#animal jam spooktober

[dearcauti0n]

NIGHT OF THE PHANTOMS

Spooktober

Day 18!! - PHLOB!!

Not much to say

It's just

Phlob! :3

[wolfisteraj]

its my favourite season >:3 halloween! bringin out the old spooky mansion for the mems and i just fall in love w aj again every time 💕 best time of yr

[bibixpgames]

2nd to last sprite and character to introduce, meet Carmel! :3

Unlike a few of their friends, Carmel super really really REALLY wants to be at this Halloween party! A party where they barely got to disguise themselves in another dimension and get to hang out with a bunch of people? Sign them up! It's not like they can push it beyond what they themselves know is too much. And it's not like the party will treat them bad, right?

Carmel will always be a bit different from the rest of the character for... obvious reasons. XD

But I like dressing them up and making them fit into the rest of the cast while still sticking out, after all, they're a good indicator that everyone IS from other dimensions!

[admiralarchivee]

Night of the Phantoms

Spooktober

Day 18 - Phlob!

I know, I know. I skipped Bitter Sweets.. oh well. Made this for Dearcauti0n’s Spooktober prompts!

[thepolishlynx]

Pippa and Your Phantasmal Problem - Cute Witch helps me solve a Ghost Pr...

[4noki-vns]

Thank you for selecting The Final Prize is Soup as 2nd place in this year's Spooktober Visual Novel Jam!!

Our awesome teammate Pauline Reinacher drew this!

May every day be yuri in everyone's hearts (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

[yamino]

🖤Exciting news! 🖤

🖤My free-to-play visual novel, "Phantom of the Black Rose Revue," is now available!🖤 This nostalgic yuri game features 19 animated CGs, 13 original music tracks, and an introduction to the world, mysteries, and love interests of the Revue! 🖤

Signal boosts greatly appreciated, especially as this game is entered in the Spooktober Game Jam!

[arimiadev]

spooky visual novel recs that just came out in the past month!!

now that the awards ceremony has happened, I can openly talk about the visual novels I liked from Spooktober VN Jam, an annual game jam for making Halloween-themed visual novels (which I happen to judge entries for)!

each of these spooky indie VNs came out at the end of September and were made in just 1 month. some are scary, some are cute, but they're all made with love so go give them some love 💜

Märchen Line

Embrace the indomitable human spirit by serving in the First Among Father's Voyager Armada- The Bravest of The Brave, who venture out to liberate the Milky Way from the True Enemy. Serving as a Soldier means embracing infinite potential. With the blessing of His Runes, you will grow stronger, smarter, faster and braver in a few weeks than you have in your entire life. All that growth comes with responsibility, and you will be expected to pay your civic dues- but luckily each Soldier is assigned a Valkyrie to help them manage their priorities. Train your stats, build your relationships, and be all you can be...or push past the galactic narrative and seek a deeper understanding of humanity's true ranking in the galactic hierarchy. 

Pippa and Your Phantasmal Problem

Ms Ester's beautiful and neat house has been mysteriously wrecked in the past few weeks and nobody knows why. Patches of dirt on the carpet, things gone missing, and all sorts of mess keeps happening around the house. The police was called to investigate, a priest was invited to bless the house, and a group of ghostbusters was hired (they were so expensive!) and none of them found anything. How useless! If this problem isn't solved by the time Ms Ester returns from her short trip, she'll kick you out. You have to find someone who can help: anyone will do, even this unreliable looking, self-proclaimed witch you just randomly met.

BAD MANORS

On Friday the 13th, your plans for a spooky Halloween night are dashed when you show up alone at the escape room reserved by your friend. You consider going home when a handsome stranger offers to accompany you. Maybe the night is saved after all… Or so you thought.

