Decrypt

I enjoyed this quite a bit and the story was great, but it did get a little tiresome having to constantly find more terminals and read messages. I wish some of them were audio logs. Good scares though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRAvnyUyI1g

This game took me by surprise and it is definitely on of the better games on itch.io. Great story telling with plenty of twists and a truly terrifying atmosphere. 

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started to play this game, but I was rather surprised/impressed with its visuals and audio design, in general it kept me uncomfortable and tense. Story-wise, I liked how detailed it was, going from near the start of the journey, to the end, but with that comes an aspect of this game that could definitely be improved upon in any future projects. 

As I edited this, I realized how much of the video consisted of reading terminals. Similar to what the previous comment about this game, there are many ways to tell a story and it doesn't need to be presented in a readable manner all the time.  

Another improvement would be variation. This is with regards to the repetitive loop of getting crypto keys, reading terminals, opening doors, etc. This ties in with my previous point, since the story is solely delivered through terminals. Providing multiple ways of telling a story can open up different ways of designing how the game flows overall.  

One thing to keep in mind in general, that I found a bit difficult to deal with, would be the flashlight, which barely helps in-game. Especially regarding the setting the game takes place in, the flashlight felt like it didn't really match well, and I had to increase brightness in both my game, and while editing. 

However, despite these criticisms, I still really enjoyed the game, and am glad that I played it. Overall, it was a very enjoyable, and tense experience and it has me interested to see what other projects you make in the future. 

I'm glad that I played Decrypt but I disagree heavily with some of the other comments on this page that seem to only give generic positive responses. I don't think that type of criticism is healthy for a developer that definitely cares about what they make.

The game runs great and there are cool ideas that could have been fleshed out had there not been a huge focus on the writing and obtaining of story-telling notes is basically my biggest criticism.

Thanks for making games!

This was AMAZING!! I was so surprised with how awesome this game is! I'm honestly surprised its free!! This is a game that I would pay money for! Really, really enjoyable! Super scary but super fun!!! Highly recommend!

A horror game doesn't have to be this dark. You can put in some lighting and still be scary. And wow, a lot of reading!

This game was a blast. I had fun recording this gameplay. The atmosphere was great, the scares were great. Definitely recommend playing!

I fricking loved this game, everything from the pacing of the steps to the keycard driven story.
Even the pacing of the scares is not where and when you'd anticipate them

watch my playthrough here :)

This was really really good! The atmosphere mixed with a great story and gameplay mixed well! The scares and build up got me good. The only thing i would say is the pacing was a bit slow and the threat wore off a bit quick due to the chase mechanics but other than that this game was amazing! If you wanna watch my playthrough you can see it here. 

The game is fun I just uploaded the game yesterday and would love to know what you think! Decrypt | Let's Play

I'm not even joking when I say that this game had me feeling nauseous and lightheaded. The combination of brutal storyline, well-placed scares, and anxiety/adrenaline inducing gameplay was absolutely perfect. Can't wait to see what y'all come up with next! Here's my playthrough:

Great game, I felt opening the doors was tedious but I understand now why it was done.. it really added to the tension and was well done. Solid story that kept you thinking and by the time realization hits it's too late. Good stuff!! Also, beautiful game.

Played it. Enjoyed it. Cried like a baby a lot. Game gives me huge event horizon and alien isolation vibes and I can't wait to see more from you guys :D

part Nr. 3 of this scary horror adventure. the game ist so great, big thx for all my friends 5 stars for you 🥰🤩👍🙏

hi, here is my 2nd part 😍😉

I am a simple gal: all I need is a cool story, amazing, immersive writing, a moody environment, top notch sound effects and great voice work and I follow, recommend and give 5 stars. Well done, especially the writing and sound design was incredible. 

Amazing work all around, thanks for a great experience (also: I did support this game with a few bucks because I think this is so polished, you can easily set a fixed price for it here on itch and steam). 

A fantastic little sci-fi horror! I really enjoyed playing it, and highly recommend it to anyone else who wants to be immersed for an hour. Thanks for sharing it with us!

The creators have done a great job at keeping anxiety to a high while playing. The beginning of the game is a build up to the danger with small noises here and there while over time lights are going out, all doors are locked and shadows are moving. All this with the knowledge that you are alone and trapped deep in space. While the game did fantastic at scaring me there is a ton of reading (granted if you do not care much for the lore of the game you can skip the reading, however, I feel knowing the history of the ship adds to the fear). Maybe to combat the reading we could of had audio tapes or Preethi explain these things throughout the game.

Aside from the reading I would definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to freak themselves out. Finding out the history of the ship is gruesome and also knowing that the threat isn't an alien in my opinion makes it even creepier.

hi, big thx for the great game. greetings from rosti 🥰

Hello there fellow devs!

