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Hi! I'm excited to play Catacomb Prince and will follow-up with a proper review soon; I mostly wanted to comment because I'm amazed at how ENTICINGLY GOOD the trailer was! 

The voice for Prince Vitali was shockingly charismatic. His lines were entertaining and well-written, and the expression changes of his sprite were on-point. Video editing could have been better, I suppose, if I wanted to be very nitpicky, but the trailer nonetheless sealed the deal in convincing me to play ASAP.  (Which I would say makes the trailer a success).

I followed the link to Youtube expecting to see a couple thousand views and to leave a glowing comment on there, but was surprised to find the video was unlisted. I'm not sure why that could be, and I won't pry; I just wanted to remark on how taken I was with the concept without even touching the game. I've downloaded it and am excited to leave further feedback. :)

Thank you! The editing and the fact it's private are both a symptom of me making it in a bit of a rush; I meant to make a YouTube account for the team to reupload it publically  but didn't get around to it and, uh, plain forgot. So I'll add that back to our to-do list!

Hope you enjoy the game proper :)

Okay! I've completed 2/3 of the romance routes thus far, and can safely say I have enjoyed the game proper.

My first impression of the title screen was good. Danse Macabre was a fitting choice; combined with the violet color choice and skill aesthetic of the game, Catacomb Prince felt themed and atmospheric before I even began playing.

The overall concept remains absolutely solid; find love, find your killer, or die again trying. There's a strength in simplicity, and having a straightforward plot (with no significant plot holes that I can name!!) without unnecessarily complex twists and turns is refreshing for a renpy game. 

I was immediately drawn to Ravi at first sight (and first listen, me-ow), and romanced them as soon as possible. I was engaged enough with the character that I didn't really take notes as I played, so I will simply say that appreciated that their relationship to Vitali was built on trust and friendship. <3 I had a lot of fun getting to know them, and believe there were just enough choices to present a unique experience in each playthrough.

On a gameplay note, I was confused by the upper right buttons, and believed they were meant to be interactive. By the end of the first playthrough though, I was able to intuit that the top two are simply GOOD progress meters, and progressing the bottom eyeball is BAD. I have an even better understanding of what the buttons represent now, but "GOOD and BAD" were really all I needed to know to achieve the endings I wanted.

The writing surprised me. I enjoyed it well enough, but certain lines read as very modern, whereas I was expecting the game to sound (due to the prior established theme and atmosphere) more historically-inclined language due to the historical fantasy setting. The dialogue is oddly informal/modern in parts, with Ravi using the term "ghosting" at one point. Some of the text seems clipped as well, as if it were written in a hurry. While I think there's room for improvement, I would like to stress that it was not bad by any stretch of the imagination.  There were definitely some flavor text gems (lol) that I wouldn't change for the world, and had me screaming with delight, and obviously I enjoyed playing enough to leave an extensive review. 

To best illustrate my point, I drafted some sentence edits for two of the game's early scenes;

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QHwNdR8vSdyiQIr_rV8xY6DyOCeDVuhqJSWUIIg6uaY/...

I can tell that a lot of love and hard work went into Catacomb Prince, and its potential really shines in so many ways. It's a great project, and I'm so happy it exists. 

If you guys could use an editor, feel free to hit me up! Otherwise, best of luck. :) I'm excited to wrap up with Princess Leandra when I have more time.