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A jam submission

Echoes From WillowbrookView game page

Survive and escape a sinister farmstead in Echoes From Willowbrook, a physics-driven horror game.
Submitted by Griggy (@griggy_games)
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Echoes From Willowbrook's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Audio#34.0634.063
Overall#54.0634.063
Fun Factor#63.9383.938
Visuals#74.2504.250
Originality#123.8753.875

Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Is your game a video game or a physical game?
Video Game

Was your game made solo or in a team?
Alex Lazea - Programming, Design, Art; Cory Sowick - Game Design, Level Design, Writing; Shirley He - Sound Designer; Russell Lim - Audio Lead / Technical Sound Designer; Edwin Zachman - Music Composer; Samantha Scardino - Voice Actress

Did you use any third party assets, if yes what assets did you use?
NA

Did you choose from one (or more) of the optional secondary themes?
NA

Does your game contain 18+ content (Nudity, Gore, Language)?
No

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

This is very impressive! I love all the different items and the durability forced me try so many different ones out. I love the visual style and all of the polish it had. Well done!

Submitted(+1)

Awesome improvisational weapon system. At first I thought the durability on the weapons was a bit low, but I actually had a lot of running around, throwing all sorts of things at the zombies. Would love to see more variety in usage beyond heavy/light-weapons, like unique attacks or defense options.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing!

We planned to have blocking. Actually half of the blocking mechanic was implemented but due to time constraints we had to scrap it cause it would have taken too long to design for. But yeah, would be cool to have different attack sets per prop type and even have large props break into smaller props that you can pick up.

Submitted(+1)

The game is great with so many things to pick up and fight with. Visuals are great and the sound design is also awesome. The game was very scary when I played with my fiance and her friend, they screamed a lot and had a lot of anxiety :^)

One point that was not entirely clear is the purpose of going back and forth, it was not entirely clear what we are looking for. Also, on the game design note, a theme with keys and doors can be a little bit daunting to complete and probably it could use less of this.

Thank you for this amazing game, we had a very exciting experience!

Submitted(+1)

Very atmospheric! I loved both the visuals and ths sounds. The physics were implemented nicely and the improvized weapons felt like they had some heft to them.

HostSubmitted(+3)

The systems are terrific, I loved the variety and the physics were flawless. Something that should break very easily didn't, which is an achievement in itself. Great atmosphere and voice acting too!

Developer(+2)

Thanks for the positive feedback. Yes the physics took... some time to get under control haha.

Submitted(+3)

The atmosphere, the graphics, the zombie combat, man it was all really well done! I have to say the progression felt very natural, finding the keys was intuitive to me, I just had a feeling were the next one would be. The mechanics were solid and responsive, the audio was excellent and atmospheric. 

The only thing I found a bit tedious was the zombie fights near the end, it felt like they were being thrown in just to make it more difficult but it made it feel like it was unnatural if that makes sense, also a bit of variation in the zombies would have helped, maybe some little ones that are fast and a boss one that is just a tad bigger with red eyes and more health would have made a big difference. 

The end was also a little anticlimactic I was expecting some kind of eldritch horror by the end but overall great job everyone, it was a fantastic and polished experience, one of my faves! 

I share this critique because I loved the game so much, and as a dev I always feel a bit constructive criticism pushes my games even further.

 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing and no need to apologise cause the critique is welcomed and I agree with it. There were some story beats meant to help explain the anticlimactic ending but we ran out of time implementing them. Hopefully I can update this after voting is done and the ending will have a bit more impact? To be seen. And yes the enemy variety is low and possibly hurt more by the increase in their numbers near the end. Hopefully more variety will make them more worth while.

Submitted(+2)

Really loved the weapon mechanics, being able to improvise any weapon really added a sense of progression. My one issue is that I got lost after finding a key in the corn maze I never found what it goes to. I tried the barn and the back door on the house but neither seemed to work. I also had to restart the game when I first played it I couldn't pick up the first health pack no matter how much I spammed E.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing. That was the exact intention behind the props so I'm glad it worked out.

After the corn maze you are meant to go back inside the house. There were a few more doors there. We wanted to inform the player somehow about where the key leads to but ran out of time. A quality of life improvement to come.

Was the first health pack at the car right when you start or inside the house? Very odd, I never seen the packs not work. The prompt will tell you if your health is full so maybe you werent hurt?

Submitted(+1)

at the car at the very start, I wasn't able to move and couldn't grab it

Developer

Ah yeah thats a unity input system issue I have ran into many times tho it usually happens in the editor. Thankfully restarting does the trick lol.

Submitted(+2)

The visuals are great and the sound design is very atmospheric. The object system makes the gameplay feel really dynamic. For me the movement felt a bit sluggish, but I understand it's to make combat more tense. The wall of tutorials in the game page scared me more than the game itself, but I think the game teaches all that is needed within gameplay. Fantastic work!

Developer(+1)

Thanks! Yes we put a lot of effort into the opening being very educational for the player. Interesting tho, we did not consider the game page being over bearing. Wonder if shorter sentences placed as text in the screenshots would make it more digestible.

Submitted(+1)

Shorter sentences would definately help, but in my opinion the game teaches the mechanics very well organically. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Atleast the tutorial in the game page is a good backup if players won't understand the mechanics.

Submitted(+2)

So cool graphics! The visual look of this game is so vibey! Nice with some dialogue also although I'd been great if it had continued a bit longer in the game. Also, the barrels and keys need different layers/tags.. I picked up lots of barrels until I could get to the key 馃榿I think a health bar would be useful also. Now I wasn't sure if I should pick up all med packs or leave them for later. Maybe use the heartbeat again to indicate failing health.. 

Developer(+1)

We were trying to avoid UI as much as possible but yes health is tricky to convey. Given more time we would have added a red vignette when closer to death. The more red the lower your health kind of thing. Will experiment with some solutions. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

Hey a fellow "Echoes" game, nice! Really liked the ability to pick up and use any object for combat, and that they all had different values for breaking. Game design was pretty good as there was generally always an object or two nearby an enemy for when your current one broke, so I really liked that. The ability to throw things was cool too, definitely killed off at least a few of them by tossing little jars at their head! That said, I kind of feel like the throw mechanic could be polished up a bit as sometimes it felt like there was some input lag or things didn't go as far/fast as you felt they would. Visuals were nice and hit that retro-pc vibe quite well! Audio was well done too! Although there was one part in the corn maze where it sounded like I was walking on metal for some reason, not sure what that was all about haha. Nice entry though! I managed to make my way to the end and see the light at the end of the tunnel :)

Developer

Thanks for playing! Glad to hear you made it to the end. Yes the throwing is a bit off but should be more improved in the future. Larger objects like chairs arent ment to go far but maybe a bit more speed wouldn't hurt.

As for the input lag, you are meant to hold F so maybe thats why it feels like lag. I think we can remap throw to right click and leave F for dropping props.

Excited to try out all the "Echoes" games :)

Submitted(+2)

Pretty fun horror game, didn't finish it because i died in the corn maze

(+2)

Thanks so much for playing! We wanted to implement a checkpoint system but sadly ran out of time.

Developer

Yeah I think a checkpoint system is the next top priority feature. Would that count as a bug fix? Lol. Now with that implemented I think I will still allow the players to disable it for a permadeath mode.