Games Like Granny: Escape the House Before They Find You

Start with Granny: Chapter Two, the sequel. You are now in Grandpa's house with both of them hunting you, and there is a second way out through the sewer. Granny 3 is the newest: Granny and Grandpa have moved into a walled mansion with a moat, Granny still hears everything, Grandpa is half-deaf but deadly if he sees you, and you have five days to get out. Slendrina: The Cellar is another game by Granny's maker DVloper, a dark stone cellar where you search for old books and keys with only a flashlight. The Slendrina series that came before Granny goes on from there: in House of Slendrina you search her home for eight pieces of a picture to learn her secret, Slendrina: The Cellar 2 brings back the cellar with her mother and baby hunting you too, and Slendrina: Asylum has you gather the pages of an old medical book while her mother walks the corridors and you hide in closets.

Keplerians make the other big family of free escape games. In Evil Nun you are trapped in a school by Sister Madeline and must find one of several ways out; in Mr. Meat you sneak into a murderous butcher's home to free the people he holds; and in Ice Scream you follow Rod the ice cream man to rescue your frozen friend. Each mixes puzzles with hiding from a hunter who hears you. Ice Scream runs to eight chapters: from Ice Scream 4: Rod's Factory on, the friends are trapped inside Rod's ice cream factory, with Mini Rod guards who raise the alarm, characters you switch between, and Ice Scream 8: Final Chapter, the best rated of the series, ending it with a fight against Rod. Chapters 5 to 7 are on Android only. Evil Nun: The Broken Mask brings Sister Madeline to PC and consoles in a bigger game: a religious summer camp that turns out to be a prison, six chapters of puzzles to rebuild a broken mask, and three ways out.

Death Park takes the formula to an abandoned amusement park and an evil clown, with seven areas and several endings, and Eyes sends you through haunted mansions, hospitals and schools collecting money while a monster hunts you. The Baby in Yellow is the lighter one: a babysitting job with a creepy baby that keeps trying to take control.

If you want Granny's idea with more depth, Hello Neighbor is a full stealth game about breaking into the house across the street, with a neighbour who learns from what you do. Hello Neighbor 2 widens it to a whole town, as a journalist sneaking into several neighbours' houses. Stay Out of the House is the grown-up version: a PS1-style slasher in which you escape a cannibal butcher's house over three days, much more violent than Granny.

Evil Nun 2: Origins brings Sister Madeline back to a bigger school, with pale, bird-headed creatures of hers that hunt by sound too, and Mr. Hopp's Playhouse 2 has you escape an orphanage from three donated toys after they take your friends, on phones and PC.

707 Interactive's Endless Nightmare 1: Home, free with ads on Android, is Granny with a murder case: a police officer searches the house where his family was killed while a ghostly woman roams it, and you listen for her, hide in closets and lure her off by breaking vases. Endless Nightmare 2: Hospital moves to a hospital where people vanish, with cabinets to hide in and a knife and a few guns for when hiding fails. Horror Tale 1: Kidnapper sends a boy round a kidnapper's farm and sawmill in a 1990s town, sneaking past a man in a rabbit mask, and is on consoles and PC as well as phones. Erich Sann: Horror Academy hides you from an old musician in an abandoned music academy while you hunt for keys and music sheets.

On PC there are free takes on the idea too. The Butler, made in 48 hours for a game jam, traps you in a mansion to find twelve keys while a lantern-carrying butler searches for you and keeps asking where you are, punishing lies. Bonnie's Bakery opens as a cute cooking game and turns into a night in its baker's basement, hiding from her while you hunt for the code that lets you out, and it plays in the browser. The original Mr. Hopp's Playhouse, free from Moonbit, has you creep through a dark house in 2D while a handmade toy rabbit roams it, listening for the toys you knock over. Nun Massacre is the slasher cousin of Evil Nun: a PS1-style game of hide and seek with a knife-wielding nun through a boarding school, on PC, consoles and iPhone.

If you only try one, play Granny: Chapter Two for more of the same, or Evil Nun for Keplerians' version of the formula.

Questions