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the Nightmare Never Ends's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #114 | 3.389 | 3.389 |
| Graphics | #221 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Fun | #223 | 3.111 | 3.111 |
| Game Design | #226 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Overall | #236 | 3.046 | 3.046 |
| Innovation | #302 | 2.722 | 2.722 |
| Theme | #368 | 2.556 | 2.556 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
You're trying to escape a nightmare that keeps repeating every time you "wake up"
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes, my first time ever doing so for a 3D game
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Comments
I was really scared.
I cant give very detail feedback because generally i cant play horror game very well ( i am too easily scared lol), but the short amount of time i spent playing does make me feel that this can be a quite a scary game which i guess it is great for horror game. Keep up the good work
Thank you so much for your feedback! I've been working on an update to improve the game after the jam. What I've added so far:
The flashlight is now much brighter, and the lights have been taken from the bells so that they're more difficult to see (though there's now a faint ringing you can hear the closer you get to one), the entity now patrols a tighter radius around the player, and his walking speed is now faster than the player's walking speed though his sprint is still slower than the player's sprint to make it possible to outrun him early on, the player now has two extra seconds of sprint to make escape viable, and the entity will now adapt to how many bells you have, searching a tighter radius around the player and moving faster the closer you get to completing the game.
Based on your feedback I'm adding to my list of tasks changing the ground to have a bit more variation, adding a vignette based on proximity of the entity, and replacing the stinger with a "chase loop" of some form that changes volume depending on proximity to the entity. I also plan to make the final cutscene substantially better as I had to throw it together in only 20 minutes and it's really not good.
Thank you so much for your feedback and ideas as this will actually help me improve the game further in my next patch.
Also thank you for your kind words about Skye, it's been an incredibly hard time but I am fortunate enough to have some supportive people around me who understand she wasn't "just a cat" to me and they've done a lot to help me through it.
Nice horror game. Loved it.
This had some really good jumpscares! it was a bit tricky to escape the monster but stil amazing job! Also I am sorry about skye
this brings back old Slender feeling which is amazing, i played it twice and enevr managed to meet with the enemy
and rip catto
A scary little game. I like the visuals and the sound effects. The gameplay is not very interesting by it self, but the games atmosphere makes it worth playing. Overall a pretty good jam game. Well done.
I know this should be a horror game but for me it was a chill experience. I turned off the flashlight, the bells were very easy to spot in the dark, never crossed the monster besides the ending jumpscare. I liked it, was chill af. I think the credits in the end were mushed, but it's not a big deal.
Nice work!! Sorry about your cat :(
Wow, this submission wins "best skybox" among all the games I've played so far!
In general it's always impressive when a game jam entry seems to have achieved a good basic loop, and this one has. It's spoopy. You can lose, you can win, you know what you have to do for each, etc. A lot to do in a few days!
The game's overall concept was very ambitious and only partially realized, meaning there's some untapped potential left if development is continued after the jam. Having a monster that employs hearing+sight is a fun trope of horror games, but it works because of the presence of certain other design choices like hiding places - in this game, line-of-sight-blocking terrain comes in small islands, so there's nowhere to meaningfully hide and you can afford to treat the creature as if it only has one sense.
The extreme darkness of the game *certainly* served its atmosphere (and enhanced that awesome skybox), but how little the flashlight affected it meant that the whole "creature sees flashlight" mechanic was of no importance to my play, I just left it off. It also resulted in a sort of 'meta' way of playing in my personal case; rather than reasoning about where a bell might be on the map and looking for one, I started randomly wandering looking around for 2 white pixels horizontally aligned amid black.
Both of these issues could be solved by utilizing a brighter, smaller play area. Players could see it well enough to learn it, and would need to because the creature would be "around" them much more of the time. Meanwhile, with similar clutter in a smaller space, hiding becomes more viable.
Some of the real gems of this submission are in the details. The menu is super good and everything's laid out clearly. There are lots of options, and even instructions. It's a short game, so you owe yourself giving this one a try!
(RIP Skye)
Thank you so much for taking the time for this long-winded feedback! Polish is extremely important to me with jams so I'm glad to hear it paid off. Happy you enjoyed it!
(And thank you for your well wishes for Skye)
Was on the edge of my seat and literally shaked at the jump scare lol. Loved the black and white art style (especially the sky), but I wanted to see more of it- the game was very dark and the flashlight did not really feel like it added much. Also, for the bells, maybe at a sort of ringing when you're close? I didn't really know where to go.
Love the suggestion! I can't believe I didn't think of it on my own. I'll definitely add an audio que to the bells post-jam and take away the lights on the bells so that you have to use the audio to find them.
I enjoyed the atmosphere and the vibe you were going for! The sounds also worked really well. The flashlight felt a bit useless however. I saw you said that the AI was toned down for the jam, I would've liked to encounter the creature more, he found me the first playthrough but the second I actually couldn't find him anywhere! The skybox was also slightly jarring, other than that it was a great job! Nicely done.
