First submitted to the EctoComp, La Petite Mort category
I think I should expect to just feel my heart in pieces when I play Amanda’s games.
It is so raw, so hearbreaking, and through the hurt, beautiful. Incredible writing.
First submitted to the Neo Twiny Jam
The game is still as hardcore as I remembered. Gosh darn you RNG!!
I don’t think I’ve managed to find a strategy that helps me pass the 10th fight, even on easy difficulty mode. And I’ve tried it so many time since the game was released… I might be just that unlucky.
I still wonder where this prototype fits in the whole Pageantverse/APBW/A&R world… I’m interested in seeing a larger game with the setting (minus the battle simulator, cause I’m really bad at it 
)
First submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Another tiny entry with a limited wordcount that punches you in the guts by the end.
First submitted to the Neo Twiny Jam
A very emotionally charged bitsy tiny entry. though a still a bit confusing
I did like interacting with a computer inside my computer
First submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
This entry hasn’t changed since I last played it.
I wonder if the prototype will one day continue the more joke-y/surrealist angle, or go all serious with the mash-up… Keeping an eye on that one.
First submitted to the Punyjam #3
first time playing it for me
You’ve always been a lucid dreamer, but these days your dreams never last very long. If only you could get some rest…
This was a very trippy experience, as lucid dreams can often be. It is surreal right from the start, finding yourself inside an airlock rather than cozy in your bed. Jumping from dreamworld to dreamworld, each with their specific “puzzle” and logic, you learn that you have trouble finding sleep, resting sleep especially. Having tried different remedies (each bleeding into the dream snippets funnily), you still struggle with getting good sleep.
The writing is pretty playful, going smoothly from the strangest descriptions of the dreamworld to a more frustrated tone of your awaken self. And vivid - painting lovely images, especially in the dreamworld.
The puzzles are fairly simple and fairly well hinted in the room descriptions and command responses. Even as a parser noob who doesn’t always find the solution easily, it was still a smooth short game, with a satisfying end.
I wish my lucid dream were this fun!
Thanks for including a downloadable walkthrough too! I got to experience the “good” ending thanks to it!
First submitted to the ParserComp
You’re out on the mountain again for the Merrithorne Mountain Race, your friend Susan by your side as ever. But something is different this time. Susan is struggling, and your chances of finishing the race in good time are slipping away.
Run your race along the mountain route and see where it takes you. How will it end this time?
I could not be furthest from the intended audience for this game: I absolutely hate running. I just don’t get the appeal or why people would push themselves to exert themselves this way. Anything related to it will give me the hives… 
Yet, I found myself engrossed with the story. Your will to finish this gruelling race, hopefully getting a good time too. Your frustration with your running companion, who is unusually lagging behind and whose condition is starting to worry you. And your struggles with the path, not quite as safe as you hoped.
While you are the character advancing the story, I felt it was more about Susan (or your relationship to Susan) that mattered most here. There are hints through most of the game to why your companion doesn’t seem like herself – though her condition is only vaguely mentioned in the ending, it is easy to assume what’s what. Depending on your actions, the ending you get is heartwarming, even if a bit bittersweet, or pretty tragic…
The game is pretty short, with three and half room and hinted puzzles, branching into multiple endings (I think I managed to get three by myself?). One branching choice seems to have a random component to which path you’ll end up taking (with the correct direction potentially changing with each playthrough).
It was a good well rounded short game!
We love games that make things accessible for newbies! 
walkthroughs
Thanks for your reviews Manon! I was a bit resistant to walkthroughs when I first started making games, but nowadays I usually try to include one to make it easier for people trying to get through jam entries as quickly as possible (having often been in that situation as a player myself).
First submitted to the EctoComp, La Petite Mort category
Since the game hasn’t been updated, I’m linking my IFDB review (more stuff that the review thread):
A cute and short parser, with the Dee Cooke ™ graphics and vibes, a sequel to last year’s entry, with simple and limited commands. Listen to some spoopy tales around the campfire with your friends, but watch out, some are more dangerous than it seems…
Though it might not be obvious, there is a way to get to a winning state. I had tried a bunch of actions but only reached a bad ending, which was frustrating (it felt like there was no way to “win”). But there is one combination of conditions that will work. Talking to your friends before the story starts is the way…
Still silly, and a bit campy. Really like the 80s “horror” vibes from the UI/writing.
A tiny parser perfect for a bite or a little break!
I still haven’t played the main game… (it’s in my wishlist!)
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There are 24 entries left 
You’re amazing, you know that?
I am a bit cheating though… I’d already reviewed like most of those games before 
The last quarter of the list will mainly be new games for me tho… Looking forward to that!
First submitted to the Anti-Romance Jam
There hasn’t been any update to this entry… BECAUSE IT DOESN’T NEED ANY!
I am very biased, because Jinx is my friend… but also because the gameplay revolves around translation - how words can be translated differently, giving specific vibes/tones/meanings depending on what is chosen. Having done some myself, worrying about which word to use to fit the context best, struggling when not finding the correct sets of words… it feels oh-so-familiar.
