Completed The Looker

lichen · Feb 23, 2022

ridiculously good game! the characters and story fit together very well. good stuff :)

JPA93 · Feb 24, 2022

Great attention to detail, beautiful designs and a good story with twists and turns. Love the concept of the game itself, and found the execution pretty much perfect. Only tiny point of criticism would be dialogue without a second character portrait, where it was sometimes confusing to read lines from others with Emma's portrait above it. Some minor typos, but I assume that's irrelevant for a jam game.

King_Waluigi · Feb 24, 2022

Just finished, and may I just say, what a fantastic game! Amazing work!

The gen 2 style was fantastic and really fit the game! Lumiose looked amazing in gen 2 style! I really liked the story, and how you used the reflection of Emma as the final boss, quite brilliant! Fantastic job, you've earned yourself a King_Waluigi smiley face =D !

Ekat · Feb 25, 2022

Beat the game! (Also, I was glad to see you return for another jam, Tom!) My thoughts are below!

Audio
The tracks were fitting for the atmospheres you were going for. However, I do wish that there were a few gen 6 demixes thrown into the OST. That would enhance the feeling of returning to Kalos.

Tiles
The tileset work was nicely done, both inside and out! I don't know why, but, my brain is obsessed with that little divider tile in the hangout. It makes me want to try spriting one myself. The taxicabs, tiny plants, museum, and tower were also some tile highlights.

Mapping
Hopping off the tiles point, the mapping was done well! My favourite areas had to be the aquarium and museum! (How could those people hate such a cute Shaymin painting... If you ask me, that's the real betrayal of the game.)

I did find both the cities were a little confusing, though. I can understand wanting it to be big, but, having map transitions send you in different directions made it tricky for me to connect where everything was in relation to each other. Maybe a little signpost in the major areas, pointing to what maps connect would work? I also wish that the two cities were more distinct from each other beyond their roof colours and a few layouts. There were times where I couldn't tell what world I was in, because they were a little too similar.

Characters
The character portraits are great! (Espurr had some funny faces. I liked the healing pose the best.) I wish more characters could have them, but, I understand with time restraints it might not be viable. In addition, I thought the design for Yatallel was cool! Perfect for vain, mirror-loving character!

Misc
The title screen of this game is so simple, yet so gorgeous! I was also a fan of Espurr hanging over the diary in the intro. Again, I do wish that there were more drawn scenes to break up some of the dialogue-heavy scenes. But, again, that's just me demanding more because of how well-done the pictures were made!

Battles
The battles were fun! There were a good number of items, Pokémon, and I never had to worry about money! The mirror battle is always such a cool mechanic to see, too.

Misc.
I loved the murder mystery sidequest! Investigating is my, if you'll pardon the pun, jam.

I didn't encounter any major bugs or little problems I felt needed fixing in my playthrough, which is a big plus! (And I bump into, like, everything just to test people's collisions.) Fantastic job with the playtesting!

If I were to make one minor complaint, it's that the encounter rate around the Power Plant is too high. I was running into a Pokémon every 3 steps on my way back to buy Repels.

Overall
The main story was good! The game had an interesting setting, and the adventure didn't overstay its welcome. There was just the right amount of mirror shards to collect. There were some fun, memorable NPCs as well, who made the world seem more lively. Two NPCs who stand out to me are the fortune teller, as well as the guy by the fountain who says, "Even a disco ball is dark on the inside." He may not have liked the line, but, something about it resonated with me. (Might have to make that my new Relic Castle description.) Yatallel was a great character, too! I loved the smug, vain personality.

One thing I didn't care for was how the story would be dumped on you in places. This was particularly evident in the beginning, and after learning about the situation with the Nile family. Breaking up the cutscences with a bit of movement or some pictures (like I discussed earlier on) would have helped.

The Themes
Major props for trying to work all the themes in there! I got the sense that they were incorporated! Of the bunch, I think the way you twisted "neighbour" with the neighbouring world idea was a clever interpretation of the prompt. Reunion worked well with the end, having the important people in Emma's life show up!

