HEARTKILN (Demo)

Coldbrook, beneath Mount Absalom. June, 1816. Snow has fallen for three days. The corn lies black in the fields. Nine have died of the Wasting since Candlemas, and the village has decided the dead are to blame.

You are Wren Ashby, the village's young sexton: you ring the meetinghouse bell and dig the graves. When the elders make you open your brother Pip's grave, the coffin is empty, and small bare footprints lead away through the snow. With a grave-spade and a lantern, you go after him.

HEARTKILN is a 2D action-adventure in the old top-down mould, one screen and one dungeon at a time, set in a New England village during the real "Year Without a Summer". A folk horror story told quietly: through epitaphs, letters, a ledger, and the people who stayed.

This demo

The whole first region: the village of Coldbrook, its secrets and shops, and the Receiving Tomb on the hill, with the Mourning Bell, the Black Dog and the Bellwarden. About an hour to the end of the demo; longer to find everything. Your progress is saved in your browser.

The full game (in development)

• Six regions and six dungeons: the Receiving Tomb, the Collier's Kilns, the Drowned Mill, the Marble Deep, the Pest House, and the mountain itself.
• Five tools that each open the valley further: the Mourning Bell, Black Powder, the Ferryman's Hook, the Flintlock, the Snowshoes.
• Combat that tells you the truth: white means a blow is coming, blue means bat it back, red means get out of the way.
• Great Hearths to rekindle, keepsakes for your Mourning Locket, a Ledger of the dead, and a map that counts what you missed.

Controls

Keyboard: WASD or arrows move · J or Z attack (hold to charge; also talk, read, open) · K, X or Space dodge · U or C item 1 · I or V item 2 · L or Shift tonic · Esc pause (hold to skip a scene) · M map · F fullscreen.
Gamepad: full support. Touch: phones held sideways.

A game by Harliss, written and built with Claude.