We’re two Seattle-based east coasters developing Haunted Heist, a co-op game about making your friends giggle in horrified delight.
Haunted Heist is a round-based PvP horror party game where Heisters race to collect gems in a procedurally generated mansion while Tricksters use chaotic abilities to derail, harass, and scare them away from victory.
Outwit your opponents, survive the haunt, and win before time runs out. It draws influence from Lethal Company, Peak, Dead by Daylight, L4D2, Luigi’s Mansion, and more.
Partnering With MonitorHead Studios
Wondering why our characters look kind of… weird?
It’s because we made them! And we have no prior experience with 3D modeling or animation whatsoever.
That’s why we’ve teamed up with MonitorHead Studios to improve our game’s 3D fidelity. MonitorHead is led by Micah Holland, who, unlike us, has over two decades of 3D experience. He has previously worked as the lead animator and character modeler for Shedworks’ indie hit Sable, and followed up with BITROT’s Recursive Ruin. Needless to say, our Heisters and Tricksters will have a fresh coat of paint very soon.
Just a couple of childhood friends tbh
autotroph games is an indie studio based out of Seattle, Washington, formed by developer Jakob Herlitz (right) and designer Dominic Giardini (left). The two became friends in middle school, started making YouTube videos soon after, and somehow ended up across the country together.
Jakob works as a Software Engineer at DoorDash, and Dominic was most recently on contract at Meta’s Reality Labs.
They’re making Haunted Heist so that they have something fun to play with Jakob’s 3 brothers every Wednesday night.