I do wish that there had been some more development with Velvet prior to the betrayal so that it would be more meaningful to the player. But, again, I understand the time constraints.

Kudos to the team for making this fun little adventure!

Tomix9tomix · Feb 25, 2022

lichenprincess said:
ridiculously good game! the characters and story fit together very well. good stuff :)

JPA93 said:
Great attention to detail, beautiful designs and a good story with twists and turns. Love the concept of the game itself, and found the execution pretty much perfect. Only tiny point of criticism would be dialogue without a second character portrait, where it was sometimes confusing to read lines from others with Emma's portrait above it. Some minor typos, but I assume that's irrelevant for a jam game.

King_Waluigi said:
Just finished, and may I just say, what a fantastic game! Amazing work!

The gen 2 style was fantastic and really fit the game! Lumiose looked amazing in gen 2 style! I really liked the story, and how you used the reflection of Emma as the final boss, quite brilliant! Fantastic job, you've earned yourself a King_Waluigi smiley face =D !

Ekat said:
Beat the game! (Also, I was glad to see you return for another jam, Tom!) My thoughts are below!

Audio
The tracks were fitting for the atmospheres you were going for. However, I do wish that there were a few gen 6 demixes thrown into the OST. That would enhance the feeling of returning to Kalos.

Tiles
The tileset work was nicely done, both inside and out! I don't know why, but, my brain is obsessed with that little divider tile in the hangout. It makes me want to try spriting one myself. The taxicabs, tiny plants, museum, and tower were also some tile highlights.

Mapping
Hopping off the tiles point, the mapping was done well! My favourite areas had to be the aquarium and museum! (How could those people hate such a cute Shaymin painting... If you ask me, that's the real betrayal of the game.)

I did find both the cities were a little confusing, though. I can understand wanting it to be big, but, having map transitions send you in different directions made it tricky for me to connect where everything was in relation to each other. Maybe a little signpost in the major areas, pointing to what maps connect would work? I also wish that the two cities were more distinct from each other beyond their roof colours and a few layouts. There were times where I couldn't tell what world I was in, because they were a little too similar.

Characters
The character portraits are great! (Espurr had some funny faces. I liked the healing pose the best.) I wish more characters could have them, but, I understand with time restraints it might not be viable. In addition, I thought the design for Yatallel was cool! Perfect for vain, mirror-loving character!

Misc
The title screen of this game is so simple, yet so gorgeous! I was also a fan of Espurr hanging over the diary in the intro. Again, I do wish that there were more drawn scenes to break up some of the dialogue-heavy scenes. But, again, that's just me demanding more because of how well-done the pictures were made!

Battles
The battles were fun! There were a good number of items, Pokémon, and I never had to worry about money! The mirror battle is always such a cool mechanic to see, too.

Misc.
I loved the murder mystery sidequest! Investigating is my, if you'll pardon the pun, jam.

I didn't encounter any major bugs or little problems I felt needed fixing in my playthrough, which is a big plus! (And I bump into, like, everything just to test people's collisions.) Fantastic job with the playtesting!

If I were to make one minor complaint, it's that the encounter rate around the Power Plant is too high. I was running into a Pokémon every 3 steps on my way back to buy Repels.

Overall
The main story was good! The game had an interesting setting, and the adventure didn't overstay its welcome. There was just the right amount of mirror shards to collect. There were some fun, memorable NPCs as well, who made the world seem more lively. Two NPCs who stand out to me are the fortune teller, as well as the guy by the fountain who says, "Even a disco ball is dark on the inside." He may not have liked the line, but, something about it resonated with me. (Might have to make that my new Relic Castle description.) Yatallel was a great character, too! I loved the smug, vain personality.

One thing I didn't care for was how the story would be dumped on you in places. This was particularly evident in the beginning, and after learning about the situation with the Nile family. Breaking up the cutscences with a bit of movement or some pictures (like I discussed earlier on) would have helped.

