itch.io

Looks-wise, I always dig the PSX style for horror games, and here is no exception; it fits well. Sounds are also on point: phones ringing, objects falling, distorted crying; again, it all helps add to those moments of suspense.  

Overall, it’s good, everything's there, but it feels like a demo with an end that leaves something to be desired. I would love to see it fleshed out more. Linked is a little video I made.

Thanks for the game, and take care!

Good game! I loved the absurdity of it all. It was pretty fun to mess around with, especially the driving mechanics. I also enjoyed how detailed each ending was in its explanation. No bugs or crashes to speak of.

Overall, it was a solid experience! Though it left me a little hungry...

I don't have anything negative to say about the game itself, and I am happy to report that I did not encounter any game-breaking bugs or glitches throughout my playthrough. The only issue I had was with the performance of the main menu. The main menu pushed my GPU (2080 Ti) hard, even with v-sync enabled, and I am not sure why.

This was a solid game, and I was able to have some fun with it! Linked above is a video I made of my time with it.

I always enjoy trying to see all of the endings in games like this, and a lot of them here were quite interesting although somewhat painful (emotionally speaking) at times. However, this only emphasizes how good the writing for the characters was; despite being shadowy blobs, they all possess their unique personalities, and it was easy to grow attached to them, even given the short length of the game. 

Fantastic work overall, and I’m glad I got to experience your game! 

Linked above is a video I made of my time with the game.

Cheers and take care!

The spooks themselves were pretty unsettling and succeeded in building some tension. I’d attribute a bit of this to the fact that the music becomes overpowering towards the end, but it also aids in creating a sense of urgency and panic. Overall, it’s a solid and creepy experience! 

Linked above is a short video I made highlighting my time with the game.

Cheers, and take care!

I haven’t played a game of this scale that’s brought with it this much raw emotion in a long time; I’m glad I got to experience it! Overall, it was an excellent game, and its message resonates very well. Although it was short, I still grew attached to the protagonist. As well as the progress they make throughout the story, complete with both heartwarming and heartbreaking moments.

The art throughout the different scenes and for the character sprites is well done and adds to the personality of the game. Alongside this, the music lends itself well to the atmosphere and mood. The riddles/puzzles themselves were on the easy side, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as it keeps everything flowing nicely and avoids frustration. Also, the addition of a detailed walkthrough is a nice touch.

I’m not sure if this is your first attempt at making a game, but regardless, you’ve done a great job at taking some very delicate subject matter and turning it into a story with a believable main character; I hope that you keep making games!

If it’s okay, linked above is a video I made of my time with the game.

Make sure you take of yourself and thank you for the game!

This was a stellar experience and my first time playing a Puppet Combo game. I’ve always heard good things, and I wasn’t disappointed here. As a horror game, it’s well put together; there's a fair number of scares, unsettling moments, and creepy characters throughout the hour or so of playtime on offer. 

I’ve always enjoyed the low poly style visuals, it lends itself to horror games, and that’s no exception here. The VHS and grain effects are also a nice touch though it’s good that the user can turn those off if they wish. The audio is probably one of the most unsettling parts of the game, and I mean that in the best way possible. From the cries of babies and well-timed stings to the eerie and suspenseful music played as things pick up, the audio is a treat.  

One thing that stood out to me here though is the attention to detail; it felt like there were so many easter eggs and little things to do and explore in the game that it was fun just trying to run around and see what could be found. From calling a number found in the bathroom to collecting full-fledged comic books, there’s so much to see and do; and secrets to discover.

At the end of the day, it was a fantastic game to play. Linked here is a video highlighting moments of my time with the game.

Cheers and best wishes! 

The sounds found in the game are also a strong positive point, from the creeks of doors to the clanking of air conditioners. Every sound adds to that build-up of the atmosphere on display here. The only issue I can point out is the possibility of some mistranslated words or sentences; I apologize if these have been corrected. I played through the game towards the end of August. 

All in all, this was another fantastic atmospheric offering from Chilla’s Art and a solid horror experience!

Linked here is a video I made of my time with the game. However, it does not do it justice in showing just how eerie this experience can be.

Cheers and take care!

