Spooky Doorway on The Séance of Blake Manor – Interview Series

The Darkside Detective developer Spooky Doorway has announced its plans to formulate a brand-new “supernatural detective mystery” game for PC. Aptly titled The Séance of Blake Manor, the upcoming title will reportedly include an “ongoing mystery inspired by Irish Mythology and the spiritualist movements of the Victorian era.”

“The Seance of Blake Manor is depicted by a beautiful comic-book art style,” Spooky Doorway writes in a press release. “With its striking cutscenes, compelling narrative and dynamic soundtrack that reacts to the environment around you, Blake Manor and its secrets will leave you on the edge of your seat morning through night.”

We recently found ourselves in Spooky Doorway’s neck of the woods, knocking for another slice of The Séance of Blake Manor ahead of its debut. Here’s everything we were able to learn from the team during that fairly brief, albeit insightful interview with Spooky Doorway’s Narrative Lead, Dave McCabe.

Thanks for joining us — we can’t wait to talk more about your next game, The Séance of Blake Manor. Before we move the planchet to that particular corner of the board, however, would you mind if we spoke a bit about Spooky Doorway? Tell us your story.

Dave: We’re an Irish game dev studio. We like to tell ghost stories. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re not. The three founders met on a cursed island, suitably windswept and sea-blasted, many many years ago and had a generally similar idea of what we wanted to do and so we did it. 

Let’s dial this conversation back to The Séance of Blake Manor. Could you tell us more about it? What inspired you to venture deep into Irish mythology, if you don’t mind me asking?

Dave: Well, we’re Irish so we grew up with it all. Fairy forts, haunted houses, the old gods' homes scattered around the landscape, it’s in our DNA. Certainly in the 80s when we were growing up Ireland had a lot of dark corners. It still sort of does, in fairness, so it seemed like a natural thing to try and tell some of those stories through games. 

Tell us more about the storyline; specifically, Blake Manor and the protagonists and/or characters who will shape it. Paint us a picture of this plot, if you’d be so kind.

Dave: The game is set in 1897 Ireland, when London was the centre of the social world and spiritualism was all the rage. Our protagonist, Declan Ward, is a working class Dublin man who has nothing to do with either of those things, but has found himself thrust deep into that world when he’s brought in to investigate the disappearance of a young woman.

It’s a whodunit full of magical and supernatural elements that Ward needs to work through to try and save the woman before the ill-fated séance begins, sealing her fate.

You’ve briefly touched base on “dark secrets and environmental puzzles.” Please could you elaborate on this? What sorts of trials await us in the corridors of Blake Manor?

Dave: Between staff, hotel residents, and the guests who came for the séance, there are twenty-four suspects in the women’s disappearance. Each one of those has their own secret agenda for the event that Ward has to uncover to try and determine who is the culprit. But this is a ghost story, too, so the house has its own history and its own occupants as well… There are a lot of mysteries to unravel there.

Is there anything we ought to know before stepping into the open doorway of this seemingly mysterious manor? Do you have any useful beginner tips that you wouldn’t mind sharing with fledgling detectives?

Dave: Time is your biggest enemy. You have about 20 hours of game-time to save the woman and everything you do eats into that resource. There’s a lot more than 20 hours of content so you need to examine your clues, make deductions, and follow those through to the end.

It is possible to solve everything in one play but it’s unlikely on your first go, so the best you can do is make enough of the right choices that you know who to point the finger at when it’s time to make your accusations. 

Where might we be able to source some additional information on The Séance of Blake Manor? Would you mind sharing a few reading materials, social links, or any other useful resources with our readers?

Dave: You can join us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/s4xZvj8HrQ) or Bluesky to be kept up to date with new info and wishlist the game on Steam.

You’ve been brilliant — thank you. Before we head out and say our final goodbyes, is there anything you would like to add to this final chapter?

Dave: You should also buy our other games too, so we can feed our horde of children. The Darkside Detective and The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark.

For even more information on Spooky Doorway’s The Séance of Blake Manor, be sure to check in with the team via their official X handle here. Alternatively, you can add the game to your wishlist on Steam here.