The Themes
Major props for trying to work all the themes in there! I got the sense that they were incorporated! Of the bunch, I think the way you twisted "neighbour" with the neighbouring world idea was a clever interpretation of the prompt. Reunion worked well with the end, having the important people in Emma's life show up!

I do wish that there had been some more development with Velvet prior to the betrayal so that it would be more meaningful to the player. But, again, I understand the time constraints.

Kudos to the team for making this fun little adventure!

Just wanted to say thank you so much for playing, and I'm so glad you all found the game enjoyable, it means a lot to me and I'll pass on the nice messages to the team.

On a personal note to JPA it means a lot to me that you played this game and enjoyed it, I know you have quite a high standard and haven't played that many jam games, so it means a lot to me.

And to Ekat, thank you so much for the extensive feedback, I completely agree with all the suggestions you listed, and like you said a lot of it is to do with feeling restricted by the time, but I know keeping these things in mind can help me make future games! So thank you so much, and also just thank you from the whole community, the work you put into writing these reviews are not wasted.

Once again, thank you all!!!!! <3

KennyCatches · Feb 26, 2022

I finished the game, and wow! I think this is my favourite game from you, and I really like your last two games!

First of all, the title art is phenomenal! I love how it matches the story and the gen 2 graphics. I also adore the portraits and the different facial expressions.

SO MUCH FLAVOUR TEXT. You wrote so much unique flavour text, even for something so insignificant like a plant. It gives Emma so much personality! I absolutely loved looking at the museum art and seeing what Emma had to say for each painting. I also liked the interactions between Emma and Mimi :))

The mapping was great, and the tiles were really nice. You did an excellent recreation of Lumoise City because I got lost many times, just like in X and Y LOL. But as Ekat said, the map transitions were a little confusing! I also thought the encounter rate was a little high for some areas, but honestly, it didn't bother me that much because of the speedup option.

The battles were balanced well. Yatallel's design is awesome, and I like its diverse moveset! The mirror battle at the end was super cool. Oh, and the murder mystery game was a fun moment too!

Lastly, the story was fantastic! There were a lot of exciting twists and turns, so it didn't feel boring, and the writing was charming and fun. Sure, there could've been some extra development here and there, but I think the story was still very, very well written.

Team:

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing The Looker! I barely have anything bad to say about the game. It's that good! Great work!

Praise to Rattata!

Softlock bug:

I walked into this room using the left tile, and it made me go back, and I couldn't move for some reason. Good thing I saved!

Tomix9tomix · Feb 27, 2022

KennyCatches said:
I finished the game, and wow! I think this is my favourite game from you, and I really like your last two games!

First of all, the title art is phenomenal! I love how it matches the story and the gen 2 graphics. I also adore the portraits and the different facial expressions.

SO MUCH FLAVOUR TEXT. You wrote so much unique flavour text, even for something so insignificant like a plant. It gives Emma so much personality! I absolutely loved looking at the museum art and seeing what Emma had to say for each painting. I also liked the interactions between Emma and Mimi :))

The mapping was great, and the tiles were really nice. You did an excellent recreation of Lumoise City because I got lost many times, just like in X and Y LOL. But as Ekat said, the map transitions were a little confusing! I also thought the encounter rate was a little high for some areas, but honestly, it didn't bother me that much because of the speedup option.

The battles were balanced well. Yatallel's design is awesome, and I like its diverse moveset! The mirror battle at the end was super cool. Oh, and the murder mystery game was a fun moment too!

Lastly, the story was fantastic! There were a lot of exciting twists and turns, so it didn't feel boring, and the writing was charming and fun. Sure, there could've been some extra development here and there, but I think the story was still very, very well written.

Team:
View attachment 9137

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing The Looker! I barely have anything bad to say about the game. It's that good! Great work!

Praise to Rattata!

Softlock bug:
View attachment 9138
I walked into this room using the left tile, and it made me go back, and I couldn't move for some reason. Good thing I saved!

