itch.io

DOOMED is an aptly named tech demo jumpscare fest that feels like 7 different maps stitched together at random. Spawn in, wander around aimlessly, waiting for loud noise, walk to loud noise, even louder noise plays, new map. The only story element to speak of is the undead horse being beaten of “it was just a dream,” only for even that element to be immediately twisted to death as you quickly discover “it was not just a dream.”

Obviously, the game is still a demo, and I am fully prepared for a lot of the issues to be blamed on that but typically what goes well in horror game demos is utilizing small snippets of each feature your game has on offer to give the players a taste of what is to come. Not an eerily similar PT clone that feels more akin to a haphazardly put-together horror map as far as visual style and controls go (those being the four directional keys and nothing else). They were average at best. If the standard for horror games was not clipping through the floor into an endless abyss, you sure managed that. 5/10.

For my full live reaction.

There is Nothing Here is a strong example of how smart design and talent can surpass a lot of engine limitations and skip the indie horror speed bump that most games hit. While not groundbreaking graphically the minimalist style used blends really well into the pacing and atmosphere. There’s not much else to say really, I wouldn’t even suggest adding more content as I think it ends just about where the concept gets old allowing for a solid 10-minute experience. Games like this make slogging through the horror tag worth it. As usual I'm going to link my playthrough below but I highly suggest that you experience it for yourself, spoiler free. 

I don't really understand what the final product is going to look like, but if it at all resembles the story beats and pt sequences already displayed I cannot exactly say that I am excited for it. My video provides more context and points out a few technical issues that could be fixed to improve the overall experience. 

Delirious is packed with tropes and horror cliches, almost to the point that it is unidentifiable from the rest of the indie horror game schlock. There’s not much point in individually listing problems as the game has been made before and remade a dozen times over. Bored Leviathan as a developer has created much more exciting and enjoyable games. I hope that you will refocus your efforts on what makes your games quirky and different, rather than just slip into the generic horror game mold of running down pitch-black hallways and forcing off-brand PT clones at the player. But in the grand scheme of things, Delirious is inoffensive, so inoffensive that it’s difficult to even comment on anything in a way that hasn’t been done a million times over. /End cynical rant. Leviathan, don’t dwell on this one; leave it as it is, and focus on creating projects that you enjoy, not just cutting and pasting random assets together with a “your character is mentally unstable storyline.” Keep up the good work, mate. For what it’s worth, my review is below. 

Furniture Service, you run across the street back and forward back and forward until you have successfully used your telepathy to steal random household appliances. In the midst of all this, the main character hallucinates a skeleton that can lift a skeleTON. The filter used over the UI is potentially the most distracting filter I have seen in any game, congratulations on that front. But as far as indie horror game trigger tests go, this could certainly be worse. Good Job.

On a more serious note, many hitboxes and invisible walls need to be addressed as I somehow came into contact with every single one. Which makes it rather hard to stay immersed when half the house you are currently moving (looting) is inaccessible due to some invisible force.

The ambiance was also lacking, outside of the non-stop buzzing from the scan lines in the video.

More cynical posturing in the video below.

Paranormal Entities may actually be a game that only suffered from technical faults, almost all the scenes and even scary moments came off as comedic, and I loved it; seriously, I could practically replay the entire game and still enjoy it as much as the first time. It takes a few digs at horror tropes while not being overly tropey itself. The only two actual complaints I have are CURSOR LOCK please, my inability to keep the mouse trapped in its box makes it a lot harder to play and maybe a more building atmosphere of scares. It seems that it’s a comedy up until we contact the spirit realm. Perhaps interspersing the building’s creaking and banging pipes leading up to the spooky stuff makes the game feel immersive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, which I never expected to say on Itch.IO, good work guys.

Minor cynical takes located in the video below.

With a few tweaks to the ghosts and maybe a slightly more maze-like map, you could have a quite fun short horror game; currently, however, it feels more like an interactive art piece that isn’t inherently bad, unless you wanted it to be a horror game. The most significant change necessary is giving the ghosts some form of ai that allows them to follow the player, maybe have that AI only kick in after you acquire the mask. This provides the player with a chance to take in the scenery and map before suddenly being snapped back into the reality of the situation. Not a bad game, just a strange one.

Gameplay below includes a few other possible changes.

