May 24, 2025

The Barnhouse Killer – First Devlog

Update 0.1.14 for The Barnhouse Killer is here!

Hey everyone, my name is Nathan, nice to meet you! Welcome to the very first devlog for The Barnhouse Killer, a gritty indie horror game I'm developing with my brother Brendan. This project has been a passion of mine for a while, and I'm excited to finally start sharing the journey with you.

What We Have Been Working On For 5 Months

I will show you the game from start to current. I'll try make this very short and sweet.

Main Menu — **The main menu:** I spent many hours here trying to set the atmosphere the second you run up the game. The positioning of everything had lots of thought, including the skull, camera, UI, everyting was considered.

Settings — **The settings:** We put a lot of thought into the settings, trying to make the game customisable for the player. We also put a lot of effort to make the game playable for content creators, allowing extra features.

Party System — **The party system:** The party system is something we are proud of. We tried to make the process very easy and accessible, all in one page. You can create a party, look for and invite friends, change region and even receive the invite notification in-game.

Statistics — **The statistics:** The statisics is something recently added into the game. It ties to your Steam account. Although we do plan on changing some of the visible entries. Also, I promise I am good at the game, those stats are TESTING purposes only!!!

The Core Gameplay

I wont go into too much detail for the core gameplay mechanics, it can get a little complicated.

Bidding — **The bidding system:** At the beginning of each round, you have to bid how many hands you think you will win with your hand.

There is a lot to unpack here: The top left displays that rounds trump, which is the automatic winning suit if played, and the winner is determined by the higher number card.

The timer at the top is quite obvious, if you dont play in time, the game will decide for you. To stop those slow players we all hate!

Saw Moving — When you lose your hand, the saw will move closer to you. Also, yes that is a different table. We plan to add customisation in the future!

**Power Cards:** The gold card (on the left) will move the saw away from you if you win the play using that card.
The purple card (on the right) will change the trump of that round, which can affect opponents plans.

When the saw makes its last movement, the player is killed. The death sequence will not be shown in this Devlog because I want to dedicate that to its own Devlog in the future. Keep an eye out for that!

I think thats enough for this Devlog, before I start to bore you with the amount of work we have done in a short time as a small team. Please do get in contact with us if you have any questions or suggestions about the game. You can find us on the Drystorm Studios Discord and we are on nearly every day!

Also....... Wishlist The Barnhouse Killer on Steam NOW LINK

Anyway, catch you next Devlog :)

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