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Game now available to play. Please post any bugs you find that are reported below or tell me how you liked it

current version v.3: updated! ( I switched to mega for the download. My drive was getting full)
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https://mega.nz/file/bBNnECIQ#BpawpJ4CAkdnNQ0mocXkEi-hquv7PMIxOktx4ah-GLM
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Helpful hints:
– make sure to look out Windows and explore the house. Otherwise you might miss something important
– notes left around locations give you hints on where to go next
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I started this project as a small demo to test out the new features of Max and see if I could create a interesting haunted house. It turned out pretty well but I wasn't completely happy with it so I decided to start from scratch and make it bigger and better. So far the new versions turning out pretty well. The basic concept of the game will be you're a guy who buys a haunted house and as each day passes it becomes increasingly more creepy and weird things start to happen. What I'm planning is on the first level you start out at the real estate office picking up your keys for the house and talking to the real estate agent. From there it will take place at the house on moving day while unloading your things small things start to happen. After getting settled in things get increasingly worse. Here's a couple of screenshots of what I put together so far. The entire house has been built and mostly furnished. Some models are placeholders and need to be replaced with PBR versions or redone completely. The screenshots are in the daytime but the lighting needs to be reworked for these and the nighttime levels. Once I add the finishing touches it's time to start working on the story progression and what creepy things I want to happen in the game. I don't have an intention to sell the game but if I get something completed and I'm satisfied with I will upload it to the community to play. So far though I'm quite impressed with game guru Max and its visual quality. The house I built was made with the easy building editor and it looks miles better in Max than it did with the original game guru.

just noticed I had a book stuck in the wall, LOL. That will be removed

Looks great to be honest.
Very natural and very well thought out.

Thank you synchromesh, I appreciate it! I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out so far. I have the groundwork pretty much laid since the whole game would take place in the same house at different times so right now I'm working on objectives and the creepy stuff. I added characters to my intro level with the real estate office but I'm not sure if they're throwing off the tone of the game are not. Just got to keep fine-tuning I suppose.


I also figured out that makehuman/mixamo works good for npc characters with single animations like sitting around the real estate office or for a agent typing.I was checking the character creator characters and they don't seem to have a sit animation unless I'm missing something. It would be nice to have idle characters that would speak when you walk by

This is looking pretty good!

thanks peke!

I decided to redo the real estate office to make it a little bigger and direct the character a little better in the right direction. It's really only supposed to serve as a short introduction for the main part of the game but somehow it's turning into the bigger pain I'm hoping once it's all put together it doesn't ruin the tone of the house portion of the game. It would be kind of a bummer to have to scrap it

Looks great! SSAO really takes interior spaces to a new level of awesome now. Don't forget to add illumination maps (or whatever they're called now) to those light bulbs!

Congratulations mguy1122.

Ambitious project where you are putting a lot of efforts to create levels with your assets.

The curtains and the beds make me think that you are/were a member of the Marvelous Designer's forum.

Thanks kraven! Yeah, I'm really liking how stuff is looking in Max. The SSAO does add a nice touch.I had to remove the horror blue filter though from the realtor office, it might've been a bit too much I was going to put illumination maps on the house lighting but all the switches are functional so when you turn the lights off(or when they go off) I didn't want them to glow afterward. I don't know if there's a script or something to activate or deactivate the maps but that might be an idea. Right now I'm just trying to position the light enough over the model enough that it looks illuminated. The ones in the realtor office have illumination maps though





Thanks mikeven! I had to look up marvelous designers forum, it made me think it was a house decorating site or something, LOL. But no, I'm not a member of either actually those curtains came stock with the program I believe. The beds are BSP I bought a while ago. I'm trying to use stuff I can find on the model sites or what I already have versus modeling them myself as much as I can so I don't get sidetracked. That's what usually happens, I get so busy modeling stuff for my project I lose track of what my project actually is I still had to model a couple dozen things though so I can't escape it completely. The easy building editor actually works quite well for doing interior levels despite all the grief it gets And you can do it quickly .

While I was waiting for some things to be sorted out with trigger zones going off on different levels of the house and some issues with doors I decided to work on some of the nightmare sequences that would happen between levels of exploring the house. This is a later sequence that will happen after things start ramping up. The level is mostly finished up, still have some finishing touches but I thought it looked decent enough to show off a video demoing the level. I have to say, I'm really enjoying game guru Max and what it can do.

That nightmare sequence looks incredible. I’m excited for this!!! The house is very well done! Did you use ebe or actual entities for the construction?

Thanks, glad you like it! The house and realtor office were both made with the easy building editor. I did make my own custom Windows and cutouts to make the construction faster. So all the walls floors roofs and pillars are easy builder and the rest is filled in with models. I didn't use the the easy builder for anything in the nightmare sequence because it takes place all outdoors. As long as you're going to contain the player inside the house or don't let them see any parts like roofs that the builder is quite capable of making it looks great and it makes constructing the environment very fast.

