Winters
A downloadable game for macOS and Linux
Short story about a group of people taking refuge in an abandoned house during a blizzard.
This is another submission for the Winter VN Jam 2021. 'Stevens' was my other entry which is about as different from this as it could possibly be and can be played here if interested.
I was going to make this playable in the browser as well, but I can't work out how to get it under Itch's 1000 file limit to get it to work. So for now, download only unfortunately.
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Comments
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A nice and creepy visual novel. I enjoyed reading The Tragic Tale of Leth Winters and the overall atmosphere of the game was well executed. Just a little critique: I think adding a bit more to the dialogue with Erin along with some unsettling events would have made this more suspenseful. Other than that, great work and I look forward to seeing more.
Agree with your critique. The game could definitely use a few more quality passes to polish it up. Maybe down the track I'll return to it. But thanks for playing and sharing your video! Much appreciated!
This was such a fun visual novel! It really was well made; the story was really enthralling and pulls the reader/ player into the story and game through that. The constant reminder of the bitter and cold snow always there in the background as music, the unnerving feeling of a random person being in the cabin with the character and then the realisation slowly dawning in on the player that the story might be real after all.
It was all executed really well!!
The only thing I would suggest would be that in between the story, Erin would go 'ghost mode' and maybe look scary if you flip to a certain page or she might be looking over the book at the character or maybe have a smol smile or something. That would really encapsulate everything and add some more depth to the already great environment you've built!
One other thing would be the ending; it seemed super sudden and Erin just vanishes with the bloody text on the wall. The text didn't seem to match with the setting you built as the window and Erin herself looked more realistic compared to the bloody, and also Erin just disappearing didn't really seem to add to the build up of the story? Or that might just be me.
Though I do have to say how Erin disappears when the torchlight leaves her model was a really nice touch!
The above thoughts and suggestions are just my opinion but I do have to say that you have crafted a really enthralling and wonderful game and world inside of it in a really well thought out way! It really was indeed great to play and experience!
Good luck on future projects! This really was a great game!
Wow, that was an amazing review. Thank you!
I will admit, you are totally right about the blood writing. It doesn't feel 'photographic' and therefore doesn't fit in with aesthetic. That is a really good point.
My default defence is "it's a game jam visual novel" :D And when I released it I was pretty done with it. But this has been generally much better received than I thought it would be and that's kinda inspiring me to consider polishing it up.
But anyways, thanks so much for playing / reviewing / recording / sharing, very very much appreciated!
I love the design in this game! The animations and visual effects and the way the ending happened was really impressive to me. Great work.
Thank you kindly! Appreciate it.
Love the game, especially how you integrated the flashlight into the interactivity of the story. The ending hit quite nicely, as well. Keep up the great work! :)
Cheers!
Glad you liked it! And it's okay, the flashlight effect required a 4K transparent PNG to track around with the mouse which I'm sure would be pretty stressful on an older PC. The game has been a bit better received than I thought it would be. I might revisit it down the track and flesh it out and polish it up a bit more. We'll see. But anyways, thanks for your feedback and sharing your play through. Much appreciated!
Cool short horror game.
Watch video here:
Your mouse movement made the ending play out perfectly! Cheers for sharing your play through.
I truly enjoyed the game.
(Only side note: Some of the selections felt repetitive, like they were saying the same thing only reworded.) BUT Overall, great story. Wonderful visuals. And that last part kind of got me.
Game starts at 4:00 and ends at 29:45. Apologies in advance for the technical issues and my awkwardness. You might need to adjust the sound a bit lower.
Haha that was great! I loved your reaction at the end. The game was made in a bit of a hurry for a game jam and I stupidly decided it was a good idea to make all the players responses choice based. With more time I could have ironed it all out and made it more natural and interesting, but alas. Anyways, glad you liked it and thank you for sharing your play through. Much appreciated!
Dude, I can't even. That was SO COOL. I can't help but think, had they let the woman in, nothing bad would've happened.
Yeah, that's what people get for being jerks :D Glad you liked it!
It's a cold Winters night, and an unfamiliar voice asks if you're awake. To your surprise, it seems you're trapped in the storm together.
Another brilliant game from LazyTiger, who seems to be always able to execute great ideas in a visual novel format. The introduction to the game is immediate, and threw me off quite a bit. I didn't quite realize what was going on at first, but quickly things started to take shape. Once you get into the story of the game, it's not exactly unpredictable per say. I knew where it was going, but still found myself anxious and that to me makes it stand out when you're talking about a horror game. Anticipation of something happening can be more impactful than actual scary events. Winters does a fantastic job of unnerving you as the reader. With a length of roughly fifteen minutes, you can't go wrong with a quick playthrough late at night.
Ahhh! Thank you again for your coverage! Your enthusiasm means a lot to me!
Let me say this, it was a good read.
Most of all, I liked the eeriness and creepiness of the game, which felt rushed towards the end.
The first sequence with finding out about Erin and being in the building with her was chilling. I expected something to happen and the simplicity of that conversation between the 2 was high note of the game. After that, I had to read the tale of the "witch" and that part dragged a bit. I loved visual novels and I do love reading on my own free time, yet, I think this would have used more interaction and less reading.
I do realize, this is a Jam project and you can improve upon it, that's why I am giving some constructive criticism for the future - First part was great and ending felt raw, flat and overwhelming. I did like the visuals, atmosphere, but I also expected more from the ending.
I do hope to see the continuation of this and maybe making it less linier would also improve the replay quality, as I noticed, playing second time, that the choices did not matter as they were not different enough.
Overall, fantastic, short, creepy story. Well-made.
All very fair comments.
This was basically just a bunch of ideas strung together by a fairly hastily constructed story. I wanted to try a flashlight effect, photographic based assets, object based storytelling and 'mouse position' events.
I was also experimenting with the idea of the main character's dialogue being all choice based, so they never said anything the player didn't pick. But this unfortunately probably gave the impression of there being many branching possibilities. So that may have been a mistake.
But, as you pointed out, it's just a game jam game at the end of the day and doesn't need to be more than it is.
Thanks for playing and sharing your thoughts, much appreciated!