itch.io

def need clearer instructions, some audio, and a walkthrough for the first dap up maybe? had no idea really what to do. but neat idea, unique. 

LOVE the environment, art style, ambience. the bckwards walk was interesting and fun but i kept getting stuck on walls and no way to move forward. also found firing the gun even with the right button aim very difficult to land anything. really unique and interesting approach

very cute art, every bit of this is just, as michael said, oozing with personality and obvious amounts of care. the one thing tht really fell short was the music. felt very generic and too "happy" and while that can work if used in a disarming way, this just felt like a royalty free loop from a car commercial or something. i see it's from pixabay - really think some custom music would benefit this largely. maybe some "cute but creepy" jazz to suit the casino vibe? or some crunchy halloween/haunted chiptune? hoenstly i love the art and style so much and the vibes of course that if you are interested i'd be happy to make that music, or whtevrr you had envisioned 

love the art, love the vibes, would def be interested in playing a more developed version. the script-like directions for audio and things like "Fade out for scene transition" without those things actually happening was pretty immersion breaking. crazy unique mechanics and aesthetics for sure

i tried on Safari, Brave, and Firefox. FF had less lag but still there, seemingly happens when i go to enter a different "area" - past the fence, into the room with the lever, through the mouth door. Hardware Acceleration on for all. i can try on Opera tomorrow and let you know - also if you ever happen to release a downloadable build, that would be great!

no idea what's going on, what to do, if the extremely slow speed walk is intentional or a bug. the NPC woman walked into a chair and got stuck in place hugging the air and silently screaming. the voice over was really jarring and out of place. could be interesting but far too esoteric or buggy to get into.

the timing mechanic was a fun stressful element. some audio/more dynamic UI interactivity would've been nice. the navigation was pretty confusing at first and i feel with the current UI not very conducive to ease of use. love a good retro style text adventure, always. 

i dig the style, but had no idea what was happening, what to do, and nothing seemed to respond except the one button, then everything was automated and doing no damage. not sure if there was supposed to be sound but i had none. also, the bottom bar with the one working button does not appear unless in full screen mode just fyi

disclaimer: playing mac on an emulator 

[Specs]

• mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
• windows download, played .exe via GameHub emulator

wasn't able to unzip fully for some reason? i got the first few passed through but then this popup for the majority of the rest of the folders. 

it finished eventually, but then upon launching i get 

i click OK to install and then the window closes and nothing else. unfortunate, sounds really neat. didn't rate, but if you can possibly get a web or mac build it'd be much appreciated!

always love a cheeky nod in a game, also! i'll take my coward title happily.

for some reason, my mouse gets stuck halfway through turning and there seemed to be no way to turn fully. the vibe/atmosphere/audio/environment were spectacular but i just couldn't maneuver around properly so had to call it. looks rad/sounds/feels though

not sure wha's going on here, if the issues i had were bugs or intentional in-game elements to mess with the player, but if the latter i really did not appreciate being forced to have to boot up terminal to kill the game window because there was no option to close or minimize it. also no on-screen instructions or settings. 

i dig the art style and the zoom-in to focus effect like INSCRYPTION or Buckshot Roulette, but the game was basically completely unplayable for me. the space bar didn't respond on anything at all. always a good idea to include a web build if possible. 

even on a powerful machine with hardware acceleration on, for some reason i was having really bad delayed response to any key/mouse input. really unfortunate because this looks truly amazing and highly polished for a jam game!

i might just be an idiot but i could not for the life of me figure out how to get past the first level. what am i missing here? love the retro throwback style and vibes but no matter how mny times i tried it alwyays got rejected for traces. 

[specs]

• mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
• browser, chromium

[overall/first impressions]

• love the oldschool dusty eighties basement crawler vibes

[intro]

• simple and very effectively creepy looped sprite animatic on start menu, with ambient/drone synth textures whining on in the background - instantly sets a great mood

[audio]

• great little shuffling synth and percussion OST, dynamic with active character modes. menu SFX standard.

[art/visuals]

• absolutely loving the heavily saturated/shadowed ZX-ish vibes. start screen sprites are delightfully creepy and art overall is very cronch.

