Staged: Open House (Demo)
A downloadable game for Windows
Content Warning: Contains strong language and horror themes.
**Version 1.3.21 is now available**
Click here to view latest patch notes
v1.3.21- Altered sound a little on the end scene. Also, game audio is now muted upon demo completion so you can't hear buzzing on the end screen.
- Altered the audio on a scare.
- Fixed some sound classes that were not assigned.
- Updated some credits and replaced one of the music tracks.
- Fixed a small error at the end.
- Small UI update.
Click here to view previous patch notes
v1.3.20- Made a glowing outline material which fades in and out when player is in close proximity and applied it to key items to make them easier to find.
- There was a problem with the aspect ratio cropping and causing black bars to appear on the sides of the screen during some scenes if playing on a display with anything other than a 16:9 ratio. I have fixed this.
- Reworked and improved a couple of scares, did a little audio editing for some scenes.
- Added more blood trails to guide player.
- Slightly polished a scare.
- Recreated the final ending cutscene and timed it to the new music which is much more fitting than the previous placeholder music.
- Improved pacing and altered timing of events.
- Adjusted objectives text to better guide the player if stuck.
- Fixed an error involving the ringing phone and adjusted its cutscene.
- Removed a scare and improved on another. Small adjustments to intro.
- Fixed an issue where walking on carpet sounded like concrete.
- Replaced one of the rugs to fix a graphical glitch. Adjusted sound occlusion making it easier to follow sounds.
- Fixed an issue that stopped the player from being able to stand up while crouching and holding a physics object.
- The Intro cutscene has been updated slightly. I reduced the ignition sound volume, slowed down the vehicle speed and added lights in some shots. Also added a road leading up to the house and adjusted the lighting. There will be more updates to the intro, just wanted to get this out now.
- Basement and garage lights are now darker when turned off.
- Added a control hint system for interacting with objects.
- Split the single shut off valve in the main bathroom to the two supply lines.
- Bathroom plant is now a dead plant.
- Changed outdoor lighting.
- Slight UI changes.
- Went through the whole house and increased the width of sub level loading/unloading triggers to prevent a very rare glitch of triggers not registering collision.
- Slightly optimised and increased collision radius for interactable items. You can pickup nursery note without crouching. Easier to interact with certain objects.
- In two of the cutscenes, the voice audio was mono for some reason. I have fixed this.
- Figured out what caused the audio cut out glitch (when player goes back and forth from game to main menu back to game). I have fixed this.
- Added The MET to credits in case anyone was wondering where the cc0 artwork is from.
- Updated some of the objectives.
- Adjusted attenuation on fuse sounds.
- Adjusted attenuation on running tap sound with better occlusion.
- Slightly reduced ambient sound.
- Slightly reduced ambience, light buzz and flicker sounds.
- Opened up another room.
- Made it easier to find some key items.
- Improved and added a couple of scares.
- Replaced my old custom notes with new ones, and re-positioned slightly.
- Altered and added more frequent updates to the objectives display to help prevent players from getting lost.
- Reduced buzzing sound volume of lights and flickering lights.
- Lowered volume of some of the footsteps and scares a little bit.
- Changed the location of one of the key items.
- Adjusted timing of some events.
- Increased light attenuation in the laundry.
- Removed a camera pan. Will look into adjusting some more of these.
- Small changes to wording in some ui.
- Small optimisations.
- More optimisations.
- Slightly shifted trash bags towards centre when held to prevent snagging.
- Slightly altered some sounds.
- Optimisations.
- Removed triggers for loading/unloading garage as you wont be able to access that area in the demo.
- Reduced file size.
- Pre rendered cutscenes lowered to 1080p, hopefully no issues with choppiness.
- In the previous update 1.3.9 I fixed a problem with the outdoor area but created a significant FPS drop. I've gone through and optimised outdoors, gaining back some FPS.
- Fixed sound glitch with one of the scares.
- Audio control sliders were broken. They work now.
- Fixed a problem with outside landscape (you cant go outside in the demo anyway).
- Tidied up credits.
- The intro cutscene is a very high quality, pre rendered video made in Unreal Engine 5. I have seen an issue with this playing back on someones machine with choppy FPS. To fix this, I have reduced the quality of it, not so much to be noticed, but enough to hopefully improve performance and reduce file size too.
- Adjusted credits screen.