I really quite liked this game, the pixel art style used helps draw in the players attention while still maintaining a solid resolution, and not having things look overly pixelated. The limited use of colour along with a melancholic soundtrack in the background really drive home the atmosphere here, and helps to bring the world to life. The story is pretty vague, but I believe there’s enough context clues hidden throughout the game to help the player piece together some sort of plot-line, provided they take enough time to think about it. I enjoy games like this, where not everything is thrown in your face and the game isn't afraid to treat the player like an adult with a brain, rather than a child with ADHD. I also liked how the player is able to see the consequence of their choices later on, a lot games Ive seen on itch.io never take this step, they give the player choices but the results of said choices remain a mystery, or they’re given some bare-bones answer, so I was quite pleased to see this extra step taken here.

Overall, there isn't anything bad I can say about this experience, it’s all positive on my end, and I’m happy to report that I didn't run into a single bug throughout my playtime.

Excellent game, that’s well deserving of the praise it’s receiving, and I’m curious to see what comes next from the devs. If you’re interested, I made a let’s play of my time with the game linked above.  

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

I’ll start off with what I liked. The overall aesthetic of the game is really nice, it makes excellent use of various distortion effects that really help to underline that something bad is going on, and put the player on edge. The reflections and lighting used in the latter half of the game were insane, and it created this weird but interesting atmosphere I haven’t really seen attempted before, at least not to this extent. Another thing that really jumped out to me was how good the sound design was, the music and effects used were good, but the real standout was with the voice acting and the production that went into it, it’s really hard to create a convincing demonic voice without also creating a lot of noise/distortion, but in this instance it was excellently produced, and the voice acting used by the one character later in the game was clear, loud, and expressive. So overall, I was quite impressed by the aesthetic and sound design of the game.

Next, I’ll go over some things I didn’t quite like. There were a few textures in the game that appeared really sloppy, or stretched out, particularly the texture used on the floor of the apartment. A very minor gripe to say the least, but still something that stood out to me as an issue. One other area I wasn’t too sure on was with the plot, while I don’t mind when a game has the player try and interpret things themselves, I do like a bit of direction, now I understand that this is just the first act in what could be a fairly lengthy series of games, so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt, and hope that things get worked out later.

Unfortunately, I ran into a couple of bugs while playing. The first is when I attempted to walk back into the apartment after roaming around the hallways for a bit, I ended up falling below the map and was forced to restart the game. The second bug appeared in the latter half of the game, where it seems some of the reflections disappear, leaving a black space, I think some others in the comments here have pointed this one out as well, it makes it a little hard to see at times.

Overall this was a solid effort, and a fairly well put together horror game. The aesthetic and sound design are way above what I’d consider to be the average, with only a few hiccups here and there with the texture work and plot.

Cheers, and best wishes,

Killjoy

I always like to start with the things I liked, and I’m happy to say that Kutsu has many. Right off the bat the art style is striking, combined with the film grain effect, and “glitch” effects, it creates an unsettling atmosphere that I can’t look away from. The limited use of colours is quite interesting, red definitely stands out among the black and white aesthetic but I wish it was used just a bit more throughout the game, perhaps as a way to highlight some more key points for the player to investigate. The sounds used throughout the game are well put together as well, I particularly liked how the looping school bell is used to solve a puzzle, it’s a good example of how you can incorporate a games environment into its puzzles. The spook factor is definitely on point with Kutsu as well, the art style really lends a hand here in creating some pretty chilling scenes, along with the use of some well-timed music/sound effects.

There’s only one thing that I can point to and say I didn’t like, and that’s with the lack of direction with some of the puzzles. When I found the book in the library, I became somewhat confused as to what I was looking for, I figured I was looking for a pair of shoes, not necessarily an empty shoe cubby hole near the entrance of the school, so this created some mild confusion as to how I was to progress. Once I got going and into a grove of things, I had no trouble completing the game after that.

I’m happy to report that I didn’t run into any bugs throughout my time playing, mostly impart to the devs stating where a game breaking bug is located. I hope this gets fixed however, as not everyone is going to take the time to read the games description, regardless of how short it may be.

Overall this is a very solid point & click horror experience, and one that I would recommend. Everything from the art style, to the sound design helps to create an intriguing horror atmosphere that is usually fairly challenging to create in a 2D game, but here it’s been done very well.   

Cheers, and best wishes,

Killjoy

Thank you for taking the time and effort to make a game worthy of such praise, and for responding to me. I just try to provide whatever feedback I can. You definitely succeeded in standing out to me, and I believe you have a really good shot at winning the TV Game Jam. You don't have to apologize for my one and only complaint, what I find as a minor annoyance or inconvenience others might not bat an eyelash at, it's very subjective based. You've caught mine, and I'll assume a lot of others attention with this game, and I'm quite curious to see what project you tackle next.

