Beary the Hatchet

Rate it

A killer's Halloween shift, a body in the back and a fan at the counter.

Platforms: PC
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 4.8 of 5 from 216 ratings on itch.io
Length: 1 to 1.5 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Team Cetacity (mokadevs and kirvia)
Released: 2023

What frightens You play a masked gas station clerk who is also a serial killer, the Bearwater Grizzly Killer. It is Halloween, you killed someone on your morning shift, and the body is lying in the back room until your shift ends; then a cheerful true-crime fan who has worked out who you are walks in and will not leave. The tension is in keeping her and the customers away from the corpse, with blood on the floor
Content: cartoon violence and death, blood, swearing, references to drugs and alcohol, bright visuals and chromatic aberration (can be turned off).

A short black-comedy horror visual novel made in RPG Maker for Spooktober 2023. On Halloween in the 1990s, a masked gas station clerk has a body to hide in the back room until his shift is over, and a true-crime fan who recognises him has just walked in.

About Beary the Hatchet

Beary the Hatchet is a short visual novel by Team Cetacity, co-directed by mokadevs and kirvia, made in RPG Maker MV for the Spooktober 2023 game jam and released on itch.io for Windows at a price you choose.

The premise is in its first lines: it is Halloween 199X, and you killed someone during your morning shift. You are the clerk of a small gas station, and the job's one perk was a bear mask nobody asks about. Now there is a body in the back room that has to stay hidden until closing. Then a goth girl in sunglasses with flames on them walks in, delighted, because she is sure you are the Bearwater Grizzly Killer she has read all about.

You spend the shift talking, serving customers and keeping everyone away from the back room. The scenes mix 2.5D pixel-art rooms with big cartoon portraits and more than thirty illustrated scenes, and a stocking minigame breaks things up. Blood stains the floor tiles, a bear trap waits in the storeroom, and the dialogue runs to more than ten thousand words. There are three main endings and more than ten game overs.

It is a black comedy first, with swearing and cartoon violence rather than real fright, and the makers say so. It suits players who like slasher stories told from the killer's side and a Halloween game to finish in one evening. The makers warn that it can lag on weaker computers and recommend saving often.

How to play Beary the Hatchet

Download the Windows build from the itch.io page, paying what you want.
Start a new game and work your shift at the gas station counter.
Talk to the true-crime fan and the customers, picking your answers carefully.
Keep people out of the back room where the body is.
Save often, and replay to find the other endings and game overs.

Screenshots

Beary the Hatchet poster: the bear-masked clerk slumped at a gas station counter with a bloody knife beside him, the goth fan leaning on him, a jack-o'-lantern and a bear trap below the title

Beary the Hatchet: the clerk and the cheerful fan in front of a pixel-art storeroom with blood spattered across the floor

Beary the Hatchet: a woman's body lies under a shelf in the storeroom beside a bear trap as the clerk says she will have to wait until after his shift

Tips

Save before every big choice: there are more than ten game overs.
Turn off chromatic aberration in Options if the bright visuals bother you.
On a slower computer, close other programs; the makers note the 3D mode can lag.