Description

Results are in!

1st Place: Will You Ever Return? by jackspinoza
2nd Place: Wine & Roses by Craze
3rd Place: Dead Moon Night by Fomar0153 and Indra

Judges' comments forthcoming.



First and foremost, thanks to Archeia_Nessiah for the wonderful event page CSS!

October's already here! It sure did sneak up on us like a creepy crawly black widow spider, fangs poised for a nasty, venomous bite! Like all arachnaphobes, we sprang to our feet, panicked, and tripped over the night stand decided that we're overdue for another month-long game development contest!

The Theme? Anything related to Halloween! Horror, trick-or-treating, zombie attacks, ghosts...it's your call!

This is a very broad theme: as long as the game is in the spirit of Halloween, you'll be fine. Feel free to ask if you don't think your game applies to the theme. You may use any game development engine. Additional rules are listed below.

The deadline is 12pm UTC on Halloween4pm UTC on November 3rd. A panel of judges will play each game and rank the top three entries. Users may vote for their favorite game once the contest is over; voting will be handled through this page. Results will be announced via podcast. It's the All Hallows' Event...or, I guess you could say, the Nightmare Before Halloween!


Step 1: Sign up for the contest in the "Registration" section below this event description. You can enter this event solo or as a team. Additionally, you may submit as many games or join as many teams as you'd like.
Step 2: Create your game page. Normal submission rules apply.
Step 3: Post your download to the game page once it's approved.
Step 4: Submit your game download to the contest by using the commands on the upper-right corner of this page.



Winner: Patron Spirit of Halloween Achievement (worth 100 makerscore), an LP from one of the judges, a review from one of the judges, and a free copy of RPG Maker VX Ace.
2nd place: Ragdoll Love Interest Achievement (worth 75 makerscore), an LP from one of the judges, and a review from one of the judges.
3rd place: Duckbilled Evil Scientist Achievement (worth 60 makerscore) and a review from one of the judges.
Voters' choice: Two-Faced Mayor Achievement (worth 100 makerscore).
Participation (including judges): Sadistic Sack's Shadow Achievement (worth 50 makerscore).

(Feel free to nag the judges until you get your review.)


  • The game must be related to Halloween. Unsure if you game meets the theme? Just ask!
  • You may use any game development engine.
  • Only completed games are allowed! No demos!
  • Preexisting resources may be used, but no games that were started before the beginning of the event are allowed.
  • No late submissions; the deadline is strictly 12pm UTC on Halloween (October 31, 2012). Exceptions may be made if judges find a game-breaking bug.
  • There is no limit on team size; you may also work alone.
  • You may submit as many games and join as many teams as you'd like.
  • Judges' entries will not be ranked, but they will still quality for the voters' choice achievement.
  • All necessary files must be included in the download.
  • Only one VX Ace copy is available - please take this into account if you're on a team.
  • If the winner does not want VX Ace, s/he will pass it to the 2nd place winner, and so on, until we find a person who wants it.
  • All of RMN's normal policies apply.
  • If you have any questions, ask in the comments section or PM Deckiller.

Details

Achievements

Registration

You must be logged in to sign up for All Hallows' Event.

Teams Members Entry Votes
Mario's Mansion II
  • 1
Spirit Yumm
  • 1
Forest Map Madness
  • 3
She Who Likes Achievements
  • 0
Bludgeon of Inspiration
  • 0
Blue Pumpkin Games
  • 3
Demented Jester
  • 1
candies omg candies everywhere
  • 1
Resident Evil
  • 1
Wine & Roses
  • 5
dragons_fire games
  • 2
Haunted House Here, Ha Ha
  • 1
Team Me
  • 3
Purplex
  • 0
Jack Spinoza
  • 3
NecromireGames
  • 0
Flying Jester
  • 2
Slenderman's Army
  • 0
The Horrorterrors of Candy Cane Mountain: A Choose Your Own Adventure
Headless Eldritch Horror with a Sphincter for a Face with a Walker
Crayons and Papers
Arguably the perfect man
Will probably finish something this time
(Trick || Treat)
Let's Carve a Gourd
Samhain Sassy Soiree
Just in case I do anything
jomarcenter games
Onward! Defrosted Tuna Team
Xp hunters
ok
Wolfpack
Lord of CC will CC you... TO DEATH
Nobody
Just Jude
Team Of One
Generic horror game.
Spooky Specters
It's Acezon
Arachnaphobia
Deadly Dimention
Lucifer's Worshipper
Demonfly Studios
1 Person, 1 Game, 1 Month
Night Of The Terror
Evil Pyro: Killing by Mario Game
Memoirs of a Grimoire
Bump in the Night
Haunted Moors
Cthulhu Rises Over The City of Arkham
Insideous Horrors
Gold Team
Blue Rooms
moga
Home Alone
Mansion of Doom

Posts

Well... at least majorly negative feedback is feedback.

