Post by Isabel in BLACKOUT jam comments

RPG Maker Themed Game Jam #2: Path of Light » Entries » BLACKOUT

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I loved playing this! The setting is original and the narrow hallways make for a really creepy experience, especially when trying to avoid the enemies. I loved the creepy sprites for the enemies-- it was a super cool way to make the best of the built-in assets.

I'm a big fan of the type of game where you can't actually battle enemies and you have to be strategic about navigating the world. The darkness hurting your sanity mechanic reminded me a lot of Amnesia, a game I love! Amnesia also doesn't have battles. It's a cool idea to bring that idea into an RPG.

The progression of gaining new party members as you navigate the prison is super great. I also love that it affects your mental health. Overall a really fun play. I got maybe 3 or 4 endings-- I let Xander out at the start and I think that cut me off from a few of them. The entire story felt really satisfying even with how short it was, the amount of info you can glean from documents around the prison is just right and leaves enough room for imagination.

The original music in this was really great and creepy!!!

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EA Hendershot162 days ago

Thank you for playing, I'm so glad you enjoyed the game! That's a cool detail about Amnesia, I didn't know that. I've heard good things about the series, but I don't handle first-person jump scares very well haha, so I tend to stick to top-down and side-scrolling horror games. The whole no-battles idea actually came from the first Fear and Hunger game (a very disturbing RPG Maker horror game, so tread lightly if needed), where you're encouraged to avoid most of the enemies and don't have to fight the large majority of them! I also think leaving everything in the top-down perspective gives the player's imagination more room to fill in the gaps of what the enemies look like.

Letting Xander out doesn't bar you from any endings, but it does make one of the endings in the final Cave area more difficult to reach as he'll chase you from it. That's great you were able to get at least half of the endings though--I didn't want it to be TOO big of a challenge to get more than one in a sitting.

And I'm happy to read you found the story engaging and the music spoopy, those were my main goals :D Thanks for your comment!

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Isabel162 days ago(+1)

OMG then do not play Amnesia. I love scary stuff and jump-scares dont bother me much and even I was like, come ON man... I jumped in my seat so hard that I scared my buddy sitting next to me a few times haha

Thanks for the rec I will check out Fear and Hunger! I haven't actually played a lot of RPGMaker games, this has been my first experience with the tool. Definitely your game left a lot of room for my imagination to scare me-- the enemy sprites were super effective and creepy especially the wonky guards. It's enhanced I think from the dissonance of using cute chibi RPGMaker sprites!!

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