Look Outside

About Look Outside

Look Outside is a survival horror RPG by Francis Coulombe, published by Devolver Digital and released on PC in March 2025. It began as a game jam entry made in one month for Hawktober Horrors 2024 on itch.io, and the full game was announced and released together five months later. It takes place in one apartment building after a mysterious event turns anyone who looks out the window into a grotesque monster.

You play Sam, who has not looked. The event lasts fifteen in-game days, and the game moves between your apartment and the building around it. You plan expeditions into its corridors and other flats to find food, supplies and weapons, then come home to sleep, shower, cook dinner, craft tools, play games and get to know the neighbours who have become allies. You have to keep an eye on hunger and hygiene. Time outside your flat passes only when you explore new areas, and the danger level rises as it does, which also brings more experience when you go home. Knocks at your door come at random, and answering them can go many ways. Some of the strange people you meet can be invited back or recruited, and killing or stealing can leave Sam feeling guilty.

Fights are turn-based against more than 150 hand-crafted creatures, in the style of EarthBound, and they account for the distance between you and your enemies. You fight with makeshift weapons that wear out and with what you have found, and ammunition runs short. There are a dozen boss fights and several endings. Some parts of the building do not follow normal geometry.

Easy mode makes resources more plentiful and lets you save the first time you enter a room. On normal mode you can only save at home, once the danger has grown past a certain point. A harder Cursed Mode opens after a first clear.

The horror is in the pixel art itself: bodies split, sprout eyes and limbs, and bleed in detail, and the people who are still human are not always better. A knock at your door can mean a friend or something that only sounds like one.

The game was made in RPG Maker, written by Francis Coulombe and Eric Shumaker, with music by Eric Shumaker. It is in English only.

It suits players who like turn-based RPGs and survival horror, and who can take heavy body horror.

How to play Look Outside

1. Start in your apartment and check what food and supplies you have.
2. Head out into the building's corridors to explore other flats and floors.
3. Fight creatures in turn-based battles, using your weapons, items and the distance between you and them.
4. Bring supplies back home to rest, cook, craft tools and recover.
5. Keep Sam fed and clean by cooking, sleeping and showering at home.
6. Talk to the people you meet and decide who to help, recruit or invite in.

Tips

• Never look out a window.
• Watch your ammunition; makeshift melee weapons save bullets for the worst fights, but they wear out.
• Go home to recover before pushing deeper; each trip out is a risk.
• On normal mode you save only at home, so plan trips around getting back.
• Pick easy mode if you want more resources and a save the first time you enter each room.
• Think carefully before opening your door to a visitor.

Questions