Really digging the cold ocean atmosphere. Reminds me of Oregon memories my wife and I made. Kudos on the organic feeling of unease throughout and the warm ending.
Honestly I had a feeling it was heading towards the all too common 'plot twist, my partner is dead and I killed them lol' trope that's really stale and overdone in indie horror at this point. Especially with the phantom appearing every now and then, which I thought would symbolize the protagonist's guilt, or even the hateful spirit itself tormenting her in this silent hill-esque limbo.
After reading all those letters detailing the protagonist's deep insecurities and trust issues when it came to their relationship, I was already preparing for the most bummer ending imaginable. I played signalis, I know how these sorts of things end.
By the time I finally found the lighthouse and walked up those steps I was bracing for the big final scare, and was completely caught off guard by that sweet ending. I honestly think it surprised me more than whatever supernatural, or horrifying twist you could have come up with. As an avid horror fan I did not know I liked happy endings this much.
A great little atmospheric game, I'm not sure if you're even reading reviews anymore, (this is kind of an old project at this point) but if you happen to see this, awesome job!
Aww this is exactly the reaction I hoped for in writing and designing this game. Really glad you connected with it like this. I genuinely believe more horror should feature happy endings or at least less negative outcomes. There's so much to explore in diossonance with psychological horror. So many people believe the worst despite the objective reality being a lot more hopeful and I'm glad I was able to communicate this through the ambience and narrative. I do still read every review, thank you for writing this one and brightening my day <3
tried to play it, it never launched, either taking forever to launch (never successful) orjust giving me a "failed to launch" error. The game seems really cool, but it never worked.
I found the game to be very enjoyable and appreciated the creepy ambiance. I liked how the map boundaries were handled, allowing players to avoid running into invisible walls. It would be helpful to have an indicator for the notes, like "0/0" or "0 of 0," so players can easily know if they have found them all. Thanks for creating this game!
I remember playing Bleakshore a few years back and even thinking about the game later on but being unable to remember what it was called. So I'm very glad to have randomly stumbled on your page this morning, I don't why but it really stuck with me.
Fourth, final, and my favorite of this run. Honestly. This is great. I really like how it all came together, accounted for each path, encouraged exploration with out a heavy hand. I love when there aren't invisible walls, how big the map feels, and the ending is breath of fresh air.
Не могу сказать, что игра прямо бриллиант среди обычных камушков, но чем-то всё-таки зацепила. Может быть ощущением, что ты не один, из-за странной и нагнетающей музыки. Может быть криповыми людьми в одеяниях с капюшоном, которые превращались в деревья. Может быть тем, что всю игру я думал, что Орла уже мертва и игра аллюзия на воспоминания Иззи и их отношения. Да, игра не претендует на что-то высокое, но она очень крутая. Спасибо Вам за неё!
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!!!!!!!!!!!
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Really digging the cold ocean atmosphere. Reminds me of Oregon memories my wife and I made. Kudos on the organic feeling of unease throughout and the warm ending.
Okay first off SPOILERS!
I really enjoyed this game!
Honestly I had a feeling it was heading towards the all too common 'plot twist, my partner is dead and I killed them lol' trope that's really stale and overdone in indie horror at this point. Especially with the phantom appearing every now and then, which I thought would symbolize the protagonist's guilt, or even the hateful spirit itself tormenting her in this silent hill-esque limbo.
After reading all those letters detailing the protagonist's deep insecurities and trust issues when it came to their relationship, I was already preparing for the most bummer ending imaginable. I played signalis, I know how these sorts of things end.
By the time I finally found the lighthouse and walked up those steps I was bracing for the big final scare, and was completely caught off guard by that sweet ending. I honestly think it surprised me more than whatever supernatural, or horrifying twist you could have come up with. As an avid horror fan I did not know I liked happy endings this much.
A great little atmospheric game, I'm not sure if you're even reading reviews anymore, (this is kind of an old project at this point) but if you happen to see this, awesome job!
Aww this is exactly the reaction I hoped for in writing and designing this game. Really glad you connected with it like this. I genuinely believe more horror should feature happy endings or at least less negative outcomes. There's so much to explore in diossonance with psychological horror. So many people believe the worst despite the objective reality being a lot more hopeful and I'm glad I was able to communicate this through the ambience and narrative.
I do still read every review, thank you for writing this one and brightening my day <3
tried to play it, it never launched, either taking forever to launch (never successful) orjust giving me a "failed to launch" error. The game seems really cool, but it never worked.
I found the game to be very enjoyable and appreciated the creepy ambiance. I liked how the map boundaries were handled, allowing players to avoid running into invisible walls. It would be helpful to have an indicator for the notes, like "0/0" or "0 of 0," so players can easily know if they have found them all. Thanks for creating this game!
I remember playing Bleakshore a few years back and even thinking about the game later on but being unable to remember what it was called. So I'm very glad to have randomly stumbled on your page this morning, I don't why but it really stuck with me.
Very much enjoying this. The atmosphere, the music. Well done!
5/5
O jogo é muito bom e triste .
Не могу сказать, что игра прямо бриллиант среди обычных камушков, но чем-то всё-таки зацепила.
Может быть ощущением, что ты не один, из-за странной и нагнетающей музыки.
Может быть криповыми людьми в одеяниях с капюшоном, которые превращались в деревья.
Может быть тем, что всю игру я думал, что Орла уже мертва и игра аллюзия на воспоминания Иззи и их отношения.
Да, игра не претендует на что-то высокое, но она очень крутая.
Спасибо Вам за неё!
P.S. С островом в любом случае что-то не так...
Loved the vibe, feel and atmosphere of this.
It feels so bleak and empty and sad
but then ends on hopeful note. The fact that you made this is in only 4 days is impressive. Well done!
7.5/10 the game vibe hits different
cute
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
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!