Little Maddie Dear

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A little girl climbs the stairs to Paradise through mazes full of monsters.

Platforms: Browser, PC
Price: Free
Rated: About 8,000 plays and 128 followers on Game Jolt, listed in its best horror games
Players: 1
Controls: Arrow keys to move, Enter, Space or Z to interact, Esc or X to pause, Shift for the lantern, 1 to run, 2 to scream, 3 to rest; the mouse also works
Made by: Marckel
Released: 2020

What frightens Little Madison has heard that the Stairs to the Attic lead to Paradise, where every wish comes true, and she climbs them with a lantern. Each of the five stages is a dark maze where monsters lurk at every corner and come for her, she has to manage her health, stamina and sanity, and the maker promises a dark truth behind the journey, with painted nightmare scenes of teeth, eyes and grasping claws.
Content: creepy imagery, chase sequences.

Little Maddie Dear is a free horror maze game by Marckel on Game Jolt, playable in the browser. Madison climbs the Stairs toward a Paradise where wishes come true, through five dark maze stages where monsters hunt her and she survives with food, a lantern and three skills.

About Little Maddie Dear

Little Maddie Dear is a horror maze-runner by the Game Jolt developer Marckel, released in 2020 and playable free in the browser or as a download. A sequel, Little Maddie Dear 2, comes in the same package.

The story starts with a rumour: if you go up the Stairs to the Attic, there is a way to reach Paradise, a place where all your wishes come true. Madison, a little girl with a lantern, goes to find out, guided by a teddy bear in a red hood.

The game is set over five stages, each with its own theme, more kinds of enemies and new obstacles. You steer Madison through dark top-down mazes where you can only see what the lantern lights, while monsters roam the corridors. She has bars for health, stamina and sanity, food items keep her going, and at each stage she unlocks one of three skills: run, scream and rest.

What frightens is the dark and what is in it, and the sense that the sweet promise of Paradise is hiding something; painted scenes of teeth, eyes and long claws show what happens when things go wrong. It suits players who like short browser horror with a fairy-tale surface and a nastier story underneath.

How to play Little Maddie Dear

Open the game's Game Jolt page and play it in the browser, or download it for Windows.
Choose New Game and follow Madison up the Stairs.
Move through each maze with the arrow keys and light the way with the lantern (Shift).
Watch your health, stamina and sanity, and eat food items to keep them up.
Use the skills you unlock: 1 to run, 2 to scream, 3 to rest, to get past the monsters and reach the next stage.

Screenshots

Little Maddie Dear ending art: the words Wrong End over a painted mass of teeth, eyes, tentacles and long bony claws

Little Maddie Dear: the Teddy in Red, a bear in a red hood holding a lantern, says Jack said if you go up there all your wishes can come true

Little Maddie Dear: top-down view of Madison in a dark corridor by lantern light near a doorway, with her portrait and health bars in the corner

Little Maddie Dear: the menu over a missing-child photo of Madison at a piano, with her HP, stamina and sanity

Little Maddie Dear: a small circle of light shows a room in the dark with the text There is a tunnel inside

Tips

Keep the lantern for when you need to see; the dark is where the monsters are.
Save running for chases, since it costs stamina.
Pick up every food item; later stages are harder and longer.
Read what the characters say between stages; it hints at the truth behind Paradise.