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DARK SIDE's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| How would you rate this game? | #6 | 3.933 | 3.933 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Who is on your team or helped with your game?
Amby
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Comments
This game dares to ask the bold question:
"What if Iron Lung was more tedious and followed every single analog horror cliché to the T?"
Really, that says it all. Depending on your inclination, that's either a huge positive or a huge negative. You can probably guess where I stand on the issue, but I'll elaborate anyway.
To me, it will never stop being funny how these ostensibly "professional" agencies constantly pepper their official records with basic grammatical and spelling errors (nothing screams "I work for NASA" quite like prose that could've been penned by a high-schooler).
Or how they will record tapes full of extremely obvious, suspicious alien activity and then do the most unconvincing "everything is fine" act imaginable. Seriously, this has been bothering me for ages, because folks, that's not how secrecy works! Either these tapes are intended for those who are privy to them, in which case there's no point in hiding or downplaying anything, or they're intended to reassure the general public, in which case they would never be published due to the highly sensitive information they contain. Confidential materials cannot be tailor-made for an audience of laypeople; it's an oxymoron. So yeah, SEIA's messages in this game are comically nonsensical.
But of course, nobody gives a hoot. It's "analog horror", so who cares why these tapes are being recorded, or by whom, or for what audience? Just have a spooky thing happen and then the government says that it's nothing to worry about, because that's "analog horror". And of course, the aliens send their messages in binary. If we were playing bingo, someone would have had multiple rows filled by now.
Alright, enough whining. To give credit where it's due, the game feels competently built on a technical level, and does a very good job at emulating the analog horror aesthetic. So yeah, props for the audio-visual presentation, definitely. I still think it stinks for all the aforementioned reasons, but I can't knock the effort.
Even though it was a bit slow at first, I think it helped give it a more “professional” aspect and it even was educational! I loved the lights revealed at the end of the third tape if you zoom out. It definitely made me feel how terrible it would be to encounter something unknown in space.
Excellent atmosphere
thank you
hi aster
Felt a little repetitive but something about it was also very very relaxing.
Definitely got more interesting in the later tapes, I really liked the fixed camera segment near the end, made the atmosphere very uncomfortable.
Thanks! I agree it might feel repetitive sometimes. I wanted to capture the progression and feeling of analog series I enjoy myself which usually start normal and then become more unsettling as they go, but in game form, it requires more testing which I had no time to do.
Clear instructions that are easy to follow, interesting stage design and a creepy twist... I don't know how to describe it but the ending weird me out. Amazing work.
Thanks a lotl. Glad to hear it was effective
Same as ApeHardware.
It felt a bit slow at the beginning, since it was mostly testing the mechanic with nothing happening.
It's a bit too much of a slow burn for my taste.
Thought, it was enjoyable to play.
I liked the framing device, and how it unfolded, even though the direction it was going was a bit obvious.
It was also nice to have an option to remove the VHS filter, which I found to be a bit strong, so the option made the game more enjoyable to me.
The only thing I really didn't like was the sound.
Notably the sound when you move the telescope around, which I found very grating.
Overall, nice experience, told in a cool way.
Thanks. I was inspired by a couple analog horror series I like for the main premise of it, so I can imagine it being somewhat easy to predict if you had seen those same ones lol.
The VHS filter toggle was mainly added for those who have CRT monitors and want to have a more "authentic" experience I suppose but I'm glad it helped you have a better experience.
The sound design and implementation is admittedly very rushed because I had very little time left. Sorry to hear if it harmed the experience.
The first tapes feel a bit slow but that's probably my lack of patience speaking more than a problem with the game itself.
Overall a simple but enjoyable ride. I really liked the last tape on the Moon's surface. I don't know if this is intended or not, but during that section I was unable to zoom out the camera.
Thank you! Yeah the last part has the zoom and vertical movement disabled on purpose