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The Seance of Blake Manor News

Cast Spotlight – Domhnall Ó Finn

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.

We decided to start with the druid, Domhnall Ó Finn, brought to life by the talented voice actor Thomas Collins.



Ó Finn is a gruff but jolly character you encounter on your first morning at Blake Manor. It is easy to tell from his clothing that he is a Druid, tasked by his ancestors to protect the land and this duty is what leads him to be at Blake Manor ahead of the Grand Séance.

Druids are the closest thing the Pagan faith has to priests. They are lorekeepers, storytellers, and trained healers. In mythology they are often believed to have magical abilities such as dominion over the elements and seeing the future.

As somebody outside of the traditional social caste of the time, Ó Finn was freer to comment on things and provided one of the outsider views of the event, but in his case, an outsider from the same country and region.

Another cool aspect of the character is that he is an Irish Traveller, an ethnicity in Ireland. They are a very spiritual nomadic people, which fitted Ó Finn well. They have their own language, Gammon, which we peppered through Ó Finn’s dialogue, too.

We worked with Oein DeBhairduin, the Inclusive Histories Curator of Traveller Culture with the National Museum of Ireland, and a Traveller himself, to ensure he, his people and their language were accurately and respectfully presented in the game.

As best we can tell, he is also the first Irish Traveller in a video game. This also means that Thomas Collins is the first authentic Irish Traveller voice to be heard in a video game.

Thomas Collins is an Actor based In Dublin. He first started acting at the age of 14 when he joined Roundabout Youth Theatre. There, he played roles in youth theatre plays and workshopped with some of the best in the Irish Acting Industry. During the Dublin Fringe Festivals, he played many roles in various plays that were also nominated for the spirit of the Fringe award.

As with all who find themselves at Blake Manor, Ó Finn’s fate rests in your hands. Can you find Evelyn Deane and save everyone at the hotel before it’s too late?

The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW

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

Patch 1.0.619.818



Hello detectives,

We have just released Patch 1.0.619.818 that includes a number of fixes and improvements.

Please note this changelog contains some spoilers.

[h3]Changelog:[/h3]
  • Miss Mantovani's lockbox and quest should no longer get automatically solved.
  • Map cursor positioning is now accurate in Miss Deane's room.
  • The items on the table in the centre of the Laundry Room should remember when the player has looked at them.
  • Ward's map icon position now updates correctly in Northern Pass corridor.
  • Spooky Typewriter should only occur on Day 1.
  • Ruairi Callaghan is no longer fine with you unlocking and reading his Mantovani case files in front of him.
  • Save/Load issues with the catacombs cell 9 door are fixed.
  • Can no longer spend infinite ticks on Irish Mythology Book in Dupre's room and Medical Cert in D'Arcy's Room.
  • Ines Barbosa’s mindmap is no longer missing the wanted poster if picked up before speaking to her.
  • Asking Ruairí Callaghan about Fiadh Callaghan should not unlock Mary Blake.
  • Players are no longer locked in a cell after time change.
  • Jonathan Blake no longer does a double spin when asking him about "Mary Blake" - looks even worse when interacting with him from his left or right side.
  • Fiadh Callaghan comic panel glitch during her talk is fixed.
  • Going up/down north stairs now updates which floor you're on in the map.
  • Domhnall O’Finn says ogham correctly in eavesdrop now.
  • Right clicking through the Séance cutscene no longer causes some of the panels to get stuck on the screen.
  • Basement Storeroom: Panel focus + "There is a ring of keys inside" no longer triggers even after you have the key.
  • time.minutes should now always be synced to actual in game minutes.
  • Strange Dreams/Lucid Dream can now progress.
  • With long (several hours) playing sessions, loading times should no longer noticeably degrade.
  • Scrolling on mind maps should no longer be too slow on mouse.
  • Finding the book on Irish myths in Dupre’s room does not unlock Irish Mythology discussion topics with him.

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/

The Curse of The Séance of Blake Manor

Hello detectives,

The Séance of Blake Manor is out now, and we have been so excited to see how much you have all been enjoying the game.

Today, we wanted to tell you all about THE CURSE- the strange occurrences that bled from the game into the real world and nearly killed us along the way...

As with any game there were development setbacks and hiccups, but The Curse goes well beyond that...

It could be said that this might have been a curse of our own making as someone thought it was a good idea to meet for a team sleepover in a haunted house in Dundalk... Of course we’re not pointing fingers.

There’s been the usual spate of inconvenient illnesses throughout the entire development process, merges that wiped a bunch of pushes, the times that Gitlab space was totally full coming up to launch.