Thank you for playing and all the kind words! It means a lot to me that you enjoyed this more than my last two games, I find it very easy to get in a slump worrying if I'm improving at all or just continuing to pump out the same mediocre games again and again, so it is really nice to hear that. This game was also way more fun for me to make than the last one, so having both of those just feels great!

I completely agree about some sections needing a bit of development I really wish velvet and her story got more time but yeah it is what it is I guess.

And thank you for reporting the bug! I was hoping I had finally made a game with no softlocks on release but oh well. With that said v1.1 is now available for download! If you plan on playing the game please redownload it so you have a smoother experience!

WolfTaiko · Feb 27, 2022

A great game with a cool aesthetic and amazing writing!

Thoughts While Playing:

Just at the title screen I already love the aesthetic
The Gen 2 style of the overworld isn’t my favorite, but it definitely adds personality to the game!
Yatalells design is cool! Plus I love its personality
Wow, the beta forms are such a cool idea for the alternative world.
Yatallel’s Air Slash does so so much damage!
Typo when you meet Velvet in the back of the cafe, succede to succeed
MURDER MYSTERY ROLEPLAY PARTIES!??!
MURDER MYSTERY!!! I love these.
If you play True Destiny one day you will see I LOVE Murder Mysteries.
Man this murder really has me stumped.
Huh, I entered the bedroom and I’m now soft locked since it keeps moving me down
Time to beat Velvet again!
I got the murder right! That was pretty tricky, good job Tom!
Beat Velvet again, woo!
I love how the game has a built-in speed-up option, especially since you can’t run it helps a lot!
If I didn’t have Yatellel in the village, I think I would’ve died 20 times, lol.
I love how whenever someone tries to give Yatellel a debuff or status it just goes, “no u.”
Ah, they call the mirror the Looker. I thought the game was named after the character Looker
Wait, Lux is the person who’s after the mirror? I did not see that coming.
Dr. Xersoic, Looker! Wow, a lot of people just showed up. I can see that you like Looker Tom.
You’re very good at making sympathetic antagonists like Lux and Velvet, you want to beat them and they’re in the wrong but you see where they’re coming from and want to help them.
Ah, so that’s why you were looking at the thread for copy trainers that day! Oh no, I’ll have to beat Yatellel. This doesn’t seem too good. I really regret having a Lvl 40 Kadabra now.
I beat the reflection! Wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, thankfully.

Conclusion:

Overall the game was super fun and full of unique ideas! You did an excellent job writing for the characters and the story was excellent! I do wish that Velvet had appeared at the end to help out Emma, but other than that I felt the story was great. I really enjoyed seeing Looker at the end to have a reunion between him and Emma, it felt gratifying and I especially enjoyed playing with Emma post-X and Y. Especially since X/Y were the first Pokemon games I had ever played it was nostalgic in a way for me to see a continuation. Also, the style was very unique and added to the game as a whole! This game was just as good as your other games if not better, and I really enjoyed playing it!

Overall Score: 8/10

Why you should play this game? It is an amazing game that you will want more of after playing for 2 hours and is a nice heart-warming continuation of Emma's story!

courteousgrizzly · Mar 1, 2022

Really enjoyed this game for it's entertaining storyline and engaging puzzles. It does a good job of being a self-contained game with about 1.5 hours of playtime. I didn't talk to every NPC in the game, but there were some great hidden gems throughout, and hearing the inner thoughts of the main character was a refreshing change from normal Pokemon games. Definitely worth an evening to play through!

