I'll give you one thing. I was uneasy most of the way through.

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Yeah that a big Butt. The jumpscares really took me out of my stressed state. It was more relieving than anything. The anticipation of 'damn something could happen' is way more effective for horror than having some epileptic zombie guy scream at your face. It startled me, yes. But it didn't scare me. It was just a natural reflex to a loud noise and sudden movement.

The 'real horror' (god i hate that definition) was the suspense, the uneasiness. The breathing that started on my back left and went all around me.

That is scary shit. Not doing anything at that point would've been better than anything in my humble opinion. You could even use relevant imagery to get the player really scared. You know the spider illustration bit? You could've used that 'build up' to show footage of a camel spider. Without any loud noises ofc.

Two point hospital ps4. Just the pure shock of a spider suddenly showing up on screen. As a really fucking arachnophobic person I would not be happy and might even break my monitor in the process but hey. It would be more satisfying.​I'm gonna leave you with this: The game you two made is amazing.

It has a really well done atmosphere if I cut out the jumpscares from my memory. The sound effects of 'stuff happening in my house' did get me because I really wasn't expecting the audio to be that well done. I really hope for a sequel that maybe takes some of my criticism into consideration. Maybe it's my demographic (32 yo male) but I much prefer that slow stick-to-your-ribs horror rather than startling horror. For example, like the above poster, the jump scare really took me out of it.

However everything leading up to it was very effective.​I was left VERY curious as to what the 'alternate' text was, with no real way of finding it.I liked the still images with the warning, but I kinda feel like it was a waste to say 'This will not move' and then it doesn't, or 'this will not speak' and then again it doesn't. If it's meant to instill trust in the narrator, then I highly advise you utilize that to your advantage, subverting it later in the game (although I do realize that adds a huge layer of complexity to a multiple choice game) Maybe the point was to set up an expectation, or just to make me uneasy, but I was just left confused, and I feel like it may have been a missed opportunity.​I played through twice, once honestly and once just muckin' about, and I didn't notice a huge difference in play, mainly just a difference in the final analysis. Yeah jumpscares truly are polarizing.

Jumpscares can be pulled off if the context is right in my opinion but hardly any game can do it effectively.Personally what would be very satisfying for me is something startling that is context driven. I'm gonna use the Spider again as an example.So you showed an illustration of something looking like a spider once. That in itself made me really really nervous because I wasn't sure if the 'It wont move' was a lie.So building on that you could let a spider crawl across the screen in a very subtle way. Just noticable enough that it catches the attention of players. No sudden loud noises would be needed because let's be real: Spiders are creepy as shit. Maybe a decently low 'crawly' sound effect. Strings or something.

Just for the information that 'yeah there is something happening.' That's just my take on things. I will definitely keep your work in my line of sight. Best of luck to you in the future!. Apologies for the month-late reply, but I have to agree with the above. I'm sure it's been stated ad nasuem but for the level of quality in this horror game, the jumpscare felt extremely out of place in terms of tone, atmosphere, theme and almost genre (a psychological horror game vs some jumpscare prank video from 2006).It's bizarre to find something that's as unique and functional as this game is.

Horror is a very saturated market and there's a thousand and one things any developer can do wrong to make their game feel hoaky, off-kilter or not taken seriously. And this game had a very clear vision and tone for what was going for it throughout its entirety. I was very surprised and very impressed throughout my playthrough of it. And then the jumpscare happened. It was like being treated to a fine steak dinner in the Paris, and at the end I got Danny DeVito blowing a kazoo into my ear.As for what I feel would be more gratifying than that, something more appropriate for the clear vision the game already has laid out. In my opinion, this game can be neatly summed up as a 'mindfuck experience.'

It is literally just text and unsettling audio with minimal visuals but it creates such an immersive atmosphere and it engages the player by keeping them nervous and guessing. Carry through with that!

I might be biased, but I love a good mystery. Something that maybe breaks the fourth wall. An example would be, and this is mostly an ignorant idea as I have no idea what limitations you have, but perhaps a short dialogue at the very end where the antagonist mentions your home city based on your IP address or Steam profile or coordinates. Or giving away enough bits and pieces of information that creates that desire to learn more. Something that drives the player to immediately head to the Google search bar and type in 'watson-scott test ending meaning'.

I don't want to tell you to copy Doki Doki, but the way that game builds up dreadful moments without having completely overt jump-scares is a good example of how it could be better. Everything is completely normal until it's, uh. The crux of the game where you as a player finally hit something terrifying is incredible because you know exactly what is about to come, yet it still makes you shit yourself without having something straight up jump out at you.

The real fear I've experienced in gaming isn't necessarily being caught off guard, but that overwhelming sense of knowing when something is coming, and subsequently feeling totally helplessly terrified when it does happen. Every horror game is only as good as its consequences; once the player dies, they have officially experienced the worst-case scenario, so when they're dropped back into the game to try again, all the tension is gone. This is why games like Outlast 2 fail at being genuinely frightening: If I get violently disemboweled in the first five minutes, what exactly is left to be afraid of for the next 10 hours?Imagine playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent and sprinting towards the first monster you see so you can learn its attack patterns and win the game more effectively. Sure, it works for gameplay, but it ruins the game. I would say you need to better the secondary build-up to the jumpscare, the whole game seems to be the primary build up, but it's too long and gives the player the opportunity to calm down (before pop goes the weasel, which is a great idea by the way). This leaves the player too uncertain, for lack of a better term, whether to fight or flee. When I was jumpscared, I felt a jump before determining that I would stay and 'fight' through it.

Maybe if the secondary build up makes the player feel more helpless than uncertain it would increase the percentage of players who experience unanticipated cardiac arrest so to speak. I believe jumpscares can be done well, but they're overused and are usually done poorly. Researching jumpscares through the lens of film is a good place to start. Alternatively the jumpscare could have been replaced with something that made more sense in context with what the player is imagining, (i.e. A masked, formless figure slowly lurching out of their computer screen) but I don't believe that would have the same effect of making the player jump. I want to stress that this is a great game and you have done a great job pleasing the crowd, I look forward to what you come up with next and I want to see you succeed.