Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Hearth & Holmes
Abigail Corfman · Published by Open Sorcery Games · Official site ↗
Content notice: Storylines about substance abuse and PTSD.
Last updated 27 Sept 2026
Did you ever have a virtual pet? Was your virtual pet responsible for solving mysteries in the cruel streets of Victorian London? Did your virtual pet forget to eat? Did he stay up to 3AM doing chemistry experiments? Your virtual pet is named Sherlock Holmes. Try to keep him alive.
Free
Indie, RPG, Simulation · More free games
In Hearth & Holmes, manage your virtual pet detective’s daily life as he solves cases and conducts experiments. Navigate the challenges of keeping Sherlock alive in a world where every decision can lead to new adventures or missteps.
About this game
Sherlock Holmes.
Genius detective. Middling flatmate. Delightful disaster of a man.
He is one of the world's most beloved literary characters.
He is now your problem.
You are John Watson.
You are Sherlock's roommate and best friend.
You are worried about him. You are right to be worried. Left to his own devices Sherlock will destroy himself with overwork and cocaine. Don't let him do that.
Did you ever have a virtual pet?
Was your virtual pet responsible for solving mysteries in the cruel streets of Victorian London? Did your virtual pet forget to eat? Did he stay up to 3AM doing chemistry experiments?
If so, you are well prepared for this challenge.
If you succeed your reward is a fulfilling relationship with a cool detective and his friends: an opera singer whose house you tried to burn down but for fake, a perfectly normal college professor, and your landlady.
Hearth & Holmes
is a mystery-solving life simulation about the importance of self-care and relationships.
It contains scenes of graphic violins.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
Minimum:
- OS *: Windows 7
- Processor: 1 GHz
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: N/A
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Sound Card: N/A
Supported Languages
English
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
June and July Progress
Lots of progress these past month and I'm starting to work on actually promoting the game. As part of that Hearth & Holmes is going to be a part of Telltale’s “Choices Matter Festival” on Steam.Telltale has a great legacy of making and featuring wonderful, story-driven games and I'm delighted to be a part of it. They'll be posting updates about the festival on their Instagram & TikTok. It starts August 10th. I'm going to drop a new trailer with more material from the game and very fun voice acting when the festival starts.In the meantime, here's other stuff that happened:JUNEWrote and implemented 'The Cold 2'.Fiddled a bunch with how new options are presented. It's better now.Wrote and implemented 'The Cold 3'. This involved finding sound effects for Watson playing the violin badly.Wrote and implemented The Cold in nighttime conversations.Wrote and implemented 'The First Problem'.Contracted voice actors for new trailer.Agonized more than I needed to about voice actors for new trailer.Planned Irene's social sequence.Wrote Holmes & Irene duet.Found images for Irene concert scene.JULYRemade the trailer. It's funny! It will be released with a festival in August.Wrote and implemented Irene's concert mystery.Added downtime socialize action of attending concerts.Implemented theater shop where you can buy music.Fixed error where making someone relationship 0 makes the game upset.(I understand game. It is upsetting when Irene and Sherlock fight. It still needs to happen.)The Irene social plotline is now complete!Update end-game logic so that the title screen changes based on your ending.Wrote and implemented the Confrontation with Moriarty. It is huge.Adjusted learning page so that Holmes doesn't read when obsessed with hunting Moriarty.Added difficulties: Immortal Legacy, Durable Detective, and Consulting Detective.Fixed some issues with the Save/Load display.I am now running through entire game to see how it hangs together, fix issues, and get sense of how to bring everyth...Read full article on Community Announcements (Abigail)AnnouncementsOfficial
April and May Progress