I'm not usually a fan of the older gen style, but this game honestly brought some great nostalgia with the art and especially the music.
The "labyrinth" design of the maps had me thrown off at first with the quick and frequent transitions to separate areas, but after the first 15 minutes or so I got the hang of the map layout.
The super-abstract design of Yatallel was disconcerting at first, but seeing the battle sprite made it click for me. Their personality is just the right amount of "arrogant godlike being".
I love the security guard duo with one of the pair never having a clue what's going on. And that they switch in the alternate dimension!
I like that you put items in the corners of maps, rewarding people for exploring a bit and dealing with the battles.
The Minccino running in circles had me actually laughing out loud.
Did that lady steal a baby Magikarp from a Gyarados???
The kid rambling on about different dimensions and how all choice is meaningless was fantastic.
Murder Mystery party was great, although I had to do a bit of guessing when it came to actually solving the mystery (couldn't quite figure out that the murder actually occurred in the aquarium).
Speed-up was a great feature. Acts kind of funny with battle sounds, but worth it for the quality-of-life aspect.
Totally thought the game was named primarily because of Looker, so I appreciate that you made that part of the alternate village lore with "The Looker".
Lux!!! She has a Bronzor like all the folks in the village! Nice detail wrapping it all together.
Lux wasn't particularly difficult with the team I had assembled, but I think I only won the reflection battle due to luck. Good boss battles!
Here's my final Team!

Tomix9tomix · Mar 1, 2022

courteousgrizzly said:
Really enjoyed this game for it's entertaining storyline and engaging puzzles. It does a good job of being a self-contained game with about 1.5 hours of playtime. I didn't talk to every NPC in the game, but there were some great hidden gems throughout, and hearing the inner thoughts of the main character was a refreshing change from normal Pokemon games. Definitely worth an evening to play through!

I'm not usually a fan of the older gen style, but this game honestly brought some great nostalgia with the art and especially the music.

The "labyrinth" design of the maps had me thrown off at first with the quick and frequent transitions to separate areas, but after the first 15 minutes or so I got the hang of the map layout.

The super-abstract design of Yatallel was disconcerting at first, but seeing the battle sprite made it click for me. Their personality is just the right amount of "arrogant godlike being".

I love the security guard duo with one of the pair never having a clue what's going on. And that they switch in the alternate dimension!

I like that you put items in the corners of maps, rewarding people for exploring a bit and dealing with the battles.

The Minccino running in circles had me actually laughing out loud.

Did that lady steal a baby Magikarp from a Gyarados???

The kid rambling on about different dimensions and how all choice is meaningless was fantastic.

Murder Mystery party was great, although I had to do a bit of guessing when it came to actually solving the mystery (couldn't quite figure out that the murder actually occurred in the aquarium).

Speed-up was a great feature. Acts kind of funny with battle sounds, but worth it for the quality-of-life aspect.

Totally thought the game was named primarily because of Looker, so I appreciate that you made that part of the alternate village lore with "The Looker".

Lux!!! She has a Bronzor like all the folks in the village! Nice detail wrapping it all together.

Lux wasn't particularly difficult with the team I had assembled, but I think I only won the reflection battle due to luck. Good boss battles!

Here's my final Team!

View attachment 9158

Wow thank you for playing I'm glad you enjoyed it! You say that you didn't talk to all the NPCs but damn I'm impressed by all the details you noticed, and it makes me really happy to see. Like the thing with the security guard duo, I'm really surprised that you noticed that. And I'm glad you enjoyed the rambling kid, I had fun writing that dialogue. And yes, she did steal the magikarp.

Just once again thank you, I know this is the thread for The Looker, but just wanted to once again say that I loved Birch's Folly, so seeing you enjoy this means a lot.

Armin · Mar 4, 2022

Hihi! I played your game and here are some thoughts!

I loved it so much! Sure, there were multiple typos and the music doesn't loop and there's this one bug where you can't exit the backroom of the Nile café once you enter it, but frankly, these are just minor nitpicks and definitely did not affect my enjoyment of the game!

