RMMV The Rest is Silence (No Travel Game Jam)

[EuphemiaArtoria]

My entry for the no travel game jam! This is my first time entering a game jam and I struggled a bit with the time so the result is a little on the short side. I hope I provide a memorable experience and I'm very grateful for any and all feedback!

The Rest is Silence is a short horror title, focused on making a moody atmosphere using lighting, weather effects and anything else I could scrape together. There is no combat, only exploration. I tried to explore the theme of isolation as best as I could. I'd estimate 5-10 minutes to complete.

The story: Adventurer Therese finds herself alone in a strange, quiet town, with only a vague letter to guide her.

Download: Available at Itch.io

Screenshots:

Credits:
Yanfly
Terrax
Lighting
BMSP

 

[GoodSelf]

Oooh. Are there any jump scares? I might throw my laptop into a wall.

 

[Zliryu]

I like the atmosphere...but my questions is, where does the uncle sleep? Or was that just her room in the house?

 

[EuphemiaArtoria]

I like the atmosphere...but my questions is, where does the uncle sleep? Or was that just her room in the house?

The Uncle lives in the house with the tunnel under it. The house with the red roof is normally unoccupied, and only has the one bed.

 

[WaywardMartian]

I had a run through it. The atmosphere is nicely grim and I like the effect of the people vanishing when you get close.

Spoiler: Spoilers for, well, spoilers

- I hadn't been startled by the suit of armour, but Therese jumping back from it made me jump.
- I picked the 'don't give her the key' choice first, then immediately had to replay after I finished because I had to know if there was a Bad Ending. I was not disappointed.
- It's a bit weird that Therese doesn't react to those robed ghosts in the cave. I thought there'd at least be a 'what were those?' or some acknowledgement.
- I loved the whole bit under the Item Shop, from the tunnel with the clanging that increased in volume, to the question of 'but was the sound Julia hitting the bars or was it something else, what was it?' to the nicely classic horror 'you have to let me in'.
- I like that one person still hiding in the village because who is that? Everybody else is ghosts. Does the person know that? Are they just a loud ghost? The game's all suggestion and no telling until the very end, and while that can get annoying in longer games, for a ten minute one it's effective and left me wondering but not frustrated.

 

[deficiencyproductionz]

Review: “The Rest is Silence”

Graphics
+Gritty, desaturated feeling tileset reinforces the horror aesthetic.
+Proximity-disappearing villagers are really cool for adding atmosphere.
-Title screen and character face too saturated and hurt the atmosphere.
+It was a cool decision to make the world just fade into blackness near the wall.
- Overly oppressive lighting before lantern, but I can see how that might be considered necessary.
+It looks unprofessional when players clip through the tree graphics.

Core Gameplay/Horror
+Level design leads you where you want to go
+Notes hint at nearby secrets
+Big, atmospheric map
-Unfortunately, the character is slow.
-It seems weird that I cant enter the church.
-Knight wasn't scary because he was there from the start. More interjections like this from Therese would help to make this more of a "character moment".
+The ghosts in the cave to the red house were a good inclusion to build panic.

Sound Design
+Text sounds are a good break from the silence
+The thumping in the knight house builds lots of suspense
-Menu sfx didn't fit the atmosphere
+Long hall full of sounds was a great idea

Story
+Captivating from the start
+The guy you speak to though the door was a great inclusion
+Cool world premise
-I didn't understand the ending.

Ease of Use
-Requiring use of the action button to read invisible note in the beginning was a little inconvenient
+You made the player able to walk under trees

Overall, "The rest is silence" does a wonderful job establishing atmosphere. I think the basement doors should have been accessible from the start, but that's just a difference in design philosophy. The game had several great moments, and I genuinely enjoyed trying to understand the small world you built. The game took longer than expected for me to finish because I missed the lantern at first. I dislike how the game left so many things up to interpretation, and I hope you implement more notes to read in future updates.

Out of curiosity, would you be willing to share how you got that cool proximity dissappearance effect?

 

[hiddenone]

I gave this a go, I'm not a fan of horror games but I thought overall this was well presented.

Spoiler: Feedback

Here are my notes as I go, sorry it's not rewritten but it's just so much faster to share these instead...

⦁ Ah man, there's no 'run' option The default walk speed is just a touch too slow for me

⦁ The teal-roofed house (first one seen after entering the map) doesn't have a matching interior layout to its exterior

⦁ An overhang's pillar is on top of a barrel, instead of behind it near the small house in the lower right

​

⦁ Good use of lighting and tints to show passing time in the red-roofed house

⦁ I don't play with sound, so I think I'm missing out on some of the spooks

⦁ Minor nitpick, why doesn't Therese's hair color match between her adult and kid sprites? I'm wondering if Therese has to carry green hair dye on all her adventures...

