Everyone is out to get you ALSO SPECIAL PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Before I post more free video games: AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT THAT CONCERNS ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE

How the hell can I do the SPOOKATHON if I'm getting pushed out by Christmas already?

These have been up for sale since mid-way through September. This is a regular supermarket, not a department store doing a clearance sale or one of those obnoxious holiday stores that sells ornaments 24/7/365 . Christmas sale fever starts earlier and earlier every year, and eventually it will be Christmas shopping season all year round. And unless the robots get us first, that’ll be when society starts to collapses. So you best start preparing for that.

Either civilization explodes before we make robots or the robots do it for us

Now back to your regularly scheduled SPOOKATHON programming. The game I have for you today is another short but sweet scary game, called Hide. It was made by a dude called Andrew Shouldice back in July of 2011 as part of the “Super Friendship Club’s Justice Pageant”.

Its like that Robert Frost poem, but there will be no stopping, only running

The goal of the game is to find five different locations in the game world while running and hiding in a first person perspective from shadowy things with flashlights you cant quite make out, and as you find these locations the search for you intensifies. Between the weird pixilated look, and the awesome sound work, Hide has some style to it if you’re looking for that. If nothing else, this game might help you practice running and hiding from serial killers, so theres that.

You know what this needs? Dueling banjos.

You can snag Hide either here or here

When have asylums ever been nice places?

Well its September now, so that means almost every store in north America (and maybe some in Mexico, I dunno) is pretending that its Halloween for two straight months, with pumpkins, candy and decorations all on sale. I figure I should get in on that action, so its gonna be nothing but spooky games up till Halloween. Think you can handle it? I DOUBT IT!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Up first in the scarathon is a game called Blackwell Asylum. Released back in June of 2012, the game takes place in an asylum for women, and you play as one of the crazies, OR DO YOU? The gameplay itself is stealth based, you need to avoid guards patrolling the hallways, hide under furniture, and generally be as sneaky as you can so you don’t get caught and jabbed with a syringe filled with tranquilizer (Yeah they just carry those things around just in case, I don’t know if that’s how insane asylums operated back in the thirties but its suitably sinister.)

Look at how legit that guy is

The art design to the game is very well done, its has a weird, twisted disjointed look to everything, as if it was being seen through the eyes of a crazy person(!). The game sells the atmosphere well, you certainly feel like you’re wandering around places when you should be sleeping.

This violates so many safety codes

 The game itself was put together in six weeks by a team of students called Black Pipe for a contest by Intel Level Up, which they won and scored twelve grand for it, good for them. While the contest was for game demos, and Blackwell is in the demo section of Steam, don’t take that to mean that the game is unfinished, it has a beginning and a end, as aside from a few bugs the game is worth the time to play if you’re into something spooky.

You think you can escape? Don't kid yourself

You can snag Blackwell Asylum off of Steam here