itch.io

I’m still so in shock this was a game made within the time frame it was, it’s amazing feat of talent from everyone involved!! Everything from the art of the ui frame and the backgrounds and the sound and the writing style made it feel like an old illustrated storybook. And I loved Atticus so much! He was so well written, and Misha did an amazing job on his sprites and expressions with how soft they were.

I’ve yet to get a little over half of the endings, but it’s been such an enjoyable reading experience that I forgot how long I spent on just one of the endings alone. Even when it felt like the story had come to a nice conclusion there was always more to add on, more to explore with both the kind of routine Atticus lives as a result of who he is and how it’s formed who he is as we get to know him as he takes care of the player. It was such a fun read and I’m so psyched to see more with the rest of the endings I still gotta do.

I absolutely adored the prose for this game, there’s something so satisfying about the way it began with such a soft love story between the king and queen and the progressive dread when it came to the involvement of the princess, and then a jump cut to almost horror. That horror spin for the narrative was especially great, which I think is a theme that was so under utilized for this jam and this game has definitely filled the niche.

The two window format was such a neat take even if it took me a bit of fiddling to be comfortable with how it was set up, but I think it really helped the game stand out even more. A lot felt very experimental for this submission in particular, but to see that the leap was taken to head in those directions is so refreshing and satisfying, especially with such an enthralling writing style.

This game is such a VIBE OMG!!!! I’ve been loving the really strong knight and almost fairytale themes of a lot of games but the departure for a more modern take has really made the game stand out. And the visuals are so amazing, I loooove the super strong color palette and almost paper doll kind of look (the expressions are all so cool as I kept trying to keep track of all of them, they absolutely do look like they were a lot of fun to make.)

The whole story was so fun too for all the fighting involved, the arguments between the player and knight were so funny. This was such a fun little unique read and I definitely see myself coming back to the game just to look at it because the whole look is so yummy!!

I do have to say my review also comes from me immediately clocking that Calvin isn’t my kind of man exactly, so I do feel it’s important to get that bias out of the way (I can see and appreciate the attempts to make him more nuanced, a guy too in over his head but genuinely wanting to be useful. I have to kind of pin that to my mind tbh that’s just a skill issue on my end.)

Other than that this was rather pleasant! I really enjoyed the environment of the hotel and I really appreciate the range of designs for the cast. The overall theme didn’t feel like it aligned with the actual game jam theme but overall was still really pleasant to read a focused story. The overall vibes and aesthetic were nice too, really pushing the whole hotel theme with how chill it is and how simple it all is. The textbox really did remind me a lot of hotel wallpaper in the way it’s textured, which scratches my brain nicely.

Despite all that I really look forward to the next chapters planned!! I think for being someone who wasn’t a big fan of Calvin the rest of the characters still really shined through and were such a pleasant part of the game even when they circled back to Calvin (inevitable both for being the presumed LI and also for being the manager, but it’s a skill in of its own to make characters who still make the story enjoyable for someone who isn’t the target audience of an LI. I feel Madame Maple so hard too I hate that everything has an app now with accounts just let me check in by name bro….)

The art immediately drew me into this game when I saw the screenshots, it reminds me so much of old illustrated story books!! It’s so beautiful and I love how everything blends into each other. I wish the name box was made to fit into the rest of the beautiful ui, but I don’t think it subtracts from it so much. The piano tracks chosen also really help with the fairytale quality of the atmosphere and does so much for the general vibe of the the game.

For the story, I immediately had a hint of where the story was going, but I don’t think it actually diminished the payoff (which may be better, too many people try to keep you from guessing where the story will go and end up making their narrative suffer.) Without any spoilers, while I couldn’t guess the exact ending, the actual sequence was so beautifully illustrated, and the sudden remove of the framing that the rest of the game had really helped push the eerie vibe. The actual reveal of the beast was also amazing with the change of ui too, and the realization of why the knight took the path they did was all the more impactful for it. I might just be a sucker for smaller details when it comes to games, especially visual novels, but even for such a small thing like changing the ui I absolutely adore when games play with more aspects of their medium as a part of the story. This was such an inspiring game in all honesty and makes me all the more impatient for the am to end so I can go fix up the ui I made myself for our submission because I feel so inspired!!

This was such a cute game! I loved the look of it, it reminded me a lot of old edutainment flash games and is full of charm. Only wished there was a main menu to match it, but it’s not like it completely breaks the experience.

The story itself was really fun! The dynamic between the princess and dragon was so sweet in seeing how they became friends, and the banter between them all was genuinely enjoyable. There were a few errors that did take me out of it (namely errors in file names from options, but it’s a quick fix at least.) Over all it was a fun read and a neat little game that I really enjoyed!!

This was such a nice little read!! I really enjoyed the way that conversation that flowed really naturally and how the negative dialogue options weren’t to extremes that are usually expected, it was actually really nice that they still felt like an earnest attempt at comfort with an honest perspective that felt blunt despite that and still made it make sense and flow into the rest of the conversation. I loved the perspective of watching the knight watch the kingdom from behind and how we don’t get to actually see his expression until after, less was really more for this game. It really adds to the tense atmosphere of vulnerability in a life or death situation when more than your life was on the line.

My only real criticisms would be that a little more customization for the ui would be really nice (though the renpy default ui fits really nicely with the general vibe regardless) and that a visual for the endings would be really nice, even if just adjustments of the castle background (which is really nice, I just really love it.) Aside from some minor spelling and grammar mistakes it didn’t really take me out of it badly, and this was genuinely such a nice little game.

ive tried both however the screen remains small and difficult to read

is there any way to make the window appear bigger? im really excited to play this but its way too small for me to read and i dont see any options to make it bigger