⦁ Oh, was that it? That seems very short (like 3 minutes), I think I did something wrong. I went into the basement of the teal-roofed house with the lantern, and then saw a cutscene about a young Therese. After that, adult Therese was laying in the bed and the Game Over screened showed

⦁ Take two, ignoring that house for now!

⦁ The ghost woman near the town square is neat, but her event is set to 'same as character' so I can bump into it which ruins the idea that she's totally disappeared

⦁ I found the Gate Key, but I can't figure out where to use it

⦁ A missed spook would be to have people looking in through the dark windows. I kept expecting to see someone there at some point, and was disappointed that I never saw it. The ghost people outside were a good touch, so bringing a bit of that inside the houses would have been nice

⦁ Ended up with the same ending, too bad that exploring the town more didn't seem to add more to the ending. I had talked to the person under the Item Shop before finding the key, but I'm not going to replay it to see if that's a different ending just because I don't have the time

Overall, it's clear that you took your time to polish this short game. I think you used your time wisely, if you had tried for a longer game I don't think this would have worked nearly as well. You didn't seem to rely on jump scares, which is a nice change from other RM horror games and the mystery of the whole town added to the atmosphere. I do wish there was a bit more explained about the game, but it's possible I just missed out on that ending. Good luck with your future projects!

 

[RCXDan]

@EuphemiaArtoria I gave your game a shot because I was looking for another short game to complete, and here's what I have to say:

Spoiler

Pros:

+ Silent title screen. Keeping on topic.
+ I love this moody lighting, it sets the right atmosphere
+ Good hints
+ Ooooh, I love that effect that the ghosts disappear when you get close to them.
+ The one scare actually got to me, since it was a perfect slow burn build up. The tapping background sound effect also did an excellent job of messing with me.
+ Very pretty mapping
+ The extremely short story with Therese and her uncle was captivating once I understood what was happening. Although...
+ Young Therese is adorable and captures what being a kid is like
+ Doesn't overstay its welcome.
+ No major bugs

Cons:

- Lack of a run function. Not sure how I feel about that.
- I think you should tag the disappearing ghost ladies with "Through" to keep the illusion going, since they don't have dialogue anyway
- I don't like that the entrance to get the lantern is completely obscured. I went around walking confused for a few minutes before randomly thinking "hey what about that note you read earlier, Dan?" Cue frustrated sigh as I bump into the side of the building and find the entrance I need. I get that's what the note is for, but if it weren't for that I'd be stuck.
- Why does Therese have different hair colors as she ages? At least recolor the child's sprite or something, cause I got whiplash when I realized her and the child were the same person.
- The ending was a bit sudden and doesn't make too much sense, like... so she's here to subconsciously visit her childhood home? I dunno.
- Hey look ma, I can walk on the trees

Observations:

= No combat
= Side view treasure chest
= You game over at the ending like if you lost. I guess it's appropriate.

Analysis:

This one was good for its extremely brief length. I'd say the strongest aspect about this was absolutely its atmosphere - the mist, disappearing ghost people, the basements with the unnerving sound effects and that one spook where I couldn't move were great. I legitimately thought I got stuck until I saw the ghosts come in, and it shot me with this spike of terror that I thought I messed up. Not many other games have been able to do that to me, and gave me quite a few ideas for my own work.

If anything, you should have put ghost people inside of the houses, like hiddenone said.

If you could improve anything, at least tag the obscured entrance with like... a sparkly point or something after you talk to That Guy Behind The Door or read the note.

I know this is coming across as hand-holdy, but I legitimately got stuck looking around the other basements for probably longer than I should have. I thought the lantern was in one of them, not guessing that it was in a hidden cellar. Maybe I could also be bad at exploration games, but who knows.

The story was also just kinda there. I feel not explaining what exactly happened is a good tool for building up mystery, since it makes you think "wow, what the heck happened here??". Nothing is Scarier, essentially. But I dunno, it also felt like not much happened either. I like how dark the ending wound up being, but it felt a bit... disconnected from what was happening. I thought this was a quarantine story, not Silent Hill.

That said, color me very intrigued. You did great given the time you had and I'm curious to see more of your work in the future (since I'm also a big nerd for magical girls, heh).

