Thank you for this. Genuinely one of the most thoughtful pieces of feedback I've gotten on anything!
A lot of it is written from my own experience as an AuDHD person (I turned 39 a few weeks ago, so the "friendship in your 30s takes intent" part hit close). The systems-versus-genuineness tension you named is exactly the thing I was circling: the template is the only way the check-in happens, and the template is also why it can feel awkward. Fortunately, I only have one group chat and it isn't active daily, or my anxiety would spike even though I love them dearly. 😅 Your bi-weekly brunches are what Kelley is trying to do, and I'm glad the game read that way to you. And folks saw that even with calendar reminders, folks can read "so-in-so's birthday" and then forget it five seconds later; I've done too many times myself, which proves the systems we may build don't solve for everything, and the guilt and fear around hurting our relationships is too real.
Dialogue: you're right on both counts. Other texts already come in with the player's name on them. It's easy to cut or replace, and it's only painfully obvious to me now that you've said it, so thank you. And the autism line as a setup rather than a reveal, with the payoff living in the 405 chat for people who read it, is a better structure than what I have. That one's going on the list of things to mull over for future updates, too.
On the programming and UI, thank you! The phone was designed for another game I've been working on since August called The Majestic (it's in the game credits, but I know not everyone reads those), which won't be out until 2027. In that one, the player mostly uses the phone to track a mystery and text their girlfriend or a few people helping them, and the main UI is the physical rooms and a small town map that took two weeks of my life to draw. It felt fair/okay under the rules because that game isn't out yet, I hadn't programmed the phone yet, and I had to modify it to this game anyway. Most of the jam went to that: the settings gear, the signal bars that randomly move between 2 and 4, the black phone for the player versus Kai's blue one so it's clear they're different, the message drop-down alerts design + action, the unlock button, the "no" wiggle, finding the sounds, creating the marketing stuff. Then prose, drawing, and running out of time while in a panic, which is why the memes are still placeholders and the background is the only photo. Screenshots below so you can see what it looks like for the other game, if you're curious.
Thanks again for playing this closely!!! It means a lot. 😃
