Hollowbrook – Apartments

Hollowbrook – Apartments is a narrative exploration game that unfolds within the walls of one apartment complex. The player controls Jenny, a new tenant who becomes trapped inside during a heavy storm. The game’s premise revolves around isolation, discovery, and limited control within a confined space. Everything the player experiences takes place over one continuous night. The structure of the building and the behavior of its systems form the backbone of both gameplay and storytelling.

Gameplay Structure and Logic

The player moves through the apartment block, interacting with objects, doors, and environmental signals. Hollowbrook – Apartments does not include combat or open-world movement. Instead, progress depends on observation and decision-making. Each interaction advances the timeline, shifting the building’s state or unlocking new access points. Checkpoints divide the story into short, recoverable segments, letting the player reattempt specific sections without repeating the entire game. The pace remains steady and deliberate, emphasizing awareness over speed.

Main Gameplay Cycle

A standard playthrough follows a simple, repeating pattern:

•         Start as Jenny inside the apartment at night.
•         Explore the interior spaces and examine interactive objects.
•         React to disturbances through prompted decisions.
•         Reach a checkpoint after key discoveries or failures.
•         Continue exploring until one of the available conclusions is reached.

This framework links small actions into broader outcomes, making the entire experience dependent on player interpretation of space and timing.

Narrative Construction

The story is told through the environment rather than explicit dialogue. Each apartment contains evidence of prior activity—notes, misplaced furniture, or malfunctioning lights—that together reveal the history of the building. The player gradually uncovers how Jenny’s experience connects to what came before. Outcomes vary depending on what areas are explored and which decisions are taken. The apartment block becomes an interactive document of human behavior rather than a traditional narrative setting.

Development and Purpose

Developed by Yetiface Games and released in 2025, Hollowbrook – Apartments extends the Hollowbrook series as a compact, self-contained title. It demonstrates how limited space can sustain variation through small player-driven changes. The design replaces linear progression with environmental loops, using repetition as a method of discovery. Every session becomes an experiment in spatial storytelling, where understanding the building itself becomes the only path to completion.