MZ - The Ghost Cage

Isabel's just moved into a new home, but it turns out it's haunted by a ghost!

Should she be afraid? Or should she try to be nice to the ghost and befriend it? Or maybe she could even turn the tables on it and drive it out of the house!

The outcome of this short, non-scary and hopefully funny adventure game depends on the items you find and the choices you make. Multiple endings - which may be happy, sad, heartwarming, or amusing - available.

Playtime

About 20-30 minutes for one playthrough.

Notes

This is not a horror game, though it was made for the horror-themed Spooktober Spooktacular Game Jam. The game has a ghost and a couple of allusions to violence and death.

The idea of a ghost whose reaction to you depends on how you treat it and a couple scenes in this game were loosely inspired by The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, one of my favorite short stories.

Links (Windows version only)

Itch.io (released Nov 1, 2020): https://seaphoenix.itch.io/the-ghost-cage
Steam (released Oct 11, 2021):

Trailer

It took me a long time to get to it (almost a year!) but I finally made a trailer and a Steam page for this game!



Steam (free download, to be released on Oct 13, 2021):

There are a couple of small bugs that need fixing and I might look into adding Steam achievements, but otherwise the Steam release will fundamentally be the same game. If you don't want to wait for the Steam release, you can download it now for free on Itch.io: https://seaphoenix.itch.io/the-ghost-cage!

Oh wow, this looks really good! :) Very polished. Good job.

This is so cute. I'm looking forward to it! :)

This is a fun game!

Thanks, @Saireau, @chiithecat and @curiositys! And good luck on the release of your own game too, @chiithecat - looks very cool!

The Ghost Cage is now available as a free game on Steam! For the most part, the gameplay is the same as the game jam version, but I've added achievements (which will help you keep track of which ending you've unlocked), a new drawing option for the bloodstain in the house, more outcomes related to working for either Ernest or Basil, and other minor changes. The full changelog is below.



The Ghost Cage is not a horror game, but I decided to release it on Steam now because October seems to be an appropriate month for a game featuring a ghost (though it's not a scary one!), and also as a homage to Oscar Wilde, whose birthday was October 16th. The idea of a ghost whose reaction to you depends on how you treat it and a couple scenes in this game were loosely inspired by Wilde's humorous short story The Canterville Ghost.

I've updated the version on Itch.io as well. Unfortunately, due to how achievements are tracked and other additions, savefiles from the old (game jam) version on Itch.io are not compatible with the updated version. Sorry about that!

Here's the free Steam download!

Changelog:

• Achievements are now available!
• A new drawing option for the bloodstain in the house has been added.
• The player may be offered a full-time job, given enough past work experience.
• Options for fullscreen, graphics stretching, and graphics scaling added.
• Screen resolution increased to 1280x720.
• Default audio volume set to 60%, and all audio was normalized.
• Minor text changes and bug fixes.
• Savefiles are now in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\theghostcage\Savefiles.

I really liked this story. I was able to free ghost in my first playthrough. I couldn't make myself to be mean for him. He was so cute! Just like your game.:LZScheeze:

I played it full on livestream for polish rpg maker folks. You may not understand it, but it's always good to know someone launched your work and liked it! And I'm not the only one who liked your game there in Poland. Well done! :b

Thanks for letting me know, @CrasheR, and glad you liked it! You got what I consider to be the "true" ending so that's great too on your first playthrough. One of the things I like best about gamedev is seeing people from all over the world play my games, so thanks again. :smile:

I played The Ghost Cage, and I really enjoyed the experience, it's something simple but made in a good way. I got the Team Spirit ending and I really did enjoy it!

Congratulations!

Thanks for letting me know, @gabrieldiastche - glad you enjoyed it! Initially I didn't have a special cutscene for the Team Spirit ending (some of the endings have cutscenes, some don't), but the majority of my playtesters got that ending so I decided to add in the final scene with the bloodstain, which I think makes it more rewarding. :smile:

I really like how cute this game is despite the subject matter. It's a lighthearted take on horror, being stuck at a haunted house with a ghost who really does not want any roommates. Except this ghost mostly just tries to get the protagonist leave by pulling lame pranks instead of actually being dangerous.

The game loop is simple, each night the ghost visits you and you have various options to deal with him and that determines if the ghost becomes your friend or your enemy. Some options depend on what you've done during the day phase. During the day, you can go shopping for various items to help you during the night phase and also go to work at one of two different places. One gives you some money, the other one gives you more money but lowers the protagonist's Happiness meter. The issue there is that the protagonist's Happiness stat doesn't seem to matter, so there's no reason not to go for the higher paying option. And even if you go with the low paying one, you end up with too much money to spend, so there's really any meaningful choice in the Day segments.

Another thing is that if you decide to befriend the ghost, it seems like you are pushed too much towards one particular ending, even though there's a lot of possible endings in the game. Feels like the "golden ending" is too easy to reach and the one the vast majority of people experience, which is a bit of a shame.

Still, this was a great game to play!