The Broken Ceiling

Short, fairly easy adventure game with a darkness=death mechanic. It's easy to avoid death if you're cautious and reasonably good at navigation. It's a good mini cosmic horror scenario. Would recommend to people who've never read Lovecraft as an introduction to the genre.

This is a game I don't know how I found out about. I think it was randomly suggested by Steam or perhaps it was part of a sale. I find it sad that nobody talks about it; there's not even any community content for it. Perhaps it's the cutesy character that drives off some people, or the lack of information given by the cover, but at the price it is (though admittedly a friend gifted it to me) and its length, it's more than worth people's time. The gameplay is simple but allows for a lot of tension to build up. Your little lantern goes out quickly and you have to run back to your starting point to recharge it. This results in a loop where you have to manage your single resource. The fact that your progress isn't saved may be a deal breaker for some people, but given that the main element of progress is information and that the game isn't all that long at the end of the day (it says here two hours for me, and that's counting a good chunk of replaying after a couple game overs, and I'm a slow player) it aisn't all that bad. There's a checkpoint after the first third or so. The atmosphere is solid; the perennial darkness and the cryptic hints at a backstory given by the glyphs you fin…

I love the art! the love craftian creatures were genuinely terrifying. Very cool!

'The Broken Ceiling' is a short 2D eldritch exploration game that can be played through in a single ~1h session. On its strong side, it manages to create more tension than I anticipated. A core mechanic is [spoiler]managing your lantern fuel. Let it burn down, and you succumb to madness. Failing is heavily sentenced with restarting the game all over. This two-edged, controverse mechanic works for this particular game due to its short length. There are many roguelikes where a single run takes more time.[/spoiler] The artstyle has a big recognition factor and stays consistently on a high, and very creative level. The small viewing distance pairs well with the huge amount of unique assets that keeps your surroundings fresh at all times. Together with [spoiler]the limited lantern fuel, which forces you to stay near safe spots and keeps you from wandering to far off[/spoiler] it made me long to explore the whole cave all the more, while keeping me on edge, even without [spoiler]any enemies present[/spoiler]. For more curious players, it offers some replayability through [spoiler]multiple endings[/spoiler], so, there is some room for experimentation. The weakest part is without doubt…

top down hand drawn game about wandering around a map to find items with a light source that needs recharged at the middle crystal HUB about every 15-20 seconds (gets longer as you find upgrades as the game progresses), art styles really good, general gameplays a little simplistic but still decent fun, a bit much of the wandering around looking for things as you can easily miss stuff when your light source is nearly gone, Overall would recommend this and the art especially deserves some notice.

The art is exceptional, the character charming, and its easy to sit back and let yourself get lost in this world. So many rich little details, very clearly a labor of love! The tone is spot on, and the world and writing has that right feel for eldritch horror. Turn out the lights, put on some headphones, and enjoy.