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A jam submission

A Borrowed ShadowView game page

Lead your son home through a dark house. Light makes him disappear.
Submitted by Magnudious Studio — 1 day, 7 minutes before the deadline
Rated by 9 people so far
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A Borrowed Shadow's itch.io page

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How does your game interpret and use the Theme / Halloween?
A father’s ghostly son only appears at night. Halloween providing the setting for his supernatural return. The father must guide him through the house keeping him in darkness while HEARTH, the home’s AI assistant controls the lights and doors to stop them from escaping together.

Game Engine?

Godot

Graphics & Audio: What did you create or use?

AI Art/Audio

Have you participated in a game jam before this one?

No

Roughly how much time did you spend developing? (in hours)
40 hrs between 3 people (Approximately 13hrs per person)

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Comments

Submitted

Very cool art style and Halloween theme, i found the gameplay to be rather immersive and the audio design was very nice. wish it had been playable in browser though.

Submitted

I like the idea of the gameplay, the vibes, the story, and the sound design, they work together wonderfully.  But the gameplay is a bit annoying and boring; you're just walking out of the house, but you have to protect a person moving almost entirely according to their own will.
The game still is amazing with the vibes it brings aboutšŸ‘, just suggest you think more carefully about the gameplay next time, cus it is one of the most important part of a game.

Submitted

I finished the game first try, no death with a time of 08:54:07. It felt too easy but some people seemed to struggle?

Needs improvement:

1. There was way too much text going on the screen. The bottom has what I think flavor text, the top right has both a timer and clock that keeps moving. Top left has the son's status and time til he disappears but whenever the son is in the light, the center of the screen shows the timer as well. It feels like every corner of my screen is filled up with text. The player is never that far from the son and even if they get lost, an arrow points back to him so I'm not sure why distance matters. So much of the text felt like repeat (info), was unnecessary and was very distracting. For example, I don't need the text to tell me that the kitchen robot rammed into me. I can see and hear it. It's worse since it covers the center of my screen. The font chosen also isn't the most readable and strains my eyes.

2. Gameplay felt a little shallow. The game has breadth but not a lot of depth if that makes sense. Other people seem to at least struggle somewhat but from what I see, as long as the player doesn't stand next to the son, nothing will kill him. The son doesn't move out of the light so every light source will toggle off or move before the 5 second and the son will just walk to you. I don't know how to fix that because longer than 5 seconds means no way for the player to really recover. Except for the very first light puzzle (which I actually liked), everything else could be boiled down to walk around, find switch, and then proceed. Nothing feels like a danger which is a shame because there was so many different threats. If there was an intended solution to a puzzle, I didn't have to struggle to learn what it was. It's a shame because the different rooms and threat ideas are cool.

3. The window download build crashed. Thankfully this only happened on start-up when I began the game. It happened like twice before it would let me play. Not a big deal but thought maybe good for you to know.

What I liked:

1. The rooms were well-built. There's a lot of sprites put together and each area was unique rather than the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I even just stopped to just look around. My favorite room was the movie theater.

2. Despite the short time limit, I liked how the different light sources were varied. Having the house assistant be the enemy was a super cool concept. The voice acting really helped me understand the story. If it didn't exist, I probably wouldn't have understood anything. Again, there was a lot of text and reading felt difficult with how much there was on the screen.

3. There was a lot of little details that was used once. For example, the doll, the fan, the music, etc so the content doesn't feel stale. I think the game goes too fast for me the properly enjoy them but you guys had so many cool ideas that could probably be expanded into multiple things.

Developer(+1)

Wow, first try with no deaths?! šŸ˜‚ Maybe you're just too good at this game! Thanks so much for taking the time to play and share such detailed feedback! ā¤ļøJust curious, did you play on Nightmare mode? We added that for players who enjoy a tougher challenge! 😈I think difficulty can be pretty subjective. What feels easy to one player might be a real challenge for someone else. We wanted to make the game accessible and fun without making it frustrating. Really appreciate your thoughts on the UI and gameplay depth too! And I'm so glad you enjoyed the rooms and all those little details. It's always interesting to see how differently people experience the same game! Thanks again, and really appreciate your support! šŸŽƒšŸ˜Š

Submitted

I finished the game first try, no death with a time of 08:54:07. It felt too easy but some people seemed to struggle?

