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The Paintings of Whisperwind's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #11 | 3.647 | 3.647 |
| Theme | #18 | 3.706 | 3.706 |
| Graphics | #24 | 3.706 | 3.706 |
| Originality | #26 | 3.529 | 3.529 |
| Overall | #35 | 3.160 | 3.160 |
| Accessibilty | #44 | 2.647 | 2.647 |
| Fun | #54 | 2.765 | 2.765 |
| Controls | #92 | 2.118 | 2.118 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.3
Wildcards Used
Its broken, pursue
Game Description
You take on the role of a roller skating ghost who's been trapped within a haunted manner with mysterious paintings that lead to other worlds do you have what it takes to avoid the denizen of the manner and make it out alive...
How does your game tie into the theme?
We went the ghost route for “haunted” with both the player character dressing up as a ghost, almost trick or treating style, and a real ghost hunting you down.
Source(s)
n/a
Discord Username(s)
changbot. exocoatl, velengeth, practicallypluto
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
This is our 5th entry as a team.
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Comments
I enjoyed the game, I just didn't get very far. I tried the web version and it was too dark. I switched to the download version, but still got stuck after placing the seashell in the bath tub drain. I couldn't figure out where to go next. I wanted to like it more. I really enjoyed the camera switches.
It was difficult to see where to go, especially in the web version (so dark), but there were so many parts of the screen where it looked like you could go to another part, but couldn't. The roller-skating was a neat idea, but controlling it felt like an over sensitive driving game. It got better after a while.
I loved your game, loved the music and the ambiance and my fav level was the mushrooms lost woods level.
I find the tank control difficult, I kind of managed using the D-pad. Probably needs to be a bit refined.
In the last level, where you get the gnome, I had some trouble understanding the terrain, maybe the camera needed to switch earlier to show that area.
Great job!
Thank you for playing! I did notice that playing with a control stick did make the controls a little unintuitive didn't really have time to rework it, but I'll into it for when we work on an update. I see what you mean by the terrain being odd, we'll be sure to remedy that as well. Appreciate the feedback and your kind words, glad you had fun!
This was really cool! I like the vibe, and each of the different worlds were very distinct from each other. And I'm going to come out and say it... I like tank controls! I think it's the only way you can do these types of fixed camera games and have them actually make sense.
The character felt great to control- however there were a lot of areas where it was easy to completely lose track of yourself, either behind geometry or from being able to go off camera. It made it a little difficult in some areas to navigate, or just to tell which directions were another screen versus a little bit of empty space just off camera.
Overall, great job though! Would have been a good moment if, after the last painting, the ghost kept following you until you got back to the front door lol.
Thanks for playing our game! Glad to see someone agrees with me on the tank controls.
As for losing track of the character, would you be able to provide any notable examples of the areas in question? Current plan is to update and fix any issues after the voting period so any information would be greatly appreciated.
Off the top of my head: in the room of the main house where the lighthouse painting is, I got a bit confused thinking that there were more rooms to the right side and down towards the bottom of the screen. And then in the mushroom area there was a point where, while going through one of the log tunnels, I guess I got stuck against a wall? If I could see my character, it would have been easy to back up and go back through but because I couldn't, I ended up trying and failing a bunch of angles and then just restarting the game lol.
I think for that second issue just making the hitboxes for those screen transitions a bit bigger would probably help a lot. Hopefully that helps a bit!
I got softlocked in the kitchen, my character got stuck on the geometry and I couldn't move. Otherwise, I found the 3D art really charming and I thought the roller skating sounds were relaxing, and it was cool that the audio was 3D.
Sorry to hear you got softlocked! Hopefully you still got to explore all 3 worlds.
Thanks for your comment and for trying out our game!
Thanks for playing our game. Out of curiosity would you be able to provide a bit more information on the softlock? At least showing a screenshot of where you were roughly standing so we can try and recreate it would be awesome.
Excellent stuff. The fixed camera was a pro and a con: on one hand, super nostalgic, on the other irritating. The nostalgia won though. And tbh, it's better to make something special like this than try to appeal to everyone.
