Psychological horror Horror puzzle Short horror Horror

Bad Dream: Stories

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Five short bad dreams, drawn in ink, where every choice can go horribly wrong.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (93% of 121 reviews); the Bad Dream: Series page on itch.io is rated 4.6 out of 5 from 68 ratings
Length: under two hours (Indie Hive)
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse only: click to move between scenes, look, pick up and use items.
Made by: Desert Fox
Released: 2021

Get it on Steam itch.io (Bad Dream: Series page, download)

What frightens Five short dreams drawn in sparse ink: a forgotten town haunted by a madman butcher, a graveyard, a hospital ward whose purpose is unclear, a sunny street where something bad is coming. Bloody details turn up in plain scenes, and your choices lead to horrid consequences.
Content: gore, violence, self-harm.

Bad Dream: Stories collects the first five Bad Dream point-and-click games by Desert Fox, remastered for full screen. Each is a short, separate dream with its own theme, from a town haunted by a madman butcher to a hospital you do not remember checking into, and what you do decides how each one ends.

About Bad Dream: Stories

Bad Dream: Stories is a collection by Desert Fox, the indie maker behind Bad Dream: Coma and Bad Dream: Fever. It gathers the original Bad Dream games from 2013 and 2014 in a new, remastered form, playable in full screen with many improvements and bug fixes, and it came out on Steam for Windows in September 2021.

There are five chapters, each a separate dream with its own theme. Butcher takes you to an old, forgotten town where the series began, a sad place haunted by a madman. Graveyard, set where a bad dream turned into a nightmare, asks you to restore the population of an extinct beehive. Hospital puts you in a ward that may be a psychiatric ward or an ordinary hospital, for reasons not yet clear. Cyclops leaves you lost in a forgotten part of the city on a warm, sunny day, with the feeling that something bad is coming. Memories is the chapter the maker calls the most important to the whole series.

The art is simple ink line drawing on brown paper, with red kept for blood. A plain alley holds a toy covered in gore; a room shows a figure standing with its back turned. The store warns of occasional violence, gore and self-harm, and Indie Hive describes gruesome moments such as stabbing out an eye. You click arrows to move between views, pick up objects and use them on the world, and puzzles are logical and inventory-based.

The stories are not linear: the store promises alternative paths and secrets, and players note that some can be solved in several ways and end differently. It is short, under two hours for a playthrough by Indie Hive's count, and suits players who like strange, unsettling point-and-click games in the vein of Rusty Lake, or who played Bad Dream: Coma and want to see where its world began.

How to play Bad Dream: Stories

Buy Bad Dream: Stories on Steam for Windows, or get it from Desert Fox's Bad Dream: Series page on itch.io.
Pick one of the five dreams from the menu; each stands alone.
Click the arrows to move between scenes and click objects to look at or take them.
Use items from your inventory on the world to solve puzzles and move the dream forward.
Watch what your choices do, then replay a chapter and act differently to find other paths and endings.

Screenshots

An ink-drawn alley with a stuffed toy spattered in blood on a bin, beside a boarded-up shop window

A bald figure stands with its back turned in a bare room with a mirror, a shelf and scattered objects, drawn in ink

A walled graveyard of cracked headstones with strange markings around a bare tree

An empty hospital ward with metal beds, a teddy bear on one, and a hand print on the door

A drawn street of old buildings with a dark archway, a broken window and arrows to move between scenes

Tips

Make your decisions carefully; the store warns that rash ones in Butcher lead to horrid consequences.
Click everything: small details in the line drawings often hide the item or clue you need.
Replay chapters to find the alternative paths and secrets the store promises.
If you have played Bad Dream: Coma, look for places and creatures it later grew from.

Questions

What games are in Bad Dream: Stories?

Five: Butcher, Graveyard, Hospital, Cyclops and Memories, the Bad Dream games first made in 2013 and 2014, remastered.

How long is Bad Dream: Stories?

Indie Hive says a single playthrough takes under two hours. Finding every path takes longer.

Does Bad Dream: Stories have multiple endings?

Yes. Indie Hive says each story has multiple possible endings and different paths, and the store lists alternative paths and secrets.

Is Bad Dream: Stories gory?

The store warns of occasional violence, gore and self-harm, drawn in its simple ink style with red for blood.

Should I play Bad Dream: Stories before Bad Dream: Coma?

It is not needed, but the store says its stories share a universe later developed by Bad Dream: Coma and Bad Dream: Fever, so playing it first shows where that world began.