Hush draws its inspiration from fears, particularly those we have all experienced when we were young.

You will play as Ashlyn, a little girl who finds herself trapped in a mysterious orphanage. This beautiful and dark scenery hosts the extraordinary events that will jeopardize her safety.

Nothing is quite as it seems on first glance. Strange beasts, tormented souls and mysterious characters. All preying on her fears, to ensure she never finds a way out.

Ashlyn fighting Pignose Timmy

Your goal is is to help Ashlyn build courage and learn how to take advantage from the inhabitants of the orphanage. Ashlyn must overcome her fears if she ever hopes to escape. During the breakout she can only rely on her little friend GoGo and other toys for help.

Hush will ultimately get you face to face with fears you can relate to, either as a child or nowadays—there's no shame in admitting it! You must remain brave and keep your head cool if you ever hope to break free the evil clutches ahead of you.

GoGo and Ashlyn

Hush portraits a compelling story with a thick plot. We only want to deliver you a nice, polished experience so we split the main plot in three episodes. Each episode translates into a game comprised of three fears (chapters).

This approach enables us to invest more production time in each chapter, making it easier for each one to attain it's full potential: spooky enemies, clever puzzles and beautiful details in the environment.

Every episode features three different chapters, each with their own different challenges. They will demand from the player a varied set of skills strictly tied with the fear portrayed in that chapter.

The first episode consists of the "Fear of the Dark", "Fear of Thunder" and "Fear of Ghosts" chapters.

In the "Fear of the Dark" chapter you will have to navigate through the dark under levels of the orphanage while avoiding the blind Garma. You'll also have to find out the best way to navigate these dark corridors while staying in the best lit areas. The climax will top on the confrontation with the mysterious master of shadows Lucifer, the Cat.

The "Fear of Thunder" will pitch you against the energetic automatons of the Power House. These are creatures that harvest energy and are highly volatile in nature. Be extra careful with the ongoing storm!

"Fear of Ghosts" will feature the kid turned evil mastermind "Pignose Timmy" and his ghostly minions.

For the following episodes you may expect the development of the "Fear of Clowns", "Fear of Spiders" a "Fear of Heights" chapters, among others.

If you contribute with perk that includes the game you are entitled to the three episodes on one platform of your choice, as long as we got enough funding to develop for that platform.

Lamprey - Featured in the "Fear of the Dark" chapter

Safe Point

We are developing a game with a very dark theme. We gathered our influences from games that worked with similar themes. Our first influence was "Alice: Madness Returns". The environment created for this game set the tone for visual aesthetics and world design, due to its twisted and surrealistic ambience. Another major influence came from "Black Lake", with its beautiful art based on story books.

The concept-art style of HUSH is based on a traditional cartoon drawing, balanced with the bizarre and twisted world of fears. 

Through the game you will find all sorts of whimsical and fantastic elements, contrasting with the surrounding horror: light bulbs floating in place, gloves that harvest electricity and npc's out of this world.

In order to create this environment, it was essential to understand the concept of fear and its power over our minds. We embodied these terrors in all sorts of monsters and physical spaces.

In this game, you'll find ordinary objects that come to life when they're in the dark. In the fear of thunder, you have monsters that paralyze you with a loud crumbling noise. 

All these concepts were developed to enhance the relationship between the phobia and the creatures that embodies it. At the end of each level, you'll find a superior enemy that represents the fear in its most twisted form.

You can find out more of our Artwork at: HUSH Artwork Gallery

Fear of Thunder - Power House

Hush is an action adventure game focused on story and characters. We designed the gameplay in a way players, both casual and hardcore, could easily relate to. Our goal is to make you struggle to beat the game, not your hardware.

The levels are designed to highlight combat, puzzle solving and exploration.

The combat system is fast, broad and intuitive. The puzzles are challenging and there are several places to explore. Dark basements, hidden tombs… you'll spend plenty of time unveiling secrets.

We developed a gameplay style inspired in the games we love and that matched our vision for Hush: Bastion, OceanHorn and Black Lake.

In Black Lake, the sense of fear and exploration brought us to the type of gameplay we wanted for our game. Our camera system also works closely with the one this title displays.

When it comes to puzzle solving and jigsaws, we created something challenging throughout the entire level. "The Legend of Zelda" series was a great influence.

We're also implementing a cross-platform saving feature. That means you can save the game to the cloud and resume progress on another platform you own. This is especially useful if you are playing on your console at home and want to resume play on your iPad while you're commuting.

Level Design - Fear of the Dark

Level Samples

Ashlyn is initially armed with her best friend GoGo. She uses it to smack enemies around. During her quest, she will find other toys that will help her overcome the enemies standing in her way. Each weapon is uniquely tied to the fear she's struggling with.

The combat style will range from straight Hack and Slash to more strategic combat approaches. Some weapons work at close range while others enable Ashlyn to safely attack from a distance. Each one is unique in fighting style and properties. You will also have plenty of options to improve them with accumulated experience.

