For the eponymous house in my interactive fiction project, I knew I wanted something that captured the “analogue-slash-existential horror meets rural America” I had been envisioning from the story’s conception. The game takes place in an apocalyptic-looking realm in a region initially unknown to the protagonist trio, and the first place they wind up in is the House of Eden itself: A derelict home with only the faintest indications that anyone had lived within the shack recently.

Wikimedia Commons served as the starting point for the image, offering up a handful of images under a Creative Commons license, but I wound up selecting this one for its wonderfully-low-tech and run-down styling.

Of course, this was too bright and cheery for my uses, so I masked out the sky and trees in the background of the photo, adjusted the channels to various shades of red, and added some lightning in the background to help suggest something alien about the atmosphere.

Frankly, I’m not sold on the final product yet: Something about it is lacking the dark and dreary effect I want, so I may return to it later to be recreated from scratch or at least darkened slightly.

Edit: I did! See it here