Yeah, it was a little buggy, but it was mainly just the UI in my opinion. The puzzles were super intelligible. The chase sequences were fun, but it was no threat until the final one.
Honestly, there was a lot of content and it made sense in a nostalgic game logic kind of way. Going through paintings is so SM64 or Myst. Yeah, really good job. Even for a team, this is a big game for 9 days. Great job :)
P.S. including a load game option was awesome. I got caught by what could have been a game breaking bug, but no biggie. Just reloaded that file, boom. Back in the game and exploring in no time.
Thank you so much for your comment and for trying out our game!! Spot on about the camera being old school, that will mean a lot to our team, especially our programmer.
Sorry that it was a bit buggy! Not sure how you played the game but playing it in 60hz and downloading the windows version is the smoothest experience (as far as our playtesting went). If the bug was "interacting with an object and getting stuck in a dialogue loop" , 60hz would've fixed that. Obviously not very ideal of us to make the testers change their refresh rate just for a 10 min game, but that was the fix that we found post upload. The chase sequence was meant to be faster as you go from one world to the next but yeah, maybe we should've increased it for the first 2!
Spot on again about the paintings like SM64, thank you for the kind words!! (Haven't played Myst before so I might have to check that out!)
Could you give us more details on the game breaking bug? Not sure what would result in a reload but would love to hear it! (And hats off to our programmer again for the load game feature!)
Thanks for playing glad you enjoyed it!
I was the one that added in the save/load system and wow was it a cause for a lot of complications during development. Glad to see my efforts paid off though. As my teammate stated in their reply if can share details about any bugs discovered we would love to hear it! Our goal is to push through a more polished version after the jam period.
I'm so sorry for the delayed response! So the specific bug will be potentially hard to recreate.
In the Mushroom painting, I had collected all but two mushrooms and was going from the 3rd room (with the big mushroom who is lonely) back into the second room. I hugged a little to close to the edge of the tree tunnel and when the scene/camera transition occurred, the player model seemed to clip into a decoration mushroom in the tunnel. No matter how I rotated or moved, I could not 'unclip' myself. Fortunately, the load feature got me back in quick.
I suspect that it was not a stateful glitch and more just unfortunate geometry and physics interactions.
This is a very cool idea for a game, and I really enjoyed the fixed camera a lot! I downloaded the game and had no problems with the lighting, so if you're someone who hasn't played it yet, I'd definitely recommend downloading versus playing in browser.
I do agree that some hero lighting or very low ambient light source from the player would've been nice, but it didn't impede my time with the game. Overall, I'm super impressed that y'all were able to make this big of a game in this small of a time frame!
Thank you so so much for playing our game and downloading it to get the fullest experience!! Wish I could pin your comment so other testers can follow the same as it does make quite a big difference! (We have wrote in the description of the browser page but maybe we weren't clear enough. And I do understand downloading stuff can be a tiny hassle)
Thank you for the feedback! Totally agree with you that a minor light source from a player could've assisted our game! Thank you also for your kind words and I'm keen to check out your game when I get a chance!
Interesting game with the fixed camera perspectives. When the game first started, it was really dark, I thought it was just a black screen because I keep my monitor brightness relatively low. It wasn't until I turned up my monitor brightness that I could see anything. Even then, I could barely see my character (and I was a bit confused by the movement since I couldn't see the direction my player was facing).
I got into the second area and used the life guard key, but eventually I accidentally went off screen and had a hard time getting my character back in view.
Very ambitious game for just one week!
Thank you for your feedback! Yeah we aren't sure what happened but the in browser/HTML game was super dark, almost like it didn't bake our lighting! Highly recommend to download the windows (or Linux) version of the game and all those lighting issues should be fixed!