Appreciate it.

As for myself:

FOMAMA
Liked this game a lot, I love the idea behind the series as a whole.
The atmophere was very well done.
However I did find it a little confusing as to where to go sometimes, and there was that annoying bit where I went to the door that Emi doesn't like and got stuck there, had to restart. But all in all, a good game.

DMN
Loved the witty banter, the characters were very good and worked well together.
Found the battles a bit annoying as they could kill me so easily sometimes.

Veil of Darkness
I enjoyed this little game, though I agree with later comments, it would have done very well as a point and click.

unfortunately I haven't had the time to play all of them.

Good luck to whoever wins!
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Indra: Wine & Roses isn't for everybody, and you're right, the game suffers from having such a short development time. I will say that regardless of dev time, there would still be no dialogue; the memories would still unfold the way they do. Sorry it's not your cup of tea?

5/5 for one person doesn't mean 5/5 for everybody. Thank you for playing anyway. =3

EDIT: There are some AoEx references in the items, but the game (and the Gehenna Gate) are actually based on Hebrew mythology. There's numerous references in the game to Moloch and Sheol and the idea of great sacrifice. I don't expect people to come in with knowledge of Judaism's apocrypha though, so oh well!
Oh come on, you can beat Unwelcome guest! Have you ever tried the Escape series flash games? I made sure it was easier than that...but maybe only a little.
author=Indra
They come
Font doesn’t show up and there’s no font folder. Can’t play.

For why Rpgmaker XP hates me I'll never know lol, the font I used is just regular rtp, though upon extraction it forcibly ripped the rtp out, and tossed it aside..so, yeah it can't be played without having the rtp.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I hate to admit this, but I pretty much agree with a lot of what Indra is saying.

@BurningTyger: You get to vote for one game. Make it count!
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
So we don't vote for only one, we cna vote for multiple oes?
Indra
YOU ARE BEING TOO AGGRO
11514
So I played (or tried to) all the games. Here's my brief (or not, depending) notes o them. (I'm obviously not playing DMN, no way that review wouldn't be biased XD)

The only games I felt I liked enough to vote were Jack's Eve and FOMAMA. I initially liked Wine and Roses but as it went on I kinda got annoyed. (Full records below).

Wine and Roses
Ok, so I beat this thing, I have way too many notes on it so ff. Will try to summarize.
The good:
-Engaging combat system. (at least at the beginning) and combat mechanics. Combat is fun ad strategic enough that its not just attack mashing.
-Fun gameplay…for the first half hour or so (after that it gets repetitive, since there’s no CHANGE or any other plot).
-I honestly had fun with the game at first. Really. But then its faults started to get to me.
-The hud and overall combat dynamic was pretty and felt slick. My one gripe about it was that the character selection “highlight” (a small red border) is a bit hard to see, and I lost quite a few turns and energy boosting the wrong ally at first.

The bad:
(If this seems long it’s because I’m bad at praise. Sorry. It’s not a BAD game, but the faults in it really take away from the experience).

-No intro or any context. Bad. It’s good that I get to jump right to the action, but no real context is given to me DURING THE GAME. Oh, the girls talk about random stuff when they find stuff, but that says next to nothing.
-Only “plot” comes at random from finding skills. This would be ok if I could review them later, but most of the time I have absolutely no idea of what they’re going on about, since, you know, NO CONTEXT. Why am I even there? No one really says.
-Too much terminology not explained. Helenists? Moe..wat? Are those area names? They never said, how am I supposed to know? Overall the plot is messy and doesn’t drive me forward.
-Characters never actually INTERACT, and this bugs me since I’m a dialog junkie. The TEXT was fine, no great errors there, when it wasn’t being cryptic, but not ONCE do we see characters talking to EACH OTHER.
-The mapping itself was ok, but some things made it annoying: one, some maps have nothing in them, and I don’t see the point. There are many instances where decorations and clutter are set BLOCKIGN the way instead of “to the side”, making navigation even more annoying that it already is.
-Walking speed in itself isn’t BAD, but when put next to the huge and empty areas it feels insufficient. For all the walking you have to do, it should be faster.
-Large, empty areas. Backtracking is a huge pain, and remember how to navigate the confusing ones without a map is just frustrating.
-No way to tell where you have monsters left over. Some kind of counter or reminder would have been nice.
-I am not really a big fan of this music for RM games, but it wasn’t hideously mismatching or anything (just not matching my personal taste)
-After a while, battles started losing its spice. Some were still entertaining, while others fell to the same routine. Exploiting status magic (in my case sleep) felt cheap in the end.
-Side to side to the repetitive battles are the impossible ones. Some fights were simply frustrating, not challenging. I understand some require you to come back, but understand navigating the castle is annoying enough I want to be DONE with each area and not return at all.
-The end is…unexplained. I killed the chaos lady really fast, and BAM, suddenly sprite change, no explanations, I close some gate (there was a gate? It was never really explained, whatever) and she says some stuff and then its over. Well…ok. It’s not interesting or satisfying. The favourite character is suddenly gone, none of the main cast say a SINGLE WORD. It feels simply dry and rushed.
-TOO MANY REFERENCES TO BLUE EXORCIST. Is this a fangame? I could have sworn none of this was in the actual manga, and it’s not even a fun joke or anything, there are WAY TOO MANY references to it, it kind of just annoys me.


