At the Heart of Blackberry Manor: A Story With A Heart

Written by Lover's Lens, Writer, Gamer Girl, Podcast Host, Cat Lover

Published on November 1, 2025

Hauntingly beautiful, quietly romantic, and steeped in gothic mystery At the Heart of Blackberry Manor feels like a dream brought to life. Created by Emma and Inês, two young developers behind Whisper Wisteria Studio, the project began as a humble school assignment and blossomed into one of the most captivating indie visual novel demos on itch.io.

In this conversation with The Otome Games Podcast Emma and Inês open up about their creative journey from building a fog-shrouded manor filled with secrets to balancing art, narrative, and emotion. Their passion for storytelling and devotion to detail breathe life into a world where every rose, shadow, and whispered secret has meaning.

What follows is a candid look behind the curtains (and the brambles) of At the Heart of Blackberry Manor, told in their own words.

Listen to the FULL Episode :

Download the Demo HERE

The Team behind At the Heart of Blackberry Manor

Highlights from At the Heart of Blackberry Manor Podcast

Otome.com

How did At the Heart of Blackberry Manor come to be?

Emma: So it started out as a fun idea we had, because we both love games and we just figured we wanted to do it together. And then when the opportunity presented itself, because of the cool project, we took it.

Otome.com

Why did you choose to create a visual novel?

Emma: Well, I think it’s because it really allows you to delve deeper into the story aspect of it. We both love narrative and story driven games, so this would be the perfect way to bring our story to the screen, or to the game.

Otome.com

Could you summarize the story for listeners who haven’t played the demo?

Inês: So you play as a young girl who’s currently recovering from a heart transplant. You’re sent to this lone manor surrounded by bramble and obscured by fog. You’ve also only called it home for little to over a month now. So you’ve already grown awfully bored of it…

Your sole companion is also a physician named Victor, who’s unlikely to open up his art to you just yet… However, the more you explore its grounds, the more oddities you encounter and the more you come to realize that the whole place is somewhat shrouded in mystery. You’ve yet to uncover all of its secrets, including its owner. But can you discover what truly lies at the heart of Blackberry Manor before your departure?

Otome.com

What inspired the At the Heart of Blackberry Manor’s tone and setting?

Inês: We’re both huge lovers of the atmospheres and different narratives that you can craft when it comes to the mystery genre as a whole. And yeah, if you pair that up with the romance genre, you got yourself quite an alluring tone and setting for a story.

I think there’s like a certain vulnerability when it comes to romantic stories that just contrast so well with all the uncertainty a mystery story can offer. So they make somewhat like the perfectly tragic pair for allure, intrigue, and just a whole bunch of secrets.

Otome.com

How did you balance the mystery and romance elements in At the Heart of Blackberry Manor?

Inês: Classic novels and other gothic media… were definitely an inspiration for me when designing the narrative and just coming up with the core plot points and themes of the game as a whole. Though I found it to be quite a slippery slope when it comes to finding that balance.

Mystery is all about omitting some truths, subtle foreshadowing and clever misdirections… But there also needs to be a certain amount of clues scattered around the narrative as well, as to not make it an unsolvable twist that kind of feels unsatisfying for the audience. It was quite the hard work to make everything fit together nicely.

”Otome.com”How

Inês: Yeah, so we approached writing the blossoming romance between our protagonist and Victor in a way that doesn’t completely overshadow the overall plot of the story. Showing not telling has always been something we strongly took into consideration when crafting their narratives. We wanted them to be interesting characters on their own. Honestly, the story we’re planning on writing could have worked out perfectly fine without them being romantically interested in each other, but we just thought it would fit nicely with the theme we’re going for. It always just adds an additional layer of emotional tone to a story overall, I would say. <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="https://otome.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Viktor_02-1024x1024.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-5579"/></figure></div> [chat_bubble color="secondary" align="left" image="https://otome.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Otome.com_Avatar-Copy.png" name="Otome.com"]What can you tell us about Victor’s character?

Inês: The fact that he’s perceived as mysterious and alluring means that I’ve done well writing him, so thank you for that. Yeah, since his character is very closely tied to the very core of the narrative’s mystery, there’s unfortunately not much we can reveal about Victor himself besides the tidbits presented in the demo.

So I would just say look forward to uncovering all his oddities and the reason behind his solitary lifestyle once the full game releases.

Otome.com

Who is the protagonist before the events of the game?

