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Lesser Evil's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #15 | 4.043 | 4.043 |
| Enjoyment (Best Game) | #16 | 3.696 | 3.696 |
| Story | #26 | 3.522 | 3.522 |
| Sound Design | #36 | 3.391 | 3.391 |
| Aesthetics | #39 | 3.870 | 3.870 |
| Horror | #54 | 2.870 | 2.870 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What game engine did you make this project in?
Did you use generative AI for any part of this game?
Any other notes?
There are 3 endings in the game, but 2 are essentially "fail" endings with no content. If you want to see the bulk of the game, you have to go against the system and help the rebels. Don't miss the knock on the second day!
If the game crashes on load, try Compatibility build. It will look different, though...
The executable may get flagged as a virus. This is a fairly standard thing for indie games, but if you want to be sure, you can check it through virustotal.
If you experience any issues, please write them down in the comments, so I can address them!
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Comments
This is great, really simple but effective game loop, reasonably challenging to make sure I had all the correct criteria, and I'm a sucker for data entry games. My only beef is if I dropped something on the floor, it was gone forever and I couldn't pick it up or read it. I had to restart because I accidentally dropped the first page of instructions on the floor.
Alright, horror games centered around mundane computer work are my weakness. And you've created a really atmospheric game! The looping computer sounds, the black bars on the sides of the screen, the empty hallway — all of these work incredibly well together to create the atmosphere you're going for. The rules are easy to understand, and the interactions feel really well done. You mentioned that there was a lot you didn't have time to finish, and that's totally fine. You nailed the most important part: conveying the core idea and atmosphere of your game. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that. Thank you for your work. Great game!
Really awesome game idea, had me wondering where it could go next! Felt like Widow's Bay meets Bioshock Infinite meets the Stanley Parable.
Neat game! I played twice just to see the different endings. I definitely enjoyed my cake :3
Great concept and execution; the only complaint is not having as much in terms of scares even on the bad ending but I’ll have to explore that more if I have time. I think I need to get the true bad ending for the most content so you can ignore what I comment on if that’s the case.
This game reminds me of Dead Letter Department, and in that game and in those like it (like papers please) they have story lines & secret alliances and I’d think it would be cool to capitalize on doing that if you want to expand the game.
Video (I’ll probably make another)
Lesser Evil (Screamjam 2026) play through
Okay I went for the rebel ending that was very cool.
I really liked the atmosphere, the game had a polished feelings so that's nice. The cake was awesome
That was really cool - creepy aesthetics, gameplay based on searching for info, and some small but effective scares. Less is more, love it <3
can you provide a break down of how you do your graphics?
Do you use blender? Is there a specific resolution for textures?
Do you uv map in blender?
Are there specific import settings in Godot?
do you use a shader on the camera?
Or better yet is there a general guide you followed, or was it just a lot of experimenting until you got the look you liked?
I’ve almost only done 2D, but want to start learning 3D and I like this PS1 style.
I usually try to model all my props myself, but for this one I used a lot of free assets from itch and other places, just searching for anything low-poly or "PSX". But I always model my own environment (e.g. the building). I use blender for modelling and unwrapping, and position things in the engine. I draw my own textures or make them out of snippets of photos.
For Godot, you export as .glb, I don't think there are any export settings you have to have like in Unity, but I like to remove the Mesh -> Images from the Data category so it doesn't export the texture with the .glb. The most important thing is to Apply Transforms after you're done modelling, a lot of people forget about it and it's really frustrating when you import a model with (0.01, 0.01, 0.01) scale and (-360, -90, 0) rotation lol. Whenever I import a model I get from someone else I always have to import in in Blender first and fix all the issues. Sometimes it's easier to just model things yourself to be honest
The "PS1 style" is really just 3 things: really low-poly models, small-resolution textures (128, 256, in this case I was doing 1024 because I didn't want it to be too pixelated) and low render resolution (taking a smaller screen and rendering it on a bigger screen, essentially). If you want to go full-on into the "PSX" aesthetic, you can add a shaders that simulate how PS1 was processing graphics - vertex wobble, dither, etc. This video might be of use.
