Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin Devlog Massive Update. All Cameras Exposed - YouTube Gameplay Video & More News!

Hey guys! Welcome to another Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin big update. It's been awhile since my last one, and that's because I haven't sat still! 

First and foremost, a big thank you to everybody who has wish-listed the game on Steam. With around 114(!) wish-lists already!! Thank you!

The news is that many features were added to my upcoming survival horror anomaly game. I won't go over all of them, but let's go over on the things that I want to highlight. In this update I'll show you all the camera views of the game! Also, what to expect when you play through all the anomaly hours - and some behind the scenes stuff if you're interested. The planned release date is Q4 of 2026!

 

 

 

Real Time Lighting In One Scene

Real time global illumination: Directionality view.

The entire game is played in one scene, even though there are four very different hours of the day! So, I've made the choice to implement real time lighting effects! I've been toying around with the idea to separate each hour as a scene, this way I could have some baked lights (mixed). But after some performance prototyping, it didn't really bring a big difference to the table. Aside from that, updating would become a nightmare! Move or modify one item around in one scene and make sure that lines up with all the other 3. One tiny mistake in the prefab, and I'd be tangled up in a huge mess that would simply take too long to untangle. That's why the entire game has real time lighting effects!

 

Only Nights Can Be Creepy? - Challenge Accepted!

The Attic: Wire-frame.

I'm a firm believer that, if done well, any time of day can be made quite unsettling with the right lighting effects and scene setup. In many (survival) horror games, the setting is mostly during the night, often paired with thunderstorms and rain etc. This is mainly done because those things impair your vision, and of course humans naturally are fearful of the dark. My challenge with Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin was to create a creepy setting in the morning or in the middle of the afternoon. I've done a few test play-throughs, and sometimes it still scares the crap out of me!

 

Anomaly Interference Creates Special Effect

The Hallway.

The more active anomalies in the scene, the more interference the player will see. Too much interference, and it's game over! This sense of 'urgency' works well in this game. Since there are more active anomalies, it should be 'easier' to discover which ones they are. This is then somewhat obstructed by visual interference (like an old VHS tape) in the beginning and gets worse as more and more anomalies are active.

 

 

5 Cut-Scenes In The Final Game 

Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin will feature 4 cut-scenes in total (not including the intro). The first cut-scene can be seen on YouTube:

 

  

The Player Always Has Six Cameras To Observe, Different Areas Unlock Depending On The Time Of Day

 

The morning hour (10:00 to 11:00 am) features; the living room, bedroom, hallway, kitchen, front and back cameras.

This is the beginning of the game, subtle but still noticeable changes can be observed, nothing really out of the ordinary yet. Books may appear in different places, or light go on/off, things are rotated or misplaced or other subtle things. (However, there may - or may not - be jump scares still)

...make it through the morning and you'll unlock:

The afternoon hour (3:00 to 4:00 pm) features; the living room (different angle), bedroom, hallway, kitchen, front and back cameras.

This is the time where the game picks up the pace in terms of creepiness. You may encounter more disturbing anomalies, and some of the ones tie into the storyline - unraveling more of the secrets the forest cabin holds...

...make it through the afternoon and you'll unlock:

The night hour (11:00 to 12:00 am) features; the living room, bedroom, hallway, kitchen, front and basement cameras. 

Now this is when it gets creepier. (Yes, nights DO add that special effect :) More disturbing anomalies, and ones that tie more into the story line. 

...make it through the night and you'll unlock:

The witching hour (3:00 to 4:00 am) features; the living room, bedroom, hallway, kitchen, basement and attic cameras. 

Unravel the dark secret of the forest cabin. Why are the things happening, and what happened to grandpa? Find out once you've completed: The Witching Hour!

...make it through the witching hour and you've completed the game!

Note: No play-through is the same! Start from the beginning and you'll encounter different anomalies - or unravel various secrets that tie into the story!

 

Behind the scenes look of the basement, which I'm actively working on at this point.

 

 

All The Rooms And Hours Exposed!

These are all the rooms that can be observed in Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin. Keep in mind that four different hours can be played and no play-through is the same thanks to the incredible randomization! (Lights and shadow effects not final).

The Living room (Morning): 

The Livingroom (Afternoon): 

The Hallway:

The Bedroom:
 

 The Kitchen:

 Outdoor Front:
 

Outdoor Back:

The Basement (unlocks at night): 

The Attic (unlocks at witching hour):

 

If you haven't seen the game-play video of Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin (no commentary) - you can see it here:

 

 

So What's Next?

Well, more anomalies of course - first and foremost! But I'm mainly busy tweaking the game, making sure there is a right balance that makes the game fun (and scary) to play! Also, optimization, optimization, optimization! That's actually the most boring part of game development - but something that has to get done of course.

I'm planning to do more game-play videos of ALL the anomaly hours! So stay tuned, and if you haven't wish-listed the game on Steam yet, you can do so here.