MAMA

One day, you’ll thank me. After all… mother knows best. Today’s the first day of HimeCon, a Yuri convention. You’re attending with your girlfriend who’s a vendor in the artist alley. At the convention, you receive a text that ends up changing… everything. You find yourself back in your childhood home, except this time, something’s amiss— and you’ve got to escape. She’s always w̶̨̠̟̳͚̮̫͒͒̏̏̌͑͊̒́̂̈̀̓̒͘͠ā̷̧̠͎̤͖̝̠̯͎̎̇͒̋͑̾͑̑͂̂̽͐͂̄͘̕̕͠͠͝t̷̢̙̦͖͙̹̪̠̳̰͛̓̇̀̂̾́̉̍̈́͌̇̔̑͝ç̷̥̮͓͔̣̆̀̆̔̈́̈̀͋͛̓̈͐̕͝h̵̢̧̹̲͇̭̥̰͎͖͇̎̓͒̎̂͑̽͒͑̓͗͗̕̕͘͜͜͝͠͝͝ͅi̸̛̝̳̳̠͇͍̓͒̈́̑́̒̓̊͐͒̆͘͝ͅͅñ̶̢̡̨͓̥̞͉͓͚̞̞̞̲̤̹͙͍̙͛̋̏͗̍̽̇̒̅͊͜͠ͅg̸̪͇͋̓͋̍̈́̇̽̿̑̋̏̏̈́̋̾̋̃͘ͅ you, isn’t she?

Elfin National Park

Come on down and see the ever changing sights of our forest. We have places for the whole family. Just please remember for the safety of you and your family to stay within the designated zones.

MAD LAB PARTY

Being a serial killer is hard when some crow decides to tamper with your bodies. Solution? Kill another and meet your ‘fan’ in the act?! It’s October 31st, and you are dragged out to a haunted house attraction with your friends despite the mysterious ‘Jack-o-killer’ running around, murdering strangers in gruesome and eccentric ways. Bodies ranged from being found taking the place of a scarecrow to being carved and their guts replaced with pumpkin seeds. You, however, didn’t worry about getting killed. You knew exactly who the murderer was. Problem? You knew for sure you didn’t kill them like that.

CANIDAE

The moonlight illuminates the animal that lies within everyone. Will you embrace it; or fight back? On Halloween, a gang of teenagers in animal masks head out to set off fireworks and drink with their friends. Unfortunately, nothing ever goes right for you. As the night grows darker and pranks turn to violence, your friends start to change. Will you?

Killer Chat!

A reporter by day, an aspiring writer by night: you've been asking all the important questions on the dark web.  Like, how do you bury a body? How do you kill someone with a crowbar with the right angle to cause blunt-force trauma? What's the best way to hide from law enforcement? If you're to write a good crime book, this is how you'll do it. Suddenly, ERROR! UNKNOWN invites you to a server... with a warning. "don't be so obvious smh You're Gonna Get Caught". ... It's a serial killer chatroom. You may be slightly fucked.

Spirit Driver

From the everyday passenger to the horrors of Halloween, Spirit Driver is a short, casual conversation simulator where your choices can affect the fates of people and spirits alike. Remember, your choices have consequences. Good luck!

Let's Watch Steamboat Willie

Two film nerds sit down for a comfy evening watching old movies. Next up is Steamboat Willie, and they quickly take to bickering. By the time the cartoon is over, one of them will be dead.

Shut-in Vampire

Oh no! Mayu’s in a pinch! She’s woefully behind on paying the rent, and her scary landlady, Miss Himemiya, has issued an ultimatum. Mayu needs to earn ¥100,000 by the end of October, or she’ll be kicked out! Being evicted from her home would be bad enough, but Mayu has a secret: she’s actually a vampire. Mayu hasn’t been a vampire for a full year yet, and the church is keeping close tabs on her to ensure she’s been behaving herself. According to the stone-faced Sister Juriel, it’s the church’s standard policy to execute all vampires without a fixed address, lest they start roaming the streets causing chaos. If Mayu can’t pay the rent in time, she won’t just wind up homeless: she’ll be executed! What’s a fledgeling vampire to do?

Epimutation

Spencer, a former investigative journalist, lives in a small bunker with six other people who have also managed to stay alive after a viral outbreak brought the world to ruin. They're attempting to adjust to this new normal, until they stumble across some notebook pages written by a scientist documenting the infection. Make life or death decisions, form bonds with your fellow survivors, and attempt to unravel the mystery behind the outbreak.

Not My Body!

First you wake up in somebody else's ugly house in somebody else's ugly body, and then you find another person tied up in the closet? This isn't fair at all! Why do you have to deal with this?! It's not like you put him there! And what's going on in your own body right now, anyway…?

that's all of my recommendations for now, but with over 270 entries there's plenty more indie Halloween-themed visual novels for you to try!

[brightoakgame]

Burdock Available Now!

Stick closely to the path, my dear, don’t wander and don’t stray! The mists are full of secrets, the woods are full of fae; And many careless mortals they’ve spirited away— So do not go a-wandering, but on the path please stay!

