The Blogger: Pumpkins and Witches

[h1] Блогеры и чертовщина [/h1] Пара молодых блогеров, Чарли и Сьюзан приезжает в небольшой заброшенный городок, про который ходят жуткие слухи. Уже с ходу они видят всевозможную чертовщину: садовых гномов, которые следят за ними; гигантского тролля в лесу; горящих женщин в костюмах ведьм на кострах. Но на всё это они не обращают внимания, пока не попадают в церковь. Местный священник завидев их, бросается за ними в погоню, хватает девушку и уносит её в неизвестном направлении. Чарли же подумал было уехать, но решает спасти подругу, а заодно и сделать снимки для блога – лайки и подписчики сами себя не наберут. Чтобы спасти Сьюзан и выбраться из города, игроку необходимо решить несколько простеньких головоломок, получить за их решение особые предметы и использовать их по назначению. Вроде, звучит не сложного, но на деле проблем игроку доставит, так как абсолютно не понятно, что нужно делать. Приходится мотаться по всему городу и методом тыка пытаться осознать, что хочет от тебя игра. По карте раскиданы предметы типа спичек, камней, лейки и уже самому надо додумывать, как игра хочет, чтобы ты их использовал. Помимо головоломок, по городку раскиданы места, взаимодействую с которыми можно сделать фотографию с какой-нибудь паранормальщиной. Да, у главного персонажа всегда с собой камера, но воспользоваться ею можно лишь в условленных местах. Но пока игрок ходит по городку, там же бродит и священник. Увидев игрока, тот сразу же сильно прибавит скорости, поймает персонажа и игра закончится. От священника можно, в принципе убежать, но выносливость у нашего блогера, само собой далеко не как у спортсмена и он выдохнется довольно быстро, а пешком персонаж передвигается медленее улитки; также можно спрятаться в одном из огромных ведьминых котлов, но до них ещё и добежать надо. Да и если спрятаться в котле прямо перед носом у врага, тот за волосы вытянет главного героя и утащит. Также, пока сидишь в укрытии, нельзя пользоваться мышкой; камера просто замирает в том положении, в котором игрок залезал в котёл. В игре нет сохранений – её нужно пройти залпом. Если священник поймает игрока, всё нужно начать заново. Также не слышно шагов никого из персонажей, в том числе и священника – заранее его не подкараулишь. Видимость в игре также ограничена, предметы и персонажи прорисовываются не очень далеко – заранее уследить за священником не получится. Так что встреча с ним часто бывает неожиданной. Более того, священник любит заходить в дома, где расположены квестовые предметы, но вход в каждое здание лишь один, так что если игрок и его противник одновременно окажутся в здании, это означает проигрыш. За почти три часа я столкнулся с двумя багами, которые не позволили мне продолжить игру. Во-первых, при взаимодействии с квестовым предметом у меня сломалась камера: персонаж мог двигаться, камера же застыла на месте. Так как сохранений нет, пришлось начинать всё заново. Ну а во-вторых, попытавшись поставить игру на паузу, она просто вылетела. Опять-таки, сохранений нет – прогресса тоже. Главное же достоинство игры – её стилистика. Мультяшная графика напоминает «Труп невесты» Тима Бёртона, сам городок очень уютно выглядит, как раз в хэллоиновской стилистике. Постоянно отовсюду вылезают очаровательные скримеры, которые работают не пугают, но лучше передают атмосферу. Город не пустой, в нём постоянно что-то шевелится - ведьмы горят на кострах; коты, куры и жабки занимаются своими делами; доброе привидение также скажет пару слов. В общем, игра вполне может быть интересной за счёт своего внешнего вида и передаваемой атмосферы. Но многочисленные недочёты игрового процесса, плохое управление и отсутствие сохранений отбивают желание в неё играть. Можно, спустя многочисленные попытки, заучить, какой предмет где находится и понадеятся на удачу, что священник будет болтаться в другой части города, и в этом случае получит всё пройти. Но это уже опыт какого-то рогалика. Я же сюда пришёл за квестом. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/11769719/]Заглядывайте в группу кураторов, если понравился обзор. [/url]

