STAGE

**STAGE** is a 1-2 player Minecraft horror game developed by **Toxicity Games** and was released publicly on January 18, 2023. The game is heavily inspired by games Resident Evil Village, DOORS, and Rainbow Friends and contains music borrowed from Castle Crashers and Dead by Daylight. It is free to play and contains no in game purchases **for now**.

## Summary

*Jump into STAGE, a new Minecraft horror story game developed by Toxicity Games. STAGE starts out with a detective deployed to investigate a series of violent murders and kidnappings that are tracked to a location known as the Survival Games. After the player enters the building, their whole world begins to crumble as they face numerous evils and learn more about what is really going on behind the curtains.*

## Release

Development of STAGE had begun in September 2022 and was originally planned to release in December 2022. Toxicity Games first teased it as an upcoming horror game, and development started after Toxicity Games announced the departure of NIGHTFALL from their services. The game's building and coding stage had concluded in late December, and it entered the testing phase for the first two weeks of January 2023. After testing was complete and final touches were made, the game officially released for free on January 18. It has been played by over 10 people. ￼

The game was originally intended to cost $2 to be played, but Toxicity scrapped the idea of pricing it and took it off the market, therefore making it free to play. Toxicity has confirmed that DLCs will release for the game, and those DLCs will require a purchase to be played.

## Plot

Tyler Meadows is a detective who works for the New Orleans Police Department in Louisiana. He was deployed to investigate a series of missing adults who were last seen at a 'survival games' escape room attraction. Meadows is eventually trapped in the Games after he ends up finding out that the Games are real, and players are actually being put to the test to survive. Meadows travels through a series of stages, some being puzzles, some being extras, while others have hostiles that Meadows needs to avoid.

His first encounter is with Vent, after he enters the ventilation system to leave the Guest Building. Vent is a dark shadowy figure who greets Meadows by walking out of a dark alleyway in the vents. Vent proceeds to chase Meadows throughout the ventilation system. Meadows eventually finds his way out after dodging numerous traps and dead ends and escapes the one and only encounter with Vent in the game. Meadows proceeds throughout the various stages and solves puzzles along the way before finding himself hiding in a closet after being warned to go into one when entering a dark room. Quick, another enemy, zooms through the room with a blade, searching for new prey. Quick never bothers to check the closets, which is why they are the safest route to take. After Quick is gone, Meadows leaves the closet and continues his way through. He would encounter Quick two more times before the end of the game.

Next, Meadows encounters Chase, who is very similar to Vent in appearance. Chase rises out of a black pool of ink and begins to chase Meadows throughout a few rooms. While being chased, the last hallway, similar to the one the chased started in, has black tentacles piercing through the windows and fire in the middle areas. Meadows maneuvers through the obstacles with Chase behind him, and eventually, but narrowly, makes it out alive.

Shortly after escaping Chase, Meadows enters the Storage/Library room of the Games, which is much farther than even the Headmaster who runs the Games expected anyone would make it to, and is encountered by Quiet, a blind, tall creature who locates lurkers using sound. Meadows has to find three key items to unlock the doors to leave the library and proceed, searching through dozens of barrels in hopes of locating the key items while avoiding Quiet. He has to stay quiet and avoid leaving tracks and making noise to prevent himself from being caught, while also being very visibly and audibly aware. He eventually locates the items and escapes the library.

Meadows shortly after leaving the library meets Glitch, a piece of code who was created accidentally during a computer malfunction but was used for better purposes instead of being scrapped or killed. Glitch lives in a pink room engulfed by a pink wool floor and pink windows. When Meadows enters her room, he is forced to stay crouched to the ground and to avoid touching Glitch at all costs. Walking, running, or coming into contact with Glitch will result in his death. He stealthily evades Glitch.

Soon after, Meadows is forced to hide from Quick again. After Quick zooms by, Meadows enters a dark room. He slowly maneuvers through it and is knocked out by someone in a green mask.

Meadows wakes up in a dungeon with cells, presumably used to hold prisoner those who made it "too far". Meadows finds a way out of the dungeon using clues and items, and a hint left by someone who was previously murdered at the dungeon. Meadows finds himself in a "slaughter room" with human skulls on the ground and tables and blood stains with chains hanging on the wall after leaving the dungeon, and finds weapons on the table with a sign that says "CHOOSE ONE". Meadows assumes that the slaughter room was used to kill the players who made it far enough into the Games.

