PUMPKIN PANIC

About PUMPKIN PANIC

PUMPKIN PANIC is a free game by Bilalaika, released on Steam for Windows on 30 October 2024. Its store page sells it in three parts: enjoy life on your small farm, relax with some fishing, and beware of the darkness.

You play a small farmer in a hooded coat with a carved pumpkin for a head, seen from above on a farm in the middle of a forest. The days are what you would expect from a farming game: plant seeds, water them, harvest the crops, draw water from the well, sell what you grow and fish when you need extra money. It is drawn in a warm, hand-inked style, with picket fences, lanterns and a log cabin with a fire.

Then the farm stops being pleasant. Strange things start happening around it, and at night creatures come out of the woods. Each has its own behaviour, and players say the only way to learn most of them is to die to them a few times. There are no saves, so a death sends you back to the start, which turns the cosy routine into a race. Reviewers warn about sudden scares and one particular deer.

It suits players who like cosy games and do not mind being betrayed by one, and anyone after a free game with an autumn feel for October. A harder Nightmare mode waits after the first win.

How to play PUMPKIN PANIC

1. Download PUMPKIN PANIC free from Steam.
2. Plant, water and harvest your crops and sell them for money.
3. Fish when you need extra income.
4. Watch for the strange things that start appearing, and learn what each creature does.
5. Survive until the end; if you die, you start again from the beginning.

Tips

• Treat your first deaths as lessons: each creature has rules you can learn.
• There are no saves, so play carefully once you are far into a run.
• Fishing is a steady way to earn money when crops are slow.

Questions