Hey all -
My brother and I have been working on our own game since 2012. It’s a point & click adventure game that’s inspired by the old Sierra and Lucasarts adventures. It’s called, “Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars”. It’s finally out.
Here’s the product description:
"Michael, Lily, and Gabrielle have recently moved to the frigid town of Haven under tragic circumstances. As they begin to rebuild their lives in this new home and meet the townsfolk of Haven, they quickly discover that not everything is what it appears to be. Michael struggles with dreams of dark waters and an unknown ancient evil resting beneath the cold waves. Are these simply dreams or are they a premonition of things to come?
Inspired by the classic point & click adventure games of yesteryear, Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars is a story told through the eyes of a family that has recently moved to an isolated town in the frozen wilderness. Explore, unearth dark mysteries, solve puzzles, engross yourself with deep lore, and interact with a large cast of characters in this rich and layered narrative."
Why the hell did we do this? Well, I had an idea for a short story many years ago, but I didn’t really know how to really tell it. It gnawed at me for a really, really long time. I’d think about. Sit behind the computer with Word open. Smash my face against the screen and then put it on ice again. Fast forward to 2012. I had just bought an old Roland MT-32 and Sound Canvas on eBay and started re-playing a whole bunch of old Sierra/Lucasarts adventure games the way I always dreamed of playing them as a kid (because I’m a turbo nerd) when it finally clicked. I knew how to tell the story in this context. I called my brother and asked if he’d want to do this with me and he was like, “Aw yiss.” We spent months building up this massive mythology and fine tuning the primary story arc. We have also expanded into doing a tabletop game that will go into kickstarter mode this fall (more info on that at a later date).
The only problem was I had no idea what I was doing. I’ve been in the games industry for 18 years, but I’m an audio director and sound designer (worked at id Software, Raven Software, etc…). I didn’t know how to build a model or make a visual effect or create a cinematic or design a puzzle…so I just hunkered down and learned stuff (and broke a lot of stuff in the process…and yelled a lot). Plus, Adventure Creator was a godsend.
Over the course of development, our dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He passed in 2014. There are a lot of underlying themes in Arkhangel that circle around dealing with terminal illness, loss, depression, anxiety, addiction, etc…The last time I saw my dad, we did a little VO recording session because I had put him in the game (he, my mom, and my oldest brother are the proprietors of the local saloon in town). We didn’t end up using the VO files (the game is all text…no voice over), but it’s something that I will cherish always.
So. Yeah. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for us. Is it a perfect game? Of course not. I only see the flaws right now. There’s a lot of stuff I wish I could go back and change. I wish we had more money/resources (and people…doing this with only two people was insane) and I still have a lot of learning to do but…it’s time to let it go and move on to something new. I’m pretty damn proud of this little thing. Check it out if you dig this sort of game. Would love to hear your thoughts.
Here’s the launch trailer:
Here are the store pages:
Steam: Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars on Steam
itch.io: Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars by Winter Night Games
All the usual social media links if you feel like following us:
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Would love to hear your thoughts!
-Zack