I really like the concept and the vibe of this game. Pixel art doesn't scare me, but I underestimated this one. I absolutely love the mechanic of light slowly fading out as you struggle to find more fuel for it. I really appreciate the horror games which focus on psychological horror than jump scares.
The art stye is good, the main menu music is..... well, let's say I spent more time on the main menu screen than the game itself and now I can't get the tune out of my head XD.
Talking about in game sound:- I was a little disappointed when I realised that there is no background music, but I guess it works in favor of the overall theme. After all, you are in a haunted house, where the only sound you will hear is doors and floors creaking.
Ok so talking about areas of improvement:-
1. Doors are a little buggy, They only allow you to pass after you approach them from a specific angle.
2. As much as I like the game mechanic, I found that the fuel was burning way too fast, even on easy mode. And by fuel, I don't mean the slider on the bottom left, I mean the circle of vision. You are not just collecting keys and opening doors, you are reading all the notes, trying to figure out what happened and exploring the house as well. Unfortunately, I couldn't complete the game because it was impossible for me to explore the house after half of my fuel is depleted, because the circle of vision gets too small.
I will say that this game has potential.
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Fear of the Dark's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story | #69 | 3.457 | 3.457 |
| Sound | #179 | 3.283 | 3.283 |
| Music | #284 | 3.239 | 3.239 |
| Aesthetics | #285 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #342 | 3.196 | 3.196 |
| Fun | #437 | 2.826 | 2.826 |
| Mechanics | #458 | 2.652 | 2.652 |
| Theme | #593 | 2.413 | 2.413 |
Ranked from 46 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
Yes Most of them did not need credits, the rest are in the games credits
Comments
Actually there is Background music but its random sometime you hear it sometimes no, kinda like a ghostly song, also about the fuel yes it does go out but thats the point, without it you wont feel as pressured, also the notes pause the game so take as much time as you want on it! also, In a future update i will add difficulty settings so that you can actually play however you like, There is a bug that i know about wich is if you pause the game you can't unpause it, i will repair that alongside the doors wich dont work alwasy, but it will take some time as im exausted from the gamejam
Great artstyle and gameplay! The darkness slowly increasing is a nice touch, gives that claustrophobic feeling!
I think the art style is great and menu screen is very cool. Game had some bugs and I don't think that it's best place to have restart key [R] next to use key [E] cuz I pushed it accidentally and was sent back to start. I love how the light is slowly going out and you have to gather candles. The Vibrating red text was nice touch and music was nice also. I think doors could've been bigger because it was hard to step through doorways sometimes. Anyways. a very solid nice game, congrats!
So this may not be a bug but the menu music starts from the beginning every time you transfer from options to title screen or back. It would be much nicer for the experience if music would be playing in the background non-stop while you haven't started the game yet (looping menu music).
There was also a problem with the menu screen that pops up below other UI element in game (Interact window) so player may not see "Resume Game" text and it can't be interacted at this point.
If you press ESC while playing and press options and come back - game has restarted.
The door archways are a bit too tiny. I think it would be better if the upper wall (higher in y-axis) collider was higher to also make transferring through door visually logical to the eye.
I hope these help. The game itself has great potential.
Finally got the time to play this one. It is a charming game with a lot of potential! I had fun roaming around and trying to figure out the mysteries of the events that happened.
Good job. Berry! You're talented and very enthusiastic, keep up the good work!
I thought this was a great! Wasn't able to complete it due to a bug, but what I did manage to get through was awesome! The sound effects, general look of the game, music and especially the running out of light intensifying effects was really good. I think I would have preferred the candle to not really "reduce" in size as I ran out of fuel, but instead to just intensify the visual effects on the screen as I ran out. That way I would still be able to maybe find a fuel source even when almost out of fuel. Instead, at a certain point, it becomes more of a situation where I would rather start over than wander around in complete darkness an getting stuck on furniture.
As for the bug, my screen would just go black. I could still play the game and walk around, read notes, etc, but the screen would be black. It happened three separate times at different times and locations so I'm not sure what exactly is causing the issue.