You definitely have my interest and support. 

Thanks again for responding, and for making a game that stands out among the rest, it was a pleasure to play.

I’ll first go over some things I liked. The visuals are excellent, at first, I wasn’t too sure about the low-res style with this game, but as it progressed it really started to grow on me, and became a defining feature for the game, it was used in such a way that made things even creepier. An example of this would be when walking down an alleyway, there’s what appears to be a big blob of pixels stuck to a wall and as you approach it you begin to see more details of it, it begins to move really fast, scampering off before you can get a real good look at it, but you know right away that something isn’t right. The sound design was another aspect of the game that was done phenomenally, the buzzing of the phone gave me shudders every time it went off, and there’s a particular scene that actually made me jump in my seat (something that doesn’t happen often), all thanks to the way the sounds and music are used throughout the experience. Both of these key points lead up to the final, and that’s that the game has a wonderful sense of atmosphere to it, the enemies are constantly watching you from the darkness and if you look hard enough at times you can see them, combine that with the sounds, music, and low-res visual style and you have an incredibly atmospheric horror game on your hands. The multiple endings are also a really nice touch, and aren’t blatantly obvious to the player, you have to think about what action could lead to a different outcome.

There’s only one thing I can point to throughout the whole experience and say “I didn’t like that.” And that’s with the interaction mechanic. Having the interactions tied in with the camera zooming in just feels awkward at times, especially with gates and doors. I would consider this to be a very minor gripe, that never really impacted my overall enjoyment of the game, just a minor annoyance at times.

I’m happy to report that I didn’t run into any bugs throughout my play time, the game seems very well polished.

This is definitely a game I would recommend for people to try, and that’s fairly rare for me these days, especially on itchio. The game has a high degree of polish to it, signaling that the developers really care about delivering their game to the players in the best way they possibly can. The game isn’t half-assed by any means, despite being made in roughly two weeks. It looks good, sounds fantastic and has an overall tense and creepy atmosphere to it that drives the player forward. Fantastic job with this game.

I made a short let's play of my time with game, linked above.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

I’ll start off with the things I liked. The game looks really good, on the ultra-quality texture settings, things look very crisp, the environments are highly detailed and this adds to an overall sense of atmosphere that the demo manages to maintain throughout its entirety. Sound is something that’s incredibly important in horror games and I found it to be used appropriately here, the player characters footsteps, doors creaking, static sounds, lights flickering, and more, all add to the games sense of atmosphere, further driving home that anything could happen at any given time.

Next, I’ll go over some things I didn't like. The biggest thing I can think of is how the trailer at the end of the demo seems to promise a lot more than what’s actually on offer here. After witnessing what the game is supposed to be (according to the trailer) I left the demo with the feeling of disappointment, the scares and tense feelings that the trailer leaves the viewer with aren't echoed in the demo. While the demo showcases how the game can build up an appropriate atmosphere, it’s never fully capitalized on until the very end, and even then, I found the demo to fall a bit flat. The games features mention how the focus is supposed to be on multiple enemies, stealth, and puzzles, however none of these things are present in the demo to any significant extent. There is one enemy, a hint at a puzzle and zero stealth involved in the demo. I feel as though a scene that showcases these features to a greater extent would have been a more appropriate demo.

I found one bug in my play-through though it definitely isn't game breaking. At a certain point when looking back at a doorway there appeared to be a large black rectangle just behind the door, but still within the players vision. Very minor bug, but could lower an individual’s immersion with the game. This alongside some minor texture pop in are the only bugs I could find, everything else plays as intended.  

At the end of the day, this a fairly solid demo for an indie horror game. It looks fantastic, sounds great and manages to build up a decent atmosphere for the player. I just wish that the demo better reflected the promised features and the trailer. I’m hoping that the full game manages to deliver on at least some of these promises. It is worth noting that the overall project is quite impressive considering it is only made by two people.

I made a let's play video of my time with the game (linked above).

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy

I’ll begin with what I liked. The game’s sound design immediately stands out to me, there’s an ample amount of bass to it and it gives off the sense that something’s looming around any given corner. The atmosphere is also set up quite well, the environments are tight and compact, blood covered, and overall creepy, the sound design and atmosphere also go hand in hand with the use of subtle effects to get the player’s heart racing. Sound and atmosphere are critical to a horror game, and I’m happy to say that this game knocks both out of the park.

