Overview

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Cell is a predominantly first person single player horror game with some elements of survival horror and roguelike games intertwined with it.

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It draws inspiration from games like Amnesia and Slender Man, and works by H.P. Lovecraft. It features puzzle-solving, hiding mechanics, some resource management, and traditional horror gameplay. It's set in 2017 inside an abandoned 1970s mental hospital (insane asylum) and you play as a 15-year-old guy equipped only with his cell phone. Using the various apps on their phone the player has to escape the asylum after being trapped inside by an evil little boy who haunts the building. Gameplay revolves primarily around three things:

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• Solving puzzles to progress through the game

• Hiding/Surviving against the antagonist

• Using the cell phone to make it out of the asylum

 

The design philosophy has been primarily about making it a challenging game that forces the player to think and adapt on the fly. We don't have a lot of "hand holding" in the game because we want players to feel a sense of helplessness, isolation, and fear as they venture through the asylum.

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Synopsis

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One night a couple of teenagers dare their friend Max to venture into an abandoned asylum to take a picture at the location of a grisly murder that occurred in that very place decades ago. He discovers the ghost of a malevolent spirit, a tortured little boy,  who tries to kill him. Armed with only his phone, Max needs to find a way out of this nightmare before it’s too late. With the darkness closing in and a storm on the horizon, it’s only a matter of time until either Max escapes, or suffers the same fate the poor murdered souls trapped here.

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What Makes Cell Special

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Cell is designed to be a classic horror game with a modern twist. It features many of the elements of horror games we’ve all come to know and love, but it also has enhanced some of the mechanics and made some changes in an effort to enhance replayability and fit in with a modern era of gamers. The core features that make Cell different include:

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• Randomized Puzzles: This means that each playthrough will have a different combination of puzzles to solve, keeping the experience fresh and challenging every playthrough.

• Randomized Story Elements: The story of the asylum and its inhabitants are fed to the player through in-game story elements. These elements are randomly distributed throughout multiple playthroughs and they change locations from playthrough to playthrough to help shake things up and keep the experience entertaining and also promote a sense of progression and mystery as you uncover more and more of the story.

• No Weapons: Cell features absolutely no weapons, instead relying on the player’s cunning and wit to solve puzzles, hide from the enemy, and manage their three main resources in an effort to survive the asylum and escape to freedom.

 

There are numerous other little elements in Cell that make it a continually fun and engaging game.

Who You Are

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In the game you play as Max, a 15 year old guy. He's the kind of person who's kind of brave, but lacks courage. He’s sort of in shape, but not really athletic. He’s kind of smart, but not a genius. He’s pretty average. And because of that, surviving in the asylum with an evil being lurking around is quite difficult.

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