Gallows Creek! Dust off your boombox! The Killer Frequency soundtrack is now available on Steam! 🎶
Listen to all of your favourite Killer Frequency tracks, including:
🔪 Knife and EZ - 'Stab in the Twilight' 💥 Blast Processor - ‘198X’ 🌙 David Scopo - 'Moonlight' ⚡ Stormriders - 'The Glam Jam' 🐯 Caged Tiger - 'One Last Goodbye' 😮💨 Roddy Snatcher - ‘Final Breath’ 🚜 The Barn Finds - ‘Long Ride Home’
Killer Frequency is a first-person slasher adventure puts players in the shoes of Forrest Nash, a down-on-his luck radio host who must help the inhabitants of a small town escape a ruthless killer! Solve puzzles, save lives and run the switchboards, all while listening to a jukebox of retro ‘80s tunes!
Killer Frequency is Out Now!
Killer Frequency hits the airwaves on Steam!
Team17's new first-person slasher adventure puts players in the shoes of Forrest Nash, a down-on-his luck radio host who must help the inhabitants of a small town escape a ruthless killer! Solve puzzles, save lives and run the switchboards, all while listening to a jukebox of retro ‘80s tunes!
The Whistling Man has returned to Gallows Creek:
1980s Vibes
Engage with a classic 80s slasher setting, exploring an authentically detailed radio station and interacting with dozens of physics-based objects straight from the 80s, including a working cassette and record player.
Become a Radio Host
Get your hands on the sliders and buttons as you man the radio desk, playing the hottest new tracks and taking callers. There might be a killer on the loose, but the show must go on!
Real Time Decisions
Interact with a variety of eccentric small-town personalities, including potential victims and suspects.. Explore your surroundings, gather clues, make decisions, solve riddles and help each of your callers to survive the night.
Uncover the Mystery
The Whistling Man plagued the town of Gallows Creek thirty years ago. Unravel the mystery and find out if he's back from the dead and out for vengeance, or if it's a copycat out for blood.
Welcome back, listeners! We're here with another special feature on KFAM - Killer Frequency: Designing a Narrative!
At its heart, Killer Frequency is a narrative focused game. The story, characters and mystery of the Whistling Man are the driving force behind every decision players will make. We sat down with one of Killer Frequency's game designers, Harry Scholefield, to talk about its narrative design.
Inheriting the narrative
Harry: "Inheriting some of the narrative from the Game Jam version of Killer Frequency was interesting, because I think when you get different people working on any creative project, you can't really recreate what someone else has already created. It's just impossible. I don't think it's possible for the design team or narrative team to create the exact same kind of story and feeling that was there in the original version. It's just that way with different people. Say you asked five people to draw a dog. You'd get back five different dogs.
"So we started off with the bones of what was there already and asked 'what needs to be carried over?' Things like the killer, the town, Forrest and the producer, Peggy. But then we had free rein to develop each of those elements. Adding elements like the background of the killer and their relationship to the town."
Creating the mystery
"Part of what was tricky about expanding the game jam version, was that we needed that hook to run throughout the six or so hours of playtime. A mystery. We needed the players to want to know something and want to find out something. And obviously with a masked killer, it immediately begs the question of who's under the mask.
"We had to make that answer satisfying for the player. If the answer came completely out of the blue, then that sucks the fun out of the whole experience. So it's about having that mystery develop so that it has a direct relationship with the story the player is going through.
"There also has to be enough seeds planted early, that the player can figure it out retroactively. We have to give them enough information, both hints and red herrings, that they can tie it altogether before the reveal.
"One of our original ideas was to only reveal answers to the game's mysteries if the player did well and saved most, if not all, of the callers. We ended up scaling that back so everyone finds out most of what's going on, but if you do really well in-game, you get the full and complete resolution."
The Killer
"We actually went for a long time without nailing down the feeling of the killer. They were just the killer. It wasn't too long into production when I turned to Matt, another game designer, and jokingly said that it'd be funny if it was the one-man band killer, because you'd always hear him coming.
"And then later on, we realised that the killer needs to tie into the audio-based gameplay somehow, with a characteristic hum or whistle. When we started thinking about the whistle, we realised that it's just really creepy. It's creepy in the sense that it's something that's so normal, but it can be done in such an unsettling way. And it's unspecific, so anyone can be whistling.
