The House

The House is an online flash horror developed by SINTHAI, a developer based in Thailand. The game initially released in 2005 and gained popularity quickly as part of classic flash horror. After overwhelming success of the first installment, the sequel to The House released in 2010 along with The Halloween, a spin-off to The House franchise. Expanding the story further and additionally visual improvements.

## Story

### The House 1

In the year 1970, a harmonious family with a son and a daughter lived there. However ten years later, the entire family was mysteriously and tragically killed. The house has since been considered haunted by the locals. Eventually, someone with great courage dares to investigate what happened to the house. The discoveries made by the investigator lead him to unravel the mystery behind the horrific massacre. It is revealed that the mother, who was afflicted with a terminal cancer became consumed by paranoia about losing her family. In a desperate attempt to stay as family even in the afterlife, she devised a plan to commit murder. A gruesome one leading to decapitation of her son, a shot to the head on her husband, and a single hang to her daughter.

Before leaving the house, the investigator enters a corridor leading to final encounter with the mother. The outcome of the investigator's fate remains unknown, leaving uncertainty of life and death.

### The House 2

A family gave birth to a child named Alrena Rouche in October 8 1947. The girl had been born physically deformed and mentally disabled. Their family are unable to raise her as she is a burden to them. At some point, Alrena was murdered by her own family by feeding Alrena with poisoned food. Her remains was locked in a safe never to be seen or buried. On December 24 1963, Nicole A. Matty was adopted by Rouche family. Nicole was gifted with spiritual presence and able to sense or see spirit. The child was taking care by newly hired housemaid. While living as Rouche family, Nicole meet the ghost of Nicole and frequently interacts with her.

Nicole becomes conscious as her friend Alrena presents proof of her own family being responsible for her death. As the haunting become more frequent, the housemaid reports hearing Nicole's playful activities and experiencing laughter or weeping sounds coming from Alrena. Disturbed by these incidents, the housemaid plan on resigning. Meanwhile, the family becomes aware of Alrena's presence alongside with the housemaid's growing suspicions. In an effort to conceal the evidence, they killed Nicole and The Housemaid then bury their bodies in an isolated location . Two years later in 1965 the family later committed suicide.

In an effort to unravel the nightmare, The detective makes the choice to enter the deserted Rouche family residence. Inside the house the detective uncover many hints towards the downfall. However tragedy strikes as the investigator meets their demise upon unlocking the secure container holding Alrena Rouche.

## Gameplay

The gameplay is simple and easy to understand, involving point-and-click mechanics. The game is composed of a series of five levels, where each level must be successfully completed in order to progress to the next level or room. Throughout each level, players will come across scattered clues that can be deciphered, providing valuable insights into the game's storyline.

## Development

### The House 1

The game's development originated as a concept by SINTHAI, drawing inspiration from chain-mail screamers and "What's Wrong With This Picture" screamers, with the intention of creating a screamer game. The creator opted to utilize Adobe Flash which was a popular choice for developing flash games from 2000-2014. The initial prototype of the game was shared with friends at the university, featuring a single room. The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive and added a high level of pressure during testing.

> In the past, everyone probably saw video clips or forward emails that tricked us into watching or doing something using concentration Then a ghost appeared to surprise us. I want to take this thing and make it really serious. At that time, Adobe Flash was something that answered this question very well. I can do what i want and spread it on the website that people around the world can come and see immediately.
> (SINTHAI, 2005)
>
>

After receiving numerous positive feedback, SINTHAI took the opportunity to reflect the game as a whole. Following careful consideration, the decision was made to proceed with further developing the game, leading to its full release in 2005. To ensure the game reaches the local market completely, the creator chose to distribute the game website through a chain email forward, a decision that had a significant impact. The chain email quickly generated an "urban legend" about the website, resulting in a large number of people becoming followers of the game. With the immense followers from local players, a Facebook page was created as a fanpage to The House Franchise.

### The House 2 and The Halloween

In 2010, SINTHAI decided to create a follow-up to hit game The House. According to SINTHAI, he wanted the game to maintain the prequel's charm of the point and click lack of clue while giving visual improvements and stories.During that period, the internet had a broader reach, and The House quickly garnered 1 million followers. The game was developed using the same engine while introducing a new storyline inspired by the original installment.

> “The house had been abandoned for many decades and part of mass suicide. A small family home, father, mother, son and one maid. 'There's something wrong in this house..' The maid felt it from the first time she came to work here. to take care of the daughter of this house And the maid accidentally learns something she shouldn't know: the daughter she has to take care of. Instead, he was not the real child of this house, but an orphan who was adopted. And she also knew that there used to be a daughter in this house, named Alrena, but before the maid knew the last secret...she was killed. Where did her biological daughter Alrena go?”
> (The House 2 - Plot)
>
>

The House 2 gained notorious popularity as one of popular installment among The House Franchise. Following the success of The House 2, the creator developed a spin off to The House franchise called The Halloween. The Halloween is among shortest game created by SINTHAI consisting only one room that player can solve.

### Alrena Roushe Screamers

In order to promote The House 2, SINTHAI creates a website that emulates a Facebook page centered around a character from the game named Alrena Roushe. The intention behind the webpage was to startle individuals who visited the website along with promoting The House 2. As SINTHAI mentioned, this was an unorthodox method of marketing the game which create a viral impact for few days.

##### Controversy

The website caused a significant uproar and controversy by aiming to frighten people as a means to discourage them from using Facebook. The creator addressed the controversy that it was created in his own website. It was also decided to remove the screamer entirely due to creating uncomfortable atmosphere for people on Facebook who mistook it for a real feature from the social media website.

## Trivia

* The Halloween is the shortest game based on The House franchise
* Many of the assets of the game coming from real place and edited to match the horror element.
	+ The face of Nicole from The House 2 is an edited of an artwork made by DeviantArt User Steelgohst.
	+ The lady face from The Halloween is an edited of sprite from Lomando .
* The House started as website horror inspired by internet screamers popular in early 2000s.
* Following the release of The House 2, SINTHAI creates a fake facebook profile for Alrena Rouche serving as screamers.

## Official Links

* The House Official Fanpage
* The House Official Website
* The House Official YouTube
* SINTHAI Ofiicial Facebook
* SINTHAI Ofiicial Twitter
* SINTHAI Ofiicial Instagram
* SINTHAI Official Website

## Gallery

The attic where The Investigator found a deceased body and a painting of The FatherA bedroom riddled with mysteriesA safe from The House 2The corridor before The Investigator encountered Mother
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 [1] (TRANSLATED) The House Online Blog
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 [2] Boonmaitree, Sinthai. The House Proposal. 2005. Published by SINTHAI
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 [3] (Translated) The House 2 Online Blog
4. ↑ [4] Alrena Roushe Blog
5. ↑ [5] SINTHAI - Behind TheHOUSE 2 via Youtube.com
6. ↑ [6] Seriously Scary created by steelgohst
7. ↑ [7] Lomando.com