[customization/accessibility]

• zero in-game instructions or controls (negative)
• start menu settings only (good to have, but best to have always accessible), separate Audio levels for music/sfx and vsync on/off.
• pause menu with
• odd menu nav quirk: to go Back to the main menu, you can use Enter on Stats/Credits, but only mouse on Options. i get why, because you have to confirm the option settings, but it’s a good idea to also bind the Esc, Del, or Backspace button as a universal cacenl/back.

[gameplay/handling/controls]

• WASD/arrow key omni-dir movement. a survivors-like so
• fun standard Survivors loop. kill enemies, pickup point boosts, upgrade stat/weapon/ability on levelup.
• was a little confused why i wasn’t firing at first. no indication as to expect transformation except the easily-missed word RUN! not sure if lack of attack when normal human form is intentional but once i realized what was happening i found it a unique and fun angle as opposed to the perma-tank you become with most Survivors games.
• hitrate/power/dmg received seems balanced, could maybe do with some tweaks to incoming tho, and def need to implement a very slight invulnerability as you are immobile while transforming and can easily be insta-killed before the animation stops.

thank you! the style is something that has developed over the course of the last few jams i've done and though i owe a lot to dithering, i am always trying to find new ways to push the saturation and weirdness/rawness of it

thank you!  originally it was much less "graphic" if you can call it that, but idk i felt compelled to make it as uncomfortable as possible and if nothing else, i'm glad that seemed to resonate with a lot of people

thanks so much!

thanks! that means a lot coming from my fav concept i've seen from the jam so far!

thanks so much, for the kind words and also for doing this jam! it was really fun and i love a good specific oldschool theme. i def wanted to do something more experimental than the natural path of shooters, tho i love all the entries that did, and pushing the hybrid 2D/pixel elements through the 3D perspective lens was a fun challenge, especially with a first person POV. 

there is def a lot of depth to the choice system, but i don't think i actually fleshed out the choice/consequence/result-options branching tree enough and it hurt the core a bit. for the on-screen action i def fell short on showing in place of telling, which might be fine for pure text adventures but the tense feeling i wanted to embed in the actions and "overtaking" function needed a little more. sound design and ambience can't pull all the weight.  

and i don't care if the ratings were the worst i could've gotten, that closing sentiment is worth all the points in the world imho. i will be expanding on this  in the future, both in a second pass for PRODIGAL and taking the core and iterating on it with future games

thank you! the loop was def too repetitive for sure, i want to make more actions with branching consequences/events but i was def rushed. 

for the  pixelation, do you know if you had the screen effects turned on? i always put in an option for at least toggling things on/off but i think it might've messed with the "forced" perspective element and didn't have time/presence of mind to check it. 

thank you! i absolutely agree with the directional stuff, i wanted to do way more with other movements, actions etc. but i didn't leave myself enough time so i went with the straight shot. when i do eventually return to it i will be sure to add the compass directions, and some other movement things like dig, bury, and so on. there are ~40 different words the game will accept but admittedly i don't think i fleshed out the tree choice system enough so it probably wasn't obvious enough. the actual text lore is pretty important since that's what drives the engine of the story itself but i will def be fleshing that out more so it makes easier sense in-world. 

thanks so much! that means a lot, especially since your game was also such an interesting approach to a blend of styles (i loved the hybrid 2/3D and pixel also). there were 4 total endings, i did have a 5th one but i removed it because it didn't really work with the current state of the rushed closeout before the jam ended - did you actually see something that said 5? wondering if i accidentally left a piece of it somewhere.

thanks! lol i am glad the hand wasn't too disruptive and you were able to get so far.  i hope if you ever return to it, you get that last one and the secret prize!

thanks so much! it was definitely a wild swing for a typing based game, with the "forced hand" element i wanted to make it feel creepy and interruptive without actually hurting the gameplay and immersion, and with some more time and probably some other ideas to stretch the concept into i think it can be iterated upon to some great effect

thanks so much for the kind words! i am glad the aesthetics ended up landing for so many people, i was a little worried i went overboard with the dithering but it's kinda become my thing at this point. 

i had so little time for this project that i didn't even consider other languages! i tend to try to make as many accessibility functions as i can, and alternate langs is definitely a component of that. i would love to have native speakers translate into some common language at some point, that's pretty important for puzzle and especially word based games. this was actually the result of barely a week, i didn't leave myself enough time and i mixed up the deadline with another jam so it was a little rushed at the end, but i will def be returning to finish at some point!

