itch.io

Ye! All my games basically take place in the same town, and some of the characters are even related (though that won't be a much of a full thing until later). I don't believe in sequels, but I do love the idea that the world they take place in is still taking place and changing around the characters. Makes the world feel more alive and interesting. :D

I'm glad you liked this game so much, and hope you enjoy the other ones too! :D

I'm glad you've enjoyed the game! Especially to want to play it twice. :D

There's only two more you're missing. I tried to make the shadow people that were stationary act as indicators, save the first one that leads to the garage.  To help save you some time, take a look around the guest bedroom and the study. ^^

Can you be more specific about how it froze? I haven't had anyone else have that issue, so I need a bit more detail about what led up to the freeeze so I can try to recreate it. The game also has a save system if you open the menu, and I'd appreciate it if you could save a bit before the freeze and let me know if the freeze happens again, or if it did happen again in the next playthrough. Least that way with a save you wouldn't have to do everything all overr again. x.x;;

I've been over the moon with this review, and I'm so happy that it gets such high praise from you. 

As for the text, I did include message options so that players could choose a faster speed if they'd like, though if that wasn't working I'll have to take a look at it to see what I can do for it. The skip intro is a good idea, and wouldn't be that hard to implement since it'd just be a choice and setting the player in the yard. :D

Thank you thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :D And hopefully the puzzles weren't too bad. I know one of them I already had to tweak for the PJ build to make it a little better and more in line with how people would interact with it. xD

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it, and my other game. :D

I'm gonna not rate this one because I couldn't play it. The mouse sensitivity was way too high in the game so any attempt to look around sent my camera view flying. There was also no clear indication of what the use/interact key would be, and unfortunately keyboard mashing trying to find it proved fruitless. So the game pointed me at an object "hey look something useful!" but I couldn't grab it. I had to quit out when I made it into the second room because the camera movement proved too nauseating for me to want to continue. Plus my computer was starting to put out some serious heat.

Two high points from what little I did see: The VA work was great, dunno which of you did the line reads, but I look forward to y'all doing more. The initial hook for the story was good, and I'm sad I wasn't able to learn more of the story because it did catch my interest.

This strikes me as a cross between the old game "which" and the windows maze screen saver. Not much in terms of gameplay, but my if the spooky unsettling vibe isn't perfect. Especially with the low piano/organ music setting the ambience. It's not a very long game it seems, as I can collect maybe 3 little space nuggets before I get got by the monster. That or I'm just really unlucky, I'm not sure which. 

I look forward to giving it another shot when it's updated. Even if it isn't my kind of fun, I would still like to see how you grow and improve with this and future games. 

I'm gonna preface that I may not be the particular target audience for this game. 

I'm not particularly fond of games where grinding is the expectation. Combat isn't fun. It is boring, tedious, and (since the mouse is the controller) I have to stay just aware enough to pick which moves to do rather, than just button mash it to get through. It makes me feel more like a hostage to the combat system rather than an active willing participant. 

Going back to controls a moment, WASD to move and the mouse to interact felt clunky. I never fully got used to it since most of the other point and click style games I've played have had the player click to move around with key binds to interact.

The visuals, while stunning, are also blinding due to how stark white everything is. Even making it only as dark as 10% grey would save on some ocular pain while maintaining the sterile look of the environment. 

The audio of the game immediately had me muting it after 10 minutes due to becoming too grating for my ears. I understand if that ambience is what you're going for, but maybe it could be spaced out with some silence, or when the PC moves into the hallways it quiets down since we aren't near any equipment.

I got the gist of the story and I liked the futuristic apocalyptic scifi flavor of it. Unfortunately, not being able to read at my own pace and forced to wait for the painfully slow text crawl to finish before I could read maybe two short paragraphs actively made me check out. Add onto that the story told through notes is felt a little bare and dry, so I felt no desire nor need to read further once I had the basic idea of the lore/story. The game could really benefit from a text speed option to let players choose if they want that slow crawl or near instant text. Add onto that, I thought the text boxes were broken more than once because they would start scrolled all the way down at the bottom, rather than at the top where the text started appearing.

