IMSCARED

About IMSCARED

IMSCARED, first released in 2012 as Imscared: A Pixelated Nightmare and on Steam in 2016, is a horror game by the Italian developer Ivan Zanotti, made with GameMaker 8, FL Studio and MS Paint. It became known through the let's plays of large YouTube channels and is an early example of meta horror. In 2022 it was remade for its tenth anniversary, and the Steam store lets you choose the 2016 version as well. An Android port followed in 2024.

On the surface it is simple. You walk through crude, blocky first-person rooms, find keys, open doors and look for the way out. The store page asks you to read the explanation at the start of the game carefully, and warns that the game will try to deceive you as many times as it can.

It keeps its word. The game creates a folder on your desktop and drops notes and pictures into it as you play, some of them helping and some mocking you. When White Face catches you in the dark, the game quits and leaves a message. It shows fake crashes and blue screens, and to finish, you have to work with the files outside the game as much as the rooms inside it. The files stay in that folder; the game does not harm your computer.

The scares come from that uncertainty and from loud, harsh static when you are being chased. The maker warns that it deals with heavy themes such as suicide and loneliness. It suits players curious about early meta horror that plays with your own computer, and who do not mind rough movement and pixel graphics.

How to play IMSCARED

1. Read the explanation at the start of the game carefully, as the store page asks.
2. Walk the first-person rooms, picking up keys and items and opening doors.
3. Check the folder the game creates on your desktop when it tells you something has changed.
4. Run from White Face in the dark sections; if you are caught, the game closes and you have to open it again.
5. Use what you find in the files to get past the places the game will not let you through.

Screenshots

Tips

• Keep the desktop folder open in a window you can check quickly.
• Play windowed if the fake crashes make you nervous about your computer; it is part of the game.
• Turn the volume down a little; the chase static is very loud.
• Crouch with the CTRL key to pick up small things on the floor.

Questions