I've hit a slowdown with some issues with trigger zones and getting some doors locked which is putting a damper on finishing the last two levels. In the meantime I've been messing around with wake-up sequences and how to not just have the player pop in the room after each nightmare. Here's one of the tests

this is for sure gonna be my favorite game made with ggm so far

Thanks, I appreciate that! Hopefully some features get implemented soon so I can wrap it up and let everyone play it. I'm really waiting on the trigger zones to have the checkbox for spawn at start so the player can wander around the house more and trigger events rather than me trying to guide them from point a to b in a straight line which would damper the experience. It's on the gethub fix-it list so I'm just waiting unless I can find a workaround.

quick update:
I found a way of getting around the trigger zones and having them be able to be triggered so I was able to wrap up my remaining levels. As of now the entire game is in a playable state. But, the standalone version is trying to be a pain and cause problems. My TVs are no longer using the emissive texture and some of the blood writing is the wrong texture. It's also causing weird lighting issues when you start the dream sequences (but they go away after you walk forward a little bit) and two of the levels are missing their music for some reason. There was also issues with the realtor office no longer having collision but that was an easy fix once I figured it out. It was just a matter of replacing the files. So, some of these problems I know how to fix and some might not be fixable without an update with Max. If I can get the bugs squashed I will go ahead and upload the game for whoever to play and get some feedback on what might need tweaked otherwise it might have to wait.I could upload the broken version but I figure I should have it done right before I let people play it

Alright, looks like I got all the bugs squashed I can find, the demo is ready for some beta testing for whoever is interested. If you find any bugs let me know. Also, to whoever tries it I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions. I made this for hobby project so I'm not sure how much farther I will take it but you never know. I did have one or two ideas for extending the ending but I'm not sure if I will do that or not.Also, I will probably be doing some fixing on a couple rough edges.
I played through the whole demo with i7 7700, 16 gigs RAM and a 2070 super on 4K. The indoor scenes are easy to keep it a constant 60 frames per second with my rig but the dream levels with all the trees are a bit more taxing. I'd probably suggest a lower resolution and lowering the settings for smoother experience. But, if you got a better computer than me go for it however you choose.
Anyway, here it is. The download link is below

Quick note: my microphone isn't the best so forgive the voice acting. I'm blaming the microphone but it's probably me
updated to v.2
(Go to the top post for the download link. I change this to keep things easy so i only have to update one post)

Overall: Great stuff, well worth playing (although I'm stuck in the Dream Level), both graphics- and storywise.

Sound is another thing. The "Boom scares" when one enters a room are way too loud, especially since one thinks one has to turn up volume to really hear what the guys in the first level are saying (the painterman's report in my "house" is even drowned in the music from the radio).

For my taste, SSAO seems set way to high (the corner lines in the office building and part of the furniture in the house look just too grimy to me, and the girl at the computer or typewriter in one of the booths is hardly discernible from her surroundings).

I know there is not built-in inventory functionality, but the messages that I have picked up another fuse are so short- lived that it is hard to tell how many I still need to pick up. Maybe, a simple "collected # of #" indicator in the hud can be constructed ?

I ran into a real bug ( popup-window about something out of index ) with the light switch in the Dream Level in the room with the bed. Not sure about the effects, the game continued.

At some spots in the Dream Level, there are triangular openings visible in the misty grey showing a sharp stormy sky "beyond". Is that intentional ? Also, in the vicinity of such spots, I twice fell into some kind of chasm or rocky trench I couldn't escape from. Such things shouldn't really happen in a game - and the first time, I didn't have a save game....

Talking of save games: Again, in the Dream Level: after reloading, the particle emanations from the seats around the birthday cake table are gone. Not, that they seem very important, I'm just saying they're gone.

Also, although I had collected the key bundle in the level, I wasn't able to open the green mesh door with them, and on the second approach and after, I wasn't even prompted to find and use the key to open it.
Is there more than 1 key hidden in this level ? Or do we have a failure of the save/load feature here ?

These are the things I wanted to point out, not many of them are really bad. Hope that there is still a way for me to open the green metal mesh door.
Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the detailed feedback! This is the kind of stuff I need to know. First thing, to get past the dream level you need to flip the light switch and the gate will open to the exit. I never got an error when testing that part of the level so I'm not sure why that is happening. If you flip the light switch are you able to complete the level? I don't know how to reproduce the error so if this keeps happening I might change how the door opens. I also might add a message to make it obvious what the switch does.
With the booms scares are you talking about the intro movies for the levels? With the characters I could go in and increase their volume to get them to match better.
I never found a spot where you could fall through, I'm guessing since you were stuck on the first dream level that's where it was. I will go back and take a run through and see if I can find the spot. If you could maybe give me a general location of where it happened.
I do have to agree about the fuses and the prompts. There seems to be no way to extend the message you collected them without extra scripting. It would be nice to even change the size of the font or the color. If I can find a way to do this it definitely needs done but I'm not the best with scripting so I used what I had
there should be no keys in the dream level, just the light switch. Maybe something got accidentally left from the previous idea. I will go back and check that. But just so you know, it's not required to beat the level.
I will go back and look at the SSAO, that could be easily fixed along with the woman.
Lastly, I'm not sure what to do about the particles disappearing after loading a saved game. That might just be a glitch from Max being in early access and things not functioning properly. I could try to fix this somehow but this one I might not be able to get around. I will take a look though
thank you again for your feedback! This will help me to squash some issues and adjust some stuff.Thanks for testing out the game!

