A Marble's Muse

This is definitely my favorite game from the ones you've made, so far, Kristi. It's really, REALLY good!!!

Gosh, where do I even begin!!

Okay, first of all, the art and the music are fantastic. 

In regards to the music, I honestly found myself vibing to it a lot; it was really sweet and fitting to the story!! I'd love to see a playlist for it sometime, if it's possible <3

As for the art, gosh, I was really immersed by it and I love how much personality each marble design has, even without having eyes nor hands (which are probably the 2 most expressive things in a human body)!! You could still FEEL their feelings just by seeing how they talked and the little emoji symbols (like the anger one, the sad/despair one with the purple lines and the light blue little drop)!! 

And the CGs? God, the CGs, they were such a treat!! I especially loved the ones that Clarke painted!! Honestly, I'd LOVE for this game to have an artbook. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Now, let's get on with the characters and story!!

This game... is just so relatable, man. I lost count of all the times I teared up because one of the marbles said something that pulled at my heartstrings T__T 

Clarke especially was the marble I connected to the most, with Echo and Lilco being close seconds. Some things I really related to:

- Clarke's discarding a lot of their ideas because "they sounded like garbage and no one would like them"; - Clarke focusing so much on their career they barely have friends; - Clarke not completely believing when people compliment their work because "they must just be trying to be nice"; - Clarke trying to create something that others would like so as to please them instead of something that they themself would like; - Clarke being crushed by someone's opinion to the point it's always on their mind, even though a significant amount of time has passed; - Clarke being... mean to themself (like Cotton points out in her route);  - Echo wearing a mask because she felt people wouldn't like her true self; - Lilco feeling like a failure... - The overall low self-esteem that many of these characters have;

I could keep going but I'm gonna stop here 'cause it'd be here for hours LMAO. But let's just say I could relate A LOT to the characters. Although they are marbles, their struggles are very HUMAN and made me feel really connected to them. 

I love how in EVERY SINGLE ROUTE it's not only the struggles of the love interest that gets addressed but also the struggles of Clarke, the MC!! I've read a lot of romance games where, sadly, the MC doesn't get much focus when it comes to their issues, and it feels like they live solely for their love interest instead of the relationship feeling balanced and like neither has to quit their dream. 

This is not the case in A Marble's Muse. Just like how Clarke helps the other marbles with their struggles, the marbles help Clarke just as much. It's a story that deals with very human conflicts like overworking to the point of that being your hole life, grief over the loss of someone, depression, low self-esteem, artist's block, painful partner separations, gender identity, being underestimated because of looks... and the way it does all of this is very balanced. 

You don't ONLY get drama, there's also tons of comedy and endearing moments that will make you smile from ear to ear <3

I think Deadlock was probably my favorite route. The scene where he talked to Clarke about what it means to be an artist honestly made me cry. As silly as it may sound, it felt like he was also talking to me. His message about how opinions aren't everything, about how we also make art for ourselves... because it makes us happy. It struck a chord in me.

Still, I loved every single character in this game (except for professor Manuel, he can go to hell for all I care) and, man, the LORE in the marble universe is DEEP, let me tell you.

This already turned into an essay so I'll stop here LMAO. But I just wanted to say, this game is amazing, Kristi. You're an amazing writer and creator. This is a game that will live in my heart forever <3

This demo is great so far! I really like all the marble designs. I hope there's more "marble world building" in the full game, like they narration mention humans as things that exist elsewhere, and the fact that the Lillies are all from the same home country. Is a manufacture style sort of like an ethnic group? How are baby marbles made? Clarke gets seen by others as young and feminine and mentions it might have to do with the clearness of their glass. All very curious....

All the characters are great too. I like how Clarke's backstory is sprinkled into relevant scenes. Their relationship with Lilco is quite interesting!