Abyss - GBCompo2025
You wake up at home with a splitting headache, only to discover that something isn’t quite right. A strange broadcast urges you to stay inside and avoid contact with the outside world. As tension builds, your surroundings begin to shift in unsettling ways, and your attempts to reach loved ones are met with unexpected obstacles.
What starts as a simple quest for answers soon reveals a layered psychological mystery. The house itself seems to resist your escape, locking you deeper into a mystery that blurs reality.
Please make sure to play the game with sound!
Please keep in mind that this is a Game Jam version. That means there might be a few bugs or rough edges here and there. I’ve done my best to shape the little story I wanted to tell into something as complete as possible. I hope you’ll overlook any minor inconsistencies and share your feedback in the comments.
This is by far my most personal project, and it means a lot to me. So please feel free to comment and critique — your thoughts will help me refine my vision even further.
A huge thank-you goes out to all the talented people who helped elevate the experience with music and sound. Please check out their itch.io pages and support their amazing work by grabbing their assets — I certainly don’t regret it!
Controls:
Move Left : Arrow Left or A
Move Right : Arrow Right or D
A Button : Alt or Z or J
B Button : Control or K or X
Start Button : Shift
Select Button :
A = Investigate
B = Use
Start/Select = Help
Credits:
Game Design & Programming & Idea & Pixel Graphics Mr.Papshmir
Music and SoundFX are not created by me. They were created by the following talented people:
Music Beatscribe & TipTopTomCat
Sound FX Beatscribe & Coffee "Valen" Bat & TipTopTomCat & Tronimal
and for some additional Fonts for the Game:
Condensed font pack by edo999
11-fonts pack by 2bitcrook
Download
Comments
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That was a great story that played well with the tension and suspense from start to finish, all with a nice design style throughout. Thanks for the experience!
thank you very very much for the feedback. and of course thank you for the great music and sfx :)
Very entertaining! Keeps you engaged and thrilled till the very end:) Took about 25 minutes.
I did get stuck once, on the screen with the reflection in the mirror, after going to the door on the right, it show me a screen with roots and R, and then back to initial bedroom. But after repeating the same few times I was able to get out of that cycle. Maybe I did something wrong.
Anyway, it's very cool and atmospheric game!
thank you very very much.
you did nothing wrong. I think for the next version I will have a look…that maybe a dialog pops up to give you a hint whats happening.
so thank you for playing and thanks for the feedback :)
The atmosphere is great, and I love the bits of foreshadowing throughout. The one "jump scare" representing a quirk of the old gameboy hardware was great. Immediately brought me back to playing mine all those years ago.
thank you very much 😊 how long did you play until you saw the end screen?
the gameboy „effect“ clicks even more when you play the game on real hardware 😅
Oh! I didn't pay attention to the time really. I think it was less than an hour, but that's about all I can say with any certainty.
I was playing on an Analogue Pocket, so the vibes were there, but I imagine it's even more effective with the old non-backlit displays.
thanks…that is enough for me to know „arround an hour“. keeping that in mind when extending the game later after the jam.
analogue pocket…should make a pocket version available at all. maybe I can export one in the next couple of days.
I really enjoyed how the story progresses and how it changes the environment, it has the perfect combination of macabre and endearing, mixed with a really enchanting gameplay!
thank you very very much. glad you had a good time with the game 😊
Enjoyed my play through quite a bit. Some great spooky vibes and effective artwork. A few bugs here and there that took me out of it but nothing serious that a patch won't fix up easy. Very well done!
One of the computer entries in English displays a German language dialogue box by mistake (Or was that intentional with the twisted reality theme? ha)
thank you. seems you had a spooky time 😅
those little bugs will be fixed in the next update I think. any big one you remember?
the language display bug was not intended…thats a real bug.
This is my favorite so far, brilliant art style and easy makes me want to spend two more mins playing it
wow…thanks a lot!
So cool! I love these kind of detective/escape the room games. The way you did the lighting everywhere is beautiful and really adds to scene, too!
thank you! glad you liked it. the lighting was a thing I added in one scene to test it…and it worked so well that I have to add it to all of the scenes 😅
Very atmospheric, reminds me of Nightshade on NES with the graphic style.
thanks 😊 and glad you like it. didn‘t know nightshade…but looks like a nice game. I am not familiar with nes titles. Think I have some catching up to do 😅
it has that film noir type vibe you got here
Hey, I was having such fun but then I walked into the broken window and the player sprite turned invisible and I wasn't able to interact with anything anymore. :S
Well it was not the window! It was the wardrobe next to it. I walked by after getting the key and I could not advance any more. Tried again and the same happened.
oh thanks for the bug report…will fix it!
and thanks for playing of course :)
Also after starting the coffee machine, I was able to read the text like thrice while the sound was playing. But I wasn't able to move. Maybe it would be nice if you de-attached the A/B button after interacting with it and while the coffee is being made.
Anyway the game looks gorgeous and I can't wait to play it full when the window situation is fixed :D
thx made…thats really nice to hear.
the bug should now be fixed.
the other stuff you mentioned will be noticed. will make a list and will make a „improved“ version after the jam. There is so much stuff could done in the timeframe of 3 months.