Day In

About Day In

Day In is a short horror game by the itch.io maker ryder, built with RPG Maker in under 24 hours, with all the art drawn by the maker. It is free, playable in the browser on itch.io or downloadable for Windows and macOS.

It is your day off. You play Rese, who wakes up in her apartment and would rather not get out of bed. There are chores she has been putting off and a whole day to fill. You walk her through her small top-down pixel-art apartment, from bedroom to bathroom, and interact with whatever you find, with hand-drawn close-ups of Rese at key moments.

The fear comes from inside. Rese's inner voice runs through every action, options read 'I can't do anything', and the ordinary rooms turn grotesque, with rotting flesh and things that talk to her. The game is about depression, anxiety and addiction told as horror, and its maker warns of gore, self-harm, suicidal ideation and addiction before it starts. Players in the comments call its inner monologue painfully relatable and single out the message at its end.

It suits players of short mental-health horror like Paper Cages or Don't Let It Out, and anyone who wants a brief, personal game that unsettles more than it startles. It is not for anyone those subjects would harm.

How to play Day In

1. Open the game's itch.io page; it starts in the browser, or download it for Windows or macOS.
2. Choose New Game and read the content warning before you begin.
3. Move Rese with the arrow keys and press Space to interact with things around the apartment.
4. Interact with as much as you can: the maker recommends it for the full experience.
5. When the 'I can't do anything' options appear, choose them in order 1, 2, 3, as the maker advises, so the scene does not glitch.

Tips

• Press Esc to save; some players on macOS report a scene that can get stuck, so save before big moments.
• If the Mac build will not load its images, try the browser version instead.
• Hold Shift to dash through rooms you have already searched.

Questions