The Riverside Incident

**The Riverside Incident** is a 2019 exploration horror game developed by Puppet Combo. Game can be downloaded from Puppet Combo's Patreon page. It is also available in *Scary Tales Vol 1*.

## Summary

> "*In July 1991, a group of hikers happened upon a garbage bag containing a videotape and some articles of clothing in Spring Forest state park. After viewing the footage, they turned it into the local police, believing it to be a prank. Limited portions of the tape have been released to the public in hopes of identifying the persons involved."*
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It is a found footage type of game. The player controls an unseen character who carries around a camera and wanders around an abandoned, ruined building. During the exploration, it becomes clear that the site used to be a mental asylum, and although apparently empty for years, someone appears to have taken residence inside. Then, the action takes place outside of a house - the character is possibly stalking whoever lives there, as they even walk inside at one point. At the end of the game, the character films a house burning downhill while talking to themselves while sirens can be heard in the background. The tape then suddenly cuts off.

## Trivia

* Around 2 minutes after appearing in the second area, a recorder will automatically begin playing an interview, lasting approximately 3 minutes. Due to the low audio quality and background static, the interview is extremely hard to understand. A script of the recording (written by Tabby Dharma), apparently exists, but cannot be found in the game files.
	+ The characters in the interview, the Patient and the Doctor, were voiced by "Frosty" and "Ginose" respectively.
	+ The patient is named as "Amanda" in the interview. One of the newspaper clippings in the third area fully identify both characters as Amanda Thomas and Richard Eckhardt.
* The movement of the screen shows that the player character is limping.
* This is the first Puppet Combo game without the option to sprint.
* There are a total of five different areas in the game. The first can only be explored for 5 minutes, while the others will only progress once a certain point is reached.
* The tapes were filmed on 19th and 20th of May, 1989.
* The ending of the game is a reference to the Redwood City California arson committed by two juveniles and recorded on camera by the perpetrators. The older one of the teens infamously left a video tape behind near a crime scene, wherein he made creepy, nonsensical commentary while filming a house burning down.
* The screams heard during the home invasion at the end are taken from the "Ruth Price 911 Call", an emergency hotline recording wherein the elderly caller can be heard screaming while being attacked by an intruder she was reporting. The audio has become gained notoriety as shock content, since it is often assumed that Ruth Price was raped/murdered. In reality, Ruth Price survived and fought her assailant off unharmed, with the call itself being used as training examples for emergency call centers.
* Puppet Combo originally worked on expanding the *Meat Cleaver Mutilator*, but he eventually lost interest in it and ended up turning the new map into *The Riverside Incident*.

## Video

Riverside Psychiatric Hospital IncidentThe Riverside Incident - Found Footage TERROR
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://twitter.com/PuppetCombo/status/1123687910824456194
2. ↑ https://www.relyonhorror.com/in-depth/interviews/interview-power-drill-massacre-dev-puppet-combo-talks-past-present-future-of-solo-horror-development/