Description

It's that time of the year again~ Halloween month! Yay! Now, usually we tend to have a fairly open game making event where everyone just makes a game that may or may not have to do with horror, but this time around I figure let's go hardcore into that goodnight.

It's time to create a frightening time~

This event is all about creating a horror game!

What is a Horror Game?
By definition horror as a genre tends to follow the Survival Horror trope - drop your hero into the middle of something terrifying and horrific and force them to try and survive. There may or may not be allusions to various myths, legends and classic horror tropes, and a lot of the time there's different endings (even though most are split into good/bad/death/death/death ones).

A good horror game leaves the player guessing when the next scare is coming, gives hints as to what the scare is and what should not be interacted with, but also allows for not showing the horror too closely. They use sound direction, music and atmosphere over cheap dark-screen tactics and can leave you worried about whether you should check that table or not.

Some games don't include gore. Some do. Some horror games focus more on story or characters, whilst others drop you down as a nameless, faceless person striving to fight against the mysteries of the dark (think Slenderman). Either way, they're often quite short games in comparison to normal ones, and quite a few have a lot of replay value.

Event Rules
In this event you will be creating a horror game, using some of the provided choices below.

You must pick ONE (or more) of the list below to be in your game:
- Fading Dreams
- Bloody Smile
- Twisted Memories
- Mysterious Present
- Broken Future
- Hopeless Tomorrow
- Forgotten Past

You must also include at least TWO (or more, if you wish) of the following:
- A red balloon
- Empty picture frames
- Broken glasses
- Demonic Possession
- Cloves of garlic
- An iron sword
- An old music box
- Golden key/s
- A cursed cellphone
- An eyeless teddy bear
- Blood-stained wedding dress
- A poisoned cup


Submission Rules
The submission rules are as follows:
- Full game or demo is fine. Demos should be over 10 minutes long, though.
- You may start on October 1st!
- Time ends Midnight of the 30th of October. Games must be submitted to this event page by then! Please plan ahead by having game pages created by that point. (To make sure you see the right time on the page in your time zone, go to account settings and change your hour offset to fit your area. This will change site time to be your timezone and the dates in the top-right corner of the event page will reflect this.)
- Games should be stand-alone and not require extra additions (like downloading RTP files or the like).
- Games should follow the event rules.
- You may use a team if you wish, but it's not necessary.
- Any engine allowed.
- Games MUST abide by site rules.

Judging
Those who managed to submit a full game or demo at the end of the event will get a participation badge.

Games will be judged by a group of judges who will decide the top three games. Those top three games will get a badge each, from 1st place to 3rd place.





FAQS

Does it have to be a straight horror game? Does it have to be scary?
Well, the main idea is to make it a bit scary, but there are games out there that blend cute and scary quite well, so if you can do something like that I see no reason you can't make a blended horror. It doesn't have to be straight horror genre, either. It's fine to make a mix of genres, just make sure that horror is the main one.





Third Place


Cara by Edus1998



Second Place


Xenos by markofthewind28


First Place


A Ghost's Lullaby by Lucy_Fox



Honourable Mentions (in no particular order)
_ (underscore) - Best Use of Sound and Demon
Halloweeb - Best Use of Animu
Polixiuhs - Best Facade of Normality
A Night at Hotel Deuce - Best Quick Time Events Against Creepy-Ass Sprites o.O;
Red Balloon of Happiness - Best Frogge is Not Actually a Girl BTW
Super Girl Squad - Best Dungeons and Dragons Rip-Off ;p
Mom - Best Game that Didn't Make it in Time


Background art by Mezamero of deviantart

Details

  • 10/01/2016 12:00 AM
  • 10/31/2016 04:00 AM
  • 10

Achievements

Registration

You must be logged in to sign up for A Halloween Horror.

Teams Members Entry
The Ghost of Christmas Kloe
Team Scary
this'll be my first horror game... best game on here!
Team Scream
it's been halloween since july 5th
Wanna see real horror? Check out my gam mak!
A Ghost's Lullaby - The one that isn't scary at all
Team Name
OzzyChanz & MioTheOne
blathnat the impaler
Team Jumpscares Sucks
Monster Mash!
Made a Horror game in less than 4 days.
The scary thing is how much other stuff I SHOULD be doing.
HopefullyFinishing
Hey guys I've been here for five minutes what's going on
Somewhere or Bust!
Sure, why not
cesber the friendly ghost
HELLO YES THIS IS FROGGE HERE TO MAKE A GAME WHERE EVERYONE DIES
Donald Wins the Presidency
team spoopy
Team get notifications
Probably Halloween Game
Do nothing or die trying
Because Survival Horror can still be RPGs!
TwoD Studios
Teem Zeebree, it's a demo.
Team Vengeful Sols
hIROMU
The doll maker
Totally not making a game
Punkk makes a Surreal Horror Game!
The Music box
NoBody´s MagiK
AfroSoft
aHH Project
H16
Should be working in main game but
forest overlay == instant win
Marshmellow
Rainbows and Unicorns
Get spooped, plebs
Bats in the Belfry
#goingtofail
No game, no team, only candy corn
I might try this
Sup Bro
I like working under pressure, haha! -faints-
10 days to try beat SnowOwl :(
RWBY
Hossi Games
Mummy help me project
Irregularity
ManiacMax's Team
Manacade

Posts

author=Superstroke
SGS Halloween Game
Loved the concept and loved the battle animations!
Very well done! The rolls might've have been a little confusing.
I read all of the tutorial, maybe I missed it or maybe it wasn't clear enough, I don't know.