Additionally, the enemies constantly approaching and spawning on top of me while trying to read said story gave me even less reason to want to. I was in the hallway leading to a warp point when I ended up in combat 5 times in a row because an enemy just kept spawning on top of me. Though that did lead to the discovery that apparently some of the "boss" enemies can "wander", as the savage variant popped up from the regular enemy type. A very welcome brief break in the monotony, especially since it seemed to be the end of the repeatedly spawning enemy.

The warp points seem rather useless, since you still have to walk a ways just to get to one. It kind of negates the purpose of them being there for convenience to get to other areas of the map, when it would take as much time to walk to where you last died as it would to maybe take a warp to one somewhat close by. This is a hypothetical from looking at the map, as I only ever went to the one warp point. Nearly 50 minutes in, and I got as far as beating Alex, then made my way up to get the curse ability before I couldn't take anymore. 

To end on a high note, the art I saw in this is phenomenal and very creative. The style is refreshingly unique and the strongest feature in your game.

This game is definitely visual proof that the rtp can make some good maps, and for atmospheric environments if used correctly. I'm hazarding a guess it's meant to be reminiscent of WW1's trenches, with Emilia trying to find her brother, but also escape alive after an attack. Unfortunately that's all there really is to it, and I agree with Sith that the game could have used more exposition, maybe with the notes on the desks being written by the soldiers there with thoughts of why they're there and what's going on. Something to further build the world and immerse the player fully into Emilia's shoes.  

I can only assume the green bubble status effect means the player is poisoned, but the game never provides anything to heal that damage. As a result I would start resetting the game any fight it happened, and quickly enough just began avoiding fights all together. Especially once I noticed she wasn't gaining XP from fights, so there's literally no gain to fighting except maybe hoping to get back some amount of the ammo you used. There's also a box in one of the rooms in the upper right area where the box just says "weapons gained". I didn't have anything new in my inventory, and I'm guessing it was a bit of filler that was missed. 

I'm hoping you update this once the Jam is over, since I'd like to see what you fully intended this to be.

I like the quiz based combat and (seemingly getting) attack bonuses based on the answer. All I had to do was wander the map and collect items to be instantly overpowered to the point that fighting was inconsequential, which is how I like my combat. Choo choo to steamroll train hours! 

However, I don't like that AI imagery was used. I didn't bother reading the story at all since if the images were generated, what's to say the story wasn't either? The gameplay was still fun, and I think you should revisit it. Maybe for a dungeon crawler, but I'd suggest with work made yourself. If find you can't make art to the standards you want, get a resource pack of your preference.

This was so stinkin cute and fun. Reminds me of playin old flash games back in the day. Doesn't overstay its welcome and the ending fight is adorable. I got up to 2907, and probably would have been higher if I had realized a little sooner I could hold space bar to keep firing continuously. xD

Oooh, this one took me a while. I ended up getting lost in the sewers 'cause I couldn't find where I had to go initially. The blockade with the big X made me wonder if I needed an item, or if an event wasn't eventing. I just had to go further left. xD In the ending area, I had to stop interacting with as many items along with save scumming, as a few of the events weren't erasing pictures after putting them up. Early game atmosphere was great, but in later areas it did become grating with a couple music and sound effect choices. Every area with a flickering light was immediately muted.  It may be better to have some of the se noises be a little more spaced out.

Aside from that though, the game was honestly great! I had a lot of fun playing it and seeing how Bobert's neighborhood changed over time while he was getting to the bottom of what's going on. The plot feels like it would be very at home in the res evil universe, with Aleph Corp being a competitor to Umbrella. I also loved the reference to J'nn'f'r in there from last year's entry.  The companions we can pick up along the way are also fun additions, both to combat and to the story as Bobert talks to them. 

I'm glad you enjoyed the game for the most part. The compliments mean a lot, and we'll see! I still need to play a lot of the other games, yours included! 
Sounds like I need to make some of my hints better. I'm glad the manual was able to help point you on the right path. I think I know which specific item you're talking about, or at least two of them that might be it. I'll have to make a note to fix that once the jam is over.

