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MOONSHADOW's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Cleverness | #423 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #426 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Artistic Style | #469 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Playability | #943 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- The atmosphere and presentation are on point! As you are already aware the submission sadly has a number of bugs/issues preventing progress, but with them fixed this game shows a lot of promise. Would suggest teaching the controls in-game as I was first confused what the interact key was, as well as making it clear you do indeed have the flashlight while still in the first areas.
Did you include your Game Design Document in your downloadable files?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
You're looking for your professor whose studying a fenomenon of an unknown substance spreading itself on the moon. Your professor has been gone for days, and tonight, the moon's condition has worsened. You must look for him, solving a puzzle whilst exploring dark areas with your flashlight, which you must also use to defend yourself from strange enemies.
You can go left (A/Left arrow) and right (D/Right arrow), aim your flashlight with your mouse cursor (which you can also use to interact with keypads), Z to interact with some objects, and Up Arrow to go up stairs.
Web version of the game: https://faulko.itch.io/moonshadow-web
Did you remember to include your Game Design Document?
Yes
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Extra Notes
This is me and my brother's FIRST FINALIZED project. Even though we couldn't implement everything we wanted, we had a lot of fun making this and we hope you'll enjoy our game as much as we had fun making it!
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Comments
Wowie, what a great piece of work. First thing I noticed IMMEDIATELY was the visuals, clean animation, good visual communication. I was never really left confused at what I was looking at and what I was looking for. The gameplay is def a fun concept and got the Alan Wake inspiration right away (this was before I read the GDD mind you). There was a genuinely spooky atmosphere achived here, probably my biggest complaint however is that the shadow beings never felt quite like a threat. Maybe adding a variety of movement speeds (including a faster one) might create a little more unease and sense of danger. I quite enjoyed the one puzzle, was easy enough for me not to be stuck but hard enough where I felt really smart when I got it.
*SPOILERS* I was actually shocked when I saw the "Ending II" at the end of my first play-through. Although I thought "Ending I" was maybe a tad simple to figure out. I love the idea and the execution of not really letting the player know or communicating in any way that there were different endings, created for a fun shocking twist.
Overall, fantastic work and cannot wait to see more from Y'all!
I should clarify I played the web version so I am not sure if there were any fixes there didn't think about that oops!
We can't thank you enough for the kind words and for taking the time to play it. It put a big smile in our faces!
To be clear, yes, there was a v e r y long list of issues that were fixed comparing the jam build to the web version. We implemented some of the suggestions, and one of them was the visual feedback in various things. I'm glad it seems to have done its job justice! The same can be said about the puzzle, since the *SPOILERS* hints in the keypad were added after feedback from the jam build!
I'm also so glad a little spook was achieved, for a myriad of reasons that I'll probably talk about in an behind the scenes log (same goes for the different endings stuff). The 2 weeks of dev. were chaotic to say the least, so I'm glad we were able to do a little bit of the intended spook.
That's such a good idea for the enemies! I'll definitely discuss this with my brother!
Once again, thank you so much for checking the game out and for the words! It means a lot!
Let me start by saying I love the presentation! Art style gives me 90s DOS vibes and oozes charm. I loved the aesthetic once the lights went out and thought the flashlight mechanic was well done.
The side scroller aspect for a quest/puzzle game is not one I would think of first, but I think it worked well here.
Unfortunately I couldn't get particularly far. I kept getting caught by one of the shadow monsters as soon as entering the hallway scene. I tried several times but couldnt manage to enter the scene without immediately dying.
On top of which, the controls were not particularly intuitive. I couldnt figure out interact or how to get upstairs on my own, having to reference the game page. I'd suggest maybe using 'W' an input option to go up the stairs if you decide to revisit the game.
Overall a positive experience, let down by a difficult to impossible section I couldnt get past and unintuitive controls.
For a first project, I think you guys should feel proud. I'd be eager to play the game again if theres some updates
First of all, thank you so much for the very kind words!
I think I know exactly what shadow monster you're referring to (that thing wasn't even meant to be there LOL)
We plan on releasing an update immediately after the voting hours are finished and it should fix these issues, including making the control scheme more familiar!
Thank you so much for taking some of your time to play our game though, it really means a lot to us. I hope you give it a 2nd visit after the update rolls out!