Inês: Our protagonist is just a young, ordinary girl trying to navigate her entry into young adulthood and just discovering herself, her preferences and so on… Unfortunately, misfortune kind of strikes her in the form of a heart illness. But this event also kind of leads her to a place where she can truly be herself without the watchful gaze of societal expectations, especially those of her mother… You’ll of course follow along her journey and influence it as she develops into a young woman by the end of the story.

Otome.com

The art direction is beautiful and cohesive. What inspired it?

Emma: Yes, and first of all, thank you so much for the compliments. I really appreciate it. So the art is very much inspired by Victorian art — like the detailed over-the-top designs and meanings and everything. But at the same time, it wanted to give the art of our game its own individuality.
So, and personally also, I love details. It’s perfect and it’s so much fun to work on. So the art also really needed to fit the story we created so that they form one entity, which means that everything is coherent and that the player would be truly immersed in all aspects of the game.

Otome.com

Can you tell us about your UI and background design choices?

Emma: I’ll be really honest. I think I was just sketching around and I came up with this idea and then I showed Ines and she was like, my god. Yes, that’s fun. So we just went with it.

We both love background storytelling. It’s a way for a viewer to explore what is being told to them, other than what’s just written to you… There is a lot of hidden clues, foreshadowing and whatnot in the backgrounds. Because we wanted the environment, the house, to also have its own personality and that’s why every room feels so distinct and like it’s one of its kind and unique.

Otome.com

How did the project evolve from being a school project?

Emma: We started the game before the school project, sort of already. And back then it was like a lot different than it was right now. So it went through a lot of changes… Even the genre was like a completely different genre, but when we started working on it during like the school projects thing, we realized that it wasn’t translating well into the vision we had of it. So we did a complete reboot and started reworking the character story and art to its current form.

Otome.com

How long did it take you to produce the demo?

Emma: So for the school project we had five months to fully work on it, but to be honest for the first three months we were very much figuring things out how to do it and we were working still with the old idea and then when we realized we had to change it it was like the third month so we did everything in I think about two months to do it.

Otome.com

What motivates you to keep working despite the workload?

Emma: I think it’s for sure the community response that’s like a really big part in what makes us keep going. But also we just really love making games and we want to do nothing more than just to see the project through. And we also have just a lot of passion for creating it so that just fuels everything.

Otome.com

How has the response from players felt so far?

Emma: It’s so very rewarding. We spend a lot of time on the demo and to see people so happy and excited about it and like it, it just feels amazing… we have to work on it because people are expecting, like they’re waiting for it and we want to bring it out there.

Inês: Yeah, it gives us like some motivation to continue and yeah, it’s also like it was so unexpected because this is the first time we’ve ever done something like this. Honestly, I’ve never written a script prior to this before… to see everyone so excited about it, it’s very overwhelming, but very rewarding. So we’re very thankful to everyone.

Otome.com

What message do you want players to take away from At the Heart of Blackberry Manor?

Inês: Well, I would say like first and foremost, we would like to make our players intrigued with the mystery at the core of the narrative, of course. We would like them to be curious about both our lovely protagonist and Victor and just, yeah, hold out hope to what will become of them by the end, how their individual stories will end up, as well as how they even intertwine with each other and end up affecting how the narrative concludes.

Otome.com

Can you share any secret or hidden detail from the game?

Emma: So yeah, we cannot tell you a lot because we really want to keep the mystery up. But all we can say is to look really closely to the backgrounds because you will find a lot hidden in plain sight. Yeah, so we try to be careful on what we reveal because we really do not want to spoil the mystery. But with time all will be revealed.

Otome.com

Any final words for your fans?

Inês: Well, just thank you so much for everyone that has supported our game thus far. We’re truly, truly, truly thankful. Like from the bottom of our hearts, this is amazing… And if anyone hasn’t played our game yet, please do. We would love for you to give us your comments and theories as well. We’re very much looking forward to everything.

Emma: Yes. And thank you so much for interviewing us. That truly means a lot. It’s awesome. I never thought we could get interviewed, so it’s so cool. And thank you for the amazing time. It was great talking to you guys. You guys are so sweet.

As our conversation draws to a close, it’s clear that At the Heart of Blackberry Manor isn’t just a school project or a debut demo, it’s a love letter to storytelling, atmosphere, and emotion.

Emma and Inês have created something that transcends genre: a world where visual beauty meets quiet melancholy.. Though still students balancing deadlines and dreams, their ambition and sincerity hint at a bright creative future, one that fans of gothic romance and narrative-driven games will eagerly follow.

You can play the demo of At the Heart of Blackberry Manor and explore its haunting world yourself available now on our website.