This was such a sweet and wholesome entry for Hawktober. ; w ; 

The story was very clear to make out from the speech bubbles. It only has the one track to work with, but it's a dang good one-trick pony. Never got old or stale to listen to over the short duration of the game. I had a little trouble at first when it came to the ghost powers, and looking at the other comment, I think I had the same issue. The interacting event was actually underneath the interactive indicators and tripped me up, since I could click on them, but nothing would happen. That tripped me up, but once I realized that what I needed was under them, I just used mouse and keyboard to get through the rest. 

I did have to restart once in the very first room, because green shirt wouldn't go down the stairs at all. I have no idea why they wouldn't, nor have any idea how to recreate the bug for testing and fixing purposes. 

This game made me nostalgic for the ol' indie games that used to make the rounds on youtube in the day. Games like which and timore, along with random horror maps you could wander around in on gmod. In fact, I immediately though "OH HAI GMAN" in one particular instance, and I wasn't expecting it. There isn't much that's original here and a little bare bone, but you did execute the same vibes very well, makin' them some good soup bones. The sound is well done, the environment simple but enjoyable, and the story pretty clear in what it is about.

The only thing I would change is to have the menu key be a little closer to the other keys, since it did take me out of the game some to have to reach over and hit the "I" key to check inventory and thoughts. Maybe the "C" or "V" keys since they're closer to that side of the hand.

This was genuinely a lot of fun once the game got rolling! The story feels just like a cheesy b-movie that would have played in the 80s, which fits since that's its time frame! I liked seeing the back kitchen fill out with items, as I'd visit the only other open shop in town. Even got to have a lil gnome for a pretend sous chef.

Early days dragged on a little bit from the volume of customers. I think shaving down the roster a hair in future games like this may be a good idea. Especially if this is a gameplay loop you'd like to revisit again. That's really the only complaint I have.

 Figuring out the ingredients and what they were was fun, and the cheese list was greatly appreciated.  Some of the requested pizzas were rather weird, but "the customer is always right in matters of taste" and all that. 

The story was fun and perfectly fit its setting. The portraits were striking and made each character memorable, along with their respective dialogues. Music and sounds were on point, and I liked how Giuseppe's footsteps seemed timed along with the beat. Though, I think my favorite thing is that he has race car sheets. It's just such a cute touch.

Thank you kindly, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :D

Thank you kindly, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Even found a couple small bugs, so I'll be working on an update to post shortly. I'm going through it with a fine tooth comb so that some of the other new things I've added play nice too.

Nope, as far as the game story goes, she was always meant to die. It's a story idea I had for a while, and was a perfect fit for the
"subversion of expectations" optional challenge for the jam.  

An awesome track for nights that are terrible to have a curse.

This was an absolute treat to play. They were in a horrifying situation, but the humor kept it from ever feeling too dark. Managed to get two joke endings and a good ending, though I don't know if there's more than one main ending.

It honestly made me want to learn more about the girls and what led their lives to be so different, although seeing them bounce off each other's personalities was still fun. 

A very quick and kooky fun time. Played into the joke of the pun, and was delighted by the surprise end. 10/10

Yeah, already got a couple bugs to fix in the novice mode because a couple sparkles decided to be special and not turn off. Daggumit! D:< 

Creator's note: The hiding room needs work, at some point between yesterday, and today it decided to break.

Yeah, I could have attached some music to two of the endings, but hadn't since I didn't really find anything I felt would fit. I'll need to take some time to listen in the music vault to see what would fit them once I can edit the game again.  I'm seriously glad you enjoyed the game so much otherwise. :D

I'm so glad! Whenever I work on my games, I always worry about pacing. It feels like it can be way too easy to add too much dialogue, so it's a balancing act on what still feels necessary and what isn't.
If I had thought about it more, I should have included a tidbit on the main page that if an interaction with an item is longer than most, it probably has important items or dialogue. I was kind of thinking about the scantron tests, since most teacher's hints were "if one answer is longer than the rest, it's probably the right answer" when it came to those events. That, and that some items include hints as to what to do next, like I had in my first game ages back.
I think aside from the walkthrough in the manual, I definitely could have made a few things a little more obvious. Frankie pointed out the laundry closet not being terribly obvious as an example. 

I honestly want to look at more homes to learn their architecture and layouts for other games, since the house is based off my memories of my babysitter's old home. 

