The holiday season is upon us. Depending on where you are in the world, as December roars on, you could be settling into frosty mornings and bleak evenings, but I doubt that the real-world winter you’re facing will be quite as atmospheric as the icy offerings from these indie games. Additionally, just because it’s the festive period, doesn’t mean you need to shed your normally eerie interests to trade them in for wholesome merrymaking. Although winter is the season for cozy indoor festivities and copious amounts of good food, it’s also arguably the creepiest time of year: it’s cold, dark, and weather-beaten. Thank goodness you can spend it indoors, playing video games, instead. Here are eight lesser-known, spooky titles from independent studios and creators to play as you embrace the longer nights.
1. Cozy
Cozy is a point-and-click horror game with gorgeous pixel art, set deep in the snowy woods. First created as an entry to the Pixel Horror Jam 2016, the game has gained a reputation for its delightful art style and tricky puzzles. Created by only two people, Cozy takes the intimacy of indie gaming to a whole new level. At the start of the game, you arrive at a building secluded in the snow cloaked woodland. The game uses a kind of multifaceted nostalgia, between its pixelated setting and the retro feel of the game mechanics used to solve the game’s many puzzles. While the title feels like an oxymoron, given it’s a horror game and all, it is genuinely a pretty “cozy” play thanks to its old-school stylings. Cozy is a brief but beautiful encounter, serving a fair share of fear factor and frozen landscapes.
2. Shiver
Did you like the sound of Cozy? Good, because Shiver is its “spiritual successor”, made by one-half of the team who made Cozy. Shiver has a similar concept to its predecessor – it’s a point-and-click puzzle adventure game, with some pretty nasty twists and turns – but its execution and overall style are pretty distinctive in their own right. What’s even better is that, like Cozy, it’s completely free to play.
The game begins when you become stranded in Windy Oaks National Park in the freezing weather on your way to visit family. Windy Oaks National Park is built on a web of secrets and tragedy, as it’s the location of a recent sinkhole and mining incident. Throughout the hour-long excursion through the forest, you make use of the mine system to unpick the mysteries of the park’s grounds. Although some of the puzzles are subterranean, this woodland mystery is ideal for the horror fan looking to take a dip into a winter wonderland.
3. Lost Constellation
While Lost Constellation is a subsidiary for the lore of Night in the Woods, it’s a beautiful yuletide-oriented game in its own right. The game starts off with a “Longest Night” ghost story, before leaping into the tale of a crocodile, Adina Astra, exploring a haunting frozen landscape. You play as Adina, an astronomer from out of town, as she journeys through the foreboding woods on a journey to meet the Forest God. Chronicling the folklore of the franchise’s equivalent of the Winter Solstice, it’s the perfect game for folk-horror lovers who want to feel a little more seasonal.
The atmosphere in Night in the Woods games remains unbeaten, and Lost Constellation is no exception. From the ethereal whooshing of the game’s sound design to the sense that the physics of the game is physically slowing Adina down in snowier regions of the forest, this game is ideal for getting lost in woods when the night seems never-ending. The story of the game is not overshadowed by its ambiance, either. The tale of Adina and the Forest God is evocative of pagan mythology and regional folklore surrounding Yule, while still providing an imaginative spin and a fresh storytelling style. Lost Constellation is not only a treat for Night in the Woods fans, but also for those just looking for something a little more cryptic and traditional to play this winter.
4. Cube Escape Collection
Technically a compendium of several titles, the Cube Escape Collection is a bundle of brief puzzle-horror games set in a desolate region of the Pacific-Northwest. You play as Dale, a special agent, who is trying to crack a series of murders that have taken place across a number of small-towns in America. Each game links together to make up a different part of the overarching mystery. Set in the mountainside town of Rusty Falls, the backdrop of the game is suitably chilly for some indoor winter gaming.
