This is a really neat idea, but is really hard. Lots of characters getting introduced I don't understand. Very thematic. I got stuck on the sun and the strawberry. Not sure how those are being compared. Overall very good game. I wish I could see both screens at once for reference.

Cool game. It makes me wonder whether we would invent a new, easier language when first making contact with aliens.


cool concept, really nice execution on the tech, but im confused and even the solution in the comment above me doesnt help. im bad at solving puzzles though, so this wont affect the rating i give, just feedback :)

The concept was really cool, it was a bit hard to draw the sigils but I guess we have the same problem in our game hahaha! Well done!

I liked that a lot; it felt like it ended way too soon! I needed the hint to understand that "thumbs up" meant "alive," and the last one took me a while before I realized I needed to say the whole sentence and not just the one missing symbol.

For the notepad, I think it should automatically add an entry for every symbol shown so far, along with a blank next to each so I can type notes. Trying to scribble in there and needing to delete everything if I make a mistake isn't great, so I ended up just using screenshots to remember what I'd seen.

@henk Thank you! Yeah the notepad definitely isn't quite right, feels very hard to use for anything meaningful. There actually is a list of "seen symbols" at the back of the manual but it's very easy to miss - should probably have pointed it out directly :)

@benskca oh, whoops! it seems I was playing on hard mode without realizing :P

nice game, in the beginning I was very confused on how, and what to do, but after a while it clicked.
short question on the drawing part: is the up and down arrow the default resolve? Got that so often instead of what I thought I've drawn. Or am I just bad at arts and should stay in my programming corner? xD

@lehmy the up/down arrows isn't explicitly the default, but when the code has no clue it seems to end up with that one a lot! The algorithm to decide what character you've drawn is pretty sensitive, so definitely not your fault :')

@benskca Thanks still guess its a combination of sensitivity and my lack of drawing skill. Good job on the implementation of that in the timeframe ^^

Fun game! The concept was cool and I was excited to make first contact with the aliens! I kinda wish I got to use my translated texts more to solve some puzzles and have some back and forth, but for the time constraint and solo deving it's very cool! Nice work

I really like the mood and ambience! I would love to see this concept as a full game

i loved the vibe of this

Cool and unique concept and mechanic ! Really loved the mood set up and making contact with the aliens, good job !

This is a great idea, but I had to stop after getting frustrated with drawing the kanji and the box not recognizing it. To be fair, I don't think handwriting recognition is a simple thing to code, so kudos to you. I think I would have been fine with buttons for the different symbols unlocking as they are discovered though. I got to the point where the alien was saying something about die or live.

Great job.I think it's really hard to recognize the hand drawn patterns and match them in the database.But you did it.
The game shows us how difficult it would be when we communicate with aliens... yeah 'the first contact', right.

Banana, Strawberry... I do not understand alien :smile: I agree that it would have been nice to not having to write things down on an actual paper, when it was already written on a paper in game. So that one can cross reference easier. Nice one! I like the mood.

What an interesting game! I love the art style.
However, it would be even better if the instructions were clearer. I think a slightly lower game difficulty might suit me better. Haha.