_honestly_, right? i straight up thought i'd made a mistake and opened idk a totally random game demo or something somehow. i'd also never heard of it so when it opened on the title screen i looked it up thinking maybe it was another game of yours and some elements just carried over but obvi all the details were wrong. i've experienced a lot of weird shit in gaming but never had anything like this happen with an executable game. i will try a few other things and ofc let you know what happens.

also i hope this was clear from the first message but just in case: in absolutely no way do i for a second think, nor was i trying to imply, you stole anything or copied files or anything even remotely shady, that comment was pure confusion.

i am so insanely confused. like many others have said, i love the artstyle from what i can see in the screenshots, but am i the only one who is getting a game that looks/seems nothing like those screenshots? OP i have no idea how, but when i launch this i am getting a JRPG, based in RPGMakerMV, completely in japanese called 新世勇者传 Newera Heroes' Chronicle.  if there's any info i can give you let me know. i hope i get a chance to play this cause it sounds/looks amazing!

[specs]

• mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
• windows download, played .exe via GameHub emulator

[overall/first impressions]

• atmospheric first person walking sim, decently unsettling but not intuitive. would def like to see a more polished version with the bugs ironed out!

[major bugs/issuses]

• if you choose the checkpoint item in the pause menu before you actually hit a checkpoint, it sends you hurtling through the floor into an eternal fall with no way to quit besides force quitting the entire game/window.

[intro]

• no animatic

[audio]

• good ambience/atmosphere, minimal sound bed music. the braam sound effect got pretty annoying in the opening room from triggering like 4-5 times in a row for no apparent reason.

[art/visuals]

• very polished assets/environment for the most part, though some objects stuck out badly (the barred door in the opening level area)

[customization/accessibility]

• (besides tab to open inventory) zero in-game instructions, controls, settings (negative)
• pause menu with checkpoint

[gameplay/handling/controls]

• first person collection/puzzle horror game with traps. WASD movement, space to jump, shift to run. 1-2-3 to switch active item but no icons for items except flashlight.
• movement extremely janky. couldn’t turn around to the left, was forced to turn all the way around to the right in order to get things in my interaction area.
• not intuitive at all when it comes to how to do any mechanics. i had to guess that the flashlight was the number 1 on to equip and F to turn on.
• battery drains not at all until you pickup more batteries, then drains extremely fast. items do not persist.

[specs]

• mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
• windows download, played .exe via GameHub emulator

[overall/first impressions]

• i love when i can tell immediately upon opening a game page “oh boy this is gonna be fucked up” and i wasn’t disappointed. very inventive, creative, and genuinely disconcerting & offputting. would def play a longer game and will be looking forward to the dev’s other output!

[intro]

• not skippable (negative)
• the intro animatic was short enough that it wasn’t obnoxious to restart and have it replay a few times, and the imagery added to the weird atmosphere. enjoyed the intro real-time readout the first time, by the third i was a little tired of waiting. there are also some delays that make it seem liek something is broken. i always rec’d implementing a skip function (with confirmation), and a replay intro button in the menu.

[audio]

• disturbing SFX and fitting period music for the old cartoonish vibe.

[art/visuals]

• very weirdcore/liminal/analog horror vibes, love it.the mixture of old cartoon, handdrawn marker/crayon, cute/kawaii, and real-world textures/photos made this super enjoyable to play. i just love seeing weird inventive shit like this. the itch page is also heavily themed and hell to look at (compliment)

[customization/accessibility]

• only brief in-game instructions & controls (negative)
• zero settings (negative)

[gameplay/handling/controls]

• very basic/easy to handle controls A/D for horizontal movement
• red light/green light overseer insta-death
• could def use some optimization, for an insta-kill game this unforgiving there was a little kinda unfair movement/rendering jank.
• couldn’t get past the first level. skill issue, i know lol. i would’ve really loved to get to see the other levels cause i genuinely am in love with the vibes here but after like 10-15 attempts i just couldn’t do any more for now. best i got to was 20secs left. would love to see some optimization as mentioned above.
• the stars, which are supposed to slow you down, made me completely immobile.

ha,  see we both enjoyed each others' cronch factor! thanks so much! the graphic style is something that developed during one of my past games TYGODNIOWO and i used that as the jumping off point for this and another recent jam entry, and was pretty happy with the outcome. i looove zx stuff so i def dither the shit out of visuals whenever i can. 

