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this looks very nice. Just wondering, do I have a dirty mind (I do) or does that sign really say Coffee anal? Must taste pretty shitty lol

You sure have! Well, there might be others who see it that way too, so I might add a few extra pixels there. Then we can all have a nice coffee AND a donut!

How have i not seen this!! Looks fantastic!!

Thanks, nice to hear that! 

Very much looking forward to this game when it comes out! The sign advertising tuna from Innsmouth is a nice touch. Anything nifty planned if Walter orders it?

Well spotted! Walter can only order breakfast, dinner lunch, or have a coffee. So it's up to the imagination of the player did Walter have the tuna. Also now that I think of it, before the authorities raided the place, Innsmouth tuna was probably quite excellent.

Wow, this looks amazing. I wanted to do a day-night cycle, too, but right now, the sheer amount of work that would take made me shy away from it. Great work, here! I hope to see it soon.

Thanks! Yes, it's a lot of "extra" work, but the game is progressing quite nicely now. Good luck to your project as well, looking good!

Non-spoilery screenshot:



Walter can have a decent lunch or a refresing coffee at the local coffee house. Both options raise Sanity points, but as a poor student, Walter can't afford to go there all the time. The new location is probably more important if you choose the straight, non-occultistic (is that a word?) route.

They looks fine, Rongel! 

Usually HPL's tales are short of female characters...

Thanks! Anastasia Wolejko was written very well in my opinion in The Dreams in the Witch House. Lovecraft mentions her only couple of times, but her fate feels very real. But you're right, luckily the game is an adaptation and not all things are exactly the same in it 

Hi all & happy 2019!

It's been way too long since my last update, sorry about that! Good news is that the game has progressed further in the silence. I don't want to reveal the new backgrounds now, so here's couple of new characters and their walk cycles.





The first one is an Arkham beat cop, possibly of Irish descent. There is some functionality with him, he can help you with the plot and if you get robbed (well the robbing is a planned feature, not yet in the game) The woman is Anastasia Wolejko, a Polish laundry worker that Walter might meet at some point.

Some time ago, I made an impulse purchase, and I bought Asesprite pixel art/animation software. Been using that with the characters and I've been quite happy about it. Seems to be bit faster to use that than my previous Photoshop / After Effects routine.

I'll try to make my next update sooner next time!

Really looking forward to this game! The inclusion of a day-night cycle adds a lot of manual labour but in a horror-game, it adds so much! I loved the "safe" moments in a game like Alan Wake where you explored the town during daylight. Then, when night fell, all bets were off.

Keep up the great work. Your pixel art looks amazing!

Thanks, really appreciate that! Now, back to drawing!

this is beautiful. Only the paved path in the foreground could also be a stone wall. Maybe add some papers or other trash to make the path flat. or widen and flatten the individual stones, I think they are not in perspective. Maybe add a tree on the right that casts a shadow over the path, that should make easier to read.

That's a valid criticism and a good point. I noticed that something was wrong with the pavement when I was drawing it, but kind of let it go, and moved on. But it shouldn't be that hard to fix, I think I'll add it to the to-do list. Thanks for the observation!

Oh, it's like the old Dark Seed!

Hopefully not! I've never played Dark Seed, but it seems to have a quite infamous reputation because of the strict three day time limit. In The Witch House you have sixty days so there shouldn't be any rush.

Beautiful background, I'd love to see the other versions! Must indeed be a lot of work to have different day time in your game.

It's always a pleasure to see updates of your game

Thanks, very nice to hear that! Currently I have made a rough evening version of it, but the night version is still missing. I've finally realized that it's better to not try to finish them, if there's a chance that there will be still some changes coming. If  I edit the day version, I have to fix the other ones too. So I can't yet show all the different variations. I might do it later, the evening version will be quite atmospheric because the city lights and the water reflections!

Look, the chimneys are smoking! 

They are! I would love to add also some background animations to the waterfront opposite side: trucks, people walking etc, but I there's tons of more critical stuff to do.

Do the day and night versions use different rooms, or is it just the graphics that are different? And how is the passage of time handled? If you go AFK and stay in the same room will time still progress? The screenshot looks awesome. Will Walter be able to get his hands on a fishing rod, (or a skiff) and if so, can he fish anywhere with a significant body of water or just at a few locations? Plus a fishing rod can always be useful for various puzzles.

Day and night versions use the same room. There is a clock ticking in the background all the time (1 real minute = 1 hour in game) and when it's time for change, the screen will fade in and out, and all the changes happen during the fade. So if you leave the keyboard, it's best to pause the game first. For the second question, no plans for fishing minigame yet! There will be a fisherman though, so you can watch him fish . I had to look up what skiff meant, and yes, it's possible!

Hi all!

I really like when people post making-of gifs from their upcoming games, so I wanted to make one too! Here you can see Miskatonic River waterfront, and the Unvisited Island with the mysterious standing stones. I probably still need to work on it a bit, but here's the background anyway:



There will be some subtle background animations that you can see here in the almost finished version:



And like most of the locations, this too will have three different versions depending the time of the day, so a lot of work to be done... But last month has been very productive, and I've been able to concentrate fully on the game, which is a nice change!

