The Unseen Hour

Overview

The Unseen Hour is a cinematic 2.5D point-and-click adventure that opens in Tony's room at 1:37 a.m., when an impossible camera feed turns one last late-night build into an investigation.

The project was inspired by my love of the Broken Sword games. I loved playing the series when I was younger, and wanted to recapture that feeling of exploring atmospheric locations, uncovering clues, and being pulled deeper into a mystery.

The playable prologue blends atmospheric exploration with dialogue, evidence gathering, inventory puzzles, and choices that shape relationships, available routes, and the conclusion.

Key Features

Cinematic Investigation

• Explore richly composed scenes and inspect interactive objects
• Follow an evolving objective through a story-led mystery
• Gather evidence, use inventory items, and record discoveries in a notebook

Meaningful Choices

• Choose dialogue responses and different investigative routes
• Build or lose trust with characters through decisions
• Reach different conclusions based on evidence and relationships

Accessible Interaction

• Semantic DOM controls complement the rendered game world
• Captions are enabled by default, with adjustable text and audio settings
• Reduced-motion and visible-hotspot options keep the game approachable
• Local autosaves and three manual save slots support flexible play

Technical Implementation

The game separates deterministic story state from presentation. React manages the interface, dialogue, inventory, notebook, menus, and accessible controls, while PixiJS renders scenes and animates characters.

Authored walkable areas, hotspot approach points, and route finding support natural point-and-click movement around each scene. Versioned browser saves preserve progress locally, while layered ambience, dialogue audio, and restrained interface effects build the atmosphere.

Play the Prologue

The current prologue is available to play in the browser. Headphones are recommended, and captions are enabled by default.