This is the only game in this jam (of the ones I've played so far) that manages to capture part of the atmosphere of a horror game.

The limited controls and the low visibility make the game definitely spooky, but the monster could have been teased a bit more. After being caught two times in the same location, the monster kind of lost it's scaryness?

The atmosphere and sounds were great! (the coin collect sound for opening doors seemed a bit misplaced though)

great idea. One does move quite slowly though.

Dang, can't figure this one out! At first I thought the game was going to be impossible because of the movement and inability to look around (so can be hard to know when you're being pursued). In the leftmost encounter (turn left, then left) I noticed the pumpkin was just staring at the wall. I breathed a huge sigh of relief there because then I realized it had scripted paths so I just had to figure it out through trial and error.

I figured out how to juke it in a few areas, but I can't tell if I'm on the right path. I've gotten to the big server room and have tried lots of permutations. It's possible I don't know the actual goal (I assumed it was collect all the messages), but after a dozen+ attempts I'm stuck.

Overall it was a cool idea. I actually hate horror games, but after I figured out the AI I was much more at ease. It was a bit of a pathing puzzle game, but alas I couldn't complete it.

Cool entry, and an interesting deviation from your past projects!

@peachtreeoath thanks for your extensive comment and you were getting quite close to completing it. Or rather, it's a bit left after the server room, but it is the last hard puzzle:

**spoiler**

!> The server room is the room directly to the right from the start position.
!> It teleports between two locations and once you've gotten it back to its
!> start position with its door open, you can just walk through it.

I think I accidentally coded the early bits to be the hardest / most confusing / require the most counter intuitive solutions. It should of course be the other way around!

@parkuhrmd I agree that the monster could have been teased or that the early puzzles were easier and the later harder so that one is more invested. And so that one kind of always escapes the monster early on if one doesn't intentionally want to try death. The door sounds open/close sounds were placeholders we unfortunately didn't have time to replace.

Good effort on the game.Felt confusing and too slow movement

Ohhhh, I did notice the door was open but I got confused because I thought I had explored it already lol, thanks for the explanation!

I’m too much of a woose to complete this game. I know it’s a joke horror, but I’m getting too spooked by those ridiculous pumpkin monsters. I guess you’ve done a great job of building the suspenseful atmosphere :smile: But I found a little bug: If you keep moving into the pile of chairs in the first room after the corridor you can clip right through the wall, and skip the first pumpkin. This didn’t help me complete the game though :smile:

Nice spoopy game. Definitely got the impression of an older human with the shuffling feet sound and slow movement.

I don't think I fully understood what had to be accomplished. The only things I noticed that were interactive were the doors ( I noticed whichever door I last interacted with I could toggle from anywhere in the room)

After walking through that door which resets you back to the starting point, there is a door closing sound. Not sure if that's meant to represent the door behind you disappearing?

After multiple restarts of the level, the character speed certainly becomes more of a hinderance though. Maybe they could ride the janitors cart for a short duration lol Oh, having a janitors cart with a bunch of useable items would be interesting.

Very nice!

ok, game looked great, movement was frustrating though.. Didn't expect the pumpkin monsters, one got me on the first left turn, tried to see if there was a way to fight him, died anyway, also frustrating.. Good mood though and great concept, little bit of finetuning can make this an amazing game..

Ahhh, I'm was so intrigued by this that I tried to play for hours because I wanted to figure it out so bad but I just can't do it. 😭 I really need a hint.

I read the comments above. I got into the server room. I went back around and found the door had opened to a different place, where pumpkin tells me I look delicious. 🎃 But I just don't know what to do after that. Can't find anything in the rooms. Don't seem to be able to interact with any of the machines? And if I loop back to the first section I'm basically stuck because one-way server room door is locked, and the door that the second pumpkin came from the first time I got into the other server room door is now already open so I don't have enough time to escape it since it can charge at me right away without opening the door this time. 🤯

What do I do? 😰 I really want to finish it, it's so captivating! 😅

Nice game! I think it lack a bit of sounds, like some ambient sounds and staff, and the step sounds turn annoying after a little bit playing, but still pretty good!

@annie-owl Thanks for playing. And weird that the chairs allowed you to clip through the walls, but I guess I should put a simple box collider around them just to make them safe.

@garfsnacks Thanks for the detailed description of your experience. I think it comes down to me having made the solution too complex / counter intuitive. Especially in the beginning. If we make a post-jam version we will definately make sure to start hinting how to progress. The falling door sound indicates as you are walking towards the start position, that a trap-wall has fallen down behind you.

@ava-skoog Thank you soo soo much for your comment. I really managed to make the game much too complicated :cry: We wanted to have some interactions with the machines and more apps on the phone (a selfie cam that pops up if the monster is behind you as an example). Oh I also didn't realize I had to make sure the pumpkin office door got closed when the server room teleports.

Here's some hints for after leaving the sever room the correct way

Hint 1:
!> Exiting the server room's back door there are two rooms inside an 8-shaped corridor. You have to enter and explore one to not be eaten by the pumpkin in the other.

Hint 2:
!> The exit is on the other side of where the corridor is blocked.

Hint 3:
!> First go straight and take the door on the left to enter the cafeteria. You can leave either door, but the pumpkin will patrol around it clock-wise.

Hint 4:
!> Get to the other room and enter it from the server room side. When you exit, head to the right.

Niiice and actually horrifying horror game! Thank you!

@local-minimum: Hey, sorry for not responding again sooner! I'll definitely try again, I just felt I had to prioritise rating some more games too, especially sub-20 ones, but I'll get back to this. 😅

@ava-skoog you should of course prioritise playing sub 20 votes games!

Oh no, I should have listened to Dr. Physicist! I couldn't beat the game, but I enjoyed going a few loops, even though I am still confused about what I was supposed to do, and how could I influence/avoid Mr Pumpkin. Still a very nice game with great atmosphere, and you also got ahead of my only complaint with "Looking around a bit with mouse is possible, but you’re not young anymore." :D Cool entry!

Hello again, in the end I just wasn't able to beat it, but I felt I saw enough to be able to give you a rating, so here you go! 😅 Atmosphere is really good, and the 3D sound of the noisy stuff on the pumpkin works super well with headphones. Walking speed does get grating when you have to retry many times, but I get why it's there. I guess the pumpkin and the player could both have been faster to keep the balance the same. 🤔 Story is super intriguing and I think I might keep trying or look up a video in the end, because I really do want to see how it ends. Love the setting. Really nice work!