This was really scary! The pixelated assets plus the scaled-down real footage create a real sense of uneasiness. By the time the player's used to it, you throw them a curve ball with some full color stuff. I also appreciate the build up to the jump scare, you can actually see the 'father' approach before the screamer, which helps it not come out of nowhere and alerts the player to the cue they should be listening for- especially the first time around. Everything was really thought out, great job!
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Hehe Television's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Horror | #2 | 3.600 | 3.600 |
Aesthetics | #6 | 4.100 | 4.100 |
Enjoyment (Best Game) | #11 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
Sound Design | #12 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
Story | #14 | 2.900 | 2.900 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
This is a game that excels in having effective visuals and gameplay timing with simple controls. Had a lotta fun finding the hints and getting spooked by that...thing. Great job!!
This is a lot of fun! Changing channels on the television is used to great effect to reflect the increasing desperation of trying to find clues whilst also avoiding the dreaded father getting all up in my grill. There's a nice mix of art and leveraging royalty-free footage that creates a bit of a period vibe that works well with horror. The clues also add an interesting puzzle element that is specific to the footage. The red works great as a cue for clues whilst creating a bold and distinctive color scheme against the monochrome. I think after I realised that the father character only harasses you when you continue to change channels rather than worrying about freezing or staring at him, the quick reactions became more manageable. I think the only constructive feedback I can give is that there's a lot of opportunities for even more storytelling here. What is this weird, dilapidated house, and why does my dad want to stare at me so much? Great work!
Thanks for being a part of the Scream TV jam!
- ryan
Hey Ryan,
I really appreciate your critiques!! I agree that story could use much more development, it was my fault for not managing my time effectively for that aspect of the game. I had intended for there to be a story about the mother (who is depicted as the smoking lady ) to be cause of broken household that you see the player is currently living in.
Thank you so much for checking out the game !
Wow, this game was excellent! I have loads to learn from this.
The constant threat of the dad showing up, paired with not knowing what was going to come next on the TV, kept things constantly tense. The custom pixel artwork and the pixelated old footage fit really well with each other. The use of red to make striking visuals against the blacks and whites was a good idea. Gating progress around finding a particular clickable channel competes for the focus, again keeping the tension higher. The controls were simple and functioned well. When I got all of the hints it took me a second to uncover the ending, and it was chilling!
You have plenty to be proud of, thanks for all your hard work!
Damn, Dad is a weird guy getting up in my face like that
Nice work! I had a little trouble seeing my mouse at times, but other than that, solidly enjoyed this one. Excellent!
Man that was AWESOME. I was just sitting there dreading the next time I heard a creak knowing I'd see that creep slink away. Great tension builder and love how the animations just get more and more deranged as time goes on.
Dude thank you for the free anxiety attack :(
Jokes aside, very effective scares and EXCELLENT aesthetic for this game. I love the art! Would genuinely love to know how you made it, it’s just that good!
Im glad it gave you a good scare :^]
I am very into old foreign cartoons, so I looked into GIFs of old Russian and Japanese cartoons. I essentially reduce the color count of each GIF and apply my selected color palette. After that, I just scale down the image size to fit within the screen of the TV sprite. There are a few channels that I drew myself, and those are meant to have multiple phases such as the 'smoking lady,' the 'tree,' and the 'laughing face.'
Thank you so much for checking out the game!!!
Really enjoyed how simple but effective the game is, loved the creepy imagery!
I kept replaying it after the Hehe clue thinking I had missed something lol but I had so much fun with this one, I was paying so much attention to the creak of the floorboards.
Really good stuff!
One of the best games of the jam for sure. Gameplay is simple to understand and atmosphere is top notch. Well done.
I couldn't get past the hehe hint, but i had fun with it. The graphics are beautiful and i could tell they took a while to make. The sound design was good too, and it was always clear if dad was checking in or not which makes it on me whenever i failed. what i dont get, however, is why dad would run in on me whenever i checked my clues. I would get to the station that is presumably hehe and click everywhere. i checked the clues, cuz hey maybe i was wrong. insta gameover. i think i caught the underlying story with the man and the woman with the cigarette. (i could definitely kinda tell there was somethin going on at least, dont know what) and have to say, if thats on purpose (cuz i could just be looking for patterns that arent there) thats really clever.
You did it! You won! Did you notice the clues vanishing and only leaving the words in red? It's supposed to be a sentence if you rearrange from 'top to bottom' to 'left to right.' If you want me to tell you, let me know, or you can play it once more and see the phrase. There was a bug that made 'dad' appear once you go to the 'touching' clue, causing the game to go into a win state. It's supposed to be triggered after the 'hehe' clue, but I unfortunately didn't have time to fix it. T___T
The game has since been updated on my main game page, so if you want to play it again, you should check it out here: https://sugarcow.itch.io/hehe-television
I really wanted to develop the woman's scene to be the mom who was seduced by a charming devil (literally) and how it affected her family. I didn't have time to get that through, but these are the animations for it. I'm glad you saw some semblance of it! Thank you deeply for playing and giving me your impression of the game. I really appreciate it! :^]
Really well done, I love the idea and the art. It's very original. But I can't finish it, lol. The dad scares me every time, so creepy! I managed to reach the R clue part but eventually he always catches me XD I've managed to be safe from him but I panic and it's over. It's very fun, awesome job
It was better than I expected and I didn't know Unreal could do this. Good job!
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