A downloadable game for Windows

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Made in one month for Spooktober 2023

Currently an unfinished / in progress build. Is playable from start to finish, but needs polishing. A complete edition is in the works.

Content warnings (click to reveal)
- Jump scares
- References to both child and adult deaths
- Death of a parent

- Grief



A long time ago, in a small and quiet town, the Ivywood family tragically died in a mysterious fire. The cause of the fire was never determined.

Fast forward to 2023. It's Halloween night, and Rosemary, her best friend Autumn, and her younger brother Heath are going out trick or treating. Rosemary can't believe she has to babysit her brother tonight, when she should be able to be out having fun with all of her friends!

The night is going as planned, until Heath runs off into the forest, behind a burnt down house that they've never noticed before...

Will Rosemary and Autumn be able to find him? Will they make it out alive?




Rosemary:
- 12 years old
- Dressed up as a bat

She loves adventure and excitement. Probably a bit too stubborn. She wishes she didn’t have to babysit tonight so she could get up to something actually fun.


Autumn:
- 12 years old
- Dressed up as a (cute) witch

Rosemary’s kindhearted best friend. She’s popular with the kids at school. She’s not much for scary things, and only came out to hang out with Rosemary.


Heath:
- 5 years old
- Dressed up as a pumpkin

Rosemary’s little brother. He loves trick or treating and animals, and is excited to get a bunch of candy! He wishes his sister was a bit nicer to him, though...


Arrow keys: Move
Z or Enter: Confirm, interact, advance text
Left click: Advance text
Esc:  Menu
X: Talk to friends
Page down: Skip text
Page up: Open message log




Pandora Alcorn: Artist, writer
pajaritia: Music, programmer
Lucas Alexander: UI designer, editor

Created in RPG Maker MZ

Plugins:

Message Visibility by VisuStella MZ
Message Log by VisuStella MZ
Options Core by VisuStella MZ
Save Core by VisuStella MZ
Extended Message Functionality by VisuStella MZ
Message Core by VisuStella MZ
Visual Novel Choices by Galv
MZ Auto Common Events by Galv
Cyclone Engine by Hudell
Eli's Book by Hakuen Studio
Button Common Events by Hakuen Studio
MV/MZ Pre-Title Splash Videos by Ramza
自在に遠景(近景)by  砂川赳
Picture Touch by Caethyril

Sound effects from pixabay.com
Royalty free vector art from freepik.com 
Chase music by UNIVERSFIELD

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

Rosemary and the Tale of Ivywood Manor[v0.93][Windows].zip 267 MB

Comments

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(+1)

This is so charming! I'm amazed that this was made with RPG Maker, kudos to the programmer! And I looove the character designs/art style; they're so cute!! 💕

(1 edit)

Thank you so much! And thank you for playing!

(+1)

Now this, this was adorable.


Admittedly not being the biggest Visual Novel fan in general, two things that will attract me to one is a nice premise and cute art. And while "kids go to spooky house" doesn't tell me much, this has the latter in absolute spades. What an adorable cast.


I did like Rosmary's brattiness being reigned in enough to feel real rather than cartoonishly mean. Enough for me to repeatedly go dad-mode and tell her "Come on, be nice to your brother", but not enough to get sick of her crap. Very adorable.

I understand this was a Jam game, and there is always the matter of time constraints, but the main thing this is missing is a bit more music and sound, and absolutely some ending graphics for the surprising amount of endings. Some of the otherwise interesting payoffs end up falling a little flat without them.

But still, a really good effort. And definitely props to your character artist, these were great.

Thank you for your review / playthrough. I really enjoyed watching it!

I definitely appreciate and agree about your criticisms, and we've been uploading new versions of the game throughout the month as we work towards a version 1.0. We had to cut quite a few corners in order to make sure we uploaded on time, unfortunately.  More music / sound effects and CGs / ending cards are in the works!

(+1)

This was such a refreshing game setup! I just loved the sort of topdown view and direct movement with keyboard.

The art is gorgeous, I really liked the childish style it had, yet how the lines are way more on the sharp size rather than the smooth one. The dynamic of the characters felt tottaly real, the older sister annoyed at the little bro, the sister's friend who is like "he ain't that bad come on", and then all the rest as well!

I also really enjoyed the music, and I see the musician also programmed, for which I tottaly know how hard it is to pull that off, and would like to congratulate them on that!

I've got ending 2 (out of curiosity) and... I think it was 6? Just overall the happy ending lol

Thank you so much for playing! I'm glad you managed to get the best ending 😄

(+1)

What a lovely Halloween experience this game is, I had so much fun watching this kids get some candies and some spooks, all the characters and the dialogues are so cute and really evoke that Halloween feeling.

It is a little bit rough around the edges but it makes sense given it is a work in progress, my only suggestions would be to give the player a proper menu (I could not find one) and a little bit of a tutorial with controls at the beginning.

Otherwise I think the game is very well done, specially the graphical aspect (excluding the grouping characters animation) I love the background and foreground and general mapping of the whole area, specially inside the house; and the graveyard puzzle is very creative!

Keep up the good work!

(+1)

Thank you for playing our game. We really enjoyed watching your playthrough!

Apologies that the menu was so difficult to find; it can be pulled up with the esc key.  We've added a prompt in the top lefthand corner in our latest version!

(+1)(-1)

nice novel

(+1)

Such a fun and (creepy) cute game! I loved the story, characters, and the gameplay was simple, yet engaging. The plot was well paced and structured. It kept me in suspense all throughout. The characters were all so endearing and sweet. I love the art style, the background, the music, and sound effects ... they all compliment each other well and had some nice attention paid to the details. Everyone did a wonderful job! The first playthrough I got "Ending 6", which made me curious, so I went back and discovered a couple of the others. I like that the choices matter in that regard.

If I had to think of anything in the way of critique, it'd be to suggest adding in some sort of achievement system or something to let the player know which endings they've already seen. Since I know now there's at least six of them. However, especially considering this was made for a jam with a time limit, I think it's perfectly acceptable as is. And I certainly enjoyed playing it. ^_^

Thank you so much for playing, and for your review! I'm glad you enjoyed it. There are 6 endings - with ending 6 being the best one - so congrats on getting it on your first playthrough!

We are working on a post-jam version over the next month or so, which will include a few CGs, a gallery, as well as several other improvements we didn't have the time to implement within the timeframe of the jam. I appreciate the suggestion!