RETURN Machine.Love()

It's nice to get some of these Jam games on steam, I feel a lot of them get lost in the dark corners of itchio. If I am not mistaken this was actually a singular submission right, 3 games that are thematically connected and meant as a start to finish experience, even though they are somewhat different at first glance with different characters, and yet maybe not entirely disconnected, honestly I didn't fully connect the dots if there were some. Individually the games are only 20 minutes each, if you reading very casually, but honestly, as someone that played too many visual novels, they are not even that bad as stand alone narratives. I thought these were almost as good as some $10 games in terms of visual pacing, maybe not the scope obviously. I think one nice benefit of these jams is that they push you in a direction maybe you would not go otherwise, so you end up making something original which is what I think happened here. The art panels and even just visual progression were pretty decent for a free game, although I could not tell if they were completely made from scratch, or a combination of existing art from devs, and new art, if anything some of these panels were too good for a free game lol. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3741869490 (were all of these drawn for the game, or is it sampled with original and existing art?) Either way, I did enjoy the aesthetic, and the music choices were nicely melancholic with the vibes as well. I am glad the games didn't have that cookie cutter anime look to them, feeling more like colorful landscapes, sometimes almost with a painting vibe to it, especially the last one. The writing was definitely not bad overall, I don't have too many nitpicks with the first 2, I thought the character interactions came across genuine enough. Strangely the last one was my favorite in terms of the idea, and unfortunately that one I felt came across a little strong with the existentialism. I thought the idea of a lonely robot falling in love with the satellite AI was very cool, I think there were some opportunities to give them more characterization that I wish you would have taken, would be cool if he made something for her so she could see it from space, just a thought I had, I wanted them to interact together more in a playful way, and yet it came across a bit.... utilitarian. [h1]Pros: [/h1] (+) For how small these games are, I think as a start to finish experience it was pretty decent, the art panels were nicely made, the character interactions were good for the most part, and the music choices were perfect for the narrative. Sometimes I tend to get bored with visual novels if they get too text heavy, but I liked that you just got to the point, and left the games with simple and somewhat rewarding endings, potentially to be explored if you wanted to expand on the characters. I like when people make multiple games with one connected theme, very rare experience. [h1]Feedback: [/h1] [u]Writing: [/u] I didn't notice it as much with the first 2 games, but the third one came across a little strong with the deep thoughts, I understand the implication and computation of thought that the characters were doing, but I thought it was a little heavy, and I felt given a cool idea, you could have given them some fun characterization, and maybe doing/helping each other in some way, maybe like him drawing something big on earth for her to see, or her guiding him to something that he needed. I liked the ending though. [b]Overall Thoughts: 7/10 (as a 3 game experience)[/b] They were different enough from the usual anime girl slop that I enjoyed it, I guess the jam pushes you into making something unusual, and this time it worked for me. Not entirely unheard of with the robot melancholy and existentialism, but I thought the story overall had some substance to it, even if it wasn't explored on a character level as much as I wanted. But you know, free games, can't really blame you for keeping them short. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]