Haunted Launches in One Week #HauntedTheGame
I can’t believe that it’s finally going to happen.
In one week, my debut game Haunted: A Slip Story will be available to purchase on itch.io. This interactive weird fiction collection game is a huge leap forward in how I write and has me excited for how far I can push this genre in the future.
In Haunted, you play as a home haunter getting ready for Halloween. You can’t pass up the beautiful selection of pumpkins at the local farm stand and decide one of three varieties will be the centerpiece of your haunt. Do you choose a classic orange pumpkin? An impossibly smooth rouge pumpkin? Or a bumpy, super colorful jade pumpkin? Each pumpkin leads to an entirely different haunt design that you build the major props for. When the props are done, you get to see how Halloween plays out. Then you can choose to explore another haunt. The order you play makes a difference in how the story is told, and you may know more than you should if choosing another haunt was really a fresh start.
Creating the game in Twine was a fun challenge. This particular collection made sense to piece together that way; future games might not.
Haunted: A Slip Story features 39 unique pathways through the game accompanied by 87 original mixed media illustrations and four original songs. All of these elements shift and change as you progress through the story. Everything you do changes how the story is presented. I was determined to make the choices matter.
The project doesn’t stop there. I’m doing the final round of edits of Haunted: A Collection of Weird Fiction. This is an adaptation of the game presented as a more traditional short story collection. I chose the path for you to explore the different haunts for the collection. This includes using artwork, framing devices, and transitional passages as written for the game. However, in place of the interactive versions of the prop builds, I wrote six brand new short stories playing on similar ideas.
These stories introduce six brand new characters into the universe of Haunted, with different reactions to what is happening during this haunting season. What connects them all is a desire to build the best haunt possible. That goal is different for every haunter and I pushed myself to reflect those different goals in each story.
The collection does include the original game text of the props, as well, as a bonus section in the back. I didn’t want to leave you hanging if you are more interested in reading the collection in a more traditional form.
Finally, the original soundtrack will also be available. Each haunt has its own style of music to reflect the story being told. I’m a huge proponent of using music in yard haunts and haunted attractions as it adds so much to the mood of the holiday. The tracks can work together as the soundtrack to your own haunt, or be mixed into your existing collection of spooky, atmospheric music.
The soundtrack is 100% my voice as a theatrical composer, only with the added goal of making sure the tracks could loop as long as needed in the game. I develop a theme, then push it through a bunch of different instruments until I find the sound combination that makes sense. Then I process it all through a computer for the right effect and balance between the instruments. I aim for an emotional response that feels true to the genre of a piece. A science fiction story sounds different than a Gothic story and the scoring should reflect that.
Haunted: A Slip Story is going to be available on itch.io on 25 October. You can get the base game for $2.50, though you are able to pay more if you feel inclined to do so. From there, you can add on the soundtrack if you spend at least $6 and the short story collection if you spend $11.
The short story collection will be available on my Ko-fi for $6. That’s the best place to purchase it for me. It will also be available on ebook platforms like Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo for the same price.
The soundtrack will be available on my Ko-fi for $4. Again, that’s the best place to purchase it for me. It will also be available on music platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music for streaming or purchase at the same price. You can pre-save the soundtrack on Spotify here; that really helps.