I still had a few little problems like that I couldn't clean the hammer on any sink, the one in the room where you find the towel doesn't work for some reason. (at least when I clicked it nothing happened).

Figuring out where exactly I had to click on the Incinerator also wasn't quite obvious.

Other than that, I actually really liked the game. I could imagine a more advanced version (post LD) of the game with several different murder scenarios to clean up would be pretty awesome.

Really cool. I managed to get a weird dupe bug by trying to clean the hammer wrong by just dropping it on the sink though. I liked the puzzle solving, and would have loved to see more. But I know how this kinda thing goes. Loved the idea of all the blueprints are on one screen, that definitely was a cool interpretation of the theme. And the visual style was not something I've seen before, but awesome nonetheless.

This was so intense :D The art style was super cool, and apart from that "duplicate item" bug (which did not prevent me to win the game on my second try), it ran very well. Hard to imagine it is the work of someone learning Unity from scratch. Kudos for that! The sound design in this is also stellar, as the timer runs out the whole escalation of police noises made the whole thing super tense. Really a superb entry, I think you could really, really take this further!

Iak: "I still had a few little problems like that I couldn't clean the hammer on any sink, the one in the room where you find the towel doesn't work for some reason. (at least when I clicked it nothing happened)."

Yes, the hotspots may have turned out unusually small. I'll see what can be done about that -- it's causing a bit of a problem, it seems.

"Figuring out where exactly I had to click on the Incinerator also wasn't quite obvious."

Just clicking anywhere on the incinerator will do it. :) It's one of the larger hotspots, so it's not too easy to miss. Maybe you were clicking on the hot water tank? We didn't get a chance to label everything, unfortunately. :( Just objects essential to the scenario.

"I could imagine a more advanced version (post LD) of the game with several different murder scenarios to clean up would be pretty awesome."

Oh, yes! This was the original idea surrounding the concept. :) The entire scenario was supposed to have SEVERAL more steps. Other maps and crime scenes (and ones where you play the detectives!) were considered as well. We definitely know where you're coming from.

Thank you so much for your kind critique! :)

Aevek: "I managed to get a weird dupe bug by trying to clean the hammer wrong by just dropping it on the sink though."

Yeah it's a pretty amazing bug. It's not game-breaking though, so you can have fun with it and still win, as long as you fulfill the "win" prerequisites. :)

Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so glad people are enjoying it. :D

GSM Productions: "This was so intense :D"

Thank you! That's what I was going for! :D I'm SO glad you used that adjective!!

"Hard to imagine it is the work of someone learning Unity from scratch. Kudos for that!"

Glad to see you found it and played it, and enjoyed it! :) I think Rachel's pretty floored (and most definitely exhausted) at all she managed to do by the time we submitted (with only two minutes to spare!).

"Really a superb entry, I think you could really, really take this further!"

It might just be taken farther! :D

Thank you everyone, for your positive and constructive feedback so far. It really means a lot after the stress of crunch! :)

A fine game it was albeit a bit buggy. I found that the interface didn't work as intuitive but the overal feel of the game is cool. Impressive work not knowing unity.

taaboo: "Impressive work not knowing unity."

Thank you! :)

If we ever decide to develop aFWL beyond LD31, the interface would definitely be more interactive and intuitive, with far more visual cues (as was originally planned).

There was a lot of stuff left out, not necessarily due to time constraints, but due to the programmer's general unfamiliarity with the development platform. :)

Really cool art style and really nice use of the theme.
I think a little more indication of what is interactible would be cool though.

I noticed a funny hammer duplication bug and thought the colliders were a bit off at some places. I really like the art style and idea of the game. Music fits well and gives a nice feeling of urgency along with the clock ticking down and wailing sirens when you are about to run out of time. Overall I think it was a great entry and especially the mood was great. I wanted to play some more.

looks great, love the thrilling music

Pretty cool idea, and the music/sound is really good. I'm under the impression you intended on having more steps, since it ended pretty quickly (I'm guessing you ran out of development time), and you had a lot beautiful rooms designed out that you didn't get to use.

I also hit the bug where items duplicated as I used them on areas of the screen (I think the issue is that if you drag an item it still thinks there is a copy in inventory), but I was able to complete the game so no harm.