There was the disaster with the voice overs, or should we say disasters: voice ID files were overwritten and half a day was lost to repair broken conversations in a game with over 100,000 words. Not to mention the issue with the VO mastering, that meant very last minute, very unexpected extra hours to get every one ready for launch.

Then there was Unity. Pushing a big update to Unity Version Control caused a number of issues for 2-3 days and then a day to actually switch over to the new version. Add into the mix the security update that required the demo to be taken down and repaired that caused more behind the scenes problems.

No, all that is par for the course with game dev. The real toll the curse took was on everybody’s health and homes – random stuff breaking, cars failing, and proper illneses - organ failures, appendicitis, feelings lost in one side of the body, stroke symptoms, and even – gasp – a poorly timed baby! (okay, the baby is lovely, but the timing was definitely cursed. Same due date as the game... Too very different launches, that).

Misfortune was not limited to those working directly on the game, oh no. When friends of friends offered to help their family ended up in an accident. Another offered help and lost their job later that day. After that we stopped asking for help...

And, finally, we lost count of the amount of times a cat sat on the power button of the build machine at just the exact wrong moment.

It has been a challenging road to Blake Manor but now the game has launched we’re hoping that the curse has been appeased...

The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW

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

Aesthetica Short Film Festival

Hello detectives,

We are excited to share that The Séance of Blake Manor is an official selection in the Aesthetica Short Film Festival.



The festival is a celebration of independent filmmakers, games developers and VR experts from around the world. The festival takes place in York, UK from the 5th - 9th November.

To learn more about the festival visit: https://www.asff.co.uk

The Séance of Blake Manor is nominated for Best Game at the event alongside a host of other fantastic games. The winner will be announced on 9 November.

The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW

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

Patch 1.0.619.809


Hello detectives,

Patch 1.0.619.809 is now live on Steam and addresses a number of issues reported by the community.

Please note the following changelog does include some spoilers.

[h3]Changelog: [/h3]
  • Camera no longer freezes when approaching the basement storeroom
  • Finding characters in the changing rooms should no longer cause the game to freeze
  • Evidence should now be filed upon loading a save
  • Arwa’s mystery should unlock when you speak to her
  • Magical Grimoire topic should now unlock along with other pagan topics
  • Saving then loading in the Hedge Maze should no longer cause the séance sequence to play erroneously, breaking dialog functionality and leading to a blocker
  • “Ludic” dreaming typo should be corrected to “lucid” dreaming
  • Ines’ hypothesis should now only unlock after Shay’s name is gained to avoid it firing out of order
  • Bean Draoí should unlock in Fiadh’s quest after reading the letter from Deane or sister-in-law
  • Bean Draoí should unlock for Ruari’s quest after asking him about Fiadh
  • Overhead icons should stay in the correct position when FOV isn't the default value
  • The time cost for some of the books in Dupre’s room, Fiadh’s bin and Sinnott’s journal should be free after interacting with them once
  • Confronting Carmela should no longer cost time, and an hour change should not cause this to break
  • Scrolling text should no longer also zoom in on the mindmap page and map page
  • Presenting evidence should not be allowed past midnight on day 1, and the FTUE should not show after this time either
  • Added the ability to listen at Varley's Office door
  • Finding an analysis clue from one of the unoccupied rooms should not cause any analysis clues from the other unoccupied rooms to be discovered already.
  • Seance Aftermath now drops when going to Fiadh’s Talk or Talking to her at Dinner on Day 2.
  • Opening FTUE now shows "Press L1 / LB to Sprint”
  • Clicking the door for breakfast at 9.30am should no longer just focus on the servant while they say nothing.
  • Hotspot for atrium should no longer say “saloon” coming from the ballroom
  • No longer need to click 'Use' twice on the chemical mixing minigame
  • Mindmap button should now be consistently appearing on Caitlin's or Ruari's interaction pop up menu
  • Loading save into the Library in 11am bucket should no longer trigger an Eavesdrop between Mantovani and Fiadh meant for previous scene
  • Cast intro: character positioning and lip-syncing is corrected.
  • 'Skull Mask' & 'Three Milesian Rulers' no longer files into Ó Finn's Mindmap before they should.
  • Speaking to Varley after attending the Day 3 Lunch with Blake should no longer play Doyle's lines and VO.

Additional fix 6 November:
  • Fixed a mispronunciation

We’d like to thank you for your support and for letting us know your feedback.

The Séance of Blake Manor is OUT NOW

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