You onto a good start. I would say add a jumpscare that covers the whole screen when caught by the monster.
Author Comments
You are lost. Don't be found.
This is a small puzzle/horror game I made for the Global Game Jam. Your goal is to escape the forest by finding pieces of a torn-up map, and to avoid the thing that lurks in the darkness.
If you're stuck, take a look at this post.
How to Play
- WASD/Arrow keys to move
- Esc/P to pause
- M to access map
Devlog
How to not die in the woods - February 1, 2021
The Good:
The environment is really nice, and instantly put me in a horror mood!
The style was great, and it really reminds me of the minigames in FNAF2.
As someone who rarely plays horror games, this one feels like a good starting point for games like this.
We don't get that good of a look at the monster, you don't really need that good of a look to be scared sh*tless by it... which I very much was...
The Bad:
It was really confusing at first. If it weren't for the description, I wouldn't know that I was looking for map pieces, as I never found one, and I don't feel enough of a push to try again.
Also, I don't know if it would have been answered at the end of the game, but I felt like it would have been better with some sort of reason, lore, or backstory for how this happened.
Suggestions:
Add notes or signs from the past person in the maze who made the map pieces! They had to come from somewhere, right? Heck, you could even reveal at the end that the map maker was turned into the monster, or knew where the monster came from, or maybe was the person who made the monster? Make the notes or signs much more frequent than the map pieces, so even if you don't find a map piece for a while, you still feel like you're accomplishing something by getting the notes and finding out the lore!
Also, maybe a beginning cutscene on how we got here?
ImmanentDeath responds:
If there's one thing I would have changed if I had extra time before the jam deadline, it would've been making map pieces easier to find. It takes a little longer than I had intended, so the strategy there might be to remember where you've already been and try to find new locations.
And you're absolutely right about there being lore. I doubt there's enough information in this game alone to piece together the whole story, but you might be able to figure out where the map pieces come from, and maybe something about the nature of the forest itself. I won't reveal too much, though. I want to see what ideas people come up with, and I have more game ideas which should answer some questions (and maybe raise more questions, too).
Felt genuinely scared
So i played it 10minutes i found 1 piece of the map and then nothing...
after a few minutes the Monster came and
I was scared! xD
its a goodgame.