On mirrors and reflections
The bulk of my enjoyment comes from the writing, which is expected from a story-focused game! Compared to Azume, it feels so much tighter. The one thing that stood out to me the most was how you managed to weave in your main theme of "mirrors" in almost every aspect of the game, and how you used it as a branching point for your other themes. Mirrors as an object of vanity - Yatellel's entire personality and Emma's inferiority about not being as well-groomed as Velvet - and how you subverted it with Yatellel acknowledging that appearance doesn't reflect everything a person is. Mirrors as a "looking glass" - peering into other dimensions, the literal title of the game (and I love how "The Looker" has multiple layers of meanings to it!). Mirrors that reflect - where characters are parallels to each other not only in the alternate universe sense but in their goals and personalities as well. And I simply adore the way you extended this theme to the random NPCs and even the city's decorations as well - the red Lumiose roofs and objects vs the blue Mirae roofs and objects, how some of the maps of the 2 cities are flipped, how some characters behave similarly yet slightly differently from their parallel universe counterparts, the dialogue of some of the NPCs talking about reflective disco balls and alternate worlds and stuff, etc - just... loads of aptly-placed motifs here and there for the extra bit of emphasis. (Also, Magic Bounce and Mirror Move on Yatellel!) Many of these are just subtle, easily dismissible things, but the fact that you paid attention to them shows how much thought you put into crafting the worlds. A piece of dialogue that hit me was the dude describing how the glass of photo frames reflect his current status while letting him peer into the past - essentially, 2-3 lines that covers all the main story themes and even makes the player introspect a bit, which is really well-done if you ask me! I feel that it's stuff like these that makes a story feel as a coherent whole, and elevates the overall writing to another level, no?

If anything, I wish the murder mystery roleplay bit would have some mirrors or some of your other themes incorporated in it as well; the way it is, it sort of feels detached from the story a tad bit. (But that's probably just a nitpick on my part. ><) Still, it was fun! It really highlights Emma's skills as a detective and solving it was indeed satisfying! ("Hey, I'm as smart as Emma!") ~~And isn't the whole murder situation somewhat messed up? Thank god it's just a roleplay, huh!~~

My top 3 expressions
1)

I can imagine her going "Whaaaaaat" in her head.
2)

I can imagine the ears spinning like helicopter blades when it uses its powers.
3)

She looks slightly pouty when she's sad, it's cute.

It's things like these that ups the charm on an already very heartwarming game!

Final team

I was hoping Goomy would evolve and wreck face in the late game but it got carried instead. Oh well. ><

PS: That whole bit with the totally normal "Fred" and the sudden appearance of "LGREEN" was the dumbest joke ever but it made me laugh so much.
PPS: I hope Maddy finds her cab soon.

To the team, thank you for making this game! I had such a blast playing it!

Tomix9tomix · Mar 5, 2022

Armin said:
Hihi! I played your game and here are some thoughts!

I loved it so much! Sure, there were multiple typos and the music doesn't loop and there's this one bug where you can't exit the backroom of the Nile café once you enter it, but frankly, these are just minor nitpicks and definitely did not affect my enjoyment of the game!

On mirrors and reflections
The bulk of my enjoyment comes from the writing, which is expected from a story-focused game! Compared to Azume, it feels so much tighter. The one thing that stood out to me the most was how you managed to weave in your main theme of "mirrors" in almost every aspect of the game, and how you used it as a branching point for your other themes. Mirrors as an object of vanity - Yatellel's entire personality and Emma's inferiority about not being as well-groomed as Velvet - and how you subverted it with Yatellel acknowledging that appearance doesn't reflect everything a person is. Mirrors as a "looking glass" - peering into other dimensions, the literal title of the game (and I love how "The Looker" has multiple layers of meanings to it!). Mirrors that reflect - where characters are parallels to each other not only in the alternate universe sense but in their goals and personalities as well. And I simply adore the way you extended this theme to the random NPCs and even the city's decorations as well - the red Lumiose roofs and objects vs the blue Mirae roofs and objects, how some of the maps of the 2 cities are flipped, how some characters behave similarly yet slightly differently from their parallel universe counterparts, the dialogue of some of the NPCs talking about reflective disco balls and alternate worlds and stuff, etc - just... loads of aptly-placed motifs here and there for the extra bit of emphasis. (Also, Magic Bounce and Mirror Move on Yatellel!) Many of these are just subtle, easily dismissible things, but the fact that you paid attention to them shows how much thought you put into crafting the worlds. A piece of dialogue that hit me was the dude describing how the glass of photo frames reflect his current status while letting him peer into the past - essentially, 2-3 lines that covers all the main story themes and even makes the player introspect a bit, which is really well-done if you ask me! I feel that it's stuff like these that makes a story feel as a coherent whole, and elevates the overall writing to another level, no?

