itch.io

I have a collection on Itch I use as a queue for games that I've found interesting or have been recommended to me. Sometimes it takes me months or even years to get to a game. I have no recollection of when I added Black Room into it. I played it over two nights way past midnight while dealing with some insomnia. I feel like that was the ideal experience.

This was great! I especially liked your reflections on playing alone as a kid - the way that expands your world by so much when so much else tries to shrink it (or at least that's my takeaway). I also really appreciated your devlogs - read them post-game and it's nice to see your thought process behind some of this, though a lot of it is felt through the game. A shame that even now the industry sees no meaningful change. Lots to unpack here and I suspect this'll be on my mind for a while. Thank you for making this!

This was so well executed - for such a personal story, there is so much going on in terms of interactivity and agency to transport the player to this alternate reality. It was hard to play through but I'm glad I did. Thanks for making this!

Wow. Best science fiction game I've played all year, and hands down best farming sim I've played, ever. The setting is so realized and you do so much with so little. This was great, thank you for making it!

Just finished it with all endings, and wow. This was the most intense one yet from you! The combat was brutal to begin with, and I lost several times until I... uh... stopped fighting and just messed around in the world and found that you gotta spend money to make money. But by the time that clicked, I was so distracted by how expansive the world was it was a wholly different experience. The themes explored here are I think also messier than your other games? But you do them a lot of justice!

I think there's only one thing I missed, which is what to do with the crate key. I at least don't think I used it anywhere, but I could be wrong? Everything else I've accounted for. 

As usual, thanks so much for making this!

Most Lynch-inspired games/media falls short, either in terms of sticking too close to Lynch's work and just mimicking it, or going the other direction and just not having enough substance to back up the dream logic and feeling a bit random.

Not this game. Though "inspired by David lynch's works", it's wholly its own thing, exploring its own concepts and doing so in a really interesting setting that fits in with what you'd expect out of a video game.

The game gets a bit meta but remains grounded in story and setting and the characters presented in it are great. Really interesting concept.

Thank you for making this!

Pretty cool concept!

I think I play these games in part just to see that high five at the end. Great job as always!

Played the demo on the HPS1 demo disc a while back and I was blown away by the production value. Got to say, the full game blows even my heightened expectations out of the water! I absolutely love how you handle the "monsters", each one feels unique and also human, to a degree. Their animations are so good and having them talk to you and give you instructions and going into different states is super fun gameplay.

Also really dig the splashes of surrealism all over the place. I think some games (and other media!) can really overdo it and just make everything "weird", but in this case it was deftly handled. I also liked how the story came together in the end! All in all, one of the best horror games I've played in a while!

This game is astonishingly beautiful! I like all the attention to detail like having the kid blink, and like someone else mentioned the cave at night is absolutely gorgeous, well done! The fishing was also engaging enough that I forget that this was supposed to be a spooky game until the glow appeared. I also liked the writing, with the kid not knowing the names of some of the weirder fish and the trader being weird and too paranoid. Thank you for making this!

I really like the style of the Cursed Travels games! I don't know how to explain it well, but I really dig the sort of quiet vibe the games ooze. Everything feels very hush hush and the magic of the world feels very muted, if that makes sense? I think you've got a real good sense on how to push that style with minimal effort, like when the lights turn off as the travelers move past houses at the beginning. It just sets the tone so well. Can't wait to play more of these!

Your games have been some of the freshest puzzles I've played in a while! I love how the logic in this one builds on top of itself as you learn the rules. Pretty great going from "How did I even get to the well" to "okay, if I turn counter clockwise, walk down until I hit the tower, turn clockwise, go back and forth through each exit...". Never felt fully stumped but definitely felt challenged! Great game, thanks for making it!

Awesome, thanks for the recs, will be sure to check them out!

Wow, I really loved this. I came in blind on a recommendation and everything about this is so great? The maze-like game is pretty fun and though the puzzles are light they're all very satisfying. And wow, the art style! The silhouette of the protagonists does so much work. And ugh, that high five at the end, 10/10. Thank you for making this! I see from some of the comments below that some of your games can be imagined to be in the same fiction and I'm a huge sucker for that so I might need to play them when I get a chance!

As others have said, this is a great little metroidvania! I really liked the upgrades you get, it kept me guessing as to how I'd be able to surpass an obstacle later down the line. My only gripe with the game was that the pause between screens can throw you off (especially when you're trying to jump to the top of a screen and jetpack on the next one). Overall, though, this was really fun and different locations were very memorable so I didn't feel like I was lost at any point despite the sprawling nature of the level.

Thanks for making this!

Really liked the specific details of the game, I think horror is best when it's about a specific incident with an unlikely protagonist. I also really, really appreciate the fact that walking up and down stairs is different from regular walking. Tiny detail but it does a lot to ground you in the place. I wish there was a bit more interactivity, though. Nothing too major, just more scenes similar to the "check out the house" one. As it is, a lot of the scenes just felt like I was watching a movie with slight control over the camera. Not necessarily a bad thing (there's a lot to be said about "passive" interactivity like choosing how close you walk to Marcus, what to focus on, etc) but there was just too much of that for my own tastes. Can't wait to see what the next episode holds!

