TLDR
Help other ghosts reach the afterlife in a creepy, old mansion while being hunted by Ghostists
Unfinished Business
This game was created for the MicroJam 15, I also released it on Itch.io It placed 5th out of 87.
Ever wondered what it is like to become a ghost? You've worked as a Ghostist your whole life-but this one last job flips your world on it's head.
- Explore a haunted mansion
- Outwit other ghost hunters that are trying to shoot you with their salt guns.
- Help the ghosts to pass on to the after life
- Find tons of secret passageways
- Find a powerful magic item that helps you to fool the Ghostists
- Want to be quick? There is a speedrun timer, post your results in the comments! My best time is 8:22 for 9/9.
Controls
Arrows Move the player
X Interact with the world
O Check your inventory
Special thanks
@pancelor did some great playtesting, thank you!
Updates
Update 10.6.2024
v.1.1(postjam update)
- changed intro
- fixed inventory popup after dialogue
- changed ghosts needs
- changed map and enemy spawns
- changed music volumes
- added a ghost
- made items a little easier to find
- made cracks in walls easier to spot
- made enemies less triggerhappy
- added shortcut FX
- changed and added sounds and music
- added step sound
That was very atmospheric, especially the start of the game.
Quests felt a bit random (backscratcher, really ?) and I often found the objects before the ghosts, so a bit of missed opportunity for post mortem mystery solving. Found a screenshot worthy corner of the map, but I'm taking the screenshot with me to the grave, as I feel that spoiling it would be a grave mistake. Ghostists feel pretty stupid, but nothing you can't rationalize and pretty on par with horror movie/video game tropes : Oh the ghost I just tried to shoot turned into a human... must have been a trick of the light.
Liked the teddy and silverware parts.
Ghosts can't seem to use keys from the back side of doors. Not sure how that works but I'm no ghostist myself.
Got scared once : when I gave the comb, the ghost had mentioned being trapped there. I immediately used the amulet and thought I was salt immune and couldn't be trapped myself,only to bump into the wall. After a half second of panic where I thought I made a fatal mistake and would have to redo all the game from scratch, I realized I was just a stupid ghostist myself.
A very nice 45 minutes. Thank you for making the game.
I'm curious, there seem to be a stone (tombstone ?) an a small island south of the church, and also a shed to the east of the church. Are these places reachable ? Did I. miss anything, despite the 9/9 ?
That comment really made my day. I showed it to my gf, who wrote the part about silverware and teddys. She was delighted and it might have convinced her to contribute more in the future. Thank you so much.
The "backscratcher" was the last thing I came up with. I wanted the total number to be 9 and had to come up with something posh, something only rich people would have. I didn't like it either, but the jam was ending and I had to finish the game. I'm so glad you pointed that out, and I am so delighted that you've spent so much time on my game. Thank you.
The enemy design was something that I did spent a lot of thought on-in the end I decided for this design because I wanted the player to be able to predict their next steps. I even considered adding even more telepathing.
Now another thing that you correctly pointed out-the comb ghost, the trapped beauty. I originally had salt in that cell, but playtesting showed that it was too punishing to die there.
I am planning on revisiting the game after the jam has ended. Maybe then I'll provide you with another way of investigating everything the map has to offer :) (You did not miss anything - so far)
I've completed this short game. It's nice and fun finding puzzle pieces to solve puzzles or I should say help ghosts.
However, I really dislike the lack of visual clarity on items and wall cracks. It's very hard to find the latter, most of the time I found them by accident when I hover around near walls. It's also how I found the la... 8th ghost, I thought Hugo is the 8th one.
Items are hard to see so you'd have to get close and see X hint to know that there's even an item there. This is why I couldn't find ouija board until I accidentally stumble it.
If you want to update this game, you should fix those issues.
BTW I'm not sure the purpose of secret room with corpses.
Thank you for the feedback! I've gone ahead and implemented a lot of changes, your suggestions were very useful.
I made the cracks a lot more noticeable-lightning now also interacts with those cracks.
And secret rooms? No idea what you're talking about. Move on, nothing to see here.
Very cool, thank you for playing! And good job finding all the secrets(I think)
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