Hi everyone,

I want to start off by saying a huge thank you for checking out this game. When I entered this jam I thought maybe one or two people would see this, and I'm ecstatic about the feedback Butterfly Keeper has gotten so far.

The past few months have had big changes in my life—I just graduated from college and moved home. I started working on this in May of 2023, and I think I threw myself into this design as a distraction from the stress of the move and the end of an era.

Trying to figure out next steps isn't easy. I'd love to do this full time if I could, but in the meantime I'm learning to code and considering doing a coding bootcamp to increase job prospects. (I studied totally different things in school.) But with the free time I have now, I want to keep working on this game to make it more fun for future players.

I'm new to this platform (and TTRPGs in general) so I don't know how it works in terms of updates to the page. As I upload future versions, I'll try to make it so that people who've previously bought the game can get the update for free. (Maybe this happens automatically? That'd be sick but I'm going to research to make sure.)

I don't know the extent to which the project needs updates, but I know it could still use some tweaks. If you've downloaded the game and tried it out, I'd love your feedback. You can post about it on the game's page or you can email me at julesfordgames@gmail.com. 

To incentivize feedback, I'm considering designing a bonus puzzle or some other content for folks who give detailed feedback (more info to come, I haven't figured it out yet but if that sounds good let me know).

I'm going to figure out some things to change after additional playtests, but more data is ideal. Here are some aspects of the game I'm especially curious about:

1. How is the length of the game? Is 6 sessions enough? Did you feel like you got to explore Minas sufficiently? My goal was to make it possible to check out many things, but not to be able to do everything.
2. How did the puzzles feel? It's impossible for me to test them myself so it's hard to know how easy or tough they were.
3. How much more flavor text is worth adding? I had a lot in Session One but I didn't have a chance to add tons to the other sessions, so they ended up being barebones. 
4. Was the stats system okay or was it a bit too swingy?
5. What parts of the game were confusing?

If you have feedback on other aspects of the game that's cool, too. On the jam submission page I got some great feedback that I'm incorporating into the next update and I'll respond to those comments shortly. (Thanks so much Owlsten and Bee!)

In addition to updating the game on here, I'm considering publishing this on other sites to advertise it more (if it's allowed—I'll have to look to see if it's Kosher with itch.io's rules).

Thanks so much y'all!

Happy playing,

Jules