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Wayward Harbor - A Terrifying Horror Game Where You Can Only See the Monsters Through Your Mirror

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
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Wayward Harbor is a very intense first person horror game where you can only see the monsters via your hand mirror.

Created by students at Howest, Digital Arts and Entertainment (plus a composer from Artesis Plantijn University), Wayward Harbor is a terrifying first person horror game with invisible monsters that have risen from the depths. Your only means of seeing these monsters is via your mother’s hand mirror, and you’ll need to use it as you try to make your way from your house to the safety of your boat (grabbing a few essential items along the way).

The monsters are fairly slow and easy to hide from, but the fact that they’re invisible makes them very formidable. To survive you’ll either need to master walking backwards or pay very close attention to audio cues that give you an idea of their location.

It’s a very well crafted little horror game with a highly detailed environment, excellent audio design and terrifying monsters. Only being able to see the monsters via a mirror is a great touch and it makes for some heart-stopping moments as you try and make yur way to the safety of the sea. Highly recommended.

Download Wayward Harbor Here (Windows)
 
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ACESHIGH

Banned
Great concept, but what do you do about the monsters right in front of you? Seems a bit cumbersome. Unless you unlock a mirror upgrade that lets you see both ways at the same time down the line.
 
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Yeah doesn’t sound very fun or practical for a game

It doesnt, not to mention it'll be extremely taxing on hardware. If its raytracing, well obviously you need a beefy card, if its not raytraced, then the mirror has to render the world twice which will be again, extremely taxing on your hardware. For reference Dishonored 2 did the same thing with the artifact going back and forth between past and present, as well as In Sound Mind, recent indie horror which was quite good, having the same mechanic as the horror above, took half your framerate when watching through the mirror. Not very ideal and I doubt some indie team will manage to optimize it properly.
 
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It's all about design. There could be other factors that give indication of enemies, such as environmental interactions and/or audio cues, which could also play into your paranoia. It doesn't have to shoehorn the mirror mechanic into a traditional design. Not saying this will happen at all, but the idea itself isn't bad, but the execution of it definitely can be.

I don't particularly like the look of it because of it's snappy ice skating movement, the constant reticle on screen, and the lack of a body for the player while interacting with the world. It's still a decent idea though.
 

arvfab

Banned
DEV1: "People are bored of horror games where you only have to walk and run away, we need some new ideas"

DEV2: "Let us make a game where players basically need to walk backwards the whole time"

DEV1: "GENIUS!!!!"
 
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