Is it just me, or the screen is too dark to play? I just can't see where I'm going

Really? So you describe the game in the blurb as 'A relaxing short game with a big story behind it'. Perhaps you should have just done your blurb like your game 'A relaxing short game with a big story behind it, but...'. But the story is only a story if you make it up. And the game is only relaxing if running around and pressing 'e' a hundred or so times to chop down a ton of trees is something you find relaxing (what, am I chopping wood for the entire winter? Reeks of poor planning on the PCs part, especially as a lumberjack who was presumably not born yesterday. Also chainsaws and other machinery existed in 1975 and a professional lumberjack would have ready access to it. Perhaps in your game and description you meant to say 1875.. I buy that. )

Honestly, even if I did find it relaxing to run around and press e while not feeling like I was accomplishing anything I would be much less relaxed when I found out there was zero payoff.

Spoiler alert! There is no story. At least not one the author cares to share.

That being said, the game did appear to function as it was intended and aside from the really messed up perspective (the trees/fence on the left and right hand side suddenly going sideways) it was actually a kind of pretty game. When I first started playing it I expected there to be more than just an implication that some unknown thing may have happened so I was kind of excited when I finally got all of the bloody trees cut. I even suspected (silly me) that there may be more than one ending or that something would happen different when I started to cut the trees that appeared to be alive still (had green still on them rather than just a barren trunk). So I cut all of the dead trees first, then all of the live ones. So very disappointed.

2.5 stars for being functional and kind of pretty. I would have given it 5 stars, but....

Okay so there isn't much here- the most content the game has is in the description, otherwise I wouldn't even know what story this challenge-less walking sim was trying to tell. And yet, you still felt the need to pad the playtime up to some fifteen minutes? Walking and chopping, the only two things you do, are slow, clunky and unenjoyable. But they are the only things the game asks you to do, while offering you no engagement for doing so.

While you play a game, you should enjoy its main features, not want to get done with them so you can see if there's an ending. Which there wasn't. Only a creaking noise, which after all the silence felt annoyingly like a jumpscare, and a single sentence of ending.

I only give this zero stars because the TITLE SCREEN is more interactive, responsive, and interesting than all the rest of the game...

Make it so the things you do most don't feel agonizingly slow, and add something to draw the player's attention- a story unfolding as you chop the trees, or enemies to fight with your axe, and then you'll have a presentable product. This is just sunk cost fallacy.

(EDIT): ok, if there was meant to be a story unfolding as you chop, then that gives a reward for the player's effort and returns to the aesthetic which drew me in. So, I'll up the score. (I indeed am interested in seeing the story.)

But the fact is that the controls still feel unresponsive and stifling: when you cut a tree, for example, the animation for each chop is long, and the imput required in between chops is kind of a nuisance, asking you to half play attention while not engaging that much. If you wanted the game to be chill and relaxing, that has to change.

(EDIT) (AGAIN): The notes are very vague, and I couldn't figure out how to put them in order. That actually just made me more curious. I did three laps around the map trying to figure out the plot before deciding to see the ending. There was a frame missing... Still, I can tell the story would have stayed open-ended, which I rather liked. With the reduced tree HP, the game indeed was plenty relaxing to go through.