Recent reviews by Amjara

In Cinnabunny bake, farm, and forage for ingredients, unlock new recipes, make friends and decorate your bakery. Sell and gift your goodies to earn enough to bring your family to their new home.


You play as a bunny whose family home has been hit by a drought. With your mind made up you head to Sugar Creek Burrows to start a bakery to earn enough to bring your whole family to their new home.

This game is so much more than just a baking/farming life sim, it has a heartwarming sense of community. You meet an array of other buns in the community and get to know their stories and befriend them. Gift them goodies to learn more about what they like and participate in community events.

There is a collection element where you can collect mushrooms (over 40 different types) and bird-watching where you try to photograph over 30 species of birds.


Settings & features include; Graphic quality, screen mode, resolution, vision accessibility, audio controls, control and camera sensitivity settings, button layout for keyboard, mouse and controllers. (Buttons can be remapped).

You start off naming your bakery and then by going to your mirror you can customize your bunny! Choose ear style, fur colour, eyes, mouth, hat (if desired) and ear size. Your name however is set in the game as Big Bounce.

Gameplay Tips

* Unlock the caves and forest as soon as you can via the community board in the post office. Each area will take a few days in-game to be accessible once you pay for the repair.
* In order to make carrots (money) quick to save up for unlocking the caves and forest, make flatbread. It is cheap to make and ship.
* When you're at the market, always buy wheat, wheat seeds, oats & oat seeds
* You cannot die in the game and there is no fall damage or combat
* Chests in the cave reset daily as does the market offerings
* Upgrades to your skills are automatic and you earn them by simply doing the tasks. The skills you can upgrade include baking, bird-watching, foraging and recycling
* In the cave if you want to return to the surface just face your butterfly guide and and select return
* You can buy and wear cute hats for your bunny, once you buy the mirror accessory just stand in front of it to change your appearance at any time
* Continually sprint with no worry about a stamina bar (so nice)

⭐ The cave has lots of mushrooms, selling them brings in a lot of carrots - the best farming method to earn carrots fast one you have the cave unlocked!

❗ Forest fast travel work-around - once you are on the cart to go either too or from the forest just hit ESC and it will automatically put you at the entrance of the forest or back at the cart in town.


This game is too cute. A cartoon-type style in a colourful 3D rendered world.

The soundtrack is lo-fi tracks that are relaxing and laid back and the ambient sounds are well done. The bunny voices are done in a gibberish style which if it is not for you, can be muted in the settings.



I love Cinnabunny and am really enjoying my time in Sugar Creek Burrows! It is so relaxing, I actually love foraging the most in the cave and forest collecting resources and finding chests. I have found some pretty cool furniture and furnishings in chests as well as ingredients.

There is quite a variety of things to do in this game and all of it you can do at your leisure. There is a day and night cycle and the weather also changes. The only activity that can feel rushed is baking if you're needing to rush back to grab something from the oven before it burns. Later on most recipes are ready the next day but at the start the flatbread and bread are shorter cook times but still give you time to do other things while it is baking.

There is a grind to this game and most noticeable at the start when you're trying to earn enough carrots to open up the cave and forest. Once you do, the game opens up. Selling mushrooms and doing stuff like bird watching (finding new birds) can net some nice carrot counts. Especially selling mushrooms and the cave has lots of mushrooms to pick!

In this world we need more types of games that offer experiences like this one. A game that is wholesome, relaxing and encompasses a meaningful narrative, a story about family, friendships and all coming together to form a community. 🐇

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This game was purchased by me for my personal library. On occasion I share my experiences with the groups I write for to help bring attention to games I’ve personally purchased and wish to give more exposure too.

⭐ Helpful guides for when you're stuck! Plus early game tips from the developer

fireboundfox's Guides & Developer’s Tips (rekystudios)

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Apartment Filled With Cats is a simple free-to-play hidden object cat game that would appeal more to the younger crowd or for some fast, mindless enjoyment.


Settings include; audio controls, language, game reset options and fullscreen or windowed (although windowed did not let me manually resize). If you want to set your window size I’ve provided instructions below.

If you wish to put your game into windowed mode, put -screen-width 1920 -screen-height 1080 (or a resolution of your choice) under properties in the games Steam library page under launch options and relaunch the game.

Highlights

* Unlimited hints that are rechargeable
* Cats colored in as you find them
* Good zoom range
* Easy to earn achievements


The game is okay for free-to-play. One map, static and most of the cats look like cats (except one that I had to use a hint for). A good one for the younger gamers to play or for some mindless, fast fun.