If anything, I wish the murder mystery roleplay bit would have some mirrors or some of your other themes incorporated in it as well; the way it is, it sort of feels detached from the story a tad bit. (But that's probably just a nitpick on my part. ><) Still, it was fun! It really highlights Emma's skills as a detective and solving it was indeed satisfying! ("Hey, I'm as smart as Emma!") ~~And isn't the whole murder situation somewhat messed up? Thank god it's just a roleplay, huh!~~

My top 3 expressions
1) View attachment 9227 I can imagine her going "Whaaaaaat" in her head.
2) View attachment 9228 I can imagine the ears spinning like helicopter blades when it uses its powers.
3) View attachment 9229 She looks slightly pouty when she's sad, it's cute.

It's things like these that ups the charm on an already very heartwarming game!

Final team
View attachment 9225
I was hoping Goomy would evolve and wreck face in the late game but it got carried instead. Oh well. ><

PS: That whole bit with the totally normal "Fred" and the sudden appearance of "LGREEN" was the dumbest joke ever but it made me laugh so much.
PPS: I hope Maddy finds her cab soon.

To the team, thank you for making this game! I had such a blast playing it!

Wow thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the game, and I'm really happy you enjoyed all the themes and what not. Papurika and I worked hard together on how the game would portray some of this stuff, and I'm glad it seems to have paid off.

Something else that I'm really enjoying is that everyone seems to have their own favourite bit of npc dialogue, whether that be about Disco Balls, or other dimensions or photo frames. And I'm so glad you caught the Fred and Lgreen joke, I was worried that it just would not make any sense (just to clarify Fred for Fire Red, Lgreen for Leaf Green), it's such an odd and dumb thing but I'm glad you got a laugh out of it.

You might know already but I just wanted to touch on since the talk about all the mirror motifs: This part can kinda be not realised, but Bronzor is very much based off a mirror. Its evolution line is based off a story called "Of a Mirror and Bell".

And just another note, I was actually pretty stumped in development thinking about how to do the murder mystery. I thought that having someone actually die would feel a bit odd for the tone of the game, I didn't want Emma inspecting an actual dead body. But doing a different mystery like figuring out a robbery felt a bit too mundane. So that's why it ended up being a roleplay scenario. But yeah the whole thing with the kid and his pikachu is still pretty messed.

I think that's all I have to say, sorry for rambling a little bit, I just enjoy sharing some of the thoughts that went into this game. And thank you so much for playing, it actually means a lot to me. Thank you thank you thank you!

The game has been updated to fix a minor bug in a transfer event, so please download v1.2 from the main link if you wish to play.

Evan · Mar 6, 2022

Wow! I finished playing this game earlier today (took roughly an hour and a half) and I had a great time! You did an excellent job recreating a familiar world (lumiose) in a familiar style (gen 2), in a way that felt strangely cathartic! I've put some of my thoughts in the below spoiler tag.

I was impressed to see how much story the team managed to cram into 90 minutes of gameplay. While there were definitely parts that felt a little verbose (and honestly, the number of words showing up on screen with the GSC-style is not doing you any favors), the story you managed to tell ended up being very satisfying. I really enjoyed the alternate-universe storyline, as well as the consistent themes of redemption and showing your adversary compassion. I also really enjoyed all of the little flavor text that showed up outside of the story beats as well, that showed an attention to detail that I was not expecting!