 

[EuphemiaArtoria]

Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments. I enormously appreciate all feedback. I'm not exactly sure how best to respond to critique (other than saying thank you!), normally I'd just try to channel it back into the work, but in this case I'm not sure I'll work on this game again. I will try and explain some of my rationale, and definitely what I'd do differently if I made a second draft of the game.

- I picked the 'don't give her the key' choice first, then immediately had to replay after I finished because I had to know if there was a Bad Ending. I was not disappointed.

I'm so glad! I think I probably made this alternate ending too slight and too obscure, but it really warms my heart that one person got it and enjoyed it!

-Unfortunately, the character is slow.

A few people commented on this and, to be honest, I'm not surprised! I thought a lot beforehand about whether or not to disable dashing. It's default in RPG Maker, but honestly, I think whizzing around at the normal dash speed would really go against the tense, moody atmosphere of the game. I really don't think I'd add the ability to dash even if working on it a second time.

THAT SAID, I was thinking about:

• Shrinking the maps down so there's much less distance to cover
• Bigger measures to prevent backtracking, especially to the northern gate area
• Rearranging the main houses and making them more prominent, so you find them more naturally

I think changes like this would cut down the amount of walking you need to do. From personal experience, the lack of dash becomes *really* annoying when you have to return to previous locations, lose direction or get lost, so if I could cut these down, I hope, the character's movement speed would feel more acceptable.

-It seems weird that I cant enter the church.

I spent a while implementing a room inside the town hall (church) but ultimately ran out of time and had to cut it. I think if I came back to the game, I'd just remove the external structure too (and make the town smaller)

Out of curiosity, would you be willing to share how you got that cool proximity dissappearance effect?

Absolutely! This was the single most time consuming part of the game and what made me want to make a spooky game in the first place. Each of the ghost events is a parallel process running this script:

var e = $gameMap.event(this._eventId);
var myX = e.x;
var myY = e.y;

var distance = Math.hypot($gamePlayer.x-myX,$gamePlayer.y-myY) -1;
distance = distance -2;

var targetOpacity = Math.max(0, Math.min(255, 255 * distance / 10));
var currentOpacity = e.opacity();

if (targetOpacity > currentOpacity) {
e.setOpacity(currentOpacity + 1);
} else if (targetOpacity < currentOpacity) {
e.setOpacity(currentOpacity - 1 );
}

You can quickly tweak the distance at which ghosts become wholly transparent by changing the line "distance = distance -2" to add or subtract a larger number.

⦁ Minor nitpick, why doesn't Therese's hair color match between her adult and kid sprites? I'm wondering if Therese has to carry green hair dye on all her adventures...

^^;;; well I was only using default/FSM assets and there were only two options for female children. I like your idea that she dyes it as an adult

⦁ Oh, was that it? That seems very short (like 3 minutes), I think I did something wrong. I went into the basement of the teal-roofed house with the lantern, and then saw a cutscene about a young Therese. After that, adult Therese was laying in the bed and the Game Over screened showed

Yup it's super short! The other ending is only a few extra lines of dialogue. Ideally a player would see some of the other parts first, but I didn't want to railroad too much so if you happen to go lantern -> red roof, you'll finish up really fast. Maybe the "Game Over" screen is too harsh- that is just the end!

⦁ A missed spook would be to have people looking in through the dark windows. I kept expecting to see someone there at some point, and was disappointed that I never saw it. The ghost people outside were a good touch, so bringing a bit of that inside the houses would have been nice

This is such a good idea I'm really jealous I didn't think of it!

- I don't like that the entrance to get the lantern is completely obscured. I went around walking confused for a few minutes before randomly thinking "hey what about that note you read earlier, Dan?" Cue frustrated sigh as I bump into the side of the building and find the entrance I need. I get that's what the note is for, but if it weren't for that I'd be stuck.

Would this be any better? (dirt path added leading to the awning)
I really don't want to add something sparkly or, um, non-diagetic like an arrow, but maybe this would guide the player more naturally in that direction, combined with the note?

Also everyone's been too polite to say it, but the basement area underneath that house is the wrong way round >_< The awning was supposed to be on the other side of the house, but the shadows were all messed up so I had to move it, and didn't have time to flip the basement to match.

I legitimately thought I got stuck until I saw the ghosts come in, and it shot me with this spike of terror that I thought I messed up.

Yesssssss, that's exactly what I wanted! I disabled menu access for this bit especially to make you flounder just a bit more.

I thought this was a quarantine story, not Silent Hill.

