You are going on a trip to a cabin with your four best friends. You found a cheap deal online and are staying in a cabin owned by an old couple. You are about an hour from your destination when it starts to pour rain.
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[[Pull over and try to wait out the rain.]]
[[Keep driving.]]
Your friends are pretty fed up after waiting on the side of the road for 20 minutes. The rain is still pouring and you're getting hungry.
[[Get back on the road and keep driving|Keep driving.]]After quite a stressful drive, you finally arrive to the cabin. It doesn't look like how it did in the pictures online. Your friend, Alejandra, tells you she's going to call the old couple, complain, and demand a refund. She is clearly overreacting, but you don't want to get on her bad side. She is known to hold a grudge.
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[[Tell Alejandra that the cabin is not that bad and she doesn't need to call the owners.]]
[[Offer to call the owners yourself.]]
[[Tell Alejandra it's a good idea for her to call.|Alejandra calls]]She rolls her eyes and says she'll sleep outside if you don't call them. She aggressively dials and hands you her phone.
[[Talk to the couple yourself.|Take the phone.]]Alejandra smiles, dials the number, and hands you the phone.
[[Take the phone.]]Alejandra thanks you and calls the couple. After a few rings, she begins to yell and demands a refund. Her face goes blank and she puts her phone back in her pocket. She tells you and your friends that it's best that you make the best of your situation.
[[Ask Alejandra what the couple said.]]
[[Shrug and start walking toward the cabin|go to cabin]]
[[Ask Alejandra if she wants you to call them back.]]When the old man answers, you politely tell him the pictures do not match the house you arrived at. He explains that this is a common complaint from guests. He tells you that the picture is several years old and he hasn't had time to update the pictures online. He offers to give you an extra night for free, but you decline his offer. You hang up and tell your friends what he said. Alejandra is clearly upset and asks for her phone back because she wants to talk to them herself.
[[Hand Alejandra the phone.|Alejandra calls]]She shakes her head and stays silent. "We should just go inside."
You, Zander, Eddy, and Jess look at each other. Alejandra doesn't usually get this shaken up after confrontation. She walks ahead of the four of you toward the front door.
[[Follow Alejandra to the cabin|go to cabin]]"DON'T!" She screams abruptly.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to yell. Just please don't call them back. It's fine. Let's just go inside."
You, Zander, Eddy, and Jess look at each other. Alejandra doesn't usually get this shaken up after confrontation. She walks ahead of the four of you toward the front door.
[[Follow Alejandra toward the cabin.|go to cabin]]When you approach the door, you hand Alejandra the keys. Her hand shakes as she fiddles with the locks. She slowly pushes the door open and it creaks obnoxiously. You walk in and turn on the lights. Two dim lamps flicker on and reveal a torn up couch, barely big enough to fit three people. As expected, there are two bathrooms and three bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms have two twin beds, and the other has one queen bed. "Who wants to take the solo bedroom?" you ask. "NOT IT!" Alejandra shouts immediately as you finish your question. You look around at the rest of your friends who have been particularly quiet.
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[[Offer to stay in the room alone.]]
[[Ask your 3 friends if one of them wants to stay in the room alone.|3 friends]]"I guess I'll take the queen bed... unless anyone else wants it." Zander, Eddy, and Jess shake their heads silently. "I'm ready for bed," Eddy says timidly. "It's been a long day." Everyone grabs their suitcases and goes to their rooms - Zander and Eddy into one, Alejandra and Jess into another.
[[Go to your room.]]Do any of you want the room? You look around at Zander, Eddy, and Jess. "Uhhh... I'll take it," Eddy offers. "Alright. Well I'm ready for bed," says Jess. "I'll stay with Alejandra."
[[Go to your room with Zander.]]The room is covered in dust and the mattress is rock hard. Zander goes straight to bed and falls asleep almost immediately.
[[Go to sleep.]]
[[Explore the house.]]The bed is low to the ground and there is only one tiny lamp as a source of light. It will be nice to have a big bed, but you don't suspect that it will be very comfortable. You notice that there is a nightstand with a music box on it.
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[[Go to bed.]]
[[Try out the music box.]]After several long minutes of tossing, turning, and reassuring yourself that the cabin is safe, you finally fall asleep.
Suddenly, you are awake again after hearing a door slam shut. Your body shoots up when you hear heavy footsteps that you swear don't belong to any of your friends.
[[Go see who is in the house.]]
[[Hide in your closet.]]You slowly turn the rusty knob on the music box and expect a tune to play, but no sound comes through. All you can hear is the faint sound of gears turning. The sound is not soothing, so once the grinding of the old gears stops, you decide to get some shut eye.
[[Go to bed.]]You get up and walk around the dark and musty cabin. It is impossible to explore in the pitch black, so you decide to turn on the lights in the living room. Right as you flip the switch on, your eyes glue to a giant rat sitting in the opposite corner of the room. You decide that you have seen enough and are ready to refresh your brain and mentally prepare for the fun trip ahead of you.
