Clairvoyage: The Lighthouse fulfilled on Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for time-looping 3D horror adventure on Windows and Mac

In between long periods of isolated tedium, being a lighthouse keeper must be a stressful job at times. Being a visiting delivery person forced to tend to a faulty lighthouse in a crisis, even more so. Naturally, the latter is precisely what you'll have to do in Clairvoyage: The Lighthouse, the recently released horror adventure by solo Finnish developer Niilo Luhtanen and his Volpe Software studio.

At the start of Clairvoyage, you'll helplessly look on as an old, large wooden sailing ship drifts perilously closer to a rocky island shoreline in a storm, the lighthouse inoperable and ineffective. Tragically, the ship crashes and the lighthouse collapses. To make matters worse, a glowing red humanoid figure appears in the sky and seals your fate as well. The end... Wait, no, NOT the end! It turns out you're caught in an eight-minute time loop, and while failure is inevitable, gradually you'll come to understand what needs to be done to avoid the inevitable shipwreck. It's a dangerous mission, as you'll be "hunted by shadows" in the dark, but as you progress you'll begin to "unfold the lighthouse keeper’s tragic story and piece together a way to end the nightmare."

Clairvoyage is a first-person, free-roaming adventure controlled via keyboard and mouse, guided by on-screen compass directions. You'll be confined to the realistic-looking 3D island, but it's a large one with several cabins, plenty of nooks and crannies, and of course, the lighthouse itself. You can run and jump but not fight back or defend yourself against supernatural threats. Instead you'll need to rely on your lantern, your journal and your wits, plus the ability to "pick up, carry, and manipulate objects with physics-based interaction." With each time loop, the island will return to how it was, but you'll retain your hard-earned knowledge of how to operate machinery and "solve the puzzles standing between [you] and the beacon." Even with the time resets, this is not intended to be a long game, designed to be a "film-inspired experience" to be completed in a single sitting taking anywhere from one to three hours. 

This game is intended to be just the first in an ongoing series of "short, self-contained horror experiences, each set in a different time and place." If you think you have what it takes to defy destiny in the debut installment, you can dive right in as Clairvoyage: The Lighthouse has launched on Steam for Windows and Mac. A short playable demo is also available to download if you'd like to get your feet wet first. 

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