Fun twist on a concept I've seen a few times here on Itch. As a full time streamer of the last 7 years who focuses heavily on escape room games, this was a perfect match for me.
The actual game within a game is super well made. The puzzles weren't difficult by any stretch but were engaging enough. The overall sound design is awesome. The whole livestream chat/mod function never came into play for me unfortunately but it is a nifty little addition. I feel like one more puzzle to buildup to the ending a bit more would have been great, but as it stands right now it's still pretty darn good!
Alex the Escape Room Enthusiast!! Thank you so much for playing our game. It means a lot coming from you. The chat was just a way to make sure the player is really getting into that streamer persona, of course also to disguise game hints in the form of backseat gamers to completely prevent anyone from being stuck too long in frustration.
What a wonderful gameplay! You did amazing, thanks so much again :)
Thank you so much for playing! Would you mind contacting us at nightforgeofficial@gmail.com to further explain what you heard versus what you typed? We would like to investigate to see if it's a bug. Thanks again :)
Wow, this is really cool! Of course it is made by the brilliant horror people behind Cheating Death. Did not finish it the first time but I’ll try it again in a bit.
The game’s trick made a lot of sense, but I was a little surprised as I was expecting it to be longer! or for there to be a different ending possible, like with how it says you can try to save the person if you enter the numbers to unlock the settings. I liked how the nested worlds worked: first you need to turn the mysterious voices up on your windows 7 (to get killed), and then you need to turn the fake-Windows UI sound up (to get killed), and then you need to turn your own computer’s sound up (to presumably die horribly). It’s a really neat thing to encounter.
Also it was very gorgeously implemented. Details looked really similar to real windows. After replaying it I was surprised to find that the puzzles were semi-randomized, like the cipher had different answers, which is really not what I expected of such a short game! As well as the hints panel with the mods - they are helpful, though I’m surprised they are just like lol idk can’t help you any more giving you more hints if you keep begging. And the inappropriateness of the stream was also funny. Having you have to enter your name is also interestingly uncomfortable - I like the bit of personality that comes with ‘That’s not your name’ if you enter something else.
Anyway, if you keep making these you should put them all in a Short Horror Story compilation or something, they’re all bangers, or perhaps expand the idea into a longer game.
Going to try to get some other people to play this in a few days and see what they think too!
I'm so glad you were able to catch so many of the connections between the different nested worlds/dimensions, including the sound system (that ones more of an unobvious one). I see what you mean about the different (happy) ending; I think we just wanted to focus on the big punchline which is to somehow make the real player (you) feel as uncomfortable as possible; y'know, the whole make you feel like "you're next" thing by keeping it as immersive as possible with repetitive reinforcement/association across the dimensions. Glad to hear you liked the chat! And thanks for the suggestion on the short horror story compilation!
And an absolutely huge thanks for sharing this! We would love for them to try it out and let us know their experiences.
Cheers!
(PS) since you seem to have drawn some connections with the sound systems. Here's some food for thought: you said that you had to turn up the volume in each "layer" which allowed you to put in the password (and get killed each time). But do you remember ever turning up the volume for the very last one?
(PS) since you seem to have drawn some connections with the sound systems. Here’s some food for thought: you said that you had to turn up the volume in each “layer” which allowed you to put in the password (and get killed each time). But do you remember ever turning up the volume for the very last one?
Okay so… I actually showed this to someone who has very good hearing and didn’t even need to turn up the volume for that one xD. I played through again and turned up the volume (on my computer in real life), which I think means that if the cycle is:
Windows 7: dead person -> turn up volume of mysterious voices -> unlock security -> static -> knocking ->
Windows 10: monster enters room -> turn up volume on Windows 10 -> unlock security -> static -> knocking ->
3dverse: monster enters room -> turn up actual computer volume -> unlock security -> whole screen turns static ->
REAL LIFE: MONSTER ENTERS ROOM?