Game Now Live!

When you've lost your way and nearly lost your life, will your name be enough to buy it all back?

Burdock is a dark and atmospheric fairytale with fae creatures, riddles, and danger abounding. Will you be able to navigate the perils you face and reclaim your life? Or will the mists swallow you up for good...?

Features:

Nameable Protagonist (gender left undefined)

24,000 words (roughly 2-3 hours playtime)

Four Full Endings—and multiple Bad Ones

Original Soundtrack

It's free!

Content Warnings: violence, blood, and potentially disturbing imagery and sound effects. There are no intended jump scares, and no animals are harmed—though the same cannot be promised of the protagonist!

Created for the 2023 Spooktober Visual Novel Jam by:

Character Art and Design: Remnantation

Original Soundtrack: John Åhlin

Coding: Windchimes

Logo and UI Design: ingthing

Direction, Sound Design, Backgrounds, and Writing: B.L. McDarragh

[theinvitation-bot]

Spooktober Activity #1

warning: none

summary: you take the boys to the pumpkin patch for the first time.

Hyungwon

Hyungwon suggested to look through the pumpkins first in order to pick you the perfect one before it was gone. The ones that were already picked and placed on display were too small and more of decor pumpkins. Hyungwon sighed as you dragged him into the patch instead, determined to find a pumpkin that was a good size. "What was wrong with the smaller ones? It's the same size as you so it's perfect" He lightly teased with a smug look. Before you could respond though, one of the farm's owners interrupted "Welcome, do you need help finding a pumpkin sweets?" The man charmed you with his honey like voice and soft smile, in return you smiled back. Hyungwon on the other hand saw red. The moment that piece of scum dared to address you by "sweets", he was pissed. more than pissed, he was furious. "No, she doesn't" He said firm, glaring so deeply at the man he could burn holes in his skin. Usually, Hyungwon would beat the shit out of any man who speaks, let alone flirts with you, but wanted to make this a special day since you were so excited. He was just going to be more clingy to you instead.

Junhui

You both decided to look through the farmer's market first, Jun didn't really care where you started though, he would follow you regardless. It was weird though, to see freshly harvest fruit or diary, everything was always planted, prepared and stocked for him by servants, so when you asked what kind of jam or honey he liked, Jun just shrugged "Pick your favorites darling" smiling, as he felt a bit awkward not knowing his own preferences "Forgive me, I've never picked anything out, as arrogant as it sounds" He chuckled scratching the back of his neck, under his breath "How about you tell me what you like instead, you cane tell me whats good and whats not" he suggested. Jun felt awkward not knowing, he also felt guilty for some reason.

Jaehyun

Jaehyun wasn't originally planning on staying at the patch til sundown, but with pumpkin picking and playing with the animals, time just got away from you, and once he found out there was a haunted corn maze, Jae couldn't resist attending it with you. He himself was never scared, he had been alive for too long and seen way worse than some scarecrows and clowns. However, Jaehyun was unsure if you were the same or easily frightened like other mortals. "How does that sound?" He asked after showing you where the maze is, the vampire slightly smirking seeing how it caught you a bit off guard, "If you're scared, we can go on the train instead" He teased as a train passed by filled with mostly kids, trying to manipulate you in picking the maze instead. Jaehyun smirked once you shook your head and pulled him towards the maze, he wanted you to cling to him and beg for protection, as sick as it sounds.

Seonghwa

"Just keep steady lovely, don't be nervous" Seonghwa soothed your nerves as you rode a horse with him for the first time. It was a surprise to see a place called "The Pumpkin Patch" to have more than just pumpkins, but he was enjoying it, apple picking and dart games were more fun than they sounded. Hwa was a bit skeptical about coming but felt right in place after arriving with you. He was most excited when they had a horse riding trail, it was small but something he could do comfortably and even teach you some things about, "There you go" the horse felt more comfortable now that you were calm "she can sense your nerves, you have to stay relaxed not to scare her" he explained. Seeing Seonghwa care for the creature was so warm, it made your heart melt "How do you feel? It's fun right?" He asked with a soft smile as he looked at you "You're doing so good my angel"

