FLATHEAD

Rate it

Higher or lower, while something climbs up behind your chair.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (94% of 413 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: Tim Oxton
Released: 2024

What frightens You are strapped to a machine playing over or under for points while the Sunken, deformed grinning creatures, grind their teeth and creep up behind you in the dark; every wrong guess and every second lets them get closer, and the only way out is to bank enough points to pay for your escape.
Content: body horror, blood, deformed human-like creatures.

A short horror gambling game. Strapped to a machine in the dark, you guess whether the next number is over or under, use gadgets to bend the odds and bank points to buy your freedom, while deformed creatures close in from behind.

About FLATHEAD

FLATHEAD is a horror game by Tim Oxton, published by DreadXP and released on Steam in May 2024. It takes the simplest of games, guessing whether the next number will be higher or lower, and makes it a gamble with your life.

You sit strapped to a machine full of levers, dials and counters. Pull the lever, see a number from 1 to 20, and call over or under. A right guess earns points and lets you keep going; let it ride and multipliers stack up, but anything not banked can be lost on one wrong call. A timer runs all the while, and out in the dark the Sunken grind their teeth and inch closer. A Wheel of Fate, tools that change your odds and modifiers add choices to what starts as pure luck.

The horror is in the waiting. The picture is grainy and smeared like old tape, the creatures are grinning, deformed human figures lit in red, and the sound of them clicking and crackling behind you does most of the work. Notes and recordings hint at who is running this game and why today is special.

Players praise the atmosphere, art and sound, and compare the tension to Buckshot Roulette and Five Nights at Freddy's, while some find the luck too heavy and the runs repetitive after the first ending. It suits players who like short, tense, replayable horror they can finish in an evening.

How to play FLATHEAD

Buy it on Steam or itch.io and play on a Windows PC.
Pull the lever to show a number, then guess whether the next one will be over or under it.
Build up points and multipliers with right guesses, and bank them before a wrong guess wipes them out.
Use the machine's tools and the Wheel of Fate to change your odds and slow what is coming.
Save up enough banked points to pay for your escape before the creatures reach you.

Screenshots

A red-lit creature with a stretched grinning face and a reel device strapped to its chest

The gambling machine's board of numbers 1 to 20 with Over and Under buttons and a Wheel of Fate lever

Stored and temporary point counters beside the machine as a grinning masked creature looms in the red dark

A glowing Fate-O-Matic box with a Pull to Spin display

Tips

Numbers near the ends of the range are the safest calls; play the middle ones carefully.
Bank points regularly rather than letting everything ride.
Play with headphones; the creatures' approach is easiest to judge by sound.
Look for the hidden notes and recordings if you want the story behind the game.