Gradual Decay(demo)
A downloadable game for Windows
About the game:
Discover your haunting past as you battle with your own demons and try to escape the unstoppable fate of decay that lurks within you.
You play as Cole Mason, a brilliant mind with an unfortunate past. You experience his life and realise how poor choices ruined it, perhaps he was worthy of such a fate afterall. Try to explore the environments and understand the story behind them in this psychological horror game.
Make sure to review the game after you play, enjoy!
Disclaimer:
There is a known bug in this demo where your screen displays weird solid colors instead of rendering the game, the solution is to go back to the main menu (esc->menu) and click continue, sorry for the inconvenience!
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Gradual Decay v1.2 is out!Jul 24, 2021
Comments
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I liked a lot. I was expecting something creepy in entire game. i had 2 times a little bug that blinked the screen and I had to quit and returned with the "continue". Sorry I didn´t record in my gameplay.. I made a smaller video. :)
Hi there,
I'm a game writer from Cape Town, South Africa for various international indie studios , and always on the lookout for new challengers.
My role as a writer is to formulate character / narrative driven documents , gaming and character backstories , as well as implementing puzzles and side quests.
I've recently launched 2 visual novels called axiom alternative 1 and 2 on Steam. Part three will be released this year.
Cover letter - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WAV2UHz2CP6hbT8DoM9LtIoGBBuV0lfb/edit
I wouldn't mind working under senior narrative writers. I'm just looking at being given the opportunity to hone my writing skills and to learn from the more senior team.
Also if you're open to any gaming ideas/ pitches for future projects, please let me know.
Any questions, or if you require any further information, let me know.
Regards,
Redewaan
I enjoyed the environmental storytelling very much. I was able to predict what was going on before I was pretty much outright told it by dialogue and I can appreciate that. I had a bad game breaking bug happen a couple times but luckily you implemented a quicksave feature so thank you for that lol. The ending is very abrupt and didn't fit the rest of the game in my opinion but it is a demo so there's not much I can argue. Regardless I had a fun time playing and I thank you very much for making it!
Thank you so much for the good words. The ending is not going to be part of the final game, its just temporary for the demo as you guessed. Thanks for playing!
do you intend to launch your games for other platforms, for new players? Consoles and cell phones?
This one in particullar will stay in pc due to performance reasons. In the future I'll work on both mobile and pc games and hopefully every pc game from now on will be also launched on consoles.
I understand, thanks for your answer.
Neither Mac or Linux binaries, despite stating that both are supported…
You are right that went over my head I'll fix it sorry
Thanks for playing the game and for the kind words!
Nice game
Thanks for playing!
The game is a little dark, and sometimes glitched in not opening doors, only to go back to the main menu to do it.
I hope this would be improved in the full game, and it would bring out the story more!
All the best
Thats the goal, thanks for playing!
I enjoyed this game.
Feel as though its a bit similar to PT which is cool :)
Looking forward to seeing where this goes, I'd like to know what happened.
Only thing i would suggest is to maybe change the font or make it a bit easier to read because its a bit hard to make out :')
But overall a good game :)
Here is my playthrough x
Thank you for playing, Ilaughed a lot at some of the jumpscares, I'll keep your suggestions in mind.
Would have enjoyed an encounter with some sort of scary creature, but not a bad start.
Thanks for playing! I enjoyed the commentary as well
Much appreciated. I enjoy talking shit. Thanks for making a fun game I can yap over, ha.
hi Stratos Kakalis, I would like to ask you something, if in this game you will have other voice overs in other languages and languages and even Brazilian Portuguese, I hope your answer.
Game is too dark
Will add a brightness option in the menu soon, thanks for playing.
Pretty cool game. It felt like a cross between P.T. and Layers of Fear. The game did crash on me a few times, but I was able to finish it. I think with a bit more polish, story, and some events to add a feeling of dread, this would be an excellent horror game. Nice work Stratos!
Thank you so much for the kind words, many people have already compared this to P.T. but none yet with layers of fear which is one of my favorite horror games and I definetely drew lots of inspiration from it, so your comment is on point.
Interesting game so far. I see the overall theme you trying to build for this game. For a demo there was not much emotional connection to be made. The looping concept is great but there needs to be more events occurring in the area to boost its entertainment value. On my computer screen its quite dark and I was still able to finish it but not without some difficulty. In the video I showed the difference in gamma levels. There is no monster, so other than guilt of a slightly bad marriage what drives this person to keep moving forward? I hope this help for you to improve and keep at it.
Thanks for the detailed review I enjoyed the video as well, you gave me some great questions to use as guidelines. The overall feedback was compact but precise, thanks for playing!
The game gave me some pt vibes for sure. Though it definitely didn't help that the door didn't open for me a few times and forced me back to the main menu just to progress. Besides that, it's an ok game.
Here's my channel for other games I have played. http://www.youtube.com/c/Levont
Thanks for the video!