There’s only one thing I can say that I didn’t quite like and that was the lack of an overarching story-line, something to glue the horror set pieces together and give the player a reason for being at this hospital. Given how the game plays out, I would only consider this to be a minor gripe, but it’s still something I would have liked to see.

I’m happy to report that I didn’t run into any bugs throughout my time with the game.

At the end of the day, this is a good horror game. The atmosphere is tense, and is made even better by the excellent sound design. The game looks decent enough and runs well, but could benefit from some form of plot-line.

Oh, I also took part in your survey.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy     

I’ll start with the positives. The game looks good and has a fairly high degree of ambiance to it, there are some fairly tense moments to be had while wandering around the house. The sound adds to this as well, having some well-timed moments where the audio rises at the peak of a scare. All of this combined creates some pretty creepy moments that work very well in a horror game. The lack of overdone ‘jump-scares’ is also a nice touch. It’s also impressive that the assets were made by the devs and they definitely deserve recognition for that, as it’s easy to just rip the same old royalty free assets that other indie game devs on here have been notorious for.

Now I’ll go over some gripes I had with the game. It’s another collectathon, while this might not be an issue to some, it is to me, it’s a trope that has been beaten to death, and I feel it just doesn’t do the games environments and excellent ambiance justice. There seems to be a somewhat lack of a story, while it can be argued that it’s told through the environment and the notes, even then there really isn’t much meat there. 

I discovered one bug while doing my second run through, so it’s not captured on the video linked above, but if the player doesn’t interact with the door first and instead gets the key first, the game seems to go through the script of “the door is locked, where’s the key?” when the player already has the key and is trying to escape. It’s not a major bug, but it does sort of suck you out of the moment.

At the end of the day I found this to be fairly average; however, I did find some enjoyment in it. The game looks good, sounds good and feels good for a horror game, but it’s wasted on an overdone game-play concept. I know this was a student project, and when that’s taken into consideration it’s quite an impressive feat, especially when you factor in that many of the assets are made by the devs themselves, but that doesn’t stop me from being critical about a game, especially one that is now (at the time of writing) in the number one position on itch.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

You're quite welcome, thank you for making such an awesome game worthy of the praise!

Also, thanks for checking out the video, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I’ve been playing indie games off itch.io for a long time now. After a while you begin to see a lot of repeat patterns, similar games, similar styles, and similar jokes, but this game impressed me. I found myself having a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoying it. First, the retro styling is very welcoming and looks excellent. I liked that the player has the option of switching up the colours in the menu as well as the ability to increase the screen size while maintaining image quality. The story, while being weird and absolutely bizarre, is one of intrigue for me, I was constantly trying to guess what absurd thing was going to occur next and loved every minute of it. Not to mention the abundance of references scattered about, I’m fairly certain I could only pinpoint a small portion of them, so I can’t even say how many are included.

I thought the puzzles in the game were of a decent difficulty, I know this might be a point of contention for some people, but the game does a good job of delivering the player the necessary clues to solve the puzzles, it’s up to the player to look around the environment for these clues.

At the end of the day, I got more enjoyment out of this 30-minute experience than I have with a lot of full priced games, it’s charming, it’s funny, and most importantly it’s highly enjoyable. I offer up my full support and encouragement for any future projects you have in the works, and I really look forward to seeing what else you can do as a game developer!

Also, I hope you don’t mind but I made a let’s play of my time with the game over on my channel (linked above).

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

I'll start with some of the things I liked. First off, the art, damn it's good. It seems to have this interesting blend between cute and dark, and I love it. Next up is the monster and how it reacts to the players behaviours, such as how the monster is attracted to your loud foot steps when running, the only issue I noticed with the monster is how it doesn't react to the light coming from the closets the player hides in, this however is an extremely minor thing. 

The only thing I can think of that would be classified as a dislike is the current lack of story development, however given that it's a prototype I'm going to go ahead and guess that this won't be an issue at all later. 

In regards to bugs I believe I may have stumbled upon one. I had died in the game, on my second attempt I acquired two of the key pieces and went to try the door again, however when I opened my inventory I found that the key had already been combined and was the exact one I need for the door. I also had a mysterious third key piece. I'm not sure if this was a bug or not, but it felt like one.

All in all this was a solid proof of concept, the foundations for a good story seem to be in place, the art is absolutely amazing and the monsters are creepy with just the right amount of threatening qualities. I'm curious to see where the project goes from here and will be keeping an eye out for more!

