
An Outcry
A downloadable game for Windows

On the fourth floor of an apartment complex in Vienna, five people lead their lonely lives.
Behind door #3 lives the Unnamed, a 25-year-old shut-in:
A smoker, interested in bikes, books and music, in the grip of heavy anxiety and poverty.
By complete chance, the Unnamed would lock themself out of their apartment one fateful night, and be placed in your hands.
The night of the 14th of October 2017 was no ordinary night-
A heavy beating of strange wings filled the air with the scent of smoke, and covered the stars in an ink-like rot.
It is your mission to ensure the Unnamed's safety as the shadows close around them. Make certain they survive; choose their path carefully.
An Outcry is a narrative, text-heavy horror RPG made in RPG Maker 2003.
As seen on the Haunted PS1 Demo Disc 2021.
Features:
- ~4 hours of gameplay with 2 major, impactful routes to choose from and 5 endings to find
- Almost 100 fully illustrated cutscene images
- A haunting soundtrack made up of drone music, post rock, and other eclectic sounds
- Talking with birds
Content warnings:
Sudden loud noises, flashing images, suicide, abuse, recreational drug use, blood, gore, transphobia, and animal death.
Game director, producer, writer, event scripting, spritework: Quinn K.
Co-director, cutscene art, additional ideas: Kitet Frog
Additional event scripting, additional writing: Parsely, Mark "EmceeProphIt" Stephens
Overworld spritework, battle spritework: Bowser
Additional cutscene art: Oscar
3D-modelling + animation: Kyra
Music: Leaf Let, "hope" groveland, Christoph Frey, Jack King-Spooner, Jordaan Mason, Sophia Alzzarla
Sound effects, audio editing, sound design: 3D63
Voice acting: Jeffrey Vandall
Sensitivity reading: OKSoft
French translation: Leaf Let
Additional assets: Jennifer, Sprite Star, Amon26, Bryce Bucher, Valerie Dusk, Blood Machine
Additional character design (Anne Pierrot): Splendidland
Accessibility consulting, additional tools: Alessa Baker
Don't disappear like the smoke into the night.
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows |
Release date | Jan 05, 2022 |
Rating | Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars (50 total ratings) |
Author | Quinn K. |
Genre | Role Playing |
Tags | 2D, Horror, LGBTQIA, Narrative, Pixel Art, Psychological Horror, RPG Maker, Singleplayer, Story Rich |
Average session | A few hours |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Xbox controller |
Links | Steam, Twitter, Soundtrack |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- AN OUTCRY - Update to ending 1/5 + BugfixesMar 12, 2023
- An Outcry nominated for IGF 2023 Nuovo Award + SALE!Jan 30, 2023
- Some general news and updatesOct 01, 2022
- AN OUTCRY v. 2.0: RELEASEJun 21, 2022
- UPDATE: Version 1.2 of An Outcry is now live.Apr 14, 2022
- AN OUTCRY IS NOW RELEASED.Jan 05, 2022
Comments
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Dear Quinn K, I'm burning to ask - there is a line in Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt: "No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the birds in Italy under Mussolini were observed to take part in rallies and violence."
I see many parallels between this book and your splendid game, and I mean to ask if this line was in mind when you & your team were writing your fascist birds, or perhaps even if it was a case of deliberate allusion.
Thanks,
Ash
I hadn't heard of "Tell Me I'm Worthless" before now, and An Outcry started development in 2019, a good bit before the book's release in 2021. Also, that line itself is an allusion to the opening of Shirley Jackson's "Haunting of Hill House" ("No live organism can continue to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality").
In short: It's a coincidence, but a pretty interesting one. Thanks for bringing that book to my attention!
I see, I did expect it to be more of a coincidental similarity in themes, but figured I'd ask. I am familiar with the Hill House reference as well fwiw.
Thank you!
I just finished ending three of this game (the first ending I got and it was so good omg I have got to play the others now
Hey just wanted to say I really enjoyed this game! Definitely needed to bash some fascist birds.
I love the game!! It really has a good design to it and Anne really reminds me of a family member who is also called Anne. lol xD
I only got 1 ending so far, which is the suicide ending. But i am still trying to get more!! Love the game and keep up the work! cant wait to see what will happen with the other endings!
Hi! I'm a 19 y/o student from Lower Austria, studying in Vienna. I really love the game, its allegories and metaphors, and ever since I bought it on steam in kept me thinking.
That being said, I would very much like to translate An Outcry into the language its world is set in: Austrian German. With the Viennese dialect sprinkled in by some, while heavily relied upon by others.
I'd love for my parents to play the game - with their English less than sufficient, I would love to help it reach a wider audience.
I know you've put great care into the Viennese worldbuilding, and I would be honoured to add to it with the classic 'Wiener Schmäh'.
I'm hopeful you'll respond.
Hello! Thank you for your interest in the game :] Feel free to send me a message over on my Twitter to discuss this further:
twitter.com/quinnkdev
I can't seem to play it/run it on my laptop because it will keep saying "Cannot open Anoutcry file" everytime i click on the application for it, what does that mean?
Hrm... I've never seen this happen. Are you using the itch.io launcher, by any chance?
Looking at the in-game files, that would be this specific file messing up.
Try and download it, rename it to "AnOutCry.png" (if itch renamed it in the uploading process), then attempt launching it again? If a different issue crops up then, let me know.
WHOOPS, you also need to put this file into the "System" folder in the game folders. Forgot to add that.
I tried it and it didn't work, which is kinda weird. I'll just try and see what will happen if i extract the stuff from the RAR file again. I really do hope that it will work.
Oof... Same exact error message?
