While you slumbered, an interloper has arrived at this place and shut themselves away from you. 

Get past your prey's defenses without them noticing and lure them back to their hiding spot to dispatch them for good...

Darkened Halls is a game about roaming an empty, decrepit dining establishment that seems incredibly alien in the dark... only this time, YOU'RE the thing lurking in the shadows. 

How to play:

The game has a menu screen which explains a lot of this in a more narrative way, but for those who would like a more straightforward explanation:

Move the mouse to either edge of the screen to look in that direction. Press Tab to pull up the map, and click on rooms adjacent to the highlighted occupied red one to move there. Your goal is to make it to the highlighted white safe room, which is usually locked. In order to make it inside, you have to click on the highlighted door within the adjacent rooms and break their locks by clicking on the buttons to break them (some are green --click those first to get the keypad open faster. Eventually though, clicking all the key buttons will open the lock either way). Be careful though; if the guard sees you move, either leaving or entering a room they're in, they will be frightened and run back to the safe room, resetting the number of locks and preventing you from breaking them until they've left again. To get them to leave, you have a lure; press the Space Bar, and the guard will come to investigate whatever room you made the noise in. Note that there is a short cooldown on this. If the mask is causing motion sickness or visibility issues, it can be toggled with M. 

Sneak past the guard, break into the safe room, and lure them back. After all that, press Space Bar again when the guard is in the safe room with you in order to jumpscare them and win the game! If the game feels too easy or too hard, feel free to experiment with the difficulty settings in the main menu. 

For this year's theme of inverted perspective, I wanted to experiment with horror, and more specifically how the player's place in the world determines the effect of the game on them. There are no jumpscares, but still plenty of creepy noises, buzzing lights, and moments of intense focus. My hope is that the player will be able to inhabit their role as the monster well, and in doing so develop an appreciation for the experience provided by this genre. I know personally I avoided horror for a long time, because it always felt like I had to choose between dissociating from the game in order to avoid being too scared, or suspend my disbelief and be too frightened to really enjoy what I was doing. Darkened Halls is designed to let you experience that disquieting feeling of being somewhere you're not supposed to be, while still leaving you in control of a unique horror experience. 

Special thanks to:

Free sound effects from yourpalrob, these are amazing- https://yourpalrob.itch.io/must-have-horror-sound-effects

All pre-existing assets used are licensed for use in all private and commercial activities and most have been significantly modified by me:

Grime decal - https://www.flickr.com/photos/webtreatsetc/4902962864

Floor tile pattern - https://www.deviantart.com/clipartcotttage/art/Checkerboard-Scrapbook-Paper-1-44...

Diner interior model - American 80s Diner Inside Model - TurboSquid 2143995

Assorted assets - General Assets - CityMix -1 by RayznGames

A game by Team Birdcowboys