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Hi Kerberos! I recently released a "spin-off" visual novel featuring Jack from this game as a main character.

I remembered your comment and how much you enjoyed the character and the aesthetic, so I wanted to make sure you knew about this!

It's called Dirk the Dictionary: https://happycrazywild.itch.io/dirk-the-dictionary

Thanks! :D

Thank you for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

Thank you so much for playing and sharing!!! :) It warms my heart to know it's one of your favorite games 🥹

I did all the art and character design for the game, I'm so glad you enjoyed the characters! 😁

Thank you!! :)

This was a really compelling short story, thank you for sharing! Very interesting concept, a succubus trying to "quit" touch.

I found the music pretty distracting (it was more high-key than what was going on) so I muted it to focus on the words because I was very quickly invested in Eden's plight.

As far as writing, I suggest using full-sentence prose rather than stage directions in asterisks, because the latter makes the text harder to read and feel less finished.

But I want to emphasize that the story and dialogue are both solid and compelling! The two endings really make you think about which one is "better".

Good job!

Great job with this game!

I instantly noticed the music -- has a uniquely spicy style, doesn't feel like generic VN music. It sounds lovely.

And the writing is SO funny. I laughed out loud several times. I love Yamaris, the way he talks, and the way he plainly states exactly what he feels. I laughed over and over when he said or thought things like "OMG, he cares about me 🤭" or "Yippee! A compliment!" And his flirting... 🤣 Great back-and-forth with Azylh. I like how Azylh is a bit aloof yet he still makes it clear he enjoys Yamaris's company.

 I have a hard time describing why this game's writing was so funny to me, but it's like: entertaining things are said straightforwardly and concisely, at unexpected times, without going overboard or "trying too hard for a laugh". Like when the transition between scenes said "Evening: market...damn, that was a long walk" I didn't expect that. Other iconic lines....

"Where are the recipes? Just give me the dang --- Oooh, he's fine as hell!" (That's such a great start to a VN 🤣)

"Man, these guys stink!!! ... It would be horrible if someone were to accidentally... 😏"

I am not good at four button rhythm games so I appreciate the "cheat" option.  Wish there was a fast forward or "scene selection" option to get the right ending without manually advancing dialogue (and accidentally choosing options due to button mashing). However, the game is pretty short, so it's not a big deal.

I noticed some typos, but nothing major. Although, I was a bit confused where Yamaris got the name "Azylh" from.

Anyway, keep up the good work and thank you for sharing this!

This was nice! Polished and beautiful interface, good illustrations and a nice cozy atmosphere, and the minigame was fun (I aced it 😎)

The well done UI, music, and illustrations go a long way in making it feel like a cozy sorta-date in town. I did notice that the characters look different between the portraits, UI, and the CGs.

The writing was skillfully done as well with plenty of well-written, witty banter. Though, personally, I didn't get 100% invested into the romance since Aina's negative memories of Lyric made it feel like she didn't want to be there lol. But I understand there is more to come and this is just a taste of the story. 

Best of luck with the full release! Great job making such a complete and polished story in a month--that is a major accomplishment.

Great art and character designs.

The writing in this game was funny! There were several lines that had me laughing out loud...

 "Let me walk you to your dorm....and I definitely don't know where that is."

"For a dream, this hurts like a mother hugger."

"Her succubus in shining latex~"

"...though her nails are a bit uneven and her skin could use some lotion."

I got all the "Great" choices on the first try so I saw the good ending.

The rhythm games were pretty hard, even on easy. I'm not good at four button rhythm games. The "hold" notes use the same arrow image as the normal ones (except with a trail), so I often let go of a note before realizing I wasn't supposed to. I got through after a couple tries, but some players may appreciate a skip option.

Great work! This game feels very complete and skillfully written, which is quite the accomplishment in just a month!

Cute and funny concept! Strong color palette consistent throughout all the art. Lovely custom UI and menus. It's always great to see a VN that doesn't just use the stock Ren'Py UI.

I like how sweet and wholesome the writing is. (The fish puns, like "Oh crab", got a couple laughs out of me) I also laughed when I realized what was going on with the love potion, that's very cute and a great hook.

