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House of Winchester's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Mechanics | #30 | 3.586 | 3.586 |
| Sound | #47 | 3.414 | 3.414 |
| Story | #47 | 3.069 | 3.069 |
| Fun | #48 | 3.379 | 3.379 |
| Overall | #52 | 3.483 | 3.483 |
| Aesthetics | #55 | 3.828 | 3.828 |
| Theme | #105 | 3.103 | 3.103 |
| Music | #176 | 2.103 | 2.103 |
Ranked from 29 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?
4
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
I list them on itch.io page
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Comments
Very impressive stealth mechanics, this game had some strong Thief/Deus Ex vibes to me. The procedural room generation system was both a blessing and a curse. I was very intrigued by the variety of rooms and how they connect with each other organically, but more than once I found myself stuck because all of the doors were locked and I had no keys (one time it happened in the starting room - there definitely should have been some safeguards to prevent that). Very impressive rooms roster though! I liked the level design work and the sheer variety of interesting ideas. Each room has its own gimmick; there are some secret doors, a lot of stuff to explore, and interact with.
Overall, it is very impressive how this whole thing holds together, considering the sheer number of different systems you've implemented. It is rare to see such a system-heavy horror game, which also manages to be a competent survival game and pull off an interesting story, so this is quite an achievement!
Congrats on a very interesting unique game mechanic, I love building the level as you go. The visuals are great, and the sounds and atmosphere are good too.
Sadly I never got near completing the game as I really really struggled with the controls...If you'd presented me with this control scheme back in the PSX days, no problem, back then every game had a unique and idiosyncratic control scheme that had to be learnt, but with the standardization of control schemes in recent years that are now so instinctive and ingrained, i found it nearly impossible to maneuver as I wanted to the moment I was under any pressure. Also a bad run of luck saw me have an apprentice spawn in the 1st or 2nd room I nearly every game.
Beyond the controls (which may be more down to me than the controls themselves) I felt the UI was the only place the game was lacking. I picked up what I assumed were bullets and keys, but the inventory just showed some numbers next to different coloured squares, so I wasn't sure what I had in there.
But those 2 points aside, a very cool game, and a mechanic that I may well take inspiration from for a future prototype, and see what I come up with. Great Job!
Thanks for such detailed feedback. I definitely plan to add an optional modern control scheme later on. However, for now, I intentionally designed the controls this way to create a sense of discomfort and heighten the player’s tension — and I think that experiment worked pretty well.
The core mechanic isn’t originally mine — it was inspired by Blue Prince, which I highly recommend checking out if you haven’t played it.
As for the apprentice, if I remember correctly, he always spawns in the second and eleventh rooms
Yes you absolutely succeeded with that goal. I did wonder if the control choice was aimed at helping sell the feeling of panic when spotted, and it certainly did that!
Ah right, that makes sense then.
I found the controls really interesting. I don't know what, but I liked them. The cursor that moves whatever you're holding... I find it really fascinating! I might take note. Other than that, it really has so much potential. I loved it! The puzzles, the atmosphere, everything! Really! Pick it up again as soon as you can! You've got a gem in your hands.
Thank you so much for the positive feedback! I’m really glad you liked the controls — the whole project actually started from that idea, so it’s great to hear that someone found it fascinating. I’ll definitely come back to it — within the next week, I’m planning a small update to fix the most obvious issues and improve usability. After that, I’ll take about three weeks for testing with some blogger friends and making video content, and then I’ll aim to polish the game up to a proper demo version. Thanks a lot for playing my game!
its fun! love the sound design.
Thank you for playing
This was really cool and seemed more or less complete! Amazing work! I am not a big fan of horror but I turned my brain off so I could experiment with the controls which I thought worked surprisingly well.
I got a ways in but wound up closing my tab by accident by crouching and walking (which is Ctrl+W!)
Thanks for playing and for the feedback! To crouch, you don’t actually need to hold Ctrl — just press it once to toggle crouch mode, and press it again to stand back up. That way, you’ll avoid accidentally closing the browser tab with Ctrl+W.