I was really hooked to the story and atmosphere but unfortunately I've encountered two bugs:
1. Weird screen flickering (I had to restart the checkpoint)
2. The door to the bathroom wouldn't open so I couldn't finish the game :(
Overall it was quite a nice experience! Here's my little playthrough (Polish language) Cheers!
Sorry for the bathroom door bug that didn't let you finish the game, thanks for the video!
I don't really understand what the final product is going to look like, but if it at all resembles the story beats and pt sequences already displayed I cannot exactly say that I am excited for it. My video provides more context and points out a few technical issues that could be fixed to improve the overall experience.
Thanks for playing the game! I think you nailed most of your points and there is much room for improvement, I really appreciate taking the time and properly critiquing the game. (Also I didn't even know you could glitch yourself like that in the kitchen haha).
This was a very enjoyable experience. The buildup of tension was really good, and I found myself becoming very investing in the story that was unfolding. I gave some thoughts at the end of the video. Great work!
I really enjoyed the video and your thoughts on the game were actually really helpful, thanks for playing and for all the kind words!
Very well done. The pace of this game was just enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, waiting for what surprises lay around the next corner for me to discover! One feature I think was impressed with, was the TV in the living room. The reflection effect was very good indeed 👍. Keep up the good work. I look forward to experiencing the rest of the story/game!!!!!!
Thanks for playing!
Game got some potential for sure. If I was you I would change the font of the text in the subtitles, it can be a bit of a pain to read imo. Also, I know Dark is scary. But maybe add some lamps you can turn on etc? you can always have them go out if you want some event to pop off. Its just a bit too dark imo. Anyways, keep up the good work. Also the continue option wont allow you to open the hallway door again, you have to exit the whole game and reopen it for it to work. But so far you can be pretty proud with what you made.
Thanks for the input, the font is an issue and I will keep the lighting suggestings in mind for future projects as well, I think that's good advice. I would appreciate it if you reviewed the game! Thanks for playing!
Mano, what game is this huh? a game with the same PT vibe, man I loved it I’m dying to know the rest of the game, the graphics are beautiful and beautiful, the gameplay is not bad, I wanted to ask more if this game soon has a chance to come out to Android and iOS, some of the languages included Portuguese were missing, but okay, I really loved this one. <3
Thank you for the kind words! No the game won't be available on android or ios (mobile in general). I hope to continue working on it so I can reveal the rest of the story soon, glad you enjoyed it! A review would be greatly appreciated!
Hello, I played this game and I really enjoyed it, the sound effects were great and the environment was also pretty cool, I did also get that screen bug but it doesn't ruin the experience at all, good work :)
I'm really glad it didn't ruin the experience for you, I am still struggling with it haha,thanks for playing!
Had some problems with the game but got there eventually and the atmosphere was really good really creepy.
Thanks for the playthrough and the kind words!
nice!!
Amazing game dev but the screen sometimes turns into weird colors
Thanks for trying it out! I am still looking into that bug, thanks for the info!
CEO of "amazing game dev"
Show post...
good but need fix
Working on it! Thanks for playing.
Getting blackscreen suddenly during gameplay. Hope you will fix soon.
Working on this error atm. Right now the only solution is to go to the menu and click continue. Sorry for the inconvenience!
That didn't work. I got glitched every time.
You can make it through. Just go to the menu and press continue. If the door then will not open, close and restart the game and then click continue. Worked for me.
Thanks for the solution, that is no longer needed I just published a new update. It doesn't fix the blackscreens yet but going to the menu and back into the game now fixxes the issue every time!
Thank you!
Oh, and I do not know if you noticed in my vidio, but if you use the door before "the crying woman" slams it, it will stay shut until you reload the game. And you should probably ask for a rating at the end of the game or somewhere else, as I am not sure it will get as much attention if ratings are low. As far as I can see, I am the only one who has given it a rating so far.
-BH
Thank you so much for trying it! I enjoyed the video as well, would you mind if I used it as a temporary trailer as the one I'm creating for the game is taking some time?
Now about the bugs, I only found out about it (specifically the one where your screen shows solid colors) shortly before releasing the game. However, I thought it was due to corrupt files or a bad build since its a renderer-related error. Either way the bug seems to exist in every build of the game so I am planning to fix it asap and reupload a proper build soon. Again thanks for the kind words even though you had to deal with that issue!
I get to the same point in the game and I cant escape the weird colours I can just hear the woman crying in the background. Also when I restarted from the last checkpoint I cant even get through the door.
You have to exit the game and then press continue.
Thanks for reporting, the second issue got patched! I am uploading the new and improved version right now. The weird colors are still bugging me however so if you run into them just go to the main menu and click continue, sorry for the inconvenience!
I did go back to the menu and hit continue then I couldn't open the door it wouldn't let me
Close the game and restart, then click continue.
No, not at all! :D In fact, I would really like that. Thanks for watching!