This is an excellent horror adventure game that has a little of everything! From nice characterisation, to small puzzles, some humour, surreal encounters, morbid discoveries, and plain scary chases, I really enjoyed this from start to finish. The game has been put together with a lot of passion for old-fashioned horror games - particularly the vibe from Mother/Earthbound and it's very clear that you had a lot of fun whilst making this project! This has definitely been one of my favourites from the jam.
The plot travels along the classic 'haunted house' trope but I like how the concept has a twist of police performing a wellness check on a neighbour. This left open the source of the horror and also made it start out as a very plausible experience that built its dread gradually. The ultimate twists and turns of the plot being much darker than even the early discovery made for a good rollercoaster of suspense. I would have loved to have learnt a little more backstory behind it all for a greater sense of closure!
My favourite thing in this game is probably, as said, how the narrative gave breathing room to build suspense and tension. It really felt like the story was complete and managing to get this written and executed in a single week is a feat of its own. I particularly like the little scares once you're in the house to keep you on your toes and guessing until you make some more significant discoveries. The attention to detail is great as well and there's lots of object dialogue and a whole inventory system as well!
I don't have a lot of feedback, but one thing that stuck out were that the art assets could have been tailored to fit the setting/characters a little bit more, in that the station/officers were a bit generic. However, the art was very well done - particularly the character sprites - and its bright, cutesy nature made the contrast with the direction of the plot all the more striking once bad things begin to happen!
Thanks for submitting Ridgewood Road to the SCREAM MACHINE jam!
- SCREAM CATALOGUE