CANIDAE

About CANIDAE

CANIDAE is a short visual novel by Ozone Interactive, made in Ren'Py in a month for the Spooktober 2024 Visual Novel Jam, where it received an honourable mention from the judges. It plays in the browser on its itch.io page, or downloads for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android at a price you choose. It is written in British English.

It is Halloween, and you are out with a gang of teenagers wearing animal masks: Red, with a fox-like snarl and a baseball bat over his shoulder, and Blue, who has his own idea of a fun night. The plan is fireworks and drink around a housing estate. Nothing ever goes right for you, the game says, and it does not here: a lighter will not catch, a brick is thrown at a house, and as the night grows darker the pranks turn to real violence and your friends start to change.

The look is what sets it apart. Backgrounds are grainy black and white photographs of ordinary streets, houses and fences under orange streetlights, and the masked characters are dithered in red and blue over them, which makes a small British estate on a cold night feel like the place where something is going wrong. There are fourteen illustrated scenes, 7,500 words and two endings.

It takes about half an hour. The maker lists animal abuse, body horror, blood and gore and physical violence, so it suits older players who want a short, grim Halloween story rather than jumpscares.

How to play CANIDAE

1. Open the game's itch.io page and press Run game to play in the browser, or download it for your system.
2. Read each line and click to advance.
3. Make the choices the story offers when they appear.
4. Play again to see the other of its two endings.

Tips

• Play it in one sitting at night with sound on; it is only half an hour.
• Read the maker's content warnings first: there is animal abuse and body horror.

Questions