Thank you for the detailed feedback! You're not the first to complain about the flashlight, giving a useless item is actually a psychological trick to increase anxiety but it seems to not be doing it's job very well. Post jam I'll give it a longer range and make the bells less visible so that you have an actual reason to use it.
I really liked this short, but atmospheric game! I like the artstyle, and the overall feel.
However, the game is scary only for the first minute, and I think there's some reasons for that. I would DEFINITELY recommend to later on add footsteps to the enemy, and overall more sound cues around the player. Trust me, sound is really important in a horror game.
Also I agree with others, the flashlight should be brighter, or maybe should have a longer radius.
But I respect you for even finishing this with your cat passing away. I know the feeling, It's difficult. Skye would've appreciated you putting em in your game :)
So great job, you should definitely update and fix the game up!
The enemy does have footsteps haha. As a professional sound designer of 8 years specializing in horror, I'm VERY aware of the importance of sound. For the footsteps I implemented a surreal dark sound with a lot of reverb to help emphasize the idea that this is a dreamscape and the entity isn't a physical being that's walking around so it doesn't SOUND like a footstep but it does synchronize with his feet touching the ground and is specialized to help you track his movements. It begins fading in at a distance of 50 meters. It's possible he never got close enough for you to hear it or distinguish what it was meant to be, his AI is very toned down because I didn't have time to fully test and balance it, but an entire day of this jam was dedicated just to sound design and audio engineering. I still wish I could have added UI sounds, a sound for the flashlight turning on and off, and unique sound cues for the entity seeing you vs just hearing you and not knowing your exact location but given the circumstances I'm happy I finished it at all.
It also has voice lines recorded and edited that I never got to implement. Definitely plan to update the game after the jam with the entity being more aggressive, adding the missing sfx, and improving the ending sequence.
Thank you for your honest feedback and your kind words about Skye. Despite the issues I have with this game I feel it was the best way to honor her at the time.
Does he really have footsteps? Well I got a little close to him just ONCE, but not too close, so probably the reason I didn't hear them. Maybe you could make the footsteps possible to be heard from even further away.
And I respect you dedicated a day to the sound engineering, I also love to work on the audio side of a game. Didn't really have time to do it this jam tho, sadly.
Idk, nice to hear you plan on updating it !!
Cool horror game. There was a bug for me at the ending scene with the credits.
I would make the game more dark to make the player use the flashlight, and the movement more slow to make him/her use dash. I managed to complete the game without using any of these. Don'y know if the creature is supposed to be in the game or just in the end. I never met him through the run.
Keep up the good work!
I feel sorry for your loss of your cat :(
Thank you for your feedback and condolences. The creature is patrolling throughout the game, you didn't encounter him because I drastically toned down his AI for the jam compared to what I'd do in a full release as I decided without proper time to test too easy was better than too hard in terms of balancing.
Cool game! It does a good job of being frightening and suspenseful without using super high quality models or lighting.
Making a horror game as a JAM submission is very bold, so that suprised me in a good way, as making this kind of game requires a really good insight on the player behaviour (which takes lots of time).
I like the unusual artistic direction and the stressfull music, you really nailed that part.
The thing that may be lacking the most is the sense of danger growing stronger when collecting bells, as you would feel playing games like slenderman. I dont know if you didn't code it or if I was just lucky, but collecting bells didn't seem to affect the "entity" or endanger me.
On a side note, I don't understand why we're holding a flashlight, because the skybox is so bright and the bells essentially shines from far away, I found myself not making use of this item at all.
The last bits of my comment may seem rather negative, however, I really think that for a horror game made for a JAM, the mood is really nicely set, well done !
Thank you for the feedback! I love making horror games and I'm glad to hear my ballsiness paid off.
In terms of the AI I actually originally planned to have the search radius reduce every time you collect a bell but due to the sudden passing of my cat of 15 years I didn't dedicate as much time as originally planned and I couldn't balance it properly. It's something I'll add after the voting concludes.
The flashlight is actually a psychological trick; because you have a tool you want to use it even if it's not particularly useful. Because you have a tool that SHOULD be useful but is actually detrimental it creates a duality in your subconscious because you're in a stressful situation and you want to use everything at your disposal, but using everything at your disposal makes the situation worse so it's mere existence raises feelings of anxiety. If you play a lot of horror games it's a trick that's not likely to work though. I originally had the bells less visible so that the flashlight would be necessary but it made finding them too frustrating for a game jam audience.
I didn't know of this trick !
And I'm sorry for your loss, may your cat rest in peace
I never thought I would be scared today. I almost fell out my chair! The game is great and it functions well - the creepy music kept my on the edge of my seat the whole time.
oh and dev, your able to hide old versions if you want to hide build one of the game!
I'm aware of this but thank you :) I left both builds up in case the 2nd one didn't run well since I couldn't test it beforehand, since there seem to be no issues with it I'll hide the old build now.
Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback
great game bro! actually for your first 3d game , its really cool
Technically it's not my first 3D game but it's my first 3D game without using Unity Store assets. I appreciate it though! And thank you for playing
then nj bro