Close Knit

Hi there! Big fan of this game, had a lot of fun playing it. I experienced before the softlocks lol but kept playing till the end. Lot of fun, and loved the story line. Shout out to Ri for telling me about this game :)

what a delightfully detailed and cozy game :) I got a bit stuck in the library (knit happens, right? xD), but I will be coming back to try again at a reasonable hour in my timezone!

so far, I absolutely adore the art, and the combination of these visuals and the music is so calming <3 as an impostor syndrome experiencer and someone who keeps moving away to new places, the themes are definitely speaking to me as well -- I look forward to seeing how Fern's relationships with the other characters and their perspective on the city might shift as they work to alleviate their impostor syndrome :D

I have a soft spot for pastel colours and the hand-drawn look, super cozy! I really enjoyed the story and dialogue, they’re what really pulled me through the game. I like how rude some of the characters start out and then proceed to become nicer lol.

The platforming puzzles were fun too, really liked the level design, just the right amount of challenge for me, though I think some sections could give us a larger margin of error (like large jumps where you barely make it or timed buttons which give us a very narrow window). The mechanic with the needle is good, but I wish there was an explanation for how it can press buttons on the way back, whether in a dialogue box or through level design. The needle double jump was a fun mechanic, I wish there was more of it.

The open design of the town was cool, I had to read actual signs to get through it and that’s immersive. I noticed the sewers are always accessible though, and if someone got in there before going to the library it would be unintentionally challenging.

Some things I would’ve liked to see were more audiovisual feedback when the needle impacts something or when we hit a button to recall it. I think I would’ve liked more sfx in general, maybe some ambiences to support the wonderful background art.

I’m not really sold on some aspects of the sewer section – like the biohazard/radioactive barrels being oddly dangerous items underneath a peaceful town. The music gets darker too which I found to be at odds with the rest of the soundtrack. I see that library music was used alongside original music, I think the selection was really good overall since most of them fit well.

Also the character art is cute, love that Fern’s eyes close when they jump haha.

I'm terrible with platformers so I got stuck pretty early on (in the library), but I loved the beginning of the story, the art, and the way you designed the levels! The knitting magic idea is very cool too <3
I wish I was able to progress a bit more in the game, if you are going to keep working on it maybe you could consider some accessibility options? For a platformer example, Celeste does an awesome job regarding those!

Thanks for this game :)

damn, I beat the game but no i really wonder what is in the room beneath the shrine.
didnt go down there since it looked like you couldnt get back up :-/

Incredible work on this game!  The artwork is beautiful and I'm amazed at the attention to detail in each scene -- I can tell that a lot of time and dedicated work went into making this.  The  indoor and outdoor spaces are very complete and the village feel, interiors, and music definitely achieve the cozy vibes.  I really like the animations as well (ceiling fans, the steam, the jump, etc.) and npc character designs/animations.  It's really nice to see a game of such high quality.

In both cases I was stuck and between colliders and couldn't move.  In a third instance, I was in Ginger's cafe and walked to the right, thinking there might be more to the cafe, and I walked off the screen and couldn't walk back, so I had to restart.  An "R" button that restarts the current scene might be helpful in case these or similar issues pop up?

I kept at it because this game is so well done, but on my final play, I was in the library room to the right of the first image shown above, and just couldn't figure out how to access the button on top of the high bookshelf, and the toggle-barriers prevented me from e.g. going back to Grandma or another scene.  I felt like I was missing some ability (a double-jump, an ability to stand on the needle, or similar), but perhaps I just haven't figured out the puzzle yet.

Sorry for writing a book, but this game was so well done that I wanted to provide substantial feedback.  Great work!