But what’s most notable from the first room is that the person was dead, bloody, xs over the eyes on the floor, so perhaps we are the living opposite…
Anyway there’s another layer up from us where the volume did not get turned up yet, perhaps… the monster has yet to appear to KILL…
What if I told you that the part where you say "turn up volume on Windows 10" was actually supposed to simulate turning up your "actual computer volume"?
Originally, we did want the real player (you) to have to eventually turn up your own personal ACTUAL computer volume, but we decided against it because we're not sure if we can generalize everyone who plays ReCursed and what settings their personal volume is at -- we really don't want to risk earraping players by forcing them to up their volume, and then have later sounds be way too loud.
Let's try visualizing laying out all the game dimensions that we see in ReCursed in a single file line and we'll start from the end (dead person) and work our way up. Here's the key: each dimension turns up their OWN system's volume to fill in the passcode for the dimension in FRONT of them.
- We'll call the first dead person we see "P"
- We'll call the minigame player that we've been playing throughout all the puzzles "M"
- We'll call the player that's in the 3D world (free-roam) "F"
- We'll call you, the real player, "R"
Okay, let's lay it out like this:
1. "M" finds dead "P"
2. "F" has to increase their own system's volume control via the Volume Control App (mysterious voices) to fill in the passcode within "M"'s own system
3. "F" finds dead "M"
4. "R" has to increase their own system's volume control via the Windows 10-style slider at the bottom-right corner to fill in the passcode within "F"'s own system (again, the slider being a simulation, you never have to actually increase your own personal volume)
5. "R" finds dead "F"
6. .................
Step 6 is where you claim your friend didn't have to do anything at the end to hear the sounds. Why? Every dimension up to that point had to do something with volume control to hear the voices loud enough, so how come your friend never had to there?
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The actual game within a game is super well made. The puzzles weren't difficult by any stretch but were engaging enough. The overall sound design is awesome. The whole livestream chat/mod function never came into play for me unfortunately but it is a nifty little addition. I feel like one more puzzle to buildup to the ending a bit more would have been great, but as it stands right now it's still pretty darn good!
Alex the Escape Room Enthusiast!! Thank you so much for playing our game. It means a lot coming from you. The chat was just a way to make sure the player is really getting into that streamer persona, of course also to disguise game hints in the form of backseat gamers to completely prevent anyone from being stuck too long in frustration.
What a wonderful gameplay! You did amazing, thanks so much again :)
Hey, you called me "deaf" =(( I was typing the right combo at the end of the game, still didn't work!
Btw, that's a fun game. Really liked it a lot!
Thank you so much for playing! Would you mind contacting us at nightforgeofficial@gmail.com to further explain what you heard versus what you typed? We would like to investigate to see if it's a bug. Thanks again :)
Wow, this is really cool! Of course it is made by the brilliant horror people behind Cheating Death. Did not finish it the first time but I’ll try it again in a bit.
hhhhh… it reminds me of https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2747
(ohh also - RECURSion lol)
Recursion indeed 🤯
Glad to hear some of our Cheating Death players have stuck around :)
Glad you're liking it! Let us know what you think when you finish! Don't forget chat is always there to help
(spoilers)
The game’s trick made a lot of sense, but I was a little surprised as I was expecting it to be longer! or for there to be a different ending possible, like with how it says you can try to save the person if you enter the numbers to unlock the settings. I liked how the nested worlds worked: first you need to turn the mysterious voices up on your windows 7 (to get killed), and then you need to turn the fake-Windows UI sound up (to get killed), and then you need to turn your own computer’s sound up (to presumably die horribly). It’s a really neat thing to encounter.
Also it was very gorgeously implemented. Details looked really similar to real windows. After replaying it I was surprised to find that the puzzles were semi-randomized, like the cipher had different answers, which is really not what I expected of such a short game! As well as the hints panel with the mods - they are helpful, though I’m surprised they are just like lol idk can’t help you any more giving you more hints if you keep begging. And the inappropriateness of the stream was also funny. Having you have to enter your name is also interestingly uncomfortable - I like the bit of personality that comes with ‘That’s not your name’ if you enter something else.
