Summary: I wanted to make a small dungeon crawler. It became very simple and at the same time probably very unfair, difficult and hard to beat. But it is possible (with luck and cunning
Thoughts: Dungeon crawlers, my nemesis. The difficulty of this one is not understated, itās hella hard and you need to be pretty lucky (maybe undo-scum?). Iāve just kept dying with not more then 40 gold pieces in my bag. Itās pretty humorous tho, and the cover image is pretty cool. But I think Iāll wait for someone to post a map with the enemies/items to pick up or the order do go at it before I go back to it.
Dying is funā¦ but with moderation
Note: This was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary:I hope he calls me back.
Thoughts: Subtle horror behind the rambling of an older woman through a voice message, complaining about everything and nothing around her, verging by end to paranoia (or just being full on paranoia). With some bits, I wondered if the woman was out of touch, and if her neighbours were that hateful, or about the reason why Mark leftā¦ I would honestly delete her message
Summary: Itās Halloweāen night and youāve joined your three friends in the forest to tell scary stories around the campfire. But storytelling turns out to be more complicated than you expected!
Thoughts: Cute and short, with the Dee Cooketm graphics and vibes. as well as simple commands. Listen to some spoopy tales around the campfire. I think Iāve tried all possible actionsā¦ unless I missed something? It felt like thereās no real winning state. Iāll wait for the walkthrough to popup to know for sure
EDIT: Turns out there is, I just didnāt go back and change certain talking bits properly.
Summary: Three years ago, you were abducted by aliens and since, youāve been subjected to a slew of experiments, always alone, the only human on the ship. But now, youāre going to be joined by a few othersā¦ with potentially deadly consequences.
Thoughts: Game Theory/Prisonnerās dilemma, ethics and morals. I managed to āsaveā everyone on my first play (maybe Iām too much of a goody-two-shoes). Felt a bit too verbose in the descriptions sometimes (especially since you canāt do much than follow the directives, nor does the background of the other prisoners come to play). Out of the 11 rounds, I was asked 2 questions (the two first rounds) and that was itā¦ just wait and pass the plate.
Summary: Itās bonfire night, and they need a sacrifice.
Thoughts: Very cult vibes/survival. Bit of an obtuse parser (def not beginner friendly), managed to exit the first building (by chance!) and exit the field maze (by change again, only to find myself stuck againā¦). Would benefit from a mini-walkthrough, or hints for some puzzles, because I chose each action at random at the endā¦
EDIT: I ended up replaying the game and getting to the end! I do think that the it would help to have a bit more hints (like to get the bullet).
Thoughts: Now thatās different! Instead of going through a dungeon and fight your way through monsters and solve puzzles, you shape the maze and fix up the traps. This is the kind of small game where you could spend hours trying out different combinations to stop the adventurers from getting to the treasure (and breaking apart the library ). A great brain-picker and time-wasterā¦
How this was done in 4hā¦ There is so freakin much in this entry, from the books content to the puzzle itselfā¦ Thatās honestly insane. Do you have access to some time-wrap or something? Can you share?
Also, thank you for the dark mode and essentially having part of the solution on the game page
I have yet to beat those good-for-nothing adventurers, but I am reeeeaaaaallly close! Iāll get them next time!~
The real secret is less impressive, Iām afraidāmost of the puzzle planning was done on paper, so not counting against the time limit (moving coins around on a grid in different ways), and most of the mechanics actually come straight from published extensions! All the room-layout stuff is Dynamic Rooms by Aaron Reed, the adventurersā logic is Dijkstra Pathing by Daniel Stelzer, and the automap is Dynamic Automap by Daniel Stelzer.
So the vast majority of the four hours was spent on writing up all the room and book descriptions. Iām glad you had fun with them!
Only three left in La Petite Mort category. Then 15 more in Le Grand Guignol. And then about 20 Bare-Bones to do~
Also, Iāve been queuing the reviews on my Tumblr and the IFDB, with a tad more substance and better sentence structure.
Summary:Oh, my dear, theyāve destroyed you, havenāt they? They could never understand a being such as yourself.
Not to worry. Weāll build you a new body, with which you will take your revenge.
Thoughts: Build-a-bear but make it monster and also yourself. And also pretty creepy.
It was fun to try to be one specific kind of āmonsterā or mix-and-match between the different parts given (min-maxing the stats was fun!). The responses from each options are quite playful and with lots of charm. While part of me wishes it was longer (control yourself with this new body and interact with other people), it is also quite perfect the way it is now.
Summary: Straying into darkness is easy, returning is far harder. What lurks in the ancient forests where mortals should fear to tread?
Thoughts: Light-horror poem about walking in the woods, with a bit of a Romantic vibes. I liked how the different lengths of the lines made the cadence a bit wrong (which adds to the horror bit). While there are difference choices, it seems like the end is always the same (how do you get the other ends?). Having a fear meter in the on the main page felt a bit distracting, as the poem holds on its own just fine.
