Five Terrifying Indie Games
By: Chris Kernaghan
Tags: Horror, Halloween, Gaming, Indie, Features

Five Terrifying Indie Games

Strapped for time, but want to entertain the notion of playing some spooky titles during Halloween? Itch.io has you covered

Hey you, reader. Yes, you. The world outside is desolate, the weather bleak. You’ll catch your death of cold out there, so come on in and warm yourself up by the fire. Come on, there’s nothing to be afraid of. The ale is flowing and there’s plenty of pork belly for all. We’re sharing tales. Yes, they’re scary tales, but a reader like you can handle it, right?

It is spooky-season after all.

For horror buffs, now is the most wonderful time of the year. You can expect Halloween themed Twitter handles, people sharing tales of doom and gloom, and a heavy supply of scary games streaming on Twitch. If you’re a fan of the macabre, this will no doubt feel more like Christmas than Christmas itself. For good reason too, as horror game titillation is big business. We enjoy being scared or watching someone else be scared on our behalf. Alien Isolation, Creative Assembly’s masterpiece in stealth horror, is still hugely popular at this time of year on streaming platforms, even 6 years after its initial release in 2014. Why? Because quite frankly it has yet to be surpassed in creating a sense of fear and dread, which translates so viscerally to the player.

A Xenomorph closes in on its prey from Alien Isolation. Source: The Verge.

“It has absolutely no message, it works on a very visceral level and its only point is terror, and more terror.” — Ridley Scott on the original Xenomorph from Alien (1979)

There are of course other titles, blockbusters like Resident Evil, Amnesia Rebirth, and Doom. Titles created with lofty budgets, huge marketing campaigns, and access to talent around the clock. These titles are also wildly successful on streaming platforms like Twitch and provide creators and viewers potentially hours worth of entertainment. At one point in time, however, every horror game that’s now hugely popular was just an idea. An idea, maybe shared by a team of people, maybe not. An idea, possibly constrained for a number of years for budgetary reasons, eventually emerging victorious. But with enough nourishment and given the opportunity to flourish, this simple idea can become, quite literally, a game-changer within the industry.

The realisation of these ideas doesn’t just live within the context of a team-based office environment. There exists a world where folks develop their own portrayal of terror, defined entirely by themselves. Working at home, deep into the night and often at weekends, carefully using their limited free time to create an idea, or a short early concept, that could potentially lead to something much bigger. A title worthy of admiration on Twitch perhaps. A fleeting moment to have ideas, concepts, and maybe even their own talents, thrust into the limelight, with the potential of landing a project with a dream game developer.

At this point, you might be wondering where you can try these short titles for yourself. I find most on a platform that I consider to be the home of indie gaming, itch.io. Titles of varying lengths exist here. Blink and you’ll miss them, showcases of the developers' ability to create a teaser worth of content. While other titles are fully-fledged experiences that guarantee to capture your attention for hours at a time. If you’ve ever watched your favourite YouTuber play “3 scary games”, it’s likely that these are bite-sized titles sourced from itch.io.

With that said, let’s delve deep into the horror section on itch.io, and showcase some of the very best examples on offer.

No Players Online

Times change, but what we find truly scary, rarely does. Go back and read pieces of fiction, such as The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and it’s likely you’ll find something unsettling in there. The novel itself, which Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manner is loosely based upon, is some 121 years old now. While the spirits of Bly Manner choose to haunt in more aristocratic surroundings typical of the Victorian era, it shouldn’t be too surprising that 21st-century spirits are more comfortable with technology. Such is the case with No Players Online. A delightful indie horror title in which you’ve managed to access an abandoned server. Upon joining, the player count remains at zero — and there’s seemingly little to do; until you deal with the objective of capturing the flag. That’s when things start to get interesting.

Developed by papercookies, otherwise known as Adam Pype, this short game packs a lot of eeriness into its admittedly minuscule playtime. The game packs in faux server selection screens, warped VHS style effects (a very common theme in indie horror titles), and excellent use of sound design — this is easily one of the best horror titles on itch.io.

Try this one out if you like tales of spiritual hauntings, but in a style that has more in common with the warped, pixelated graphics of the original PlayStation.

Download No Players Online

September 1999

The itch.io homepage for September 1999 claims that you’ll finish this title in about 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Such is the nature of some of these games where the quality of an idea is much more important than stretching out said idea with unnecessary padding, just for the sake of extended game time. Experimentation is the name of the game here, and in the case of September 1999, it works to such an extent you’ll be left questioning the events that took place within the game long after your screen returns to the desktop.

“September 1999 shows how developers can take a straightforward premise, house it within a very familiar setting and stretch it into one of the most nightmarish experiences of your life.” — Rely on Horror

It’s a testament to the creator, 98DEMAKE, that they’re able to effectively build fear-laden ambiguity in such a short manner of time. Many have speculated, and continue to speculate the mystery around this title, but such is the efficacy of the narrative portrayed in all its condensed glory.

Download September 1999

Sauna 2000

“Float with me in the world of ether.” David Lynch is quoted as saying this, perhaps a self-referential hint at his ability to create dream-esque, or should that be nightmare-esque, moments of ether. Sauna 2000 is the most Lynchian of all the titles I explore in this piece, and it has the eerie ability to place you in a dreamlike surrounding. This eventually devolves into a nightmare featuring a horned man, a figure prominent in Finnish mythology. Deep, unearthly tones and some truly spectacular imagery abound as you descend into a meta nightmare, in which you must run away from yourself.

With a totally surreal 32-bit PlayStation style, developed by Moya Horror, the art direction is eerily beautiful. You spend your time in an admittedly relaxing lake-side location in Finland while you ready your sauna, but things become stranger as you complete your tasks one by one. It is one of my favourite independent horror games that truly punches well above its weight. Moya Horror should be content in the knowledge that their truly unique depiction of Unelma works so well.

If David Lynch made a video game, it would be Sauna 2000.

Download Sauna 2000

The Night that Speaks

Imagine if the Game Boy could display 3D graphics, but never moved away from its monochrome colour scheme. If you’ve ever wondered what that might look like, look no further than The Night that Speaks. Made in just 4 days by Adam R. and Guy T, this creation is a shift, tonally, from most horror games on itch.io. Why? Because this title not only provides occasions to jump but occasions to laugh out loud as well. The first time your character is prompted to defend themselves certainly raised a good laugh from me.

Explore maze-like catacombs under a dimly-lit creepy graveyard and evade the monsters as best you can. With excellent sound design, The Night that Speaks is best experienced with headphones off.

Download The Night that Speaks

DESCEND

Going down?

An often-used trope throughout media, many audiences perceive the descent of a character, particularly in horror, to be indicative of their journey to the underworld, and that’s certainly the impression I got from this short title. In DESCEND, you spend most of your time, well, descending. Navigate your way through tight spaces and deep, dark caverns — your view somewhat obscured with visual distortion. The distortion only grows worse as the pressure of the world above you increases. At times it seems like your journey downwards is never going to end. At points, you’ll question if this is indeed possible, with your descent seemingly so far down it feels totally unnatural and very, very unnerving.

Katabasis, a term used to describe a descent into the underworld, is a term I was unfamiliar with until I tried DESCEND.

Katabasis is the epic convention of the hero’s trip into the underworld. In Greek mythology, for example, Orpheus enters the underworld in order to bring Eurydice back to the world of the living. — Wikipedia

Less a game, and more a way to explore an idea by developer ompuco, this is a truly eerie experience that becomes more intense, the deeper you go. If you reach the bottom, what will you find?

Download DESCEND