I hope you don't mind but I made a short let's play of my time with your game over on my channel (linked above).

Take care and best wishes,

Killjoy 

Going in I wasn't exactly aware just how short it was so the abrupt ending caught me off guard, however, I did find it hilarious so props to you for making me laugh. Visuals are fairly standard, the audio used is fair as well, with the killers scream unsettling me almost immediately. 

The game was not at all what I was anticipating and that's what I loved about it. I expected some sort of cliched horror plot involving a murder mystery, but instead ended  up laughing for a while. Good work.

I hope you don't mind but I made a short let's play of my time with the game over on my channel (linked above).

Take care and best wishes to you,

Killjoy

I'll start with what I liked. The game looks pretty good, the textures are sharp and the lighting is fairly well done, the character model for the witch is creepy though a little odd looking in terms of quality. The sound design is very well put together, the laughing and cackling of the witch echoing throughout the caves was incredibly unnerving especially as you get further and further in and the sounds used at specific trigger points sent shivers down my spine at times. The atmosphere of the game is constructed well, at first it leads you in with this somewhat bright open area and then later showers you in pure darkness shortly after showing you the witch, the game is definitely spooky and the atmosphere and the way things are presented/structured plays a big role in that.

I'll now go over some things I didn't like. The controls felt clunky and unintuitive at times, this was mostly in regards to reading the journals, as shown in the beginning of my video I had somewhat of a hard time figuring out how to actually keep them open. Another thing that I didn't really like was how the progression of "rooms" was pretty well identical every time; get a scare of some sort, find a key, open door, repeat, it isn't really that bad and I can't fault it too much considering the game was made in 7 days, I just found it tedious. Lastly, I didn't like how I could only carry one item at a time, now just because I didn't like doesn't mean this is actually a bad idea, being forced to take a key back through darkness to open a door is interesting and would have been the perfect opportunity to really scare the player.

Happy to report that I didn't run into any game breaking bugs throughout my time with the game.

Overall it was a pretty good experience, visuals, sound and atmosphere are all on an above standard level. Controls at times were a bit spotty, and some of the level design choices were a bit tedious, but all in all it was a pretty good game, with some decent spooks.

Hope you don't mind but I made a let's play video of my time with the game for my channel.

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy

I'll start with the things I liked. The art is well drawn and at times extremely creepy, like when the man smiles with a huge grin or has his eyes presumably gauged out, everything looks excellent. I'm going to give props to the overall simplicity of the game, I don't really know how to describe my other thoughts on it other than by saying that it's weird but I found it interesting. There's no story, no context, just a man and some weird fish...but that's okay, because I felt that enough happened where that you can interpret the individual meanings in your own way.

The only thing that I'll say that's bad about the whole experience is that I wasn't sure when it was actually over, and now that I write this I'm not actually sure if this is a bad thing or an intentional game design choice. When the man and his boat eventually sink, the player can choose to continue fishing and I assume that this plays into the concept of repetition that you were looking to create.

I don't think I ran into bugs throughout my play time, but I have no idea. 

This is a weird game, I don't even know what to rate it. It definitely succeeds as an experimental horror game and even as a psychological horror game, I wouldn't call anything that happens in it particularly "scary" but it sent my mind running wild, trying to figure out what exactly was happening at a given moment. In the end I just felt weird, uneasy and confused...but I'm guessing that's what you set out to do.

I hope you don't mind but I made a short let's play of my time with the game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy 

Hey there, I recently played through the game and thought I'd share some of my thoughts on it here. I'll be going over some things I liked about the game, maybe some things I didn't and any bugs I may have discovered.

First I'll go over some of the things I liked. I enjoyed the story premise and setting of the game, a steakhouse by day but a "slaughterhouse" by night, it's a really interesting concept having all of the staff actually be killer cows carving people up at night. The "VHS" effect is also very well done here, adds to the atmosphere of the game. 

Now I want to talk about some of the things I didn't like. The biggest thing to me is that it just didn't feel like a horror game, yes the premise and setting are creepy and good but I couldn't really find any meat to this game (no pun intended). The cows that chase you are barely any threat at all so long as you turn tail and move the other way, and apart from their eyes glowing when you're in their sights they aren't really that frightening to look at. It's also become extremely common for games to use the "find X number of Y item in this maze and don't die!" concept and it's getting to be extremely repetitive, of course your game isn't the only recent one to do this, but it's the most recent I've played that follows this overdone and frankly boring formula. 

