Crowscare

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A straw boy's first Harvest Festival, and the reason he was kept home at night.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: Rated 4.8 of 5 from 400 ratings on itch.io
Length: about 1 to 1.5 hours
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard: arrow keys to move, Space or Enter to talk and act.
Made by: arcadekitten
Released: 2021

What frightens Ryo, a boy made of straw by the man he calls Dad, is finally allowed out for his town's night-time Harvest Festival, and begins to learn why he was always kept home after dark. The bright autumn town hides a witch in the woods, blood and violence toward children, and endings that can go very badly.
Content: blood and gore, implied child abuse, violence toward child characters, implied death of a child.

Crowscare is a free, short RPG Maker horror game by arcadekitten. You play Ryo, a scarecrow boy getting ready for his town's autumn Harvest Festival, and find out why he was never allowed out after curfew. It has two bad endings and one good, true ending.

About Crowscare

Crowscare is a free horror game made in RPG Maker by the solo maker arcadekitten, released on itch.io in October 2021 for Windows, macOS and Linux. Its maker calls it a short horror game and a love letter to the autumn season, and it has since been translated into Spanish, Polish, Russian and Hungarian.

You play Ryo, a boy made from straw, magic and a lock of hair by the man who raised him. The Harvest Festival is coming to his hometown, and for the first time he will get to go: it always started after his curfew before. You help prepare for it, walk the orange streets lined with pumpkins and scarecrows, talk to the townsfolk, and wander into the woods, where people warn you not to stay too long.

The game is bright and cute to look at, and that is the trap. Under the festival lights is a story about a child who does not know what he is, the adults who use him, and what the town fears comes out at night. It carries clear warnings for blood, gore and violence toward child characters, and two of its three endings are bad ones.

It suits players who like RPG Maker horror in the line of Mad Father and The Witch's House: a short story with a few puzzles, secret tasks to find for the true ending, and a mood that turns from cosy to grim.

How to play Crowscare

Download the build for your system from the itch.io page (pay what you want, free is allowed) and unzip it.
Read the content warning and start a new game as Ryo.
Walk around the farm and town with the arrow keys, and talk to people and examine things with Space or Enter.
Help get ready for the Harvest Festival and follow the story into the woods.
Look for the hidden objectives if you want the good, true ending rather than one of the two bad ones.

Screenshots

Crowscare screenshot: Ryo outside a wooden farmhouse on orange autumn ground, saying You can count on me, Dad

Crowscare screenshot: the town square with scarecrows, pumpkins, a flower bed and a stone statue

Crowscare screenshot: Ryo in red autumn woods, warned not to stay in the woods too long because she is outside more than you think

Tips

Talk to everyone more than once; the townsfolk drop hints you will need later.
Save often in separate slots so you can go back for the other endings.
The maker posted a spoiler guide to the good ending on the game's devlog if you get stuck.
On a Mac, the maker says to open the nwjs file inside Game.app rather than the Game app itself, or menus may not close.