ANCRA
A downloadable game for Windows
The photographer's house lies empty, its blood still.
Before it stands a figure.
The house beckons.
Lights within flicker to life. Spirits stir at her return.
An Ancra is only complete when it is understood.
It requires both Vessel and victim.
Whose remains shall you cast to flames?
The book of the Serpent shall be your guide.
And the final page remains unwritten.
Solve cryptic puzzles, embrace or evade vengeful specters, decide who to trust and unravel a mystery.
Ancra is a narrative driven, puzzle-horror game. Explore the home of a dying photographer, and solve puzzles to access new areas.
Encounter strange, conflicting beings and discover a haunting story, piece by piece. Try to understand why you are here, who you are and what role you play in their story.
Features:
- Classic, survival horror style puzzles.
- Open level design, multiple routes and supported sequence breaking.
- Gaining knowledge and information is as important as items and progression.
- Obtuse objectives and consequences.
- Unreliable sources of information and conflicting interests of characters.
- An atmospheric, dynamic environment that alters itself as you progress.
- Multiple endings, with many small variations.
- Secret unlockables, such as a Randomiser Mode.
- A mystery that unravels in layers, and a true story hidden deep within the game.
Additional Notes:
- Have a pen and paper on hand, take notes.
- Save often, perhaps with multiple files.
Feedback at this point is really helpful, a lot has changed since older versions.
Discord Community: https://discord.gg/JKk6TbbUQu
Thanks for playing.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- ANCRA v1.06Jan 04, 2022
- ANCRA v1.051Nov 15, 2021
- ANCRA v1.041Nov 08, 2021
- v1.03Oct 31, 2021
- Version 1.02Oct 24, 2021
- Version 1.01Oct 04, 2021
- Ancra Itch.io ReleaseSep 26, 2021
- Ancra v0.88May 23, 2021
Comments
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I haven't finished the game yet, but I don't know if I'll be able to. :/ The description is... certainly right about the objectives being obtuse, at least. I do really love the atmosphere and the art direction and such! The beginning was very nice. But I have almost the entire map unlocked by now, and I've scoured everything multiple times, and I just feel like at this point I'm wandering through the same areas over and over trying to find something I've missed. There is no direction or objective, so there's nothing to really point me where I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to be doing. It's quite frustrating. Even the things I *have* unlocked, have sometimes seemed to lead me nowhere and not really accomplish anything? But maybe that's just because I'm missing something again. It's a huge game, so even when I did resort to looking for a walkthrough in order to progress, the other player had done things out of order from me, and I struggled to find where they had gotten things I had missed. Even now, I'm not entirely sure what's going on or who the characters are either, and so I don't feel particularly invested in them. Maybe it would all come together later on in the game, but again, I don't know if I'll be able to make it to that point.
TL;DR: An open-world puzzle game is fascinating in theory, but I wish it was perhaps broken into multiple smaller goals with or something.
Wow, the game is really fully released? I'll purchase it as soon as I find the purchase option (where has it gone? Yesterday it was still here)! Congratulations to the release! :D
It'll be up on itch.io soon! And releasing on Steam for November, if you'd prefer to wait for that.
That's wonderful to hear! I can't wait so I'll buy it here on itch as soon as it's available. :) One shy question: Do you intend to treat the itch.io version the same way as the Steam version? I don't want to imply anything at all, but I've become a bit cautious since unfortunately I made the experience that there are some devs out there that tend to neglect their games on all other platforms other than Steam after release. It's no problem if the release of updates to the itch-version takes a bit longer (I know the procedures to update games are much easier to handle on Steam) but some games have basically been abandoned here.
For me, updating the game on itch is far easier. I expect any updates will appear here first. The only difference will be the lack of Steam Achievements and Cloud Saves - and because of this the itch.io version will be $1 cheaper.
Okay, should be live now.
Just purchased and downloaded! But I wait with playing until it's properly dark outside. :)
I just began playing. Is it intentional that there is a (invisible) hole two steps left from the three seats both northwards and at the southern wall?
Oh wow, no it is not. Thanks for the report.
just popping in to congratulate you on the release! WOO!!!
Cheers, it's been a long journey!