There are nine games included in the collection: Seasons, The Lake, Arles, Harvey’s Box, Case 23, The Mill, Birthday, Theatre, and The Cave. In each installation of the collection, you aid Dale in unpacking the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder of a local girl called Laura. You do this by tackling the many puzzles spread out across Rusty Falls. It’s easy to be momentarily side-tracked by the attractive stylings of the game and its beautiful setting, but don’t be misled – the game becomes a David Lynch-inspired nightmare fast. Without giving too much away, be prepared for an all-around unsettling experience through the world of bird-human hybrids and missing people.
5. Journey
Journey is a low-key, relatively chilled-out event taking place in a gorgeous open-world setting. This is definitely not a traditional horror title, but the aim of the game is to survive in the desolate wilderness, adding some tension to this sandbox adventure game. To boot, part of Journey’s world is an arctic, snowy plain. This game is great for keeping things a little exciting these holidays without playing anything too all-out terrifying.
Since its release in 2012, Journey has received a host of accolades for its art, musical composition, sound design, and gameplay mechanics, and it’s easy to see why. The narrative style of the game is novel in so far as it’s entirely text-free: the only storytelling in the game is provided entirely by the lush world of Journey. This allows the player to really immerse themselves in the unique universe of the game as you explore its harsh landscapes. A further interesting mechanic of the game is its online multiplayer functionality. When roaming the landscapes of Journey, it’s possible to run into strangers who are also exploring the surroundings. While the connection with others is brief, it’s particularly appreciated during the less-sociable winter months, when a lot of importance is placed on social interaction that may not feel totally fulfilled.
6. Undertale
As far as indie games go, Undertale (and its spin-off, Deltarune) is a modern classic. Made almost entirely by one creator (Toby Fox), the expansive 2D adventure game employs a heavy moral choice element in its gameplay, reminiscent of titles like Fable or Bioshock. What makes the game a perfect play for the colder months is the charming world of Snowdin, complete with snowy scenes and little snowmen.
Undertale is as much of a horror game as you let it be. If you choose to play as a bloodthirsty killer, the game gets pretty nasty and fast, regardless of the cutesy surroundings of Snowdin. But, as with all moral choice games, this is up to you: if you want to play Undertale by walking in a winter wonderland, then that’s an option too. One of the longer games in this list so far, particularly if you keep in mind the different branches of gameplay made possible by the ethics system, this is the perfect title to get your teeth into while sheltering from the cold this winter.
7. Longest Night
Longest Night is another spin-off from Night in the Woods, this time in the shape of a narrative game taking place on the Winter Solstice. This game is a short story unpacking the mystical folklore of Possum Springs, the game’s town, through an evening spent stargazing with furry friends. While the story of Longest Night is somewhat more dependent on having an understanding of the Night in the Woods saga to be able to fully embrace some of the storytelling at hand, it’s still a really nice short play for a rainy (or snowy) day.
Longest Night feels like an anthology of short scary stories in the form of imagined mythology for an alternative world. Set deep in December, on the shortest day, it’s reminiscent of Christmas ghost stories being shared by friends around a campfire. The gameplay is pretty straightforward; you look at constellations and find out more about them from dialogue trees, meaning you’re given the chance to become fully enthralled by the grizzly tales told by Mae Borowski and her friends.
8. Celeste
First and foremost, Celeste is a puzzle and strategy-oriented platformer. Secondary to that, though, it utilizes glitch-horror devices to construct a harrowing sense of unreality throughout its gameplay. You spend much of the game scaling the side of the titular Celeste Mountain, in all of its treacherously snowy glory. The game is often as terrifying as it is touching.
Celeste is a notoriously difficult game, but don’t let that fact put you off playing it. Packed with beautiful pixel art, seasonal scenes, tricky puzzles, and a fantastic soundtrack to boot, it’s difficult to oversell the overarching experience of the game, even if you find yourself getting a little stuck at times. In a tale of overcoming inner demons, doppelgängers, and fourth-wall-breaking techno-nasties, Celeste is a spooky pleasure that doesn’t skimp on its sharing of winter tide delights.