If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers

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Four strangers, a masked ball on a train, and four dark tales.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Stores: Steam, itch.io
Price: Free
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (96% of 2,849 reviews); 4.9 on itch.io from 979 ratings
Players: 1
Controls: Left click to walk, talk, look and interact; right click to cancel an item action; Esc for the options menu
Made by: Dead Idle Games
Released: 2021

On Steam: one of the Steam horror games.

Get it on Steam itch.io (name your own price)

What frightens The store calls it a tale of dark and troubling things in four acts, told by four guests at a masked ball on a 1920s train: a man meeting his lover in hiding as fascism rises, a widow who cares only for her laudanum, a bullied doctor who turns to the occult and must face the Guardian of the Threshold, and a woman who disobeys her powerful bosses. Players tag it gore, and the store warns of racism,
Content: murder, suicide, mental illness, racism and homophobia, drug use.

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers is a free pixel-art point-and-click adventure with horror elements. Four guests at a masked ball aboard a train in the late 1920s each tell a dark and troubling story, from a lovers' hotel room in Rome to an occult ritual. It is quiet, grim and built on dread.

About If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers was made by Laura Hunt (code, writing, music and sound) and Thomas Möhring (art, animation and cutscenes) as Dead Idle Games, and released free on Steam in September 2021. It is also on itch.io for Windows, macOS and Linux, where you can pay what you like.

Four strangers ride a train to a masked ball in the late 1920s, and the game plays out their stories in four acts. In The Silent Room, Carlo waits in a Rome hotel for his lover Patrick as the shadow of fascism grows and living in hiding takes its toll. In The Slow Vanishing of Lady Winterbourne, a widow ignores the letters of fortune hunters and reaches for the laudanum in her cabinet. In The Nameless Ritual, a doctor mocked by his peers turns to the occult to get even, and must face the Guardian of the Threshold. The last act follows Laylah, who goes against her powerful bosses' orders.

It plays as a classic point-and-click adventure, made with Adventure Game Studio: you click to walk, talk, look and use items in dark, detailed isometric rooms. The horror is slow and personal, built from guilt, addiction, persecution and the occult, with moments of violence; the store warns of racism, homophobia, mental illness, murder and suicide.

It suits players who like story-driven pixel horror such as The Last Door, or The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, and want something grim to sit with for an evening.

How to play If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers

Left click to walk, talk to people, look at things and interact.
Pick up items and use them on people or objects; right click cancels an item.
Follow each traveller's story through its act.
Press Esc for the pause and options menu.

Screenshots

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers screenshot: a man in a luxurious Rome hotel room saying ah, beautiful Rome, so glad to see you again

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers screenshot: a dark, grey bedroom and a woman asking how long has it been raining, what day is this

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers screenshot: a lecture theatre full of watching men around a body on a table

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers screenshot: a dim, cluttered room lit by candles

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers screenshot: masked guests in a train carriage and a voice asking is everything alright, young man

Tips

Look at everything: the rooms are full of details that fill in each traveller's story.
Play it in one or two evenings with sound on; the music sets much of the mood.
Read the store's content warning first; the stories deal with suicide, murder and bigotry.