Dead Manor

I. THE STORY

Three nights ago the Blackwood estate swallowed your sister. You followed her trail to its rotting doors and stepped inside. The doors will not open again until the house is satisfied.

You are Rafaela. The halls of Blackwood breathe. Its dead do not rest — they shuffle through the wallpapered corridors and the bookshelf-lined study, drawn to the warmth of the living. Chandeliers sway and creak overhead, throwing long shadows that move when you are not looking. Somewhere in the dark, your sister is still waiting.

Survive five nights. Put down everything the manor sends at you. Then find the glowing iron gate and walk back out into the dawn — both of you.

This game is vibe coded by Rafi Thissen using Claude.

II. YOUR OBJECTIVE

What it takes to leave Blackwood alive.

» Survive five nights. Each night the dead rise in greater numbers. Clear every walking corpse and the next night begins.
» Hold the line. Your vitality does not regenerate on its own — only medkits restore it. Manage your shells; the house is generous with neither.
» Break the final night. The fifth night brings the master of the house. Put it down to unseal the way out.
» Reach the gate. Once the manor is cleared, the glowing iron gate on the far wall opens. Walk into it to escape and win.

III. CONTROLS

W A S D Move forward, left, back, right (arrow keys also work).
MOUSE Look and aim.
LEFT CLICK Fire the shotgun.
RIGHT CLICK / R Reload from your shell reserve.
SHIFT Sprint — burn distance when the dead get close.
ESC Pause the game during play.
LEFT / RIGHT ARROW Turn without the mouse (fallback steering).
ALT + F4 Quit to desktop.

Menus are click-only. The title, pause, death, and victory screens are navigated entirely with the mouse — click the on-screen button (Enter the Manor, Resume, Rise Again, Play Again). The keyboard will not advance or skip them, so Esc opens the pause screen but you resume by clicking Resume.

IV. THE HEADS-UP DISPLAY

Read your readouts before they read your eulogy.

NIGHT The night you are currently surviving, one through five.
KILLS Total dead you have put down this run.
LURKING How many enemies are still hunting you this night.
RAFAELA · VITALITY Your health, shown bottom-left with a red bar. At zero you fall.
SHELLS Bottom-right: rounds in the shotgun / shells held in reserve.
THE MASTER OF BLACKWOOD The boss health bar — appears only on the fifth night.

V. COMBAT & SUPPLIES

YOUR WEAPON — THE PUMP SHOTGUN
» Holds an 8-shell magazine. Reload with Right Click or R when you have a moment of breathing room — never mid-swarm.
» Point-blank punishes. The closer the target when you pull the trigger, the more damage the blast deals. Let them come, then unload.
» A dry click means you are empty. Reload before the dead close the gap.
» Shells are finite. Make each shot land; the manor does not restock the careless.

PICKUPS — WHAT THE DEAD LEAVE BEHIND
» Shells (amber glow): +8 rounds to your reserve. Walk over it to collect.
» Medkit (green glow): +30 vitality. Grab it before you are desperate, not after.
» Slain corpses sometimes drop supplies where they fall. Sweep the room after a fight.
» The master of the house drops a fresh cache of shells when wounded to half health, and both shells and a medkit when it finally falls.

VI. THE DEAD

Know what walks the halls.

THE RISEN
The common dead of Blackwood: sunken green flesh, gnashing jaws, eyes lit a sickly yellow. They navigate the halls toward you — chasing in a straight line when they can see you, and threading around walls and corners when they cannot. Each later night they come faster and in greater numbers. Two solid shotgun blasts usually drop one; point-blank, often one.

THE MASTER OF BLACKWOOD — FINAL BOSS
On the fifth night the house wakes its master: a towering, ribcage-bared horror with bone horns and eyes that burn red. It carries 1,500 vitality, shrugs off the smaller dead, and strikes slower but devastatingly — a single blow can gut an unprepared survivor. Its size makes it easy to hit; surviving long enough to whittle it down is the hard part. Listen for its deep roar in the dark.

VII. THE FIVE NIGHTS

NIGHT 1 Seven of the Risen. Learn the halls and your shotgun's reach.
NIGHT 2 Nine rise — faster than before. Keep moving.
NIGHT 3 Eleven. The corridors start to feel small.
NIGHT 4 Thirteen. Conserve shells; favour point-blank kills.
NIGHT 5 A small honour guard AND the Master of Blackwood. The way out opens only when all of them are dead.

VIII. SURVIVAL TIPS

Advice from those who did not make it.
» Keep your back moving. Standing still lets the dead surround you. Circle rooms and use doorways to fight them one or two at a time.
» Use the chandeliers. Their warm pools of light help you read the room — and the open halls beneath them give you space to retreat and reload.
» Reload on your terms. Duck behind a corner, top off the magazine, then re-engage. Never reload with a corpse in your face.
» Bank your medkits. Leave a green pickup where it lies until you actually need the vitality — picking it up at full health wastes it.
» Thin the guard first. On the final night, deal with the Risen before committing to the Master, or you will be ground between them.
» When in doubt, sprint. Distance buys time to reload and re-plan.