Is this actually a game?
It loads with one item in an inventory I can’t seem to use past the first room, and there seems to be nothing in the second room that is interactive except (spoilers) a cupboard door.
Is this just a tech demo of some features? Or something bigger that everyone in the comments is missing?
(That aside, the art is vibe is very cool. I love old-school point and clicks ever since Zak McKraken, and a horror themed one would be an instant buy from me)
Maybe I went a bit overboard with the title. It’s still a work in progress, and quality pixel art really does take a lot of time.
Thanks for the feedback though, I truly appreciate it.
You've done far more than I ever could, and you should be proud of it!
Blood & tears. Thank you!
love the little heart filled note you left in the game's files :) I hope Henrique finds it one day too.
I think I remember this, you posted this once before. It looks like you've posted this a few times.
And I think my comment was that the art style was good, but the game itself didn't have any substance. And I stand by that. It's difficult to know what to do and what to interact with, and the hand as a UI element isn't really helping as much as it should. My honest opinion is that this should have been a lot better between then and now and from what I remember it looks almost exactly the same.
Please, for your own good, stop posting this until you've finished an actual playable game with this engine. Bad content doesn't even show off the capabilities of your engine very well.
I'm trying not to be mean because I have a pile of unfinished projects of my own but you really shouldn't shortchange yourself.
In fact, maybe you could put up a dev blog to show your progress. That might be a good way to get feedback as you work as well, and advertise your engine and games.
HN allows posting multiple times, sorry about that. Thanks for your feedback, though! I’ll create a development blog — it was a great idea.
All the best, and thank you for reviewing my demo so many times.
I love the art style! Echoing the others, I'm stuck in the second room - would be cool to have a few hints at the beginning to help out with discoverability.
Second room is the last one for now. Sorry for the lack of context.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
For now this is the final stage. I am working to give a “game over” advisory.
Thank you
I love the passion that has went into this, even if it is still wip. I would like to link to it from https://wmw.thran.uk if that's ok with you.
Thank you and yes, please, do it.
The music starting so suddenly just gave me a big jumpscare. Great work, tho!
We will blow your amps - ManOwar
The animation is really cool.
I want to replay the game, but it always starts me in the second room.
I think I was confused about where the pointer is on the hand, because there are two fingers raised. Suggest you add a little flash (sparkle, smoke, etc.) animation to the index finger, if that's the one which is the pointer. I had decided that the symbol on the hand was like a targeting reticle.
Clear your cookies please.
Love this. It took me a little time to figure out what to do; however, I enjoyed exploring and figuring it out myself. I'm looking forward to the next 100 rooms to play through. And the big twist at the end. :)
If you get stuck and need a hint, try right-click somewhere.
How far should I be able to progress? I can out of the first room and open the cabinet in the second room, but cannot progress further.
You concluded, and in another message I mention that I exaggerated in calling it a game instead of a demo. I hope you liked it.
Ok, we've changed the title to say 'demo' above - hopefully that will help!
Thank you all for the feedback!
If you ever get stuck forever, it’s probably an issue with Cloudflare Pages. Trying again might work—the game is made entirely of static files.
For now, there’s nothing beyond the second scenario. Pixel art is a slow and expensive process, and I’ve been working on this game since the beginning of the year. Please be patient!
Thanks again!
Cool graphics. As someone who has finished Heretic + Hexen a few days ago, this was good timing for me.
I kind of expected a point and click adventure game, not sure why (maybe because of Full Throttle), but first room is a hidden object game. Not sure what to do in the next room though.
I am trying to improve the game design, thank you so much for your feedback.
I am in contact with a former coworker who is very skilled in click adventures.
I'm on a slow system, but it seems to freeze when I pick up items sometimes. Sound continues though. If I reload the page and play again it shows up in my inventory.
Thank you for your feedback, I will check the issue.
Mind to share your specs btw?
Firefox 128.14.0esr (64-bit) on Debian via QubesOS (i.e. it's in a VM)
It's suddenly the 90s again, this is awesome.
You really got the spirit, I love this nostalgia.
I’d like to take this opportunity of reaching #1 on HN to promote the pixel artist who has been working with me all this time.
She is extremely competent. Professional. Creative. Dedicated. Skilled.
https://linktr.ee/dandelion.pixelart
A game engine is a pretty big solo project. Did you base it off monogame, Godot or something similar, or did you start from scratch?
I wrote everything from scratch[1], like old games. However, unlike them, I designed a flexible Lua API that’s powerful enough to create (small) games.
I used SDL3 with hardware acceleration, OpenAL, Lua (via sol3), PhysFS, and nlohmann::json. (I could have used only Lua, but the engine needs to interface with the web via WebSockets.) For WebSockets, I use Boost only on desktop and mobile; on the web, I rely on the browser’s native API.
1 - Code is like pasta — much more delicious when homemade.
Agreed. Genuinely curious how long this has taken so far
I can't manipulate any objects nor leave the room. Firefox and Safari on latest MacOS.
Ah, works on Chrome. I like the design. I had difficulty acquiring the leftmost item in the list. I tried a number of times before it was recognized.
In which stage, the second one is the last for now, I am working on more stages. Sorry for your frustration.
PS. I test in all browsers, I make sure that works on non-Chrome.
Holy headphone / audio warning.
The screaming goat nearly blew my ears out.
You have found an ester egg that a friend of mine have suggested!
The atmosphere is amazing. Really good job... continue :-)
It looks good but I'm not really sure what to do.
Super cool art, can I ask how you did it?
cool game. i'm stuck though...
Very cool, thanks for sharing.
I think it sucks. Sorry to be the harbinger of negative opinion, but that's just what I feel about it.
Mind to elaborate what sucks? Your comment adds nothing.