- Removed some old, unnecessary objects that were still in the demo from an old build.
- Small UI changes.
- Toy box can no longer be interacted with once toys have been put away.
- Fixed a glitch with DoF.
- Fixed a glitch where the house ambience could be heard during the intro.
- Fixed a rare glitch where toy blocks would sometimes get stuck whilst entering and exiting the nursery.
- Added a sink in the kitchen.
- Adjusted animations.
- Smoother transition into the trash bag cutscene.
- FPS is now capped at 60 by default but it can be changed in settings.
- Added more animations.
- You can nowinteract with the cat.
- Small improvements to UI.
- Small fixes and secrets.
- Improved sequences.
- Replaced some music.
- Added an objective screen for when you press [TAB].
- Lowered car engine volume on intro cutscene.
- Lowered radio music volume after initial state.
- Added a fuse placing animation.
- Added more ghost interactions.
- Fixed water valve graphical glitch.
- Fixed up red room lighting.
- Improved sink valve placement.
- Slight re-positioning of certain objects.
- Altered timing of events slightly.
- Adjusted level streaming of outdoor area.
- Adjusted subtitles.
- Improved lighting.
- Adjusted some LOD's.
- Made valve item bigger so it's easier to pick up.
- Small fixes.
- Fixed up some subtitles.
- Added links to Steam page.
- Added controls instructions.
- Added stain wiping animations.
- Added valve placing animations.
- General improvements and bug fixes.
- Fixed a game breaking glitch where the game got stuck in the intro cutscene!
- Added a big intro cutscene!
- Voice acting added for Frank!
- Voice acting added for Maggie!
- Adjusted timing of some events and fixed some small glitches.
- Made some small tweaks and polished some more.
- For a while there has been a problem with a blue flickering light that appears when you run around corners really quickly. This has been fixed but might need adjusting in the future.
- Optimisations.
- Small tweaks.
- Fixed some gaps in walls.
- Added another room but you cant fully explore it yet, not until the full game.
- Secrets.
- Performance improvements on main menu.
- Default FPS is 30, player can optionally change in settings.
- Added another small scare.
- Added a small cutscene.
- Small tweaks and optimisations.
- Big improvement to performance during the beginning cutscene. Reduced draw calls from 800 to 100 so it shouldn't stutter now.
- Added some more LOD's for better performance.
- Removed some more shadows on small objects to improve performance.
- Small fixes.
- Adjusted collision on crucifix.
- Improved cutscenes.
- Added dialogue and some SFX.
- The flashlight is no longer missable.
- Performance improvements.
- Went through every mesh and created new, more efficient material instances where needed.
- Added some more LOD's.
- Big performance improvement.
- Completely removed lumen and the option to enable it.
- Removed options for reflections.
- Adjusted lighting, still working on it though.
- Went through every single mesh and added LOD's.
- Adjusted collisions.
- Added some events.
- Added a green glowing material on light switches that are off to make it easier to find switches in the dark.
- More performance optimisations.
- New scares and sounds.
- Added some props.
- Small tweaks to timing events.
- Fixed up some walls.
- Improved some scares.
- Adjusted lighting.
- Re-positioned some things.
- Increased player height.
- Performance optimisations.
- Fixed an issue where the outside light caused a jarring flash of blue when loading/unloading rooms.
- Have spent the last couple of months working on (and learning about) cutscenes. I will not be including this yet but will save it for a future update.
- There is now an outdoor area but I'll keep the front door locked for this demo. You can see it through the windows.
- I lowered the quality of graphics settings by default to allow weaker computers to still play. Global illumination and reflections are now turned off by default. If your computer is mid to high tier, you can turn these on and also increase the quality of the graphics in the video settings. I suggest keeping foliage low as it only exists outside, you can't leave the house. If it still doesn't run well, you can lower the settings even further.
- Big changes to lighting.
- Adjusted particle systems.
- Re-positioned some objects that were slightly misaligned.
- Added dark planes under floorboards so you can't see underneath them.
- Various optimisations.
- Added another scare.
- Very slight adjustments to timing of events.
- Increased key size to make them easier to see.
- Fixed some problems with audio being heard through walls.
- Altered cutscenes.
- Modified kitchen a little.
- Added some new jump scares.
- Slight adjustments to other scares.
- Added a few more events.
- Better packaging, smaller file size.
