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Keeper's Curse's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #4 | 4.676 | 4.676 |
| Audio | #4 | 4.459 | 4.459 |
| Controls | #10 | 4.027 | 4.027 |
| Overall | #11 | 3.919 | 3.919 |
| Accessibility | #16 | 3.541 | 3.541 |
| Originality | #24 | 3.946 | 3.946 |
| Fun | #48 | 3.162 | 3.162 |
| Theme | #60 | 3.622 | 3.622 |
Ranked from 37 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.3
Wildcards Used
Did you know, Palette limiter, Watchmaker, Redacted, Unusual Look, Carpe Noctem, One or Two?, Hardcore,
Game Description
You are a lighthouse keeper trying to survive after your relief is delayed
How does your game tie into the theme?
A lighthouse is a tower
Source(s)
N/A
Discord Username(s)
Bunear, ced1613, cyan_one, nohria, sirsunstone
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
5
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Comments
from a visual standpoint, this mysterious, alluring game is simply one of the most well-executed CYOAs i've seen, even considering the ones i've played outside game jams. for all of this to have been made in a week is nothing short of impressive. incredibly well done all around.
in terms of the actual survival mechanics, i feel as though you're given a little too much resources to ever really have a chance of dying. i understand that you wish for the player to see the end, but the feeling of desperation that i feel you tried to convey is a little lost. with that said, the feeling of isolation, and slow insanity, is very well reflected here. well done.
Keeper's Curse is stylish. hooks you in like a damned fisherman, and takes its sweet time before releasing you from its grasp. incredibly, incredibly well done.
A narrative-centered title thrives on the quality of writing, and Keeper's Curse delivers in strides.
Tying in basic survival mechanics enhance the interactivity of this visual novel. The survival is not so much in food, water, and supplies, but rather the loss of sanity as one falls prey to isolation. How much is indeed a figment of an ignored imagination, or is reality presenting additional terror to an already fragile mind? The occult begin to encircle, and the player is tasked with deciding how they wish to navigate around a closing tide.
The mechanics of scene-switching provide a solid foundation for this story to be explored, and there are attention-to-details like the symbolic text (though, I feel including those in the branching options made it an obligatory selection), the tempered rate of animation, and so forth that provided dynamic visuals on the screen when the easiest thing to do would've been to leave it static like most VNs.
I undoubtedly have to give special credit to the art and sound that complimented the story, drastically immersing the player into this far world. Failing atmosphere, and the story takes a hit, even one written with this mature level of prose. The aesthetic is a portfolio-shiner. Gorgeous. Considering how complete the whole package is, this is the type of game a developer points to and says, "Yeah, I made that."
A fantastic effort by all on this team. Take a bow, lighthouse keepers. #PraiseToTheOutsider
Wow, what a fantastic review! The most interesting thing to me is seeing the game called a Visual Novel, as that wasn't the initial intention!
We ( I think I can speak for my fellow teammates) are extremely proud of the result! We were slightly disappointed in some more details we couldn't get in to the game. We actually have a weather changes with Thunder and hail in the game but they are not linked to events, so it never actually changes. Variety in daily events and in event vignettes was something we would've liked to increase too!
Most of the credit goes to the art side of the team: Writing, graphics and sounds do most of the heavy lifting!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The art is astonishing, combined with the audio, it looks like a commercial game
Am in love with the style. Phenomenal art, music and writing. As was already pointed out, resource management felt a bit too easy, but other than that I really enjoyed it. Amazing work!
This is the kind of story I Iove. It reminded me a bit of the Annihilation book (and the whole SR series), specially the description of the sky, and the things crawling from the ocean.
The art style is amazing, it is concise and fits the theme really well.
Regarding the resources, I always had plenty of them, and it was never a problem, I think you could have used them a bit more, so we had to make hard choices.
Great entry, congrats to all the devs involved 🎉
Thank you, we're glad you like the game!
