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How does your game interpret and use the Theme / Halloween?
The jam theme is "It only comes out at night". By day, The Dark Cafe is an ordinary coffee shop selling pumpkin spice to the townsfolk.
At sunset the front door locks itself and a portal opens behind the counter. Then the nine
night guests come through: ghosts, a werewolf, a witch, a vampire, a headless horseman and more. They pay for their drinks with secrets, and the secrets are the clues.
The game covers the three nights before Halloween. Someone in town vanishes each night, and on Halloween night you name who is behind it.
Game Engine?
Game Engine / Tools (Other)?
Redot
Graphics & Audio: What did you create or use?
Have you participated in a game jam before this one?
Roughly how much time did you spend developing? (in hours)
15 to 23 hours over two days
Anything else you'd like to share about your game or development process?
I made The Dark Cafe over about two days, in Redot on Nobara Linux. The idea was mine; the code was written with help from Anthropic's Claude, and all the art and audio come from licensed human-made packs (CraftPix, Pop Shop Packs, LimeZu, Kenney, Arcade Origins, Audio Hero, Gamemaster Audio). I playtested it twice during the jam.
The first day rush was far too easy, so the second build added rush hours, streaks and customers in a hurry. Text size, reduced motion, a no-clock day and full controller support went in early, so anyone can finish the mystery.
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Comments
I like the cafe and mystery combination! I struggled a little with the amount of reading, though that might just be me. A few more interactive moments between conversations could be nice. If you happen to try A Borrowed Shadow, we’d really appreciate your advice too. We’re still learning with our first jam!
Thank you for playing and providing feedback, I shall certainly use the feedback as I look to extended the game into a full game. I shall play your entry too!
The day and night split is a strong idea, with a busy cafe rush by day and then candles and a portal leading to the Weary Investigator talking about the lamplighter at night. The cafe art, the tickets and the newspaper intro gave it a clear cozy mystery feel. My constructive note is that serving in the day rush did not register for me, since my station presses stayed at nothing yet and I missed eleven orders, so clearer serving focus would help.
Thank you for taking the time to respond and provide feedback it is very much appreciated. I am working on improving the day cycle to make it more engaging and fun.
Here comes a really long comment. (It's a good thing because I feel passionate)
I really enjoyed this one and was really surprised how much you managed to get done. Even though I have no idea how much of AI wrote the code, things were pretty polished despite a 4 day time limit. I even stopped at the intro screen because I was surprised by how the menu looked. I like to play games blind without reading any instructions until I'm truly stuck and I'm surprised how much of the gameplay I understood intuitively. Rumors and secret was the only thing I didn't quite understand until night 2. I didn't understand what the extra ingredients did so I got them late. A quick reading of the description would have cleareed all confusion though. I got the ending where the school teacher came back so 1/3 people returned. The game was fairly long for a jam but I enjoyed it. I might give the game another go to see if I can figure it all out now that I understand the game.
Possible improvements:
What I liked
Overall very nicely done.
Thank you for taking the time to respond with your observations and feedback. I will absolutely use your feedback to improve the game as I am currently brainstorming more features and game play to see if I can turn this into a full fun game. Seriously, I really appreciate the time your took to provide me your feedback.
The game was fun and engaging. The music was really good and made me bobbing my head to it. Good job with your game.
I am glad to hear you enjoyed the game, thanks!
really fun game , and engaging but i feel like the ui could be worked on a little better , specially in the night , and the writing is good and easy to grasp .
Good Job!
Thank you for the constructive feedback, I do plan on working more on this after the jam, if you have any other suggestions that would be great!
Hey! That's a pretty good Halloween deduction game! I could see a bigger version of it!
What stands out the most is the writing. In a game where the main mechanic is reading it's pretty important :) Luckily it was fun to read and not "skip dialogue"! The gameplay was fun. Implementing two types of gameplay for a 4 day jam is a bit of a gamble, but you made it work.
The presentation was good. I liked the assets, although I guess the cup icon looked more like beer glass than a coffee cup to me. The music fit the atmosphere pretty fine.
As for the theme- I think you had a really interesting take! Although I really feel for the barista. Working full day AND THEN THE NIGHT SHIFT? Hardcore!
Thank you very much for taking the time to play and leave feedback. Feel free to share your ideas on how I might take this further, I am genuinely curious!
Really fun game, i played it more than i thought i would at first, Good job!
Thank you very much, I am glad you enjoyed it!
This is a creative concept. Would be great to see mobile control support added. Thanks!
Thank you very much for the feedback. I never thought about mobile, that is an interesting idea! Feel free to share any ideas you have that might improve the game especially targeting mobile, thanks again!