"Then the name came from that. We were thinking something like the Whistler, and then eventually the Whistling Man. It has an urban legend feel to it. And because of the way the townspeople react to the Whistling Man, making him sort of a joke and stuff over the years, it adds to that urban legend come to life feel."
The Characters
"Introducing the DJ, Forrest as a newcomer to the town solved that classic problem of how to teach players about the world. If he's new to the town, then we get to explain things to the player. And he also gets to comment on events as an outsider. The town's a little absurd in places, and Forrest gets to react to that in a fun way.
"We wanted to have a solid reason as to why he was in town. So we built up his background to where he was a big city DJ. It's something people can reference and it informs on why he's there, how he acts and how he reacts to things. And we allude to the fact that he's disgraced as well, which opens up his redemption arc as he goes from disillusioned with the town to starting to care about the people there and wanting to save them.
"We tried to reflect that in his relationship with Peggy too. Peggy is almost the other side of the coin. She's been in the town forever. She knows everyone, and she's upbeat and optimistic. But she also reflects some of the horror and sadness that the town has been through, and we're excited for players to explore that."
Dialogue
"A lot of the inspiration for character interactions came from games like Firewatch, because it's a unique design where two characters spend a lot of time talking to each other without actually being together in person.
"But we also had to keep in mind what the puzzle for each caller was going to be and how it would work. And then you build the dialogue around it. But whilst the dialogue would initially be written to support the puzzle, we'd also keep in mind the characters themselves and how they'd joke around or react to the situations we've put them in.
"When developing the dialogue, we'd mostly bounce stuff back and forth between the whole design team. We'd do different pass overs, edit it, add more dialogue and then do it all again. Because, we found that it's impossible to write it on your own."
Environmental Storytelling
"Some of the environmental design is driven by the puzzles, but we used a lot of the set dressing as environmental storytelling as well. We had a character spec for each character and we'd explain on it what they like to do, what they're like as a person, what they think about, and so on. Then we'd use that as inspiration for the location dressing to help sell those characters as people that actually exist in this space. So for example, each of the radio station's employees has a different desk space and they're all different depending on the character that uses it."
Final Thoughts
"I'm interested in seeing how people react to the narrative of Killer Frequency and what their takeaways are from it. Especially the developing character relationship between Forrest and Peggy, because a lot of the game hangs off of that relationship. They do 90% of the talking and I think it's kind of the heart of the story there with them. I hope people enjoy it."
Killer Frequency hits the airwaves on 1st June. Wishlist today!
Some big news for you tonight listeners! We're coming at you live with the Killer Frequency Date Reveal! 📻
Don't touch that dial! Here's our next track:
Killer Frequency will flood the airwaves on 1st June!
Killer Frequency follows Forrest Nash, a washed-up DJ and presenter of the ‘The Scream’ late night show, as he tries to help listeners and callers stalked by a mysterious masked murderer.
As the gruesome night unfolds, interact with callers to the show while listening carefully for clues and information, solve puzzles around the studio that could help prevent their grisly demise, and keep the show going with tunes inspired by the 1980s.
Keep up-to-date by liking Killer Frequency on Facebook and following on Twitter. Wishlist the game on Steam here! 👇
Hello listeners! On tonight's show we have a very special feature to share with you - Killer Frequency: Origins of a Slasher!
In 2019, a small group of developers from Team17 came together to take part in a game jam called Adventure Jam.
Over the course of the next two weeks, their free time was eaten up creating a short narrative horror experience about a late-night radio host in a town plagued by a killer. Years later, that small game jam project would enter full development as Killer Frequency.
In the run-up to Killer Frequency's release, we spoke to members of the team who worked on the game jam version: Kev Carthew (game designer), Phil Brown (game artist and voice of Forrest Nash), and Nikki Piazza (voice of the producer).
Adventure Jam
Kev: "Prior to Killer Frequency, for the past five years me and another designer, Adam had always been taking part in a yearly game jam called Adventure Jam.
"The good thing about Adventure Jam is that unlike other game jams, it doesn't come at you with an abstract concept and say, 'fashion a game from this'. It's always just make the best adventure game that you can in two weeks.
