Okay, feedback incoming.
-Interesting remix of the toymaker music. It sounds pretty appropriate for the tone.
-This is really cool. Graphics, tone, setup. This is all really great.
-I really like that the player character just talks. There's no portrait or name or anything like that. It kind of emphasizes the intensity in his dialog.
-I genuinely like the linearity of the game. You walk forward, you make decisions, the plot unfurls. It's stripped-down, but it's stripped down to pure content. It doesn't feel like anything's wasted.
-And, while we're on the subject, I super dig the overall link between how ant colonies interact with each other and human zealotry.
-Oh man, the camping system is back. I really like this gimmick.
-"Watch your steps" -> "Watch your step"
-Game briefly freezes every time combat ends, but it unfreezes after a few seconds.
-After combat music feels a little out of keeping with the other tracks. A little too in-your-face with how upbeat it is.
-I really like the flow of combat, once the game gets moving. Antadin taunts to draw attacks when the grub needs to heal, the grub spends most of its time cowering otherwise, pin creates an opportunity to go all out with attacks and effects against a boss, etc.
-And I love the overall worldbuilding. In the same way as Toymaker, this feels like a game that took a premise and explored it all the way to the deepest reaches of its pathos. That the setting is a gritty fantasy world of insect colonies only makes that cooler.
-Oh, weird. You get to pick your weapon type at every checkpoint. I really like that.
-Antadin and Larvae can equip axes, claws, etc according to the weapon store, but can't actually equip them from their profiles. Bug?
-The cut to the campsite on the raft after leaving the second campsite is a little abrupt and I couldn't immediately tell it was a raft. Even a line or two of "We're going to be on this raft for a while. Let's take a rest" would help smooth things out.
-Oooh, the choices get good. I get the impression this game is completely mazed with branching paths, like the last one. I super dig it.
-Game briefly freezes going into battle with the Legion of Husks
-Oh, the vendor is a mosquito. Just realized that.
-This is seriously long and packed with custom art for a one month project.
-Oh, holy crap. That reveal about the infection. That is really, really good storytelling.
-I thought I was going to be able to play through this all in one sitting, but I was super wrong. This is a really robust game for the short span of time that went into making it. I'll try to play through the rest of it soon.
Edit: okay, more feedback
-I really like the way the larvae works and how it fuses game mechanics and story. The option to let the infection in to resurrect it if it drops is great, and just the general structure of battle around protecting it is really cool.
-Feels like it needs just a little more dialog before "no, I will not die here" to really wring out the drama of the moment
-What factors weigh into the ending? Is it possible to affect whether or not the larvae gets infected?
Overall, this was a really wonderful experience and I'd love to see more of this setting. It's like Mouseguard, but for insects, with a dose of Dark Souls worldfeel thrown in.