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A jam submission

An AberrationView game page

Short horror game with thrilling narrative and unexpected plot twists
Submitted by Phenyq — 1 hour, 38 minutes before the deadline
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An Aberration's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation#7502.0872.800
Gameplay#7851.6402.200
Overall#8001.7892.400
Originality#8561.6402.200

Ranked from 5 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?
Well, this is my first finished project, I kinda liked that I finished it in time

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Comments

Submitted

In principle, I don't mind tackling sensitive subjects like sexual assault, but it wasn't handled with subtlety here, and I don't think it was a good fit for a game jam. I found the ending predictable and overexplained. I think the atmosphere worked well!

Developer (4 edits) (+1)

Thanks for playing and leaving a review. When the jam will be over (And I will be able to edit the game), I will delete all the mentions of sexual abuse. It's not that this is important for the story.

SPOILER ALERT
Narration in the end is mocking the fact that ending is predictable.

For me this game is just a proof that I can make somewhat functional little game

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I was paranoid of getting hit with a jumpscare as I was playing and I'm kinda glad that didin't happen lol. The tension is build pretty well with the atmosphere, in particular the lost dog posts are a nice touch and definitely sell the creepiness of the whole thing. The red key took me the longest to find, other keys I was able to find relatively quick. Well done overall!

Developer

Thank you for playing my game :3

Submitted(+1)

I enjoyed your game. When searching for the third key I already had a hunch what might be behind the door. ^^ And I was proven right. But great execution on that.
Liked:
- Atmosphere was great (Sound nice, Movement sluggish = perfect, Light, Cramped space)
- Changing environment (texts appearing later)
- The notes and placement of notes in areas that can only be seen on the way back (or placed close to ceiling)

Could be improved:
- The maze: It is nice for it's atmosphere. But problematic for the gameplay. At some point it is very likely that you are just stumbling randomly around (which if you wanted that effect is nice)  searching for the keys. Your placed markers were great for finding the "main way" to the door. But nothing similar exists for the keys. For me it was just applying brute force to all possible ways.
- Static atmosphere: If someone is subjected to certain stimuli like Sound, Light, Environment no matter how scary they are. With time the person will get used to it. This happend with me too.  Nothing changes, everything stays the same and you lose the feeling of danger (like slowly checking each corner). Which just breaks the atmosphere.
To improve this you need to change the tension over time. This is already done when having all keys and opening the door. But never anywhere else.
One could introduce flickering of light, reduce light in certain areas, sound that get louder the closer you get to a certain area and then abruptly stops, rising water maybe (would add time pressure too)
- Narration: I like the reveal behind the door. But the narration completely ruined it. The player is not stupid (most of the time :D) Let him come to his own conclusions. I don't need extra narration about poster and notes. Because the notes already give me all the context and content that I need. It felt out of place in this game and felt more like a friend making jokes while I play the game than anything else.

The could be improved part is longer because the good stuff doesn't need much explanation in my opinion. I just wanted to point that out, because what you have is already great. 

Cheers <3

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for the review, it's really helpful. I would love to implement mechanics that you described, maybe in the sequel/remake. But this time I was very limited in time, especially since I joined the game jam when half of the allotted time had already passed. I'm glad that I whas able to finish everything and fix obvious bugs. Once again, thank you :з

Submitted(+1)

The tension was well maintained! I liked your idea with the notes and the missing dogs, unfortunately I couldn’t find the third key, there aren’t enough landmarks in the maze. It occurred to me that it would be possible to make some kind of sound from afar, which would help you go to objects. Please write what’s behind the door, it’s interesting now :)

Developer (2 edits)

Unfortunately, I can’t write what’s behind the door, it would be a huge spoiler :)

What specific key you can't find? Initially, I wanted to make it so that the branches with keys would be indicated by notes, which could be seen directly from the main path (the one with the arrows), but it was too simple, so I hid them a little. In general, if you found a note, then you are on the right track (Posters about missing dogs do not count!). If you are completely lost in the maze, you can go along the left wall - it always works.

Thanks for playing, I appreciate it!