Hello again.
Another month, another game jam... after
Ludum Dare and Indie Speed Run (we'll post the ISR game here soon, still working on a decent trailer) in August and September we went for Asylum Jam last weekend. Another 48 hour contest, although not quite as strict as the other ones. As explained
here, aim of the contest was to create a horror game that doesn't rely on those typical "insane" and asylum-related stereotypes you often find in horror games and movies, Outlast probably being be most recent example.
The result of our effort is
Flatuphobia. A truly horrific horror game with a focus on being ridiculous. It's not particularly scary, but it surely is entertaining.
I recommend to check it out yourself
here. In case you're as lazy as I would be in your situation, here's a video:
Everyone leaving feedback will be added to my personal list of cool people.
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For those who are interested, here's a a small recap of the development and some of the design decisions:
Our (that is me, the Shellfish Games guy, and xCatalyst from this forum, who already created the soundtrack for
360 and worked with me on the Indie Speed Run game mentioned above) initial plan was to create a rather simplistic 2D game about a man being trapped in a house with an evil being that's trying to find and kill him. The player has to find an exit without being found by the bad guy, so he has to stay unseen and unheard, which isn't all that easy because running, opening doors etc. aren't silent and can be heard by the antagonist when he's not too far away. We had a few more ideas, including locked doors that require keys, certain pickups such as flashlights or a map of the house, and finally the player character suffering from asthma and having to cough every now and again.
However, xCatalyst dropped out of the project on short notice, so I had to work on my own for the most part, which resulted in bad visuals and relatively limited gameplay since I had less time to focus on programming.
After creating the animated characters and putting them into the game I realized that it looked somewhat ridiculous and kind of destroyed the scary atmosphere. As there was no time to draw new ones, I decided to take another route and make the game ridiculous on purpose. Hence I replaced the coughing thing with chronic flatulence.
