MZ - Perceiving Shapes (Horror)

Starmage · 2020-11-03T23:16:54+0900

Spoiler Perceiving Shapes is my submission to Third Annual HAWKTOBER Game Jam. The Game Jam has a theme of "Horror of the Cosmos". The game had the honor of being ranked 4th place on people's choice! And I'm truly honored and happy for that. ^_^ The game was also featured as GOTY for 2020 on HBgames.org! <3 Such great honor! ^_^ You guys might also want to check out HBgames.org forums as they are having massive updates on the site! http://www.hbgames.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=80403&start=0 Spoiler Beau Portman, a 21-year-old guy who lives in Canada, has decided to finally meet his online date in person for the first time. His online date Susan has led him to a mysterious town called "Saturnalia", claiming that it's her address. But the question is, was there ever a "Saturnalia Town" in Canada? Is it just a regular town that's isolated from society? Or is there more to it? Spoiler Name: Beau Portman Age: 21 Descriptions: He's a curious and adventurous Asian American guy who grew up in Canada. He has long been talking to his online date Susan, and is very excited to finally meet her in person. Name: Susan Speed Age: 20 Descriptions: She is a very quirky and artsy girl who loves to cook. She also has quite the taste in music. Susan is Beau's online date. She is one of the mysterious residents of "Saturnalia Town". Name: Dr. Cernelia Partikulo Age: ?? Descriptions: Better known as Dr. Cern. She is an enigmatic lady who's very determined in gathering data from her "client". She keeps to herself, and treats the whole situation like an experiment. Spoiler Spoiler Perceiving Shapes FULL 1.0 Features: - Fully Voiced Dialogues - Immersive Horror Atmosphere Credits: Spoiler Plugins: Degica KADOKAWA VisuStella Ignis/Raizen Gabe Moghunter (Atelier RGSS) - https://atelierrgss.wordpress.com/ Terrax iVillain Aesica ct_bolt Graphics: Degica KADOKAWA Vexed Enigma textfx.co code32 - https://opengameart.org/content/space-background-0 chalkdust RPGMakerXPChris KAUZZ Rene Magritte Local 58 NASA Website Music: Degica KADOKAWA Joel Steudler Eric Matyas - www.soundimage.org ayato sound create JDB Artist Rousseau Murray Atkinson Bach Chopin Edvard Grieg Voice Acting: Led - as Beau, Wilbert, and Jordan Arc Knight † - as Unknown Man (???), Dr. Fred, and George Triksya Burning - as Susan Starmage - as Dr. Cern, Neil, Mr. Hawk, Other Town NPC's, and Killer Clown Special thanks: HawkZombie (Game jam Host and Judge) Judges: Zephyr (Heroine), Kia, Damian Floyd And YOU! Thank you so much for playing!!!

● ARCHIVED · READ-ONLY

Started by Starmage Nov 3, 2020, 02:16 PM 10 posts View original ↗

Starmage

#1 Nov 3, 2020, 02:16 PM Source

Spoiler
Perceiving Shapes is my submission to Third Annual HAWKTOBER Game Jam. The Game Jam has a theme of "Horror of the Cosmos".

The game had the honor of being ranked 4th place on people's choice! And I'm truly honored and happy for that. ^_^

The game was also featured as GOTY for 2020 on HBgames.org! <3 Such great honor! ^_^ :) You guys might also want to check out HBgames.org forums as they are having massive updates on the site! :D http://www.hbgames.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=80403&start=0

Spoiler
Beau Portman, a 21-year-old guy who lives in Canada, has decided to finally meet his online date in person for the first time. His online date Susan has led him to a mysterious town called "Saturnalia", claiming that it's her address. But the question is, was there ever a "Saturnalia Town" in Canada? Is it just a regular town that's isolated from society? Or is there more to it?

Spoiler

Name: Beau Portman
Age: 21
Descriptions: He's a curious and adventurous Asian American guy who grew up in Canada. He has long been talking to his online date Susan, and is very excited to finally meet her in person.

Name: Susan Speed
Age: 20
Descriptions: She is a very quirky and artsy girl who loves to cook. She also has quite the taste in music. Susan is Beau's online date. She is one of the mysterious residents of "Saturnalia Town".

Name: Dr. Cernelia Partikulo
Age: ??
Descriptions: Better known as Dr. Cern. She is an enigmatic lady who's very determined in gathering data from her "client". She keeps to herself, and treats the whole situation like an experiment.

