Demo shows a bright future for Allogloom

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Full version of classic-styled "macabre" point-and-click adventure coming soon on Steam for Windows PC

If you've been craving a stylishly macabre adventure along the lines of Killmonday Games' 2015 cult classic Fran Bow, you just might find it in Allogloom, an upcoming point-and-click title from solo New Zealand developer Galactic Ghosty.

With a name like Allogloom, you might figure that things will get pretty dark, especially when it's set in a remote town called Gruesome Grove deep within the Bone Forest. There a girl named Nora lives with her grandmother, father and brother, following the unexplained disappearance of her mother Lily. Things get even worse, however, on the occasion of the Soul Passage, a ceremony in which "the golden moths carry the souls of the dead ... across the threshold of the world" only to return as new moths upon the next full moon. Instead, this year "monsters" arrive and steal everyone in the village except Nora, leaving her to discover what happened and why, and try to get them all back on her own. But to uncover the secrets behind this mysterious abduction, Nora will need to "go somewhere forbidden" and "break the rules to save everyone she loves."

While entirely unrelated to Fran Bow, comparisons between the two are inevitable thanks to Allogloom's determined young heroine, grimly gorgeous hand-painted artwork filled with characters "human, monster and animal alike," and wickedly fun depictions of body horror that David Cronenberg could only wish he thought of. Gameplay, too, is similarly classic point-and-click, with items to collect and combine in order to progress, as well as standalone logic puzzles to solve along the way. If all that sounds just a little too ghastly to stomach, rest assured that it's all presented with a "dark style of humour" to keep things from becoming too horrific. 

You don't need to take our word for it, though, as you can check out Allogloom for yourself right away. The full version isn't complete yet, with no firm target date announced, but a playable demo is already available on Steam for Windows PC. (Helpful note: The rather shy inventory icon is hidden in the bottom right corner until highlighted with the cursor!)