Controls:
  • ARROW KEYS: walking
  • SPACE: interact
  • ESC: exit the game
How to play:
  • You mostly follow instructions. Interactions like talking, chopping wood, and opening doors is all done with walking up to something and pressing SPACE.
  • The main focus of the game is telling a story, sometimes more straight forward, sometimes more subtle. Be sure to read the text bubbles and look for little details!
  • I'm very proud of the ending, but without it the game falls a little flat because of the story-driven nature of the game. So please stay 'til the end! You can probably walk through the game in about 5 minutes.
  • Fullscreen recommended, but fullscreen switching is enabled.
Screenshots:
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  • Tydecon Games
    Patron

    A well executed eerie parody of Animal Crossing! I must admit, I went in to this one a little skepitcal but I have to say, I think the way everything was tied together in this, the music, the parody art style, it all made for a hilarious experience! Great job!

  • Dave
    Lv. 2

    Very entertaining, and almost as sinister as the real Animal Crossing!

  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    Nice Animal Crossing parody. Haven't played it myself but I'm vaguely familiar with it through osmosis. The art style does a good job mimicking it in a 2D setting, while also looking pretty nice in its own right. The music and sound effects are good, and they set the mood well especially in the latter part of the game. Unfortunately I was spoiled because I saw it on Peter's stream, but it was still enjoyable experiencing it for myself. As others have said, it's a bit obvious where the game is going so it loses some impact.

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Really good game, most of it was already said, but I'd add to the tone shift thing. I really wish the whole thing was a lot subtler (different title, less references to creepy stuff, at least on the first day).

    Oh and the dialog sound were a little loud compared to everything else.

    Shrinkoban
    Submitted

    Shrinkoban

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Hi and thank you for playing and for the feedback! This is the most criticised point of the game, and I agree 100%! If I'm making a longer version of it I will take a lot more time with the horror elements. Also thanks for the hint with the title change, I'll consider that too :)

      Yeah, I'm struggling a lot with finding the right volume of things. Maybe I need to do some research into acutal dB of sounds etc!

  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    Hi I liked the game, it was nice you didn't approach with pixel art, fitted well. I haven't played Animal Crossing, but I understood references (because of memes). Gameplay was simple but enough to do. As Heather said, tone started alread 'horroish' which maybe should have saved for later. Like in second day he could have been next to you watching, and first day just be outside (next to window though). I liked the 3D scene, I knew there will be jumpscare, but crawling was unsettling and nice change of tone for 2D graphics, worked well.

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thank you for the review and the kind words! Especially glad you liked the 3D, which is still something I want to explore a lot and experiment :) And yeah, horror should have happened slower! All these comments got me convinced to make a non-jam version of this afterwards, so then I'll be able to make it all more subtle!

      • Tero Hannula
        Patron

        One giveaway is also player expression, maybe it could be bit dumbfounded first, as what is happening and later getting frustrated or something. As he doesn't have reason to be angry looking at first if he doesn't remember why and how he got on the island. (I think he looks bit grumpy )

        • Hyper Freeze Games
          Lv. 17
          Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

          4yrs ago

          Yeah, the player expression should look "confused" or something, but yeah he looks pissed off :D This is the kind of fine tuning of details I'd like to do with a later version of the game :)

  • Eva
    Lv. 13

    Very interesting concept. This was well-crafted and interesting crossover sort of game. It was cool to see this type of graphics and animation, and the gameplay was simple but effective.

    SPOILERS:

    I was able to go in the house of the south villager on the second day, after picking up the pickaxe but without breaking the rocks.
    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thank you for playing my game!

      I actually looked into the bug you reportet, and I found the problem. The dead yellow villager is actually just invisible until day 3, NOT deactivated, so when you go about chopping trees and pressing space in the spot where he's located (which is next to a tree, unfortunately) you could collect the key to his house.

      Thank you for reporting this! Glad you liked it nonetheless :)

  • Happysquared
    Lv. 15

    POSSIBLE SPOILERS

    I do enjoy a narrative game. I like the idea of idyllic places with a sense of wrongness that increases. You had some good mood shifts with the music and I particularly liked the transition of 2D to 3D. Reminded me of the subtle surreal wrongness of that video Don't hug me I'm scared.

    My main criticism would be refining the tone shift. From the start of the game the player already feels there already is something wrong with the raccoon mentioning he watched you sleep and how shabby the whole place looked. I think starting off more cheery with exploring and investigating the island bringing out the wrongness would have made a larger creepier impression on me. From the start, the game already didn't feel like it would be a cheery normal game.

    I enjoyed the shift to 3D, personally don't like jump scares and you could hear that one coming a little too. But that might just be me and I think I was expecting a more lore heavy or menacing payoff rather than a sudden shock of one. I think there could have been a tad more focus on the town and its residents than the chopping trees and stones.

    Interesting game!

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thanks for this lengthy feedback! Much appreciated!

      I love DHMIS, never made the connection, but it's actually quite fitting :D

      I agree with you on that the pacing is the biggest flaw of the game. It would've been better to progress the horror aspect a lot slower. Also, the ending was acutally planned as more explanatory. The initial vision was, that you crawl out of the fake world through some sort of metal trap door, just to reveal a vast, empty field of uncountable more trapdoors, hinting that there are thousands of people slaving away underground. As always with these jams, time began to run out, so I had to settle with a more aprubt ending. But considering all the positive feedback I might actually rework this one into a small released game :)

      Thank you for playing!

  • serialkamikaze
    Lv. 5

    Brilliant

    From the face of the player character I saw that he is pretty pissed off. And the annoying raccoon was great.

