C O V E N
Coven is a dark fantasy visual novel game.
You play as Will, an introverted high school student who begins to learn magic after a dangerous encounter.
As an attempt to save their dying friendship, Will shares her discoveries with her childhood best friend Brynn.
The more magic they learn, the more their repressed emotions start to manifest in reality, forcing them to either confront their feelings or fight harder to push them back down, becoming monstrous versions of themselves.
Explore Will’s town, meet other magic users, and solve puzzles to learn more about the nature of magic.
Will is introverted, isolated and creative, so she tends to hide in and mend her worn baggy clothes instead of buying new ones. On the other hand, Brynn is a bit insecure with a drive to social climb, so she’s trendier while just missing the mark of true popularity. They each have very different personalities, but they’ve also known each other for years and are very close.
Will and Brynn
Made of objects with great emotional significance to their owners, talismans give witches their power. They cast spells that fit the emotional theme. For example, the talisman Will picks up is greatly linked to death and afterlife, and it can cast spells that commune with the dead, see beyond the veil, and perhaps more…. earning its moniker as the ghost talisman.
Each component was important to the witch who created it, and had some connection to death in her mind.
Talismans
The Ballerina was designed to be the monster form of the witch that the talisman belonged to. She shares visual similarities with it but in a twisted way.
Enemies
Eelgrass Cove is meant to be a coastal town. I wanted it to feel lonely, kind of ill-maintained, atmospheric and tense.
Will lives in an old house with her father. Her room is on the top floor, a mess of childhood furniture and nerd paraphernalia. By contrast, the computer room is in the basement: a dusty storage space full of unopened boxes, DVDs and board games. I wanted both to be secluded and dark, but Will’s room is a place of safety, and the basement is creepier and off-putting.
Locations
Will learns more about magic and talismans from a mysterious website, and she spends a lot of time on the internet. This is sort of my love letter to alternate reality games like Cicada 3301 and Gemini Home Entertainment, as well as sites I used to visit as a kid. Those types of things are more fun to solve yourself, which is why Coven is a game and not a show or comic. I did a lot of research on 90’s and early 2010’s websites to create the sites Will visits, and as the game continues there will be more emphasis on site-hopping to solve puzzles, possibly even with video content.
Websites
