Half expected this to be a scary game, pleasantly surprised to find otherwise. Very nice comfy ambiance. The Slender Man page threw me off for a second, though.
I'd appreciate it if the audio sources didn't come from any singular point, but rather just came from everywhere around you. It's a bit jarring to look around and hear the music rapidly shift from one ear to the other.
This game shows a lot of promise. The level design is good, the atmosphere is great, and the graphics look great as well. The problem is the horror aspect, it just isn't that scary. The ambiance feels more melancholy than scary, and nothing particularly scary happens when Slender Man appears. Perhaps it would be more scary if he behaved like one would expect him to, but the Slender Man AI is sorely lacking. He just appears every now and then, maybe even chasing you if you're lucky. Slender Man feels more like an obstacle than a threat, and it severely dampens the fear-factor of the game. The general atmosphere is great, with the sunlight/moonlight and heavy fog which would be genuinely creepy if the ambiance and Slender Man AI was better.
Keep working on this, and I'm sure it will become a great game!
This is a big nothingburger for me. When I play a Slender Man game, I expect to see the Slender Man at least once. I played two separate runs and collected all 8 pages both times, and never saw as much as a glimpse of him. The only remotely scary thing in this game is the scream at the beginning, as well as the AI Markiplier voice in the tutorial – the tutorial also feels tacked-on and pointless.
Credit where credit is due, the atmosphere is great. I really loved the dark and stormy ambiance, and it's quite refreshing to have a Slender Man game in a sparse, open area. The house also seemed rather cramped and uncomfortable, which is a great setting for a horror game. I do wish that the spooky music would actually loop properly and build up the further you progress, instead of just playing each part sequentially and then stopping.
Overall, this game doesn't feel ready for publishing at the moment. There needs to be an actual Slender Man in it before you can call it a Slender game. I really do wish to see this completed, though. Keep working on it, and I'm certain it will become a good game.
Overall a good game, but could use some improvements:
I'm excited to see how this game will evolve!
Some suggestions:
Otherwise this is a great game, and a worthy "remaster" of the original. I absolutely love the VHS style, and I appreciate the nostalgia factor of using the 2012 Slender Man model. Keep up the good work.
My thoughts:
Static builds up too little, compared to what it takes to kill you. It's quite jarring for Slender Man to catch you while there is barely any static on screen. The audio should also get increasingly distorted the longer you look.
It seems a bit unfair to have him move towards you while you look at him. Part of the ingenuity of Slender games is that he doesn't move while you look at him, but looking for too long kills you. He also doesn't have a walking animation, which makes him look very silly as he slides across the ground.
I feel the atmosphere isn't scary enough. It's a bit too bright, and the music isn't unsettling enough. There are also no good scares. A little jumpscare sound when he gets close would be nice.
The Slender Man model doesn't look particularly threatening, it's a bit too small. I also feel like this particular model (from Slender: The Arrival) has been way too overused in Slender games by now, perhaps there's a better model out there that you can use?
The game overall needs more optimisation. It's a pretty small and short experience, so it really shouldn't have to take up a full gigabyte of space. (For comparison, the original Slender: The Eight Pages was 118 MB in size)
Overall this is a good starting point, but needs work.
Good atmosphere, but it should be a bit easier to avoid Slender Man. Whenever he comes near me, it seems like the screen darkens so much that I can't see where he is or where I'm going. Maybe do something to make him a bit more visible?
In keeping with traditional Slender games, you could try making him move slower when he's being observed, and maybe make his walking animation look more scary? Random page locations would also be really good.
Great atmosphere, but it is a little too hard to find things sometimes, especially before you find the flashlight. I wish Slenderman would appear more often and follow you as an actual threat, instead of just popping up once as a jumpscare (I didn't see him until I had already got 8/8 and was near the exit).
