Where Shadows Slumber 12+

As a 14 year old boy, when I met the developers of his game, I was amazed with what I might be able to do with my interests. It brings me hope that, although it might take some time, anyone can do anything from the ground up if they try, and Where Shadows Slumber is a perfect example.

I finished the game today between periods in school just so I could confidently say how wonderful it is. When I played he introduction at the SxSW gaming convention, I was confused, and wanted a text tutorial that would show me how to play the game, or dialogue to explain why *SPOILER* he was mugged in a forest by a lion, wolf, and leopard. *END OF SPOILER* I quickly realized how much it adds to the game by having no idea what is going on, or what is good, and what is bad, or right from wrong. It brought out the hard work in the game, and shows the humility of the devs in not trying to shove lore and backstory down your throat, but rather let you interpret the story for yourself, like how a book doesn’t include pictures, or how art does not contain words.

If you made it this far, I hope you agree with me, and I hope the developers get to read this message, to see how far they have made it, and the support this game has brought them.

Thanks so much for your wonderful message, Hippopotomis! We saw your review right away, though it can take a while for our replies to get approved. We hope you see this too. Glad to hear our game inspired you!! Thanks for coming to see us back during SxSW and especially thank you for purchasing our game [ ^_^]

We really appreciate the positive review. Tell your friends!

-Frank
Artist, Where Shadows Slumber

But released a little too early. The game itself was very fun to play and challenged your intuition constantly; all the puzzles were well balanced, the art style was beautiful, and the storyline was mysterious and strange. There were, however, some technical issues that took a lot away from my enjoyment of the game. Leaving the app for a second to answer a text requires you to restart the level you’re on when you return; tapping too early to start a level freezes the game until you restart the app; and I had to restart the app 3 separate times to view the ending scenes with any audio. These issues pulled me out of the game’s universe entirely and will hopefully be fixed very soon.

EDIT:
I am happy to see the developers are still working hard to fix some of the bugs I had experienced with the game. Keep it up!

We'll take a look at those issues! Thanks for bringing them to our attention. Can you try the following?

- Download Version 1.0.3, which was patched in recently, and see if those problems are gone
- Email me at contact@GameRevenant.com with more specific info

It sounds like you already beat the game, so well done! If you wouldn't mind helping a few indies out, we'd really appreciate it. For example, which Levels froze when you tapped "too early?" If we can reproduce the issues on our end, bug fixing will be really smooth.

Thanks so much!

-Frank DiCola
Artist, Where Shadows Slumber

Where shadows slumber is an excellent story-driven puzzle game. It appears to be heavily inspired by monument valley, and uses many of the same switch-flipping and block-moving mechanics, but with shadows cast by lanterns changing the planes of existence instead of optical illusions. I finished the game in two days.

The story is eerie and moving, and almost shockingly violent, with fully animated cut scenes and anguished cries from the protagonist. Each new area is aesthetically pleasing and very distinct, with different color palettes and NPCs. This makes the game feel a bit disjointed but keeps it interesting. Unfortunately the complete lack of words in the dialogue makes certain parts confusing (what happens at the summit?), and the end feels like a cliffhanger.

While most of the levels are fun and well designed, there are a handful of bugs that forced me to reset some of levels a few times, especially during the hill section. More than once, the graves dancing in shadow wouldn’t line up with where the grave was in light, resulting in graves Obe could walk over and invisible walls blocking his path. The final level is also a bit of a chore. The puzzle itself is creative and interesting, but one the player finds the solution, the distance Obe must walk to actually line up all of the pieces becomes frustrating.

Overall, a great game. Wish it were longer. 4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✖️

Thanks for playing! If you download the latest patch (1.0.3) you should see the dancing graves are fixed now.

As for the final puzzle - we've heard this feedback from a few users, and we're looking into making it less of a chore.

Thanks for buying and reviewing our game!

-Frank DiCola
Artist, Where Shadows Slumber