Overall:
The gameplay starts well, loses most of its charm midway through. There is no plot to speak of.
The plot is entirely unsatisfactory. It explains nothing, it gives no character intereaction and the ending is pretty boring and wtf (in a bad way).

If the game balanced out some of the enemies, added some stuff such as a map or a “teleport to X area” and a reminder of where you left monsters, it would help inmensely. The combat SYSTEM was good, and it’s really a pity I got so tired of it by the end.
I’d say, no matter how “gameplay oriented” you are, fix that plot, or at least the ending.
With that, I’d have enjoyed the game heaps more, which is a pity, because I was having a lot of fun in the beginning.

Again, I feel like I’m bashing this to the ground. Partyly because the review got me all excited and I got disappointed by midway through. It could be a great game, but as it is, it lacks too much, especially in the way of plot, to me.

Also, I am aware many of my issues with the game could be due to time limitations. That’s fine. For a month effort, it was not a bad project, but it left me wanting something else.


FOMAMA – Libby
Nice, but lacks purpose. Some annoying parts like the sound effects going out with the rain; some nice touches, others less (some map gimmicks were a bit random). Also some trouble overall with passability being inconsistent.
It was, however, entertaining. I liked, but it was rather anticlimactic at the end. (Actually, both opening and ending were very rushed, though I understand the point of this type of game is the experience.)
Still one of the best games of the contest.


Jack’s Eve
After so many boring entries, this is SO.CUTE.
The sprites for the little sprits are soo cuuute. The gameplay is simple but engaging enough, I like it. It’s not a riot or the best thing ever, but it keeps me playing.
Dialog is good enough and flows naturally.
Woah the cute game ended up really…offputting XD Not in a bad way, I guess. It IS a Halloween game, so there’s that.
I liked this one! Music and graphics were nice, gameplay was good. I have no real complaints about it. As what it is, a small searching game, it’s nice. Not the best game ever, but a nice way to spend an hour or so. (Tho some of the repetition of going into rooms to see scenes felt a bit random sometimes).


Resident Evil
I’m not a RE fan, so most of the game references (except zombies) went over my head. I went my entire first time without knowing how to shoot (figures I had to load, fff) so it was sort of pointless.
Went back after end (so to speak) to shoot some zombies. Hit detection was pretty whimsical and it felt like a chore.
Nice ambience and sound effects, and cohesive graphics.


Console Hunt 2
The text screen at game start feels a bit ugly and slapped on (plus the text itself is a bit iffy).
Game starts well, having some decent ambience, but the cheap scares detract a lot form the experience, as well as some pretty annoying puzzles and having to fight the same eyeball enemy three or so times.
Puzzles ranged from ok to “I swear to god I’m putting this down if I don’t succeed THIS time” annoying. The timing (running) puzzle was especially infuriating and cheap.
Finished just to be over. End wasn’t particularly compelling or satisfying except for the whole “it’s over”.


Veil of Darkness
Those...faces and sprites are…um. Terrible.
I understand the point is to make things move fast, but the dialog is not making any sense, and it’s as unengaging as anything. If I wasn’t actively TRYING to play the games, I would not have bothered.
The mapping is…pretty bad. Tiles don’t match at all, structures are weird, decors are offputting. Music would be fine if it wasn’t so in your face and loud, and overall suddenly changing from room to room in a very cramped setting.
Uh…this game, I think, suffers from not knowing what it’s supposed to be. It’s obviously not a horror game, nor is it comedy. It’s just…there. It kind of lacks charm or any purpose, there’s not even a decent puzzle or mystery or anything, and that hurts it.


Candy Fangs
Ok right off the bat: WHAT IS UP WITH MY SQUAD XD Why do I have children and a pirate and a knight and old men?! O.O
Why is the hud and the music so good when the game is so weird, goddamn you XD
(That select arrow in battle isn’t from Halloween, it belongs to a disco RAVE x.x)
Combat animations feel very slick and nice, but combat itself feels…weird. I have no instructions or hints and just a bunch of items and people to use.
Finished one stage, discovered there was more and stopped. I refuse to play without some plot, oi ;m; (also I am very bad at figuring out wtf am I supposed to do in battles).


