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Lovecraftian Aberration's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Presentation | #344 | 3.438 | 3.438 |
| Originality | #357 | 3.313 | 3.313 |
| Overall | #358 | 3.208 | 3.208 |
| Gameplay | #374 | 2.875 | 2.875 |
Ranked from 32 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What do you like about your game?
I really enjoyed making this weird world, inspired by Lovecraft's works. I think, I managed to capture the atmosphere..
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Lovely take on the theme! It took me a while to find the key-hole aberration, but once I did everything fell neatly into place! I especially liked the visuals in the portal dimension and the voice lines for the scared townsfolk.
I almost quit the game after just a few minutes because I wasn't sure what was going on or what I was supposed to do, but the pause menu revealed the objective. I think the text used in the pause menu would be better used as the text at the beginning that gives a bit of a tutorial, it felt like it gave a bit more clear direction. Regardless, this was fun to play! Great job!
Thank you!
I really love the atmosphere here, particularly the audio design. The NPC chatter really had me feeling like I was going insane and the sounds and look of the portal had a very pleasing otherworldly vibe that inspires me a lot!
It is a little hard to tell your orientation once you enter the portal, I ended up putting the pieces in backwards the first time but I got it eventually.
Thank you for playing! I plan to add a tower to one of the corners for easier orienting. That should help:)
wow, what a trip! you really were able to capture the abstract lovecraftian horror vibe really well! everything feels so uncanny, with just the right amount of unexplained weirdness to make the whole world feel unsettling! the 3D assets look really nice together, the materials of the environment sell the atmosphere of the game really well! the purple blobby background in the other dimension is so trippy and adds a layer of alienation to that whole realm, i love it! the characters look especially good, with really nice animations as well for different contexts! the sound design and voice acting feel like the cherry on top to add to the growing insanity that festers in the world of this game, really well done!
the game loop is pretty nice too! got a little lost at first trying to understand what to do, though i eventually got it and it was fun roaming around the village aberration hunting xd. i wish the notes that show up when you pause the game (press the escape key) was the one that appears in the beginning instead of the notes that were shown. although the beginning graphic shows the instructions on what to do, it missed some key information like to pay attention to the different shapes inside of the rooms and also what the controls are. also was unfortunately one of the ones who wasn't able to solve the puzzle. i checked multiple times to layout the pieces relative to where the gate was, but the puzzle wasn't solving for me (i also may just be missing something).
nonetheless, this was a really nice and eccentric world that you created! loved seeing how you portrayed the character's insanity! great work!
Thank you for playing an such a detailed feedback:) The note at the start does say to pay attention to the weird things, because it might be useful, but I agree, I should put controls there. Glad you liked it<3
Amizing Bro !!
Thanks for playing!
Hey cool game! Nice animation and character. The premise reminded me a bit of Alice Madness Returns. The unsettling music and mad npc chatter fit really well.
Thank you!
I liked the setting of the game, the simplicity yet the details of random people laughing, and creeyingly talking about being walls? - I loved it! The character model looks cool, and i know how tuff can it be to make a good character model! Everything is clear since the beginning so good on you! , I am a fan of puzzle games and I think it is pretty enjoyable I didnt knew wether the sanity thing could kill me or end my game. but it didn't. And i hoped it would. Either way! Well done!
Thanks for playing)) I contemplated adding the game over because of going insane, but didn't at this time. I will certainly add it to a more polished version.
I love this game! I love the art style, gameplay story :D
I love it great job and you should 100% be proud of what you made :D
Thank you very much:)
Very cool, managed to beat the game pretty fast. The atmosphere was really well done, I particularly like the shaking camera followed up by leaches. I'm not sure why people are having a problem finding the weirdest room, when I saw the room with three staircases that lead to a closed ceiling, I just assumed that was the weirdest room cause of how little the room made sense. All the others rooms looked normal compared to that so ya I don't get why people had trouble there. The last puzzle was pretty intuitive as well since the game explains to remember where the black symbols are. Overall this game was a pretty unique way to combine exploration and puzzle solving, good work!