[specs]

• mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
• browser, chromium

[overall]

• beautifully rendered LiDAR environment, unique mechanics, worth investing time/effort in. Empty Shell vibes (huge compliment). would play full game.

[first impressions]

• well i’m just in love with the vibes here. opening terminal/monochrome amber coloration is a good visual hook, the manual realtime readout is engaging, and the world you’re dropped into is spectacular in its simplicity.

[intro]

• not skippable (negative)
• while i enjoyed the intro real-time readout the first time, by the third i was a little tired of waiting. i always rec’d implementing a skip function (with confirmation), and a replay intro button in the menu.

[audio]

• love a dynamic SFX, no bland repetition here. all things that i feel should make sound do. nice atmospheric soundbed. could maybe do with some more music, but it does help the dreadful environment to not have any sound except sudden SFX.

[art/visuals]

• absolutely beautiful, minimal, and never too much to look at/work with.
• everything is perfectly in-sync from the graphics/art to the UI

[customization/accessibility]

• in-game immersive tutorials via dialogue/object interaction & persistent on-screen instructions/controls (plus)
• no settings or pause menu (negative)
• itch’s on-page viewport is totally busted, making it very hard to see/navigate certain elements. breaks the normal screen, so had to play zoomed out in-browser, which was interfered with due to the in-game zoom settings. no fullscreen setting.

[gameplay/handling/controls]

• LiDAR games are hard to manage playability, but this does it well. the draw/erase mechanic made the unforgiving natural settings easier to handle
• great object interaction/environments in general
• shift to run, WASD native (plus)
• on-screen keyboard typing with mouse is a little janky, would prefer to be able to take over with actual keyboard when focus is on terminal.
• scroll to change item way too fast/glitchy for comfort and way too sensitive for a mac mouse, SFX for this thus became very annoying

[specs]

• mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
• browser, chromium

[overall]

• very basic but fun enough to keep me engaged, great aesthetic and vibes. liked the non maze parts the most, ironically.

[first impressions]

• love a game that starts with a vibe of "go fuck yourself" straight from the jump via art/presentation/sound (biggest compliment intended to be clear)

[intro]

• vibey, but got stuck a few times
• no skip, slight negative

[audio]

• great crunchy sfx, sparse music/audio bed

[art/visuals]

• yes pls. tasty & cronchy.

[customization/accessibility]

• zero in-game instructions, controls, settings, pause menu (negative, tho mostly uneeded for a game like this)

[gameplay/handling/controls]

• was kinda unsure when the game started as no in-game screen or confirmation
• was expecting the jumpscare when touching the sides of the maze, which made it a little more unsettling when it did happen
• for some reason though not declared, the J key was the only thing that worked as "accept"/"interact"

specs:
- mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
- mac download, played native .app

overall:
- great art direction, big lively world, very janky controls/graphics display

first impressions:
- nice RE/SH-feeling splash screen but bland UI elements and no interaction choices except start/quit. pleasantly surprised to see an indepth iso topdown ARPG in the mix.

