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This game has been created over about two weeks (from 16th of October to the 31th of October) for the Kill the Cutie event and Spooktober Spooktacular Game Jam. It's available for Windows and macOS.
Now also playable in a browser HERE!
A number of students from Johan Winter's Academy in Alaska have decided to spend the winter break on the university campus instead of returning home for the holidays. Christmas is at hand and the remaining students and faculty members are making preparations for the celebration.
You play as Alistair Morgan, the Resident Advisor to the other students and an heir to a sizeable fortune. He has a strained relationship with his father, who disapproves of his choice to study at a less prestigious school far away instead of following the family tradition. Alistair hopes to simply spend some time with his girlfriend, Natalia, as well as his friends instead of suffering another Christmas celebration with his demanding family. And as everyone joins in the celebrations, he does too. Unfortunaly, it won't be as simple as he hopes. And as everything goes wrong at once, it will be up to him to rescue his friends, while monsters stalk the hallways.
The game features monsters patrolling the different areas of the school, triggering a chase if they spot the player. Monsters have a different detection radius depending on whether the player character is currently running, walking or standing as well as depending on the direction the monster is facing. There
are also the keelut, whose sighting brings only trouble. And of course, the
great wolf Amarok starts its hunt soon enough...
There is also a cold weather system, which triggers a game over if Alistair spends too long outside in the freezing cold. The positions of the different characters you need to rescue are also random, adding some replayability. If you trigger a Game Over, you can press Enter to skip the long Game Over animation.
Now also playable in a browser HERE!
A number of students from Johan Winter's Academy in Alaska have decided to spend the winter break on the university campus instead of returning home for the holidays. Christmas is at hand and the remaining students and faculty members are making preparations for the celebration.
You play as Alistair Morgan, the Resident Advisor to the other students and an heir to a sizeable fortune. He has a strained relationship with his father, who disapproves of his choice to study at a less prestigious school far away instead of following the family tradition. Alistair hopes to simply spend some time with his girlfriend, Natalia, as well as his friends instead of suffering another Christmas celebration with his demanding family. And as everyone joins in the celebrations, he does too. Unfortunaly, it won't be as simple as he hopes. And as everything goes wrong at once, it will be up to him to rescue his friends, while monsters stalk the hallways.
The game features monsters patrolling the different areas of the school, triggering a chase if they spot the player. Monsters have a different detection radius depending on whether the player character is currently running, walking or standing as well as depending on the direction the monster is facing. There
are also the keelut, whose sighting brings only trouble. And of course, the
great wolf Amarok starts its hunt soon enough...
There is also a cold weather system, which triggers a game over if Alistair spends too long outside in the freezing cold. The positions of the different characters you need to rescue are also random, adding some replayability. If you trigger a Game Over, you can press Enter to skip the long Game Over animation.
Latest Blog
Beregon
- Completed
- Beregon
RPG Maker MZ- Adventure
- 10/22/2020 09:46 AM
- 02/20/2024 11:41 PM
- 10/31/2020
- 24790
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CloseJust wanted to tell you that I played this game back when it released and absolutely loved the story and concept overall, I thought I had talked about my love for this game on this gamepage, but I must've forgotten to do so. Keep up the great work!
Beregon
3527
author=OzzyTheOne
Just wanted to tell you that I played this game back when it released and absolutely loved the story and concept overall, I thought I had talked about my love for this game on this gamepage, but I must've forgotten to do so. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! I appreciate it!
JapoZero
1002
Hey Beregon! I just finished playing Amarok's Howl, version 1.6
Before leaving this comment, I read some of the reviews to give myself some context. Congratulations for developing this game in two weeks, it's very good for a second game ever made, too.
I found Amarok's Howl to be a cool chase-and-hide game, although there's stuff that I'd definitely improve or take into account for future projects similar to this one. Starting with the story, I really liked the focus on explaining the myths regarding the wolves and Sednas' one. The characters were enjoyable, although their role was minimal (even if the player read all of their dialogue before the attack), and in fact, I think expanding their roles would've been ideal...
For example, I expected everyone to be in actual danger. It would increase the game's complexity in a good way, as the sense of urgency kind of went away as soon as I realized no one really died if, by example, both a wolf and I found them, and then I left the area. In fact, I tried this just to be annoying xD, yet nothing happened.
Another thing is that if you interact with Natalia at the very start of the Doctor's Office sequence, she'll bomb the player with information about the classmates. I think it'd been better if she only knew the whereabouts of her closest friends or the youngest people on campus, while having Doctor Carter know about everyone else, maybe about the classmates that usually get hurt and know her the best, or even give some of the rescued classmates that info, sort of as an incentive to specifically rescue them first. That way you could make gameplays a bit more varied, as players might prefer to follow either Natalia's or Carter's advice first.