Pretty impressive for just 4h.
EDIT: Keep track of what choices you picked and which order. It is indeed possible to reach the other 3 endings and get all achievement, but you need to be bit smart about it
Summary: An ad for an all-night retro-fest at Chuck E. Cheese on Halloween. All those video games to play! For a flat fee! You havenāt been, forever. There are a few that just arenāt the same on MAME. Like Robotron, which freezes up if you try too-fancy moves too often.
Thoughts: First time playing an Andrew Schultz rhyme game*, so had no idea what to do at first. Went to download and check the walkthrough to get the gist of the puzzle (a.k.a. make rhymes matching the name of the room instead of using regular commands). The alliteration is pretty fun, but very difficult, imo*. Because it was done in such short time, there are no hints/help (but there is a downloadable walkthrough) to get to the next phase. Itās a lot of the guessing game there.
So I ended up following the walkthroughā¦ and got stuck. The Ho Hum command doesnāt seem work, so the next āeventā isnāt triggered. Final score: 14+1/23
But the premise is very silly, and the writing is funny!
Note: this game seems to only be playable on Android devices, or requiring an emulator. I luckily have an Android phone, so I did the risky thing of downloading and installing from an unknown source FOR SCIENCE!!
Youāre welcome
Summary: nothing is exempt from resurrection: THE SWAMP RAMBLINGS OF A MAD SCIENTIST
Thoughts: This is a short VN where you seem to be reviving someone, and ramble on like a crazy person about your past, and why you revive them? The prose is quite cryptic and nonsensical at time (which is very much that authorās style). It also seems like a sequel to wretched star, I think? (which I also found super confusing). I didnāt get itā¦
Iām going to share @AmandaBās sentiment about this yearās batch of mini-games, in how impressive the entries were in terms of length or gameplay mechanics. 4h is a very short amount of time to make something happen, so for every one who tried and submitted.
Not everything was scary (Iām not mad about it, I can only handle so much horror), quite a few entries were very sad*. But all of them were pretty interesting in either their take on horror, or gameplay.
Summary: The rules are simple. Someone hides the Peepā¢. Itās your turn to find it. Then you Put-Peepā¢ the next person on the list. But also you have bugs to fixā¦
Thoughts: This is a fun short parser, with a bit of a surreal aspect to it while playing on horror tropes. You get back to work late at night because thereās a darn bug to fix, and also to mess with your colleagues. Of course, you hear strange noise, because itās an empty building in the middle of the night, and the closer you investigate the weirder it becomes.
The writing is pretty fun, and you even get extra commentary while playing. I needed to use the walkthrough once for the middle puzzle (yay for in-game walkthroughs!), but the rest was pretty simple. It was a fun time!
Summary: When you signed up for the haunted house tour, you were expecting chills and thrills and jump scares. What you got was something far, far more terrifying.
Can you survive being continually thrust into awkward social situations?
Thoughts: This game made clear that this was about having social anxiety and how it affects you. You are told of or experience situations where you are forced to interact with other people, some of them being awkward to down right embarrassing. Still, even with the disorder plaguing your life, you go to a haunted house activity to be able to win some cash. And while you can go about, exploring some rooms, meeting some long-forgotten acquaintances, maybe helping someone and getting a treat, ā¦ the game suddenly threw me off, changing the scenery and ending abruptly.
My theory on this: You were always going to get some help at the doctorās office, but your brain just made up a whole weird spoopy scenario to get you there, and get you the help you need. But it really felt like whiplashā¦
Summary: Two teenage girls. One abandoned church. ??? survivors.
Thoughts: Moody abandoned church? check! Two kids with not enough fear to know better? check! Spooky shenanigans? check, check, check!
The game plays like a horror movie, where dumb kids do something they shouldnāt, stumble on a weird thing that means them hard, and try their best to escape - hopefully intact.
The writing is very moody and creepy and the pace is pretty quick, giving you little space to breathe (you have to act now or elseā¦). But if you make the wrong choice (which will happen often), and reach a bad end, you can undo the last one and try something else. There are many ways of failing the game, but since the game is short, getting back on track doesnāt take too long. Makes for fun replays!
Anyway, going back to hunt the last of the achievements~
Note: this was also submitted to the Bare-Bones Jam
Summary: Inspired by a dream.
Thoughts: The horror aspect is pretty strong there, especially at the end. The pace starts slow, but picks up pretty fast (I was holding my breath at the end). Thereās enough hints during the first half of the game to see where the twist is going, but itās subtle enough to leave you confused until the reveal. I could have seen the ending being you donāt make it out alive and it āeatsā you too to push the horror even further.
). A great brain-picker and time-wasterā¦
There is so freakin much in this entry, from the books content to the puzzle itselfā¦ Thatās honestly insane. Do you have access to some time-wrap or something? Can you share?