Unfortunately I can't recommend the game :( But I can't make myself press the "don't recommend" button on an indie title as well :( I think the best I can do is to offer detailed feedback as a bit of "horror connoisseur" to help the devs (if they'll read this) Pros: 1. The main pro is the unique style, this style is what sold the game to me. It's giving Tim Burton, great job here. 2. Animations are well done. It's clear that a lot of work was put into them and they look smooth, polished and interesting. And (for me personally) the pros end here, I'm sorry T_T Cons: 1. The first problem that averts from the game immediately (and you don't wanna do that or the person might refund) is the PLOT. Where's the plot? I can't find it! The game was clearly going for quirky and silly but even quirky and silly has some sense. This didn't make any sense, so the game was going for it but not giving it really :( I was thinking the game is going for the "people will do anything for views no matter the danger" narrative (like the movie "NOPE" did) when the main characters came to the abandoned city that's clearly has something off about it. But that rug was pulled under me with the "I'm getting kidnapped why are you just standing there?" and "she'll be mad if I try to save her but I'll still try" -> proceeds to photo every single murder attempt - happened (even if that's hallucinations, I can't comprehend main character's reaction to seeing their friend being killed). I get it that you (addressing the devs here and on) wanted a viable reason for the mc to stay and explore the town but again, this plot line doesn't make any sense. I feel like for the "blogger" it would have been much stronger to go for the "they'll do anything for clicks", make the mc a bit obsessed with the success of the blog, forgetting about the dangers. Making the mc's friend a bit of a pushover and stay around them even though they aren't feeling great about the town and THEN (maybe when 2 key items are collected they'd get kidnapped if that's necessary). Jumpscares when the priest pops out of the closet and disappears don't make sense too. Hallucinations is a convenient explanation but I think it'd be better to create a separate mischievous ghost that would do the jumpscaring so it wouldn't be confusing why the priest disappears here but still wants to catch you but he's a ghost but ... you know 2. Hazy atmosphere usually makes it harder to navigate surroundings (which it does imho). But here's the problem - it's really hard to make a mental map of the town and traverse it successfully to the points of interest since you can't see far. A map would be REALLY handy. And I get that there probably wouldn't be a map of an abandoned town but you can make the mc do very general notes of what they've seen an where (literally just make a lil drawing of the main places they visited on a napkin or smth). Even though aimlessly wondering about would probably make the person play longer and not refund, you still should keep in mind that they can stop out of frustration AT ANY POINT so it's NOT a good strategy. You have to hook them and dangle something interesting in front of them, not irritate them. 3. If you are going for "find items - use items" gameplay then you should make interactable items more clear. I understand that you probably wanted to keep players immersed by not shining circles of interactability in their faces 24/7 but there are ways to be less obnoxious about it and still help the players. For example, you can color code necessary items (of course there are other approaches as well). The whole game is kind of dim so making a brighter color (like yellow or red or even black!!!) that doesn't shine or attract too much attention is a nice idea. The point is you have to make items of interest standout. So let's say there's a shovel on the ground and a scythe near a box side by side. It should be obvious that the shovel is important and the scythe is not even by subtle clues. Instead in this game you have to literally make out with each item to see if you can interact with it or not. 4. The walking speed. It's SO SLOW OMG. It's not good when your walking speed and your crouching speed is basically the same speed. Please don't do that. Walking speed should be slower that the priest's but a lot faster that crouching speed. 5. It's not clear what the game wants you to do at all at first. (though if the plot issue and item issue would be addressed, this wouldn't be a problem automatically). There's not much more to say about this. There are many ways to make it more clear for players, the most obvious and boring solution is to add tasks aka "I need to find matches" or "I need to find something to open the casket" and let them be accessible at any point somewhere in the menu or on the screen. These are my main con points but they, unfortunately, cover the entire game :( I understand that indie games on steam have to superficially prolongue the gameplay to make people spend more than 2 hours and hence the refund impossible. But is it really a viable strategy in this case where the issues are so huge that barely anyone would make it to the end of the game? The obvious solution would be to add more content but of course that might require too much effort at some point of working on a single project. What some other indie titles do is they create several decisions for the player to make throughout the game that affect the ending (and also they make lots of endings) but endings should be good so they are worth getting and gameplay should be entertaining enough to compel a person to go for them (adding corresponding achievements helps a bit).

In [i]The Blogger: Pumpkins and Witches[/i], you're the photographer of a blogger duo. You will mostly find yourself scampering around a medium-sized rural area called [i]"Kanarian Village"[/i] to gather items used for solving simple puzzles. The only thing in place to stop you? Our antagonist, the slow-wandering priest of the village, armed with a cross in his right hand. He moves silently around the entire premise and getting too close to him results in death. What's sad here is that I have been hindered from completing the game more by the technical quirks than the priest himself. Sometimes, the UI disappears randomly along with the inability to open your inventory, causing irritation. On top of that, double-interaction with the vine-covered door inside the church, will break the game. Force-restart required, resulting in loss of all progress. While the game does appear to me as an original piece of work, its overly simplified gameplay and puzzles makes me think that the game is made for children. Similarly, my guess would be that it would struggle to spook even a 10-year old with the miniscule chunks of horror that are implemented. I can't recommend this game at the current price point. Too steep of a cost for something that barely satisfies anything... [table][tr][td] [b]We aim to celebrate the horror genre, support the developers and create a haven for horror fans — Join us:[/b] [h3]🔗 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45181118/] Steam Curator page[/url][/h3][h3]🔗 [url=https://www.youtube.com/@officialhorrorvault/videos]YouTube channel[/url][/h3] [/td][/tr][/table]

to many bugs for me from the camera clipping priest just turning up and catching u this happened, for me there's issues with the game, the character has to be a bit faster so slow walking yes u can run by the way please included the a control scheme please, took me forever to find the run key, there's no clues to what to do the first run i did i was just walking around trying to find the friend, didn't realise you had to solve puzzles, maybe u can check a list or something, please make it so we can escape as well, i played on my 3rd run 45 mins got far did a few puzzles was getting the hang of the game and then walked out of a house and there he was the priest and game over had to start all over again. i was done after that lets us escape and run away, or have save points please. on the whole its a strange game but after a while enjoyable, some fixes to the game and it could be really good, but for me its like a 6/10.

