A Winter Haunting

A Winter Haunting is not getting the props it deserves. It's a beautiful game, with a quiet story full of tragedy and hope. It's not very long and can be played on a weekend morning. The puzzles are fun and clever, and none of it overstays its welcome. You can definitely complete it in one go, but it invites replay by having different dialogue options that lead to different outcomes, and achievements that guide you to discovering secrets. It's well-designed and a great example of the point-and-click puzzle genre. I highly recommend playing it and learning all about the Sterling and Lunabelle families for yourself. I really hope the developer considers making other similarly short games set in this same world, a la Rusty Lake.

This is a short, sweet puzzle game and clearly a labor of love by the designer. The puzzles are just challenging enough for my level and I enjoyed unraveling the story. Hope to see more from this team.

I enjoyed this game a lot! The puzzles were challenging but solveable and Everlyn was very likable as a main character. I was able to guess some of the ending but still enjoyed seeing it play out. I wish the ending had been a little longer but I would definitely recommend the game!

Overall, I really liked this game. I was able to unlock all achievements after multiple iterations of the game, so I know it quite well by now. I can speed-run it in ~5 minutes. The artwork is stunning, and the music matches the tone of each scene in the game. The puzzles were very clever. I didn't believe there would be much in a simple point-click game (with a few shortcut keys), but it actually proved me wrong and got me hooked. I also liked how some of the dialogue hinted to the puzzle solutions, and it gave me that feeling of "ugh I wished I paid attention!" once I solved the puzzle. What I appreciated in particular was how the very responses I would give, as Everlyn, ended up being used against me. Nonchalantly, I just went with whatever I thought was interesting, and didn't realize how it backfired. That caught me off guard, as I assumed it would just be a point-click game where I solve puzzles - it became more than that, and it was like I had to reassess my every decision in the game. In fact, because of this very feature, it becomes a great game to play with friends - if they control Everlyn together, it's very entertaining when a wrong move was made and we point the finger at that friend, which is a shared excitement. My main problem is that it was too short, perhaps it should be 3-4 times as long considering the $10 price. I expected more content, or more intriguing content. [spoiler] When Everlyn meets the 'eye' character, that was the real conflict of the game where things would start to get interesting, and there would be more riddles to solve while knowing that the eye is present. I was sort of let down when it really was the start to the end. [/spoiler]. It was also obvious that [spoiler] Mel was the real Amy, since she showed up randomly in the opening of the game after Finley leaves, which made me suspicious of her presence from the beginning. As more clues unfolded I figured it out, and was underwhelmed with the reveal. [/spoiler] This also wasn't really a horror game, more like thriller or mystery. But because of the intended mood of the game, hence "A Winter Haunting", I anticipated an eerie theme and was let down with how it didn't really deliver. There could've been more done to achieve that, like something gruesome, a jump scare, or a deranged twist of events. It was a fine plot, but not really spooky. All in all, I was glad to have played it and can't wait for the next games AB will create! If this is just the first one, the next ones will be exceptional for sure. PS: As someone who grows orange and lemon trees, those are the smallest orange and lemon trees I've ever seen :P

GREAT GAME!! Puzzles were hard enough to really need to look around and think. Enjoyable length. Both endings are great too.

I really enjoyed this game! It's a great point-and-click adventure style game that with a cozy nostalgic feel. It's not super scary but still has an element of mystery and charm which I believe is a good balance. The puzzles are just complex enough to be challenging but not frustrating. Overall, a great casual game.

A Winter Haunting is a mix of a point-and-click a puzzle adventure game. There are some interactions with NPCs and simple inventory puzzles, but the emphasis is on information/logic puzzles. The inventory-based puzzles are quite reasonable, and there are lots of responses for using items, letting you know whether or not you're on the right track. The logic puzzles are pretty good, except perhaps for one annoyance where there is a reference to hours and to a clock and then it turns out it has nothing to do with the clock puzzle. It's always neat to see some real-world things used as a puzzle. If you're not familiar with matrix multiplication, it does feel like a solid puzzle to do some in-game research to find out the rules and then apply those rules to get the result. The game has two levels of hints: there's an optional source of information that gives slightly different (usually more transparent) hints in addition to the hints collected in the main game. I got a little lost and overwhelmed towards the end with all the letters, notes, lists of items to collect, their counts and orderings as well as all the names and complex relations (which is all necessary information), so I was just filling in some missing pieces by trial and error in a couple of later puzzles. The UI is quite good, with fast movement, fast interactions, and a convenient way to use notes and look up collected puzzle pieces.

Stunning artwork and an absolutely wonderful game! It's a true puzzle point and click adventure and if you love puzzles then you'll love this game. The puzzles added so much to the story and guided you along the way. There's a wide variety and never tedious! Truly one of the most beautiful and thoughtful games I have ever played and I loved every minute. More please!!

A beautiful, haunting game with a terrific story and truly puzzling puzzles. I really enjoyed my time with this game. The art is lovely, the story top notch, and the puzzles were difficult but not impossible. I would recommend this point and click adventure to everyone.

Great. Worth the time and money.