Deck of Haunts News

Hi everyone! I'm San, the art director of Deck of Haunts, and in this developer blog, I'll be taking you on a visual tour of our haunted mansion. Don't forget to bring your sanity with you on the way out—you don’t want to lose it. Let's begin.



Down here in the basement is where we started laying the foundation of the whole game—including the art. When we began the project, we had to decide how to best approach the visuals. Early on, we discussed what emotions the game should evoke in the player. This gave us plenty of clues about how the art style could reinforce those feelings. As a small team with some experience, we wanted something that looks appealing yet achievable. While AAA graphics with highly polished assets were outside our scope, we aimed for more than simple indie visuals to reach a broader audience.

From those meetings and brainstorms, we settled on a few core concepts. The first one is the power fantasy of being an evil haunted house. That means a dark color scheme with unsettling lighting, sharp corners everywhere to indicate the danger of the house, and dark, looming shadows in the corner of every room.

Our color palette created from movie stills

The second one was adding our own spin to those horror tropes: an art-deco mansion as a sort of familiar-yet fresh visual flavor for the haunted house. We chose this style not only because we love art deco, but also because it’s sharp corners and patterns fit in well with our shape philosophy.

Lastly, we added a comic-book effect that gives outlines and more texture to all our assets. This makes them more visually appealing and does most of the heavy lifting in making all the assets coherent and engaging.

These combined concepts should provide an interesting hook when people see the game for the first time, while still engaging enough to keep those people immersed even after many hours of playtime.

One of the first visual iterations for Deck of Haunts



Let’s head back to the main floor into the kitchen, where we’re currently cooking up all those concepts into an actual art style. Too many cooks spoil the broth (although in this house broth is better with some extra cooks in there), so thankfully with our small talented team we can discuss and progress very fast when making the art. Let’s take a look at the specific challenges our game brings.

The current state of our game

The Pros

• Single Location — Since we only have one area in the game we don’t need to worry about creating a million objects or multiple locations with specific set dressing. This saves a lot of time in terms of unique assets and areas we need to make for the game.
  
• Assets have great efficiency — Most of the stuff we make will be seen by the player. If you suddenly decide to stop playing or rush through certain parts there wont be any skipped areas where we painstakingly created tons of unique assets for — a great benefit of having a tight gameplay loop.
  

The Cons

• Everything changes all the time — Since the house is built dynamically, we have fewer “cheating” options compared to static environments. Baking (more cooking references, yay!) light and shadows is very hard to do this way. Using real time lighting looks nicer but drains a lot of computing power on your device and might not work on lower-end devices.
  
• Partly random generated — The players will be making a lot of custom shapes with the rooms so sometimes it’s tricky to anticipate all the layouts and still make it look good in every way.
  

Testing big room shapes

We’re still polishing the art but the feedback on our visuals has been amazing so far! A good indication that we’re achieving what we set out to do from the start.



Slaps roof of hou- wait, we don’t actually have a roof yet.

We’re putting the last finishing touches on the house the coming months. Loads more rooms, specific objects, shader tweaks, special effects, etc. We’re *almost* done but still putting the final polish on everything and everyone. Thank you for reading and next time I will be delving deeper into the UI of the game! Time to pack our coats and sanity and hea- wait anyone smell that? Oh well must be my imagination. Until next time!

Hello everyone, I’m Aleksander, the composer for DECK OF HAUNTS.
I wanted to share with you all the creative process behind the game’s music. From the moment I was made aware of this project, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
Deck of Haunts is a wonderfully novel execution on familiar elements, and I wished to exemplify that in the soundtrack.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Horror has always been my favorite genre to write for, and this title is no exception. I chose to lean into more conventional instrumentation to complement the premise and art direction.
The Gothic and Victorian imagery lend themselves to a more “classic” and “antique” flavor of horror, so bowed strings and piano felt the most appropriate. These instruments are also incredibly expressive, being able to weep and wail in sadness or in pain, but also howl and bellow like a demonic beast. There is no corner of the genre that they can't reach.

