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Haunted and Hallowed's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Overall fun and playability | #63 | 3.047 | 3.357 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme incorporation
You explore Ancient Ruins with ancient relics and ghosts of the past.
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Comments
Really like the atmosphere in this one! Sounds are great, love the reverb on the footsteps indoors.
Having a button for each hand is clever. The dynamic lights on the enemies are also smart, though often you do have to tank a hit or two.
I ended up in the area past the sand with the big pit with a spare key but no idea where to go, eventually losing to the gradual health loss. Pretty tough when you're bad at navigation, and it maybe felt a little too dark to see walkable ground?
It seemed like ghosts can damage you even though they're looking away from you which felt a little unfair?
Still great overall, amazing for 1 week!
This is yet another case of a game that looks great, has an awesome concept and clearly had a lot of polish put into it. But I never got past the first couple areas because it's just too difficult.
The movement was a bit too slow, which led to a lot of getting corned by multiple ghosts. I also didn't notice the ability to strafe until I re-read the game page, d'oh!
The ghosts are nice and creepy, I really like the design and glowing aura they have. But they're everywhere, and impossible to kill so I found they made navigation difficult. I actually thought I could eliminate the ghosts if I filled in their respective coffin, but no such luck. I often found myself going the wrong direction or not able to find a doorway I had just seen. Probably the combination of darkness, similar looking walls, and avoiding ghosts was what frustrated me on this front.
I wish I could've gotten farther, the other areas hinted in that first little outcropping to pick up the first key look interesting. But sadly after 15 minutes of no progress I jsut had to throw in the towel.
I think the game is well made, it's just being stymied by its difficulty. Overall though it is impressive, good work!
"The remains have been replaced, coffins filled."
The ghosts would not let me map the game in peace but I did it anyway ;).
The game is very fun. It looks great, controls alright, I like two hands = two items at a time, it fits well with the amount and types of items of the game, it never gets annoying and is just interesting to plan the kind of one right route. Bruteforcing through some ghosts is sometimes the right solution at the moment, as trying to flee, get back then get hit further away from where you want to go (and you might get hit twice too) won't be better, and I don't mind that at all, this is some cool quick decision to make and somehow adds to the sanity/pill management. The dungeon layout is great, it's not a long corridor, it's open and you get to discover the (an?) actual good route with successive playthroughs. Finally the game features just the right length and difficulty to my taste which greatly contributes to the fun to me.
I hated that you cannot pick items while the crucifix effect is active, and the game might play a bit slower that I truly like. Finally the intro is very long when you're restarting, you should be able to skip it.
This is a great entry, thanks for sharing.
Great atmosphere and graphics, I kinda felt like I was playing the ruins level in Undying. The quest for remains and putting them back into coffins was also nice, as was the limited inventory and "timed" sanity, imprinting you with a sense of urgency.
That said, as others have commented, the movement was a bit too slow and the ghosts too unforgiving with boxing you in. I guess either of those wouldn't have been so problematic had I been able to pick up stuff while the crucifix was burning, but I ended up wasting a lot of time standing in front of keys I wanted to pick up, waiting for my valuable buff to expire.
A bit of polish in those areas and this would be really awesome.
I think places where ghosts patrol are a bit too tiny to try and avoid them for the most part. And mechanic is a bit too punishing. They patrol around enterances and 'hit' you in a cell next to you.
As an example imagine door exit in the corridor 3 cells wide and deep. Mob goes left to right two cells away from door. My plan is to exit as soon as it moves (his movement stops in front of the door two cells away), turn left and move left. This way you have chance to dodge its movement, since it still looks right and next cell from you. It feels like this will work - they have pattern of how they move and it time based. But as soon as you exit door - you instantly stun that ghost and get mental penalty.
Problem is that it prevents you from moving out with no damage in that example... but those kind of dances is what i had through the whole game. I didnt manage to beat it - I only managed to put one remains to rest...
