stunning oh my goodness..this is absolutely incredible! the art was beautiful and of course, so was heimos LOL. the writing was wonderful, and really brought the story and characters to life. can't express how much i love this!!
Oh my God what a cozy game, exactly the type of game and experience I look for out of Winter Jam. It's strange but the juxtaposition of the literal snow/cold beautiful art backgrounds/UI with the warm, coziness of this game gives me a sense of peace and comfort during an uncertain time in my life. This game allows you to fully relax and take comfort in this little world you created. It's hard to play amazing games like this because I always want more of the world and of the game devs 😂 I'm truly so greedy.
Definitely amazed at how much was written for this game jam, honestly it was a complete spoil to get this much content. I could easily see this game being a full game with how extensive the lore and how intriguing the dialogue is. And ahh I just absolutely adore everything about Heimos. He is so cute and sweet and best ice boi. Not only his personality but definitely gotta give props to the wonderful artists for his character and background art. It was all really beautiful! You can see the sort of "identity" and "aesthetic" (for lack of a better word?) in both of these artists' style--I say that to say that they both have their own unique styles and they both really tied the game together and worked complementary with the other elements of the game. I would DEFINITELY love to see more of their work in the future! Same with the music, honestly it just tied everything together so nicely, It was cozy in the down times, and really stood out during the beginning for the serious and anxious moments. It legit gave me a sense of dread and heightened emotions alongside the main character-- what a beautiful and emotional impact it made. And of course the UI work was the finishing touch along with the programming which is the thankless but important work!
I'm trying cut my gushing short haha but thanks again for putting out such an amazing story! This game is wayyy underrated IMO.
This is such a lovely game through and through! Charming art and soundtrack, the story and overall vibe a perfect mix of intriguing and cozy, it truly is the game equivalent to enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate while watching the dance of flames in a fire pit on a cold winter day. For its length, the game is remarkably well-paced, and the writing did an excellent job of so easily immersing me into the experience from the first scene onward.
I really appreciated the clear thought put into the life and people MC is forced to leave behind, as well as MC's lingering feelings toward them as the story progresses, since these are elements I often sadly find brushed aside in other games in favor of focusing on current events and the backgrounds of characters besides MC. I equally appreciated the ability to influence how MC feels about it all, taking the forgiving option myself and being pleasantly surprised when the game respected it by later establishing this forgiveness as part of the narrative and having MC act with their best interest in mind accordingly. As for worldbuilding in general, I loved how naturally it comes into play and found it extremely solid! Without ever getting too dark, the game doesn't shy away from digging into some pretty bitter realities at times, and the way it takes care to address the nature of specific consequences in this world does wonders in grounding it with the kind of realism that makes fantasy settings infinitely more compelling to me. I'll always crave more lore when it comes to worlds like this that I'm invested in (those stories of the other living gods have me particularly intrigued), but the game still manages to cover an impressive amount of ground with details about the fantasy rules, culture, and history without ever dragging down the pace.
Now, for the man behind the legend, Heimos! A seemingly imposing, stern force of nature on the surface, yet an absolutely endearing sweetheart who is both surprisingly approachable and stubbornly self-sacrificing as you get to know him. I really adore who he turned out to be. While I did already expect him to be much kinder than the stories made him out to be, especially with his early guidance, I also expected him to remain wary and be kind while keeping MC at a distance. How much more refreshing it was for him to turn out to be open and receptive to them, and their connection felt all the more genuine because of it. I love how things developed between the two in both his good routes, but I went with the romantic route first and certainly enjoyed it the most (among the many cute moments, I really got quite the kick out of his version of “vengeance,” haha). Still I have to say, major shoutout for not only having a platonic route, but letting people be explicitly either not attracted to men or not interested in relationships at all! Most of the time in visual novels, you're just on the route and how you react decides if it's platonic or not, leaving your MC's sexuality up to interpretation, which is fine but I much prefer how you've allowed people to explicitly state that part of who they are and even have Heimos react to it! On a personal level, it meant so much when I later chose the full aro option and *minor character spoilers for those concerned* Heimos explained his experiences with desire as being very rarely interested, something I share with him irl. Being ace and on the aro-spectrum, I know just how uncommon and important this kind of representation still is, and on top of everything else, for this I can't thank you enough.
Thank you so much, and hopefully this all does justice to the wonderful, enchanting experience I had playing this game! I wish the best for not only its success, but also any other future projects you may have going forward <3
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stunning oh my goodness..this is absolutely incredible! the art was beautiful and of course, so was heimos LOL. the writing was wonderful, and really brought the story and characters to life. can't express how much i love this!!
