Garden of Statues

This is surely an interesting one, and I mean it in the good sense. The link with the theme is subtle, tho.

Gameplay: All the mechanics in a Walking Sim are done neatly, feels good to walk and look around. The other mechanic, if I'm not missing anything, feels a bit cheap and out of control, but maybe it's intended. I'm not sure what triggers it (throwing a rock does, but if I don't, it triggers anyway). I'm not even sure if its possible to fight back, but as I have no indication, i'm not gonna try like a fool.

Art: If you got all these models and the setting from scratch in the 48h, it's super impressive. if not, it's only impressive. Looks smooth and slick. Some more variety and weird statues to make me actually stare at them and try to understand something would be cool, The statues that relate to other statues are cool (f.e. the twins)

Sound and sfx: Different footsteps for and rock hits depending on terrain and the door sound, amazing. Some relaxing music to help the statue-watchign experience would have been nice. The sound she does and the voice is absolutely greatly horrifying.

Well now i'm throwing a rock and it doesn't trigger. Maybe it's time-based or sth.

This is a great shell for either a great Stanley-esque walkign sim about life and art or a Slenderman-like horror game about statues that come alive. Maybe both.

Great job!
See you around :)

thanks for playing @raindrinker. you can definitely 'win' this game. there are a few clues and tools hidden around, and after 'losing' a couple of times you are given some more explicit advice. But its definitely not balanced enough

Hey!

One of the most interesting games I played here. It was definitely unexpected to be turned into stone! (but made all the sense when it happened haha)

I got the mirror, and used it once. I saw the gorgon slowly approaching behind and saying "I see you"…that was frigthening. Them it locked eyes with me. YIKES

In my third run, since I already had the bow (the stones were sorta useless, I thought I needed to pick them and take them somewhere or something, but no), I knew its spawn point and just started shooting at the gorgon. After a few tries, I actually killed it and the game said I won. Didn't think it was going to be that easy.

But I loved the low poly graphics and style, and it was frightening! Very good ambientation. Would like to see a more polished version with the same concept!

This is very interesting.

I love the garden's atmosphere, there's this feeling of mystery and of surprising details to discover.
The first time I lost and understood the nature of the garden, I had a very pleasing moment of "plot twist" and "oh now I see this garden in a totally different light"; however I agree with raindrinker that the triggered scene when one loses feels somewhat cheap in its current form. Moreover it was not clear to me whether that was all there was to the game or not. When I read you comment saying there is definitely a way to win the game and that there are subtle hints around, however, my interest was sparked! I think I have now found a couple of such hints and have a vague idea of what one needs to do. I love how you named the statues!

I'm not the biggest fan of the horror/emotional thriller type, so I have to admit I feel somewhat discouraged when faced with the perspective of having to go through the stress of losing again, but on the other hand I love mystery and riddles and subtle hints, and I'm really curious about all the statues I still haven't had the chance to observe.

I also love your description of the game :P On the other hand such a description contributes to the expectation that there isn't actually anything to be done in the game. While now I see that picking up on the subtle hints is a large part of the game, I'm not sure whether the game wouldn't benefit of a more clear sign telling the player that there is something to be achieved, so that they at least know they should look for something. It's a fine line between being too obvious or discouraging most of the players too early… I guess it would require lots of playtesting to find out :)

Hey! I couldn't beat it, but its a very interesting idea! I think that if you polish this game very well it would get kinda viral, for the slenderman type of gameplay, I would like to point out to things:

1. I understood I could kill the gorgon/medusa on my third playthrough, so maybe the design of the level could help you find the bow faster, so that the fact that you can fight back its more clear.

2. The death secuence because of the gorgon staring at you, I believe its to fast and unforgiving, maybe, adding the posibbility to escape of the glare in fractions of a second could make the experience of dying less frustrating, at least for me.

I really would like to see this game with a fully riged medusa/gorgon, it would be fantastic.

Nice Job!

An interesting game, with very impressive aesthetics!

The gameplay, especially duelling with the caretaker, felt a bit unfair. But the atmosphere was very compelling, as was the slow exploration of the statue garden in the beginning.

The mirror made great sense conceptually, even if it was a bit clunky to handle.

I too would have preferred a bit longer "grace period", before turning into stone. But the death scene was quite fearsome, as was the the voice of the caretaker when you get spotted.

Explore the garden.
Gorgon?! Explains the statues!
Now, the hunt begins…

Rock picking mechanics was buggy, but other than that, excellent gameplay. I think I've hit the monster once, but she simply disappeared and reappeared. Dunno if I'd call it a success.

You sly fox! I was ready to mince words about art and interactive media, but no… you had to go and put in an actual challenge. Luckily a very innovative challenge!

Never seen don't look them in the eyes Gorgons or backwards mirroring in a decision making challenge (that's what I'd call this, just so you know!) before! High marks for innovation.

The graphics are quite alright. The statues do look odd in a few places, those nipples are very pointy! Audio is fine.

Took a while to get used to the controls. Tried to break the "unique vases" with the rocks. No shattering action unfortunately. The rock should fly in the direction of the cursor too, btw.

The bow fares no better when it comes to wanton destruction. It is also rather odd that it doesn't actually shoot arrows. More of a gun, really.

Doesn't exactly hit the theme. It's the Gorgon who has eye sight problems this time.

Great work!

Overall: 8 (Great)
Graphics: 7 (Good)
Audio: 7 (Good)
Gameplay: 8 (Great)
Originality: 9 (Amazing)
Theme: 7 (Good)