Spoiler

Spoiler
Perceiving Shapes FULL 1.0

Features:

- Fully Voiced Dialogues

- Immersive Horror Atmosphere

Credits:

Spoiler
Plugins:

Degica
KADOKAWA
VisuStella
Ignis/Raizen
Gabe
Moghunter (Atelier RGSS) - https://atelierrgss.wordpress.com/
Terrax
iVillain
Aesica
ct_bolt

Graphics:

Degica
KADOKAWA
Vexed Enigma
textfx.co
code32 - https://opengameart.org/content/space-background-0
chalkdust
RPGMakerXPChris
KAUZZ
Rene Magritte
Local 58
NASA Website

Music:

Degica
KADOKAWA
Joel Steudler
Eric Matyas
- www.soundimage.org
ayato sound create
JDB Artist
Rousseau
Murray Atkinson
Bach
Chopin
Edvard Grieg

Voice Acting:

Led - as Beau, Wilbert, and Jordan
Arc Knight † - as Unknown Man (???), Dr. Fred, and George
Triksya Burning - as Susan
Starmage - as Dr. Cern, Neil, Mr. Hawk, Other Town NPC's, and Killer Clown

Special thanks:

HawkZombie (Game jam Host and Judge)
Judges: Zephyr (Heroine), Kia, Damian Floyd

And YOU! Thank you so much for playing!!!
Starmage

#2 Nov 10, 2020, 09:42 PM Source

Hello everyone! The game just got the honor of being GOTY for 2020 on HBgames.org! <3 Such great honor! ^_^ :) You guys might also want to check out HBgames.org forums as they are having massive updates on the site! :D http://www.hbgames.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=77&t=80403&start=0
Tw0Face

#3 Nov 23, 2020, 07:07 PM Source

Wow, this project is incredibly well done! The voice acting was a great fit and underlined the atmosphere in a veeery good way. Great horror game. I enjoyed it quite much.

I found a smaller problem. The ghost dudes tend to recognize Beau even through walls and thus try to run towards him hitting the wall, which ends up in an endless repetition of the laughing sounds.

I don't think I fully got the story. Lemme explain:

Ending
In the end, there's talk of an app, so Beau seems to be a programmed AI within an artificial world. The drink he consumes eventually deletes him. But what's the reason the programmers let him go through all this horror scenarios? What do they want him to learn from it as they're just going to delete him? And what's the thing about the 4th wall breaking and what role does the player has? --- Is he the developer of the app? And how can the other two guys at the end know that they're inside an app, but Beau didn't know? I also didn't understand why people keep saying that there are no faces. (Did I understand ANYTHING? xD)
atoms

#4 Nov 23, 2020, 08:26 PM Source

@Starmage Wow you really are making lots of games at the moment Starmage you're on a real roll! Keep going! :) Boos405
Starmage

#5 Nov 24, 2020, 09:29 AM Source

@Tw0Face - Thank you so much for playing the game and giving your thoughts and feedback as well as your theory! <3 ^_^ The game's plot and ending are actually open to interpretation, so you giving your thoughts about it is an amazing start! ;) Hmm... One can wonder what each of the game's symbolisms and references mean in the grand scheme of things. <3

Thanks so much once again for playing the game and I'm very happy you enjoyed! ^^

@atoms - Thank you so much once again, Boos405! ^_^ <3 Always appreciate your support and checking in on my projects! :D Haha, been having a lot of fun during lockdown, joining game jams and whatnot! <3 :) ^^
CarelessRex

#6 Sep 19, 2021, 03:16 AM Source

Your game is a masterpiece. The most fun I've ever had playing an RPG maker game. I poke a little fun here and there but honestly, this is amazing and something to be proud of. Glad I got to be apart of it!
thenerdmansion

#7 Sep 25, 2021, 04:04 AM Source

Just as CarelessRex said, this game was absolute quality in all categories with how fun it was :D
Starmage

#8 Apr 10, 2023, 09:45 AM Source

Omg I haven't checked this thread for a long time and missed your posts of your LP's @CarelessRex and @thenerdmansion :LZSjoy: Thank you so much for the kind words and I'm so excited to watch these Lp's! <3 <3 :D
Beregon

#9 Dec 5, 2024, 10:48 AM Source

This horror game has an awesome atmosphere and a really great opening. The tilesets were used very well and the additional effects like the sunbeams and being able to see the protagonist's cell phone screen when he texts his girlfriend really elevated the game. The death animations were also good, even if I wish there was more of them.

The game itself is very surreal. From the beginning, you successfuly manage to convey the feeling that there's something wrong there, but not what exactly. The often repeated mantras like "There are no faces!" are suitably unsettling, even if somewhat confusing. What hurts the story a bit is drawing attention to things that aren't really explained later, setting them up as a mystery, only to move on and never adress them later. There's one specific reveal at the end that was probably supposed to explain everything, but I don't think it succeeded at that. I wish there was more revealed about the purpose behind the events of the game, meaning "why it was happening" rather than just "what was happening".

Still, it was great almost the whole way through, just the ending was a bit of a letdown.

For the voice acting, it was rough in places, but managed to convey the dialogue nicely, give each character a specific voice and added a lot more to the game.

I know you mostly make RPGs now, but I do think you should try to make another game like this sometime in the future, since you've done really well at this genre.
Starmage

#10 Mar 16, 2025, 09:33 AM Source

Hi @Beregon ! I just read your reviews on both my horror games (This and Inner Sanctum) I cant believe I missed 'em x(( But I read them now, and I'm super happy to read your very detailed reviews for both games and I'm very glad you enjoyed the horrors for the most part <3 Thank you so much!! I do love the Horror RPG genre, so I won't be leaving this genre anytime soon xD <3