itch.io

Real shame this game didn't get more ratings. It was one of my favourites of the jam.

🎉 The results are in! Congratulations, everyone! 🎇

Really happy with how The Vaults Below Durn was received, even if it wasn't a perfect game.

It finished #47 overall, which I’m thrilled about given how many great entries there were. I see some of my favourite games from the jam in the top 50 too! Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to play and leave feedback. The comments are so much more valuable than the ratings themselves!

The biggest takeaway for me was that I need to make the signs clearer at the start. They can be more challenging later on, but early on they need to be easily recognisable. It's a tricky balance since the mechanic relies on obscurity so a tiny part of you questions yourself. More variations in the puzzle and the environments is important too. These are all things I'll be improving in the Steam version.

If you played it, rated it, or left feedback, thank you again. The jam community makes these events really worthwhile. ❤️

New trailer! 

Thank you! I'm aiming for 20th May since it's hopefully going to be part of the Game Republic Steam Festival :) 

Thank you :D

I'm working on developing The Vaults Below Durn into a Steam release! It will be my first Steam game.

If you have a Steam account, it would be a huge help if you could add it to your wishlist 🙏 Even if it isn't something you would want to buy. We must feed the algorithm.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4494830/The_Vaults_Below_Durn_A_Field_Study/

I'll be taking all the feedback I've had from this jam on board so thank you everyone for playing and helping me improve as a dev 

https://gongylus.itch.io/the-vaults-below-durn-a-field-study

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you so much for such helpful feedback! I think you raised a lot of good points. I'm working on expanding the game right now for a Steam release and I'll implement your suggestions! 

If it's something you'd be interested in checking out down the road, here is the Steam page. Thanks again for playing!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4494830/The_Vaults_Below_Durn_A_Field_Study/

Ah ok. I won't explain it here since that would be spoilers haha. Thanks again for playing it!

Thanks for playing! I really enjoyed your game too.

Did you pick up on the meaning of the credits cutscene? I'm currently building an expanded Steam version that plays more into the lore. :)

Thanks for playing ^_^ glad you liked it!

Thanks for playing!

Thank you for the feedback! Yh, I noticed that too. I tried to counteract it by having the player turn away from the door if they are standing too close before starting the idle animation. Sounds like it still clips occasionally. I'll look at improving that. :) Thanks again!

When we can update the games, I've got this lined up. It is an audio calibration screen that will appear before the main menu so we can dial in the volume :)  (It looks better than the gif)

Thank you ^_^ Yeah, I know not everyone is into jumpscares so I keep the tension up with the slight delay before your character walks through a door instead :D

Well done on getting your first game out! That's a HUGE milestone! And all the more impressive that you built the game AND did all the art and sound in the week that you had. I really liked your art style too. Best of luck with the other levels :)

This is my third game jam as a solo dev :) I'll check yours out!

https://gongylus.itch.io/the-vaults-below-durn-a-field-study

Fun idea! I liked your character design and animation! I noticed the anomalies are chosen at random which is great for replay value! Well done!

Oof that jumpscare got me haha. Good! I liked the dialogue with your boss, and the setting is very imaginative! Well done!

Hell yh! That was great! Really smart mechanic having to orient yourself to shoot, but also keep moving. Love the entire eyeball theme. And the atmosphere was top notch. Great work!

A liminal space much like Backrooms. Sound design was good. Ambitious to use Unreal Engine!

That was really cool. I managed to navigate the darkness ^_^ A nice point and click with great art and some fun unexpected puzzles. Very surreal. Loved it!

Ah thank you. So it is a mechanical problem. Yh, I think I need to add some kind of volume calibration before the menu screen, or add the Hard of Hearing mode overlay to the base game. Thank you for providing more information ^_^ That's very helpful and thanks again for playing!

omg. my parents are MEAN! Instructions were very clear, and the controls worked well. Great voice acting as well. I really felt like a disappointment to my parents. But that's only in the game, right? Right? D:

omg. my parents are MEAN! Instructions were very clear, and the controls worked well. Great voice acting as well. I really felt like a disappointment to my parents. But that's only in the game, right? Right? D:

Wow! That was cool. Like a short movie. First I thought it was novel that we started on the ground, crawling, but then it ramped up. Body horror and cosmic horror combined. And with pretty cool implied lore. Great work!

Wow! That was cool. Like a short movie. First I thought it was novel that we started on the ground, crawling, but then it ramped up. Body horror and cosmic horror combined. And with pretty cool implied lore. Great work!

This isn't my game but it only has 5 ratings and it's excellent.

Residual

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-15/rate/4312918

Thank you for playing and for your kind words!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you for your feedback. That's interesting. I added the field guide on the game's page yesterday and I think that may have overcomplicated the first two rooms. 

If I may ask, were you looking for all three signs in the first and second room? In the first room, you only need to worry about the wet patches. I've actually just updated the game description to make that clearer for new players so they don't overthink the start!

Congrats on getting to the end and glad you liked the cutscene! Thank you again for playing.

I always trust a man covered in goop

[Not a rate4rate thread] 😁 If you have a horror game you wanna show off, post it here! Throw in a screenshot or your thumbnail as well if you want. Let's get spooky in here.

Here's mine. The Vaults Below Durn: A Field Study

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-15/rate/4308155

Very very cool! This is an overlooked gem. I was not expecting everything after the chase scene. I was thinking this was a nicely made house restoration game with simple puzzles, then it all changed. The art and animations are great. The audio as well. There is a lot of game here for the week that you had. I managed to figure out the ghost closet but took me a while to realise the mouse was to be used. Very impressive. Hope more people get to play it.

A cool take on a retro text adventure. I really like the styling and the combined audio and visuals of a room loading. You've got the barebones of something that could be very interesting. :) What do you have planned for it?

I see what you were going for! Interesting. Do you rotate the world around the player when you go over the edge? I wonder what game mechanics you could use with this system. What would you have done if you had more time available? 

Interesting. You don't see many Unreal games in this game jam :) Especially ones in this style. The objectives were very clear which was great. If I may ask, what drew you to Unreal Engine?

Fun! Love this kind of thing. In Anno 1800 I'm always doing quick maths to figure out the optimal number of production buildings to get a good chain going. Some really nice polish here. Great that you got audio settings in as well. Excellent work!