Great job! I didn't play it, watched someone else did because some of the scenes hit a liiiiitle too close to home for me and the whole thing was really well put together.
Smik AKA Grumpy Old Milk
Creator of
Recent community posts
"Or consider adding a health mechanic where you run into more traps or wrong locations and you lose health. "
Funny you mention that but there IS a health mechanic and you got the "Accident" ending because you ran out. The music changes subtly depending on how much health (horror points) you have left. Leaving the lights on for example costs you horror points because the ghost forces them off, giving you a scare.
I had originally planned on making the phone something you could manipulate and hover over interactable objects before checking them, but I ran out of time and energy. The cell does tell you when you're in the doll's room.
Part of the game's problem is that the mechanics are maybe too hidden. I'm currently working on redoing House in Hellworld in RPGMaker to make said mechanics more obvious, and if I revisit this game I probably won't have a kid protagonist since in my world build most ghosts and faeries leave children alone.
If you replay, without spoiling there are 4 possible phone alerts and only one indicates the presence of the doll. The others hint at a possible horror you can encounter.
There's currently a few variations of the endings and the game can be completed with luck in very short order. The "Accident" ending is probably the most common ending because it's based off a hidden mechanic in the game. I'm glad you enjoyed it, if you have any criticisms feel free to let me know. I know it's a jam and we've all been under tremendous pressure but at the same time one can't learn without finding out about one's mistakes.
Hi there -- minor bug with spells/items while fighting 2 enemies at once and one is killed with a spell or item: the game won't let you target the second enemy because it still thinks you're trying to target the first. While not a major issue most of the time, it does impact a certain challenge that disables your normal offensive actions.
Thank you! It's great to get feedback on some of the intended-creepier parts because I don't have much of a sense of what's scary anymore. I'm still torn on revisiting the game and polishing up some elements (as well as having the mundane element's impact on your attributes more obvious) and making a sequel where you meet other ghosts.
Thanks. My wife passed away nine years ago, but Norton suffered a massive fatal heart attack the morning after I submitted the game. I added a little dedication to him as well in a final update. I just adopted a cat from my local shelter today, so I'm healing.
At this point I'm fine with people saying something or not, depending on their comfort but I appreciate the well wishes all the same.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I'm lucky I was able to get resources from the Humble Bundle or it'd be lacking audio-wise. I don't know if I'm going to do a sequel or redo the original with more of the features I had planned before I reduced its scope to make it in time for the jam. Really all depends on how others react to it, but thanks again for playing and commenting!
I like how the various classes all have their quirks. I wound up stuck as a Mascot for the majority of my 100% playthrough, because once I got the hang of it deaths were few and far between. The one time I got caught with some bad luck, the game rolled the exact same mascot (including quirks) and that's how I finished.