A sample of the cat dialog--Narration: What should I say to the cat?@addChoice "Reassure her." Narration: I tell the little cat that thought he has had a harrowing experience, she is safe now. @addChoice "Admire her." Narration: I tell the little cat that she is still a very pretty lady, even though she is covered in soot. Her inner dignity shines through.@addChoice "Just make friendly, nonsense noises." Narration: I relate the many little absurdities that we humans inevitably feel compelled to communicate to cats. It tell her repeatedly how small she is.@stopHolmes is 500% jealous of how much attention Watson is giving the cat, but he's being mature about it.---- APRILChanged 'The Poisoned Parson' to 'The Longbourn Poisoning' and wrote/implemented a bunch more of it.Finished 'The Longbourn Poisoning'. Goodness these cases are getting long. I'm glad there's only one left. Well. One and a half left.Added Bennet case outro where you can conditionally help Mary Bennet and Mrs. Hudson live happily ever after.Added Bennet case outro without Mrs. Hudson.Tested all iterations of the Bennet case.Implemented Holmes and Irene's friend breakup.Implemented Holmes and Irene's second friend breakup, if you patch up the first one and he fucks it up again.Added Deception and Forensics options to the Hound case.Fixed error where magnifying glass wasn't appearing in case intro.Added scene reward for publishing the Bennet case. Made it longer than it needed to be.Added logging back into the game.Figured out how to open web pages from inside a video game. Not as simple as I expected.Collated all the attribution and credits I need to make and added a Credits page.Adjusted the button font so that the letters DQYZ stopped being weird.Created the EXTRAS portion of the title menu.Wrote and implemented Hudson story scene--adopting a cat.Made cat bounce when she meows.Made Achievements screen and implemented unlocking achievements.Filled out a few sample achievements and tested them.---- MAYM...Read full article on Community Announcements (Abigail)AnnouncementsOfficial
March Progress
Working on the late game Sherlock Holmes/Pride and Prejudice crossover.It's going well. I'm maybe gonna murder Mister Collins. I don't think anyone will mind.-March ProgressFixed annoying little issue in post action.Brainstormed and outlined 'The Poisoned Parson.'Wrote a ton of 'The Poisoned Parson.'Implemented some of 'The Poisoned Parson.'Fixed error where ACT was decompressing on multi-skill actions.Made using Mrs. Hudson a free action.Outlined 'Theoretical Murder.'Planned the confrontation scene.Fixed issue with text on buttons breaking containment.Read full article on Community Announcements (Abigail)AnnouncementsOfficial
February Progress
Godfrey Norton has been kidnapped by the Phantom of the Opera. Irene Norton very much wants to rescue him, but also there is an extremely exciting secret passage.-February ProgressMade case text adjust to the size of its container.Shrunk UI and added more contrast to make text easier to read.Fixed alerts so that UI adjustments don't make them look weird.Found another error with stat updates interfering with each other and figured out that it's not going to be a problem in normal play because normal play doesn't involve the weird ass stuff I do in stress testing. Still. Now I know to watch for it.Fixed gray-flash loading error. It was silly.Finished writing and implementing Phantom case.Playtested Phantom case and implemented a number of improvements.Made it so that if you go to the title immediately after Holmes dies he isn't there and the music doesn't play.Cut @pauseForInput into two steps so that savegame works smoothly.Play tested Phantom mystery with Moriarty.Play tested Phantom mystery with only Watson.I am DONE with the phantom mystery.Lol kidding. Wrote and implemented Watson publishing the story about the phantom mystery.Fixed error where Watson can have negative funds. No debtors prison for you, Watson.Implemented Mary Bennet.Assembled good backgrounds for Bennet case.Read full article on Community Announcements (Abigail)AnnouncementsOfficial
January Progress
Extremely important visual -- this is the cat that Watson can try to wheedle Mrs. Hudson into letting the house adopt.She does not have a name because Watson will have the capacity to name her in game.Also, for the Mrs. Hudson sequence where there's a Pride & Prejudice crossover I have decided to kill off Mister Collins. I don't think anyone will object.-January ProgressAdjusted temporary clues so that every action you take triggers their countdown. More URGENCY.Implemented @pauseForInput, which groups and simplifies a few commands.Commissioned cat that Watson can try to wheedle Mrs Hudson into letting them keepWorked on Phantom of Drury Lane case. it's big. Oh my god it's big.Why did I do this.Organized a bunch of CC0 backgrounds and my records so I can credit the museums that let me use them properly.Changed outline for Mrs. Hudson's case so that it involves Mary Bennet more directly. It used to me 'The Bingly Will.' Now it is 'The Murder of Mister Collins.'Implemented cat. Took longer than usual since the proportions are so different from everyone else.Worked more on the Phantom of Drury Lane case.Why do I make large games.Read full article on Community Announcements (Abigail)
