THE LAST PORTRAIT is a horror adventure centered around the mysterious Ashwood Manor, a sprawling estate once owned by the renowned art collector Edgar Ashwood and his wife. After receiving a strange letter written by Ashwood after his supposed death, players are drawn into a chilling mystery filled with psychological horror, challenging puzzles, and dark secrets hidden within the manor's walls.

We recently spoke with the developers behind The Last Portrait about the game's origins, puzzle design, horror philosophy, and the haunting story surrounding Ashwood Manor.

Q: What was the original inspiration behind The Last Portrait and the mystery surrounding Ashwood Manor?

A: We have both always been huge fans of spooky and horror stories. As kids, we loved ghost stories, and later we moved on to watching horror movies and playing horror games.

Whether in digital or tabletop games, we’ve always been fascinated by these themes. So it was clear from the start: if we ever develop a game together, it would have to be set firmly in the horror genre — ideally in a creepy old mansion.

To be honest, though, the ideas for our game evolved gradually over time. Our team consists of just two people. I’m a gameplay programmer, and after losing my job, I wanted to make productive use of the time while searching for a new one. Florian works full-time as a journalist for a daily newspaper, but he’s also a puzzle enthusiast and a design lover. Neither of us has any background in game art or works as an artist. So we started by finding the house first and then built the story around it: Who might live there? What role could the player take on? And if the mansion held a dark secret within its walls, what might that secret be? The idea slowly took shape from the environment itself.

Since this was our first project of this kind together, we approached it without any grand master plan. Many elements only emerged during development, and we constantly revised and refined things along the way. To give just one example: originally, the player was supposed to be a burglar breaking into the mansion to steal a painting. The further we progressed, the less satisfied we became with that concept because it kept creating logical inconsistencies that we had to explain. About two-thirds into development, we had the idea of making the protagonist Ashwood’s lawyer instead, which solved many of those problems for us. Throughout the project, we experimented with a lot of ideas, made plenty of mistakes, and learned a lot — lessons we’ll definitely apply to future projects to streamline production.

Q: Edgar Ashwood and Isadora Vale have a fascinating backstory. How did you approach creating their relationship and the tragedy that unfolds around them?

A: Like many aspects of the game, the relationship between Edgar Ashwood and Isadora Vale developed gradually. From the beginning, we had a rough idea of the secret lurking within Ashwood Manor, and in each chapter we came up with new ways to reveal more of that story while slowly making the picture clearer. What starts with strange hints from the household staff is later expanded through Edgar Ashwood’s diary entries and eventually culminates in Isadora’s own recordings.

That said, we only touch on the couple’s relationship and history in broad strokes. Originally, we planned to scatter many more documents throughout the house to explore their lives in greater detail, especially since the Ashwoods belonged to high society. However, the game’s primary focus is on its challenging puzzles, and we didn’t want to create too many distractions from that core experience.

Q: The game blends psychological horror, exploration, and puzzle-solving. How did you balance these elements to keep players engaged throughout the experience?

A: The balance between these elements emerged quite naturally from the story we wanted to tell. The player arrives at the estate with a fairly straightforward goal: figuring out how to profit from the situation. As they gradually uncover the events that took place within Ashwood Manor, the emphasis on each gameplay element shifts accordingly.

In the beginning, the focus is largely on puzzles, exploration, and gradually unlocking the estate itself, with only a few subtle horror moments. However, as the story progresses, the supernatural elements become more prominent. By that point, players have already explored most of the house. Eventually, there comes a moment when every floor and room is accessible, and the player should already be familiar with these locations. From then on, the balance changes, and the horror aspect takes a much more central role.

Q: Ashwood Manor feels like a character in its own right. What design choices helped bring the mansion to life and make it feel both beautiful and terrifying?

A: I’d love to give some deep, profound answer about the artistic vision behind the mansion’s design. But the truth is that, as mentioned before, neither of us is an artist, so we had to rely on assets from the marketplace. Even so, we fell in love with the mansion immediately and knew right away that our story had to take place there.

