Egg Fried Rice

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A late craving, a night drive to the takeaway, and a town that is not right.

Platforms: PC
Stores: itch.io
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 4.5 of 5 from 562 ratings on itch.io
Length: 10 to 20 minutes
Players: 1
Controls: WASD to move, E or left click to interact and advance text, F for the torch or car lights, Shift to run, Space to brake, R to reset a stuck car, Esc for the menu; controller supported
Made by: Grainwood Games
Released: 2024

What frightens Hungry in the middle of the night, you leave the house to fetch egg fried rice from the local takeaway, driving dark roads by your headlights and walking unlit streets with a torch. The maker calls it a tense, sinister horror experience that began as a tongue-in-cheek homage to midnight-snack horror games and turned into a different beast.

Egg Fried Rice is a short first-person horror game by Grainwood Games for Windows. Too hungry to sleep, you drive out in the middle of the night to order egg fried rice at the local takeaway, and the errand turns tense and sinister. It takes 10 to 20 minutes and has several endings.

About Egg Fried Rice

Egg Fried Rice is a small Windows horror game by Grainwood Games, released on itch.io for whatever you want to pay. Its maker made it as an entry in a kind of itch.io horror they love: going to the shop in the middle of the night for something ordinary to eat. It is inspired by Boil Noodles at Night and started as a tongue-in-cheek homage, but the maker says it grew into something else.

It is the middle of the night, you need to sleep and your stomach will not let you. With nothing quick in the house, you take the car and head for the takeaway in the town of Waffleton. You drive the dark roads with your headlights on, park, and walk the unlit streets and rooms with a torch, talking to the few people still about.

The look is early 3D in the PlayStation style, with low-poly buildings and a boxy car, and the filters and head bob can be turned off. The fear is in the quiet: empty streets, a long drive between streetlights, and a simple errand that does not go the way it should.

What you do on the way decides which of its endings you reach. The maker says the game is on the longer side for a multi-ending itch.io game, and asks players not to grind through every ending at once, since that makes it feel repetitive. It suits anyone who likes short, low-poly night-errand horror such as The Shopping List.

How to play Egg Fried Rice

Download Egg Fried Rice from its itch.io page (pay what you want) and unzip it on Windows.
Look around the house, then head out to the car.
Drive to the takeaway with WASD, braking with Space; press F for the car lights and R to reset the car if it gets stuck.
On foot, walk with WASD, run with Shift, use F for the torch, and press E or left click to talk and interact.
Follow the errand to its end; what you do decides which ending you get.

Screenshots

Egg Fried Rice title art: a foil tray of egg fried rice over a night road between pine trees

Egg Fried Rice screenshot: a woman in a dim takeaway with shelves of packets says she forgot her money

Egg Fried Rice screenshot: a green hatchback parked on an empty high street at night

Egg Fried Rice screenshot: the view from the driver's seat down a dark road through trees

Egg Fried Rice screenshot: a dim kitchen with patterned wallpaper, a cooker and a microwave

Tips

Turn the car lights on before you set off; the roads are dark.
If you cannot find the car at the start, restart the game, as the maker notes it has very rarely fallen through the ground.
If a controller misbehaves, close Steam or turn off its overlay.
Play one ending at a time rather than chasing them all in a row, as the maker suggests.