Halloween Contest 2013 Review 001: Spooky Times

[Gizmog]

Ahh, the Halloween Contest. My favorite time of the year, when we all get together and collectively swing and miss at making a scary game. No offense to the many who've tried, but I don't think we've had that real spine-tingler that the engine is capable of. However, here we are, less than 48 hours into the contest and already Meowskivich is promising us Spooky Times. That's moxie if I ever heard of it, and I like that sound!

Unfortunately, that's the last sound I like. The music is less Spooky Times and more Saxophone Practice. I don't believe there's any sound effects, though the saxophone at least changes up a little for battles. This is kind of a bummer, 'cause music is the most important part of setting up a spooky atmosphere and it seems like it was passed over with no effort. Fortunately, the rest of the game is also pretty un-spooky and effortless so it at least fits.

I guess I should bring up the concept. You are Skelly, an animated skull, and on Halloween all the monsters duke it out to see who should be the King of the Monsters. Fun concept, except the whole game takes place on the same grayscale map, with a bunch of two color enemies. The monsters should be the focal point of the game, seeing what's going to happen next should be the real thrill, and this design does nothing to help that. The map is boring, the monsters are forgettable, there's basically nothing to look forward to. Even the battles are simple "Hit fight, occasionally cure" affairs.

Unless you see a new version go up after this review, or if the deadline for Halloween games passes and this is the only entry, there's not any reason to play this. Basically, it's a 48 hour game. If it were a 48 hour contest, it'd be an okay but kinda boring entry. You got nearly two weeks left, dude! Polish that slime! Expand on it! Split the monsters into different areas, or at least add some variety to the maptiles. Pimp up your graphics, you don't need to go Willy Electrix style. In essence: TRY. I know you can't look at this game and think it's a perfect example of what you can do. It's "Good enough" and no one ever won any medals for being "Good enough", you win medals for going above and beyond. There's no excuse whatsoever for cutting this many corners, there's no reward for being the first guy to enter. It's like school, if you finish before time has expired go back and look over your work. I know you can do better than this if you apply yourself.

[Meowskivich]

You desire a better version? I suppose I can do that.
I suck at music making (a more proper term escapes me), so I don't know if it's going to improve.
The game isn't really supposed to be scary, it's really just what it is. Just you running about fighting some halloween icons, really.

Originally, I was thinking of making it where you and some other person are in a maze trying to escape these monsters that you can encounter but they're mess you up something fierce and eventually you get the crown and your friend then get possessed by the evil in the crown and he tries to kill you....but I decided "I want to get something out, so here's this". The original characters were gonna be just squares ala Adventure (Atari). I suppose this is another one of those instances that I was originally not going to enter but I got bored and threw something out, but I made a small amount of effort on this.

Will your Deluxe version arrive? Perhaps. But we shall see.

[Gizmog]

Hey, no problems with being bored and making something. It's great practice.

[Meowskivich]

I had fun with it, that's for sure.