I absolutely loved this game! I loved the atmosphere and I felt that the puzzles were the right difficulty and I can't wait for the full game! The only that really bothered me was having to use the mouse button for the item menu instead of one of the keyboard keys. (or maybe i'm just dumb and couldn't figure out which one it is lol)
Glad you liked it. There's a fairly large overhaul in the works at the moment, hoping to have some news about that soon. For the inventory, you should be able to use space to select items, you shouldn't need to touch the mouse at any point.
I was able to use the space bar to interact with the world like the enter key would, but it wouldn't let me bring up the menu in general if I wanted to look at the items or re-read some of the documents. I'm on windows 10 if that helps
I'll have a look in to it but I have a feeling if it was a bug I've already fixed it on my current build when I re-worked the controls. Thanks for the report though!
im stuck, the walkthrough i found seem to have been from an earlier version so not helping me :(
What are you stuck with?
well i cant get the light on in the basement (that room in the pic and thats what i have for items) and the pocket watch and the whiskey bottle filled with water.
edit: i also dont know what to do with the ouija board and didnt open the 2nd safe yet
Oh I see, you're basically at the end of the demo here, opening the second safe is what you should do next. But there isn't much to see after that point.
Will there be a new update coming soon? Like in a few months or a few weeks?
There's a fairly major update in the works, i'm not sure if i'll update the demo or just hold off until the game is finished. But life is a bit mad right now and I've given up trying to predict when I'll be able to finish this off!
But yeah, I am still working on this, and I am excited about what's to come. I have some time off work coming up, maybe once I've sorted through all my notes I can post some information then.
Thanks for checking in, it really helps.
Just bought the game. I have a Mac. When I download it all I see is something called "Game" and when I try to open it I get an error message that says "The application "Game" cannot be opened."
Hmm, it's been a while since I've tested the mac version. It's a bit tricky to borrow a mac from someone in these times, but i'll see if I can get someone to do some testing for me. I reckon it's either some security settings not letting you open a file downloaded from the internet or some recent(ish) mac update that I need to account for.
In the meantime, i'll contact itch.io to sort out a refund (there isn't a way for me to do this manually).
What OS version are you running?
oh. my. gosh.
i loved this game! this is exactly the type of game i live for. can't wait to see a full release! i threw y'all a few bucks (well deserved!) <3
Thanks so much, really appreciate the support.
I know I've been a bit quiet with updates this year but the full release is on the way. Thanks!
This was spectacular! Wow, how come nobody's talking about this game. When is the full version coming out? I reached the coffin and the demo ended... Does that mean I've done everything? I didn't use the seed at all. Appreciate any help to finish the parts I missed.
Firstly, thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it!
You don't get to use the seed for much in the demo. I'll release a new demo in the near future once i'm finished working on a big-ish change. The full game will be here for October.
You never fail to impress! Hope you have fun doing it!
But like all games, it does have a bug I randomly found when spamming the enter button, if there is a clip here than please watch:
If not it's fine. This is really good and I like the games mechanics and more new aspects to the game! Keep it up you two! This must've took a long time to produce!-Chasetnt.
Added to The Great Bug Fix Sticky Note on my wall, thanks.
This is on the mac version?
This is on PC my mac wouldn't play 32-bit games anymore because thats a new feature of the 1.15 update and sometimes when it's 64-bit it still wont work.
-Chasetnt
Bonjour, nous sommes des joueurs français. Votre jeu est au TOP. Seulement nous avons eu quelque problème au niveau du code du coffre de l'office, nous avons trouver les chiffres et aussi nous avons compris que quand il manquer un chiffre cela signifier que le chiffre ne pouvait pas être placer a cette endroit mais la façon de placer les chiffres ne suivait aucune logique ( ou peut etre pas )
Firstly, thanks for playing!
Unlocking the combination cabinet is probably the point where most players get stuck. The note on the cabinet is meant to provide a clue for what order you should input the numbers. But it seems most players have difficulty working out what the clues mean.
I'll be re-working this puzzle in the next update, hopefully it'll make a bit more sense and be easier to solve.
Thanks so much for the feedback, it's really helpful.
