Decline

About Decline

Decline was made by BenJelter in GB Studio for the Game Boy Showdown 2022, with music by Lunchz, and updated to version 1.1 in June 2022. It plays in the browser on itch.io, and the page offers the Game Boy ROM at a price you choose, including nothing.

You play an older woman in uniform, and a teacher has been murdered. You walk through the school, the police cordon outside, a dark forest and an arcade in top-down Game Boy pixel art, finding things like a threatening note and an arcade token, and talking to the people involved.

The horror is in what is happening to your mind. The maker describes the game as investigating a murder while dealing with the effects of old age, and it shows that through glitching screens, scenes that slip and a maze you have to get through without touching the blobs. Players describe it as dark and profoundly confusing in the way the protagonist must feel, with no clean answer to what happened beyond that people were killed.

It is short, and the maker says there are about four endings: two main ones and two you can reach earlier. It suits players who like small, sad and unsettling horror stories where you are not sure you can trust your own view.

How to play Decline

1. Press Run game on the itch.io page, or download the Game Boy ROM for an emulator.
2. Move with the arrow keys and press Z to look at things, pick them up and talk.
3. Follow the clues about the teacher's murder through the school and beyond.
4. Make your decisions; they shape which ending you reach.
5. Play again to find the other endings.

Tips

• In the maze, learn the layout and keep away from the blobs.
• Inspect the computers in one of the final scenes; the maker says they reveal more of the story.
• There are around four endings, two of them reachable early, so replay.
• It is short; play it in one sitting with sound on.

Questions