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Best bits: It's great to see a fully-fledged story in an RPG Maker title. It's clear you put a lot of effort into the character art and setting up a narrative with a three act structure. It's fun to have a game with a bit of drama, so I enjoyed the villain's arc, even if I should have seen it coming with the title! 

Ideas: Having a surreal and bizarre place the players enter from the normal world is a tricky thing to pull off. I liked how the characters deconstructed the logic of it. It would be fascinating to understand how it works a little more. What powers did she use to create this evil world to punish the others? 

Thanks for submitting the game to the jam! 

Best bits: Other than the Madden games, gridiron is a neglected goldmine of gameplay mechanics. I like the focus on the cumulative runs, making each round of gameplay add up, and the variable difficulty settings, helping players get a better feel for the control scheme. 

Ideas: Feedback on when players are doing things right or wrong can help them improve at the game. It isn't clear sometimes when a down is caused by a rear collision or a time limit. Maybe an indicator for out-of-view enemies or increasing the field of view could help with this.

Thanks for submitting the game to the jam! 

Best bits: Making a golf game is a very difficult undertaking. It's physics-based and fiddly. Creating a workable golf game in a short amount of time is a great achievement. There are some fun design twists to the various holes, such as barriers and exposed parts of the course. 

Ideas: Have a look at how other 3D golf games help the player understand how much control they have over a shot. Some ideas you might like to try include having the camera follow the ball, using the mouse to set the trajectory, and having more visuals to predict the ball's direction! 

Thanks for submitting this game to the jam! 

Best bits: This is an amusingly morbid variation on a classic genre in the sports game that reminds me of early NES games. Local two-player co-operative games are a great idea to explore how to create competitive game mechanics without having to get too technical with an AI. 

Ideas: There's a great  foundation here to build on a sports game. Think about about how games like Pong keep the pace of the game fast and fair. How could the puck behave to help keep the movement more consistent? And what could happen when a point is scored to make it fairer?  

Thanks for submitting this game to the jam! 

Best bits: This is a strangely contemplative and eerie game. I found the experience of rising dread as the others disappeared and the obstacles became more ominous was highly effective.  It works well in leaving the real sense of horror to the player's fertile imagination! 

Ideas: The game has a good approach to passive gameplay with a fairly clear fail state. However, a player might like to know how well they're doing in a run so they don't abruptly get swallowed up by the God of the River. How could a player know if they are falling behind or are ahead? 

Thanks for submitting this game to the jam! 

Best bits: The game is a minimalistic interpretation of a sports title. The idea to minimise the use of a graphical interface is innovative and reminiscent of the creativity of early computer games to convey things in a non-visual way. I liked the country-based stats to add a bit of a Winter Games theme. 

Ideas: The biathlon is an endurance challenge that involves a long stretch of action. Finding ways to keep the gameplay unpredictable and varied can keep the player interested and motivated to complete the gameplay loop. Maybe some QTEs during the skiing could keep players on their toes!  

Thanks for submitting the game to the jam! 

Best bits: The game is a ping-pong tennis title with a interdimensional twist. The addition of voice acting subverts the concept and adds a bit of humor to the experience.  After all, ping pong to save the fabric of reality carries a few more stakes than an average game of ping pong in the garage! 

Ideas: Ping pong physics are quite hard to nail perfectly. The use of increasing speed and difficulty could make the pace more exciting for players. In a longer experience, an interesting design choice would be to figure out how to make the game slowly more difficult without making it inaccessible. 

Thanks for submitting the game to the jam! 

Not gonna rate this one so it can be fair - but I absolutely love this pessimistic depiction of the ultimate end of labour under capitalistic exploitation and the doomed social structures it will engender. An effective metaphor for the toil of the labourer as death in the sense that the worker makes many sacrifices to capital - whether it be having an allergic reaction, poisoning oneself, or falling down a chute that is very big and also under a carpet for some reason. A beautiful nightmare.

Thanks for submitting Dropping Into Work to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This role-playing game is quite an open-ended ruleset acting as a platform to tell collaborative stories based on crew missions in a sci-fi setting. I like the simplicity but fairly wide scope of the die-roll gameplay and the latitude given to both DM and players. There are certainly a lot of gaps that could be filled but there's something appealing about having general principles to navigate things like action success, combat and health. I like the sheer amount of flavour you've added and it really evinces your passion for creating fun settings. I'd love to hear how this goes if you play it with others!