In many ways, the overall design was already defined for us. Of course, we made numerous modifications throughout the project, but those changes were primarily driven by the needs of our puzzle mechanics rather than by artistic considerations.

Q: Art plays a central role in the narrative. How important was the theme of art and obsession when developing the story?

A: Art naturally plays a role when your main character is an art collector, although we don’t explore the subject in great depth. Obsession, on the other hand, is much closer to the heart of what the story is about. Collectors inevitably need a certain degree of obsession if they want to fully dedicate themselves to their passion.

For example, Florian collects physical puzzle games from the English-speaking world — and trust us, you do not want to know what his room in our Berlin apartment looks like. ;)

We always knew that a obsession in different ways had to be part of the game. However, it ultimately manifests itself in a different way than players might expect. Without giving too much away: sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly where obsession comes from, how it develops, and who the truly obsessed person actually is.

Q: Miles Thorne receives a letter from Edgar Ashwood a year after his death. Without giving away spoilers, what can you tell us about the significance of this mysterious letter?

A: For us, the letter is primarily a vehicle for one of the central questions in The Last Portrait: What would you do? You’re a lawyer. One of your clients has ended his life in his ridiculously expensive mansion and leaves you instructions to burn the entire estate to the ground, along with his priceless art collection. Would you really do it? Or would you be tempted to sell a few paintings and spend the rest of your life on a beach in the Bahamas?

The letter is first and foremost our gateway into the story, but we also hope it plants that question somewhere in the player’s subconscious. It serves another important purpose as well, but that’s something we’d rather not reveal just yet.

Q: Many horror games rely on jump scares, while others focus on atmosphere and tension. What approach did your team take when crafting the horror experience in The Last Portrait?

A: From the very beginning, we knew we didn’t want to create a "jump scare simulator". Games that rely solely on jump scares tend to become repetitive after a while. Our main focus was always on the puzzles and the story, wrapped inside an atmosphere of steadily increasing danger and tension.

At first, it’s the sounds of the forest surrounding the manor that create unease. Later on, however, the nature of that fear changes dramatically. Of course, The Last Portrait does feature a few jump scares, but there are relatively few of them, and more importantly, they tend to catch players off guard because we deliberately avoided making them predictable.

We also experimented with something else. In several places throughout the game, we tried to create unsettling moments and eerie effects using very simple techniques. The interesting part is that these details are woven so naturally into the environment that not every player will even notice them. We particularly like this approach because it rewards attentive players. The more carefully you explore your surroundings, the more observant you are, and the more details you uncover, the creepier the experience can become.

Q: Can you talk about the process of designing the game's puzzles and ensuring they feel rewarding without disrupting the pacing of the story?

A: The puzzles in The Last Portrait are one of our biggest topics and, as we’ve learned over the past few weeks, also one of the game’s most divisive aspects.

They are heavily inspired by our love of puzzle games and escape rooms. Since 2014, we’ve regularly played escape rooms in Berlin, throughout Germany, and in other countries, and since 2023 we’ve become even more dedicated to the hobby. By now, we’ve completed well over 200 rooms. As mentioned earlier, Florian — who designed the puzzles in The Last Portrait — is also an avid puzzle game collector.

We wanted to bring the structure and complexity of escape-room puzzles and physical puzzle games into The Last Portrait. The result is a collection of puzzles that, in almost every case, consist of multiple layers, combine a wide variety of elements, and are, in our opinion, significantly more challenging than the puzzles typically found in other horror games.

There’s even a puzzle in Ashwood Manor’s wine cellar that was inspired by a real puzzle from an escape room in Germany. We played that room about a year ago and were so fascinated by the challenge that we created our own version for Ashwood Manor. It ultimately became one of the most complex puzzles in the entire game. Players have to combine multiple documents, objects, and layers of information in a very specific way, making it brutally difficult. Nobody in their right mind would put something like that into a horror game. We did — because we absolutely love puzzles like that.