Thanks! The battle checks are all "roll under". So if you have a dexterity of 8, the goal is to roll a 1d10 under an 8. The modifier is tacked on to that result roll. So if I roll a 7, and I have a modifier of 1, that gives me a 6. Seeing as the result is under my dexterity, that means the roll succeeded.

However - and I think this is the cause for confusion - my modifiers are reversed. So a -1, while it would normally make a roll easier, is a +1. A +1, while it could make the roll harder, is actually a -1. What I need to do is set aside another variable to "mirror" it, so that it will be more obvious what a modifier does.

I hope that helps it a bit. Thanks for your feedback!
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Edus1998
At least libby fixed mine :')


That's because Libby's awesome.
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
Yay, uploaded a slightly more polished version of my games' DEMO. I also included a tricky hidden riddle. :P
Kloe
I lost my arms in a tragic chibi accident
2236
These games are so good! Also thanks for all the kind words about PS, I'm gonna work on it more too! :D

Now feedback time!

SGS Halloween Board Game by Gredge
Wow, it was really fun! :D
Cool mechanics and it's randomized so I can play it forever! Yay!
Also super cute graphics and the plot was fun!

A Night at Hotel Deuce by Snowy Owl
It was really creepy... those big pots were scary.
The quick time events were quite hard but I thought they were fun, I also loved the 2D perspective in the halls and the change that happens throughout the game in each room, that's really cool! :D

Red balloon of happiness by Irog
(I can't find it on this list, but the gamepage says it's for Horror Jam, so I'll comment on it anyway!)
It was really cool gameplay, I loved being a balloon, and it was a creepy storyline. I enjoyed the exploration and the little details like the lego and the broken bottles. Also I must have heard Frogge saying "I need you" like a billion times, haha. I kept popping the balloon by being clumsy and htting myself with the candle. :P
Also the input thingy was a neat mechanic, I liked how I could tell it whatever I wanted until I basically said "Yes" or "No". I maaaay have said "Fuck off you balloon, lemme through! >:(" once, haha.

_ otherwise known as *insert underscore here* by Anaryu
Scary, 3D and possibly the silliest name ever, _ is a great spooky game. It's really hard though and dang, there are 6 keys!?
A challenging, scary game, where it's fun to spin around in a circle with your flashlight and run as fast as you can!

Night of The Serpent by Ozzy
A fun game which I enjoyed, creepy and spooky, with a nice non-creepy bit to set the scene and I'm not sure I'm gonna be drinking tea anytime soon haha.
It might be short, but it was very fun and the ending was perfect! :D


Aaaand that's everything I've played so far!
author=Kloe
Red balloon of happiness by Irog
(I can't find it on this list, but the gamepage says it's for Horror Jam, so I'll comment on it anyway!)
It was really cool gameplay, I loved being a balloon, and it was a creepy storyline. I enjoyed the exploration and the little details like the lego and the broken bottles. Also I must have heard Frogge saying "I need you" like a billion times, haha. I kept popping the balloon by being clumsy and htting myself with the candle. :P
Also the input thingy was a neat mechanic, I liked how I could tell it whatever I wanted until I basically said "Yes" or "No". I maaaay have said "Fuck off you balloon, lemme through! >:(" once, haha.

Thanks for your feedback Kloe!

I started to upload of the demo 10 minutes before the dead line... and it didn't finish on time to submit for the event :(

All the little details are Avee's fine pixel art.
In most horror game, your source of light is your best friend; here I wanted something different, something that forces the player to be cautious.
I'm glad you like the keyboard input. "Of course" and "I don't" are also accepted. I could add you answer to the list of valid ones ;-)

I've made a newer version (much closer to a complete game) where the endings are reachable. If you want to try, I welcome your comments.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
I haven't played anything yet. I haven't really had the time or been in the mood.
So part 2 of the Halloween stream is about to start! Get on over here if you want to watch! https://www.twitch.tv/silversatyr/
Just to let everyone know that you can check out Liberty's past streams of this event's games at https://goo.gl/aSymfX (the official RMN YouTube channel) :)
They're also being put on my youtube channel (the first stream is up already, the second is getting there).
author=Liberty
They're also being put on my youtube channel (the first stream is up already, the second is getting there).

Likes the way you streamin' those game! Interesting/funny, but informative! Keep it going!
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
When will we get our participation badges?
Kloe
I lost my arms in a tragic chibi accident
2236
I'd guess after Christmas.
Versalia
must be all that rtp in your diet
1405
Thanks for streaming my game! Unfortunately you got the unfixed version. At the end, SPOILER:
it's supposed to reset everything to the very beginning... you're reliving it over and over
The complete version of our game is now available to download. Enjoy!
Wait, are there going to be achievements for this? I can't see the original page anymore. :/
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Are there gonna be places announced? Can't remember if this was a contest. I assume judging is still takin' place.