As for the character going off screen, sorry to hear that! With all these fixed camera perspectives, it was really hard to make sure every little bit was covered! If you do give our game another go (through the downloaded file), I would love if you could add a screenshot of where you disappeared into. If not, that's totally okay and we all still appreciate it for trying out our game! :D
The cover art looks so good! The thumbnail didn’t do it justice, I scrolled past it a few times before I saw another commenter’s screenshot of it then I wanted to check it out lol. The main character is super cute! I like the atmosphere of the game, definitely has spooky vibes. I went around the house a few times but I couldn’t figure out what to do. I found the painting, cord, sharp thing and spiral. Not sure what interaction I missed. The concept is cool and I like the roller skating ghost hehe. Overall good job!
Thank you so much for your kind words!! I think I'll go upload some screenshots now after this!
Ah yeah so I think:
SPOILER ALERT
After you get the beach shell/spiral, there is a bathroom with a bathtub which will give you a key. This key will unlock one of the rooms near the start and you can hop into a new level.
If you have free time, I would love if you could try it out again and you can experience a couple more levels that you might've missed! If not, that's totally okay but thank you so much for playing our game!! :D
I came back to play it again! I found a bunch more rooms in the back after turning my screen up to max brightness and hugging every wall. I had no idea that the lifeguard area had any interactions, I didn’t see it in my first run lol. I think some hint of interaction areas would show the player where to go better, and an inventory would be nice as well. Allowing the popup text to be closed or skipped faster would be nice too.
Spoilers
Graphics bugged out funny here lol:Also btw on spoiler in itch: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28615544/how-can-i-create-spoiler-text
Overall the concept for the game is very cool!
Thank you so so much for coming back and trying it out!! And thank you again for another batch of feedback! Inventory and hints sound like a great idea!
Yeah so the browser version lighting is really bugged out and we weren't really sure why. You don't have to give it another try but the windows version does have better lighting if you wanted to check it out for what it's meant to look like hahaha
As for the popup text, there was also another bug where if someone has a monitor above 60hz, it'll break the interaction and you get stuck in a loop even though you didn't press interact that many times
(I also couldn't figure out the spoiler thing, didn't know how to embed it into my previous comments haha)
I found a better spoiler tag instructions: https://itch.io/t/2151831/adding-spoiler-text-to-your-game-description
Hope this helps!
Very cool, love the different camera angles, combined with the "unusual" style of movement makes for a good combination. Good choice of spooky/calm/puzzle music
Nice graphics
Opportunitys for improvement:
Would have loved to play it in fullscreen. You can change that on the Itch.io page, to allow a fullscreen button.
Unfortunatly i got stuck in a table - but it seems you put some kind of save/checkpoint system in? great.
Maybe overall a bit too dark - Maybe add "hero lighting" or a "torch/lamp?" to the player.
Well done!
Hi there! Thanks for trying out our game and for the kind words and feedback!!
Fullscreen would be a great idea and we will definitely check that out if it's better!
Ah that's sad to hear but yes we do have save states so hopefully you got to test out the rest of the game!
Yeah we weren't sure what happened but the HTML version makes the game really REALLY dark so if you would like to try out the windows version, you should hopefully have some more light and visibility for a better experience :)
Keen to check out your game soon!
Really cute entry, I loved the music and the writing! Unfortunately I got stuck delivering the final mushroom but enjoyed what I played. I'm not a fan of the tank controls but totally get how much easier it is to deal with them for screen transitions. Maybe if the player had an emissive material so you could see it easier, as well as orient since you could see the eyes. Also starting farther in, esp in the forest, I wouldn't know where I was coming from. Regardless, fun game!
Thank you for your trying out our game!! You were really close to the end as well :')
Thanks for the valuable feedback! The tank controls felt like the best way for us to control it as doing our camera setup was one of our bigger goals but I totally understand how they can be a hassle a lot of times, especially running away! Keen to check out your game when I get a chance!
Good game. I like the music.
Quite cute. I liked the music.
Thank you for your feedback!! We also have just recently re-uploaded the game as there was a game breaking bug that missed half our content!
Really cool concept, though the bugs make it challenging to play. Also the controls are unintuitive. I kept getting lost/stuck behind objects. Interested in playing it once things are worked out more
Hey Thanks for playing! We have been allowed to resubmit a fixed build due to the fact it was actually unbeatable. If you're willing to give it another shot would love to hear any new feedback.