I love this.

If I could sum up my feelings about this in one word, it would be "potential".

I love a good little walk around a spooky house, and to its credit, while I wouldn't necessarily call this house "spooky", it definitely feels lived in, giving it a sense of authenticity that, were it peppered with more scares throughout, would make for a legitimately scary experience. 

That is probably the key issue I had with the experience, there really is no sense of tension until the very end. Yes, it's mysterious that a vhs tape suddenly appeared on the doorstep, but it doesn't necessarily invoke a sense of dread that whatever left it there is somehow malevolent. Looking out the windows, I expected to catch a glimpse of something menacing, something that would give me the sense that danger lurked just outside of the house, but all I saw was the empty garden. Building tension and establishing a sense of impending threat early on is really important to this sort of game, but having just the one instance of something peeking around a corner at the very end (which can be missed if you accidentally walk into the good ending like I did) left me feeling more confused than frightened.

It also didn't help that, in my playthrough, the television didn't display anything when I put the tape in, leaving me confused until I checked the YT channel and saw what it was supposed to say. I think delivering a message like that, which provided context for why I should be afraid, would have been much more effective at the beginning, as by the time it happens in the basement, the game is almost over.

One thing that I did like was the monster design, simple but effectively creepy at a glance which helped the one instant of it appearing around the corner really land as a scary moment. If it had had more chances to appear, this would have worked immensely in its favor, so that aspect was definitely not lacking.

What I see here is a good grasp of visual design and aesthetics, a believable house, a spooky monster, but what needs improvement is how the experience is constructed. Taking time to really consider what elements of horror games make them work beyond just visuals, focusing on how they establish stakes and build tension, even across a very short runtime, could really elevate any future projects because the passion and potential are definitely evident, and I'm curious to see what more time and experience may lead to.