End of the Hourglass

Spectacular atmosphere throughout. I absolutely adored this.

This is one of those incredible and unique games that starts with the player feeling curious as the story unfolds. There is an evolving sense of discovery and haunting that develop as you play, everything building together.

The art is top notch and styled with beautifully illustrative line work. Animations are incredibly well done and paired so well with great music and sound effects. Everything is atmospheric and immersive and so well polished. I would highly recommend this game and anything else made by tinydiorama!

This is a really lovely game! Short, impactful, affecting--and wonderfully poetic.

Perhaps most saliently, it's a game possessed of an interestingly eerie and melancholic atmosphere; a feeling of being adrift and uncertain in a world that seems empty.

Indeed, narratively the story is of an unspecified weight; an unnamed, burdensome sadness.

This narrative is conveyed primarily through poetic descriptions of the things present in the scene--but also through short snippets of interstitial poetry.

One thing that I found neat is that those descriptions change with each stage of the journey through the story, keeping things interesting and adding to the atmosphere.

On the visual side, I love the minimalist art-style, in the vein of hand-drawn illustration. It's a significant contributor to that above-mentioned atmosphere, I feel.

Audio is sparse, in a way that I feel supports that melancholic mood and those minimalistic visuals; that impression of a world that seems empty. The sounds and music that are present are, I feel, well-chosen.

And at the end--a resolution unexpected, but not unwelcome. ^_^

So overall, a short and well-wrought experience, I find! ^_^

"There is simply too much outside"

This was a very cool experience, both charming yet eerie at times.

I really like the simple and clear drawing style as well as how there's no moonlogic to the puzzles. There's also little in the way of fluff, everything contributes to helping you advance or to build the atmosphere.

All in all I loved it, 5/5 would definitely more games by tinydiorama!