In Memory

[Kurton]

Got through and I have a few comments.

Spoiler below!

First, wonky doors! Not all of them, mind you, but some of them have the strange behavior of opening 2/3 of the way and then springing back and closing. The most noticeable for me were in the early areas before obtaining the lantern.

Second, beautiful areas! I can tell that you put a significant amount of work into each area as you went. Wonderful job! The only question I have is in the area that you enter after breaking the padlock with the hammer/chisel combination. I havn't had the chance to go back and investigate again, but is there more back there? I took the first door on the right and it took me to the tree and up the staircase... So I feel like I missed out on the rest of that back area (if there was any). I'll go back and play again later to look around; unless Mr. Face (The Brute) is back there and kills me.

Third, the scare factor. I didn't feel particularly scared at any point. Certainly it was surprising to find Mr. Face (The Brute) just randomly in the Cellar, but it felt slightly out of place. There wasn't much leading up to it. Most of the areas felt very well lit prior to the cellars, so there wasn't much reason to fear.

Lastly, the girl's laughing. Being a fan of horror in general, I am terrified by the sound of a little girl's laughter. Any little girl laughing means horrifyingly bad things are going to happen. The sudden door closing at the top of the spiral staircase was a nice touch, but I didn't feel any particular dread or reason to be afraid after I had passed the great tree and read the nice note from the girl.

Of course, if your goal wasn't to be scary (but then why was Mr. Face (the Brute) in that room?...), then by all means ignore me. It was a fun playthrough with wonderful level designs.

Also...

Spoiler below!

I'm uncertain of the story. You arrive at your father's castle who has been doing experiments. There are notes pertaining to the experiments and to the girl (your sister, one of the subjects? I can't recall, I need to go back and look at the notes. This is me not remembering it, because i'm certain you made this known). You happen upon... some sort of creature which breaks down some doors for you and somehow ends up on the other side of a locked gate that you come to. Then you find a note from the girl and as you proceed she messes with your head a little bit. ... and then you go into the floor hatch and find... .... ... what even was that? I'll need to replay it to piece more things together.

But, seriously.
Give me your level designing skills.
I want them; your areas were awesome.

Thank you greatly for the reply and criticisms!

First...

Spoiler below!

I improvised a lot with this. At first I wasn't really aiming for much of anything to be scary at all; My heart was set on peaceful areas with calming ambience, etc.

As I progressed forward with ideas, I set checkpoints of events in my head, with my hands doing most of the levelwork as a bridge from scene-idea to scene-idea. But more often than not, by the time I got to near a planned area, my intentions/direction had changed almost completely, and with it, the story. And I had grown too satisfied and fond of the things I had already placed to remove some of them.

Now, the girl. For a tad more exposition, I'd suggest returning to the hall where you turned off toward the (ante?)chamber with the twisted tree. At the end of that hall, the room beyond the door gives a bit more story.

To be honest, I had aimed to make that a required area to traverse, by putting up a door to the tree-chamber and stowing away the key somewhere in the aforementioned room. But I had grown a bit tired of the "find key, open door, repeat" mechanic I see in a lot of stories, but then again, I had little imagination devoted to finding something else. (i r teh lazy). So, I just made it optional. I see now, that that just appears to make things confusing. :S

And...

Spoiler below!

Anja was originally going to be Robert's sister, but I scrapped that because it wouldn't be congruent with... y'know... the particular attitude/humanity with which the father's experiments on her are carried out.

And you're supposed to kind of connect with her... :3

EDIT: Oh, a few more.

Spoiler below!

The chest at the end is the family fortune.

The servant is just there because.... he's a servant. :C