Ultra-Indie Daily Dose: Ash Pines Is GBA Silent Hill
Hello, you glorious gluttons for all things indie horror! Are you just starving for the newest of the new, the most unknownest of the unknown? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the Ultra-Indie Daily Dose! In this series, we’re going to pick a new game every day from an indie horror creator you’ve probably never heard of. No million-dollar budgets or factory productions. This is the space for the little guy with not but a developer toolkit and a dream. So if you’re down to roll the dice on something different, then stick around and check it out!
Welcome, welcome! For our Daily Dose of indie horror today we have Ash Pines, by developer Stranga. Known also for Ashina: The Red Witch and Red Bow, this dev seems to specialize in GameBoy-style retro horror. Ash Pines has a lot of effort put into the art and sound, creating an atmosphere rarely seen in this style of indie game.
Ash Pines takes place in the town named as such. You play as a man named Mark Sullivan, lured to this town by a mysterious letter. Arriving at the Ash Pines Motel, you soon find that every guest is dead—every guest except you. You’ll need all your wits and maybe some reflexes in order to keep it that way.
The gameplay for Ash Pines is that of a top-down GameBoy title. Like if GameFreak made a Silent Hill. Your goal is to explore the Ash Pines Motel, finding all the notes, keys, and items in order to make your way through the rooms and discover what happened. But you need to be cautious. Some kind of creature is lurking about, and you’ll need to be ready to book it at any moment.
You can try out Ash Pines for free on itch.io by clicking here. And be sure to try out Stranga’s other games by clicking here.