Balancing and resource strain is the main point I'd like to rework for a definitive version. At the genesis of the idea ( a few months ago, actually), the main point was to force the player to make really tough decisions for resources. In the end, we prefered to have players be able to experience the story first and foremost!
Makes sense and was totally worth it!
A lot of people are talking up the beautiful art style but i wanna give props for the music..... Really effective, the transition from the gathering resources section to the daily cutscenes always made me lock in. Especially the sirensong segmen t and the savior ending music I found to be really moving and beautiful in contrast with the foreboding ambiance of the normal music. Obscuring some of the options was a really economical way to increase replay value and give a feeling of powerlessness, but like others mentioned I was never wanting for resources at all which made me feel secure despite all the spooky shenanigans. Also, wow, the composition of the settings menu.... You guys cooked hard and deserve all the praise you're receiving.
thank you so much for the comment! I'm really glad you liked the music, since the events are random some people never get to see the mermaid event but I made a track for it anyways... So I'm glad someone heard it at least c: There's a track that didn't make it in the last ritual scenes unfortunately because of a poor audio integration code on my end but 90% of the rest is good so I'm happy! Thank you for playing!
The pain of the unimplemented asset........ I synthesized about 10 frog croak sounds that I didn't have time to implement as well ;-; glad that the majority of your vision here is on display here which speaks to your good practice and time management:) I was lucky enough to get the mermaids on both playthroughs, praise be to t̵̘̻̲͛̽͂h̵̢̭͇̞͍͕̣̟͓̍͋̐̉̍͋͛̉̾ͅe̵͖̔̐̊̔͆͆̏̚͠ ̷̦͖͆̅͌õ̴̼̪̯̘͖̫̫̠͈͙u̷͉̠͗̀͠ṭ̷̨̯͈̼̬̭͇͚͇̂͑s̶̡̛̺̒́́̈̍͂͝͝i̷̛̝̪̱̾̆͛̀̉̇̇̕ͅd̵̨̆́̊͐͗̚̕͘ȩ̸̰̞͕̃r̷̢̮̫̮͋̽̈́̽. hope to hear you keep making cool games!
Really like the visuals on this one! Great idea - I fish-maxxed.
Fish maxxing is the only canonical ending, I've just decided.
Fish maxxing and saving the cat. Eating the cat is the worst lost condition
Absolutely fantastic, one of the best looking submissions I've seen in any of these jams. Great vibe with the sound and the writing was also solid!
Really amazing atmosphere and unique concept. The thought of making a story-based game with the given theme never crossed my mind, but you guys pulled it off phenomenally! Definitely one of my favorite entries I've played in this jam :D
Thank you so much for playing our game, I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed the atmosphere! I hope the chilling track put you right in the shoes of this poor lighthouse keeper :p
Phenomenal art style! It reminds me a lot of Return of the Obra Dinn. Was that a source of inspiration? I especially like the hue/palette changes.
The writing is also excellent. Would love to play again if you ever turn it into a longer experience with more challenge.
Thank you for playing! We're happy you liked it!
Return of the Obra Dinn was a big inspiration, both for some of the ideas as well as visually.
The idea of making a "Definitive edition" with some more balancing, a longer story and some bug fixes is definitely on my mind.
praise to the outsider!
Very, very cool art style. Any info on how you achieved that?
Loved the transition of turning the page between each choice. The resource gathering mechanics were fun, but I wish it was a little more difficult - I feel like I was swimming in resources throughout.
Praise to the Outsider!
Thank you for your feedback! We were rushing to get a complete story out, so balancing got de prioritized until the last few minutes (litterally). I wish it was harder too, it would make reaching the climax of the story more impactful!
As for the graphics, I only know it's shader magic, maybe our in house graphic wizard can answer you!
totally fine, and I’m sure everyone can relate to that lol. Great work!
Hello! Graphics wizard here, thank you for playing :)
Most of the illustrations in this game were made in Blender and edited in Krita to remove some of the 3D-ness of it and add some 2D elements. Then I applied the 'Index Colors' filter which maps all values of the image to a limited set of colors, in this case only 3. And that's pretty much it!
