itch.io

v2.2.3 released 2024-04-12 to fix a few little bugs that were discovered and to add a way to see the solutions to finding the achievements (available after finishing the game at least once)

Loved the aesthetic/mood of this game - well done!

I love this creepy aesthetic and the tone, to tell a little story. Definitely see the Eraserhead inspiration. Reminds me of the games by "yames" that got some attention in the indie horror community:
https://pantagruel.itch.io/

This is so satisfying - not just the art and animation, but the sound design too! The little Easter egg was a fun addition to find. Looking forward to playing what's next!

For anyone in the comments - I loved this game so much I did a three part YouTube playthrough and deep dive, including getting into the secrets / bonus content/ wider world references! Spoiler warning especially for Part 3 which covers the secret bonus stuff, but you may want to check it out if you get stuck or if you're curious what you may have missed. Big thanks again to the devs for making such a fun, nostalgic game, with heart and depth to dig into <3

The relaxing parts remind me of that game Fatum Betula. School can be scary, it's true. Loved the music for each of the levels.

Played the incomplete version. Got a gasp out of me, when I went to ctrl alt delete exit after wandering a while and suddenly the creature got me! Looks like some neat concepts.

I've been in an Earl Grey tea phase, so I could totally relate =) A really cute little game, well done with the conversation style and art. I recommend players do a regular play through and avoid the spooky weird ending =o

Hey this really rocks, thanks for providing the OST (and for free)! Really well done GB style soundtrack itself, but then to hear the bonus "real" counterparts is such a cool bonus.

I decided to tidy up the code and share it on GitHub. If you've never used Adventuron, I recommend checking out their tutorials first (very helpful).

This game is so cool! I've never played such a beautiful ASCII art game before. At first it was a little stressful when I messed up, but then it had a definite comforting rhythm. Well done.

Neat game. Having the different perspective in the battling parts adds to the world building. I'm not sure what the skeleton/shrimp things were. The final boss was too difficult for me - I tried three times - but I don't have good coordination for rhythm games. Good work on having different tunes and getting the battling hits to line up with it, and I appreciated the four colour palette artwork.

The art, music, and dialogue are all really well done! I liked the kind of trilling bird-like bit in the music.

Sounds like, from the jam comments, you didn't have time to finish - do you think you will later, or just leave this as is? Anyway, it's nice just to explore, cluck, and kick around a bit.

Neat, it's kind of a memory game I guess. I enjoyed the bouncy spacey music while playing. The catty names were fun.

Highlight for me was the creepy character design - from looking at your art it looks like this is your specialty! Overall though, great work from your whole team: music, dialogue, story, art. I replayed to see if I could get a 2nd ending at the end by not shooting, alas no. In round 2 I was speed running and somehow initiated a bug where I teleported behind the log without the chainsaw, and could not progress - not sure if this is something that can be fixed. Anyway, looking forward to more games from you.

I really liked the mood of this. The art style was unique to me, kind of one-bit, sometimes-tiled, dithered, I guess. Similarly the music had a limited palette and contributed a creepy atmosphere and effective stings. This game absolutely passes the "can you pet the dog (cat)?" test - thank you!
Oh, also I really appreciated the F button customize options!

You've kinda gotta get into a game developer mindset with this one. It's fun to feel so in control of the future. Nice work on the art and the character conversations. Overall feels very authentic to a game boy!

The gothic aesthetic is so satisfying! I appreciated the variety of creative environments and ghosts. And having such an easy lighting control option. The violin sounded pretty good in my opinion! I'm curious if it's a VST instrument and if so which one? Thanks for sharing the music on YouTube too, so we can enjoy it outside of the game.

Every character is unique and has depth, which is pretty amazing with so few words. The art and animations really add to the gameplay and story. The music seemed to be pretty authentic gameboy style, and always felt fitting (I look forward to the full OST release!). I love that when played on mobile, the buttons are provided at the bottom half of the screen - like playing on a real gameboy!
My only wish was for a save feature, since I got half way through on my phone and when I opened the page the next day I had to start over. And it would be nice to go back and try to find a final piece of something I missed. But overall, I loved this and it got some mud on my heart - great job, team!

