itch.io

how exciting!! i'll be sure to play it twice through now :)) thank you, truly.

i'll write the final review after my second playthrough where I will hopefully understand the game more deeply

until then, warm regards

I haven't finished the game, but seeing this, I just want to tell you that this game has not been overlooked. I've never played a visual novel in my life, and I started playing Anura a month and a half ago. I'm beyond busy and have really struggled to find time to play, but I have with every chance I've had. I've put in about twelve hours so far (I'm a slow reader and have gone back to reread large portions of it to try to elevate my experience).  One of my largest motivations to finish it is just to be able to leave a truly honest encomium on its itch page and yet nothing stops me from doing so not having finished it.

Your game has already made a serious impact on me. I have loved writing since early childhood yet I've never really taken it seriously. It's always been a hobby rather than a form of self-expression for me. This game has taught me otherwise. I feel like I know Ilaria and Jasper (my name for MC) better than I know some of my friends. There is something captivating in the dialogue that I cannot fully express. Something about the illogic of certain transitions or the fluctuation of the characters' behaviour makes it feel so much more vivid and entrancing than any other story I've experienced. It is uplifted by its flaws; it is truly a game I will never forget. Your prose is depthy and profound. The use of words and story in such a unique way has inspired me not only to write again but to write to immerse. I'm making my first work of interactive fiction now and having a wonderful time. Your game has allowed me to see games as a medium in an entirely new light: a vessel not of story nor of gameplay but of unfiltered emotion. Game creation has been my passion practically since birth and you have allowed me to see an entirely new, fascinating, and wonderful side of it. I'm now studying the use of games as a medium of art in school. I plan to include Anura, when I finish it,  in my final essay as proof of how a game provoke the same emotions if not far deeper ones than other mediums.

I feel different playing Anura than I have playing any game before, and now I want my games to do the same. I truly cannot express how much of an inspiration it has been to play this game. One game has introduced me to philosophy, art, and music (don't even get me started--those tracks are so haunting and just awesome) again. Anura demonstrated to me how the two halves of my mind--the silly side fascinated with play and the darker, more imaginative yet suppressed side--can function as one and output something beautiful.

No matter what you think of it and no matter how vulnerable you had to be to post it, I just want you to know that your work did impact at minimum one person. Anura is quirky and surreal and unlike anything I've played in ways both good and bad. I feel like Anura does what art should: allow the artist to express themself in a way that allows others to empathize with them. Although I do not know you and likely never will, playing through your game has allowed me a glimpse into the mind of a stranger, and it is fascinating. Please don't feel dissatisfied with your creation. I'm enjoying it more than I can express in a poorly written Itch.io comment and I'm immersed in a way I've never been before. Thank you for creating this. Thank you for publishing this. That comes from my heart.

(P.S: My favorite scene so far has either been the scene in the excerpt above or the scene where Ilaria makes Jasper tripe. Something was so sickening yet fascinating about that that I thought about it for weeks until I wrote an entire short story stemming from the word "omasum" and an image of a fetid cut of tripe being cut from a decaying cow).

(P.P.S. Sorry for any grammatical issues, repetition, or illogical connections in this comment. It's late and my brain is fried from hours on end of work)

Edit: Reading over this, it still fails to truly capture what I think of the game and how it has made me feel. Perhaps I'll elaborate in my final review. In the meantime, stay strong. Your intellect, emotional depth, and creativity displayed across your projects--although admittedly Anura is the only one I've played in legitimate depth--is truly an inspiration.

I haven't had any time to work on my project but would really love to participate in the jam. If I submit a "rough draft" game by the deadline, could I upload a new fixed version during voting? My schedule only really clears up in two weeks, but the jam ends during the duration.

weird and cool! i got 28 at the end?

I won! 4/5 balls. super fun!

As excited as I am for this jam, I'm worried about how much I can actually get done in an hour. I have a dialogue system I made for a previous game--could I port it to my one-hour game? Or would that not be allowed? And what about external assets, like the All-In-One 2D Shader? Those are really the only two external things I would use, and I can try to remake what I need of them within the hour, but I'd love to save a bit more time. Thanks so much :))))

For purely example's same, say I wanted movement speed to increase every three runs. Does this metagame progression make the game 'not 20 seconds'? 

I'm just wondering--why does it start at 2:10 AM? And why is it 37 hours and 50 minutes? Could it perhaps be extended to a simple 48 hour jam to keep things more manageable and not have to worry about strange deadline times?

A TWINE JAM??? LET'S GO!!! I used Twine all the time in the 2010s but haven't tested out Twine 2 yet. Really excited to get back into it--thanks for hosting.

