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TL;DR: The House is a first-person atmospheric mystery made by a Filipino solo developer, out now on Steam for PC. It’s set in the Philippines during the Christmas season and follows a young woman from Thailand who ends up trapped in an unfamiliar house full of unexplained events. Expect flashlight-only sections, environmental puzzles, and a separate Anomaly Mode for spot-the-difference fans.
It’s barely the end of October, but in the Philippines the Christmas season has been running since September. One local indie dev is leaning into that with a holiday story that’s more creepy than cozy.
The House comes from Jero Vidal, a Filipino developer working under the studio name Meercraft. It launched on Steam on October 15. The story follows a young woman from Hua Hin, Thailand, who moves abroad hoping to start a new chapter. As Christmas approaches, that fresh start goes sideways when she finds herself inside a house she doesn’t recognize, with things happening that nobody can explain. Kinda the opposite of a cozy Noche Buena.
What makes it stand out for us Pinoy players are the local touches. The game is set in the Philippines, there’s a jeepney in the world, and the Steam achievement icons use Baybayin. Small details, pero ramdam mo na someone from here made this.
What you’ll be doing in the house
The House is mainly about exploration and environmental storytelling. You search rooms for clues, interact with objects, and solve puzzles that send you back to areas you’ve already checked. Some sections take place with the power out, so your flashlight is your only friend. A journal tracks your progress, and there are collectible figures hidden around the house for completionists.
There are also two extras outside the main story:
- Anomaly Mode, where you watch the house and spot unusual changes and supernatural anomalies. If you liked the “spot what’s wrong” style of games like The Exit 8, ito yung para sa’yo.
- Tiled Void, a separate mini-game with a different experience from the main campaign.
The game has full Thai voice acting for its protagonist, with English interface and subtitles. Supernatural themes are present throughout, and your character can die, so this isn’t one to play with the lights fully on.
One more thing worth pointing out: The House is a one-man project, and Jero used AI tools to help create some of the visual props around the house, then reviewed, edited, and placed everything himself. For a solo dev, that’s a smart move. Filling a whole house with detailed objects is a huge job for one person, and handing some of that heavy lifting to AI frees up time for the stuff that really matters in a mystery game, like the puzzles, the pacing, and that slow-building dread. Ito yung klase ng AI use na gusto naming makita: a tool that helps a small Pinoy dev ship a fuller, more polished game, not a replacement for the creative work.
It’s the same point we made back in July in our editorial, The AI Revolution in Gaming: Why Artificial Intelligence Isn’t Replacing Game Developers, It’s Redefining Their Craft. AI earns its keep where the repetitive work starts, not where the creativity starts. The vision is still human, and The House is a good example of a solo dev using AI exactly that way.
Can your PC run it?
You’ll need 64-bit Windows 10 with at least an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580 8GB. It takes about 6GB of storage, and an SSD is recommended. It’s listed at ₱149 (US$3.99) on Steam, so pang-isang milk tea lang ang damage.
The game doesn’t have user reviews yet since it’s only a week old, but at least one Steam curator has already praised how thick and unsettling the atmosphere is.
We’ll be sharing more about The House soon, so abangan. In the meantime, if you want to support a fellow Pinoy dev this holiday season, it’s a cheap and easy way to do it.
The House is available now on Steam.
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