Thank you, I'm so glad you feel that way! ; w ; 

While all too brief, this was a wonderfully eerie experience. I think the handwriting could have been a little clearer on the note for the runes puzzle, as one letter is drawn in a way that it could be confused for a different letter of the alphabet in game. Had to write them out myself in order to fully figure out what the puzzle needed. 

This honestly feels like it could be a teaser for a much larger game. More archeological based horror please. :D

I think rather than a terminal with a large wall of text for the instructions, it would have been better to have a message show up when the player would get near the necessary equipment. 

Second, the numpad for the fuel is interesting, but having the player pull on a level with the mouse is cumbersome. I didn't even recognize that the lever was even there on the first playthrough because it has the same texture as the table. Speaking of the numpad, the controls for this game are just clunky in general. Movement works well enough, 
but I found I had to keep hopping my right hand from the mouse to the keyboard repeatedly when trying to perform my tasks.  Since we're already using wasd for movement, I don't see why that same control couldn't have been used for the shooting minigame. 

I played it twice. The first time I messed up and wasn't sure what I was doing even with instruction. The second playthrough I fed the entity, I shot the pink blocks, I kept the barrels cleared. The only thing I didn't do was the cleanup sectors because it never gave me any feedback that there was anything wrong with it, with both giant over head displays seemingly saying everything was A-ok. Me losing again determined that was a lie. 

As for the story, I couldn't really get far enough to tell you what the story was.  Managed to glean that we're some random Joe shmoe working for eldritch beings to keep them happy (?), but that's about it.

Lastly are the nitpicks, which are: test file flashes on screen when starting up, no sound options and the game is loud, when playing in windowed mode and adjusting it, the white text up in the corner blocked some of the text from the computer monitor.

This could be something, but in its current state with what I could do, I'm just not seeing it.

While all too brief, this was a wonderfully eerie experience. I think the handwriting could have been a little clearer on the note for the runes puzzle, as one letter is drawn in a way that it could be confused for a different letter of the alphabet in game. Had to write them out myself in order to fully figure out what the puzzle needed. 

This honestly feels like it could be a teaser for a much larger game. More archeological based horror please. :D

It was fun getting to see yours and everyone else's reaction to it on stream. This was a lot of fun to make, and I'm glad I got the cheese feel just right. :D

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thankfully, knowing players could potentially get stuck is why I included the manual. xD

But yeah, I was iffy on what to do for it, and initially just had the hall all wood before adding that one tile difference. I think once I can work on it again, I'll make some more sprites and take your suggestion to give it a door that'll be easily seen.I didn't want to use the same door sprite from one cutscene, as I was worried the player wouldn't realize what it is. 
Maybe little folded doors that are open would be the best looking visual cue, and turning that one blue tile into a little rug.

Another thing I'll have to do is edit the walkthrough and rewrite it for better clarity, since I was informed that it isn't as transparent as I thought it was. 

I think my writing wasn't as clear as I needed it to be, since I was also trying to keep it largely spoiler free. That way, even if the player knows what to do, the results of those actions would still somewhat be a surprise. 

Thank you, KV, I'm glad you liked it! ; w ; I probably should have mentioned in the main text of the page that I have a walkthrough in the manual to help get to the best ending, but I'm glad you were still able to figure it out with youtuber assistance. :D

I think I've gotten as far as I can in the current version. I got the store key and went in, buuut there are no events to get back out. 

Also for one choice option in particular, you MONSTER. ; w ; 

Also, where would you like bug reports? I'm seriously excited about this game and have been loving playing through it.

O H N O, gotta love it when there's little bugs that slip through. I already rated the game, and honestly even with those bugs the game is really solid, since I still had to make it pretty far (almost an hour) before the food issue eventually cropped up. Looking forward to playing the updated version since I have to start over anyway. :D

The good:
The art style is very cute, which offsets the horror elements brought in later very well. The Windows 98 loading screen is a nice touch with the old UI, although the UI reminds me more of 95 than 8. 
The bad:

Maybe I'm dense, but outside of "stuck in game must escape" I don't see much story here.  Audio was rather bad, with the crashes being too loud, and the audio log so soft and muffled I couldn't make anything out.