Hahah, I guess you spotted my inspiration ^^;

Sorry if this sounds pretentious, but what I wanted was to make a game about isolation, emotional isolation, and try to make something more metaphorical. So, that's what the game is - Therese is isolated, she can never get close to another human being in the game. Either they disappear, or there's some sort of barrier in the way.

I did have a larger plot in mind that I wanted to hint at, but I couldn't get it all in in time. If you want, here is the story I intended- but I know it's not in the game and that's a shortcoming of the project.

Spoiler: Cut Plot

As an adult, Therese is a heroic adventurer who vanquished an evil Empire with her fellow adventurers (including Julia, her partner). However, Therese remains haunted by her past and often has nightmares. She refuses to open up to those around her about what she's dealing with, thus isolating her from her friends.

The game is the nightmare, her loose memory of what happened when she was a child. She was the last of an old royal family that was wiped out. Retainers to the old monarchy tried to hide her in the village, but eventually there was a split between those loyal to the old monarchy and those loyal to the new regime. Fighting broke out, and the village burned to the ground. Therese survived but felt wracked with guilt about it.

When you meet Julia underneath the item shop, this is supposed to be the real Julia trying to help Therese. But the idea of opening up to someone is terrifying for Therese, which is why the hallway is so ominous. If you have the key you can give it to her to "let her in", i.e. trust her and share some of Therese's pain. I really wanted it to be ominous and spooky so that it seems like the wrong choice because that's how Therese is supposed to feel about reaching out to others. If you DO give her the key, at the very end of the demo you'll hear Julia arrive in the house with the red roof to support Therese.

I think that definitely sounds pretentious ^^;; if I came back to the project I'd try and add more things you could examine or maybe more dialogue with the person behind the closed door to expand ideas like Therese being a successful adventurer, the little civil war in the village, etc. etc.

Thanks again so much everyone for playing my game and sharing your thoughts! I can't wait for another jam now

 

[RCXDan]

Glad you liked my feedback. I try to cover the most I can since I have a lot of other games to cover too.

View attachment 144670
Would this be any better? (dirt path added leading to the awning)
I really don't want to add something sparkly or, um, non-diagetic like an arrow, but maybe this would guide the player more naturally in that direction, combined with the note?

You know what, I dig it. I was also gonna suggest "put a barely visible staircase there", but this is also a pretty good design choice. I didn't even notice the basement was backwards until you pointed it out, so oops.

Sorry if this sounds pretentious, but what I wanted was to make a game about isolation, emotional isolation, and try to make something more metaphorical. So, that's what the game is - Therese is isolated, she can never get close to another human being in the game. Either they disappear, or there's some sort of barrier in the way.

I did have a larger plot in mind that I wanted to hint at, but I couldn't get it all in in time. If you want, here is the story I intended- but I know it's not in the game and that's a shortcoming of the project.

Spoiler: Cut Plot

As an adult, Therese is a heroic adventurer who vanquished an evil Empire with her fellow adventurers (including Julia, her partner). However, Therese remains haunted by her past and often has nightmares. She refuses to open up to those around her about what she's dealing with, thus isolating her from her friends.

The game is the nightmare, her loose memory of what happened when she was a child. She was the last of an old royal family that was wiped out. Retainers to the old monarchy tried to hide her in the village, but eventually there was a split between those loyal to the old monarchy and those loyal to the new regime. Fighting broke out, and the village burned to the ground. Therese survived but felt wracked with guilt about it.

When you meet Julia underneath the item shop, this is supposed to be the real Julia trying to help Therese. But the idea of opening up to someone is terrifying for Therese, which is why the hallway is so ominous. If you have the key you can give it to her to "let her in", i.e. trust her and share some of Therese's pain. I really wanted it to be ominous and spooky so that it seems like the wrong choice because that's how Therese is supposed to feel about reaching out to others. If you DO give her the key, at the very end of the demo you'll hear Julia arrive in the house with the red roof to support Therese.

I think that definitely sounds pretentious ^^;; if I came back to the project I'd try and add more things you could examine or maybe more dialogue with the person behind the closed door to expand ideas like Therese being a successful adventurer, the little civil war in the village, etc. etc.

Thanks again so much everyone for playing my game and sharing your thoughts! I can't wait for another jam now

See, what you described has a metric F-ton of potential and the aspects you brought up make things make more sense... but I feel putting in more of those elements in the actual game would have helped the message.

Spoiler

It needs some... extra nudges to help depict this isn't just an ordinary ghost town, that this place has some deep connotations with Therese and her past before the big reveal in the red roofed house.