[[Go to sleep.]]After several long minutes of tossing, turning, and reassuring yourself that the cabin is safe, you finally fall asleep.
Suddenly, you are awake again after hearing a door slam shut. Your body shoots up when you hear heavy footsteps that you swear don't belong to any of your friends. You look over at Zander and he is still fast asleep.
[[Wake Zander up.]]
[[Go see who is in the house.]]You carefully tip-toe out of your room and follow the sounds of the footsteps. It is almost impossible to see anything without the lamps on. You can make out a basic figure of a man. Your eyes slowly pan down towards the shadow's hands and you see it - a knife. The man abruptly turns his head so he is looking right at you. There's no escape. "You can take me. Just please don't hurt my friends," you say with a shaky voice. As he approaches you, his face becomes more and more visible. "One is all I need," says a familiar voice. As you feel a sharp pain in your side you see his face - the old man you spoke to on the phone.
[[Reflection]] You try to steady your breathing as you shut the door and hug your knees to your chest. You cannot see anything, but you can hear what is happening perfectly. The mysterious infultrator is in Eddy and Zander's room. They are frantically yelling for help, but it is too late to save them.
[[Go to Alejandra and Jess's room.]]
[[Stay hidden.]]"Zander! Get up!!" you aggressively whisper at Zander. His eyes slowly blink open and he yawns obnoxiously. "I JUST fell asleep. What do you want??" he whines a little too loudly. "Shhhhh!" you whisper-yell. "Someone's in the house..."
All of the sudden, the bedroom door swings open, revealing a silhouette of a tall man carrying a knife in his right hand. He slowly takes a step forward into your room.
[[Sacrifice yourself.]]
[[Try to run past him.]]You leap out of bed and walk toward the shadowy figure. "You can take me. Just please don't hurt my friends," you say with a shaky voice. As you approach the man, his face becomes more and more visible. "One is all I need," says a familiar voice. As you feel a sharp pain in your side you see his face - the owner of the cabin.
[[Reflection]]
You sprint past the man towards Alejandra and Jess's room without thinking twice. You try not to get too emotional when you hear Zander's final pleads for help. Alejandra and Jess are already aware of the situation and are holding each other as tightly as they can while squished up against the wall on Alejandra's bed. You jump on Jess's bed as you hear the footsteps approaching the door. The dark figure appears in the doorway again and you exchange a quick glance with the girls on the other bed.
[[Try to run past the man again.|Try to run out the door.]]
[[Try to save Alejandra and Jess by sacrificing yourself.]]You leap out of bed and walk toward the shadowy figure. "You can take me. Just please don't hurt my friends," you say with a shaky voice. As you approach the man, his face becomes more and more visible. "One is all I need," says a familiar voice. As you feel a sharp pain in your side you see his face - the old man you spoke to on the phone.
[[Reflection]]You sprint towards Alejandra and Jess's room without thinking twice. Alejandra and Jess are already aware of the situation and are holding each other as tightly as they can while squished up against the wall on Alejandra's bed. You jump on Jess's bed as you hear the footsteps approaching the door. The dark figure appears in the doorway again and you exchange a quick glance with the girls on the other bed.
[[Try to save Alejandra and Jess by sacrificing yourself.]]
[[Try to run out the door.]]You close your eyes at tightly as you can and keep hoping that you will wake up from this nightmare. In the distance, you hear the clunky footstep enter Alejandra and Jess's room. The screams are shrill and end quickly before you hear the footsteps getting louder and louder. A burst of light fills the closet as an old man stares right at you with a devilish grin. The owner of the cabin hovers over you, knife in hand. "You're gonna kill me, aren't you?" you softly manage to get out. The man kneels down to your level and his eyes twinkle as he says, "Of course not. You are just like me."
[[Reflection]] While making this story, my primary focus was evoking an emotional response from the player. The stakes were very low at first, then quickly escalated to a life-or-death situation. One of the strategies I used in this story was realism. From the start, I wanted to stay within the horror genre, but did not know whether I wanted to incorporate any paranormal activity, demons, monsters, etc. I decided to stick with something that could occur in real life because I assumed it would make the player have a harder time making decisions because they could really see themselves in this position. I received some positive feedback about the initial ominous tone I set, which inspired me to keep almost every different scene a little eerie, even if everything was fine in that moment. I also made sure that my images matched the exact tone I was trying to keep. I hope players are able to have an emotional response after playing this game. I chose not to create a character to play as and to keep the player as themselves so they could feel more connected to the game. I hope the players enjoyed the story and learned a little bit about their intuitions after playing!You leap off the bed and try to squeeze between the figure and the door frame, but a hand stops you. You look down at the knife and beg for the figure to let you go. A familiar voice whispers, "Sorry. Not today." You feel a sharp pain in your side as you make eye contact with the old man. Finally, you recognize where you knew the voice from - the owner of the cabin.
[[Reflection]]