Enter the Twilight Zone || Midnight Scenes: Highway (PC)

"Imagination... its limits are only those of the mind itself." --Rod Sterling

Title

Midnight Scenes: Highway is a short point and click suspense created by Octavi Navarro. You play as Claire Barnes, a woman on a journey whom is forced to take a small detour when her path becomes blocked. What Claire encounters, however, may change her life forever.

I loved this short adventure. It has heavy Twilight Zone feelings, a show that I love dearly. I was sad that the game was so short, but I feel that it doesn’t need to be longer. It leaves off like an episode of Twilight Zone as well, I could even hear the voice in my head.

Oh boy, a dark looking house... Let's go in!

Octavi does a spectacular job of creating an atmosphere of suspense and unease. The music, sound effects, and the graphic style all work very well together. I was never explicitly afraid, but it did make me feel uneasy and a little anxious. This is the sort of eerie game I enjoy. Not the in your face jump scares, but the subtle unease that makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Kudos to the developer for creating such a well-crafted game. Given that this game is called Midnight Scenes: Highway, I do wonder if there will be more of these in a sort of series. If so, sign me up! I would even happily pay for one.

All a dream?

If you enjoyed Twilight Zone as a kid (or an adult) I think you’ll find immense enjoyment in this little game. Either way, please be sure to check it out for yourselves. You can download it free from Itch.io *here*.

As always, be sure to leave your feedback and encouragement to the developers, and until next time… stay safe, and happy gaming, Jammers!

Bell

Fur the Love of Gaming || Furwind (PC)

Title Screen

Furwind is a fun action platformer game in the works by Boomfire Games. Furwind is the name of the small fox that you play as. An evil force has been awakened by a dark cult, threatening the balance of nature. Furwind has been chosen to restore balance. He’ll learn abilities to help him on his quest as well.

I really enjoyed this demo, despite the fact that platformers and quick reflexes are not my forte. The graphics are vibrant and colorful, the music and SFX are great. The controls probably would have felt better to me on a gamepad, since my right hand isn’t as agile when hitting those arrow keys. That’s my error, however, and for the most part the controls felt nice. The animations are cute, I love Furwind’s tail attack animation. The enemies are well made and there seems to be a good variety.

Oh no, a boss!

The demo has the first 3 levels available for play, and the demo offers fair challenge without being rage inducing. I enjoyed playing through the environments, and I look forward to seeing more as it comes. If you enjoy platformers, and are looking for something cute with a little challenge, then this could be for you. Give the demo a try free from Itch.io *here*. 

Be sure to leave your comments for the developers, and let me know what you think below! Happy Gaming!

Bell

Catventure! || The Chronicles of Zuro DEMO

Title

The Chronicles of Zuro is an action adventure game in the works by Exmat. You play as an adorable cat boy(or girl, maybe?), who works at a restaurant located on the back of a giant tortoise. I’m not sure what the full plot is planned to be, but in the demo, you’re exploring a forest to place 3 hidden alter stones, and defeat the boss.

The graphics are cute, they sort of have an N64 look to them. The character you play as is super cute! I’ve always had a thing for characters with cat(or other animal) ears. The colors are bright and attractive as well. The environments are crafted nicely.

A forest path...

I had some trouble working my slingshot, and I wished that there had been a little more tutorial to tell me how to aim the damn thing. It was just guesswork. It took me 7 tries to shoot a ramp right to get it to drop. Aiming at barrels? Forget it.

I had a lot of fun just running around and exploring the world, though. There are barely any enemies, which I suppose is good since I can’t shoot my slingshot properly. There were some graphical glitches, but this IS only a demo, so I shouldn’t judge too harshly. The sound effects could also use some work. In particular I would have liked some splash sounds when walking through water.

Such a nice view, though.

Overall, I feel the demo shows some promise. The graphics are nice, the characters are cute, I just wish I had a better idea of any story. I hope that the developer is able to build upon this demo in the future, because I’d like to play it. You can try the demo for yourself *here*

Be sure to leave your feedback and encouragement for the developer, and happy gaming, Jammers!

Bell

Outside of Our Own (PC)

Outside of Our Own in an atmospheric walking simulator created by Kimberly Pena, where you get to walk about and enjoy the scenery in 3 different settings. You start in a forest, and by entering a dark foreboding foggy area you find yourself in a city at night, with some rather ominous music playing. When I got to the nighttime city, I thought the game became a horror game. If you find the fog once again, you’ll be transported to that same city during the daytime where everything is sunshine and lilacs.

The game was alright, for a walking simulator. The music was nice, and the graphics were decent. In the first area, there are buildings that appear to float on water. I don’t know it that was a deliberate aesthetic choice, or an error, but it bothered me a little. Also, the majority of the game ran fine but in the beginning forest area my frame rate dropped sometimes to as low as 5 fps, which made the game very jerky and hard to control.

I have played other walking simulators and enjoyed them, and I feel like this one would be better with some refinement, and even a little bit of story. Reliving some old memories, or something even. Wandering into strange foggy areas and ending up in another area is bizarre without context. That is not to say it is bad, it's not! ( EDIT: It seems there was an update to this game on 3/15/17, so some things may have changed. I haven't been able to play the updated version so that's up to you! :) ) If you’d like to try it for yourself, please download this game from Itch.io for free *here*.

Also, I’m not talking or anything because I wasn’t doing a let’s play, but you can see the you can watch the majority of the game play here on my Youtube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tful0rDzn7k&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for sharing some time with me, and happy gaming!

Bell