Notes from gameplay:
- Main menu page looks great! I love the torch animation. Background music is minimal but creepy
- Title font is nice. The other options are a bit too "clean" in comparison to the weathered look of the title, maybe they could have some weathering as well.
- Mouseover color isn't quite the same shade of yellow/orange. I like how the choices indent when you hover.
- Scrolling credits look nice! Great job with such detailed attritbutions!
- I like the use of a lantern instead of a flashlight - immediately sets the scene of an old-timey setting
- Lantern is kinda big and takes up a lot of screen real estate
- Tutorial tips cycle without player input, maybe wait for button presses before moving to next one
- Tab menu is great, looks like there's a lot to this game!
- Well-written text in the note. I love how you can toggle between font choices
- Zombie/fire demon thing started attacking me while I was reading the letters. Maybe pause game during menu interfaces. I didn't even walk a single step and I died.
- Shovel/left click doesn't seem to do anything
- Would be nice if the map showed an icon for where the player currently is
- Nice job with invisible wall bounding player in so they can't go across the bridge. Good flavor text about why we have to stay (debt payment)
- Found a blue ghost. Walked up and my lantern went out and s/he teleported away. Can't turn lantern back on. Looks like a fire demon is now circling that ghost - is it after me?
- Yep, it was. Game over man, game over. Can't seem to fight back.
- Round 3. My lantern seems to recover a bit after interacting with the blue ghost.
- Ambient sounds like the howling are spooky. A bit more variety would be nice (hearing lots of wolf howls)
- Man these fire demons are after me. I think my lantern flickers when he's near. Going to try no lantern this time. The note DID hint that the lantern would be both good and bad
- Quite hard to find things. An icon of where I am on the map or a minimap would help a lot. Map is quite dark without the lantern so it's tricky to see where things are.
- Ok, looks like keeping the lantern off helps me avoid firedude.
- Found a flashing note on a tree but can't figure out how to read it. Left click doesn't seem to be doing anything. Edit: just had to get the angle right to trigger interaction with left click
- Found the well, now I can orient myself better on the map
- Digging (hehe, pun) these letters, they add great flavor and lore to this game world
- Man, firedemon keeps getting me. I even tried using a blue ghost to fully extinguish my lantern :( I like how you can see his red glow to show you how close he is as you run away
- Huh, letter isn't on the tree by the well anymore. Is it random where they appear?
- Mausoleum appears to be locked
- I found a grave and dug up the coffin, opened it, but can't seem to get any loot from it
- Ugh and fire guy killed me again while I was trying to figure that out
- I like how the messages on the trees glow, makes them easier to see
- Killed AGAIN while reading a note. I'm even pausing during reading but due to the overlay text on the pause menu I have to unpause...
- I like how letters I've found go into the tab menu
- I found another grave but still can't figure out how to get anything from the open coffin. Do some graves have nothing inside?
- Found another grave - and got some coins!
- None of the graves I'm finding match the letters I've found, so I can't really do any puzzle solving here as the map's too big to return and easily find the grave again.
- Randomizing the letters (and maybe grave locations?) feels really frustrating when there's an instant death mechanic, as I can't even rerun the content I've already figured out.
- Fire demon runs faster than me, so it feels like I can't do anything once he's spotted me and starts chasing
- How do I get emblems?
- Killed yet again while in the middle of digging up a grave
Overall, I really liked the concept of this game - you created a great setting with the letters in the tab menu and the scenery assets you chose and had awesome flavor text enhancing this world through the additional letters I discovered. I played through about 10 times, but I don't think I can really make any more progress due to the instakill mechanic. It felt very frustrating, especially when the things to discover also seemed to be randomized - I didn't feel like I learned anything or improved after my deaths, which would make them less frustrating.
I think if you're going to keep the fire demon you need to either tone him down or introduce some easy/fun mechanics for dodging him or chasing him off. As-is, it felt like a constant litany of game over, which hindered me from fully playing the rest of this game. Again, I really liked the concept and wanted to find all the graves and the stories, but I could never last longer than 8 minutes, with most rounds lasting around 3-5 minutes.
I think this definitely has potential for refinement as well as expansion into more content and mechanics, it just needs some balancing.