Seven Freeware RPG Maker Horror Games to Play this Halloween

Halloween is right around the corner, and most people are wondering how they’re going to spend the creepiest night of the year. A surefire way to get my thrills while keeping my bank account intact has always been to explore the RPG Maker scene, which has been a great boon to the realm of horror for over two decades now. Many of these freeware developers are unsung heroes of the genre, and have greatly paved the way for more recognizable games like Undertale and Omori.

Beyond just being free, these games hold up as bone-chilling experiences and often serve as keen meditations on artmaking as a whole. Made outside of the industry, often by a handful or even just one person, the inventiveness and innovation on display while using more restrictive tools with much smaller to nonexistent budgets continues to impress and define more personal, shared storytelling. (Much thanks to the dedicated fan translators whose efforts go unsung!) There’s a lot of untold history here and far more worth playing than our handpicked list.

Ib

Ib has become a classic and a mainstay of the 2010s RPG Maker boom and it’s easy to see why—it’s a psychological horror game with a clear vision and lovely, Edward Gorey-esque art direction. Released in 2012 by developer Kouri, Ib follows its titular young heroine as she attends an exhibit at an art gallery and gets lost after observing a strange painting. Much of the game involves Ib wandering the gallery in search of an exit and solving puzzles while avoiding attacks from strange assailants.

The game is unique in its immersiveness as the player, stuck as a nine year old, is unable to parse some of what is going on around them. Plaques will have words omitted because Ib doesn’t know what they mean, so some of the story elements that would be otherwise obvious are obscured which lends the game a dizzying sense of juvenile fear.

Recently, Kouri announced on his blog that Ib will be receiving a remake for its 10 year anniversary. The remake will feature redrawn graphics and an altered score. The original is still a wonderful game, though, and endures as one of the best in the genre.

Hello Charlotte

Estonian developer Etherane is one of the most preeminent current figures in the RPGMaker scene. Her three-part game series Hello Charlotte is one of the most complex offerings to date and touches on frequent themes in Etherane’s work such as the intersection of religion and trauma and a preemptive loss of childhood. Perhaps most notably, though, is Etherane’s gorgeous artwork, which is often surreal and foreboding yet sweet and nostalgic.

Hello Charlotte’s first episode is available for free, with the subsequent two episodes being available for $2.99 each. Her other games also come highly suggested—tomorrow won’t come for those without…… follows up on many of the elements present in Hello Charlotte while retaining a fierce identity of its own complete with its own cosmology and suggestive storytelling, and her still unreleased sci-fi twine epic Mr. Rainer’s Solve-It Service looks to be a possible opus in her wonderful array of metanarrative adventures.

Your Turn To Die—Death Game By Majority

It’s no mystery that death games have slowly become one of the most enduring microgenres—from Danganronpa and Zero Escape to the more recent TV hit Squid Game, people can’t seem to get enough out of seeing people die in extreme ways amid high stakes games of luck and trickery. Your Turn To Die—Death Game By Majority is developer Nankidai’s answer to the illustrious genre by way of RPG Maker, and is certainly one of the most ambitious projects made with the program.

Released in parts since 2017, Your Turn To Die is an episodic blend of visual novel, point-and-click, and negotiation elements similar to the Danganronpa franchise. Unlike Danganronpa, however, the results of each trial are not set in stone—different characters may be up for elimination from the game, which greatly alters the course of an individual playthrough.

Like many other death games, the true mystery is why everyone’s there in the first place; the twists and turns the plot takes are exciting and unexpected, but what’s truly unique about Your Turn To Die is the empathy is provides for its entire cast, alive or dead, and the dedication each character slowly forges in protecting one another and getting out alive. Despite the dire content, it’s a genuinely optimistic game and a fine example of tragic horror.