Hey Niven, first off, congrats for releasing Shunned. It's a pretty cool environment & mythos to explore in a videogame. I don't usually see many tackling this as an area so good design choice. Comparing it to the last game of yours I played (Primary Color Man) it is a noticeable step up (but PCM was a game jam game so you were limited by time so that's understandable).
Here we have a story, animation, characters, enemies, lore, and a combat mechanic. So I think you have clearly put in your work & tried something different this time.
I've read a lot of comments around the "crimson hallway" & that something should have happened here, but I am here to tell you I think it was executed well. If you remember when I played PCM I mentioned that atmosphere & playing on people's minds is just as scary as putting in a jumpscare. I think these days too many people go down the jumpscare route, and for that reason, the crimson hallway was perfect as is. I was constantly preparing myself for something to happen. The subtle water sounds & the ambiance made it pretty creepy as is, but not knowing what was coming was half the horror to me. So well done.
Lore was good & gave the player just enough info to know & wager a guess at what was going on. The intro and animations were good & fit well within the confines of the structure you were building. I liked the challenging nature of the spikes. I died way too many times so I need to get better lol.
I liked the combat at the end with regards to the mummies, that was neat, again fitting into the world & area you chose to expand upon. It all fits in nicely. I won't go into detail for the ending other than I wished it were longer, and I would have had it go slightly differently (if you are interested message me).
Some Feedback in case you plan to update the game:
Clicking on notes and then clicking on another note before closing it will stack them.
Clicking on the hieroglyphic puzzle pieces multiple times will play the audio repeatedly. Nothing else comes to mind, nothing game-breaking, so good job on that.
LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR NEXT GAME! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Wow! You continue making me feel special and super happy, I don't even consider thanking you as enough to show how much I love your reviews and your precious time for this - thank you Aaron, it means a world to me.
You are the only person, who understood me about the "Crimson Waters" and that's exactly what my intention was. I do realize, everyone has a different perspective on games, but seeing that professional approves it - man, I am smiling and happy for real now.
I guess this was a show off to those people, who might have caught PCM and did not know I was actually developing games before, yet, I do agree with you about this game being more in depth, it's my first time trying scripting all alone, creating my own animations and mixing them, so, hard work pays me the credit I guess.
The ending had more of a shock value, at least for those, who understand the lore behind that "Corporation", but I am very open to suggestions for sure. I will text you, of course.
Monumental thanks, once again for your time and can't wait to see your games sooner. Cheers man!