Scoring genre clarity...

We Are Locked capsule

We Are Locked

-Hide from vengeful ghosts, search for the key, and escape the haunted house before it's too late. Stay quiet, stay hidden, and survive.

$3.99
CasualAdventureArcade
IOFiction LLCJun 27, 2025

We Are Locked scores 70/100 — better than 29% of Casual capsules (n=10,153).

$3.99 · Released Jun 27, 2025 · By IOFiction LLC

Explore:Casual capsulesAdventure capsulesArcade capsulesSteam page optimisationCapsule design best practices

Quick text summary

We Are Locked scored 70/100 on Steam Analyzer — Good for a Casual capsule. Top priority fix: [uniqueness_polish] Introduce a distinctive visual element such as a glowing key detail, ghost silhouette design, or unique art style flourish that differentiates the brand from generic haunted-house games and creates a memorable hook.

Capsule scores by dimension

  • Genre Clarity: 7/10 — Horror-survival hiding game clear. The silhouette of a haunted house with ominous shadows, bare branches, and a small figure convey a horror-survival theme with strong genre iconography. At TINY size, the spooky atmosphere reads clearly and the overall composition suggests stealth/hiding gameplay. The architectural element and atmospheric lighting help identify it as a contained horror setting rather than action-horror.
  • Title Readability: 8/10 — Clean white serif text readable. The title 'we are Locked' uses white serif letterforms with strong contrast against the darker background, maintaining legibility at SMALL and TINY sizes. The text is centered and benefits from the lighter sky region behind it, preventing muddy overlap. At TINY size, while individual letters compress slightly, the overall word shape remains recognizable due to consistent spacing and weight.
  • Contrast & Color: 8/10 — Strong light-dark value separation. White title text pops cleanly against the dark blue-gray atmospheric background, creating excellent value separation and silhouette clarity. The pale sky region in the center-right provides strong contrast support for the text placement, and the shadowy house mass reads as a distinct dark form. At TINY size, the light-dark split remains clear even under mental grayscale conversion, with no muddy mid-tone collapse.
  • Uniqueness & Polish: 6/10 — Atmospheric but somewhat generic. The haunted house aesthetic is executed cleanly with moody lighting and atmospheric effects, but the visual hook feels familiar within the indie horror space. The composition lacks a distinctive character, mechanic hint, or unique art direction that would make it stand out from other atmospheric horror games. The execution is competent and polished, but the core concept—shadowy house with hiding mechanic—reads as a standard horror-game presentation rather than a bold distinctive identity.
  • Brand Consistency: 6/10 — Cohesive mood, no iconic motif. The dark blue-gray palette, shadow rendering, and architectural focus create internal visual cohesion and a recognizable moody tone. However, there are no memorable iconic symbols, character designs, or signature visual motifs that would make the brand immediately recognizable across multiple exposures. The approach is consistently atmospheric but generic within indie horror conventions.
  • Composition: 7/10 — Balanced hierarchy with clear focus. The title sits in a strong center position with the house silhouette anchoring the left-center as a supporting focal point and the small figure on the left drawing minimal attention. The composition has clear depth layering—shadowy foreground branches, mid-ground house, lighter sky background—that creates visual hierarchy. At SMALL and TINY sizes, the pale sky region behind the text ensures readability, and the overall frame is well-balanced without dead space or edge-hugging risks.

What works

  • Excellent title contrast and placement. White serif text reads clearly at all sizes due to strategic positioning on the lighter sky region and strong value separation from the dark background.
  • Atmospheric genre communication. The haunted house silhouette, shadowy branches, and moody lighting immediately convey horror-survival hiding mechanics to viewers at TINY size.
  • Clean internal visual cohesion. The consistent dark blue-gray palette, shadow rendering style, and atmospheric effects work together without jarring tonal breaks or style conflicts.

What hurts the capsule

  • Generic horror-game presentation. The haunted house aesthetic lacks a distinctive visual hook, unique character, or memorable brand motif that would differentiate it from similar indie horror titles.
  • Missing gameplay-mechanic visual hints. While the hiding theme is implied, the capsule does not visually communicate what makes this game's core loop or survival mechanic unique or compelling.
  • Limited personality or emotional hook. The image prioritizes atmosphere over a distinctive art style or visual storytelling element that would create immediate engagement or recognition memory.

Priority fixes

  1. [uniqueness_polish] Introduce a distinctive visual element such as a glowing key detail, ghost silhouette design, or unique art style flourish that differentiates the brand from generic haunted-house games and creates a memorable hook.
  2. [brand_consistency] Add a recurring iconic motif or symbol (e.g., a unique ghost design, glowing lock, or visual signature) visible at SMALL size that reinforces brand identity across all marketing materials.
  3. [composition] Consider integrating a subtle gameplay hint—such as a character pose suggesting stealth, a glowing objective, or environmental cue—that communicates the core hiding-and-searching mechanic beyond pure atmosphere.

Store copy priority fixes

  1. [uniqueness] Add a specific mechanical or narrative detail that distinguishes this game from other haunted-house stealth games—e.g., 'Multiple ending paths based on which ghosts detect you' or 'A house that transforms based on player actions.'
  2. [feature_communication] Expand the feature bullets with concrete examples: instead of 'Dynamic AI,' write 'Ghosts learn your hiding spots and change patrol patterns after spotting you' or similar specifics.
  3. [audience_targeting] Add an explicit audience signal such as 'Perfect for puzzle lovers who want tension without combat' or 'Family-friendly horror that's creepy, not traumatizing' to clarify who will enjoy this most.
  4. [hook_strength] Replace the closing rhetorical question with a more distinctive value proposition that hints at a unique mechanic or twist rather than a generic challenge statement.

Related guides

Steam app ID: 3040350 · Tags: Casual, Adventure, Arcade, Puzzle, Hidden Object