Thank you very much! I am glad you liked the game. There are 3 variations of the weirdest room and one of them is just a room with missing colliders on furniture, so some players think I forgot, some don't really notice. I should have filled that room with furniture, so players wouldn't have a chance not to notice.
Really enjoyed the concept (I’m a sucker for cosmic horror).
I thought the way the player character would run differently based on sanity level was a nice touch. Also thought the art style was really good. The only thing I would have changed is something to make the “weirdest room” more clearly weird. I ended up going house to house just chanting.
Over all loved it though!
Thank you for playing! There are 3 versions of the weird room, you probably got the most inconspicuous:) I will change it later for the polished version.
Well that earns a follow. I’ll keep an eye out for when you release the polished version. I really like the concept and I feel like you can definitely expand from what you’ve built so far! Again, great job!
<3
Would have loved an option for mouse sensitivity as it was kinda fast for me! Otherwise I liked the other world through the portal and the player's character model. Most of the issues I had with the game were already discussed by others (e.g. not getting how to read the incantation, the vague "weirdest room" clue etc.), so I'll just say: good work!
Thank you for playing!
The monologues driving me crazy :D
Cool game!
Thank you for playing!
A nice concept, though the slow movement on the player made exploring the town a bit of a hassle, and the instruction of finding the weirdest room is a bit unspecific I couldn't figure out where I had to do the incantation, and the checking other houses took too time so I stopped there. The voice lines when insane are nice and changing things in the world, like the maggots, it's a nice touch.
Thank you for trying it. I need to figure out why it is so slow for others. Was quite fast on my machione and it's in the Fixed Update, so I am quite confused. Oh well, more learning:)
I love these exploration games with an emphasis on atmosphere, so this one is right up my alley! It took me a super long time to press Escape and see the menu teaching how to read the incantation and that I could hold F to make the maggots go away (which, by the way, they were tanking my FPS really bad). Once I got everything I still not managed to finish the game, I checked twice or thrice where the position of the pieces where (I thought I was meant to put them in the square they were found in the city, where the city gate meant the little gap in the puzzle square) but it didn't worked. I rotated everything and it still didn't worked. Oh well, these things happen I guess? But yeah, my main complaint would be how much the maggots were tanking performance, I don't know if they stop us from doing anything but I would make them go away everytime because of performance only. But I really liked everything else, the crazy villagers, the crow sounds, the look of the protagonist also makes me think of someone from a Lovecraft book, it's all pretty neat! I also liked how you made stuff like walls and furtniture transparent if they were in between the camera and the protagonist, nice touch!
Thank you for playing and detailed feedback!
I still don't know why the game doesn't accept the answer for some players. I will playtest it more after the jam to figure it out. You got everything right with the idea of tiles and the gate. I didn't know the maggots would kill fps for others. I keep forgetting I have quite a beefy PC. I think it's colliders which I had to make because of the way they are spawned. I will need to rework that.
I am glad you liked the game:)
Good Game Bro 🤍
Thanks for playing!
The puzzles are too hard for me, but I always love finding Lovecraftian games during game jams. Good game, overall.
Thank you for playing. It's not that much of a puzzle frankly. Just remembering 3 grid tiles and placing objects in the right tiles. I hope I was able to create lovecraftian atmosphere.
I like the way you presented the crazy feeling in the game and how it would increase over time, it worked really well - the main character was cool too.
I thought I'd put all the pieces in the right place, but it didn't complete the game. Wasn't sure which direction they fitted (i.e.. where is North in the world in relation to the grid) - so I just assumed the gap on the side of the grid was the same as where the door is in the real world...
Really enjoyed play that - the atmosphere was great! Nice job :)
Thank you for playing! You assumed right. Did you try going back through the portal and checking? Sometimes players isremember. I don't know for sure if it's a bug, a coding mistake or players just misplace items. So far it worked for me and my playtesters everytime.
Thanks for replying- I’m sure the game is fine, it’ll be something my side I reckon.
