Occlude News

A few years ago I found an old hardback tome of Solitaire rulesets on a garden wall. It was a bright, unambiguously pleasant day and I remember thinking 'oh, that's the wotsit that inspired those regency thingamajigs'. So I took it home and tried my hand at a few variations, then forgot about the book entirely. After reading about Occlude, I can only wish my discovery had been more ominous, more foreboding. Why couldn't I have found the book in a secret cellar, its hastily painted-over entrance given away by the motion of air through a dream-catcher? Why couldn't it have been thrust upon me by a desperate man with hypnotic tattoos, pushed into my hands with a precautionary mutter to 'Ware The Onyx Triangle?'

This is the ambience cultivated by Occlude, a "single-player cosmic horror card game for the terminally curious", in which Solitaire is the basis for seven rituals involving Tarot cards, which steadily unlock access to an archive of fragmentary lore. Here's a trailer.

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This is not Solitaire. Or at least not as you know it.

It's a ritual - or so testimonies from the unresolved case files say - passed down from generation to generation, played in isolation in back-rooms and forgotten spaces.

We understand the framework - the ways in which a player might interact with the "game" - but we don't understand much more than that; what happens after. The pacts that seem to be made. The rules that govern them.

Today the investigation into Occlude must begin in earnest; its secrets documented, the anomalies in its design studied. The case is now open, if you can find the Investigation Board...



The case is now open, but don't expect everything all at once. Investigations like this take time, and will take us right up until release.

There are seven entities, we believe.

And we've been offered seven cards. A coincidence?

But they are not given up so easily - they require an offering; a word that connects their physical manifestation in this realm, to their abstract meaning in another.

Find the Table and the Investigation Board. The evidence found so far has been password protected. Today is just the beginning.





Did you open the door in the rain already? It is not locked. There is still time. This is not required to begin your investigation, but it's nice to have everything in one place.



Seek the four. Unite the suits.

For now we conclude, then. But there is more to come.

The world

is a broken machine.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/3547010/Occlude/

Hello! Sam from Tributary Games here. We're a studio that makes novel, systemic games - perhaps you played or saw King of the Castle? That was us!

After announcing Occlude in a mysterious manner last month (anyone manage to open the Door in the Rain?), we're finally ready to put our cards on the table.

Today we've lifted the lid on our studio's next game, with the first details, features and screenshots laid bare. Say hello to Occlude - A single-player cosmic-horror card game for the terminally curious.

Occlude is smaller and tighter than KOTC, but just as ambitious. It's Solitaire, yes, but much, much more. It's got puzzle mechanics, and a mind-bending narrative that's a puzzle in it's own right. It's a game that is one thing but also another.

I know that's frustratingly vague! We want you to go into Occlude with a fresh mind - I can't give too much away. What we can say, is that the game is about discovery and experimentation...


Some of the rules are hidden, and you find them by playing and experimenting. The coins will show when you’re on the right path. There are seven Rituals, each their own puzzle, increasing in difficulty.

As you play, you unlock new Rituals, and as you master them you gain access to deeper, forbidden lore in the Archives. As you chip away at reality one card at a time, you'll piece together a Lynchian horror story about the nature of regret and reality.


Sound good? Then go Wishlist the game! It helps us massively - We're a tiny studio absolutely slaving away at a much loved, little razor-sharp scalpel of a title.

Your wishlist means the algorithm is more likely to pick us up - That's the only way games like ours can survive on Steam.



And this is, of course, just the beginning. The world of Occlude is already spilling out from the game.

There is more to discover - but only for those dedicated enough to seeking the truth.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3547010/Occlude/