I cannot overstate how incredible game jam entry this is! Original core mechanic, enjoyable gameplay, polished look and feel. It fits the theme in an unobvious way. Great story about a medium that is writing the final testament of a ghost. The sound effects were on point, they were really building the tension as more and more time passed on the watch. Little whispers, the clicking of the typewriter, the sound of the rain created a really immersive environment. I like the menu music as well.
Some gameplay specifics… I like that with each written line, additional (disturbing) words show in random places and the true sentence moves from one place to another, sometimes overlapping another. This can mess with your head but poses a very enjoyable challenge.
The writing was smart (the varying lengths of sentences, the interpunction, that Ydskqnik) and engaging.
Not that this is necessarily a bug, more like a game quirk but I found since the ghosts usually start typing after you have finished the line, you can put the correction stripe immediately, turn to read the sentence and usually within that time the typing gets triggered. When you come back to the typewriter you have a clean slate, you only need to backspace. It’s a satisfying hack to speed up the progress once you know it, not necessarily something to erase from the game.
What took me some time getting used to is that the caret is placed right after the letter. But it should actually be before the letter. That would also fix the “have I put the space or not” issue. This is rather confusing and unexpected, definitely something to fix. Doesn’t seem to hard to do so though.
Really great mechanic of switching up the letters, it makes it more challenging as you go.
It feels weird writing this about such a thorough, interesting and polished game, made by obviously experienced developers but the nightmare sequence could’ve used more juice. I’m in a dark room, with great headphones on, playing on full screen and it didn’t really bother me. I think it’s because: the shadow looks too much like a gentleman than an ominous, malicious being. It’d be better if it didn’t have the hat, just vaguely remind us of a human. There are too many cuts, it should come faster. Maybe say something… The sound effects and music there doesn’t sit right with me either…
And like I mentioned, the “Start game” header nit. I do understand there’s the “Skip intro” that shows later but the first thing I saw is this. I feel that would be better as a checkbox, and have “Start game” button instead. And this is me being very nitpicky because that animation with the camera moving closer to the page on the table… So simple but so great!
The ending was slightly unclimactic to me visually. Loved the last line being inputted for me in all caps, it built so much tension but the animation was underwhelming.
Hopefully the constructive parts of my feedback turn out actually helpful. Overall, this game is a fantastic way of spending the time, I don’t regret any minute. It took me 3 tries but after I got used to the mechanics it went like a breeze.
I would seriously consider addressing the concerns, polishing and potentially releasing as a game on Steam. Would buy and play, gives me that Inscription vibe!