Nightmare Class Project

I assume the old Harry Potter games were the inspiration for this, perhaps with a touch of McGee's Alice as well, it roughly follows the same design beats but with a twisted take on the narrative. I was going to say that students get tortured and killed in this game, but then I realized that happens in Hogwarts too. The game is extremely janky which is likely just the lack of experience, although because the dev is going for that retro feel, it feels about right for the 90s 3D game, so while not ideal, I also find that janky part of this game a little charming. Sadly, the game does not fully capture that collectathon mentality of those games, this is mainly because it does not have the currency equivalent to "beans" to make the navigation more relevant, but there are several hidden areas for achievements and cosmetics. That said, you could still double down on the exploration, you can't really go wrong with it. Maybe you could add some collectable currency and some students that would trade you cosmetics for it, just to make exploration more relevant. I think a big thing with old games were those hidden walls, you had a couple of secrets but not as many as I wanted, a lot of time I would look for hidden interactions with paintings, and didn't find anything. I think the narrative of this game is both the best and the worst part of it, in theory I like the concept and I think there are so many weird ideas here, it's just not something that you get to play very often. At the same time, the dev injected so much of his wall breaking humor into it, a lot of it simply does not work or feels over the top, I think the story in itself was already compelling just because the idea is so unique, you should let the game speak for itself. It's fine to do a few sudden jokes, but maybe not as often, and perhaps with a more subtle approach. It might be easy to look at this game and say it's kinda cheap looking and lacking in detail, and that is true depending on which location you exploring, some areas could certainly use more content. However, there is definitely some effort to it, occasionally you will find areas with decent modeling, not to mention that there are several unique biomes/aesthetic changes within it. You will come across several perspective changes, the dev actually tries to do some cinematography in certain places, even reminding me a little of Silent Hill in some aspects. There are many characters to talk and many funky cutscenes to look at, it's a janky game, but not without some love to it. [h1]Pros: [/h1] - within the context of clunky PS1 games, it roughly captures the feel of an average game even if it is not fully intentional, there are several areas that actually have decent retro modeling and design for locations, it just not consistently good. Occasionally you will find moments where the dev plays with camera angles and perspective, some areas of the game look pretty cool, just again, it's not consistent across the game https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3670309952 (the library is probably the most impressive one) - I liked the idea for the narrative, it has some mystery with a few 'charming' moments and some neat character interactions, although I didn't like all the forced cursing, it felt like the developer cursing, not the characters. But the game is pretty odd, and honestly that is the best part about it - there is some collection content like hearts and cosmetics [h1]Feedback: [/h1] [u] Sound Balance [/u] - for some reason soundtrack does not work in the main menu until you click the slider once. On that note, the music volume in the game was extremely low, like you can yank it all the way up and it's still low. Another thing you could maybe do, add different floor sound effects, say metal walking for the metal areas. [u] Glitches [/u] - if you talk to the dragon about the statues it will usually lock out your camera. Sometimes clipping in the water will make you fly around the map. You have to be careful clicking between the loading, it will crash the game. [u] Collection [/u] - you should add more hidden walls or interactive hidden walls that would react to your spell perhaps, say shooting a painting to find something. You could also add something like "beans" or another form of currency and maybe a few traders like the old HP games. [u] Inventory [/u] - the UI for it is super janky, it's hard to select items or cosmetics unless it's right in the middle. [u]Other [/u] - the location for the last statue is very obtuse, I assumed I had to dress like a cat, not get the approval. Personally I think you should cut down on the cursing, it feels too much like I am hearing the developer, not the characters. It would be nice if you didn't repeat long conversations if you already clicked on them. And maybe had a shorter response like a summery. On a personal note, I think you could drop that "tutorial" with the jumps and just start the game arriving at the school. Mostly because it makes a poor first impression with you making the whole death too long, and the area itself looks too plain. [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] This game kinda captures the niche spectrum of the 90s PS1 games, not like a good 90s game, but more of a cult game that maybe you kinda love and hate at the same time, if that makes sense. I don't think that you doing anything wrong, but you could double down on exploration and maybe work a little more on pacing, and improving the look of the areas. There were a lot of good ideas here, it's just a bit sloppy in the way it was put together. Still I thought it was at least charming, even if not for the right reasons. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