At the same time, we’ve learned that this approach isn’t for everyone. We’ve already received a negative review from someone who complained that they weren’t Einstein. Other players, however, have reacted very differently and enjoyed the challenge. Watching Let’s Plays has also been incredibly rewarding because the reactions when someone finally solves a puzzle clearly show that the payoff is there and that cracking these challenges can feel genuinely satisfying.

In that sense, The Last Portrait is a little different. You need to read documents carefully, pay attention to your surroundings, think things through, and know what kind of experience you’re getting into. And maybe keep a pen and a piece of paper next to your keyboard.

And to be fair, after reading the first reviews, we also started discussing whether we should highlight the puzzle-focused nature of the game more clearly. We realized that some players came in expecting a more traditional horror experience, and we want to avoid creating false expectations. At its core, The Last Portrait is very much a puzzle game wrapped in a dark atmosphere.

Q: The hidden object mechanics encourage players to carefully examine their surroundings. How did you integrate exploration into the narrative experience?

A: The entire story of both the manor itself and Edgar Ashwood is uncovered through exploration. Throughout the game, players discover documents, letters, and diary pages scattered around the estate. Collecting these items is not only important for understanding the narrative but also necessary for progressing through the game.

Some of these documents contain crucial clues for solving puzzles and gradually unlocking new areas of the manor. Others, such as diary entries, reveal exactly what happened within Ashwood Manor and provide deeper insight into its history. These story elements are often located in newly accessible sections of the estate. While the manor may initially feel vast and open, the game's progression is actually quite linear by design. This allows us to control when players learn certain pieces of the story and when specific areas become accessible, ensuring that the narrative unfolds at the intended pace.

Q: What were some of the biggest challenges in creating the haunting presence that stalks players throughout Ashwood Manor?

A: Definitely the technical side of things. This was the first digital game we had ever developed together, and it was also our first time working with Unreal Engine. Almost everything was new to us, and every day involved learning something new just to keep moving forward.

In the end, it took multiple iterations before we were happy with the result. The haunting presence was no exception. We built it, tested it, redesigned it, rebalanced it, moved it around, and repeated the process over and over again. It was a constant cycle of experimentation and refinement, and it consumed a significant amount of development time.

Q: The transition from being the investigator to potentially becoming the hunted is a compelling concept. How does this shift impact gameplay and storytelling?

A: From the very beginning, we knew how we wanted the game to end. We also had a clear vision for the finale itself. Naturally, we tried to steer development in that direction.

As we mentioned before, there was a point during development when we suddenly realized that we had no idea how to get from where the story currently was to the ending we had planned. That was incredibly frustrating and occupied us for several days. Eventually, a brainstorming session led us to a solution. The downside was that it required us to restructure large parts of the story and revisit many of the documents we had written.

Ultimately, the story itself is what drives this transition. The lawyer’s journey into the manor and the discoveries he makes along the way allow us to gradually build a sense of danger and escalation. As the narrative evolves, the gameplay evolves with it. What the lawyer experiences and learns inside the manor directly influences how the game plays and how the player's role changes over time.

Q: Were there any particular horror films, novels, or classic haunted house stories that influenced the game's atmosphere and narrative?

A: We’re both fans of horror films and horror literature, but also of horror games in general. The biggest influence probably came from our desire to avoid relying solely on jump scares, which is something many horror games tend to do. Of course, there were moments in other games where we thought, “That’s really cool — could we do something like that?” At the same time, there were also aspects that made us think, “We’d like to handle this differently.”

As a result, most of our inspiration came indirectly through our experience with horror games as players rather than from any single movie, book, or specific haunted-house story.

Q: What do you hope players take away from the story after uncovering the secrets hidden within Ashwood Manor?

A: If someone tells you to burn down their house, just do it. Seriously.