The ending...was confusing. I didn't understand it before reading the reviews, as I don't know anything about Amarok's legends and myths other than the ones mentioned in this game. In my perspective, I thought Alistair drowned himself (?) to escape the wolf, yet he got murdered by it anyways. Now that I read about the widower myth (which fits neatly with Natalia's death!), maybe it would've been a good idea to show that specific myth as a scene during the game, maybe as one of the nightmares Alistair suffers at the start, sort of foreshadowing the ending.
The gameplay is probably one of the stronger points considering the detection and weather system is really neat, and probably took most of the time during the two weeks if it was custom made. I'm not really familiar with MZ's pathfinding (only with the one used in VX/Ace), so I don't know if it was just a default thing or not, but no wolf got stuck behind walls while trying to chase me: they actually took detours to reach me. That, and the fact that sometimes I could avoid their attack if I was lucky enough, made the chase sequences pretty cool. I had to be careful yet I had chances to survive (haven't said it yet, but I was playing on medium/normal difficulty).
One thing that I do think didn't shine through the gameplay was stealth walking: as most of the maps were too big to walk slowly, there wasn't a real incentive to actually use it. I did use the jumping mechanics, although I wish the first tutorial/prologue actually mentioned the 16 seconds thing instead of just saying "a few seconds".
I'll also say that using a fading indicator of danger is a really neat idea, though it could've been smaller and on a corner maybe. As far as I read, if it became fully opaque I would've been attacked or auto-killed by the Amarok? It takes too much time for that to happen. Even the biggest maps didn't take two or three minutes to walk/run by unless you were really unlucky with the wolves chasing you.
Audio and music...I can't say much, as most of it was from MZ's RTP. The music and sound choices were good for the ambiance and tension I think. I loved the fact that there were noises playing in the dark hallways, although some felt too random and meaningless after a while. Random sounds aren't bad at all to scare the player, but...I would've toned them down a little bit and focused on using most of these as actual clues of something being nearby.
About graphics! Again, most, if not all of them, come from MZ's RTP. While some people find it extremely ugly, I do think it can be salvageable overall, as some of the characters and graphics from it are actually good looking. However, one thing that really bothered me was the window-skin. That light-blue color works neat on the title screen, day scenes and the outside maps, however, it contrasts too much with every other sequence of the game where you're hiding or being chased. Even if you use the default windowskin, one thing you could do for those moments is change the color of it through event commands, to a darker shade that fits the interiors or crudest scenes.
Now, I'll say one of the biggest weaknesses of this game was the maps. A chase game definitely needs a lot of space to run and escape from enemies, otherwise you'd run into dead ends every ten seconds, and I really appreciate that there was a lot of space to run, as most rooms had two or three different entrances just to avoid getting unfairly stuck. However, I think the spaces in these maps were too many, both for corridors, outside roads, hallways, etc. Overusing them means some maps will look empty and bland, even more so for places like the main building, where it can be confusing to run for like five seconds and only see carpet/wood floor on the entire screen. The other aspect I'd take into account for future projects is trying to differentiate rooms and buildings a little bit more, for example, most of the sheds, houses and buildings outside have similar or identical proportions, shapes and rooftops. That could be fixed by playing with those three aspects, or by adding details like cracks, chimneys or specific types of furniture to differentiate them, so that no one gets lost.
Well...I think that's my comment! I enjoyed playing Amarok's Howl, and there is a lot of room for improvement if you ever decide to update or create a game similar to this one.
Wish you the best luck with future projects!
Before leaving this comment, I read some of the reviews to give myself some context. Congratulations for developing this game in two weeks, it's very good for a second game ever made, too.
I found Amarok's Howl to be a cool chase-and-hide game, although there's stuff that I'd definitely improve or take into account for future projects similar to this one. Starting with the story, I really liked the focus on explaining the myths regarding the wolves and Sednas' one. The characters were enjoyable, although their role was minimal (even if the player read all of their dialogue before the attack), and in fact, I think expanding their roles would've been ideal...
For example, I expected everyone to be in actual danger. It would increase the game's complexity in a good way, as the sense of urgency kind of went away as soon as I realized no one really died if, by example, both a wolf and I found them, and then I left the area. In fact, I tried this just to be annoying xD, yet nothing happened.
Another thing is that if you interact with Natalia at the very start of the Doctor's Office sequence, she'll bomb the player with information about the classmates. I think it'd been better if she only knew the whereabouts of her closest friends or the youngest people on campus, while having Doctor Carter know about everyone else, maybe about the classmates that usually get hurt and know her the best, or even give some of the rescued classmates that info, sort of as an incentive to specifically rescue them first. That way you could make gameplays a bit more varied, as players might prefer to follow either Natalia's or Carter's advice first.
