avi 2026-10-20 00:11 ♥ 1
That opening line about the house craving emotion, sound and light is a great horror hook. The figure half-hidden in the doorway looks wonderfully unsettling too!
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD60 → House of Deprecation
| Percentile | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | LD60 | Ever | |
| Overall | 19 | |||||
| Fun | 19 | |||||
| Innovation | 19 | |||||
| Theme | 19 | |||||
| Humor | 18 | |||||
| Mood | 19 | |||||
That opening line about the house craving emotion, sound and light is a great horror hook. The figure half-hidden in the doorway looks wonderfully unsettling too!
Gonna tell my kids this was Dead By Daylight jukes.gif
@depression I saw worse butcher.png
very little explanation. Very haunting on the first run or getting caught more likely. Good game, not my cup of tea usually.
At first I was creeped out but then it became funny after witnessing Jane glide across a table to yell in my face lol. The surrealist horror reminds of "tender cut" and it has great potential. I understand that there was a massive time constraint and I really feel you there. With the time you had, I think you managed to pull off the atmosphere in this game. It really is unsettling. I don't mind using 3rd party models or Audio, I'm more concerned on how well it was used, and I think that it was used rather well here. Apart from the dancing man, the models looked consistent.
I’ve finished the game! I didn’t quite expect what the final solution would turn out to be, but it fits the theme rather well. The game even managed to startle me a couple of times. So, well done!
Oh god how i got scared when got first jumpscare. That woman just spawned inside me. Didn't expect that hahahh. The item for clocks is too hard to find, thanks for hints. The only problem is that camera has such a little fov. Anyway, the game is tense, despite its simplicity
loved the surreal vibe!
It turned out pretty spooky! I really liked how you delivered hints through the ghost's dialogue. The visuals are also very stylish. Really cool!
Right away, I really liked how the game creates an **eerie, mysterious atmosphere through fairly simple means**. For me, that is its strongest aspect. I also appreciated how easy it is to try again after failing.
I love the idea of **bringing the house back to life by adding things that genuinely make it feel more welcoming**. You gradually change that unsettling atmosphere by bringing warmth and life into the house. That's a really nice concept!
The hint system is particularly elegant. The ghost tells you what the house is missing through memories, so **the narrative and gameplay fit together really naturally**. At first, you might mistake those lines for flavour text, only to realise that they actually guide what you need to do. I really enjoyed that connection.
Unfortunately, **finding the items was the one genuinely frustrating part for me**. Although their colors and visual style distinguish them from the rest of the artwork, that still wasn't enough: I felt like I was pixel hunting. Improving the UX of the search would make a big difference. There might also be room to make searching itself more interesting, for example by giving players enough clues to work out where an object might be, rather than checking random corners.
With a better item-search experience, I think this could be a really good short game. As it stands, I worry that the frustration of looking for objects could prevent many players from enjoying the atmosphere, premise and narrative design that already work so well.
I did it, I won! Dancing like Jack right now to celebrate.
The only thing I got stuck on was the winding key, it took me a couple of I SEE YOUs until I found it. Funnily enough I got the final old technology right immediately, there were just so many of them in the house that it stood out, glad it came full circle to them in the end.
So yeah, very tense game! Making it such an enclosed space with Jane chasing you was a good choice, I was really on edge the whole time after she appeared. The eerie mood as well, with the lighting, the whited-out objects the ominous background sound, that was crafted very well. I must say, I think Jack did give me the biggest spook though, him dancing away from me aggressively took me so off-guard that I was jumpscared after getting distracted by him for long enough. His dance is also pretty funny, I love it. It was nice of you to add a checkpoint system as well, so you didn't have to speedrun all the objects every time you were seen. Very cool game, great job!
Oh my, I had to recover from that. I won though! 😅 Normally I don't play horror games and I get easily startled. Your game was effective and pretty scary to play for the first three rounds. I died easily to Jane. Then I knew what to expect and the game became a hunting game for small objects. I really needed to concentrate to find the solution to the clock. It felt a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Then, when I thought I finished the game, I was startled again and scrambled to figure out the last puzzle.
I'm glad that you did not give up the jam and pushed through, because I (and most likely others) had a fun time playing this horror/escaperoom game
Some points of feedback I came up with: - Jane's animation was stuck into screaming position after the big scream when the grandfather clock was wound up. I don't know if that was intentional. - When I died after spinning up the record player, the vinyl was back in it's spot and I could not pick it up again. I did not know if the player still playing was the bug, or that the vinyl being in the wrong spot was the bug - Some fences near the stair cases would have made sense, as those stairs cannot be entered - In the study room there is a little no-clip spot at the back - If you miss the text describing the last puzzle, you can't know what to do - I like how you trust the intelligence of the player, not over explaining everything - I like the spatial audio effects - I like how the guy explains not being a thread, describing Jane IS the thread and then hearing the "I SEE YOU" + Screaming. I almost fell off my chair haha
I like @nickogino 's feedback and I totally agree: _The hint system is particularly elegant. The ghost tells you what the house is missing through memories, so the narrative and gameplay fit together really naturally. At first, you might mistake those lines for flavour text, only to realise that they actually guide what you need to do. I really enjoyed that connection._
i just shitted my pants twice (good.. job 😄 😢 😄 😢 )
Very great mood, a little hard to tell what to do, a bit curious about how it fits the theme, but my god the mood is awesome!
I want to say sorry to everyone for being away and still not managing to review games of last few reviewers. We had very high stakes elections in my country on Sunday and I was one of observers, being awake and standing from 4 AM until past midnight, and on other days I had situation that required working overtime. You can be sure everyone will have their games reviewed in the next couple of days. I just don't want to rush that and I try to give each game the attention it deserves. So that goes to @wouter52 @aweskybear and @tanjou
And congrats Wouter for managing to find/trigger every single bug in the game xD and thanks for detailed writeup of course!
@tanjou since you said you are curious about the theme, all three interactive objects that provide life to the environment are obsolete technology (gramophone, fireplace, grandfather clock) and the theme goes deeper once those three are resolved and the fourth "oldest tech in the house" needs to be found.
