All in all, I really liked this game. The concept of rediscovering a poet's poems as he travels from one memory to another is really nice. The way you implemented the autumn theme by having us sweep away leaves to discover poems was also excellent. The art was very good, as were the ambient sounds; each of these elements were quite additive to the overall experience. The overall gameplay left a little to be desired, but this is nothing that can't be fixed if you decide to work more on this game, and overall, I really enjoyed the experience of playing the game.
Below are some point form notes about the gameplay:
- there were a couple small bugs
- in the first scene, Carlo's voice line didn't appear for one of his text bubbles, and then his voice lines were offset by 1 after that point
- in the scene where you're in the trenches (I actually played through this scene twice!):
- I triggered the companion dialogue, but couldn't see the companion, so it took a while of just holding T and looking around to figure out where they were supposed to be
- The first time I played this scene, it exited to the main menu after I completed it. At first I thought that was the end of the game, but the description mentions there are 6 levels, and this was only the 3rd for me.
- The second time I played this scene, I saw a box? bench? flashing where the companion was supposed to be - but only if I was hovering over that exact spot
- The second time I played, even though I swept literally all the leaves in the whole trench, I couldn't get the scene to continue forward
- I think the game could benefit from having the professor's voice lines sped up (or, alternatively, not slowed down); right now, it feels like the pace is extra slow, which leaves me feeling like there's not a lot to do while I wait for them to talk to each other
- I think the transcriptions also take too long; either having something else happen while you're transcribing, or speeding it up, or changing it from a "hold" to a "toggle" would help the pacing a lot. I also think the animation of the transcription was a bit awkwardly done; it looks good on its own, and the poems sound good on their own, but I can't really read the poem while he's transcribing it due to the way the animation is implemented. It would have been nice to be able to hear him and read the exact line he's speaking at the same time.
- Instead of directing us on exactly what to do on some actions (such as "look at the coat and look away"), it would have been nice to have some more vague instructions. Something like "look around; is there anything else in this room to discover?"
- In general, I think the limitation of "things change when you look away" was a little over-implemented. Having to look at the poem in order to transcribe was already enough. Maybe a couple of small things like having the chair move when you look away in the first scene, and having Pietro move the lantern in the trenches when you're not looking at him, are great additive gameplay. The rest felt a little overdone; do I have to look away in order for the next dialogue to occur? Maybe an interaction with the object would have been more impactful.
- It would have been nice to be able to open the notebook and see a translation for the poems! Although the poems are beautiful, I can't understand what he's saying, which is a little bit sad :(
Again, though, I really enjoyed the concept and implementation of the theme! Most of my notes are for "quality of life", and especially for a gamejam game, I think this was splendidly done!