Game description:
Hollowbrook – Apartments is an interactive story built around isolation and limited space. The player controls Jenny, a tenant who becomes confined within her new apartment complex during a storm. The game takes place entirely inside the building, transforming its corridors and rooms into both setting and mechanism. Instead of focusing on action, it directs attention toward movement, observation, and choice. The building’s design drives the pacing, and each player action slightly alters how the night unfolds.
Gameplay Framework
The structure of Hollowbrook – Apartments relies on controlled exploration. Players move through connected spaces, interact with everyday objects, and trigger events based on proximity and timing. The absence of combat shifts attention toward what the player notices or ignores. Each action—opening a door, picking up an item, or choosing to remain still—affects the available outcomes. Checkpoints are placed at major transitions, allowing the player to continue after failure without losing overall progress. The repetition of short sequences builds familiarity and understanding over time.
Progression and Interaction
A single session follows a repeatable process that defines the rhythm of play:
· Begin the night inside Jenny’s apartment.
· Explore hallways, rooms, and accessible floors.
· Respond to signals from the environment through simple choices.
· Return to checkpoints after failed events.
· Complete the night or unlock new narrative paths.
This format links exploration with consequence, where every completed action reshapes the next set of available interactions.
Story and Environment
Narrative information is delivered through the surroundings rather than through dialogue or exposition. The apartment building records its history through physical detail—objects out of place, traces of prior residents, or unusual sounds behind walls. The player interprets these signs to understand Jenny’s situation. Each choice determines which details remain visible, effectively changing how the same environment feels on subsequent playthroughs. The story expands horizontally through repetition instead of forward through traditional progression.
Development and Structure
Created by Yetiface Games, Hollowbrook – Apartments was released in 2025 as a short, standalone entry in the Hollowbrook series. It demonstrates how a confined setting can support variation through interaction alone. The design uses fixed architecture to explore dynamic storytelling, emphasizing small adjustments over linear advancement. By focusing on cause, effect, and environmental feedback, the game turns a single apartment complex into a system of unfolding reactions where every decision contributes to the night’s outcome.
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