"With that Adventure Jam, we hit upon this concept of being a late night radio DJ. We didn't really know what the game was at that point in time, but we thought that culturally, that is something that most people probably recognise. You know, they've heard those late night talk shows or they've seen variations of those shows in movies.
"The game jam itself was hugely enjoyable and quite stressful to take part in. Even before the game jam starts, we're looking at that date in the calendar, and we're saying, 'well, what's our own personal schedules looking like? Are we free those weekends? Can we dedicate time to it?' Design conversations start probably about a week in advance of the jam, and we're just throwing ideas around. And then very quickly, we're going around within the company, and we're seeing who's up for this."
"Once the two weeks of the game jam actually starts, we had to hit the ground running and we had to stay on it to deliver, and we're asking quite a lot of people because there's no financial reward for doing this. We're just doing it for the hell of it. We're just doing it to try and flex our muscles as games developers and say can we actually meet this challenge within two weeks? Can we make something really cool within two weeks?"
The Setting
Kev: "When I was a kid, it used to all be about going to the VHS video rental store. Your parents would give you one film to rent a week and we didn't have streaming services, so content wasn't really ubiquitous in that way. But I remember I've got really strong memories of being a child and going to those video stores.
"You'd see, like a poster for a film like Fright Night or something. Something that was far too mature for you to be able to rent and watch as a child. But they'll always be a mystique to it. And I remember that soon became part of the narrative for Killer Frequency as well. I think that's why it was set in the 80s. We wanted it to feel like an American B-horror movie."
Phil: "I worked with Adam on forming what the town map would be. And then I had a bit of fun with the names of the streets like, you know, calling things like Killkenny Avenue or Chokesville Terrace. So I had a lot of fun thinking up stupid names like that. The style of map that we put together pretty much carried over to the full release, got cleaned up a bit and obviously developed into a larger map of the town."
The Killer
Kev: "The idea for the Whistling Man definitely came later, and he's a great idea that's been taken on by the main dev team. It's a perfect idea for the medium through which the killings are delivered, because there's an audio motif. That wasn't a part of the game jam version though.
"Due to time constrains, the killer in the game jam wasn't even really a character. In fact, in the very first ideas, it wasn't a slasher. The very first idea we had was, well, maybe there's a zombie outbreak or something like that. Maybe you are hunkered into the radio station while the zombie outbreak is happening. And we thought, well, zombies are everywhere. They've been done to death. So we decided to make a slasher.
"I don't think we really talked about even what the killer looked like. We knew that he was a he, only because it was being voiced by Phil. And we also thought that he would kill people with a knife, as that's something we could represent with audio. You know, like these stupid, bloody over-the-top cries and sounds from the victims."
Game and Narrative Design
Kev: The core game system came down to this idea of taking a call, getting some information for the puzzle, playing a record, figuring out the puzzle and then solving the puzzle.
"Basically in the world outside the radio station, while music's playing, it's almost like time stands still. You can put a record on, explore to your heart's content, take any amount of time to come back, and then unpause the record and take the next part of the call.
"Once we were fairly happy with the idea that that's going to work, and bear in mind we have no time to make a prototype, we had to puzzle it out in our heads, talk about it, and then just hope that it worked in practice.
"That's when we moved onto writing it. We had to think about the scope of it. How many characters, how many calls, what kind of things do we have to rely on to be able to build puzzles? Most of the time, it's dialogue choices, so it's a branching narrative. We did map out a flow chart for the first call, but we just felt that just writing it was as good a substitute for creating that flowchart. So we wrote the dialogue and then spoke to the programmers.
"And the thing about that as well is that you're almost designing the puzzles at the same time that you're writing the dialog, because they're so closely entwined. That all just has to work. We had to write it all in one week, because we knew that we'd need the next week for the voice recording, the audio design, and then getting all that into the game."
Voice Acting and Audio Design
Phil: "I'd done a bit of voiceover stuff for Team17 before, so Kev asked came to me and went through the premise of the game. It immediately hit my interests because it was set in the 80s and was a horror slasher, sort of thriller.
"So I ended up playing Forest Nash, the DJ. I also played caller #3. These callers don't get given names, so we only know him as caller #3, who's the travelling salesman. And I played the killer, when the killer calls to tell them that he knows that Forrest is trying to help the callers.
