Upcoming Horror Game ‘Strayed’ Gets a Playable Teaser

With Halloween right around the bend, I expect we’ll see a sharp uptick in the number of horror games hitting the App Store over the next few weeks. The first such title that’s caught my attention is Strayed, a soon to be released text-based chiller from the folks at Adventure Cow.

Utilizing a branching storyline mechanic similar to that of Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks, Strayed tells the tale of a lone motorist’s encounter with a mysterious shadowy creature on his night-time commute home through a desolate stretch of woodland. Here’s how the developers describe it: “Ever had a lonely night where everything seems just a little bit off? Imagine driving through darkened woods, all alone but for the thrum of the engine and the scratching sounds of something — you’re not sure quite what — in the back. What happens next depends entirely on you.”

“Strayed is an interactive short story about the mysteriously long fifteen miles between you and the safety of home.”

Due to a lack of flashy visuals, text-based games can be difficult to promote via the usual means — i.e. by releasing a trailer or screenshots to the press. So, rather than go that route, Adventure Cow have made a playable teaser for Strayed available on their site. It’s an intense jolt of well-written, creepy fun and I wholeheartedly recommend you check it out. (I’ve played through the demo on both PC and iPad so I expect it’ll run on most device/browser configurations without issue.)

If you enjoy the teaser, be sure to keep an eye out for the full game, which, according to Adventure Cow, will launch on the App Store and Google Play for free sometime later this year.