The ending...was confusing. I didn't understand it before reading the reviews, as I don't know anything about Amarok's legends and myths other than the ones mentioned in this game. In my perspective, I thought Alistair drowned himself (?) to escape the wolf, yet he got murdered by it anyways. Now that I read about the widower myth (which fits neatly with Natalia's death!), maybe it would've been a good idea to show that specific myth as a scene during the game, maybe as one of the nightmares Alistair suffers at the start, sort of foreshadowing the ending.
The gameplay is probably one of the stronger points considering the detection and weather system is really neat, and probably took most of the time during the two weeks if it was custom made. I'm not really familiar with MZ's pathfinding (only with the one used in VX/Ace), so I don't know if it was just a default thing or not, but no wolf got stuck behind walls while trying to chase me: they actually took detours to reach me. That, and the fact that sometimes I could avoid their attack if I was lucky enough, made the chase sequences pretty cool. I had to be careful yet I had chances to survive (haven't said it yet, but I was playing on medium/normal difficulty).
One thing that I do think didn't shine through the gameplay was stealth walking: as most of the maps were too big to walk slowly, there wasn't a real incentive to actually use it. I did use the jumping mechanics, although I wish the first tutorial/prologue actually mentioned the 16 seconds thing instead of just saying "a few seconds".
I'll also say that using a fading indicator of danger is a really neat idea, though it could've been smaller and on a corner maybe. As far as I read, if it became fully opaque I would've been attacked or auto-killed by the Amarok? It takes too much time for that to happen. Even the biggest maps didn't take two or three minutes to walk/run by unless you were really unlucky with the wolves chasing you.
Audio and music...I can't say much, as most of it was from MZ's RTP. The music and sound choices were good for the ambiance and tension I think. I loved the fact that there were noises playing in the dark hallways, although some felt too random and meaningless after a while. Random sounds aren't bad at all to scare the player, but...I would've toned them down a little bit and focused on using most of these as actual clues of something being nearby.
About graphics! Again, most, if not all of them, come from MZ's RTP. While some people find it extremely ugly, I do think it can be salvageable overall, as some of the characters and graphics from it are actually good looking. However, one thing that really bothered me was the window-skin. That light-blue color works neat on the title screen, day scenes and the outside maps, however, it contrasts too much with every other sequence of the game where you're hiding or being chased. Even if you use the default windowskin, one thing you could do for those moments is change the color of it through event commands, to a darker shade that fits the interiors or crudest scenes.
Now, I'll say one of the biggest weaknesses of this game was the maps. A chase game definitely needs a lot of space to run and escape from enemies, otherwise you'd run into dead ends every ten seconds, and I really appreciate that there was a lot of space to run, as most rooms had two or three different entrances just to avoid getting unfairly stuck. However, I think the spaces in these maps were too many, both for corridors, outside roads, hallways, etc. Overusing them means some maps will look empty and bland, even more so for places like the main building, where it can be confusing to run for like five seconds and only see carpet/wood floor on the entire screen. The other aspect I'd take into account for future projects is trying to differentiate rooms and buildings a little bit more, for example, most of the sheds, houses and buildings outside have similar or identical proportions, shapes and rooftops. That could be fixed by playing with those three aspects, or by adding details like cracks, chimneys or specific types of furniture to differentiate them, so that no one gets lost.
Well...I think that's my comment! I enjoyed playing Amarok's Howl, and there is a lot of room for improvement if you ever decide to update or create a game similar to this one.
Wish you the best luck with future projects!
Beregon
3527
Thanks for playing the game and for your feedback. I agree with basically everything. Most of those points are already things I realized either during the development or shortly after, but at that point it was either too late to change things or I just didn't have time to figure out a better way to do it, for example that advice from Natalia.
I agree that the maps aren't good, they are more functional than aesthetic in design and the corridors are way too wide. The adlet used to have a wider detection range, which I reworked in some subsequent update, so those are a remnant of that. I actually made the maps during the last few days of the game jam. Some of them like the Main Building and the first floor of the dorms were literally finished during the last few hours of the game jam.
That said, the game's setting is a remote college campus in Alaska, so, some amount of uniformity and sparseness is intentional. I tried to atleast make it a somewhat "realistic" layout and make the rooms resemble what they were supposed to portray, which was hard with MZ RTP. I think that if the corridors weren't as wide as they are now, the maps would feel a bit more natural.
The story and cutscenes was the same way, I only got around to doing those a few hours before the end of the game jam, right after I finished the maps. So it's somewhat of a "first draft" in most cases.
Most of the development time was spent refining the basic gameplay and figuring out how to implement it by myself, which was far from easy and I almost gave up on this game multiple times.
