The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person mystery game that puts a lot of focus on exploration, discovery, and storytelling. It was developed and published by The Astronauts on September 26th, 2014.

This game has no combat, no violence, no flashy explosions and other things like that. Players assume the role of Paul Prospero, a detective that likes to dabble in the occult that gets a terrifying letter from someone called Ethan Carter. Paul understands immediately that this boy is in terrible danger and so he arrives in Red Creek Valley and enters the home of Ethan only to find that the boy is missing and that a frightful murder occurred here. Many strange and creepy stories from the twentieth century are an inspiration for The Vanishing of Ethan Carter as it provides incredibly immersive storytelling in a video game that lets you develop your investigation skills and provides several mental challenges for players to overcome.

The focus is on an eerie atmosphere, an intense mood, and gripping characters that will pull you even deeper into a strange world where nothing is as it seems. Since our protagonist Paul has the supernatural skill that allows him to speak with the dead, he can uncover many things that ordinary people can't. Dive deeper into the history of Red Creek Valley and unravel sinister roots of an old and forgotten force that's dwelling in this place and see what happened to the missing boy.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter features an enchanting and ominous world of Red Creek Valley for players to explore, the ability to converse with the dead which helps greatly with the investigations, a non-linear story that was inspired by brilliant writers such as Stefan Grabinski, H.P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler, and Algernon Blackwood.