Varney Lake
LCB Game Studio · 2023 · Adventure, Interactive Fiction, Supernatural, Puzzle, Vampires
PC
Very Positive100% · 63
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About Varney Lake
What really happened at Varney Lake?
1954. During the long, hot summer, Jimmy, Doug and Christine are spending their fourth vacation together at Varney Lake. Teenage crushes, pranks and card tricks, long days of adventure, a pipe dream of saving the local drive-in from demolition; they’re kids, coming of age.
Until they find the Vampire.
1981. Lou Hill, paranormal investigator, has a lead on a mind-blowing case. Will he be able to convince the now 40-something Christine and Jimmy to tell him the truth about that Summer? Do they even know themselves?
And what really happened to Doug?
Features
Varney Lake, is for anyone who enjoys fine storytelling and engaging puzzles:
The follow-up to Mothmen 1966
Varney Lake is the second of the Pixel Pulps; a new series of interactive adventures created by novelist Nico Saraintaris and artist Fernando Martinez Ruppel. Pixel Pulps tell gripping stories inspired by mid-20th century pulp fiction and illustrated by 80s home computer-inspired graphics. The Pixel Pulps Collection comprises three games: Mothmen 1966, Varney Lake, and Bahnsen Knights.
1954. During the long, hot summer, Jimmy, Doug and Christine are spending their fourth vacation together at Varney Lake. Teenage crushes, pranks and card tricks, long days of adventure, a pipe dream of saving the local drive-in from demolition; they’re kids, coming of age.
Until they find the Vampire.
1981. Lou Hill, paranormal investigator, has a lead on a mind-blowing case. Will he be able to convince the now 40-something Christine and Jimmy to tell him the truth about that Summer? Do they even know themselves?
And what really happened to Doug?
Features
Varney Lake, is for anyone who enjoys fine storytelling and engaging puzzles:
- Search for the truth in the nostalgic, branching narrative
- Immerse yourself in the story with its rich, evocative illustrations
- Witness the fate of Varney Lake’s characters in ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style gameplay
- Solve accessible, brain-tickling puzzles along the way
- Learn more of Lou Hill, the Pixel Pulps' recurring investigator
The follow-up to Mothmen 1966
Varney Lake is the second of the Pixel Pulps; a new series of interactive adventures created by novelist Nico Saraintaris and artist Fernando Martinez Ruppel. Pixel Pulps tell gripping stories inspired by mid-20th century pulp fiction and illustrated by 80s home computer-inspired graphics. The Pixel Pulps Collection comprises three games: Mothmen 1966, Varney Lake, and Bahnsen Knights.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
a yes1 found this helpful
LCB continues their story over from Mothmen 1966, and this story is stronger than the first one. You can tell the authors are finding their foothold in story telling. 3 friends meet a vampire in the summer of 1954. it requires a total of 4 playthroughs to get all of the secret endings. The minigames can be trying at times, in particular the matchstick puzzles and dice hopscotch. But I did enjoy the fishing minigame. I am intrigued by the secret ending #4 and hope to get the clarification in book #3.
Fun visual novella with great pixel art.
Terrible mini-games and no satisfying ending. Such squandered potential.
Another impressive entry in the Pixel Pulps series of supernatural visual novellas. This one features, in no particular order: teenage angst; guilt and trauma spanning two time-frames (1954 and 1981, respectively); painful secrets and astonishing revelations; and human-vampire cultural misunderstandings. The pixel art, as ever, is top-drawer, and the writing tight and concise. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character, a narrative technique brilliantly utilised across the whole series. There’s some recurring characters from Mothmen 1966 (so best to play that one first). An unobtrusive layer of metafiction is added via Lou, a struggling writer chasing down ‘real life’ supernatural stories; and the dual time-frame opens up some eye-opening psychological vistas. The embedded games, created by one of the teenage characters, didn’t grab me, although I think this is intentional. Like the other games in this series (including their latest, Grizzly Man), this incorporates fantastically pulpy supernatural happenings into everyday life in a most pleasingly uncanny manner. I love it.
Good purchase for an hr or two if it’s on sale. Endings were not great imo though.
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