itch.io

As a big fan of World of Horror, I can see what you were going for and it's a very inspired entry. That being said, there is a lot here that feels slightly disorganized and overwhelming initially. The player is thrown into the system and left to their own devices, which is OK, but the interface and UI of the game feels a tad clunky to interact with, even though it is pleasant to look at. I think my biggest complaint was using the keyboard to change screens when using the mouse for the rest of the game, perhaps a button could be at the bottom to click on to transition?

I enjoyed the event sequences and trying them in different ways, but ultimately did feel a little detached from the overall narrative and themes. I didn't really understand what I was supposed to be watching the window for, or what my general goal was. Overall though, I love the atmosphere and presentation, but found the UI, narrative, and interactivity a little clunky. I only critique so much because I appreciate the effort you already put in! Nice work!

Really great visuals and system mechanics, but I found the balance to be quite off and just ended up avoiding battles as much as possible. I really enjoyed the system for navigating and avoiding enemies, reminded me of some my favorites like Chrono Trigger and FFXIII-2. The sadistic humor was welcome and lent itself well to the art style. My main recommendations would be addressing the balancing, making the combat a little more engaging, and some more sound design, but within the constraints of the jam this is impressive and great work!

Really cool vibes and atmosphere. The swapping controls somehow works quite well, it gives it the old clunky horror feel. I love the creature design and the initial cutscene, but it does lack a bit in how threatening it really feels, but I really like the creature's animation response to being shot. The present audio sounds good, but a little bit more would go a long way. I also think it'd be quite cool to incorporate some kind of gravity & ragdoll to the creature. I'd love to watch them fall off from the top 30 containers.

As someone else mentioned, the menu doesn't seem to work forcing a restart. I managed to make it to the tunnel on my second try but didn't respond quickly enough, that part felt quite punishing without the checkpoint working. Perhaps you could consider a letterbox effect over the cutscenes or some kind of indicator to let the player be certain they do or do not have control. 

Quite enjoyable overall but a little frustrating in some aspects. Nice work!

This is great! A tad rough around a lot of the edges but I enjoyed my time with it, and did indeed jump a handful of times before I made it to the end.

I liked the variety of dealing with the enemy types, but I must say the pacing of it could have been handled more delicately to make horror gradually unveil. I love the journal notes but receiving them all immediately removes any potential suspense, maybe drip feeding them along the way while gradually unveiling the enemy types could be more effective. In the same way, seeing the lumber but not being able to pick it up, even after reading that you need to pick it up, feels a little too game-y. The sound design works great but is noticeably absent from some parts, like removing the mimics.

One major complaint is the length of the game over, when a lot of the time you barely see what killed you, it often seemed to take ages to finally die and get the black screen, its a neat little camera movement/animation, but feels like a drag waiting for it to end so many times.

Sorry to list so many critical things but it is because I did really enjoy the game! Great work within the constraints of the jam!

Fun rhythm-ish game! I enjoyed the tunes, the animations, the settings, and the sound design. The fiddle music was fun and lively, and kept me engaged, though at moments the timing of the game and music seemed a tad off. One thing I found myself wishing for was some kind of bad fiddle performance version of the track to play/fade when you perform poorly, but other than that I had a lot of fun. Nice work!

Very atmospheric, stylish, and cohesive entry! The environment is wonderful, evoking noir comic book vibes, at the same time having an underlying cosmic horror feel to the investigation. It plays so fluidly and the narrative is delivered to the player in an informed, yet convincing manner. The mechanics of looking at objects feels terrific, and had me so intrigued about investigating other cases and deducing which code to mark on what object. The hint system is welcome, and I used it even after deducing it for myself, and was welcomed to be informed further about the case. Terrific art direction and sound design, my only complaint is that I want more! Great work team!

I like the sprite work a lot and the mechanics feel fairly solid, yet a little slow and clunky. The pacing of the game seems to move a little slow and I found myself zoning out a little, in a good and bad way, but I think that could be alleviated a lot just from the addition of some background music. As some others said it felt a little confined and like the levels could be more designed, as right now they just feel a bit like small spaces. Overall though there are some solid bones here, nice work!

This is absolutely wild in scope, depth, and lore. Unreal programs tend to crash on my PC and I can't run it for too long, so I will hold off on rating, but congratulations on accomplishing so much in a week! Even how you managed to convince so many participants that it is real is a testament to the effort you put in, and I know anything is possible in 7 days. Great work!

Thanks for playing, sharing, and your kind words! The maze was originally planned to be an audio puzzle, which it still is, but there are some some relevant visual cues as well in case people didnt pick up on the audio.

Great visuals but I felt everything with Tadders was a little disconnected narratively from the rest of the game. I really enjoyed the direction of the cutscenes and the embracing of the weird. Very effective sound design, at times questionable, but still effective! Fantastic pixel art! Nice work. It felt like the gameplay could have been a little more involved but the overall presentation is marvelous!

Really fun dashing around and getting the zoomies! I enjoyed my time with it, unfortunately I got a little too competitive in the last wave and turned on my sticky keys, ultimately leading to my failure, so maybe it could be worth considering an alternate input for the dash? Great work though, calming and stressful in the right ways at the same time.

I felt more encouraged to spend all my tokens on the most hardcore nightmares to give Carl whose wife left him to join the peace corp, rather than try to accrue points. Fun little maniacal god-game, this could be a lot fun expanded upon mechanically and with some more coats of paint, but its fun right now as well!

Very cool entry! Your game from last year stuck with me and this exceeded my expectations. It felt like you really managed to say a lot by saying very little, and the voice acting was great. The sound design was well suited, though occasionally seemed a little underutilized. One minor complaint is the light flickers attached to the enemy, while they are effective at first, after awhile they become a bit of a nuisance, especially when the enemy lurks near the edge of the screen while you're hiding.

I also managed to make it to the end without shooting, because it sure didn't seem I should be shooting that gun lol The animations were well suited for the atmosphere and narrative. Great work!

Hahah not exactly what I was expecting but enjoyable little experience. Neat visual presentation and funny voice delivery. Nice work.

Really enjoyable quirky lil story! I felt compelled to play through for all 5 endings, but originally was determined to just get my kebab and leave, so I'm glad that is the true ending. Very stylish visuals, enjoyable characters, but the sound design is especially over the top! I really liked the sequence of seeing what's "under the surface" so that was well worth the work you all put in. Great work team!

I really enjoyed the visual presentation and the atmosphere. It unnerved me quite a bit the way it unraveled the first time, where I had the clown in hand, reading about how I shouldn't put the clown in my hand, and then read about the circus music as it started. Unfortunately I was unable to progress much further other than turning on a few lights and pushing the buttons on the AC (which seemed like I need to turn on another power source?) After a few game overs I wasn't sure what else to try. All in all, neat entry and vibes but I felt a little unguided in how to accomplish the tasks without getting the game over.

Super fun! I had a big smile on my face the whole time. Love the doom sound effects and the player/enemy progression. The combat felt engaging and rewarding and I really enjoyed the physics of the cube effects. One minor gripe is that the jump/double-jump felt a little more like weightless-ness than a jump and I didn't quite like how it felt, other than that I have no negative criticisms. Wonderful entry!

Neat little dungeon crawl, a little rough around the edges. I originally had a hard time climbing the ladder which gave me more issue than anything else in the game. The environmental change definitely feels weird but feels like it could work if you had some kind of narrative connection there. I enjoyed watching the AI on their patrols and sneaking by them. Nice work, solid bones of something here!

And a note I feel is worth adding and absolutely relevant to the question: Duck's vision for this project was incredibly clear from the start.