Line 88

About Line 88

Line 88 is a short horror story by the solo maker Hatoge, entered in the Yandere Game Jam 2023. Nao is sitting alone on an ordinary bus, staring out of the window, when he runs into Siren, a classmate he has not seen in a while. He has a bad feeling about it, and he is right: the lights begin to flicker and every other passenger disappears.

The game is a kinetic novel with walking parts. You read the two young men's conversation over drawn portraits, walk the bus and what lies beyond it between scenes, and advance the text. There are no choices: the story runs to a single ending, and players in the comments point to its twist as the reason to see it through.

What stands out is the art. Hatoge drew everything in pencil and watercolour and scanned it in, then washed it in cold blues and greys with grain and glitch, so the familiar inside of a bus at night looks faded and unsafe. The horror is quiet and creeping rather than loud: an emptied vehicle, a presence the two cannot see clearly, and a growing sense that one of them knows more than he says.

It can be played in the browser on itch.io or downloaded for Windows, in English or Chinese, for whatever you choose to pay. The maker advises downloading it for the smoothest play, and notes that some plugins may not run on older or low-spec machines. It suits readers of short horror visual novels like Exorcize Me or Mind the Gap who want a twenty-minute story with a sting at the end.

How to play Line 88

1. Open the game's itch.io page and press Run game to play in the browser, or download the Windows build for smoother play.
2. Read through the opening content warning and press Enter or Space to advance the text.
3. Walk Nao with WASD or the arrow keys when the story lets you move, and step into the next scene.
4. Keep advancing the dialogue to the end; there are no choices, so the story plays out in one run of about 20 minutes.

Tips

• If the browser version stutters, download the Windows build: the maker says some plugins run poorly on low-spec machines.
• Play with sound on and the lights low; much of the dread is in the flicker and the quiet.
• Watch what Siren says closely; the ending rewards attention.

Questions