I'm happy to report that I didn't encounter any game breaking bugs, however there was a minor one where a cow would continuously walk into a wall, I believe the "cowbell" effect would trigger but it appeared to be stuck.

In the end, I'll give praise to the game's story and setting concepts, as well as it's use of effects to heighten the atmosphere. However, I have to be critical about the overall game-play in that it's very mundane with mechanics that have recently been overdone in the indie horror scene especially here on itch, and that I just didn't find it scary.

I hope you don't mind but I made a let's play of my time with the game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy  

I'll start with the things I liked or enjoyed about the game. I liked the 'infomercial' video in the beginning, it sets the game up nicely and adds a bit of humour to the game early on. I liked that the image the player chooses at the start of the game has an impact on the environment later on, like if they choose the eye-ball picture then the paintings/pictures later on are of eye-balls, this also adds to how the game tries to adapt to the players actions, depending on what the player interacts with or doesn't, affects the 'psychiatric report' at the end, it's a very nice touch overall. The game definitely gets points for having a weird and unnerving atmosphere. I also liked how the game tackles a very important subject in modern society, the pursuit of perfection, and how people tend to over analyze themselves to the point where every little imperfection eats away at them to the point where they despise themselves. 

Now I'll just go over some of the things I didn't quite like about the game. First off, the performance isn't quite up to snuff, I could feel my mouse movements becoming sluggish at times, which is usually a sign of a low frame rate or poor frame times, and given that the game isn't graphically impressive this shouldn't have been an issue. For added information I was playing at 2560x1440 with a GTX 1080. As mentioned, I didn't find the game graphically impressive in the slightest, that obviously doesn't make it a bad game, but it doesn't help. 

I'm happy to say that I didn't encounter any game breaking bugs throughout my playthrough.

Overall the game is quite interesting, it's incredibly weird but that's part of its charm. I really enjoyed how the game tried to adapt to my choices and how I interacted with the environment. It has some decent scares to it, and a pretty unnerving atmosphere. I believe that it sums up a persons struggle with the pursuit of perfection perfectly. I would consider the performance issues I faced to be a very minor issue, but it did hinder my experience a smidge. Overall an enjoyable, albeit weird, experience.  

I hope you don't mind but I made a let's play of my time with the game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy

I'll start with what I liked. The game itself looks fantastic, the art-style is definitely a strong point here and the varying environments are interesting and at times highly detailed. Despite it being called a 'semi' horror themed game, it does have quite a few creepy and scary moments in it that really took me off guard, so I was pleasantly surprised in this regard. I could only piece together a bit of the story, however I did find it peculiar in a good way, and it definitely had my attention. Lastly I enjoyed a lot of the puzzles, however this trades blows with another point I'll be making later on.

Now I'll be going over a few things that I didn't like. At times the game felt needlessly difficult, I think this comes down to two things, character movement and checkpoints. The character felt clunky at times, the game requires the player to perform some extremely precise movements and given the way the character handles, this creates some difficulty, a key example of this is during the theater segment with the Yurei, jumping from the ladder to the platform seems simple enough but it took numerous attempts to perfect simply because of the way the character controls. 

Let's talk checkpoints, I appreciate that the game has a checkpoint system, but there are times where things get very frustrating, going back to the theater segment with the Yurei, the player is required to set up the room in such a way that allows them to complete the puzzle and move on. However if the player dies (which they will, a lot) the room resets completely and they have to set it up again, I found that this wastes a lot of time and causes a ton of needless frustration. 

I'm happy to report that I didn't run into any game breaking bugs or glitches throughout my playtime, however there is a minor thing I noticed really early on. When I entered the very first building I had the character close their eyes right before another character appeared on screen. This caused it so I couldn't get out of the action while they were talking, making it really difficult to read the text on the screen. 

In conclusion this has the look and premise of a good game, but there are a few things that keep it from being excellent. It took me an hour and ten minutes to complete the demo, this isn't because the demo is particularly long, but rather because it's needlessly difficult. Looking past the difficulty and frustration I faced, the game is good, the art-style is excellent, the atmosphere and environments are dark and dreary, and match the tone of the game perfectly. It's an enjoyable, albeit frustrating experience at times.

I hope you don't mind but I made a let's play video of my time with the demo over on my channel.

Cheers and best of luck with further development.