With the main theme, it was important to pull from the game thematically as a whole.
The song begins with strong double bass bowing, reminiscent of a shambling creature dragging itself through the halls of a haunted mansion as it stalks its would-be victims.
The string leads are both nuanced and foreboding, in the same way that the house is both alluring yet threatening. From there, we move into a soundscape that paints a picture of places better left undiscovered - recognizable noises are bookended by ones that are not of this world.
Finally, we close with ominous chants and searing violins, like the House revealing the true breadth of its power to ensnare those who would dare enter it. The song, much like Deck of Haunts itself, plays out in distinct acts.

Speaking of acts, nailing the vibe and mood of each phase of the game came with different approaches. For the prep phase, I aimed for something ambient yet sinister. Since the player is encouraged to take their time planning, the track was written to have a very even level of energy, giving a sense of “time standing still”.
However, I wanted to avoid the music feeling too serene and calming. In this game, you ARE the House, the threat of the story.
Rather than a moment of respite, this phase should allow the player to feel empowered as a scheming villain with an entire mansion of horrors at their command.

Moving into the next phase of the game, the dark ambience gives way to musicality. The dull, low percussion establishes a sense of pace as you play your cards and the intruders make their way from room to room. The piano motifs convey a sense of unease, never settling on a perfect note, like there is something always just out of sight or out of reach. The cello swings in a near-arrhythmic manner, as if it's attempting to lure someone with the illusion of safety. The viola comes in to respond to the cello’s calls, playing in an almost flowery manner, like a wicked wind disturbing old books and curtains through an open window.
All of this is in service to creating a sense of things happening that the House’s prey can’t fully see, know, or understand as they unwittingly march to their demise.

As the game plays out, things escalate both mechanically and musically. Staccato strings and drumming punctuate each beat, like the ticking of a timer or a monster giving chase.
The root progression played on bass descends as the situation becomes more dire. The cello and viola melodies now move around each other in a deadly dance with finality.
The tone of the piece is one of urgency - the music warns of impending failure if the player doesn’t make adjustments and act decisively.

All of this is done to elevate the rich atmosphere of the Deck of Haunts’ art direction. The experience of playing as the House will have you take delight in being wicked and methodical, and the music works to mirror that - an original take on tried-and-true components.
I hope you all enjoy playing this game as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing it to life, and I hope the soundtrack enriches your time with it. See you in the shadows!

Feel free to wishlist Deck of Haunts, it helps us out a lot!

Hey everyone,

We’re excited to share that the latest trailer for Deck of Haunts just dropped at the Indie Horror Showcase! If you’re ready to take on the role of a malevolent haunted house, this sneak peek will definitely whet your sinister appetite!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We’re also thrilled to announce that Deck of Haunts will be published by DANGEN Entertainment in 2025! 🎉 We couldn’t be more excited to join their incredible lineup of games. Check out their full library here: DANGEN Entertainment on Steam

Stay tuned for more news and updates as we continue developing the game—we can’t wait to share what’s next!

Thanks for your support,
Mantis Games

Hello everyone!

We're Mantis Games, a small development studio in Belgium. We're thrilled to welcome you to our Deck of Haunts Steam page!

After working on several other external titles and helping the dreams of others become a reality, we have now conjured up our own: Deck of Haunts.

What would it be like to play as a haunted house and be the actual villain in a game?
Deck of Haunts is our take on that question.

In Deck of Haunts, you'll be able to manifest and transfigure your evil domain into the mortal world, where you will lure hapless humans towards their doom. Harvest the essence of your unwilling victims that enter your art deco bowels and use it to get a greater grip on their world.

We invite you to step into a thrilling new take on the deckbuilding roguelike genre. Please consider wishlisting Deck of Haunts to keep up to date on its development and release. We can't wait to see the doom you'll unleash!



- Mantis Games