Event - Spooky Month Game Jam! 2024

Gameplay: The game is primarily jumping cutscene to cutscene with a bit of action combat throughout. Mostly, I do not feel in control of the game and felt like there were a lot of opportunities to give more agency to the player (the gathering, the cooking, etc). Otherwise, the combat is introduced rather deep into the playtime.

Visuals: Some of the maps feel pretty big for what’s happening on them. Some of the tile and lighting choices make it difficult to differentiate dimension and height. This is pretty apparent in the courtyard. Otherwise, the maps are competently composed, use nice tiles, have good sprite-work, and the character art uses a range of emotes. Cutscenes are evented well. No standing around, which is always immensely appreciated.

Audio: I think there is some clever use of no music in this. During the night scenes and the outdoor scenes, taking it down to sound effects and noise created a nice juxtaposition and atmosphere compared to more active sections with more music presence. The main detractor in the audio is the dialog/message sound effect. It’s pretty punchy when set next to the rest of the soundscape.

Story and Writing: I found the plot points pretty predictable and sudden. The characters quickly accept everything, so the sense of conflict and struggle is dampened. The building seemed mostly uninvolved in the plot. There is also a disconnect in “ye olde” speaking and more modern speech patterns that make it difficult to pin down the tone of the game.

Spookiness: I could sense the mystery poking out through the screen, but being sent scene-to-scene and having limited agency deflated spooky points.

Gameplay: I can actually get down with the point-and-click, choose your path, small story vignette situation… but I'm a little lost on the impact my choices are having, if any. Some of the routes are longer, some are shorter, and I can’t figure out if some of them are simply shorter in length or if I’m choosing “wrong.”

Visuals: I really like the overall approach to the visuals, but there’s one thing that really, really holds back the visuals…the font. This is a “Meg Problem,” but I can’t read it…at all. Particularly in the choice prompts. The colors, textures, and white font is not the most low-vision friendly combination. The font 100% fit the aesthetic, but I feel like a lot of serifs would have still looked really good and been much easier to read.

Audio: The audio is rather effective. The background music selected helps stage the setting of a pensive and anxious mind. This, combined with the sound effects for the creaking and closing doors really place me in a mind that both seems full of thought and empty all at the same time.

Story and Writing: I think I was more OK with the “inside the mind” than others…because the use of doors in the visuals and sound was pretty clever, in my opinion. However, I would agree to this concept being difficult to execute, and most of the time I didn’t know what was going on, largely to that font. I appreciate the idea of using the mind as a haunted place, and I’m really glad someone tried it out. I just think the execution could have used more vitamins.

Spookiness: Interesting concept. The themes were there, the colors were there, the sounds were there. I get pensive. I get anxious. But… not really spooked?

Gameplay: I enjoy card games, but when considering a 30-minute experience…I felt like I spent most of my play time understanding how the game worked and what it was doing.

Visuals: The visual assets are overall nice and the UI is impressive, but many of the assets stylistically do not go together, particularly in the color palettes.

Audio: The clock sound effect really irritates me after a short while. The audio choices are overall appropriate for the game, and a Halloween vibe is definitely achieved, but there isn’t that much of an atmosphere or setting established by the audio, so no spooky.

Story and Writing: There isn’t really a story or haunted building at all?

Spookiness: It’s cute but not spooky.

Gameplay: This takes more of a story adventure approach, which I generally quite like! Getting all the details, clues, and items from all the characters was executed fairly well, until the end? I got the light and into the closed platform and then…lowkey could not figure out what I was supposed to do next? I went back and talked to everyone and just couldn’t figure out how to get the coins. Feeling dumb. Probably am? Extreme possibility.

Visuals: The map sizes are a bit…big. I know there’s a dash, but the atmosphere suffers a bit when you need to goofily lightspeed your sprite around to cope with it. The tile and sprite aesthetic are cohesive and well composed, though the faces deviate. There are a lot of small details included that help the setting feel realized. Some of the color choices do create issues with dimension and perspective, but overall I enjoy the look of the game.

Audio: Fairly effective audio! I think the music choices are pretty good and amplify a setting that is undead and yet vaguely and charmingly unthreatening.

Story and Writing: The concept of an “end of the line” undead train station is something I rather enjoyed. You captured in dialogue and the visuals how this is regular life for the inhabitants while also being off putting and a conflict for the human character.

Spookiness: I enjoyed the main setting but wish the mystery of the closed platform had been incorporated more throughout the overarching writing and theming of the game. One exchange about it “being haunted” but “what does that make the rest of the train station?” was really poignant to me, and I wish we leaned into that more. It was kind of lackluster that nothing happened upon entering the platform for the first time. The visuals and audio were there in the platform, but when entering it’s not so apparent why it needed to shut down and be avoided.

Gameplay: I found the battle system interesting and engaging, but I did feel like the battles were long. It felt risky to experiment because I was getting my ass kicked, so I stuck to mostly the same strategy. The game was well over 30 minutes (for me) because of how often I was running into large random encounters (with one party member) in the faint-possession-dream sequence.

