Diner in the Storm

About Diner in the Storm

Diner in the Storm is a short point-and-click horror game by adayofjoy, the itch.io maker of Exhibit of Sorrows, released in January 2024 and made with Phaser. You enter the Wayside Diner to take shelter from a sudden storm. You are safe for now, but it does not take long to realise there is something more than just rain outside the thin diner walls.

The art is clean and hand-drawn, with a cheerful waitress behind the counter and a handful of other people stuck there for the night. You click around the diner, talk to them, and solve self-contained puzzles in the spirit of old flash escape games, such as connecting coloured wires to numbered sockets by a list of rules. Outside, the dark and the tentacles keep coming.

Its horror is cosmic and slow: an ordinary place under siege by something you cannot fight, and the choice of whom to trust and take with you. The maker tags it eldritch and Lovecraftian, and players note that the story is sadder than they expected. Several endings depend on whom you bring along.

It takes about half an hour for one ending and longer to find them all. It is free to play in the browser, with extras for supporters on the maker's Ko-fi.

How to play Diner in the Storm

1. Open the itch.io page and press Run game.
2. Click the arrows to look around the diner and click people and objects to interact.
3. Talk to the other people sheltering there and solve the puzzles you find.
4. Decide whom to bring with you, then play again for the other endings.

Tips

• Talk to everyone more than once; what they say opens new options.
• Read puzzle instructions closely: the wire panel's rules all have to hold at once.
• Different companions lead to different endings, so try other combinations on a second run.

Questions