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Psychomanteum
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All Ectocomp 2016 Grand Guignol entries
Contains Psychomanteum.gblorb
Zip file containing all Grand Guignol entries into ECTOCOMP 2016
Requires a Glulx interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links. (Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.)

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Psychomanteum

by Hanon Ondricek profile

Horror
2016

(based on 17 ratings)
3 reviews

About the Story

Every year your friend hosts a Halloween party where guests are expected to complete three dares. This is the third.

A Grand Guignol entry for ECTOCOMP 2016.


Game Details

Language: English (en)
First Publication Date: October 31, 2016
Current Version: Unknown
License: Freeware
Development System: Inform 7
IFID: 42C7A0CA-9451-495C-8D3E-97003F2ACE95
TUID: f0e2fae1stvsn6w

Awards

3rd Place, Le Grand Guignol - EctoComp 2016

Editorial Reviews

Emily Short
"An unnerving experiential game."
On a dare, you are forced to spend some time alone in a dark room with mirrors. Which should not be inherently horrible, right? Besides, you have matches, and a safeword.
See the full review

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Member Reviews

5 star:
(1)
4 star:
(9)
3 star:
(6)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 3
Write a review


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Short "haunted house" game with reality-warping possibilities, July 16, 2017
by verityvirtue (London)
Related reviews: melancholic

Every year, your friends hold a Halloween party, and each guest must complete three dares. The Psychomanteum is new: a mirrored chamber, in which you must stay, in darkness, for an hour. That shouldn't be too bad, right? You're a connoisseur of haunted houses and all things Halloween, after all, so nothing should really surprise you.

This game has all the usual trappings of Halloween - pumpkin spice, haunted houses, darkness. This contrasts with the genuine sense of increasing derangement as the PC spends more and more time in the titular box.

Psychomanteum has a strong concept, aided by the background music and sound effects. There were some disambiguation issues, if memory serves, and I didn't know what to make of (Spoiler - click to show)the slate. Psychomanteum leaves its truth deliberately ambiguous, but presented some deliciously creepy possibilities.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A short haunting from ectocomp, June 11, 2017
by MathBrush
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

IN this game, you're trapped in a mirrored box as part of a Halloween stunt, carrying only a candle and some matches.

I couldn't get the game to do much, but it really had atmosphere. Just the act of lighting the matches, and the candle, and having the descriptions of your reflection described, were subtly creepy.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A short, but original&effective minimalist tale, January 2, 2017

This author really knows how to use minimalism to create an atmosphere of the eerie & the liminal...
A short piece with a novel concept, it features a limited environment but a very well implemented one, used to heighten the tension. Effectively written, and with several endings depending on what is done.


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Recommended Lists

Psychomanteum appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Ectocomp Games (All English Winners/Entries) by thecanvasrose
A list I created for myself so I can play all of these games. Sorted by rank and year. English entries. I'll add descriptions and my own ratings (out of 5 stars) to the entries in this list as I go through them.

Polls

The following polls include votes for Psychomanteum:

Best in-game music by MathBrush
I'm looking for games with great in-game soundtracks.

Games with a Halloween theme by Cuxxu
Some of us over on boardgamegeek/videogamegeek/rpggeek are starting a interactive fiction-of-the-month club. It was discussed having a game with a Halloween Theme for October. Most of the people will be fairly new to IF. Any suggestions?

For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible Multimedia of 2016 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2016 which you think might be worth considering for Best Use of Multimedia in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not...




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