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The Ritual's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Mental Engagement | #111 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Atmosphere | #131 | 2.917 | 2.917 |
| Overall | #135 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Characterization | #136 | 2.417 | 2.417 |
| Lasting Impression | #137 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
| Overall | #140 | 2.583 | 2.583 |
| Emotional Engagement | #153 | 2.083 | 2.083 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I see the big concept here, however the whole story feels weird, happening amidst these kind of trees (not really western-ish). I wished the action would start faster, the movement be faster with less blur, so to enjoy the gameplay more than the surroundings. Sounds are good. If you could make the controls easier... The amount of keys to be used can frighten some players these days.
Sadly, my computer runs it at 1 frame per second :-/
Spoilers are in this comment
The first and second run I did, I somehow killed myself while jumping on top of a box, similar to what happen in Gmod and other Source games sometimes. These runs were me slowly walking around trying to figure out what to do. The next run I finally figured out I could shoot the pot and got the house key. I then somewhat quickly figured out what to do next, but couldn't figure out the candles until I looked at the other comments. I couldn't figure out what to do past this point, which leads me to the stuff I did like about the game.
Swapping between the dog and human was a really cool feature that I liked. The visuals looked great, and the sound design was on point. Having a pet in a game always is a plus to me. With a few changes (more obvious what to do next, less motion blur, faster movement), this could be a really good game!
I have a weak spot for westerns. But this game is so much more than a western game. The dialogue and plot were on point and the theme resonated with me greatly. You have accomplished something extraordinary. Excellent job!
Pretty intriguing submission! The graphics are nice and I really like the premise of using the doggo to piece things together. I was enticed by the story bits here and I enjoyed the way it didn't blatantly tell you everything going on. It seemed to run OK on my system, a touch laggy, but the doggo bits seemed to run very smoothly.
The audio design present, like the different footsteps depending on the material, is a nice touch, but there is some audio that seems a little out of place or leaves me more confused. Using the poke to break the hatch played an unlock sound which seemed a lil silly. I was unable to figure out the book puzzle, expecting the audio to give me some better cues but it seemed to imply that every book opened something, though I couldn't figure out what.
I was unable to figure out what to do in the shed, a little flustered by my inability to operate the lever with no explanation why. I'd say the biggest issue here is the lack of player direction. The movement speed wouldn't feel so sluggish if we were a little more certain of our goals and actions.
It's a good game, but it kinda lag when I run it on my laptop :')
Interessting Idea coming with a nice game play, gg !
There's an interesting idea here with the switching between dog and human. There seemed to be a puzzle with the books that I got to the end without ever solving. Presumably it opens the trapdoor? But I never got in there. Definitely a solid attempt for your first jam game. Also I disagree with some others about the movement speed. I think the movement speed feels good as it is, and the environment is not very big at all. Run exists to move faster anyway.
Definitely I second a suggestion for faster walk speed! Although, 90% of the issue is the really low framerate sadly - I suspect all those fire shaders around the map might be causing the issue!
EDIT: I can't seem to progress after getting into the attic, I see there's a couple craw-spaces around but you don't crouch quire enough to be able to squeeze through. Perhaps the crouching animation is tied to the framerate? That would explain, unless the demo ends here!
Hi there! Thank you for trying our game. This will go into spoilers for the steps to progress so here is what you'd have to do from that point on. There are candles on the ground, you'll have to interact with them to activate the next step. Then you'll have access to more parts inside and outside the house. As I mentioned in another community post, we haven't had the time to add an UI/Journal type of guide to help the player understand where to go but are planning on doing so in the near future! Please let me know if you have any more questions related to the game! Thank you so much!
Fairly interesting premise and there were a lot of fun ideas in there! I think I would recommend upping the movement speed since the slow pace is a bit frustrating at times. I would also say if you're going to give the player a gun we should be allowed to shoot it whenever we want or make a much more clear distinction on what can and cannot be shot. I also love Doug such a good little buddy
Hey there! Thank you so much for the feedback. We will definitely up the player speed, as we noticed it's really slow for a map that big. Our thought regarding the gun was initially to have ammo that could be found throughout the map, but we scrapped that right before the deadline. We agree that the ability to shoot anytime would be a QoL improvement with the approach we have taken now. Thank you for playing our game!