Visuals: The amount of unique artwork and the cohesion amongst the artwork is pretty impressive! Map sizes are appropriate, color is used well, portraits are expressive, and the sprite animations are a nice touch. The setting was well established with the visuals.

Audio: The audio is well selected, well balanced, and effective. Though, since I was mostly in battles I felt like I was jamming way more than getting immersed in soundscape.

Story and Writing: So… I absolutely love sci-fi in the horror genre, but I feel like we could have condensed some stuff. I was very intrigued but also felt a bit under rapid fire of info and world-specific terms.

Spookiness: I feel like the stage was well set for the spookiness with the ghost ship, the mysterious dream sequence, and the cyborg, but the long battles and trying to follow the vocabulary dominated my headspace and kept pulling me out of the setting.

**could not play**

The camera is way too sensitive. The lightest input spins it way too much. I got vertigo pretty much as soon as I could move. I tried to play a couple times and once the screen turned red I got too ill.

Gameplay: Simple and self-explained gameplay that is easily addictive. One major thing kind of held it back for me…the hitboxes seemed pretty deceptive? I would think I could just slide right past a ghost and…nope! Otherwise, it’s the kind of game that makes you want to keep trying.

Visuals: Again. Very simple, easy to see, practical presentation. The colors make it very easy to see and properly separate the background from the foreground.

Audio: Music choice is appropriate but it doesn’t loop correctly. I think what this could have really used was more sound effects and musical queues due to the minimal text elements.

Story and Writing: Minimal, but satisfying. The game really maintained and understood its scope well.

Spookiness: A few minor elements would have really improved the spooky factor. Mostly the audio ones I mentioned.

Gameplay: I enjoy the gameplay premise here; this maze with many obstacles, foes, and paths to take. But, I did find the map size and amount of obstacles overwhelming and progress felt uncertain. It was kind of…everywhere? I had way more “dang it!!” moments than “aha” moments. Iunno. Almost wish the kid got power ups to move things? It’s just a shopping cart?

Visuals: The selection of tiles and the sprites are very nice. I loved the inclusion of the clown artwork popping up and the visual “glitches” set up the tone. Understandably, there is quite a bit of material placed on the map to create the maze, but it does look pretty chaotic. I think smaller separate sections may have lightened up the mental load.

Audio: The audio definitely helped establish the setting and premise. Overall, very effective. The only thing that kind of stuck out to me was the suddenness in which some of the music changed, some balancing on the sound effects as well. But? Solid.

Story and Writing: The clown, dentist, shopping mall thing is a little out there, but I can’t say it bothers me that much, lol. The dialogue is overall effective, but I do feel like you just have to accept this crazy clown takeover thing.

Spookiness: The concept felt very relatable to a kid, so I was kind of down with the absurdity. But, I feel like the vibes were strong in the intro and kind of petered out quite a bit once gameplay really started.

Gameplay: More of a story adventure, which I do not mind. I do wish there was some sort of active element like puzzles, but as a visual novel with exploration it still works fairly well. The setting is presented in a way that drove me toward wanting to explore and interact with it.

Visuals: I really enjoy the aesthetic of the artwork, and naturally the cohesion that comes from it being unique to the game. Everything from the style to the color palette really helps establish the atmosphere of the game. There are a couple oddities with the perspective of some of the objects, the benches come to mind. The ground also looked…really square? But, overall the look is charming, intriguing, and the colors in particular were fantastic.

Audio: Great audio choices! You did an excellent job shifting the sound in different maps that illustrated the growing mystery and eeriness throughout the setting.

Story and Writing: I think you used the prompt fairly well. While a bit on the nose, the type of haunting is unique and presented pretty organically in the environment itself with many visual indicators of exactly what has happened to the setting. However, in my opinion, some of the object interactions were a bit too much of a tone shift given the effectiveness of the environmental storytelling. I also found it a bit odd that these creatures were just kind of popping up and everyone just seemed…K? I seemed more surprised than the characters!

Spookiness: All the elements combined create an effective environment with a growing sense of anticipation and eeriness.

Gameplay: The battles had a simple and effective hook, but variation in attack strats did not really seem needed? You could pretty safely just use the leg and head skills. Arms ones seemed kind of, there? Perhaps each character could have specialized in something a bit more? Otherwise, the simplicity is rather welcome for the scope of a small game like this.

Visuals: The tile selections are good and correctly used, but some of the maps have some slight composition issues. I’d have to look at each map again for exact recommendations, but pretty standard things like a little bit of size or a little bit of visual balancing. Other than that, the text did kinda flow off the menu. So oops.

Audio: The music was effective but various sections could have been easily amplified by background sounds. The outside of the building for example is completely silent (or too quiet to hear).

Story and Writing: The set up and dialog are pretty good and the setting is perfect! But, it kind of just stops? I feel like the game ended right when it was hitting a groove.

Spookiness: It had all the ingredients, but it did not cook.

