yooooo someone got the reference!!!!? funnily enough, originally during early stages of development there was actually supposed to be a second clippy style anomaly like the lil gourdguy, with them representing 2 different unhealthy ways to cope with grief but he was eventually cut cause i realized it was a lot more compelling if it was parker himself vs the anomaly rather than 2 different ones trying to string him along (and also cause time restraints were eating me alive)

anyways ty for playing, and im glad you enjoyed!

ty for playing and im glad you enjoyed! also you're one of like the only people to actually criticize my use of the spin theme and actually play through the whole game, not give up after the first password so i appreciate it lol

mentioned this somewhere else but funnily enough, the bullet hell spin the refresh thing was actually one of the first things i came up with during development, though it ended up taking a backseat cause i got so absorbed in the lore- so sorry if it didn't seem fully fleshed out, i was kinda banking on that one off line in the theme announcement video where juniper said "it can be a spinning object" or smth, and also the slow loading bar joke (most people figured out they could press the refresh button before the popup came tho)

still, ty for the feedback!

*spoilers warning for anyone scrolling in the comments!!!!!*

ty for the feedback, that was super helpful! i'll try to go over everything but sorry if my explanations are bad.

-Yeah a lot of the playtesters mentioned the bug but i could not for the life of me figure out how to fix it, so in it stays. sorry lol

-I wasn't exactly trying to go for a metaphor with the ending, as throughout the entire game it's built up like "oh you're friends gone missing" "oh this weird computer thing is trying to prevent you from proceeding" "im sure if i keep digging deeper i can find the answer" when in reality ambigous loss almost never has clear solution that makes the grief go away. the reveal that the folder is empty is supposed to shock the player as much as the virus thing because the virus assumes it's protecting august's last secret while the player assumes they're helping parker find closure.

-funnily enough the bullet hell spin to win sections were the first thing i thought up when starting development, though i ended up getting so invested in the story that i ended up taking the sideline lol. yeah the theme was a little unclear though it was supposed to be explained with the first loading window where if you wait long enough the message (Taking too long? Try spinning the refresh button!) pops up though most players figured it out before it even did. so the bullet hell sections, you are spinning the refresh button (the velocity of the spin increases every time you click it though its pretty subtle so i get not noticing it)

-this doesn't really solve the dillema thing but i mentioned how the virus is trying to protect august while you're trying to help parker or whatever, in the school paper (im not sure if you read it, it was kinda a massive wall of text) was the main world builder of the story. i won't lie it was mainly just cause i love the concept of worlds where paranormal entities just seem mundane to the average pedestrian, but also cause i thought the metaphorical anomolies were a really neat metaphor (the main one you encounter being sort of a mix of nostalgia and grief) i'd say neither option is correct persay, with both sides representing unhealthy coping mechanisms. one being to stay anchored in the past clinging desperately to what remains, the other being searching desperately for an answer that doesn't exist, when all it does is harm you.

anyways sorry i got a bit rambly im not too good at putting my thoughts into words but still, thank you for playing and im glad you enjoyed!