Here's SKELEBONES, my second entry to HORRORJAM 2023, the horror/Halloween-themed jam I'm co-hosting with astrangefool.

The point of the game was to make good on the promise/wild claim I made that it's possible to make a horror game in Scratch, the educational coding language. I use Scratch to teach coding to 5-11 year olds and it's also how I taught myself to program, so I think it's an excellent resource and a great place to start your coding journey.

For all its strengths, Scratch projects do get very unwieldy as projects grow in size. If you're wanting to make a simple arcade-like game on Scratch, it's all very easy and streamlined, not so much if you want to make a narrative-driven horror game. So whilst I have proven that it is possible to make a horror game on Scratch, it's not something I would advise. :)

The game itself is meant to be a sort of Tamagotchi/virtual pet-like game, I classed it as 'interactive fiction' because this seems the closest description to the gameplay. You are Jack's new friend. He lives in the woods and he is very lonely.

Bugs/'features':

The keyboard controls don't work on the embedded version of the game but you can also play on the Scratch project page for the authentic Scratch experience.

The footsteps sounds sometimes don't switch off properly.

There's sometimes extra puffs of smoke during the potions game.