Phenomenal and gripping. Amazing job!
Thank you! We're glad you liked our game!
This was one of the highest ratings that I gave to any of the games that I reviewed so far! Amazing job! I included it in my livestream:
We're really happy you liked the game! Thanks for including it in your stream, it's awesome to get "real-time" feedback!
The visuals and story are fantastic. Had a lot of fun reading/playing through!
We're happy you had fun! Shout out to SirSunstone and Cyanone for their writing and art!
<Beware the truth of the sunken god, by his will the heresy will rise once again, by his demand the flesh shall fall down the bones. to reveal what deemed to stay hidden inside>
One of the greatest lovecraftian experiences I had so far and most probably my secret first place of this jam
The art excels everything I have seen so far in my short span of being part of the game jam community, the sound design fits perfectly with the rest of the atmosphere and overall feeling of that interactive story. I imagine, if Lovecraft would still be alive today, this could have been developed by himself. Thank you for this journey!
Thank you! We're really happy to have been able to deliver an immersive experience using a really restricted amount of gameplay element! In the early days of the jam, we were joking that there was basically no gameplay per se, and that the graphics were there so it's doesn't look like a word document! Most of the credit goes to the writing, graphics and sound people, they always make the magic happen!
What a gorgeous, effective art style! The images are fantastic, and I love the scrambled text and hue shifts to set the tone for whether or not I was about to enter or in the middle of a dangerous/spooky situation or walking into a relatively safe one; they were very nice touches to help set the mood. The sound design and selective animation were also very effective. The setting and situation were gripping and a perfect narrative jumping off point. I wish the jam was longer to see how a more fleshed out resource management system would provide an extra bit to the emotional connection to the narrative. To accompany that, I'd love to have more emotional ups and downs with the main character and know how they feel from the experiences they are going through; I want to be wrapped up in the stress of what this person would mentally and emotionally be going through. I realize a lot of that may exist in branches of the narrative I didn't get a chance to explore, so I hope to play through it again and see how different decisions may unlock some unexplored emotional experiences. So glad you all made this, and I got a change to play it!
We're so glad you enjoyed our game! We aimed at making the player as immersed as possible so that they could feel like they were the keeper, not playing as the keeper. It was the first time trying out such a narrative heavy game for most of us and we got slightly caught off guard by the amount of work that is! I personally feel like this game is something that could be expanded upon into a full game!
This absolutely oozes style! Super well done with its tone, art direction and narrative design! Love the use of the interactive music bits/sound design to support the narrative beats. I think my only critique would be that I wish it was a little harder in terms of resource management to lock one out of "just" choosing any dialogue option without immediate consequence. Other than that really great!
Thank you! We're glad you liked our game!
During development, we had to choose between getting a more fleshed out narrative or going harder on the resource management aspect. We chose the former as we felt lime the narrative potential was better than strategic aspect of it. More experience, slightly less game!
Loved the eerie, survival twist on being a stranded lighthouse keeper! Looks like many possible paths in this game. Great atmosphere!
Thank you! We're glad you liked our game! There is indeed multiple paths, with 7 endings!
i cannot describe how much fun i had playing this, almost all 5's across the board. i was immediately immersed in this world and creeped out, great work guys! i will be replaying the s*** out of this and hopefully won't get the bad ending... (again)
Thank you! We're really happy you liked the game! And you managed to get the bad ending organically? During playtesting, we found it hard to trigger! Let us know if you're able to get all 7 (!) endings!
im a magnet for all things bad, makes sense i would get that ending organically as well LOL. will definitely update if i get more endings!
In this case, I hope the bad ending was bleak enough for you! We all had fun writing it!
Now this is a VIBE! This is so aesthetically pleasing and incredible. The atmosphere is on point and I was totally absorbed into the story. I managed to get a good(?) or at least neutral ending despite making some less than optimal choices, so I'm curious what other routes there are to take.
Thank you! We're glad you liked the game!
Survival is winning and as whether your ending was good, we'll let you decide ;)