Meadows encounters Quick one last time shortly after, and then ends up locating a bridge. The bridge is outside, and Meadows sees that the sun is setting. After he crosses the bridge, he finds a blue door that is warped in vines. He opens it and meets Mental. Mental is different of the others, and actually warns Meadows to not look at him, effectively assisting Meadows in his escape. Meadows realizes that Mental probably didn't have a choice in becoming who he was. Meadows evades Mental and shortly after meets Holes, a tall creature with holes carved in his body. Holes is pure evil, and warns Meadows that falling into the ground makes it easier for Holes to catch up to him while also partially feeding off of Meadows' health. Meadows eventually makes it away from Holes.

After the final encounter with all the hostiles from the Games, Meadows finds the Lab. If played correctly, Meadows sees a diary on the table and reads it. He finds that the diary contains all the information about the hostiles. Meadows then finds the truth, he learns that every hostile is actually a mutated version of what was once a child or teenager who was murdered by a man named Kingstone, who turned the children into his own monstrous creations to hunt down clueless escape room enjoyers. After reading the diary, the detective finds an escape pod, and without hesitation and ready to get the Games shut down, he enters it.

He finds that the escape pod had actually been rigged, and instead the pod transported him to a field nearby the Games. He is greeted by the true bad guy himself, Joseph Kingstone. He witnesses Kingstone inject a fluid called WF-001, a prototype that would turn the user into a mythical creature. Kingstone then mutates into the myth, the Wither, and Meadows engages in battle with a mutated Kingstone. Wounded and nearly dead, Meadows narrowly defeats the mutated Kingstone, and is rescued by a colleague from the force and taken home.

At the end, Meadows is informed that a woman named Stella, who is Kingstone's secretary and someone who assisted in the killings, burnt down the building of the Games, leaving the fates of all the children in their mutated forms and other living things inside there unknown.

## Tips

### **Tips for beating Vent**

* The vent chase is very easy to complete and shouldn't have to cause multiple tries. To finish the vent chase, never turn around and always follow the orange torches. The blue torches are traps and will lead the player to a dead end. The orange torches create a path that lead into the main building of the games.
* If you run into a dead end, turn around ASAP. There's a chance you can still swerve by Vent.

### **Tips for beating Quick**

* Quick is also very easy to beat and only has three encounters. When you enter a dark room, jump into the nearest closet, and if needed, use drastic measures and hide behind something tall and wide enough to hide your body. Quick doesn't bother to check closets or dark corners and is easily beatable.

### **Tips for beating Chase**

* Chase's chase scene is minorly based on luck, but mainly awareness. Chase is very slow, allowing you time to run, but the rooms leading to the end of his pursuit have many obstacles. Predict your movements and look ahead when being chased to see where you can make your next move. Never look back.

### **Tips for beating Quiet**

* Quiet is blind, meaning he can only see you in a 4-block radius in front of him or to his sides, but not behind him.
* Quiet has a walking pattern. He will first check the aisles of every bookshelf, then he'll patrol the middle before patrolling the area near the escape.
* Quiet's library has special locations he built himself to help find players such as the grassy areas or the water. Hearing noises of water or grass will immediately notify him that you are over there. If you end up stepping on those, get out of there quickly.
* If Quiet is near you, don't panic and don't run. Running leaves dirt trails and will help him trace you fast. Walk slowly and don't sneak to throw him off and make him lose you in chase.

### **Tips for beating Glitch**

* Glitch is incredibly simple to beat. Do not rush her room, stay in sneaking position the entire time. If she travels near you, don't stand still, just sneak towards the opposite direction.
* Walking, running, or touching her at all will result in your instant death. Glitch is a piece of code, so touching her or hearing sounds will notify her of your presence and she'll quickly transfer into your body and expel your soul, taking your place.

### **Tips for beating Mental**

* Mental is easy. If he teleports in front of you, turn around. Repeat that process until you escape.

### **Tips for beating Holes**

* Holes is slightly more difficult than Mental. Holes chases you in sneak speed, so he isn't much of a problem, but the Holes in the ground slow you down and damage you overtime if you step in them, so if you were already low in health, you're probably lower, or dead. They also give Holes more time to catch up to you.
* At the end of his chase is a giant leap over the void. If you fall, you'll fall into the void and die of combustion. Just leap over it and you'll be good.

### **Tips for beating Kingstone**

* Kingstone is the final boss of the first STAGE. For his first form, he is mostly only damageable with a ranged weapon, as he is too busy flying. He will attack by lobbing bombs at you, typically the skulls of past victims. The black skulls are regular bombs and will explode, dealing some damage. The blue bombs have a larger area of effect and will slow you down and damage you.
* After half of his health is drained, the Wither Fluid builds up armor as a nervous system reaction. The armor deflects arrows and will only make Kingstone damageable via melee attacks. He'll start to lose his will to fly though, so he'll be easier to hit with your weapon.

For the puzzles, look closely. For the poem puzzle, check the first letter of each line.