I noticed the voices are a bit quiet compared to the music, especially Milio's voice. Also, during the potion making minigame, the notebook just has a list of ingreidents, but no info on what is crushable and what isn't. My tired-today butt missed whatever info on that was shared in dialogue so I ended up with a D in potion making 😅I also feel the intro is a bit wordy and could be made more concise.

But these are pretty minor issues. Great work on this game and best of luck with the full release!

Thank you so much!

Thank you for playing! :)

Thank you!! It means a lot that you enjoyed the writing and found the ending so moving!

Thank you! :) Godot Engine has a lot of great built in text effects, which made it easy to include!

Thank you so much! :)

LOL, I'm glad you like his character design!!

Let me know if you found the description of the game unclear. I hastily wrote the description yesterday and I don't think I made it clear that this is a romance VN with a grammar fixing theme/minigame. Currently updating the metadata to be much more descriptive! :)

Thank you so much!!! :) The audio is implemented now if you'd like to take another look! 

Thank you for pointing this out and playing the game! :) I appreciate your feedback!

Thank you for playing the game and giving feedback! :)

Thank you!

Thanks so much for your detailed feedback!! I really appreciate your taking the time to write it and give such insightful and specific suggestions.

I especially found it helpful how you explained the issue with the lack of goals the game provides. I'm definitely taking that into consideration for the future, and I'm looking to add mechanics that provide more of a point to the game. I also think spelling words is a very cool idea that I hadn't considered.

Anyway, just wanted to thank you again for playing my game and your feedback!

I'd appreciate a link to the VOD as well!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!! :)

If I may ask, what was your favorite thing about Smart-Attack? 😃

Thanks so much for playing my game!! I really enjoyed watching the recording of your stream and hearing your feedback. Great chill vibes!

I agree that the concept could be a good educational kids game, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to best use that concept. This game was meant for an older audience (hence the retro PC game aesthetics and the "cheeky" jokes) but since it was a quick jam game, I don't know if that came through very clearly. As I continue developing it, I'm evaluating the idea of also doing a spin-off with very similar gameplay, but specifically for kids.

Thanks again!

Thank you so much for playing my game!! I had a blast watching your stream and laughed out loud multiple times. I really appreciate that you took the time to play it -- multiple times, even -- and your feedback is very helpful!

I'm glad the game comes off as hilarious, that's what I was going for 🤣

I agree that it has potential as an educational kids game. I've been playing with the idea of doing a similar spinoff game that's fully kid friendly, while also continuing this unhinged, "deranged educational game" concept separately.

Finally, I have already coded in volume controls for the next version.

Thanks again! 😁

Forgot to add this, but I'm curious what was your initial impression or expectation of the game was before playing? If you don't mind sharing.

Oh my god thank you so much!! This is really helpful feedback and I had a blast watching the stream.

I'm glad you enjoyed the graphics and objects. (The toilet is one of my faves, loool) Working on adding even more silly stuff to collect.

I will definitely implement volume settings -- I was actually working on that today after I initially saw your post. Having a more clear goal set from the start of the game is also a planned feature, as I plan more rougelite-esque features.

As for the items and words, each item actually has multiple words associated with it (synonyms), so trial by fire is what I intended. There are a looooot of synonyms. (D actually IS a correct answer for the naked guy, lol) Since it's easy to lose your combo, though, I'll work on making it less punishing to discover new words and maybe find a way to hint at the possibility early on without making it too obvious. I plan to have a dictionary of words as well.

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback! :) Appreciate you taking the time to play my game!

Thank you! Glad to hear it!

Thank you!

Thank you for the detailed feedback, I really appreciate it! I'm taking into consideration your feedback about making it less punishing to try new answers -- that's something I've noticed while testing recently as well.

Thank you so much! :)

Thank you for playing! :)

I'm thinking of making some changes to the hitbox in a future version to make it a bit more clear. Glad you enjoyed the graphics and controls!

Fun concept! Lovely art and character designs. There are also a lot of nice touches like the props on the table and the fact that objects become transparent when someone's behind them.

It was a little hard for me to play since I often couldn't tell whether my line was actually damaging enemies or not. However, the list of planned fixes all sound great, and the use of the theme was perfect as well. It'll be great to see where you take this one.

This is just a random idea, but I wonder how it'd be if the movement tied in more with lines. Perhaps you move AND attack by drawing lines? That could kind of combine the movement, lines, and dash attack into one.