- Small changes and improvements to cutscenes.
- You can now skip cutscenes if you want by holding down any key.
- Main bathroom cutscene fades in smoothly now.
- Fixed up some more materials.
- Fixed up the cutscenes.
- Migrated to Unreal 5.7. Had some issues but managed to fix them.
- Created 2 new cutscenes.
- Improved the final cutscene.
- On ending cutscene, if player has flashlight equipped, I unequip it before cutscene.
- Created a new, versatile, master material that I will now use for many different meshes.
- Created more material instances and also Improved some materials.
- Added a green translucent material to guide player in the main bathroom scene.
- On more powerful devices, flickering lights flicker too fast as it is based on frames, I have temporarily fixed this by reducing flicker speed.
- Added a rug by the stairs.
- Deleted some unused things.
- Slight re-positioning of some triggers.
- Minor performance improvements.
- Completely re-created the ending.
- On very rare occasions there was a very bad bug where sub levels were not loading while passing through their triggers. You would walk into a room and it would be empty. I think collision was sometimes not being registered with FPS stutters. I think I have fixed this problem. If anyone encounters this please let me know.
- Added a simple cutscene and improved intro.
- Slight adjustments to some collision.
- Adjusted basement and garage loading/unloading triggers.
- Added decals and small details around the house.
- Many more performance optimisations. The game should run even better now.
- Fixed a small issue with the mesh on some doors.
- Removed a line of dialogue that was not really needed.
- Re-positioned one of the photo frames that was clipping through the wall.
- Re-positioned some triggers.
- Adjusted physics blocking volumes around the house so physics items like the trash bags don't snag onto corners as easily.
- Blocked player from taking physics items into the laundry and garage.
- Adjusted some power points and added wiring for kitchen radio.
- Modified master bedroom loading/unloading triggers.
- Numerous performance optimisations.
- Built the laundry.
- Built the garage.
- Added cables and plugs connected to power points throughout the house.
- Tidied up collision on multiple objects throughout the house.
- Changed the timing of one of the scares for better pacing.
- Re-adjusted level streaming triggers to load/unload parts of the house more efficiently.
- The light downstairs and to the left now starts turned on.
- The downstairs curtains are now only loaded when needed and then completely unloaded when not visible.
- Increased head bob slightly.
- Spent a while filling out the basement. It's much more complete now, although I may change things a bit more.
- Started working on the laundry and garage. I have locked the doors so you can't enter until I work on it a bit more.
- Added some new lights.
- Fixed a glitch where a certain dialogue sequence could be played before intended.
- One of the light switches was clipping through a wall. Fixed this.
- Fixed up some of the level streaming triggers.
- Modified collision for various objects.
- Resized and re-positioned some objects.
- When inspecting an item, the safety light around the player disables and re-enables when finished.
- Fixed the lighting when inspecting an object so it doesn't appear blindingly bright.
- Added custom sticky notes providing hints.
- The toys would jitter and collide with each other constantly when bunched up together in the toy box. I have fixed this issue.
- Fixed an issue where if the last toy in the box was the truck, sometimes it would jump out of the box.
- The toy puzzle is a bit more performant now.
- Slight adjustment to timing some of the events.
- Adjusted inspectable items.
- Made huuuuuuuuge performance optimisations throughout the whole house, it should run even better now.
- Added basic gamepad controls. Not really meant to be played with gamepad but still playable.
- Fixed a glitch where the master bathroom light switch was not working.
- Fixed a problem with game load.
- Made adjustments to the final scare.
- Slight adjustment to lighting in bathrooms.
- Added a default pickup item sound.
- Fixed an error caused by completing one of the puzzles too quickly.
- Added 4 new scares.
- New animations.
- Completely fixed up the final scene.
- Fixed a glitch where removing 1 plank from the door allowed the player to open it. You now must remove all 3.
- Slightly tweaked timing of certain events.
- Re-positioned certain meshes slightly.
- Rotated grime on main bathroom floor so it displays properly.
- Slight adjustment to certain sounds.
- Various performance optimisations.
- Added cloth sim to the girl in the white dress. Her hair and dress are now animated.
- Fixed an issue where the timing of level streaming in one of the floor tiles wasn't right causing it to pop in.
- Repositioned one of the toy blocks ever so slightly to avoid clipping.
- Fixed up timing of jump scare animations.
