10 Free Horror Games You Can Finish In 30 Minutes Or Less
The older I get, the more I wish I still possessed two things from my youth: an abundance of free time and disposable income. Alas, as fruitless as longing for yesteryears is, the reality is that time becomes more precious by the day, and budgets are stretched thinner with each passing year. However, it isn’t all doom and gloom.
While my days of playing 100-hour open-world games on a whim or casually dropping $60 on new releases are behind me, that doesn’t mean that enjoying quality horror games has to break the bank or require a substantial time commitment. That’s why I’ve compiled a list of 10 horror games that can be completed in less than 30 minutes!
While these horror games are free, I encourage you to support the developers by giving them a few dollars on Itch.io or supporting any projects they may have on Steam via the links provided with each selection below.
Acrophile
Developer: While Game is False
As if explorers needed another example of why uncontacted, Indigenous tribes are best left unbothered, Acrophile from developer While Game is False is more than happy to provide a haunting reminder that you reap what you sow. Players will explore a remote, mysterious island in this point-and-click adventure that utilizes a first-person 2D perspective to tell its eco horror-tinged tale. Despite its Gameboy-era-inspired tech, Acrophile utilizes these pixelated limitations with a bright color palette, emphasizing areas of interest within environments. Pair this with unnerving and disturbing writing, and Acrophile is a new-age horror blast from the past.
AGUJERO
Developers: Nightframes, Eufrasio, Pikas, Culo, chuso, Renato Meyer, AQUILES
Game jams are my favorite corners of creativity in gaming. Developers are given a theme and timeframe and then unleash their creative, singular vision in bringing a game to life. Enter AGUJERO (translating to “hole” in Spanish), a wildly deranged dungeon crawler that replaces the traditional dungeon with, well, a hole. The player finds themselves sliding down a hole, periodically coming across monstrous freaks blocking their progress. Some monsters you’ll fight, some you’ll placate, and some you’ll kick in the face until they move. How the player progresses is up to them, but each option has a memorably hilarious outcome.
Be Honest
Developers: Ezra Szanton, The Spookfish, Fergus Ferguson
Much to my parents’ chagrin, being bombarded with online personality quizzes is the bane of my online existence. However, that doesn’t mean there is no horrifying potential in this online trend, which Be Honest exploits with terrifying proficiency. Be Honest is effective because the developers understand the medium they’re utilizing. Things begin simple enough. Answer some questions and learn about yourself. But what do you do if the questions take a sinister turn? Be Honest lulls players into its world through routine and repetitive steps before applying its horror elements, making for a surprisingly engrossing horror experience.
Dinner With An Owl
Developer: Boring Suburban Dad
As hellish as dinner parties can be, you can often leave your host’s home at the night’s end. But what would you do if you couldn’t? Dinner With An Owl is a point-and-click adventure game where players are trapped in a time loop of a night that won’t end. To progress to the next loop’s stage, players must discern cryptic conversations with wonderfully bizarre guests to ascertain clues to puzzles. In addition to featuring a notably eerie soundtrack, the game has a gorgeously macabre burnt orange charcoal art style that evokes its oddball atmosphere, making this a horror “90s-esque hoot.
Incident at Grove Lake
Developer: Tooth and Claw
Over the last five years, found footage horror games have exploded in popularity on itch.io. Incident at Grove Lake is amongst the finest examples of the rich, immersive storytelling potential within the subgenre. The Incident at Grove Lake’s narrative revolves around alien abductions and government conspiracies, told from multiple participants’ points of view. Adding further chill factor to Little Green Men conspiracies is the game’s use of actual audio from famed author Art Bell, which adds an air of authenticity to the horrors of the experience. Small, thoughtful touches like this put Tooth and Claw’s experiences ahead of his peers.
The Last and Then Another
Developer: KASURAGA
Suppose you replaced the cute and cuddly setting of Katamari Damacy with a fish cannery, and instead of a big ball of innocuous items, it was a big ball of fish guts. You’d get the disgustingly entertaining The Last and Then Another, in that case. Notably, from the developers of last year’s psychological horror masterpiece, Mouthwashing, The Last and Then Another is a bizarro platformer that involves adding fish corpses to your ever-growing fish ball. As outlandish as this sounds, it’s a one-of-a-kind blending of surreal horror and platforming, making for an experience that is truly all its own.
The Children of Clay
Developer: messier
Archeology is inherently dirty work, but The Children of Clay’s application of tactile gameplay with a dark mythology twist makes it one of the most affecting horror games of 2024. Deriving from Hungarian mythology, the player must analyze an eerie artifact while utilizing tools and a research compendium to decipher discoverable markings. The artifact is presented in stop-motion animation, giving it an inherent otherworldly depiction against the game’s graphic style, elevating an unsettling atmosphere. What is most impressive is Messier’s ability to establish atmosphere and then scale scares to smartly match the game’s subtle descent into otherworldly folk horror.
Teeth of Glass
Developer: Beyond Booleans
Arguably one of the most talented horror point-and-click adventure-focused creatives on itch.io, developer Beyond Booleans expertly pairs cosmic and psychological horror with Teeth of Glass. With a premise out of the Twilight Zone, protagonist Dr. Joshua Hagstrom finds himself alone inside a hospital on a fraught and stormy night. What could go wrong? A fever dream of hauntings and horrors manifesting themselves around a creative assortment of puzzles ensues. And as is true with all their games, Teeth of Glass’ pixel artwork sells the hell out of its genre-bending horrors.
The Shopping List
Developer: Jordi Boy
Starting over in a new town is always tricky, but what if you also had to contend with being stalked by….someone? The Shopping List initially presents as a familiar lo-fi PSX-style experience. However, the game’s premise is executed with subtlety and humor, and strategically placed scares that make its seemingly straightforwardness far more memorable than you initially expected. The Shopping List remains a strong indication of developer Jordi Boi’s knack for blending multiple horror subgenres into their game’s narratives while ensuring a healthy amount of heart remains at the core of the horrors unfolding.
Perfect Vermin
Developer: It’s The Talia
Perfect Vermin facilitates every cube monkey’s repressed fantasy by putting a sledgehammer in their hands and giving them carte blanche to smash every bit of office furniture into smithereens. There is more method to the game’s destructive madness, as the player’s smashing is in search of fleshy mimics posing as ordinary furniture and objects scattered throughout the environment. The gameplay is notably simple but satisfying in its primal chaos. The in-between mission news reports sell Perfect Vermin’s horror influences and establish the game’s singular identity. These narrative news segments blend darkly humorous humor and demented sub-genre moments—a smash good time.
Categorized:Editorials