Thanks for submitting Cerebrus Reach to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is probably the most elaborate interactive fiction piece submitted for the jam! I like how you use the interactive features of Twine to elaborate on certain characters or settings mentioned in-text to provide better context to the reader if they so wish. I think the commitment to the setting is admirable and I like the imagery you conjure of the mall. It's also really interesting to see the parallel narrative told in flashbacks resolve itself in the climax of the story and provide the player with a meaningful dilemma to resolve, although I didn't quite expect where the 'defy' choice would go! 

As far as constructive feedback, from a writing perspective, I think the only thing to pick up on is using dialogue as exposition. It's important to balance use of dialogue to convey realistic interaction of characters and as a sort of delivery method for the story, which can sometimes seem quite artificial. But this is just a minor point - I think you have a lot of talent and the story is very well-written! 

Thanks for submitting Sweat Like Drops of Blood to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

As a game composed in twelve hours this is a great fusion of jamming with the 'flash fiction' tradition. I love Twine as a platform and the interactive potential offers. This story is fitting for the jam and offers a surreal and disjointed journey confronting a number of twisted mythological and just plain odd characters. I think the game works well as a dreamlike vignette. The inclusion of multiple endings is great - I ultimately was able to climb into the mirror and reach a resolution to the story with my doppelganger. From a writing perspective, this is a great achievement for flash fiction, but if you continue with this model of composing, I'd encourage ways to explore creating a more structured narrative, as this may be able to explore core ideas in more depth. But as a horror experience, confronting a surrealistic set of random disturbing images and characters works well. Good job! 

Thanks for submitting You Are Alone in a Dark Room to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a simple but effective collectathon! The surroundings have a real MC Escher-like quality to them that is perfect for the running and jumping action that creates the fun and action in the game. I think being pursued by mindless skeletons is pretty freaky, but I appreciate the inclusion of lots of stairs and platforms to trick their pathfinding and get the one-up on them. I think an avenue to restore health could be useful to add a bit more depth to the game. Otherwise, good work for a first game! 

Thanks for submitting Sangre to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Okay so this is like The Mummy except actually scary instead of with comical CGI. I like that there's a bit of challenge with the stealth mechanics and the issue of lighting adding an extra threat to the player's sense of mobility. The game looks great and nails the ancient Egyptian tomb aesthetic quite well. I think one thing is that player sense of direction can be tricky, especially with a finite amount of assets to demarcate unique rooms. That said, getting lost in the tomb is part of the horror I guess! 

Thanks for submitting Cursed Gold to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a really well-thought out survival horror game. It reminds me of all the games inspired by Ao Oni and the idea that the player is trapped in a house with a very mobile monster out for blood. I think this game uses its side-scrolling design quite well. The monster itself is very uniquely designed and the way it dominates the screen and requires very quick action to avoid is a lot of fun. I think, feedback-wise, starting out with a more forgiving challenge that then increases as the game progresses could be useful. Ao Oni is a good model for using the monster pursuit mechanic in different ways, actually.

Regardless, it's very clear this game is the product of a lot of effort and skill. Great work with it! 

Thanks for submitting Walueke in the Darkness to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Old-fashioned fixed perspective games are always really neat! As naver mentioned, the Resident Evil and Silent Hill vibes are palpable. This game is a little more updated in its aesthetics and design using the Unreal engine. I like how the game uses notes to guide the player a little more consistently through play, which is helpful, particularly given the precise demands of the control scheme. I think that this is a game with a lot of potential to expand and continue working on what you have. If you go down that direction, others have provided some great advice. My little addition is that the UI contrasts a little with the visual polish and style, and could be designed a little more cleanly. 

Great work!

Thanks for submitting Wicked Woods to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is an inventive horror puzzle game that really carves out a unique niche! It's a game that somehow conjures Myst as much as it does classic horror fare. I think this is a strength because puzzles are the least expected thing coming into a game as eerie as this! They're done quite well too - I particularly like the simple clock-based puzzle to open doors, just like Myst, quite incidentally!

The look of the game is great. I like the fuzzy VHS style filters you use here. The limited view distance and the flickering effect that impacts the lighting makes the game constantly fraught with unease. 

The overarching 'father time' theme of the game is also quite unorthodox and adds a unique flair to the game. I would have loved a little more context or narrative to the game, but as a self-contained experience this is pretty solid as a whole. I guess you could say I spent a lot of time playing this game!

