‘Haunted’ Horror visual novel WITCHHUNTER.exe Announced by Solo Developer
Solo developer Noah Dundas announces WITCHHUNTER.exe, a ‘haunted’ horror visual novel that explores themes of religious violence and the fear of otherness that fuels it. Styled as a text-based adventure game from the 80’s, it features elements of psychological and meta-horror to emulate a demonic entity haunting the game that sees beyond the screen and wants to claim the player’s soul. The core gameplay combines the rich dialogue and character art of visual novels with classic dungeon-crawler inspired exploration and combat mechanics to create a brief but dark story that contains branching paths and multiple endings, expected to provide 4-5 hours of playtime.
The player, acting as the local priest of a remote village beset by the Devil, must lead a witch-hunting inquisition to investigate five women suspected of practicing witchcraft. The player will track down and interrogate each of these suspects using brutal witchcraft tests inspired by real inquisition practices, then decide which characters will be spared and which will burn at the stake.
But no matter what they do, the Devil is always watching the player’s actions and choices. He whispers to you throughout the game, attempting to sway your decisions and convince you to spare the suspected women from the pyre. How you react to this will strongly affect the course of the story. Can the Devil be trusted if he only asks for mercy? Can the threat of witchcraft justify the brutality of the inquisition? How many would the player condemn to death for the safety of all?
About the developer
Living not far from Salem, Massachusetts, Noah was inspired to create WITCHHUNTER.exe by comparing the witch trials and executions that took place there with modern religious rhetoric in the political arena. “One of the things that really guides my vision for WITCHHUNTER.exe is the phrase ‘the sin of empathy’. As paradoxical as it sounds, it’s a real phrase that’s been used by religious leaders in the US to discourage empathizing with other people – typically minority groups like immigrant and LGBTQ+ individuals. I feel like there are a lot of similarities in that way of thinking as with what happened in Salem, where fear can twist religion into a weapon for violence,” Noah says.