    After chopping the trees and boulders for few days tha game had a twist. Great surprise!

    Loved the game and the ending was brilliant!

    P.S Maybe add some warning if this game is not suitable for very young people because of that kind of surprises after few days.

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thaank you so much! Happy you liked it :)

      Yeah I thought about a disclaimer, but it would have given away the twist at the end. I wanted to capture this whole creepy pasta feel, where a seemingly normal game turns bad :/

  • Freeze Engine
    Lv. 1

    I reaally enjoyed this game! The setting and the overthinking behind a popular game like AC work really well and I believe almost everyone had this sort of "How did I even get here and how is this all possible" mindset atleast once before. This game is a playable creepypasta with lovely graphics, fluid animations, good sound design (I could listen to the sound of those trees falling for hours lol) and a short but disturbing story. I would love to one day see a full game of this sort of style from you! Especially the blend between the topdown 2D and the 3D at the end gave me some real Resident Evil "transition screen" vibes :'D

    Keep up the good work!

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thank you so much for your lengthy feedback! I'm happy you loved it so much! "playable creepypasta" is kinda what I aimed for, so I'm glad it worked out :D Also cool you liked the transistion to 3D, I hoped it would give the final part of the game this kind of "escaping the fake world" feel with the complete pacing and perspective change!

      Haha, small fun fact for the tree sound: I actually grabbed some celery from the fridge and twirled and twisted it infront of a mic and lowered the speed and pitch of the recording down a tad :D

  • Deathbreth
    Lv. 11

    When is it coming....when is it coming.....huh I guess nothiOHHH GOD!!!! Amazing game!

  • Nick
    Lv. 4

    This is one of my favourites from the jam. I'm playing ACNH and the parody is perfect. I was genuinely scared at the end even though I knew a jump scare would be coming!

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thanks a lot!! Some of the biggest praise I could ask for is always that I nailed the parody, which is pretty hard to get right, I think, and what I was most afraid of would fall flat. So reading this really made my day! Also happy that the jump scare worked, didn't want to overdo it, but wanted a grand finale!

  • Sindre Hauge Larsen
    Patron

    Love how it starts off creepy and ends up a hundred times more creepy! Excellent game for such a short jam!

  • dev_dwarf
    Lv. 6

    Very hilarious parody. Until its not. Then its very creepy.

    I love it.

  • Nyveon
    Patron

    [WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS, PLAY THE GAME FIRST]

    I loved this entry. Worked really well as like a eery knockoff of animal crossing that you would see in a creepypasta. Very suspenseful, especially at the climax of the story.

    My main feedback was it could have been a bit more polished and longer, but considering the circumstances, it's understandable that it's not.

    I'm not very big on horror games, but this has been one of my favorite entries in the jam so far!

    Really well done, congratulations. :D

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      You put my intent with this game pretty good in words! :)

      And you're right, I also liked it more if it was a bit longer and the horror element crept a little slower into focus. But I was very unexperienced in dialog and scripted events, so the sequencing took me quite a while.

      And I'm so happy reading that it's one of your favs of this jam! That's really high praise and I think that's a first for me.

      Glad you liked it so much and thanks again for your feedback!

  • Selina
    Lv. 1

    This is a really funny game!! Love playing it! I love animal crossing, and this is a nice parody of it! The art is one of the best things in the game!!

  • sushipop!
    Lv. 9

    What a neat little game! This game was really fun to play through, and really reminds me how much I love seeing horror oriented games during jams. The art and animation actually exceeded what I expected just by looking at the thumbnail, the way things moved was especially fluid, and it was really nice. The game captured the whole animal crossing parody idea really well too!

    If I had to suggest anything to improve on, it would be the ending. I think it ends very abruptly, and I felt like there was more I was supposed to see. Of course thats not a huge issue considering time constraints, but I feel like this would be a much more solid experience if it had a more proper ending. (the 3d effect WAS really cool though!)

    Overall, fantastic job! keep up the good work~

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Wow, thank you! I'm always so glad when people compliment me on the art, because I always end up spending soo much time on it, so I'm really happy reading something like that that makes me go "worth it!" And I think it's great the animal crossing parody feel seems to be on point, otherwise I think it would fall somewhat flat.

      I get what you're saying with the too abrupt ending. The problem was, like you said, the 48 hours (as always, lol). I think it would have worked much better with a slower burn, things slowly but steady deteriorating from cute but weird into straight up horror to the point where you just think: I need to get out of here! BUT I'm glad you liked it anyways!

      Thx again!

  • PenguinCzar
    Lv. 5

    I really liked it! Really Impressive, I got actual chills lol. The Story is really well done and feels a lot like Animal Crossing. I didn't interact with any bugs, well made man!

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thank you! This was my first ever attempt at an horror-ish experience, so reading that you got chills playing it makes me really happy! Haha I'm also glad you think I nailed the Animal Crossing feel, this was really important for me!

  • Chris
    Patron

    The most bizarre GM48 game I've ever played and I thoroughly enjoyed it the entire time. This game had me laughing out loud. Thank you for making this masterpiece. By the way the animation looks great, I was trying to figure out how you made them.

    • Hyper Freeze Games
      Lv. 17
      Hyper Freeze Games Developer of Animal Rotting

      4yrs ago

      Thats really high praise, thank you so, SO much! I actually smiled like an idiot reading this :D

      Animations are mostly done in Spine 2D from Esoteric, I can't recommend this piece of software enough. It's quite easy to get into, the gamemaker integration is great and I think the standard edition (which I use) is under 100$ for a lifetime license with updates. And no, I didn't get payed to say that hahaha