I'm removing the old version and uploading the new beta version. The old version won't be available anymore but the new version will be up and about 20 minutes

Beta fixes:
- character voices amplified – fixed
- they should now match the level of volume of everything else so you don't get attacked by the intros by having to have the volume cranked up to hear. With my headphones it sounds like the intros did match the level of volume of the level but the voices were definitely too low.
- realtor office lighting – fixed
- the typing lady should be clearly visible and the tone is a bit brighter
- dream sequence wall gaps – fixed
- removed left over key in dream sequence that wasn't supposed to be there
- also found a rock that was out of place that might've caused the character to get stuck. Also patched spots where the character could jump over rocks to get around the nightmare rooms. If I missed some spots please let me know where you found them.
- fixed dream sequence light switch to just be a trigger to to open exit. This way it's not so obscure to get to the ending of the level.This also should fix the error that was occurring
- fixed a couple static items that had physics unintentionally And deed texture was wrong and needed replaced
- attempted to fix duration of th of the fuses prompt.haven't got that figured out yet
if anything else is found let me know and I will get on it as soon as I can. I'm going to contact get hub support and see if anything can be done about the collection count prompt timing.
- version 2 link
(Go to the top post for the download link. I change this to keep things easy so i only have to update one post)

Will come back to you tomorrow, it's too late in the day for deeper exploration. Just had one more go.

With boom scares I meant the short terribly loud aural jumpscares played when one enters the room with the red book or with the bed, in the Dream Level.

Also did find the keys again on the ground, near the green lit trees, on the path encircling them, with three paths leading away off of them.

And, again, I was prompted to "find a key" (verbatim) when first approaching the green door (if no key is needed, maybe, it may be better to rephrase that to "find a means to open the door" ?).
Throwing the switch provoked the windows message box, and on return to the green door, it was still closed and locked, but no prompt was shown anymore. So, the "good" bad news is that I can reproduce the "out of index " error.

All this was from a game saved at the very start of that level.

Also noticed that the entry area is being lit blindingly bright on reload for a number of seconds, or even until I had taken a few steps, can't tell right now.
I will try and install some screen recording software tomorrow and record everything in one go, since I can't find a way to produce screenshots from the game, as were possible from GG Classic.

On the particles : You may want to solve that problem offensively, by just having them blow for 10-15 seconds, anyway ?

Oh, mutual cut over
Seems like many issues have been addressed already. Have downloaded the new version, but will have a go at it only tomorrow.

A lot of those issues should be fixed with the new version. I get what you're saying with changing the text on the locked gate if it doesn't require a key. I will get that changed up .I would like to gather as many bugs and mistakes as I can before putting out the next version so keep them coming. With the dream levels for some reason it's having a lighting glitch at the beginning like you mentioned. Everything will be yellow until you take a couple steps forward and then the lighting goes to normal. I haven't figured out how to stop this from happening but it might be a problem with the engine. max is still in beta so everything's not worked out yet I notice if I test the level in the editor the first time it does it but every time after it stops happening. Kind of puzzling...

Hello,

mguy1122 Yrkoon, congratulations ! You are making a great game.

I'll post later (this evening) an extended comment about my test of your game.

Here is a first screen capture :

Alright, a lot has been successfully fixed, thank you. Sound balance is great in the first two levels.

BTW: The first level is a very good institution in itself, it pulls us nicely into the story by its everyday business atmosphere.
Not a bug, but if there is still room / time for fine tuned improvement, as a little icing on the cake, the upper floor salesman could hand us some kind of document, say, a formal proof of purchase or similar ( the little excursion to his office seems a little pointless, currently). And perhaps, a little "something" may fall out from between the pages? "Oh, yes, We have no idea what it is, we found it in the documents handed over by the previous owner, so we thought we should pass it on to the buyer". Also, maybe, the keys handed over may show an unexplicable dark stain and /or a relation to the something fallen from the documents ... taken together, all of this may give off the impression of being just short of a "case of foreboding".

The girl in the booth is fine, now.

Personally, I'm still not fine with those way-too-dark ceiling corner lines; my own living room has a white ceiling and white painted walls, and if anything, the lines where they meet are lighter, not darker (ok, it's colour with an alleged built-in "pearl shimmer" effect , but that doesn't really show elsewhere on the wall or ceiling). In a room lined so darkly, I would immediately start looking for spiders, and expect lots of them. But that's just me.

The painterman's talk is also fine, now.

Funny glitch: the basin and its floor unit in the room where the painterman lives suddenly goes right through the wall to the adjacent room, but the dirty dishes keep soaring in mid-air.
Re-visiting the adjacent room later shows basin and floor unit in yet another position, there.
Same was already happening yesterday, but I forgot to mention it.

At the end of this level (with only saves, no loads executed in between), it took some walking to and fro the fuse cage to ignite the end of level, and then I was returned to the start of the same level! All fuses and the key were reset to their initial locations. When I passed through the door into the attic, I was prompted to "Press E to close the door", I did, and it swung into the wall.

