Incident at Grove Lake

About Incident at Grove Lake

Incident at Grove Lake is a small horror adventure by ToothandClaw, a free Windows download on itch.io where you can pay what you want. Its maker describes it in a few lines: a worker from Area 51 leaks top-secret files and a tape to a private investigator, in a PSX-style game based on accounts of alien abductions.

The pictures on its page show how it is told. Part of it is a private investigator's office at night, a desk under a lamp and a case file of redacted pages with a grainy photograph of a pale figure in it. Much of the rest is camcorder footage stamped August 1997: pine woods in an orange haze, a campfire after dark, a battery warning on the screen and a blinding white light falling through the trees. There is also a diner, a black and white security feed of a front gate, and a desert road with a sign warning of a restricted area.

The horror is the slow kind found in abduction stories and analog horror: footage that should not have survived, a government that knows more than it says, and the thing in the sky that nobody on the tape understands. The low-poly look and VHS noise keep everything just unclear enough.

It is short, meant for one sitting of 20 to 25 minutes, and suits players who like UFO stories, found-footage horror and the X-Files feel of a leaked case file.

How to play Incident at Grove Lake

1. Download Incident at Grove Lake from its itch.io page for Windows (free, or pay what you want) and unzip it.
2. Set aside about 25 minutes, since it is meant to be played in one sitting.
3. Go through the leaked files and the tape as the investigator.
4. Read the documents and watch the footage closely, as that is how the story is told.

Tips

• Play in the dark with headphones; much of the footage is at night.
• Read the case files fully, including the photographs, before moving on.

Questions