Thank you for playing! Were there any examples that come to mind? 

Later on I'd like to add a feature to let players suggest words that I missed, haha!

What a nice little game! Beautiful ambience and music! I finished in 10 minutes...with 47 deaths...😅

Thank you for playing! I'm curious, did the song ever get annoying? I'm asking because I plan to make a longer version of it.

Thank you for playing!

Thank you so much! :)

Great job! The GobLines are very cute :)

Lovely black and white aesthetic, and one of the most polished and complete games from this jam I've played so far. Wonderful job!

I enjoyed the concept and think it has a lot of potential for a larger game. In addition to that, the music fits perfectly. I like the little particle and text effects, and the fact that you can drive off-road, skip sections, and still recover! (It's just slower than normal, of course). The ghost high score board is a great touch.

I did find it hard to control the car. It has very little traction. The way to possess another car wasn't clear to me at first, and it can be frustratingly hard to aim correctly at a moving target while moving yourself. It's also unclear to me how much of an effect drifting has, and since the boost takes a long while to activate before it can actually possess cars, perhaps it would help if the boost started right when you released the button. Its duration could vary based on how long you drifted, kind of like Mario Kart.

I wonder if it would be more satisfying if you could simply run into the cars without needing to boost. Maybe slamming into them while boosting would net you extra fuel.

I found the concept's link to the theme rather vague, but I'm not bothered by that; this game really delivers in terms of overall quality.

Finally, it'd be cool to see your progress on the high score board relative to other ghosts. Perhaps the list gets more competitive as you gain experience. Am I near the top of the bottom? How many points before I defeat the big cheese ghost at the top of the list? Ha ha!

Anyway, you have a winning nugget of gold with this gameplay. Good luck and keep up the good work!

Lovely black and white aesthetic, and one of the most polished and complete games from this jam I've played so far. Wonderful job!

I enjoyed the concept and think it has a lot of potential for a larger game. In addition to that, the music fits perfectly. I like the little particle and text effects, and the fact that you can drive off-road, skip sections, and still recover! (It's just slower than normal, of course). The ghost high score board is a great touch.

I did find it hard to control the car. It has very little traction. The way to possess another car wasn't clear to me at first, and it can be frustratingly hard to aim correctly at a moving target while moving yourself. It's also unclear to me how much of an effect drifting has, and since the boost takes a long while to activate before it can actually possess cars, perhaps it would help if the boost started right when you released the button. Its duration could vary based on how long you drifted, kind of like Mario Kart.

I wonder if it would be more satisfying if you could simply run into the cars without needing to boost. Maybe slamming into them while boosting would net you extra fuel.

I found the concept's link to the theme rather vague, but I'm not bothered by that; this game really delivers in terms of overall quality.

Finally, it'd be cool to see your progress on the high score board relative to other ghosts. Perhaps the list gets more competitive as you gain experience. Am I near the top of the bottom? How many points before I defeat the big cheese ghost at the top of the list? Ha ha!

Anyway, you have a winning nugget of gold with this gameplay. Good luck and keep up the good work!

Lovely black and white aesthetic, and one of the most polished and complete games from this jam I've played so far. Wonderful job!

I enjoyed the concept and think it has a lot of potential for a larger game. In addition to that, the music fits perfectly. I like the little particle and text effects, and the fact that you can drive off-road, skip sections, and still recover! (It's just slower than normal, of course). The ghost high score board is a great touch.

I did find it hard to control the car. It has very little traction. The way to possess another car wasn't clear to me at first, and it can be frustratingly hard to aim correctly at a moving target while moving yourself. It's also unclear to me how much of an effect drifting has, and since the boost takes a long while to activate before it can actually possess cars, perhaps it would help if the boost started right when you released the button. Its duration could vary based on how long you drifted, kind of like Mario Kart.

I wonder if it would be more satisfying if you could simply run into the cars without needing to boost. Maybe slamming into them while boosting would net you extra fuel.

Finally, it'd be cool to see your progress on the high score board relative to other ghosts. Am I near the top of the bottom? How many points before I defeat the big cheese ghost at the top of the list? Ha ha!

Anyway, you have a winning nugget of gold with this gameplay. Good luck and keep up the good work!