A House in Hellworld - An Anti-Horror Game
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
"A House in Hellworld": an anti-horror story of desperation, poverty, depression and the horrors of the haunted real estate market, created for the Spooktober Game Jam.
"What is anti-horror?" you ask? Well if you're familiar with the term "Anti-Hero" then that has all the answers I can offer without spoilers.
The number of endings is open for debate depending on how you qualify and ending but charitably there are 7. Estimated 15 min to read.
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Credits:
Created as a solo project by myself, Smik/Grumpy Old Milk as my very first game jam, first time using Ren'py and also first time making a visual novel.
Features purchased Third Party Music & Sounds (thanks Humble Bundle!) by :
- Ovani Sound (https://ovanisound.com)
- Phat Phrog Studios (https://www.phatphrogstudio.com/)
- DARK FANTASY STUDIO (http://darkfantasystudio.com/)
Playtesting:
Psychadellic Eyeball, Vorebane, Geemer
Content Warnings:
- A fair amount of Swearing
- Threat of Eviction
- Gore
- Working retail.
- Minor jumpscares
Just because it's "Anti-Horror" doesn't mean there aren't horror elements involved.
Download
Development log
- A Remake of House in HellworldJun 30, 2024
- New Games in the WorksApr 05, 2024
- More minor touch-upsSep 28, 2023
Comments
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Can u make an apk version? please
There's a web version that should work OK at https://smik.itch.io/house-in-hellworld-web
Thank you so much for letting me know about this! I'll be honest, I was a little wary of playing it at first, but I'm so glad I did.
Really loved the pacing and the writing in particular. You've put many a talent on show.
I streamed this amongst a bunch of other house-related games last week, and my chat adored it too. I don't think a game's gotten such positive feedback in quite a while.
Here's a link to the stream if you're interested!
Thanks so much for playing my game on stream! I would have loved to have caught it live but I watched the VOD and I'm so glad everyone enjoyed it.
A pleasant surprise! This game was really refreshing; while there's some delightfully creepy monsters and scares, the true horror is in the day-to-day life, the all too relatable mundane that constantly wears us down. Who wouldn't risk a haunted house when it pales in comparison to everyday life? I loved the black and white visuals, and your use of sound was great!
Some parts here really managed to startle me. Love the art as well! There's some things in this that really surprised me in a good way. I had a really fun time going through this one, and I hope you plan on making more VNs in the future; you have a real talent for it!
This was a lot of fun :D It wasn't long before I found myself excited to see what lurking horrors I was gonna encounter next!
I really don't wanna spoil story stuff for anyone, so I will just say that the ending I got put a big smile on my face :3
This is beyond impressive for your first-ever visual novel! The art is gorgeous, the story is a lot of fun, and your music choices are spot-on as well :3
I sincerely hope you gave yourself one heck of a pat on the back and treated yourself to some tasty food cos you've created a gem here ^-^
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I'm lucky I was able to get resources from the Humble Bundle or it'd be lacking audio-wise. I don't know if I'm going to do a sequel or redo the original with more of the features I had planned before I reduced its scope to make it in time for the jam. Really all depends on how others react to it, but thanks again for playing and commenting!
Yeah, Humble Bundle has been a saving grace for me throughout many jams in the past :3
Ooo, well, I'd certainly love to see either of those things! I feel like what you managed to submit to the jam is polished enough that it doesn't need a redo, but at the same time, I can understand wanting to if you have features in mind that you had planned. Scope is such a tricky thing to get right >.< I've been participating in jams for years now, and I still struggle with scope, haha.
Whatever you end up doing though, I'm intrigued to see how it pans out!
And also, I wanted to say sorry for your losses earlier, but I didn't really know if I should >.< It's one of those strange sayings that feels like it should be said, but also doesn't really have any real meaning or impact when you're suffering from loss :( I also didn't want to just say nothing at all though. So I just hope that you're doing as well as you can be, all things considered. It's extremely admirable that you had the motivation to make such a wonderful game for the jam!
Thanks. My wife passed away nine years ago, but Norton suffered a massive fatal heart attack the morning after I submitted the game. I added a little dedication to him as well in a final update. I just adopted a cat from my local shelter today, so I'm healing.
At this point I'm fine with people saying something or not, depending on their comfort but I appreciate the well wishes all the same.
This game really was amazing. I hope everyone experience this game 10/10
Thanks very much for playing my VN! I'm glad you enjoyed it, despite how rough it is. I had to scale a lot of stuff back.
Nice game.
Thanks for playing it, and thanks so much for the video! :)
I really enjoyed experiencing the different encounter variations and endings; while the actual ending doesn't change, it was entertaining to see the ghosts different reactions to our apathy on the last day.
Congratulations on the first jam game, you did an amazing job!
Thanks very much! I've updated it since - nothing huge except for the bedroom events, a graphical tweak and updated credits. Thank you for making a video on the game!
This was epic.
Thank you!