Home Open

That long-vacant house is up for sale and open for inspection today. Maybe it’s just the fixer-upper you’ve been looking for.

My new game, Home Open, is out! It was originally supposed to be an entry in Ham’s Haunted House Jam, but the last few months of 2015 were just impossible, and also I don’t know how to scope.

Play online
Download the story file (TADS 3)

If you want to download the game and play it offline, you’ll need an up to date TADS interpreter. Gargoyle is still out of date. I recommend QTADS for all your TADSy needs.

If you run into any bugs or issues, please let me know! Best way to get hold of me is to email me at emily@boeghe.im.

I gave it a go and really enjoyed it. Not a huge fan of parser IF, but this was fun.

Pretty cool, I feel like I missed stuff?

Something smoking in the oven which I couldn’t tell what it was. A chair moved, and the bathtub filled up. I couldn’t do anything with the opening behind the wardrobe.

I ended the game by breaking the window and laying the towel on it and climbing out. The game described “wails” coming from the house, did I escape too early?
I liked what I saw.

The game is intentionally ambiguous, so I’m just going to… gazes into the distance

I’ll give you this much:

that’s the only ending.

Thanks to everyone for playing, and for your feedback! I really appreciate it!

Really enjoyed this! Beautifully creepy. Parser IF is so well designed for “and everything changes behind youuuuu…”

I do wish there were hints or a walkthrough, though. (I got stuck, ran around for a bit, couldn’t figure out how to do what HanonO did, and then saved.)

I can’t find a useful weapon to break the window with.

Also:

I have a cracked vase. I want to fill it with water, take it downstairs, and pour it on the thing in the oven. “The water spills out of the crack” would be fine, but as-is, I don’t think there’s any way even to try.

Sorry it took me a while to respond! I’ve had a very full week.

The thing you need is

upstairs

in the back bedroom

the painted brick.

I’m glad you enjoyed what you saw, though! Thanks for playing, and for the feedback!

I liked it! Short and effective. And definitely…

… not knowing what the hell was going on works pretty damn well here!

Some apparently minor bug I noticed while playing online:

During the “first stage” of the game you can’t get the loose board inside the wardrobe, but when everything changes, you can open the wardrobe and actually get it and go around with it, which is surely not intended as its description is still “A wooden board is leaning against the wall at the back of the wardrobe”

Thanks, and thanks for the bug report!

I think that “beautifully creepy” is a good description of the game. …and yes, not knowing what the hell is going on is one of the things I loved about this short game.
Keep up the good work, Emily!

Whoops. Kinda fucked up the spoiler tag.

Use square brackets [] instead of angle brackets <>.

Thanks, really glad you enjoyed it!