"It was a very quick process. We were only given the scripts maybe an hour or so before, and then we were pretty much just going into recording takes. We recorded in like a meeting room, because at the time in that building, we didn't have an audio room. So we were just trying to get it as best as we could.
"It was very homemade, like we would try a few takes and then if it didn't seem to bond then we would go back and we would do them all again, so that we got it as consistent as possible. Obviously, I'm not American and it was tricky and I had to stop myself when I realised that I was saying things in more of an English accent again.
"We were trying to get the sound of a guy who basically just lives on whiskey and no sleep, that kind of guy and I couldn't get my voice as gravelly as that without it sounding forced. So, we settled on something more natural, but still with a little bit of a drawl."
Nikki: "Kev came to me one day in the office and asked if I wanted to do some voice work for the game jam. I hadn't planned to be part of it, so I was kind of surprised by the question, but I said that'd I'd love to take part. I do think part of it was because this whole thing take places in a little town in America, and being half American and still having a reasonably strong accent, I don't have to force it.
"When recording, we'd head up to an office upstairs and Danny, who was doing the sound design, had a full microphone set-up for us. We got given the script for it and were told to maybe ad lib or change things if we felt it'd flow better.
"With it being a game jam, there wasn't too much to record. I think we had three callers in the end, and there was generally two ways each conversation could go - whether they lived or whether they died. And I played both the producer and the high school girl caller.
"But at least from the voice acting point of view, it all seemed very relaxed. There was very little panicking at the last minute. There were no arguments, there was no drama."
Kev: "The thing about this game, was if Phil or Nikki had said no to lending their voice to it, then maybe it wouldn't have even happened. Because it was so, so dependent on having voice actors. And also, Danny and Holly, our sound designers, were a huge, huge part of this game.
"The amount of work they got through within those two weeks! I think there's like six original pieces of music composition that they provided for it. There's all the voice recording. There's a ton of sound design that goes into the voice recording as well. It all needed to slot into place in a really short amount of time."
The Online Response
Kev: "It's funny because it's not like a big game jam where you see an instant response. With Killer Frequency, you had that elation of meeting the deadline and it being finished and over, and then it kind of goes quiet for a little while and for the next couple of days, you're refreshing the page. You're looking for any little comment that you can get, any tidbit of information that people like it.
"It was probably about two weeks after the Jam had finished, before we started seeing people pick it up on YouTube. We got some fairly sizable streamers and influencers who were playing the game and we got pretty good engagement with the YouTube community.
"Killer Frequency was far above and beyond anything that we'd done before, so to see people engaging with it and streamers playing it and the reactions that it got. Yeah, really, really fulfilling. And that is the reward, that people actually like the thing that you spent that time making.
"And, it was the fact that people seemed to be having a good time with it on on YouTube and Twitch that really sort of helped make a more compelling argument that Killer Frequency might actually have legs as a full release."
Nikki: "It was very surreal. I had to laugh quite a lot, because the interval that they set for my producer's lines prompting the player to do something was like every 15 seconds or something like that. And it cracked me up every time, because when a YouTuber started up the game, there wasn't a start menu. It just dumped you directly into the gameplay. So, every 15 seconds you had my producer going, 'Hey Forrest, hit the button' and it often interrupted all their introductions.
"But it was just surreal seeing all these quite famous YouTubers playing this little indie game where both Phil and I were the vocal stars. It was a really nice feeling knowing that people appreciated it, and that quite a few did enjoy the voice acting for it."
Phil: Seeing those early videos go out and seeing YouTubers genuinely enjoying the game and knowing that it took us two weeks and how much work went into those two weeks, you just think 'I hope this is going to be good' and it was almost an immediate reward with Killer Frequency."
What makes Killer Frequency special?
Kev: "I think it's the setting and how we've derived gameplay specifically from the radio station setting. You're having to imagine what the world outside looks like through the context of the clues that you're given by the callers that call in, and that makes for some very challenging puzzle design for designers. But I think it makes for really unique puzzles for players. It feels like it stands out as a game that there just aren't too many similar examples of."
Phil: "For me, it's how the game communicates with the player. It works on a level that we all understand. It's almost like instead of just telling someone a ghost story, we've put them into it, and giving them the option of deciding what's going to happen. When you present a lovely, rich scenario that you can explore, the player will do some of the story writing on their own."