There were points where I wasn't quite sure where I should be going for certain events, and for that I was glad that the fortune teller character existed. A great way to allow the player to "ask for help" as it were. One thing I think could be improved or clarified is the way that Lumiose itself was set up...it was a little confusing trying to orient the overall map in my head. I knew one side was the museum, i knew where Prism Tower was, figuring out how to get between the two was a bit of trial-and-error. I understand that Lumiose isn't an easy city to translate into 2D and you wanted to have the offshoot alleyways. I think you did a remarkable job, but that there might be a way of making the map easier to digest. Some parts where I entered right and exited up definitely felt jarring.

I was especially impressed with the murder mystery...while it did feel a bit like an interlude to the main "world-is-ending" storyline, it brought it back to the detective feel, and kept within theme. I liked all the little hints, and it only took me [redacted number] tries to get it right! :P

Also, huge fan of getting to play with the gen 2 beta pokemon. I've always wanted to do that, so thanks for that experience.

Again, really great job... I'm always a huge fan of gen 2 style games, and it was also cool getting to see Xaveriux's Essentials GSC kit in action!

papurika · Mar 16, 2022

Evan said:
Wow! I finished playing this game earlier today (took roughly an hour and a half) and I had a great time! You did an excellent job recreating a familiar world (lumiose) in a familiar style (gen 2), in a way that felt strangely cathartic! I've put some of my thoughts in the below spoiler tag.

I was impressed to see how much story the team managed to cram into 90 minutes of gameplay. While there were definitely parts that felt a little verbose (and honestly, the number of words showing up on screen with the GSC-style is not doing you any favors), the story you managed to tell ended up being very satisfying. I really enjoyed the alternate-universe storyline, as well as the consistent themes of redemption and showing your adversary compassion. I also really enjoyed all of the little flavor text that showed up outside of the story beats as well, that showed an attention to detail that I was not expecting!

There were points where I wasn't quite sure where I should be going for certain events, and for that I was glad that the fortune teller character existed. A great way to allow the player to "ask for help" as it were. One thing I think could be improved or clarified is the way that Lumiose itself was set up...it was a little confusing trying to orient the overall map in my head. I knew one side was the museum, i knew where Prism Tower was, figuring out how to get between the two was a bit of trial-and-error. I understand that Lumiose isn't an easy city to translate into 2D and you wanted to have the offshoot alleyways. I think you did a remarkable job, but that there might be a way of making the map easier to digest. Some parts where I entered right and exited up definitely felt jarring.

I was especially impressed with the murder mystery...while it did feel a bit like an interlude to the main "world-is-ending" storyline, it brought it back to the detective feel, and kept within theme. I liked all the little hints, and it only took me [redacted number] tries to get it right! :P

Also, huge fan of getting to play with the gen 2 beta pokemon. I've always wanted to do that, so thanks for that experience.

Again, really great job... I'm always a huge fan of gen 2 style games, and it was also cool getting to see Xaveriux's Essentials GSC kit in action!

Hello, I am one of the co-dev/artist of this game!

First of all, thankyou for playing this game, and I am glad that the game play was some what enjoyable.
I wanted to tell you that I got the idea of this game because of your game in summer game jam 2020 “THEFT on the MAGNET TRAIN EXPRESS”.
I really liked the gen 2 style and art that your team created (and obviously looker…)
And inspired this game a lot!

Thank you for playing, and a BIG Thank you for your game!
Without your game, this game would not exist!

NouveauArtPunk · Mar 24, 2022

Terrific game! I really enjoyed the comfy vibe and the way it continued Emma's story. My fave of the Jam so far.

Completed The Looker

The Looker v1.2

lichen

i make sprites , i think

JPA93

Novice

King_Waluigi

The King of Waaahh!

Ekat

That One Guy's GF

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

KennyCatches

can he catch his w's?

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

WolfTaiko

Ex-Ace Gamer

courteousgrizzly

just a friendly bear

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Armin

☆★★☆

Tomix9tomix

The beetle is waking up

Evan

game director, Pokémon Sea & Sky

papurika

Rookie

NouveauArtPunk

Scraggy Supremacy