Looking forward to this!!!

Have you created the main sprites?

I recall the witch from a while back.

Nice to hear that!

If you mean the main characters, then yes. I think Walter's friend Elwood is the only main character that is still missing. There should also be quite a lot of Arkham citizens and students, so that takes some time.

Nice background Rongel, so old-provincial!

Thanks! It depicts poorer part of the city where the Polish immigrants live. Online image search and research really comes in handy, when imagining late 1920's Arkham.

Obviously I need to read the story eventually. The Masters of Horror episode and rock opera haven't provided me with any information to have a clue about the new background.
Looks very nice.

It think the location was mentioned only couple of times in the short story, but in the game it's importance is boosted a bit.

I hope you wrote the street kid's dialog in the clueless and stereotypical way that Lovecraft wrote how the kind of people he had never talked to talked!

I really strived for that tone while writing the English version of Chronicle Of Innsmouth, especially with the way the Innsmouth smugglers talked as if every day in Innsmouth was "Talk Like A Pirate Day". And the voice-actors totally understood how to pull off their lines without any direction from me at all. It was almost scary how much their performances matched the voices I heard in my head while writing the lines.

Gonna be even more interesting in the sequel now where I'm writing lines spoken as if... REDACTED

Yes, the final, polished dialog is something I may need help with. Old accents and phrases are a bit difficult for a non-native English speaker. I haven't played the new version of Chronicle of Innsmouth with the voice actors, but it sounds interesting. And even more interesting is to hear about the sequel!

this background looks very cool, I'm very excited for the full game

Thanks selmiak! Me too

Hi again and sorry for the silence!

The summer was a busy time for me, and the game didn't progress that much, but now it's getting better. I've started to do the ending, but I won't spoil it with screenshots. Because the game isn't strictly linear, it takes a lot of time to make it work in every scenario, but it's starting to shape up. There are some parts missing from the middle of the game too, but now you can at least play it from start to end. Anyway, here is a older screenshot from Orne's Gangway. People who have read the short story know what's going on there.



It's still bit work-in-progress, there will be some more residents hanging around. Currently Walter is trying to dig up some information from a tough street kid.

Looks utterly awesome...

When will it be complete?

Thanks! Hopefully in 2019, but no promises yet... 

Spanish adventure game site Indiefence has an article about The Witch House, check it out here:

http://indiefence.miguelrfervenza.com

The article is in Spanish, but if you can't understand it, you can look at the pretty pictures it has!

How many other places will there be for Walter to sleep? Most places at Miskatonic university would likely be closed late at night.

Walter can sleep at his home, and later in game when Elwood moves in, he can stay at his place (if Elwood is around himself). But those are the only places right now where Walter can sleep. I have thought about having the possibility to sleep out in the city bench at night, if Walter is tired enough (and ofcourse all kinds of nasty things can happen then), but let's see if it ends up in the game. Not a priority!

Shops, universities and other facilities are closed at night, some of them are also closed on weekends.

And what about the other minor characters of the short story like Desrochers, Choynski, Mazurewicz & Elwood?

Good question! Joe Mazurewicz is in the game, and he has a quite big role in it, as he knows a lot of the lodging house's history. Also Elwood will be in the game, but I haven't yet added him. But Elwood will also have a big part in the later part of the game, sometimes you can stay at his room, if the disturbances get too rough. But no plans for Desrochers or Choynski... Maybe they will be added in DLC!

By the way, sorry for the radio silence, but been busy with other (paid) work... But looks like I can make nice progress later in summer.

Looks like a nice game with some interesting features.

Thanks!

Armitage must trust Walter an awful lot to leave him alone with the necromicon. And He could unlock the window to sneak in later. Though I imagine that when Walter's done that Armitage will put the necromicon back behind the locked door at the left side of the screen with all the other forbidden books.

That's pretty close! I don't want to spoil too much, but you need to reserve a time to study the Special Collection, and Armitage gives that only if he is convinced your studies require access to the books. There's other stuff also happening in that room, but I won't go there now!

I'm so late to this thread but I gotta say - the dream sequence animations look FANTASTIC!

Thanks, nice to hear that!

Maybe the Necronomicon book should look more mean...

Yes, I might tweak it a bit later. There are six special tomes that you can study, and they will have their own graphics. So when I do the other books, I might adjust the Necronomicon as well. But in this game it won't bound in human flesh and have a scary face, like in the Evil Dead-series. According to Lovecraft, the Miskatonic University's copy of the Necronomicon is the latin translation, printed in Spain in the 17th century. So it's appereance is much more like an regular, very old book. But I understand you point!

Another screenshot!



This is the Miskatonic University's basement, where the Special Collection is temporarily stored. Reading these special tomes will give Walter knowledge of the occult at the cost of sanity.

So the game is now progressing again, slowly but surely...

Release date?

I wish I knew! Unfortunately I'm not able to work on the game full-time, so there will be gaps in the progress. For example right now I have some other projects to finish, but I think I can get back to the game in a couple of weeks.

Let's say that the release date is sometime in 2019!