- Fixed up some decals.
- Removed collision for placed trash bags.
- Added a green, translucent placeholder object to guide players as to where to place trash bags
- Trash bags are more performant
- Added another scare to the game
- Adjusted some timing related events
- Slight adjustments to some objects
- Added some hints to item's whereabouts by adding letters.
- Slight adjustments to some objects. Fixed some problems.
- Very minor improvements around the home.
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Staged: Open House
You are Frank Doyle, a professional home stager hired to prepare a vacant house for sale. The Ward family vanished months ago, leaving everything behind. At first, your job seems easy, but the house isn't as empty as it seems.
Objective
As Frank, your goal is to complete a few basic staging tasks in the rooms around the house, such as tidying up, arranging items and cleaning surfaces. But as you work, you'll experience supernatural events that escalate with every task completed.
Dev Note
This demo offers a short, 30 to 45 minute horror experience of what I'm currently building.
The full game will include:
- A much larger environment, expanding beyond the house into new locations tied to the Ward family's past.
- A persistent enemy that hunts you throughout the game.
- More complex puzzles and mechanics that reveal what really happened inside the Ward residence.
- Many more scares and psychological horror moments.
I'm constantly updating and improving this project based on player feedback. If you have suggestions or feedback please let me know.
If you like this game, consider wishlisting on Steam.
Content creators are more than welcome to record or share their playthroughs. Iâd love to see them!
Keyboard/Mouse Controls
Move: WASD
Look: Mouse
Lean Left: Q
Lean Right: E
Crouch: Ctrl
Run: Shift
Flashlight: F
Use: LMB
Alt Use: RMB
Zoom in/out: Scroll Wheel
Menu: Esc
Objectives: Tab
Development
Created by Daniel Lee
Developed with UE5.7.
Resources
All third-party assets credited in-game. See the Credits screen for full attributions.
Two songs were created by ai artists. The highway sign texture in the intro, licence plate and family photo were ai generated too.
Staged: Open House - Intro Cinematic
Download
Install instructions
Once you download the folder you will need to unzip it and then run the Staged.exe file.
Note: If Windows shows a message saying âWindows protected your PCâ when you try to open the game, donât worry — thatâs normal for indie games that arenât signed by large publishers. To play, click "More info". Then click "Run anyway". This just tells Windows you trust the file.
Development log
- Big Post Demo Update!9 days ago
- Steam Demo Now Live!27 days ago
- BIG UPDATE: Steam Page is LIVE + Major Content Patch!51 days ago
- Major Performance Update (v1.2.12)80 days ago
- Update 1.2.0Dec 04, 2025
- Update 1.1.5Nov 14, 2025
- Update 5Nov 07, 2025
- Update 4: Big ChangesNov 02, 2025
Comments
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Thanks for sharing your playthrough, loved it!
Thanks for playing. A lot of people like my intro but yeah there are some who hate it because of the music. I wanted the music to be streamer friendly with no copyright. It doesnt make sense spending so much money on a free demo for music, i put the money towards voice acting instead, but if the game has enough support i might create a custom track
Yeah its good for the music to be streamer family and I don't really know if there's any sites out there that have fitting music for the intro. I think it was good to have actual voice actors and maybe for the full release with some time you could possibly have some non AI music with the full release. Goodluck, I've just seen games that use AI and some youtubers I watch play a game without knowing about it and the comments are upset or some ppl just don't upload the video. Just looking out for you and keep it up twin.
Exstreamly good game, CRAZY good jumpscares, amazing details. Everything is just on point. :)
Playthrough:
Thanks heaps for playing!
this is a MASTERPIECE. so beautiful, cinematic and creepy as hell. instead of dumb cheap scares they're done thoughtfully and the tension/suspense keep building the entire time. this is one of the best horror demos i've ever played, seriously well done!!!
đ So good to hear, really appreciate it, thanks for the support! Ive been listening to feedback and will be trying to improve the demo a bit before the full game on Steam. Thanks so much!
So glad you liked it! Thanks for checking it out!
Not gonna lie… these jump scares are next level! Almost couldnât finish the game, didnât think my heart would take it lol. Canât wait for the full game! Extra points for the intro song ;) - Banger!
Thanks man glad you liked it, cool playthrough!
spanish sub ?
