itch.io

Oh okay! I was trying to pick up the letter in the bathroom. Didn't see the one of the bookshelf. Thanks for the tip! 

There were a few unfortunate bugs that kept me from reading any letters beyond the first, but from the environment outside of Chris's letters this seemed like a really sweet game.

I'm transmasc myself so its always neat when I stumble upon a game with some representation. 

Good luck on your future work! 

This game was absolutely charming. I really enjoyed playing it. I think I'm actually going to snag some of the dialogue from the roof scene for my Curse of Strahd game! 

Thanks for making this - I had a lot of fun with it. :^)

I really enjoyed this! The movement of the camera was super smooth and the way that the player moves really made the game feel like a dreadfully atmospheric RC racing game. 

Where is the music at the end from? 

I've had this downloaded for a few weeks now and finally got around to playing it today. Despite its short length, I was absolutely delighted by it. It's not super often that you see trans characters in horror games, much less trans characters in a loving relationship in horror games - so this was a breath of fresh air. 

Lovely atmosphere, excellent sound design as well. I personally found it very hard to get lost, considering the sound leads you into finding the lost items which is great game design.

I look forward to seeing more from you guys! 

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Perhaps the game just isn't for me then. I found it through the horror tag and was expecting something just a bit more serious, I suppose. 

Best of luck to you on your future projects! 

I couldn't get through this game. Normally I'm all about cheesey pseudo-horror games like this, but there were a couple of issues here that really turned me off to this.

Firstly, the UI is... not great. The art style of the characters and the environments doesn't match the strange elevator button style of the menu. It seems to use far more assets when hand-drawing it would not only look neater, but would also prevent that sort of disconnect that comes from seeing it next to a completely different art style. There's also no reason for the buttons to take up the entire start menu. It forces the user to look around the screen for no reason, when the buttons could be shoved off to the side and the majority of the screen could be dedicated to showing off the characters before you get to meet them. The wheel choice selector was also not incredible, and seemed very out of place from the rest of the game. It certainly looked interesting on its own, but tonaly it didn't seem to fit the game.

Second, the constant interruptions from the Narrator were cute at first, but by the time that the narrator began to talk about high-fantasy and Arthurian legend the gag had gotten old and was doing more to detract from the atmosphere than anything else. In completely honesty here, I kind of cringed when I heard it. It seemed a lot like the "lol so random" humor that can be extremely detrimental to games like these, rather than the narrator being caught up in a sweeping sense of romanticism - which is what I think you were aiming for with those comments. This was an issue outside of the narrator as well, with the characters seemingly more focused on making quips back and forth to eachother rather than having actual conversations or working to find a way out of the broken elevator. The constant interruptions aren't the only issue with the narrator though. Having his VA cut in and out is a great way to break a player's focus on the story. I thought my game was bugging out at first and took a full five minutes closing and restarting the game attempting to get the VA back before I realized that it was an intentional thing. And just as a side note here, it's not cute to brag about how you overworked and underpaid a voice actor. It doesn't make you seem relatable, or like you understand the struggle of the people you hired - it makes you seem like you don't care about them. I know this probably isn't the case, and like most people creating a publishing games you're likely very thankful for the vocal talent, but its just something to be wary of in the future. 

Finally, there are a lot of sound-design choices that don't make much sense. Why does so much of the voice work switch from being full lines to just grunts or catchphrases? Some of the voice work doesn't even match up with the words on the screen. Why is it that a scene that takes minutes to get through is layered on top of a sound effect that loops every few seconds? Being able to pinpoint where the track loops makes the action feel longer than it actually is, and can make gameplay a chore rather than a treat. Why does the elevator muzak continue so loudly even after the characters and the narrator have mentioned that it's bad and annoying? If you know the music is annoying, don't force your players to sit through it. Put it low into the background, or better yet have it cut out with the flickering lights - replace the "That's what mommy calls daddy" thing with a short line about the music finally going away. Not only does that give you a chance to build atmosphere and to really begin to dig into the horror aspect of the game early on, but it also means that your players don't have to grow annoyed and bored with the game as they sit there having to listen to the music in order to progress the story. 

Overall, you have all the bones of a decent game. There's a good base of voice work, a clear direction for the plot, and unique characters who all have their own sense of charm to them. You just need to take time to really put some polish into your work - from cleaning up the dialogue so it doesnt feel like a game of quiplash, to getting the rest of your narration voiced. But because of the issue I've mentioned above, I couldn't get past Anita making fun of Hugh for flirting. The game itself was annoying, rather than just the characters. 

Please don't be too disheartened by my criticism though. With some more work you should be able to take this game and make it something genuinely enjoyable. You just need to take the time to iron out all the wrinkles. Good luck. 

I just saw this and downloaded it yesterday, and I'm so hype for the full release. I played the initial game roughly a year ago and it's something that I've gone back to pretty frequently, despite how limited it was in terms of features. 

I adore games like these, and I'm very excited that this concept is being taken further out. And now we have ducks!! Incredible.

One negative thing to say though, is that the pathfinding for some animals isn't very good. My crawdad frequently died of starvation despite plenty of dead critters hanging out on the floor of the pond. Fish rarely ventured beyond their breeding grounds too, meaning that some parts of the pond got insanely crowded, while others were barren. 

But overall, this has left me wanting more! I'm very much looking forward to seeing what sort of things you guys create in the future.

Happy trails!