Recollecting everything took me to the Dream level.
This level is generally working now. The obsolete key seems really to have been removed for good, I did not see the stormy sky through gaps, and I could leave any crevasse that I walked or fell in.

But you may want to turn your attention to the room with the bed.
There, the blood stain decals are very fickle, going on an off all the time when one walks through the room, as small as it is. The on-entry "scare boom" or fanfare or whatever it may be called is still VERY loud, I was glad I was not wearing headphones when I stepped in.

Also, the other room (with the candles) didn't show me the circle of hooded shapes on first entry that I saw yesterday.

The green door does not show any messages when approached (this MAY lead a player to think that this is a permanent block for an area simply not intended at all to be visited by him), but it seems to open faithfully with the visit to the respective room. Possibly, instead of a boring message displayed, "something interesting" - say, a wildly flickering crystal - may be placed beyond the green door, to make the player return, later.

I did not venture far into the next level, yet. But what immediately irritated me are the ceiling lights. They all look not as if they are emitting light, but rather are being shone at by an inclined searchlight from the floor, which also does not cover them fully with its beam, i.e., parts of the luminous element are in shadow.

Will progress later and report what I'll find.

Oh, just one more thing: The feature to apply a custom icon to the programm file is working since 3 or 4 versions of GGMAX back. You might want to use it

mikeven ... I'm not the creator of this game (I almost wish I were) . And yes, the game IS just outstanding.

The praise has to go to mguy1122.

I'm just giving off a few comments of what possibly could be corrected by him

yrkoon, thank you for mentioning my wrong adressing of my comment.


mguy1122, I want to apologize for my mistake. I think it happened because my head stayed in your nice game.

The screenshot placed in my previous comment demonstrates that I was able to go out (after a few unsuccesful trials) from that haunted place. I may say that I fairly played with your game. I didn't cheat (because it is currently possible with those alpha versions of GG MAX).

This is my opinion of your game in a few lines :

- 3D sounds are surely what is contributing the most to the required atmosphere.
- It is possible to reach the end of the game in less than one hour (I lost precious minutes because the message relative to the closed door of the attic appeared in front of one of the computers ).
- The logic of the game is quite good (I guess that it is not your first game's project).
- There are very good ideas ( example : dynamic arrangement of the furnitures according to the successful inquiries of the player).
- There are a few minor bugs with the placement of some assets or with the actions applied by the player :
In a few rooms the messages ( on/off and open/close) appear together and sometimes they are inverted ( on in place of off ).
A book or plates are floating in the air.
when a level is reloaded, some switches are no more available.
Opening the door of the attic was a major difficulty (conflicting messages).

- The final level (going out through the garage) was not easy with those two guys running so fast. The player died in less than three seconds if it couldn't run fast enough to the entrance door of the garage (previously locked). But it added spice to the game.


- I encountered a fatal crash of the game when I reloaded a saved game (control + alt + delete was necessary) but it could possibly be a special case because I was able to reload some other saved game.
- two requests : an inventory of the collected items and more time to read the prompted messages on some places.

A few informations for the members interested by that game :

- Size of the zipped folder : 2.23 GBytes (unzipped = 4.37 GBytes).
- Time to download at an average speed of 45 megabits per seconds : 7 minutes 20 seconds.
- Unzipping on a portable HDD connected to a USB 2.0 port ( NOT recommended ) : 24 minutes !!
- Unzipping on an internal SSD drive connected to a SATA port : 1 minute 25 seconds.

Thank you, mguy1122.
I wish you a lot of success with your GG MAX projects.

Glad you guys are enjoying the game long enough to finish it! I see some good criticisms here that will help me fine-tune some stuff. When you're making the game and playing through it yourself knowing where everything is it's hard to judge how someone else will walk through the same level that doesn't know the inner workings of it so this is good to know.

Don't worry Mikeeven , you didn't hurt my feelings
okay, let's see if I can address some of these issues. Some are fixable in summer out of my hands.

I absolutely agree this would make the game more engaging. Unfortunately I don't have the programming skills to make this happen and I'm using character creator characters so I don't think they even have a animations to make this possible. I was actually going to scrap the realtor office completely because I didn't think it match the game but I had the idea for the ending so I thought it was necessary to keep it so the ending made sense. It does need more interactivity but the level really was only made to serve as an introduction and nothing else. I may see what I can do to spice it up later though

I brightened it up a bit in the office but if I take it too far and starts looking bleached out. I'll take another look and see how much I can tweak it without making it look badly. I personally didn't mind the darker corners though. The realtors office isn't supposed to be immaculate.

this is probably a physics glitch meaning I accidentally gave the item physics when it should of been static I thought I caught all of these errors but I guess this one slipped under the radar. It will go on the list
I will also take a look at the attic door and see what's going on there. That door shouldn't even have a prompt. As of now the rotating doors won't allow them to be locked so I had to do some trickery to make the doors go from open to closed. They should all be static.