Thanks for the suggestion! I currently donât have plans to add different languages, but if the game grows and gets enough interest, itâs something I might consider in the future
I really enjoy the demo really good! I've been playing other demos and this one does capture the feeling of that something will get you doing things in the house good job indeed!
Thanks so much, awesome to hear, I really appreciate it!
Could you create a download for Mac users, please? Although it says everywhere that it's possible, unfortunately it's not. This game looks sick!!
Thanks but a Mac version isnât planned right now sorry. If thereâs enough demand in the future Iâll take a look into it, but for now the game is Windows only
Thanks for letting me know!
This game had me Jumping..
I can't lie the creators to this went crazy on this!
its Amazing!~
Glad you liked it, thanks so much! Im a solo dev and i really appreciate the support, cool playthrough btw
Thanks so much im glad you liked it. I put a lot of work into it and will put in a lot more. The full release will be over on Steam only but its gonna take some time to get there
Played this on my youtube channel and honestly this demo is amazing and super scary, it had me on edge the full time and the intro was epic. Cant wait for the full game
Thanks for playing and the positive feedback too i really appreciate it! Some of those scares got you pretty good haha
Haha yeah they did but i loved every second of the game đ€Ł
Been a while since I've really been scared in a horror game. Can't wait for the full game :D!
Thats awesome to hear! Thanks so much for the feedback and support! I loved your play through too
Great atmosphere and played smoothly, jumpscares were plentiful but some had too little time inbetween. Though i would love to see what the full version has to offer.
Thanks for playing my game! I will have more time in between scares in the full game
this game was scary as hell omg
Glad you thought so đ
This game made me feel the most scared I have felt in a long time. Can't wait to play the rest, great game Leeding Apps!
Thanks so much! Itll take a while for me to get there but the full game will out out on Steam eventually
Totally understandable, can't imagine it is an easy job!
This was one of my fav indie horror games in a long time and would love to support this game and it's progress as it grows!
AMAZING DEMO!! I think the ghost had a little bit of a crush on međ
Haha lol thanks for playing, appreciate it!
Super awesome game. Absolutely terrifying - well done.
Thanks so much for the support! Happy to hear you liked it! Ill be putting the full game up on Steam when its done but thats a while away
It was very intense but also very fun. Adding more scares in some parts would have made it even better, although I was terrified too.
Thanks for playing! Ive added a couple more scares in the more recent version, maybe too many according to some people but ill keep working at it
Thank you for playing!
Thanks for playing i really appreciate all the support too!
Tried the demo, but encountered a frustrating cardinal sin of gaming. It kept stealing control away from the player to do slow camera panning every few steps or interactions. I got annoyed at being constantly interrupted while trying to play, and just uninstalled it.
I know this is just me. Don't judge the game too harshly based on my preferences.
Some of them are there to slow the player down so the voice acting doesn't get cut off. I've removed one of them but will look through to see where I can remove more for the next update.
Aw, thank you. That's kind of you, but please don't do too much on my account. I just wanted to offer honest feedback.
You can't make something that fits everyone, and the game is already impressive. That's why I wanted to try it, it looks great! Don't let my video game preferences put a damper on that.
Develop the game in a way that makes you happy. It's okay if it doesn't fit everyone. You've got something to be proud of here.
Thanks for the feedback, awesome playthrough! My next update tmrw shd help with not knowing where to go
This game will be AWESOME!
Thanks for playing! Cool playthrough!
Solid demo, I was SHOOK!!
Awesome playthrough thanks for playing! I noticed you're playing the game from a few versions ago. The intro fps should be better from v1.3.8+ as i lowered its quality significantly
Great work from the developer. The atmosphere, pacing, and environmental details build strong tension throughout the demo. Looking forward to the full game.
Thanks for playing, this was fun to watch! The Steam demo with the latest updates comes out 27/Mar
I can't find the key.
After going to the basement, there's nowhere else to go.
If you're talking about the key to the master bathroom. Once you restore the power, the key is in the master bedroom to the right of the tv on the cupboard.
Realmente me gusto tu juego un que otro buen susto
Thanks for playing and sharing your run đ im glad you liked it
Really enjoyed you game!
Hope you can finish it soon.
Here's my run!
Thanks so much for playing and sharing your run! đ Really glad you enjoyed it. Iâve updated the game since the version you played. I added some improvements and fixed a few glitches (including the fuse box issue in the basement). Lots more updates to come!