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A Trick of the Mind's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Halloween Themed | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Voice Acting | #34 | 3.444 | 3.444 |
| Log Line | #36 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Sound Effects | #39 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Music | #53 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Game Page Design | #61 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Story | #65 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| User Interface Design | #71 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Overall | #76 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Game Graphic & Logo Design | #85 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Accessibility | #106 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Character Designs | #110 | 3.889 | 3.889 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Very creepy game that kept me on edge and on my toes. The premise was very unsettling, the minigames were engaging and the creatures frightening.
Well done!
Great title screen and opening music. The character arts are nice but the one frame of the blurred mouth during the speaking animation throws me off a bit, although maybe that's intentional. I found the speech audio to be a little irritating during the scenes with no background audio. Some of the audio is incredibly off balanced (reading the note on Carla's shelf in particular jumpscared me), but all of the music is very nice and appropriate to the scenes.
The minigames are fun and make nice interludes to the dialogs, I especially liked the last one. You may want to consider a motion sickness warning, as the 'water' scenes really got to me visually. Story wise it felt like the parents were the really horrifying thing about this situation. Overall, great tone, atmosphere, and pacing. Nice work!
Thanks for playing! Yeah, our team was lucky to have an amazing composer! The mouth thing is mostly a loading thing because our programmer created a lip sink program to fit with the text, so we have more movement. Originally we wanted voice acting, but we didn't manage with the time. Either way, appreciate the time and the kind words!
Firstly, I have to say that I love how Carla's room is basically my room xD Well, actually, Carla's room is better than mine cos there's more space to display stuff x3 and I'm totally not jealous of the chibi Billy doll T_T
I guess I should probably also mention that, as a player, I'm not a fan of minigames in VNs just because when I play a VN, I play it to read and I find it awkward to interact with elements that require pressing additional buttons besides advancing text x3
However, I do feel as though the minigames you guys have done fit really well with the project! And I actually found myself enjoying the duck shooting and the bubble collecting ones :D In fact, the entire water sequence was my favourite scene so far in general!
The only thing that stopped me from getting to the end was my own impatience x3 I hit the turn-based battle game, gave it a few minutes, and couldn't find a way to skip it or speed it up >.< I'm not super familiar with Ren'Py controls, so I might have missed a way to do it.
I was absolutely into the story though and intrigued to see what was going to happen in the end :3 It's just my patience when it comes to puzzles and minigames is practically non-existent x3 so I can only apologise for that!
I want to stress that's just down to my personal player preferences though! I actually think the entire concept is extremely cool :3 And the whole uncanny valley thing going on is genuinely unsettling, haha. I've never played anything quite like it before! I love that it's such an unnerving and whacky adventure :3
If you're wondering why I even decided to play it when it clearly mentions minigames, it's because it looked so good from the page, so I was willing to give it a go despite that <3
As the one that made the art for the game, I really appreciate the words and the effort you put in this comment and of course playing it, it's okay you didn't finish! Actually, the game ending is right after that last mini-game. We felt that making the mini-game and avoiding the anime style art would be better to avoid repetition of the same style games that everyone does.
Either way, really appreciate you!
Oh, man, knowing that I kinda wish I had just tried harder to be more patient x3 Maybe I’ll come back to it when I have more time so I can actually see what ending I end up with!
I definitely think it’s cool that you used a completely different style :3 While I do love the anime style of art that you often get in visual novels, I also really enjoy seeing different art styles in games in general, so this one was very refreshing :D
The minigames here were really fun! The last one in particular was really unique, I paused in eating my lunch to give it my full attention haha. Excellent job setting up the spooky atmosphere - the art, music, and faux voice acting all built it up.
Potentially a small bug report? I waited to attack the monster when I first had the choice, and the next time the only available choice was to attack, so I did, but when I did so I got the achievement for attacking as soon as possible.
I am so so so curious about the ending that I didn't manage to get but I'm a horror wimp haha;;; and this game is frightening enough that I'm not quite sure I'm ready to play it again LMAOO. If I feel braver I'll come back to this one though!(Going to repost this comment on the game page to help with visibility ^^)
The story really surprised me at every turn and I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next. Great job on the writing.
Thank you so much!
love it
Thank you <3
I think the mini-games that matched the story were especially cool. It was fascinating.
Thank you <3