Great game! A little frustrating because there is not a lot of feedback for clickable areas which are really small. In the end I lost a lot of time by just trying to click the exact pixels even though I knew what you were supposed to do. I love the music / atmosphere which built a great sense of urgency without the need of fancy 3d graphics.

Great job overall!

Items are buggy and I initially thought I had to click on the labels, but the graphics style is fantastic.

well done indeed, I would play more of these for sure. All in one screen for the most part (inventory scrolls in from outsides, so thats technically -1 theme)

Awesome game. Shame about the wonky hitboxes causing actions to be really difficult, but it was really fun other than that. Would love to see it on ipad with more content.

It's a fun game, I really liked the unique art style and the audio, but the controls took a bit time to get used to, mostly because everything was so small, also I found the hammer and a clean towel, but nothing else, am I supposed to walk randomly and look for evidence, or did I miss something? but overall, a great unique game.

This is amazing. Loved everything about it. The only complain i have, is its hard to see sometimes, what is what. Anyway, great exhibit!

i had trouble interacting with things, which lead me to holding a bloody hammer standing in the basement when the cops should up... typical Wednesday. using a floor plan as a level layout was quite clever though a little tough to stare at for a while. maybe i should take a break from all these games.

That music! Sheesh, I am so nervous! Bit buggy, kinda hard to find everything, but an awesome game, nonetheless!

This was really good overall, here's a list of pros and cons:

PROS:
-Art was fantastic
-Audio work was also fantastic
-The overall concept was very cool, and executed rather well which definitely reinforced a strong tone.

CONS:
-Game was a tad buggy (Expected for a LD entry), sometimes certain things just would not work, cleaning hammer and others mentioned in comments above
-This might be a specific case problem for me alone, but I found it hard to click on certain things due to them being rather small.

Overall very good, I could definitely see this expanded upon into a really great game. Good work!

Cool concept!, I love how the map is laid down like a plan, really built the feeling of a murder scene! gameplay was intense every ticking seconds felt like it matter. Along with the audio helped create that immersion. Overall sweet entry!

Great map and concept generally!keep up!

Challenging game. I couldn't find everything :( The audio really helped set the mood. Nice job.

Incredible job, as others have said it would be even greater given proper control feedback and more content. I especially liked how the towel is a bit hidden in plain sight with this art style, seems like it would be an interesting challenge to hide around other items similarly.

Great game, very impressed with the visual style and your interpretation of the theme. :)

Beautiful game! I don't know if I liked the timer or not... Extremely stressful, which I guess is the point. I kind of with interactive elements were more easily identifiable. Maybe once you enter a room they highlight or something? Great idea though. Would be really cool to expand this, and have a bunch of levels set up like this!

Really liked the visual style... and "Uh oh, you murdered someone!" is probably my favorite stage-setting line I've seen in a game. It reads like "it just happens sometimes, no big deal!"

Part of the challenge of the game was finding what to do with the evidence, or where to do it on the abstract floorplan. It felt a bit like a frantic race around the house, trying to think through a fog well enough to cover up your homicide, so good work! High points for style, mood, and originality from me.

The game might have benefited from maybe nixing the inventory window altogether, and just having the mouse pick up or use an item on something in the house... or even just a single-slot that requires bumping into things. I've found that the fewer systems the game has to use for control and input, the better and more intuitively it tends to play. It also leaves you more time to build and test gameplay where the players will notice most. Thanks for making this, and best of luck in your future endeavors!

Really cool art style and really nice use of the theme.
I am not a murder. Music seems to me too oppressive ++

Aesthetic of this game is beautiful and the sound adds so much to the mood, especially towards the end of the time limit. I have a few suggestions though: I wasn't able to clearly tell which walls were solid due to everything being drawn as white lines and hence kept bumping into things I thought I could walk through. The items also didn't stand out against everything else in the background - I'd suggest maybe you could highlight them when your mouse is hovering above an item so I know I can click it - just some simply quality of life tweaks. Controls were smooth and it was a very good use of the theme. Awesome game overall!