Needs improvement:

1. There was way too much text going on the screen. The bottom has what I think flavor text, the top right has both a timer and clock that keeps moving. Top left has the son's status and time til he disappears but whenever the son is in the light, the center of the screen shows the timer as well. It feels like every corner of my screen is filled up with text. The player is never that far from the son and even if they get lost, an arrow points back to him so I'm not sure why distance matters. So much of the text felt like repeat (info), was unnecessary and was very distracting. For example, I don't need the text to tell me that the kitchen robot rammed into me. I can see and hear it. It's worse since it covers the center of my screen. The font chosen also isn't the most readable and strains my eyes.

2. Gameplay felt a little shallow. The game has breadth but not a lot of depth if that makes sense. Other people seem to at least struggle somewhat but from what I see, as long as the player doesn't stand next to the son, nothing will kill him. The son doesn't move out of the light so every light source will toggle off or move before the 5 second and the son will just walk to you. I don't know how to fix that because longer than 5 seconds means no way for the player to really recover. Except for the very first light puzzle (which I actually liked), everything else could be boiled down to walk around, find switch, and then proceed. Nothing feels like a danger which is a shame because there was so many different threats. If there was an intended solution to a puzzle, I didn't have to struggle to learn what it was. It's a shame because the different rooms and threat ideas are cool.

3. The window download build crashed. Thankfully this only happened on start-up when I began the game. It happened like twice before it would let me play. Not a big deal but thought maybe good for you to know.

What I liked:

1. The rooms were well-built. There's a lot of sprites put together and each area was unique rather than the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I even just stopped to just look around. My favorite room was the movie theater.

2. Despite the short time limit, I liked how the different light sources were varied. Having the house assistant be the enemy was a super cool concept. The voice acting really helped me understand the story. If it didn't exist, I probably wouldn't have understood anything. Again, there was a lot of text and reading felt difficult with how much there was on the screen.

3. There was a lot of little details that was used once. For example, the doll, the fan, the music, etc so the content doesn't feel stale. I think the game goes too fast for me the properly enjoy them but you guys had so many cool ideas that could probably be expanded into multiple things.

Submitted

I finished the game first try, no death with a time of 08:54:07. It felt too easy but some people seemed to struggle?

Needs improvement:

1. There was way too much text going on the screen. The bottom has what I think flavor text, the top right has both a timer and clock that keeps moving. Top left has the son's status and time til he disappears but whenever the son is in the light, the center of the screen shows the timer as well. It feels like every corner of my screen is filled up with text. The player is never that far from the son and even if they get lost, an arrow points back to him so I'm not sure why distance matters. So much of the text felt like repeat (info), was unnecessary and was very distracting. For example, I don't need the text to tell me that the kitchen robot rammed into me. I can see and hear it. It's worse since it covers the center of my screen. The font chosen also isn't the most readable and strains my eyes.

2. Gameplay felt a little shallow. The game has breadth but not a lot of depth if that makes sense. Other people seem to at least struggle somewhat but from what I see, as long as the player doesn't stand next to the son, nothing will kill him. The son doesn't move out of the light so every light source will toggle off or move before the 5 second and the son will just walk to you. I don't know how to fix that because longer than 5 seconds means no way for the player to really recover. Except for the very first light puzzle (which I actually liked), everything else could be boiled down to walk around, find switch, and then proceed. Nothing feels like a danger which is a shame because there was so many different threats. If there was an intended solution to a puzzle, I didn't have to struggle to learn what it was. It's a shame because the different rooms and threat ideas are cool.

3. The window download build crashed. Thankfully this only happened on start-up when I began the game. It happened like twice before it would let me play. Not a big deal but thought maybe good for you to know.

What I liked:

1. The rooms were well-built. There's a lot of sprites put together and each area was unique rather than the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I even just stopped to just look around. My favorite room was the movie theater.

2. Despite the short time limit, I liked how the different light sources were varied. Having the house assistant be the enemy was a super cool concept. The voice acting really helped me understand the story. If it didn't exist, I probably wouldn't have understood anything. Again, there was a lot of text and reading felt difficult with how much there was on the screen.

