The Designer's Curse

Rate it

Lost in a manor with the creatures you designed yourself.

Platforms: PC, Mac
Stores: Steam
Price: Free
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (88% of about 800 reviews)
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse only; the controls are listed in the main and pause menus
Made by: CBGames
Released: 2019

What frightens You find your way through the dark halls and cellars of Shaw Well Manor while being hunted by gaunt, broken creatures that the protagonist himself created, solving puzzles in the gloom to a score by Mikko Tarmia, the composer of Amnesia and SOMA.
Content: gore, frightening situations.

The Designer's Curse is a free first-person horror game by CBGames, inspired by Amnesia and Penumbra. You explore the dark halls of Shaw Well Manor, solve puzzles and stay away from the creatures hunting you, beings the protagonist created himself.

About The Designer's Curse

The Designer's Curse is a free horror game by CBGames, released on Steam in 2019. The store says it was made by a 15-year-old developer whose earlier games include Overnight 2, Buried Beneath and Slender Adrift, and names the old-school horror of Amnesia and Penumbra as its inspiration.

You delve into Shaw Well Manor, a castle-like house of stone corridors, cellars and stained-glass halls, and find your way through it while being reminded of what you have created. The things hunting you are tall, gaunt and broken figures, the work of the protagonist himself, and you are never alone for long.

Progress comes through puzzles, and the atmosphere through a soundtrack by Mikko Tarmia, who scored Amnesia and SOMA. The store has since added a second chapter.

It needs a mouse and keyboard; there is no controller support. It suits players who want a free game in the Amnesia mould: dark rooms, puzzles and something you can only avoid.