Great uncanny and off-putting vibes. Somehow struck the same nerve that horror claymation does for me. The idea of trusting an AI to give you selective brain-damage is wild and chillingly close to home.
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Content Warnings
strange sounds, self-experimentation with technology
Log Line
A tech enthusiast wants to invent a helmet that would allow him to erase bad memories and not have nightmares anymore, but an evil spirit lurks in the shadows.
Team Credits & Cast
I did everything all by myself.
Work Start Date
20.09.2026
Which engines and/or plugins did you use? (NaniNovel, Light.VN, etc.)
Ren'Py
University League Participant
No
Comments
I was a little confused by the story and wish it were longer, but wow, the art style here was such a breath of fresh air! I absolutely love the handcrafted feel of it and efforts you went through after reading your other comments and I feel inspired for my own art now :)
I'd love to know how you made that first shot with the opening credits!
Submitted
18.98I'm really glad you liked what I created, but even more so that it inspired you to work on your own art style! 😊
I'm not entirely sure which first shot you mean, though! If you're talking about the background image that appears when you launch the game, before clicking Start, it's a composite made from several graphics I created in GIMP, along with an image of a 3D render of a cyborg head (that one was actually made for another project).
After you click Start, there's a sort of logo with the creator credits. That's a video rendered using TyFlow, something purely artistic that I created so I could use it as a logo across multiple projects.
And if you mean the very first actual image in the story, that's me in my garage, wearing a physical prop I built myself out of a helmet and some glued-on electronic components. The laptop in front of me is actually displaying the same image I used for the main menu background! Of course, I edited the photo afterward to hide the windows and all the other stuff that was visible in the background. 😅
I hope that answers your question, and good luck developing your own art style! :)
ah that's really cool :)
Yep you answered my question, I meant the rendered video along with the creator credits! But it's all great haha, it reminded me a lot of Nobby's Number Factory at times but much creepier. Keep doing what you're doing and refining your art, I'd love to see that style outside of a VN, in a full game with more mechanics!
Nicely done! There's impressive juggling of themes here for such a short game, and the demonic ghosts (+ ghosts in the machine) is a cool concept to play with. The digital colleges work incredibly well to further that viscerally gross, unsettling wrongness, and in combination with the sound design creates a game that is successfully horrifying. And to be a solo project too is doubly impressive - congrats!
Submitted
Dead AirThank you so much for the kind words and feedback! It was definitely a huge effort to do everything on my own. My only regret is that I spent so much time on the non-text elements, thinking I’d have enough time to expand the story once the rest was in place. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out as planned :))
Interesting concept. This entry really stands out with the unique graphics.
Keep up the good work!
Submitted
The Other YouA very interesting and spooky concept!
I can tell a lot of consideration was put into the presentation using a combination of eerie imagery with the unsettling audio made for a very suspenseful tale that kept me on the edge of my seat. The vibes gave me classic old school horror (specifically Twilight Zone, which I personally love), but the story itself is a very modern one and it made for a very interesting and effective combination. I like the use of technology, but with a supernatural twist. The fact that AI is advancing as quickly as it is these days can be a frighting thought in its capabilities and exactly how far tech enthusiasts are willing to take it. Adding a supernatural element just makes it all the more threatening and dangerous.
The variety and quantity of imagery used in such a short piece is impressive. It made the story feel very dynamic and creative with some outside the box thinking, as I never quite knew what to expect to pop up on the screen next. It helped add to the mysterious and eerie quality of the storytelling.
In the way of constructive criticism, in terms of font choices, I feel like the fonts for the names and narrative/dialogue text should be switched. You always want your reading text to be as clean and simple as possible, so it's easier on the eyes of your readers. Whereas the name can be bold, stand out more, without having to be as simple and plain, because it's not for reading, but for indicating who is speaking. So it's okay if it's more stylized than the reading font.
Other than that, I did notice a handful of typos and grammar mistakes, so the writing needs a little more editing and polish.
But aside from those two things, I think it is an interesting story with a unique presentation. Even if it feels a little incomplete and unpolished, I think it is a tale worth telling and one that is off to a very nice start. Keep up the good, spooky work!
Submitted
Two ReapersThank you so much for such detailed feedback! I really appreciate the time you took to write all of this. ❤️ The development was quite a bumpy ride, and I had no detailed plan from the start, just the story idea.
Although the page says I uploaded it 5 days before the deadline, that was just the initial page with two images and a couple of lines. The final version was uploaded only a few hours before the deadline! Since time was limited and 2D art isn't my strong point, I decided to use my own photos and edit them in GIMP. It was a lot of work, especially since some photos were taken with my phone's timer while I tried to get myself into the frame. 😂 I wanted a much longer story, but once I started putting the images and story together, I realized I had less than 5 hours left, so the writing, grammar and fonts became a bit of a last-minute sacrifice. English isn't my native language, and I wanted to write everything myself without relying on automatic translation tools. I'm just happy I managed to create the spooky atmosphere I was aiming for! And a little fun fact: the creepy breathing at the beginning is actually mine, recorded while I had a cold. I just made it sound a bit weirder and did some light editing in Audacity. The headset is a real prop I built in my garage from old stuff and electronic parts, while that evil eye actually started as a photo of a... rotten tomato. 😂🍅
After the voting period, I might work on a more complete version, maybe with some extra images. Thanks again for the lovely feedback, and good luck with your own projects and your YouTube channel! 😊
Really loved the ambience in the background! The sound effects combined with the grainy images actually gave me goosebumps.
Submitted
Over Some LemonsMan I was super immersed in the story!! I would love to see more, the art direction is truly wonderful. Keep working on this! Amazing job!
Submitted
All of this is mineThanks for the feedback! I can definitely say it was a big challenge for me. Since I’m not an artist, I had to find another way to illustrate the story. So I built that actual helmet by putting together some electronic parts I had lying around in my garage. 😄 The tricky part was taking the photos of myself, though.
I need to go back to the story and bring it up to the length I originally planned.
Super interesting concept for the story with a strange look to it. Would like more please.
Submitted
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION.Yeah, you're right, it does feel a bit incomplete. The story was actually meant to be longer, but I was working on it at the last minute, so I decided it was better to have something complete, even if it was shorter. I also decided to make the background images and sounds myself, even though I'm neither a 2D artist nor a musician, and that ended up taking quite a bit of time. 😅
I'm really glad you liked the story! And by the way, those aren't actually screams... I'll reveal the "mystery" later. :))
Oh damn I love the og feel, it's very gritty early internet vibes. Love the sound design the most, great horror stuff.
Submitted
Restless is the Night (Demo)oh lord,, I saw this at night I need to go wash my brain, the muffled screams of fear? Pain? were horrible, u nailed the horror theme im scared
Submitted
Restless is the Night (Demo)I liked the general vibe and i felt being inside a cybernetik nightmare
Submitted
Peter Vanpleef
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