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The Curse of Malnoir

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Made in few days for Brackeys Game Jam 2: Love Is Blind
( /!\ This is the post-jam submission)


In The Curse of Malnoir you need to find a cure for your husband that gets transformed at night into a werewolf wandering in the village.


In order to cure him, you need to find 3 objects that are randomly dispersed in the village and each time you find one you need to bring it back.
If you wait until the 5th night, he will forever be a werewolf.


You need to stop that curse and avoid the guards that mistake you for a thief or you will get caught.
You need to avoid that the guards get eaten by the werewolf or the doc would not be able to live with this on his conscience.
And of course you need to avoid the werewolf at all cost if you want to survive another night.


Arrow keys to move
X to talk/sprint/search
C to place a piece of meat on the ground and distract the werewolf
V to throw a stone in your moving direction to distract the guard


Credits
Music: WrathGames Studio from opengameart.org
Sounds: opengameart.org


PS: The difference between the original jam version and this one is that there is a guard at day roaming the streets and a slightly faster werewolf.


Link to the original Jam submission:
https://corbak-games.itch.io/the-curse-of-malnoir
Link to the windows package if anybody have trouble playing it on web:
https://gamejolt.com/games/the-curse-of-malnoir/398738

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A very good game, especially since it was made under time pressure.
Unfortunately, it largely depends on luck. The only time I won, I had two pieces of meat every night and used them both to save myself and the guard.

Without them, there's a little to no tactics involved. Once the werewolf starts chasing you, you've lost. He's too smart to be slowed down by buildings, too persistent to change targets. On the other hand, you get exhausted too quickly and even all your stamina can't be used to outrun the werewolf completely, just to prolong the chase. There's also no place to hide during the night (e.g. jumping into a haystack) and the guard is defenceless against the attack (it'd be cool if you could reliably save the guard by pelting the werewolf with a stone and making him chase you) and unlike you, he wanders about randomly, so letting him stumble upon the werewolf is an instant game over (and luring the werewolf away without a piece of meat, too).

All in all, I think the difficulty still needs a little balancing, especially the amount and regeneration of stamina, and your running speed. Basically, any feature which gives you a little edge over the werewolf and depends on your skill, not a randomly appearing consumable item.

And now that you have time, I'd change the ending pop-up. It took some effort to earn the ending! Show them hugging or something, don't just write 'Game Over' as if you lost. :P

punknower responds:

Thank you for taking the time to write me so much. You didn't need to do that honestly but I feel touched by such dedication. Thank you.

You are totally right, it is based on randomised object placement, and each time you get back an item, objects are reloaded and placed randomly. So you could stumble into 3 object in a day or none at all for 2 days. And I'm sorry if it brought you some meh moments during gameplay and I know it is not very efficient in its state.

All your recommendations are really good ideas and some of them were thought, like hiding during the night. We couldn't implement it because we wouldn't have time to balance the meat, the rock and the hiding to give each one a unique ability. For example, how long would you be able to hide? Can you hide only one time a night? Does the wolf lost himself when you hide? If he sees you and you hide in front of him, will he find you or go wandering like he lost you? Etc,
hese questions needed balance and balancing a gameplay is one of the most dificult tasks. So we decided against our will to simplify it in order to not give the player a too easy task. (I'm not explaining all that to look like a smartbutt, but I just wanted to share our vision)

And you are totally right, it needs balancing, especially what you outlined about stamina and that you could win a night without the use of critical items to give you a feeling of survival.
But let's say this idea born in this gamejam could be a base-prototype-idea for more polished and furnished little game. Still looking at this possibility if it gets some attention here and there. In its state as a game jam game, it's enough to have decent, constructive and pleasant feedback as you gave to me.
And yes the game over is a bit harsh and out of place. It's really not rewarding and well I wished I could have made that a bit better but I will remember your advice and will work on that on future project.

Thank you.

I like it!

punknower responds:

Thank you for your kind words, sincerely :)
You are being too nice by the way.

Credits & Info

Views
2,222
Faves:
6
Votes
90
Score
3.00 / 5.00

Uploaded
Feb 23, 2019
12:49 PM EST