8 indie horror games from around Asia to help you spend Halloween alone and afraid

It happens every year when Halloween is upon us. Horror fiends can walk the streets with the rest of us, and no one is the wiser. For those that are in the mood for a downright terrifying experience, or just want a fair bit of festive fright, video games have you as well-covered as any medium. Moreover, Asia provides a near-endless source of terrifying examples. While indie game development is scary business in its own right, several developers have managed noteworthy games, often inspired by Asian traditions and settings.

We have compiled a short list of available or upcoming games from several Asian countries that should keep even the most insatiable thirst for blood in check.The list represents a variety of platforms from browser to Linux, and only includes one entry from any given country, however unfair that may be to locales with multiple worthy entrants (sorry, Japan). Wherever they may be from in Asia, we would love to hear about any games we may have overlooked.

In no particular order:

Indonesia: DreadOut

In film, the horror genre in Indonesian has been thriving for at least a decade. This year saw the first attempt at translating this success from the big screen to the monitor with the 3D indie horror title DreadOut by Digital Happiness. Released for PC, Mac, and Linux, the game is billed as a “third person supernatural horror game.” You play as a high school student named Linda, who finds herself in an abandoned town in Indonesia with all sorts of supernatural creepiness afoot. Of course she does.

An ambitious project, DreadOut is intended to be multi-part franchise. The first act has already been released for all three desktop platforms. We reviewed it at Games in Asia earlier this year, and haven’t slept as well since.

Speaking with Digital Happiness, we were told that the game’s second act will hopefully be available as free DLC as early as year’s end.

You can get DreadOut on Steam.

Thailand: The House

While Thailand has contributed its fair share of horror movies, it offers surprisingly few scary games, at least not in English. There is, however, the browser-based point and click The House. The game and its sequel The House 2 are both available to play for free. It’ll take a few moments to realize what’s going, but I suggest you keep clicking. The games seem straight out of American Horror Story. The odd localization error exists on the game’s minimal text, but that only adds to the eerie atmosphere of the flash title.

One of the objects you stumble across in The House

Try it here.

Singapore: Lurking

By design, this product of the Digipen Institute of Technology is not as graphic as most games intended to scare. The game mostly takes place in darkness, relying on sound to reveal the very minimalist representation of the environment. Of course, making noise also reveals you to the monsters lurking about, and the game uses your microphone to alert in-game baddies to your presence. Lurking was featured as part of the student showcase at Independent Games Festival at GDC China 2014.

Philippines: Nightfall

Korea: White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

Cambodia: Haunted Hut

Japan: Mad Father

Malaysia: Tell No One