Word plays are often lost with translations, so it’s nice here to actually be playing with words ~ even if you don’t understand them!
Anyways, more of translating games please!
I super appreciate both you and @AmandaB doing these, and so quickly! I had wanted to do a quick look at all of them, but 1) as a comp organizer they’d need to be very bias free and thus take longer to write and 2) I had RL stuff going in the way. And now I don’t have to, because you two are doing it and doing it very well!
First submitted to the Neo Twiny Jam
UGH! The Gothic Lusciousness from the writing… chef kiss
Between devotion and repulsion, love and hatred, life and death… it’s all about dichotomy.
It’s entries like these that makes me envious of some of y’all’s writing skills…
First submitted to the Neo Twiny Jam
Another welcomed silly entry, with an interesting focus on gameplay/mechanic. All the silliness of superstitious rituals determining (somewhat) how your team does is pretty funny.
You should still pray to the RNG god to be on your side…
First submitted to the EctoComp, Le Grand Guignol category
I originally played this game in French (because I could), and while the English version is as spotless, I still prefer the French version anyway
One of my favourite game of the year, hands down. So well done. The fake-documentary setting, the game-within-the-game interface, the slightly tedious gameplay of “demos”… So, so good!
First submitted to the EctoComp, Le Grand Guignol category
A pretty fun small parser with quite unconventional commands for solving the puzzles and hands. Good thing there is an in-game walkthrough.
I liked the slightly(?) self-deprecating humour and meta-commentary in there mixed the surrealism of the setting (what else do you expect from going to work in the middle of the night…).
First submitted to the EctoComp, Le Grand Guignol category
A riot of a game this one was! Absurd from A to Z.
Run around a haunted house, try not to get kill, rethink your costly investment.
So many fun endings, and trying to hunt them all down is very entertaining!
First made for the Ludum Dare 52
Harvesters.
These otherworldly beings, having the bodies of humans, are tasked with reaping bad memories of these humans and purging them from their hearts and minds.
And in an era where mental health awareness is at an all-time high, these harvesters work hard to ensure the stability of the souls of mortals.
One such harvester will meet a young single mother, and he must dive deep into the mystery of why she became one before he could do his job of purging her bad memories.
But his task could be more complicated than what he initially imagined.
In the format of a kinetic visual novel (there really aren’t any choices), the story follows an Harvester - an otherworldly being who ‘harvests’ human memories - on a case: a young woman wanting to erase the memories of her former lover and the child she gave away.
I… don’t know what to take from the game honestly. I can’t say what the message of the story was. It seemed to be critical of one-night stands and loose morals - almost condescendingly, with pushing the almost unattainable ‘pure love’ - while dealing very carelessly with the situation of a child (in what world was the child given away without getting the father’s approval?? when the father was told about the pregnancy and birth? It seemed to hint the child was some months old?). It was as if the story put itself into a corner with having the child involved into the woman’s back story and just… yeeted it away when it became too cumbersome. That was… very uncomfortable.
As for the climax of the game, the story kinda pulls the rug from under you, by having the Harvester “seeing the light” and becoming a human because of what he witnessed with that case. I don’t really get how this was the turning point for them to change this way. It felt a bit cheap?
I did like the introduction of the game, with the exposition of Harvesters and one of the humans who used their services.
I thought it could have been more interesting following that person after losing their memories…
EDIT: I’m a fairly fast reader, but I’d guess more peeps would end up spending more than 30min on this.
First submitted to the Ludum Dare 54
John Oscar has just rescued Patty Nicole from a traumatic experience, and the two stick together like glue ever since.
However, during one of their dates, he discovers something distressing about her, which has something to do with limited space.
Time is of the essence for this couple.
In the format of a kinetic visual novel (you have one choice that doesn’t affect anything), the story follows an almost fusional couple, brought together by a traumatic event. With surprisingly similar principled values (pretty conservative and somewhat condescending views on relationships and intimacy), the couple faces a bump in their relationship when Patty Nicole starts behaving strangely.
Unable to go to certain spots or to talk about what is bothering her, the games makes it obvious what happened to her (CW: attempted assault), though it does it with a twist ( the assault wasn’t physical at the end, because she escaped him, but he cursed her by “removing space” with magic???). Honestly, it feels like trying to make some sort of allegory for sexual assault on pure/virginal women, but spoiling it with its implementation of an otherworldly/fantastical element. SA is a very touchy subject, and the game handled it carelessly.
The games lays it on thick on the critique of society, especially the loose morals, individualism, and the focus on money rather than relationships. It comes out as pretty patronising, especially when opposite values are presented to the couple – if you don’t follow their principles you are bad – and almost childish.
And that’s without going into the last third of the game, where the couple deals with the Patty Nicole’s issues, which weirdly turns into some sort of anime-like fight, with the big baddy monologue before the “power of love” punch ends it all. It does cheapen the whole thing…
EDIT: also an entry that took me more than 30min to go through… About an hour and I went through each “page” pretty fast.