The Seance of Blake Manor News

Hello detectives,

It’s been over a month since we launched The Séance of Blake Manor and we have been blown away be the reception to the game from press and players alike.



To celebrate we created our brand new Accolades Trailer.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

There have been so many wonderful articles about The Séance of Blake Manor if you’d like to read any of those included in the trailer we’ll list them here:

• 5/5 The Guardian
• Rock Paper Shotgun
• 4.5/5 Games Radar +
• 9.5/10 Comic Buzz
  
• 9.0/10 Indie Informer
• Polygon
• Eurogamer
• Total Apex Gaming
• 87/100 PC Gamer
• 10/10 Gamespew

We’re also delighted to be Overwhelmingly positive here on Steam with a 97% positive review rating and in the top 10 games of the year on the Open Critic 2025 Hall of Fame. Alongside being included in the Rolling Stone 25 Best Video Games of 2025, placing 6th on the AP’s list of 2025’s top video games and winning 2 NYX Game Awards it’s been an incredible month for The Séance of Blake Manor!





Thank you for all your enthusiasm and support of The Séance of Blake Manor.

The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395520/The_Sance_of_Blake_Manor/

Hello detectives,

We are delighted to announce The Séance of Blake Manor Deluxe Edition.



The Deluxe Edition includes the game, the soundtrack and artbook.

The Soundtrack

The Séance of Blake Manor’s atmosphere and mood is created in large part by the incredible soundtrack by Clement Panchout.



Artbook

CEO and Art Director Paul Conway has created a digital artbook including concept art and explaining how the style of The Séance of Blake Manor came to be.



The Deluxe Edition is available now: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/63835/The_Sance_of_Blake_Manor__Deluxe_Edition/

[h2]Darkside Manor Bundle [/h2]

The ultimate collection of Spooky Doorway detectiveness is now available as Darkside Detective, Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark and The Séance of Blake Manor have now come together to form the Darkside Manor Bundle.

About The Darkside Detective

Darkside Detective is a multi-award winning comedic-serial adventure series where you join Detective McQueen and Officer Dooley to investigate mysterious happenings in Twin Lakes and beyond.

The Darkside Manor bundle is available now: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/63726/The_Darkside_Manor_Bundle/



The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395520/The_Sance_of_Blake_Manor/

Hello detectives,

Our latest patch addressing a number of issues and fixes is now live.

Please note that the changelog contains spoilers.

Changelog:

• Magical Grimoire discussion topic now unlocks correctly
  
• Unassigned rooms should no longer appear as locked on the map
  
• The Lucid dreaming sequence should now behave as expected
  
• The Lucid dreaming sequence no longer breaks if trying at an hour change
  
• Fixed an issue where reloading a quick save could de-spawn some items that you interacted with after the save in the same room without saving them to your evidence records
  
• Being prevented from Lucid Dreaming no longer removes the time cost/tick cost permanently from the hotspot option
  
• The mindmap camera for The Fight should now be positioned correctly and not focusing on empty spaces.
  
• Ward's VO lines for "this evening's séance" have been improved
  
• Hunter's Mystery no longer tells you to Investigate His Room for "Old Photograph", even though it's in Ivy's Room.
  
• No longer able to pay double time cost in the library
  
• Saoirse mind map connections are no longer criss-crossed when presenting “Badly Written Note” to her
  
• An issue with Varley’s VO lines has been resolved
  
• D.Hunter will now appear in Walled Gardens late Day 2, to match his ‘Timetable’ response.
  
• During the Fight mystery, You now need the Staff (mainly Varley / Caitlin) to confirm Skerritt left the mark. This will unlock Cigar Burn as discussable for the Bridge Game Attendees, then you need one of them to confirm it was done by Skerritt at the time of the bridge game.
  

Thank you for your continued support of The Séance of Blake Manor.

The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395520/The_Sance_of_Blake_Manor/

I'm sharing conversation over breakfast with an undertaker and a charming widow when a clatter of dishes draws their attention away. This is my chance—I swipe the unattended room key...
Read more.

Hello detectives,

The Séance of Blake Manor is full of many interesting and mysterious characters, and we wanted to tell you a little more about some of them.

Our next spotlight is Detective Declan Ward, brought to life by James Farrelly.



About Declan Ward

Detective Declan Ward set off to Blake Manor at the request of a mysterious stranger to investigate the disappearance of young socialite Evelyn Deane. Pushing aside issues from his past with Miss Deane’s father and the death of his brother Eamonn, Declan arrives ready to solve the many mysteries that await him.

During his time at Blake Manor it becomes clear to Declan that not only is there much more at play than he initially realised but that his brother’s death has affected him more than he knows.

We wanted our protagonist to be out of place at the event, very out of his comfort zone. With the event taking place in the west coast, we decided to have him be from Dublin. Since the event was so deeply entrenched in various kinds of spiritual beliefs, it made sense for him to be a devout Catholic. Finally, we settled on a working-class background for him so he would be at odds with the upper echelons of society that had gathered there.

We wanted him to also be struggling with grief, himself, so he could empathise with our cast and their various troubles, as well as hide a few of his own. To that end it was essential that he should not be a police officer – otherwise he would be dutybound to report many of the side stories, itself an act of judgement. Having him be a firefighter worked as an alternative path to establish a sense of duty and community in him, part of which drove him on. That also let us tie him in with the tenement fires of that time, which served as a way to again highlight some of the class struggles of that time (a downside to having the game set in the manor was that you see nothing really of the outside world at that time) as well as link him to Deane’s father, which created this throughline of “why am I doing this”.

On a side note, we did toy with allowing the player to decide Deane’s fate at the end, based on what you had learned and how you felt about her and her family but that didn't feel right. Again, we also toyed with choosing to report others to the authorities which also felt off.

About James Farrelly

During the auditions we listened to a lot of great actors but many of them were playing the role with quite a tough, almost gangster, read. We didn’t feel those performances worked in the moments that Ward is scared, or questioning his fate, or listening to people confess their darkest secrets with gentle compassion. James’ performance felt like he could take us on Ward’s complicated journey through the manor.

James Farrelly is a Dublin/Wexford based actor and comedian who really encapsulated everything we wanted Ward to be.

Can Declan solve this case and find peace about what happened to Eamonn?

The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1395520/The_Sance_of_Blake_Manor/