6.4/10 - Bleak but also optimistic, (10 - 20 mins), this game is a walking sim with elements of small exploration as you find items which make you learn more about you and your wife. The game feels like walking around a big new area in real life not knowing what's ahead and finding whats in the corners of it. Because the world is so big and open, you can end up explore aimlessly and find nothing, so I suggest you follow the paths which you can find. I think this game is pretty and it does have nice audio which reflects the mood of this game.
However I think this game has a lot of small issues such as glitches (you can get stuck on a rock right beside the lighthouse), exploration (I wish there was more to find on the outskirts of the map) and the story (It could've been expanded on or told in additional ways to make it slightly more engaging). I also have mixed feelings about the ending as I think it was a good twist but also I felt like I was slightly undermined by the climax of the game.
Overall it's an interesting but slightly disappointing game which is definitely not for everyone. In a way it feels like a heavily stripped back and lower quality version of these type of games: Dear Esther, Vanishing of ethan carter and What remains of Edith Finch! (I really recommend the games I listed here especially Edith Finch, although they are all different in many ways)
Hey, thanks for this review. I appreciate the detail you've gone into here. I would honestly have loved to expand on the exploration and narrative delivery. This was initially supposed to be a 3 day jam game that dragged into a 4th day, so the elements of the walking sim had to be simplified for that timeline. Making the environment took a lot of time ':)
By now I have unfortunately lost the source for the project but I am still hard at work making games. I'll probably return to an aesthethic like this in future hopefully with time for some more interesting narrative design and aditional gameplay elements.
I agree that there's a certain sense of undermining the narrative in the ending, especially when viewed through the lense of traditional storytelling. It was a rough but hopefully somewhat effective attempt at evoking a certain emotional journey utilising the interactive potential of feeling lost.
No worries at all, It's impressive how you made this within a 4 day period and you can definitely see how much effort was put into the environment as it's one of the strongest parts of the game. Combined with the pretty but also dreary aesthetic that compliments the story.
I would definitely love to see a game with a similar aesthetic that is expanded on further in gameplay and narrative as you mentioned.
With how much time you had it's difficult to create something with an effective story or satisfying ending as a lot of gamejams usually struggle on that end. I think you had a decent story but with more time you can create something even better!
But overall I'm definitely excited for the future of what you can create. Whether it's a game similar or completely different from this. The ideas that you planted in this game make me hopeful as it's a game that has stuck with me after playing it!
Needs reprogramming of the dialogue parts. It's awfully time consuming to wait until the words appear. Makes replays feel incredibly redundant and joyless.
First off thank you for taking the time to play, this game was released years ago and has seen no real updates since launch, it is complete as envisioned at the time and doesn't require revisiting as I'm busy making new games. Please consider this if you are thinking of asking developers to update their old free projects in future. We all only have so much time on this planet and leaving something in a concrete state is often more important than fussing over perfecting it in retrospect.
To address your feedback directly, replays *are* redundant unless you just want to take in the atmosphere, in which case leave the story stuff alone, that is the nature of this work. If you felt you missed some items, that's the intended experience, one of uncertainty :) Personally I feel that if a piece of art makes you wait it's the viewers choice to get impatient with it.
Anyway I hope you managed to enjoy your time exploring Bleakshore personal frustrations aside.
Huh, that was a cool game. I did not expect the ending, so that's a first lol (I was expecting it to be like all the others, where you're reliving memories, or something like that, and that she had died or something lol)
My main criticisms are just 2 really:
1) There is no way to tell if you get all the items or not (even if at the end its like x/x items found) (this might just be coming from my completionism lmao)
2) The map is so large (or feels that way at least) With items so far and few between scattered among several paths, it was way too easy to get lost, especially trying to see if you've gotten items from the different paths
I loved the spooky atmosphere though, it made me feel like I was being watched, and seeing the cloaked shadow figures every so often helped in that haha, Good job overall!
