Reviews by manonamora

The game describes itself as a 'lo-fi game to relax to', and it does not lie! From the interface and its calming palette, the background music chosen, or the vibes of it all, the game is reminiscent of those lo-fi playlist you'd find on Youtube. It is a very cozy game, with low stake and a chill storylet structure with a slow progress.

As always: + 1 for the cat, and being able to play with it!

This played like a dungeon crawler/rogue-like, with a puzzle determining your fate. There is a specific order to interact with the elements, that is very subtly hinted within the text - it is very easy to die (and I did... quite a lot!).

As the narration is limited to descriptions or responses to the gameplay, what shines the most is the Interface of the game. The illustrations in the background evokes death and suffering (which you feel interacting with things in the temple), and are pretty well done.

The vibes of the game are neat!

Though it is an incomplete story (you are warned on the game page), there is something pretty intriguing with the premise. The game sets down bits of a mystery and hints of potential intrigue. Still, there is good tension with the writing, as well as a compelling moodiness.

I hope there is a future release to complete the story.

This was such a fun and quick treat. A very cozy game where you gather around ingredients to create treats for customers. The gameplay is quite simple (go somewhere, get stuff, maybe barter for other stuff), and you can't lose either. The UI is also quite polished with fun graphics, reminiscing of pixel RPGs.

One of my favourite entry of the inkJam.

This game was build in a time-cave type of branching (each choice branches out, potentially to an ending), which means quite many endings for the size of the game. As there are a lots of paths (maybe too many considering the allotted time), many of them felt incomplete or ending abruptly.

The author does shine in the writing, with their vivid descriptions, how thought out the concept chosen was (body-snaching through eye-contact, that's neat and creepy). But it also at times felt distracting and confusing.

Lots of good potential in there, if the author decides to come back to it!

This game rest heavily on vibes and poetic prose, with loosely connected spaces, rather than a more traditional story with a clear start and end. Through it all, you explore imagined places in some sort of dream-like state, where poetry take a centre stage, both in the theme, the writing, and the choices.

Because of the style and themes, this will affect some readers more than others. I tend to have a harder time connecting with poetic prose.

In a quite Blade Runner vibe, you are tasked to assess whether the person in front of you is a human or an android. Others trust your judgement, because you were the best at taking down androids before now. So you sit down, ask the person questions, check the outputs of the instruments (that supposedly help you gauge one's humanity through their eye movements), and make your judgement...

The game itself is pretty short (you only judge one person), which makes sense since it is listed as a prototype on itch. But I kind of wish there was more to it? maybe judging multiple people rather than just one, or get the consequences of your judgement (were they truly human or android? what if you chose wrong?).

The mechanic of the instrument readings is pretty neat, using graphics to help you assess whether eye movement is within the wanted bounds. It also bring the terrifying questions of what makes an individual a human, or how we quantify humanity, or whether we should strive to make androids as human-like as possible? Where does the android truly ends and humanity starts?

If you've read Kafka The Metamorphosis, you should have an idea of the ride you're about to embark. But rather than taking a bleak modern route, the author took a completely absurd fantasy one.

You are Monty, of Larp and Monty, a guard guarding a Tower-of-Sauron-like tower, but something went wrong. And then, Larp becomes weird. And then, it's your turn. And now, what?

Well, this becomes a bit of running around to get to safety then deciding that to do and where to go because of "the metamorphoses". Do you go back to where you came from, hoping things will get back to normal, or accept this new state? Very kafka-esque.

Even if the medium it was based on is relatively dark, the game is much lighter, pushing the humorous aspect in the banter between the two characters or the descriptions and narration. It is a delight.

Small note: after some choices, the page will refresh to add the new text, but scroll all the way down the page rather than staying at the top. As most bit are sizeable, you will have to scroll back up quite often

This game had a very creative take on the blinking theme, using the player actually blinking to affect the gameplay, via your webcam and facial recognition. While this is super cool and innovative, fast blinkers like me might have a tough time completing a room before the environment is changed. Luckily, the devs included a non-webcam alternative: pressing your spacebar to "pretend" blinking (though you may lose a bit of the immersion/change, unless you blink at the same time).

With this mechanic, you are given a series of puzzle to complete to escape the labyrinth, where the solution often requires you to "blink" to change the environment, so you can get a key inside a block of ice (but now it's melted) or insert it in a keyhole (which didn't fit at first, because it was the wrong door)... The scenarios are quite diverse, so the mechanic never really loses it charm.

However, while the ambiance is heightened by the funky tunes and the animated background*, these soon became distracting (the way the animation moved made me pretty sick, so I couldn't finish the game).
*the author have commented if they update the game, a toggle for animation will be on the list.

Great fun game, with a very cool mechanic. Worth a try at least!

To take on the theme of the jam, the game mixes sci-fi and fantastical elements, which fit pretty well together, giving an eerie feel to Tsumugi environment and state of mind. Through the many early endings, the story pushes you to explore the strange happenstance.

At times, the game seems a tad unfinished and unpolished, which the author can be forgiven for, as it was completed in less than a day. There seems to be achievements and stats aspect in the game, which you are notified when picking certain choices. However, it is unclear how much this affect the story, aside from direct variation (or running into an abrupt ending).

There is something quite interesting to the setting, and how you get to the fantastical element, but it doesn't feel pushed enough or like elements were introduced but abandoned half-way through. It would be interesting to see more of the RP/state play a role further into the story.

One final bit: the illustration on the game page/title card is really lovely!