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The Presence's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Aesthetics | #46 | 3.842 | 3.842 |
| Theme | #53 | 3.737 | 3.737 |
| Mechanics | #110 | 2.842 | 2.842 |
| Sound | #123 | 2.842 | 2.842 |
| Story | #127 | 2.316 | 2.316 |
| Overall | #138 | 2.737 | 2.737 |
| Fun | #153 | 2.526 | 2.526 |
| Music | #180 | 2.053 | 2.053 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
Old TV provided in Jam. Elliot AI (Enemy pathfinding and behavior asset, NOT generative). PBR Electronics Pack. Brick Project Studio-Apartment
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Comments
That was a spooky house, but I wasn't sure what to do. I walked a bit, after some time I found stairs, went up and entered a dark room, and never found the exit again. Didn't encounter anything on the way... I suppose that's not how it should be?
Sounds like you got stuck in the stairwell, and that you got rather lucky that a spooky creature didn't notice you. I did mean to place a few more TVs in places before I ran out of time. So that's a fair frustration. Time was against me
Hey — I just played The Presence and really enjoyed the eerie atmosphere! The concept of a dark room with a TV left on, alerting you to something unseen, is both unsettling and intriguing. The visuals were well-executed, and the mechanics were engaging. One suggestion: adding a screen or message upon death could help players understand what went wrong and how to improve in subsequent attempts. If you have a moment, I'd love for you to check out my game Hush Boy, Hush and drop a rating: https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-halloween-jam-2025/rate/3971977
Thanks so much and best of luck in the jam! 🎃
Feedback acquired! Thanks for checking it out!
cool idea with great visuals, mechanics were well implemented, was fun. maybe there could be some screen when you die
Yeah, instead of a splash screen and/or campy jump scare, I chose to have a slow uncomfortable turn around and then simple restart for this one.
Thanks for playing!
I liked your game, it has a very spooky atmosphere and I liked your point and click mechanic! Though I did not go very far, it was fun to play. The game can use some mouse sensitivity settings as it seemed a bit high for me, other than that the game is well designed, nicely done!
I have received the mouse sensitivity feedback a few times, and I will definitely make a point to include some sort of options menu for that in my next jam. My mouse must be at a low sensitivity compared to most, so I will take a look at that for the future. Thank you for playing!
its nice i like it. pretty sure i died at some point. its impressive
Who knows... maybe you simply woke up from a bad dream
Thanks for playing!
Cool visuals and controls are smooth.
Great job!
Thanks for the compliment! I wanted to include option for Gamepad controls, but I was using the old input system and didn't feel like taking the time away from other more important things to get that all switched over. I'm glad your experience was smooth!
The apartment was put together well. And it was pretty easy to look in cupboards and stuff... I think I knocked one cabinet door open, but it worked really well. The ambient sound led me waiting for the jump scare that never came, but I was definitely on edge. Great work!
Oh there was definitely something after you, you must have gotten lucky. If you heard the scratchy sound it was close by.
Thanks for checking it out!
very cool concept. i loved the idea of monster disappearing in light (like did i just imagined it in darkness type of thing) very cool premise but it needs some work to be a proper game.
I did 3 playthroughs
1. I played around with light turned it off, went to the source of sound, and saw the zombie, i just let it walk to me wandered how will it end, will there be any jump scare or not, i liked there was no jumpscare, they are cheap.
2. i explored the house some more, tons of batteries, cool, but the only source of light tv that goes trough rooms felt off. the zombie was just standing there walked around it and nothing happened until i touched it.
3. i decided to restart the whole game, and play the way i suppose to. found zombie and ran from it, turned on light and it disappeared, but still kept walking and touched and killed me, so turning light on make enemy worse, still active and also invisible.
I think you should add some more lights, maybe change reason to turn off light. maybe breaker constantly malfunctioning and lights go out? and then you should fix breaker but also have flashlight that needs battery?
and maybe make enemy stop when in light? and also teleport it occasionally?
This is great game concept, it be cool if you keep working on it.
This is very helpful feedback. I am unsure if I will continue work on this game in particular, but I might carry over assets I used and new things I learned over to future projects. It definitely was an exercise for me, a lot of new stuff and not a lot of time to play with all of it. Yeah, I agree there should have been more TVs in various places.
