Review of Spooks and Summons (Halowoof)

[SwordPlay]

GAMEPLAY
Extremely strong mechanics and well structured!.
Very impressive design, pacing and concept.
Game authors should look to this as an example of what to do and how to do it!
Very linear, and there was one main room which most of the game takes place in.
Thought out progression and execution. Very impressive!

SOUND
Music was fitting. Sound effects were used to great effect in cut-scenes and in combat. Nothing seemed out of place. Great retro feel!

WRITING/DESIGN
The outdoors map could be made a little smaller if it has no other use than to transport the player. I walked all around its edge to see what was there.

NARRATION/PACING
Simple, accessible and self-aware. The pacing is superb.
Maybe characters had a few lines too many. There seemed to be too few characters, and perhaps dialogue could have been distributed better.
Talks quite unconcernedly about traumatising children, which hit a little bit too close to home for my liking. I would have liked to have seen more dialogue given to the child character(s) as a foil to the aunts, and to spread out the narration.

SCRIPT
The script is laden with innuendo, which affects the overall mood and emotional depth of events. I feel that different tones could have been played up more. For a halloween game it's fine, and has great comic overtones.
It's great for the intended audience, unfortunately, that isn't me. Still, it was enjoyable.

FAN-SERVICE/HUMOUR
There is quite a lot of fan-service, but that's okay, because that's a feature of the game.
The humour is stiff, and there's far too much wolf boobies.
At least it is drawn extremely well, however, it does not benefit from being forced into the players face (metaphorically speaking, of course)
Good use of self-referential humour, and throwaway/standalone/sight gags.

SUMMONING SEQUENCE
I would have liked to have been able to skip the summoning sequence, if only for fear that my mother would walk in the room, and it's length and frequency leading to an increasing probability of that happening.
Realistically, I started to feel frustrated by about the 5th time.


GREAT GRAPHICS!
Uses font really well to display different categories of skill, equipment modification etc.,
Fits a lot of detail into a single character!
I think +1, +2, etc., should come in the default font for new users.

Great portraits and cutscenes.

Hero and Walkabout graphics are done extremely well and in an innovative manner. I really enjoyed the monster portraits/walkabouts!

Most images are anatomically correct, exactly proportioned and wonderfully shaded and coloured, which is always a pleasure to see.

All artists could learn a lesson about spriting, draftsmanship (draftswolfship? drafting, anyway) and artwork from this game.
Many artworks are pixel perfect.
Good use is made of dithering, and the forms are very pleasing and aesthetic and professionally made.

The subjects for artwork are varied and diverse, albeit of a dark/gothic nature/theme.

The objects, such as pumpkins were excellent as were all the objects/furniture. The trees were gorgeous

The opening title screen is beautiful.

The key location (the summoning room) looks very pretty.

Really gorgeous with only a few minor issues.

Shading is a bit odd in places, with dark outlines appearing next to highlights, and (some) pillow-shading (a tiny bit).

Some tiles here and there could be improved

If the game is meant to be strictly 32 colours, then ignore all that stuff about colour and shading cus you did it perfectly and it's a great (admirable) job!