I didn't experience the bloodstained decal flickering but this is an easy fix. So is the loud sound effects. They will go on the list as well
the hooded figures should still be there, I didn't adjust anything that room except for changing the blood stains from physics to static. I will take a look though
the green door doesn't have a message anymore because I changed it from physics to static and it just disappears after you read both the notes and allows the player to continue. I do agree, I will add something there to draw the player back to the position.
I was unaware you were able to make a custom icon, I will check that out though


The game was never really supposed to be that long so an hour seems about right. When I started it it was only going to be one level and probably take less than 10 minutes it just grew into something bigger.
Glad you like the logic, it is actually my first game project! I've had ideas before and put together parts of games but never actually finished one
I'm guessing what you're talking about with placement of assets would be the light switch is in the doors. I knew they conflicted with each other but the distance you have to put them away from each other puts the light switch and an awkward place in the room. If I can find a way to reduce their range I will give that a go.

I did miss the book floating in the air, LOL. That will get removed
With the final two guys in the last level I tried to slow them down a little bit with their character speed but it made them look like they moving in slow motion. And if there moving too slow they're not really a threat. It was supposed to invoke a feeling of panic to force you to run out of the house as fast as possible. I don't know if it's possible to kill off the running animation and make them walk so there like a Terminator like boss that would slowly follow you but if it's possible I will see what I can do

on which level was opening the door to the attic difficult? I will take a look and see if I can fix that

as far as the save games go and reloading the levels I don't know what I can do to fix those issues. Like I said before those could be a problem with the early access engine but if I can find a way to make it stop happening I will give it a try. The game isn't very long and the levels are pretty short so saving and loading isn't really necessary for a play through but if I were selling the game it would definitely be a big problem. I will see what I can do though. For now, I would advise nobody save the game unless it's at the very start of the level.

I appreciate all the feedback. This gives me some more stuff to improve upon. I will fix what I can.

Reading back through I missed a couple things. I will have to check on some kind of inventory system and see if that's possible. I put in a request on get hub to be able to customize the text prompts when you collect items to make the duration longer and to possibly change the size or color of the text. That should make it easier to see when you collect in an item. If I get a response or it gets fixed I will get that implemented

You can't, but you should report the case on github, so tgc can look into it - after all, you have a working example of save/load misbehaviour at your fingertips. Like mikeven, I am positive that the save/load system needs attention by tgc, and we'll all profit from them doing something about it.

I guess you shouldn't worry too much about those unlikely lighting effects of corner lines etc, they are a bit like the seemingly inevitable "lens flare effects" so many people can't seem to live without.

I'll try go complete your game over the weekend, but I also have a lot of my own stuff on my plate (what with reviving four VR Headsets from three different brands; had to learn the hard way that installing their drivers and third party supporting software on the same notebook ended up in having to reset windows completely ) .

All in all your game encourages me to plod on with MAX for my own game projects, which are different from your game, but way more different from the typical GG ZombieShooter ... thingies. You proved to me that such games that I am envisioning seem possible with MAX.

I am positive that your game will be a success.

I get off work in a few and will check this out!!

Hello mguy1122,

Thank you very much for your detailed reply to my comment.
I also read the remarks posted by Yrkoon and I found them interesting and useful.

I am sending you a PM with which I send you a link to two zipped folder.
The first one contains screen captures where I discovered anomalies.
The second one contains my saved games.

I hope it will be useful for debugging or adjusting your game.

yrkoon, I will submit a ticket to the get hub and see if they will take a look at the save system. It doesn't really help in the moment with the problem you guys are having but it would benefit everybody down the road if they could dissect what's going wrong with my game so that would be a win-win situation anyway. I'm glad my game gave you some encouragement with your own project. That's mainly why put it out for other people to play. Good luck with those VR headsets

mikeven, I appreciate you putting together some screen captures to help with the fixing. That will make it very easy to pinpoint the exact locations. Along with the save games. I can tell by the descriptions you guys gave where most the problems are but these will definitely be a big help. Thanks

thatandplaygames, Hope you enjoy your play through and if you notice anything besides what's been reported let me know and I will put it on the list

Hello mguy1122,
I could re-discover a chasm one cannot get out of .
Pass the birthday table on the left side, then, after a few steps, there is this rusty steel fence on he left, with the gateway open; pass through there and walk into the trees on the left (btw: IF the fence were locked by a closed gate, it is actually possible to enter the area by passing under the fence. Just saying )
Now, of course, one could argue: why should a player walk into the chasm? But players who got stuck in their overall progress tend to look everywhere for a possible exit.

Also, it occurred to me that you don't necessarily have to do anything about the bright yellowish illumination at the beginning of the Dream level - because it IS a dream, so, anything not inhibiting gameplay is acceptable.

I just found that one when I was checking out mikeeven's save games he sent me. That's an easy one to fix and is going on the list. Yeah, the lighting doesn't hurt the gameplay in any way and there's nothing I can really do about it at the moment so I will just consider it a feature Max is still in early access so as things come along I'm sure all these little bugs will get worked out. Unless my computer blows up in the meantime I have this game on file so once all the improvements to the scripts or engine come along I will be able to polish the game even more. Most of these are easy and I've already fix them I'm just waiting to get as many as possible to release the next build. Some of these like the Lua errors seem to be from the save games corrupting something so those will have to go on the backlog. It does look like the bug hunt is slowing down so if I have enough time today I will wrap up the rest of the fixes and put out the next version.