The music is very intense, and I like your idea of using the blueprint of a house as the game scene. A problem is the character is not very obvious to player, because sometimes it's hard to distinguish it from the background, especially when I go to another floor. And maybe you can add some more hint in the game?

This is legitimately one of the coolest games I've seen all day. Yes, some stuff didn't really work as much as I wanted them to, but the concept is pretty innovative.

Really fun game! And very creative concept! Very panic inducing. I also became a hammer manufacturer. :D

Innovative concept. I -seems like most others- didn't feel objects responded to me. I think a simple "E" to interact fits better than mouse.

I liked how the police sound started like they are coming from far away, pretty stressful.
good job.

"All those hammers appeared out of nowhere, and fell on top of him, I swear officer!"

Really great atmosphere and soundwork.
To add to the usability complaints: not only is the inventory buggy, it's also difficult moving through the house, I'm always getting stuck around every corner.
Nevertheless, great job!

Excellent entry. I was sadly unable to get away with murder despite a handful of tries! The countdown and sirens that get louder as time runs out makes it super intense. The panic of trying to figure it out at the same time as they were coming to get me made me anxious. I was having trouble picking up the hammer.. but if I mashed it enough eventually I could pick it up. Moving things around to interact with each other seemed to work off and on which lead me to think I was doing things improperly. Would love to see some sort of hint system built in, as well as a tutorial level to show what things you are capable of doing all around. Visuals are top notch, most of these entries that did three minutes felt like far too long but with yours it almost felt not enough. Great mechanic, would love to see this fleshed out completely.

Woah, the concept is so awesome, really interesting. The bugs hurts a bit and the gameplay is not very intuitive. However, the game has a great feeling and the visual is fantastic (I love blueprints haha), I wish you continue to work on it. Great Job!

This game is really cool and unique. Sometimes is hard to know what to do or how to do it but this looks like a really good start point for a future game :)

That was the most intense 3 minutes of my life! At it was all in 2D blueprints! Totally a concept that can easily be expanded upon for more "levels"

Solid start, Couldn't figure out what to do after cleaning the hammer, and I kept trying to drop it places and it spawned tons of hammers

This is fantastic. The music is absolutely intense, and the blueprint crimescene is a great use of the theme. The click targets are too small for items, so it can be very hard to interact with them. Aside from that, this is a really great game!

Really neat aesthetic, nice entry. :)

Haha, ended up with a ton of clean hammers, but still had a bloody towel in my hands! Couldn't find out where to dispose of it. Overall it was very fun and I'll have plenty of time to think about it in prison :)

I really liked the art style - it was a really clever way to do a top-down game! The audio really helped set the mood.

I definitely was a little lost on what to do. I could never find anything to wipe the hammer off with and it didn't seem like the sink was going to work for that. My life as a violent criminal was rather short lived :)

I figured I'd stop by and play your game since you played mine :)

The game's pretty cool, though a bit small and fiddly. I think the music is the best part. My only serious objection is perhaps that there's no list of things you did wrong at the end so you can rectify it on the next play; I was sort of in the dark about how to progress. Otherwise, good stuff.

Really nice concept, very original and unique.
I liked the graphic style.
Very good music, and the sound of the police arriving made me nervous haha.

Sweet game. Love the theme & art style. Audio is perfect for the theme. Excellent job.

I really like the art ... clicking on items seems a little buggy :( ... the idea is so cool ... i had fun playing it :D ... keep it this way

Your doing a lot with a little. Your also using the sound very effectively to generate the atmosphere. It was kinda difficult to navigate, but once I figured it out I had fun! Now to explain the dead guy in the living room.

Stellar music and theme, unfortunally the controlls are a little bit of.

Lovely blueprint design. Should be released on pad devices.
Yeah, hitbox are very buggy!

Well made!

The aesthetics of this game are fantastic. The music fits with the task at hand. It was a little difficult trying to understand what you need to do, but once you explore it a bit it makes sense. Well done1

Nice idea, really. I finally finished the game. Even if i duplicate the hammer three times :). The concept is really cool, but that will help to increase the readability of the map.

Solid use of theme, and fairly fun (once you figure out the basic mechanics). The music was really well integrated, and the mood was great. Collisions were a bit strict for a floorplan view. Great job overall.