Hey i tried the updated version, much better, and im glad the puzzles we tried in the first video now work lol
Thanks for playing! Happy to see things are working better.
if only there was a mac version ;(
Mac version will be ready for the 5th.
Apologies for the delay!
Oh okay ! Great new : D
Mac version is up!
YES !
I have play it with my friends and i can tell you that after few minutes we was negociating for who will played the game because it's was soo scary, it's never give me that effect before.
dude i want the full game! Lol i was getting into it then the warning label came on. Heres my playthrough.
Really great looking game so far. I like the art style not as pixelated as most rpg horrors.
Thanks for playing, looking forward to seeing some more episodes. As I've mentioned to others, there's big update being released soon - if you're interested it would be great to see what you think of the changes.
I played it on my channel!! The scares definitely got me a few times. Loved it.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Thanks for playing. Glad you enjoyed. A new demo will be released in the coming weeks, if you're interested in seeing if you can get any further.
I'd love that!! 🤗
New demo's up!
I will definitely be playing this, added it to my collection and I think I'll start it up tomorrow night. I'll let you know what I think when I finish it!
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Just to let you know, this demo's getting a little old at this point - there are lots of problems with it which are already addressed in my current build. I think I'll be releasing the final demo here in about 2 weeks, then releasing the final game shortly after that.
oh sweet I'll follow the progress and play the newer version then
New demo's up! (unless you're on mac, mac version will be ready in a couple of days.)
Olá, eu sou brasileiro e adorei o jogo, mas se eu tivesse uma tradução para outras línguas isso tornaria as coisas mais interessantes e atrairia outras pessoas
Hi! I'm glad you liked the demo!
I'm afraid that translations are little out of scope for this project - as it is i'm struggling to finish this game off and translating it would be complicated. With the large amount of text, the fact that I'm not the primary writer, coded messages, the whole ouija board system... it would be difficult and I don't quite have the resources to look in to it right now. It's something I'd consider working on post release, if I could find someone to help with the task.
I appreciate the idea though, it isn't something I had considered previously!
A great game. We enjoyed it very much. We did not have any issues with the game, everything worked just fine. :)
We even did a full walkthrough on our channel:
Keep up the good work!!!This is really cool, thanks a bunch!
I did spot a few bugs throughout your playthrough but luckily it wasn't anything serious. It's all fixed in my current build of the full game anyway. Still really helpful to watch things like this! Thanks!
the alt save works!! thank you for fixing it i can't wait to play now <#
Fantastic! Thanks for letting me know!
On mine I'm using macOS Hight Sierra.
i'm on mac and i can't seem to save my game? no matter what button i press nothing happens it just makes a sound..
also how tF do you refill the lantern lol i rly need to :c
(excellent game btw i love the sounds and the art and everything about it so far!!)
Hi! Yeah there are a few problems with the mac version at the moment. I have limited access to a mac but I should be able to get it fixed this week. Keep an eye out for the 0.92 mac version (should be up some time tuesday).
Incidentally, the 0.92 version changes how the lantern works so you don't have to worry so much about filling it.
Saves from 0.91 should work with 0.92, but it's possible that the problems will carry over with your save. Sorry about that!
okay thank you sm! i'll look out for it, keep up the good work <3
Hi Kiwisweet, I've got a macbook for the day but I haven't been able to replicate that problem. I can save and load just fine... What version of OS X are you running?
im on High Sierra 10.13.6, i'll test it out rn!
the save is still not working for me, am i pushing the wrong button or something?
Hmm I don't think you're doing anything wrong, it's pretty straightforward. I've got one other thing I can try - annoyingly I can't test if it fixes the problem myself!
I'll upload this new fix tonight after work... Hopefully it'll work!
Also good game I haven't seen anything actually scary, but the ambiance is bone chilling and I would recommend it and Im looking forward to playing the full version. Hope your having fun making it.
Thanks a lot! This is my first proper game release and I'm really enjoying the process. And the feedback from everyone has been really helpful. Can't wait to get the final release out! (I'm aiming for Halloween this year.)
Thanks.
I found a bug in the Mac version were if you go on audio in settings, it will crash.