Appreciate the feedback. My response to the 2 points raised:
1. What does it mean that you can never know if you've collected all that was left behind?
2. I considered putting a map on a signpost in the world but was tight on time. The more time that passes, the more I like how people feel lost in this work.
Ah ok, the idea of people feeling lost does make sense, and honestly, it did make it more frightful lol
So for the first point, the objects that you can randomly find on the ground, and then your character gives little blurbs about, I have no idea if I missed any, or if I had found them all. So just a counter of how many items there is, or something would be nice (or even just something that tells you how many there are, and then its up to the player to count as they go would be good too)
Overall I really did like it still, and the ending was unexpected, which I really loved :)
This was a fun experience! The creepy lady disappearing being the representation of the dark thoughts of the player's character, plus the scattered belongings of Orla was really intriguing and interesting.
MY BOYS WE IS PLAYINIG 41 RANDOM SCARY GAMES THIS GAMEPLAY IS 11 HOURS LONG I HOPE YOU ENJOY. THE RANDOM SCARY GAMES ARE FREAKING AWESOME THANKS CREATORS FOR MAKING THESE EPIC GAMES!!!!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK WE NEED MORE PEOPLE LIKE THIS IN THE WORLD MAKING AWESOME GAMES LIKE THESE I LOVE YOU ALL AND BE SAFE AND PLEASE PRAY FOR ME THINK I MIGHT BE SICK HAVE NOT BEEN FEELING GOOD LATELY AND LIKE THE VIDEO IF YOU ENJOYED IF NOT I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND I KNOW I'M NOT REALLY A GOOD YOUTUBER BU T I REALLY TRY LIKE EVERYONE ELSE ON THE ITCH.IO/YOUTUBE PLATFORM BUT IF YOU HAVE ANY GOOD TIPS FOR ME ON MAKING MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS BETTER PLEASE TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS IMMEDIATELY YOU WILL REALLY BE A GREAT HELP TO ME OTHER THAN THAT HOPE YOU ENJOY THE VIDEO AND SEE YOU LATER IN THE NEXT VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!
if i goota be honest I didnt really liked the game for a multitude of reasons
firstly i played it for over an hour and still wasnt finished because i didnt followed the right way because i couldnt really see where the way was going (i also felt kinda lost)
i also restarted once after 10 minutes because i wanted to make the game not as loud and thought there might be a options menu when i press the esc key (yes its my fault that i didnt read the controlls but still)
so eventually i looked at some gameplay of it however i allready quit the game so i didnt played it more (the ending however was suprising)
the texts and overall the gameplay were slow so i needed to sit there for another minute to read the same text again and after a while it felt somewhat repetetive and bare bones since there wasnt as much happening
even tho the music and sound was scary itdidnt really like it since it was so high pitched i felt
two other things i noticed since i saw the youtube video were that i noticed that the trees were swaped out for some black monster for me they just disapered and that some part of the screen were cut of for me
still not going to hate the game as much since it was pretty neat and it was made for the hounted ps1 weekend and for that it was pretty fiting
Really creepy visuals and the sound design tied it all together nicely. The end was really surprising as well. Nice to play a horror game that doesn't end with a tragedy :)
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6.4/10 - Bleak but also optimistic, (10 - 20 mins), this game is a walking sim with elements of small exploration as you find items which make you learn more about you and your wife. The game feels like walking around a big new area in real life not knowing what's ahead and finding whats in the corners of it. Because the world is so big and open, you can end up explore aimlessly and find nothing, so I suggest you follow the paths which you can find. I think this game is pretty and it does have nice audio which reflects the mood of this game.
However I think this game has a lot of small issues such as glitches (you can get stuck on a rock right beside the lighthouse), exploration (I wish there was more to find on the outskirts of the map) and the story (It could've been expanded on or told in additional ways to make it slightly more engaging). I also have mixed feelings about the ending as I think it was a good twist but also I felt like I was slightly undermined by the climax of the game.