This game really got my anxiety going. Good job!

I like your concept but its very easy to get completely lost in the game and then simply watch the clock as it runs out. The blueprint art style is impressive but the the lack of proper/clear visual distinction between more important stuff is kind of hindering the gameplay.

Otherwise, its a clever idea!

Hm, you definitely got a great atmosphere in this game. The 'blueprint' layout is great, and the music really heightens the pressure. The problem, though, is that I wasn't sure what to do...and I wasn't sure what I COULD do. First of all, it seemed like there were only two visible items, the hammer and towel; then, by walking around the house and moving up against every item, I noticed a few 'location items' like the sink and tool rack. But then I wasn't sure what to do with them. Like, it says "Travel to the labelled location, click on the inventory object you wish to use, then click the location on the map"; I tried using the towel with the sink, to wet it or something, but apparently nothing happened. So I'm left wondering, did that not work because it's not something I can do in the game, or did it not work because I don't understand the interface and I'm clicking the wrong thing? I'm inclined to think the latter.

Anyway, I dunno. Clearer instructions or...I almost want to say "tutorial" but that kind of goes against the whole concept doesn't it? ;)

Interesting game, but bugged for me a little bit, couldn't quite use the items and ended up duplicating a hammer and a bunch of bloody towels.
The Inventory key being on "I" made me take the hand out of my mouse to press the I several times, if it was in a key closer to ASDW it would be better, maybe "E".

I recorded myself playing for the first time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcuPwdNQAIg

An overall great entry!

Idea and art style were top-notch. First I was a bit confused what to do and how to play, even after reading the instructions. The UI wasn't intuitive for me. The game is intense and I'd really like to see this to be expanded to a full game.

Awesome idea, well done. Had similar problems to other reviewers - dupe items, not sure which items were intractable, click hot spots. But it's still a great game.

Managed to beat it now, but found a new bug XD at 3 minutes 29seconds of the video I managed to transform a dirty towel into a hammer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g32FdsUXPNs

Really enjoyed the way you used the theme with multiple areas in different screen locations of the blueprint. I'd like to see you expand this :) Would benefit from a different inventory key getting between wasd and i under pressure is a little frustrating. Expanding the clickable area on objects would help too. Also if you could highlight the player and interactable locations a little more that would make the game interaction more intuitive and enjoyable. Good Job!

The music and the sound effects were perfect, it made the game very tense. Those sirens at the end!

Somehow I was able to drop off/pick up multiple hammers? I did it by accident by clicking around. I don't need more murder weapons! :P

The blueprint style was very interesting, I liked it. :) It's like the murderer was planning everything out in his head. Sometimes it made things confusing whether I could click them or not, mainly because everything was white.

Awesome job! :)

Great, moody piece, but it ultimately felt like battling a directionless set of UI to do something really trivial.

1. I somehow "copied" the hammer a million times. Then the tool rack won't take it.
2. There are only really 2 things to do yet it takes forever to do it.

The music is really really really good though. Definitely gets the tension thing, but other than that the game gets in its own way more than let you enjoy it... Take care of that and you might have something really interesting :)

Oh and a big thing is the sense of goallessness is not awesome - everything in the house looks exactly the same, and it degenerates into a click-everything game like one of those old pixel hunting adventure games, except you're going everywhere.

Which doesn't make sense seeing as it's your house? Or maybe it's not... In which case why do you have the full blueprint? Anyway...

Great art style! It's amazing to feel all that tension on a simple blueprint map. It's all about the sounds of alarms coming closer I think) I gotta say though that at first I lost my hammer in a sink) I thought I could wash it or something and I dropped it inside the sink's active area, unable to pick it up

I just noticed in the description that you knew about the duplication bug already. Whoops! XD

I just played through the game again, gosh it is so intense, the mood set in this game is really spot on.

One idea is going with the blueprint theme, is if this game were to go onto something past LD it would be cool if you could plan out the murder (am I weird for saying that?). But it would be really cool if you could choose how to do it, where, and then after those choices you have to find out how to destroy all of the evidence. Some situations could make it easier if you make the right choices, or harder if you make the wrong ones!