Thanks for bug report! I've got limited access to a mac at the moment (that's why the mac version is an update behind the windows version). I was planning on updating the mac version next week, so I'll check out this bug while I'm at it. Cheers!
Hi Chasetnt, I've got hold of a macbook for the day but haven't been able to replicate that bug. What version of OS X are you running?
so i made it all the way to the ritual room in the hidden in the flooded basement hallway, and got the oujia board working in the office, and im having trouble. im not totally sure whether to put the camera or knife in the artefact stand, and could i please get a clue on what to say on top of the vessel sigil. ive tried "Qglw ua rgw kuw" and "swlrg" also what do even mean?
gotta give props on the office corner puzzle. that one was fun. had to pull out a sheet of paper to jot stuff down, that one was fun.
Awesome, it sounds like you're making good progress! There are a few combinations of items you can use at this point.
*Spoiler warning!*
You're on the right track with artefacts, both work as long as they are 'forged', but will have different results. Save before trying them.
'Swlrg' should work, as long as you have a viable artefact and ancra. You got that word from the ouija board, right? I'm hesitant to reveal the meaning of this text at the moment, I'm kind of waiting to see if anyone ends up translating all of that weird text. The full game will have additional clues for translating the text, but it's not something you need to do to beat the game.
What are you using as an Ancra? (rightmost stand?)
Thanks for the feedback, it's really helpful!
i ended up making it a bit further along and encountered the second filing cabinet. i reversed the order of the code on the first and it opened. Was that supposed to play into "mirror"? ive got no idea what to do with the music key. doesnt open any of the doors and i feel like its supposed to open the door with the piano being played. And im not sure how to forge the objects. and im using the photo film as the ancra.
Music key opens a door on the second floor of #51. One of the doors across the gap from the ladder. The door where the piano is being played is locked from the other side.
Have you found the grimoire? That'll tell you about forging. Sort of.
You've still got a bunch of stuff coming up... The ouija board doesn't know everything, but there are certain puzzles it can help with if you ask.
Good luck!
so i beat the game multiple times. using the knife as the artefact crashes the game. Using the photo film or photograph as the ancra got me to fight who i presume killed charles. preventing the phantom from taking the skull, and using that as the ancra caused me revive charles, and got me stuck in the void with his killer. i loved the game, but it leaves me with more questions than i came in with. Was i the aprentice? was she trying to revive charles? why would she be willing to sacrifice herself for someone like that?
another question what is the song being played on side A of the music box? i like the sound alot
Well congrats on beating the game! So what happens in this game? I guess that's the final puzzle.
So I'm still planning on expanding the endings, which will help answer some more questions, and changing some of the journal entries to hint at some other stuff. So I don't really want to explain things too much at this point. But I will say: Yes, you are the apprentice. And: No, you never revive Charles. The 'escape' ending is still missing from the game, so that's why the whole game feels so grim and hopeless at the moment. You're damned no matter what you choose to do right now.
Thanks so much for sticking with this game! I'm going to give you a special thanks in the credits. =)
Great game so far! Idk know if its just me but some parts seem super difficult, i tried looking up other peoples play throughs but it doesnt seem like they've had any luck so far either (from what I've seen). Well I will be the first to finish it! Subscribe and stay tuned to make sure I keep my promise! ;)
Yeah, difficulty is the main reason I've decided to get this demo out. So far, most of the puzzles seem to be solvable... Typically, people seem to get stuck in completely different places, so that doesn't tell me much! I'm working on a system for the finished game which well hlep out players who get stuck for too long. But I digress...
Really enjoyed watching this, hope you enjoyed playing! You seem to be making good progress so far, looking forward to seeing how you fare on the next episode!
Thanks for playing!
ya im not sure if its a glitch or not but down in the basement after you cut the pictures on the rope that wall didnt open up. I saw someone else’s play through and it had opened up like right after they started the fire place. Also there wasnt a symbol above it in my game but there was one in the other play through that i saw
The symbol is removed from newer versions, don't worry about that. The game is tracking your progress, it'll let you in down there when it thinks you're ready. There are a lot of things which change on different playthroughs so, yeah, you're gonna see things happen differently in your game.