A unique concept with good atmosphere. I liked the ambient music. There seemed to be a few bugs, maybe you can fix for later: walls I could walk through, and buildings moving while I was running near the end. The footstep sound could be something softer, I think. The ending was depressing but a good conclusion. Overall well done.

This was great! There's a lot here for a jam game. It's so fun to revisit Lovecraft classics, like here "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", in a retro video game environment. I had some trouble with figuring out what to do for the final boss (Alpha Beta Gamer on YouTube doesn't show it) but once I knew what to do, I was fine. Overall I didn't think it was too difficult, it was just right. Great work by SilentDrumr on the music too - I actually listened to the OST on bandcamp before playing the game.

Neat game, I like the monochrome atmosphere and the strange lines. The sound design is simple but kind of hypnotic. It overall felt a bit too slow for me, maybe the environment could be smaller or there could be some kind of sprint option. I got to the gate and wasn't sure what next, so just watched a playthrough for the remainder. Creepy ending!

The aesthetic is great. Really disorienting, dizzy, kind of alien marine biology funhouse.

Nice work, down to the details of the mushrooms on the stumps and the dead rats. There's some little easter eggs too, which is always fun. It's simple to get through but has a few good scares and a meaningful, sad story. I enjoyed it!

Wow, this game rocks! It was much more gory and intense than I thought it would be. I only got the "missing" ending so far, but maybe I'll try for others later. Great job!
Edit: update. Got the other two endings =)

This is a creepy kind of horror-mystery game that somehow reminded me of how I felt reading Arthur Machen's "The White People". I'd say it is of moderate length (a few hours) and an intermediate level of challenging - beware of some misdirections (not everything is important). Overall I enjoyed it!

Thanks for the reminder, I sent the mail. I assume everything is in process. Let me know if you didn't get the message or need anything else.

Thanks, ilBarbogio, in that case I'll take the magazine, and Dee can take Adventuron XL if she wants. (I'll email Adventuron later with mailing details)

Ok, in that case can I take ilBarbogio's magazine and Dee take Adventuron XL? It would basically be a three way trade, where we all rotate over one.

There's an abundance of Pico Licenses available: the extra Dee has and two others that are unclaimed. So you could easily trade the magazine for a license. It's up to you to decide which you would rather have.

My #1 choice was for the Classic Adventurer hard copy magazine, if ilBarbogio is willing to trade for Adventureland XL. I'll poke them in the discord. Otherwise I would trade with Dee for the Pico 8 license.

A fun little two player game of mini-games! Well done

I love cats, and I found this game quite cute! It seemed to flow along easily for me. The lack of art or photos was, in my mind, not a big loss, as my imagination filled in the blanks. I liked the rainbow text and Italian lessons too. The game is short and simple, and definitely suitable for children.

Most of the games in this jam had tutorial messages during the gameplay, but I think yours only had explanation in the intro. So you could expand it to the game itself so it is even more accessible to total beginners (play Excalibur and examine its code for examples of how this can be done).

I think you break unwritten text adventure conventions, like forcing the player to examine things in a certain order, or offering multiple options (chicken and tuna). It was fine in my playthrough experience, but can cause frustrations for others. Usually if someone examines something, they don't expect the message to change if they examine it again under different conditions.

A small thing I noticed: after I already found the key and unlocked the door, when I examined the door again it still said it was locked. Check for things like this if you want to get the game extra polished.

I love cats, and I found this game quite cute! It seemed to flow along easily for me. The lack of art or photos was, in my mind, not a big loss, as my imagination filled in the blanks. I liked the rainbow text and Italian lessons too. The game is short and simple, and definitely suitable for children.

Most of the games in this jam had tutorial messages during the gameplay, but I think yours only had explanation in the intro. So you could expand it to the game itself so it is even more accessible to total beginners (play Excalibur and examine its code for examples of how this can be done).

I think you break unwritten text adventure conventions, like forcing the player to examine things in a certain order, or offering multiple options (chicken and tuna). It was fine in my playthrough experience, but can cause frustrations for others. Usually if someone examines something, they don't expect the message to change if they examine it again under different conditions.

A small thing I noticed: after I already found the key and unlocked the door, when I examined the door again it still said it was locked. Check for things like this if you want to get the game extra polished.

The short, creepy location descriptions were my highlight of the game, I love light horror like this. Not too scary for kids, I'd say.