I finished your game and had a good time playing. If you are interested in my detailed feedback, please let me know.

Cheers

This game is fantastic.

I cannot praise the atmosphere, gameplay, jumpscares, and overall plot enough.

Decrypt excels at building tension, suspense, and making you curious to keep on going. All the while feeling cold dread. I was legitimately glancing up at vents every so often and hated rounding corners. Definitely got my heart racing!

As others have noted, the movement to walk and turn is much too slow. At times, this impacts gameplay negatively in the sense that it can be hard to turn and run to escape. Which causes repeated (unnecessary) deaths that can take away from the scare factor after doing a section multiple times when you know what's coming. A brisker pace definitely would have helped.

Other than that, I loved this game. I actually almost didn't finish it because of the fear it induced. 

Personally I love that the game is told through emails, environmental details, and that the writing doesn't insult the intelligence of the players. Even if you can piece together what's happened, it only makes things more scary. Especially as you find out more about the doomed vessel, it's crew, and know where you must go to hopefully escape.

The environment and level design, smart gameplay, sound, and atmosphere stand out the most to me. All of these elements combine to make a truly immersive, impressive, and memorable horror game.

Thanks for all the time, effort, skill, and passion you put into making it! Can't wait for more horror from Crux Game Studios.

Would it be possible for me to run this on my shitty mac from late 2011? I'd get a new computer, but I don't really need one. (release date was 2011, I don't remember when this was purchased. Probably around 2014-2016 if that helps.)

I love the ship aesthetic - I'm kinda tired of all those retro-tech ships (perhaps because I played Alien: Isolation and Dead Space recently). This one is modern, and this makes the threat (not spoiling anything) kinda... out of place, but in an interesting way? 

This way or another, a good game. Although:
1) Running could be slightly faster, I barely notice a difference between it and walking.

2) I think that the intro mentions something about the ship being lost for decades, and then it turns out that it was days like a scene later? not sure if I remembered correctly

3) When your ship is docking at the beginning, it's moving upward to dock yet its engines are still running as if it was flying forward. Small but kinda harmful to eyes really.

4) The power cell bit could use some variety. Literally every time you have to enter one, it's the to the second slot going from the top. Is the ship cursed to always lose the second power cell from the top? Make it the top or the lowest one from time to time >_<

This way or another, a very good indie game. 

It's scary!

So this game was super long, Honestly could have been a console game.  Amazing story has the ability to even go deeper. When I got the story and under understood I was like crap destroy the ship. The monsters or whatever holy crap every single time I was begging please let me live please no don’t kill me. I wish the character had a name because I became attached to who we were playing despite not knowing who they were. I guess cause we found out about the crew, We had an actually boss whatever you wanna call her. We had been through so much I was literally saying PLEASE DO NOT KILL HIM this isn’t right we didn’t do this let him live! One of the BEST GAMES! I’m not for space games or futuristic! But please TRY THIS GAME ITS INSANE!!!!! Like maybe add a background to the player like I said I don’t know why I became attached and I felt for the crew the story I just wanted to wreck the ship and I felt like I was in the game AWESOME. 

Haven't completed the game yet, going to complete it in two parts.  So far this game is amazing.. Great atmosphere and definitely creepy. Check out my page, I'll be posting a part 2 soon!!!

Man this was an amazing game great atmosphere creepy as hell decent amount of gameplay too.

Good Game. It reminded me something like the Event Horizon movie. Congrats on your game.

Cool game, I liked the concept of space ghosts!

Crazy good game. I loved everything :) Keep up the good work.

Hope to see more horror from you guys in the future

The weirdness of this Science fiction adventure further deepens the unsettling atmosphere - Wow, what a game. 

First thing that caught my eye, honestly, was the developer team name - Crux, because I have developed a game with the same name and I kind of stumbled across this by pure curiosity, yet little did I know, what was awaiting for me. 

Breathtaking, grounded visuals, amazing performance with every bit and detail being sewn into this mind-bending story, which of course is similar to "Alien Isolation", yet different. Personally, I tried to tackle the genre couple of times, but compare to this development, I am just a child playing on the ground basically.

The overlay system and crypto mining was unique feature for this, I won't spoil further anything, in case anyone reads this besides the developer, but for the most part, the smoothness of the gameplay, easy mechanics, made me feel like I was in space, that I was truly a part of the game - a fantastic immersive experience, to be precise.

Of course, there were so minor issues. I had to restart the game, due to a bug towards the second room, when the security protocol is being shut down and I tried to sneak in the room with the pass codes, then I fell of the map. That's the only bug I had, other than that - flawless. 

I am really looking forward to more from you Crux Game Studios. Weirdly enough, I have not played your games, which is a shame on my part. Definitely a huge upgrade for the indie science fiction genre and I do hope this gets popular, as soon as possible. 

Cheers!