Other than that issue it was an awesome time!
I'm not sure what or when causes the bug... I don't have a ton of time this evening, but I'll take a second look and, if I can't reproduce it, I'll look at the game again tomorrow. From what I can remember, I'll be walking around and it will seemingly, at random, have the screen go black. Interaction indicators still show up along with the actual interaction text boxes, but the room/character goes black.
Nice entry. I think I am at the end, but I can't open the garage door? What's the gas for otherwise?
Well done!
Managed to escape :P Got fuel for the vehicle but couldn't open the garage door. Escaped through the front door. Found a bug where I played the whole game while pause menu was on hahaha.
The artwork, game design and concept are truly brilliant. Really creepy horror feel. Only had a quick go on the easy version and even on that the candle burn speed is challenging. I really wanted to explore more but the candle really stopped me getting very far on a quick play. Will definitely come back to this to play more as soon as I have time.
I agree with pretty much all christh's comments, so won't repeat what he said.
For a 10 day jam, this is an immense achievement, and brilliant concept, hope you get time to keep developing it, you have amazing talent.
Thank you! The game is made to be played on several runs so you should get some time to play it full, also for the comments, I repaired that thing with the story and also, I will continue developing this game as i would like to add a ingame difficulty settings, and more stuff like another floor, more endings, more light sources like a flashlight, torch and stuff
Ok full marks for story - right now I got as far as the garage and I believe I understand what the alternative ending might be. However I'm struggling a lot with the candle burn speed.
Suggestions: I'd like to finish the story but once your light gets low you're just not going to find any fuel, so the game is a bit of a high-pressure memory game at present. If you could tweak the burn speed I think that'd help a lot (I'd consider this a balance / bug fix so no issue doing it now). I'd even say halving the burn speed would be an idea. Also the time pressure means going and reading the fun stuff (turtles!!) is not really possible.
Other things: ahem, player's flashlight uses candles for fuel? I ignored the candles to begin with :) Oh yeah, a semi-bug - I actually found a candle somehow in the dark but got murdered a second later.
Otherwise very cool and congrats, I can see a lot of work went into this one.
Wow, loved this! I didnt realize pixel art games could be scary but to pulled it off, well done. I loved your vfx!
Loved the creepy vibe and light-based survival i hope you dive deeper into this idea, and i would love to see a fleshed-out game!
I liked the atmosphere and story of the game! Uncovering the mystery is fun, and itfelt very spooky and creepy.! The jump scare worked when I died the first time! lol!
Getting through the doors going left/right was difficult and thought they were blocked off until I kept trying. The light dimming mechanic was fun but I felt it ran out too quickly and shrank down too much to make it possible to see anything.
I wasn't expecting to play any horror games this jam, I love a good horror so congrats! The art looks really nice, the sound and music work really well for the genre. And I think you have a pretty decent story tied into the gameplay. I didn't get as far as completing the game before I ran out of fuel but I enjoyed the run I had.
I loved the music, atmosphere and art. I haven't played a lot of horror games but I expected something to happen when the fuel ran out and was ready. I think do the jump scare at an unexpected time. Maybe place a candle in a spot when it's needed the most, to keep the pace. for example I started in the first room, went left to the body, naturally continued in that direction, by the time I made it to the second room I had nothing left. again I'm not much of a horror game player so take it with a grain of salt.
Promising start!
Good job on setting the mood & tone. Art & Lighting work well to complement the themes.
As mentioned on the main comments page, I encountered a crash to desktop and had a few pain points when exploring.
Overall, it looks like a solid foundation, and I look forward to your future patches/projects.
Have a nice day!
Great atmosphere, and story. Really nice game. Loved the style and sound effects, great entry. :)
Wow, this is very interesting and i like the story. One issue that i face is that when I open the door it get crashed. I have downloaded the recent build (Zip file), is that the right one for play?
I was really impressed by the atmosphere you've created. The sound design and visual effects work together to build a genuinely eerie experience. I see you've been actively addressing bugs and updating the game, which is great to see. Looking forward to seeing how the game evolves further!
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