I am now in love with one (1) ice king. thanks.
Oh my God what a cozy game, exactly the type of game and experience I look for out of Winter Jam. It's strange but the juxtaposition of the literal snow/cold beautiful art backgrounds/UI with the warm, coziness of this game gives me a sense of peace and comfort during an uncertain time in my life. This game allows you to fully relax and take comfort in this little world you created. It's hard to play amazing games like this because I always want more of the world and of the game devs 😂 I'm truly so greedy.
Definitely amazed at how much was written for this game jam, honestly it was a complete spoil to get this much content. I could easily see this game being a full game with how extensive the lore and how intriguing the dialogue is. And ahh I just absolutely adore everything about Heimos. He is so cute and sweet and best ice boi. Not only his personality but definitely gotta give props to the wonderful artists for his character and background art. It was all really beautiful! You can see the sort of "identity" and "aesthetic" (for lack of a better word?) in both of these artists' style--I say that to say that they both have their own unique styles and they both really tied the game together and worked complementary with the other elements of the game. I would DEFINITELY love to see more of their work in the future! Same with the music, honestly it just tied everything together so nicely, It was cozy in the down times, and really stood out during the beginning for the serious and anxious moments. It legit gave me a sense of dread and heightened emotions alongside the main character-- what a beautiful and emotional impact it made. And of course the UI work was the finishing touch along with the programming which is the thankless but important work!
I'm trying cut my gushing short haha but thanks again for putting out such an amazing story! This game is wayyy underrated IMO.
Aw, this is so cute! I love it. The beginning was heartbreaking and then it was very tense and then slowly it turned into a nice, sweet romance.
This is such a lovely game through and through! Charming art and soundtrack, the story and overall vibe a perfect mix of intriguing and cozy, it truly is the game equivalent to enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate while watching the dance of flames in a fire pit on a cold winter day. For its length, the game is remarkably well-paced, and the writing did an excellent job of so easily immersing me into the experience from the first scene onward.
I really appreciated the clear thought put into the life and people MC is forced to leave behind, as well as MC's lingering feelings toward them as the story progresses, since these are elements I often sadly find brushed aside in other games in favor of focusing on current events and the backgrounds of characters besides MC. I equally appreciated the ability to influence how MC feels about it all, taking the forgiving option myself and being pleasantly surprised when the game respected it by later establishing this forgiveness as part of the narrative and having MC act with their best interest in mind accordingly. As for worldbuilding in general, I loved how naturally it comes into play and found it extremely solid! Without ever getting too dark, the game doesn't shy away from digging into some pretty bitter realities at times, and the way it takes care to address the nature of specific consequences in this world does wonders in grounding it with the kind of realism that makes fantasy settings infinitely more compelling to me. I'll always crave more lore when it comes to worlds like this that I'm invested in (those stories of the other living gods have me particularly intrigued), but the game still manages to cover an impressive amount of ground with details about the fantasy rules, culture, and history without ever dragging down the pace.
Now, for the man behind the legend, Heimos! A seemingly imposing, stern force of nature on the surface, yet an absolutely endearing sweetheart who is both surprisingly approachable and stubbornly self-sacrificing as you get to know him. I really adore who he turned out to be. While I did already expect him to be much kinder than the stories made him out to be, especially with his early guidance, I also expected him to remain wary and be kind while keeping MC at a distance. How much more refreshing it was for him to turn out to be open and receptive to them, and their connection felt all the more genuine because of it. I love how things developed between the two in both his good routes, but I went with the romantic route first and certainly enjoyed it the most (among the many cute moments, I really got quite the kick out of his version of “vengeance,” haha). Still I have to say, major shoutout for not only having a platonic route, but letting people be explicitly either not attracted to men or not interested in relationships at all! Most of the time in visual novels, you're just on the route and how you react decides if it's platonic or not, leaving your MC's sexuality up to interpretation, which is fine but I much prefer how you've allowed people to explicitly state that part of who they are and even have Heimos react to it! On a personal level, it meant so much when I later chose the full aro option and *minor character spoilers for those concerned* Heimos explained his experiences with desire as being very rarely interested, something I share with him irl. Being ace and on the aro-spectrum, I know just how uncommon and important this kind of representation still is, and on top of everything else, for this I can't thank you enough.
Thank you so much, and hopefully this all does justice to the wonderful, enchanting experience I had playing this game! I wish the best for not only its success, but also any other future projects you may have going forward <3
Thank you so much for this wonderful review! It's a heartwarming thing to see. We're all really glad you liked the game <3