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Relaxing Simulator is a digital break from the stresses of everyday life. Offering up a collection of different maps to explore and interact with.


Settings & features include; language settings, video settings such as resolution, render quality, brightness, graphics settings, audio controls and control overviews for mouse and keyboard and controllers.

Highlights

* There are currently 9 maps in the game which include Camping, Old Villa, Rural Cabin, Street House, Modern Villa, ruins, Palace Hall, Ship and Paradise Island.
* You pick the weather! From clear skies, fog, rain, thunder storm, light snow, snow, and blizzard
* Control the time of day from sunset to sunrise.
* You can stop time if you want to keep a certain feel to your experience
* You can have an aurora effect on or off at any time in your map
* You can run and walk but not jump. Water will react to you being in it (ripples)
* There are achievements, some are really easy to get and some require real-time hours that will take quite a bit of time to earn.

My Personal Wishlist

Some small things I do wish this game had;

* Allow us to change our walking speed. I do find walking to be slow and running not that much quicker. Sometimes you want a leisurely walk but at other times you want to get to a certain point in the map and it can be quite the trek

* I wish we could have a thunderstorm that is approaching with winds that pick up and the sound of thunder in the distance or periodic flashes of lighting as opposed to a full on thunderstorm. I love the feel of a storm brewing as opposed to walking in a full on storm.

* We can interact with so many items on the maps however just to get a closer view and rotate them. I wish we could use some of the items. Like being able to find a key to open up the treasure chest on the ship.


There are a lot of settings to tweak your graphics, which is nice as it is a very graphically intense game. I played around with the settings and lowered some to reduce pop-ins and glitching at certain distances.

Music is a selection of lo-fi tracks that are okay. I mean they fit the atmosphere but personally I dug out some of my own new age music to add to my experience. You can keep the ambient sounds and effects on and just lower the music as all three are on separate layers.

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I am a lover of games created to help people relax and meditate. A few of my all time favourites being Playne and the recently released Take a Walk. These games offer a wholesome, calming experience and are few and far between in the gaming space.

I loved the Ruins and the Island Paradise maps in particular (especially at night). But there is some nice map variety and with being able to control the weather and time of day you can really create the type of atmosphere to suit your mood. There is a lot of potential in this game for those who love to take screen captures. 🦋

I wanted to highlight this game as is currently on sale and worth nabbing it at the current price.

This game was purchased by me for my personal library. On occasion I share my experiences with the groups I write for to help bring attention to games I’ve personally purchased and wish to give more exposure too.

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In Ellingby House you are a security guard turned detective as you navigate Ellingby House in London, the once renowned head office of J.R. Holder & Sons.


Settings & features include; display options, audio controls, control sensitivity, camera options.

Ellingby House is a first person, point-and-click adventure where you go around the office of the Ellingby headquarters, currently closed for renovations, and explore and inspect items. Gathering clues as you go along to solve the mystery.


I have an ultra-wide and this game will open up in full screen. If you're using a display larger than 16:9 the hit boxes for the options will be way off on the menu screen. You have to scroll your mouse pointer around until you see the settings option highlight yellow. Once in settings select the windowed option and 1920x1200. Now the hit boxes for the options on the menu screen should line up properly.


The environments in this game are pre-rendered, highly detailed 3D environments. There are many interactive elements within the space that you can pick up and explore. Some elements are using AI (as stated by the store page). I am not against a game using AI, like any other tool, in the making of a game or some elements.

Otherwise the graphics looked good, the game ran smoothly for me and I experienced no crashes.

In terms of audio I actually turned off the background music and I found it a bit on the uneasy, creepy side and just upped the master volume to enhance the environmental sounds so I could hear clues more easily.


I actually found this game frustrating a lot of the time so I bought a copy for a friend (Dahl) to help me as she played along on her end. We both ended up frustrated at the same parts which means we could not progress with the story until we figured out the current puzzle. The game is very linear in its progression, if you can’t solve one clue it brings everything to a standstill. I read other reviewers who got stuck in the same spots as us, leading me to believe it was not us but the clues themselves that were either too hard to find or not written/displayed correctly.

For example in one puzzle, part of the clue is “locker code” when in reality the item should be called locker sticker or part number. Another puzzle is music based-basically listen to a tune and try to recreate it. This is where we quit the game, both of us are not able to do this. All the notes sound similar to us and probably like us, a lot of people are actually tone def. We got some help from a member in the community (and I thank them GREATLY for their help) but this was not the first puzzle that frustrated us to almost walking away.

