Depressing Black has released a demo for In This House, a mix of survival horror and storytelling for the original Nintendo Game Boy.
The game places you in the role of Bianca, who is visiting her grandfather on the fifth anniversary of the death of her parents. During her visit, a mutated rabies virus breaks out, and zombies break into the house.
To make matters worse, Bianca starts to see visions of a ghostly girl who appears to know something about her family's secrets. "Your task is to survive one terrifying night and uncover the truth about your loved ones," says the game's itch.io page.
The game consists of five segments:
- Exploration - takes place from a top-down perspective; the player has complete freedom to explore the house filled with interactions, but some of them can only be activated at certain moments. However, it is worth trying each interaction to learn more about the characters and the truly living world they inhabit.
- Dialogues - each character has a separate dialogue screen with hand-drawn portraits; during dialogues, the player must make choices that affect the plot and Bianca's relationships with other family members.
- Hidden object screens - at certain moments, Bianca must find key items to move the action forward. She is then transferred to a hidden object mini-game, where the player searches for the listed items on carefully crafted backgrounds that exploit the limits of the Game Boy's graphic processor.
- Combat - the arcade part of the game, which aims to show the chaotic realism of close encounters with the infected, who tower over the main character in terms of weight and aggression. Each fight is a terrifying challenge.
- Visual Novel Elements - the final game will feature approximately 300 unique, hand-drawn pixel art illustrations and animations that will deepen the cinematic experience of observing a symbolic, mature story.
In this House launches in May 2025, but you can play the demo now. It will work on original Game Boy hardware, Analogue Pocket and PC.