Wrong Floor is an almost perfect example of short, compact 10-15 minute experiences, heavy on atmosphere and light on lore. While the game itself wasn’t scary, the one jumpscare that did get me wasn’t a stupidly loud sound effect but rather an unexpected reappearance of the main antagonist. I don’t want to spoil all the twists and turns, but essentially efficient use of ambient sound effects to imitate the feeling of being stuck in an almost maze-like basement with a huge lumbering man chasing after you.

The only downsides to the game, which are closer to nitpicks, is how the primary camera angle of the game and flashlight work; it all feels very disorienting, with an almost fisheye filter, making everything in the game look slightly off; this could really be a design choice by the developer so it’s up to them as to whether or not they fix it.

Since I enjoyed your game, you can partake in my pleasant surprise down below in the murder basement.

The Abyss is a confusing experience; nothing quite seems to follow any set pattern. Even though the first two full chapters (all 5 minutes of them) are on full display, it’s almost impossible to tell what the overarching narrative is. The worst possible case and the conclusion I came to in my video is that every chapter is supposed to be disconnected from the previous and taken as a single one-off experience, relying on the idea that the player’s character is in a coma and everything is deliberately supposed to be disconnected entirely. 

This randomness bleeds into the character design and gameplay; with the game lacking any tropes of its own, you’ll find random segments that are extremely reminiscent of other experiences that quickly fall apart into other random segments; the entire experience feels janky and devoid of immersion. However, that doesn’t make the game “bad” really, I’m interested in playing the final product, and there may be some obscure story explanation as to why everything appears so disconnected. Still, the obvious conclusion that I came to makes me worry. 

 The ITCH.IO store description also requires a little touching up to make it easier to read, the random

line spacing has me on edge!?

Full video and cynicism below.

P.T clones and games “inspired” by P.T typically both struggle from severe underutilization of the looping mechanics and proper building of atmosphere. Strangely enough, Never Apart seems to struggle to utilize the looping hallways at all and mostly uses doors coming off of those hallways as starting points for the real game. 

 It seems that the inspired by PT tag was used as a time saver to allow the developers to finish in the required time limit. Which is, as far as I am concerned, the best use of P.T inspiration. But in reality, the game functions as a much more traditional atmospheric horror, with an emphasis on storyline and sound effects.

Being a game jam game and there’s only so many things that could be improved, and since you are already aware of the most egregious problems, I have to say this game was a pleasant surprise. Oh, and that was a rather creative twist on the spirit of the game jam.

My cynical take on the experience below.

As long as you are aware of the issues and it seems like you do have plans to make improvements and continue working with it, apologies if I came off as harsh. I take on that attitude when I review a game because most of the other creators give short "It scared me boo" comments which aren't really helpful in the long run. I am glad that you are willing to put the effort in and I am looking forward to playing your vision when it's complete.

Horror FPS games are, to understate it, extremely difficult to get right, and after completing this one and trying to compose a list of pros and cons, I realized that there’s no glue holding the game together. The first thing I noticed and kept noticing throughout my playthrough was the gunplay. There’s almost no reason for there to be any threat in the game at all. The pistol isn’t just op; it’s god mode. You can fire as fast as you can pull the trigger, and with 15 shots in the magazine combined with zombies taking at best 3-5 shots to the chest to die, there’s just no way to mess up hard enough to feel threatened.
Ignoring the balance issues, which at this point are trivial in comparison to the plethora of design and animation issues, straight back to that pistol—whatever model the developer chose to use in-game had it’s reload and fire animations rigged on a different model entirely. This leads to your character spasming uncontrollably while firing and reloading. Pulling you out of whatever little amount of immersion you were in, combined with sporadic enemy placement, leaves the entire experience more reminiscent of arcade on-rails shooters, with no build-up or time spent on the more horror-based elements.

Level design is actually where the game takes back some ground; even though it is entirely a sewer level, it doesn’t feel overtly maze-like, and a lot of the rooms feel connected in such a way that you can draw a mental map after only a few runs.

I wish I had more positive feedback to give, but really, I don’t think any amount of content dumps will fix the issues already currently present. If you boil the game down to its base elements, there’s nothing that stands out as special or unique, at least to me. More cynical posturing below.

The most attractive part of this game is the design, crayon monsters with ghastly figures running towards you with incomprehensible wailing to match but the rose-tinted glasses can only tint so hard. Ward-17 was a rather ingenious use of design to complement actual gameplay, you got a chance to clearly see the drawings on the wall before they tried to rip your throat out. In One Night Too Many, that isn’t really the case and the unique style that is normally utilized does little to add to the story. Most of One Night Too Many’s gameplay boils down to sprinting down an almost looping PT horror corridor, grabbing a key that is sometimes in a slightly different spot but always in the same room, and finally experiencing the twist that anyone could have seen from a mile away.

