UW Bothell’s Ghostlight Manor spooks crowds at gaming convention

Published 1:30 am Monday, September 5, 2016

BOTHELL — Ghostlight Manor just got its share of the spotlight.

The video game featuring ghosts, ghouls and other beasties developed by University of Washington Bothell students was shown last week at an open house at the Microsoft campus.

It was an early event for the annual gaming convention PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo that was held in Seattle over the weekend. The game developed by the UW Bothell’s Digital Lab was one of the few university studios invited to display their production.

“We had lines of people waiting to play all day,” said Jason Pace, the executive director of the Digital Future Lab, in an email. “Our interns worked the event all day and staffed the demo booth, demoing the game to hundreds of folks.”

Ghostlight Manor is inspired by classic arcade and strategy games with a set of puzzles to solve and a world to explore.

It was originally made for mobile devices. The students have since made a version available for PCs and Macs. The game is expected to be available for downloading from online game distribution website Steam starting this month.

The Microsoft event was Independent Developers at XBox, which showcases smaller game studios. About 50 game designers showed off their games at the event.

Students and staff also displayed Ghostlight Manor at Seattle Indies Expo on Sunday, a one-day exhibition for independent game developers.

“We’re particularly proud of the response to Ghostlight Manor from parents and kids,” Pace said. “The game was particularly popular with younger kids who loved the puzzles and our cartoon monsters, and parents told us they appreciated that Ghostlight Manor is family friendly.”