Seeing this game on the wiki gave me real deja vu, and I thought I recognized the creator's name from somewhere. Sure enough, I was following the original game on GameJolt - and it looks like I was the very first follower (I'm at bottom of follower list). So, somehow, I was one of the first players years ago.
I remember the first part of the game, up through the forest section. I think I remember stopping at some point after. I'm sure I noticed the Yume Nikki inspiration/reference at the time but didn't think of it as a ynfg.
Anyway, cool to see it was remade and continued as a series - still no idea why I played it in the first place or why the dev's name stands out so much...