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Next Year It Will Be Better's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #3 | 3.674 | 4.500 |
| Horror | #4 | 3.470 | 4.250 |
| Story | #4 | 3.674 | 4.500 |
| Gameplay | #7 | 3.266 | 4.000 |
| Creativity | #8 | 3.470 | 4.250 |
| Presentation | #8 | 2.654 | 3.250 |
| Overall | #8 | 3.368 | 4.125 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How did you choose to implement the Theme: Christmas Miracle in your game?
Every Christmas, he comes. The miracle.
Did you implement any of the optional Bonus Challenges, and if so, which ones?
Not What You Wished For: The main protagonist wished something long ago, even if he wants to forget.
Snow Day: The game starts on a particularly bad snowstorm.
Did you create your game in RPG Maker?
Yes
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Comments
That was so creepy!! I loved the timing of everything. The jumps were perfect and there were a few times where I legitimately flinched or gasped out loud. The way sounds would get cut off and such was really well done. I loved the long dark hallway with the flashbacks, REALLY effective way to do show/vs/tell in rpg maker, super clever. I appreciated that I wasn't sure what was happening till right near the end. I wasn't sure if it was an unreliable narrator or something and ended up feeling really sad for the main character. The dialogue was believable and engaging and I could really tell a lot of work went into the sound design. Really fun! Hope you do more of these in the future!
wow thank you so much!! i'm so glad you enjoyed it! :D thank you for your compliments to the sound design, it was a ton of fun playing with pitches and ways to startle the player haha. the hallway of memories felt like a natural way to get the information across, and i'm always a sucker for creepy linear final areas (though having used that sort of thing in both this game and my previous one is already making me feel like i'm overusing it lol). and i'm also glad you liked the storytelling! i absolutely was going for that "not knowing what's going on but still having to survive" sort of vibe, especially with being trapped in a house with a creature you know nothing about, only for the player to start realizing the main character might not be trustworthy either... happy to hear it worked for you! :>
in regards to making more stuff like this in the future, i 100% wouldn't have guessed i'd be making horror games when i got on this website lmao, but i had a ton of fun with this and now i'm definitely leaning towards making more horror.
thanks again for your comment! :>