First details uncovered for Shutter Story

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Photographic horror game unveiled by the creator of Forgotten Fields, Rainswept and Unwording 

Sometimes the creepiest parts of a horror movie are when spectral images invisible to the naked eye suddenly show up in photographs. This phenomenon is the basis for Shutter Story, the upcoming photographic horror mystery from independent Indian developer Frostwood Interactive. 

Your good friend Eli is "convinced his family is being haunted," but his parents chalk his stories up to an "overactive imagination" and even you aren't truly convinced without evidence. For proof Eli provides with you their photo album, and as a "budding photo editor," it's your task to "analyze and manipulate his family photos and home videos to reveal evidence of the paranormal." Your tests will allow you to "piece together the family's history [and] the true reason behind the hauntings, inherited and handed down from generation to generation." But beware, as between photo investigations you'll explore the house itself, where the "present-day horror turns to immediate terror around you."

With a grainy, muted 3D aesthetic, Shutter Story has a much different look and feel than Forgotten Fields, Rainswept and Unwording, the developer's previous games. In this "slow-burn psychological horror game [that] combines the desktop sleuthing of Her Story with the cinematic storytelling of Mouthwashing," you'll spend part of your time seated at a computer with an "early-2000s-style OS." Using "photo and video analysis software" you will be able to "adjust the exposure, contrast and noise, and apply different filters to reveal the horrors hiding in plain sight." With over sixty photos and home video clips to scrub, you'll need to meticulously detail "every type of anomaly to classify your observations in the right categories," including Apparitions, Simulacra, Strange Lights, Demonic Entities, and more. Careful examination matters, because "the fate of Eli and his family rests on your answers." As does your own, as you'll discover during the "tense first-person sections where the consequences of your actions bleed into the present-day."

It's too early for a target release date just yet, but Shutter Story is listed as "coming soon" to Windows PC on Steam. You can sign up for ongoing updates about the game from its official website, with lots of time to check out the developer's earlier titles while you wait.