I don’t recommend this game without a guide of some sort. A game like this should not need a guide, I get it, as it is supposed to be challenging. But when you're stuck on a puzzle for hours due to the puzzle either being not doable (like the melody one for some) or poorly written clues you do need a guide.

Unless a guide becomes available, if you really want to try your hand at this game, which sadly can be fun without the hitting of walls now and then, I recommend buying it on a steep sale in case it does end up frustrating you. In the future if a guide does become available I will take a look and change my recommendation.

IndieGems wishes to thank Jepfore Games Ltd. for providing a free review copy for this game.

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Rival Hearts is a free-to-play, episodic romantic visual novel in early access, where the community helps decide the story’s development.


You play as Noah in his first year of college, pursuing not only his studies but also his heart! Choose between four unique female romances from a tomboy, doctor, gothic chick or a fellow classmate who aspires to be in fashion design.

At the moment only episode 1 is available with up to 12 chapters planned. In the first episode you meet three of the four potential love interests. Amber, Erica and Brooklyn. Once you choose a romance you will not see the others again, it solo’s that romantic interests story-line. The game plans to remain free and involve the community’s input with funding support available through the developers Patreon.

The first love interest you meet is Amber. She seems sweet, talkative and likes to make cute jokes. She wants to be a marine biologist and is down to earth and super friendly.

The second love interest is an older woman in her 30’s (a doctor who works at the college clinic) named Erika. I am not against older women and younger men and vice versa but this lady is way too flirty with Noah, especially when she starts being flirty after meeting him for the first time. She tells him how impressive his muscles are? She calls him honey…and well a few more moments that are just really, really cringe.

The final romantic interest you meet is Brooklyn, a gothic girl who works as a barista and studies political science. She is older by two years and comes across as intelligent and insightful. She is described as goth on the store page but in the game she does not come across to me as overly goth, at least not in appearance.

🌶️ The store’s page does mention it contains adult language and sexually-suggestive themes. So some spice but mainly coming across in the text.


Settings & features include a lot of options you can toggle on and off to enhance your gaming experience, audio controls, language and credits. Under Language & Controls you can also see the controls layout for keyboard & mouse and gamepad. You can hide the hud to view full images and there are controls to roll the dialogue back or forward.


Visually the character and backgrounds look good and are all hand-drawn. The soundtrack is nothing special, instrumental tracks playing in the background. More for atmosphere than anything else. Ambient sounds such as your cell phone text notifications and cute little atmospheric noises. There is voice acting for all the main characters. Impressive for a free-to-play visual novel.


I know this review only covers the pilot episode of the visual novel but we have to form opinions and gauge our experience on what is presented. There were not a lot of choices on the players' part, really none to start except right at the very end you pick who you want to romance first.

A lot more player engagement is needed to make this visual novel a success going forward. Allowing a more immersive experience by giving the player choices to make that will result in various endings.

I like the characters of Amber and Brooklyn but really have issues in how Erika comes across. The way she was flirting with Noah at first meeting and then giving him her number along with a flirty suggestive note was just so cringe. Especially as a doctor, acting that way at their job in a professional setting, on a college campus.

To be honest it was an okay experience, and being free it does not hurt to give it a chance and see if you enjoy it. For myself I will not be continuing to follow the story, the character of Erika personally is just, for me, a huge turn off. She fulfills that role I guess of the sexy nurse/doctor fantasy but does not fit in with the rest of the story set up. I wish the developers well going forward with their project but for me this one is a pass.

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In Luna’s Twilight your grandmother has passed and left you a secluded mansion in the middle of a mysterious forest. Inhabited by four unique and charming potential romances. Thank you Grandma :)


I have to say the start of the story is a bit humorous to me. You come from a well-to-do family with maids, butlers and all the luxuries. Your grandma has passed on and left you the key to her luxurious mansion in the middle of the forest.

A forest with many rumors of witches and mythical beings. A place shrouded in mystery where few are reluctant to go. But one letter from your dear old deceased granny and your parents are more than happy to let you go. No objections and no hesitation. I am not sure if your parents were aware they are sending you ALONE to a luxurious mansion in the forest with four handsome suitors?

So you end up being the new caretaker of the mansion and allow your four esteemed guests to remain. The novel starts off with a prologue. You start off getting to know all the characters and setting up the story. From there the story branches off with each of the four potential romances having their own routes and storyline.

❗Once the prologue is complete the game makes you choose one of the four routes to pursue. From that point on you're committed to that character's story.