Killjoy 

I'll start with what I liked about the game. The pixelated art style, it's something that always draws me in and that's no exception here, to me the game looks fantastic, there's also a very good use of colour here. I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the various characters in the game, each one has their own unique relationship and past with Smoke and the dialogue options are a nice touch. 

The overall story here is good, but very bizarre, that can either be a good or bad thing depending on who you are, to me it's a good thing as it gives the player something to think about while they explore the environments. Smoke doesn't necessarily represent the typical "drunk" depicted in a lot of media, he doesn't seem to be violent or aggressive in any way, he just appears to be a very sad bear trying to sort through his pain and anguish the only way he knows how, by drinking. Now of course this isn't always the best way to deal with pain, but I can understand where he's coming from having been in a similar position myself, I can't relate to the events in his life but I can relate to his solution. I like that I was able to connect with the main character like that in this game, even if it wasn't what was intended.

I don't have any complaints about the game and I'm happy to report that I didn't run into any bugs or errors while playing

I do however have a question. One of my viewers was wondering if the dialogue choices throughout the game have any weight on the overall ending, like if you choose to be aggressive with everyone do they hurt Smoke and then maybe he realizes he needs help or something? 

All in all this was a bizarre and interesting game, one that made me think and one that allowed me to connect with a character in a way I didn't think I would. Very good work here.

I hope you don't mind but I made a let's play video of my time with the game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy 

I'll start with what I liked about the game. The premise is really interesting, I can't think of too many games where you play from the killer's point of view and are tasked with cleaning up your crime scene, so you definitely get props for originality. The visuals of the game are nice, though a few things like the character model look a tad bit off to me. I liked the somewhat tense atmosphere of the game, listening to the walkie-talkie to try and gauge how much time you have left based off the chatter of the police (though I'm not sure if getting caught is a possibility) is a bit thrilling to me.

There were just a couple of things I didn't like or rather, things I wish were done better. First off is the mouse sensitivity, despite raising it in the menu it felt as if it made no difference in the game, I had to go and raise my mouse DPI to get the movement to an acceptable level. Second, and I see that others have mentioned this as well, I'd love for there to be more things to interact with, I was actually getting really into the scene and was sad that it ended up being so short.

All in all I enjoyed the game. It looks good, the premise is excellent and it actually made me feel as though I was in the scene. I just wish it could've been longer but I understand that time constraints and other things can prevent that.

I hope you don't mind but I made a short let's play of the game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy    

The teaser of course doesn't tell too much, but it does show that the game is gorgeous and runs fairly well. It also shows that you're able to create a suspenseful and creepy atmosphere, the beer can being kicked near me and the sobbing coming from the walls all threw me off and sent shivers down my spine in the best way possible. 

As a proof of concept this is great, can't wait to see what you'll be giving us with a full demo!

I hope you don't mind but I made a short let's play of the game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

I'll start with what I liked. The visuals, the game looks really good, I played it on the max settings from the drop down list at 1440p, and everything looked great. The atmosphere is also a strong point here, from the get go I didn't feel safe wandering around the house, and that was  only elevated by the changes to the environment, it also helps that a lot of the sounds used were excellent. I also loved the attention to detail in some of the environments, particularly the dark room, and the living room. The story overall seems interesting, and I could somewhat piece together what was happening, though a little more context wouldn't hurt.

I'll now go over a few things I didn't like. The lack of voice acting is definitely a hindrance, I understand that that's not really a fair complaint but it really would go a long way. The game's performance at times was wonky, I'm 99% certain it's related to my choice of graphics and resolution, so this is a very minor thing.  

All in all this is a solid demo. As a horror game it is great, visuals and atmosphere are nailed and the little details in the environments are certainly appreciated. Just throw some voice acting into the mix and I think you'll have a very well rounded package here.

I hope you don't mind but I made a let's play of my time with the demo.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

I've always been a fan of the pixel art style when it comes to games, and that's no exception here, the art is fantastic. Even though the game takes place in one single area/scene there's a lot of detail packed into it, things that you may not notice if you aren't paying close attention. The story is a roller coaster ride and I love it, it starts out innocent enough but there are some weird twists and turns throughout it, and the fact that there's 8 endings to game really shows the work that went in to making sure this story was great. The game made me think a lot, especially towards the end where I tried to put myself in the main character's shoes, it was a really interesting experience overall.