There are a couple of situations where there are multiple objects with the same noun. The default message of having to choose one is ok, but some games suggest the player work around the annoying extra step by designating use of the verb as the noun instead (e.g. "burned" or "torn" / "red" vs "blue" - "get red" will let you collect the orb). You can tip off the player about this with the tutorial. I'm not sure there was a final win scenario (spoilers: I placed the two orbs and entered the portal, but then I could just go back).

Sounds like you may add more later - I'd be interested in playing again after more updates.

As someone who studied mycology in grad school, doing a project collecting mushroom specimens from grasslands, I really appreciated this game =) I also appreciated that when trying to pick or take some things there was a note that it might disturb the ecosystem. Overall the game is really well executed: the art is beautiful, the variety of music/sfx fits nicely, the required verbs and nouns are clear. It was also fairly long, with lots of different puzzles, so that's quite impressive for a jam submission (especially since this was your second!).

A couple little things you might edit: After I got the power back on, I missed part of the message (seemed like it was missing a "press any key" to hold the message until after I read it). Also I would add "DEPOSIT" specimens as another synonym alternative to "DROP". In scientific writing I am used to seeing "the dried mushroom specimens were deposited at xyz herbarium".

This is such a fun game! The story really reminded me of being a kid again, getting into adventures with friends. I liked how each character was different and had their own personality and strengths or weaknesses. I think it was great it was so British too, and it was kind of you to offer the Dictionary.

The game is well executed. I never had trouble figuring out what verb to use for what I wanted to do, and if I was ever stuck you provided hints and the detailed downloadable guide. You made a lot of art, and even had the characters moving around with the story. It was clear which player you were by having them facing forward. The music was simple, but effective and fitting, and you had a few different tracks to fit the settings / situations. Having a system of switching characters was a creative idea I hadn't encountered before, and I found it enjoyable.

One suggestion: in the main/start area I wasn't sure which direction led where. Because of this I ended up ending the game earlier than I intended and had to replay to get back to that point (annoying). I would add a warning, "Are you sure you're done here and want to go home for tea (end the game)?" There also might be more suggestions to save at different points (perhaps at the start in the opening tutorial text). SAVEF/LOADF is ideal in a game like this, so you can save at different stages to try out all the different things (to easily get all those achievements at the end!). All that said, it's a fairly short game so not a big deal.

Thanks for playing and your comment. There are a few little things like that, about the auto redescribe, that I'll have to iron out after the jam ends. I'm glad you enjoyed the music, I think it turned out pretty nice =) And I am glad you noticed the graphic switch for the teens playing! There is also a more subtle change after resolving the rocky bank area.

The thirst mechanic is programmed to only happen the one time, but I'm glad there was the illusion is was more random or sophisticated =) Thanks for playing and your comment.

This is a really lovely game. The graphics are perfectly detailed, and the attention to overlays makes for a seamless experience for the player. Having the map at the top right throughout is handy - I think a big annoyance for new players is getting lost and not being able to remember the map. The tutorial was very helpful, it was nice that you added hints at key points throughout when I left it on. The story and environment works too, kids love animals and cake and crystals. Overall, really polished presentation!

Spoilers: My only critique would be to add even more helpful messages in some cases, e.g. when I try to mix the ingredients before I've added them all, the game just says I can't do that. I thought I had added them all and the game was broken (turns out I needed one more egg!). So if the player tries mixing before adding all the ingredients you could have a special message saying "You're still missing some ingredients - check the recipe and your bowl carefully!" Another example is trying to read the note before you pick it up. The player could be reminded they need to first pick up the note to read it. Most of these situations were covered but there were a few exceptions.

Also spoilers, the ending: I was a little confused with the twist at first - did I get a bad ending somehow? But you had added some hints this is a good thing, like when you were annoyed you couldn't see yourself in the mirror, suggesting this is what the character wanted all along. And the grandmother seeming kind, at least to you. Potentially you could add more hints throughout the game, to prepare the player for the ending. I'm thinking of Shrek, where our stereotypical expectations of Fiona are challenged throughout the film when we are shown she has ogre-like tendencies. So when we come to the ending, it is still a surprise but we understand and it makes sense. What hints might be added that our protagonist is not a typical fairy tale princess but an evil princess coming into her own?