Next release bug fixes:
Kitchen sinks not being static – fixed
attic door not being static – fixed
dining room door in later levels not being static – fixed
blood decal in dream level – fixed
added clue to advanced player in dream level – fixed
removed attic door message since it wasn't necessary – fixed
removed collection count from doll in the house day one to avoid confusion – fixed
change certain light switch is static to avoid conflict with door – fixed
added barrier to dream level to stop player from getting around the fence and leveled off a crevice where the player could get stuck – fixed
remove books from floating in air at entry of house – fixed
fixed a couple light switches that displayed they were off when they were on – fixed
attempted to fix duration of collection count prompts for the fuses. This unfortunately cannot be fixed at the moment but has been reported.
Also, error with audio zone in dream level II seems to be a bug with the save load feature.
Volume adjusted on some jump scares – fixed
checked for hooded figures not appearing in dream level. They still appear so that probably has to do with the save load system.

All these items have been fixed but unfortunately the standalone exporter keeps crashing on me and giving me an error. It must be something to do with the latest build they put out. I put in a request on get hub but until then it's kind of dead in the water. When I can get the updated version exported I will update the top post to version 3.

Great stuff so far! I did run into a few issues:

I played the game over the weekend for a few minutes each time. Saving and loading my progress.

There might be an issue with GGMax saving your game. When I load the game after saving it, the doors that I opened are opened and I'm getting a prompt to open them.

The repair man repeats his lines after loading a game.

This is a weird one - After I get all of the fuses and in the attic, new level loads... however it is the same level that I thought that I completed.

I'm going to keep playing to find any other issues.

I do like this game! Awesome job and your Voice overs are great! The only thing that I didn't like were the blue rusty chairs in the offices. They, at least for me, seem like they don't belong.

Thatandplaygames:
"This is a weird one - After I get all of the fuses and in the attic, new level loads... however it is the same level that I thought that I completed."
Then we are two, now I reported the exact same thing above and it also happened to me in the last but one level.
I also had to experience a mis-load, loading a saved game even loaded the previous level, apparently as a totally fresh level, because everything was in the initial state (when testing, I usually save a game after a few early steps into every level, just to be able to tell).

I think mguy1122 should report this on github (or extend his report if he already created one) as confirmed.

Thanks! I'm glad your liking the game. I always hate listening to the sound of my voice even when I'm doing impressions so I'm glad you guys like them. I couldn't get anyone to volunteer so I had to do them all myself which I thought was the worst part of making the game I already got some feedback about the game not saving and loading correctly. I still have to report this on get hub to see if this can get fixed. For now you probably only want to save at the beginning of the level if you're going to quit for the day otherwise you'll probably run into problems. I think that's what's causing the issues with it loading the wrong level afterwards and with the doors. I've got a bunch of fixes in the next build but I can't put it out until they get the export issue fixed with a standalone games. The blue Rusty chairs were a little crusty. They fit better with the smaller realtor office I made, I just never change them when I made the big one. I may take a look on sketch fab and see if they have some better ones or maybe model up a quick one in the meantime.

Here's the official bug report on get hub. I told them to check this post to read about what bugs are happening but if you guys would like maybe hop on over there and tell them the issues you're having with it. The more people that jump on and complain about it the quicker the response seems to be. I meant to report this earlier but I got sidetracked with some other stuff anyway, it's set in motion
https://github.com/TheGameCreators/GameGuruRepo/issues/3220

Looks like the standalone bug has been fixed! Version 3 is now available on the first post with all the bug fixes and tweaks listed above. I've also added hints on the loading screens and spiced up the realtor office. I reworked some textures, updated some chairs and computers and fixed some bland spots. Also included is an intro cut scene to the second dream scene. a subtle hint was added to the moving in level to draw your attention to a certain jump scare that triggers the door.Finally, I tone down the difficulty slightly on the final level. It's much easier to escape but if you get caught they will pursue you relentlessly

other bug fixes from previous post:
Kitchen sinks not being static – fixed
attic door not being static – fixed
dining room door in later levels not being static – fixed
blood decal in dream level – fixed
added clue to advanced player in dream level – fixed
removed attic door message since it wasn't necessary – fixed
removed collection count from doll in the house day one to avoid confusion – fixed
change certain light switch is static to avoid conflict with door – fixed
added barrier to dream level to stop player from getting around the fence and leveled off a crevice where the player could get stuck – fixed
remove books from floating in air at entry of house – fixed
fixed a couple light switches that displayed they were off when they were on – fixed
attempted to fix duration of collection count prompts for the fuses. This unfortunately cannot be fixed at the moment but has been reported.
Also, error with audio zone in dream level II seems to be a bug with the save load feature.
Volume adjusted on some jump scares – fixed

Thanks for your work, mguy1122.

Have downloaded v3 and will test it soon.

On the saving thing: I think your entry on github referencing this thread, is good.
Can't speak for the other contributers here, but for me I can say: if tgc comes calling to you for more information, I'll gladly help.
But I don't think it is of much use when we players, too, go to github on the matter, because tgc will just refer us back to "the creator of the game" since tgc "did not create the game and neither has insight into the game's specific design or coding bla bla bla...." - and they're
not totally wrong to take this position.

