Much of this is covered in the Hints system already included in the alpha version, though. These hints appear in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Did you not see them? Or did you close them early on (by pressing X)?

That's curious... I replayed the alpha and saw the hints again. Now I recall I read few of them during my first playthrough.
I never pressed X, I just stopped notice them anymore... I blame the immersive environment, while I google for memory pills.

With the new method will we be able to select which phrases to memorize or to "forget"?
I like the idea of preparing a different phrases arsenal (or menu...) each time, but also beeing forced or invited to take what you find without really choosing would feel coherent.
Also overprepared love speeches never come out as you wish!

Some details:

I find that the man turns is head too much, and maybe too quickly. also if he turns the head left it seems he moves the right shoulder forward a bit innatuarlly.
The woman movement seems more natural.

After they collect the chess piece, the stand-up movement seems a bit too fast.

I think that making the AI response time more variable would render it more human.

The fact the when you open your eyes the light has changed still takes me by surprise.
It's the single moment I prefer so far, it gives me a kind of vertigo.

Thank you Michaël.
I wrote down some thoughts about tutorials and about suggestions which I probably wouldn't find disturbing in Bientot l'ete.

Personally I'm embarassed by the approaches a-la-gamification to tutorials: "Congratulations! You memorized your first phrase!". On the other hand I like it when the author takes the disturb of guiding me through the uncertain first steps, if he/she does it both respecting the player's intelligence and the his/her own work.

I particularly enjoy a tutorial when it integrates seamlessly in the gameplay, like the first minutes of Bioshock, or when there is a separate introductory part both creative and in tone with the game, like in Dinner Date's training intro.

Given the minimalistic nature of Bientot l'ete I feel that adding an intro or some new gameplay elements to guide the player might be out of place and artificial.

Personally I wouldn't mind to find writings in overlay which suggests the main mechanics, provided the style (also v) fits.
In The Path for example I liked the style of the mother's recommendations and also that of the Girl's thoughts: I perceived the as an integral part of the world, so I never felt like "Ok now I stop playing and start reading".
Maybe because of the literary DNA of Bientot l'ete something like this might resonate with the world.

I wouldn't see the need to explain the quantitative details (like the number of store phrases is 16).
I prefer when the suggestions feel indirect, better beeing intrigued to reach the shoreline instead of beeing told to go there. That also would reinforce the feeling that I'm free to wander and play my way, even if the collection mechanic is quite precise an so it needs to be learnt.

Generally I feel a bit anxious when a tutorial presents me several goals to be achieved, as a list. Maybe it's just a problem with my short time memory, or the fact that it starts to sound like duty
Continuing the overlay writings example I'd prefer to see a sentence gently inviting me to the shoreline, then another about "stopping to remember" appearing as I stumble on the first phrase, then beeing reminded of the cafe only after few sentences are collected etc...

One coincidence: the night before playing the alpha I dreamed about a strange afternoon, during which the sky became suddenly dark.
Another recurrent dream of mine is that I look at the stars at night and they slowly start moving... so I can't but love and feel so immersed in your "space" twilight 

Today I received my Silent Hill 2 copy (for PC) from eBay.
I think I'll enjoy for few more days the forbidden pleasure of beeing one of the few readers of this forun not having played it

I went through the alpha few times and it started as a disappointing experience.
After a couple of epiphanies I now think this work will become something important for several people (me included).   

First impression:
I started playing without reading the instructions, this way I didn't have a clue about of how to proceed or what could I do. That broke the immersion quickly.
On the other side reading the istructions had the side effect of presenting the future experience as a bit trivial, in fact I thought of the "collect" mechanism as game-ish and much out of tone with the evocative feeling provided by the visuals/audio.

The first cafe experience was a bit confusing (like a board game I hadn't grasped the rules yet) and not very meaningful, also because of the presence of an AI instead of another person.

Epiphanies:
During the second play I started searching for phrases which could be useful to establish some interaction: some with a positive meaning, some with a negative etc...
Doing that I found some sentencies so meaningful to me that I stopped caring for the "dating sim" aspect of the game (which is clearly stripped away by you) and I concentrated on finding something important to say.

At this point I started enjoying beeing there and felt Bentot L'Ete more as a whole. Also the mechanics felt more natural.
At the cafe the of course AI couldn't be the listener I wanted to have, but the cafe experience felt more organic and I was anticipating having a human playing the other side

Next time I was just walking in peace, checking phrases out of curiosity.
Suddenly I stumbled upon a phrase I wanted to say to someone important many years ago, but I didn't do it because I was afraid to hurt her.
It came almost as a shock, I spent an obsessed half an hour wandering about the sea, thinking of the possibilities of Bientot l'Ete.
I think it could provide a safe environment to expose some parts of myself for which i didn't even had the words, to other people I might trust since did my same path of searching for objects and sentences.
The absence of a chat or any direct contact (not even an eye contact with the other avatar) should prevent from the fragile things I might expose to be trivialized.
And possibly I won't be too afraid of hurting or getting hurt.

With Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/ you can upload 2GB and decide with whom to share.
So it can be considered private sharing I think.

Apart maybe from Eastern Mystics

Interesting... and the only link available from wikipedia is a dead one!
I don't find any references to it even on the blog of the producer.

I don't think the problem is with gameplay. The problem is with unnecessary gameplay. It's sort of like in the 80s how every metal/hard-rock song had to have a guitar solo in it, whether it was appropriate or not.

So true! It took me maybe a decade to intimately accept that a rock song can be great even without a guitar solo 
But I went through it and now I am a better person

Maybe in ten years (almost) nobody will feel outraged by games missing combat, win/lose states, achievements etc...

Thank you for sharing,
nice invitation to make fearless quick prototypes of inspiring ideas

I read about your games on this post, just decided to play them before reading your comments

I found your voice description in The Kindness of Strangers detaching me from the experience of the game.
Also keeping adding similar examples of kindness don't add to the awarness of the (not)gamer, which kind of learn by experience and not by what he/she's beeing told.
They say "Show, don't tell!" for movies and "Do, don't show!" for games... I guess the last stands for notgames as well.

I liked more the killer; walking towards the fields I found myself thinking about the greatness but also indifference of Nature towards dramas of men... I let myself wander about easily

I cannot come to Belgium, but if possible I would love to participate to the second round of testing.

Hello Jordan,

I just played Taiwan.
I imagined myself beeing in a representation of the Ying and Yang, trying to keep an equilibrium while immersed in forces that cyclically changes polarity (direction).
The mechanics fit: you have to maintain an equilibrium between fighting against those forces and surrender letting them carry you away.
When the dots arrived I found a bit moving seeing myself as the little circle struggling to keep my balance despite those accidents in life (work, people requiring your time and attention, health problems etc...)

I spent some time with Taiwan and it left me something.

Later I was surprised seeing you used the word political to describe it, while everything i felt was very much on a personal level.
Maybe the fact that you created the game out of personal experience with the land and it's people made it more general than you planned? 

I'll soon try the other games.

Maybe at the opposite direction than the one you want to explore, Immortal Defence is a remarkable example of use of text in a game.

The gameplay was in an almost abstract settings with a (literally) bodyless alter ego, the text beeing in short notes persented between the levels.
Despite these "ingredients" I've been seldom been so deeply touched by a game.

The text was written by a professional writer.

I see now it was ment to be in two parts.
This is the second one, shot one year later:
http://vimeo.com/5214935

I am but half of the Siamese twins called Tale of Tales. Auriea will get half of each drink. 

Of course 

I thought of you and Auriea and The Path today when I saw this short "Lucia":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGj74CRn8xo