We log on to our computer to log on to another, slightly more cursed, computer in the demo for the screenlife horror game Shutter Story from Frostwood Interactive.
It’s slightly absurd to play a screenlife game. Using your hardware to pretend to use someone else’s is odd, but it is very compelling. There’s something voyeuristic about it.
Shutter Story adds another layer of digital voyeurism because not only are you using another person’s computer, you’re combing through a different person’s personal pictures and videos. So, it’s the horror in what you might find, right?
The game’s pretty clear what you’re looking for here. You are a teenager and a budding photo editor, and at the beginning of the demo, your friend, Eli, wants you to provide evidence that his family is being haunted so he can convince them of it.
He provides photo evidence and asks you to check family photos and videos to seek out further proof. To do that, you need to utilize SpectralAware™ 2.1 software to analyse the media, adjusting exposure, contrast, and noise levels while also applying filters, all in service of finding apparitions in the pictures and video.
Before we get to the screen within a screen, we get to look around Eli’s home. There’s a simple, defined look that tries to keep things somewhat grounded without going for ultrarealism. It’s not only a nice way to break up the screen-surfing, but it also ends up being integral to the story. Before the conversation with Eli even starts, there’s an ominous human-shaped stain on the wall by the front door, which Eli’s mother dismisses as a stubborn patch of mold.
Shutter Story: Point and Click Paranormal Activity
In fact, it’s quickly clear how much Eli’s family sees his concerns as nothing more than an overactive imagination despite worrying evidence to the contrary. They love him, and the family dynamic is warm, but they aren’t interested in the supernatural.
In Eli’s room, he nervously explains how he saw things in old photos, the mold, unexplained power cuts, and one time, worms bursting out of the toilet that were gone by the time he got his father to look. As previously noted, he’s looking to you to provide some tangible evidence. You’re pretty sure of your photographic abilities and the chance to prove the existence of ghosts, so it’ll be a cinch, right?
Of course, an earthquake tremor rumbles just before you sit down to Eli’s computer, seemingly a final warning from whatever malevolent force is inhabiting Eli’s home, but to everyone else, it’s just a tremor.
Now we’re on the computer, which Eli explains he’s downloaded all his family photos onto, complete with the captions Eli’s mother had originally put on the physical versions. The SpectralAware software pops up with a little animated helper welcoming us to it and explaining how its tools work.
There’s not always something to find in the photos, and the idea is to correctly categorize what you do or do not find. A handy guide will give you an idea of what paranormal shenanigans could be going on in a photo, and to start with, you can only use a negative and affect exposure and contrast.
Beyond that, you’ll be looking for abnormalities in photos, such as indoor rain, vortex-style patterns, or strange object sizes. The idea is that if you cannot logically explain what you’re seeing, you can categorize it as a supernatural phenomenon of some kind.
Once you’re sure of your answer, you click on whether it’s haunted or safe and move on to the next one. After a few pictures, something happens in the house, and Eli restates his concerns, only to be dismissed once again. He gets you to print out the last photo, which had an apparition lurking in the background. Eli’s family just don’t appear to see it or care, being more concerned with the other thing going on at the moment.
Eli, frustrated, is sure that more evidence will convince his family, so it’s back to the PC we go, with a few more tools to play with, and are introduced to video clips, which use the same toolset, but require a bit more squinting, replaying, and pausing to figure out.
The more we play around with the photos, confirming or denying spectral presences, the clearer it becomes that something is taking offence in the here and now, as incidents continue to manifest in grim coincidence.
But the full consequences of that are for another day. For now, this blend of screenlife and first-person narrative adventure is proving to be effective. It’s less about scares and more about an impending sense of walking these characters to their collective doom because you just have to find proof.
The process could perhaps do with a bit of refinement, but the hook is already in place.
The Shutter Story demo is now available on Steam.
A Kickstarter campaign to help fund the final stages of development is now live.
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