First solid details filled in for Shadow Tor's Wychwood Hollow

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

New ghost-hunting adventure coming soon to PC from the creator of the Barrow Hill series

The start of October means the spooky season is upon us, so what better time to lift the veil on Wychwood Hollow, a new ghost-hunting adventure from Shadow Tor Studios, creator of the Barrow Hill series and regular contributor to Darkling Room horror games. 

As you'd probably expect, this game explores another spooky section of indie developer Matt ‘Bear’ Clark's home county in England. The titular "largest ancient oak woodland in Cornwall" is a place of "myth and legend," reputed to be haunted by the ghost of Eliza Trewithian. Eliza was brutally "torn apart by the hunting hounds of Trelawney Manor" in 1793, and rumours persist that she lingers there still, but why? Does she "seek revenge, or just witnesses to remember her story?" Before you can hope to find answers, you'll first need to find her spirit, armed only with a "collection of ghost-hunting gadgets." Assisting you is a group of paranormal investigators who have "research and old documents to share," but it's up to you whether to follow their advice as you "gather evidence, decipher old documents ... and experience a very realistic ghost-hunt."

Much like Clark's previous games, including Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil and Incubus: A ghost-hunters tale, in collaboration with Jonathan Boakes, Wychwood Hollow is a first-person point-and-click adventure, presented here with fixed nodes but 360-degree camera panning at each location. All supernatural events, encounters and "hauntings" experienced throughout the game have been re-created based on eyewitness accounts. Accompanied by an ambient soundtrack recorded on location, your goal is to "follow ghostly clues heard via the Ghost Box" and track the "Cornwall Wood Witch" using real-world equipment such as "dictaphone EVP recordings, night vision camera, EMF detectors and more to pinpoint phenomena." Of course, you'll also rely on standard adventurer tools such as a map that allows for quick travel between major locations and a trusty flashlight to illuminate your nighttime excursion. 

There is no firm target release date for Wychwood Hollow, which has sometimes been a source of fan frustration over other unfinished Darkling Room and Shadow Tor games such as The Last Crown and Bracken Tor, but we'll certainly hope for the best as the new game is listed as "coming soon" on Steam for Windows PC.