the white chamber

About the white chamber

the white chamber was the first game of Studio Trophis, a small British team (design and programming by Richard Perrin, art by Paul Johnson, sound by Zakir Rahman), released free for Windows in 2005 and built in the WinterMute engine. Its Definitive Edition is still a free download from the studio's site, and since September 2023 it is also sold on Steam by Locked Door Puzzle.

A girl wakes in a glowing coffin in a dark room. She does not know who she is or where she is. The place turns out to be a space station, empty of its crew, and the further she goes the more it warps: corridors of cables, flickering monitors with the crew's last messages, then rooms where the floor is a mass of flesh and blood. The questions lead her toward the white chamber of the title and the truth it holds.

It plays as a classic third-person point-and-click: walk the hand-drawn rooms, pick things up, combine and use them, read the logs. The art is anime-style, the sound is ambient noise and unsettling effects rather than music, and there are hand-drawn animated scenes at the start and the end. Its makers describe the story as one of obsession, murder and redemption, and list eight endings plus hidden easter eggs, one of them a comedy ending.

It suits players who like short, story-led horror adventures such as Sanitarium or The Cat Lady, and anyone curious about a freeware horror classic of the 2000s.

How to play the white chamber

1. Click on the floor to walk the heroine around each room.
2. Look at and use objects by clicking them; read the station's terminals and messages.
3. Pick up items and drag them from the inventory onto objects or onto each other.
4. Explore every room again as the station changes, and follow the clues toward the white chamber.
5. Replay to reach other endings; your actions decide which one you get.

Tips

• Read every terminal message: the crew's logs explain what you are walking into.
• When stuck, revisit earlier rooms; the station changes behind you.
• The free Definitive Edition from the studio's site is a good way to try it before buying the Steam edition.

Questions