Great start! Glad to see a game of this type be more than just collecting pages. There's some actual gameplay here! I'd love to see even more added to it, but it works really well as a short experience as well.
Notes on what I liked:
- Good title/intro sequence. I like the music. That's a tough one to get right.
- Nice aesthetic. I really like the look of it with the slightly blurry VHS look. Not overdone.
- The lighting and fog are done very well to still allow you to see while helping to disorient the player.
- The ambient sounds are great. I especially like the driving sequence at the beginning.
- The rifle. Like a security blanket that doesn't quite make you feel safe enough. Love it. I saw some people suggest letting you use the scope & I thought even a reticle might be nice, but I later thought haphazardly pointing in the right direction really adds a layer of panic, so its great as is to me.
Some suggestions/creative criticism:
- I'd like to hear the player's character voiced for the intro and directives as there's other voice work done.
- Regular forest noises before the camp sequence would provide a nice contrast to the 'spooky' noises in the later game. (owls, deer running, etc) You can mix them together afterwards as well. Space them out, have some silence in between. Make the players jump.
- You could literally make them jump at shadows as well. Draw things out, make Sirenhead appear less frequently maybe and have the player shooting at the moving shadows of the forest as they become more & more panicked.
*You did a great job setting the tone with the sounds and visuals, but I think you can really ramp it up with some more tweaking.*
- As the 'Frame Rate' setting showed settings in Hz I'm assuming those are Refresh Rate settings.
- The pop up directions really take the player out of the action. A short overlay at the bottom like 'Press C to crouch' without pausing would work. Let the player figure it out & sweat a little.
- Checkpoints. Same as above. If you have to replay from the start, it desensitizes you to the experience. 1st one right before grabbing the rifle. Get the player right back into the action.
- No view of the ping if you're facing the wrong direction. Maybe an arrow pointing to the side you need to turn to see it. (Though personally I think making the player wander around a little isn't a bad thing in this setting. Getting a little lost adds to the fear as long as the player doesn't get frustrated.)
Hope the feedback helps. Good luck! I hope to see more from you!