Welcome puzzlers, Behind the Doors is a weekly blog that covers every nook and cranny of our favorite Doors.
We’ve already covered the Infernal Fire door with its wide range of haunted phenomena, next up was the Sanatorium, which is our take on creepy asylums. This week’s door Spooky Spiders, contrary to its name, was actually supposed to be the epitome of the Haunted House category. But let’s head back and take a look at our first designs and ideas..
Number 13
We’ll let you in on a little secret - none of our prototypes had any spiders! In fact, this door was supposed to be THE haunted house of this category.. None the wiser, we really wanted to play into the idea of a Karma house, which was full of dangers waiting to happen.
Firstly, number 13 is the unluckiest number according to cultures from around the whole world. Hotels in Japan even removed the 13th floor from their elevators, because of the stigma around it.
Secondly, there are a number of dangerous situations waiting to happen - the stovetop ready to light a fire, the hole being dug at the front of the house and the skeleton on the wall waiting to fall down and smash everything below it.
Let’s say that this house was supposed to be the big accident.. that never happened.
The Aristocrat’s Library
This prototype also plays out the haunted house narrative, but this time it’s an old-time aristocrat’s fancy house with a library, marble bust and all that jazz. The hands coming out of the wardrobe proved to be quite spooky, when you imagine them slowly moving and tapping with long nails, but that wasn’t the highlight of the prototype. On the back, if you look closely, there is a rocking horse toy for children, which according to every single haunted movie, is a recipe for disaster in all its glory. As you can see by the weird walls and general shape of this door, it was neither finished, nor well-liked to be improved upon.
The Final Look
So how exactly did the idea to add a giant spider come to be? Well, when you ask yourself what’s a creepy thing that people hate, the first three things that come to mind are spiders, spiders and maybe more spiders. This idea definitely wore the crown, but plenty more details were bringing the atmosphere its ominous feel. For example, the previous prototype was an aristocrat’s mansion and we decided to use these details to further improve our ideas. Yes, the whole front of the door was covered by the eight-legged creature, but the back was all cozy, fireplace vibes, which were only enhanced by the sinister skelly from the first prototype.
It's September now, so in true Halloween fashion put your witch hats on, carve a pumpkin and get yourself a Zula to scare the ghosts and spiders away! ːsteamhappyː
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If you enjoyed our demo and want to see more from Doors, check in with your favorite puzzle streamers, because plenty of them are already playing an exclusive 15-level version!