Yeonjun

"You're making me blush, stop!" Yeonjun giggled hiding his face in his hands as you took another picture of him using the polaroid he gifted you. There were a few couples at the patch who had one as well, but yours was special, it was one Yeonjun's mother gifted him a while back before she passed away. It was one of the first ones invented so it did run a little slow, but was still in good condition. "It's your turn pretty girl/boy" He smiled at you taking the camera. It was your first date outside the castle grounds and for once, he felt so calm and relaxed, not worried about his royal duties or the guards following him 24/7. The best part was no one around knew him, so he didn't have to dwell on anyone interrupting your date. After taking cute pics of each other, Yeonjun offered to buy you a pastry and coffee from the little cafe truck they had set up, but while skimming through the menu, a women ran up to Yeonjun with a big smile "Junnie! You've grown!" She squealed giving him a tight hug. Once he pulled away Yeonjun realized it was his childhood friend, Lia. They caught up for a moment before introducing you to her, almost forgetting yo were in line "This is y/n" He smiled.

Hyunjin

When you told Hyunjin to wear the pumpkin he carved "like a helmet" he lost it. On his head? Were you crazy? "No" He said blankly, with an unamused look on his face, "I don't understand the purpose of putting a pumpkin, on my head" emphasizing the word "pumpkin". Hyunjin felt a little out of place since you two arrived at the patch, he was used to having dates in the castle but being a "normal couple" for once and going on cute dates, especially outside castle grounds felt strange, not bad but strange. It was nice, he enjoyed exploring the farm with you but felt like things were too good to be "just a normal date", Hyunjin was just always prepared for things to go wrong. "It'll be cute" you protested, making him roll his eyes but once he saw you were you heart-eyed pumpkin, he chuckled. The cold vampire showed you his bright eye smile for the first time, he continued to laugh before cupping your waist "What would I do without you?" He said suddenly placing a kiss on your pumpkin. After seeing how adorable you were, Hyunjin gave in and put the pumpkin on, it was gross to him but was happy you were happy.

Yangyang

Yangyang loved the pumpkin patch so much, he went through the fields, bought from the market, took cute photos with you and tried candy apples for the first time. He didn't want it to end, but once the sun started to set it was time to go, but that didn't mean the fun had to end there. Back at the castle, you still had the rest of the evening to eat snacks, show him movies and carve your picked pumpkins. Yangyang was excited, maybe a little too much it was making him impatient, "Is tracing the face necessary? Im sorry love, Im just excited ti start" he pouted sitting there as he watched you draw. He decided it be best to munch on a snack while he let you prepare, he admired how cute you looked when teaching him, it was almost hard for him to pay attention to your instructions as it was easy to get lost in the thoughts running through his head. Once you were done, you cut the top off making a hole for you to scoop the "pumpkin guts" out, but before you could explain Yangyang had already grabbed a large knife, one too big for this kind of activity "Im ready to carve!" He smiled before stabbing his pumpkin.

⚔️ @writingstuffandmore

☕️ @halloween-idols

🏹 @honey-beaut

🦇 @tinystarstay

🔪 @livealittleoc-cb

tags🫶🏻: @clubwnderland (🏹) @lunaaofthemoon (⛓️) @zzzhoonie (🕯️) @wiickedxgood @bunnybubchan @bunnybubchan @lowblotrp @badbf-cb @luxora @urbtsboys @nana-n-nono @angelxdevil-bot @moonlightchn @monsterhigh-cb @domxbot @welcome-to-maniac @dia-oc @blueberrybaki @monstax-cb @evicted-oc @yanderexmuses

(not sure if i like this or not but i hope you do 🫶🏻 lmk if you want to be added or taken off the list!)

[doublefreegames]

Travel Devil - better the devil you know!

There's less than a week left of judging for the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam and it's been a fantastic experience for us so far! Travel Devil has received such wonderful feedback and critiques. We take on board everything that is written to us so we can make better games every time!

So today I'm going to give a little insight into how and why Travel Devil came to be.

Do you wanna know how Travel Devil came to exist?

Originally we put together a game idea for a spooky pet adoptions agency. The game would take place on Halloween and have six pets (3 unlocked and 3 locked) to play with. Each pet was going to have a unique story and minigame associated with it. It was codenamed "Spoopy Pets" and it was far too much for the me and Robert to take on and complete in the Spooktober VN Jam timeframe. We worked on it for the first two days of the jam before we were flagging problems up, so we changed trajectory. It's not a dead idea though, it's in the list of rainy day ideas.

