The Esoteric Archive
A downloadable Nightmare for Windows
Those with a thirst for knowledge, and an understanding of the weavings, may find themselves in a library like no other. A deep perseverance and an amount of aimless wandering is required to find this place, but should you find it, you would surely find all the answers you seek. For this Esoteric Archive is vast, possibly endless, and filled with knowledge not meant for mankind. However, you have need of such knowledge, don’t you. Otherwise, why would you have come to such a place?
Game and Music by bjorntuga.
This game was intended for the “Haunted PS1 Wretched Weekend1” game jam. A majority of the assets I made during the allotted time, with a few exceptions of props I had previously built.This game uses some assets and/or modifications of assets from the Unreal Engine Marketplace.
CONTROLS:
W,A,S,D - Move
LMB - Pick Up Item in Crosshairs
RMB - Zoom Camera Zoom
That's it. That's all you get.
The Following Asset Packs were utilized in the making of this game.
Chameleon Post Process
Good Sky
M5 VFX Vol2.
Urban Materials Pack
Other Programs Used
Blender 3d
Make Human
Unreal Engine 4
Photoshop
Audactiy
Most of these are either free or were free at some point. If you are an aspiring game designer I highly encourage you looking into some of these programs. My point is, if I can make things like this, anyone can. Believe in yourself.
Author Disclaimer and Notes: Bjorntuga is one person. Bjorntuga is a hobbyist, at best. Ergo, this game may not run very well on every system. I'll be honest, it might not run at all. I have no idea. I'm still relatively new at this. It works fine on my system, but I only have the one to playtest.
This game was built for a Game Jam. The entire experience can be completed in roughly 5 minutes.
So, I snuck away from building Buried Beneath the Sleep (and somehow pried myself away from the Final Fantasy 7 Remake) to put together this small game jam game. Thematically/Lore wise, I'd say for now you can think of this as a sub-sect of the House of Ever Changing, but specifically for people who want solutions outside of the constructs of humanity. Perhaps knowledge on how to control time, or even life and death themselves. All knowledge is held in the Esoteric Archives. But just like the House of Everchanging, it's easy to get lost and forget why you came.
I'm going to try to sleep now.
Download
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Comments
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i love this game so much ! i think the atmosphere was set really well , and it did a good job of providing just enough information to be interesting while still withholding enough to keep that feeling of being in a space that is, by intention, unknowable. honestly, the only complaint i have is the walking speed- i know it's likely to set atmosphere, but i feel it was slow enough to take me out of the game a bit (especially since in the last segment, it SEVERELY lagged) - i know it can be hard to balance an atmospherically slow walking speed with one that's slow enough to be irritating, but for me at least, the game fell into the latter camp. definitely not enough to ruin the game for me though, i overall loved it! (i also adore the menu music)
Hey, thank you for taking the time to play and give your kind words! I wasn't expecting that today that really made my day. This was a small game jam game that I wanted to do a lot more for. The lagging issue is something I'm working on getting better at. I think I just need to get better at level streaming and LOD's and whatnot. Currently I'm working on getting all my skills better and more concrete for a few more full length games coming up so your feedback helps me a lot. The walking speed thing, you're absolutely right lol. I definitely slowed the walking speed down a bit to try and artificially lengthen the game since it was so small. Rest assured most of my future games will have a much more comfortable walking speed and hopefully a lot less lag. Thank you again for your kind words!
I really liked how the library would change, the position of the mannequins or whatever they were, and the big shadow guy. However I was a little disappointed in that it was a rather short walking simulator. Was kinda hoping for more story. But hey, for what it was I think you did a great job. Maybe your next project can be more in depth? Constructive criticism
Yeah this was a very short game made in around 48 hours for a game jam while I was still very new to game development. The next few projects I'm working on are significantly better and have way more gameplay mechanics/content (granted, "more game mechanics" than this game would be like, two lol but still.) Rest assured, anything I release going forward will be way more content than this or any other game currently on my page. Still, I appreciate you not only taking the time to play but leaving feedback as well. In later games I'd like to expand on the concepts in this one, namely the world changing around you just outside of your field of vision.
Hey! Love the atmosphere and concept in this game :D
Can't get enough of this kind of vibe! Felt almost like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Your intro and outro to the game were both eloquently written and conceived--perhaps an odd comment, but so many otherwise quality indie horror games have terrible writing and shallow ideas--whereas your writing isn't just acceptable, it elevates the game.
Check out my video on your game if you like! Do subscribe if you like the content--I'm just starting out on youtube as of three weeks ago XD.
Here's the link!:
I liked the way the world around you changes as you progress, you have this sense of unease as you walk through the hallways.
Gave it a go, Feedback within!
Oh wow! I wasn't expecting something so in depth. I greatly appreciate your feedback! It seems like you got the general idea of what I was going for. There was quite a large amount I had planned for this game but I had to scale back for the sake of time. I tried to flesh it out more with text at the end but there was a lot to this game I didn't get in. I had the lore and story in mind while building the game, but when I finally had time to sit down and write up all the text for the game I was 20+ hours deep at 7 am with the deadline fast approaching. However in the end I decided that submitting at least something was better, and I viewed it as more of a personal goal than anything else and a chance to gauge my personal growth from where I started two years ago. The end result, as you saw, fell a bit flat in the end, but mechanically it's significantly cleaner than my previous games.
That being said, I greatly appreciate you taking the time to go through it. You actually also did a video on my very first game, and kudos to you for slugging through that nightmare lmao. After this project I'm going to try and avoid doing game jams for a while and build something a little bit more substantial and fully realized. Hopefully, my next project will prove to be significantly more entertaining. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this a little bit on the programming and modeling side of things, so now I can start to stretch my creative muscles a bit more.
Oh wow! What a well put together video! I also like your channel art a lot. I'm glad you enjoyed the game, I wanted to make it sort of creepy without relying on big jump scares and stuff, so the way you described it was pretty much exactly what I was going for. Your playthroughs of all the other games were also entertaining, especially since I've been too chicken to check out some of the other submissions on my own haha. I look forward to more content from you in the future. Hopefully the next game I make will have a little more substance for you!
Cool game. Libraries are an underutilized setting in games, and I liked how it changed around me. I loved the ending too. The sort of slow horror where you don't notice until it's too late (or you don't notice at all) is right up my alley.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I wanted to do a lot more with the concept, but I only had a few days to make it so I kept it simple and its more of a proof of concept than a game. The next game I put out will have significantly more substance to it.
The motion blur made this unplayable for me. Too extreme, there needs to be a way to turn it off.
I'm sorry to hear that. It's not supposed to have motion blur, just the pixel effects. I'll take a look at it and get a new build up this afternoon.
That was very interesting and the design was quite peculiar. Loved it!
Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The next game I make will be much more substantial.