Was a huge fan of Myth Bearer and I was really pleased to see Deep Rune have the same puzzle-y nature even though it's fairly distinct as its own game. I guess Myth Bearer felt more like a tight puzzle with few solutions and Deep Rune feels more like an open-ended puzzle box, which I really like!

I especially liked the absolutely bonkers magic spells you get access to late in the game, like everything that I was struggling to unlock earlier just clicks into place and it's a wonderful feeling.

I really like the puzzle combat of both Myth Bearer and Deep Rune, where enemies aren't exactly a threat as much of an obstacle and trying to figure out which enemies you can take out before the next level up is the entire thing. I think you're really onto something with that. Thanks for making this!

I tried playing this a few months ago and after the first few minutes I realized I needed to set some time aside to truly engage with it. Just did so today. It's great! Very much in the vein of what I imagine interactive theater to be (my anxiety stops me from going to any real life interactive theaters!). Piecing together the people and story and choosing who to follow really adds a lot to the piece. Through the first cycle I actually thought Lio was somewhat sympathetic if deluded by a corpo mindset, but as I followed him through the next couple of cycles I just... God. These characters are really well-written!

I also really love the collage aspect of the thing. Is it bad that I immediately recognized where Ozymandias' legs come from? Either way, the collage aspect makes it feel even more like a play? Like you dressed up a set and these are all actors that are dressed up to clearly indicate their archetypes.

Thank you for making this!

Played this over two nights of insomnia. I really liked it! I liked the school setting, distorting a familiar location, especially one where you're not supposed to be there at that hour. I don't know if I'd call it spooky, but it definitely feels... halloween-y if that makes sense? The idea of being a kid out at night, pointing a flashlight at shadowy figures just feels like a very halloween thing.

The weapons all feel very different from each other and it takes a while to adjust to one and for most of the game I didn't have a definite favorite, going back and forth between them based on what cryptids I was fighting.

And the cryptids are great! I love the light mechanic as it makes you guess as to what cryptid you're going to see next and it does keep you on edge a bit. And each cryptid feels very unique and needed different strategies to take them out effectively. I also love how open the game is, I'm pretty sure I cheesed the backflip to get to areas that would have been much easier to get to a little later in the game and the monsters were much harder than what I was encountering.

Finished the game with 416 cryptids defeated and all pages retrieved. Not sure where the last 4 are, but I think they might be Sneaks that I missed somewhere. The only other thing I didn't get was the thing at the top of the clocktower. I know one character says that at some point you can break spikes, but to my knowledge none of the stuff I picked up allowed me to break them.

My only gripe was the controls. Especially in the beginning it was difficult for me to control the character and even later in the game it wasn't clear to me when my character would face the other direction or just walk backwards. I think I got the hang of it in the end but I still had moments were I thought my character would turn but didn't.

Overall, great game! Had a lot of fun with it.

Ah, haha, I see, guess I got that ending then. I guess my path took me to the tablets first and the book there talked about the other item and so I tried to find it. Great game, had a lot of fun with it!

Yeah, I found all the tablets and got the thing that was behind their door, but I thought it was used in the shields & serpents ending with the other item. Does it have a use elsewhere? Also just out of curiosity, was the shields and serpents puzzle a thing that you retroactively added to Tower of Gargax? Or was it some 4D chess type move where you had it in there from the get-go?

Just finished it and got one of the alternate endings (shields and serpents). Honestly what a wonderful game. The placement of the puzzles feels really well thought out, making me go "aha!" every few minutes as I found out a way to deal with something I saw 15 minutes ago. The shields and serpents puzzles were devious but it was such a rush when I finally figured them out (with help from the comments here).

I'm assuming there's another ending that has something to do with the secret form that you don't need to finish the bestiary, but I haven't been able to figure out where to use it. Any hints on that?

Just wanted to jump on this thread and say thanks as well! This is probably the most inventive and playful game I've played since Wilmot's Warehouse. There's so much to do and see and the way the game encourages you to explore just feels so good. The way the puzzles are threaded together between locations is pretty neat and got me feeling pretty smart whenever I managed to figure out a solution. So yeah, thanks for making this, it was great!

Ah, that's unfortunate but I really enjoyed what was there. Great show from everyone involved!

Got it, thanks. Overall, love what's presented so far! I think the only thing I struggled with is that it wasn't clear that you could squint with the triggers. Looking forward to see the rest of it!

Love the game, the place feels very alive and I love all the different ways you can interact with the house. I'm a little bit stuck right now, though. I know I have to get to a certain corridor, and I think it has something to do with the sound I'm hearing at the metronome, but I'm not sure how those two are linked, or what the sound signifies. Any hints?