Interesting game. I included it in my A Game By It’s Cover 2018 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :)
Play game
.GHOST's itch.io pageInspired by
http://famicase.com/18/softs/097.html
Theme
C H I L L
this game is 🍦 ❄️ 🌬️ ⛄ CHILL ⛄ 🌬️ ❄️ 🍦
Comments
Controlling a computer inside a game you're controlling on your computer is always a concept that piques my interest and I appreciate more games like this. The interface reminds me a bit of my days as a kid when I figured out how to change the design, colors and fonts of Windows XP. Given that GHOST OS was built by a young hobby developer and never really finished, I can see how she would do similar stuff with her project and I think you conveyed that aspect pretty well.
The soundtrack is pretty cool and having to find the files before you play them is both realistic and a good motivation to look for secrets. Having them also play when clicked on instead of just being added to/removed from the playlist would be a nice addition. A few more system sounds for opening files, warning messages etc. could improve the immersion even further. The fan noises and the whine when you shut down the computer are a nice touch, though I only noticed them when I switched to headphones.
I have to admit I didn't get very far. I've read all the help documents and interacted with everything I could find on the guest account, but I probably missed something that would have helped me finde a code to create a real account. Opening folders also confused me a bit in the beginning. I thought clicking on any of the rounded rectangles would open the folders, even when you're hovering over one of the icons. For example, clicking on the news icon in the program overview would show a message about insufficient authorization which lead me to believe that the whole folder was unavailable. I was pretty surprised when clicking a few pixels next to it one or two minutes later later would open the folder or the help file. The selected icon gets a bit bigger when hovering over it, but maybe the highlighting could be a bit more obvious? Then again, it could just be me.
Nevertheless an interesting entry and take on the cartridge!
Submitted
Paradise Road TripThanks for your kind words about my (very short) project. The soundtrack is amazing and not by me, so please check out the artist's page on the free music archive if you want to grab the tracks for yourself or give kudos to the actual musician. I spent the most time trying to get the visuals to look just right for this one, although I think an actual graphic designer would have made things look much better. I was really trying to capture that chillwave aesthetic, which is a retro style, so the callback to things like Windows XP are valid. Sorry about the puzzle. I wrote the text a while ago and ended up making the word puzzle/riddle very hard for people who aren't looking for one. I have some ideas about how to guide players to the answer better, but that whole design was a bit rushed on my end. If you're looking for a hint, it's in the welcome message, but I should have had it say something like: "i've lost my password and need to make a new profile to recover the old one. i've hidden the access code for creating accounts in these help files, but you're going to have to puzzle it out. it's not like i'm just going to write it plain as day." or something like that. As for the groups thing, it's probably a case of too much functionality (and a lot of headaches on the design side), because I wanted the groups to look visually different from the other icons. In retrospect, just opening the groups should have been fine, even with the preview of what's inside. It would have made coding things easier, too.
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