Night Blights

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Keep your sleeping family safe from the monsters in the house until 7am.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (90% of 136 reviews); the free Game Jolt demo has 1,175 likes and 3,829 followers
Length: seven nights; each night of the Game Jolt demo lasts about 10 minutes (the maker
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse
Made by: Trapdoor Games, Hot Cross Games
Released: 2016

What frightens It is 11pm, your parents are asleep, and you are a small child alone in the dark house when the Night Blights come out: cruel, mischievous monsters that hide anywhere. The wardrobe creaks, there is laughter behind the door, and if you leave the garage door, fireplace or toilet open you hear breathing around the corner where one waits.
Content: sudden scares (the store promises unpredictable scares).

Night Blights is a first-person survive-the-night horror game by Hot Cross Games and Trapdoor Games. You play a small child keeping your family safe through a week of nights while mischievous, deadly creatures hide in the wardrobes, the fireplace and the toilet. Its makers call it light-hearted and inspired by Gremlins, but the nights are spent listening in the dark for what is moving.

About Night Blights

Night Blights began as a free demo on Game Jolt, made by Hot Cross Games and put up for Steam Greenlight, and was released on Steam in April 2016 by Trapdoor Games with Hot Cross Games. The Game Jolt demo, with five nights of about ten minutes each, is still there to download, and it remains one of the highest placed games on Game Jolt's list of the best horror games.

It is 11pm. Your parents are asleep and Teddy guards the end of the bed. You wander the house from the height of a small child, and something is moving: creatures called Night Blights have got in. They are mischievous and unpredictable, and they can hide anywhere. You keep on top of them by feeding them toys, shutting them inside wardrobes, flushing them down the toilet and closing the ways they come in, reacting to the sounds and events around the house.

The store calls it an evolution of time-management horror games, and the frame will be familiar to Five Nights at Freddy's players: survive until 7am, then do it again. On Steam there are seven nights of rising intensity, random events that make each night different, and a Freeplay mode you unlock to explore the house in peace and hunt for its secrets and Easter eggs. Sprinting tires you, and once your stamina is gone your eyelids grow heavy and things get more dangerous.

The tone is a B-movie homage rather than grim: the makers describe it as light-hearted and inspired by Gremlins, and the monsters are small black imps with glowing eyes. The fear is in the dark rooms, the creaking wardrobe and the breathing around a corner. It suits players who like FNAF-style nights but want to walk the house instead of watching cameras.

How to play Night Blights

Buy Night Blights on Steam, or try the free demo on its Game Jolt page.
Start the first night at 11pm and walk the dark house as the child.
Listen for creaks, laughter and breathing to find where a Night Blight is active.
Deal with each one the way it needs: feed it a toy, shut it in the wardrobe, flush it away or close the opening it came from.
Keep your family safe until the sun rises at 7am, then face the next, harder night.

Screenshots

A Night Blight with glowing eyes hanging in the dark fireplace of the living room, a clock on the wall

A dark nursery with a cot and a mobile, a small creature clinging to the ceiling

A Night Blight on the floor of a pink bedroom at night beside an orange toy

Tips

Do not sprint everywhere: when your stamina runs out your eyelids grow heavy and the night gets more dangerous.
Close the garage door, the fireplace and the toilet; the makers warn that leaving them open lets a Night Blight wait around a corner, and you will hear it breathing.
Play with sound on, since most warnings are sounds.
Learn the house layout early; each night adds more to watch.

Questions

Is Night Blights free?

No, the full game is sold on Steam. A free demo, the original Greenlight version, is still on Game Jolt.

Is Night Blights like Five Nights at Freddy's?

It follows the survive-the-night pattern: last until 7am each night by watching for creatures and closing the ways they get in. You walk the house as a child instead of watching cameras from an office.

How scary is Night Blights?

Its makers call it light-hearted and inspired by Gremlins. The scares come from dark rooms, sudden events and creatures hiding nearby rather than gore.

What platforms is Night Blights on?

Windows PC, through Steam.