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| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #5 | 4.291 | 4.500 |
| Story | #5 | 4.386 | 4.600 |
| Theme | #7 | 4.005 | 4.200 |
| Presentation | #7 | 4.481 | 4.700 |
| Horror | #7 | 3.623 | 3.800 |
| Overall | #9 | 4.036 | 4.233 |
| Gameplay | #13 | 3.432 | 3.600 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How did you choose to implement the Theme: Dark Streets in your game?
I used the nocturnal environment of the town to build up the atmosphere of main scenes and a sense of discomfort.
Did you implement any of the optional Bonus Challenges, and if so, which ones?
Yes, I did. I chose Urban Horror and Serve And Protext as bonus challenges.
Did you create your game in RPG Maker?
Yes
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Comments
Upsetting (in a good way) story, considering we know more than main character.
It was already possible to see a theme of reality restoring itself, but after update it’s now very clear. To be fair, I was also reading some discussions after playing the first time, but I don’t think it would matter in second playthrough that much.
And Claudio is good at being annoying.
It’s nice to have a checkpoint. There’s barely any gameplay but the story-focused game doesn’t need more.
Interesting presentation as 3 monitors (?). Also nice color theme and graphics.
Music combined with a red screen feels weird, considering the tone of what’s happening, but it fits and makes engaging with story even better.
Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked all the aspects of the game you mentioned. I want to thank you especially for providing a feedback about 1.02.
I wasn't sure if the changes of that build were enough to clarify the story and the antagonist, but after reading your review I was relieved.
Technically, there are 5 monitors if you include the text box and the mini-screen for the character's names.
I had a lot of fun designing that UI.
Really cool, wildly original. I feel so confused and emotional haha. It was so eerie!!!
First off, I used to work nights and you captured so many small details of that life really well. Especially right near the beginning, describing how jarring and weird the busy world looks when you're SO used to dark and empty streets. I've never heard someone put that into words before, really cool.
The perspective aspect was really different and really cool. I liked that it kind of felt like... How do I put this, in the his mind he's in "work mode" almost all of the time?? Like, even when at home and going about tasks he's thinking of tasks in a "work mode" kind of way. And that felt so real!!!! TOO real haha.
*Spoilers*
I really liked Mike! I'm bad at names so the fact I remember his name speaks to how nice and real he seemed. When the Red Text talked about him reaching for the gun under the counter my heart sank. In a wild way, I was almost disappointed that the game didn't end with the funeral speech. Not that the rest wasn't interesting, but the game has that "narrator" tone to it and it would have been a really gratifying explanation for why we the audience is being "told" this story.
I didn't fully understand the anomaly part of the game, like I'm not sure at all what the Red Text was and what it meant. Was it real? was it not? I don't think it was the main character the whole time. ONLY based on the game description on the game page did I pick up that there was some kind of anomaly and resetting happening? I remember the top right screen saying different chapter numbers but... I don't know maybe it's just me but I felt like it never clicked that things were being "reset" in any way with the chapters. I assumed really I was misunderstanding what chapters meant in the context of the game, or it had something to do with the POV of the cameras.
But I don't think "Getting" the anomalies or what was going on was super important to the plot. I felt emotionally attached to the characters, the people of the town and the growth arc of the main character. I get the struggle of sleeping all day and feeling like life is flying past you because of your sleep schedule.
Wild to pull this off with VX Ace. Love that engine. The way the screens moved and loaded in looked SO cool. I liked that the vhs type filter distortion was only on one part of the screen, that can get really overwhelming on some ppls projects. Not a lot of gameplay, per se, but it was a really great story!!
Thank you for the kind words.
I’m glad you enjoyed the characters and the presentation of the UI.
Making this game on this specific engine was very fun and challenging.
Speaking of the “CH”, that doesn’t stand for “Chapters” but for “Channels”.
They’re there purely for aesthetic purposes, much like the VHS filter.
I thought they worked well together visually, so I chose that design.
The “Channels” are also associated with the backgrounds and their names (e.g., Town - CH1). When a specific background is reused, the corresponding “CH” is also reused.
I would like to clarify some aspects of the story to give you a better idea of what I was aiming for, especially with the antagonist.
Since I was more subtle with the storytelling and created an antagonist with a sneaky gimmick, I anticipated that the story wouldn’t be fully understood after just one playthrough.
But that’s for the SPOILER section below.”
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
SPOILER
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Let's talk about your confusion about the reliability of the events.
A funny theme that recurs throughout the story is that “everything was real until it wasn't”.
And you have to thank the antagonist for that.
The antagonist is the anomaly mentioned in the description, and they're also the creep mentioned by Mrs. Red.
Their capacities are mostly hinted at through the narrative, and the same for the motives behind their actions.
