Shady Brook - A Dark Mystery Text Adventure
Explore a small country town with a twisted secret in this dark, Twin Peaks-inspired mystery text adventure that combines the best elements of classic interactive fiction, visual novels, and gamebooks.
Developer
Publisher
Release
October 24, 2016
9 years and 284 days ago
Steam Reviews
Positive17 reviews82.4%
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Game contextLatest: IGF Team
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|---|---|---|
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Developer scaleThe operating scale of the game's developer. | ||
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Publisher scaleThe operating scale of the game's publisher. | A separate publisher is listed without a proven bounded regional or service-only role. | |
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Release statusWhether and how the game has been released. | The title released with a separate publisher relationship. |
Media
8 itemsAbout the Game
Relive the days of classic gaming with Shady Brook, a dark mystery text adventure inspired by the television series Twin Peaks in which players take on the role of author Jake Torrent in his search of a small town's twisted secrets.
Shady Brook combines the best elements of interactive fiction, visual novels, and gamebooks with a graphic user interface that emulates the look of early 1990s text adventures. It features beautiful artwork and cinematic music. In place of a text parser is a context-specific multiple choice menu. A compass allows you to travel from room to room, and separate inventory, map, journal, and character screens are available at the push of a button.
Shady Brook plays like an interactive novel. You make a series of choices that determine what happens next in the story. But unlike traditional gamebooks and choose-your-own adventures, Shady Brook also features more advanced adventure game mechanics, including locations to explore, items to collect and use, characters to meet and interact with, and puzzles to solve.
Author Jake Torrent, alongside his blind father Wayne, moves to the small, peaceful country town of Shady Brook. At first, everything seems idyllic. His neighbor, Tim, is always willing to lend a hand, and the Ekan family invites him to dinner.
But soon, Jake learns that his home's previous occupant committed suicide, and mysterious things begin to occur. When another resident also commits suicide, Jake starts to suspect foul play. Could this town take part in a conspiracy to cover up a murder?
As Jake investigates, he gets more than he bargained for: a town secret so terrifying that there is no turning back...
Gameplay
Shady Brook combines the best elements of interactive fiction, visual novels, and gamebooks with a graphic user interface that emulates the look of early 1990s text adventures. It features beautiful artwork and cinematic music. In place of a text parser is a context-specific multiple choice menu. A compass allows you to travel from room to room, and separate inventory, map, journal, and character screens are available at the push of a button.
Shady Brook plays like an interactive novel. You make a series of choices that determine what happens next in the story. But unlike traditional gamebooks and choose-your-own adventures, Shady Brook also features more advanced adventure game mechanics, including locations to explore, items to collect and use, characters to meet and interact with, and puzzles to solve.
Story
Author Jake Torrent, alongside his blind father Wayne, moves to the small, peaceful country town of Shady Brook. At first, everything seems idyllic. His neighbor, Tim, is always willing to lend a hand, and the Ekan family invites him to dinner.
But soon, Jake learns that his home's previous occupant committed suicide, and mysterious things begin to occur. When another resident also commits suicide, Jake starts to suspect foul play. Could this town take part in a conspiracy to cover up a murder?
As Jake investigates, he gets more than he bargained for: a town secret so terrifying that there is no turning back...
Features
- EXPLORE a small country town
- INTERACT with nearly two dozen characters
- CHOOSE your path--your actions alter the course of the story
- PICK UP, COMBINE, and USE a multitude of inventory items
- SOLVE a variety of challenging and unique puzzles
- DISCOVER the town's terrifying secrets in a truly dark and mature storyline
- ENJOY over 250 pieces of original artwork and an hour-long soundtrack
- UNLOCK 33 achievements to view a special post-game bonus scene
- PLAY 8+ hours of content with over 117,000 words--the text equivalent of a full-length novel!