audio:
- nice standard SFX and music one would expect from a game like this

art/visuals:
- a lot of care obviously went into the presenation here for the gameplay assets.
- UI elements left a lot to be desired, contrasts harshly with other aesthetic eleents

customization/accessibility:
- zero instructions, controls, settings: big negative
- pause menu exists: slight plus

gameplay:
- environment was so dark in most places that it was impossible to tell what was going on.
- when i picked up a lantern, it seems it changed my attack, but no idea how to switch back to starter weapon or use the lantern. seems to be a buildup/charge type AOE attack, but no indication of charging progress, ready state, or anything else related to using it.
- sudden random animatic when approaching area before first interior, didn't seem to be tied to anything in-game but i think it was supposed to be the enemy that hit me and took 50% health in one shot. no idea due to total darkness and zero lamp or anything.
- isometric games need great care with placement, and things like trees/overhead buildings blocked out a lot of line of sight.
- standard iso ARPG controls/movement, shift to run is nice
- absolutely no idea how to switch weapons, check inventory/gear/etc.
- wild jank with shuddering visuals and mouse movement flying all over the screen. no options to customize settings is made much worse by this.
- runs very slow on my very powerful machine. no settings to play with to get better results, but also no reason it should've run this way for me using this hardware and a native mac app.

specs:
- mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
- windows download, played .exe via GameHub emulator

overall:
- a good start but feels very empty

audio:
- absolutely love the lucious synth rolling in. wish it didn't cut off when accessing other parts of the menu. more music/sfx in-game would be nice.

display/presentation:
- beautiful pixel art start screen and fitting typography
- in-game graphics a little static but nicely offputting in a retro way.

customization/accessibility:
- start menu help only. no way to pause or check instructions after starting. - right/left click was a little janky

gameplay/controls:
- shift to run, big plus (esp given the distance/lack of world objects)
- picking up the things from the grave by jumping on them was very confusing/not intuitive. lack of response from digging until done was a little confusing.
- WAY too much distance/lack of objects in the world. feels very unfinished/empty.
- esc being the insta-quit button with no confirmation is a no-go. the esc button is basically ingrained in gamer-brain as the pause/menu. even knowing it did this, i still accidentally quit the game while trying to get to the instructions.
- scroll to change weapons is good as a function, but the implementation was insanely fast/glitchy when switching to the point where it bugged out numerous times and made the weapon/tool disappear completely. no UI elements to show other weapons even existed.

might be missing something but it opens for me in a terminal, which i thought was part of the game and found cool, but then upon confirmation/enter it just runs then insta-closes. to be transparent i am running it on mac via emulator, but most exe/windows games work fine for me. if there's something i need to do or if you can get a mac build at some point would love to try it!

specs:
- mac mini m2, 32gb ram, 12 cores
- windows download, played via GameHub emulator

overall:
- beautiful visuals, atmosphere, and very creative use of 2/3D. well rounded with some minor visual/functional jank. would def continue/finish playing.

intro:
- the atmosphere and lore/story/worldbuilding were great, but despite it saying right click is the dialogue/text advance, the scroll button i accidentally hit immediately ended the intro. i appreciate the history factor to go back but this def needs a skip confirm and some tuning/re-factoring for the controls. even the actual FF button you know you're clicking on is instant-end w/o confirmation.

audio:
- LOVE the atmospheric ambience & the music. SFX could've been a bit more varied, only one i encountered was the menu click.

display/presentation:
- absolutely gorgeous artwork here. especially characters and setting, but the UI/menu/etc also deserves praise.

customization/accessibility:
- immediate huge plus here. a bunch of options for audio/visual/acessibility, how to play instructions with controls, settings
- mouse only interaction. makes sense for a visual novel, but since it uses a hyrbid control system i would def add the ability to nav with keyb as well.
- save system! big plus. esp auto save

gameplay:
- talking to sister clara crashed my window the first time, huge delay load second time i tried.
- some REALLY bad jank in the controls/visual load. i have a powerful computer but no matter what settings i was on, layers were constantly popping in and out. maybe due to the hybrid dimensional displays and FX and such, but it was really disruptive.
- interactivity with objects needs a little more scale and rendering/tuning. the backgrounds/environment were amazing but because everything is monochrome and there are no highlights on objects, i had no idea where i was supposed to go or what to do at points. i had to get basically on top of/inside of people/objects to get the E popup, and some things like the doors were not where they should've been (a building column was the "door" to )
- great systems in place: relationship, journal, schedule, map
- nice amount of interactivity in-world, where i could find it. a slight glow/highlight would be beneficial.

overall:

- amazing graphics, fun vampy twist on fps.

intro:

- always love an intro no matter what. also good to have a skip and replay in menu.

audio:

- good ambience/audio bed, static FPS sfx were a little repetitive esp with the starter weapon.

display/presentation:

- absolutely LOVE the graphics. great pixel art, crisp, well done environments and fun enemy designs. fav was the vamp mode hands.

