The Prairie House, by Chris Hay and Kelsen Hadder

Description: A student finishes their prairie field work but has to spend the night alone at an old house. 

Author Statement: My initial motivation for writing this was to make a pixel art horror game with switchable palettes - inspired by World of Horror by panstasz and The Horror of Salazar House by Maldo19. Kelsen is a local musician and artist who was the perfect partner to make the music and art for this game.

At first, I wasn't sure what the story would be, but then I drew inspiration from my past scientific field work on the tall grass prairie in Manitoba, and some creepy experiences staying at field houses. I supplemented my knowledge of the local flora with historical research about Ukrainian Canadians who settled in the area and the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe presence on the land prior to settlement.

Finally, I steeped myself in folk horror film theory and classic English ghost stories. At the time of making this game, I had an obsession with the beautiful open mystery of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and an earlier viewing of the Canadian horror Deathdream (1974).

Hopefully I was able to convey at least some of my enthusiasm for all of the above into this game!

System: Adventuron
Entered In: Main Festival 
Tags: "ghost story", "folk horror", "has graphics", "has music", "Canadian"
Play Online Link: https://eldritchrenaissancecake.itch.io/the-prairie-house
Download: https://www.springthing.net/2022/stories/ThePrairieHouse/ThePrairieHouse.zip (42.6 MB)
 Additional Links:
  - itch.io game page: https://eldritchrenaissancecake.itch.io/the-prairie-house

This story was entered in the 2022 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction. More info on the festival is available at http://www.springthing.net/