For the record, this isn’t a bad game, just a much more mediocre experience than the developer’s other titles. Maybe spending more time coming up with unique ways to leverage your style is the way to go. Rather than sticking to almost “tropey twist and turn storylines”.

Also “Multiple” endings aren’t something you should be advertising when the only difference is which side of the room you walk to before getting to the end text.

Final thoughts: A perfectly average experience that doesn’t really stand out, but you certainly have the potential to stand out and you should. I do not regret spending money on this game. More cynicism below.

After playing through the game a total of 3 times to get each ending. (Which is mostly just  the same conclusion twice over) I can't say for sure if I have any glaring issues to bring up. The use of atmosphere and soundtrack were impeccable, the way the files were labeled out and how the mythos was created felt natural. My only major gripe is the development kit. You may need to re-export the game as an executable because, at the moment, trying to launch the game also launches steam VR, and the task manager identifies the game as "UE4" instead of the game’s actual title.

Besides that, this is some solid groundwork for a story or to even be left the way it is. Good work, mate.

For my full review and incessant cynical ramblings.

A massive improvement over both your previous titles. While not entirely anything unique, I encountered no issues while playing. A good rule of thumb is to avoid letting the player look at the monster’s model for too long, the devil you know versus the devil you don't.

For a more thorough analysis and sarcastic cynicism, might I suggest a gander at

Nothing worth mentioning, but for being your first game, it functioned well as a trigger test, and your next game, “Cleaning Service” was leaps and bounds ahead of this one, so good work on that. This was just your first attempt, but you’ve improved a lot, keep moving forward.

There was no spooked Cass, but boy, does that Ukelele slap.

The running joke of PT clones being a blight upon indie gaming becomes redundant when you make one "purposefully bad" as a "joke.”  If you want to go down the cynical PT clone rabbit hole, you've gotta include stuff like the blaring radio and doors trying to be unlocked from the other side by "scary monsters.”

In its current state, this game more closely resembles the PT clones it is trying to make fun of instead of the comedic take.

Watch cynicism kind of live while I'm kind of alive.

It's a habit of mine to point out flaws but I should of pushed what I liked about the game more, generally, the art style and the story telling features had me interested but the aforementioned short comings left me a little disapointed overrall I rated your game 3 stars and it was well worth the $2. Heres to the future.

It is an exciting concept with a limited execution, which I will chalk up to limitations in time. Honestly, with more of a fleshing out and a more straightforward house layout, you might be able to make a rather interesting "house gradually gets spookier the longer you are in it" style game. Doing menial chores and generally just taking care of the place. 

The pacing felt pretty spot on, and the game looks refreshing. The only major downside is, of course, the lethal hardware the character calls his legs, felt like I was playing resident evil.

Cynicism and plant mistreatment below.

Harmful and Harmful The Second Tape suffer from primarily the same issue, walking simulators. In between all the actual interesting story events and locations are vast empty swathes of lands with almost no ambient noise or sound effects.

You'll very quickly reach for the sprint key only to find out “shift” in this game causes your character to come to a halt immediately and refuse to move unless you release shift.

A few odd design choices make what could have been a genuinely creepy atmospheric serial killer story into an awkwardly paced throwback to watching whatever movie was on TV at the time.

Feel free to experience the cynicism below.

The game wasn't offensively bad, and it definitely wasn't good either. You've reached this middle ground of barely existing, which makes it rather hard to review your creation. Essentially there's nothing in here that is at all unique to your game. No story beats no monster designs or monster scenes; none of it isn't something that hasn’t been done to death.

True, your game is an excellent example of doing exactly what is intended, a bare-bones indie horror experience, but that begs the question, what is the goal of uploading this. There are no areas that couldn't be improved. Nothing was good enough to warrant further poking with a stick, and the moment the game was over, I had the epiphany that maybe this entire product is just simply youtube bait for horror channels.

The Good.

It didn't find a way to crash.

The Bad.

Everything else.

My "Experience"

Horror games, specifically note collecting horror games, tend to quickly devolve into "picking up a note" "getting spooked" "door opens," However, in You Are Alone, we have an entirely new formula. "Press E when the massive prompt appears because you wouldn't have figured out what the giant white texture in front of you represents,” "Have a pre-determined atmospheric horror stinger set play in the background while you attempt to decipher semi-broken English.” Finally, "Accidentally find another note in the same room entirely out of chronological order, breaking the sequence of events before throwing in the proverbial towel and mashing interact on every surface and object.” Also, having doors squeal twice as loud as any other sound in the game while also making them automatically shut if you don't immediately sprint straight through them is an excellent way to give your players a headache.

