itch.io

This is an amazing first project. I thought I had predicted it from the beginning with the deer-call mechanic. Hunt for a while, hear a few things, deer-call in the night, and attract bigger gaame than you could ever prepare for.

The first event caught me off guard. It defied my assumptions about the map. I assumed where I was was the main stage where everything would be happening. A grassy little platform where I'd suspend my disbelief to see a forest. I suppose I was, in a wa,y, correct about bigger gam.e, but it didn't continue with that. The next day didn't give into my expectations. And that first day only had me expecting worse. I didn't know what the hell was gonna happen. Terrifying.

this could stand to be a little more subtle lmao

this game is so easy to break

it wasn't even because I'm a dumbass, it's just very "linear"

like, I'm guessing, since this was a gsme jam entry, that it was easier to set up points where things happen and activate instead of creating the systems that would make it up.

As an example, first run. I pick up the body and put it in the heater, skin-melter whatever the fuck. Just instinctively, I close the hot coffin. I, then, can't put it on the operating table. It's not interactive.

Next run, I'm more careful of the gaame's limitations. I spam click the tenderizer to get the body quicker. I open it and close it on accident. The operating table is waiting for the body I've just locked away forever.

I don't even remember what happened this one time, but the body was on the ground and I couldn't pick it back up.

I wasn't even doing these things on purpose; I love glitching through ceilings and destroying progression, but here, I was just trying to play.

it annoys me that the shit doesn't have a flushing animation

the flood ending was the first one I got purely because of spam clicking frustration

in my stubborn resistance to the task at hand, i threw myself off the map

you made the cooking too good I was too pre-occupied speedrunning and preparing extra food to bother with the horror

at most my reaction was "god damn it I'm busy go away" which I think is realistic to the customer service working experience i'm ngl

Disgusting. I was made to interrupt petty thievery for nothing?

That's not even realistic or ethical practice, employee liability is far more expensive than any haul. Big L bozo

what a beautiful review

i broke it within the first 2 minutes of my playthrough (i threw the popcorn tray while messing around, got it stuck in the corner by the couch, awkwardly crouched on the little table trying to grab it and when I did, I was suddenly lifted up into the ceiling. After a little wandering, I dropped into a dark room you were never supposed to see since it was the only room without a solid top. from there, I escaped outside of the pitch black room through its incomplete wall and went out to my front porch to find the motherfucker that left a handprint on my window. This confrontation with Harold could have ended much worse.)

10/10

I may just be a bad at this, I accept that, but...

Is this maybe unfairly intense? In my experience, you don't find these monsters, they find you. You know they're upon you when that really heavy camera filter comes on and that siren is blasting.

From the perspective of an emotionless drone,

• The enemies come out of nowhere
• Blind you
• Decently quick (with 0 wind-up; if the cam effect is on, they're shmovin' at you)
• 1-Shot you

With the emotional layer, you're running away from something you can't see in layouts you're not familiar with. I'd "drive-by" to get familiar with the environment while running away to come back later if the camera effect wasn't so obnoxious.

This IS something horror gaames do, but they tend to have a stealth mechanic or something; a method of detecting and losing the monster to pick a good time to quickly get something done. Here, they feel both unavoidable AND unmanageable (from the wine cellar onwards, anyways).

I am, however, also a pussy. Take with a grain of salt.

I'm guessing cameras in Survival Mode are a work in progress? Because they're completely useless rn and having them as a focus in the tutorial is more detrimental to the player as a distraction.

Survival mode also being a completely different gaame (and the one I expected) is sort of weird? I mean, there had to be a tutorial because none of those mechanics were used in the main story, which is weird to me. I expected to be combatting this creature more.

thancc

Please make the grocery list less annoying. There's nothing gained from making it a whole thing; it's not gaameplay. Make the items bigger and easier to see (idk, maybe they have a bit of sparkle) so I don't have to scan so hard for loose JPEGs (in order) for... nothing.

that was fucking terrifying

well done

I GOT SO FAR AND GOT STUCK ON THE CAR

MY FIRST PLAYTHROUGH

SOILED

time to start over

very creepy doe, nice atmosphere and I like the interactive stuff/people

why do you release updates on Discord?

I am very dumb. I have played for, like, 30 minutes. I have no idea what to do. I don't want to blame that on the gme because, as previously established, I am stupid. But I do want to point out some of the things that keep me from wanting to learn.
I'd love to know what I'm doing here, but the footstep sounds make me want to wait out the timer sitting still (the crunchy trail SFX, anyways). I think they all need to be turned WAY down. They should be something I notice in the silence while waiting for something to happen.

And visibility. It's horror; darkness is the point, I know that. But the flashlight's on battery and I can't see even vague shapes ahead of me without it. I don't know what this problem is called, is it just that there's 0 ambient light? It just feels like the darkness and light are very harsh. Turning up my brightness only made the flashlight work better instead of balancing out the visibility.

that's it idk if this is just me problems hopefully not bye

Windows build

I don't know if it's just me but DAMN is this quiet. I couldn't hear the monologue very well. Otherwise, I liked it.

i got vaulted into the wall when i closed a door and it nabbed me. I had to close the gaame and restart.

