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A jam submission

The House The Dead BuiltView game page

You discover a house in the middle of a snowstorm where experiments are used to transform people into creatures
Submitted by Aaron Wise (@Trial_by_Fir3) — 1 day, 21 hours before the deadline
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The House The Dead Built's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#63.6003.600
Audio / Music#83.4003.400
Gameplay / Fun Factor#83.7003.700
Use of Theme#103.4003.400

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • Beautiful game with incredible atmosphere. Controls and cameras work well in general, but several spots need tweaking.

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Comments

Host

Such a beautiful game, I'd love some "survival horror" ambience vids / VR sleep rooms like this!

Pretty difficult, couldn't finish it, but I thought you may do checkpoints in the future and I'd wait for that lol.  Besides a few camera issues, just a fantastic experience. A very ambitious project with so many environments, can't wait to see more! I have a feeling we won't have to wait TOO long... #SilentHill

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Other than a few bugs (which every game has) this is a solid game. It stands on its own quite well. Creepy atmosphere, great music and sfx, and a good story. I can tell a lot of work went into this. Good job.

Developer

Thanks so much! Much appreciated :)

Submitted(+1)

I would block off some of the areas at the beginning it was a bit awkward figuring out where to go in that beginning snow area. And there were some parts where the triggers for the camera changes were a little bit awkward especially when there are enemies around.  The mouse controls worked really well it took me a bit to get used to it but after I did I was fine, I really enjoyed playing this, the level design was nice and it was great to play a traditional tank controls horror game and the item placement was done well, nice job man.


I didn't get a chance to finish it since I fell out of world in a section, I'll add the screenshot.

Developer(+2)

Thanks so much for playing. I see you found the hidden feature XD. 

Thanks for pointing this out though. I’ll get it fixed. I appreciate you pointing it out. Do you have a video of your playthrough at all?

Submitted

I'm sorry man I do not, I'm on lunch break at work here now, I can try and blast through later when im done. and shoot you a video. 

Thats it my friend its a bug not a feature, its all good I forgot to tell people they could reload in my submission.

Developer(+2)

haha yeah I know. I make a joke about bugs being features is all :)

Submitted

OK, I'm going to come across as a little negative, but before I do, I just want to say two things:

One: I did not beat the game yet... I quit out of frustration.

Two: I never found the pistol

Three: This is still the best game out of the entire jam I played so far.

OK that was actually three things. Moving on...

It really does feel like it some care went into the atmosphere, presentation and I think that is a great thing. Very good camera work! That shot of the first monster in the game, very well done. You make choices like a film director. (I should know, I went to Art school)

My main problem I think is that the game does feel a little weightless and lacks a lot of polish. There were a lot of times I died because I could not see my character on screen because I didn't step into the camera zones, and I got stuck on a ledge right before I entered the giant room filled with a bunch of vats. After that I thought, "You know what, I'm done."

You need more audio. The visual department helped with the atmosphere for  sure, but it's really the audio that brings everything together. Focus more on ambiance next time.

The transformation theme didn't come across as entirely original, but its there.

That is all. Peace.

Developer

Hey man, thanks for the feedback. I agree with you that the game is hard & it certainly can be frustrating. As a jam entry I started late due to previous commitments and I tried my hardest to make sure it was of playable quality. Like all jam games there is a strict time frame & you can't always get what you want done in time.
That being said, I appreciate you taking the time to play & that you somewhat enjoyed it despite the issues that you mentioned. Obviously as a developer I am always looking to improve and I think next time, the level of scope probably should have been scaled back? Rest assured if this was not a game jam I would have taken more time to polish it off & make it complete. 

But yeah, I don't disagree with you, I think you are very fair in your review. Thanks again for playing the game & the kind words and I will certainly make sure to do better next time.  Take care buddy : )

(1 edit)

Finest piece of indie horror! 

Starting from the visuals, down to design, renders and theme - this game has the satisfaction and the dare to convince us that there is nothing like this out there in the genre and frankly speaking, the game delivers what most of would call - Grand Slam!

As a game developer myself, rushing through game and just playing it is not enough for me, I guess for most of us, the art of suspense and beauty of visuals sinks us deeper to provoke our hidden emotions. The game presents itself as a simple, 3rd person survival horror, but it's more than that - the passion, the desire to consume the player into the world without realizing that it's just a fiction and everything is over. 

From the top, entry scene, snowy environment, creepy house, monster design, the survival element, inventory and all, just simple, yet unique for this particular case. I loved the character design, although it reminded me a lot of a British movie character kid, who always finds himself in trouble. That's of course subjective, but, objective part of my review is how tremendous the game is and at the same time it's stable - made in UE. 

Although, all this sugar is not good for the mentality and let's get to some salty parts - the sound design is superb, although the walking effect is a bit off at some point when you walk around the first act. Also, I downloaded special edition and I got stuck numerous times, so I switched back to the regular one. Sometimes text seems to be a bit off the corners and the camera fixes on some object, which is not part of the mesh, like, not part of the character. But, all these are just small details, nothing else. 

Game is top notch. I could not help myself scrolling through the renders and design, which provoke my motivation to play the game again and again. 

This project is phenomenal, nailing the atmosphere, the theme, the Mr.Kravin aspect of the whole thing, which is subjective for all and, simple grand! 

Thanks Aaron. How to one day make games, which are at least half the quality of yours, because I sure will not top that! Cheers! 

Developer(+1)

wow! Thanks so much for the kind words & Im glad you had fun playing it. I have put a lot of time into it & although I only had a couple of weeks to complete it, I feel I managed to do okay. 

I agree there is probably a little jank left in it but I must say it’s easily overlooked given the time frame. Thanks again for playing. Lots more coming soon :)