Counting Sheep

About Counting Sheep

Counting Sheep was made alone by DastardlyFool in seven days for Scream Jam 2025, where it placed 10th overall, 1st for aesthetics and 4th for horror out of 931 entries, and won a gHosts' Choice award. It is a free, name-your-own-price Windows download on itch.io, made in GameMaker.

It opens with a line from the woman at its centre: last year she lost her life, she is still alive, but after the diagnosis there was no more living left. Kept at home and separated from her newborn, she watches the world through a curtained window and counts. The maker calls it a counting-based horror game.

The count starts to go wrong. Numbers do not match, the caretaker of her only child does not seem right, and the screen breaks into grain and glitches while a figure appears behind the glass. It is drawn in harsh greens, pinks and black, and the maker recommends headphones.

It suits players who like short, quiet psychological horror built on one mechanic and one worry, and who can finish a game in a quarter of an hour.

How to play Counting Sheep

1. Download Counting Sheep from itch.io, extract it and run it on Windows.
2. Put on headphones, as the maker recommends.
3. Watch the window and keep count of what you see.
4. Notice when the count or the people around you stop making sense.
5. Play through to the end; it takes about a quarter of an hour.

Tips

• Pay close attention; the game is about small discrepancies.
• Play in a dark, quiet room with headphones.
• It is short; play it in one sitting.

Questions