itch.io

Semi-on-the-fly remarks:

1. On the game page: you say you will learn C++, but you know, it all depends on which tools you want to use. For example, Love2D (which I often use) is based on the Lua language, and is rather simple to learn and use; anyway, do as you please. :) (A rather low-level framework that allows you to delve into 3D is MonoGame, and as an engine — which means a ‘heavier’ thing in case you need it —, Godot seems interesting.)
2. On the game page: was the San Francisco office photo generated by AI? I am asking because of some curves. :)
3. I like the whole fictitious back story from the game page. X) There is really some effort to give the game a The Ring vibe. (There are English mistakes, but I guess this is not your native language, and you can still make progress; and everything was understandable.)
4. On the Scratch website: the link gives an error, but just going to the site and uploading the file you gave works; you should rather give this link for example, and explain how to upload: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tutorial=getStarted
5. The VHS snow effect and screen are great, I already noticed in your captures. :) Including the sound.
6. Controls are QWERTY-only instead of layout-independent (I have an AZERTY keyboard). I am not sure if you can program in a position-based way in Scratch, though…
7. Level 2: not sure what happens near the Sun, when I respawn! Something makes me lose?
8. Level 3: I have trouble deciphering the word after ‘Don't go to the’! The grey writing from the VHS hides it!
9. Hey, I notice ‘Sprite 1’ written in Cyrillic for field ‘Sprite’! Are you Russian by any chance? :) Or from a Russian- or Cyrillic-speaking country?
10. Was the flag from level 3 a trap?? I cannot retry! Is it the end? By the way, I like the visual aspect for the word ‘maze’.
11. Trying the game again: trying to click the flag, because the code talks about it. :p This does highlight a matching portion of the code, but not sure what this does! Reaching the flag: oh, you can actually continue playing behind the red guy! I had not noticed the first time.
12. And so, there IS a level 4!
13. Touching a wall to see what happens: weird, new level! :o There were apparently two quick updates; did this throw me to level 5?
14. New level: ‘funny zone’; does nothing?
15. There are a LOT of levels, actually! Funny immersion into the insanity of the cursed tape. XD
16. The games tells me I won, but clicking on ‘Claim’ does nothing! <:o
17. Weird, clicking ‘hide’ for the rickrolled_haha portion of the code removes the VHS snow AND allows me to click ‘Claim’! And to proceed.
18. I notice two ends in the code (ending_souls and gifr_ending), which makes me remember you mentioned on the forum and the game jam page there were two endings; I did step on blue in earlier levels, since you mention it.
19. Wow, those faces are grim! Vibes of Eyes Wide Shut (which was a denouncing of elite Freemasonry). ‘grab the final price... then you can join us..’
20. Weird, I notice I can drag and drop the scenery and my character is BEHIND it, but this may be caused by Scratch. Oh, a whole dialogue! Apparently, I can proceed in it using W, but this was not obvious. A lot of things! I think you really put effort in the scenario.
21. Weird, dragging and dropping, I can restart the dialogue! I wonder if I somehow broke the Scratch code… :s The last picture for me was a white rectangle outline open to the South, on a black background.
22. This MAY be the bad ending, but I am not sure. You know, I think I would need to see a playthrough to be sure of how things happen in the game!

Takeaway: I really like the originality of having a The Ring-type of video game, and the fact that you have written ‘evil’ indications that you can choose to follow or not and then have two possible endings; nice immersion into the scenario. On the downside, I think there is a big problem of clarity to help the player understand what is going on! Respawn seemed sometimes not expected, and I had trouble navigating the ending — although this may be due in part to Scratch and how I clicked once in the code, sorry for that ! :S So, I think a video showing how the game plays out (for both ends) would really help me (and others?) to be sure I did not miss something. Also, some more riddles or possibly dynamic/moving elements in the labyrinths could be interesting, but I understand this may have been complicated to program in Scratch (I am unsure of its limitations!).

Thanks for the cursed experience! :)