Nikki: "I think it's unique in its design. It doesn't put you directly in the footsteps of the survivor themselves like a lot of games do. This game puts you in the footsteps of someone who is helping the survivors get away. So you're kind of like the guy in the chair almost for these survivors, which is not a perspective that's ever really done for horror, because people like to put themselves in that situation, whereas this is a little bit different.
"But that doesn't mean that you don't get immersed, because suddenly you're responsible for the person on the other end of the phone who you might not know a heck of a lot about. You suddenly care about them just because of the way they've been introduced or the way they've been talking to you. I think that's a really interesting dynamic to have."
Killer Frequency hits the airwaves in Summer 2023. Wishlist today!
Good evening, listeners! We've got something a little chilling to share with you tonight! 📻
Now listeners, we've had reports of a strange individual prowling in the shadows, stalking members of this fine community! I know, I know, it's a terrifying thing to think about! But I believe that if the good people of Gallows Creek come together to help one another, we'll be just fine!
Anyway, here's your next tune...
The Killer Frequency Gameplay Trailer!
Killer Frequency hits the airwaves this Summer!
Killer Frequency is a first-person slasher adventure that puts you in the shoes of a late-night radio host. Solve puzzles, save lives and run the switchboards, all while listening to a jukebox of retro ‘80s tunes!
Keep up-to-date by liking Killer Frequency on Facebook and following on Twitter. And don't forget to wishlist the game on Steam! 👇
Killer Frequency: More info hitting the airwaves in 2023!
We're here in the midnight hour and you're listening to 189.16, The Scream 😱
People of Gallows Creek, it's time to spin some records and save lives. Lock your doors, put the kids to bed, and keep on listening to KFAM. There's a killer on the loose!
What is Killer Frequency?
Killer Frequency is a brand-new narrative-based thriller set in a 1980s mid-American town where a serial killer is on the loose looking to maximise their kill count.
You'll take on the night shift at a local radio station and help listeners as they’re stalked by the mysterious masked killer.
Experience the isolation and dread of being alone, locked away in a radio station, with the lives of your listeners in your hands. Every choice you make has a consequence as you explore the environment, find clues and solve puzzles while trying to keep the population of Gallows Creek from a grizzly death.
Much more to come in 2023
Early 2023 will be an important time for Killer Frequency, and we're very excited about everything we have to show you! Keep up-to-date by liking Killer Frequency on Facebook and following on Twitter. And don't forget to wishlist the game on Steam!
Spin records, save lives, and survive the graveyard shift in our brand-new original IP, set in a radio station and inspired by classic ‘80s/90s horror-comedy movies!
Shock-jocks-in-training can tune in below for a mysterious new announcement trailer:
What is Killer Frequency?
Killer Frequency is a brand-new horror-comedy set in a 1980s mid-American town where a serial killer is on the loose looking to maximise their kill count. Coming to Steam via flat screen mode in 2022,
Killer Frequency will players take the night shift at the local radio station and help listeners as they’re stalked by the mysterious masked killer.
As the gruesome night unfolds, interact with callers using a variety of conversation options while listening carefully for clues and information, solve puzzles around the studio that could help prevent each caller’s grisly demise, and keep the show going with tunes inspired by the decade. Players can also explore the studio building, and interact with authentic items from the era, including a working turntable and a cassette player.
Key Features
Unique horror-themed radio DJ experience: Take control of the switchboard and explore an authentic 1980s radio studio as you guide the fates of your late-night listeners stalked by a mysterious killer
Real-time decision making and puzzle solving: Take calls from potential victims while gathering clues, making decisions, and solving satisfying puzzles that could help each caller survive the night
Fully voice-acted story & retro ‘80s-inspired soundtrack: Interact with a variety of larger-than-life personalities including callers, potential suspects, and a charismatic producer while jamming to a jukebox of 1980s-inspired tunes
Branching dialogue options and multiple endings: Choose from a variety of conversation options to interact with callers – will you guide them to safety or broadcast their last moments live on air?
Killer Frequency is being developed internally by Team17. To keep up to date with all things Killer Frequency, wishlist the game on Steam now, like it on Facebook, and follow on Twitter.