Thanks for submitting Hours to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a pretty damn wild game and definitely one of the full-out gorier submissions I've seen in the jams. I think the commitment to the guts and gore is brilliant! I do think it was great to have furnished the environment with some context and story. A cult ritual gone wrong is a spot-on horror trope, but I like how you made it your own by mingling a post-apocalyptic element to the story. The nuance of the game was great too - it was refreshing to not have an intense game that didn't have a monster per se!

Feedback-wise I think there's only a few things I can identify for constructive criticism. I think more diverse environmental storytelling could be helpful instead of the same notes everywhere. Kind of like how in Bethesda games you see skeletons strewn about and can piece the story as to what happened from their surroundings. Exploring different texts and sources of narrative can be highly rewarding.

Thanks for submitting The Cult Below to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

As others have said, I love the low-res approach to the game and think the execution is quite good, particularly as the environment isn't too cluttered. The game has a stark, eerie, empty quality that I actually like, as I wasn't quite sure what to expect. And lo and behold, I didn't imagine the game would take place in a more cosmic direction! I feel there is a lot of potential to flesh out the idea, but as it stands it is an interesting, unusual, and eerie game that I enjoyed playing quite a bit. Good work!

Thanks for submitting But Fear Itself to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

It's great to see the continuing tradition of visual novels play a major presence in jams. I think this is a unique idea - to have a series of horror vignettes means a lot more variety and also more shorter, punchy and impressionable stories. I liked how the two stories were tonally different, one creepy and the other scary. They also harnessed Ren'Py in a very effective way and made the most of the platform. I also think the hand-drawn assets were quite cutely-done and would love to see more! 

I think from a writing perspective the only feedback is that there could be more potential to flesh out (pun intended) the narrative after the twists in the story. I would have loved to know what the deal with the toilet monster was, or the story behind getting preserved alive. But regardless these are very dark and inventive stories and I can't wait to see what comes of the next ones you make!

Thanks for submitting Horror Clip to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

I love the idea of this game! Its framing device as being a fruitless internship is a nice satire of the forms in which employment relationships can be exploited to extract labour for free. The hollow aphorisms of the monitoring bots and the endless rows of cubicles get the ironic message across really well. I think that this game definitely embodies a great fit for the theme of this jam. 

As you've already identified by providing a guide, the game isn't quite self-explanatory and does need a little context to understand how to play. Perhaps an in-game tutorial text, or some more illustrative design could guide the player to figure out what each bot needs. Nonetheless, great work with this!

Thanks for submitting Thank You For Your Interest In Our Company to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Sortium is a subtle but interesting little game about the dark underside of competition up the corporate ladder. I like the slow pacing and how it draws out the drudgery of office life. The inclusion of some adventure game elements, such as the ability to inspect items, carries a lot of potential. And the fact that this is executed with combat mechanics too for a jam game is pretty damn impressive!

The highlight of this game is obviously the PS1-era graphics and the use of low-poly meshes, fixed perspective frames and the classic 3D adventure game control scheme. I think that these are a great way to evoke atmosphere. That said, for feedback I'd make sure that the static frames don't cut off text, as well as ensuring that character movement and combat isn't too hindered by the controls.

This has a lot of potential. It would be nice to learn even more about the corporation and have a narrative be brought out of this strange but charming game. Great work with this! 

Thanks for submitting Sortium to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Good work creating a Scratch game for the jam! This has a pretty simple avoidance/chase mechanic but I like how doggedly the green 'immortal zombie' chases the player. I think a points/time counter might motivate the player to replay and try to survive for a longer duration. Good work!

Thanks for submitting Undead Enemy: Immortal Zombie to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This looks like the foundation of a cool crafting-style game. As others have observed, there isn't a lot that can be done at the moment as there aren't clear controls. But as a WIP I hope you continue working with this idea as I like the Don't Starve style of survival crafting game very much! 

Thanks for submitting Survival of the Fittest to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

I know this is a WIP, but the foundation for something great is here. I love the use of extreme lighting effects to create a very otherworldly and surreal environment. After a bit of wandering I was surprised to find that the game really does take place on a quite large sphere, I think? I got as far as the arch. I can imagine a really awesome planet exploration/survival game coming out of this and I think you have all the essential components to make that right here! It's a super promising idea for a game!

Thanks for submitting DeepCore Inc. to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Hospital Research makes good use of one of the most iconic horror settings of all time - the hospital. The assets here that you've made are simple but effective and convey the setting really well. There is a lot of potential in this game with the absolutely eerie atmosphere of exploring an (almost!) abandoned hospital interior. I like the introduction which provided some neat narrative context as well. 

