Shivers (video game)

Shivers

Company type	Video game
Industry	Video games
Founded	November 1995 (1995-11)
Founder	Sierra On-Line
Products	Shivers (video game)
Parent	Sierra On-Line

Shivers is a single-player horror-centered PC adventure game launched on CD-ROM by Sierra On-Line in November 1995. Utilizing Sierra's Creative Interpreter engine, it marked Sierra's initial venture into first-person adventure gameplay and was often likened to Myst and The 7th Guest. The title garnered acclaim primarily for its immersive atmosphere. The narrative unfolds within a fictional haunted museum.

Plot

Sir Hubert Windlenot, a British aristocrat and archeologist connected to the Royal Society, was fascinated by unconventional subjects such as ancient astronauts, hollow earth, and Atlantis. He moved to the United States to create "Professor Windlenot's Museum of the Strange and Unusual" located in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. This extensive project took twenty years to develop and included themed displays and puzzles like an artificial lake, subterranean labyrinth, greenhouse, and an Atlantis diorama. However, Windlenot vanished prior to its completion.

Players take on the role of a teenager challenged to spend a night inside the allegedly haunted museum. Exploration reveals that in 1980, two local students inadvertently unleashed hostile entities named "ixupi" from ceramic containers sourced from the Moche Valley. These spirits, originally confined by the fictional Zapana tribe, feed on human life force ("Ka") and possess various substances such as sand, fabric, wax, and electricity. The ixupi were responsible for the deaths of the students and later Windlenot, with three spirits escaping containment.

The objective is to capture the remaining ten ixupi before daybreak by finding vessels and matching talismans scattered throughout the museum. This requires solving puzzles, traversing mazes, and discovering hidden passages. Documents uncovered during gameplay provide additional context about Windlenot and the ill-fated students.

The climax centers on capturing the electricity ixupi near the museum’s power generator, which results in an explosion. As dawn arrives, the player’s friends come to their aid. A newspaper article confirms that Windlenot’s and the students’ bodies were found, ending their fifteen-year disappearance mystery.

Gameplay

Presented from a first-person perspective, the gameplay style closely resembles that of Virgin Interactive/Trilobyte's The 7th Guest.

Like other point-and-click adventures, players use a mouse or similar device to move around and interact with objects. The gameplay involves gathering clues, solving puzzles, and collecting vessel fragments needed to trap the ixupi and escape from the museum.

The user interface includes a bar at the bottom of the screen functioning as a health bar, indicating remaining "life essence," which diminishes when attacked by an ixupi. This bar also serves as an inventory display showing the currently held vessel or cover with an option for detailed examination. Successfully trapped ixupi vessels appear here as trophies, tracking player progress.

Only vessels and their corresponding covers can be stored in inventory, which accommodates just one item at any given time—whether a vessel, cover, or combined item. Picking up an incompatible object swaps it with what is currently held, requiring players to remember item locations and revisit areas accordingly.

Holding a complete vessel enables players to capture its matching ixupi, identified by Zapana pictograph symbols representing different materials.

While item locations are generally fixed, their specific placements are randomized each playthrough to vary progression paths.

A "Flashback" function allows players to rewatch cutscenes and reread in-game texts such as museum books or notebooks belonging to past victims. These materials help advance the storyline and provide hints for puzzle-solving.

Once the main quest is completed with all ten ixupi captured, players can freely explore the museum without danger. This facilitates safe reading of exhibit descriptions and offers opportunities to increase their score through thorough exploration.

Development

The game was developed using Sierra's proprietary engine and programming language, SCI-32. The development team encountered significant challenges adapting to new skills, as many members were inexperienced with 3d modeling and adventure game mechanics. This project marked the first implementation of SCI in a first-person adventure format.

While working on Phantasmagoria, Roberta Williams contributed as a creative consultant.

In contrast to numerous FMV-based games from that period, all dialogues featured closed captions. This accessibility addition was proposed by lead developer Willie Eide, who had personal ties to the deaf community.

Themes

Designer Marcia Bales drew heavily from her passions for archaeology and travel when shaping the game's themes. Some of the cutscene footage was captured by Bales herself during a 1994 expedition to Belize.

The fictional museum’s exhibits are grounded mainly in factual information, with the exception of Windlenot's pseudoscientific hypotheses. Each exhibit room, crafted by different artists, reflects the Professor’s habit of linking unrelated facts through flawed logical deductions, leaving players to evaluate the validity of his interpretations.

The Ixupi mythos draws on a common theme of vampiric entities that drain life force, partially inspired by the Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul.

Gameplay

Shivers represents Sierra On-Line's initial foray into first-person adventures featuring an unnamed, invisible silent protagonist, rather than a visible character.

Bales credited Mixed-Up Mother Goose Deluxe as a model for creating Shivers as an open-ended experience with randomized elements that enhance its non-linear gameplay. Players can freely navigate the museum without being restricted by puzzle order; how they uncover elements influences the narrative’s progression.

Graphics

The visuals incorporated scans from roughly 2,500 watercolors, which were digitally enhanced using Photoshop and combined with models created in 3D Studio. Ten artists each took responsibility for individual rooms under an art director who ensured cohesive visual style throughout.

Cutscenes involved live actors filmed against a blue screen utilizing Chroma key, later composited onto digital backgrounds via Ultimatte. Careful attention to camera positioning and lens selection allowed seamless blending. Occasionally, masonite props were used as foreground stand-ins. Talent agencies provided actors who were coached by Bales, producer Wendy Albee, and director Tony Ober.

Sound and music

Guy Whitmore handled sound engineering, design, and composition for the soundtrack. The music melded orchestral elements with modern influences inspired by bands such as Nine Inch Nails, incorporating dark ambient textures. The interactive score required a looping motif that sustained tension without becoming distracting. Musical crescendos were triggered during encounters with Ixupi creatures.

Most sound effects were sourced from stock effect libraries. The murmurs heard in the abandoned theatre are lines taken from the Ghost in Hamlet.

Reception

Shivers was chiefly commended for its immersive atmosphere, representing a notable shift from Sierra's previous releases. It was often likened to titles such as Myst and The 7th Guest, achieving an aggregate rating of 72.2% on GameRankings.

The review from Quandary awarded it a perfect score of 5 out of 5, emphasizing its compelling ambiance, intuitive gameplay, generous number of save options, and inclusion of closed captions. In contrast, Next Generation dismissed it as a derivative Myst imitation, criticizing lengthy loading times and irritating music. French publication Jeuxvideo.com described it as "an undeniable success." Later evaluations acknowledged its lasting visual charm and intelligent design, with particular praise for its mood and soundtrack. Adventure Classic Gaming identified it as an underrated title that gained cult following over time.

Ron Dulin of GameSpot pointed out the repetitive nature of gameplay due to frequent backtracking. Meanwhile, Ray Ivey from Just Adventure valued the game's atmosphere and complimented the innovative "Flashback" mechanic.

The All Game Guide labeled the game as "underwhelming," whereas Finnish magazine Pelit regarded it as indicative of Sierra's downturn, criticizing both its puzzles and narrative.

Sequel

In 1997, the franchise continued with Shivers II: Harvest of Souls, which takes place in an abandoned ghost town.