Find The Key
A downloadable game
The grass blocks the passage, you have to find the key to open the door.
Find The Key is a journey through a dreamlike and surreal world, where the line between reality and fantasy blurs. In this first-person 3D experience, you play the role of a protagonist trapped in a mysterious endless place.
Explore endless corridors and meadows of red roses, face simple metaphorical challenges and meet bizarre creatures. Those who have been in this strange place before you have left a leaflet to read with their last thoughts.
It's not about finding a key to open a door, the game has many keys and the gameplay consists of walking and running, all you will do is witness a series of strange and suggestive situations that challenge your perception of life and of death.
The game is horror themed but not meant to be scary, discover the hidden meaning behind the strange situations and objects you encounter along the way, each crossroads will slightly change the environment and paths.
developed by one person with unreal engine , it is possible to reduce the graphic quality to make it work on older hardware, however a modern GPU is recommended.
I recommend using the controller for the vibration functions.
Development log
- Update and now free on steamMay 10, 2024
- Game updatedOct 30, 2023
- UpdateAug 07, 2023
- DemoFeb 14, 2023
- First month on steamDec 11, 2022
- Find The Key finishedNov 12, 2022
- UpdateNov 08, 2022
- Added more lenguagesNov 02, 2022
Comments
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I was really enjoying myself up until the stepping stone section - Something about the frame rate and platforming just turns me off and I can't even make it past the first jump!
I'd say that it's surprisingly fun after the first few moments - I found the very first room a little frustrating (I only escaped after turning the brightness up.) and then I found it a little too tricky to interact with objects - particularly door handles.
But ignoring that, I really just enjoyed the vibe of it. I don't necessarily agree with Majid RM about needing a story - For me it was just like being on a fun ghost train. I don't really need more than that. I really appreciate the surreal artistry you've put into it and I think you've done really well pacing things; There's enough variety in there and I really enjoyed some of the abstract puzzle-logic. Really makes you feel like you're drunkenly stumbling through a nightmare.
hello thanks for playing, I'm glad you liked it! :)
ok then i will increase the distance to interact with the objects thanks of the feed i really appreciate,
however what exactly is the problem with the frame rate that prevented it from continuing? what hardware do you have and settings do you use?
if you can tell the exact point and specific information etc, this is quite a serious accessibility issue, maybe i can do something about it if you tell me exactly what it is ..
but i dont think, unreal engine is quite heavy even with empty scenes and needs recent hardware .. thanks anyway :)
however it seems strange to me, if it worked well in the first part it should work fine till the end so if I understand correctly you are talking about where you need to jump the first time, I think you just forgot to run before you jump .. if not run the jump will be too short and you cannot continue,
if I guessed it means that I have to make the message that says to run more visible, the checkpoint is right there if you do continue instead of a new game you should start from there, let me know :)
Sorry, I also should have clarified - I'm now aware that you had a readme file with suggested settings etc, and I ignored it. I actually enjoyed the framerate as it was for me throughout the game before that point because it went along with the drunk disorientation vibe I was getting. I was playing on default settings because I felt they were fine at the time.
My PC isn't really for games, btw. It's quite old and clunky, so I wasn't expecting things to go very smoothly.
ok no problem, play a little with the settings and it should go better, max quality and only the lower resolution scale should improve the performance in full screen, but if that's not enough, do window mode with a lower resolution, or decrease quality etc
unfortunately I have no way to test on hardware other than mine .. but with the right combination it should work well even on non-gaming PCs :)
hello Majid, really thanks for the feed and the support!
yes, you're perfectly right about the story and gameplay thing, actually i've written quite a few horror stories already, some very heavy .. but i don't think i can do them well enough, (for now)
however, that was just how I wanted to do it including humanoids like that and other weird stuff lol .. so even being the first game I did what was simpler to do .. also to see what would happen after completing it and other necessary things to do etc.
but yes, there's still a lot of things I need to improve and the next games will have a more elaborate story, if I don't do some other weird thing first, it was fun to do it. lol
really thank you, these are the comments I like to see! :)
hi ph2t92, thanks for playing and for the feed,
I'm sorry you didn't appreciate it, yes it's not a game that wants to scare .. it's a weird surreal atmospheric experience lol
the secret zones are found when you hear a man cry, the second ending is something that I added at the last moment, it is made on purpose to push the player to replay and it is almost impossible to get it on the first run, because you still don't know at the beginnin and at least that you are not really careful and curious you will ignore the crying man and you will move on,
but it's just a funnier cut scene if you didn't like the experience the first time it's not worth doing it again, maybe in a few months I'll share the save to see the final scene, thanks anyway :)
lol are you a troll? the game works perfectly without any bugs, it has no dungeons and the gameplay consists of walking and running, I don't understand how frustrating it can be .. if it crashed it can happen I'm sorry but it depends on other things on your pc probably, it never happened to me and I tested it thoroughly ..
i worked a lot on optimizing the memory to keep it low without ever showing any loading, but i don't know how people start games, you should close all other programs before starting the game etc.
however if you really have encountered bugs be more specific please so I fix them,
as I said to get the other ending just go to where the crying man is to find the secret zones,
it is not necessary to understand why just listen to the sensations, if you don't like it ok no problem but don't say false things please :)
Downloaded, scanned, unpacked and tried to run it:
All I have in the folder is FindTheKey.exe, a Readme.txt and a FindTheKey directory with content. F:/Games/Downloaded/FindTheKey is the folder I've got it in.
Is something missing?
yes, Visual C ++ Redist 2022 and the latest direct x must be installed..
sorry i didn't think about this, now i'm including them in the download :)
i added links in description :)
Just have to ask, is it on purpose that everything is blackness? I Walked around in the blackness for longer than my patience usually allow me. But eventually had to give up.
hi Max thanks for the feed, it's not all in the dark .. the flashlight is purposely dim at the beginning, but there are brightly lit parts ahead, maybe your screen brightness is too low .. sorry i didn't think about that, i will add l 'option to increase it in the options :)
I added the option for brightness :)
No the flashlight went out, and it was complete darkness. It was pitchblack I could only hear foot steps.
Tried Hitting all kind of keys to turn on the flashlight, but no luck. F, Mouse click, V, T, 1,3,4, Tab, space, xz nothing worked.
the flashlight is with T, where did it happen please?
it never happened in my tests but it could be a bug, thanks
Will try again. Give me a sec or two :)
ok thanks, i just replayed from the beginning and checked everything, it worked fine .. if it still happens tell me at what point and if you did something before it happens, if i can replicate it .. thanks