Loved the writing/narrative and the horse was pretty terrifying! FYI I had to switch from FF to Chrome because the mouse wouldn't capture even with the fix mentioned in the description. It played great in Chrome
Play horse
Rider's Block's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #72 | 4.121 | 4.121 |
| Audio | #265 | 3.364 | 3.364 |
| Overall | #285 | 3.414 | 3.414 |
| Enjoyment | #324 | 3.394 | 3.394 |
| Visuals | #339 | 3.697 | 3.697 |
| Innovation | #463 | 3.061 | 3.061 |
| Gameplay | #548 | 2.848 | 2.848 |
Ranked from 33 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does the game fit the theme?
You play as a writer trying to find food to inspire their writing. Every time they leave their home the neighborhood changes. Also there's a horse.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
The character controller is from the assetlib.
The rest of the assets are linked in the description.
How many people worked on the game?1
Comments
A really cool game idea, it fits the theme really well. The visuals were amazing too. Great game
Submitted
Changing PlacesAwesome cool game | evil and intimidating horse. Jokes aside, very solid for a single person. The atmosphere is great between visuals and sounds; i also found the dialogue to be quite funny. The horse looks spooky enough but maybe it isn't as threatening as it should be. One thing that i would add, maybe some indicator for the food left?
This is such a weirdly perfect jam premise, sprinting around a shifting neighborhood at 3AM hunting down cursed floor snacks lol. The first time the horse showed up, I panicked. The red eyes, the sound cues, and that whole PSX-ish darkness sells it instantly. It's also really cool that the neighborhood is procedural to keep each run fresh (at least fresher than the floor food lol). I loved the little food pickup lines too ('The cake is a...no I'm better than that' got me lol). Really good atmosphere and audio work overall, and the whole thing nails the theme well.
Submitted
Where Left Socks GoThat's very nice of you to say! I really tried very hard to come up with something I felt truly fit the theme. The food pick up lines were one of the very last things I threw in, and I'm glad that I did as people seem to really enjoy them! As much as I tried to build a spooky atmosphere, I still wanted it to be fun and goofy :)
Thanks for playing and thank you for your kind words!
surreal atmosphere, the audio does add quite a lot, I liked it!
I can verify that I too go out at 3 am looking for oversized floor burgers in order to satiate my hunger to finish writing.
it would've been nice to add slight variation in the textures of the building just to make it a bit easier to draw a mindmap of your direction, sure its a maze but getting lost when every wall looks exactly the same isnt really good.. also the range at where you hear the horse static feels very large, it wouldve made better suspense if you could hear the static when only its very near you. other than these two things, pretty solid experience :)
Submitted
Terror At The Crystal DimensionYou get it! That classic 3AM writer experience :)
I don't disagree about the textures. I was purposefully going for lack of detail to try to evoke the sense of being so singularly focused you stop paying attention to your surroundings, but even still I would have like to implement some more set dressing. As these things go, I simply didn't have the time. Alas.
Thank you for taking the time to play my game and leave feedback!
Absolutely marvelous the game perfectly fits the theme keep going buddy :)
Submitted
Let me sleep!!!The atmosphere is on point here, and the concept is just overall really unique. Very impressive that this was done alone. Good job!
Submitted
BelladonnaThisis a very fun game! Very weird place for sure. I got to the 3 round before teh hormse got me :)
Submitted
Alien LuggageScary game. This man is bold enough to go out and eat leftover food on the street at 3 AM despite having a potentially murderous horse outside. Very atmospheric, and the red lighting and sound cues when the horse is nearby are a nice touch as well. A pretty neigh-rve-wracking experience!
Submitted
Holly's Splendid Sugar Rush RallyThis game nails the “strange places” theme!!!! the neighborhood feels eerie and off-kilter without being overbearing. The procedural map works really well, and the funni lines when picking up food give it personality and charm. The pacing can feel a bit slow at times, and the horse AI isn’t fully threatening yet, but it’s clear that was due to time constraints. A few UI tweaks like showing remaining food or letting players skip repeated text could make it smoother, but the atmosphere and tension are spot on. Overall, it’s a solid, creepy, and fun experience with a lot of character.
Amazing work! Wishing you the best of luck!
ALSO, if you like brain teasing puzzle games make sure to check out our game!!!
Submitted
ShiftspaceI really like the aesthetic of the neighbourhood - felt appropriately spooky and off. And the proc gen of the map felt really good. I also enjoyed the various lines when picking up food - added some good humour and variety to the runs!
I didn't feel the horse was especially threatening since it mostly seemes to stay in the same place rather than wandering about much, but maybe I just got lucky...
I also didn't hear any sounds, which I assume is a bug since you list some in your credits!
Submitted
Rare Sites To SeeI unfortunately got started so late in the jam I didn't have much time to really flesh out the AI. I wanted to do more tracking, and also allow the horse to hear you, but there's always more you hope to do in a jam game. I'm just happy to have finished, and am looking forward to the next one.
I'm sorry the sound didn't work for you. I will say, my game is MUCH quieter than most of the other jam games I played, so the volume might need to be turned up for it.
Regardless, thanks for giving my game a play!
My stupid brain thought the horse was friendly and I immediatly went to inspect it. Well didnt work out I guess. Really strong atmosphere!
Submitted
Farting Fartroachi did not know that i was afraid of horses. thank you for that. lol the sound fx in the background was truly haunting, not gonna lie, i completely lost myself in the maze, but i managed to survive more than 4-5 nights. i was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Very well made game!
Submitted
Whispers of the MonolithI like the weird place, and all that ugly PSX esthetic jjajajaj, i won't lie i'm fan of that ahah The audio setup the thing ! Congrats !
Feel free to test our game ! (we got pizza too)
Submitted
𝒫𝐼𝒵𝒵𝒜𝒩𝒪𝒞𝐻𝐸Sadly i did not find the last food item i guess. i ran around like 15 minutes making sure i was everywhere without success. i tried going home but nothing happened :( maybe an indicator how much more food is needed would be cool, or just more food to find overall.
The horse wandering around was really cool, but you are able to walk right behind it or next to it since it only registers you if you are infront :P
Besides that i had a good time, i really liked the visual style, got me a very eerie and unsettling feeling, good job!
Submitted
OPERATION: HEARTSIEGEI'm still not quite sure why, but sometimes a food item will not place. I set multiple checks to prevent that from happening, but it still does... my working theory is the horse eats it, please forgive her🙏 Having an indicator for the amount of food collected has been a common request, so I'll keep that in mind next time!
There was so much more that I wanted to implement, but found myself tight on time. I wanted the horse to be able to "hear" the player, and I wanted some kind of stamina system. alas.
Thanks for taking the time to play my game and leave a comment!
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