A few things I'm wondering about: (you may already have deducted from what I wrote in this whole thread that I'm much into logic and contingency )
* The many lightswitches are there for like ... what ?
With the exemption of the early version's switch in the Dream level bedroom, they don't do a lot, right ?
I am positive that I could complete the game without deliberately using them.
* Same seems to be true for the vermin. They are not really scary (I wouldn't mind seeing them in those dream scenes, though)
* It IS a horror game, and it is rather short, so, serious logic clashes are really to be expected .
But what's the essential story behind all this?
Why does the grand master want to kill me in the first place ?
After my demise, the property would doubtlessly fall to my heirs, so, - ignoring the sales' fees - it can't be for money.
Has the house been built on ( "not-so-") holy ground, unbeknownst to the original builder ? And some secret society wants
"reclaim" it ? No information is given in that respect.
Or have I involuntarily dug too deep into the dark secrets of someone ?
Are the dreams meant as a warning or menace to leave the house a.s.a.p., "before it is too late" ?
Also: is the girl mentioned in the dreams the subject of a real case in the past ?
And why was she killed in an obviously gruesome way?

Don't get me wrong, it is definitely your game and only you decide what and how much belongs in it and what not.
I definitely see It as a potentially really good game, a little gem _deserving_ a firm foundation and a sturdy backbone
(which may, of course, evolve totally different from what I just wrote), once the current technical problems have been sorted out .

Gave it a quick try it myself and Ye its really coming along nicely.
The red and white corridors initially did not seem to fit with the game until i played it and understood the Storyline that it was the estate agents and now i think its brilliant

Something i did pick up was the little Girl laugh just does not work in daylight or even evening as it does not have the same effect.
I would go with loud whispers in your ear as if only you could hear like "Get .... Out"
I have not played it properly yet and i think i used the old version yesterday so i will download and try again.
All in all though i have to say its enjoyable and want to see more

PS .. Make Backups of your GameGuruApps ... Always good to have if anything goes wrong.

mguy1122, welliwelliwell! I played through v3, and it is impressive.
I did not specifically look for problems in the first run (found some), but just played away.
The one new technical problem I had was a total crash of the game when I attempted a save, right before entering the attic the first time.
Also, the " load level 2 from scratch" at the end of the first attic scene reared its ugly head - again.

Otherwise, A LOT is working alright now (including the aural jumpscares' loudness).
The hooded guys are always there when one approaches the Dream Level room with the red book the first time.
The blood patch on the wall in the Dream Level's bedroom is fixed ( but the blood patches on the floor are still very flickery as you move).
I noticed that the footstep in the Dream Levels sound like walking on clay shards; is that intended ?
The crevice and passage under the fence have been fixed.
The basin stays where it is supposed to be, including the dishes ( but : there is now another set of dirty dishes on the floor elsewhere in that room; I don't remember having seen those before.)

It seems to me that in the second dream, the landscape and paths' layout is somewhat different from those
in the first level, which seems like a good idea ( rattling the player's self-confidence), because it is a typical factor in dreams.

The little jumpscares in the last full level (before the escape-level) are excellent and scary.

The BIG let-down is still the escape level, because it is grossly, grossly unfair (or am I missing something?).
It took me about fifteen tries to successfully make one successful escape, because the old bloke always passes me by as if I wasn't there, then confronts me with his knife - while I am NOT able to pass him - and he deals out way too much damage in one go with it.

There should at least be either some weapon to pay him back or an optional means of mitigation, to be found by the player (maybe, collecting _all_ the puppets could effect some kind of "magical protection" , or something).
And, as gruesome as it may sound:
If us poor victims are being made to run the gauntlet, he and/or his minions may just deal out a 10% loss of life/blood per attack to us. That way, the game will give us perhaps still only an average 20% chance of making it at all, but optionally improving our chances by using evasive action (which, in turn, would make us re-play the game - at least the escape level. On a larger scale - AND GGMax permitting -, the things to be collected to achieve magical protection could be distributed over several levels, so we would probably replay the whole game).
Thing is: If the player learns the hard way that 15 times out of 16 he has to die a sudden death, he'll very likely become oblivious of the game, whereas when he sees that he made it 70% on first try (i.e. losing 100% life at 70% of the escape path), then 85% on the second try, 95% on the third, he has a good reason to persevere.