Thanks for playing my game!
This is the second game I've tried that has horror elements in terms of scares! and I liked it! The house design is really cool, it immerses you more in what's happening because everything is very realistic.
It would be really nice to see it finished and polished properly! Great work!
Thanks for the immense compliment! The environment was adapted from the apartment asset I used, however, it's interesting that you mention the more realistic-looking aesthetic. My original idea was the use a psx-style filter effect to go for a more old school look. I ended up not going that route, but do you think that would have worked better for this or was I right to leave it the way it is?
Thank you for checking out my game!
If I were you, I would try to insert the shader and compare while playing the game. Honestly speaking, I think it has style even without the PSX effect. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a chance! Try, evaluate, ask for opinions and decide!!
I wasn't sure what I need to find but the environment was well designed .
Yeah, I planned to include more UI and narrative elements in the game itself, but had to scrap much of it due to being solo and meeting the deadline. Work/family duties almost kept me from participating at all in this one, so I had to be very selective with my time.
I ended up having to leave most of the narrative and discovery more up to the player and open-ended, which personally is what I as a player much prefer, but I know that's not what most others like.
Thank you for checking it out though!
That environment is nice, reminded me of the indie horror games that are out there. something weird or unusual is happening in them. I was ready for the jump scare and kept searching the doors and drawers. but it didn't happen, I was in the main menu each time I tried to search things. I wasn't sure what I need to find. Other than that you did a great job making the environment it really feels scary.
Oh, you got lucky then, guess it didn't find you. Although, I deliberately went for a more slow-paced tension. I too kind of hate the typical "force the player to suddenly jerk and have the monster wiggle startlingly in front of the camera for a few seconds" type of jump scare. The player does turn a little, just enough to see that there was something, but if all goes as planned you don't always get a good look at it.
Thanks for checking it out!
This game creeped me TF out. So well done. Nice use of the theme. Having the TV be the only source of light was cool. I loved the old school SNES model and game boy models. Very cool.
I found a creature stuck behind the door in the bedroom and I assumed it was going to jump out at me, so I just quit. TBH I don't like being scared, so I wasn't your target audience. I'm assuming the pathfinding for the creature somehow got it stuck behind the door because I could see limbs sticking out through the door. It was neat that you could open and close stuff, but there didn't seem to be a point to it. Others pointed out that there was no clear goal, and I agree. It felt like an elaborate jump scare prank. A beautifully lit one, but one where the gameplay was meant to distract you to get the scare to happen as opposed to be fun in and of itself.
Beautifully crafted environment and ambiance. Very well done with the creepy vibe.
Yes, creeping out was the goal, and this is the first game I've made where that was the goal. So thank you!
The models of the furniture and consoles were part of the apartment asset I used, I can't recall what it is called, but I think it's listed in one of the descriptions. Yeah, I deliberately don't start the creature in the closet, but it likes to get stuck in the closet for some reason. Still working out that bit of behavior, it still is the source of some frustration lol. The open and closing mechanic was built in to the apartment asset, so that's why I added the battery mechanic, to give the player some incentive to explore the drawers and closets. Also, the light remains in whatever state it was in when the remote dies. Meaning, by design, the player isn't fighting to keep the light on, they're fighting to remain in control of the light. The player has to choose whether to be able to clearly see the environment or to see the creature.
There is a soft goal somewhere in the apartment, but I did leave it pretty ambiguous on purpose. It's supposed to simply feel like a bad dream of sorts.
Thank you for playing, I hope it didn't ruin your day!
LOL thanks I have survived.
What Ilya said. But I wondered what all the batteries (and you provided a lot of them ;-) ) were for - in normal remotes they last for months. But ok, it's a horror game.
All door mechanics were good and invite for more searching. Alas, the creature AI gets not activated when you don't use the light at all. Then it stands and waits only.
Found out that not only "R" activates the remote but <Strg> too.
Storywise - nothing gets explained. Why does the normal light not work? Why are TVs everywhere? Why is the creature there? Can one escape it?
So the horror vibes are there but it feels a little incomplete.
