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The dark and spooky vibes anchored on grounded family drama are really working. Great job incorporating everyone's talents into the project! 

The world building is so deep here. As others have said, great depth of magic. I wish sometimes it'd let me use the spell you didn't want me to use, even if the result isn't great. But overall a lot of this is working really well. Some of the descriptions really sing, too. Great job!

Thanks so much for playing, and I'm grateful for the high praise! The two regions that allow players to circle are definitely priorities to patch after the jam. Agreed on all counts

Thanks so much!

Yeah. I wanted to make the options disappear in both the office and councilwoman's home, but just ran out of time to figure it out and implement. Fixing it after the jam , and coming up with some kind of cover image is top of the priority list. Good call out, though! Really glad you enjoyed it!

Well, that was a really fun twist! Great job with this. I wish there were a few more ways to make meaningful choices to leave the coffee shop, maybe something to consider adding after the jam! Congrats on a solid entry!

Nice job making it all feel very real. Maybe it was a choice I just didn't get to, but since the character feels a little numb/sad, it'd be interesting to see what that internal monologue starts doing and how its different if the ex calls, or needs to stop by and get some things. Just to see what happens when something with higher emotional stakes comes up. 

Good job! 

A sweet heartfelt story and a promising idea. It know we can all only get done in 72 hours what we can get done, but it ended a bit abruptly and I was hoping for more, which is a good thing! Congrats!

Thanks so much for the kind words!

I appreciate it!

Truly great entry.  Great job on the voice and incorporating the theme. The narrative structure made sense. I'm not sure if I just happened to choose the "correct" path or if they all lead to their own endings that aren't instant game over, but it was a satisfying experience regardless! The art is relatively simple, but really added something, too. 

Well, you can't just leave me wondering what happened to the kid like that! Great job with your subject matter and incorporating the theme. Really strong entry. Congrats on this

Love the integration of art and music, they both really suited the tone off the text, which had a real 8-bit RPG charm to it. It definitely left me wanting more! 

Charming (and the game world its spinning off of looks fun!). I made the mistake of looking at the game, and something in my brain assumed astra was the young girl in the metroidvania game (I think I interpreted the "drawings" in the first bit off text to be like, a child coloring). So it took me a moment to get back on track after that, but that was my fault. 

In any case, this has a sweet, charming, wholesome quality to it. The stakes are super low as far as we can tell, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. That said, I'd have liked some idea of WHY we want to learn about astra. Just a bit more motivation or reason to probe for these answers beyond basic curiosity. 

Great job, though! 

What a fun twist! Good job seeding the twist with subtle hints, too! I went through twice to get ending 1 and 2, and they're very, very different. Great fun!

Very interesting world, and you do a good job giving us breadcrumbs of how its different. Maze has a really unique power, I don't think I've ever seen that before, so kudos! Great job getting such a large project done in the limited time window! 

Hey, heads up there was definitely some kind of HTML error when I tried to start the game, but after clicking through a few redirects, it did launch. 

The game did work, though, once it got started. There's a lot of material here! It took me a while to sort of figure out what we were doing, but once it clicked I appreciated the endurance of that weekly work grind. Great job getting this all together and laid out! 

Clever approach, with an absurdist sense of humor that leaves you accepting we're in a high-stakes negotiation as a hand--bassador. Funny, with a solid foundational plot. 

I love the overall voice and tone, and just the unique-ness of the setting! I also wrote a detective piece, so we were definitely wrestling with some of the same game design challenges. 

If you're looking to tighten this up after the jam ends, consider giving the choice names an extra descriptive word or two.. I got turned around for a bit trying to get back to the window and spun in circles a few minutes trying to find my way back after I got the other thing I needed.  

Great vision and execution overall, and great use of Xolo! 

Pretty simple and straightforward, but well executed, especially in the time you had! Some good lines of dialogue here. I had to play it twice, since my choices ended it immediately the first time. I'd' have liked to get a little more background on what it was on Lewis' mind, and how long this "streak" had been going. 

Well done! I clicked through to get a few of the endings. It definitely had the vibe of those old-school choose your own adventure books I read as a kid with all the whoops, nope, instant death endings. 

I really enjoyed this! I don't know how you did all that art and got it all incorporated with the music and still got the writing done in time. Great blending and presentation of all of it.

Clever use of the theme! Strong writing. You do a lot of character while keeping it very neutral, so that any player might easily put themselves in the protagonists shoes, appealing on behalf of their loved one. 

I wish we got more (which you answered in a previous comment), but 72 hours is 72 hours. 

Great job with the big reveal. You were really clever about seeding it without revealing it, great restraint. I ended up with a sad ending, but very enjoyable experience nonetheless! Excellent writing!

Some of the choices felt a little arbitrary,. Made sense for the story (my protagonist is confused and scared), but from a gameplay POV it didn't feel like I was making choices that had weight or strategy so much as guessing left or right. 
Still, great job! 

Great writing, great worldbuilding. As a US military veteran, you certainly captured authentic military social dynamics. Great job on the general vibe and voice. I had to replay a few times to get past that first choice.

Brave, emotional storytelling coming from such a deeply vulnerable, raw place. Beautiful in the way a life well-lived is when looking back. 

I'm hesitant to offer constructive criticism on something that's clearly so personal, but I did take some notes if/when you're in a place or interested to hear it, just shoot me a DM on discord (KRKappel). 

Hey, Thanks!