If this story revolves around Therese's emotional background, seeing more connections scattered around town would help sell the message that this place is a Silent Hill-type projection of her fears and worries, even if it's as small as being afraid of the smell of smoke or the uncanny feeling of seeing something from her past in the ghost town. It's the little details that matter, especially for horror.

Regardless, I had a fun time.

 

[Guardinthena]

Just had time to sit and play and for what 'The Rest of Silence' is, I loved it. I enjoyed the game for the dark broody atmosphere and for a lot of things about it. I love exploration games, huge fan of Skyrim and Fallout over here, so games that allow exploration, set a broody tone, but don't throw monsters in my way up my creep factor immensely. I find myself on the edge of my seat waiting to see if I get jumped, I had two of those minor scares with the suit of armor and the ghost event. So great job! Err, before I continue this word spew, let me just do bullet points.

Oh, and a note. Just saw some updated screenshots you had posted above. I have, what I assume, is the original download, if you haven't updated yet.

Spoiler

Pros:

* As I said, the dark broody atmosphere was on point.
* The vanishing people was an excellent touch. If anything, I would suggest to add a few more.
*Not being able to Dash was driving me crazy, but I completely understand that it would undermine the mood of the game. So kudos to turning it off
* Ahrug! The bit with Julia was wonderful. Creep vibe was great on this! I had explored everything before I found her, so I had the key. I had to play the game twice over to get both endings, unsure if there were two endings, to see if anything changed when I handed her the key.
* There is so much potential for story here, (and I saw in an earlier comment there is). For instance, my feelings on this short play through is that it is meant as a protagonist mental break midway through a much larger game, or towards the end of one.


Cons:
* The interior of the house of the dirt tunnel is not correct for what is portrayed on the outside.
* There is some pass-ability issues. For instance, the house with the orange tree in front- the player can walk on top of it, not under it. This is the same for the field of flowers at the red roof house. The pass-ability should be set so that they act as a bush, so that there is some shading effect on the feet.
*The silence in the village was a distraction. I realize it is the name of the game, but some sort of broody village music would do wonders, something as simple as forest ambiance with crickets or birds or something.

Extra:

* What is up with the man behind the door?! I completely understand that this is meant as a mental journey for Therese rather than a physical one. So who is the man behind the door suppose to represent?
* Where is Ralph? I know there is suppose to be no fighting in the game, but I kept expecting combat.
* On that note, when I gave the key to Julia she mentioned about finding another way in. I took the time to run(walk) back to the town gate's to see if she entered through there- just to see if she would. Again, expecting a fight. This is just my play-mode on high alert.
* I completely picked up on the red roof cut-scene what was going on plot-wise. As in, that Therese was royalty and in hiding just by reading the books. Nice touch!

Conclusion:
For as short a game as it is you did a very wonderful job with the atmosphere and the few encounters that there were. If you were to expand it, maybe more notes or clues scattered throughout the houses that could, perhaps, shed more light on Therese's guilty conscious or troubled past.

 

[EuphemiaArtoria]

Just had time to sit and play and for what 'The Rest of Silence' is, I loved it. I enjoyed the game for the dark broody atmosphere and for a lot of things about it. I love exploration games, huge fan of Skyrim and Fallout over here, so games that allow exploration, set a broody tone, but don't throw monsters in my way up my creep factor immensely. I find myself on the edge of my seat waiting to see if I get jumped, I had two of those minor scares with the suit of armor and the ghost event. So great job! Err, before I continue this word spew, let me just do bullet points.

Oh, and a note. Just saw some updated screenshots you had posted above. I have, what I assume, is the original download, if you haven't updated yet.

Thanks so much!

Re: Combat, I decided not to include combat because I thought it would take a very long time to add satisfying battles. I think if I do that again I might make it clear in the description.

I definitely agree more notes & clues would be a big improvement for this one if I came back to it.

Re: going back to the gate after giving Julia the key, I'm wondering now if the whole gate area should get blocked off after the encounter with Julia. It's a very long area to traverse, and there's no use for the key if you get it after that scene. On the other hand, maybe it's good to be able to find the key later and go "ohhh, this is what I needed"? Not sure. I definitely think that backtracking through large maps / long tunnels with slow movement is bad.

As for the man behind the door, ah! I'm afraid I didn't have anything special in mind for him, other than to kind of drill in on this sense of never being able to get close to people (like Julia, you can talk to him, but through a barrier). I was hoping to do a scene where you could open the door, and find a skeleton inside (based on a fantastic moment in a popular gothic action game I won't name for spoilers!) but couldn't fit it in. He also gives some little clues.