I'm currently downloading the folder myself to double-check if everything's okay in there.
Unfortunately I really don't know what could be wrong at this moment. My last resort would be to attempt to launch the game using EasyRPG: https://easyrpg.org/
EasyRPG is an open-source emulator for RPG Maker 2003 games. Sometimes, it can lend a game additional stability - or so I would hope. :(
If this doesn't work either, feel free to request a refund on your purchase. I'm really sorry.
I finally got it to work!!, I must've extracted the file wrong or something.
Game's pretty heavy and combat's tough, but defo recommend experiencing it at least once.
Learning about these characters and their lives was a treat, and the soundtrack was fantastic.
One of the best RPG Maker 2003 games ever made!
To the development team, and especially to the creative director(s), for whom I suspect this project was deeply personal, as most art is:
Thank you for making this game. Its existence makes the world a better place.
I could and perhaps should say many more positive things about it, but I will not presuppose that my opinions matter to you. Instead, I'd just like to point out one element of the game that has given me much food for thought.
Exactly one character in the game has voice lines, and only for one particular scene. I must assume this was an intentional choice.
I am a fan of the novel Heart of Darkness. Although many scholars have documented the unsavory tastes of racism and imperialism that mar the prose, I still think it has insightful things to say about the dark side of human ambition, and so I still believe that it has value.
In Heart of Darkness, there is much emphasis placed on Kurtz's skills as an orator. The character's greatest ability is to make morally questionable motives seem upright by use of rhetoric and lofty speech, thereby deluding himself and others. In fact, when Kurtz is finally found, he is a weak and sick shell of a man. In a sense, his voice—his ability to ennoble any action through oration—is all he ever was.
As the character Marlow says, "A voice! a voice! It rang deep to the very last. It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart."
I can't help but wonder if the creative team was familiar with the novel and decided to link this motif, however subtly, to the insidious faux-elegance of inflammatory political oration, debate, and televised commentary.
This game is important. 10/10
I followed an outcry.
This was a great game - I look forward to playing the other route.
The sound design is on point. I feel disturbed. But it’s a horror game. I feel like I am always fighting something bigger than I can fight.
FINALLY got around to playing this tonight, so glad I did. I've got a short written review up here https://ggapp.io/crimson2877/reviews/an-outcry/9AOcZYQj
but the tldr is I love this game!!!
Really showing what talent the Haunted PS1 Community has, what a pleasure to play. Thank you for the hard work, an indie horror masterpiece
Full Playthrough No Commentary
This game was even better than I was hoping it would be since I saw the demo and got excited for it. There were some parts that surprised me despite the fact that I feel like I've seen every weird little RPG trick at this point. Extremely cool use of RM3. Go into this with an open mind and aware of the heavy subjects and you will have a good time.
I've put in a lot of thought on what sort of comment to leave for other people looking to get into this game, and to the devs. The best way I can think of to do so is to mention a review off a random site, which sung this game's praises, while saying that the scope of the game is limited. Sure, the game only takes place in an apartment building. But this is a game that paints foreshadowing into every moment, every line, everything means something. It's so well planned that I think widening the "scope" of this game would have taken away from that, and from the themes of the game.
So then I was trying to think about what I disliked about this game, if anything. I enjoy being critical of things even I adore, it's part of me enjoying something fully. I, however, as much as I try, cannot come up with any real faults. While playing the game I did worry that the game's overarching themes would be lost on the main audience, a sort of "preaching to the choir" syndrome, but I'm happy to say that the game did a great job at side stepping that as well, and delivering a message that I myself needed to really hear, even if I didn't think I needed it at first.
The artwork and assets work together seamlessly, the writing is intentional and impactful, the music is haunting and relentless, and everything works together to sink you into this world.
My only real suggestion for those who aren't sure if this game is for them is to take the trigger warnings seriously. I had to put this game down and take breaks for my own mental health, make sure to put yourself first before any game.
hey, I loved your game
beginning to end.
Very relatable & ominous.
thank you for this experience (^:
this is a wonderful game made with such passion & care that it left me stunned multiple times. the fact that it's made in RPG maker 2003 leaves me in awe all on its own, let alone the beautiful pixel art & splash screens, the stellar writing, and the atmospheric music. this is the first game in a While that i've felt compelled to play to completion, and each ending feels very deserved. i truly think An Outcry stands alongside its RPG maker predecessors with honors, and i hope (demand!!) that it gets the recognition it deserves.
Incredible work. First got a taste in the PS1 demo disc, and have been waiting patiently since! This was incredibly compelling stuff, painful and rewarding.
Just finished my first playthrough and it was everything I hoped and more. Definitely still digesting a lot of things narratively, and am garbage at writing meaningful reflections on such matters, but the storytelling was excellent and I can't wait to see what other endings have in store (especially since I feel like my playthrough was catastrophic and full of bad choices [or, non choices, if that makes sense]).
Also, on a technical level, y'all managed to do stuff I didn't even know was possible with RM2K3, which is always exciting to see. (Would love to learn more about any of the tricks up yer sleeves, but this probably isn't the medium for that .:P)
Fantastic work all around!
This video serves as a more in-depth review but I really recommend you to play it by yourself.
I came into the game with very high expectations and still they got blown away. An Outcry went very fast from "this cool demo I liked" to this very impressive thoughtful experience. It's hard to summarize in only a few sentences how much this game means to me. It's character design, world design, music and themes just resonated hard with me. And I feel like it will resonate with many others.
I'm so ready for this.
excited to play soon!
So nice I bought it twice. But seriously, I will review once I'm finished, but I'm excited to play soon!!!