For feedback, I think the main thing to keep an eye on is player navigation. I think the field of view is small and the interior large enough to get a bit lost and disoriented. There's lots of ways to avert this through design such as ingame signage, a map, objective markers, or areas with distinctive graphics.

Thanks for submitting Hospital Research to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a nice little VN with some interactive qualities! I love how the game delves into the seedy underworld of grave robbing and organ harvesting quite uncompromisingly. The inclusion of multiple paths and endings to unlock gives this a lot of sustained replay value. I really like the minimal pixel presentation too, which pairs well with the music and also offsets some of the gory morbidity of it all!

Hmm, as far as feedback, I think the only thing is technical - there's a little delay with things displaying, and it's very easy to click through dialogue accidentally, especially the delay when digging. But it's such a minor issue! Regardless this plays super well and is a fun, twisted little horror narrative.

Thanks for submitting Grave Robber Incorporated to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Heritage is an interesting play on the interrogation process with a morbid twist. I like how you built this game with a murder case in mind and crafted the questioning around trying to profile the player. Giving the player simple binary choices to respond is a fun way to give them agency and allow them a little control over the path of the narrative. I think that although the endings slightly differed, there could have been a little more feedback on the impact of the choices on the outcome of the game. 

For a ten-day game this is pretty impressive and you have put together the right assets and mechanics to create a unique mood to the game. The translation wasn't too bad either!

Also, is that, you know, an actual forensic photo? 

Thanks for submitting Heritage to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Keep me posted with the resulting game! It looks like the conclusion is going to be intense!

This ain't really in the scope of the jam, but I think you're onto a good game mechanic with the 'dash' style gameplay. I think exploring the potential of upgrades could add a little longevity to the game. 

Thanks for submitting Corona Dash to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is such a bizarre game, I'm not sure where to start! It uses the RPG Maker platform in a very nice way, integrating what look like unique assets that are lovingly drawn and quite detailed. I particularly like the visual presentation in the second half of the narrative when things become...less than normal. 

The plot of the game is an interesting mixture of a moral against prosaic excesses of consumerism and self-centred bitchiness, the amusing theme of exploring the darker side of Animal Crossing, and the 'I'm Sorry Jon' memes involving Garfield turning into an eldritch horror capable of devouring souls. Wild!

I'm not quite sure what feedback to give, because the weird, disjointed, absurd vibe of the game is kind of the point, but I'd be really keen to see what original ideas and creations you have up your sleeve in future games. Good work creating something truly bizarre and memorable with this game! 

Thanks for submitting To New Horizons to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a good setup for a 2D side-scrolling horror shooter! The essentials for the game are here - including a very well-executed atmosphere with visuals and audio, and some really twisted enemies! I particularly like the egg-bursting hatchlings and the nightmare they cause if you accidentally happen to shoot them open. I like how you've also left open the potential for some context and plot with the crash-landing narrative and look forward to learning more when the finished product is completed!

For feedback, I think if you're going to have aerial enemies, having a directional shooting mechanic based on the cursor position is probably a good idea, to make the game a little more manageable.

Great work!

Thanks for submitting Planet Zuve to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is the foundation to a great horror game! I particularly like the polish with the protagonist's narration and the quality of voice acting, and the conceptual setup of a woman who notices that the undertones at her workplace are more sinister than sexism. The seeds of a really interesting narrative are here and I do love how you have placed lots of pieces of media ingame to flesh out the context of the story a little further, from clippings, notes, and photographs the player can inspect closely.

I think the only feedback comes from the time-sensitive nature of the jam, but the repetition of assets was a little noticeable. It also clashes a little slightly with the intended scope of the game taking place in the mid-nineties. But this is super minor. I think the enduring part of this game as a project is that you have a very good establishment to fully bring these ambitious ideas to life! I sincerely hope that you continue working on this so I can figure out the mysteries behind this surreal workplace! 

Thanks for submitting Overtime to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

There's some great ideas in this surreal mix between horror, shooter, and adventure game! I think that having an episodic game is great idea to carry ambitious ideas over a broader narrative. I haven't played the first part, so I didn't quite understand the direction of the story, but I certainly think the shifting tone of the plot worked well. Having a day/night cycle was a great way to build the tension, culminating in the frightening rush through the cornfields fending off absurd gravy-faced people! 

