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(+1)

Many many thanks for checking it out and leaving feedback. I don't have much experience with the horror genre, so I find all of your recommendations very valuable.

This project was made for a game jam. When the jam finished I didn't really get any feedback on it at all, and so I submitted it here to get some more eyes on it.

I didn't actually have any plans to release this particular project on Steam, but I did have some horror project ideas that I would like to try and release on there in the future. So once again many thanks for the detailed feedback as it will definitely help me improve.

There are a couple of things that I am especially kicking myself over.

I definitely should have really added brightness options. My monitor really must be dark hehe ;D.

Good catch with some of the typos and grammar issues. I think I honestly must have rushed for the jam originally and didn't review the text again before I re-submitted. No excuse for it :D.

I had tried to leave as much as I could to the player to put information together (like a detective finding clues), but as you mentioned I think I probably need to add some more guidance or make objectives clearer.

Believe it or not the disjointed note you mentioned was actually intentional. I had hoped it would sound like the rantings of someone who couldn't concentrate, (or someone who was seeing things). It did tie into the story of what was happening at the trailer park, and it was supposed to come across as strange to the player.

Of course if this wasn't clear then I need to figure out a better way to present this. 

Just some notes on some of the mechanics:

The knife was supposed to replace a standard flashlight. You equipped it when you need it, and to save your health, you unequipped it when you don't.

It was supposed to be a double edged sword type of mechanic. You can see more but are damaged as long as you are holding it.

HP and Possession are separate. HP is your health and stays constant unless you are damaged or holding the knife. 

Possession increases when you touch the Rot. 

It reduces back to 0 when you are no longer touching it. Again I will need to find away to make this clearer.

Still though, I thankyou so so much for checking out the project, and especially for taking the time to give feedback.

I'll work on sorting out the improvements on this soon. Maybe with tips like these it will be good enough for me to consider it for Steam in the future.

All the best.

(+1)

RE: The Note
If the disjointedness is intentional, and you're looking to make it seem like the rants and raves of someone who isn't in their right mind, then might I suggest the use of excessive ellipses, and almost a more inner-monologue style of writing. That way it comes across as more unhinged-stream-of-consciousness and less of a planned nature. 🙂

RE: The Knife
Totally an interesting idea about the double-edged sword. Just think if that's the mechanic you want to go with, you'll definitely want a quick pop-up explaining that light comes at a price. And again, that HP items might need to be a bit more plentiful.

RE: Possession
Since it is separate, an additional bar would be good. As far as I could tell my HP was going down as I was looking at The Rot, but not touching it, so this is perhaps a bug? But yes, maybe next to or above the heart icon for HP you could do a brain one for Possession level.

I really do think it's a solid game though, and with enough time and effort you could release it to the horror world--even if just on itch.io. Steam would be awesome too, but I know plenty of horror content creators who scour itch.io as well for good horror games.

(+2)

Many many thanks again.

Regarding the possession, there is actually a counter for it in the bottom right corner with the skull icon. Health is in the bottom left corner with the heart icon. I made them small to try and keep the HUD as clear as possible. (Maybe too small though :D)
As you mentioned though, clarity could be better for this. It should either explain this in-game or be intuitive enough to not to require it, so I will work on some improvements.

I am really glad you see some potential in it though.  You know, there is actually a lot more game-time in this project in its current state, including two more endings. But so far I have not seen anyone play far enough which probably  highlights the problems with it at the moment.

Anyhow, thank-you very much once again for all of your recommendations.