Sky Caravan

Let me get my biggest gripe out of the way first - the game is mechanically a farce. Resource management, time management, money, even affinity, none of it really makes much of a difference. Your choices don't matter, you'll often find yourself forced to do things you'd think you'd have a choice over, you'll only ever fail if you actively try to, and even then, all that might happen is that you're locked out of a different choice that equally doesn't matter. I've played through this game three times now, and I've been unable to get a different ending if one even exists. Likewise, even on my third playthrough where I tried to make my crew hate me, I just couldn't - they are hardwired to like you, no matter what the affinity meters might suggest. The mechanics of this game are just set dressing for what is ultimately a very linear experience. That stuff is all featured heavily in the trailer, but it really isn't the selling point at all. If you're looking for in-depth management, go play a survival game or something. However, I enjoyed the experience for what it is. The style of writing was grounded and fun to read, I enjoyed the arcs of two of the three main characters, and the game hit some pretty interesting narrative beats. I love that the game is unabashedly Brazilian - I feel like we don't see enough of that, and it adds real flavor to a setting that's already teeming with wonder. The visual and sound design of the game are probably my favorite parts - the UI feels chunky and, paired with the sound effects, really helps create the atmosphere of being stuck on a dingy little ship. The talksprites and backgrounds are also really good looking for a game with this budget. The music was also really fitting - it does a great job at matching and enhancing scenes throughout the narrative, and it helped bridge the gap of the mostly static visuals to make me feel like a truly daring sky-captain. Aside from the big flaw that I led with, I also encountered several bugs along the way, some of which softlocked me. The game doesn't allow manual saving, but it autosaves frequently enough that it wasn't a huge issue. To ease matters, the game has a skip button which auto-accelerates text until you have a choice to make. I made use of this feature extensively over my second and third playthroughs, but I wish there were a way to stop the skipping prematurely - there were a few times when I hit skip, realized the game was skipping a few lines I hadn't seen before, and since there were no more choices left in the scene, it just shot me straight to the next one and I just had to sit there and watch. Additionally, the game was littered with typos - I don't mind grammar errors or anything, but there were several occasions where I had to reread a sentence several times to understand what it was trying to say. It was never enough to take me out of the game, it just wasn't a smooth reading experience. Overall, I'd say the game is worth the money, just don't go into it expecting much actual gameplay, and don't expect much from a second playthrough either.

Jogo muito bonito, ótima trama, da para passar um bom bocado de horas nele bem fácil. Tem muito pouco bug, mas o que tem não atrapalha o gameplay. O jogo tem a opção de reportar qualquer problema ou feedback pressionando F8 em qualquer momento, então sempre que achava algum detalhezinho que não parecia certo, era fácil reportar.

Jogo extremamente gostoso e com um toque brasileiro todo especial, da pra passar horas jogando sem perceber o tempo passar, cada tripulante e personagem com seu próprio jeitinho. Muito sucesso ao Studio!

A charming visual novel/interactive fiction/narrative adventure/whatever, through and through! It has a unique grungy sci-fi style with a branching storyline that remembers and reacts to your decisions and play-style. Its got wonderful sense of humor and great characterization, especially with your three crew members. I sat down and played through in one setting, which took me about two hours; pretty good length as-is, and that's before going back to try different decisions. My only complaint is that there's some spelling/grammar errors here and there, but even then it didn't remove my immersion too badly. It's a charming gem of a game, and quite possibly one of my favorites of 2022 so far! [spoiler]I claim Barto as my based anteater boyfriend, we're gonna run that flying restaurant together and be old and grumpy together.[/spoiler]