Speaking of the rainy day ideas list, that's where Travel Devil comes in. We thought this up a while ago but just put it on the back burner as there was no time to work on it. The concept was simple - a demon escapes hell and starts a travel log. Then the servants of hell follow in its wake starting the apocalypse march on humanity. When Spoopy Pets became too big we had a look at what we had to play with and Travel Devil just sort of fell into place. Robert started writing and I started drawing.

Character design went pretty smoothly. I went for a mix of cartoon styles, drawing inspiration from things like Dead End, Gravity Falls, The Simpsons and Garfield.

Traditionally, visual novels use anime and manga style design but truth be told, I'm not very good at that style. It takes me ages to make characters look good when I try to draw like that. Hats off to all the wonderful artists in this jam who made beautiful, scintillating characters. I'm so impressed by their dedication to fantastic character art.

One of the first pitfalls I encountered was background art. I like to use sites like Pixabay to get backgrounds but recently it's been flooded with AI artworks. The game jam expressly forbids AI use in your game so we had to get creative.

Fortunately this game revolves around travel vlog creation in Paris and we found loads of creative commons photos of the famous tourist destination. Seriously there are so many fantastic photographers out there and it was a complete life and time saver for the jam. All I had to do was add a translucent white filter to the top of the photos to make the characters pop out and we had our backgrounds!

Development went well once we got on the right track. Travel Devil was made using Ren'py which is a joy to develop with. We did have to wind back our ideas at one point as both Robert and I got sick with a nasty bug but we made it. We stripped back some choices and streamlined the game to make sure we could get finished. Originally, we wanted the player to be able to unlock multiple hidden scenes in one playthrough. As the deadline loomed we simplified it so that the player would only see one of three potential side stories that were growing due to the activities of our main character Tornacense per playthrough. We included 7 unlockable scenes and also 6 unlockable images in our gallery.

There's also a nifty guide to finding all the unlockables right here if you want a more relaxing time while playing.

If you've had a chance to play Travel Devil you may have noticed that we planted some seeds in our side stories that will be big plot points as we go forward. Travel Devil is going to be a series of five games travelling around Europe making video journals and outrunning the underworld.

Tornacense and Kirby will grow, we'll meet lots of new strange and devastating people and love could be just around the corner! Who knows? That choice will be yours.

If you want to check out the first installment of Travel Devil you can nab a pentagram portal and find it right here.

Travel Devil was made for the 5th Annual Spooktober Visual Novel Jam in under 30 days. The next one will be made with a lot more time dedicated to it!

Thanks for stopping by!

DoubleFree - Artist and coder for Travel Devil

[dearcauti0n]

SPOOKTOBER: NIGHT OF THE PHANTOMS

Ignore how it starts on the 15th. I wanted to give everyone time so they can either see this or think of ideas. This includes myself since I wanna do most of these too!!

Also I have never seen anything phantom related to Spooktober stuff, mostly dedicated to their night. It's the night of the phantoms, let's do a phantom theme!!

This is mostly for fun, so get creative with it! Don't force yourself to finish everything if you don't have the motivation!

If you have any questions I'll be glad enough to answer them👍

Good luck jamblr!

Also this is the first time I ever made a Spooktober sheet so uh.... Yippie

[catastrophic-crisis]

Zodiac Paradigm

The emperor has sent twelve letters out to twelve animals, inviting them to a mysterious new council. Thirteen animals arrive at the palace. Who... is the outlier?

This Spooktober jam, we dive into a series of Chinese zodiac-themed murder mysteries!

Thursday 4:00 PM EDT / 9:00 PM GMT/UTC / 1:00 PM PDT; twitch.tv/catastrophe_jupiter

(Denim Overall by KoYoMi Works)

[bibixpgames]

New Spooktober sprite today, it's Mari! :3

Mari does not want to be in this Halloween party in the worst way. The crowds scare her, the music hurts her head and she shakes just thinking about it, but all her friends are all together for once, so she has to come, right? Just so her and her friends are finally together.

Mari's main attribute is her hair and ears, which always seem to take longer than any other part of her, but is worth it to show her consistently nervous energy! Still deciding if one of her eyes should be hidden or not, but that can be decided in the end after everything else is done! She also needs to put on her fake halo, but that will also be final touches!

[admiralarchivee]

ohh I forgot to share these!

Night of the Phantoms

Spooktober

Day 15 + 16: Common Phantom + Proto Phantom

made this for Dearcauti0n’s Spooktober prompts!

[thepolishlynx]

The Train to Redamancy - Monsters travelling in a train [Part 1]