As my video suggests, there's very little here that's a salvageable concept. Still, there is an intriguing idea of being stuck in a house displaced from time and trying to perform a set of tasks to break a curse while having the golden statues move about when you're not looking. Generally, anything gameplay-related is beyond saving. As far as first attempts come there definitely has been worse, learn from these mistakes and improve for the next attempt.

My gameplay experience and inane ramblings to boot.

A 2-minute teaser that ended fair too quickly, I was so engrained and onboard with the creepy teleporting that was almost a believable walking speed. I enjoyed it so much that the worst part has to be the ending, I could see a good fun 20-30 minute game if the reveal was stretched out and done more slowly with rooms and objectives within the orphanage gradually getting more decrepit and disused. However, since this was for a 2-minute game jam, I cannot recommend this enough, great work guys.  A few more random thoughts and my playthrough of the game is located below.

A few quick things to get out of the way before I get into the meat and potatoes of the discussion, firstly, repackage your game outside of the development kit. My steam VR is having a mental breakdown trying to figure out what is going on, and the console commands remain accessible unless you package and export the final product. Besides that rather simple fix, I've got an entire list of issues rattling around upstairs, and I'm about to try and empty them in a semi-legible fashion, wish me luck.

PRO'S:  Some of the tension building moments are quite good, especially segments involving the "SHADOW" character turning off lights while existing as a 2D SHADOW.

I try not to be overly harsh when it comes to ripping into games; as far as I know, this is your first or second attempt, but I feel like there are grievous, almost inexcusable errors throughout the game, such as.

CON'S: Texture inconsistency, most textures throughout the game have issues rendering the correct brightness, while some objects just stand out almost as if they had a spotlight directly above them, in complete pitch-black areas, some doors and doorknobs are practically invisible. I went out of my way to include all the times I noticed these issues within the video, so they are easy for you to find and fix.

The voice acting was acceptable, but the story was a complete waste of time. An abusive father may or may not be possessed isn't exactly new, but what could be new is a 2D monster that works in shadows, maybe focusing on that instead of a rather strange almost B plot.

Finally, the endings, oh god, the endings. Inventory glitches that waste 45 minutes of my life. While I am more than happy to give leeway to games that attempt multiple endings, there's no reason to include an endless array of red herrings. Ultimately unnecessary items and notes add no context or story and are failed attempts to make the game seem more profound than it is.

If you are going to bait the player into thinking there is a "Good Ending" maybe bother trying to create one outside of a meme, or at least include some form or hint or guide towards actually acquiring it.

Overall I'd say the game is a weird mix of incompleteness and generally feels like playing a buggy mess. A summation of my thoughts can be located in the video version of this that I'll post below. I hope you continue to make games, you have passion, and I think with just a few more tweaks and touches this could be a pretty solid entry into your library.

For a 2 minute one and done experience, this was quite a journey. The spawning mechanics for the mannequins was a little bit janky, but after a bit of getting used to, it created a creepy sprint to the finish.

Maybe in the furture include a little more build-up, encouraging less mannequins and less mobile mannqeuins before the room of certain death would be a nice touch to improve the length and get the player accustomed to utilizing the camera.

Few more thoughts and ramblings located in the video below.

As a terminal cynic, I, by design, must hate meme funny haha games. However, your Game manages to toe that dangerous line just well enough that I'd say it was an above-average experience. The game looks acceptable, controls perfectly, and has enough tension building and payoffs that aren't purely jumpscares to pass as a comedy/horror. I cannot think of any real pros or cons to speak of, it set out to entertain and get a laugh, and it succeeded in both those goals. Congrats, I look forward to your next foray into the unknown. As usual, I’ll post a link to my playthrough below where you can listen to me process child exorcism in real-time.

G'day Daedalvs Studios, after playing through your Game Jam submissions I thought I may as well force my opinions and observations upon you, so let's get started.

Pros

- Unreal Engine 4 looks great, the game stands out among the crowd simply for visual appeal and good use of assets.

- Even though it wasn't explained as well as it could of been the cardboard boxes were intriguing if a bit silly.

- Good taste in music

Cons

- The application running for the game isn't called "Between These Walls" but is instead referred to as "Unreal Engine 4 Development Kit"

- Showing the monster very early on and having it look like any run of the mill horror villain doesn't add anything to the "psychological" aspects of the game.

