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Thanks for playing. We're glad you enjoyed the games.

Yep, no problem there!

RRRANDY PITCHFORK!

This was both fun to play and examine as another person who dev'd a driving/story game for this jam. I think we both ran into issues with the driving dragging on a bit, but this game really takes advantage of the time to tell a story with sound, which not a whole lot of games can do (and nice voiceacting, by the way). The final stretch of road was particularly pretty with all the trees pointing inwards, but I think my favorite effect was just the simplicity of the night sky. It's a great feeling.

Well, I admit the jumpscares got me just about every time haha. Wish I could've progressed past the cabin but I couldn't quite figure out the next objective.

I'm not sure why the page says it's quarantined -- seems okay through my AV.

That was fun! I had a few control issues at the start but that stuff's hard to iron out in a jam timeframe. This format worked really well and was a neat take on the theme. Probably my favorite bits were the radio noises and the TV images, and the sound design over all was well-done. I could figure out where the story was going pretty early, but dumping gas on everything was still really compelling. Nicely done.

There were a couple speedbumps figuring out how to navigate (what key to interact, that I had to _look_ at stuff to interact) but I think it was worth it. I love this 2D sidescroller perspective (for horror games especially) and wish there were more games that did it. The portraits and sprites are all fantastic too, and the color scheme is a unique choice that fits the mood really well. And the parts that switch perspective are unexpectedly disturbing.

Haha, we'll have to fix the deer thing, that's one of the fun moments. Thanks for your thoughtful feedback!

Thanks for your feedback! Yeah we definitely should've cut some scope from the story end to flesh out the driving a bit more. 

Ohh that makes more sense, with the dark areas -- I'll have to replay haha

Oh, wow yeah I totally didn't realize a how-to button even existed. That info would've been super useful up front or on the gamepage! The influence definitely shines through though, and I think the angel/SCP-173 stuff is timeless.

Ha, this was actually really fun to play. Probably my favorite fishing (mini-)game in terms of mechanics, including commercial games -- I appreciated that there was a range of challenges to select from. Aesthically it was a really well-set scene too -- loved the reflection in the water.

Jasper's really cute haha, loved the sprite (and the Annabell with an ax CG). The backgrounds were pretty charming too, loved the hand-drawn look. A grammar tool might shore up some of the writing technicals but the script has a very unique flow to it as is, so, maybe that's just part of the charm. 

Anecdotal, but I noticed I got a few frames of lag when new SF X were about to play -- I suspect they're being streamed (in a blocking way) on some or all browsers

This was really fun! I've always wanted to make a water/sound horror game, but I don't any more because I think this game executed better than I could hope to haha. The environment is really nice, and while I got lost more than once, everything had a very natural hand-crafting feel to it that made each of the three branches feel unique and alive (good game structure there too). I sort of wish I _hand't_ been able to get a good glimpse at the creature, because the darkness/glitchiness when it was coming for me were pretty compelling too.

Yeah I read you used the jam as a reason to pick up Blender! That's really neat, I always always try to learn something as well, it's a great chance for it.

"Sooo Johnathan got murdered" had me laughing. The framing text is a nice wonky contrast to the atmosphere of the house. Just the door creaking was super unsettling. Couldn't find anything to steal though -- is that where it ends?

I'm playing in Windows and maybe there's something wrong with my setup but the darkness makes it very hard to get around, tough to tell if I'm looking forward or down once the memories are collected. It's a fun feel when they are around though, and I like the SFX.

As a red/green colorblind person I was VERY very confused to start out -- I think it took me like 10 minutes to figure out why "remaining" was going up instead of down. I love this sort of shadow style and I'm glad I stuck around though. When you're damaged, it's a rocky experience trying to move around -- appreciated the little ":(" sprite.

I'm having a ton of trouble finding the flashlight and it's limiting by ability to do much by night haha. I found three sets of batteries and some chalk in the fridge though. And while I was disappointed the jukebox didn't work, at least the radio does. Did not help me against the slendermen though :|

I had a bit of trouble figuring out I was supposed to go to bed, but otherwise things moved pretty fast.

That's some really excellent sound design. Probably the biggest contribution to the tension, with a close runner up being the limited color palette (created all those dark spots). I'm not used to games with prebaked lighting having an atmosphere like that, well done.

I am definitely not very good at platformers haha

Loved the sound component of the glitch effect. The last level definitely managed to capture the "cursed cart" feel better than anything I've seen in a bit.

Neat environment. The very cryptic "overview" and "about" menu items left me with no idea what to expect, which heightened my apprehension going in. I eventually managed to escape to the outside, although maybe a clearer initial objective would've improved things?

That's pretty cool you worked with your son on it!

Haha I was hoping to escape through death but I ended up just getting reprimanded.

I couldn't tell if CHITCHAT was supposed to be unescapable or not, but it certainly reinforced the theme.

Definitely appreciated the surrealist bent on this one haha (and the email from wifey@mywife.com)

Yeah! Sounds like a good idea.

 I've definitely had similar experiences (and I think it hurts my own jam entry a bit), but, the accessibility is so important too that it's hard to just... not have a web version. I think maybe my takeaway is to play and test the web version during the jam itself rather than during the submission scramble haha

I'm so bad at spotting the anomalies, but I'm super glad I found my way into the satanic cat shrine, that was fun. Definitely had a better experience with the downloaded version vs the webgl one -- definitely hard to get all the effects ported.  I also had more fun when I finally clicked I was supposed to be shooting the loop entity and it was different than the more passive guys.