Yes, it is incomplete. It is very much an idea and not a fully fleshed out game. Out of the 10 days, I think I had about 3 to actually work on it, times are busy, but I still wanted to participate in some way. And I tried something very new to me as well.
The creature does sometimes irritatingly get stuck in the closet, but she definitely is activated, and she will get you if she finds you, visible or not. She got me several times during testing and surprised the crap outta me.
I'm unsure what <Strg> is, but after some quick Googling I see that it is the equivalent of the "Control" key that I am familiar with. That's strange that it would have mapped to that. I don't believe it mapped to Control on my end, but lemme check real quick.
Thanks for playing!
The atmosphere is super tense, visuals are nice to look at and the sound design is well done.
The goal however is not clear, at some point after wondering around the apartment I found myself in a completely dark room (after going up the stairs) with nothing to do, with no exit and with no jump scare even (I waited a good 30-60 seconds or so).
I guess that adding a simple goal, something like - get out of the apartment, would improve the game, without that it is unfortunately just wondering around and waiting for the jump scare.
That's fair. My intent was to leave most of the narrative to the player, and have it just resemble a "bad dream" of sorts. There is somewhat of a goal that ends the game, but I left it pretty ambiguous. This is the first attempt I've made at a true "scary" type of game. So definitely still learning.
Thank you for playing!
I do understand you super good! Made a first horror game for this jam my self and the initial version I submitted few days before the submission period over lacked the clear goal definition as I wanted the player to figure it out. But after I got the first feedback, I added the hint to the goal right to the first seconds of the game, which improved it significantly.
I mean you don’t have to make it super obvious, but even the small hint that is clear enough to start the game, is a great addition.
I love the spookiness factor here! Initially it was way too dark for me to see anything, probably by design. The look sensitivity seemed pretty high for me as well but it might just be the browser version I'm not sure. It was definitely creepy walking around looking for batteries!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, I had to work for a while to ensure it was actually that dark. Unity kept throwing in sneaky lights and shadows that I wasn't asking for, and it was actually a little tricky to start with true pitch black. Thanks for playing!
Really liked the "spooky PS1 graphics aesthetic", made the building super unsettling, especially with the TV being your only light source.
I played for a bit but the mouse controls felt pretty sensitive. Nevertheless, cool stuff.
Interesting, my mouse might be a little un-sensitive for when I was testing. Ideally, I would include an options menu to adjust that if I'd had more time. Thank you for playing!
I loved the graphics, it was very nostalgic and reminded me of playing on the PS2. It was difficult to tell I was close to danger, but I realized once i hit the cutscene and it transititoned to the main screen. I think some form of audio feedback to let players know a ghost is nearby or something could help. I did notice I picked up an item, but was not sure how to use it or if I could. Nice submission!
There actually is an audio tell that the enemy is nearby. There is a glitchy, creepy noise they make, probably can be heard better with headphones. The items you can pick up are battery packs for your remote control. The yellow bar in the corner. It automatically refills when you get one.
Thank you for playing!
Cool game, Maybe put controls in the game? Took me a while to figure out they were just on the page. Spooky game!
Also some objects dont have collision, just little tweaks might make it more polished!
The player should collide with most objects, the enemy is designed to not always collide with everything on purpose. What did you encounter that did not collide? I will take a look.
Yes, controls via UI elements was planned but ultimately scrapped. I was very pressed for time on this one. So unfortunately had to settle for controls via description to meet deadline.
The one dresser was the thing I remember I think, I've played a bunch of jam games today though so I don't remember much!
Okay, thanks for letting me know. I'll look into it.
Thanks for playing!
Took me a while to find that R was to toggle the TVs.
Died the first time by stumbling into the lady standing still. lol
Then ended the game when I found the one in the kitchen- or it looked like it ended.
Also fell through the floor, I think, after going through a door upwards.
I like the idea of a toggling "weeping angle" of sorts.
Yeah, I put controls in the description, but I might add a UI pop up if I have time just to make things more clear. This one was especially a crunch for me, I almost didn't join because my plate is so full already right now. Yes, that is the ending...for now.
You fell through the floor?? Interesting. That door should not be openable, unless the enemy itself opened it accidentally. That's a fascinating bug, I'll look into it.
Thank you for playing!