Mariposa

Game took me about an hour and a half to get through, enjoyed it on the whole even if there is a layer of polish I would have liked to see. It's free tho so, TLDR, if you like 2D puzzle platformers, give it a try. Puzzles are pretty good. The UI design is nice hand-drawn stuff that's clear enough to discern, though the tiles didn't feel that great to drag and drop, I had to drag and drop certain tiles multiple times to make slot in properly. It's a little thing but it can go a long way for gameplay immersion. It was a little confusing where I was suppossed to click when starting the wire puzzle; maybe just a visual indicator of where exactly on the color sticks I'm suppossed to click would help. Platforming is decent, especially when I used my Dualshock 4 for playing. There is a steep jump in difficulty near the end which I was not anticipating but I enjoyed the challenge. The lack of distinct character animations for platforming does make the game feel a bit floaty in those sections, especially the wall jumping sections. Thankfully the game is littered with checkpoints making every difficult jump a challenge rather than a chore, much like Celeste. Music is lovely, though it's quite loud compared to character grunts and yelps in conversation. Sound mixing could use another pass really. The art is lovely and distinct. I like the glowing utopia contrasting with the depressing dystopia of the other world. Backgrounds are less detailed in comparison to foreground characters and artefacts, and I think a little more detail would marry the two alot better. The animated segments are nice too. The story is simple; two people in different states of time talking to each other and one in the past affecting the future. For a short experience it's a solid premise, though I don't have much to talk about it because of that. Dialogue got skipped and glitched out at points which, while trying to read, messed with me mind. The dialogue has character, which I appreciate as they explored ideas of perspective and goodness. It did get a bit confusing who was speaking when it was with NPCs especially cause they didn't always have a portrait pop up when that person is speaking. My biggest issue is that it doesn't save between playthroughs. I stopped playing during the final platforming challenge and when I came back, it started me from the beginning of the game. It was frustrating but I did get through it and get back to where I was. Also, I don't really know if I finished the game cause *SPOILERS* when the red guy died (or fell asleep, idk) the game kinda just stayed on him and the butterfly unmoving. The piano kept playing and the menu was accessible so the game didn't crash but I was unsure if the game was stuck or if that's how it ended. If that's the way it was suppossed to end, cool. If not, I'm unlikely to replay the game cause I don't know if I'm going to replay the game all the way through again to see it. Overall, it's a cute game and I'm glad I played it. Obviously this is a student project, congrats on making a full game experience. With a few patches, I'd recommend anyone give it a try, especially offering it out for free like this. Cheers