Sky Caravan is not much of a game but rather a beautifully illustrated animated adventure novel. The only game element is your ability to choose between 1-3 options whenever the story chooses to deviate into paths. Most of these paths are completely inconsequential, some will simply raise or lower a resource bar, and few will impact the story. The resource management is a gimmick and only serves as a lose condition when one of the three resources (morale, supplies, and fuel) reaches 0. Even when critically low, there's no effect in-game until one drops to 0. It's jarring when morale hits red but the crew still seems normal and upbeat in the text. Until suddenly at the start of the next day, morale hits 0 and the crew mutinies you into a game over screen. However, Sky Caravan has many more positives than negatives. Your three crew members are very lovable and have genuine motivations for being in your caravan. Kleber, Bartô, and Jackie make up an interesting and diverse cast in the game. They constantly have conflicting ideas on how to resolve issues and you'll be forced to take a side in many encounters. The story extremely linear and completion-based. Once you beat delivery 1, you now must complete delivery 2, and so on. Despite the little freedom you're given, the story encounters you have are super creative and interesting. Each delivery takes place in a completely different setting where you have to deliver some kind of strange cargo. My favorite of which is the evil cursed cachaça bottle in the mushroom casino. The game takes place in what is effectively Sky Brazil and has an incredible amount of cultural references baked throughout the story. Things such as the Brazilian food and the local animals (capyvaras, anteaters, mafagafos) keep this sci-fi adventure game grounded in a very real place. Missing these references doesn't take away from the story at all but knowing them absolutely enhances it. All the art and the sounds in the game are wonderful! Nearly everything is animated in some way and immerses you in the world. Simply seeing the designs of every character says so much about their personalities and their backstories. Minor details like the game's main interface being the ship's cockpit I completely adore. Every time you hit the button to scroll the text you're actually pressing the button on the television that's showing the text, accompanied by a little satisfying click. When your ship takes off for a mission, you see it accelerate into the clouds and hear it all in stereo sound. There's too many amazing details to list and simply must be played to be appreciated. Sky Caravan is definitely worth the buy at base price and Studio Bravarda should be insanely proud of their first game! I really hope to see more games by very talented and passionate studios like this in the future.

Loved it. What a great game. I enjoyed every moment of this creative experience. I've played my fair share of indie games as well, so i really mean that when I say this game is genuinely captivating. The lore is never too bloated, it's all about the characters, who all feel strikingly distinct from one another. I really lost myself in this world and couldn't stop until I beat it. Thank you Devs! I wish you luck in your next game.

Fun and well constructed adventure. I only wish it was a little longer because it really pulled me in to a rather novel world.

This is an enjoyably weird little sci fi gamebook with a very refreshing Latin American themed setting where you do jobs for a grumpy capybara whilst trying to pay off a mysterious loan shark. Fundamentally it's a branching-story/choice based system with a few meters to manage. The good: the stories build on each other and have some repercussions for the final confrontation, so there's generally a good sense of narrative payoff and the characters are quite well written. I thought the trinkets/artefacts and their uses at the end were well played. I'd have liked a couple more recurring characters - maybe other patrons at the capy-bar - just for flavour, but the characters that were in there I did very much enjoy. The dialogues and choices present the characters/setting very well, I felt, giving a good sense of the world without labouring the backstory. The less good: I don't have many dislikes. There are a few bugs, especially things appearing doubled in the dialogue screen. Also in the UI, the game never really lets you know if any elements are "gambles" - it implies some of them are by having them for example be literal gambling, but this is something that perhaps should be made clearer. The one death I had felt a bit unearned in that two of my crew very much thought escape from a not very natural disaster was do-able, including the pilot, and they were very wrong. All in all though, if you'd like to spend a couple of hours exploring a fun little SF that's very different to most things on the market out there, getting this game is a good call.

I absolutely loved this. The graphics and the story are delightful, the music is fun, and I love the world. Highly recommend.

O primeiro jogo 100% brasileiro que eu jogo e eu não poderia estar mais orgulhoso. Amei cada minuto que joguei e já quero uma sequência. Gostei da arte, da trilha sonora, dos personagens e das referências nacionais. Isso sem falar que o universo de Sky Caravan daria um ótimo RPG de mesa. Recomendo a todos que gostam de jogos onde suas decisões fazem diferença.