Gameplay: The suddenness and instant-ness at which the very first threat in the game kinda just instagibs me is just…not fun? The spider just…OK. I’m dead now. The core idea of the game play is rather good, but the execution needed a lot more refinement.

Visuals: The tiles themselves were beautiful but the opening maps are large and empty, especially considering there’s nothing to do on them. The mansion overall looks great but is strange to navigate. The tapering and shapes in the rooms make little sense and make it fairly impossible to distinguish pathways apart from random jutting of the walls without investigating. Overall, the tiles, effects, and character art are very appealing, but the maps need refinement.

Audio: The audio, while nice, does not really produce any especially spooky feelings. The mansion is more sad and somber sounding than haunted or spooky.

Story and Writing: The setup is good and pretty classic! Though, scenes like the cat and the doll could have been used to stage the setting and explain the haunting more…I think it was trying to show growth with the main character, who was very unlikeable in the opening scenes, but it came across as being a bit random to me.

Spookiness: The ideas are all there, but some of the elements didn’t come together to make for an authentic spook.

Gameplay: Seems like there isn’t a point to use anything other than ultimate punch. Seems like the only thing worth doing. With the amount of healing items granted, it’s pretty much free to do.

Visuals: Maps are solid, but the outside map is large considering it’s only a set piece.

Audio: The background sound was a good choice, but there was no variety or depth to the audio used within the main setting. The voice acting is somewhat humorous, but lends no aid to spookiness.

Story and Writing: I smiled a couple times and was definitely not bored, but there isn’t a lot of story coming from the building itself. The ghosts and the house are just kinda…there? Humorous spookiness is definitely a thing, but the two seem pretty divorced here.

Spookiness: Amusing, but not spooky.

This appears to be a participation badge entry. I won’t knock it. First person to have the chutzpah to actually do what people have joked about doing, lol.

Gameplay: This needs rebindable keys since there are action commands and timing involved. This is another oddity we’ll file in “Meg Problems” but I have to use arrow keys instead of WASD…so needing to hit enter to jump and then time my movements whilst doing so is not ideal. Otherwise, searching for items and clues was executed decently.

Visuals: The maps and tiles are solid, but there seems to be a disconnect between all the dialogue saying the food is rotten…while the tiles are fresh food. Little visually indicates that there is a haunting in the house other than ghosts being present. Really just getting dusty and old.

Audio: Good song, but I’m getting more regal than haunted.

Story and Writing: Little is known about the haunting and the house, though that might have been a product of some of the journals being in Spanish. I know a little, but not a lot…so I can’t say I really got much from reading it.

Spookiness: The lack of atmospheric components and story elements being in a diary I cannot completely read led to minimal spook.

Gameplay: Am I dumb (always a fair question) or do some of the items not work? I had a downed party member but the reviving pills were not available to use… so he was dead forever (just read hiddenone’s feedback, only in battle, ope)! The ghosts seem pretty pointless to fight since you have to use firebombs and you don’t get EXP anyway.

Visuals: Tiles are beautiful and the mapping was pretty good! Maybe some are a bit big. That said, the little squares of carpet were not a good indicator for doorways. I also feel like there could have been more visual evidence of this intrusion/haunting. Everything looks mostly normal aside from some fog, cracks in the wall, and ghost sprites.

Audio: The battle music was a great selection but that was about the only music. Not even sound? Could have used a lot more background sounds and sound effects to make the kerfuffle known.

Story and Writing: Most of the dialog is fine, but I wished there was more staging and explanation for what’s going on. It just…is. The intro graphic disappeared really quickly so I couldn’t read it all. Probably should make that advance by input only.

Spookiness: More sound and investment in the story would have really improved this.

Gameplay: Kinda liked that we just vibed and put stuff up in the house. I enjoyed doing the opposite of what was asked LOL.

Visuals: Your visuals are always stellar, and while they definitely set the presented tone of the game overall…not spooky! Just adorable! Which is still good!

Audio: Great audio choice, but not spooky.

Story and Writing: Dialog is well written, cute, and not too overbearing. The haunted building prompt being used to essentially create your own is very smart.

Spookiness: Final verdict, very cute but not really spooky!

Gameplay: Not gonna lie, by the time I got through the cutscenes, I was disinterested in the combat. The intro really, really needs condensed by a lot.

Visuals: Not bad, not good, minimal visual atmosphere, cutscenes are mostly motionless aside from a few key moments.

Audio: There was virtually no audio for most of the opening (or too quiet to hear). A tiny, tiny bit once control was about to finally be handed over, and then an absolute jump scare when the VXAce Battle music started blaring.

Story and Writing: Conceptually, I enjoy monsters running the haunted house as a business but there were a lot of spelling mistakes and little agency in experiencing the story. I kind of started mashing through the text wanting to control literally anything. I would suggest work on making the point with far fewer text boxes and making the cutscenes more visually and aurally engaging as well.

Spookiness: Good concept but a lot more effort is needed in visuals, audio, and agency in gameplay to further stage and experience the setting.