Press kit
Slack Water: Episode 1, The Dark Light. Everything here may be used to write about the game: the text, the screenshots and the logos. Write to [email protected] for anything else, or for a key when there is a build to play.
Fact sheet
- Title
- Slack Water: Episode 1, The Dark Light
- Developer
- Gen2 Interactive
- Platforms
- Windows, Steam Deck (macOS later)
- Release
- To be announced
- Price
- To be announced
- Genre
- First-person narrative mystery; exploration
- Length
- Ten chapters, each a day or a night, about five hours in all
- Language
- English, with subtitles
- Controls
- Keyboard and mouse, or a controller
- Engine
- Godot
- Website
- www.gen2interactive.co.uk/slack-water
- Press
- [email protected]
In 50 words (51 words)
Slack Water is a first-person mystery at a New England lighthouse. In Episode 1, The Dark Light, photograph restorer Helen Ashby takes a caretaker’s job and arrives in a storm. The lamp is dead and the last caretaker’s log stops mid-sentence. Everyone tells the same story about one night in 1961.
In 150 words (147 words)
Slack Water is an episodic first-person mystery set at a lighthouse on the New England coast. In Episode 1, The Dark Light, Helen Ashby, who has spent eleven years restoring other people’s photographs in a windowless room, answers an advertisement for a three-month caretaker. She arrives at night in a storm, with the tide closing over the causeway behind her. The lamp is dead. The last caretaker left in a hurry two winters ago. A neighbour she has never met leaves eggs and kind, brisk letters, and the only voice she hears is Sam’s, on the phone.
Everyone on this coast knows the legend of the Dark Light. Helen reads edges, tears and handwriting for a living, and the island is full of what people kept: a station log that stops mid-sentence, a torn photograph, a cellar the handbook says is closed. There are no jump scares.
In 400 words (379 words)
Slack Water is an episodic first-person mystery set at a lighthouse on the New England coast, painted after Edward Hopper: white clapboard, red roofs, long grass and a sea that changes colour by the hour.
In Episode 1, The Dark Light, Helen Ashby spent eleven years in a windowless room, restoring other people’s photographs. Then she wanted a window. She answers an advertisement for a three-month caretaker at the Point, a light station on a tidal island, and arrives at night in a storm, with the sea closing over the causeway behind her. The lamp is dead. The last caretaker kept a chatty log for three weeks, two winters ago, and the last entry stops in the middle of a sentence. A neighbour she has never met airs the house, lights the stove and leaves kind, brisk letters that read differently the second time. The only voice she hears is Sam’s, on the phone: the friend of a friend who found her the job.
Everyone on this coast knows the legend of the Dark Light: the August night in 1961 when the keeper put out the lamp, a ship went onto the Ledges, and not a soul was saved. Nobody will say much more than that. But Helen reads edges, tears and handwriting for a living, and she can’t leave a mend alone.
There are ten chapters, each a single day or night, about five hours in all. The tide decides when the causeway is open, and the weather turns from storm to fair to sea fog. Most of the puzzles come from her trade, like the year on the back of a print, or the pieces of a torn photograph found round the island. Others come with the job, like the one fuse, which can power the lamp or the cellar but not both. Her inner voice keeps her company, dry and watchful and funny when it can be. If you are stuck for a while, she thinks of something, or Sam does.
It is unhurried and warm, and uneasy at the edges. There are no jump scares and no fights. Each episode of the series has a new protagonist on the same coast, and the story of that August night is passed from one to the next.
Features
- A first-person mystery in ten chapters, each a single day or night on a tidal island, about five hours in all.
- Puzzles from a photograph restorer’s trade, like the year on the back of a print, or a torn photograph to piece together.
- The causeway is open only at low water, and some places can only be reached at the lowest tide of the month.
- The weather changes from day to day: storm, fair weather and sea fog.
- She meets nobody face to face. Sam texts and sends voice notes, letters come to the mailbox, and messages wait on an old answering machine.
- Her inner voice for company: dry, watchful, and funny when it can be.
- Subtitles throughout. Hints if you get stuck, and only after a while.
- A painted New England coast after Edward Hopper. There are no jump scares and no combat.
Screenshots
All taken in the game, 1920 by 1080, JPEG. Select a picture to see it full size.
High water. The causeway is under there somewhere. Download JPEG 
The light station on a fair morning. Download JPEG 
Low water. The causeway is open, for now. Download JPEG 
The keeper's house on a clear night. Download JPEG 
The kitchen at night, and the handbook. Download JPEG 
She reads photographs for a living. Download JPEG 
Sam, the only voice on the phone. Download JPEG 
Fog, and the lowest tide of the month. Download JPEG
Logos
Cream, transparent PNG (for dark backgrounds) 
Navy, transparent PNG (for light backgrounds) 
On navy, PNG 
The mark alone, SVG (without the title)
Videos
The teaser, recorded in the game: MP4, 1920 by 1080. It plays on the game’s page. A longer trailer is being made.
Notes
The voices in the game are made with text-to-speech software (Kokoro and Chatterbox) from a script written by Gen2 Interactive; nothing is generated while you play. The font of the titles is Marcellus, by Astigmatic, under the SIL Open Font License.
Contact
Press, streamers and curators: [email protected]. Everyone else: [email protected].