Mystery Horror Adventure · Schwaz · Tyrol
The Legacy of the Damned
Two eras. One curse. And a mountain that never forgets.
In development · Prologue to Chapter 4 playable as a prototype
Teaser
Real scenes from the current build – captured directly in the game. The teaser is in German with subtitles.
Pressing play loads the video from YouTube, which transfers data to Google (Privacy).
The Story
In the 16th century, Schwaz is the richest mining town in Europe. Thousands of miners cut silver from the mountain – and some of them never come back. Almost five hundred years later, the mountain begins to knock again.
A miner's daughter who can read and write – rare for a young woman of her time. When miners vanish without a trace and her father dies in a so-called accident, she asks questions nobody wants to hear. Then her brother Matthias is taken into the mountain. Anna follows him into the depths.
A journalist from Vienna returns to Schwaz to clear out his late grandfather's house. On an old map, one tunnel is marked in red: “1523 – Do not open.” A last message waits on the answering machine. And Thomas begins to understand that Grandpa Josef did not die of a heart attack.
“Three knocks means: go.
Go while you still can.”
Characters
1523 · playable
Clever, brave and too curious for her time. She searches for her brother – and finds a secret older than mining itself.
1993 · playable
Journalist, rational, long gone from home. His grandfather's trail leads him deeper into the mountain than he would like.
1523
Anna's little brother, sixteen, cheeky and restless. His voice can still be heard long after he is gone.
1523
Shunned by everyone, “the fool from the spoil heap”. He understands the language of the mountain – and the Klöpfermandl.
1523
A powerful mine owner with growing debts and silver veins running dry. What is he willing to give the mountain?
1523 · 1993
Silvery veins, dark water, an ancient robe. Whoever meets her runs. But is she really the enemy?
Locations
Real places, freely imagined: the town square with its parish church, the show mine, the painted cloister of the Franciscan friary – and tunnels that appear on no map.
Concept Art
Every location starts as a sketch: perspective, light and the one spot where the eye should linger.
Design
Silberfluch follows in the tradition of classic point-and-click adventures – with today's controls and an atmosphere that gets under your skin.
Every scene is a painted low-resolution image, scaled up crisply to any display. Characters come in three sizes so they look right on wide squares and in narrow tunnels alike.
Inside the mountain you only see what your lamp lights up. When the oil runs low, the world closes in. Candles, torches and flashlights tell the story too.
The combination lock, the knocking signal, the frescoes in the cloister: the puzzles come from the world itself. What Anna does in 1523, Thomas finds as a clue in 1993.
No verb list. Click to act, hold to look. Just as natural on tablets and phones as with a mouse.
Zither, dulcimer, deep strings and distant bells: every place has its own music, from the peaceful cloister to the flight from the Silver Woman.
Every character gets a voice, in German and English. A special Austrian edition in the local Schwaz dialect is also planned.
An old photograph, Grandpa's notebook, a sealed deed, a page from a chronicle of 1523: important finds can be examined up close. The clues are in the details – and sometimes more than you wanted to know.
Around 1500, much of Europe's silver came from Schwaz. Miners, mine owners, the Fugger banking family, drainage adits and ore stamp mills shaped the town. Silberfluch weaves this real history into an entirely fictional, supernatural tale – and asks what greed makes of people.
A wink and a nod
Silberfluch tips its hat to the golden age of point-&-click adventures – the days of Monkey Island and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Pixel art, puzzles that grow out of the world, and stories that stay with you. So we couldn't help wondering: what would the box have looked like in a computer shop back then?
And who knows: if Silberfluch is a success, we wouldn't say no to a just-for-fun floppy disk edition that still runs on old DOS PCs.
C:\> A:
A:\> INSTALL
SILBERFLUCH – The Legacy of the Damned
Installing ... 100 % of disk 1
Please insert disk 2 of 4
and press any key_
Development
Silberfluch is being developed independently in Tyrol, Austria. The prologue and the first four chapters are playable end to end as a prototype – from the tunnel in 1523 to the betrayal at the Golden Lion.
Planned platforms
Windows · Mac · Linux on Steam
iOS · Android on the app stores
Support
A game of this scope takes many hands: art, music, sound, voice acting and testing. As a sponsor, you show your commitment to an independent creative project from Tyrol – in the game, in the credits and here on the website.
€ 300
€ 750
Featured
€ 1,500
All amounts are one-off and exclusive of 20 % Austrian VAT. In-game credits run for 24 months from first release. Sponsorship does not create any share in the company, revenue or profit; all rights to the game remain with the developer.
For businesses with a fitting history, a subtle appearance in the game world is possible on request: period signage in the townscape, an object players can examine, or a small encounter that fits the story. We agree on the details and costs together.
Every spot is still open. Become Silberfluch's first partner.
I would be happy to present the playable prototype to you in person – online or on site.
sponsoring@silberfluch.at