The only thing I didn't like was the lack of save states, in visual novels (especially ones with a lot choices) you're offered at least a few save slots so that it makes it easier to go back and see the different outcomes, I know it would be a bit tricky to pull off depending on the engine you've used but I feel like it would be a major asset to have.

All in all the game is great, it looks good, plays well and has an interesting story to back it up. I would highly recommend giving this game a shot.

I hope you don't mind but I made a short let's play of my time with the game.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

This was a really interesting take on a 'psychological evaluation' I liked how things were presented, instead of listing off the questions and having the player answer them, the approach of having the player look around for the different dioramas and presenting the questions that way with a visual representation is quite nice. 

The visuals of the game are a huge plus, every looks fantastic, though the blurring/depth of field effect is a little too high for my liking. I liked the variety of questions asked, some of them are a lot more complex when you start breaking them apart, and the visual representations feed into that more. It definitely made me think.

There wasn't anything that hindered my experience, everything seemed just fine.

I hope you don't mind but I recorded a short 'let's play' of the game for my channel.

Cheers and best wishes.

Killjoy

Hi there, thank you for contacting me about your game. I'll be giving a quick review here, mostly going over the things I liked and didn't like.

I'll start off with what I liked. The game is very pretty, I love the lighting effects used, and the warmth of the colours is very inviting, it gives a somewhat relaxed feeling despite the circumstances. I found the atmosphere/tone of the game to very well done, you can immediately tell that there's more going on underneath the surface but the game slowly builds up to it, which is nice. The story is pieced together fairly well, I like when a game can tell a story through the use of it's environment, and I'd say that's done well here. The sounds used throughout the game are good as well, from the splashing of the waterfall to the hoo of an owl, everything sounded nice, though a tiny bit too loud at times, but that may have just been my headphones.

Now for what I didn't like. It wasn't easy getting the game to record properly, I have a dual monitor setup, my primary monitor is 2560x1440 and my secondary monitor is 1920x1080, it seemed as though the game was locked to a 1080p resolution and full-screen. Any time I tried to force windowed mode the game would revert back to full-screen after pressing 'enter' on the title screen, causing my second monitor to shift my capture applications around. A graphics options menu would have been lovely and would have saved about 20-30 minutes of fiddling around if I was just able to change the resolution and or window mode properly. 

All in all, I tried not to let the technical issues spoil the game for me, it really is a lovely experience to be had, the game is breathtaking and the environments have been crafted with a lot of care, with details packed into each scene. The issues I experienced would likely only happen to people with similar setups as me, trying to record the game as well. 

As mentioned, I recorded a short let's play of the game for my channel, hope you don't mind.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy

The art used throughout the game is great and very well drawn. The song used throughout the game, while a slight bit repetitive, is quite fitting for the subject matter. 

I'm so used to writing very critical reviews here, I try to break everything down and be as detailed as I can...but in this case I find it very difficult. This is such a personal and highly emotional story, each person is going to relate to it in a different way, and if they haven't gone through something similar I'm confident that you've conveyed the feelings and thought processes of someone going through such an ordeal extremely well. 

So thank you for being brave enough to share your story with the world, it's not something a lot of people would be willing to do.

I hope you don't mind but I made a "let's play" of your game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes to you,

Killjoy

I’ll start off with the things I liked. The game is visually appealing, it feels like a rather simplistic style at first but it really caught my attention with the use of bright red cherry blossoms, it adds a nice contrast to the otherwise dark environment. The art style of the images in the beginning and end of the game is also very good. The story, while a tad bit confusing, is interesting once you piece it all together, the lack of spoken or even written words makes this a bit tricky though, but I still enjoyed it. Lastly, I liked the overall atmosphere and the way things are presented to the player.

There is one glaring issue that slapped me right in the face immediately, the game’s brightness, it’s turned up so high that at times I could barely tell what was happening in some scenes, though the still images are just fine. A more minor issue I found was with the camera, I have no issue with the fixed camera perspective but at times it follows the character closely when it shouldn’t, like when entering some classrooms, the camera sticks to the character, but with others it follows the character from outside the classroom, I feel that this creates some awkwardness as the player has a high chance of getting stuck on something or lost, given the amount of objects in a room. As I said, a very minor thing but for some reason it stood out to me as an issue.

All in all, as an undergraduate project this is good. A bit of polish and some brightness/contrast correction and you’ve got yourself an interesting and spooky game.

I hope you don’t mind but I made a let’s play video of the game over on my channel.

Cheers and best wishes,

Killjoy