From the itch.io page
A person with a pumpkin head wakes up in a cabin in the middle of the woods, and under the instruction of a talking crow learns to grow crops and earn money. From there, they can unlock new plots and crops, go fishing, and scavenge around the farm. Be careful though, as there's strange things going on in the woods...Pumpkin Panic is a cozy Survival Horror game that has an average play time of an hour. As such, there will be unmarked spoilers below.
Download the game from itch.io HERE
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This game provides examples of:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: One type of item the crow can drop are rainbow coins that can be exchanged for alternate color schemes for the player. These are the only upgrades that persist between playthroughs.
- Anti-Frustration Features: If you already bought all of the alternate color schemes (or just don't want to buy them), you can recycle the rainbow coins for 60 coins each.
- Bloodless Carnage: When the player gets attacked, we don't get any (or as much) blood from the player. Nope, they just get knocked down and you get the game over saying they died.
- Darkness Equals Death:
- The night is more dangerous than the day, since it's the only time of day the clowns visit and the drastically reduced visibility makes it easier for the Wendeergo to sneak up on you.
- If all the candles in the cabin go out, Shadow Pumpkin comes out from under the bed and attacks the player.
- Disguised Horror Story: Downplayed. The art style is very Halloween-themed, but the game's Itch.io page presents it as a cozy farming game and only loosely hints at the monsters.
- Eldritch Abomination: Shadow Pumpkin is completely black with red eyes and makes weird glitchy sounds.
- Exposition Fairy: The crow at the beginning teaches the player the controls of the game, and then flies off. Throughout the rest of the game, it drops off items that can be sold for coins.
- Fishing for Sole: The fishing rod will occasionally reel in a tire.
- Foreshadowing: There are "Don't Feed the Deer" signs around the farm. The Wendeergo doesn't show up until the second day, and getting too close to it will cause it to turn into a wendigo and attack you. The clowns also have a note on cabin telling you to follow the sound of their music, which is important to surviving the night.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Crawler looks like a naked man covered in blood.
- Implacable Man: The Wendeergo will slowly follow the player around while it's outside and doesn't leave the farm, unlike the other enemies. It can't follow the player inside the cabin though.
- Invincible Boogeyman: Every monster in the game. You have no way of getting rid of them, and the only way to survive is to evade them or, in the case of a couple of them, following directions.
- Jump Scare:
- Sometimes, you'll be walking near the edge of the woods, and the Crawler will appear for a brief moment before disappearing as fast as it showed up.
- There's a small chance that you'll see something with red eyes in the well. Fortunately, it can't hurt you, and is only there to make you shit yourself in fear.
- Monster Clown: Zigzagged. There are pair of clowns that visit each night. The red clown is friendly and will give the player a balloon if they find it. The blue clown is also friendly... if you can give it the balloon that is. If you don't, it will run into you and kill you once the sun rises.
- Non-Human Sidekick: The same update that adds Nightmare Mode also introduces four pets for the protagonist: the raven, a raccoon, a bat and a frog. They each provide the protagonist with a boost, such as gaining small amounts of money over time or being able to sprint for longer.
- Nothing Is Scarier: This game has more questions than answers and we don't get answers, which don't help anything, except to add more horror/urgency to the game. All we know is that the player woke up at this little farm and that anything that ain't the crow wants to kill us. Likewise, we don't know why the Crow is helpin' us, either. Thinking about it, who are we selling our wares to?
- Ominous Music Box Tune: The clowns play music box music to help you find them, and you really want to find them before the tune ends.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Any close encounter with danger is fatal.
- Pumpkin Person: It's not clear whether the player character is wearing a pumpkin mask, or if the pumpkin is their head. It's an atmospheric way to keep the player a Featureless Protagonist.
- Shapeshifting: The deer is actually a wendigo, and if the player gets too close to it, it'll transform into its monstrous form, become really fast, and kill the player if they can't get inside the cabin before it catches them.
- Skin Walker: Yes, this game's gots one, though you don't want it to run into you because you'll die. It can't open doors, so there's that.
- Simulation Game: A cozy farming game set in the wilderness... which happens to be the home of a skinwalker, a wendigo, and one Monster Clown.
- Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: Audio cues are important to the game, informing the player when plants are ready to be harvested/collected, when the Crawler shows up and leaves, and the location of the clowns.
- Sprint Meter: The player can sprint for short distances, but once they start sprinting they can not stop sprinting until they run out of energy.
- Stalked by the Bell: The cabin is a safe spot from most enemies, but the Shadow Pumpkin spawns if the player stays there too longnote , and the only way to escape it is to run outside. This can be somewhat problematic, since the upgrade station is also located inside the cabin.
- Starter Villain: The Crawler appears at the end of the tutorial to introduce the horror elements of the game, and is the enemy the game gives the most direct hint on how to deal with.
- Ten-Second Flashlight: Downplayed. The lantern only lasts for a few minutes, so you'll have to buy for fuel for it if you want to be able to see anything at night.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The game teaches you the controls and the basics of farming, and then leaves you to figure out almost everything else, including what the win condition for the game is.
- Wendigo: The "Bipedal deer with skull for a face" variant appears as one of the game's main enemies. They disguise themselves as deer to throw you off, and reveal their true form and charge at you when you get too close to them.