The look of this one really appealed to me. I come from the King's Quest/Hugo's House of Horrors era of gaming so I really dug it. It was all very nicely put together and achieved the vibe (I think) you werre going for. Spooky but fun. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish the game, I kept getting caught by one of the floaty blob things in the hallway with the stairs >.<
As far as notes go, there isn't much that couldn't just be put down to the game jam (as in stuff that would probably have been sorted with more development time and testing). I'd have maybe used the W key instead of the up arrow, and possibly made it so the mouse controlled the up/down angle of the torch have the torch always face forward. I kept getting caught by blobs because I got near the edge of the room and my dude span around to face the mouse lol.
Excellent work though. Loads of potential, you should definitely keep working on this.
Thank you for the kind words!!! I'm glad the game was able to be a bit spoopy hehe, especially considering it was my first time making sound related stuff (and don't worry, the enemy in the stairs hallway will be purged next update, you'll be avenged)
The control scheme's definitely getting a revision, and regarding the flashlight, that was the idea that my brother originally had! Sadly, we had issues when implementing it, so we let players spin it freely. With that being said, I'm discussing with him an option/toggle to limit the change in the flashlight's angle, so that it works kinda like what you've described!
Once again, thank you so much for the very kind words and for taking the time to play our game, we really do appreciate it!!
This has awesome vibes and a lot of potential.
I loved the titles, the 8bit-esque graphics and spooky sound effects. I like the sound you make when you walk, the animations, it all works.
There are definitely some bugs which get in the way a bit. One I encountered: when the door slams in the room with the paintings, you can migrate through it and get stuck on the other side, unable to re-enter or trigger the darkness phase. I had to kill the game client and restart to get past that one.
I was really confused by what killed me when going back through the house, although I now see looking at Nijelous' comment that it was the cloud thing! Maybe some kind of indicator as to what's damaging you? Or perhaps there was and I didn't see it.
Anyway, great submission and congratulations to you both on building an engaging game.
Hello there!!
About the enemies, they're dark blobs with a pair of red eyes that float on screen towards the player. You should've been able to see the red eyes even through the darkness, so if the eyes were not visible to you, it could be an issue I'll have to look into. Nevertheless, they currently kill the player in one hit, so a health system could help with giving feedback about the player being attacked whilst not killing them in one hit.
And thank you for the kind words! The game currently is rough around the edges with bugs like these that you mentioned (thank you for telling me about it btw), but it's somewhat reassuring to know that despite these, it does seem to have potential.
Thank you very much for taking some of your time to play our little game and give us some feedback, we really do appreciate it!
MAN I wish I could figure out how to play more of this but that left over enemy (which I did not realise what to do with when he was in the base scene) is REALLY hard to get past. But ignoring that, the sound design is solid AF, I absolutely love the opening animation, and the gameplay feels pretty smooth all things considered. If you can tell me a sneaky way to get past that enemy then I'll definitely revisit because I want to see more. Also congrats on doing your first finalised project!
OK SO, the strat is, it only kills you once you're using the flashlight. Everytime you enter the stairs room, enter it pointing your flashlight directly below you whilst standing still. The flashlight should freeze it in place and kill it after 3-4s!(the enemy sadly respawns everytime you enter the stairs room, so for now, since it spawns below you once you enter the room from the right side, thats the current way to sneak past it)
AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE FEEDBACK SO FAR!! It really means a lot to us!!
Ok went back and started playing, now I'm positive I've gotten the right keypad combo but I got stuck on the keypad window with no way of exiting out even if I've gotten the number wrong and want to try again. I could just be bad with the controls though or the combo isn't what I think it is (animals in the book I assume). Also the restart button doesn't work haha.
Ohhh boy, the game seems to be too rough around the edges still. Yeah, tested here too, we literally forgot to put an exit button in the keypad scene LOL And to be honest, the controls should've been made clearer in game, so those are things that we plan on changing after voting season's over.
But yes, the animal combo is the secret to the puzzle. Could you tell me what's the combination you have in mind? And is there anything else that caught your attention?
This has been invaluable feedback. Thank you!
5231 was what I tried, since there are 5 birds, 2 lions, 3 whales, and a singular ???? in the book.
Outside of what I mentioned there isn't really anything else I noticed bug-wise, though it'd be cool if the player stopped walking when they interact with an object (very nitpicky but hey while we're giving feedback).
I'd love to play a version where you've quickly fixed these two bugs though, hit me up on discord when you've managed to fix these and I'd be down to give more feedback on further points in the game!
See, the thing is...
(SPOILERS)
You are right about the password! The problem is, this game developer doesn't know how to count... and may have put a 4 where there was supposed to be a 5. I'm gonna cook this game a bit more during these next two weeks, clean up some of these bugs, and I'll hit you up for a third (hopefully better) try. Thank you so much for the feedback though, it helped us a lot!!