But the most explicit hint is what Maria says to Merlo at the end of their conversation.
“What I'm trying to say is to be responsible about your actions.”
“You can't erase them from this reality to get away from your mistakes.”
“This reality won't fix itself around your doings like you were its mama's boy.”
And also some stuff that the anomaly says to Merlo, Mike, and Mrs. Red during their conversations.
ANOMALY with MRS. RED:
“NO, PLEASE.”
“CALL THE THE POLICE AS YOU PLANNED TO.”
“TAKE YOUR TIME.”
This is said after the scene where she's calling the police.
ANOMALY with MIKE:
“HELLO, ASSISTANT MANAGER!”
“I'M GLAD YOU LEFT THE OFFICE OPEN.”
“I GUESS YOU DIDN'T HAVE ANY REASON TO CLOSE IT THIS TIME.”
This is said after the scene where Mike explicitely said that he locked it.
ANOMALY with MERLO:
“OH COME ON, DON'T BE SILLY.”
“JUST OPEN IT ALREADY.”
“YOU'RE GOING TO COME OUT ANYWAY.”
“YOU DON'T WANT TO BE LATE AT WORK, DON'T YOU?”
Despite experiencing this interaction while being in a paranoid mood, Merlo ends up exiting from his apartment with the safety on his service weapon.
As if this interaction never happened, leading him to his death.
Yeah, that “THE END” at the end was the antagonist pulling a gotcha moment in the same way they did with Mike.
What I'm trying to say here is that the anomaly, the serial killer, is a reality eraser.
The narrative would continue to act as if they never existed (including their actions) except for one thing.
A side effect of their capacities is that if they kill someone and reset the reality, the victim will die anyway but for a heart attack instead.
This is the same side effect mentioned in his final monologue with Merlo.
The same that they end up exploiting to create a spectacle of paranoia in the town.
A paranoia that gets built up more directly through Merlo after the funeral section.
That section along with Merlo's character arc was used to build up also the motives of the antagonist by making a parallel to the protagonist.
ANOMALY with MERLO:
“I KNOW THAT SOME RUMORS HAVE BEEN STARTING TO CIRCULATE IN TOWN.”
“I DON'T BLAME YOU FOR BEING PARANOID, TO BE HONEST.”
“PARANOIA CAN BE INTOXICATING FOR SOME...”
“...BUT IT CAN BE QUITE FASCINATING FOR OTHERS.”
“SEEING IT SLOWLY GROW AND ITS EFFECTS IS ENTERTAINING AS HELL.”
“ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE NOT AT THE CENTER OF STORM.”
“KIND OF...”
“EXPLOITING THE DOWN SIDES OF YOUR CAPABILITIES IS ALSO QUITE INTRIGUING.”
“NORMALLY, I WOULDN'T DO THAT, BUT I GOT TIRED OF THIS REALITY.”
“SO I WANT TO HAVE FUN AND DEVIATE FROM ITS STRAIGHT PATH UNTIL THE END.”
“DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT?”
“I HOPE SO.”
If you remember the section post-funeral, Merlo had similar thoughts that were built-up by the character arc he went through until that moment.
You could say that the anomaly is Merlo if, one night, woke up and decided to be a little bit silly from now on.
All of this after going through an experience similar to Merlo's.
The reality tends to be erased also when the “point of the time NOT FOUND” doesn't appear. But that's because it doesn't happen in real-time but during time skips (but also because if I added that screen transition more than three times, I would have impacted the flow of the narrative negatively).
EXAMPLES:
1) Claudio and Merlo arrive at Veri's.
MERLO's narration:
“Veri's store was at the center of the town, so it didn't take us long to get there.”
“The parking lot was almost empty at that moment.”
“The only car outside of ours that was there was an old red one.”
The same old red car that the antagonist used to follow Mrs. Red to her house.
The killer was there to inspect the place in the same way the thieves did during the previous nights.
2) Claudio and Merlo leave after taking the thief into custody.
MERLO's narration:
“And that's what we did.”
“We left the parking lot empty just like how it was when we arrived there.
3) MERLO's narration post-funeral:
“I even tried to go out for a walk to keep my mind occupied.”
“It felt nice for a while but then the thoughts about the recent events decided to come back.”
“Especially the ones related to the rumors.”
“These made me so paranoid that I ended up running while going back to my apartment.”
“A few days ago, I even had the impression that I was being followed while patrolling.”
This is the general idea of what I was going for.
Thank you for reading this far.
PS: I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you on Lantern. Out of all the games in the jam, it was the one with the best presentation and I really enjoyed it.
can't say i understood the story, but i really like the presentation, very creative. Though the game is pretty small, I'd suggest to add a save option.
I see. I can try adding some check points in certain parts of the game then. If I manage to make it work I'm going to release an update. Thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate It.