Anyway, if you keep making these you should put them all in a Short Horror Story compilation or something, they’re all bangers, or perhaps expand the idea into a longer game.
Going to try to get some other people to play this in a few days and see what they think too!
Wowow, thanks so much for sharing!
I'm so glad you were able to catch so many of the connections between the different nested worlds/dimensions, including the sound system (that ones more of an unobvious one). I see what you mean about the different (happy) ending; I think we just wanted to focus on the big punchline which is to somehow make the real player (you) feel as uncomfortable as possible; y'know, the whole make you feel like "you're next" thing by keeping it as immersive as possible with repetitive reinforcement/association across the dimensions. Glad to hear you liked the chat! And thanks for the suggestion on the short horror story compilation!
And an absolutely huge thanks for sharing this! We would love for them to try it out and let us know their experiences.
Cheers!
(PS) since you seem to have drawn some connections with the sound systems. Here's some food for thought: you said that you had to turn up the volume in each "layer" which allowed you to put in the password (and get killed each time). But do you remember ever turning up the volume for the very last one?
I'll leave it at that :)
(PS) since you seem to have drawn some connections with the sound systems. Here’s some food for thought: you said that you had to turn up the volume in each “layer” which allowed you to put in the password (and get killed each time). But do you remember ever turning up the volume for the very last one?
Okay so… I actually showed this to someone who has very good hearing and didn’t even need to turn up the volume for that one xD. I played through again and turned up the volume (on my computer in real life), which I think means that if the cycle is:
Windows 7: dead person -> turn up volume of mysterious voices -> unlock security -> static -> knocking -> Windows 10: monster enters room -> turn up volume on Windows 10 -> unlock security -> static -> knocking -> 3dverse: monster enters room -> turn up actual computer volume -> unlock security -> whole screen turns static -> REAL LIFE: MONSTER ENTERS ROOM?
But what’s most notable from the first room is that the person was dead, bloody, xs over the eyes on the floor, so perhaps we are the living opposite…
Anyway there’s another layer up from us where the volume did not get turned up yet, perhaps… the monster has yet to appear to KILL…
What if I told you that the part where you say "turn up volume on Windows 10" was actually supposed to simulate turning up your "actual computer volume"?
Originally, we did want the real player (you) to have to eventually turn up your own personal ACTUAL computer volume, but we decided against it because we're not sure if we can generalize everyone who plays ReCursed and what settings their personal volume is at -- we really don't want to risk earraping players by forcing them to up their volume, and then have later sounds be way too loud.
Let's try visualizing laying out all the game dimensions that we see in ReCursed in a single file line and we'll start from the end (dead person) and work our way up. Here's the key: each dimension turns up their OWN system's volume to fill in the passcode for the dimension in FRONT of them.
- We'll call the first dead person we see "P"
- We'll call the minigame player that we've been playing throughout all the puzzles "M"
- We'll call the player that's in the 3D world (free-roam) "F"
- We'll call you, the real player, "R"
Okay, let's lay it out like this:
1. "M" finds dead "P"
2. "F" has to increase their own system's volume control via the Volume Control App (mysterious voices) to fill in the passcode within "M"'s own system
3. "F" finds dead "M"
4. "R" has to increase their own system's volume control via the Windows 10-style slider at the bottom-right corner to fill in the passcode within "F"'s own system (again, the slider being a simulation, you never have to actually increase your own personal volume)
5. "R" finds dead "F"
6. .................
Step 6 is where you claim your friend didn't have to do anything at the end to hear the sounds. Why? Every dimension up to that point had to do something with volume control to hear the voices loud enough, so how come your friend never had to there?
I'll leave the rest to your interpretation :)
Liked it!
Thanks so much for playing! Glad you liked it