Overall it's an interesting but slightly disappointing game which is definitely not for everyone. In a way it feels like a heavily stripped back and lower quality version of these type of games: Dear Esther, Vanishing of ethan carter and What remains of Edith Finch! (I really recommend the games I listed here especially Edith Finch, although they are all different in many ways)
Hey, thanks for this review. I appreciate the detail you've gone into here. I would honestly have loved to expand on the exploration and narrative delivery. This was initially supposed to be a 3 day jam game that dragged into a 4th day, so the elements of the walking sim had to be simplified for that timeline. Making the environment took a lot of time ':)
By now I have unfortunately lost the source for the project but I am still hard at work making games. I'll probably return to an aesthethic like this in future hopefully with time for some more interesting narrative design and aditional gameplay elements.
I agree that there's a certain sense of undermining the narrative in the ending, especially when viewed through the lense of traditional storytelling. It was a rough but hopefully somewhat effective attempt at evoking a certain emotional journey utilising the interactive potential of feeling lost.
Thanks for playing.
No worries at all, It's impressive how you made this within a 4 day period and you can definitely see how much effort was put into the environment as it's one of the strongest parts of the game. Combined with the pretty but also dreary aesthetic that compliments the story.
I would definitely love to see a game with a similar aesthetic that is expanded on further in gameplay and narrative as you mentioned.
With how much time you had it's difficult to create something with an effective story or satisfying ending as a lot of gamejams usually struggle on that end. I think you had a decent story but with more time you can create something even better!
But overall I'm definitely excited for the future of what you can create. Whether it's a game similar or completely different from this. The ideas that you planted in this game make me hopeful as it's a game that has stuck with me after playing it!
Best Regards.
Made a video on Bleakshore
Good
I was excepting an jumpscare at any time but I got none, eitherway the story was good and the design of the map was also awesome. Great job.
5/5
very nostalgic
I would cry so much if the main character's gf died.. they should be protected by all cost
Good atmosphere, although the ending doesn't make much sense, not that I could do better.
do I need to find all the objects to get to the lighthouse? is the ghost helping me should I fallow it?
Needs reprogramming of the dialogue parts. It's awfully time consuming to wait until the words appear. Makes replays feel incredibly redundant and joyless.
First off thank you for taking the time to play, this game was released years ago and has seen no real updates since launch, it is complete as envisioned at the time and doesn't require revisiting as I'm busy making new games. Please consider this if you are thinking of asking developers to update their old free projects in future. We all only have so much time on this planet and leaving something in a concrete state is often more important than fussing over perfecting it in retrospect.
To address your feedback directly, replays *are* redundant unless you just want to take in the atmosphere, in which case leave the story stuff alone, that is the nature of this work. If you felt you missed some items, that's the intended experience, one of uncertainty :) Personally I feel that if a piece of art makes you wait it's the viewers choice to get impatient with it.
Anyway I hope you managed to enjoy your time exploring Bleakshore personal frustrations aside.
Got told off in the most respectful way possible.
goated opinion
it was nice walking around and looking at the scenery also seeing the ghost turn into trees lol
/edit
I like how moody this game is.
Just keep walking.
pretty spooky. took a lil long to get to the lighthouse tho i thought my game had glitched out lol. second game in this video
Huh, that was a cool game. I did not expect the ending, so that's a first lol (I was expecting it to be like all the others, where you're reliving memories, or something like that, and that she had died or something lol)
My main criticisms are just 2 really:
1) There is no way to tell if you get all the items or not (even if at the end its like x/x items found) (this might just be coming from my completionism lmao)
2) The map is so large (or feels that way at least) With items so far and few between scattered among several paths, it was way too easy to get lost, especially trying to see if you've gotten items from the different paths
I loved the spooky atmosphere though, it made me feel like I was being watched, and seeing the cloaked shadow figures every so often helped in that haha, Good job overall!
Appreciate the feedback. My response to the 2 points raised:
1. What does it mean that you can never know if you've collected all that was left behind?
2. I considered putting a map on a signpost in the world but was tight on time. The more time that passes, the more I like how people feel lost in this work.
