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Late Night Surfing's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals | #25 | 4.850 | 4.850 |
| Overall | #31 | 4.338 | 4.338 |
| Voice Acting | #32 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Story | #67 | 4.400 | 4.400 |
| Music | #76 | 4.100 | 4.100 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Content Warnings
Late Night Surfing is a psychological horror visual novel. This game contains themes of violence, blood/gore, strong language, loud sounds, and suggestive themes of death, murder, and body horror.
Log Line
Tune in to TV straight from the dark dimension! But beware: not everything on TV is real.
Team Credits & Cast
Director, Programmer, Writer - Dana Reijerkerk (decolFutures)
Art Director - Esskaden
Audio Designer, Composer - Chibenobi
Voice Actors - Kenkoy, Esskaden, CarolTheatr
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Comments
Wow, this one is a journey!! 💚 Had so much fun with the delightfully unhinged game of channel-surfing hopscotch the story takes you on; the writing, art, voices, and sound design are all excellent, and tie together brilliantly into a disturbing and wonderful package. Phenomenal work to the whole team!
Very impressive demo, with a neat concept! The TV and channels as a framing device work really well (love the channel surfing!), and the one current feels really impactful. The characters throughout the story, even outside of the Big Comfy Couch -zone feel really in line with 90s aesthetics, from CrashBox to Mac Tonight, in a way that really solidifies the world and TV concept. The slow push past typical 90s gross to full on body horror worked really effectively too in that context, and the sound effects and snippets of voice acting here and there really made the whole thing viscerally unpleasant at times, in a genuinely impressive way. My stomach literally went queasy at points, which is a wild thing to get from a game made in just a month. Great job, and congrats to the whole team!
That was a really heartfelt responce. And it means so much to us. Thank you for taking the time to play our game and being inspired enough to write this review. Really brought a smile to my face and joy to my heart while reading.
Love love LOVED this expereince! I had such a lovely time being immersed in the weird and wacky world you have built! Absolutely looking forward to the full game!
Thank you!!!! <3
I love weird stuff like this, where you take something normal and just go hog wild with it. Love the visuals and the body horror, and how everything started out disjointed but connected together so delightfully at the end.
Thank you! We were our most unhinged selves creating this game.
It's such an amazing game! When I started playing it made me feel the same way I felt when I watched Courage the Cowardly Dog as a kid, and then it spiraled down and got even darker than I expected. Loved to discover the story bits, and the art and character designs are just great. You got plenty done for such a short time, plus everything feels so polished and cohesive. It's amazing how well it all works together. The interface is perfect for the story, great choice. Truly amazing job :)
It does kinda have a Courge vibe Doesn't it? Never thought about it.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a nice review! It truly does mean so much.
Like we needed more reasons to hate huge companies... Nicely done! And props for the unhinged and creepy voice lines~
Thank you! I had the most fun asking my group to do the voice lines and we roped one of their kid's in to sing the Looney Lou theme song!
What a creative story! I had no idea where it was going but I was glad to be along for the ride! When I first saw her scar I was like ew that's nasty, but it only got worse from there lol XD Great job!
Thank you!! We really wanted the spooky to get under your skin and simmer.
It was under the skin, but then it came out through the skin!! XD
I had a scaredy cat friend play through the demo and she made the same comment. She was like, "what is with you and skinning and mangled hands?" hahahaha
Old cable TV and clowns are some of my favorite things in the world, so I was looking forward to this. This vibe of this is giving ahh real monsters or rockos modern life with stylistic choices like the static, or the mouth at the side. it was a little confusing what to do at first even though i read the instructions so thats on me. Had a good time. I feel like your game would taste like old floam from those commercials contaminated with asbestos. (compliment)
Thanks! I love that you can taste the flesh TV and its hallucinations. We ran out of time to do an immersive tutorial and we were all like, "Will players know what a VCR is and how to work it." Post-jam were thinking of making a real video footage tutorial of working the flesh TV with a physical TV prototype.
I ever expected our game would invoke the taste of Floam. But I get it!
I watched a show similar to this premise as a kid and now on tiktok in a creepier fashion! Visuals were amazing as well. Good job!
Thanks! What was the show it reminded you of?
I did not expect The Big Comfy Couch going into this lol
The story is chaos (in a good way), and the visuals are disgusting (also in a good way).
Great job!
The inspiration started with "Big Comfy Couch but spooky?" ahah and grew into a more personal/phycological story!
I appreciate your disgust!(In a good way!)
I'm so glad you know The Big Comfy Couch! I heard some players don't know any of our spoof references. 😭
Cool idea, the graphics are very appropriate, sounds and music fit perfectly with the rest. I liked clicking through the different channels, it reminded me of rick & morty!
Such high praise!!!!! Thank you!!
honestly making the buttons fun to click (audio and visual) was super important ahah
So I'm glad it gotcha!
Thank you so much for playing! I'm so glad you liked the game, especially the Looney Lou Show theme song. I watched a lot of TV reruns from the 90s to come up with it.
I enjoyed this one, but is there only one ending? I tried clicking a whole mess of stuff with different timing and I get the feeling other endings are a work in progress that would require being able to watch other channels.
Yes, the demo only has one ending! We added a section on the itch page near the bottom about this. Post-jam we intent to make the channels always clickable to truly channel surf and add more channels, plot, and endings. Thanks for looking for more endings on all the channels! ✨️
[Spoilers ahead]
Absolutely insane. I've never played a game like this, so well thought out. The story was impeccable. This game was probably the scariest work of art I've ever seen in my life, being that the monster was capitalism (doesn't get scarier than that tbh). I loveeeed the artwoork and the UI was so good. It was like inter-dimensional cable had a baby with an actual lesson learned about the weight of corporate greed. Great work to the entire team. I thoroughly enjoyed this!
Esskaden, our artist, showed me your comment and I laughed so hard reading the monster is capitalism. 🤣 Thank you for the praise! You're right on the nose for the plot and the direction we plan to go in for developing the full game.
Excellent job, I loved it!
I'm so proud of the Big bulky UI ahaha It was one of the first visual concepts and it just STUCK!
Thank you for your kind words!
I instantly fell in love with the concept behind this game and you all really nailed it! Channel hopping to tell the story and build the world was such a good idea! The art was fantastic and creepy. It made me wary to sit in my own thinking chair! The song was delightful!
I got ending 2.
Great job everyone!
Thank you!! I impressed myself figuring out how to do overlays in Ren'py, especially during the splash screens. We're hoping to make new TV channels and make the buttons always work so you can truly channel surf post-jam!
I'm a sucker for a good menu; going straight into channel surfing from the main menu was such a playful way to begin.
Watching the hints and bits of different world-building accumulate as the story progressed had a satisfying feel to it, and the art direction was a cohesive combination of Saturday-morning cartoon(with very nostalgic weekday morning kids' show vibes) and gore-splattered horror!
Thank you! I know our artist will be so happy to hear the art direction comment!!!
She's right! Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so glad that keeping it all on the TV worked for you! Was an idea I was stoked about
Wow!! Awesome game! the way it's told is super intruiging and unsettling.
Thank you! We wanted to play up the Y2K aesthetic and I think we achieved that.