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A jam submission

Morgan and Alex's Dark Home DinnerView game page

A twine game about cleaning a haunted mansion
Submitted by PianoRose — 3 minutes, 42 seconds before the deadline
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Morgan and Alex's Dark Home Dinner's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Usage of Theme#103.0573.222
Gameplay/Usage of the medium#103.2683.444
Overall#132.8723.028
Story & Plot#152.9513.111
UI Design#172.2142.333

Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team Members
Rose Everett

Program
Twine

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Comments

Submitted

i got so hopelessly lost xD the game was pretty fun despite that. i loved the writing and how unbothered it was, and the whole premise was great. thank you for sharing!

Submitted

This was fun! 

I hated Alex with a passion for inviting people out and not helping at all with the house. Like, who does that??? Aside from one of the endings, I was happy with how the game ended, because I could not stand her. I am still not sure why she was locking herself in the cellar for her little project. I think I have an idea about it, but it could have been neat to have some hints scattered in the room (or did I miss it?).

I don't know how someone can carry soooo much stuff (liked the little nod at that btw) and I am still not sure if I put the laundry away... (could you do that?).

It was nice to have some sort of map at the top of the page (though I still manage to get lost at the end). I got really confused about where rooms were (maybe an image map could have helped?) but I liked that the MC didn't seem to remember where things were and had to look around the house to find them. I also agree that not having a checklist (mentioned by Sherlock Homeslice) really put the game into a real situation, where you feel the dread and anxiety for being overwhelmed with things around you.

Some other points:

  • I wasn't sure why I got a Skip button (did I manage to clean the house?)
  • Like yousayrandy said, a progress bar would have been helpful in any case (or maybe some passages throughout the story mentioning how clean the house is/whether this affects the MC's mind/thoughts
  • Would have liked the option of arguing more with Alex about leaving you to do all of this
  • For the closet, I saw the colour change from green to black, which leaves a huge block of nothing in the middle of the page. Maybe it would have been better to have the paragraph hidden instead of the colour changing?

Neat! Makes me appreciate my partner more for cleaning around and having clear communication with me :P

Submitted

It's kind of a labyrinth of a game, where it's very easy to lose your way.  I had no idea what was going on, but I still had fun.

I'm convinced that our protagonist is part spider, carrying a small menagerie of items in their 8 arms to clean a home that would probably be condemned if someone got peeved enough to call Code Enforcement.

This game was thrilling for me. The threat of tidying a hopelessly unkempt home under a nebulous time constraint spurred me along with purpose, one that kept me checking for some unseen timer as I devoured the descriptions of the home and its inhabitants. I adored the writing, and even though I revisited many rooms several times because I couldn't see the map without tabbing out, I was always happy to reread the descriptions of the home. The extended metaphors are present in every room's description, and added to my growing dread (and glee) as I explored the home, gathering what I could to apply it where it was needed. I didn't feel like I was just throwing items at locations and hoping they'd stick; the absence of a Checklist meant that I was in the same shoes as the protagonist, desperately trying to remember what I needed to do before I ran out of time.

I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches, which may have been luck on my part. The ambiguity of certain elements, like time, added to the atmosphere. The addition of a map display and - optional - a checklist to toggle would help, though I realize it's from the time constraint. Overall, this was a great way to spend a half hour.

Submitted

This is the most "fun" I've had "playing" a "game" during this jam so far. 

Pros: I really liked the structure. You made cleaning up a house fun, and it actually gave me the satisfaction of solving a puzzle when I found an item, took it to a spot where it needed it, and fixed or cleaned it using that item. The writing, especially the dialogue, is pretty good. As someone that's married, I got a feel of authenticity between the couple, and in a few short lines I felt like I got a good sense of who they were. The interface, considering the text-based nature, is actually pretty good, and I found myself feeling like I was exploring a house. The language you used to describe each area helped with that sense of place, and I liked the self awareness -- such as pointing out that you're carrying way too many items.

Cons: The major issue is I ran into an error screen when I tried to "unlock" doors. I couldn't get it to go away, and it took up enough of the screen where I couldn't really see anything anymore. As a result, I didn't get past the cleaning up stage. In addition, I found myself getting lost a little bit -- both in terms of which areas connected to which, and which items I was carrying. Some kind of "status" and/or "progress" screen might be extremely helpful in that area. In terms of the error, that's obviously not intentional, so I won't hold that against you. It's just the nature of a game jam. Also, for it being very gameplay focused, a better introduction/tutorial would have been beneficial. Finally, I would make sure the explicit content came after the content warning, not used as an example of it before you can turn it off.

High marks for being a "game" above all else. It was very refreshing. Awesome job.