Now I know that the door is where the gap is, I’ll double check everything and play through it again - it’s great game, I enjoy it so I don’t mind at all 👍
Hi, really creepy game, it reflects the theme of the jam very well. Love the sound effects and the whole atmosphere you created, very liminal and dreamy, you nailed it in my opinion. I almost got stuck because of a grub that was blocking the stairs (I don't even know how hahahaha), but managed to free myself, so not that big of a deal. :33
Very well done and good luck with the jam! <3333
Thanks for trying the game! I really need to remove colissions from those:) Glad you made it to the end!
<333
The main character’s 3D model looks cool, and the tentacles that appear on the screen are also impressive, but the environments need some work. I spent WAY too much time looking for the ‘weirdest’ place. I started reciting the incantation in all the rooms, and it wasn’t until my second playthrough that I noticed something actually weird. The first time, the only odd thing was that the table didn’t have collision.
As advice, the idle pose of a character should consider the walking and running animations as well. Having the character cross her arms every time she stands still looks odd.
The ‘restore sanity’ mechanic wasn’t ‘annoying’ per se, but there is no actual reason to do it. At least it didn’t feel like there was a reason to do it. Also, it seems to occur at random. A cool idea would be to bring the hallucinations once you encounter the symbols and the portal. Also, you could do something like inverting the controls of the character as a way to experience madness through gameplay.
Also, all the worms have collision, which isn’t actually necessary in terms of gameplay. There isn’t really any necessary interaction with the worms. Removing the collision of those bugs will improve performance significantly. When the bugs appear, the FPS drops significantly.
The puzzle is simple but good enough. The main problem is that the game is short, and the clue for the ‘weirdest room’ is too vague. Also, the ending is underwhelming. A cool text explaining what happened next (classic Doom style) would have been a great idea to make the ending a little bit better.
The audio of the people in the town was a little bit annoying after a while, same with the crows. An environmental sound would have been way better. Also, I’m not familiar with the Flax Engine, but I bet there is an option to make the audio ‘3D’ so it’s only audible if you are near the audio source.
I wanted to make a ‘speedrun,’ for no reason really, and I noticed that the placing of the ‘signs’ was random each time. Things like that, which go the extra mile, clearly show the dedication to the craft of the developer. (Also, I noticed that after finding the portal, the R button doesn’t work. That’s also good attention to detail.)”
Regardless… I had fun. keep the good work!
Thank you for such detailed feedback! I agree, that the room without collision was a bad example of a weird room specifically because palyers might think it's a bug. The sanity does take a dive when the player is near an oddity or opens the portal. I was thinking about adding a game over if the player stays insane for too long, but was kinda talked out of it. I think I will add it later.
Inverting the controls is an awesome idea! I think I will add it as a final stage of madness. I will remove the colliders, but I will have to add the spawn places for worms then for each tile. Adding colliders was a fast and easy way to add the worms in the sky and let them fall all over the place, including inside second floor rooms. It was done at the end and I didn't have time to do it any other way. I didn't notice FPS drop, but I must admit, I keep forgetting, that my PC is quite powerful. Thank you for noting this.
The sound was 3D. I guess, there just was someone around constantly, so you didn't notice the difference. It is quite noticable in the headphones, you can hear where it comes from. Perhaps I should have lowered the radius.
Thank you again for everything mentioned! All points are valid and will help me improve the game. I want to use it as my little experimental project to practice polishing and adding juice.
Simple puzzle but looks like the the placements at end didn't register the solution as I tried every orientation based on the solution I found. Good job, weird indeed
Thank you for playing the game! The big gae is a hint that should help with orientation. I am not sure if it's a bug or maybe you mixed something up. I haven't been able to pinpoint when exactly the game doesn't accept a solution. So far all my playtesters managed to get the ending.
This game is pretty cool, it's really confusing at first until I pressed Esc to read the notebook, it would've been better if I knew about that earlier. Then I figured it all out and went into the portal, but I couldn't solve the puzzle, even though I tried everything. I went back and forth like 6 times and I thought I did it right but nothing seemed to change.
Thank you! Seems like I didn't fix the code in the end. I had 3 playtesters and they all managed to get to the end. The starting note als kinda tells you what to do, but I understand people don't read the introduction :) I will check the code once again.