I think it's clear you've made a lot of progress in development. You have quite complex scripted sequences and camera setups, a dialogue system, multiple objectives, and a neat combat system to boot! I hope that some of these elements can come together again in a longer, self-contained experience. I still don't quite understand what I just played, but I certainly liked playing it a lot!

Thanks for submitting One Way Ticket (Ep. 2) to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a unique and very experimental idea for a game! I do love how you've taken something very minute and turned it into game mechanics without text or guidance, so the player's experience is very much self-guided. I think the biological visuals are done very well, with some great layered effects and physics with the cells going the other way down the bloodstream. I think that this is a game that is short and sweet, so I'm not feedback I can give other than a tweak to the 'game over' screen.

Good job! 

Thanks for submitting Myeloid to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a fun atmospheric horror game with some subtle visuals that work very well. I think the strength of this game is its minimalist approach. I know you said you have just started with Blender, but this is a great example of how 'less is more' can work! The use of stark white meshes, the very limited draw distance, and the fade effect on the ghosts is incredibly effective and also quite nuanced!

I like the grave-robbing mechanic, the use of notes, and the fact that the game is not an avoidance game like most of its kind. I thought it was cool that some players didn't notice the ghosts at first. The only feedback I could give is having a clearer directional objective to get the spade instead of wandering could have helped with the pacing, and some threat might add a bit of tension to the game. 

Thanks for submitting Beginner's Guide to Graverobbing to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a unique twist for a horror idea, focusing on a vampire blood management simulator. I like how this subverts the economic sim genre to create something pretty sinister! I like the idea that blood banks are used in this world as a front for vampires. The overall idea of creating a supply chain is pretty neat and I really hope you continue to develop this into a fully-fledged management game!

I think for feedback, there's a few things that could help balance the game. There are a few bugs where plopped banks don't quite behave as planned. I think adding mechanics that show a clearer relationship between depletion/accumulation of blood and money over time could create a more balanced experience too. Maybe also having a population for towns instead of wiping them out?

I'd love to hear your ideas on how you plan to take this game further!

Thanks for submitting Blood Bank to the SCREAM LITE jam!

Redundancy has a surprising degree of depth and plays very well. Its PS1-lite graphics are very well suited for the atmosphere it is going for, and the sound design is top-notch. I like the subtle hints that something is not quite right before the game literally drops you into the brink! The pacing is great and I like how the latter section of the game contrasts so sharply from the part that comes before. 

I like the framing of the game as a lowly IT guy tasked with repairing computers of a corporation that has become a little too enthusiastic about its digital automation. And the ultimate twist embraces this theme quite well with a monster that scared the hell outta me lurking in the inky depths of the basement. Overall this is a really polished experience and I hope you continue creating this stuff!

Thanks for submitting Redundancy to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

Once again the SCREAM JAMs produce really complex and engaging traditional games! I admire creators pursuing this format as it is usually a more engaging and open-ended outlet for storytelling and experiencing that many digital games struggle to achieve. It's awesome to see them in this jam! 

ARGUS has a few strengths that really make it unique. I like how you have a good balance of open-ended interpretive content in italics that gives players opportunities to have agency over their characters and ideas behind what the cryptic sections mean. I think this game works best as a vehicle for character development using the cards as a guided journey through a post-apocalyptic theme. 

I am no expert with these games and don't often get the opportunity to play them, but I do like how you've accounted for GM-less and single play. Your use of tables in the documents themselves is also a really intuitive and effective way of conveying to the player the actions to take. 

Feedback wise, hmm...I'm not sure! I think that the pacing could be fine-tuned as the 'Journey'  pregame is quite long and could limit replayability, even with the randomized cards. But I'd be so keen to hear your experiences with playing this with others and how they found the experience!

Thanks for submitting ARGUS to the SCREAM LITE jam! 

This is a darkly satirical game that plays on the concept of employee feedback that often is used in HR circles as a proxy for addressing workplace wellbeing. I interpret this game at poking fun at the futile ways companies with fundamentally unethical practices try to couch its effect on employees through using corporate speak, superficially seeking input, and trite wellbeing programs that do very little. The message of the game is delivered in a fun way and is very in tune with the horror vibe of the game jam.

I think my favorite thing about the game is the banality of the player's task. The twist really did give me a genuine surprise! If the game were to be explored further, having greater player agency or more mechanics, sort of like Papers Please, could significantly draw out the experience overall. Great work!

Thanks for submitting Your First Day at Sequoia to the SCREAM LITE jam!