There was also some blue tint on the web version (I think it was an overlay from the instructions??) that hurt the atmosphere and it all made sense when I checked the windows one and it was gone.

Hi all! I'm part of a 3-member team currently looking for another collaborator. We're a composer, illustrator, and writer/programmer looking for someone interested in any of pixel art, sound design (FMOD? SFX?), 3D anything, video, collage, or honestly anyone with a cool skillset that'd like to work together. Personally I love working with people I already know, but half the fun of these jams is finding new people to make fresh stuff with.

We've worked on a previous Scream Jam together on Recursive Dream (https://itch.io/jam/scream-jam-2022/rate/2029658) , and I've personally done this jam four times before, probably most notably with Dememorize (https://itch.io/jam/scream-jam-2021/rate/1241326). We all like making experimental stuff, but also like going for a polished and gripping final product. Unity is our primary engine, and we talk via discord (all different timezones).

Our team's likely making something narrative-heavy: not quite a visual novel, but mostly story with some exploration or other mechanics mixed in, depending on themes and ideas and the skills of the team. Influences include DDLC, Zero Escape, Dangan Ronpa, Ace Attorney, Higurashi, etc. We're tossing around ideas now about caves and exploration and Forbidden Places generally. Expect to have a lot of creative freedom.

If this sounds like your idea of a good time, feel free to drop a reply, or DM me here or on Discord (@psy_wombats). Thanks!
Psy (https://psy-wombats.itch.io/)
Jamie (https://jamieobeso.itch.io/)
Canvas (https://flatwhitecanvas.itch.io/)

Thanks for the comment! glad you enjoyed it

I really enjoyed the game. The writing and the visuals work really well together to set the stage. I definitely prefer this format over an actual adventuregame command interpreter thing. Sound might've been a bit underutilized -- I would've loved to hear Olivia or the taped seance, for instance, rather than just reading about them. The record player sound is certainly effective though.

I love the map but it's absolutely huge for the amount of stuff going on in it. I'd advise a minimap or other guide for an open environment this huge, and especially an objective list so it's possible to know when all the parts are actually collected. Neat theme though, loved the visuals of the ships in the sky.

Played through to the end -- liked the 3D atmosphere, although the briefness of it makes it a bit hard to get a handle on where you were going with the concept.

As a heads up, I had some /major/ performances issues on my machine (not a topline gaming PC, but optimized for 3d gamedev all the same). I haven't had any issues with other (larger) UE games this jam so I wonder if there's something weird going on.

The rules screen made it sound complicated, but I found the game pretty intuitive! Is the RNG fixed though? Seems like me and the opponent always had the same draw, so I knew the winning strategy.

Neat story! The quick ramp up with the room transitions was probably my favorite part. The second half was a bit flowery but it worked. The face of the "friend" was pretty creepy to begin with so I definitely appreciated the later changes.

Phew, it's obvious there's a lot of care and polish on this one, but it looks like it's on everything but the core gameplay, which isn't quite strong enough to carry it.  The creature design is excellent, and I love the use of lighting effects to convey tension. The bloom-y menu around the soul fragment upgrade screen is kind of a neat effect too. The whole leveling up concept is pretty fun and maybe the game would be better served by a lot of small levels rather than four absolutely huge ones. (though to be fair, to combat the big dungeon size, I just dumped all my points into speed). Anchoring is much more interesting than dragging and I could also see the enemy population going way up as long as the distances went down. It seems most enemies are neutralized by hiding behind the pyramids though -- not sure if it's a los or pathing thing, but they tend to ignore the player on the other side of one.

(definitely been there with the time crunch)

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah we weren't quite able to shore up some of emptier segments in the middle. More streamlined controls could certainly help -- we were also thinking something like fixed perspective and no movement within rooms.

I really like Silver Case, so I guess some of that influence shows haha. And the composer (Jamie) was directly going after a DanganRonpa feel, which was composed by Masafumi Takada, also behind Silver Case music.

Ah, sure:
1. collect money from Deimos Delivery
2. buy the items in Cybershop
3. leave Cybershop's store going south and trigger the scene at the red mist marker
4. obtain keycard from Buddies
5. go back to Cybershop... but you spawn outside the store and the automatic doors don't allow you back in
so at that point it's impossible to get the instruments in Cybershop required to complete Buddies

I like the concept but the mouse sensitively made it extremely hard to click anything. I got stuck at the music festival -- the keywords don't have to be in the correct order, do they?

Managed to pull through! The first chase was pretty intense, but once I learned the monsters couldn't enter rooms, a lot of the tension dropped off, and it was just a matter of figuring out a good strategy to navigate the maze. I have to wonder: what's the point of the locked door behind the player in the first room? I used my key on first load in and had to restart haha

That stupid barrel got me good.

Excellent work on the sound design, I think that was probably the high point. Add me to the list of people who had no idea about the flashlight until after they died, 90% into the game... that would've been handy haha. This is probably the most "immersive" horror game I've seen so far, so, good job on that for sure.

Cute art and a very heavy ending. Loved the style of the open/end sequences especially. I was confused about the mouse interaction a bit, but also there seems to be some aliasing issue at the current resolution that's causing the 'E' prompt to show up as 'C,' not sure what's up with that.