Glad you enjoyed the game, thanks for playing!
Ah ok, the idea of people feeling lost does make sense, and honestly, it did make it more frightful lol
So for the first point, the objects that you can randomly find on the ground, and then your character gives little blurbs about, I have no idea if I missed any, or if I had found them all. So just a counter of how many items there is, or something would be nice (or even just something that tells you how many there are, and then its up to the player to count as they go would be good too)
Overall I really did like it still, and the ending was unexpected, which I really loved :)
Pretty atmospheric game,kind of melancholic,5\5
This was a fun experience! The creepy lady disappearing being the representation of the dark thoughts of the player's character, plus the scattered belongings of Orla was really intriguing and interesting.
Gamepad support?
This was a very good horror game, it felt distant and isolated while being pursued by a mysterious stalker and a spine chilling noise. Great game!
Interesting concept. Love it!
Nice aesthetic but boring plot and meaningless ending.
MY BOYS WE IS PLAYINIG 41 RANDOM SCARY GAMES THIS GAMEPLAY IS 11 HOURS LONG I HOPE YOU ENJOY. THE RANDOM SCARY GAMES ARE FREAKING AWESOME THANKS CREATORS FOR MAKING THESE EPIC GAMES!!!!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK WE NEED MORE PEOPLE LIKE THIS IN THE WORLD MAKING AWESOME GAMES LIKE THESE I LOVE YOU ALL AND BE SAFE AND PLEASE PRAY FOR ME THINK I MIGHT BE SICK HAVE NOT BEEN FEELING GOOD LATELY AND LIKE THE VIDEO IF YOU ENJOYED IF NOT I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND I KNOW I'M NOT REALLY A GOOD YOUTUBER BU T I REALLY TRY LIKE EVERYONE ELSE ON THE ITCH.IO/YOUTUBE PLATFORM BUT IF YOU HAVE ANY GOOD TIPS FOR ME ON MAKING MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS BETTER PLEASE TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS IMMEDIATELY YOU WILL REALLY BE A GREAT HELP TO ME OTHER THAN THAT HOPE YOU ENJOY THE VIDEO AND SEE YOU LATER IN THE NEXT VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!
the ending is so unexpected lol!, But good game!
Does it just have one ending?
Yes this is a linear narrative told through non-linear exploration.
Great atmosphere for sure! Didn't expect eldritch horror to show up ;P
Amazing atmosphere and exploration. Also a good story and ending :)
https://www.indiegamesjam.com/bleakshore/
if i goota be honest I didnt really liked the game for a multitude of reasons
firstly i played it for over an hour and still wasnt finished because i didnt followed the right way because i couldnt really see where the way was going (i also felt kinda lost)
i also restarted once after 10 minutes because i wanted to make the game not as loud and thought there might be a options menu when i press the esc key (yes its my fault that i didnt read the controlls but still)
so eventually i looked at some gameplay of it however i allready quit the game so i didnt played it more (the ending however was suprising)
the texts and overall the gameplay were slow so i needed to sit there for another minute to read the same text again and after a while it felt somewhat repetetive and bare bones since there wasnt as much happening
even tho the music and sound was scary itdidnt really like it since it was so high pitched i felt
two other things i noticed since i saw the youtube video were that i noticed that the trees were swaped out for some black monster for me they just disapered and that some part of the screen were cut of for me
still not going to hate the game as much since it was pretty neat and it was made for the hounted ps1 weekend and for that it was pretty fiting
also i could have never done such a game so good joob and sorry if that sounded to hatefull
Wonderful game. It was eerie and atmospheric, with a unexpected ending. Good work.
Came in expecting horror, but what I got was heartfelt and lovely. Delightful.
Really creepy visuals and the sound design tied it all together nicely. The end was really surprising as well. Nice to play a horror game that doesn't end with a tragedy :)
Love the aesthetic. The games is awesome!
Played the game on my channel! I thought the visuals looked really cool and eerie!