This game feels like a soulful silent movie in a sea of over-the-top big-budget Hollywood productions. LATER EDIT: It seems that my “silent movie” analogy proved rather obscure and did little to describe the game as intended. People were wondering what the hell I was trying to say with it. A good friend even wrote me an essay addressing its usefulness and it went somewhere along the lines of “Six Degrees of Uselessness in Search of Expressing Themselves as a Steam Review”. I won’t dwell on it, but it was... harsh. So, after some reflection, I came up with two more analogies to describe the game with. I hope they prove more useful: 1. A little rough around the edges, but that's what makes it so fascinating and intriguing. It's like an old toy you bought at the flea market. It can't compete with the shiny and sophisticated ones you already have at home, but it speaks of a time that you couldn't experience without it, and that makes it more precious than any other toy on your shelf. You don't play with it for what it is, but for where it takes you when you pick it up. 2. You are familiar with the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the Universe, right? It placed Earth in the centre of the Cosmos and provided a much more important place for human beings in the world. They sat comfortably at the centre of everything and, looking up in the sky, they could even see the circles of the Cosmos, with the Garden of Eden waiting patiently at the end, in the highest point of the firmament. They even calculated that it would take a man 8000 years to get there, if he were to proceed at normal walking speed (of course, the soul, after death, can travel much faster). So, what the geocentric model provided was this comfort of God being [i]physically[/i] present in the same world as us. There was literal physical continuity between us and Him. You could basically look up, in a day where the skies were clearer, and see Him looking at you, protectively, from up there. The heliocentric model changed all that. It pushed God further away in the Universe, in an unreachable place, possibly in a totally different order of existence altogether. It revealed that there was no human-centric order to the Universe, turning it into a cold and impersonal place, where the grace of God was less and less present. It had a strongly alienating effect on how people perceived themselves. They felt left all alone and defenceless on a rock whirling through space at impossible speed. It was more scientifically accurate, sure, but science is cold and impersonal, it doesn’t provide comfort, and, contrary to what rationalists will tell you, truth is not meant to “set you free” or ease the pain. The heliocentric model turned the world into an overly complicated place, with less respect for human soul and its newfound vulnerabilities. Throughout history, scholars and poets have lamented the loss of the Ptolemaic universe. I will refer here only to C. S. Lewis’ "The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature" and Nichita Stănescu, who wrote a poetry book titled—in Latin—[i]Laus Ptolemaei,[/i] basically “Praised Be Ptolemy”. They did that not from a place of ignorance, of course, but of nostalgia for the Arcadian model that was lost with it. Sorry for this long preamble, what I wanted to say is that [i]Nightmare Class Project’s[/i] relationship with newer games could be seen as validating the geocentric model, instead of the heliocentric one. It feels clumsy and somewhat outdated, unscientific compared to the games of today; made accordingly to an obsolete model, which nobody uses anymore, but it is precisely because of this that it provides a much more comfortable and uplifting experience. [i]Uplifting,[/i] get it? There! :) EVEN LATER EDIT: I should probably explain [i]why[/i] I have chosen the distinction between two big cosmogonic models to talk about a tiny videogame. I think it’s because of a couple of reasons. For one, Stănescu's book "Laus Ptolemaei" has always fascinated me in a strange and contradictory way. Stănescu always had a way of putting in the language of poetry ideas that were difficult to understand. He wrote a poem, dedicated to Hegel, about how spirit fills itself with matter as it comes into being, and mingles with it to the point that they become inseparable, he has an entire poetic cycle about linguistic concepts, he's very aware of his place in the world and in literature. He also wrote a book of essays about Romanian literature and how it might have shaped a kind of "Romanian way of being in the world". Some of his poems are highly conceptual but he's unique in how he manages to make even the hardest to grasp philosophical ideas feel like genuine poetry. And it's not poetry [i]about[/i] philosophy, it’s poetry that shares the same intellectual space as philosophy. I mean, there is a place where poetry and philosophy are one and the same, because they both talk about what it means to be human and how to “be in the world” as a human being. Poetry is as much about [i]being[/i] as philosophy and I think Nichita Stănescu understood that better than anyone. He’s the poet-philosopher of our modern times. And then he wrote that book about an obsolete model of the Universe! He made himself a follower of Ptolemy, who said that the Earth was flat. All the other scientists rejected him, you know, Copernicus, Galilei, Kepler and all who followed. They proved him wrong over and over, exiled him to an annex of history reserved only to lunatics and raving madmen, and yet Nichita—*my* Nichita—sided with him and shunned the others. "Whoever put Earth to be a slave to the Sun better find a reason for it" he said, and I never understood why. Why? What was so fascinating about Earth being flat and the Sun rotating around it, that Nichita would find it valuable and worth risking his reputation for? I couldn't understand for the life of me and chose to simply ignore the fact that Nichita had ever written that book. I would gloss over it, with an air of frustrated superiority, every time I looked at his books in my library. And it took me a long time to understand, as you can see. I've only recently happened upon C. S. Lewis’ aforementioned book and became aware of the perspective he proposes on the whole thing, which I expect to have been Nichita's as well, but he managed to conceal it so skilfully that I would have never guessed it if nor for C. S. Lewis' help. So, you see, life can be a well-designed investigative puzzle game sometimes. :) And of course I used this recently acquired perspective of the world to talk about videogames, because that's what I do most of the time, is it not? So, TL;DR: this little game here feels like one of those things that you’re inclined to disconsider, to look down upon, with disdain, and say “How can someone find value in this?”. Until you see them for what they really are.