Players will be demanded to use cunning and strategy to decide on the best approach for each confrontation. Sometimes the enemies are just too overwhelming to defeat with simple attacks! You will be forced to develop a strategy compromising the use of stealth, your surroundings or even special items.

Naga Design Sketches

Ashlyn's ability to confront her fears and enemies correlates with her courage level. This status is displayed on the courage level indicator at the top of the game screen.

You need to build up courage if you aspire to defeat these mighty foes. If you fail to do so you'll soon see yourself trapped in a panic state, unable to fight back and forced to run. There's also a very high chance Ashlyn will faint.

The courage status display bar

Your progression on the orphanage will depend on your ability to solve the puzzles. Opening the routes best suited to Ashlyn's needs, cracking the code to get that vital item… Navigating the orphanage will be a challenge in itself. Avoid the dangers, find the solution to your challenge and keep Ashlyn brave.

In sum this game will offer challenging moments of combat with various monsters, several puzzles that will force you to face your fears and block your progress during the game. Above all, HUSH, is a compelling story sprinkled with ingenious features that will grab you through the entire experience.

On hush the sound will play a major role to make fears come alive. You'll hear indistinguishable whispers coming all around you, or sudden crumbling thunders out of the silence. As a player you must be ready to face everything that comes in your way, even if you can't see it.

Your courage status throughout the game will also influence the sound environment. The whole soundscape is responsive to your behavior. In reality, when you are afraid in the dark you will start hearing more and more, creating a hyper-real sound environment where you can’t tell what is real or imagination. HUSH behaves the same way.

For sound to react to your actions in the game we are implementing a procedural audio solution.

On the soundtrack you can expect some spooky themes. We will create suspense and raise your heartbeat. Hellish strings, bone-like marimbas and weeping synthesizers will play catchy melodies that will follow you along your path.

Keep yourself tuned to our Soundcloud page for sneak peaks and exclusive content.

Game development is an expensive activity. We want to make Hush a great game. So far we’ve all committed our hearts and talent to the project, but that alone is not enough to give you an A-class game.

We need to pay for further licensing, accelerate development with a bigger team, improve overall quality with even more assets and create material to promote the game.

Raising even more than our goal will enable us to create extra content and implement more ideas making HUSH even better for you.

Hush is being developed under Unity Engine. This choice reflects our goal to release the game on as many different platforms as we can without changing gameplay and core mechanics. By making it easier to develop several different platforms on the same engine we will ensure you get the game regardless of your platform of choice.

The game will be first available for PC and Mac. Console versions for Xbox One, PS4 and WiiU will follow. Last but not least, we will develop IOS, Android and Windows Phone versions, if we get enough funds for that stretch goal.

We expect delivery dates for the first episode to fall on the last trimester of 2014, provided we get enough funding now. Series completion will follow until late 2015.

Episodes 5 and 6 are part of a stretch goal and will only be developed if we get enough funding.

Game studio 78 hails all the way from Porto, Portugal with headquarters on UPTEC.

Our team consists in a spectacular reunion of talented individuals of the most diverse backgrounds. We take pride in balancing just the right amount of art and technology.

Go ahead, check out our website to get to know us even better!

Creating a game as ambitious as Hush is no easy task.

If we don't achieve our goal amount Hush will still be developed. Yet, under harsh conditions and without enough funds to integrate more developers the game won't blossom into the wonderful product we committed ourselves to create.

We're currently facing the following risks:

Financial

We've already invested our own time and resources into the making of this game. If we don't reach our set goal amount we're fully prepared to still develop it while knowing for sure it will only become a shadow of what it could have been. We wouldn't be asking for your support if we didn't already have sold our souls for this project. We can only make it outstanding with your help!

Production delay

We're being really ambitious about what we want Hush to be. Should some features take longer than expected to implement, there is a chance that the completion date will slip. If we feel this is necessary for the good of the game, we promise to be transparent about any date changes and keep you, the backers, informed along the way.

You can keep up to date on any Hush related news on our Hush website.

The sky is the limit

We have invested our time and effort in Hush before asking for your help. We already have assembled an experienced team but we need to integrate some more staff for all the beautiful features we designed to become real. Your support will help give us the resources to make the game achieve its full potential.

Thank you for backing and helping make our dream come true. We hope you'll join us in this adventure!

If you want to help even more spread the word. Share using Indiegogo's sharing widget and tell your friends about it. We kindly thank you for any contributions you make whether it's monetary or in the form of buzz around our project.

Our HUSH website is already available and you can find the latest news about the game there.

Like us on Facebook  to access even more content and keep up to date on our efforts. Also, check out our Behance page.

PHEW… You scrolled through all of this content and (hopefully) read it all? You deserve a reward just for your attention! Here, claim your complimentary GoGo gif below and remember:

Have Fun Playing!

Cheers!