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Thanks for the tips! This stuff really helps.

Huh! Good points you're making here. I'll give it a try and see if it changes my experience.

Bear with me - this is gonna be a long comment.

For reference, I've been playing the "recent" demo, not the "test" version.

So despite this game being a demo that's itself in-progress, I have been absolutely hooked on it for the past couple of days or so. Unfortunately, I've never even gotten past week 1 - the last couple of times, I reset to the first day in an attempt to better manage my resources.

Here's what I love about it so far.

(minor spoilers)

• I love that one of the first things you see when arriving is a sign saying 'Whiskey'. I eventually saw the other satellite names, but I can just imagine someone wandering off in that direction, seeing the satellite, and being sorely disappointed.
• I love the atmosphere. The simplicity of it. I love how you're driving off to these satellites with nothing but your thoughts. The first night, I remember being really frustrated while looking for a satellite, only for that to melt away when I looked up at the night sky and saw the streaking lights. Utterly fantastic.
• I'm not sure this is an 'I love' kind of thing, but I kept shoving trash into this one locker-
• I even love some of the frustration I felt. It seemed... apt. None of these scientists knew what I had to deal with out here. They just sat over there in their labs, expecting these things of me that I couldn't always deliver.
• Getting lost in the woods in the dark felt like part of the experience, and I appreciated that.

All that being said... here are some things that I might consider if I were developing the game myself.

• The first days of this game feel... unusually frantic. I'm a random scientist/tech/thingy person who is being sent out to the middle of nowhere, given a list of tasks to complete, and then I'm left to my own business. I expect someone in that situation to be bored, at least initially - I expect there to be plenty of shenanigans later.
  
  Instead, I was rushing around trying to find the right satellites, because not only did they want me to give reports on satellites that were perfectly fine, various satellites would stop working and I had to rush over to fix them.
  
  Eventually, I was shit outta luck, because I ran out of gas and batteries and I couldn't possibly get to the down satellites in time to both perform the diagnosis and get the signals - and the down satellites made the download even slower, and... I think you get the idea.
  
  If I were making this game, I'd consider how hard I want these earlier tasks to be. If they're meant to be hard to accomplish in order to make a point or add to the feel of the story, then I might add some other things or cues to make stuff just a little easier for the player.
  
  I haven't played far enough to see how the story progresses, but if more of the satellites going down and such is meant to be a story beat, I'd maybe have a few more supplies available at first. (to be fair, I bought the crowbar the first chance I got and smashed all the crates with it instead of trying the rocks, because the rocks didn't seem to do much)
  
  If, however, those earlier tasks are meant to be easier, I'd consider-
• Making the day/night cycle longer. It feels a bit short, all things considered. Not as short as it could be, but still short.
  
  If I was the one developing this game, I'd make those first few days feel almost... a little boring. Maybe that sounds weird. But someone in that situation, once they've accomplished their respective tasks, would probably get pretty bored.
  
  I'd want to give my players a little time to do silly stuff. Maybe make a game of tossing paper wads into that one bucket. Or rearrange those mannequins in weird ways. I dunno.
  
  However, my main concern is... if this is supposed to be how things are before the story gets crazy, how on earth am I (the player) supposed to keep up with that?
  
• OH! Also, one way I'd combat that early frantic feeling is by making the satellites to be reported on some of the ones that have gone down. That way, the player would be dealing with two problems at once.

Anyway, these are my two cents, take them for what you will - excited to see the direction this game goes!

This game is fantastic!! I'm on the edge of my seat - I can't wait to see what else happens! There are so many mysteries, and so many curious courses of action to take - I have to admit, I was devastated when I lost some items between sections. I was fully prepared to feed a plant a fish, lol

Also, aha! I spy a fellow Yomagawari fan! I'm delighted to see it - I feel like they're severely underappreciated games.

Also also, I have randomly fallen in love with Candle-san, apropos of nothing. They inspire me! I want to make a character of my own based on them!

In any case, thanks for making this, and I look forward to more!

Aha! Started William's route - think I figured out the problem. I responded to Sharpe's questions differently - changed it from saying that my favorite was due to "the most complex case" but because I related to them. Route's continuing now.

Still, seems a bit strange for the whole thing to fail because of that choice. I was mainly saying it because it seemed the most accurate, and because I thought it would appease Dr. Sharpe. I dunno if the game quitting was intentional, but it still seems like a bug.

Tried it again, this time with Tom - similar session distribution. Same results. I didn't encounter this when I attempted the Sharpe route, however. Though the route's not complete yet anyway.

If it's not too annoying, I'll be trying it with the other two patients as well and share my results here.

Heyo! Love this game so far. That said, I think I encountered... somewhat of a bug? At least, I think it is.

I'm playing on the Mac version. I started pursuing Michael's route, and got up to Sharpe's assessment of my work week. I'm pretty sure I balanced my sessions with the other patients, but after a couple of screens, it said that I didn't successfully form a bond with my patients, and I quit my job?

Honestly, at first I thought it was a nightmare - which is definitely a compelling idea - but after encountering it again, it seems like it might be a bug? And if that's the case, I'd love to see it fixed.

In any case, you've done a fantastic job! I was going to save the money I used to buy this game to buy a different one, but once I played the demo, I knew I had to keep going. Keep up the fantastic work!

Hello! I downloaded this, but unfortunately couldn't get it to work using Wine. I saw a couple of Let's Plays, though, and it's deeply intriguing and fascinating, so I'm happy to help support this unique project!

That said, I was wondering: I read below that you were willing to consider an Android release. Is there any chance that there'll be a Mac release, as well?

Hi!

As someone who has gone through child abuse myself (though likely a much different experience than yours), I can't express how glad I am to see other people using mediums like games to share their experience. I want to be a game developer myself, and it's so easy for the tiniest things to get in the way of progress - you've gotten a lot farther than I ever have.

Let me just say that I think it's so cool that you've done so much, and I hope you keep going! I admire your determination - remember, though, "never let perfect be the enemy of the good."

That's a problem that I personally struggle with.

I really look forward to playing the update!