Phobia - Teaser

Teaser of the upcoming 3D horror game called Phobia, where you investigate a murder in an abandoned hotel. Please note that the game has been made in Unity and that it is not finished yet. After playing it for about 10-15 minutes you get to the end point in style 'to be continued'...According to the developer's facebook page, the full version of the game would probably be called 'Phobia - Return to Darkness'.

How to play?

First 30 seconds or so, don't bother trying to figure out the controls. At the beginning, the game 'plays' itself until it gets you inside the 'Arcadian'. While being on 'auto pilot' you can still move the mouse a bit to check out the neighbourhood but the otherwise all movement is blocked.

Inside the Arcadian

Not really a hotel you would spend a night in. Judging by the furniture, empty bottles, lack of stuff and other guests, the hotel looks rather spooky and abandoned. Low ceiling, locked doors and long corridors is what justifies the word 'phobia' from the game's title. You will be hearing distant demonic laughter, screams and occasional intense heart beat. The glowing, sparkling purple thingy, which is used as landmark, marking the front desk, is something we are used to seeing in other games, not sure exactly which ones, but looks very familiar.

Controls ('w','a','s','d','f')

Pretty much standard, you walk in all directions by pressing wasd keys, or arrow keys if you prefer that way. For example left-handed persons hold mouse in their left hand while pressing arrow keys on the keyboard by their right hand. The 'F' key, which is probably short from 'fire' is used to open doors. You won't be using any kind of weapon here, although who knows, maybe there will be some shooting in the final version. Torch light goes on and off on right mouse click.

What's it about?

This is meant to be a crime investigation, sort of a detective horror game. It is played from the first person perspective. Your task is to investigate what happened to one of the hotel's guest, who disappeared, probably murdered. In short, you follow the clues left inside the rooms. Most of the rooms are locked, so your first task would be to find the opened one and figure out which one is the next room you should investigate. Beside the scary music, blood marks on the floor, blood steps on the walls and the ceiling, there are no real jumpscares. The developer was obviously considering jumpscares since he threw in Slender-man in one of the opening scenes, but that was just a one-time event, sort of an experiment.

Spoiler

You start off in a room 41. There's a message left on the bed, saying that the person, whoever he was, used to hear strange voices coming from the room 39. Please note, that it might be tricky picking up the note due to a probable bug. Once you read the note, you'll hear screaming, and the strange note will appear on the wall, written in blood, saying "Never forgive". It is obvious that a person in question is a guy who committed a murder against his girlfriend as an act of jealousy or something like that. Room 39 reveals more details after picking up the note. To pick up the note you use left mouse click. Move around the bed to find the best position for collecting the note (bug again, I guess). The next clue is number 29, written on the wall by Roman numerals (XXIX). Room 29 is the hardest one to find. I used to roam the hotel's corridors for 5-10 long minutes before I had found it. After you read the blood note on the wall which says 'come closer' and after you realize there's nothing there and decide to get out, the game abruptly ends with a note that the full version will be released very soon.

Where can I find the full version of this game?

Nowhere yet. This is just a teaser, or a demo if you like, of the game which is still under development. Even if unfinished, I decided to give this game a go, as I find it has a lot of potential. Maybe a good comments would be a stimulus for a developer to hurry up and finish this project up.

About the author

The author is Robert Hutton, an indie developer from Ipswich (UK), who holds a degree in computer game design. Robert, we're sending you a thumbs up, with the hopes you will bring this game to an end. I will quote the author from Kongregate's profile 'Constructive criticism welcomed', so plz feel free to leave comments below.

Phobia Teaser on YouTube