itch.io

If I could sum up my feelings about this in one word, it would be "potential".

I love a good little walk around a spooky house, and to its credit, while I wouldn't necessarily call this house "spooky", it definitely feels lived in, giving it a sense of authenticity that, were it peppered with more scares throughout, would make for a legitimately scary experience. 

That is probably the key issue I had with the experience, there really is no sense of tension until the very end. Yes, it's mysterious that a vhs tape suddenly appeared on the doorstep, but it doesn't necessarily invoke a sense of dread that whatever left it there is somehow malevolent. Looking out the windows, I expected to catch a glimpse of something menacing, something that would give me the sense that danger lurked just outside of the house, but all I saw was the empty garden. Building tension and establishing a sense of impending threat early on is really important to this sort of game, but having just the one instance of something peeking around a corner at the very end (which can be missed if you accidentally walk into the good ending like I did) left me feeling more confused than frightened.

It also didn't help that, in my playthrough, the television didn't display anything when I put the tape in, leaving me confused until I checked the YT channel and saw what it was supposed to say. I think delivering a message like that, which provided context for why I should be afraid, would have been much more effective at the beginning, as by the time it happens in the basement, the game is almost over.

One thing that I did like was the monster design, simple but effectively creepy at a glance which helped the one instant of it appearing around the corner really land as a scary moment. If it had had more chances to appear, this would have worked immensely in its favor, so that aspect was definitely not lacking.

What I see here is a good grasp of visual design and aesthetics, a believable house, a spooky monster, but what needs improvement is how the experience is constructed. Taking time to really consider what elements of horror games make them work beyond just visuals, focusing on how they establish stakes and build tension, even across a very short runtime, could really elevate any future projects because the passion and potential are definitely evident, and I'm curious to see what more time and experience may lead to.

This one stood out to me as I am a huge fan of RPG Maker projects that really explore the potential of the medium, and for such a short experience, this manages to do so in spades.

The first thing that grabbed me was the design of the characters. Each one, even those placed in inaccessible areas, just exude charm and intrigue that gave me a very clear sense of who they are, even before interacting with them. My favorite was probably the guard, whose clenched teeth and eyeless face hidden behind a magazine gave off such a perfect vibe of "flunky barely engaged in their work" while still giving off an air of legitimate menace.

I also enjoyed the writing a lot, especially with how well it fit with the absurd and unique tone of the visuals and narrative while being infused with authentically amusing humor and, in the conclusion, sentimentality. Humor can be an incredibly hard thing to pull off, but this consistently landed for me and had me smiling throughout.

I am struggling to think of anything negative about the experience. I would've liked there to have been something more to heeding the receptionist's warning and trying to exit the video world I suppose, but that would just be icing on an already excellent cake. Perhaps that's the one downside, I could have happily spent so much more time in this little world, but that's to be expected of a game jam.

Also would have liked to be able to comfort the ground whenever I liked, but otherwise, excellent game, definitely a favorite!

This one's tough, as I feel like there's a lot of potential in this idea of a mall with an entire level abandoned and left to rot while a new floor is built on top of it as some desperate act of hubris on the part of its owner. The main issue for me is, it doesn't really feel like a space that used to be a mall, it's just The Backrooms, something which I've experienced countless times at this point, and beyond the legitimately interesting narrative framing, this doesn't seem to do anything new with the concept.

Admittedly, I didn't play to the end, as the long lead-up of wandering indistinct halls and reading notes before the monster even first appears didn't give me much motivation to try again once I died. Also, despite what the notes implied, the monster seemed completely undeterred when I returned to a lit area, ultimately causing my death. I think adding some sort of distinct set piece early on, even something as simple as a sign displaying the name of the mall left in disrepair, would have done a lot to add some sorely needed intrigue and helped set the stage for the rest of the experience.

That all being said, what glimpses of the monster I got, I really liked. It's appearance and the uncanniness of its animation certainly made it feel like something worth fleeing from!

I feel like this concept really has wings, exploring a structure built by someone trying to bury the past in order to reach their vision of the future, and given more time, I believe it could really be shaped into something special, but as it stands, I don't see the uniqueness of that concept fully reflected here.

While this definitely felt like an exercise in learning the fundamentals of making a horror game, there was still a lot of charm to it. 

Not sure if it was intentional, but having the titular specter pop up every few seconds to scream at me gave me a good chuckle as I think an absurdly timed jumpscare can be just as entertaining as a well-timed one. It certainly wasn't boring!

Switching to the robot antagonist in the second level was a bit disappointing as I'd grown to enjoy the specter's company, and it seemed a bit easy to avoid, but it didn't really detract from my overall experience.

A solid effort, and am very curious to see what else you do with this genre in the future!

A solid little Slender-like which I'm always glad to see.

I was pleasantly surprised by the design of the monster, managed to make a really cool looking machine-creature with distinct features despite the visual limits of the low-poly style. Only gripe would be that, if I didn't intentionally go back and let it get me, I might have never seen it. I'm not sure if there was anything that changed its speed or behavior as more pieces were picked up, but it seemed incredibly easy to avoid throughout the whole playthrough.

I also really liked how you mixed up where in each structure the parts were located. At first I thought it would be too easy and straightforward, just follow each light and grab a part, but when I started finding them inside the structures, with the one that had me having to find the trapdoor and popping up in an otherwise inaccessible house actually stumping me for a bit.

The one aspect that did provide some definite tension was having to re-assemble the car one part at a time which inevitably forced me to be in one place long enough for the monster to catch up. Though it was pretty easy to kite away, buying me some breathing room, the little detail of having to open the hood to place the last couple parts meant I couldn't simply run by it, slapping parts on as I went which helped give the last moments a real sense of urgency.

All-in-all, a fun experience!

Is there any way to change the resolution? I can only see Load Game and Options on the main menu with everything else cut off and trying to look through the game's directory, I can't seem to find any sort of config file.