Originally published as an Advisory Hour Substack post on 2026-08-07. This local copy preserves the text and public supporting media alongside the research record.
Original post
I’ll admit to having more fun than is permitted with Ashwicke.
The Ashwicke Galleries are an experiential clown-shadow filled horror that features a seasoning of blair witch and technical experimentation. I suppose, in a strange way, you could say there’s even a movie-tie in. The ACU? The Ashwicke Cinematic Universe was borne at midnight.
Even the loading screen is a VHS inspired work of art.
The Ashwicke Galleries features so many neat little effects and tricks. For example, the loading screen tries to recreate the VHS style static effect you get while rewinding or getting the new VHS cassette to play.
The concept for Ashwicke grew up out of two big ideas. The first is this video from my “John’s World: Universe simulator” where the character is stuck in a kind of horror gallery. You’ll find many of these ideas mixed into the Ashwicke Gallery. The video itself is fun, and I should note that if killer clown shadows are a concern for you-it’s probably best to skip this one.
The second problem I was looking to solve is putting a rapidly growing 3d asset library to some practical use. It’s one thing to grow an extremely large asset catalog. It’s just a whole other thing to put those assets into use. Ashwicke Galleries gave me an opportunity to tell a story, try building something with a bit of a fear factor associated, and bring it together with a John’s World experiment as one cohesive experiment. For example, this cryogenic cannister which contains the shadow people that were collected on the moon and brought back to earth. Sadly, the shadow people turned out to be killer clowns.
The more detailed 3D assets in Ashwicke Galleries originate out of my growing asset library that I wrote about earlier in the week. This is a small sample of assets from that catalog. A sampling to provide a sense of the kind of quality pro and con the current harness has in terms of building these assets. I’ll cover failure modes in 3d in an upcoming post describing my adventures in getting a P-39 modeled from scratch by driving thru kanban cards and hermes.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Ashwicke consists of a simple interaction loop, and a puzzle completed by collecting pages from each of the available mansions. As you collect puzzle pieces, the caretakers of the mansion become increasingly alarmed. Eventually, they’ll tire of your attempt to recall what’s going on and teleport you to a forest where they will fix you. It’s best to run from them and not get caught, or the game will reset.
One of the most fun parts of the mansion is also the scary shadow implementation. While I didn’t quite get to the full expression of the concept video, there are scary shadows that emerge at different times with your interactions of the stages.
Inspiration for the Scary Parts
The Ashwicke Gallery concept of a tormented, endless place with killer clown shadows is a descendant of this John’s World experiment of a liminal like place featuring doors that should not be opened. I covered this experiment in a prior writing, and just include the video here so you can observe the evolution from this office exploration to the gallery. I always enjoy the “where it started” background lore of artistic projects, and so if you’re also that kind of person then you’ll likely find this video of interest.
The problem I was trying to solve with this video was doors. How could I handle door transitions, a problem that sounds trivial on the surface but is actually quite hard with these older video models.
The interior office run is quite an experience, isn’t it? The set and setting are fun, and an attempt to be period accurate. I can recall offices that looked exactly like this for a time. Computers and rows of typewriters, telephones and stacks of papers. You just know somewhere is the smell of stale coffee, someone’s lunch, and cigarette tar attached like a tick to the walls.
It’s just scary red eyes chasing you. If this reminds you of drinking coffee at 3 AM, I have good news.
The Ashwicke Gallery coffee mug
It felt appropriate to have a little swag for the ashwicke gallery. After all, doesn’t every museum have a gift shop? Up until now I never bothered to setup a swag shop for Advisory Hour. There’s no particular reason for this-it just seemed like there might one day be a reason to do so. Nearly 700 posts later, it turns out, there’s a reason.
This coffee mug is perfection.
As a man of culture regarding clever coffee mugs, I have it on good authority that this is the best one available in the market. Ashwicke Galleries: Coffee First You can buy this coffee mug to ward off people talking to you while you yourself embrace deep focus.
Ashwicke Galleries: Coffee First coffee mug comes in three different sizes.
Connected work
- The Ashwicke Galleries: Enter the playable mansion and its shifting exhibition route.
- Roomshadow: Explore the browser project that carries the Ashwicke rooms, sound, and story systems.
- John's World: Browse the wider research record on generated-world continuity and character behavior.