Mermaid's Cove

a great story told with a really solid presentation!

i'm honestly really fond of games that focus on plot above everything else. like, i love innovative gameplay and super stylized art as much as the next guy, but sometimes it's nice to walk from scene to scene and just be told a super intriguing story, ya know? and this game's story REALLY does the job at making you intrigued. i loved alga and really wanted to see her get her freedom! she's a super endearing character that i never got tired of. every time her wishes were denied i got like, actually upset haha (in a good way ofc). and the actual mermaids plot surrounding everything was super well done! i love how by the end i didn't *fully* understand the entire lore, but was still able to follow everything that happened (i guess like alga lol). really great job.

i also really liked the way the entire game was presented! i feel like games that are "flashier" on the visuals part get a lot of credit compared to games like these, but i think little details are what REALLY makes a presentation stand out. i loved things like the pauses in dialogue, the footprints on the ground, the footstep sounds, the all-consuming darkness in the cave... i was honestly shocked with how many plugins were named in the credits, but it really goes to show how much attention to detail was put into this game, and i respect the hell out of that. and that's without mentioning manual details like the sprite change when you're pushing rocks in the water, the fact that everyone except the important characters are completely blacked out (REALLY cool bit of stylization)...

if i had to critisize anything, i think the hints the game gives to point out what you have to do next got a bit excessive. i know the focus is on the plot, but since the gameplay is already kinda limited, i would've liked to more exploring on my own. that's just personal taste tho. and i feel like the horror elements could've been more emphasized, especially in the cave segment. but that's about it, i loved pretty much everything else.

overall, this was a great game that i'm so glad to have checked out! :D games with giant walls of dialogue are good, people! WAKE UP!!

Hey, playing this game took us about 2 hours since English is not our first language and we were unfamiliar with some words. Overall, we really liked the aesthetics, especially the characters. Both the busts and the pixel art have a great finish. Additionally, the sound greatly contributes to the atmosphere. The story is easy to follow since it has a clear setup and ending, and it does a great job of conveying Alga's personality. We would have liked the gameplay to be a bit longer, and being a game for a horror jam, we feel that the horror aspect is lacking, as it is overshadowed by the protagonist's personal feelings, making the experience softer and the game feel more like a drama. All in all, we enjoyed it a lot. Congratulations, great job! :)

I wanted to play this the day it got released but ugh finally i found time to do so!!

i absolutely love the story lines in your games, Egg, although im a bit sad that her freedom was becoming a siren, but finally she is free!!

always looking forward to your future works!! <3 

Ahh!! I just finished it finally!! 

Oh my gosh. So many elements of this were so nicely laid out. SPOILERS AHEAD for anyone reading.

The easy stuff to say is the art and the sprites were all really cute and readable, I loved her sad little pout even on her sprite. The villagers had a cool design, effective and convenient. the way small things interacted was cute, like the way they looked in the water and her hands rowing the boat and her little feetsteps in the sand. 

But on TOP of that! I really liked the subtle undertones of the story. And forgive me if I'm just like, reading into it haha. I liked the theme of choice and freedom throughout the story. There was some moment where she's standing in this trapped cave about to hurt herself and she's like "I'm so free!" and I'm like girl you're literally trapped haha. But that's so honest to how humans are. The illusion of choice and of "getting away". But no where is really away. She wasn't free. She was still running away and that's not free. 

AND I liked how she had help up until she made her ONE choice for herself. No one was around to tell her what to do. She was all alone in that cave and made the choice (or I did lol) to pick up and use that knife. And the second, the very second she makes her ONE choice for herself I thought it was so interesting how the old sailor turned on her. I get why, he was afraid for his life. But thematically I thought it was so fitting how immediately she gets ostracized and called a monster after making what (in her eyes) was the one adventurous and bold choice she had ever made for herself. 

I thought the pacing was really good I could feel what "act" I was in at ever moment and that speaks to your skill as a writer, for sure. I can't think of any  major issues I ran into. I didn't do down the bad paths so idk what's down them, now I think about it. I thought the water chase scene where you're swimming away from the mariner dude was a little sudden and out of place with the rest of the game? The placement of the rocks in the water make it a little tricky to tell where you bump into them and in a crazy chase sequence that can be frustrating. I got through it on my second try but i IMAGINE if I hadn't I'd be annoyed. But just cuz of the rocks. 

Also! (spoilers for The VVItch 2015 movie) it reminded me in many ways to the ending of that movie. I ummmMMMM won't say why haha. if you know you know. 

Sorry this is an essay, I really loved this one Egg!! The music and vibe of it were really well done and all your maps looked so clear and cohesive. It's harder than ppl think it is to use RTP stuff and make it look nice and like it really belongs in the world. Really well done.

this is brilliant! art, music and story are so well put together, bravo!💙