If you ever return to this, I strongly urge you to NEVER fix the jump storage bug. Maybe work it into the movement officially, even. I just think it's neat.

Why does the king get weaker as he loses authority? In reality, makes sense. In gameplay, you start each match at an escalating disadvantage and, with luck, can eventually move on to steamroll with all your fancy new cards if you live long enough to find your footing.

Fun

Though I wish there was less RnG

I feel like if your attack has RnG baked in, then you should just weaken the effect/lengthen the cooldown. I had a crash with Poison Ivy, something about calling on effect animations. There's also the fact that Health carries over from battle to battle. I don't mean to badger you about the small details of a rough demo, but it is a little annoying to have to heal up in grind battles before taking on larger challenges if I forget to take the time to restore.

(oh and weaken regeneration down to 5-8%)

YOUR CHARACTERS ARE SO CUTE AGH

THE BOUNCY CHARACTER ANIMATION, TOO

I LOVE THEM

real

This is really cool

I think it could use re-tuning (I'm sure that's already in the works), but I think this has a lot of solid concepts. Ranged zombies were always sorely under-used and the level design here really complemented their function. It's decently challenging, too. The plant rebalancing, I think, was for the better in most cases and costumes are a great idea. The bosses were unexpected and impressive (even if the pool boss got on my nerves).

I think night could use a re-examination, though. It's where most of my complaints lie. I was really woo'd by day time, so the sudden nose-dive in lawn variety was disappointing. Fume-shroom is when a lot of the strategy dies since graves pick up to compensate for its presence. You no longer have to destroy graves to kill and their damage isn't shabby, either. So they spawn everywhere; randomly, on your plants, on your valuables, out from suspiciously sturdy necromancers, each stone with more health than a buckethead.

A lot of lawn malfunctions came from this, too. I would notice a zombie managed to get farther than the potato mine I swore I had placed only to see a grave where I placed it. I'd end up having to dig up and rearrange my lawn with my limited sun to kill this one zombie that got by on chance. My luck may just be shit, but a lot of plants I placed to prepare for waves would be suddenly destroyed by graves. Like, it wasn't uncommon for me to place a wall-nut on a packed row only for it to be buried by a headstone seconds later without warning. Or somewhere I wanted to plant was sealed up by a grave the moment I took my eyes off it. Since zombies can't be pushed back once they advance in this game, they'd end up destroying my things and I'd be slapped with a loss that I felt wasn't my fault. This makes me think you want to keep me on my toes, but instants are few and not very strong in this game and the sun to use them doesn't exist on night levels. Dealing with surprises is a hassle.

As for lawn variety, all those plants you got in the day-time are ineffective for piercing graves or way too expensive to set up. I never ended up using bowling bulb. Fume-Shroom spam was the strat. Hard-mode night became very simple when I used it. It was mind-numbing. I really wanted to use the new Peashooter costume I was given, but it wasn't long for the night.

Those are the primary criticisms I wanted to get out there. I like the difficulty. PvZ is naturally designed to be easy and approachable, so veterans have to rely on fan content for interesting play. But I think night  went about it the wrong way. I trust that other issues will be ironed out with time. Serious Watermelon is cool. Bye.

1 Playthrough: I liked this a lot. The premise itself made every interaction much scarier. The car is easy to attach to as a safe space, especially in a setting like the woods where we KNOW something has run wild. I'm sure the car was only meant as a means of transportation, but I think it adds something more. The atmosphere had me on my toes the whole time. The set-up to the ending was great, too. Spoilers, but the screaming in the woods. My gun holstering immediately told me I would have to act. The drawn out chasing of the voice leads you deep into the forest, becoming more inhuman with each yelp. Your surroundings are shrouded by bushes and trees, you're very unconfident in your ability to protect yourself. The last screech plays, deep and bloodthirsty, and you know you're in danger... And then I died. The thing is hard to spot, so I was killed. Quickly and silently. Little time was given to revel in its presence. It was fairly underwhelming to have died before I realized it. That was just my experience, though. Otherwise, very solid.

I like this! It's cute. I know it's not finished, but at least considering its state right now (A menu that simply says "play" and an incomplex wave survival with 17 enemies), getting your desired build can be difficult. I feel like maybe for each 5th round, a 4th card is offered so that you're more likely to get the option you'd like.

In my case specifically, I am trying very hard to get an orbital build going, but the game doesn't wanna offer it up. That + the fact that bullet speed is worthless to most other builds means I'm under-powered and gambling on my survival until I can get an orbital card or I'm sacrificing cards to empower less important parts of my kit.

The nature of the upgrade system working through random cards tells me chance is part of the experience, but it can be annoying to have your playthrough dictated by the deck. It can be hard to add anything with how ability specific cards can clog up your options (STOP OFFERING ME BLOOD MAGE CARDS, I'M HOLDING UP FINE THANK YOU)

Really well done, I was not expecting what I got. If you're reading this, you REALLY should take the 10 minutes it takes to play.