A Stalk in the Woods

Overview

Work got bad, so you booked a few nights at an old campground. That night a noise wakes you up and you find torn pages from somebody's log book explaining that there is a creature out here and that there is a ritual you need to finish.

The design is tight and the tension comes from one rule: five artifacts are scattered across the map, and every artifact you collect makes the creature more aggressive. Tools do not, so matches and a shovel are free, but the things you actually need are the things that put you in danger. That single mechanic turns the whole map into a risk curve you walk up on purpose.

You get a flashlight you probably should not be using, bushes you can hide in as long as the creature is not right on top of you and the light is off, and a map that burns in the ritual site once you have everything. It runs about half an hour, plays in the browser, and made its debut in Strawberry Jam 10.

Story

The log book belonged to somebody who was out here before you and did not finish. The instructions are clear enough. Whether they worked is a different question.

Features

• Five artifacts to find, each one raising the creature's aggression
• Tools like matches and a shovel that are safe to carry
• Hiding in bushes, with the flashlight off and the creature not too close
• Ritual site that burns into your map once you have everything
• About half an hour per run
• Playable in the browser, plus Windows, macOS and Linux

How to install

1. Click Download below and choose your platform.
2. Wait 10 seconds on the next page and click Get download link.
3. Extract the downloaded file with 7-Zip or WinRAR (on macOS, double click the file).
4. Open the extracted folder and run the game executable.
5. Scan every file with your antivirus before running it.