Just my two cents

Keep up the good work

What I was saying as far as players reporting on get hub would be the kind of bugs that are happening due to the engine and not the game design. Like for instance the particles that would disappear after reloading a save for the same system not recording what has been opened and what has been used for the next time you load the game. In any case though I would be happy to provide them with all the info they need anyway. Although some things I can't reproduce. I've tried to save and load levels on my end and I'm not encountering the same bugs as you guys are getting so whether it varies from system to system I don't know. That's where the outside info might be helpful too.
As far as the light switches go there not necessary. But I wanted the house to be somewhat interactive whether you had to use them or not. If I activated the script the microwave would also open and close along with some other things. There's no reason for it, it just add some extra fun to interact with things.
The rat isn't really supposed to be scary. Just a minor jump scare. In the moving in level I tried to keep everything as mild as possible because otherwise, why would this guy move in if it's going full poltergeist on the first day? It also gives him reason to dismiss some things like the bottles falling over as rats rather than something more sinister.
As far as the story goes it's left pretty vague so your mind could make up the spots in between but I could give you a quick rundown.
the town you're moving into as a deep-seated history into the occult and many of the townspeople are secret members. They use different means to find victims to sacrifice people to their Satanic deity. One such means would be the real estate office. The house you move into is secluded which makes it easy when they're ready to take their victims and a fair distance from town if they were to try to escape on foot. You could conclude they only show it to potential victims who move in from out-of-town. Once they are sacrificed the house would either fall into a family member or go into foreclosure in which case they would either repeat the cycle with a family member or lineup the next victim.
When you move into the house a lot of the strange things that are happening aren't necessarily from a demonic presence but from previous members of the house trying to warn you to escape. Such as the doll from a little girl who met her demise in the house. The first dream sequence is a premonition or warning from the previous family. It alludes to the fact that they were having a birthday party on the day the cult members came for them. The different rooms give you flashes of different moments in time. One being the cult members gathered around a table doing cultic things while the other being a previous victim staring lifelessly out the window of the room he was taken from. The exit to the level leads down on a long hallway going up to it door which if you'll notice the top is designed exactly as the attic to symbolize that's where most of the evil stuff is taking place. That's why most the levels are directing you towards the attic for one reason or another. The dream levels as well as the real estate office both Tones of red. In horror movies that is used for symbolism for either blood rage or fear. Also just to be ominous.
The next night of the game pretty much tells of the night the occultists came in which the notes give little details on what happened. Again, a lot of these are warnings from previous victims but some are because the dark presence is starting to strengthen as they're preparing to sacrifice you.
Once we get to the next dream it becomes increasingly more evil on the visions you see. Like the crawling demonic creature or the cult members standing over the body bag which is presumably you. There's also the demonic figure that pops up between the trees.
Finally you get to where everything ramps up and they prepared the house and are ready to take you.
Now at least that's the story I made up in my head while creating it. By leaving it somewhat vague you might take it a different way as to how this underground cult works or just how many people are actually involved with what's going on. If I were going to make it longer I might expand upon this idea. Honestly there was no story to begin with. I was just going to make a single level with a bunch of jump scares. So as the game got longer and I had different ideas different parts of the story started to take shape. It is a horror game and there's probably plenty of plot holes but this is an exactly Shakespeare so I don't mind

I'm glad you give it a try synchromesh. Yeah, the real estate office wasn't clicking for me after I designed it and I almost removed it but once you get to the end of the game you'll understand why it's there. You'd also be better off with the updated version as it has a lot of fixes. The little girl laugh instead of whispers does have some reasoning as to why it's there.but It would be better if I had a little girl voice telling you to get out or something similar. I have nieces but they're kind of old and probably wouldn't volunteer so I used what I had. It's not necessarily supposed to be terrifying to hear the laughter during the day. Since you're just moving in I kept everything mild and tried not to go overboard. It's just the beginning before things start elevating. I think I got the backup covered, I just have to remember to keep updating it when I fix things

Not much I can do about the save games and tell it gets addressed. Until then were just beating a dead horse. The games pretty short so you should be able to make it through without saving until it gets fixed. Once you know where to go you can speed run the game in about 10 minutes.
The footsteps sound as they should in the dream level though that was intended
the dishes on the floor are from a jump scare. Once you enter in the garage and the jump scare happens you can hear clanking of dishes. Once you walk back into the kitchen they are on the floor. That's very much intentional
as far as the escape level. Once it loads if you turn directly around and run for the garage you should never get hit. I've even stood there for a second or two before I started running and still didn't get attacked. Once you do get attacked though they are pretty relentless. If the checkpoint system worked in a way that it would reset them back to their original positions so the chase would start the same way every time that would help out but I don't think that's possible at the moment. I've reduced their speed down to 40% and that's the most I can go without making them look like they're underwater. They should be much easier than they were originally. Also if there wasn't the panic of them trying to stab you to death you could stop and observe things leisurely that aren't supposed to be observed. Like messing with the hooded cult members that really only have one animation. If you are free to stand in the room for a long amount of time and mess with them it would ruin the immersion. That's the problem with giving the player a weapon as well. If they killed off the attackers you would be standing in the middle of the room with some idle cult members that didn't do anything about it but just and there. It would look pretty goofy also, with this and some of the puzzles if you call them that, I wanted there to be some kind of challenge. If everything takes no thought and is just easy there's no reward for completing it. It's pretty tame on difficulty by other horror/puzzle game standards such as silent Hill or outlast.

No dont do that .. I was referring to the screenshots and thought that was part of the house before i played it.
I think it works really well and starts the storyline perfectly

Oh, yeah that would be weird if it were part of the house, LOL. Glad you're enjoying it though. I don't plan on getting rid of it now because I found a way to make it work but in the beginning it was just seeming off. The tone was a bit more upbeat than I was going for and I wasn't really happy with the characters. Mostly because I had to do the voice acting and I hate the sound of my voice, even when in character I guess it all worked out though in the end