Me: Can we finally get Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Steam? Valve: Definitely! I think we already have what you're looking for... The game: 🙃 Not that I'm disappointed! It was an endearing experience despite its clunkiness. Pleasantly miserable. My inner masochist was fully satisfied! Struggle, death, tears. Yet, it was fun in a twisted way. The game wasn't lying. It was torture, almost like returning back in time! If you're into dark humor and not faint-hearted, then be my guest. Take this scholarship! The Grand Academy of Wizardry awaits...

i've only played this game for five seconds but everything about it is perfect, from the sadistic tutorial messages to the invisible wall commentary to the rabid anti-authoritarianism to the occasionally distressing shadows to the just slightly off English to the lovely polywaggle, it all feels like a psychic attack from the tattered remnants of my childhood brain and i could not love it any more than i do

game seems to be a bit busted. had a cutscene break and not let me advance dialogue early on. apparently missed a student get tossed through a window. later on when our character cant sleep, something broke and I got trapped outside. not sure what I was supposed to do, but it marked dead cat student and a locked entrance to a wet zone, but every door outside was locked and there was nothing to do. game is bad at signposting in general, maybe 1 npc will tell you where to go if you're lucky. lot of grammar errors.

Хорошо продуманная игра. По ночам бродят скелеты и призраки, в лесу пауки, по утрам уроки магии в Гранд-академии школа волшебства. По духу игра наподобие «Гарри Поттера»: школьная жизнь, волшбество и тайны; или популярного сейчас сериала «Уэнздей» — готическая атмосфера, гротескная героиня, всякие монстры и чудища и мистики с нотками детектива типа: 'какая же чертовщина здесь происходит, как остаться в живых и сбежать'. Старается также посластить смешными моментами. За выполнения различных действий открываются прикольные косметики - итересные пасхалки, которых много в игре. Можно найти раненую птичку, подлечить ее, и она останется рядом, кружась вокруг тебя. Можно встретить большого говорящего серого волка и даже приручить его. В игре предусмотрено несколько концовок. Школа и ее окрестности кажутся большими, но из-за хорошо продуманного игрового процесса и ориентиров приятно исследовать каждый уголок. В итоге - атмосферное и мистическое приключение про магическую школу, полных тайн, странностей и секретов.

I never buy games as soon as they release anymore, but today I made an exception, and I'm really glad I did! I spent the whole day playing this, though it certainly didn't need to take me that long, I spent a lot of time backtracking to check if tiny details changed. It rewards you for exploring and isn't hand-holdey at all, which is a definite plus. Combat is clunky, awkward, but that's true PS1 style isn't it? It never took me out of the experience (with the exception of the very final fight, which was infuriating, lol) I enjoyed exploring the school and chatting up the other students, though I really wish dialogue was skippable, as it began to wear me down as it got increasingly repetitive. I ran into tons of hiccups (including a game-breaking bug) which doesn't surprise me as I'm pretty sure this is a solo dev, and their first project. I don't want to be too harsh for that reason, but I would be a lot more forgiving of its issues if there were multiple save slots. I can't even find the saves on my PC for some reason. I'm looking forward to playing this a second time, to collect the rest of the achievements I missed and do things a little bit differently to see what happens. I'd also like to make a guide for it as well :} but I'm holding off on both until some QoL is patched in, and some bugs are ironed out. All in all, it was a fun adventure, and I recommend it despite its flaws, even at full price. :)

GLITCHY YET GOLDEN!

I already had a feeling this might not be the best of games when I saw the default Unity input field when you have to enter your name, but I gave it a fair shot, because it's a very niche indie game with an art style and premise that I do like. It controls badly - walking is so slow and the game constantly pushes you to walk to the other side of the map. And then one of the "magical lessons" we had to do was run around the school twice. Yeah. That's really one of the things you'll be doing for 15 minutes. And because one of the teachers is constantly roaming the halls and can smell you from a mile away, then beats you for running, it's causing you to have to walk even slower inside of the school. Jumping feels floaty and off. What annoyed me was the tutorial screens popping up in between me jumping and moving. At the start of the game in the dream sequence, you can jump toward a small island with a chest. I was doing that, and mid jump it reminded me that I could jump! That made me lose my jump, and fall to my "death". The chest will remain forever unopened. The environment feels empty. There's no ambiance, barely any soundtrack and the soundtrack that is there is boring and uninspired. The school looks empty and none of the rooms are memorable. The dialogue has typos everywhere and the writing style seems amateur. There's no way to make dialogue go quicker. Yeah, there is, I know, but it barely changes the speed of the dialogue. It just made me want to skip most of it. If I didn't absolutely have to talk to someone, I would not. The moment I knew I wasn't going to recommend this game was the forest part with the spiders. Apparently I took the wrong path? It looked like a path, but instead it made me go out of bounds. Didn't even cheat, or clip through something - just walked off the entire map. The game also takes a little too many ideas from Harry Potter (probably the first 2 games) for my liking. Going to the forest at night when you're not allowed to and finding spiders there, the "lessons" that you learn, Dumbledore sitting there... I can see this developer create a good game eventually so I encourage to keep trying and make new games. The basics are here.

good value must be cleansed further but good value it scares me