Planned Release Date: Q1 2026

About This Game

We're just a scrappy indie team with our first game. No fancy budget, no industry veterans—just a small group passionate about crafting a narrative that burrows under your skin and stays there.

THE GUTTER is a compact psychological horror adventure (120 minutes) set in a rarely-explored dark corner of Chinese history. Through accessible point & click gameplay, you'll uncover a tale of addiction, exploitation, and karmic justice that refuses to offer easy answers or comfortable resolutions.

Please Note:

This is a narrative-first experience designed for players who appreciate atmospheric storytelling over mechanical challenges. The puzzles serve the story, not the other way around. If you enjoy games like "Detention," "What Remains of Edith Finch," or "The Cat Lady," but wouldn't mind something shorter and set in historical China, this might be your next disturbing indie gem.

GAME FEATURES

• A Forgotten Dark World

Enter 1801 Canton (Guangzhou), where opium flows like water and human life comes cheap. Experience the forgotten world of "flower boats" (floating brothels) and the marginalized Tanka people who lived their entire lives on water. Meticulously researched and authentically bleak, this setting breaks away from typical historical game environments to show you the gutters beneath Imperial China's facade.

• Pure Anti-Hero Experience

Play as AhShui, an opium addict so desperate he sold his own daughter. Your moral compass is broken beyond repair, your body is failing, and your mind fractures further with each hit from the pipe. This isn't about redemption—it's about witnessing the final chapter of a life spent crawling through society's darkest trenches.

• Memory-Triggered Horror

Each object you touch forcibly pulls you into violent, twisted memories that aren't your own. Solve contextual puzzles that cross the line from disturbing to depraved—drinking tea from bound-foot shoes, desecrating sacred statues, and worse. We designed these interactions not to stump you, but to make you uncomfortable in the best horror-game tradition.

• Judgment Awaits

When you finally discover the full extent of your character's depravity, there's no redemption arc waiting—only cosmic justice in two equally devastating forms. Your final choice doesn't determine if you'll pay for your sins, only how. As the Chinese proverb suggests: good is rewarded with good, evil with evil—if not in this life, then the next.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

To enhance our creative process and development efficiency, our team has integrated AI-assisted tools in the making of [The Gutter].

We employed Google Gemini as a creative partner to help draft and refine parts of the game's narrative, dialogue, and in-game text, as well as to assist with localizing our store page for different regions. Please rest assured that AI is just one part of our workflow.

All final content presented to players, from individual words to the overarching story, has been meticulously designed, reviewed, and revised by our human developers to ensure the highest quality and the best possible player experience.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

This game contains the following adult content, please choose carefully:
Drug Abuse: Artistically depicts the physical and psychological state of 19th-century opium addicts, including scenes of opium smoking and withdrawal symptoms, with no glorification or encouragement.
Psychological Horror: Creates an oppressive atmosphere through claustrophobic environments, supernatural events, and moral dilemmas, featuring mild jump scares and psychological distress.
Moral Controversy: The story involves selling one's child for survival, redemption, and karmic retribution, exploring deep guilt and the darker aspects of human nature.
Violence Implications: Some scenes contain bloodstains, corpses, and non-realistic gore.
Special Notes:
All content serves historical reflection and narrative purposes, with no sexual exploitation or glorification of violence.
Sensitive scenes (e.g., opium use) include health warnings and historical context annotations.
Recommended for players aged 16+ with strong psychological resilience.