I'll admit, I was tempted to wait until the trophies were added before getting this, but then I thought, $3.66 per minigame, that's not actually too bad given the sound quality shown in the demo, so I decided to buy the thing, particularly because my lady will also enjoy this.
After getting their shopping system to finally accept my details (it kept doing weird things), I downloaded both the original game and the pack and decided to give them a go.
so firstly, over all I really like the presentation, the survival mode and the play through all of the games are a nice idea, reminds me of Bsc's hunter, though given how tough some of these games are, surviving will not be easy I think, then again, if you're going to be selling minigames, no point them being easy to master first time around. As I said of mine racer when I tried the demo, this is good old, atari level difficulty we're talking here.
I also really like the haunted house music and ambience, although some options to turn the music down might be nice, since I had to use the windows volume mixer to get NVDA and the bgm from the game to balance out correctly.
Locating the games by room is a nice touch, especially with more games and locations becoming available later on.
Okay on to the games themselves.
It seems a bit odd that the learn game sounds menu comes before the instructions here, since I'm hearing sounds before knowing what the games are about which is a little strange. It might be nice if there was a read instructions key while your on the menu to hit "play", so you can match one to the other.
Pumpkin run:
I love the ambience for both yard games and the sound of the witch, the sterreo field on the witch seems a bit odd, since I haven't exactly worked out how the sound of her laughter correlates to how far away she is, indeed generally it seems both with her and the skeleton hands in the apple bobbing, if you hear them, they're after you so it's better to run.
I do wish there was a slightly clearer pitch distinction on the pumpkins and the witch here, particularly when travelling diagonally, since right now knowing when you're on the right vertical level for them is a bit difficult, meaning that you can't pull off easy strafing maneuvers like in something like great toy robbery or some of the crazy party games, though how much of this is just part of the tougher difficulty I don't know, since certainly I've done better and got more familiar with the finer gradations in the soundscape the longer I've played, which is nice.
The witche's Golem : I love the idea here, especially having to navigate around in such a weird way. Oddly enough, detecting the trick or treaters was less hard, though probably because I hammered the space bar a lot, what I found a bit more difficult was telling when I was about to ram into the trees since they get covered by the ambience, indeed the best tactic I've found for playing is counting steps, that and trying to pass the trick or treaters so I can turn the golem around and try coming at them from new angles.
Again, a bit more pitch shift on the vertical position would be useful here I think, though credit for a really unique game, even if one I do horribly badly at! 7 is my best so far, though I have managed to survive the full five minutes, which I can't say for some of the other games lol.
apple bobbing: It was the pure fiendish nastiness of this one that got me interested in the collection. Here, the pitch shifting is absolutely right, on both the apples and the skeleton hands, albeit I had to get used to the fact that the pitch shifting isn't related to vertical position from you, but distance. It's also with this one that I realized when you hear a skeleton, it's best to swim fast to the top of the barrel and try to stay away from it. Either way, probably my favourite of the top down games so far.
Skeletal bard: A surprisingly tricky game, though one I imagine I will master in time, also nice to see a more intellectual challenge in the pack. I like the way the difficulty is kept up by just how randomly the notes are played, and the fact that one mistake and it's game over, something else that must make survival mode a terror.
Darts: trickier than it sounded in the audio demo, but again, I like the way yu need to just get the rhythm of the dart throwing into your brain for this one, this one I think will particularly benefit from trophies and such being added, EG trophies for dart accuracy or getting through without waisted jumps. It says something that this is one of the easiest games in the collection, and yet getting the hang of it was still a task.
Escape the cellar: My favourite game hands down, very like mine racer as Crashmaster said earlier in this topic.
Sounds are awesome, and yee gods the death sounds are nasty!
My only real gripe here is how the hell do you punch the skeletons without getting strangled? However quick I am, as soon as I hit control, I always get throttled. I did wonder if you needed to dodge first and then punch, but that doesn't seem to work either, so any advice will be appreciated.
Despite getting my neck wrung several times though, this is still my favourite in the collection.
All in all, I like what I'm seeing so far.
though it has some rough edges, the most important thing, game design is there, backed up with some good quality sounds and ambience, also, I'll admit I am hoping to see more from this team, and indeed the haunted house in the future, especially in the matter of stat tracking and trophies and such, making it a more long play game, and while I've not really got the cash to support them with monthly patreon donations, I'm more than happy to pay for what games they have out now, in the hopes it'll spur them on to bigger and better things in the future.
for me, the question is not "is the existing collection with it's six minigames worth twenty dollars", but "would I pay 20 dollars to support a developer's work based on the quality of games in this collection?" And to that second question, I can definitely answer yes!
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)