Seeing through any holiday is quite difficult as a student, but never is this more felt than funding an assortment of snacks, pumpkins, outfit parts, and horror media between a part-time job and preparation for the first load of assignment deadlines in the first term. Being the only holiday where half the fun isn’t gifted to you, allow me to make Halloween moderately easier by recommending four horror games from the past year or so that’ll hit your wallet with less cost than a six-inch Subway Signature Series (a little over £5).
Buckshot Roulette (Mike Klubnika, 2024) £2.49
Playable on: PC (Steam & itch.io)
Following an excellent portfolio of short and free horror games available on itch.io – ones I recommend playing if £2.49 proves too much for you – Mike Klubnika developed and released a horror game focalising around an entirely novel-feeling concept: gambling. Gamble with a roulette wheel where red is a live shotgun shell and black is a safe blank whilst playing to win against the demonically imposing, always somewhat smiling, dealer. The tight sound design and music of Buckshot Roulette is beautifully intertwined with its sharp editing to create an experience that is constantly engrossing and persistently anxiety-inducing. I bet you double or nothing that you’ll love this game because playing with fire has never been so exhilarating.
Clickolding (Strange Scaffold, 2024) £2.49
Playable on: PC (Steam & itch.io)
I regret enjoying clicking the clicker as much as I did, but I hope that’s all I need to say to recommend the game to you.
Strange Scaffold’s ethos regarding game development has been to develop varied experiences in precise packages, and those packages have yet to deliver unsatisfactory or frustratingly untimely. Clickolding is one of three eclectic games from the developer this year thus far (next to the brilliant Life Eater and I Am Your Beast) and is one of the first outings from former Among Us (Innersloth, 2018) staff’s new indie publishing label, Outersloth. From the outside looking in, it appears as though game director Xalavier Nelsion Jr. was finding the line for what the new outfit was comfortable adopting and pushing it as hard as possible. Clickolding is a game where a man in a mask with a gun forces the player to press a clicker at least ten thousand times in a private, locked hotel room. I regret enjoying clicking the clicker as much as I did, but I hope that’s all I need to say to recommend the game to you.
Psychopomp (Fading Club, 2024) Free
Playable on: PC (Steam & itch.io)
In Psychopomp, the player is a psychosis-suffering child who, in losing contact with reality, can seemingly contact the deceased in Limbo (ala Greek psychopompós). The game offers a great deal of ‘food for thought’ as it proposes how a naïve child might differently interact with death and systemic challenges to how a mature adult might expect. Furthermore, the surreal soundtrack, sensitive but thoroughly explored content, and restrictive controls craft a deeply memorable experience. The game has a GOLD edition with new endings and more vastly explored themes, so if you like what you play for free, you can buy Psychopomp GOLD after October 25th and support a creative and clever independent developer. Just heed this word of warning: the tool icon is to destroy/attack and not fix/repair; do not hit a child with a hammer less than two minutes in.
Three Minutes With Your Dog (Capybaraforge, 2023) Free
Playable on: PC (itch.io)
Three Minutes With Your Dog, as the name mostly implies, is a game that can be beaten in nearly three minutes where the goal is to play catch using a frisbee with the player character’s dog. If you’re jumpy then your mileage with this game might vary, but otherwise, I feel it is best recommended without further context to potentially spoil the frights, fun, and funniest moments.
