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Thank you so much! I'm happy to hear the text effects/customization worked like I'd hoped. There was some worry I had about whether they were helpful or a hindrance due to my reliance on them at certain points so I'm glad to hear they worked!

Thanks for playing! And thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it. With my rather...limited art skills (lol) focusing on character voice was something I was hoping would shine through. So, I'm glad to hear it did!

Thank you so much! And thank you for hosting! This has been a wonderful experience.

Thank you so much for the kind words! After playing some of the other entries (yours included) I'm just so honored to have received any sort of feedback from such talented game devs. And everyone has been so nice to boot!

Totally agree about the audio! Something I want to put more priority in next time around.

What an impressive narrative you've constructed here! I'm blown away you were able to manage this is such a short time. The characters are so wonderful and clearly defined. Atticus is such a sweetheart that must be protected at all costs! I loved the call and response of the varying decisions and the audio cues. Very "tactile" in a way. Quite satisfying.

I did think the initial dream sequence where the knight is transitioning to waking in Atticus' house could be better represented with a total black out and punched up audio cues - cries of townsfolk, dragon roar, flames billowing, and the like. While the parchment effect is great, it doesn't really serve the immersion like it does the rest of the time with its sort of diary like presentation preserving the knight's legacy as the story unfolds.

Great work! SO GOOD!

Thank you so much for playing and for the feedback!

I totally agree, a main menu to match would help a tone :/ I just need to get a bit better at planning. So that is a great note for next time!

I sadly also caught a lot of those errors after posting and just full face palmed, lol. 

Well it seems like you got it fixed!  I'm so glad because I was happy  to have played it.

It has such a quaint charm to it (I hope that connotes positively because I think it's quite lovely).

First, the hand scrawled font added a personal touch to the narrative which enhanced the players centric point of view. It looks nice and is readable. The music also adds to the sort of easy going atmosphere you've created. Between the handful of characters there is no need for something big and flashy so it's great! It's also not distracting, which makes it perfect. The characters are cute and the chalk/crayon brush style for the art really solidifies the tone. 

I almost want to comment on the pace being too slow, but I'm really not sure if it is. The sort of meandering motion of the story calls for something more relaxed so I think it was the right call!

The only  thing that stood out too me as having space for improvement is the terminal section where the player guides him through fixing the mess Calvin had made of Irene's system. I think it could be punched up a bit, made to be snappier and more...exciting? (for lack of a better term). Calvin is owning his mistakes and showing humility. I think you should/can lean into that and pull the focus away from the terminal itself. We (the player) can trust things are getting resolved on that end and that allows for the focus to shift back to Calvin proper and our budding relationship with him. 

I think this is a good start to a story it seems like you intend on continuing! I hope you do!

Nice work!

p.s. Madame Maple is the best

What a fun little experience. The sprites are so charmingly presented and their expressions conveyed so much. The little jumps of motion added a very tactile response when progressing through dialogue/the narrative as a whole, very satisfying. The relationship which developed between the pair was very cute! I only wished I could have experienced more of it. And I can't forget to give props on the incredibly creative solution to backgrounds. Simple in presentation but such a firm artistic choice which does just enough to present a location without detracting from the characters. What would have really brought it all together would be sound of some kind, whimsical music, wolf snarling, eggs sizzling on a pan, etc. really anything. 

I will say the dialogue box and text were a little too incongruous, for me, with the rest of the style presented. The pixel art is great but was distracting when juxtaposed with the smooth brush strokes of the backgrounds and the soft forms of the characters. Speaking of, I would have liked a little more on Sofia's character. We get a pretty good understanding of Quilliam right out of the gate, but the motives for Sofia weren't clear. He wants to slay her and be a big hero but she saves him from the wolf and his sprained ankle - why? If he really has tried and failed 7 times, was it pity? had they interacted before like this? Just stuff that I was thinking about during my play through. 

Great work! I had a blast! :)

I'm hope I'm just being a dingus, but I'm having trouble opening the game after I download and extract the file. Nothing seems to want to open for me and the few that do are not the game. Sorry :( I wish there was a private DM capability on itch - I didn't want  to sully the comment section of your game (especially if I am just being dense, lol.) but I would really like to play it!

Thank you so much! This whole coding thing is still new to me so even the motions were quite the accomplishment for me! I'm glad to hear you liked them.

I liked this! It was snappy and had a nice interpretation of the theme.  Playing as the princess was the perfect choice for this. Getting to help settle the Commander's nerves did feel impactful. The location was great and used the background to excellent effect. The pensive soldier staring off at a city he's meant to protect is a nice way of presenting the conflict of your story. Him doing it the night before battle, when all is quiet is beautiful. It always seems like conversations like these are found in the quiet moments, which you nailed.

It would have been nice to have seen a bit more, visually, for a conversation of such a length. I'm hardly one to talk about art, but what is there is so good - seeing more could have allowed motion, a tactile response to the player's progressing dialogue via click, auto, or the space bar. I also wasn't entirely sure until the end what their preexisting relationship was, though could have hazarded a guess. Fleshing that relationship out while exploring the fears plaguing the Commander's mind would have helped strengthen the narrative.  I don't think it's unreasonable to think he would be focusing on the battle but there must be more going on in there. Does he have a family beyond the soldiers he commands? Is this city his home since birth? etc. Details like that would have only served to deepen my connection with the Commander - who I of course want to see succeed but my investment isn't fully there. 

As to not write you a novel, I'll end by saying:

Wonderful job! You should be proud of what you made here, because it's great! 

Thank you so much for the kind words.

So wonderful! I'm blown away with what you managed to accomplish during the Jam. Everything comes together in such a complimentary way as to drive the narrative forward. (I realize i should have left my initial comment here after playing the game, but what can you do.)

The only gripe I had was confusion surrounding the back and forth between characters and the, sometimes, unclear focus on the speaker.

Fantastic work though. 

This was so much fun! I'm blown away what your team put together during the jam. The art, the flow, the humor, the music (manic yet still enjoyable - truly a chef's kiss to match the energy on display from the characters.) I was worried being in the car for the length of the game would grow stale but was happily proven wrong with how it evolved to be a sort of multipurpose space all it's own. It might just have been me but I found myself a tad confused with the text boxes in the beginning. The way they shift back and forth is nice but they didn't wholly convey who the speaker was and with the sort of whip snap dialogue ping ponging back and forth that issue was only compounded (but I caught up, in time, lol). 

I know it's supposed to be short but would have honestly loved to see more! We only just got to know them and then that juicy reveal at the end! You have something really cool here.

Great work! You should be proud. :)

SO much went wrong, lol:

• I submitted with like <15 seconds left
• No screenshots
• Shoddy code i didn't really get to test in its entirety
• Couldn't find music that fit/didn't have the time, nor skill, to make my own
• etc.

BUT...I'm so proud of myself for having submitted anything at all. This is my first successful game jam and first completed game. It was stressful and messy and showed me my strengths, weakness, limitations, and gave me the foundation to move forward and make something better next time. 

I haven't had a chance to experience all of the other submissions but am blown away by what I've seen thus far with "Let's Talk Until Dawn" and "Tower of Esca." Everyone is so talented and creative. It makes my heart warm to see so many people making things.

I feel privileged to have been a part of the jam! So thank you, robobarbie!