3. There was a lot of little details that was used once. For example, the doll, the fan, the music, etc so the content doesn't feel stale. I think the game goes too fast for me the properly enjoy them but you guys had so many cool ideas that could probably be expanded into multiple things.

Submitted (1 edit)

Hey, I ended up playing this it speaks for itself, really. I couldn't quite bring myself to rate the project using the standard star system, so I’ll just leave my thoughts here instead. It’s genuinely great, I really liked the creative way the lighting mechanic was implemented, as well as the inclusion of an "assistant" who doesn't actually provide any assistance. Honestly, there’s not much else to add—it’s a creative, well-made project. I’d love to see a larger version.


edit: if the project becomes open for evaluation again, I would love to add my review

Submitted

The game is wonderful! The story is very good and emotional! The game design is also pretty good.
However, the game was laggy. Maybe because I had opened the web build on a laptop, but I don't think that a 2D game requires that many resources. I'd recommend optimizing the game.
Another small bug I found in the web build was that when you click on the quit button, the game just freezes; maybe because the quit button was programmed to close the game on a desktop build but wasn't programmed to handle a web interface.
But despite the lag, the game was fun. This was the first game in all the games I rated that I really liked. The art was also very beautiful.

Submitted

I couldn't reach the ending, but i did reach pretty far this was really enjoyable and creative! Hearth was a good addition to the game, as it became harder because of him. I don't think I will dock off any points for the ai art just because this game was really fun and i've never seen such an idea before

Developer

Thank you so much! ā¤ļø It means a lot, especially for our first game jam! We used some AI art, but the ideas and code reviews were our own. We rushed a bit to meet the deadline! šŸ˜…So glad you enjoyed it! Where did you get stuck? We'd love to improve. Thanks again! šŸŽ®

Submitted

i only tried twice, for the first run i killed the child just cuz i thought it would be funny and second try i got to the room after the movie theater

Submitted(+1)

I played the Windows build through to the ending, and this was a very polished, complete experience. I didn’t encounter any bugs during my playthrough, and the interactions consistently behaved the way I expected them to.

The strongest part for me is how directly the central mechanic supports the premise. You aren’t just finding a way through the house for yourself, you’re making sure your son can follow safely, and even the lantern you’re carrying can become a threat to him. That makes protecting him something you’re actively doing throughout the game rather than something the story only tells you about.

I also liked how the appliances, security systems, and HEARTH build on that idea. The house keeps finding different ways to interfere with the darkness you need, so the rooms develop the core mechanic rather than feeling like a series of unrelated obstacles.

The presentation is very clean. The visuals are crisp, the animation looks polished, and the audio fits the experience well. Having voiceovers alongside the story adds to that sense of completeness, and I was glad the story had a genuinely heartfelt payoff.

There’s quite a bit of narrative here, and it felt worth following through to the end.

The one addition I found myself wanting was controller support. I couldn’t find controller controls mapped in the build I played. The keyboard layout was straightforward, but with movement, switching lights, and advancing dialogue making up most of the interaction, being able to play the whole experience, including menus and dialogue—on a controller would be welcome.

I’ve only played through once, so I haven’t explored the time-trial side in depth yet, but the seeded houses and room-practice options look like a thoughtful foundation for repeat runs.

I honestly don’t have a major fix or extra mechanic to suggest here. The existing idea carries the game, the systems support it, and the story gives it an emotional reason to matter. This felt like a finished game rather than something I needed to make allowances for because it was made during a jam.

Very strong work from the team.

Developer(+1)

Ryan, thank you for playing through to the ending and writing such a thoughtful review. We replayed and tweaked the game constantly during the jam, so honest feedback from a fresh pair of eyes means a lot. ā„

We’re a small bunch of game enthusiasts who could probably keep polishing forever! We had more ideas than time, and there are still things we’d love to improve. Your controller suggestion gives us something useful to discuss.

Hearing that the mechanic and story came together for you is really encouraging. Glad we crossed paths through this jam, and thanks again for giving our first entry so much care!