Two endings are complete at this time in early access (Tyrineon and Raul’s). Each character has 3 endings, good, bad and true.

The four strangers you meet at the mansion are; a vampire and noble named Shade, a small enduring boy named Al (who just appears as a boy at first glance), a closed off yet loyal and straightforward werewolf named Raul and an elf named Tyrineon who despite always smiling it never reaches his eyes.

🌶️ The spice level in this novel is very mild. The characters kiss but there are no graphic scenes, nudity or anything lewd.


Settings & features include; Screen mode, resolution, language, text options, and audio controls including the ability to adjust voice volume for each character or mute them.

Text is easy to read and the text box can be hidden for screen captures by clicking your right mouse button and clicking it again to bring it back. There is a gallery that unlocks as you play for each character including the main character that houses not just the cg arts but also cut-scene animations and cute chibi moments.

The story for each character is divided up into chapters and the game will prompt you to save before the next chapter begins. Each chapter is pretty short so I stuck to just saving at the prompts.


The artwork is gorgeous, and the games biggest strength. Vibrant palette, attention to details and lighting and done in a beautiful anime style. The main characters are animated to a high degree. Beautifully done with different poses, hair that sways, eyes that blink, and movements that mimic breathing. A lot of love went into the artwork and presentation of this novel.

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The writing is not fluid in this novel, this is something lost in translation. Some conversations will seem odd or it will take a moment to figure out what they are trying to say. It happens enough that it is very noticeable. The grammar and sentence structure is often incorrect with some words just not being used properly to describe actions or feelings.

The artwork and the presentation of the novel is really well done but being a visual novel where reading, for most of us, is a critical component (since we rely on the subtitles), it would be remiss of me to not point out the state of the writing.


The artwork and animations are the strength of this novel, the writing is it’s weakness. The story itself is interesting in parts and I really do enjoy all the different characters. I did manage to complete both Tyrineon and Raul’s endings to completion however not all achievements are available at this time as it requires you to finish and view all of the endings for all characters and two are not available yet.

I highly suggest anyone who is interested in this novel to try the demo and pay attention to the writing. I never played the demo so I cannot say how much exposure you will have to the novel overall. I feel a lot of effort went into making this novel so I do recommend it (on a steep sale). I do not think the core writing will change from now to full release. Hopefully my experience will be helpful in what to expect if you are interested. 🌹

This game was purchased by me for my personal library. On occasion I share my experiences with the groups I write for to help bring attention to games I’ve personally purchased and wish to give more exposure too.

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Reviver is a beautifully crafted interactive visual novel filled with puzzles that embrace the themes of love, fate and time.


Reviver is a story rich game blended with a myriad of puzzles that tells the tale of love that takes place over a lifetime between Felicia and Carlos. In the game you play from both perspectives.

The gameplay is mainly gathering items and at times combining them. You can switch between Felicia and Carlos’ viewpoint at any time and both share the same inventory. Progression can be controlled by changing the years in the game (the bottom of the screen lets you adjust the time period for both characters simultaneously). Some chapters only have one or two years you can change but as the story progresses you will unlock more time periods to go between.

What you do in one time period changes incidents that occur in future and past events. When you're not sure what to do next and you feel stuck there is a hint system where white butterflies appear over new items to be found.


Settings include; language, hints on or off, audio controls, contact info and resolution options.

* You can go back to the prologue or any chapter to replay it once completed


This game is very puzzle heavy, and some are quite challenging but thankfully there are guides if you get stuck. The story was very interesting and it did not go as I expected but ended up with a happy ending. Carlos and Felicia certainly lived very interesting lives. I was excited to see how their story played out in the end.

I did find some puzzles frustrating as you can not skip all puzzles (only some) and well some were challenging or just not as fun. The story was much longer than I expected, although I am happy with how it ended. It did drag in some parts as a lot of puzzles do make you go back and forth quite a bit between the two characters and the timelines to figure out the clues.

All in all an interesting game but really made for puzzle lovers first and foremost. 🦋

Otome Lovers wishes to thank Cotton Game for providing a free review copy for this game.

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* If the game shows I refunded it, that is because I purchased it before our group got a key for review! Weird timing too, I bought it about an hour before getting a review copy.

Hidden Tomatoes 3 is the third in the series and a quick, free-to-play game to pass some time, fun for gamers of all ages.

Settings include; graphics quality, and audio controls.

If you wish to put your game into windowed mode, put -screen-width 1920 -screen-height 1080 (or a resolution of your choice) under properties in the games Steam library page under launch options and relaunch the game.

