PS1 horror Short horror Night shift horror

Happy's Humble Burger Barn

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Your first shift. Nobody else showed up. Flip the burger, fill the cup.

Platforms: PC
Stores: itch.io
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 4.6 out of 5 on itch.io (341 ratings)
Length: about 1 hour
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse, or a PlayStation controller
Made by: Scythe Dev Team
Released: 2020

What frightens Your first day alone at a fast-food barn, every other employee having called out: flip burgers, fill cups and serve customers whose demands keep rising, while the grainy, low-poly restaurant and your own perception start to come apart around the endless routine.

Happy's Humble Burger Barn is a short, free PS1-style horror and thriller game by Scythe Dev Team, the original that led to Happy's Humble Burger Farm. On your first day at the barn, with the whole staff absent, you run the restaurant alone, cooking and serving as the routine slowly turns on your sense of what is real. It takes about an hour.

About Happy's Humble Burger Barn

Happy's Humble Burger Barn was made by Scythe Dev Team in a little under a month and released free on itch.io on 1 April 2020. It is the small game that grew into the studio's full release, Happy's Humble Burger Farm, and its makers describe it as their homage to the PSX era and its look, a horror and thriller adventure with a focus on perception.

You have just landed a job at Happy's Humble Burger Barn, home of the chilled beef burger. On your first day the entire staff calls out, even the person meant to train you. So you drive to work, clock in, turn on the Open sign and run everything yourself: cooking burgers, scooping fries and nuggets, filling drinks and shakes, keeping the place clean and serving a queue of customers whose demands increase by the minute.

The page sells it with cheerful corporate copy, and that is the joke and the threat. The routine repeats, flip the burger, fill the cup, order up, and the grainy, low-poly restaurant and your perception slowly fade into something else. The makers kept it short and experimental, testing ideas they later used in Burger Farm.

It takes about an hour and needs a relatively modern PC. It plays in English or Japanese with keyboard and mouse or a PlayStation controller. It suits players who enjoyed Happy's Humble Burger Farm or other fast-food night-shift horror like Kiosk, and want to see where the series began.

How to play Happy's Humble Burger Barn

Download the game for Windows from its itch.io page and extract it.
Drive to work, park and clock in with your time card.
Turn on the Open sign and take customers' orders at the register.
Cook the burgers and prepare fries, nuggets and drinks to fill each order.
Keep up as the orders speed up, and pay attention to what changes around you.

Screenshots

Happy's Humble Burger Barn cover: a painted burger with the title in dripping green letters on a red background

Happy's Humble Burger Barn screenshot: a bald customer in a yellow shirt waits at the lobby register while orders show on the screen

Happy's Humble Burger Barn screenshot: a dim back corridor with a time card held up and a prompt to clock in

Tips

Learn the menu early: Happy's Deluxe Burger, fries, salmon nuggets, soft drinks and shakes.
It needs a relatively modern PC, so lower the settings if it struggles.
The download page also offers Burger Farm's 2021 update if you want the full game next.