The Occultist: Old Growth

THE OCCULTIST : OLD GROWTH

Part one of The ESPER Files

STORY: You are Dr. Ian James McDermott, paranormal investigator, private detective, and practitioner of the forbidden arts. As lead investigator of the E.S.P.E.R. Society, you have been summoned to find Kathleen O'Neill and her young daughter Anna, last seen in the Willamette National Forest outside Salem, Oregon. This phenomenon is not restricted to this hapless mother and child... Six hundred thousand people go missing in similar conditions every year. 

ESPER is a secret society founded in 1848 to stand in the gap between the darkness and the light. It stands for Extraordinary Supernatural Phenomena Explored and Revealed, but it's mission has extended far beyond the paranormal. It's agents have given up regular lives to keep watch over the shadow and make sure it doesn't encroach on humanity.

For there are more things to fear in the night than shadows.

TO PLAY: Right-click or scroll mouse to change mouse mode between WALK TO, INTERACT, and EXAMINE. 

Left click activates the action on the world.

The bag in the bottom left opens the inventory, and the bottom right opens the szettings panel.

There are two endings to experience.

HINTS:

-There is a useful item in the car, and some other things may be hidden in similar places. 

-Check every single nook and cranny. You never know what's hiding in the shadows.

-Don't forget to learn from knowledgeable people, and follow their instructions to a tee.

-There are more things to discover about the backstory of the game and the lore of the world

than is told to you explicitly in the game. There are secrets to be uncovered from

investigation and careful thought.

CHANGELOG: 

9/5/2021 - "Remember, remember, the fifth of November!"  

*Walk-behinds of trees in the woods in front of the cabin repaired.

*After the climax, the climax doesn't keep happening every time you enter the room.

(thanks to user Graugen!)

*Made the top room of the tower easier to navigate. (thanks user CheapeeSoft Games)

*Click to progress instead of the quick autoforward.

(Thanks to user Niven Hedinger, and special thanks to you for the Let's Play of this game!

*Cleaner font (thanks user GravySurfKing)

*Referenced the need to get your lighter (thanks user Graugen)

*Made the wording of the stove interaction more understandable (thanks user Jackaljkdan)

*Increased base speed and main character's walking speed (many users suggested this)

*Added instruction manual and an ESPER "feelie" with the compile package.

FUTURE CHANGES:

*Every item and hotspot will have full interaction with every inventory item (thanks to

user psy_wombats for the suggestion)

*Autosave function (thanks to user Nick Pettigrew for the suggestion)

*Linux and Mac compatible distributions

THE OCCULTIST is a series of games based on the ESPER Roleplaying Game, which has become the Wizard's Tale Universal Role Playing Engine. The previous entries in this series are ESPER: The Town on the Edge of Darkness, Heart of Abraxas, ESPER: The Secret of Drom Bennacht, Julia, and The Thirty-First.

The series is going forward under the name "The Occultist," with Ian McDermott as the main playable character. A short mission, "Bridge Under Troubled Water," is in production and will be released soon.

I plan on a whole series of games in this series, with 30 proposed missions and 4 future game plots already in the works. Future installments will include a character development system based on the rules of the RPG, complete with upgradeable positive and negative characteristics. I also have "The ESPER Case Files," a solo journaling RPG, an ESPER Files board game, and my own ESPER tarot deck in production  now.

If you like what you see here and would consider supporting my work, please check out my Patreon over at https://www.patreon.com/dogandahalf    

All art and programming done by The Wandering Wizard, sound effects from www.freesound.org, and music from https://freepd.com/.