About 30 minutes into the demo for We Harvest Shadows a picture appeared on my wall, just by the farmhouse main entrance. The picture is of a long hallway of nested door frames, with a sealed door at the end. Any mystery it offers is, in theory, cancelled by the tutorials, which briskly informed me that the picture is, essentially, an alarm system. It will change in subtle and less subtle ways when danger is nearby. Still, this blunt advertisement of mechanical purpose does nothing to dispel the artefact’s menace. It’s right opposite the stairs, so that I can’t avoid seeing it every morning unless I walk down the stairs backwards, and if I do that, I’m leaving myself vulnerable to anything else that might be waiting in the front hall or the kitchen to the right.
I observe several picture changes during my time with the demo. By day, the tunnel of doors appears inverted, perhaps symbolising the subterranean retreat or Tarot-style reversal of whatever supernatural element it registers. Sometimes the door at the end of the tunnel is slightly ajar. And sometimes, the tunnel of doors is replaced by a glaring Rorschach rictus that is all the worse for the silence of its scream. The first time I saw the face in the picture, I had two thoughts: 1) gosh, it’s getting late and I have work tomorrow, better wrap this up, and 2) the tutorial doesn’t quite specify whether the picture itself might be the source of danger.
We Harvest Shadows, then: quite good fun. In this first-person blend of survival horror and Stardewlike, you play Garrett – name very probably a reference to the psychic resonance of attics – a city worker who has randomly bought an abandoned farm in the boondocks and sealed himself off from society forever. Garrett has a lot of baggage, evidently, which is perhaps why he keeps seeing things in the woods. Still, he’s a cheery soul, the kind of affable space cadet who says things like “mad skills, Garrett!” when he assembles a chicken coop.
The game follows a day-night cycle. By day, you complete tasks like picking tomatoes according to a to-do list on right controller bumper. You can sell miscellaneous junk and produce by dropping it on the trailer by the kitchen: the process by which said junk and produce is converted into dollars is left cheerfully unexplained, as is the sorcerous summoning of tools and construction recipes from the brochure on the table by the wall. The inexplicability of these things suggests both a shortage of development resources and a developer who is confident that their creation’s atmosphere and themes can overpower a few bare fittings. Or possibly, make use of them. I reckon the confidence is justified, so far.
Everything on the to-do list needs to be completed before Garrett can go to bed, saving the game and ending the day. This promises to be a source of tension later on, because the sun rolls swiftly through the sky, and Garrett really doesn’t want to be outside watering vegetables after dark. The game’s paranormal entities run a gamut from scuttling mutants to giant, staring faces that remind me a little of Nix Umbra. There are firearms, but this doesn’t feel remotely like a shooter. The Steam page cites A24 films, P.T. and What Remains Of Edith Finch as influences.
We Harvest Shadows is the work of David Wehle, crafter of charming fox ’em up The First Tree. There’s no release date yet. If you find the Steam demo tantalising, you might want to check out this blog about “the advanced dynamic horror system”. If you’re more enthused by the Appalachian farming elements, you may be reassured to hear that there’s an “endless mode” in the works that sandboxes the story and dials back the spooks. I will conclude by saying that I found this sufficiently chilling that I’m glad I don’t currently have any pictures hanging up in my flat.
