Some games tell you everything you need to know in the title. Don’t Starve is a classic example. It’s a game about how you need to eat to live. Don’t Scream is the same, only there’s an added layer of challenge. It’s a horror game where, if you scream in real life, the game starts over.
Of course, that means you need a microphone to play it. As Don’t Scream’s Steam page explains, “You must calibrate your microphone in-game so that every whimper, jump, or even a minor squeak is registered as a scream, increasing the challenge.” That doesn’t mean you can’t make any noise—low talking is acceptable—but even a “quiet gasp” counts as a failure. “You could bypass calibration to shout through scares,” the developers go on to explain, “but it’d spoil the thrill. For a genuine horror experience play as designed.”
Don’t Scream aims to replicate a found-footage horror movie like The Blair Witch Project, only with a runtime of 18 minutes instead of 81. You explore the spooky Pineview Forest with a camcorder, and the timer only ticks down when you move. There will apparently be “dozens of dynamic scares” to test your bravery along the way.
What happens if you make it to the end of the 18-minute runtime? Since Don’t Scream apparently hasn’t “no story” but plenty of “lore”, I don’t expect there’ll be much to its climax beyond a final jumpscare and a Steam achievement, but it’s about the journey not the destination, as incredibly tiresome people love to explain.
Don’t Scream is being made by two indie developers who go by Joure & Joe. It’s scheduled to release into early access on October 27 this year, and the developers plan to add more scares, expanded lore, optional objectives, and more over the course of its time in early access.