Stealth Walking is something you are meant to switch to when you notice an Adlet on the screen. Running around is supposed to be the default way to traverse the map.
Amarok implementation could be a lot better, I agree.
What was your opinion on those dogs (Keelut) that showed up from time to time and alerted the Adlet if you got too near them? Do you think that mechanic added fun to the game?
As for the ending:
I did intend to add that legend to the game too to explain the ending, but that was shortly before the ending of the game jam, so in the end I didn't have time to add it in. I'm thinking about doing a final update to the game that will add the legend in alongside some other things. Mostly bug fixes. And an additional ending scene after Alistair's death.
Did you think the ending was fitting, atleast in intent if not in execution?
I hope you enjoyed playing the game for what it was. I'm currently making another horror game for a game jam that ends in early July, so feel free to play that one once I upload it and provide your feedback. It was a great read, thanks for your comment!
I agree that the maps aren't good, they are more functional than aesthetic in design and the corridors are way too wide. The adlet used to have a wider detection range, which I reworked in some subsequent update, so those are a remnant of that. I actually made the maps during the last few days of the game jam. Some of them like the Main Building and the first floor of the dorms were literally finished during the last few hours of the game jam.
That said, the game's setting is a remote college campus in Alaska, so, some amount of uniformity and sparseness is intentional. I tried to atleast make it a somewhat "realistic" layout and make the rooms resemble what they were supposed to portray, which was hard with MZ RTP. I think that if the corridors weren't as wide as they are now, the maps would feel a bit more natural.
The story and cutscenes was the same way, I only got around to doing those a few hours before the end of the game jam, right after I finished the maps. So it's somewhat of a "first draft" in most cases.
Most of the development time was spent refining the basic gameplay and figuring out how to implement it by myself, which was far from easy and I almost gave up on this game multiple times.
Stealth Walking is something you are meant to switch to when you notice an Adlet on the screen. Running around is supposed to be the default way to traverse the map.
Amarok implementation could be a lot better, I agree.
What was your opinion on those dogs (Keelut) that showed up from time to time and alerted the Adlet if you got too near them? Do you think that mechanic added fun to the game?
As for the ending:
I did intend to add that legend to the game too to explain the ending, but that was shortly before the ending of the game jam, so in the end I didn't have time to add it in. I'm thinking about doing a final update to the game that will add the legend in alongside some other things. Mostly bug fixes. And an additional ending scene after Alistair's death.
Did you think the ending was fitting, atleast in intent if not in execution?
I hope you enjoyed playing the game for what it was. I'm currently making another horror game for a game jam that ends in early July, so feel free to play that one once I upload it and provide your feedback. It was a great read, thanks for your comment!
JapoZero
1002
Hmm, I see!
For the Keelut, I really liked them, as I've seen other games use secondary threats like that so that there's multiple things to avoid. I think their effect wasn't that big on normal mode, but it was definitely fun to avoid getting "detected" by them, and it also gave an incentive to take alternate routes sometimes...
...especially during the last sequence of the game where they become an instant death, as otherwise the player would just run from one building to another. It was a nice way to force them move through the entire campus while also being careful of both the Keelut and the Adlet, plus, reusing every other location or hallway that might not been really explored, due to the randomized locations of the survivors.
When it comes to the ending,
, I understand. Time limits can really impact the game's content (and be really frustrating, as soon as you realize there's so much stuff you won't be able to do...). An update to add those extra explanations could definitely improve other player's reception of the ending.
And yes, I do think the ending was fitting. Alistair and Natalia's relationship is one of the main themes of the game at least, so using it to incorporate the widower myth into Amarok's Howl is a great idea.
Surely enjoyed. Good luck with the horror game!
I'll keep an eye on its release.
For the Keelut, I really liked them, as I've seen other games use secondary threats like that so that there's multiple things to avoid. I think their effect wasn't that big on normal mode, but it was definitely fun to avoid getting "detected" by them, and it also gave an incentive to take alternate routes sometimes...
...especially during the last sequence of the game where they become an instant death, as otherwise the player would just run from one building to another. It was a nice way to force them move through the entire campus while also being careful of both the Keelut and the Adlet, plus, reusing every other location or hallway that might not been really explored, due to the randomized locations of the survivors.
When it comes to the ending,
, I understand. Time limits can really impact the game's content (and be really frustrating, as soon as you realize there's so much stuff you won't be able to do...). An update to add those extra explanations could definitely improve other player's reception of the ending.
And yes, I do think the ending was fitting. Alistair and Natalia's relationship is one of the main themes of the game at least, so using it to incorporate the widower myth into Amarok's Howl is a great idea.
Surely enjoyed. Good luck with the horror game!
I'll keep an eye on its release.
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