I've never followed any guides, just kinda started doing it. I'm still an amateur in many ways and am slowly learning the skills. I didn't touch UV unwrapping for a long time, resorting to auto unwraps, but I do it now and it's fun! (and whoever is doing the textures will thank you)
Thanks for the reply. This gives me a great starting point.
yeah I played several psx games this jam, and your look is my favorite. It is not too extreme or obviously affected as some of the other ones; your visuals are ‘classy’. they are low poly and consistent without being heavy handed.
I can't take full credit for this since most of the models were sourced from the internet, but thanks! My two previous projects, I did all the models myself, so they're more represantative of my style.
Funny you mention it in the first place, because I was planning on pivoting from this aesthetic to something more high-poly and visually unique, the only reason I did the PSX thing here is because there wasn't enough time for experimentation lol
But yeah, if you have any questions you can reach out, I'm happy to share what I know
This is a GOOD horror game, turning regular work into something you can't trust. I got the Rebel ending, and by the end I was GENUINELY feeling watched by someone (or something).
Also I can branch out my pyramid scheme to unsuspecting victims. 10/10, would recommend getting hired by whoever hooked me up w this job.
I loved the game. I'd play it more, but it's too laggy for me T_T, but I did get the Trusty Cog ending.
I got the plea to use the fake IDs and threw it into the bin, though the game was interesting enough that I'll likely play it again later on to see what the rebel ending entailed. Being an asshole to the candidates was a bit entertaining.
I also liked being able to draw on the pages as well
Oh my god! This is so cool lol, thank you
Did you use a mouse or a tablet for this, because personally I cannot draw anything with a mouse
I was on mouse, most of the time I ever studied or practiced was pencil and paper but I acclimated to a mouse, and later tablet, pretty easily.
Very cool game and premise, I liked it allowing me to type in absolutely insane shit in the chats and some of it some how working, I could see the game getting a bit tedious if it was a longer but as it is right now it's good.
Keloid scars are thick, raised, and benign growths of scar tissue that extend beyond the boundaries of the original skin injury, resulting from an overproduction of collagen during the healing process.
The cake! it ended this trusty cog.
That was fun.
It really felt like some jobs I've had... just checking stuff, sending stuff. But I really liked the immersion. I felt comfortable in the small office working away the day.
great little game.
This is a really cool game. Chatting with the suspects and trying to work out who meets the criteria was fun to investigate. The addition of being able to scribble down notes onto the paper was cool too.
If I had a small nitpick, it took me a while to work out what I was supposed to be doing. I know it's on the paper on the desk, but my attention was first drawn to the computer. Maybe you could have the computer be password locked initially, and the password is on the tutorial paper? Prevents players from missing it. Just a thought!
Other than that, really unique entry. Well done :)
Noooo not the pidgeons :((((( sad.. I got fired. Interesting little game!
I think the mechanics are little tedious but that just simulates a real office job!
very creative premise and gameplay, i loved the chatting part. i guess i misunderstood the instructions and didnt realize that the sacrifices had to meet all criteria and not just one and i got fired :[ awesome game!
Very cool, I love the concept and it's very Paper's Please-y. The atmosphere and the visuals really sell it, as well as the polish you've done. My god these guys need to switch to digital records, and stop leaving delicious cakes on the ground. I think if I was going to suggest improvements, I'd maybe see if you could encode data into the data you get on the screen, like their ID number, etc, make it so observant players can make that connection and save themselves a printout.
I was really invested in the game at the start, feel like maybe a fix for the tedium would be less potential sacrifices. I think 5-6 people per day would have been a good number. I accidentally found the cheat menu and ended up using that to get through the last couple rounds. I do think with some of the kinks worked out this game would be really special. Great work in the short amount of time we had, loved the world, the sound design and the atmosphere of the game.
I left the debug menu as a sort of easter egg, but now I'm realizing how close tilde and TAB are to each other... People are bound to missclick
As for the tedium, yeah. In retrospect I'm not sure what the hell was I doing on this jam lol, if I still have the time I'll just cut the wait times and amount of people to sift through by half.
Nice game, crashed my computer on first run, but nice!
Neato!
Felt more funny than horror but that's cause you can write silly stuff
Definitevely felt like the atmosphere was the strong part although as some mentioned it might get stale after a small while. Got Trusty Cog
Ty!