Festival of Souls
Start with cheery sow theme and a scrolly text…wake me up when its over.
What sort of name is KIRRIN when the brother is called GERAD for fucks sake.
And what’s with the INDIANT music now :/
Wtf is going on even. Stitcher? What? Did I sleep through something important? Cant even be arsed to ask the nice dragon, not interested :/
Aaand after using invisibility I can’t run anymore. Lovely.

The intro does an excellent job on not giving me any reason to play. It’s not engaging or interesting, the characters lack any charm, got hustled into talking with some dragon, got sent to gather spiders or whatever, shut off game due to being bored.

House of Horrors
You know what sucks? That a RM game tries to hijack itself into fullscreen.
NOT.COOL. Had to open up game and delete full screen script.
So…a hallway. Ok. It pings sounds and whatever. Aha. And now..uh?
It blacked out now? Ok, I can’t be bothered with this anymore. Next.


Lakewood Story
Ok I will be honest: this is terrible in many ways. I will try not to bash it too hard, but here are a few things you want to revise.
-The concept isn’t bad, but the execution is terrible. With heavy reworking, it could be a good game.
-The font is BAD BAD BAD. If your game is hard to read, you’re alienating your players.
-Maps are too dark. Not “spooky” dark, just “can’t see shit” dark.
-Some times can be inspected, some can’t. Either do one or the other, don’t mix them up. That’s breaking player habits. Either you tell me to check furniture without visual cues or NOT, but don’t make it random.
-Mapping is…bad. Maps are too large, exits lead to nowhere, passability is jacked up.
-The plot makes no sense, as it’s told by the characters. Dialogue and writing overall is very bad.
-You will lie on a bed in the middle of a bloody house where, in his own words “something is very angry?” (by the way, when did he establish it was a “something”? seems like he’s already talking like it’s a ghost).
-“I heard a young girl singing like a mind controrl singing so be careful”
-I can’t seem to save anywhere and I crashed, so I stopped playing.

Overall: as it stands, it’s bad. It could be a good game with some work and heavy fixing.


Not a chance of a ghost!
Uh…it’s a stealth game? Ok, did one stage…got bored :I
Not my type of game, sorry.


Slanderman’s Army
Ahaha is that a hockey mask dude? Ok sure whatever, it’s going to be one of those games XD Holy shit is that a techno vampire? Or is the slenderman thing? Welp, who cares :I
I was never really into this kind of game or have any knowledge/interest in slenderman, so I won’t play this, sorry.


They come
Font doesn’t show up and there’s no font folder. Can’t play.


Unwelcome Guest
I can’t find anything wrong with it, except that I’m suck and I haven’t even DONE anything besides pick up items and light a couple fires x.x
OK, I give up. I have absolutely no idea of what I’m supposed to do.


Will you ever return
It was okay, even fun, but the music and chaos got on my nerves a bit too much to continue playing after visiting a few rooms.


Mario’s Mansion
You know, I didn’t remember how BAD I was at Mario ;m;
But…Mario game. Sorry but I can’t really judge this, I can barely get past the first stage XD


BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
Help out by reviewing.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Waaaah I wish I could have had something ready for this. :(
author=FlyingJester
Making 'reasons' italic just makes me want to know why more...

right! My imagination is going wild: was he dressing up as Santa in June? he learnt the accordion? he was taking vulgar photos of chickens? Did he dot his 'i's with circles? He was watching too much 80s pop videos? He clapped his hands to scare a horse?
Making 'reasons' italic just makes me want to know why more...
purplex's game was denied for reasons. Plus, he was banned for being a douche.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Currently, I've given 13 of the 18 entries a spin. I guess CARRIONBLUE's game doesn't count, since it's not listed? Anyway, my favorites thus far are Not a Chance of a Ghost, Where End Times Saddest Songs, and candy fangs.

*Edit:
author=Ashes of Emerald
author=Deckiller
Indrah and Fomar are good devs!
What games did they produce?

Dead Moon Night. It's fun and cute, but I'm a little fuzzy on the encounter system.


*Edit 2: I'm getting anti-climbing paint for purplex's gamepage?
author=Deckiller
Indrah and Fomar are good devs!


What games did they produce?
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
author=Clareain_Christopher
Gonna start DMN tonight along with a couple others.
Saw a small LP and thought it was nifty.
Ooh ooh! Mine next! *Excited schoolboy behavior*
Ahem, OUR Game.
Hope you enjoy it!

And thanks BurningTyger and Deckkiller.
Gonna start DMN tonight along with a couple others.
Saw a small LP and thought it was nifty.
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
Indrah and Fomar are good devs!