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A jam submission

RecurrenceView game page

Short Low-Res Survival Horror Game
Submitted by CatIcedTea, toffeemilky — 2 minutes, 43 seconds before the deadline
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Recurrence's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Enjoyment (Best Game)#83.6153.615
Story#103.3853.385
Horror#153.0773.077
Sound Design#213.0773.077
Creativity#253.2313.231
Aesthetics#273.5383.538

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Do you allow SCREAM ZONE to promote your game via social media?

Yes

What game engine did you make this project in?
Unity

Any other notes?
Had a lot of fun and learned a lot about Unity since it was my first jam using Unity.

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Really liked the game

Submitted (5 edits) (+1)

Just played through, should've seen that ending coming interesting, great game but I'm going to give some feedback I haven't seen others really mention (sorry for the long post lol). The last key on the right side is a pain to find with your map design, I wouldn't have it in an unlit area without signage (like park areas) or some kind of landmark because I just ended up going into every crevasse to find it. This game for some reason gives me performance issues with the downloaded version only (I don't think it's your fault?), but I think it's assets loading/shaders compiling in because it subsided by the time I got halfway through (beefy PC 7800X3D CPU for reference).  Some of the assets like the rocks felt out of place, I would've kept everything low poly, I would also play with the shading some more; turn on smooth shading on the models in blender etc. I wouldn't use flat shading unless I specifically wanted it to look sharp or like a Sega Saturn game, also the shading on characters looks plasticky (particularly the mouth which looks reflective) I would turn off specular on the shader except for clothes (just something to play around with).

Developer

Thanks for an in-depth feedback! I did the entire level design on the last day so I was rushing to get it done. I'm planning to update the right path at least since the key is hidden behind an unconventional slope that could confuse some people. Probably going to also implement a load screen for the performance problem you mentioned, I didn't seem to have any problem performance wise on my end but it'll help others at least. And yeah, the rocks didn't export to Unity as I would've liked with the deadline close, so I'm redoing the rock model entirely after. As for the smooth shading, I did turn on smooth shading up to a certain angle, I didn't want it to look too smooth but I'll play around with it some more as well as the materials. Thanks again for such an expansive feedback!

Submitted(+1)

I enjoyed playing through this one! Cool enemy design for sure :)

Developer

Thanks! Modelling and animating the enemy took a good chunk of time so I'm glad you enjoyed them!

Submitted(+1)

Had a really hard time finding the last key haha. I couldn't help but to think in that Cry of Fear enemy, really creepy. Cool game!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! Yeah, I'll have to go back to edit the level a bit for the path to the right. But yes, I was inspired by this Cry of Fear enemy as well as another similar one!

Submitted(+1)

I like the metaphor that this game's story tells. From what I understood, anyways.

The gameplay is fun! I love the survival-horror aspect, and it isn't too harsh as there are plenty of healing items around! Overall, a pretty cool game!

Developer

Thanks for playing! I tried making it not too hard accounting for all skill level because I would hate for someone to get frustrated and having to restart all over again, especially in a jam. But I'm glad to see you managed to spot some of the extra hidden healthpacks!

Submitted(+1)

No lie, I have a few games left to play, but so far, yours is my favorite game of the jam!
Developer(+1)

Thanks for making a playthrough of the game! And yeah, combat is definitely hard to balance, especially for a horror game and a jam game. The original difficulty used to be harder, but I figured since most people will want to play something short and quick and would hate having to restart all over, I should reduce the difficulty to also account for varying skill levels.


The enemies used to hit a bit harder and had a bit more health, stamina regen timer was one second longer, and there were no health regen up to 40. I gotten so used to how combat in my own game worked that I thought it was still a bit too easy until I got a friend to do a playtest run and decided to make it easier lol.


But congrats on making it through! You managed to avoid one ambush on the right side path but missed a few hidden healthpacks!

Submitted(+1)

I went through the same thing lol. After you play your own game over and over it becomes impossible to tell the difficulty level. Though, I will say, I think your game was incredibly balanced in that aspect, so great job!

I'm honestly surprised I made it through myself lol, I failed to be at many of the jam games, but I think yours was so fun, it made me want to try hard to beat it.

Submitted(+1)

Simple but great submission! That Cry of Fear inspiration is undeniable.

Love the art style as well!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! And you got it, Cry of Fear was the biggest inspiration for this game! I wanted to do something with combat and Cry of Fear was the first game that came to my mind and especially its enemy design.

Submitted(+1)

Pretty good game

Submitted(+1)

Really cool game! I love the enemy design, the animations and the narrator who teaches you the mechanics is really charmingly written :)

Developer(+1)

I appreciate it! I had a few enemy designs sketched and this was the one that made it to the works. It was inspired by enemies from Cry of Fear, namely the Citalopram and Faster. Modelling and animating the enemy themselves took me two days out of the development time so I'm glad you like it!

Submitted(+1)

I think the level design could use some work. Kinda easy to get lost in the big level and I'm worried i'm missing objectives. But I enjoyed the graphics, nice work overall!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I designed the entire level on the last day so I was rushing to get it done lol. But I hoped it wasn't too bad. I specifically placed light sources not too far off from eachother to help lead the player to the next area without stumbling in the dark too long, with the red light marking the return home to the center (though I forgot that for the path straight ahead, luckily it is the easiest and shortest path of the three).

Submitted(+1)

That was good! I can echo the other that the map was indeed large, but not tedious. I actually got quite good at killing the knife-mes without taking damage there at the end. Story was clever, as soon as I saw the narrator was named "Id" I was clued in haha. Thanks for making this!

Developer

Thanks! Awesome that you got good at the combat, you can exploit their attack by baiting it out pretty well. It was kinda hard balancing between people who are more experienced with these types of combat and people who aren't. At the end, I figured it was just a short game and a jam game at that, so most people will want something quick and kinda easy without having to restart all over again.

Submitted(+1)

I'm a sucker for this PSX style! I found the way that the darkness vanished made every turn scary. The first time I heard that scream I nearly puked. Great Job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks! I love the PSX style too! Signalis in particular is one of my favorite PSX styled game. For this game,  I wanted to focus on how we perceive the things in the dark and let our imagination do the work, so I'm glad that it worked!

Submitted(+1)

Good graphics and spooky game but hard to find something in this big map. 

The buttons when you die didn't seem to be working.

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing! The map is a bit big, yeah. There's three paths you can take from the center that each leads to a key. And I can't believe I overlooked the game over screen buttons, but thanks for letting me know!

Submitted(+1)

Hi,

I really enjoyed your game; everyone should try this game.