Midnight Scenes: The Nanny

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The nanny is gone in the middle of the night, and two kids go looking.

Platforms: PC
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (97% of 235 reviews)
Length: about 40 minutes (store)
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse only: click to walk, look and interact
Made by: White Blanket Games
Released: 2021

Get it on Steam White Blanket Games (maker's page)

What frightens Eight-year-old Oliver and his sister Tina wake to find their nanny gone in the middle of the night, and go looking for her. The search turns supernatural: a ouija board, a straw figure, a dark house and a pale, red-eyed face waiting in the dark.
Content: cartoon blood, cartoon gore.

Midnight Scenes: The Nanny is a short point-and-click horror tale in pixel art by Octavi Navarro and Susanna Granell of White Blanket Games. You play eight-year-old Oliver, searching with his sister Tina for their nanny, who disappeared in the night. It takes about 40 minutes.

About Midnight Scenes: The Nanny

Midnight Scenes: The Nanny is the third episode of Midnight Scenes, a series of short horror tales with adventure elements by Octavi Navarro, a pixel artist who worked on Thimbleweed Park and made Photographs, and Susanna Granell. Their studio, White Blanket Games, also made The Supper, The Librarian and Unwelcome. It came out on Steam for Windows in October 2021.

Each Midnight Scenes episode is presented like an instalment of an old TV anthology, inspired by The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. In this one you see the night through the eyes of Oliver, an eight-year-old boy. His nanny has vanished in the middle of the night, and he and his sister Tina set out to find her, running into some unusual situations along the way.

It plays as a story-driven point-and-click adventure. You walk Oliver through dark rooms and outdoor scenes, click on what you find, look at objects up close, such as a walkie-talkie or a straw figure, and talk with Tina. There is a ouija board among the things you handle. The pixel art is colourful, with deep night blues, and an eerie soundtrack and sound effects carry much of the mood.

The store promises intense, supernatural horror, and the content note mentions cartoon blood and gore. At about 40 minutes it is meant for one sitting. Steam players rate it Very Positive. It suits players who like short, story-first horror and classic pixel-art adventures, and it is gentle enough on reflexes that it can be played with the mouse alone.

How to play Midnight Scenes: The Nanny

Start the episode and watch the opening as Oliver finds the nanny missing.
Click where you want Oliver to walk, and click on people and objects to look at or use them.
Examine items close up when the game shows them, then click Back to return to the scene.
Talk with Tina and follow her lead as the search moves on.
Keep exploring until the night's story plays out, in about 40 minutes.

Screenshots

Oliver standing at the front door of a two-storey clapboard house at night, lamps lit along the fence

Oliver in a dark living room calling 'Hello? Veronica?'

Two hands on the planchette of a ouija board, close up in pixel art

Oliver and two girls on a jetty beside a rowing boat at dusk, with Tina saying 'Shut up and get in the boat'

A close-up of a straw figure bound with string against a black background

A close-up of a red walkie-talkie with two dials

Tips

Turn off the lights, as the store suggests; the eerie soundtrack and sound effects do much of the work.
Click on everything in a scene; small details move the story forward.
It needs no fast reactions and can be played with the mouse only.
If you enjoy it, the other Midnight Scenes episodes and The Supper are by the same makers.