Fossil Island
A downloadable game for Windows and Linux
It's the summer holidays and this year you're going to visit Fossil Island. Dig up fossils, explore the island, and stay away from the abandoned mine! This will be a summer to remember, for better or worse...
Fossil Island takes about an hour to play and has two endings.
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THIS GAME CONTAINS SOME DISTURBING CONTENT (click for content warnings)
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Controls:
(Xbox/Playstation controller or Mouse/Keyboard)
Confirm: A/X or E
Cancel: B/circle or esc
Move character: left analog or WASD
Move camera: right analog or mouse movement
Jump: Y/triangle or space
Run: Left/Right trigger or shift
Use tool: X/square or F
Next tool: R1 or mouse wheel up
Previous tool: L1 or mouse wheel down
Inventory: menu/options or tab
Pause/options: view/create or escape
Controls can be viewed in-game via the options menu.
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Walkthrough guide (only use if you get stuck!): https://cortok.itch.io/fossil-island/devlog/925167/walkthrough-guide
Download
Install instructions
1. Download file appropriate for your operating system
2. Unzip
3. Run fossil_island.exe (fossil_island.x86_64 for linux)
5. Play!
To play on steam deck, add the exe to steam as a non-steam game, then game properties > compatibility > proton experimental.
Development log
- Content warnings11 days ago
- Bug fix 1.3: secret grandpa edition14 days ago
- 1.2 typo fix edition23 days ago
- Bug fix 1.1 and linux version24 days ago
- Walkthrough guide24 days ago
Comments
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I loved it! Anyway I'm going to give you some feedback because I think it's important:
In the caves it was weird seeing Gramps sink in a rock and then just appear when I got to the gate, like the deity just let him free? I don't know, maybe it's a me thing, but it felt weird.
I didn't get the carrots, stars and moon thing. I got close but I ended up looking the walkthrough guide.
Also there is this place where you can get stuck falling forever.
Anyway, it was fun chilling, digging fossils and discovering a horrible deity in the dephts of the earth. As I said, I loved it and I'm looking forward to play whatever you make next!
This was incredibly fun. Only issue I had is that I didn't even see "that thing" and I got the good ending skipping the "horror part". I would suggest to force the player to keep going further after the key
Think the game broke somehow ngl, for me it no longer advances towards the next day in the story, it keeps repeating the message about the dinosaur emerging :( Day after day (in the game), just the same message
Have you found the dinosaur statue on the island? It gives you a clue thats shows you coordinates needed to find something to dig up. After that, you need to identify it at the fossil box, then sleep.
I did, yeah... All in one day, I check the dinosaur, get a note, show the dinosaur note to grandpa, find the boarded up entrance to the mines, get a note, show the mines note to grandpa, dig up fossils, identify them, then go to sleep. The next day the dinosaur message repeats
Edit: Wait, I think I found something. Will update if it works out
I played throught both versions (1.2 and 1.3) again just in case and I'm certain it works fine. If you're still stuck, I made a walkthrough you could use: https://cortok.itch.io/fossil-island/devlog/925167/walkthrough-guide
I just rewrote it so it's more clear. Hopefully it helps.
I played this with a couple of friends on Discord and it was a really great experience! We had a lot of fun trying to find the location of all the fossils. Great job, I hope more people start appreciating these kinds of games and giving them the attention they deserve :)
Aww, that's really nice of you to say. I only make games for fun, so them doing well or not isn't really important, but it still makes me happy when so many people enjoy what I've made.
Animal Crossing meets horror done right! This game has charming characters while telling an eerie story shrouded in mysteries. The puzzles were super fun to solve, and really made me thing outside the box, all while the game around me had fun mechanics and great playability.
I play your game (and a couple others) and leave in depth feedback in the video below. You can also vote for your game to advance in my channels competition for best indie horror of April at the following link (shortened): https://shorturl.at/3lMXz
I will be 3D printing a scene or model from the winning game to gift to the game developer. You can see our winner of Januarys competition at the following link (shortened): https://shorturl.at/GdQiH
one piece of feedback i forgot to touch on: you should reward players that take the time to discover all the fossils with an easter egg or alternate ending.
Oh wow, thats really cool! Thanks for playing and I appreciate the thoughtful critique. I made the game in about a month and this is as far as I got before moving onto other things. I ended up cutting some stuff like additional endings and the monster chasing you. Not stuff I couldn't have done, but more effort than I was interested in lol. I'm not ruling out an update in the future though.
if you end up doing an update for the game I look forward to it! I'll keep an eye out for your other work too, this game was fun!
Hey Cortok, just wanted to let you know your game advanced to our semifinals for best indie horror of april! you and friends can vote for it here (until wednesday may 7): http://youtube.com/post/Ugkx2-q3YkL_O5IlDRQOTdbfvLbDqgA7AaUg?si=AlLnqyYJxjV9pSbo
I'm playing using an xbox controller on the windows version and for some reason whenever I try to open the inventory it instantly closes
Edit: Found the issue. I had steam open and I guess that made the game accept the input twice, ending steam tasks using task manager fixed this
Muito interessante! Toda estética e arte do jogo retro me trouxe uma experiência muito boa, vale muito a pena jogar!
Thanks!
Absolutely stellar job with this! I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the graphics just put me right back in 2000. I left a few of my thoughts and critiques at the end of my video. Again, really enjoyed this one, good job :)
Thanks, glad you liked it!
nice retro
Thanks for giving it a go
Thanks for playing it!
no problem, i got big animal crossing vibes from your game. it was amazing
i can't seem to download the game
Sorry, I was just updating a couple things. You should be able to download it now.
just finished playing it, gonna upload it on my channel. I loved it! i hope this game becomes popular
This looks dope, making me wish I had a windows machine. :(
Mac or linux? If linux, then I've just uploaded a version for that. I kinda forgot it...
For mac though? I don't have a mac for testing and I can't sign the app either, which means I can't properly support it.
If you'd like a mac export anyway, here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jl7itXbxmhFKzQXCDbKIMnAieVuGQw3D/view?usp=drive...
Just know if there's anything wrong with it, I wont be able to fix it.
I am a mac guy, thanks for sending this through, looking forward to checking it out.
Being a mac dev, I am always happy to help folks with testing for OSX releases.
Yeah on windows 11 I can't seem to open it either. not sure whatsup with that, i'd really like to check this game out and put it on my channel if I can.
Thanks for your interest! If you still want to try my game despite the risk, I've read downloading "infected" games onto an external drive can prevent windows from denying access/deleting it. Hopefully the issue is solved soon, though.
darklink i was just talking to another game dev experiencing this same issue. Windows has identified this game as containing Trojan: Wacatac.8!ml, this is a FALSE POSITIVE. meaning that windows is preventing the download to protect your computer since it COULD be malware. Looking at Cortoks list of stellar games, it is definitely not (but always reach your own conclusions). Do this to allow the game download:
Note: this is NOT advice from an expert, I'm just a gamer. Giving exceptions to your windows anti virus can be dangerous to your computer. If anyone who is an expert has dealt with this before please comment and let me know if there are other ways to test and ensure its a false positive, also if you know any information on how to help the game dev change any game file information to avoid users experiencing this threat, Im sure they would appreciate that too.
Got it working! Thanks so much!
Windows claims this has a virus but it's saying that about a lot of Itch.io games today
Yes, I've seen this in other comment sections, too. As far as I can tell, it's something to do with windows 11, although it could be something in itch.io's end.
The only thing I can say is that my game doesn't have any viruses, but like with any file on the internet, it's up to you to decide if it's safe to download or not.