The Wolf in the Wardrobe is a horror visual novel intended for adult audiences.

Show content note The story discusses and depicts topics such as: suicide, gore, homophobia, and religion.

The sole light in the life of Ilmari Elias Laitinen is North-of-Moon, a peculiar world inhabited by a race of anthropomorphic wolves, which he can enter through his wardrobe.

Over here, he struggles under the care of his Conservative Laestadian father; out there, he ventures on fantastic quests with Sampo, his best friend and a wolf-boy of the same age.

Since North-of-Moon seems to shape itself after Ilmari's wishes – the people are as friendly as the weather is fine, and every adventure has a happy ending – he knows nothing can hurt him there. But as he grows older, Ilmari will discover the realm inside his wardrobe to be just as eager to reflect parts of himself that he'd rather keep hidden...

The Team

The Wolf in the Wardrobe was made for the MAY WOLF ‘25 game jam by Team Talkoot:

  • purkka (purkka.fi, Bluesky): writer, director
  • PinkNarcissus (Bluesky, itch.io): sprite artist, composer
  • Drake (Bluesky, tumblr): CG artist
  • Kachayet (Bluesky): background artist

The credits song is "Scarecrow" by Tulip Bulbs, from their album Youth's Dissolve.

Accessibility

The game can be read in two languages: Finnish and English. Audio captions are available. A larger font size can be selected on desktop, and the font can be changed to OpenDyslexic. Menus are keyboard-navigable (press Tab to gain focus).

Published 2 days ago
StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
Rating
Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
(5 total ratings)
Authorspurkka, Kachayet, Pink Narcissus, Y0ku_Drake
GenreVisual Novel
Made withGodot
TagsBara, Fantasy, finland, Furry, Gay, Godot, Horror, Narrative, Queer, Short
Average sessionAbout an hour
LanguagesEnglish, Finnish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse, Touchscreen, Smartphone
AccessibilityColor-blind friendly, Subtitles

Download

Download
the-wolf-in-the-wardrobe-1.0.0-win.zip 132 MB
Download
the-wolf-in-the-wardrobe-1.0.0-linux.zip 125 MB
Download
the-wolf-in-the-wardrobe-1.0.0.app.zip 158 MB
Download
the-wolf-in-the-wardrobe-1.0.0.apk 125 MB

Development log

Comments

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(1 edit) (+1)

Well... this was emotionally harrowing, in all the good ways mind you, I'm kinda at a loss for words it really is just that good.

I feel horrible, I'm gonna blast carameldansen through my earphones.


Ok it's been an hour, this is one of those stories that make me feel in ways I struggle to articulate. I feel this urge now to go and rewrite the ending so that everybody can live happily, I always have this urge when I interact with stories that make me feel for the charachters, I immagine all the miracles I would work to make them happy.

I can't manage with this story, I can't fathom a way they could truly be happy, even if I brought back that wolf I know it would not be enough.

This happend only once before to me, with Echo, Flynn specifically.

I want to blast away these horrid things with loud music but I just can't seem to shake off the dread and misery off of me, like a seagull trapped in an oilspill.

I find part of this relativly easy to explain, on a human level as they are now happiness just isn't an option, that man has rot in his heart, he's in a small dark box, away from the stars and the sun.                                     Worse than that, he moved on.

The truly difficult thing for me to articulate is that world, that power, that childish violence enacted from someone who didn't know any better, to "people" whose being is relative to a child. The fact that their religion, their beliefs and convictions stem from an innocent invader, from misguided love is salt on the wound.

I've been through this before, Echo did a number on me, for I think 2 whole months I was in a terrible mood, I tried my hardest to regain composure after Flynn's ending, I don't think this will leave me as vulnerable fortunatly, but I think I learned something just now, bending a world, a story untill I feel better about the ending isn't the only way to confront these feelings, just letting it wallow fro a while and then washing away the tar with sadness is another way.

I hope I made one thing really clear, this story is really good, I just needed to put down my weird thoughts somewhere and this seems like the best place.

Great job

(+1)

Thanks for the kiss after throwing a brick at me, in all seriousness though, this was really well made. I loved the title transition and the the sound design was great!