Ah, I knew it. :) The way these "tableau" are created is just me experimenting and trying stuff. And as I'm not a visual artist, the result tend to be all over the place. Thanks a lot for the input.
Hi all! I can't decide if these screenshots are creepy or just silly. I mean, they are not very original or anything. I'd really appreciate some input. They are from a horror point-and-click/visual novel I'm working on. (https://store.steampowered.com/app/3085660/Side_Alley/)
I consider Pentiment a masterpiece, so I'm a bit uncomfortable comparing my games to it :) :) I hope you like it despite that. :)
Thanks, it's nice to hear! The games are very much in the vein of early Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf when it comes to the number of endings... namely, that there is only one "true" good ending that means the player completed the book.
In Greymarsh there is a cosmetic choice about taking over the rule or leave the city, but that hardly counts.
In some other aspects, the decision branching is decidedly NOT old school, however: for example, one can revisit previous locations on a map, and there are save points. Even with these modern conveniences in place, some reviewers have pointed out the "punishing" nature of Greymarsh in particular. Fine-tuning difficulty is not easy!
Hey all! I basically grew up with Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf (playing them in secret in the classroom during classes). I always found it weirdly comforting how small the worlds were. A few hundred numbered passages, some dice rolls, a basic sword and backpack system, and yet a feeling of agency. I even think I feel more agency playing gamebooks than, say, a massive RPG like Baldur's gate 2, I can't quite explain why. I see game design leaning toward the endless with branching narratives and procedural systems and massive inventories. It's just that to me, the more stuff you cram in, the more mechanical it feels sometimes. In the eighties and nineties, there was a kind of elegance to knowing that everything in the story was hand-written and that your choices, even though limited, mattered because Ian Livingstone (or some such pioneer) wrote them.
2022-2023 I tried recreating this feeling in digital format, resulting in Greymarsh. I followed it up with Bloodwood Dungeon. These titles are basically love letters to those old gamebooks.
Needless to say, input from serious gamebook lovers would be very valuable as I continue to improve and update these titles (which I do quite frequently), so I’d love to hear what fellow fans think. I’ll be happy to send a free key (in a chat) so you can download either Greymarsh or BD for free (but I'd then expect some honest feedback :)).
Here are the link's: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2367690/Greymarsh/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2929130/Bloodwood_Dungeon/
I'm very glad to hear that it works on the Steam deck. Thanks a lot for trying out the game, and for the report!
I'm happy you liked it! Thanks for the feedback.
I'll make sure to look here regularly!
Thank you so much! If the game performs okay on the Steamdeck I'd love to hear about it, btw.
Thanks for the feedback! I admit to being a bit nervous about the self-promotion aspect of it.
Could you tell me what use to be the most common issues? If it is about misaligned screen dimensions than I think you're good, as there are robust margins on the sides (here's a screenshot):
I'm delighted to hear it!
Hey all, I recently finished a side project that grew out of my fascination with Lovecraft's way of using broken up sentences to signal cognitive/mental disintegration. Many of Lovecraft's stories start with intact grammar, and indeed the grammar is intact through most of it.... and then, at the end, it often breaks down. So language is something fragile and easily broken.
I think the effect is increased by Lovecraft's long, winding, meticulously constructed sentences in the tradition of the nineteenth century and the contrast in comparison with the "modernist" fragmentary exclamations ending the stories.
Anyway, I made a game exploring this. The result is the short, minimalistic puzzler called The Stamp.
It’s centered around a childhood symbol game that gets "tainted" by introducing elements from the Pnakotic manuscripts, and involves mirroring sentences using esoteric or mundane symbols. As it's a text-based game, there’s no combat or jump scares, just a slow descent into dissonance and seeking patterns in vain.
I really wanted the some of feel of stories like The Whisperer in Darkness and The Haunter of the Dark, where perception and language begin to slip.
If this sounds interesting, you can find it on Steam: 🔗 https://store.steampowered.com/app/3079840/The_Stamp/
Nothing could be more valuable for me than input from Lovecraft aficionados, so I'd love to hear what fellow fans think. I'll of course be happy to send a free key (in a chat) so you can download the game for free (provided there's some brutally honest feedback in return :)).
Hey all, I made a lovecraftian game centered on text and symbols, exploring the disintegrating mind a la HP Lovecraft . The result is the short, minimalistic puzzler called The Stamp.
It’s centered around a cursed childhood symbol game and involves mirroring sentences using esoteric or mundane symbols. As it's a text-based game, there’s no combat or jump scares, just a slow descent into dissonance and seeking patterns in vain.
I really wanted the some of feel of stories like The Whisperer in Darkness and The Haunter of the Dark, where perception and language begin to slip.
If this sounds interesting, you can find it on Steam: 🔗 https://store.steampowered.com/app/3079840/The_Stamp/
Thanks for the encouragement! BTW I really like your user name: "you are dust".