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A jam submission

W A L L SView game page

A Claustrophobic Horror Experience
Submitted by arisdead — 12 hours, 13 minutes before the deadline
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W A L L S's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Interpretation of the Secondary Theme#54.6004.600
Graphics#94.6004.600
Gameplay#673.6673.667
Soundtrack/SFX#803.6673.667
Overall#833.7473.747
Gameboy Soul#3362.2002.200

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game match the theme?
W A L L S is a claustrophobic horror game that plays on the theme of "SPACE" by making it necessary's for the player's survival to maintain their own space between the game's four walls that are closing in every second. Space is both the player's constant friend and enemy as the further away from a wall you are, the safer you are, but opening more space around you may uncover some other evil entities.
As per the rules, the game is rendered in 160 x 144, complies with the original gameboys control inputs, and is made up entirely out of only 4 colors, with some clever use of dithering and shadows to give the game's look a lot more depth.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

This game is a lot of fun! I really like it =D

Submitted(+1)

Now this is the type of stuff I like! Great job finding a way to incorporate horror into this jam!!

Submitted(+1)

Wouldn't expect to see such an interesting approach to darkness, especially for this jam. Do want to note that when you stay on a dead enemy and it respawns it can glitch out for a bit and there is a small chance you can get flung across the screen into the walls or beyond it.

Luckily since the triggers for it happen when you intersect it is sort of a self patched glitch, but ought you should know.

Submitted(+1)

This is so well done! I love the concept and the graphics, especially the perspective you used. Music is on point too.

Submitted(+1)

Can really feel the pressure of those wall closing on you! Awesome interpretation of the theme. I can definitely see a more complete game exploiting these mechanics :)

Congrats!

Submitted(+1)

The atmosphere is really striking, Great concept for the theme. 

Submitted(+1)

What I liked: 

Very inventive concept and use of the theme. The idea of weaponizing claustrophobia when the topic is space is inspired!

Aesthetics are strong. The droning music and choice of color palette definitely work to set the ominous tone you're going for. 

The tuning of how the walls react to the flashlight are well done. While I was always sweating keeping the walls away I never felt like it was impossible. 

What could be better:

In addition to the movespeed bug, using a controller caused a number of glitches. I was unable to go down the first hatch and had to restart, and while I was able to use the keyboard to continue on my second playthrough as soon as I tried using a controller again all the other controls and the exit to levels stopped working. 

I didn't feel like I was making any interesting or informed decisions while walking around the rooms looking for the exit. With its location being a shot in the dark, levels can become tedious rather than scary if the player picks the wrong direction to go through no fault of their own. Perhaps some other horror element could try to scare the player in the correct direction? Follow the screams as they get louder towards the exit hatch, perhaps? 

Developer

Love this response! Super helpful stuff I will definitely take into consideration. Thanks so much for playing!

Submitted(+1)

What a coincidence that a game about walls closing in has a glitch that necessitates shrinking the game!

I really like the concept and the aesthetics. The visuals are on-point and the sound design is excellent. The wall mechanic is very engaging and unnerving.

Unfortunately, it's a bit frustrating. It seems like the pushes from the zombies(?) are really random; sometimes I would just get shot off at a large speed and just keep going after they were not even near me. There was also a lot of gambling on how long it would take to find the hatch in the large square room, and it got a bit tedious.

I like the gun.

All-in-all, good work!

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for the detailed review! I appreciate the critiques it helps me a ton!

Submitted(+1)

The game idea is pretty neat and didn’t expect to see that kind of game on the jame! Awesome work

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Wow! the graphics and atmosphere are next level, but I could not figure out how to reach the flashlight before the wall grabs me, and restart time is frustratingly slow. id like to give it another go at some point!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for letting me know! I just found the bug that causes that, apparently the player's speed changes based off of the size of your browser SMH

Submitted(+1)

Played through the fixed version! awesome work :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks to you I was able to fix that early! <3