The Haunting of Rebus Manor by Dan Davis

[raw]
made by Dan Davis for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

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While trick-or-treating with your friends you and your friends made the mistake of walking up to the spooky house on the street. You extend your hand, ring the doorbell. The door swings open but nobody is home. You feel a cold hand grab you by the arm and pull you in. Your friends are dragged into a room. You can hear doors closing and locking. What will you do?

Welcome to the twisted manor of Professor Rebus! Within this escape room style game you and your friends are tasked with exploring for clues and solving puzzles. If you can solve all the clues before the clock strikes 12 you and your friends just might make it out. If not, your doomed to repeat your Halloween over and over again.

Key setup is the standard WSAD first person setup. Mouse allows you to look around. For all of you who want the mouse inverted, press CTRL-F1. Press the E key to interact when prompted and the I key to quickly get a look at your completed puzzles.

Feeling stuck? Maybe check out the good Professors journal.

Note: This is a multiplayer game. We tried to knock as many bugs as possible but we apologize if something comes up. We have also included a copy of the game server if you would like to host an escape room party for you and your friends. The requirements are very low. Just make sure you have the correct port (TCP) open. Hosting a server IS NOT required. The team will have servers going throughout the Halloween season. Please feel free to use one of those if you like!

Ratings

Overall 293th 3.632⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 467th 3.237⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 387th 3.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 643th 3.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 548th 3.289⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 346th 3.289⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 373th 3.053⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 283th 3.737⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 15🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

6Knowledge
Oct 07th · 12:26 UTC
A lot of time was clearly spent on the level, and it does seem nice, but the gameplay feels a bit thin. As unusual as it is to get a MP game for a jam (now counting 2 out of >1000), I don't know why this one specifically is one. The game seems to run just fine out of the box and no other players are needed.
🎤 Dan Davis
Oct 07th · 17:38 UTC
Hi @6knowledge! Thank you for your feedback! Yes, this game is completely playable as a single player, but one of the features you didn’t get to experience while playing alone was the shared accomplishment/inventory system. The game itself was meant to feel like something you would experience if you visited an escape room. Sure, you can tackle an escape room by yourself, but it's also fun with friends!
Adam Konig
Oct 11th · 00:56 UTC
I love a good escape room, and this was a super fun and quick and smooth micro-escape room! Would play stuff like this for hours if you made more. I do wish the object itself wasn't a giveaway sometimes to the puzzle solution but other than that I had a lot of fun!
blobo
Oct 11th · 17:22 UTC
Wow. I haven't ever played an online multiplayer game in my decade of Ludum Dare. Super impressive, and I loved all the riddles.

Atharva and I were a real dream team. Here's my recorded video to provide maximum feedback. Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lgnrkRiK0A
Dominic Graziano
Oct 12th · 03:10 UTC
@100th-coin thanks so much for making a video of your experience!
DeepD2eam
Oct 12th · 05:49 UTC
An impressively complete and excellent game!
b0guslaw
Oct 12th · 06:35 UTC
Impressive puzzler for such a short time and multiplayer too!
Archimagus
Oct 13th · 02:05 UTC
Well done, a great level of polish. And I could tell a lot of time went into the design. Some of the puzzles took me a lot longer than I'd care to admit LoL. A few bits of constructive feedback.
- Pressing Enter in a text box confirms, but on a wrong answer it should re select the box. (I found later on that hitting enter a second time does select the box)
- Escape in a riddle window should just close the window, not ask if I want to quit the game
- Escape with the quit window open could close it.
- Pressing I to bring up the inventory only brings it up for a few seconds, really hard to read the story in there.
Dominic Graziano
Oct 13th · 14:55 UTC
thanks @archimagus We really put most of our time into the core gameplay loop so yes there's quite a few annoying bugs in the UI :( thanks for playing and for you feedback!
Kapricorn Media
Oct 15th · 03:39 UTC
Reaaaally love the environment and the 3d + Pixel art combo. However, for some reason I simply could not figure out the riddles. (Sorry!) Would be interesting to have the riddles be related to what's visually IN the room, so that roaming with friends and looking around is part of the mechanic.
nassshie
Oct 16th · 19:50 UTC
it is giving the cartoon i have seen when was a kid "ParaNorman" ooooohh i love the vibe!!!
D3kryption
Oct 17th · 21:24 UTC
A polished multiplayer escape-room jam game with a spooky, charming “ParaNorman”-like vibe. Puzzles are clever and immersive, though some UI quirks and riddle clarity issues exist. Works solo but shines with friends. The 3D + pixel art blend is visually appealing and the gameplay is engaging.
Dominic Graziano
Oct 17th · 23:01 UTC
@d3kryption thanks so much for the kind review!
zimny11
Oct 23rd · 22:21 UTC
Making multiplayer game in such a short time is super impressive! Controls are fine, mood is nice and riddles are fun. Great job!