrative in an interesting way; every aspect is little too straightforward and predictable to be memorable. Visually, I found the poorly edited backgrounds to be a bad contrast with the much better sprites; I especially like how the latter's faces are always in profile, making expressions easily readable. Even if I didn't find it very remarkable, The Badger's Moon is certainly competent and short enough to just check out.