In this game, you appear as a photographer for a duo of bloggers. Your task is to collect various kinds of items to solve puzzles. But there is a pilgrim priest who was created to stop you. Undoubtedly, the following points are advantages: + a unique concept of the game + various kinds of quests + availability of achievements + not the worst cartoon-style graphics But besides the pros, there are also cons of the game: - bugs of the game (for example, an inventory bug: it is impossible to open it from time to time) - too simple puzzles (a child of 11 years old passes them with great ease)

The hazy atmosphere kinda gave me a headache after playing for about an hour, i turned the brightness all the way up, and I was still struggling to see, and when going inside the smaller buildings the camera clips through the wall, and dont even get me started on the EXTREMELY slow walking speed, which is not a plus for a game in which you are meant to do a lot of wandering around to find clues and solve puzzles, you can run, but not for very long, and also not much faster than the walking speed. This game needs some major improvement...

"The Blogger: Pumpkins and Witches" is a handheld (Nintendo Switch)/console game that's also been put on Steam as a bit of an afterthought, as it's very much designed for the handheld/console gaming audience. I am aware it took some time for Nintendo to approve this, presumably due to the general low quality and concerns around indemnification due to the blatant ripoff of Tim Burtons general art and character design. Yes, it is wrong to take other people's intellectual property, change it around slightly and slap your own name on it. Anyway, creative and moral bankruptcy aside, this is a poorly made VN heavy third person adventure game where you wander around a spooky environment, take photos, and avoid the evil priest or whatever. There's almost no polish here, it seems no playtesting was done.. movement is like wading through molasses. Any playtesting at all would reveal that it's unpleasant to play right off the bat. The writing, gameplay and other aspects of the game continue that trend, unfortunately. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. Because this is designed for handheld/portable gaming appliances, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the low power handheld gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the mobile game developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for low power handhelds forces upon a game. While this might run well on a Steam Deck, we must remember the vast majority of gamers here are gaming on PC. There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision. The game features low-polygon "retro" assets with cartoony, mobile app style shader effects, making this look like a barely functional mobile app from 15 years ago. This visual style is a method that lazy devs often use when they have a lack of interest/capability to create highly detailed, high poly models and instead use shader effects to disguise that shortcoming under the name of "art", or "We made it look bad on purpose", which really isn't something gamers should have to put up with. It's unclear why the developers weren't willing to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets and high resolution textures for the game. It's far below the state of the art visuals gamers expect as a result of their decisions. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. "The Blogger: Pumpkins and Witches" didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is "Photos", taking photos in the game, trivial to get, but less than 3 percent of players bothered to get that far before uninstalling the game. Hardly a success story, even the people who own this game weren't interested in it. The poor quality of this game is also reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was [b]only 4 players[/b]. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 130 million gamers on Steam and well over 140,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 140,000+ games on Steam? "The Blogger: Pumpkins and Witches" is relatively cheap at $3 USD, but it's not worth it. There's enough defects and quality problems with this game that it's really impossible to recommend to gamers. This is also competing with over 14,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product. It's also worth noting that the game contains a number of fake reviews from the Russian review farm uncovered by Sentinels of the Store. This may be deliberate review manipulation in an attempt to defraud gamers into buying a falsely represented product. [quote][b][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/b] Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.[/quote]

A VERY rare do not recommend. I normally like looking on the positive side to games in general but I just can't for this one. The game is incredibly clunky, movement feels incredibly slow for the map size and I felt like there was just a major lack of direction. I'm really hoping for a more positive experience on the next game I play by this developer because I'm incredibly passionate about indie games and really hope their future games really bring their passion out to us players. 4/10 would not get lost in this village again.

Aparentemente ele parece ser um jogo curto, pelo que entendi objetivo é tirar fotos, fotos um tanto engraçada, mil formas de torturar minha amiga, o jogo não tem uma explicação detalhada do controle, joguei no teclado e mouse, senti saudades do cursor do meu mouse na tela, existe um padre sinistro e você tem que fugir dele para não ser sacrificado rs, gostei do jogo, mas ele me deixou um pouco perdida rs, o menino que tirar as fotos é mais medroso que tudo, santo pai, enfim pelo preço vale a pena, mas se tiver uma promo fica melhor...

The game is fantastic, for all audiences, good art, an original and friendly story, somewhat friendly scary scenes, although some are spooky, it's a first chapter, and I loved it!