- By the end of the story, the boxes become comic relief, maybe clear up exactly what the monster is capable of doing to your character through the use of notes or other storytelling devices, having your player guess can only get you so far.

Other than all that stuff it was honestly a pretty refreshing experience, it felt like there was an actual team behind it that wanted to create not just replicate. I look forward to your future games. Have a good one guys.

Also, I create cynical let's play's, feel free to take part in this review but on the rails.

I'd like to preface this rant with a warning, that I normally over analyze games and try to suggest ways to improve them. Honestly after what I just sat through I think it may be best to just completely start over.

There's no atmosphere, just randomly crashing from one object into the next hoping that eventually, the game will tell you something has happened and allow you to open the next door which inadvertently leads to another very basic jumpscare.

The prebuilt assets within in the game were used effectively, in the future however maybe try to include a larger focus on story and less of a focus on trying to "Gotcha" the player.

Hope this helps you improve.

I also do this for fun.

Now onto the main event, The Good The Bad and The Doctor.

The Good.

Almost all the interactions with Mr Bits and the subtle clues towards his existence (before he reveals himself) are just creepy enough to keep the player on their toes. Teleporting the player inbetween blinks and forcing the player to interact with what I can only assume is a demon creates a strong feeling of tension.

The House design was interesting, twists and turns, doorways where you'd think it would be dead ends, doors catching in places that they shouldn't due to the overall design being just a little off in places works great from a story telling stand point. 

The story has me genuinly interested even if it is a little pretentious in places.

The Bad.

Okay straight up the way the player is forced to intereact with objects just sometimes doesn't work, typically in horror gaes you want, left mouse click for picking up items and right mouse click for opening doors. Instead when it came to picking up notes and tapes I found myself mashing both buttons hoping eventually I would pick it up.

I can appreiciate that rather than just have a usual bright flash light in a suburban home you'd have a lighter, ups the spooky factor and all that. However if you want the player to be able to read all the world building and notes you may want to decrease the general les flare on it, as it makes reading notes, especially books, extremely difficult.

Finally the key management system and by extenstion note management system needs a bit of an overall, generally in horror games short notes and plot developing items go straight into player inventory and keys are auto matically used without needing to be selected. With a large portions of the notes in the game being just notes that have no bearing on the story or books that seem to exist as an inside joke that cannot be picked up leaves the game feeling a bit unnimersive. Maybe overhauling the inventory system so that it can automatically sort and select keys for you and also contain the various drawings in the game and notes in subcatagories to satisfy my need to collect every scrap of lore possible.

I won't ention the fps issues as it seems the new patch has fixed most of them so ignore that in the video.

The Doctor.

You were stunning and you know what? So was I.

After going on a 10-minute journey through the horror infested lifestyle that this cleaner leads I can safely say that you have a functioning product. Minus a strange choice of words in the control screen "Shift: Walk Faster" and a few animation bugs revolving around the monsters walk cycle, you've done a really fantastic job. 

The music and atmosphere wasn't anything too spectacular but was serviceable for the story. All in all, I'd say for your next game try and challenge yourself a bit more, you've shown plenty of potential and I think you could move beyond just horror mazes with jumpscares in-between.

For slightly more in-depth ramblings watch the video.

After experiencing this "game" I've come to the conclusion that it is mostly a trigger test. Checking to see if certain events trigger when needed. The game functions without any technical errors. Even if the photos used to advertise the game are nothing like the experience itself.

More information and picking apart in a hopefully educational way down here.

Starting off the review with a disclaimer because why not.

Shatter Glass Games contacted me and asked for me to give their game a look, I did, you have been disclaimed.

Now onto the review.

Typically I stay away from nothing but maze horror games. They typically end up becoming a trial of patience rather than a horror experience. This game, for the most part, managed to avoid the worst sins and tropes. The most efficient way to do the next part involves very official-looking formatting.

Visual and Audio Design.

The environment and the monster both look great, the styles mesh well, a few strange rendering bugs surrounding the fog but otherwise very befitting.

Audio however is another story, most of the sound and ambiance choices in the game set the tone and keep it there. Sadly it seems that the monster himself lacks audio cues, at least audio cues that trigger before you get game overed. Louder footsteps or ambient groaning to give the monster more presence would also help reduce the overall difficulty problem.

Gameplay "Loop".

