Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Ashwood Conspiracy
Yawning Dog Studios · Published by Yawning Dog Studios
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
Ashwood Conspiracy is a dark Slavic mystery adventure. Follow in your late uncle's footsteps to uncover the truth behind the town’s most devastating event. Find, collect, and combine items to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles. Will you dare to finish what your uncle started?
Adventure · 2026 · More free games
Embark on a dark mystery journey through Ashwood Conspiracy, where you follow your uncle's trail to uncover hidden truths. Collect items, solve intricate puzzles, and confront the town’s darkest secrets.
About this game
UNIQUE STORYLINE
It's the late 1990s. You follow Marcus as he returns to his hometown for what he hopes will be the last time. He's there because of a mysterious letter he received just days after his uncle's unexpected death.
The more Marcus learns about why his uncle was investigating the mining disaster that changed Ashwood forever, the more he begins to question everything — even what his own eyes see. It doesn't help that he's receiving text messages from someone who knows his every move.
The story explores Slavic culture, traditions, and long-forgotten myths.
EXPLORATION
The game is set in Ashwood, a fictional city. Once the crown jewel of Karranthia, it has in recent years withered into a place of despair and slow decay. While on the surface it might seem like a traditional Rust Belt city, its dark corners hide many secrets.
The story will lead you across unique and atmospheric scenes, all drawn by hand pixel by pixel. You will break into abandoned factory buildings, descend into dark sewers, uncover hidden occult sanctums, and dig through secrets on 90s-era devices.
PUZZLES
The puzzles are designed to challenge you and advance the story while still being fun and fair (no pixel hunting or moon logic).
As you explore, you will discover items that will help you solve puzzles and overcome obstacles.
Some items you can take a closer look at, while others you can combine to craft a unique item that will be useful on your journey.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Microsoft® Windows® 10
- Processor: 2.4GHz Dual Core
- Memory: 4000 MB RAM
- Graphics: Integrated graphics with full Vulkan 1.0 support
- Storage: 500 MB available space
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Demo Update - 0.4.0
It's been a while since our last update, but we've been hard at work. While most of our work has been focused on Act 2 and Act 3, we've also made improvements to the demo. This update doesn't include new content, but it does make the overall experience smoother and more polished for future players.Keep an eye on the upcoming post where we’ll share more regarding Act 2 and Act 3.Game engine upgradeWe updated our game engine by two major versions - from Godot 4.3 to 4.5.While we were hesitant to do so late into development, we wanted to update it because of:Multiple developer experience (DX) improvements to speed up our workflow..Better performance and reliability for the web version.Improved compatibility with modern platforms.Since we plan to release on multiple platforms (including mobile in the future), this upgrade ensures we won't run into compatibility roadblocks at launch.Performance improvementsWhile our game doesn’t use a lot of resources, our scene preloading system had an issue which often resulted in a “stutter” when switching between scenes. This was most often visible on the web version, even on high-end hardware.With our new preloading system, this stutter should be a thing of the past.Mac OS supportWe ran the macOS build when showcasing the game at AdventureX all the way back in November, but we were hesitant to release it to everyone before properly testing it. Now, it's finally ready - running smoothly on Apple silicon!Cutscene dialogue changesPreviously during a “cutscene” (we also refer to it as “blocking dialogue”) you would need to click on the dialogue box in order to progress to the next dialogue.We did some additional research and playtesting and shifted to a more familiar approach to players: the mouse cursor is now invisible during cutscenes and clicking (anywhere) progresses to the next dialogue.Save file compatibility fixWhile our save system was designed from the beginning with backwards compatibility in mind, there was an issue in the p...Read full article on Community Announcements (Yawning Dog Studios)Patch NotesOfficial
Demo Update - 0.3.1
At AdventureX 2025, dozens of players and fellow indie game developers fully completed our demo. They were kind enough to also share with us their thoughts on where they struggled and what they would like us to improve.From these discussions, we compiled a detailed list of improvements and issues. This is the first of many updates, but hopefully this version addresses the most common issues and frustrations we observed.Noteworthy ChangesSafe PIN HintWe noticed players struggle with the safe PIN hint because:Many forget about it since they encounter it early in the game.Many struggled understanding how to use the hint to get the PIN.To solve the safe PIN puzzle, players often wrote the hint down on a piece of paper.To hopefully address all these issues, we made the safe PIN hint an item that players can pick up.UI ChangesEver since Feedback Quest 8, where “Controls / UI” was our lowest-rated category, we’ve been steadily improving the UX/UI. This update continues this trend by improving the navigation for existing zoomed-in scenes.The players can now click on the inventory when it’s empty to exit a zoomed-in scene. We also disabled the ability to click on the area beneath the inventory to prevent players from clicking there when the inventory gets full of items to avoid frustrating misclicks.Although our game displays a tutorial hint explaining how to exit a zoomed-in scene, many players still felt this wasn’t enough. To solve this, we added an indicator in the bottom left corner.Full ChangelogIMPROVED: Some players found the description of which storage unit to open confusing. We improved the phrasing to avoid the confusion.IMPROVED: Some players found the hint for the safe location confusing. We simplified the hidden message to be more direct.IMPROVED: We added a hint to pick up the key from the letter as some players missed it.IMPROVED: We added an indicator in the bottom left corner to help players exit zoomed-in scenes.FIXED: We fixed the issue where players wer...Read full article on Community Announcements (mr_woofwoof)Community & EventsOfficial
Ashwood Conspiracy DEMO is out now and part of the AdventureX event!
Our demo has been available on Itch.io since August and we've been improving it continuously since. With the release of our biggest update yet (v0.3.0), we feel it’s the perfect moment for our demo to make its debut on Steam. And it's arriving right on time for the AdventureX Steam event!The demo features the first chapter of the full game. Most players complete it in around 30 minutes.If you give it a try, we’d love to hear what you think by leaving a review on the demo page. And don’t forget to wishlist Ashwood Conspiracy to be the first to hear about the release date and all future development updates!Read full article on Community Announcements (mr_woofwoof)