Fun! I really feel the Balatro influence. How'd you juice it up so much? Like in the shop, where the letters wave around?

im so disoriented

made it to the boss first try and died when he was sub 100 health. tragic. cool game tho!!

this is actually sick!! ever since Innards (I'm not done, so I haven't commented yet) I've been playing the stuff on your profile and you are seriously a design genius--inspiring stuff. I beat noob, decent, and sharp :)

awesome!!! I’ll be sure to let you know if I end up thinking of something and I’ll be ready for part 2 :)

I've been just SO busy this past month that a submission will be impossible. I just wanted to say that this is such a cool jam and I really wanted to participate; even if attendance was low I really think the competition should continue. I'll be ready for This Should Be A Game Jam 02!!!

Also, good luck to everybody entering a game.

this legit broke my heart. amazing work dude

55 karma!!

Hello! I'm wondering if the jam runtime is a submission period or a set JAM TIME. I haven't seen the movies yet, but I have a lot of time tomorrow and was wondering if I should start thinking about what to make. Let me know if that's allowed or if I should just wait a day to get working.

super cute! i wish the puzzles went a little deeper though--I felt like it ended before things really got crazy

The art is amazing! The intro animation was so chaotic I lost 3 times there, but persisted on. Eventually I gave up due to lag :( Still, great art and cool game!

I had the saddest run of all time. I was out of props for the final act and lost EVERYONE. The last 10 I lost on the LAST DIALOGUE SPACE. Still though--very cute. I wish it was more clear either what props fit or we had more time to curate a mood of sorts, as I was kind of confused the whole game. Still though--those scenes where they walked across stage sold it for me.

Great graphics! It took me  a while to get it though--still kind of confused about my purpose in the game.

oh yeah playing on trackpad is hell… glad u enjoyed it tho!

thank you so much!! i was planning on adding a possession bomb that lets you mimic the enemies and jump but time was just too stretched… I appreciate ur kindness tho!!!

Interesting—it turned out really nice. I’ll give it a shot next time I make pixel art as I usually leave alpha at 100% :)

Noo!! I beat level three and then my game just froze :(((

I was having a TON of fun, though. With music like that, how could the game be anything but a masterpiece? 

It's really interesting to see someone use the same idea I had--using bombs to jump--in such a different way.

Great job, man! 

And last thing--how did you make your art? It's SO cute.

Holy crap!! I have to sleep but I'll be coming back to this game. The idea is actually SO creative--a truly beautiful design. I was really confused at first and had no idea how to kill the enemies, but once I found that gun ability I was GAMING. Skill and strategy combined--please develop this into a full game. Reminds me of Neon White, a real favorite of mine. I got halfway through level two but I'm going to pick it up and beat it tomorrow. 

Cool game! The art was definitely the best part--I really liked the hand and how it wrapped around the screen. I took to the game pretty quickly and had just gotten my second auto-smasher when I reread the tutorial and saw "don't nudge our products out of existence." I had no coins and was eager to test it out and then I got softlocked :(

Great work though. All I would change is add more to do as the timer ticks down.

This was really cool! I thought level 2 was harder than level 3 lol. I had a great time though--how did you get that shaded/glowing look in Construct? I've worked in the engine before but have never seen this kind of retro simulation-y vibe before. I really liked how unique your idea was and reading the code to figure stuff out was fun. I gave up on death number 300, but great work!

wow!! thank you so much, truly--I really appreciate your kindness. what was the softlock so I can patch it out? 

Super cute!! I loved the cozy vibe and audio. The mouse kept on jumping around for me (there was an error popup when I first opened the game, so maybe that's why?) so I gave up around day 4 but still had a good time.

Quite fun! The polish was great and I LOVED the tutorial guy. I struggled with throwing the bombs though--I felt some delay. Still tho, great job

thanks! I’ll see how it fits the game when I come back to the project :)))

wow, thank you so much! I’ve had morning commitments for the past couple days but I’m hoping to just sleep like a zombie tonight. 

yeah it’s pretty difficult. I tried to avoid a full tutorial, but maybe it was necessary? how do you think I could fix it? give the players more bombs?

thanks!!

wow—that’s really cool. def inspires me to actually learn shader graph 😭😭😭

I’ll try giving it a shot for my next game!!

Stylized art was SUPER awesome. How did you make that background? Is it just a scrolling texture or a shader of sorts? I wish there was some kind of subnautica-esque music but otherwise loved the atmosphere. Great work :)))

Wow! For a first game this is seriously lit. The music was groovy, the graphics were a little Y2K reminiscent and pretty awesome, and the camera work was also awesome. Great job man. One thing--in Unity, set your canvas to Scale With Screen Size and drag the "match" slider to 100% width. Then it'll look the same on all computers (my UI was a little bit off screen). Still though--really nice job. Infinitely better than my first THREE attempts at a game lol

THIS SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!! I was whimpering "no" sitting in the darkness and when I turned on my flashlight "he" MESSED ME UP. One thing tho-- on your itch page, you should click the "add a fullscreen button" toggle though--I could only see about the center 2/3s of the screen at a time because my laptop monitor is pretty tiny. Still though--cool game and standout audio. I won on my second playthrough!