Why the sad story though... But the writing itself is good. Also great soundtrack.

Liked the theme and feeling of a real tamagochi! Really cool drawings and a bit sad story

Cool game, would be cool if you could make a few more decisions, the graphics are awesome! :D

Its a nice game, it was a little slow paced though.

The web build didn't load on firefox or chrome, but I was able to run the windows build under wine, and I'm very glad I did. Good lord, what a game. I guess I don't need to tell you all the reasons why your game is amazing, I'm sure you already know. And I don't want to spoil anything for others. But needless to say, I didn't realize I was holding my breath there at the end until it was over... now I think I need to go decompress for a bit. You guys are incredible storytellers, thank you so much for making this.

@notnullnotvoid Thank you very much for your kind words! It really means a lot to me (well, all of us) that you enjoyed it the way you did. The browser version should hopefully work now.

I really like the pixel art! The story telling part is a nice touch ! Also playing with those buttons reminded me of old times :laughing:
Greato Jobu man! :smile:

It must have taken hours to come up with the story :open_mouth:

Essentially what the others are saying: great story, great mood. Only thing to improve would be the buttons. They were kinda hard to hit with the mouse. Maybe assign a key for each. Other than that: great game!

I was hoping for a different ending but that's just proof you got me hooked with the story. Nice audio too! On my first run I didn't realize the button labels were also status meters and just clicked everything when the squid started crying, resulting in a sudden gameover during chapter 2. Despite that, a great entry and nice to see story-heavy games on LD.

Nice art, and cool story. You guys should make the HTML5(web) browser full screen(I had a hard time reading the words). All of you keep making games!

@guille You can actually change the game to be fullscreen in the settings menu :) (We also made the standard size of the game much bigger now. Thank you for pointing that out!)

Really cool stuff and presented well with visuals and sound! I love the idea of joining tamagotchi/visual novel in this way and wish there was even more interaction between the two. I think the narrative was pretty well crafted (especially for a jam) although it felt a bit unbalanced in tone sometimes. I definitely felt a sense of dread right from the beginning and fully expected the ending but I was surprised how wholesome most of the story was. Not saying wholesome is bad and you have to go full on lovecraftian dread but I think the challenge is finding that sweet spot between the two.

Ok thanks! @junber.

@god-colo Thanks! The coming up part was the shorter bit. The actual writing of it though...

@silkworm-sweatshop Yes finding the tonal balance is really difficult. But I'm glad we succeeded in the dread-from-the-beginning aspect in your eyes. That was one of our biggest concerns. Thanks for checking out our game!

that was super amazing, how tamagotchi stats were actually telling its own story. I had to pick up a phone and forgot to pause the game. While I was talking i was like oh no, game will probably end if i don't feed the squid - and it really did. I am grateful for putting a lot of details like that in game. I will start again asap!
So far great storytelling, great art, great music. And the game isn't exactly short, I'm super impressed how you managed to make it so complete.

that was AMAZING. I mean that you did it in just 72 hours! Incredible!!! Love it so much guys!

Very well implemented, both visuals, audio and story create an interesting world.

Story AND pets? Yes, please! Lovecraft influence? Even more yes! Overall, really cool entry!

Really fun connection of adding the tamagotchi into Lucas life and i way to deal with his loss. Nice art considering you didn't have alot of time and a different choice of pet! Good job!

Great art, storytelling and integration with the gameplay. Never made it to the end tho, my poor little squid kept dying :(.

cool graphycs and story, but too hard games, as for me

I am just stunned after playing. The amount of things you managed to put in the game is incredible, and I did not realized that I played for that long. You did such an amazing job. I love the art style, the story, having to balance reading and caring for the pet... What an emotional adventure. I really look forward for your longer version.

The only thing that bugged me a bit was the pixel ratio got a bit weird and uneven in full screen. Still, a minor detail for the impressive quality of the whole game.

PS : Managed to get a highscore of 18 at the squid mini-game!

Wow, I can't believe how complete and polished this feels for a Jam game! congrats to everyone involved for pulling it off :D

Ignoring time constraints, I think it could do with a bit more variety in music and the character sprites to match the length of the game.
The squid minigame was certainly a difficult one, but it never seemed to cause me issues with keeping the squid alive. From a purely stylistic point of view, I wonder if the movement of bullets and enemies in the minigame could be clamped to certain intervals, to mimic a lower resolution/processor that the rest of the tamagochi seems to have?

