Erie: Free Indie Horror Game

Kon Artist

Hey polycounts,

I wanted to tell you all about a new indie horror game that just came out in time for Halloween called Erie. Its available for DL for free on Desura. Erie was a game that I worked on about a year ago while I was in school.

Summary of Game

You are dropped into a terrifying scenario where your goals are to investigate, survive, and escape. Developed by the University of Utah's EAE Master Games Studio Program.

Free Download
Erie Download link on Desura
Erie official Website

Erie Official Trailer
http://vimeo.com/37025573

Erie Screenshots



Erie Reviews
Develop
Gamasutra
PC gamer
Rant Gaming
Rock, Paper Shotgun

YouTube playthroughs and reviews (NSFW and contains spoilers):
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BybeL6iOo4Q"]AWESOME NEW FREE HORROR GAME! - Erie: Part 1 - Let's Play (+Download Link) - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orsnRFa5mTk"]ERIE - HORROR GAME - FULL PLAYTHROUGH! - YouTube[/ame]

Specs to run the game

The game runs great on my workstation, not so well on my old PC. You should have 4G of ram (min.), a good graphics card and make sure Direct X is up to date. Windows only.

Two Listen

Well I tried it out because I love this stuff. Neat little game. There were several things that I found a little troublesome, mostly interacting with the notes and stuff that I found. But it was pretty scary, it did a good job with the overall feel of things.

That being said, I didn't finish it. From what I can tell, you get to a certain point (pretty quickly) and the thing(s) wind up hunting you nonstop, magically knowing where you are all the time. I hit that point and spent the next 10 minutes getting killed over and over and over again. It's not that I wasn't making progress, I was - finding ways to get around and ducking through vents to buy me some time, things of that nature. But that's just it, no matter what I did, where I went, how convoluted the path I'd taken - I was found and killed each time when I stood in any one place for more than 10 seconds (and that's not much of an exaggeration). And when you're trying to investigate things and find a bunch of stuff, I didn't really want to pursue the process of "make a tiny bit of progress - die, repeat."

But I really did like the little bit that I did see. The spraypaint thing is pretty genius, actually, I loved it. If nothing else, I have a funny story, will put spoiler tags on it (though it only really "spoils" some parts with some scares, maybe):

I'd just entered this room, what looked to be a small lobby room for some labs or something. Look around, hear some scary noises and shit, door slams shut behind me and I can't open it up. Given that I'd just spraypainted the shit out of everything behind that door and as a result was cut off from the only part of this place I was familiar with, I could really feel shit starting to go down. So I started to spraypaint the word "FUCK" over the doors that had closed, to mark the location appropriately with my feelings. That was the first time I got killed.

The location was then forever marked with just a big capital "F".

cholden

yay, my fav kinda game. Reporting in after play!

Ok was so excited for this survival horror looking game then it turned into a racing game. Oh well.

Two Listen

Well, I gave it another go and did wind up beating it. I guess I was confused, the first part of the game makes it seem like it's going to be more suspenseful, and so I was wrong to think that way through the second part. The second half of the game is literally "There is always a bad guy chasing you, no matter what you do or where you go." Which was really sort of a let down, it lost the scariness pretty quick when I realized - that thing I saw at the end of the hall? I'd just have to get used to seeing that because it'd be there as I sprinted from room to room from then on.

Joopson

Two Listen wrote: »

Well, I gave it another go and did wind up beating it. I guess I was confused, the first part of the game makes it seem like it's going to be more suspenseful, and so I was wrong to think that way through the second part. The second half of the game is literally "There is always a bad guy chasing you, no matter what you do or where you go." Which was really sort of a let down, it lost the scariness pretty quick when I realized - that thing I saw at the end of the hall? I'd just have to get used to seeing that because it'd be there as I sprinted from room to room from then on.

I feel the same way. The first time I saw it out of the corner of my eye, I jumped. But after that, I just gave up, because I was stuck in a loop of hiding. I would take a shortcut, and he'd be on the other side already before I could go anywhere else.

Anyway, a few weird things with art. No shadows? Makes it look pretty dated. Also, the monsters could have a better texture, considering how they eat you, and are so close to the camera. Other than that, the dead and dying cats were super creepy.
Good job on everyone finishing the game and releasing it. Our school doesn't even do that really.