Maze games, especially horror mazes all typically suffer from the same flaws. DEATH DESENSITIZATION, essentially frequent unavoidable deaths that lead the player to no longer care about their characters safety. This leads the player to sprint from one end of the maze to the other trying to get it over and done with as fast as they possibly can. You will die, a lot, a lot a lot and a lot of those deaths will be to the monsters remarkable psychic nature that enables it to stalk you down the random dead ends, key locations, and the escape gate. Nowhere is safe. Eventually turning the game into a get a key, lose a life cycle.

Possible Improvements.

Strictly the monsters AI, he's almost omnipotent, allowing him to roam further away from the player as opposed to lurking around the same corners would enable the player to have more freedom and discover more of the maze before they get their head and neck separated.

Overall.

Especially for an ITCH.IO indie horror game, you've done pretty good work. It actually feels like playing a real game, which is just shocking to find.

Thanks for contacting me to give me the heads up, greatly appreciate it. Here's a link to the video which covers the same topics with a visual aide of the monsters weirdness.

G'day mate, after finishing your game and reading the end screen I decided to give my thoughts fully laid out in a comment. I would of done it anyway since ripping into stuff is what I do, but I also want to give you good and valuable feedback so,

Art Style: While I appreciate the attempt that was made, the lighting glitches that caused contrast between the lighter, lighting up the environment, and enveloping it in pitch black made it difficult to feel any immersion. Also the random blue loop doesn't fit into the standard white and black formula set up throughout the game.

Gameplay: PT PT PT PT, I may have a small personal vendetta against PT clones, while this one was rather tame in comparison it still committed a few sins, such as having events trigger without loud screeching noises to signify a random door can now be accessed, most rooms stayed locked until they were necessary to continue the game, leaving very little loop exploration possible at all. Not to mention the random jumpscares mostly tied to text popping up on the screen. When the font is literally more terrifying than the monster it is very hard to become actually invested in the game.

Story: Allegedly there is one, but it's one-note long and didn't tell the player anything besides that they're the bad guy, what a twist.

Improvements: Try to include the interesting black and white style in more situations, maybe the monster should be the only color in the game and mostly signified by his red eyes and sinewy carcass. Remove the pac-man minigame entirely and cut down the experience to just be PT with a bit more of a focus on action and events backed up by a strong art style.

All in all, for a game jam game. It didn't crash or cause my anti-virus to have a stroke so you did pretty good. A solid average rating mate. Full playthrough and cynicism below.

Outside of the out of place memes and pop culture references, this is a fine example of something that barely qualifies as a "game". Jumpscares are the only scares, that's whe the audio feels like giving you anything to work with. Everything feels like a prebuilt asset cobbled together in under a weekend.

Improvements wise, maybe expand on some form of survive the night mechanic but based around your homework situation, currently it feels like the game lacks any form of an identity and instead just spits out one liners before remembering it's meant to be a "horror" game.

The story literally doesn't exist so there's no point in harping on about it.

Try to be a little less on the nose with your pop culture based comedy, or focus that energy into making a decent horror game, not just a spooky house.

For a more indepth review and circumstantial gutting of this game I've got this handy. 

Due to its short length and being a bit of a stoic it was difficult to get drawn into the atmosphere of the game. The visual design is a personal favorite of mine and meshes well with the plot and sound effects. Some of the music being a premade asset detracted from the experience but is completely understandable due to the time constraints.

My only major complaint is the sudden title card, shoving the title into the players face and accompanying it with a jarring sound effect.

Rest of incessant ramblings located here.

Long Story short, as a trigger test it functions perfectly, however comparing it to an actual game that typically has a narrative or some form of gameplay, both this and the sequel fall flat. To expand further into the horror genre it might be a good idea to create a story and avoid obnoxiously loud noises. Reducing a game to a tolerable volume shouldn't detract from the overall affect. But when you completely base a game around jumpscares and inanimate models with no atmosphere to back them up, there's not much point to a sequel.

Everytime a meme game gets done to death on youtube I internally cringe at the thought of spoofs flooding the indie scene. Games like this however remind me that it just takes enough creativity and a good spin.

Atmospheric, just engaging enough and a strong dose of self awareness. If I had to fault anything it would come down to the gameplay. Some of the "clues" are a bit difficult to find, especially the one in the downstairs bathroom. Mostly something that could be fixed with indicators to show what edges of the screen can actually be clicked on but in reality it's a very minor gripe.

Top stuff, the indie scene could do with more ventures like this. (famous last words)

Further thoughts and cynicism below.