But overall, really great work :smile:

This is a really good game and the concept is nice, and I liked the writing & the story and pretty much everything, but..

The Tamagochi gameovers honestly felt too sudden. I would feed it, play with it for a bit, then focus on the story, immersing myself in the world of this game, and it would suddenly end. Maybe some more indication, like sound, would be nice, but also keep it unobtrusive? Also, some indicator other than squids's emotions, because it gets a bit unpredictable, and because of that, I always have to check the squid, which takes away the immersion a bit.

Also, I got a bit confused with squid's state several times, because the squid cries together with the hero and invites to play with him, so I play, but it doesn't stop crying & it's invitation doesn't go away, so I don't know what's enough. I also don't know if there's a particular "story" state of the squid and his "natural need", because I had, like, three gameovers in the first chapters because I thought it's needs were fulfilled story-wise, but then it suddenly dies. I also didn't find the key for saving, so each time I had to start over, this was a bit frustrating.

Anyways, I feel like this is coming out as being harsh on a really great story game, but I wanted to give some (hopefully) valuable feedback & share my experience.

I do agree with the others that the concept & writing is great, and I do love the game, and it kept me immersed and made me feel some feelings, but I feel like the tamagochi feature needs some tweaking, or maybe just better indication.

@ceuteum Hey thanks a lot for your feedback! I'm not sure but it sounds like you didn't realise that the stat "names" on the tamagotchi interface were the stats indicators at the same time.

You actually couldn't find the key for saving because it's in the menu not an extra key. You can get to this menu at any point during play by pressing ESC. Sorry that this wasn't clearer :/

@strawberriesandcheese Ahh, I see now. Now I feel a bit dumb, haha! Thanks a lot, I'll go finish the game now :)

this brought back some nostalgia! well done storytelling, the conversations feel real but a bit long at some times. great casual game, i enjoyed playing it for a bit. all of you did a great job at putting together this piece :-)

Alright, this is even more amazing than it appeared to be in the first parts of the game. You all did a really great job. The tamagochi works well as a symbolical device and as a game element. I don't know what to mention because I liked pretty much everything. The writing really stood out as being really well, though. Amazing c:

It feels really polished and complete! The story is very extensive for a short LD time, well done!

I felt that the mini game within Tamagochi was totally unnecessary. I found myself most of the time just letting it play itself (especially that I played the Jam version and controlling such a game with mouse clicking is on buttons... uncomfortable, to put it mildly).

Some more indication when one of the Squid's needs is borderline unsatisfied would be nice. Some sound alert, preferably. Because I found myself being taken out of the story just to look if it's not dying of lack of hugs again :wink:

Overall, it's a great jam job. And additional points for using Godot engine!

Very impressive entry! It feels _very_ polished for a jam game. The writing is great, which is incredibly important for a visual novel.

A few other games that I've played in this jam also incorporate a gameplay element that is orthogonal to the main gameplay loop. I found that this doesn't usually play that well. You made it work, however! Neither the visual novel nor the tamagochi require much attention by themself, so when they're combined the player is not overwhelmed. The tamagochi is an interesting non-text element in the story that I would love to see explored fully in a complete game.

I did find the story a little slow-paced, but I suppose that's necessary for a moody horror-ish game. Great job on capturing the lovecraftian spirit! That's not easy to do.

I also really enjoyed the music, especially the underwater track. It's hard to believe that you did all of this in 3 days. Great job!

Nice game! I like the fact that you didn't just stop at tamogatchi clone, you fused it with a visual novel with a very interesting story! Was hoping it didn't end when it did. Nice work!

this is really, really cool. i thought that the tomagatchi mechanics made the experience immersive, since just like the character, you have to take care of the thing in the middle of conversations. i had a good laugh when Michael was telling Lucas to go talk to the girl and i was like "ok just gotta feed and put the squid to sleep real quick", lol. i played the jam version, and made it to the end on my first try. the story was engaging, but i also thought it was a little drawn-out in some parts, so maybe a second draft could cut things back a little (or maybe it's just me, i don't play many visual novels). the ending shook me, somehow didn't see it coming haha. i've been doing LD since 2013, and i don't think any game has held my attention as long as this one did. awesome job!!