- on game over, the lack of any mouse interaction is a downside. i couldn't even exit fullscreen and thought i would have to kill the browser before i realized it was pure keyboard nav. in a game type that relies on mouse, having mouse interaction for all elements is key.

customization/accessibility:

- no settings, no pause menu (big negative)

gameplay:

- movement was a bit fast/snappy, some drag & sway would be nice.

- death was a little abrupt most of the time. insta-cut to gameover, no audio/visual feedback on hit/lifedrain.

- first enemy encounters WAY too tanky. i counted 20+ hits on the tall enemies with the starter weapon. when just getting a handle on things, i thought i was doing something wrong at first.

- enemies also immovable/impassable objects. if a tanky enemy blocks a necessary path and i can't kill it before i die, it kinda kills the fun/progression

- fun weapons! especially the "brute"/vampire mode. had no idea it was coming but was fun to trigger randomly.

- def replayable. good looking and fun enough to keep me engaged and attempt a half dozen runs or so.

overall:

- fun lil doom/quake style romp with a vampire skin.

intro:

- the title screen was very blurry for me, not sure if it was the gane or weird rendering.

- drops you right in. no instructions or info. good for quick replay, bad for getting a handle on things.

audio:

- sfx were a little static/stale, could've done with a little dynamic energy to shots/enemy responses depending on range.

- music would be a nice touch, even an ambient bed.

display/presentation:

- fun oldschool graphics, good enemy designs. didn't get past wave 4 so not sure if more variety.

- great level design, not sure if environment changes but if not some variety or other rooms would be great.

gameplay:

- no pause/instructions/settings. inclusion of it is always a plus.

- the health was a little confusing/seemed unbalanced per shot.

- collecting health drops wasn't always possible, still on screen but no interaction.

- enemies/hit rates we a little too unforgiving for a single-difficulty imho, moreso movement/hitbox jank than actual scale it seemed.

intro:

- while i love the atmosphere and especially the music/sound design ambience, and was genuinely interested the lore/worldbuilding the text was doing, it was way too long. i timed it after my first run and it was a full 2min 30s. i highly rec'd adding a skip function (with a confirm) to the intro, as i wanted to try both modes i sat through a full 5min of the same music/text. this will turn off a lot of casual browser players, especially for a jam, and hurts replayability.

audio:

- sfx were a little bland and static, some monster sounds/impacts on hit/reactions from the player char in general when you miss an enem/etc would be nice.

- music/sound in the intro normal intro as said was very nice. halloween mode's cutoff in an awkward way when looping. would've turned off the music in Halloween mode if it was an option as it kinda clashed with the atmosphere of the game overall.

display/presentation:

- when in a half-size browser window on my large monitor, the fullscreen button disappears. this is unusual for me on itch.

- the "night" halloween mode filter was nicely done, and definitely works as both a visual switch and a difficulty changeup due to visibility as Jakob mentioned.

- some of the radio text ran offscreen for me or wasn't centered. good dialogue, good banter.

- graphics were simple but well done. not sure if there are other enemies but a little variety there would be nice. variants are always fun, and can feed into different movements/abilities.

- the blood effect at the end of the intro was very sudden and didn't feel like splatter so much as as a layer popping into place.

gameplay:

- core loop was good, very simple but i didn't find myself getting bored and the difficulty ramp was surprising the first time, to say the least. i got to the i think 3rd or maybe 4th wave and had to call it, but if the ramp continues to just speed them up maybe add a movement like zig zagging or phase-stepping in addition to the running.

- infinite ammo with a slight delay between shots, i might change to an actual bolt action sound/motion

- no pause screen, no on-screen instructions, no controls/settings is a big negative for me.

- zoom is kinda busted, couldn't really use it at all and if i could've disabled it i would have as my mac mouse is one flush piece and accidentally triggering it was annoying after the third time. it's also very slow, and is either on or off, which contradict each other a bit. i would add steps to the zoom amount so players can actually choose where it sits instead of just on/off.