Have you opened the combination drawer in the office yet?
ooohhh ok cool, and no i cant figure out the combination
Check the journal page you found in the office, and keep an eye out for any numbers hidden about the house.
SO MUCH FUN
I definitely don't know if it's just me misunderstanding the clues or the clues being too vague, but I am not making any headway with the painting/page clues even with the assistance. Which is a bummer since I was really interested in the story.
Just started checking this game out for about half an hour and am blown away by the level of polish and attention to detail. Very well done, as fellow RMMV user I really appreciate the fact that it's the farthest thing away from default RTP and yanfly status menus, lol. It just goes to show with the right talent and dedication you can make a great game in RPG Maker.
Well thanks! That really means a lot to me! I just had a quick browse through your games and they look pretty cool. Ouroboros caught my eye, looks right up my street. I'm currently 20 hours in to a 48 hour game jam, but once I've finished I'll defo check it out.
I'm trying to gather feedback on how difficult people are finding the puzzles in this game - if you get stuck it would be great if you let me know how far you got! Thanks!
I might need a clue or two. I just can't seem to progress further.
Just finished watching the video, left a hint over there for you! =)
Can't wait to see moar to the game
Ah awesome! Thanks for playing!
I should let you know, the camera's only partially working in 0.91, fixed in 0.92. Nothing game breaking, but you can transfer your save to 0.92 if you wanted to. (Or just play back up to where you were, wouldn't take long I guess!) 0.92 does fix a few other bugs, so it might be worth doing!
I wasn't expecting a full game. Now I need to finish this game. Out of curiosity, are we able to find more lantern oil to fill it back up?
Hey, thanks for playing!
Yep, you can refill your lantern. But i'd still suggest to use it sparingly. In the next update I'll be changing the lantern fuel to be a bit more forgiving. (Next update will be uploaded tomorrow, by the way, if you're interested. You should be able to transfer your save. It will just fix a few bugs, tweaks some lighting and update some graphics.)
how the F**K did you make this with RPGmaker. Once again, you blow my mind, im borderline begging you to teach me how you got some of this stuff to work. I dont know if its mods, or if your extreamly clever but one again this is an amazing quality game. Im only a few minutes in and once again had to stop in shock. Mind bended at how you made something so great. WOW. also....this is spooksville O.,O i am scared.
Wow thank you so much! If you ever want to know how to achieve certain effects, let me know. I'll be uploading an update later on today which will fix a bunch of bugs that have come to my attention and enable some currently disabled features. I'll also copy the credits over to the title screen so you can look at what plugins and resources I've used without beating the game.
ooooooo that be awesome, im super curious to know the plug-ins. And youre still doing this through MV right O.o or another of the RPGmakers? (pretty sure i saw the MV logo in my investigations)
ok, my only Plugin questions....1, howd you get that creepy title screen with the flashing name and all? and 2, how'd you get the inventory to just have the items and journal....poked around in the plugins but couldnt figure it out, figured id just ask
Okay!
I skip the rpg maker title screen altogether. The game starts on a blank map and I use picture files to draw my own title screen. The background (what you can see through the window), office wall and text are all separate pictures. This lets me manipulate them using the move picture command (turning the background white during lightning flashes for example.)
Then I just use a show choices command over the top of all that and voila! Title screen.
Oh god the inventory screen. Yeah so I did my own plugin for all of that and I just worked it out as I went along, I think I made a real mess of it but I got it working how I wanted to in the end!
To remove weapons and armor from the inventory you can use this code as a plugin:
Window_ItemCategory.prototype.makeCommandList = function() {
this.addCommand(TextManager.item, 'item');
//this.addCommand(TextManager.weapon, 'weapon');
//this.addCommand(TextManager.armor, 'armor');
this.addCommand(TextManager.keyItem, 'keyItem');
};
You can see all I've done here is comment out the weapon and armor with '//'. The key item category I renamed to 'notes' in the Database -> Terms section. There may be a better way to do this, but it worked for me!
..i shall give this a go! thanks for the response and general and thanks for answering so fast! also, ill be playing your new game soon, so expect me to be chatting about that one as well soon!