Anyways, once again this was a nice entry. ^^

Great one!! The amazing music, the countdown and the cops arriving really makes your anxious and excited, which is a really good point of the game. Graphics are very original and funny too, really nice.

The interface is a bit tricky, I missed some (auditive?) feedback when using the inventory and the objects, so I could know if what I'm doing is valid or not.

Also, I found myself very lost in the beginning, and it was a bit frustrating running around the house not knowing what to do with the hammer. But hey!!! I guess that's the point :D The music helps to that frustration, and I guess in real life I would do the same, running and spinning around all house not knowing what the heck do :D So instead of a bad thing I think this is a great achievement of the game.

I could finish the game in the 3rd play (I'm not a good murderer), and after that I missed more game :)

Great game, very funny, well done! congrats!

I always fall for a good murder mystery game. It took me a few retries to finally make it through. I thought the blue print background fit the setting well but there was so much detail that it was a bit confusing. You have to lose the first time in order to search the house to find all the hot spots. In order to fit the theme, you ended up with a really small character too. Most of the background is non-interactive. Overall, I thought it was an innovative game and enjoyed the theme, sounds, and setting the most.

Hey fun weird game ! Music is very cool...
I made 2 hammers out of one, maybe inventory needs a small bugfix ;) Also a bit disapointed i thought it would deal with drugs...just kidding :x

cheers!

Great art style, and frantic music, set the scene perfectly.
Well done indeed.

Nice artstyle combined with nice puzzles

Very pretty and sounds great but I just couldn't figure out what to do. I eventually cleaned the hammer with a cloth, although I first spent 30 seconds clicking a sink. Then I tried to put it in an incinerator but that didn't work, so i washed it and had to put it back... but I went to the basement and the attic and couldn't find any sort of place a hammer would go!

Some more help would be much appreciated in-game. It's a really great concept and super expandable, I'd love to see a full game about it, but in this level I just can't make sense of anything with my reasonably logical brain

Real clever game design, nicely done.

I like that idea very much!
My only concern is not the bug or collisions... but the lack of feedback:
You ask the player to solve a timed challenge, but don't provide clear informations about what to do, or if/why some actions don't work.

If you want to beat the game, you would have to explore the house carefully and loose on purpose just to know which options are available to you..

My first playthrough was basically "ok... I have to hurry. Hurry to do what? wait, what was that? A sink? Oh so I can interact with it, ok. So what?"

The concept is incredible and very innovative and the catchy music matches the game a lot. It is also a nice take on the theme.
The blueprint graphics is awesome.

In term of gameplay now:
The objects are sometimes not easy to notice and click.
Also, maybe that's just me but, I have found the collision sometimes not perfectly fitting the blueprints.

You could juice the game a bit by adding a few animations like when moving in stairs.
Anyway, the game is already very good, congrats.

No idea about what to do, except cleaning the hammer. Couldn't find any other objects.

It's interesting and fun, but it's just a bit too buggy to be properly playable.

Excellent game! You can feel the tension growing while you're rushing to get rid of all the evidence :-)
Inventory is a bit buggy (used items do not disappear as they should).
Very good job!

The music made my heart race, it was really intense. Good game and overall a nice experience. Well done

Well done! I got away with murder!

Fantastic! Loved the idea from the get-go. Music and art are stellar. Movement’s a little fiddly, especially trying to get onto the narrow stairs. Very well done.

Well, art and sound-wise it really is pretty amazing. The general concept is cool as well, the level design is good - a shame it's not really playable due to the buggy interface. Even just dropping items or doing anything with them whatsoever wasn't possible for me, even restarted the game numerous times, nothing. :( I can imagine it being very cool when it works though. And the music is just amazing.

I *think* I did it right but with a few glitches. I cleaned the hammer with the towel and then rinsed it in the sink. Unfortunately this usually gave me a clean hammer and a dirty hammer and no towel. I tried putting the clean hammer on the tool rack which spawned a dirty towel in my inventory. I tried incinerating the towel but couldn't get the incinerator to take it. Ended up getting caught with a dirty towel, a dirty hammer, and a clean hammer.

On the one hand, going to jail for murder... on the other, I invented a way to duplicate matter!