I would also imagine that by returning remains you would decrease amount of ghosts around that place, but not much happened I think? Felt like it didn't do anything at least. Game became harder due to me lacking medicine that I already picked up and ghosts being in all places around me. Also cross... it so situational, yet having it on you feels really bad most of the time..
I love the idea, though I wish more of positional dance could be possible. Or maybe I just didn't get movements right :)
This game must have the best lighting effects of the whole jam, very beautiful. The rest of the textures, models etc. are great too, as is the sound. The gameplay is pretty hard, as the movement speed is a bit too slow for my liking and there are just too many enemies. Being able to only hold two items does not make things easier. But I know, it is a hard thing to balance such things. Make it to forgiving and the horror does not work anymore and I think you almost got it right, so you are for sure on the right track. Very good entry!
Really liked this one! The art style and sound design are great. I really liked how the ghosts cast light in front of them so you can anticipate their next move and attempt to avoid them accordingly. The atmosphere and sound effects were top notch and really complimented the spooky vibe. This is the kind of game I that would have given me nightmares as a kid...
With only two inventory slots, being able to put items back on the pedestals was a nice addition too, and allowed me to quickly heal when in a tight spot. I think the slow movement and PS1 aesthetics helped with the surival horror vibes, but movement was slightly too slow for me, and avoiding those ghosts was sometimes impossble. My entry is guilty of this too, but I would have loved a map to avoid getting lost!
But overall a really solid entry with awesome visuals, horror vibes and excellent sound design!
Thanks for the kind words! I understand it’s a little slow. With a dungeon crawler, you have pretty clunky/limited movement in general so it’s difficult to balance movement and turn speeds. At least the lack of control makes the encounters scarier. That horror vibe was very important to us.
Great game for the most part, it's just ever-so-sightly slightly too hard for me.
The general idea of exploring and finding all the bits you need for the exorcism, and relying on sound and the light being cast from the ghosts is cool.
But even if I was careful:
-Too many choke points.
-Just bad luck getting pincered.
-Not quite enough health to survive all 4 sections.
-If you take too slow an approach to wait for openings you'll lose too much health too.
-Not being able to strafe combined with enemies just having to look at you made escaping pursuit too punishing.
-Not being able to pick up new items while using the crucifix (which makes sense in context, but it means using it isn't the Hail Mary it should be.)
-Also, while it probably makes sense for the methodical gameplay and balancing, it's still kinda irritating how slow you move. Maybe it wouldn't be if it wasn't for the other stuff.
I enjoyed it, and I still wanna beat it, but I suspect it's a bit harder than intended since you can beat it just fine... eh... I'll give it another go.
EDIT: I beat it. I'm god now.
(I'll post my recordings when they're up.)
Thanks for the feedback! I also had difficulty beating the game.. It's not on you. Also I forgot to say in the description that you strafe while holding shift. That makes thinks a bit easier.
Damn, I should have tried that. It's how strafing works in my game too.
Anyways, here's the playthrough: Haunted and Hallowed Pt1 by MScull
I had quite a lot of footage, so the first part is my initial playthrough, and the third is my final.
The middle one is all the other attempts sped up with some music. I didn't wanna upload it all in full, but I thought you might wanna see the evolution of all the routes I took. Maybe too fast, but it should be readable at half speed.
Nice game with an eerie feeling. I would prefer to have Space as interact, Z is a bit awkward for me. Maybe a bit small tiles. I liked the ghosts and the sanity running out. The one item system makes it a bit running back and forth, which would be ok if the movement was a bit faster.
Overall A very good game!
Hey,
cool game. The Enemies with there sound and lighting were my favorite. Also liked the pure keyboard controls. The Gameplay is not fully my cup of tea, but I appreciate the work and it is nicely polished. Well done.
That was downright scary, lol. Well done on the atmosphere!
Really enjoyed this! The enemies are tough to avoid but it seems well put together. Nice job!