Highlights

* Collectables to find besides tomatoes, such as a mallet, toilet paper roll (mounted), saw, a glass cup, toilet roll and watering can.
* Hint system that is really quite good and unlimited
* A nice 3D coloured environment that has a good range of zoom. Just move the camera back and forth and zoom out to find some tomatoes hiding behind objects or off to the sides.
* The tomatoes are easy to find for the most part, I do wish the game was more interactive but for a free-to-play game you cannot beat the price

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A slice of life visual novel about finding love while juggling the struggles of everyday college life in Vibrant Frame.


You play as Ari Seong (you can change the name) but for the review I will use the default, Ari after all is a sweet name. Ari is a college student in her final year majoring in Theater and Film. She works hard to maintain her studies and like most students worries about tuition and managing day to day struggles. Her life has taken a turn with a series of disasters one after the other when she meets Hanjoo. A mechanical engineering major who hails from a prominent family and has a pretty carefree life and dashing good looks to boot. He sees love as a game until he meets Ari.

You only have one love interest in this game so it is more the unfolding of a romantic love story between our main character and Hanjoo.


Settings & features include; display and text options, the ability to adjust the text box opacity, the ability to turn on or off the heroine's face in the text window, audio controls and language. You can unlock a cg gallery as you play the novel and there is a separate album for when you take photos in-game. Extras also include an episode list (7 in all), music and movies (opening and ending) that all become unlocked as you play.

There are lots of save slots so do not be shy about saving if you wish. With a lack of choices on the players' part, slot space is not as much of a concern as just saving favourite moments.

❣️ To hide the hud for screen captures just hit your right mouse button to hide the hud and click it again to bring it back.

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The way you progress through this story is by taking photos when prompted (the game has a tutorial to show you how). There are two endings. One is achieved by taking photos when prompted and the other by taking none. There are no choices to make so largely this novel is kinetic and more just a great read as opposed to engaging the reader as an active participant in what happens.


I LOVED the cg art in this game and took many screen captures (the hard part was choosing which ones to put in my review)! There are a lot of gorgeous cg’s to enjoy and I have always seen these captured special moments as rewards for usually achieving certain goals down a chosen path. This game does not have any choices to make on the readers part but to be rewarded with such a buffet of gorgeous art is wonderful.

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The background music is mainly instrumental with some tracks having some beautiful Korean lyrics. The novel is voice acted in Korean with English subtitles available.


One thing I really liked about this story is how it showed you moments from the perspectives of both characters Hanjoo and Ari. Their romance is a slow burn but caring and sweet. The novel is not super spicy, some kisses and suggestive moments but nothing graphic.

The romance between the main characters is believable and caring. The main character is caring and strong willed and Hanjoo really shows concern for Ari’s well-being and is thoughtful and considerate towards her. They really do make a great pair.

Overall great writing, beautiful artwork and a fun, romantic story. Just stay tuned after the credits for a look into their future! 💖

Otome Lovers wishes to thank Lumiere Entertainment Inc. & Smilegate for providing a free review copy for this game.

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Cats love to have fun and play and what is even more fun is finding cats who are having fun in 100 Hidden Cats: Playground. A great game for the younger gamers.


Settings include; Audio controls.

If you wish to put your game into windowed mode, put -screen-width 1920 -screen-height 1080 (or a resolution of your choice) under properties in the games Steam library page under launch options and relaunch the game. Then after relaunch just hit alt+enter for it to resize.

Highlights

* Map has a colored background (makes it easier on the eyes)
* Some minimal interactions with the map
* Hand-drawn, whimsical art style with some light humour
* Can pan using WASD or the mouse
* Very easy to obtain achievements but sadly generic and all the same
* Hints-they give you only 5 but you can use them with no recharge time (you won’t really need them)
* Find cats and collectables such as rubber chickens and fish

Shortcomings

* Cats are very easy to find, too easy but great for kids to play
* Hints only work on hidden cats, not on the fish or rubber chickens


Overall a more fun one for younger gamers. I find this one a bit more low effort in comparison to their other game Hidden Cats: Thief which had a lot more map variety arranged in panels and was more challenging.

My play-time is a bit exaggerated due to writing my review at the same time as playing. Once you find all the cats there is a cute pop up and the map goes back to the menu (even if you have collectables left to find). But no worries, just re-open the map as it autosaves and finish finding the collectables. 🐱

Otome Lovers wishes to thank FM Simple Games Studio & Sons of Welder for providing a free review copy for this game.

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