Watchnight

Playtest 0.4 for Windows. Unfinished, and we want to hear everything.

By day, the coziest house you have ever stayed in. After dark, it shows you what it is.

Eight guests. Twelve bedrooms. One of them is lying.

Watchnight is a social deduction game set in an isolated manor in 1984. By day the house is warm and bright: chores to do, merit to earn, a garden to tend, a cat asleep by the fire. At dusk everyone sits down together for the Vigil and decides who must leave. At night the candles burn down, the rain comes, the portraits open their eyes, and one of the guests is wearing someone else's face.

New in 0.4

• A new art style. The whole manor is repainted and lit by its own lamps, candles and fires: wet in the rain, white under snow. The original pixel art is one key away (F7).
• A new main menu. A candlelit window at night, rain on the glass, and someone standing in the garden.
• Weather. Rain that falls differently on stone, gravel, grass and leaves; snowy nights; fog in the churchyard, with figures among the graves.
• The house watches you. Portraits whose eyes follow you and shine in the dark.
• A glass interface, warm by day and smoked by night. The info panel opens when you point at it, or press I.
• Sleep through the night in your own bed once your work is done (B).
• A rotary telephone. Dial a room and hear who answers.
• Faster. The heaviest scenes run 40 to 60 % faster than in 0.3, and there is a Low graphics setting for laptops.

How to play

Download the zip, unzip it, and run Watchnight.exe. You need Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and a graphics card with Vulkan support. The first time, Windows may warn about an unknown publisher: choose More info, then Run anyway.

• W A S D to walk (Shift runs, Ctrl creeps)
• E to use what is lit up: doors, chairs, beds, wardrobes, the telephone, the altar, the cat (hold it for chores)
• L to lock or unlock your own door, G to put down what you carry
• B to sleep (your own bed, at night, once your work is done)
• I for your job, merit and to-do list; J for your notes; M for the plan of the house
• F7 switches the art style; F8 sends feedback; H for help; Esc to pause

Online (beta)

Up to eight players. One person hosts a manor and shares its Manor Pass; the others join with it. If you die, you watch the living as a ghost: you hear them, but only the dead hear you.

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Something will break

Press F8 anywhere, or choose Feedback on the menu. Your report arrives with a screenshot of the moment, your place on the map and what happened just before, so one sentence from you is enough. We read every report.

Credits

Made with Godot. Music: original. Sound: original recordings and CC0 recordings (Kenney and others). Fonts: Alegreya, Fraunces, Cormorant Garamond and Noto Serif (SIL Open Font License). The full list is in the game, under Credits.